Alt Goes Mainstream

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s show was recorded live from AltsLA 2023 in partnership with CAIA. CAIA is the leading global professional body dedicated to alternative investment credential programs.

On this episode, we speak with Daniel Joye, where he oversees Infrastructure investing at LACERA, the $58 billion AUM Los County Employees Retirement Association.

Daniel and I had a fascinating conversation about how an institutional investor like LACERA approaches investing in infrastructure, the benefits of infrastructure investing, particularly in the current market environment, how to think about risk / return of infrastructure assets in a portfolio, and why investing in infrastructure is so critical to the development of cities and nations.

Prior to moving back to Los Angeles and joining LACERA (he is an LA native), Daniel worked in London for Morgan Stanley, Vitol and BP with a focus on energy trading and investing.

He started his career in the French Navy as a gunnery officer where he navigated the 7 seas and participated in Operation Enduring Freedom.

He holds a Masters in Engineering from l'Ecole Navale (the French Naval Academy) and an MBA (with honors) from Wharton.

Thanks Daniel for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your views and knowledge.

Join thought leaders from private markets firms like Blackstone, Goldman, Apollo, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s show was recorded live from AltsLA 2023 in partnership with CAIA. CAIA is the leading global professional body dedicated to alternative investment credential programs.

On this episode, we speak with Mark Anson, the CEO and CIO of Commonfund ($28B AUM).

Mark and I had a fascinating discussion on private markets. We discussed:

* Why size discipline and sector focus defeat the explosion of capital in private markets.

* Why multi-manager strategies or commingled vehicles make sense for wealth managers (particularly in VC).

* How allocators can invest in the next Sequoia.

* Why the concept of lagged beta matters for allocators.

* How ESG and impact investing can be integrated into an investor’s portfolio.

Mark Anson is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of the Commonfund and Chairman of the Board of Commonfund Capital Inc. and Commonfund Asset Management Company.

Previously, he was the President and Chief Investment Officer for the Bass Family Office. He was the President and Global Head of Investment Management at Nuveen Investments, a full-service asset management company with over $900 billion in assets under management.

Prior to Nuveen, Mark served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer for the British Telecom Pension Scheme (BTPS), the largest institutional investor in the UK with assets of £55 billion.

In addition, Mark was the CEO of Hermes Pensions Management in London, a £60 billion asset management company that is wholly owned by the BTPS. Prior to joining BTPS, he served as the Chief Investment Officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System.

Thanks Mark for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your views and knowledge.

Join thought leaders from private markets firms like Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Apollo, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s show was recorded live from AltsLA 2023 in partnership with CAIA. CAIA is the leading global professional body dedicated to alternative investment credential programs.

On this episode, we speak with Christopher Ailman, the Chief Investment Officer of one of the world’s largest institutional investors, CalSTRS.

Chris and I had a fascinating conversation about all things private markets. We discussed:

* How one of the world’s largest institutional investors manages a portfolio with 40% exposure to private markets.

* How many institutional investors are really managing an 80/20 portfolio (80% equity / equity-like, 20% fixed income / fixed income-like), not a 60/40 portfolio.

* The current state of private markets.

* Why alternative investments make sense in an investors’ portfolio.

* The importance of “catching the wave” and investing in megatrends, like decarbonization.

* How the retailization of alts impacts institutional investors like large pensions and endowments.

He leads an investment staff of more than 200 and oversees a portfolio valued at $307 billion as of March 31, 2023.

He has more than 37 years of institutional investment experience, including tenures as CIO of the Washington State Investment Board and the Sacramento County Employees Retirement System.

He represents institutional investors on the MSCI Index Editorial Advisory Board, the PRI Asset Owners Advisory Committee, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Investor Advisory Group and the Toigo Foundation.

He is the chair of the 300 Club and co -chair of the Milken Global Capital Markets Committee. Ailman is recognized as one of the top CIOs both in the U.S. and globally. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Institute for Fiduciary Education’s CIO of the Year in 2000.

Thanks Christopher for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your views and knowledge.

Join thought leaders from private markets firms like Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Apollo, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast and hello from AltsLA.

Today’s show was recorded live from AltsLA 2023 in partnership with CAIA. CAIA is the leading global professional body dedicated to alternative investment credential programs.

On this episode, we speak with the 44th Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle, the Chairman of Cerberus Global Investments.

We discussed the intersection of politics, private equity, people, and patience:

* The current state of private markets.

* How geopolitics plays an important role in investing.

* The impact of social media on financial markets.

* How Cerberus grew into the firm it is today.

* The power of patience in investing.

Vice President Quayle is Chairman of Cerberus Global Investments and a member of the Firm’s senior leadership team, joining when the firm was $14B in AUM and playing a role in overseeing its growth to over $60B AUM.

Prior to joining Cerberus in 1999, he served as the 44th Vice President of the United States of America to President George H. W. Bush from 1989 through 1993. In 1976, Vice President Quayle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and re-elected in 1978.

In 1980, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and was the youngest Senator from Indiana. He was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986.

Following his vice presidency, Vice President Quayle authored three books, including Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir, which was on The New York Times’ Best Seller List.

He was a distinguished visiting professor at Arizona State University ’s Thunderbird School of Global Management for two years. He was also active for many years on the lecture circuit in the United States and internationally.

Thanks Vice President Quayle for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your views and knowledge.

Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream by The AGM Collective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

On today’s episode, we go to Europe, and specifically Berlin, a region where some of the most exciting activity in the VC world is occurring.

We have Filip Dames, a Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures, a top pan-European early-stage VC fund that has around $700M AUM, lead us in a discussion about why Europe is such a compelling place to invest and why it’s on the precipice of an incredible decade in tech.

Filip has the founder DNA. Prior to Cherry, he started his first company in 2008, which was a digital marketplace for art and collectibles long before NFTs existed. He then joined Zalando as a member of the founding team, where he led business development and international expansion efforts. He founded and was the CEO of the group’s shopping club, Zalando Lounge, and left Zalando after a successful IPO in 2014 to fully focus on Cherry.

In Cherry, Filip has strived to build the firm that he would have wanted as a founder. They’ve backed the likes of AUTO1 Group, FlixBus, Forto, Flink, SellerX, Infarm, and Bunch amongst others.

Filip also shares a passion for helping entrepreneurs build businesses outside the tech world, as an active supporter of the Ashoka network and forming a family foundation with his wife to support education and access to entrepreneurship for families from disadvantaged backgrounds. Filip also serves on the boards of KfW Capital, a subsidiary of the German state owned investment and development bank, and the Bundesverband dt. Startups (BVDS).

Filip and I had a fascinating conversation. We discussed:

* The evolution of the European venture ecosystem and why it’s such a compelling region to build and invest into category defining companies.

* How his experience as a founder informed how he’s built Cherry.

* How to build a VC from a business perspective.

* Why Filip is so excited about private markets as he shares his investment thesis in Bunch.

* What the future of European VC looks like.

We also surprised Filip with a few questions from friends who have known him at different stages of his life, with thoughtful questions from:

* Steve Cherundolo, former Bundesliga professional footballer at Hannover 96 and the US Men’s National Team and Head Coach of LAFC in the MLS.

* Mario Goetze, current Bundesliga professional footballer at Eintracht Frankfurt and the German National Team, active investor in VC funds and startups at his firm, Companion-M, and Cherry Ventures LP.

* Levent Altunel and Enrico Ohnemuller, the co-founders of Bunch, where Filip and Cherry led a 7.3M EUR Seed round last summer.

Thanks Filip for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and experiences.

Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream by The AGM Collective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

On today’s show, we have a private equity expert who is as thoughtful and sharp as they come.

Graham Elton is the Chairman of Bain & Company’s EMEA Private Equity practice, where he’s helped many of the largest PE and alts firms navigate a growing market and build successful businesses.

Graham has also spearheaded the industry standard in reports — the Bain PE Practice Report — which is read by many across the industry.

Many of the world’s largest GPs often turn to Graham for advice on their business due to his background as an operator, investor, and strategic consultant. He previously ran multiple media businesses — he was the CEO at Miller Freeman UK, was a MD at The Financial Times Business, a strategy director at Pearson, and a Partner at Evolution Global Partners.

He serves on a number of boards, including Lane Clark & Peacock, Pageant Media, Capital Economics, SLR Consulting, and Now Teach and National Youth Centre.

He was awarded a MBE for his services to the economy in the Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honours List.

Graham and I had a fascinating conversation about the evolution of private equity — and what the growth of the industry has meant for GPs and LPs alike. We discussed:

* How the $3.7 trillion in dry powder in private equity will get put to work.

* The business of private equity and how funds have evolved into platforms.

* How the growing size of PE has paved way for the opening up of the retail channel for fundraising.

* What the future of private equity looks like.

* The narrowing differences between public and private markets.

Thanks Graham for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom.

Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream by The AGM Collective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

We have a special episode today – it’s a collaboration between Alt Goes Mainstream and Venture Unlocked: Samir Kaji, the Co-Founder & CEO of Allocate and the Venture Unlocked Podcast, and I have a back and forth discussion about the future of private markets and venture.

If you are an allocator to private markets or a VC fund manager, you won’t want to miss this.

Samir co-founded Allocate to enable the wealth management community to be able to access high quality venture funds in the same way institutions have for years.

He draws upon a background of 22 years in venture banking at First Republic and SVB, where he worked closely with and advised over 700 venture capital and private equity firms. He completed over $12B in structured debt transactions and has invested in a number of funds and companies.

Samir completed the Kauffman Fellows venture program and is an active writer and podcaster with Venture Unlocked.

We cover:

* Where is venture now and what the future looks like.

* Alpha vs. Beta in venture.

* Why VC should be included in many investors’ allocations.

* How LPs can approach venture in this dynamic market.

* How VC funds have turned into platforms, much like private equity, and what this means for the industry.

Note that the podcast was recorded before the Silicon Valley Bank news, so we did not cover the topic of the banking system and its impacts on the venture ecosystem on this show.

Thanks Samir for collaborating to have a rich conversation on the complexities of venture capital and the current environment.

Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream by The AGM Collective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

On today’s podcast, we have an expert in alternative assets and fund accounting. We welcome Gareth Hewitt, a fund accounting veteran and co-founder of LemonEdge, to the show.

Gareth is the CEO and Co-Founder of LemonEdge, where they are building a better, more efficient fund accounting software platform.

With backing from Blackstone, Lauren Iaslovits, the founder of pioneering fund accounting software Investran (acq by SunGard), Sidekick Partners, and others deep in the PE and alts world, Gareth has been building a next generation fund accounting solution for GPs, fund admins, and investment platforms.

LemonEdge’s solution has a modern core infrastructure, full multi-currency partnership accounting, system-aware fund structures and integrated waterfall technology. They've built a platform that is used by a number of the industry's largest GPs and asset managers.

Gareth is an expert in alternative assets — he was Head of UK Product Development & Sales for eFront, a unicorn focused on software for alternative investment funds, which sold to BlackRock and he then founded and ran a fund solutions business.

Gareth and I had a fascinating conversation about private markets. We discussed:

* Why innovation in fund accounting is so critical to the evolution of private markets.

* How LemonEdge is on the cutting edge of the transformation in fund accounting.

* How to take a problem that’s historically been solved by spreadsheets to a low code / no code platform.

* How the fund accounting space can be digitized and customized.

* When and how strategic investors can be valuable in the alts space.

Thanks Gareth for coming on the show to share your wisdom and experience in private markets and let everyone know about the exciting business you’re building at LemonEdge.

Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream by The AGM Collective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s episode of Alt Goes Mainstream features someone who is building a vertical SaaS solution for fund managers and LPs.

Today’s guest is Michel Geolier, the Co-Founder and CEO of Betterfront, a b2b company dedicated to private markets. He’s building a comprehensive solution to enable fund managers to more efficiently and effectively fundraise and trade secondary market fund interests.

You can listen to this episode of Alt Goes Mainstream on Apple Podcasts here, on Spotify here, and on Transistor here.

Betterfront’s mission is to transform the way alternative fund managers engage, win, and retain investors by using technology, data, and analytics. Betterfront is already trusted by a number of top European VCs, including Cherry Ventures, Partech, Episode 1, and more.

Michel comes at the problem of fundraising with a very unique perspective. He was previously on the LP side, where he led due diligence and fund manager selection for the Siemens’ pension fund in Germany. And he started Betterfront out of frustration for poor solutions for analyzing alternative investment funds.

Michel and I had a thought-provoking conversation about the current challenges that GPs have with fundraising and how Betterfront was built to provide better solutions for GPs.

We discuss how much of private markets technology is ripe for disruption and why historically it’s been difficult to build modern specialized software for private markets.

We then look to the future about how Michel believes that the placement agent and secondaries businesses can be disrupted with technology and data. You can read more about Betterfront’s secondary marketplace that enables LPs to buy and sell fund interests here.

Thanks Michel for coming on the AGM podcast. We hope you enjoy.

Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream by The AGM Collective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast and Welcome to Wrexham.

On today’s show, we go to Wrexham, the town in North Wales that has become a football (soccer) mecca due to a blend of its rich history as home to the 3rd oldest club in the world and a recent injection of Hollywood with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney buying the club.

We talk with Shaun Harvey, the Advisor to the Board at Wrexham AFC, and a highly experienced football club and league CEO to discuss how teams can have success on and off the pitch.

Shaun is the CEO of Wantaway Limited, where he advises football clubs, organizing bodies, and companies on all things related to the business of football. His current clients include Wrexham AFC, FIFA, Inner Circle Sports, and Macron.

He’s taken his experiences as the MD at Bradford City FC, which he led to Premier League promotion, the CEO at Leeds United, and the CEO of the English Football League to Wrexham AFC, where he and the team are working to secure promotion back into the Football League and bringing a successful club back to the town of Wrexham.

And they are well on their way to building a global brand in a number of respects — they are performing well on the pitch, they have created a show, Welcome to Wrexham, that has been a hit on Hulu, and their recent FA Cup home match vs Sheffield United was the most followed soccer game across ESPN’s website and digital platforms in the US.

Shaun and I had a fascinating discussion. We talked about:

* How clubs balance on the field performance and off the field business success in a world where the evolution of entertainment and social media have turbocharged the concept of monetizing engagement.

* How important it is to think about the community when investing in a sports team.

* Why Shaun believes “the Wrexham effect” has been a huge driver of success for their club.

* How lifting up a club financially and on the pitch can create tremendous economic and social benefits for the town that they play in.

Thanks Shaun for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to welcome us to Wrexham — and share why this is such an exciting and impactful project that we can all learn from.

It’s always sunny in Wrexham.

You can listen to this episode here on Apple Podcasts, here on Spotify, and here on Transistor.

Thanks Steve Horowitz at Inner Circle Sports for the kind introduction to Shaun to make this episode possible.

Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream by The AGM Collective! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.