Alt Goes Mainstream: The Latest on Alternative Investments, WealthTech, & Private Markets

A few weeks ago, Alt Goes Mainstream went to the capitol of capital for alts, AltsLA by CAIA, the largest alternative investments conference on the West Coast, to speak with industry leaders about how they are allocating capital.Alt Goes Mainstream partnered with CAIA, the premier educational organization for the alts space, to have topical conversations on the world of alternative investments.With the backdrop of an uncertain macro environment and changing investor preferences that have resulted in a 60/40 portfolio no longer, top allocators in the industry discussed how alts are becoming an increasingly important part of investors’ portfolios.Over the next few days, we will bring you CAIA shorts: live interviews with the people who are making the decisions for many of the world’s largest investment institutions. Apologies in advance if there is background noise on the podcasts, but it’s because we recorded live and unfiltered from the AltsLA conference.There were 10 great podcasts with such rich conversations from some of the world’s smartest investors, so we will release these episodes in 4 parts.Today's episode (6/10) in this CAIA mini-series is with Ashby Monk, Head of Research at Addepar. Ashby and I talk about how he’s helping the world’s biggest investors make smarter investment decisions and create a positive impact at the same time.

A few weeks ago, Alt Goes Mainstream went to the capitol of capital for alts, AltsLA by CAIA, the largest alternative investments conference on the West Coast, to speak with industry leaders about how they are allocating capital.Alt Goes Mainstream partnered with CAIA, the premier educational organization for the alts space, to have topical conversations on the world of alternative investments.With the backdrop of an uncertain macro environment and changing investor preferences that have resulted in a 60/40 portfolio no longer, top allocators in the industry discussed how alts are becoming an increasingly important part of investors’ portfolios.Over the next few days, we will bring you CAIA shorts: live interviews with the people who are making the decisions for many of the world’s largest investment institutions. Apologies in advance if there is background noise on the podcasts, but it’s because we recorded live and unfiltered from the AltsLA conference.There were 10 great podcasts with such rich conversations from some of the world’s smartest investors, so we will release these episodes in 4 parts.Today's episode (5/10) in this CAIA mini-series is with Evan Darr, Partner at Invesco Private Capital. Evan and I discuss how the fact that we are in the midst of a technological revolution has changed the GP and LP landscape for both technology and crypto.

A few weeks ago, Alt Goes Mainstream went to the capitol of capital for alts, AltsLA by CAIA, the largest alternative investments conference on the West Coast, to speak with industry leaders about how they are allocating capital.Alt Goes Mainstream partnered with CAIA, the premier educational organization for the alts space, to have topical conversations on the world of alternative investments.With the backdrop of an uncertain macro environment and changing investor preferences that have resulted in a 60/40 portfolio no longer, top allocators in the industry discussed how alts are becoming an increasingly important part of investors’ portfolios.Over the next few days, we will bring you CAIA shorts: live interviews with the people who are making the decisions for many of the world’s largest investment institutions. Apologies in advance if there is background noise on the podcasts, but it’s because we recorded live and unfiltered from the AltsLA conference.There were 10 great podcasts with such rich conversations from some of the world’s smartest investors, so we will release these episodes in 4 parts.Today's episode (4/10) in this CAIA mini-series is with Elizabeth Burton, CIO of Employees' Retirement System of State of Hawaii. Elizabeth and I discuss how a $23B pension fund CIO makes allocation decisions in a world where the 60/40 portfolio is breaking down.

A few weeks ago, Alt Goes Mainstream went to the capitol of capital for alts, AltsLA by CAIA, the largest alternative investments conference on the West Coast, to speak with industry leaders about how they are allocating capital.Alt Goes Mainstream partnered with CAIA, the premier educational organization for the alts space, to have topical conversations on the world of alternative investments. With the backdrop of an uncertain macro environment and changing investor preferences that have resulted in a 60/40 portfolio no longer, top allocators in the industry discussed how alts are becoming an increasingly important part of investors’ portfolios. Over the next few days, we will bring you CAIA shorts: live interviews with the people who are making the decisions for many of the world’s largest investment institutions. Apologies in advance if there is background noise on the podcasts, but it’s because we recorded live and unfiltered from the AltsLA conference. There were a number of great podcasts with such rich conversations from some of the world’s smartest investors, so we will release these episodes in 4 parts.Today's episode (3/10) in this CAIA mini-series is with Dominic Garcia, Chief Pension Investment Strategist at CBRE. Dominic and I discuss how the lines between public and private assets have become blurred and how investors need to think about finding truly idiosyncratic alpha. 

