Coolness and exclusivity.  The best example of this is Bernie Madoff.  He was a fantastic salesman and would be one of the world’s best Money Managers, if not for the unfortunate fact that he was a fraud.  He persuaded his clients that he had only limited capacity, and was only able to let in his friends/contacts as investors.  His perceived “exclusivity” made investing in his firm all the more attractive.  Certain investors prefer to allocate in “cool”, “selective”, hedge funds, as opposed to boring mutual funds, precisely because hedge funds are not broadly marketed to the hoi polloi.  Similarly, in the past few years actors and professional athletes (neither historically groups known for investing acumen) have been piling into seed-stage technology investing because it’s seen as “cool”.