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

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.Today we peer into one of the most fascinating companies in private markets, AngelList, and talk with AngelList’s CEO Avlok Kohli.AngelList is building the operating system for modern startups and tech innovation, and as such, they see themselves as building a company of companies. AngelList has had almost 19,000 startups raise capital from syndicates and funds on their platform, they support over $15B in assets, and 40% of all US unicorns have had a GP invest in them through AngelList.To date, AngelList's GP business has largely been known for its marketplace and fund admin product. That changes this week when they begin to release a series of software products available to any venture firm, even if they don't run a fund on AngelList, which automates and adds intelligence to the most onerous and ambiguous parts of running a fund. It all starts with the most comprehensive and tailored banking product, built specifically for venture funds.Avlok has an impressive background as a tech founder and operator and gives us an insight into how AngelList is building their business.Avlok is the CEO at AngelList and the Founder and CEO of LegalReach. He is also the former Founder and CEO at Fairy. He created Fastbite, a food delivery service, which was acquired by Square a few months after launch and was integrated into Square’s delivery product as Fastbite by Caviar.Avlok and I had a fascinating discussion about how AngelList’s product driven culture has enabled them to evolve with customer needs and build all sorts of products and services for GPs, startups, and LPs. We discuss: What makes AngelList a n-of-1 company.How his experience at Square has informed his company building strategy at AngelList.How AngelList's data can track relative health of companies and what will make a “sustainable unicorn.”Why it’s almost impossible to compare them to a single traditional financial services company given the breadth and depth of their product offerings.Thanks Avlok for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and experiences and for all the work you're doing to power private markets.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.Today we talk with John Avery, an executive who is leading the charge for private markets, Web3, and tokenization at one of the largest publicly traded financial services companies, FIS.FIS is one of the world’s leading financial services companies. Over 95% of the world’s banks work with FIS. Their asset management technology processes $40 trillion on an annual basis. And their products and services reach 20,000 clients globally. In the alts space, they work with the majority of the world’s largest private equity funds and alternative asset managers.FIS has a focused initiative on Web3 and digital assets. John is responsible for that initiative. John’s background spans both technology, where he was a developer in the 1990s, and financial markets, where he built capital markets software that was acquired by SunGard, which was acquired by FIS.John believes in the infrastructure promise of blockchain technology and how it can create efficiencies in private markets, so we had a fascinating conversation as we delved into how digital assets can transform private markets and how a set of evolutionary changes might deliver transformation on a revolutionary scale.Thanks John for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and experiences.

Welcome to the launch of the collaboration between iCapital x Alt Goes Mainstream.Here’s the first episode of the Monthly Alts Pulse, a live conversation in studio with Lawrence Calcano, Chairman & CEO of iCapital, who as the leader of a platform that is responsible for the majority of individual and advisor-led investment flows into the alts space, has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in private markets.Come for education, stay for Succession.Watch the Monthly Alts PulseOn this episode, we covered a lot of ground. Lawrence and I discussed:Making sense of the current market environment.What advisors are saying about private markets and how they are investing in private markets right now.How the interest and knowledge of private markets have evolved over the past 10 years since iCapital started.The value of patience in private markets.Liquidity vs illiquidity.The arc of innovation in private markets.Why now is the time for private credit and secondaries.How technology will automate access for institutions and HNW investors.Lessons from Succession and the Wall Street Journal test.Thanks Lawrence for a great first episode … looking forward to next month’s conversation!  

