Making Billions: The Private Equity Podcast for Fund Managers, Alternative Asset Managers, and Venture Capital Investors

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How to Invest in Fusion Without Waiting Until the 2030s: 6 Layers Sep 21, 2026

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China holds the fusion record. America holds the only licensed fusion plant on Earth. Only one of those is something a fund can actually buy.
You were told America achieved net energy from fusion in 2022. That's not exactly what happened.
The lasers drew 300 megajoules to get 3 back. No fusion machine anywhere on Earth has put a single net kilowatt hour into a power grid.
Not America, not China, no one.

I am Ryan Miller and this week on Making Billions, I break down the eight-row scoreboard, the six-layer stack, and the exact scorecard that separates a real deal from a hope with a wire transfer attached.

How do you actually invest in fusion energy?
It's not one decision, it's six layers, and they pay on completely different clocks. Reactor developers don't see cash until the early 2030s. Magnets, fuel cycle, land and grid rights, and engineering all bill sooner, and one of them gets paid whether fusion works or not.

DOWNLOAD The Fusion Allocation Brief: https://go.fundraisecapital.co/100m-blueprint-860536-648168-166304-294483
[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is a fund manager, capital strategist, and former CFO turned angel investor in technology and energy. He is the founder of Fund Raise Capital and Aequor Capital Partners, and has mentored over 1,000 fund managers across private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate, and alternative assets globally.

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DISCLAIMER: This podcast is for entertainment and general informational purposes only — not legal, financial, tax, or investment advice. Nothing herein constitutes a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any security or investment product. Past performance does not indicate future results. Always consult qualified legal, financial, and tax professionals before making any investment decision. NAME NOTICE: "Making Billions with Ryan Miller" reflects the profile and aspirations of guests featured — it is not a promise, projection, guarantee, or representation of any financial result, income, or outcome for any listener, viewer, or reader. Most individuals who consume this content do not raise any particular amount of capital, and many achieve no financial result whatsoever. "Fund Raise Capital" is a brand identifier only — it is not a promise, guarantee, or representation that any member, subscriber, or listener will raise capital, attract investors, or achieve any financial or professional outcome. This show does not constitute a business opportunity, franchise, investment program, or offer of any product or service of any kind. No part of this show should be construed as a solicitation for investment in any way. Guest views are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the show or host. Host and/or guests may hold positions in assets discussed. This episode may contain paid sponsorships, advertisements, or endorsements. Sponsored content is identified where...

7 Ways to Raise Institutional Capital by Protecting the Downside - Rastegar Capital - Ari Rastegar Sep 14, 2026

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If you're still pitching upside to institutions, you'll never see a pension fund check. The managers winning nine and ten figure allocations obsess over how they lose money more than how they make it.
I am Ryan Miller, and on Making Billions this week, I sit down with Ari Rastegar, Founder and CEO of Rastegar Capital. Together, Ari and I break down vertical integration, off-market deal flow, and the exact trust-building system that turned strangers into decade-long investors.
How do emerging managers actually attract institutional capital?
Ari explains it's not with a great deal pitch, it's with risk controls, a third-party fund administrator, audited financials, and never touching investor money directly.
He never handled a dollar himself, and that single decision is what let institutional diligence checkboxes get checked before he ever needed them.
[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is a fund manager, capital strategist, and former CFO turned angel investor in technology and energy. He is the founder of Fund Raise Capital and Aequor Capital Partners, and has mentored over 1,000 fund managers across private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate, and alternative assets globally.

[THE GUEST]: Ari Rastegar is the Founder and CEO of Rastegar Capital and is known as “The Oracle of Austin”, a leader in Texas real estate, known for his resilience and vision. He turned a $3,500 loan into a portfolio across many asset classes, including self-storage, multi-family, and industrial spaces worth over five billion dollars.

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The Economic Apocalypse Is Coming: 5 Moves To Profit While Others Panic Sep 07, 2026

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The economy is telling you one story. The market is paying you for another. One of them is wrong, and if you run a fund, that gap decides your next three years.
In this week's episode of Making Billions, I break down all four economies, the five decisions inside each one, and the exact trigger plan that turns a downturn into your best vintage yet.

DOWNLOAD The Delta Board | 4 Economy Fund Manager Playbook: https://go.fundraisecapital.co/100m-blueprint-860536-648168-166304-426463-122119-538372-417197-290247-559679-843888

Inflation is running at 3.3% against a 2% target. The same month, America lost 23,000 jobs. But credit markets are priced like a storm that never comes. That gap is an invoice. Somebody's going to pay it.
If you manage capital, this isn't a market call, it's a map. Same asset, different economy, and the businesses that compound for decades wrote their plan down before the storm arrived, not during it.

