Investable Universe

We recorded this episode just over a week after a near-collapse of the Texas power grid following an unusual winter storm that was, in many respects, a “perfect storm” of weather, market, energy and infrastructure factors. As Texans continue to recover, five members of ERCOT, the non-profit corporation that operates the Texas power grid, have resigned. But questions remain about the nature of Texas’s energy market structure, about weatherizing the state’s energy infrastructure, and whether this winter's catastrophic freeze will bring any long-term changes to the grid. For industry perspective, we spoke with Eric Wilson, Head of Energy & Natural Resources for North America at Turner and Townsend, the global consulting firm specializing in issues of construction, cost and risk management in the real estate, infrastructure, energy and natural resource sectors. 

Cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance are approaching more mainstream adoption, and presenting new challenges to financial sector integrity as well as national security. On this episode, we talk with Dan Doney, CEO, Co-Founder and Lead Architect of Securrency, a firm that provides coin-agnostic security logistics for cryptocurrency transactions. Doney is a recognized industry expert in artificial intelligence (AI), software architecture, cybersecurity and dynamic pricing. He is also a former longtime U.S. intelligence officer, who served with the National Security Agency (NSA), the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and finally, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, where he was appointed Chief Innovation Officer.  

The future is here...and it's pressurized! American entrepreneur and inventor Matt Villareal leads a pioneering company, Infinite Composites of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which designs, develops and manufactures liner-less composite pressure vessels for high-pressure gas storage used in aerospace, aviation, transportation, and oil and gas. Mr. Villareal holds 6 patents in the field of high pressure and cryogenic gas storage for space exploration and sustainable transportation and has collaborated on multiple technical publications in the industry. He is also featured in the Forbes Magazine list of Next 1000 entrepreneurs redefining the American dream. In this episode, he breaks down the nuts and bolts of the new energy supply chain and why the market for pressure vessels might be about to explode. 

In recent years, the number of publicly traded companies has sharply contracted, while startups have tended to stay private for longer. One key reason why venture capital-funded companies have been able to delay their public market debut has been the presence of the secondaries market, where investors can buy and sell holdings in privately held firms. In this episode, we talked to Christian Munafo, Chief Investment Officer of Liberty Street Advisors and manager of the SharesPost 100 Fund, a closed-end fund with around $340 million in AUM that invests in secondaries of late-stage VC firms. 

Creativity doesn't stop after age 30. Gary Griffiths is a former U.S. Navy nuclear submarine intelligence officer and longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur who's launched a new VC fund, Wisdom LLP, that invests in disruptive startups by mature, non-traditional entrepreneurs: and particularly, military veterans--and offers a new twist on the traditional fund model to address LP risk. In this episode, Griffiths talks about his fund's belief that the best management experience is gained through wins and losses over time, what his fund's portfolio looks like right now, why traditional venture capital remains so biased against older founders, and why military service is the ultimate hothouse for growing management talent. 

Gold was one of the market winners of 2020 (with one of the lowest drawdowns over the course of the year), aided by a heightened risk environment, low interest rates, and strong price momentum, factors that show no signs of de-materializing anytime soon in 2021--not even with Bitcoin adherents making a counter-appeal as a safe haven asset. We talked to Juan Carlos Artigas, Head of Research at the World Gold Council, which provides timely insights on the gold market including drivers of demand, supply, and performance, and key attributes of gold as an investment and its role in investor portfolios.

Over the past year(s), farmers have navigated not just the challenges of covid-19, but also a tough environment for trade and tariffs with foreign agriculture trading partners, a contentious U.S. election whose outcome will have effects on farm policy, and the disruptive technological forces that are shaping the future of farming. Brian Philpot in CEO and Principal Owner of AgAmerica Lending, one of the  largest non-bank agricultural lenders in the United States. Brian himself is also a value investor in residential development, industrial and office real estate, manufactured housing, timberland, and has developed and sold a broadcast tower portfolio company to an institutional investor. In this episode, he speaks about how U.S. farmers have fared under covid, top farm policy issues under the new Biden Administration, diversification, transformative technologies, and more. 

What does the ability to buy, sell and trade houses (or fractions of houses) online say about the way Americans are thinking and acting around housing decisions? While institutional funds have taken significant stakes in U.S. residential portfolios in recent months (especially in the Sun Belt), a broader segment of investors can invest using online platforms like Roofstock. For perspective on the U.S. housing market outlook, online real estate disruptors, and Roofstock's growth trajectory, we talked to Roofstock Co-Founder and CEO Gary Beasley, who has led two real estate investment companies through IPOs and was named a Top Fintech CEO in 2019 by Financial Technology Report. 

Real estate and venture investor Rahim Amidi has a success story straight out of Hollywood...and Palo Alto. One of the founders and principal managers of the Amidi Group of Companies, a privately held business conglomerate based in Los Angeles, since 1980 Mr. Amidi has leveraged his expertise in startups, manufacturing, and international trade across multiple industry verticals, primarily real estate and technology. Today, the Amidi Group owns and manages more than 1 million sq. ft. of real estate and holds more than $2 billion in AUM. Its holdings include 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, a.k.a. Silicon Valley's "Lucky Building," which was home to startups like Google, PayPal, and Logitech. The group owns and operates the Hollywood Production Center, and also funds startups through its global innovation platform, Plug and Play. We talked with Mr. Amidi about his string of blockbuster investment successes...and the Amidi Group's new apartment venture, 1010.   

Economic effects of the covid year 2020 have been expressed in a variety of ways in commercial real estate, with sectors like hotels and brick-and-mortar retail struggling, while industrial and last-mile real estate has continued to attract large institutional investors, pushing valuations ever higher. Heading into 2021, perhaps it's time for a more nuanced view from a long-term, value-oriented contrarian investor. Jonathan Needell, President and Chief Investment Officer at California's Kairos Investment Management, invests in U.S. properties below the size that major institutions are trading in, primarily in growing or supply-constrained market, having invested over $1 billion to date in more than 12 million square feet nationwide. In this episode, he shares his view on the outlook for industrial, hospitality and other commercial real estate--and how "ghost kitchens" may impact the hard-hit restaurant sector in 2021.