Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

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Diversity Equity & Inclusion 5: Daryn Dodson – Training and Action at Illumen Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.168) Dec 14, 2020

Show notes

Daryn Dodson is the founder of Illumen Capital, a venture fund of funds that seeks to invest in the best impact fund managers and takes them through a process to reduce implicit bias in their business and investing decisions.

Our conversation covers Daryn's early experience with discrimination, work backing more than 1,000 entrepreneurs in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, Board work at impact-focused Calvert Funds, and launch of Illumen. We discuss Illumen's three pillars of academic research, investing in the thesis, and training managers across hiring, investing and Board selection – all with the aspiration to become better investors and take advantage of a huge inefficiency in capital allocation.

Please enjoy, my conversation with Daryn Dodson of Illumen Capital in this continuation of our mini-series on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

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Chamath Palihapitiya – The Social Capital Flywheel (Capital Allocators, EP.167) Dec 07, 2020

Show notes

Chamath Palihapitiya is the founder and CEO of Social Capital, where he invests in private businesses, public markets, and experiments with that objective of compounding capital at high rates so that he can advance humanity by solving the world's hardest problems. Chamath previously was an early employee at Facebook, a prolific angel investor, and co-founder of the venture capital business that was the first version of Social Capital. He's been in the press of late for raising and deploying a series of large SPACs and for his outspoken views. Our conversation covers Chamath's path to Facebook and Social Capital, his period of self-discovery, and the resulting Social Capital 2.0 to express his views of the world. From there, we dive into SC Emerging Managers, Social Capital's newest program to back managers from diverse backgrounds. Lastly, we circle back to the purpose of Social Capital and how Chamath gets it all done.

Ben Reiter – Over the Edge with the Houston Astros (Capital Allocators, EP.166) Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

Ben Reiter, longtime Sports Illustrated columnist, author of the NY Times best seller Astroball, and host and producer of The Edge, a documentary podcast about the scandal that tarnished the Houston Astros. Ben joined me on the show two years ago to discuss Astroball, which chronicled the Astros rise from cellar dweller to World Series champion in the 3 years after he predicted it would happen on the cover of Sports Illustrated. What happened after was a shock to his system. His podcast is his post-mortem on the team and on his work. Our conversation discusses what happened, Ben's assessment of the team and his book, and his conclusions. In the end, Ben found that the Astros' story is about much more than baseball. It's about power, money, culture, and accountability. About a modern world where everyone is seeking an edge, and about who ultimately benefits from that world. It sure sounds familiar to our world of investing. If the conversation peaks your interest, I strongly recommend having a listen to his podcast, The Edge.

Joel Greenblatt – Common Sense for Value at Gotham Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.165) Nov 23, 2020

Show notes

Joel Greenblatt is a legendary value investor, founder of Gotham Capital, longtime teacher at Columbia Business School, and author of four investment books, the latest of which, Common Sense: The Investors' Guide to Equality, Opportunity, and Growth recently hit the bookstands.

Our conversation takes a tour through Joel's career. We cover his background, early success running a concentrated portfolio, closing of the fund to manage his own money, and re-opening with a more diversified approach. We discuss Joel's timeless investment beliefs and along the way also discuss the Value Investors Club, seeding managers, and applying investment lessons to education.

Shane Parrish – Learning to Learn at Farnam Street (Capital Allocators, EP.164) Nov 16, 2020

Show notes

Shane Parrish is the founder of Farnam Street, host of the Knowledge Project Podcast, and author of Brain Food, a weekly email full of timeless insight for business and life. His goal is to uncover the best of what other people have already figured out.

Our conversation covers Shane's background, work in a three-letter-intelligence agency, and creation of Farnam Street. We then discuss the learning loop process and lessons from reading, interviewing and writing. Lastly, we discuss Shane's application of those lessons to managing a team, investing, building relationships, and forming habits.

