From Wall Street to Silicon Valley's inner circle—this is the untold story behind one of tech’s most trusted capital stewards. In this episode, we sit down with Mike Anders, Partner at ICONIQ, the quiet powerhouse managing over $80B for tech’s most iconic names.
Mike opens up about his activist roots, Wall Street disillusionment, and the journey to building a purpose-driven financial empire. We go behind the curtain of ICONIQ’s rise, the venture bets that paid off, the AI wave, and why collaborative philanthropy is their next big frontier.
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
02:11 - Roots & Activism: Academic upbringing and activist parents; “Start outside politics”
04:25 - Disillusionment & Reinvention: donor-advised funds (DAFs), discovering purpose in philanthropy & the pivotal first coffee with Divesh Makan
07:37 - Building ICONIQ: From Alibaba to enterprise software to data centers; the power of collective wisdom from founder clients
15:09 - Market, AI, & Culture: Surviving financial crises and market cycles; ICONIQ’s bet on AI; reflections on culture
26:31 - The Shift to Impact: The genesis of ICONIQ Impact and the CoLab model
31:06 - The Cost & The Legacy: Leadership, humility, and enduring values
READ MORE:
ICONIQ Impact Half a Billion Report
Michael Anders | Partner, ICONIQ
Michael Anders is a founding partner of ICONIQ, a global investment firm that channels ideas, talent, and capital to initiatives that advance society. Michael is also the founder and Chairman of ICONIQ Impact, which convenes ICONIQ’s extraordinary community of families, founders, and organizations to catalyze collaborative philanthropy for giving at scale.
To-date, ICONIQ Impact has advised on nearly $600M in grants, tackling the world’s most urgent challenges, including climate change, education and economic mobility, ocean health and other impact areas.
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Matti Navellou | Head of ICONIQ Impact, ICONIQ
Matti Navellou is the Head of ICONIQ Impact, ICONIQ’s platform for collaborative philanthropy, which convenes ICONIQ’s extraordinary community of families, founders, and organizations to catalyze collaborative philanthropy for giving at scale.
To-date, ICONIQ Impact has advised on nearly $900M in grants, tackling the world’s most urgent challenges, including climate change, mental health, women’s health and rights, refugee resettlement and poverty relief. Across her career, Matti has developed and launched several global human rights campaigns, including most recently at UNICEF HQ in New York, leading public advocacy campaigns for child rights.
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PODCAST INFO:
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