Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z for the 16 letters between the A in Andreessen and the z in Horowitz. Scott is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He joined Andreessen at its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth from three employees and $300 million under management to 150 employees managing in excess of $10 billion. Scott has served on a number of industry-related Boards, including as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, and he currently sits on four non-profit Investment Committees. A few months ago, Scott published the national bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It,https://amzn.to/2GX5O9M Our conversation is a full-blown overview of one of the leading venture capital firms and the dynamics at play in the venture industry. We cover Scott's shift from finance to an operating role, and from an individual producer to a manager, the formation of a16z, its founder-centric investment model, building services to increase their portfolio companies chance of success, sourcing investment ideas, conducting due diligence, making decisions, the competitive environment, Board seats, changes in the venture industry, the cardinal sins of venture investing, new frontiers for venture investment, how venture capitalists manage their own money, and the purpose of writing his book. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Eric Ries is the founder and CEO of LTSE, the company that is affiliated with the SEC-approved Long-Term Stock Exchange, which seeks to build a new relationship between companies that are built to last and the stakeholders who believe in them. Eric is an entrepreneur who created the Lean Startup methodology and wrote the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup. He was named by Fortune to its 2018 "40 Under 40." Our conversation covers Eric’s early startup experience, the core principles of a Lean Startup, his path to creating LTSE, key components of its business philosophy, value proposition, and business model, and the application of Lean Startup principles to building this business. LTSE’s mission is extraordinarily important to improve investment outcomes in public markets for all of our benefit. I encourage you to join the LTSE’s Long-Term Investor Coalition on its website ltse.com or by emailing [email protected], and ask questions of companies and managers you meet with to keep this movement top of mind. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

David Druley is the CEO of Cambridge Associates, a global investment firm that works with premier institutional investors and family offices to manage custom investment portfolios that aim to generate outperformance so they can maximize their impact on the world. David works with Cambridge’s leaders to set and execute the firm’s strategy, enhance its capabilities, and evolve its processes. David brings a quarter-century of investment experience to the role, including a 16-year tenure at Cambridge. Our conversation covers David’s path from value investing to Cambridge Associates, including a key early career lesson in calibrating risk tolerance. We discuss the history of Cambridge Associates, key characteristics of generating great investment returns, the manager selection process, and David’s take on co-investments, long-only managers, hedge funds, fixed income, innovation, and future opportunities and challenges for the business. The discussion offers a nice compliment to my earlier conversation with Margaret Chen, who oversees Cambridge Associates’ OCIO business.  You can find that conversation replayed right after this one on the feed. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Margaret Chen is the Head of CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates’ $20 billion Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) business. She has spent twenty years at Cambridge Associates, which was her first and only stop in the investment business after getting started in the working world as a management consultant at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting.   Our conversation covers Margaret’s career path, her evolution from a consultant to a principal, the value proposition of an OCIO, measuring performance, and the tension between being the same and being different for clients. Margaret has the ear of almost everyone in our field, and brings incredible perspective to addressing the key issues allocators face.   Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Mike Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Digital, a merchant bank with a balance sheet to invest that seeks to serve as the bridge between the crypto and institutional investment worlds. Mike is well-known speculator who started his career at Goldman Sachs and later managed Fortress’ multi-billion dollar hedge fund, the Drawbridge Global Macro Fund. He’s notably made and lost a few fortunes in his career, most recently riding bitcoin up starting in 2013, almost all the way down in 2017, and back up again this year. Our conversation covers Mike’s background as a wrestler and helicopter pilot, his development from salesman to trader, the art of speculation, his initial interest in Bitcoin, the business of Galaxy Digital, the development of the crypto ecosystem use cases in privacy, payments and video games, and obstacles to institutional adoption of crypto and blockchain assets. We close by discussing how Mike invests his family office assets and his engagement with criminal justice reform. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

My guest on today’s first meeting is Paul Black of WCM Investment Management.  This show is a replay of our conversation on Capital Allocators last year, and has been one of the most listened to conversations with a manager on the show.  At the time, WCM managed $26 billion and since then they’ve continued to perform and grow.  Today, WCM oversees $40 billion and earlier this year announced the sale of a minority stake in their business to Natixis Investment Managers. Paul Black is portfolio manager and Co-CEO of WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989.  His early career included positions at Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Jon Harris is the CEO of Alternative Investment Management, a twenty-year-old investment firm that started as a family office and has evolved into managing $1 billion in hedge fund and private equity strategies on behalf of a range of fascinating business and investment executives.  Our conversation starts with the formation of AIM and its people-based investment approach.  We discuss building a network to source and diligence managers, filtering the universe of prospects, understanding the motivations of managers, conducting reference checks, and using the information they gather. We then turn to AIM’s private equity strategy, including selecting managers, the misalignment of interests in co-investments, and the death by a thousand cuts of hidden fees.  We close talking about the continued purpose of hedgeD funds, due diligence tricks, preparing for unexpected risk, managing time, and philanthropy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

