Ship's Company
CO
Mark Tennenbaum
40+ years in finance, predictive modeling, and corporate strategy. Began on Wall Street designing derivatives and M&A models before serving as CFO and Corporate Development executive across multiple industries. Co-founded FrontBridge (acquired by Microsoft, 2005). MBA, UCLA Anderson; BA Psychology, Pitzer College (Claremont Colleges).
Substantially invested alongside clients.
CCO & XO
Lela Kelly
Keeps the firm legal, compliant, and protected. Started at Jones Day on complex corporate transactions, fund formation, and litigation. 16 years of corporate law with deep expertise in estate planning, trusts, and special needs advocacy. Manages the firm's sub-advisory relationships and serves as primary point of contact for institutional partners. USC, UCLA Law.
Substantially invested alongside clients.
CAG
Brenden O'Connell
Founded Leyland Cypress in 2022 and leads research and investment strategy. Building quantitative models full-time since 2020. UCLA Economics.
Substantially invested alongside clients.
CSO
Ritwik Kumar
Leads technology and data infrastructure at Leyland Cypress. Previously investment banking at DBD Partners across SaaS and healthcare. UCLA Mathematics.
Substantially invested alongside clients.
TRADING OPS
Aleks Kelly
Manages client relationships and communications at Life UnLocked Partners. Background in finance and luxury automotive sales serving high-net-worth clients. BS Finance and Economics, Cal State Northridge.
Substantially invested alongside clients.
Brief

Our goal is demonstrating skill at capturing alpha from lower market exposure portfolios under most market conditions. We build concentrated, equal-weight equity portfolios of 22 securities spread across all 11 GICS sectors, rebalanced on signal decay within the first 90 to 120 days following the research of Di Mascio et al. on alpha half-life.

Alpha comes in two forms: absolute alpha measures total return regardless of market direction, while relative alpha isolates excess return over a benchmark, what the manager actually contributed beyond what an index would have delivered for free.

We hunt relative alpha. Our benchmarks are the equal-weight S&P 500 (RSP) and the cap-weight S&P 500 (SPY). The spread between our portfolios and those indices is the signal we care about.

Where appropriate, we use derivatives to reshape risk and extract asymmetric payoffs that linear portfolios cannot reach, such as risk-managed and market-neutral variants. None of this is decorative. Every position exists because it improves the odds of capturing alpha on the days the market structure allows it.

Our proprietary framework classifies each trading day as either Alpha Opportunity or Pure Beta based on market conditions, and has been under peer review at the Journal of Portfolio Management since February 4, 2026. On Pure Beta days, correlations spike and even good picks get swamped by index-level forces. We do not confuse surviving those days with skill. We measure what we can control, on the days it can manifest, and we build everything around that distinction.

We present live results every day at 1:30 PM Pacific in our AC Monitors for transparency. The numbers are there whether they flatter us or not.

Terms
Alpha Convergence, Flagship and Aggressive
Strategy
Concentrated, equal-weight US-traded large-cap equities.
Account Minimum
$150,000, as stated in ADV Part 2A.
Structure
Separately managed accounts, custodied at Charles Schwab. You hold the account, we manage it.
Liquidity
Daily.
Live since
June 27, 2025.
Capacity
Estimated at least $300MM per strategy.
Fees
Fee-only, up to 2% top tier. Full schedule in ADV Part 2A.
GIPS
GIPS-consistent composite in development, methodology defined.
LC Evergreen Alpha, Leyland Cypress
Strategy
Market-neutral ETF arbitrage.
Capacity
Limited, allocated by inquiry.
Fees
2%.
Live since
December 2024.
Structure
Separately managed accounts, custodied at Charles Schwab.
Inquiries
info@lifeunlocked.partners →
Form ADV → FlightDeck →