Omeed Malik (@RealOmeedMalik), founder and CEO of Farvahar Partners, a boutique merchant bank and broker/dealer which invests partner capital into growth businesses and acts as a liquidity provider of private placements on behalf of companies and institutional investors, joins Julia La Roche on episode 71 to share what he sees as an emerging parallel economy in the U.S. that’s in stark contrast to ESG.

Omeed is the chairman and CEO of a SPAC called Colombier Acquisition Corp. that is taking PublicSq., a marketplace for “pro-America business and consumers,” public later this year. He also started a fund called 1789 Capital to provide “venture and growth capital to companies building the next era of American prosperity.” 

Prior to starting his own firm, Omeed was a Managing Director and the Global Head of the Hedge Fund Advisory Business at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Omeed was also the founder and head of the Emerging Manager Program within the Global Equities business. In this capacity, Omeed was charged with selecting both established and new hedge funds for the firm to partner with and oversaw the allocation of financing/prime brokerage, capital strategy, business consulting and talent introduction resources.

Before joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Omeed was a Senior Vice President at MF Global, where he helped reorganize the firm’s distribution platform globally and developed execution and clearing relationships with institutional clients.

An experienced financial services professional and securities attorney, Omeed was a corporate lawyer at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP working on transactional matters in the capital markets, corporate governance, private equity and bankruptcy fields.

Omeed has also worked in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Omeed received a JD, with Honors, from Emory Law School (where he serves on the Advisory Board) and a BA in Philosophy and Political Science, Cum Laude, from Colgate University. He holds Series 7, 63, 3, 79, and 24 registrations. 

Omeed is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Centennial Society Member of the Economic Club of New York and a Chairman’s Circle Member of the Milken Institute. Omeed is a Contributing Editor and minority owner of The Daily Caller.

0:00 Intro

2:06 Welcoming Omeed Malik

2:50 From D.C. to corporate law to Wall Street

3:30 Started as a speechwriter in D.C. 

4:11 Working for Jon Corzine at MF Global

5:12 Launching Farvahar in 2018, advising founders

5:38 New opportunity in a new economy called the “patriot economy” 

6:33 D.C. is a place where you get a lot of power, but not money

7:20 The country has changed

8:05 No longer identifying as a Democrat

8:33 2016 election of Trump

9:12 Rise of China 

11:33 Leaving the Democratic Party 

14:15 Tulsi Gabbard 

16:22 China is the most significant geopolitical threat in my lifetime 

20:16 ‘Red America’ is a huge TAM 

21:02 ESG is a marketing scam 

23:00 ESG backlash 

26:20 Opportunity for a parallel economy focused on ‘EIG’ (Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Growth)

28:30 A $7T opportunity 

33:00 A bifurcated economy 

34:30 Taking PublicSq. public via SPAC

35:00 Bud Light Dylan Mulvaney backlash led to spike in search for alternative beer

36:30 Scratching the surface of the opportunity 

38:40 Changes on a personal level

40:00 TikTok a ‘Trojan Horse’ in a modern-day Opium War 

41:00 Evisceration of the middle class

42:00 Ceding liberty when you work for a large corporation 

44:41 Need to reevaluate the relationship between the U.S. and China 

51:27 Optimistic for the future of the U.S.

53:00 Big Tech’s “Devil’s bargain” 

55:00 Impact on relationships