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.On today’s episode, we talk with Seyonne Kang, a Partner at StepStone, which acquired her former firm, Greenspring Associates. StepStone is a global private markets firm that provides customized investment and advisory solutions to some of the world’s most sophisticated investors. StepStone has a total capital responsibility of $602B of assets and has $134B of assets under management across the spectrum of private markets investments, giving them incredible purview into the current private markets landscape.At StepStone, Seyonne is a member of the private equity team, where she focuses on venture capital fund and growth equity investments.Prior to StepStone, Seyonne was a Partner at Greenspring Associates, a venture capital and growth equity firm that merged with StepStone in 2021. She spent the 7 years prior in investment management, with a focus on private capital, working at Jasper Ridge Partners and Commonfund. She also spent a decade on Wall Street in institutional equities.Seyonne and I had a fascinating conversation about the current state of venture capital and what it means for LPs and GPs. We discussed: How GPs can weather the storm.How LPs can navigate the current venture environment.Advice for emerging managers.Why secondaries might be an interesting investment opportunity right now.How newer allocators to private markets can approach investing into venture and growth.Why subject matter expertise matters for fund managers.Why Seyonne is excited about innovation and venture in the US in the current market.Thanks Seyonne for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and experiences.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.On today’s episode, we have Sheel Mohnot, the co-founder and Partner of FinTech VC fund Better Tomorrow Ventures.Sheel is a career fintech investor and operator. He has built Better Tomorrow Ventures into an active pre-seed and seed stage fintech VC that has grown to over $225M AUM. Prior to founding BTV, he was the GP at 500 FinTech, where he was the first institutional investor in Albert, Kin, Indio, Chipper Cash, Ethic, and others. He was also an early investor in Stripe and Flexport. He also co-founded two fintech startups – FeeFighters, which was acquired by GroupOn, and Innovative Auctions.Sheel and I had a fascinating conversation about the evolution of FinTech, how to build and scale an emerging manager, the challenges of raising a first time fund, and why smaller funds can outperform.We didn’t have a chance to discuss the experience of his Taco Bell wedding in the metaverse, but congrats Sheel and Amruta on your marriage and wishing you happiness in both life and the metaverse.Thanks Sheel for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and experiences.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.Today’s show was recorded live from AltsLA 2023 in partnership with CAIA. CAIA is the leading global professional body dedicated to alternative investment credential programs.On this episode, we speak with Daniel Joye, where he oversees Infrastructure investing at LACERA, the $58 billion AUM Los County Employees Retirement Association.Daniel and I had a fascinating conversation about how an institutional investor like LACERA approaches investing in infrastructure, the benefits of infrastructure investing, particularly in the current market environment, how to think about risk / return of infrastructure assets in a portfolio, and why investing in infrastructure is so critical to the development of cities and nations.Prior to moving back to Los Angeles and joining LACERA (he is an LA native), Daniel worked in London for Morgan Stanley, Vitol and BP with a focus on energy trading and investing.He started his career in the French Navy as a gunnery officer where he navigated the 7 seas and participated in Operation Enduring Freedom.He holds a Masters in Engineering from l'Ecole Navale (the French Naval Academy) and an MBA (with honors) from Wharton.Thanks Daniel for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your views and knowledge.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.Today’s show was recorded live from AltsLA 2023 in partnership with CAIA. CAIA is the leading global professional body dedicated to alternative investment credential programs.On this episode, we speak with Mark Anson, the CEO and CIO of Commonfund ($28B AUM). Mark and I had a fascinating discussion on private markets. We discussed:Why size discipline and sector focus defeat the explosion of capital in private markets.Why multi-manager strategies or commingled vehicles make sense for wealth managers (particularly in VC).How allocators can invest in the next Sequoia. Why the concept of lagged beta matters for allocators.How ESG and impact investing can be integrated into an investor’s portfolio.Mark Anson is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of the Commonfund and Chairman of the Board of Commonfund Capital Inc. and Commonfund Asset Management Company.Previously, he was the President and Chief Investment Officer for the Bass Family Office. He was the President and Global Head of Investment Management at Nuveen Investments, a full-service asset management company with over $900 billion in assets under management.Prior to Nuveen, Mark served as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer for the British Telecom Pension Scheme (BTPS), the largest institutional investor in the UK with assets of £55 billion.In addition, Mark was the CEO of Hermes Pensions Management in London, a £60 billion asset management company that is wholly owned by the BTPS. Prior to joining BTPS, he served as the Chief Investment Officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System.Thanks Mark for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your views and knowledge.