My guest today is Dmitry Balyasny. Dmitry is the Managing Partner and CIO of Balyasny Asset Management, otherwise known as BAM. BAM runs a multi-strategy, multi-PM model that aims to produce consistent absolute returns. Since its founding in 2001, it has produced only one negative year and become one of the largest firms of its kind. Please enjoy my conversation with Dmitry Balyasny.    For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.    -----   This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2, HIPAA or ISO 27001 reports at a fraction of the typical cost. Listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:53] - [First question] - The origin story of his firm and the key stages of evolution [00:06:43] - Describing the difference between good and great in platform hedge funds  [00:10:25] - How a multi-strategy, multi-investor group works and managing capital allocation [00:13:58] - What he’s trying to solve at the end of the day as their CIO [00:16:21] - How close they are to their idealized end-state  [00:18:26] - Typical amounts of leverage associated with these types of models [00:20:22] - Lessons learned about incentivizing talented investors [00:22:39] - Ways he tends to attract risk takers and their levels of variance [00:28:15] - Other characteristics that are common amongst great PMs [00:30:42] - The nature and source of edge and how it’s changed most over time [00:33:19] - Some of the hardest portfolio and business decisions he’s had to make  [00:37:59] - One of his most important business decisions on the firm side [00:40:09] - How they’ve thought about shorting as a firm in general and more recently [00:43:52] - How interest rates affect this style of investing [00:45:29] - His view on the opportunity set in private markets and what does and doesn’t excite him about it [00:49:42] - How reading Ayn Rand most shaped his thinking [00:50:36] - Things Ayn most got right and most got wrong in his mind [00:51:24] - What the war in Ukraine has felt like for him as a Ukrainian-American [00:52:08] - Ways the future still has him excited as he continues to build his firm [00:53:53] - Where his trading instincts draw him today and areas of interest [00:55:11] - His most memorable trade of all time [00:56:37] - In which order the major asset classes will be affected by digital innovation [00:58:13] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is Henry Ward, co-founder and CEO of Carta. Started in 2012, Carta helps companies and investors manage their cap tables, equity plans, and ownership. Last year, they launched CartaX, a platform for private companies and their employees to access secondary market liquidity. Our discussion is a detailed exploration of private market infrastructure and Henry’s views on building an enduring business. Please enjoy my conversation with Henry Ward. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.  ----- This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2, HIPAA or ISO 27001 reports at a fraction of the typical cost. Listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.  ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:02:57] - [First question] - The first key mental moment of how Carta came to him[00:05:30] - Initial thoughts on how to position Carta as a business model[00:06:47] - Historical divergence between private and public market infrastructure[00:08:33] - What a price discovery process for primary shares could look like in the future[00:11:09] - The end state Carta is trying to effect in their perfect state[00:13:29] - Why it’s so hard for private company staff to manage their illiquid wealth[00:15:45] - Lessons and challenges in the new market creation business[00:17:57] - The nature and dynamics of supply and demand in this space[00:22:45] - How Carta is mapped onto the success of its customers[00:25:27] - Deciding on what is a good idea and what isn’t when it comes to focus[00:28:07] - Describing the One of N versus N of One market frameworks and principles of this philosophy that manifests in how he runs Carta[00:32:11] - How working at Carta would differ from a payroll-type company[00:35:37] - Characterizing his leadership and management styles[00:37:57] - The types of circumstances that bring out his tough side[00:39:33] - Making hard decisions in a bottom up management model [00:44:05] - How he spends his time while building Carta[00:45:02] - What a great product looks like to him[00:47:10] - The Systems Bible; Defining what a great team looks like[00:49:13] - What he’s learned about being great at Go-To-Market[00:51:26] - Effective ways to beat competitors and build relationship pipelines[00:53:49] - Things he likes the least about leading a company of this size [00:55:13] - What he fears most as he thinks about the future of Carta[00:55:45] - Advice for entrepreneurs when thinking about data in modern businesses[00:58:26] - The biggest missing pieces in capital market structure writ large[01:00:17] - What’s next for CartaX and what he’ll be pushing to make it work [01:02:10] - Lessons learned from serving venture investors [01:04:25] - Whether or not investment banks are their competitors[01:05:18] - Public market dislocation and how long it will last[01:06:58] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is Alexandr Wang, the CEO and founder of Scale AI. Alexandr founded Scale in 2016, having been inspired to accelerate the development of AI through his work at Quora and his studies at MIT. Specifically, Alexandr realized there was a lack of infrastructure solutions for producing high quality data, the lifeblood for AI models. Today, Scale provides data solutions to leading AI teams at Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Flexport, the US Air Force, and many others. This time last year, the business was valued at over $7 billion.  