Karyn Williams – Measuring Risk Practically at Hightree Advisors (Capital Allocators, EP.163) Nov 09, 2020

Show notes

Karyn Williams is the founder of Hightree Advisors, a new independent consultant that is helping organizations improve the effectiveness of their invested assets through practical quantitative metrics of risk. Karyn is an engineer by training, who previously was a partner at Wilshire Associates, CIO of Farmers Insurance Group, and head of client solutions at hedge fund Two Sigma Our conversation covers the early days of financial engineering, taking lessons to portfolio analytics at Wilshire Associates, and discovering a disconnect in theory and practice with mean-variance optimization and the application of early factor models. We then turn to Karyn's applying risk frameworks and factors at Farmers Insurance, joining Two Sigma, and creating Hightree to help institutions measure risk practically.

Mike Trigg – Defying the Fade at WCM (Capital Allocators, EP.162) Nov 02, 2020

Show notes

You may remember my popular first meeting from a few years ago with Paul Black of WCM, then a $25 billion asset manager in Laguna Beach, CA. Since then, WCM has gone up and to the right in every way, they sold a minority piece of the business to Natixis, continue to put big numbers on the board, and have grown to north of $66 billion, defying the fade of active management outflows. My guest on today's show is Mike Trigg, a partner and portfolio manager of WCM's Focused International Growth strategy that comprises the majority of the firm's assets. We discuss Mike's background, arrival at WCM in 2005, near implosion of the firm shortly thereafter, and the rising of the international strategy from those ashes. We then dive in deeper to the core tenants of WCM's approach, discussing how the firm analyzes widening moats and cultures tied to competitive advantage. Lastly, we talk about how WCM's growth has impacted the firm.

[REPLAY] Paul Black - Gratitude, Fun, and Growth Stocks (Capital Allocators, EP.51) Nov 02, 2020

Show notes

Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989. With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California.

Our conversation starts with Paul's trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside.

Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought.

Show Notes

2:54 – How Paul got started in the business

4:52 – Lessons learned in the early years of his career

5:56 – Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings

6:01 – Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor

6:05 – The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel

7:49 – What works about growth stock investing

9:01 – What constitutes a great growth company

13:47 – Defining and measuring a company's competitive advantage

17:50 – How does he assess a company's culture

19:41 – The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance

20:26 – Questions that help assess company culture

21:57 – Any data to back up claims that companies with good cultures perform better over time

22:46 – Culture aligning with competitive advantage

24:30 – Looking at WCM's moat and culture

31:23 – The landscape for active management

33:53 – Weathering tough periods for the firm

37:02 – How do they think about culture in other countries

39:01 – Why does growth stock investing work when the data shows otherwise

40:47 – What is he excited about in growth stocks

43:45 – Tailwinds at the sector level

45:10 – Downside protection in the portfolio

46:38 – Patterns of positive and negative allocator behavior

48:35 – How do they manage the change in the portfolio going from 200 million to 26 billion

49:53 – Closing questions

Marko Papic – Geopolitical Alpha at Clocktower Group (Capital Allocators, EP.161) Oct 26, 2020

Show notes

Marko Papic is the Chief Strategist at Clocktower Group, where he provides research on geopolitics, macroeconomics, and markets. Marko recently published Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future, an imminently readable book with colorful examples of political analysis. Marko's approach is akin to Moneyball for politics, challenging the orthodoxy of how others traditionally make investment decisions. Our conversation covers Marko's upbringing, the flaws of most political analysis, and his constraints-based framework. We then turn to the obvious political topic at hand – next week's U.S. Presidential election. We discuss his views of different possible outcomes on the U.S. equity market, rates, tech stocks, China, private equity, ESG, Europe, and emerging markets.

Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160) Oct 19, 2020

Show notes

Carrie Thome is the longtime former CIO at WARF, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a $3 billion pool that arose from monetizing technologies developed at the University of Wisconsin. She recently left to start a venture capital firm called NVNG, or Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained.

Our conversation covers Carrie's Wisconsin roots, her early experience at SWIB, the State of Wisconsin pension fund, and investing at WARF over the last two decades.

We discuss WARF's unique structure, technology transfer, and an all-weather portfolio for the Foundation, including separation of alpha and beta, portfolio construction, and manager selection. We then turn to Carrie's new adventure NVNG, a venture capital firm seeking to bring the benefits of entrepreneurial activities in Wisconsin to local firms and national venture capitalists.

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