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.
E60: Emerging Manager Alpha At Scale with Michael Downing
E60 • Apr 23, 2024 • 28 minsMichael Downing sits down with David Weisburd to discuss emerging manager venture funds, the MDSV Capital Extension Program, and the effect of market conditions on fundraising. They also discuss the role of MDSV in the venture capital landscape, portfolio construction, LP expectations, and Michael’s background as an entrepreneur and investor. The conversation wraps up with a discussion on the importance of not overlooking emerging managers as a key part of the venture ecosystem.
E59: How Jordan Nel Spots Winning Venture Funds
E59 • Apr 16, 2024 • 31 minsJordan Nel sits down with David Weisburd to discuss how to spot winning venture funds. In addition, they discuss portfolio construction and concentration, the scalability of venture funds and difficult conversations with GPs.
E58: Claude Grunitzky on Democratizing Access to Venture Capital
E58 • Apr 11, 2024 • 28 minsClaude Grunitzky sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Claude's journey as a venture-backed founder, securing an investment from Goldman Sachs, the importance of mentorship in venture capital, and Claude’s approach to spotting potential. They also delve into the creation of The Equity Alliance, the firm’s investment process, and their involvement with Serena Ventures.
E57: Eric Poirier CEO of Addepar on Lessons from $6 Trillion in Assets
S57 Apr 9, 2024 • 25 minsEric Poirier sits down with David Weisburd to discuss insights from the platform’s investment data on nearly $6 trillion in assets. They also talk about the top performing asset classes, the future of asset management and how to manage talent to scale a business.
E56: Robert Rodriguez on Hollywood, Artificial Intelligence, & Film Finance
E56 • Apr 4, 2024 • 32 minsRobert Rodriguez sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the role of creativity in filmmaking, cost-effective film production, and the influence of technology and AI in film. The discussion also covers Rodriguez's film fund, strategies for creating profitable movies, and the importance of living a creative life.
E55: Eric Sippel - Lessons from Investing in 45 Venture Capital Funds
S55 Apr 2, 2024 • 26 minsEric Sippel sits down with David Weisburd to discuss criteria used to identify top quartile managers, GP follow-on strategies and how LP value-add can increase alpha.
E54: Morgan Creek Capital’s Endowment Style Investing – Frank Tanner
E54 • Mar 28, 2024 • 23 minsFrank Tanner sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Anthony 'Pomp' Pompliano's role at Morgan Creek as well as the company's origin, growth, and guiding principles. They dive into understanding power laws in venture capital, early-stage investing, and Morgan Creek's manager selection process.
E53: Northwestern University - Harisha Haigh on Manager Selection
E53 • Mar 26, 2024 • 26 minsHarisha Haigh sits down with David Weisburd to discuss the art of building and managing relationships in venture capital. They delve deep into Northwestern's venture and crypto strategies, dissect common mistakes made by top VCs, and evaluate the ideal characteristics of a venture manager. They also discuss the leading indicators of success of a venture fund, investment decision-making processes within VC firms, and how to approach underwriting the track record of a spin-out manager.
E52: StepStone's Hunter Somerville on How to Scale LP Capital
Mar 21, 2024 • 26 minsHunter Somerville sits down with David Weisburd to discuss StepStone's unique approach to venture capital, their transition to leading deals, and their full life cycle approach to investing. They delve into accessing companies in the secondary market, identifying potential in emerging managers, and StepStone's value-add to funds and companies.
E51: How $1B+ Family Offices Generate Alpha in Venture Capital - Ron Diamond
E51 • Mar 19, 2024 • 22 minsRon Diamond sits down with David Weisburd to discuss how $1B+ family offices generate alpha in venture capital, the #1 way family offices can avoid adverse selection, how family offices may disrupt private equity, and venture capital vs. private equity.
E50: Founding GLG and Growing it into a $600 Million Revenue Powerhouse — Mark Gerson
Mar 14, 2024 • 26 minsMark Gerson sits down with David Weisburd to discuss founding GLG and growing it into a $600 million revenue powerhouse, 3i and its community of world-class private investors and the importance of an ROI driven approach to non-profit work.
E49: Top Tier Capital Founder David York on 30 Years in Venture
E49 • Mar 12, 2024 • 26 minsDavid York, Founder of Top Tier Capital Partners, sits down with David Weisburd to discuss Top Tier Capital's history of success, the value of partnership, and generational transfers. They also delve into their experiences with Limited Partners, the risks and rewards of backing GP "spinouts", and share reflections on David York’s 30 years in the VC industry.
E48: The Ford Foundation on Returning 28% CAGR While Improving Society
E48 • Mar 7, 2024 • 18 minsRoy Swan and Christine Looney from Ford Foundation's Mission Investments team sit down with David Weisburd to discuss patriotic capitalism, their investment themes, and strategy impact. They discuss balancing financial return with social impact, Swan's advisory role with the Church of England, and the importance of fairness and morality in capitalism.
E47: Sean Warrington of Gresham Partners on Avoiding False Signals in Investing
E47 • Mar 5, 2024 • 20 minsSean Warrington of Gresham Partners sits down with David Weisburd and Erik Torenberg to discuss his investment decision-making process, extreme risk factors in diligence, and his approach to investing in emerging managers. The episode also covers reference processes in fund management, the impact of social proof and momentum in investing, and best practices of cutting-edge family offices.