A few weeks ago, Alt Goes Mainstream went to the capitol of capital for alts, AltsLA by CAIA, the largest alternative investments conference on the West Coast, to speak with industry leaders about how they are allocating capital.Alt Goes Mainstream partnered with CAIA, the premier educational organization for the alts space, to have topical conversations on the world of alternative investments. With the backdrop of an uncertain macro environment and changing investor preferences that have resulted in a 60/40 portfolio no longer, top allocators in the industry discussed how alts are becoming an increasingly important part of investors’ portfolios. Over the next few days, we will bring you CAIA shorts: live interviews with the people who are making the decisions for many of the world’s largest investment institutions. Apologies in advance if there is background noise on the podcasts, but it’s because we recorded live and unfiltered from the AltsLA conference. There were a number of great podcasts with such rich conversations from some of the world’s smartest investors, so we will release these episodes in 4 parts.Today's episode (2/10) in this CAIA mini-series is with Ariel Babcock, Managing Director and Head of Research at FCLTGlobal. Ariel and I talk about how to help investors adopt a long-term perspective and rewire capital markets to be more supportive of longer-term businesses and investments.

A few weeks ago, Alt Goes Mainstream went to the capitol of capital for alts, AltsLA by CAIA, the largest alternative investments conference on the West Coast, to speak with industry leaders about how they are allocating capital.Alt Goes Mainstream partnered with CAIA, the premier educational organization for the alts space, to have topical conversations on the world of alternative investments. With the backdrop of an uncertain macro environment and changing investor preferences that have resulted in a 60/40 portfolio no longer, top allocators in the industry discussed how alts are becoming an increasingly important part of investors’ portfolios. Over the next few days, we will bring you CAIA shorts: live interviews with the people who are making the decisions for many of the world’s largest investment institutions. Apologies in advance if there is background noise on the podcasts, but it’s because we recorded live and unfiltered from the AltsLA conference. There were a number of great podcasts with such rich conversations from some of the world’s smartest investors, so we will release these episodes in 4 parts.Today's episode (1/10) in this CAIA mini-series is with James Keenan, BlackRock, CIO and Global Co-Head of Credit at BlackRock Alternative Investors. James and I discuss the evolution of private credit fitting into investors’ portfolios and the retailization of alts. 

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast we have a special guest on an important topic that is core to why alts are going mainstream – community.We have community builder extraordinaire Max Rothery, the VP Community at Finimize. Max is responsible for engaging and serving Finimize’s 1 million global audience. Finimize is building the world’s largest finance community of investors globally – and building community are they doing.In 4 years, they reached over 1 million subscribers, 60 thousand per year attend member organized events, and Finimize was recently acquired by 197 year old Abrdn plc, formerly Standard Life Aberdeen, a FTSE 100 investment firm with over 464B pounds AUM that’s the UK’s largest active asset manager.Max brings a wealth of experience in community building and digital transformation to the table as he builds community. He previously led innovation and digital transformation for Societe Generale’s private bank. He also brings a unique perspective from the creative industry to bear as a founder of an independent production, publishing, and recording company.Max and I had an absolutely fascinating conversation on the underpinnings of community and how to build an engaged community in financial services businesses. His thoughtful views on how to build community serve as a playbook for how to successfully build a thriving and engaged community. We talk about everything from how community gives companies a way to scale trust and relationships to how to enable the community to self-regulate itself to taking me back to my days studying international relations as we discuss the parallels between nation-building and community building.Thanks Max for such a rich conversation that we can all learn from on how to build community.