Discover the 4 economic environments every fund manager should prepare for and the 5 decisions that determine how to source, price, structure, exit, and raise capital.
[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is a fund manager, capital strategist, and former CFO turned angel investor in technology and energy. He is the founder of Fund Raise Capital and Aequor Capital Partners, and has mentored over 1,000 fund managers across private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate, and alternative assets globally.

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$400M AUM: How Neal Bawa Created The Fund of The Future Aug 31, 2026

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Everyone thinks AI just discovered real estate investing. It didn't. One investor cracked this code back in 2009, before AI even had a name, using a data-driven bet on a market everyone else avoided, and built a fund that now runs with zero human underwriters. It started with a $90,000 house nobody else wanted.

He used that system to grow to the peak of over a billion dollars in AUM in real estate alone, ranking hundreds of cities a year for profitability before ever making a single offer.
I am Ryan Miller, and on Making Billions this week, my guest is Neal Bawa, CEO & Founder at Grocapitus, a commercial Real Estate investment company.
Together, Neal and I break down his city scoring method, the LASAL framework for catching failing properties before they fail, and how AI replaced his entire underwriting department.

This episode is brought to you by Reef Pass | Serial Acquisition Investors: Reef Pass Investors has spent the last 10 years focused on partnering with founders to launch and build long-term holding companies, and has a proven track record doing exactly that.

To reach out to Reef Pass Investors, email holdcofounders@reefpassinvestors.com

[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is a fund manager, capital strategist, and former CFO turned angel investor in technology and energy. He is the founder of Fund Raise Capital and Aequor Capital Partners, and has mentored over 1,000 fund managers across private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate, and alternative assets globally.

[THE GUEST]: Neal Bawa is CEO & Founder at Grocapitus, a commercial Real Estate investment company. Neal’s companies use cutting-edge real estate analytics technology to source and acquire OR build large Commercial properties across the U.S., for nearly 800 investors.
Grocapitus Website - https://www.grocapitus.com
Free eBook: Location Magic - https://multifamilyu.com/lp/location-magic-ebook/
Join Our Investor Club - https://multifamilyu.com/club

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Why The AI Boom Might Be A Bubble — And How Fund Managers Get Rich When It Pops Aug 24, 2026

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Is AI a bubble? Wrong question. It keeps you a spectator while the people moving capital are already three moves ahead.
The right question: when this wobbles, are you a forced seller or the buyer of the wreckage?
The technology is real. The financing structure underneath it is one of the most fragile capital architectures in recent history. Both are true at once.

In this week's episode of Making Billions, I break down the circular financing loop, the depreciation mirage, and the exact four-move framework for positioning before the unwind starts.

To reach out to Reef Pass Investors, email holdcofounders@reefpassinvestors.com

What does "bubble" actually mean?
Not that prices went up. A bubble is when price detaches from the cash flow justifying it, financed by belief instead of earnings. Pull the confidence, and the financing mechanism stops functioning entirely, not just prices drifting down.

If you manage capital, raise it, or allocate it, the next 18 to 36 months transfer enormous wealth from the fully invested to the patient. That transfer is already loaded into the structure. The only thing undecided is which side you're on.
Explore the risks and opportunities behind the AI boom with my AI Bubble Exposure & Capital Positioning framework.

DOWNLOAD: The AI Bubble Exposure & Capital Positioning Scorecard

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Billions Made From 80 Unicorns Aug 17, 2026

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To reach out to Reef Pass Investors, email holdcofounders@reefpassinvestors.com

How do you actually get into the top venture funds that are closed to new investors?
In this episode of Making Billions, I sit down with Matthew Le Merle, managing partner and CEO of Fifth Era and Blockchain Coinvestors, a blockchain and AI fund of funds now in its 10th year, backed by more than 400 investors and holding positions across 50 venture funds, 1,500 companies, and 80 unicorns.

Matthew breaks down the exact playbook he uses to access top-tier managers, build a fund of funds, and position for what he calls the autonomous digital economy, the convergence of internet, blockchain, and AI that he believes will capture most of the alpha over the next 20 years.
He also makes the case for why the next two decades of returns will be captured at the intersection of internet, AI, and blockchain, and why most portfolio managers are dangerously under-allocated to it while overpaying for late-stage names they could have owned years earlier.

[THE GUEST]: Matthew Le Merle is managing partner and CEO of Fifth Era and Blockchain Coinvestors. He is the best-selling author of six books. He holds a double first from Oxford and an MBA from Stanford.

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Michael Burry's 2026 Portfolio Doesn't Exist: Steal His 3-Step Method Instead Aug 10, 2026

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What is really inside Michael Burry's 2026 recession portfolio?

