Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon - Abe Finkelstein of Vintage Investment Partners on Israel, Tech Investing, and Living Through Multiple Market Cycles (EP.207)

Abe Finkelstein of Vintage Investment Partners on Israel, Tech Investing, and Living Through Multiple Market Cycles (EP.207)

06/23/22 • 41 min

I’m excited for today’s guest, Abe Finkelstein. For over five years I’ve been picking his and his partners' brains, which is why I love this job – I love being able to tap into the wealth of knowledge from people like Abe. He’s a GP at Vintage Investment Partners based out of Israel – a $3 billion fund of funds with an interesting model. We talk Israel, we talk growth, we talk about tech and how all this stuff works – all the parts of the system and how you get capital. Prior to joining Vintage in 2003, Abe was an equity analyst with Goldman Sachs covering Israeli technology companies. Before Goldman, Abe was Vice President at US Bancorp Piper Jafray, where he helped start and then headed their Israel technology shares institutional sales effort. Abe has a BS in Economics from the Wharton School, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Guest - Abe Finkelstein, General Partner at Vintage Investment Partners

howardlindzon.com, vintage-ip.com

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @Vintage_Inv, @knutjensen

linkedin.com/in/abe-finkelstein

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance

Show Notes:

Introduction. (00:40)
Welcome Abe. (04:09)
Starting a career in finance. (06:17)
Moving to Israel. (07:25)
Getting Vintage off the ground. (10:25)
Living through multiple market cycles. (10:57)
Deploying funds across three geographies. (11:37)
Making few direct investments recently. (12:47)
The disconnect in public and private markets. (13:17)
A world with 10 Softbanks. (15:11)
Younger managers have never seen a downturn. (16:31)
Start learning the underlying portfolios. (22:15)
Living in Israel. (23:06)
Panicked about traveling again. (29:31)
Waiting for the next $10, or $100 billion Israeli company over the next 10 years. (30:16)
Looking towards Europe. (31:33)
Intrigued by web3 and the gaming ecosystem. (32:37)
Favorite cities to visit. (34:07)
Wrapping it up. (38:48)
Closing thoughts. (39:44)

Guest - Abe Finkelstein, General Partner at Vintage Investment Partners

howardlindzon.com, vintage-ip.com

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @Vintage_Inv, @knutjensen

linkedin.com/in/abe-finkelstein

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance

Show Notes:

Introduction. (00:40)
Welcome Abe. (04:09)
Starting a career in finance. (06:17)
Moving to Israel. (07:25)
Getting Vintage off the ground. (10:25)
Living through multiple market cycles. (10:57)
Deploying funds across three geographies. (11:37)
Making few direct investments recently. (12:47)
The disconnect in public and private markets. (13:17)
A world with 10 Softbanks. (15:11)
Younger managers have never seen a downturn. (16:31)
Start learning the underlying portfolios. (22:15)
Living in Israel. (23:06)
Panicked about traveling again. (29:31)
Waiting for the next $10, or $100 billion Israeli company over the next 10 years. (30:16)
Looking towards Europe. (31:33)
Intrigued by web3 and the gaming ecosystem. (32:37)
Favorite cities to visit. (34:07)
Wrapping it up. (38:48)
Closing thoughts. (39:44)

Previous Episode

The WSJ's own Spencer Jakab - Research Analyst Turned Journalist on the Revolution that Wasn't (EP.206)

My special guest today is Spencer Jakab from the Wall Street Journal – I say special because I’m doing something I rarely do – talking about stuff that’s fascinating to me. Normally I’m fascinated by the people, but don’t understand half the stuff we talk about because I’m learning; whether it’s crypto or trading. This episode is near and dear to my heart because we’ve got a true journalist on the show, not because he went to journalism school, but because after spending a decade at Credit Suisse, Spencer went out and learned journalism on the job. He’s the editor of the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column, and he recently published The Revolution That Wasn’t. And Spencer is one of the good guys. We’ve hung out quite a bit – he’s always been supportive of community and he understands what it’s like to build brand and how hard it is to survive in the financial world. It’s safe to say he’ll be a recurring guest here on Panic. Enjoy the episode.

Guest - Spencer Jakab, Journalist and Author of the book “The Revolution That Wasn’t”

howardlindzon.com, spencerjakab.com/buy-my-book

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @Spencerjakab, @knutjensen

[email protected]

linkedin.com/in/spencer-jakab-43b635b

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance

Show Notes:

Introduction. (00:40)
Welcome Spencer. (04:22)
Working for Rupert Murdoch. (04:43)
Moving from Research Analyst to Journalist. (06:40)
Using the Print Edition to spot developing stories and trends. (08:06)
The revolution that wasn't. (11:17)
Robinhood, Wall Street Bets, and Gambling Culture. (11:52)
Cornering the Market. (14:50)
Retail versus 'The Suits'. (16:23)
It went down in real time on Twitter. (20:45)
From immigrant to Columbia. (23:15)
Bull Market geniuses. (25:27)
The fintech disruption that wasn't. (26:36)
Addressing the retirement crisis. (27:44)
Painful lessons for young people. (28:20)
Bit by the gambling bug. (29:21)
Fear and Greed. (33:42)
Getting on the financial ladder has never been easier. (37:06)
Dealing with the old guard. (38:04)
The need to educate investors. (39:02)
It's all Jesse Livermore 2.0. (41:23)
SEC should do their job. (43:31)
Being careful about leverage. (45:01)
Wrapping it up. (47:21)
Closing thoughts. (48:34)

Next Episode

Matt Ober of Social Leverage on Embracing Data, Information, and Technology to Make Smarter Decisions (EP.208)

Today’s guest, Matt Ober, is a really good friend of mine. We laugh about everything – but now we’re laughing on the same team, which is the best. Matt joined Social Leverage as a GP a few months ago – and he’s the upgrade we’ve needed to think about the future as the surface of tech continues to expand. Matt was most recently the Chief Data Scientist at Third Point. Prior to that he was head of Data Strategy at WorldQuant and part of the WorldQuant Ventures founding team focused on private investments.

Matt is based out of New York City, which gives us boots on the ground there as the web evolves into the next web. He’s also started his own company, which we talk a little bit about; I’m always excited to have people on our team who have companies – it keeps the entrepreneurial juices flowing. Matt is wicked smart and knows the business. We overachieved by bringing him on board. He’s got all the gifts – he knows how to be social, and how to ask the right questions.

Guest - Matt Ober, General Partner at Social Leverage

howardlindzon.com, socialleverage.com

Twitter: @howardlindzon, @PanicwFriends, @obermattj, @knutjensen

linkedin.com/in/matt-ober-caia-b2469214

#fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance

Show Notes: