Alt Goes Mainstream

On the latest episode of Alt Goes Mainstream, we talk with one of the pioneers of the online investment space.

Today’s guest is Ben Miller, the Co-Founder and CEO of Fundrise, one of America’s largest direct-to-investor alternatives investment managers.

Ben has tremendous experience and expertise in both the real estate space and in building innovative alternative investment technology solutions. Prior to founding Fundrise, Ben was a Managing Partner of WestMill Capital Partners and President of Western Development Corporation, where he was responsible for acquiring, developing, and financing more than $500M worth of property.

In Fundrise, Ben has built a company whose aim is to use technology to build a better financial system for the individual investor, which is simpler, lower cost, more reliable, and transparent. They build software that enables the company to develop and manage investments uniquely well-positioned to grow and preserve their clients’ capital in any economic environment.

Since launching America’s first online real estate investment platform in 2012, Fundrise has now become one of the largest direct-to-investor alternatives investment managers with more than 1.6 million active users, more than $3.3B of equity under management, and $7B of real estate transacted. From private credit to real estate private equity to growth-stage venture capital, Fundrise offers investors exposure to various asset classes.

Ben and I had a fascinating conversation. We discussed:

* Fundrise’s evolution from real estate to broad based alternatives investment manager and how they got there.

* The evolution of the real estate market and current investment opportunities in real estate.

* The importance of technology in building a more efficient and low cost way for investors to access alternatives and how Fundrise has focused on this to grow their platform.

Thanks Ben for coming on the AGM podcast to share your views. We hope you enjoy.

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

Listeners can find out more about Fundrise at Fundrise.com and can follow Ben Miller on Twitter at @BenMillerise.

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We have an exciting episode today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

We are joined by Mathias Pastor, the Co-Founder of Semper, a London and Paris based company that uses liquidity to align the interests of private companies, employees and investors.

Mathias and his co-founder Balthazar de Lavergne created Semper after observing that private companies are staying private longer and employees and founders need ways to unlock liquidity in a systematic, recurring way. Working at The Family, a European VC fund, Mathias saw that employees at some of their largest and fastest growing companies were paper-rich, but didn’t have the liquidity that reflected the value of their shares.

Mathias and Balthazar have created a liquidity financing platform to help fast-growing private companies run recurring, end-to-end secondary transactions. They believe this can enable teams to retain talent while enabling investors to access high-quality private companies.

Mathias and I had a fascinating conversation about how and why they have started with liquidity solutions for private companies, how they are approaching secondary market liquidity for both companies and investors, why recurring liquidity programs make sense for companies and employees, how employee retention for companies can be an important feature of private secondary transactions, what is beyond secondary market liquidity for a platform like Semper, and why Europe is an interesting place to start.

Thanks Mathias for coming on the AGM podcast to share your insightful views on private markets.

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

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

We have a special episode today on Alt Goes Mainstream.

Our guest today is Henry Ward, the CEO and co-founder of Carta, one of the most innovative and exciting companies in private markets.

Henry founded Carta from the kernel of an idea and they are now trusted by over 30,000 companies, 5,000 investment funds and 2.1 million employees for cap table management, compensation management, liquidity venture capital solutions and more. They’ve raised over $1B from the likes of Silver Lake, Union Square Ventures, a16z, Tribe Capital, Meritech, and many others.

Carta has been included on the Forbes World’s Best Cloud Companies, Fast Company’s Most Innovative list, and Inc’s Fastest Growing Private Companies.

Henry is a serial entrepreneur who was previously the founder and CEO of Secondsight, a portfolio optimization platform for retail investors. He built Carta with a deep sense of passion for helping people to become investors in private markets and equity owners.

Henry and I had a fascinating conversation, covering a lot of ground. We discussed:

* How he’s built Carta into a category-defining company for private markets.

* Why it’s beneficial to be a “plate spinning company” and how that’s good for a network effects business.

* Why competing with spreadsheets can create a special business – and how it leads to the creation of other successful businesses as time goes on.

* The ownership era and what it means for founders, employees, and investors.

* The future of private market liquidity.

* Gems on people management and company building.

Thanks Henry for coming on the AGM podcast to share your wisdom. We hope you enjoy.

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

We believe that good things come in bunches. On the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast, we’ve covered a number of innovative ways in which more investors are now able to access alternative investments thanks to innovation in infrastructure that pools investors together.

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast, we are lucky enough to peer into a market that’s creating a bunch of excitement: the early stage venture market in Europe.

Levent Altunel and Enrico Ohnemuller are a big part of making alts go mainstream in Europe with their company, Bunch.

In Bunch, Levent and Enrico are building the operating system for private markets investing. They’ve brought their fantastic and relevant backgrounds to bear – Levent as a Citi alum and VC investor at Paua Ventures and Enrico as a Goldman alum and a builder at FinLeap, building critical core banking and payments infrastructure – that will enable them to unlock the private markets for more investors and make these markets more efficient.

Levent and Enrico have quickly figured out how to build the critical infrastructure for private markets in Europe while navigating a complex regulatory landscape and multiple jurisdictions. They’ve built compliant, regulated end-to-end infrastructure to help founders roll up smaller investors and angels and help VCs and angels to efficiently and seamlessly raise capital and manage SPVs.

They are coming off a recent 7M EUR seed round led by Cherry Ventures and have already grown in leaps and bounds at a time when alts are going mainstream in Europe.

Levent, Enrico, and I had a fascinating conversation. We discussed:

* Why they believe SPVs are the atomic unit of value for private markets.

* How the seedification and decentralization of private markets has created the need for better private markets infrastructure.

* Why they are creating the “Clean Cap Table Club.”

* How SPVs can help investors build a track record to launch their fund.

* Why there are very big businesses to be built in the alts space.

Levent and Enrico share a very thoughtful, nuanced view into the importance of private markets infrastructure so any investor and founder will enjoy hearing their wisdom.

Thanks Levent and Enrico for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom about private markets. Good things really do come in bunches.

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

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast, we have the third podcast in a special three part series with some of the titans in the alts world.

We are partnering with CAIA, the leading global professional body in alternative investment credentialing programs, for a very special episode that dovetails with the release of their latest report on Renewed Professionalism and creating client centered outcomes for the Portfolio of the Future.

We are lucky enough to have Jenny Johnson, the CEO of Franklin Templeton, one of the world’s largest asset managers with over $1.5T AUM spread across a number of specialist managers.

Jenny and I had a fascinating conversation:

* About the evolution of the asset management industry.

* How companies can be considered nation-states.

* How to distribute alternatives to all investors in a responsible way, which is a particularly interesting perspective given that Franklin Templeton has over 25% of its $1.5T AUM in alternative assets.

* Why net of fees is the most important question in the fee question debate.

* Why now is a great time to be building in the crypto space (note: this episode was recorded prior to the recent crypto news).

Jenny is the President and CEO of Franklin Templeton. She joined the firm in 1988 and held leadership roles in all major divisions of the business before becoming CEO in February 2020. She led the historic $6.5 billion acquisition of Legg Mason in 2020 and has been named to Barron’s list of the 100 Most Influential Women in US Finance.

Jenny has been instrumental in building Franklin Templeton into a firm that serves clients across asset classes and has over 25% of its $1.5T AUM in alternative assets. Jenny spearheaded Franklin Templeton’s acquisitions in the alts space, including the $1.75B acquisition of secondaries PE firm Lexington Partners and private credit firm Alcentra.

Jenny has managed to bring the past, present, and future together at Franklin Templeton, balancing being the third generation in the family to lead the business, helping the firm to maintain its culture through numerous acquisitions, while also looking to highly innovative corners of the investment world, like crypto and blockchain to keep Franklin Templeton ahead of the pack.

Thanks Jenny for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast to share your wisdom. It was a pleasure to have you on the show.

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

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast, we have the second podcast in a special three part series with some of the titans in the alts world.

We are partnering with CAIA, the leading global professional body in alternative investment credentialing programs, for a very special episode that dovetails with the release of their latest report on Renewed Professionalism and creating client centered outcomes for the Portfolio of the Future.

We are lucky enough to have Michelle Seitz, a stalwart and veteran of the asset management industry who is the Founder and CEO of MeydenVest Partners, LLC, a private investment firm, and was most recently the CEO of Russell Investments, one of the largest investment firms in the world with $300B in AUM and $1.2T in assets under advisement.

During Michelle’s five year tenure as Chair and CEO, she helped to modernize client offerings by adding leading edge capabilities around private markets and ESG investing and elevated diversity and inclusion programs.

Michelle’s illustrious career includes a number of accolades such as Barron’s Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance and American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Finance.

Prior to joining Russell, Michelle spent 22 years at William Blair, where she was CEO of William Blair Investment Management and on William Blair’s corporate board of directors for 16 years. She took the helm as CEO at the ripe old age of 35, where she led William Blair’s institutional, mutual fund, and private wealth management businesses. She drove 5 fold growth at WBIM and transformed an $11B business into a $74B global asset management firm and a five-time winner of the “Best Places to Work in Money Management.”

Michelle and I had a fascinating conversation starting with how her career started with the crash of 1987 and what it meant for how she viewed the asset management world and how to focus on the client’s outcomes, the importance of portfolio construction, how and why alts may not be a fit for every investor depending on the risk, portfolio construction, fee questions, and the importance of understanding risk.

Thanks Michelle for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom. It was a pleasure to have you on the show.

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

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast, we have the first podcast in a three part series with titans in the alts world on how they’ve built and run some of the world’s largest investment managers.

We have partnered with CAIA, the leading global professional body in alternative investment credentialing programs, for a very special episode that dovetails with the release of their latest report on Renewed Professionalism and creating client-centered outcomes for the Portfolio of the Future.

We are lucky enough to have Luke Ellis, the CEO of Man Group, one of the largest active investment firms in the world. Man Group manages $142B (as of June 30, 2022) across a range of liquid and private markets strategies and has the central objective to deliver alpha for clients.

Speaking of alpha, Luke and I had a fascinating discussion about what it means to create alpha. Luke believes that alts are all about the return the client gets and he and Man are focused on doing important work to ensure that the end client, the saver, is generating returns over time for the risk they are taking.

Luke’s background has a consistent them of helping to make certain investment strategies and asset classes go mainstream. He was part of the early days of the development of the derivatives world at JP Morgan and was a pioneer in the hedge fund space, helping hedge fund of funds FRM enable hedge funds to become a mainstream part of investors’ portfolios.

He’s since taken over the helm at Man Group for the past 12 years and has helped steer them become one of the most important investment management firms in the world.

Please enjoy this wide ranging discussion where we talk about:

* The importance of active management.

* Fee compression in the industry.

* The importance of technology in investment management.

* The impact of human behavior on financial markets.

* Why it’s important to focus on the end client.

* How Ted Lasso’s management style has informed how Luke thinks about building Man Group to enable clients to achieve alpha.

Thanks to Luke and CAIA for collaborating on this important topic. We hope you enjoy.

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

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast we have a guest who has rich experience in the alts space.

Robert Picard, who was recently tapped to become the Head of Alternatives at Hightower, a $117B AUM wealth management platform, has over 32 years of experience on the buy and sell side in alts.

Robert came onto the podcast to discuss how he’s witnessed alts evolve over the past 30 years. He’s worked with top-tier asset managers, built private wealth units for banks, and is now building out Hightower’s expansive alts capabilities in-house to provide bespoke sophisticated solutions for some of the industry’s best wealth managers.

Robert was recently First Republic’s MD and Head of Alternative Investments. At First Republic Private Wealth Management, he consolidated two alternative investment businesses into a single platform and generated meaningful growth in wealth management team participation in alts and fund offerings across all asset classes.

Prior to First Republic, he founded and was CEO of the Rumson Ridge Group, a consultancy focused on building alternative investment platforms. Prior to Rumson Ridge, he held senior leadership positions at The Carlyle Group / Rock Creek, Optima Fund Management, RBC Capital Markets, and InfraHedge / State Street.

Robert and I had a thought-provoking conversation about the evolution of alts and the importance of alts in an investor’s portfolio.

We drilled down on how an expert like Robert performs manager due diligence and what he looks for in a successful fund manager, which is becoming increasingly important as many new managers enter the alts world and as new allocators look to invest into funds.

Thanks Robert for sharing such thoughtful views on the alts space on the show.

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

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast we have a fascinating episode with a wealth management veteran who has transformed his firm into a full fledged asset manager with significant private markets capabilities.

Lorenzo Esparza is the CEO and Founding Principal at Manhattan West where he leveraged his legal, corporate, and financial experience to form the modern version of an investment firm.

Lorenzo and I had a fascinating conversation that spanned the evolution of wealth management, how advisors are approaching the alts space, how platforms and tech are democratizing access to alts, and Manhattan West’s unique model.

Lorenzo manages Manhattan West’s strategic direction while overseeing day to day operations. He is focused on building the firm using a top-down approach to working with clients across a broad suite of services and investment categories.

Lorenzo is looking to position the firm as a leader in the investment industry serving ultra-high net worth clients, family offices and institutions across the United States.

Lorenzo began his career in financial services at Alliance Bernstein before joining JP Morgan Securities. He launched Manhattan West immediately following his tenure at JP Morgan.

Lorenzo is an avid Philanthropist where he supports numerous causes that benefit underprivileged youth. Active in the community, he is a former Board Member of the Richstone Family Center, the former Board Chair of the Cancer Support Community-Benjamin Center in Santa Monica, and is a former Board Member of the Stroke Association of Southern California.

Thanks Lorenzo for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast. It was a pleasure to have you on the show.

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

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast we have a guest who has seen virtually every evolution of the internet and financial services since the 1990s.

Graham Jenkin is the Co-Founder and CEO of CoinList, the leading token issuance platform in the crypto space that has helped a large number of the top crypto projects by market cap get their earliest funding and customers with an initial token sale on CoinList.

CoinList has played a critical role in the crypto ecosystem for early-stage token projects from doing token issuances for Flow to Solana to Mina and more.

Given the quality of projects that they work with from the earliest of days, it's no surprise that they have attracted millions of users to CoinList. They have over 5M users on the platform. 

Graham's background and blend of consumer, engineering, design, and finance lends itself incredibly well to building CoinList.

Prior to helping spin out CoinList from AngelList and co-founding the business, Graham was the COO and UX engineer/designer at AngelList over a 6.5 year period. Prior to AL, he led the redesign of the user interface of the world's most profitable online business - Google AdWords, where he also won the inaugural Google Great Manager Award.

He also understands financial services innately well - he led BofA.com to two Webby awards. 

Graham is a fantastic operator with a clear vision for how to build special consumer businesses and a critical piece of crypto market infrastructure.

Graham and I had a fascinating discussion on the evolution of crypto market infrastructure, how CoinList provides a critical service to both projects and investors, and the importance of Web2.5 in a world that is transitioning to Web3 by discussing how CoinList is building a centralized bridge to a decentralized world.

Thanks Graham for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast. It was a pleasure to have you on the show.

You can listen to this podcast on Spotify here, Apple Podcasts here, or Transistor here.