Nothing you can see.

Burry deregistered Scion in November 2025, so his book is now invisible.

In this episode of Making Billions, I explain why the portfolio every video claims to reveal probably does not exist, and show you Burry's actual method instead and how to run it in private markets where you operate.

To reach out to Reef Pass Investors, email holdcofounders@reefpassinvestors.com

Instead of copying a portfolio you cannot see, I show you how to steal the method. Burry did not forecast a recession in the big short. He read the loan documents, found the exact reset date millions of borrowers could not survive, then bought a defined downside instrument with asymmetric upside.

Read the contract, find the date, buy the asymmetry, define the downside. That is the whole edge, and he ran the same playbook again in 2025.

The translation for private markets: you cannot short a buyout fund, but distress shows up as a date on which someone is contractually forced to transact.

For fund managers, allocators, family offices, and institutional investors, this is the framework for reading the calendar instead of the news and making sure you are still solvent when your date arrives.

Watch to learn why being right does not pay, but being right and solvent does.

DOWNLOAD The Hidden Investing Framework Michael Burry Actually Used (That Almost Nobody Understands): https://fundraisecapital.slack.com/archives/D09PDJ5MTFV/p1786324300534479

LEARN THE CAPITAL RAISING STRATEGIES AND FRAMEWORKS used by alternative asset professionals: https://go.fundraisecapital.co/apply

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How Funds Use AI to Beat Rivals Aug 03, 2026

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Can AI actually find hedge fund trades a human would miss?
In this episode of Making Billions, Ryan Miller sits down with Jan Szilagyi, CEO and co-founder of Reflexivity, the AI investment analysis platform used by firms including Soros Fund Management and MUFG.
How do hedge funds use AI to find trade ideas? What is a knowledge graph in finance? How do you stop AI from hallucinating numbers when real capital is on the line? Can a small fund use AI to compete with a multi-manager giant?
Jan answers all of it from a two-decade macro career that included trading alongside Stan Druckenmiller at Duquesne and running a 15 billion dollar book.
Together, we discuss why the expression of a trade idea matters more than the idea itself and how a knowledge graph maps market ripple effects a spreadsheet cannot show.
Learn why AI is a leveler for fund managers and how to run scenario analysis before risking capital.

[THE GUEST]: Jan Szilagyi is CEO and co-founder of Reflexivity, the AI investment platform used by Soros Fund Management and MUFG. At Reflexivity, he pairs large language models with a proprietary knowledge graph to surface trades and map risk in a zero-hallucination environment. Holds the world record for the fastest Harvard Economics PhD.

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The US Debt Collapse Everyone Predicts Is Wrong Jul 27, 2026

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Is the US debt about to collapse?
No, but debasement already is. In this episode of Making Billions, I address this question and more about the US debt, gold, and the dollar.

What is the debasement trade, and how is it different from a default?
This week, I, Ryan Miller, break down the interest spiral behind the 39 trillion dollar US debt, now costing over 1 trillion dollars a year in interest, more than the entire defense budget.

For anyone building an investment mindset, working as a capital strategist, or stepping into private equity leadership, this is the framework for reading fiscal policy as a signal instead of noise.

To measure portfolio risk and protect purchasing power, DOWNLOAD my U.S. Debt Debasement Exposure & Positioning Scorecard.

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Matt Ober: How Dan Loeb's Fmr Data Chief Finds an Unfair Edge in Funds Jul 20, 2026

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To reach out to Reef Pass Investors, email holdcofounders@reefpassinvestors.com

How do I build a data edge with no team or budget?

Matt Ober's first move: go all in on Claude and ensure every tool has an MCP connection. Fund admin, LP communications, compliance, capital calls, unified through MCP. Operations automate and you return to what you are paid to do.

In this episode of Making Billions, Ryan Miller sits down with Matt Ober, General Partner at Social Leverage. Their riveting conversation covers building fund data infrastructure from nothing using MCP-connected tools! Separating alpha data from beta data before spending a dollar & why most AI fundraising tools are gimmicks.

They discuss how prediction markets are becoming the most important new institutional signal, and the single discipline separating managers who turn data into returns from those who burn through budgets with nothing to show.

What is the difference between alpha data and beta data?

Alpha is a fleeting trading advantage. Beta is sticky and pays the bills. The data that was once edge is now infrastructure. The new edge is using AI to synthesize more data faster.

[THE GUEST]: Matt Ober, General Partner at Social Leverage, the seed-stage firm with over 500 million dollars AUM and more than 150 portfolio companies. He holds the CAIA charter, one of the most rigorous credentials in alternative asset management.

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