Our conversation is a primer on AI. We discuss the building blocks beneath successful artificial intelligence, AI’s role in both the public and private sector, and why data is the new code. We also cover the similarities and differences between AI and software from an investing perspective and what inspiration Scale takes from AWS. Please enjoy my great discussion with Alexandr Wang.For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.  ----- This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:03:04] - [First question] - The role that AI and data play in geopolitics and foreign policy[00:07:21] - The end state of a digital arms race akin to nuclear weapons[00:08:53] - Current state of things writ large and how the public and private sectors differ[00:11:33] - The flow and importance of talent when scaling AI and whether it’s more important than software [00:14:29] - His thoughts on how to communicate categories of what AI can do well and what is still a ways out[00:20:18] - The process of creating an AI model and the stages of development[00:27:16] - Principles of building a great engine for gathering data[00:29:04] - The state of technology around annotating data writ large[00:31:31] - What Scale does as a business and their product lineup[00:35:08] - The Storage and Compute equivalents in the AI space[00:37:08] - How Scale fills the gap in producing better and cleaner data[00:39:52] - What Scale will look like in 10 years if their vision is fully realized[00:41:11] - Where AI is in the S curve of acceleration and where AI and software intersect[00:44:32] - Questions to ask about how to incorporate AI and data sets in your business[00:46:23] - What worries him about the proliferation of technology that makes AI more accessible to the masses[00:48:27] - The most interesting AI model he’s ever come across and collapsing the friction between human intent and programmable outcomes[00:51:51] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him 

My guest today is Antonio Gracias, founder, CIO, and CEO of Valor Equity Partners. Antonio is perhaps best known for his role at Tesla, as the earliest institutional investor and Director from 2007 to 2021. But he has deep operating and investing experience, having first acquired and managed a number of manufacturing and technology companies during his 20s. And it was during those formative years that Antonio and his team developed the skills that led to Valor, which provides operational expertise to the high growth private companies they invest in. Our conversation is a deep exploration of the drivers behind Antonio and Valor’s success. We dive into his concept of pro-entropic investing, what he learned as a 25-year-old running a manufacturing business, and trust me when I say, you don't want to miss his answer to the kindest thing ever. Please enjoy this great conversation with Antonio Gracias. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.  ----- This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:02:51] - [First question] - Defining what a pro-entropic company is[00:07:26] - Understanding external forces of chaos and why they’ll continue to increase[00:11:32] - What he’s learned about identifying and investing in pro-entropic companies[00:13:43] - Investing with entropy in mind can be a bet on unchanging aspects of human nature[00:15:08] - Defining durability in contrast with resiliency and entropy[00:18:53] - Coming from a traditional background and the origin of Valor[00:22:05] - The theory of constraints and why it’s so powerful; The Goal[00:26:32] - Transitioning into a private equity structure and Valor’s 2001-2005 era[00:42:02] - Decision making bias and combating bias effectively in practice [00:44:30] - Where security and control figures into his thinking[00:45:45] - Identity in relation to ego; the tools he uses to combat identity related decisions[00:49:04] - Lessons learned from the Japanese language versus Western languages[00:53:07] - Questions he returns to when he’s getting to know a company[00:56:16] - An episode of operational deployment that most stands out in memory[00:58:54] - Key concepts that most stick with him from working alongside Elon Musk[01:01:32] - Why there aren’t more Musk’s or Bezos’ in the world[01:04:20] - Ensuring Valor invests in the best companies going forward[01:06:06] - How to pass the torch of what Valor is to others when his time is done[01:08:25] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him 

