Money Maze Podcast 189: From Vision to Valuation: Disrupting the Future - With Cathie Wood, Founder & CEO of ARK Invest
Dec 4, 2025
Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of ARK Invest, is a pioneer in thematic investing focused on disruptive innovation. She shares insights from her career, inspired by Arthur Laffer, and discusses ARK's unique principles of integrating macro themes with bottom-up analysis. Cathie delves into the potential of technologies like AI, multiomic sequencing, and energy storage. She also addresses the challenges of market drawdowns and the importance of emotional resilience in investing. Her bold approach encourages women to explore innovation-driven roles in finance.
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Laffer Sparked A Career In Applied Economics
- Arthur Laffer taught Cathie Wood to blend economics with geopolitics, inspiring her career shift into investing.
- Wood later gave Laffer 1% of ARK in gratitude when she founded the firm.
Early Reuters Call Showed Internet's Spark
- Cathie Wood claimed Reuters early as an unloved database publisher and tracked its role in the birth of the internet.
- That early pick exposed her to cross-industry convergence and helped shape her tech focus.
Exponential Growth Justifies High Multiples
- Disruptive technologies can sustain high growth rates well beyond typical decay to GDP levels.
- If exponential growth materialises, high multiples can be justified because revenues can grow into them over five years.
