Javier Saade: From Capital Formation to Governance, plus his Top of the Game

(0:00) Intro.

(1:15) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.

(2:02) Start of interview. 

(2:49) Javier's origin story.

(4:31) The blurring lines between VC and PE. Cross-over investors, growth equity investors, and other "alternative" financing.

(9:01) On the capital formation cycle. Impact of interest-rates in capital allocation. The VC power law. New VC vehicles.

(16:00) On the rise of cross-over investors ("starting somewhere between 2013 and 2016: rise of strategic capital")

(19:34) On the rise of AI (boom and bubble): 1) algorithmic capability, 2) computing power, and 3) availability of data.

(23:06) The cases of Nvidia and Google. The analogy to the 1990s (investing in infrastructure) and increasing antitrust scrutiny.

(28:43) Explaining role and function of the Small Business Administration (SBA). SBIC, and SBIR & STTR. Industrial Policy and impact of geopolitics (ie. China).

(40:47) On his board journey and role of corporate directors.

(43:36) On "shareholder push and pull": role of institutional investors and "passive" investors. *Reference to E118 with Professor John Coates on The Problem of Twelve.

(50:18) His take on boardroom diversity. *Reference to the Latino Corporate Director Association (LCDA).

(55:06) On his podcast Top of the Game.

(56:30) Books that have greatly influenced his life: 

1. The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck (1978)
2. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (1997)
3. The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith (1776)
4. The Founding Fathers, by K.M. Kostyal (2012)

(56:49) His mentors. 

(57:42) Quotes that he thinks of often or lives her life by: "Deal with it"

(57:53) An unusual habit or absurd thing that he loves.

(58:11) The living person he most admires.

Javier Saade is Managing Partner of Impact Master Holdings, Venture Partner at Fenway Summer, Operating Partner at Presidio Investors, Chairman of the Board at GP Funding, Inc., Board Member of VCheck and Global Tech Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: GTAC), CNBC Contributor, Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, and host of the podcast Top of the Game.

You can follow Evan on social media at:

X: @evanepstein

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ 

Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/

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Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License