Ali Hamed shares insights on building a $2.5 billion investment firm, finding alpha in unique places, YouTube catalogs, creative real estate opportunities, venture investing benefits, lessons from firm building, working with Michael Ovitz, and the importance of people development in asset management.

Learn about Cyan Banister's incredible journey from homelessness to becoming a successful angel investor. Discover how she navigates the transition from qualitative to quantitative investing and the importance of resilience in facing adversity. Explore the power of reconnecting with one's inner child, making investments with intuition and purpose, and embracing spiritual awakening. Hear about unexpected encounters with Bill Murray and a young violinist, and how investments can create magic and empower artists.

Danny Meyer, founder and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, discusses the power of hospitality in business, including the importance of making customers feel welcome, scaling hospitality, and characteristics of successful individuals in the industry. They also explore leadership, handling mistakes, creativity in restaurants, and acts of kindness and gratitude.

Chuck Akre, a legendary investor, discusses his investing style and his 'three-legged stool' for evaluating companies. They talk about Nirvana investing, compound returns, diversifying across technology trends, the importance of people in investing, exceptional leadership, land conservation, advice for young investors, and the importance of pricing power.

My guest today is Alex Telford. Alex is the founder of Convoke, a software platform to help streamline drug development and commercialization. He also has been writing frequent blog posts on the biotech industry since 2019, keeping a pulse on the direction of innovation. He joined me today to talk about the history of the pharmaceutical industry and what’s becoming possible in medicine in the coming years. Alex helped break down the complexities of investing in new drug development, breakthroughs in gene therapy on the horizon, and the dance between timely progress and restrictive regulation. This industry has a lot to unpack, and he thoughtfully lays out the landscape. Please enjoy my conversation with Alex Telford.Listen to Founders PodcastFor the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.-----This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust. At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks, Tegus customers pay only what an expert charges – with zero markups and no confusing call credits – netting an average 70% savings. Don’t want to conduct a full hour call? Tegus offers the ability to schedule 30-minutes, an offer you won’t find anywhere else. And they don’t stop there. With white-glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures, including a dedicated 50+ analyst team that vets every call transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection. As the industry innovator for qualitative insights, Tegus helps you find the right experts you need at a quality and speed that can’t be matched. For a limited time, as a listener, you can trial Tegus for free by visiting tegus.co/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 | @JoinColossusEditing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).Show Notes:(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best(00:04:01) First question - Exploring public perceptions of Big Pharma(00:04:56) Providing an overview of the drug discovery process(00:07:22) Assessing the efficiency of the pharmaceutical industry(00:12:13) Anticipating the future direction of drug development(00:16:46) Categorizing different types of pharmaceutical drugs(00:21:19) Strategies to reduce the time from discovery to implementation(00:25:55) Gaining insights from cross-disciplinary research(00:31:13) The emerging role of AI in pharmaceuticals(00:34:32) Analyzing potential regulatory shifts in the industry(00:39:13) Discussing the importance of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)(00:43:29) Examining the impact of blockbuster drugs(00:47:47) Deliberating on the complexities of drug pricing(00:54:09) Highlighting exciting developments and concerns in pharma(00:59:55) The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Madhavan Ramanujam, who wrote the book on pricing products, discusses common pricing mistakes and the importance of focusing on benefits instead of features. He also shares insights on picking the right monetization model and highlights the impact of CEO involvement in pricing. Additionally, he explores different pricing models, understanding customer willingness to pay, and the significance of personal support in business.

In this episode, Daryl Morey, President of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers and pioneer of the analytics movement in basketball, talks about negotiation tactics, systems thinking, and hiring strategies in the basketball world. They also discuss the importance of identifying what you're optimizing for in sports, the need for a comeback mechanism in college football, and the value of struggle and independent thinking in shaping one's perspective.

Michael Ovitz, legendary talent agent and co-founder of CAA, discusses his career in the entertainment industry and the impact of positional power. They also explore creative marketing strategies, evaluating talent, the role of art in their careers, the importance of work ethic and learning on the job, and share stories of kind acts from influential people.

Erik Serrano Berntsen, CEO of Stable Asset Management, discusses investing in investment firms, commonalities among founders, challenges faced by investment firm founders, the importance of motivation and passion in the industry, valuation and pricing of investment firm general partners, aspects of success in the investment industry, and the benefits of starting an investment firm at a young age.

Doug Leone, venture capitalist, discusses his tough start at Sequoia, the technicalities of great go-to-market motions, and shares advice for other investors in the industry. He emphasizes the importance of keeping things simple and clear. Topics also include the evolution of venture, scarcity of talented founders, surviving high school, common failure modes of investors, building competitive advantage, navigating the dot-com bubble burst, and acts of kindness and gratitude.