My guest today is David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group - one of the largest private equity firms in the world. David has worked in the White House, built a $300 billion investment institution, become a prominent philanthropist, published books, and even hosts his own TV show. It was a thrill to sit down with him and cover the whole spectrum of his experience as a father, investor, historian, and titan of American business. Please enjoy this great conversation with David Rubenstein. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:03:02] - [First question] - What his perspective on the world today is compared to the last forty years[00:05:35] - The long term implications of the Ukraine war on a global scale[00:07:54] - Concerns and thoughts on the US’s role in a radically different world[00:10:07] - How inflation and reduced globalization impacts business behavior in the US[00:14:11] - His method when interviewing people and how it’s changed over time[00:15:03] - How his interest in leadership as a topic began; How to Lead[00:17:55] - The time he was the most personally in awe of a leader[00:19:05] - The most basic ingredients for strong leadership[00:21:34] - Learning from Oprah and developing his own interviewing style[00:24:25] - His leadership style while running Carlyle and key variables that drove Carlyle’s success[00:28:41] - The ways that were most effective in terms of investment for Carlyle’s brand[00:29:50] - How should a new investor think about the relationship between government and business[00:32:17] - What he’s learned about leadership that he thinks is the most portable for other people[00:34:04] - His interest in masters of leadership and what he has learned from them[00:35:08] - How Carlyle retained their talent and building relationships with LP investors[00:37:20] - Lessons from working in media with what worked and what didn’t; How to Invest[00:38:55] - How he approached writing How to Invest[00:41:13] - The importance of intuition when evaluating backers and why geniuses aren’t always chosen[00:43:04] - Big aspects of American history and why he finds it so interesting; The American Story[00:44:17] - Key drivers of American outcomes and biggest areas for improvement[00:47:00] - Lessons he learned going from humble beginnings to amassing wealth and how he’s teaching his children about it[00:49:20] - The state of private equity and what are its best and highest functions today[00:51:03] - Experience and impressions on the emerging cryptosphere[00:52:25] - What makes for a good chairman and why he is always drawn to that role[00:53:42] - The most interesting system outside of the US that he’s observed[00:55:33] - What he has learned about being a giving pledge signer and philanthropy[00:57:02] - His interest in Monticello and the Magna Carta[00:59:13] - View on how speeches from leaders have changed over the years; Citizenship in a Republic[01:01:24] - What subject he would write his next book on[01:03:58] - Thoughts on the line between giving your life for your country versus your state[01:05:17] - The American Experiment[01:06:10] - Looking back on his career at a time where he felt the most alive[01:08:07] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is Gaurav Kapadia, founder of investment firm XN. Gaurav is a veteran of the investing arena. We cover his lessons while rising to partner at TPG Axon, co-founding Soroban Capital, and his decision to launch XN in 2020. We then discuss his approach to building XN around a culture of rigor and kindness, the importance of relationships in investing, and finding investments that are obvious in retrospect. Please enjoy my great conversation with Gaurav Kapadia. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:03:05] - [First question] - What lead to kindness and rigor becoming pillars in XN’s company culture[00:05:30] - The types of situations where it’s hardest to be kind or rigorous [00:07:58] - Asking one question that can stump a founder can be a display of rigor[00:08:58] - An example of looking at a situation and reducing the problem to a single variable[00:12:51] - How he trains investors and team members to consider outcomes that would be obvious in hindsight[00:14:28] - Developing the art of interacting with company management[00:17:54] - Dimensions that typically find their way into his presentations and what tends to create complexity [00:21:13] - Whether or not rigor has declined in public markets over the years[00:21:55] - Why fewer talented people are going into public markets[00:23:01] - What it felt like when he first started XN and being successful at a young age [00:28:58] - Being impressed with his peers and rooting for each other[00:30:33] - The nature of public versus private investing today writ large [00:32:32] - How he gets to know a company when he’s never heard of them before[00:35:20] - Reasons he won’t invest from a personal policy standpoint[00:36:01] - Common problems he encounters that companies are dealing with[00:37:32] - Defining the strike zone of companies to invest in where he can be best-in-class[00:39:10] - The insane valuations of public markets in recent years especially in tech[00:40:42] - Why there are so few great businesses and common attributes of the great ones[00:44:12] - Biggest problems in the investment industry writ large  [00:45:48] - The most remarkable business he’s ever seen  [00:49:22] - How he would teach investors to deploy XN’s operating partner model[00:51:32] - His perspective and thoughts on diversity in the investing industry[00:56:58] - A business or institution he would own outright personally [00:57:37] - What outside of investing most has his attention lately[00:59:50] - Key touchpoints of coming from Queens and going to Hunter[01:02:15] - What stands out looking back on his relationship with his parents and how hard they worked to build a better life for their family[01:04:10] - Two things that manifest in a system that is seemingly rigged towards the wealthy and the problem with generational wealth[01:05:29] - What has him most excited and optimistic about the future in the investing landscape today[01:08:16] - Investing mentors deserve gratitude for believing in their pupils[01:09:12] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him  

