E80: How ~$16 Billion Multi-Family Office WE Invests
E80 • Jul 26, 2024 • 29 minsMatt Farrell, Senior Investment Manager at WE Family Offices, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss how families with $50M-$1B+ invest their capital. They also cover balancing risk tolerance and liquidity needs, where alpha is in the market today, and characteristics of an ideal private fund manager.
E79: Mike Maples on How to Return 100X+ on Seed Investments
E79 • Jul 23, 2024 • 52 minsMike Maples, Founding Partner at Floodgate, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Mike’s new book “Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future”. This is a masterclass on early-stage venture investing. Mike shares his views on identifying ideas and founders that led to his early investments in Lyft, Twitter, and Okta. They also cover how Mike thinks about fundraising from LPs, his learnings from legendary LP David Swensen, and the power and importance of pursuing non-consensus ideas.
E78: Fmr. CIO of CalPERS ($495 Billion) on Private Markets Investing
E78 • Jul 18, 2024 • 30 minsDr. Russell Read, current CIO at 10X Capital, and former CIO at CalPERS, CIO of Alaska Permanent Fund and CIO of the Gulf Investment Corporation sits down with David Weisburd to discuss his extensive career as a premier investment professional. They dive into how large scale pensions allocate to private markets, how those plans structure co-investment programs and design a theoretical allocation strategy.
E77: Justin Pollack on PineBridge’s ($168 Billion AUM) Investment Thesis
E77 • Jul 16, 2024 • 34 minsJustin Pollack, Managing Director at PineBridge Investments, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss PineBridge’s investment thesis. They also breakdown the secondary markets, discuss the structural differences between private equity & public market investing, and ways to analyze spinouts.
E76: How FirstLook Picks the Top 10% of Venture Funds
E76 • Jul 11, 2024 • 24 minsJosh Porter, Co-Founder & General Partner at FirstLook Partners, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss FirstLook’s process for evaluating and selecting emerging managers. They also cover typical terms for co-invest, managing conflicts of interest, and the importance of strong personal relationships in venture capital.
E75: Insight Partners’ Direct and Fund of Funds Strategy
E75 • Jul 9, 2024 • 18 minsDionne Chingkoe and Samer Yousif of Insight Partners sit down with David Weisburd to discuss Insight’s direct and fund of funds investment strategies. They cover the importance of adding value beyond capital to both founders and emerging managers, the landscape of multi-stage VCs investing in emerging managers, and check size driving fund strategy for GPs. Insight Partners’ 20/20 Vision Capital Fund supports diverse-led, top-tier, early-stage venture funds providing growth and seed capital to companies in the US and abroad. Insight believes that partnering and investing with these GPs is an effective way to drive much needed diversity in the venture capital industry.
E74: How the $4B Kresge Foundation Invests into Venture - Venus Phillips
E74 • Jul 2, 2024 • 19 minsVenus Phillips, Managing Director at Kresge Foundation, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the Kresge Foundation’s venture strategy. They cover mission-driven investing, opportunities and risks investing in China and India, and building true partnerships between general partners and limited partners.
E73: John Merrill on GroveStreet’s $10.5 Billion Investment Strategy
E73 • Jun 25, 2024 • 36 minsJohn Merrill, Partner at GroveStreet sits down with David Weisburd to discuss GroveStreet’s $10.5B SMA model. In addition, they talk about the keys to building long-term SMA relationships, a highly selective set of criteria for managers and reasons why GP’s should prefer rigorous, discerning LPs vs. fast-followers.
E72: Investing in Top Emerging Managers with Jamie Rhode
E72 • Jun 18, 2024 • 36 minsJamie Rhode sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Screendoor’s strategy of backing emerging managers. In addition, they discuss friction points between LPs and emerging managers, leveraging insights from GPs and LPs in manager selection, and how to diligence a first time fund.
