In a recent episode of the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast, Alex Robinson, CEO and Co-Founder of Juniper Square, shares his vision for the future of private markets. From the transformative role of AI to the evolving GP-LP relationship, Robinson discusses how technology and innovation are reshaping the industry.
From LP frustration to GP solution
From LP frustration to GP solution
When Robinson started Juniper Square, the spark wasn’t a business plan—it was frustration. In 2013, after selling his second startup, he became an LP for the first time and expected the process to be as seamless as opening a Schwab or Robinhood account.
Instead, “they send a FedEx truck to my house with, no joke, a two-inch stack of paperwork that required me to go find a notary and get notarized.”This experience, a stark contrast to his ability to do everything else online, convinced him that the private markets would inevitably become digital and connected.
Juniper Square’s founding team brought an outsider’s perspective to an insider’s problem. As Robinson put it, “We weren't experts at being a GP, but we were experts at just being consumers.” That mindset led to innovations that now seem obvious but were radical at the time. Instead of portals as static PDF repositories, Juniper Square built dashboards with live, connected data.
"When you are not an expert, you are naive. And sometimes that naivete is costly. You don't know all the good reasons that something hasn't been done. But sometimes that naivete is very beneficial because many of the reasons that something hasn't been done before are dumb, bad, or outdated reasons."
Originally, a technology company, GPs soon pushed Robinson to tackle fund administration too.
“We got into fund administration because so many of our customers that we were serving in a technology-only context were like, you guys are doing all the hard stuff in your tech. Why don't you provide this services layer on top? And then we will give you all of the business.”
That shift cemented Juniper Square’s role as a full-stack partner—technology, data, and services in one connected platform.
AI: The game-changer
Robinson's vision for the future includes AI agents supporting every aspect of GP operations: "There should be an investor-related agent that helps with the drudgery of fundraising. There should be a portfolio agent that helps with the drudgery of portfolio data collection,” he says. These AI agents will only grow more capable over time, ultimately offering the complete automation of fund administration.
But fund administration demands perfect accuracy—a challenge for probabilistic AI models. Robinson addresses this head-on, acknowledging that foundational AI models, trained on public internet knowledge, struggle with the specialized, structured data that defines fund operations. “Two plus two always has to equal four.” The solution lies in providing AI with the right context, business logic, and tools while imposing strict accuracy requirements. Robinson envisions AI as "Einstein as your intern"—incredibly powerful but naive, requiring careful direction and proper tools to be effective.
“The role of companies like Juniper Square is to be that glue in between the customer's requirements and what the foundational models are capable of.”
Robinson believes that companies should not fear AI, but rather, they should ask, "What is my best competitor doing with AI?" The winners in this new era will not be the firms with the most proprietary data—as the general knowledge of AI models is accelerating too quickly—but those with speed and agility.
The power of people
Robinson predicts that in time, all "computer work"—the patterned, predictable tasks of the front, middle, and back offices—will be automated, leaving humans to focus on the work that only they can do, such as relationship-building and creative problem-solving. The goal isn't to eliminate human interaction but to make it more efficient and valuable.
As private markets continue their growth trajectory, the pressure for efficiency and accessibility will only increase. Companies like Juniper Square are laying the technological foundation for this transformation, but the human elements of trust, relationship-building, and expertise will remain irreplaceable.