André Bourbonnais is a Managing Director at Blackrock and Global Head of its newly launched Long-Term Private Capital business, a multi-billion dollar permanent capital private equity fund.  André brought thirty years of private market transaction and management experience to the role, most recently as CEO and Chief Investment Officer of PSP Investments, the $110 billion Montreal-based Canadian pension fund.  He previously served as Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Private Investments at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), where he was responsible for over $65 billion in private market assets, the largest program of its kind globally. Our conversation talks about the creation of Blackrock’s innovative private equity fund starting with a clean sheet of paper.  We discuss the traditional private equity playbook, the changes in financial structure, business strategy, and return drivers that can occur with permanent capital, the structure of the fund, deal origination, a new ownership playbook, the re-underwriting process, sell decisions, portfolio construction, and managing a team whose careers will be shorter than the duration of the fund. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast  

My guest on today’s First Meeting is Richard Lawrence of Overlook Investments Group, one of the top managers of Asian equities.  The conversation that follows is a replay of an early episode on Capital Allocators and one of the inspirations for the First Meeting concept.  Richard Lawrence is the Chairman and Executive Director of The Overlook Group, a $5 billion investment organization focused on Asian equities that Richard founded in 1991. Over the past quarter-century, Overlook developed and implemented disciplined investment and business philosophies that interconnected to drive extraordinary results for its partners. Overlook has compounded capital at an annualized 14.5%, outperforming its benchmark by an insane 9% per annum. But that’s not all, as Richard would proudly tell you himself, the capital weighted return of the average investor in Overlook is nearly identical to the time weighted return over any period of time – a rare feat in the money management industry. Indeed, today’s asset base is the result of $4 billion of investment gains on top of $1 billion in contributed capital. Our conversation starts with a look at investing in Asia in Overlook’s early days and walks through the particulars of the approach Richard takes to investing and running his business, including attractive investment attributes, management integrity, portfolio construction, selling discipline, and China Yangtze Power - the only stock the firm supersized in an SPV in its history. We discuss Overlook’s long-held cap on subscriptions and periodic reductions in its management fee, two business philosophies that Richard believes have been key drivers of Overlook’s success. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Ash Williams is the Executive Director and CIO of the Florida State Board of Administration, where he oversees $200 billion in assets for the State of Florida including one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S.  He is as highly regarded as they come, and among other accolades, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from CIO Magazine in 2017. Ash began his career serving the State of Florida as a staff assistant to two House speakers, as Chief of Staff to a former Governor and Comptroller of the State, and as Executive Director of the SBA. He left for a decade on Wall Street and returned after the global financial crisis to help resurrect the state’s assets. Our conversation covers Ash’s early experience in Florida legislature, the SBA in the 1990s, moving from the public sector to Wall Street, and returning in the thick of the financial crisis.  We discuss many aspects of managing a large pools of assets, including a six-year effort to modernize the compensation scheme, asset allocation, blending active and passive managers and internal and external fund management, managing around political interests, communicating expectations and transparency, character, proxy voting, private equity, hedge funds, and the process of selecting managers. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Sam Sicilia is the Chief Investment Officer of HostPlus, Australia’s AUZ 37 billion ($25B USD) Superannuation Fund.  Sam joined HostPlus in 2008 after a storied career in academia and the finance industry stretching back to the early 1990s. During that time, he held senior roles, both in Australia and internationally, consulting at Russell Investments, managing assets at Bank of Ireland, and consulting with Frontier Investment Consulting and Towers Perrin. Our conversation starts with Sam’s mathematics training and turns to his work over the last decade at HostPlus, covering the Fund’s long time horizon, his strategy to take advantage of that horizon, infrastructure investing for downside protection, private equity, venture capital in Australia, public equity focusing on people, hedge funds as a liquidity buffer, and working with a Board. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Martin Whittaker is the founding CEO of JUST Capital, a non-profit created by a group of concerned, influential leaders, including Deepak Chopra and Paul Tudor Jones.  JUST Capital is an independent research organization thanks ranks companies on the issues Americans care about most, with a mission to build a more just marketplace that better reflects the true priorities of the American people. Last year, it launched the JUST ETF in partnership with Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Our conversation covers with Martin’s history of following the money that ultimately led to his position at JUST, defining a “just company”, engaging the public in the polling process, engaging companies in the results, applications of the research including the JUST ETF, common characteristics of companies that rank highly, the impact of the polls on companies, application to private companies, and new initiatives. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jon Wertheim is a sports journalist and author who has a passion for psychology and economics.  He is the Executive Editor at Sports Illustrated, where he has been a full-time staff member since 1996. Jon also is a contributing correspondent on 60 Minutes and an analyst for the Tennis Channel at the four Majors.  He is the author of ten books including Stokes of Genius about the Federer-Nadal rivalry, the New York Times bestsellerScorecasting, and more recently, This Is Your Brain on Sports.  Our conversation spans across sports, behavior and decision making, discussing Jon’s path to a career in sports journalism, insider perspective on tennis, role of luck, cycles in basketball strategy, loss aversion, job preservation, omission bias, sports gambling, the business of sports, and lessons from interviewing. Jon moves with ease across sports, investing and psychology, and the parallels with his anecdotes and the world of investing are both entertaining and readily apparent. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

I'm excited to announce the launch of a spinoff of capital allocators called first meeting. First meeting episodes will be conversations with leading investment managers across asset classes. First meeting will seek to catalyze a step change improvement in the due diligence process by sharing conversations that replicate a first meeting and allocator might have with the manager. We’ll help both managers and allocators save time from repeating the same meeting over and over again, create scale in transparency, and increase the efficiency of communication. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Patrick O’Shaughnessy is the CEO of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, the host of the Invest Like the Best podcast, and a great friend.  Patrick’s podcast and widely read monthly mailing list of books, available at investorfieldguide.com, have made him a celebrity of sorts in the investing world. Those familiar with his voice will already know how wide his curious mind travels, but I image far fewer know much about his daily investing activities. Our conversation begins with Patrick’s early start in the business and discovered passion for research. We turn to investing at OSAM, covering four core quantitative factors, how those factors work, the research process to dive deeper into each factor and explore new ones, machine learning, differentiated portfolio construction, and the impact of quants on the market.  We then turn to Patrick’s experience as a podcaster, discussing his conceptual learning loop, lessons from interviewing, and the ways he has applied lessons from the podcast to OSAM’s asset management business. We close by discussing investing in external managers, including a great nugget on probing quantitative strategies. Patrick and I both finished this conversation feeling that we had just scratched the surface, which might be fodder for a Part B down the road.  Regardless, I’m indebted to Patrick for being the catalyst behind the creation of Capital Allocators two years ago, and it was my great pleasure to get him on the other side of the microphone. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Khe Hy rose to be one of the youngest Managing Directors at Blackrock’s hedge fund of funds business. In his 30s he left the industry to explore what would come next. His path led to creating the RadReads blog and coaching about facing fears and insecurities attached to the relationship of psychology and money. Khe has since been dubbed the “Oprah for Millenials” by CNN and “Wall Street Guru” by Bloomberg. Our conversation starts with Khe’s career on Wall Street evaluating mortgage derivative hedge fund strategies, reaching his lifelong career goals, and then leaving it behind. Ky discusses his path and asks questions that provoke an exploration of the value of money, including the power of asking “Why?”, what to do if you won the lottery, how much to leave behind for your children, the marginal utility of money, and lessons on staying the course on an entrepreneurial path. Khe’s real-time journey tackles issues that many in our profession face when they take a moment to reflect on their lives. The lessons reminded me of my conversation with HBS Professor Tom DeLong, which I’ve replayed on the feed.  Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom DeLong is a renown expert in organizational behavior, leadership, and human development of high performance professionals, the so called “soft skills” often dismissed in the asset management business. After starting an academic career under the wing of Stephen Covey, Tom found himself recruited by John Mack to work alongside him to develop a positive culture at Morgan Stanley. After eight years in the trenches, he returned to academia as a professor at Harvard Business School, where he has remained the past twenty years. Unlike most of us, Tom’s resume and achievements are unusually difficult to locate online or elsewhere. It was a sign of things to come in our fascinating conversation, which is simultaneously a master class in authentic leadership and a live case study in self-exploration with Tom as his own protagonist. Tom is exactly the type of person he has studied, and strives to be the type of leader he promotes. We discuss the meaning of work, the importance of feedback, the ways high performing professionals derail themselves, the difference between your image and your essence, the omnipresence of insecurity in high achievers, and some techniques to foster deeper conversation in relationships. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