My guest today is Marko Papic, partner and chief strategist at Clocktower Group, where he leads the firm’s research on macroeconomics and markets. Marko has spent his career at the intersection of finance and geopolitics, making him a perfect person to speak to about current events in Ukraine and their potential impact further afield. Along with Russia and Ukraine, we discuss the Fed, inflation, China, the green energy transition, and the US’s position in the global order. Please enjoy this discussion with Marko Papic.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the new digital hub for market intelligence. The Tegus platform empowers Investors and Corporate Development teams to invest smarter by pairing best-in-class technology with the highest quality user-generated content and data. Find out why a majority of the top firms are using Tegus on a daily basis. Head to tegus.co/patrick for your free trial.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:48] - [First question] - His thoughts on what’s happened so far between Russia and Ukraine [00:06:18] - The geopolitical motivations for Russia and what they can gain from the conflict  [00:10:52] - How his impressions of warfare have evolved watching this play out [00:13:45] - What to consider about nuclear war and different types of nuclear weapons [00:16:31] - The economic warfare from the West against Russia and its implications [00:21:06] - Whether or not the world is de-globalizing and how interconnected we all are [00:24:45] - How we should view post-covid inflation, specifically in the US [00:30:34] - The ways the Fed’s role has evolved  [00:33:25] - Impacts of liquidity on asset prices and why it’s such a key factor in markets [00:34:16] - China’s positioning and how the Ukraine conflict could alter their plans [00:40:58] - Thoughts on Taiwan and how global supply chains might change [00:44:47] - Why so few people believe that China has peaked; Young China  [00:48:52] - His take on income equality in the US and why it’s the number one issue [00:53:03] - What the US could do to improve itself as a country most going forward [00:55:35] - Having a green energy transition view is crucial and the surrounding politics [00:59:22] - The preconditions for doing well in atoms-based innovation [01:01:13] - What he’s watching most carefully about the conflict in Ukraine [01:02:51] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is Garry Tan, founder and managing partner of early-stage venture firm, Initialized Capital. Before starting Initialized, Garry was a partner at Y Combinator, employee number 10 at Palantir, and co-founder of YC backed blog platform Posterous. Our discussion covers what’s missing in the investment world, how to best systematize venture investments, and what he learned from Paul Graham. Please enjoy my conversation with Garry Tan.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the new digital hub for market intelligence. The Tegus platform empowers Investors and Corporate Development teams to invest smarter by pairing best-in-class technology with the highest quality user-generated content and data. Find out why a majority of the top firms are using Tegus on a daily basis. Head to tegus.co/patrick for your free trial.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Lemon.io. The team at Lemon.io has built a network of Eastern European developers ready to pair with fast-growing startups. We have faced challenges hiring engineering talent for various projects - and Lemon.io offered developers for one-off projects, developers for full start to finish product development, or developers that could be add-ons to the existing team. Check out lemon.io/patrick to learn more.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:45] - [First question] - Why he’s interested by software and the global brain [00:06:23] - How the shift from global to local manifests in his investing and company activities [00:11:42] - Ways to increase throughput that would benefit everybody in the investing world  [00:17:13] - What software he would build if there were no limitations and what happens at the systems level of securing deals at Initialize  [00:23:33] - Why there is no objective application process for early-stage capital and how much human judgment we can remove from approving funding [00:26:49] - Shared characteristics amongst new inventions he finds favorable  [00:31:49] - Whether he’s able to evaluate an idea without a prototype [00:33:33] - Why travel planning software was the worst idea of 2012 and what he sees as the bad idea of today [00:36:06] - The most common reasons for failure in these types of businesses [00:39:07] - Is big enabling technology shifts what manifests in successful outcomes? [00:40:37] - The role of media and how it intersects with investing [00:44:29] - What he attributes to the success of his firm and thriving in chaos [00:48:11] - Would he press a button that would have made his childhood easy, and whether he’s met founders who haven’t come across adversity in their lives  [00:50:00] - His thoughts on the world today via the lens of his portfolio [00:53:12] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him   

My guest today is Eric Mandelblatt, founder and CIO of Soroban Capital, a $10 billion investment firm. While many of my conversations focus on technology and emerging industries, Eric has deep roots investing in the industrial economy, which made this conversation a fun change of pace. We discuss why energy and materials represent such a small share of the market today, how the global push towards decarbonization could have massive impacts on the industrial economy moving forward, and how Eric evaluates this dynamic opportunity set. Please enjoy this deep-dive discussion with Eric Mandelblatt. Editor’s note: This conversation was recorded on February 15, before last week's invasion of Ukraine. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes[00:03:01] - [First question] - Soroban’s history and why Eric is qualified to discuss industrial and commodity sectors[00:04:37] - Overview of what their portfolio looks like today[00:05:49] - How much of the commodity exposed equity sectors are owned by hedge funds[00:08:03] - The key history points that makes industrials more interesting today[00:11:17] - Commodity cycles, what drives them, the role CAPEX plays and how this world works[00:17:38] - Thoughts on natural demand and the societal push towards decarbonization[00:22:32] - How deeply one needs to know commodities in order to hold them[00:23:57] - Big categories to explore as decarbonization becomes more accessible to consumers and the lack of nuclear investing[00:28:50] - The resurgence of industrial production in the US[00:32:21] - Rail networks writ large and if we can expect new ones in the future[00:36:17] - The market gap between rail and technology businesses[00:41:38] - Commodities and the ways they differ from railroads [00:43:47] - Comparing the differences between businesses within the commodity industry[00:46:52] - Walkthrough of Alcoa’s business and how things like a carbon tax might affect an individual business[00:52:55] - What is the portfolio manifestation of the fact it's impossible to forecast commodities historically[00:56:08] - His view of the world in its current state and big things that matter[01:00:25] - Thoughts on inflation as an investor in the commodity space[01:01:42] - Utopian to dystopian takes on what growth looks like for the world[01:04:28] - Juxtaposed positions in big tech against the industrial story[01:08:45] - The kindest thing someone has ever done for him

My guest today is Sebastian Kanovich, CEO of payments company dLocal. Sebastian founded dLocal in 2016 to bridge the infrastructure gap between payments in developed and emerging markets. Since then, the initially bootstrapped start-up has enabled global merchants like Uber, Spotify, and Google to service billions of emerging market users. And in doing so, dLocal has created $10bn of equity market value, having IPOd last year. Our discussion covers dLocal’s playbook for facilitating payments in emerging countries, what Sebastian has learned about great API building, and how he challenges himself to improve personally. Please enjoy my conversation with Sebastian Kanovich.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Pilot. Pilot handles your startup’s finance, accounting, and tax prep needs, so you can focus on what matters most—building your business. Join over 1,000 startups that rely on Pilot to help them scale. Founder’s Field Guide listeners get 20% off their first six months. Get in touch with Pilot at https://pilot.com/founders.    -----   Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:13] - [First question] - His take on global payments, what is interesting about this system today, and dLocal’s role within it [00:04:06] - Approaching a country that could benefit from low-friction payments and the playbook for helping them improve their system [00:06:10] - Differences between being an API business versus a protocol one [00:07:13] - What companies handle these systems outside of emerging markets and why they haven’t entered the emerging market space [00:08:59] - A specific example of the steps involved in getting a country integrated into global payments for an app or service provider [00:11:22] - Whether or not they interact with consumers [00:12:09] - The trading and foreign exchange component of global transactions [00:13:16] - Country specific product teams and consolidating their process [00:14:52] - What he would look for in early-stage payment companies to invest in [00:16:23] - Defining excellent when it comes to working with regulators and regulatory environments [00:17:53] - Their role in digital globalization and trends that might arise in the future [00:19:52] - Ways that low-friction payments have helped accelerate regional innovation [00:21:31] - The unit economics and costs of a single payment  [00:24:05] - What the source of cost is to process a payment or transaction [00:25:10] - Variables in currencies that make them desirable to work with [00:26:38] - Lessons learned from distribution and customer acquisition of their service [00:29:23] - Advice he would give to developers building API products [00:31:16] - An example of wanting to build a function into an API that was never built [00:32:40] - How they’ve been able to move and scale so fast [00:34:23] - Ways their business could most improve [00:35:14] - The operating system he uses to run the company [00:36:38] - Ways he’s most improved or gotten better as a CEO over the years [00:37:58] - Why deep humility is such an integral part of his character  [00:38:30] - The biggest mistake they’ve ever made as a business and what they learned  [00:39:20] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him