Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Chris Sacca is one of the most accomplished venture investors of the last half century. He founded Lowercase Capital in 2010 and made seed stage investments in Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Stripe. Lowercase’s first fund famously became one of the highest returning venture funds in history and landed Chris at #2 on the Midas List in 2017. After retiring together with his wife Crystal that year, they came back to the business to found Lowercarbon Capital to fund “kickass companies that make money slashing carbon emissions.” Lowercarbon manages in excess of $2 billion of outside capital, excluding its largest investor – Chris and Crystal. Our conversation covers Chris’s humble upbringing, early entrepreneurial endeavors, and ups and downs in his early professional years. We cover his transition to Google, foundations of his investing philosophy at Lowercase, and work today at Lowercarbon. Along the way, Chris shares his sourcing of deals, evaluation of founders, and work with portfolio companies. He is a gifted storyteller and a walking case-study on grit. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Gregg Lemkau is the CEO of MSD Partners, the investment firm with roots as Michael Dell's family office. MSD was formed in 1998 to manage $400 million of Michael's capital. In the ensuing twenty-five years, that initial $400 million has grown to north of $20 billion. Gregg joined MSD two years ago after a twenty-eight-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he rose to Co-Head of Investment Banking, served on the Firm's Management Committee, and was widely considered one of a few candidates to succeed David Solomon as Goldman's CEO. Our conversation covers Gregg's career path at Goldman and lessons learned, including entertaining stories about his work with such fascinating entrepreneurs as Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick. We discuss his decision to join MSD, the firm's history, objectives, competitive advantages, and investment capabilities. We then turn to MSD's recently announced merger with BDT Partners, including the rationale, process, and integration of the businesses. We close with a look into the future of the transformed organization. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial

For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.

Next week, we’ll release the first episode of Season 3 of Private Equity Deals, this time focusing on deals in the middle market. As an interlude between Season 2 and 3, this week’s show is a classic – it’s Bain Capital and KKR’s take private of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in 2006. The $33 billion club deal was the largest private equity transaction in history at the time and was significantly larger than any deal since KKR’s famous run at RJR Nabisco in the late 1980s. The HCA deal showed the private equity industry the scale of what was possible and set the stage for both mega buyouts and public to private deals ever since. My guest is Chris Gordon, a Partner and Co-Head of Private Equity in North America for Bain Capital. Bain Capital today is one of the world’s largest private, multi-asset investing firms that oversees over $165 billion in assets. Seventeen years ago, Chris was a younger member of Bain Capital’s HCA deal team. HCA is one of the nation’s leading healthcare services providers, with over 182 hospitals and 2,300 sites of care in 20 states and the United Kingdom. Its origins date back to 1968 when it was one of the first hospital companies in the United States. Our conversation covers HCA’s history, the private equity environment in the mid-2000s, and the impetus for the HCA buyout. We discuss the complexity of navigating a large-scale transaction, conducting due diligence discretely, navigating the financial crisis, and what happened to the company. We turn to HCA’s return to the public markets through an IPO in 2011, Bain Capital’s eventual exit of the investment, and the implications of the deal on the firm and industry. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.