{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"An Ounce of Prevention","title":"Family Offices Going Direct: From Passive Investing to Control.","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1417,"description":"Family offices and private investors are increasingly moving beyond traditional passive investments and stepping directly into oil and gas deals—but direct investing comes with both opportunity and risk. In this episode of An Ounce of Prevention, host Rachel Reese sits down with Rebecca Stehle, founder of Aquaerial, to discuss how investors are navigating the evolving energy investment landscape and why technical expertise still matters when evaluating deals.Rebecca shares her path from reservoir engineer at ExxonMobil to entrepreneur building a non-operated oil and gas investment platform. After spending more than a decade working in technical roles focused on asset management and reserves in the Permian Basin, she transitioned into the family office world, where she sourced and evaluated energy investments across multiple sectors. That experience ultimately led her to launch Aquaerial, a platform focused on identifying high-quality non-operated opportunities and connecting them with capital.In the conversation, Rachel and Rebecca explore the rapid growth of family office participation in direct investments and how the model is evolving. Family offices that once invested primarily as limited partners in private equity funds are increasingly seeking direct control over deals, governance rights, and portfolio companies. While this shift can offer greater returns and strategic influence, it also introduces operational complexity, requiring specialized expertise, disciplined due diligence, and the ability to manage assets over the long term.Rebecca also explains how non-operated oil and gas investments work and why certain deal structures—such as AFE or “pre-first-production” interests—can provide attractive returns with relatively short timelines to cash flow. She discusses the importance of diversification in non-operated portfolios, the role of subsurface expertise when evaluating drilling opportunities, and why not every deal that offers appealing tax benefits...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/_TuV1pPNfgYEaQ3OcQjxDkpoKRStPiaXLQkCxOD5ySw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kZGEz/MjQ5NDI1Nzg5NGU2/MDUzZDNhNmEzZWE4/YjllMS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}