Silverlight Research
Institutional expert network founded in 2017 by a former Morgan Stanley investment manager, operating with a fully distributed workforce. Serves the world's largest PE funds, hedge funds, and sovereign wealth funds with a 97% engagement success rate and 65% client referral rate.
Services
Best For
When Not Ideal
Key Strengths
- ✓ Founded by former Morgan Stanley investment manager — authentic institutional understanding
- ✓ 97% engagement success rate demonstrates reliable expert delivery
- ✓ 65% of new clients from referrals indicates strong satisfaction
- ✓ Fully distributed model across 3 continents provides 24/7 coverage with lean overhead
- ✓ Institutional client base including world's largest PE funds, hedge funds, and SWFs
- ✓ 61% expert acceptance rate shows well-curated engagement approach
Watch-outs
- ⚠ Smaller company (~50 employees) limits capacity for very high-volume engagements
- ⚠ Fully distributed workforce may reduce team cohesion compared to office-based networks
- ⚠ Limited technology platform compared to AI-native competitors
- ⚠ Expert database (25K+) is smaller than industry leaders
- ⚠ Less brand recognition than established players like GLG or AlphaSights
- ⚠ Greystone branch launch/drop in 2025 suggests strategic experimentation
Deep Dive
1 Overview
2 History
Silverlight Research was founded in November 2017 by a former Morgan Stanley investment manager who recognized an opportunity to build an expert network with an institutional investor's perspective. The founder's investment management background shaped Silverlight's approach — the company speaks the language of its institutional clients and understands the compliance, speed, and quality requirements of buy-side research. The company adopted a fully distributed workforce model from inception, avoiding the overhead of traditional office-based operations. This allows Silverlight to maintain competitive pricing while deploying research and operations staff across global time zones.
3 Services in Detail
Expert Consultations
Time-bound practitioner consultations aligned with institutional research workflows. Silverlight manages end-to-end sourcing, screening, compliance, scheduling, and documentation. Serves PE funds, hedge funds, long-only funds, SWFs, and corporate strategy teams.
Curated Expert Research
Bespoke research projects leveraging Silverlight's database-backed expert network for targeted industry analysis and due diligence support.
Global Distributed Coverage
Geographically diversified research and operations spanning EMEA (London, Portugal, Turkey, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia), Americas (New York, Colombia), and Asia (Singapore, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Philippines), enabling round-the-clock expert sourcing.
4 AI & Platform
Silverlight operates as a database-backed expert network with manual curation and relationship-driven matching. The company's distributed model leverages technology for remote coordination and global coverage rather than AI-driven expert discovery.
- ◆ Database-backed expert matching with manual curation
- ◆ Distributed operations platform spanning 3 continents
- ◆ End-to-end workflow management for institutional clients
- ◆ Compliance documentation and audit trail
5 Compliance
Silverlight's compliance approach is shaped by its founder's institutional investment management background. The company manages expert screening, compliance documentation, and audit trails to meet the requirements of its buy-side institutional clients.
- ● Institutional-grade compliance designed for buy-side clients
- ● Founder's Morgan Stanley background ensures investment management perspective
- ● Expert screening and conflict-of-interest management
- ● Complete documentation for compliance and audit purposes
- ● MNPI policies tailored for hedge fund and PE environments
Silverlight serves institutional investors including hedge funds, PE funds, and sovereign wealth funds — clients with the highest compliance standards. The company's compliance infrastructure is designed to meet these requirements. Clean regulatory record.
6 Client Fit
Silverlight is designed for institutional investors and corporate strategy teams who value a research-oriented expert network that understands buy-side workflows. The distributed model provides global coverage with competitive pricing. Less suited for clients needing a self-service technology platform.
- → Hedge funds conducting investment research and due diligence
- → PE funds needing expert access for portfolio evaluation
- → Sovereign wealth funds seeking independent practitioner insights
- → Fortune 500 corporations conducting strategic research
- → Long-only asset managers needing industry expert consultations
7 Notable Facts
- • Founded by a former Morgan Stanley investment manager in November 2017
- • Fully distributed workforce — all staff work part-time and remotely
- • 97% engagement success rate across institutional client engagements
- • 65% of new clients come from existing client referrals
- • 61% expert acceptance rate
- • Clients include world's largest PE funds, hedge funds, SWFs, and Fortune 500 corporations
- • Operations span EMEA, Americas, and Asia across 10+ countries
- • Briefly launched Greystone expert network as a separate branch in April 2025
8 Source Notes & Methodology
- ℹ Silverlight Research official website (silverlightresearch.com) — company overview and services
- ℹ LinkedIn — company profile, team structure, and founding information
- ℹ The Org — organizational structure and founding story
- ℹ RocketReach — company profile and contact information
- ℹ INEX ONE Expert Network Directory — Silverlight Research profile
- ℹ PitchBook — company profile and service breakdown
9 Data Confidence Ratings
Each data point in this profile is graded for source confidence. Here's what each badge means:
This profile's ratings
10 How We Researched This
This profile was researched and written by the ExpertNetworks.net editorial team using a multi-source methodology:
- Primary sources: Company website, press releases, SEC/regulatory filings, and official announcements
- Third-party verification: Industry reports (Integrity Research, Inex One), news coverage (TechCrunch, Bloomberg, FT), and data aggregators (PitchBook, Tracxn, Crunchbase)
- Cross-referencing: Claims were checked against multiple independent sources where possible; single-source claims are flagged
- Confidence grading: Each data point is rated as Verified, Positioning (company-claimed), or Inference (estimated from indirect evidence)
We do not accept payment from any expert network for inclusion or favorable coverage. If you spot an error, contact us with the correction and source.
Last fact-checked: 2026-03-07