E71: Interview with RAISE Global Summit & Akkadian Founder Ben Black
E71 • Jun 11, 2024 • 44 minsBen Black, Co-Founder of Akkadian Ventures, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the RAISE Global Summit, the largest LP/GP conference. This is a masterclass on how venture capital GPs can raise venture capital funds and develop long-term relationships with LPs. David and Ben also delve into what differentiates the top venture funds, the importance of operational excellence in fund entrepreneurship, and prioritizing and managing relationships.
E70: How VC Fund of Funds Work with Alex Edelson
E70 • Jun 6, 2024 • 20 minsAlex Edelson, Founder of Slipstream Investors, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the benefits and tradeoffs of investing in venture capital fund of funds. They also touch on Slipstream’s investment thesis, portfolio construction, and due diligence process.
E69: How Texas Municipal Retirement System Deployed $1B into Venture Capital
E69 • May 29, 2024 • 17 minsPeter Teneriello, former Senior Portfolio Manager at Texas Municipal Retirement System, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss how TMRS deployed $1B into venture capital. In addition, they discuss institutional allocation pacing models, the importance of aligned investment teams and why investors may allocate to median performing managers.
E68: The Smithsonian Institution’s Venture Capital Edge
E68 • May 21, 2024 • 24 minsJeff Smith, Managing Director of Private Investments at the Smithsonian’s endowment, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the Smithsonian endowment’s advantage in accessing the best managers in venture capital. They also discuss the importance of continually allocating throughout cycles, knowing when to exit, and communicating effectively with LPs. They conclude by covering what Jeff looks for when evaluating new venture managers.
E67: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta CIO - Muthu Muthiah
E67 • May 16, 2024 • 28 minsMuthu Muthiah, CIO of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta sits down with David Weisburd to discuss how he developed the governance, systems, and team to deploy $2 billion dollars at Inatai Foundation. They also delve into the endowment style investment philosophy, the importance of asset allocation relative to manager selection, and the venture strategy at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
E66: Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures on Investing in VC - Erin Harkless Moore
E66 • May 14, 2024 • 36 minsErin Harkless Moore, Senior Director of Pivotal Ventures, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Pivotal Ventures’ $1B mission to drive equality and returns. In addition, they discuss how Pivotal works to close the gender gap, ways to manage teams more thoughtfully and the capability of venture dollars to drive exponential impact.
E65: CEO of Bitwise on How Institutions Access Crypto
E65 • May 9, 2024 • 34 minsHunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the institutional investment case for Bitcoin and digital assets. In addition, they discuss the diversification benefits of digital assets for portfolio construction, bull arguments for Bitcoin, and expanding the GDP of the internet through increasing use cases of public blockchains.
E64: How Startups Can Access $13 Trillion in Retirement Capital - Eric Satz
E64 • May 7, 2024 • 34 minsEric Satz, CEO of Alto, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss how startups can access $13 trillion in retirement capital. In addition, they discuss why to invest in alternative assets via retirement capital, strategies for personal venture portfolio construction and how cryptocurrency fits into alternative asset investing.
E63: Chris Rizik on The Rise of Midwest LPs
E63 • May 2, 2024 • 27 minsChris Rizik, CEO of Renaissance Venture Capital sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Renaissance’s unique approach to venture. In addition, they discuss how large corporations participate in venture, when to admit a loss vs. doubling down and signals of a strong fund manager.
E62: Babson College's $700M Endowment on Venture Capital
Apr 30, 2024 • 49 minsTrish DiGirolomo, investment manager at Babson College sits down with David Weisburd to discuss scaling Babson College’s endowment via disciplined strategy and process. In addition, they discuss the advantages of patience and a focus on cash on cash returns, criteria for manager selection, and leveraging experienced alumni in the investment process.
E61: Erik Iverson and Mike Partsch on WARF’s $3B Endowment Strategy
E61 • Apr 25, 2024 • 19 minsErik Iverson and Mike Partsch of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) sit down with David Weisburd to discuss how WARF supports innovation while driving financial returns. In addition, they discuss the case for investing in life sciences, how inventions turn into portfolio companies and the importance of maintaining relationships through market cycles.