The term “emerging managers” apparently dates back to the 1980’s and is ripe for retirement. Too often it relegates the experience and efforts of incredibly talented investors to lesser consideration by allocators.

Rather, describing firms as challengers highlights the ambition of a newer entrants while also serving as a reminder to incumbents (and allocators’ views of those incumbents!) that innovators and competitors are always at their heels.

All of today’s great firms once dared to launch in the face of long odds and established their reputations on work that occurred before they were conventionally great ideas.