David Gurfein is a decorated Marine Corps Combat veteran whose nickname “Bull” fits the bill. Enlisting at age 17, Bull drove tanks and was an honor graduate from Officer Candidate School while attending Syracuse University. Upon graduation from college, he accepted a commission as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant. Over the subsequent eleven years, Bull served as a combat Infantry Officer, leading Marines in the jungles of Panama, the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and on the fence-line at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He left active duty to earn his MBA at Harvard in 2000, where he was Co-President of his class. Bull started a business career after graduate school; however, when the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, Bull voluntarily returned to active duty. He saw combat action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and served as a Congressional Liaison for the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and the Special Operations Command. With a daughter on the way and 25 years of service under his belt, Bull retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Since then, he has applied his leadership and management experience to the business world, focusing on organizational design and business development. His leadership training program, entitled WHOOPASS, has positively impacted start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike. Oh, and he took a break from that in 2016 to run for U.S. Congress. Our conversation discusses principles of leadership, management, and resource allocation, alongside colorful stories of success and failure. Bull's frameworks have clear applicability to anyone overseeing an investment process. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tim Recker is the CIO of the $2.4 billion James Irvine Foundation.  He joined the foundation in 2016 after spending a decade in private equity and real assets for the University of California Regents, four years overseeing Alternatives at the Michigan Retirement System, and his early years at GE Asset Management Our conversation covers Tim’s career path, the culture and structure at GE and Michigan Retirement, and co-investments at UC Regents. We then turn to the intricacies of managing a highly concentrated portfolio of managers at Irvine, including effective governance. flexibility, team structure, due diligence, and decision making. We close with Tim’s perspectives on hedge funds, real estate and fixed income, and the tradeoffs in preparing for a downturn. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Michael Mauboussin is the well-known investment strategist currently plying his wares at Blue Mountain Capital.  He joined me for the second time to discuss his new research entitled “Who’s on the Other Side?”  Our conversation dives into the work, discussing how investors can focus on process over outcome, the four types of investment edges, behavioral traits of single and group portfolio managers, portfolio position weighting, informational edges available from paying attention and complexity, the principal-agent issues that create cycles and opportunities during dislocations, the growth of private markets, and implementing his research.  We close with a discussion of data analytics in the game of lacrosse. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Michael Mauboussin currently is the Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and asset manager.  He spent the majority of his professional career thinking and writing about decision making, behavior and complex systems, with long stints at Credit Suisse and nearly a decade alongside Bill Miller at Legg Mason.  Michael has been an Adjust Professor at Columbia Business School for 24 years. Our conversation covers Michael’s early career, the paradox of skill, academic research more favorable to active management, decision-making, optimal size and composition of teams, unsettling features in the market, data analysis in sports, career risk, the Santa Fe Institute, and Michael’s new research on the horizon. Every time I speak to Michael I come away thinking better and feeling smarter, and this time was no exception. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jon Hirtle is the Executive Chairman at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., a $20 billion Outsourced CIO business he founded in 1988.  Hirtle Callaghan retains the distinction of initiating the OCIO model that is flourishing in the market today. Our conversation covers leadership lessons from Jon’s experience in the Marines and at Goldman Sachs, the genesis of the idea to create Hirtle Callaghan, the structure, culture, philosophy and execution of their investing, Jon’s outlook on emerging markets, the economy, private equity, and credit, and the concept of governance alpha. Jon has a gift for distilling the investment process into understandable frameworks and analogies that we all can use to communicate with our many constituents. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Matt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. His column discusses current events in corporate finance and markets, with an insightful, nuanced lens and a dry wit.  As Matt describes it in his bio, he writes about the financial industry on the internet, and on the Bloomberg terminal, which is sort of like the internet but oranger.  If you receive my monthly email, you’ll already know that I’m a huge fan of Matt’s and that Money Stuff has become my go to source of business news. Our conversation covers Matt’s path to journalism through law school and investment banking, his daily routine, and some of his favorite writing topics, including why everything is securities fraud, stock buybacks, the CDS market, index funds, private markets, quantitative investing, and beating benchmarks. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Both times I was interviewed (by Khe Hy and Patrick O'Shaughnessy) and shared those conversations on Capital Allocators, I made reference to a special experience I’ve participated in for the last five years called the Hero’s Journey. The weeklong journey in the mountains of West Virginia provides a setting and platform for each participant to access their best self. Michael Mervosh is the deeply insightful Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation, an organization he created that provides experiential learning opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. He has a passion and indescribable skill in enlivening the developmental process and fostering vitality, meaning and well-being in individuals, groups, and organizations. When not running programs or training others, Michael practices psychotherapy at the Nuin Center in Pittsburgh, where he has professionally resided for 25 years. Our conversation took place in the mountains towards the end of this year’s journey and is quite different from those you may be accustomed to hearing on the show. We cover Michael’s path to creating the experience, the myth of the Hero, lessons in how the world actually works, the call to adventure, perfectionism, uncertainty, fear, and poetry. If you’re intrigued, I strongly encourage you to check out herosjourneyfoundation.org. Spaces are limited for the annual summer Men’s and Women’s Journeys, so sign up for next year’s trip at the website or reach out to me.  I intend to be back on the mountain next year and hope to see you there. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

