Chris Tessin, Acuitas Investments

Chris Tessin spent years watching the same problem play out in small cap. The managers doing the best work, running focused, high-conviction books in specific corners of the small and micro cap universe, close to new capital fast. By the time most allocators find them, the capacity is gone. Tessin built Acuitas Investments to get there first, then built AIMS to make that sourcing process accessible in an ETF wrapper.

About Chris Tessin and Acuitas Investments

Acuitas was built around one operating premise: access to the best small cap managers requires finding them early. The firm does the due diligence and underwriting on specialized small cap managers, often ones with thin institutional coverage and limited capacity, and aggregates their model portfolios into a single vehicle. The result is a multi-manager small cap strategy that doesn't require an allocator to run a dozen individual relationships. AIMS launched in February 2026 and reached $77 million in assets in its first month.

How the Multi-Manager Model Works

AIMS doesn't have a single portfolio manager picking stocks. It blends curated model portfolios from multiple small cap managers into one ETF at 75 basis points all-in. No fee-on-fee. One ticker. Each underlying manager runs a concentrated, research-driven book in their slice of the small cap universe. Acuitas handles the sourcing, underwriting, and ongoing portfolio construction above the manager level.

The structure solves a problem that kills most multi-manager approaches: the fee math. Traditional multi-manager vehicles stack a fund-of-funds layer on top of manager fees, which produces a number advisors can't defend to clients. AIMS collapses that to a single flat fee, which changes the economics entirely.

Why Sourcing Is the Real Product

Tessin made clear that the performance of AIMS is directly tied to who Acuitas can access. The firm deliberately finds managers before they've built enough track record to attract institutional interest. That's the same window where capacity is still open. Once a manager shows up in database screens and conference circuits, they're usually close to soft-closing. Acuitas is looking for them years earlier.

The ETF wrapper and fee architecture matter, but the quality of the underlying managers is the actual edge. The multi-manager structure distributes that across several books rather than concentrating it in one.

The Small Cap Setup Right Now

Tessin's market argument is direct. The Russell 2000 is tracking toward roughly 30% earnings growth this year. Large cap multiples are still stretched from years of concentration into a narrow group of names. The spread between where small cap trades and what small cap companies are projected to earn is the widest it's been in years. He called it a coiled spring.

That's not a novel thesis, but the vehicle matters. A passive Russell 2000 exposure captures everything in that earnings growth story, including the structurally weak names that bring the average down. AIMS is trying to capture the recovery through managers who can distinguish between the good setups and the ones that just happen to be small.

Where Active Management Actually Has an Edge

The dispersion in returns across small cap is structurally wider than in large cap. Information is less uniform, institutional coverage is thinner, and mispricings persist longer. That creates conditions where active management can generate real alpha. In large cap, information is so widely distributed that most managers are effectively competing for rounding errors. AIMS is specifically built to access managers with edge in that environment, not just diversify across the asset class.

Key Takeaways

• AIMS aggregates curated model portfolios from multiple specialized small cap managers into one ETF at a flat 75 basis points, no fee-on-fee.
• Acuitas finds managers before capacity closes. That early-stage access is the sourcing advantage the fund is built on.
• The Russell 2000 is projecting roughly 30% earnings growth this year against still-stretched large cap multiples. Tessin sees small cap as the better-valued setup right now.
• Small cap's wider return dispersion and thinner institutional coverage create conditions where active management has a structural edge over passive.
• AIMS launched in February 2026 and reached $77 million in assets in its first month.

Listen to the Full Episode

This article is based on an episode of Behind the Ticker, hosted by Brad Roth, Founder and CIO of THOR Financial Technologies. For the full conversation with Chris Tessin on the multi-manager structure behind AIMS, the sourcing process, and the small cap setup, listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch on YouTube.