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast we have a guest who helps us bridge the gap between the past, the present, and the future.Ethan Kurzweil, a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, who is leading BVP’s crypto efforts and the BessemerDAO, comes onto the show to help us make sense of the evolution from the Web2 to Web2.5 to Web3 world.Ethan and I had a fascinating discussion. We talked about: The evolution of venture capital and private markets. Bessemer’s thesis on Web3.Why Bessemer decided to start a DAO and how they are innovating on portfolio services by building out a community. How Web3 gives people the primitives to fulfill on the premise of decentralization and ownership.Bessemer is a storied venture fund that got its start back in 1975 after spinning out of Bessemer Trust. Fast forward to today, they are one of the best technology investors on the planet investing into industry defining companies like Shopify, Twilio, PagerDuty, DocuSign, LinkedIn, Twitch, Yelp, Wix, Sorare, and many more.Ethan brings a fascinating perspective to the world of Web3 and consumerization of private markets investing given that he spent the early days of his career at early metaverse company Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, and working for Dow Jones, where he managed the turnaround of the international editions of the Wall Street Journal.Ethan then went on to join Bessemer, where he’s a Partner investing into developer platforms, data infrastructure, digital consumer applications, and consumer facing crypto. He’s invested in the likes of PagerDuty, Intercom, Twitch, LaunchDarkly and crypto companies like Sorare, TRM Labs, and Fold.Thanks Ethan for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast we have a fascinating conversation about how soccer is a compelling alternative investment. We talk with Justin Papadakis, the COO & Chief Real Estate Officer of the United Soccer League. The USL is the largest and one of the fastest growing professional soccer organizations in the United States. Justin and I had a fascinating conversation about how sports and investing are emerging in large part because of the collision of culture and finance.We discussed:How soccer is such an underrated investment opportunity.How the USL has seen a rise in team valuations from the hundreds of thousands to some teams valued in the $60-70M range — with a big opportunity to increase revenues through various revenue streams that include media, player transfers, sports betting, stadium related revenue, real estate related revenue.How the intersection of sports and real estate factors into the investment thesis for sports teams.How the transition to OTT media can positively impact sports league and team revenue.How more more professional investors and funds are now becoming involved and investing into sports teams and what this means for the development of sports as an investable asset class.How women’s soccer is a sleeping giant and what the USL is doing to help make it an investable opportunity.How democratizing access to sports ownership through crowdfunding and DAOs — and the power of community — can play a role in the sports investment landscape in the future.In his current role, Justin oversees numerous departments that are critical to the league’s success, including expansion, stadium development, digital media, emerging technology, finance, and human resources.Justin combines a real estate background, having worked six years at a REIT, with his soccer playing and sports management experience as he navigates building a league that is expanding in leaps and bounds. He holds a JD from Cleveland Marshall College of Law and earned a dual degree in public policy and economics from Duke University, where he also served as a goalkeeper on the Blue Devils soccer team.Thanks Justin for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to talk about how the beautiful game is continuing to grow thanks to the world of investing.

Today, we have a guest on Alt Goes Mainstream who lives at the intersection of culture and finance as sports is increasingly becoming an investable asset class.Angel City FC Co-Founder & President Julie Uhrman and I had a fascinating conversation about how sports and investing are merging together – and how that’s informed how she’s building Angel City FC.Julie and team have been innovative in the way that they’ve engaged fans, players, and investors. We discuss: How ACFC has used entertainment to have an impact.How athletes are building their own platforms on and off the field - and what that means for player, fans, and teams.How new types of investors — both professional funds and celebrities — are leveraging their platforms for impact to help sports teams build a differentiated brand and business.How ACFC is taking lessons learned from innovations in technology, community-building, and Web3 to engage fans and create new revenues for sports clubs.How mission and capital can co-exist together as sports becomes a compelling alternative investment.Julie is a serial entrepreneur and force of nature who is bringing her deep expertise in gaming, media, and entertainment to build our her most ambitious project yet – Angel City FC, the expansion professional women’s soccer team in her native Los Angeles.And build is what she and the team have done.In a mere two years, Julie and team have built one of the most recognizable and successful brands in women’s football — without yet having a team on the field.They’ve done an incredible job of creating purpose driven content and engaging fans across various social media channels.They’ve secured a top tier front of kit sponsor in DoorDash and have achieved record season ticket sales in the NWSL.They’ve built a true fan community to the point where ACFC has passed the "tattoo test" – some fans have gotten inked!And they’ve brought on a diverse, talented group of investors whose life and work aligns with Angel City’s mission as the club looks to make a positive impact in the community and on women’s soccer.It’s no surprise that Julie has been able to build up ACFC in such a short time.She was most recently the President of Media for PEI, where she oversaw the company’s media offerings across all verticals. Prior to PEI, she served as the EVP & GM of Over-The-Top Ventures for Lionsgate, building and managing the company’s multiple streaming franchises. She also founded and was CEO of OUYA, a pioneering Android-based game console for the living room which raised a record-breaking $8.6M in crowdfunded capital on Kickstarter and VC funding from Kleiner Perkins and Alibaba before selling to Razer in 2015.She’s deservedly been given a number of awards for her work, including being named to the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company and one of the most Creative 50 by Ad Age.Thanks Julie for coming on the AGM podcast to share the story of your pioneering work at Angel City FC. We look forward to watching ACFC continue to grow on and off the pitch.