David Zorub is the founder of Parsifal Capital, a new hedge fund he is launching later this year.  Before founding Parsifal, Dave spent fifteen years in research and portfolio management at hedge funds and another few in investment banking and private equity.  I interviewed David recently at Columbia University’s Student Investment Management Conference and that conversation follows. We cover his career path and his insights into the philosophy and structure of a hedge fund business and investment portfolio. It’s not easy starting a hedge fund these days, and those eager to try will get a sense of the challenges ahead by listening to an experienced investor who’s making a go of it. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Paul Rabil is the co-founder and CEO of the Premier Lacrosse League or PLL, a new tour-based league of the top professional lacrosse players in the world that will debut on June 1st.  Paul was the #1 player in the draft for Major League Lacrosse in 2008 after winning a national championship at Johns Hopkins.  He is a 7-time Champion and 3-time MVP.  Alongside his on-the-field accomplishments, Paul is a passionate entrepreneur who was the first lacrosse player to earn $1 million in endorsements. Our conversation covers Paul’s early interest in lacrosse, developing a social media fan following, the importance of sponsorship revenue for athletes, and the leverage athletes have over teams. We then turn to the formation of the PLL, including Paul’s attempt to purchase the MLL with a search fund, his shift in business model from private equity to venture capital, the tour-based model, operations, distribution, and the on-field product.  We close by discussing Suiting Up, Paul’s podcast where he interviews top professional athletes and coaches, and the Paul Rabil Foundation, which brings lacrosse to schools for children with learning differences. Paul is as savvy off-the-field as his is skilled on it, and as the PLL takes off as I suspect it will, this conversation may well mark an important moment in time for this fascinating start-up league. Tune in to NBC to watch the first games from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on the first weekend in June. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

A few months ago, Marcel van de Hoef interviewed me on his podcast, The Meeting Strategist.  He created Meeting Strategist to help senior professionals across industries think more strategically about business conversations and improve their listening, questioning and meeting skills.  With his permission, I’ve shared that discussion on this week’s show.  You can learn more about his work at meetingstrategist.org. Our conversation starts with my background and covers my communications with Warren Buffett, characteristics of successful active managers, manager meeting structure, culture assessment, tools for effective listening, lessons I learned from David Swensen, and my preparation and conducting of podcast interviews. Please enjoy my thoughts on interviewing and manager meetings, with Marcel van de Hoef asking the questions. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides  

I’ve received several emails over the last bunch of months asking for my take on the investing world and the topics we cover on the show. Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to appear as a guest on a few other podcasts, and thought I would share some of those conversations from time to time. About a year and a half ago, Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviewed me to discuss the book I wrote on his amazing podcast, Invest Like the Best. The discussion quickly turned to a deep dive on hedge funds - past, present and future. We subsequently recorded two other conversations.  For the first, I asked him to interview me about the Buffett Bet. You can find that conversation on Episode 5. In the second, Patrick interviewed me alongside our friend and star micro private equity investor, Brent Beshore. You can find that entertaining conversation at Invest Like the Best, Episode 30. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

  Last fall, I sat down with a fellow former hedge fund of funds professional Khe Hy, who left the business a few years ago and has developed a fascinating media platform around introspection, self-awareness, and self-development. Certainly a set of characteristics we don’t normally associate with folks in the asset management business. Khe interviewed me about my career path and some lessons I’ve learned about people, business, and life. With his permission, I am sharing the conversation to allow you to learn more about the perspective that I bring to the conversations on Capital Allocators. If you like the subject matter, I’d encourage you to check out Khe’s podcast, entitled Rad Awakenings, available on iTunes or his website, radreads.co. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 1:53 – Ted’s time with Dave Swensen 2:40 – How did Ted get the job not knowing about stocks 3:56 – The start of Ted’s time at Protégé 5:27 – How did Ted view the world as someone picking managers vs someone picking stocks 9:01 – Early days at Protégé 10:36 – Attributes that Ted tried to unpack about individuals 13:18 – Understanding a team’s intrinsic vs extrinsic motivations 15:03 – How much of investing is about true skill vs being on the right side of a market trend 17:06 – What did Ted learn about greed during the bull market run of the early 2000’s 20:00 – The ego, envy and entitlement of financial professionals 22:36 – The potential to hit a high-water mark and never feeling satisfied 28:20 – Loving what you do despite the financial windfall 32:50 – Would Ted have the same passion for the markets if he hit the proverbial lottery 34:36 – The feeling of financial survival and what would happen if Ted didn’t have it             37:24 – Citizen Schools 38:41 – How to stop caring about other people’s perception of you 40:46 – Most underrated attribute of Ted that he has discovered in his reinvention 41:53 – Times Ted’s resilience was tested             43:08 – Ted on Invest Like the Best Podcast             43:10 – Hero's Journey Foundation 45:02 – What does higher education and first jobs look like for the next generation given the digital changes in society 49:20 – Do millennials have less upward mobility then past generations             49:43 – The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial 52:09 – Follow and learn more about Ted at capitalallocatorspodcast.com 57:41 – Closing questions with special guest interviewers  

