Ed Brandman: Fixing the $20 Trillion PDF Problem

In the early 1990s, Ed Brandman was at JP Morgan helping build FIX, the protocol that automated order flow between Wall Street's biggest buy-side and sell-side firms. It took years, regulatory pressure and a handful of 800-pound gorilla institutions to force the change. But it happened. And it reshaped public markets forever.

He thinks private markets are heading to the same inflection point.

"You think about all the information that LPs want to get their hands on related to portfolio reporting every quarter end... that today, still for the most part, comes via PDFs."

In 2026. 

PDFs.

That's the problem Ed came out of retirement to solve. After 11 years as CIO at KKR - where he grew the tech team from 5 people to 140 - he founded ToltIQ, an AI-native due diligence platform built specifically for the complexity of private markets deal workflows.

In this episode of the Modern Capital Podcast, Ed and Marc cover:

• Why due diligence hasn't changed since the days of boxes of documents - and why AI can finally fix it
• The FIX protocol parallel: what private markets needs to do to scale to $30T+
• How ToltIQ is applying AI to VDRs, credit agreements and expert network calls
• Why waiting 6-9 months on AI adoption is already a competitive disadvantage
• The new ToltIQ + DealEngine partnership, and what it signals about where the market is going

"There's really not upside to delaying it. And if anything, you put yourself at a competitive disadvantage."

Ed is one of the most thoughtful voices in private markets technology - and one of the most generous with his thinking. This one is worth your time.