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.Today’s show was recorded live from AltsLA 2023 in partnership with CAIA. CAIA is the leading global professional body dedicated to alternative investment credential programs.On this episode, we speak with Christopher Ailman, the Chief Investment Officer of one of the world’s largest institutional investors, CalSTRS.Chris and I had a fascinating conversation about all things private markets. We discussed: How one of the world’s largest institutional investors manages a portfolio with 40% exposure to private markets.How many institutional investors are really managing an 80/20 portfolio (80% equity / equity-like, 20% fixed income / fixed income-like), not a 60/40 portfolio.The current state of private markets.Why alternative investments make sense in an investors’ portfolio.The importance of “catching the wave” and investing in megatrends, like decarbonization.How the retailization of alts impacts institutional investors like large pensions and endowments.He leads an investment staff of more than 200 and oversees a portfolio valued at $307 billion as of March 31, 2023.He has more than 37 years of institutional investment experience, including tenures as CIO of the Washington State Investment Board and the Sacramento County Employees Retirement System.He represents institutional investors on the MSCI Index Editorial Advisory Board, the PRI Asset Owners Advisory Committee, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Investor Advisory Group and the Toigo Foundation.He is the chair of the 300 Club and co-chair of the Milken Global Capital Markets Committee. Ailman is recognized as one of the top CIOs both in the U.S. and globally. He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Institute for Fiduciary Education’s CIO of the Year in 2000.Thanks Christopher for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your views and knowledge.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast and hello from AltsLA.Today’s show was recorded live from AltsLA 2023 in partnership with CAIA. CAIA is the leading global professional body dedicated to alternative investment credential programs.On this episode, we speak with the 44th Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle, the Chairman of Cerberus Global Investments. We discussed the intersection of politics, private equity, people, and patience: The current state of private markets.How geopolitics plays an important role in investing.The impact of social media on financial markets.How Cerberus grew into the firm it is today.The power of patience in investing.Vice President Quayle is Chairman of Cerberus Global Investments and a member of the Firm’s senior leadership team, joining when the firm was $14B in AUM and playing a role in overseeing its growth to over $60B AUM.Prior to joining Cerberus in 1999, he served as the 44th Vice President of the United States of America to President George H. W. Bush from 1989 through 1993. In 1976, Vice President Quayle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and re-elected in 1978.In 1980, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and was the youngest Senator from Indiana. He was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986.Following his vice presidency, Vice President Quayle authored three books, including Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir, which was on The New York Times’ Best Seller List.He was a distinguished visiting professor at Arizona State University ’s Thunderbird School of Global Management for two years. He was also active for many years on the lecture circuit in the United States and internationally.Thanks Vice President Quayle for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your views and knowledge.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.On today’s episode, we go to Europe, and specifically Berlin, a region where some of the most exciting activity in the VC world is occurring.We have Filip Dames, a Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures, a top pan-European early-stage VC fund that has around $700M AUM, lead us in a discussion about why Europe is such a compelling place to invest and why it’s on the precipice of an incredible decade in tech.Filip has the founder DNA. Prior to Cherry, he started his first company in 2008, which was a digital marketplace for art and collectibles long before NFTs existed. He then joined Zalando as a member of the founding team, where he led business development and international expansion efforts. He founded and was the CEO of the group’s shopping club, Zalando Lounge, and left Zalando after a successful IPO in 2014 to fully focus on Cherry.In Cherry, Filip has strived to build the firm that he would have wanted as a founder. They’ve backed the likes of AUTO1 Group, FlixBus, Forto, Flink, SellerX, Infarm, and Bunch amongst others.Filip also shares a passion for helping entrepreneurs build businesses outside the tech world, as an active supporter of the Ashoka network and forming a family foundation with his wife to support education and access to entrepreneurship for families from disadvantaged backgrounds. Filip also serves on the boards of KfW Capital, a subsidiary of the German state owned investment and development bank, and the Bundesverband dt. Startups (BVDS).Filip and I had a fascinating conversation. We discussed: The evolution of the European venture ecosystem and why it’s such a compelling region to build and invest into category defining companies. How his experience as a founder informed how he’s built Cherry.How to build a VC from a business perspective.Why Filip is so excited about private markets as he shares his investment thesis in Bunch.What the future of European VC looks like.We also surprised Filip with a few questions from friends who have known him at different stages of his life, with thoughtful questions from:Steve Cherundolo, former Bundesliga professional footballer at Hannover 96 and the US Men’s National Team and Head Coach of LAFC in the MLS.Mario Goetze, current Bundesliga professional footballer at Eintracht Frankfurt and the German National Team, active investor in VC funds and startups at his firm, Companion-M, and Cherry Ventures LP.Levent Altunel and Enrico Ohnemuller, the co-founders of Bunch, where Filip and Cherry led a 7.3M EUR Seed round last summer.Thanks Filip for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom and experiences.If you like this podcast, you can listen or read more about alts by subscribing at altgoesmainstream.substack.com.