Dan Ariely is a renowned behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur, and investor.  He is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.  Dan is the author of six books, most of which have the word “Irrationality” in the title and has a weekly column in the The Wall Street Journal called “Ask Ariely.” Dan’s TED Talks have been downloaded more than 10 million times. Dan also is a Founding Partner of Irrational Capital, an investment firm that identifies and quantifies the nuanced relationship between companies and their employees, and invests in human capital factors that are linked to long-term stock price performance.  Last month, Irrational Capital announced a strategic partnership with Jeff Ubben’s ValueAct Capital, a firm that shares their belief in the importance of the impact of corporate culture on long-term enterprise value. Our conversation starts with Dan’s journey studying pain and intuition and turns to applications of his research in the corporate setting.  We discuss his research process, measurement of human capital, applying experiments to an investment strategy, employee motivation and compensation schemes as investment factors, and constructing a portfolio of factors based purely on human capital.  We close by touching on Dan’s projects in government and with start-ups. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jordi Visser is the President & CIO of $1.7 billion Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, an asset management firm with a 40-year history of focusing on innovative investment processes and cutting edge thought leadership.  Our conversation covers Jordi’s decade of learning at Morgan Stanley, and then turns to a deep dive on all aspects of Weiss’ equity market neutral, multi-manager process, including the importance of data visualization to risk management, behavioral alpha, improving portfolio manager performance, blending macro insights with a multi-manager team, factor-based replication, hiring managers, ranking managers, and knowing when to move on.  We then discuss issues with the use of analytics outside of public equities, pending problem caused by high corporate leverage, opportunities in biotech and healthcare, the future of the hedge fund industry, and positioning an asset manager for the future. Jordi leads a rigorous approach to identifying, assessing, and improving an internal multi-manager team using data analytics.  The transparency and tools he employs are a few steps ahead of where most allocators find themselves today, and as such, his insights can shine a light on the path where all allocators can develop going forward. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast    

Manny Friedman is the founder of EJF Capital.  Manny discussed his background and his nuanced take on markets last July in Episode 61 of the podcast. In that conversation, he mentioned a new regulation in the U.S. that created an area of investing called Economic Opportunity Zones.  I started learning about Economic Opportunity Zones from Manny and dove in for my day job.  Since then, more and more eyes are viewing investments in Opportunity Zones, and I asked Manny to sit down with me to share his perspective. Our conversation covers the governments broad, bipartisan effort to reallocate capital to underinvested areas of the country, how tax incentives will potentially unlock trillions of dollars of unrealized capital gains, the future attraction of Economic Opportunity Zones to nontaxable and ESG investors, the ways in which the program could fall short of its lofty goals, and specific examples of how a virtuous circle can get created and make a meaningful dent in the economic divide in the United States Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Manny Friedman is the CEO of EJF Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2005 that manages $9 billion with a focus on the financial services industry. Manny started EJF after his retirement from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1989 and served as Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer.  Our conversation looks back at Manny’s lifelong passion for investing, the globalization of markets, and the financial crisis, and then looks forward at the newly created economic opportunity zones, long-term impact of government stimulus, stranded assets created by technological change, regulation, and philanthropy. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Garnder Russo & Gardner. Last week, Tom talked in detail about his holding in Berkshire Hathaway.  This week, we continue the conversation with his new holding in Google. Our conversation covers buying Google now, comparing the company to Facebook, future growth opportunities starting from a large base, competition from Amazon, Google X’s long-term moonshots, and related stories in Tom’s portfolio companies Philip Morris and Nestle. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner.  Tom and I sat down in Episode 16 to discuss his background and investment strategy in what was one of the most popular episodes on the show.  He oversees $13B in a global value strategy focused on family-operated public companies. Our second conversation is a two-part episode for this week and next.  First, we talk solely about his holding in Berkshire Hathaway, a stock he first bought 38 years ago. The conversation covers Tom’s initial purchase of Berkshire, company meetings, reaffirming his thesis and search for disconfirming information, the genius of Warren Buffett, research on Mitek, cross-fertilization of Berkshire’s CEOs, the subdivisions of insurance, public market investments and regulated businesses, valuation, compensation, Berkshire after Warren, and Tom’s sell discipline. We close with a teaser for next week’s episode, as Tom reveals the name of the first significant stock he’s bought for his clients in eight years. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner, where he manages $11 billion in a long only, global value strategy. Tom buys the stock of global consumer businesses with great brands and holds them for a really long time. He looks for businesses with a capacity to reinvest free cash flow and a capacity to suffer through short-term pain in order to achieve long-term gain. Tom started his investment career at the Sequoia Fund in New York, where he worked from 1984 to 1988. His first partnership, Semper Vic Partners, has compounded at 14.6% per year for 33 years, besting the S&P 500 by 3.6% per annum. Tom is a graduate of Dartmouth College (B.A., 1977), and Stanford Business and Law Schools (JD/MBA, 1984). He has served on Dean's Advisory Council for Stanford Law School, Dartmouth College's President's Leadership Council, and the Advisory Board for the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing at Columbia Business School, as well as on the boards of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the U.S., Facing History and Ourselves, and Storm King Art Center. Our conversation covers how Tom created an investment strategy by personalizing early lessons from Warren Buffett, the capacity to re-invest, the capacity to suffer, and what it takes to own a stock for decades.  Tom’s time horizon and fortitude as an investor parallels those of institutions with permanent capital. Listeners will get a fresh perspective on what it means to be a long-term investor Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Matt Botein is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Gallatin Point Capital, a $1.5 billion private investment company he founded after departing from BlackRock, where he had served as the Chief Investment Officer and Co-Head of the firm’s $160 billion Alternatives business.  Before sitting atop that lofty perch, Matt formed a bank after the financial crisis, was a Managing Director at hedge fund Highfields Capital and a private equity Principal at Blackstone. Our conversation starts with Matt’s early career experience, touching on differences in public and private investing and forming new financial companies after periods of crisis. We then turn to his reconnection with Larry Fink, who in short order tapped Matt to run BlackRock’s giant Alternatives business.  We discuss his unusually graceful exit from BlackRock, flexible investment approach at Gallatin Point, and perspective from meeting a wide array of large pools of institutional capital globally.  We finish with his take on the opportunities and challenges for private equity, headwinds for hedge funds, and real assets for his personal portfolio. Back when Matt and I were in school together, he was renowned for taking an occasional snooze in class, getting cold called by the professor, and waking up only to offer the most plugged in and articulate answer anyone could have imagined.  I suspected tapping into his brilliant mind would provide lots of food for thought, and he certainly didn’t disappoint. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Rahul Moodgal has spent 20 years as a fund raiser across long only strategies, hedge funds, fund of funds, customized solutions, start-ups, and non-profits.  Collectively, Rahul has raised and helped raise $60 billion for firms since 2005.  He started his career in the industry at powerhouse TT International, and later joined The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) where he led the marketing effort that raised $20 billion in just 3½ years.  Within TCI’s affiliate model, Rahul also was responsible for the largest India fund raise in history ($1 billion for TCI New Horizon Fund), and the largest sector fund launch in history ($1.1 billion for Algebris Investments). Our conversation covers capital raising lessons learned from teaching, the value of transparency, the gold rush before 2008, the lean times afterwards, modern fee structures, the three key points to effective marketing, the three traits that will kill you, the two biggest issues start-up funds face, the best questions asked by leading allocators, and some of the worst horror stories in attempted capital raising. We close comparing by fund raising for charities and investment firms.  Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Chris Ailman is the chief investment officer of the $220 billion pool for California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS). He joined CalSTRS back in 2000 after 4 years as CIO of the Washington State Investment Board and 11 years as CIO of the Sacramento Country Employees Retirement System.  Chris is a legend in the business and the list of accolades for his work is longer that the list of my podcast episodes. Our conversation dives in with the flawed business model of government running a money management firm, looming retirement crisis, and challenges of governance and communication with a rotating Board.  We then turn to the inner workings CalSTRS, including the use of internal and external managers, managing a long-term asset allocation cruise ship, inflation sensitive investments, risk mitigating strategies, private equity for a huge pool of capital, the innovation lab, ES and G, and building influence among large asset owners. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast  

Steve Kuhn is a retired hedge fund manager.  He spent two decades in the industry, specializing in mortgage-backed securities at Cargill, Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Pine River.  In his last stint in the business until his retirement in 2016, Steve was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at then $14 billion Pine River Capital Management and was one of the hedge fund industry’s most widely known fixed income traders. Our conversation covers parlaying a passion for playing games into a two-decade Wall Street career, spending time productively when your investing specialty is out of favor, stepping away from the money game, presenting the evidence-based case for active manager alpha, talking the state of the hedge fund industry, managing his own money, engaging in philanthropy, and proposing the IDEAL immigration model. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Donna Snider is a Managing Director at the $4 billion Kresge Foundation, where she has worked for ten years as one of three senior team members under Chief Investment Officer Rob Manilla.  Last summer, Institutional Investor named Donna the number one ranked Most Wanted CIO of the future. Our conversation starts with Donna sharing the cross fertilization of bringing her sell side trading experience to a Foundation and on the flip side learning manager selection from her very first data point. We then turn to the inner workings of the Foundation investment program from the perspective of a long-tenured senior team member, including the nitty gritty details of the internal investment process, the tricky decision process that goes into adding a manager or taking one out of the portfolio, the management of overlays and internal trades, the different roles of a CIO and senior investment team member, current challenges in venture capital, value investing, hedge funds, and emerging markets, and the politics of getting named a Most Wanted future CIO. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Ron Biscardi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Context Capital Partners and a Partner and Board Member of Context Summits.  Ron sits at the intersection of buyers and sellers for small funds, and actively invests as a provider of acceleration capital.   Our conversation covers Ron’s path from an engineer to an asset management entrepreneur, the challenges and opportunities of investing in small hedge funds, the disconnect with the perception of hedge funds in the media and the reality that occurs at the Context Summit, the interests of single-family offices, and new investment opportunities on the horizon.  Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jean Hynes is a Managing Partner at Wellington Management, where she one of three people responsible for the governance of Wellington’s storied partnership.  Jean also is the sector leader of the firm’s healthcare team that manages the Vanguard Healthcare Fund, three global healthcare hedge funds, and global healthcare sector portfolios. She joined Wellington after graduating from college in 1991 and has been at the firm ever since.  Our conversation covers Wellington’s humanistic culture, its evolution from a U.S. value shop to a global federation of boutiques, talent recruitment, the successful merit-based partnership structure, and the Wellington of the future.  Along the way we touch on Jean’s progression from an administrative assistant to a Managing Partner, the healthcare team’s investment philosophy and process, a day in her work life, and topical issues of active vs. passive, public and private investing, and large vs. small firms. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading international public relations and financial communications consultancy with offices in New York, London, Los Angeles and Connecticut. Prosek Partners ranks among the top 10 independent public relations firms in the U.S., and among the top financial communications consultancies.  The firm has been listed as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for nine years running.  Jen is also a two-time author.  Our conversation covers the foibles of professional marketing in asset management, building a brand, measuring a successful branding effort, managing the story of weak performance, and describing the differences in hedge fund and private equity branding.  We then turn to some of Jen’s fascinating observations learned from her experience, including raising entrepreneurial children, working with millennials and Gen Z staffers, and implementing the principals of ‘Just Ask’, behave with humanity, and not thinking in black and white. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Please enjoy this countdown of the top 10 most downloaded episodes of Capital Allocators in 2018 (and top 5 most downloaded episodes featuring CIOs). If you have any ideas and can make introductions to guests who might crack next year's top 10, please send the my way.  Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Tim McCusker is the Chief Investment Officer at NEPC, an investment consultant that advises on $1 trillion in assets on behalf of 400 institutional clients.  Tim oversees NEPC’s 50-person investment research team and leads investment strategy for the firm.  In each of 2014, 2015, and 2016, CIO Magazine recognized Tim as one of the world’s most influential consultants. Our conversation covers NEPC’s client centric model, meeting the needs of a range of client types, forming and implementing capital market views, researching managers, sourcing in public and private assets, allocating to scarce capacity managers, and forming and leaning into the megatrends of artificial intelligence, income inequality, demographics, and shifting currency regimes. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Brent Beshore is the founder and CEO of Adventur.es, an investment firm that buys small family-owned businesses with the intention of holding them indefinitely.  After launching a few businesses out of college, Brent developed a distinct investment strategy and style. Earlier this year, he raised outside capital for the first time in a permanent capital vehicle, and I am a happy investor in the fund. Brent regularly shares his insights on business and investing through his widely distributed letters on his website and commentary on Twitter. And just last week, he released his first book, The Messy Marketplace:  Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers.  It’s a fantastic instructional guide that covers everything from emotional expectations to the fine print in documentation. Our conversation covers Brent’s childhood interest in business, early mistakes, structural differences in his strategy from traditional private equity, search funds and fundless sponsors, sourcing deals, conducting due diligence, understanding valuation, negotiating, raising a first-time permanent capital vehicle, entering the ranks of professionals, and his new book. Brent is unusually insightful about investing in general and deeply knowledgeable about the niche he occupies. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Bushey is the founder of Sunderland Capital, a Boston-based hedge fund he started in 2016.  Tom graduated from the Wharton School as an undergraduate, and worked as an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, private equity analyst at Thayer Capital, hedge fund analyst at Millenium and Mayo Capital, and portfolio manager at Blackrock before trying his hand on his own.  Even with that stellar resume, the road to success running an asset management business has plenty of obstacles along the way. Our conversation tells Tom’s story of what happened through his career and launch process.  He shares an inside look from a manager’s perspective of what it takes to get a fund off the ground.  As an important aside and disclaimer, I’ve known Tom for a while and have advised him for the last two years.  I happen to like him a lot, both personally and professionally, but you should know I have a small vested interest in his success.