The Wall Street Lab

#33 David Salem - A Deep Dive into Capital Allocation

This interview is a true master class for anyone interested in capital allocation and manager selection. We had the great pleasure to speak to David Salem, the Co-Chairman of New Providence Asset Management, a firm that provides investment office solutions for endowments, foundations and family offices. David is also a contributor to Epsilon Theory, an online community in which he writes extremely thoughtful articles about investment management and combines it with his passion for the game of baseball.

Before assuming his current post, David served as a Managing Partner at Windhorse Capital Management, which merged with New Providence in 2018. For almost two decades before that, David served as the Founding President and CIO for the Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), a non-profit investment cooperative that managed over $8bn on behalf of more than 700 endowed charities by the time he left.

We discuss many different topics during our conversation, which includes the Yale Model, which then became known as the Endowment Model and why David thinks it may be dangerous for institutions to try to replicate it. We also discuss David’s framework for selecting money managers, what his due diligence process looks like and what he focuses on when meeting a money manager for the very first time.

The topics discussed include:

02:00 – David’s background

06:00 – David’s opinion what it takes to become a great investor

10:00 – The Endowment Model and why David thinks it may be dangerous for institutions to try to replicate it

16:00 – How does David thinks about diversification, as well as his thoughts on how to design an investment program

24:00 – David’s thoughts on how one should account for human biases in the measurement of risk tolerance

33:00 – David’s thoughts on Private Equity and crypto currencies

39:00 – David’s personal process on how to select investment managers

43:00 – Characteristics David looks for (and seeks to avoid) in vetting money managers

49:00 – How does David prepare for a first meeting with a money manager, and what he spends the first meeting on

55:00 – What David thinks about the use of Investment Committee in making investment decisions

59:00 – How does David decide on how when to part ways with managers he has invested in

62:00 – David’s thoughts on mentorship

Please keep in mind this is not investment advice. Full disclaimer at the end of the podcast.

As always, make sure you share the podcast with anyone you think might benefit from the information. And don’t forget to leave us a 5-Star review on iTunes!

Luke, Leo & Andy

Richard Lucas is an angel investor who is currently involved with close to 20 different companies across a variety of industries. He has made many investments into world-class startups over the years, including deals with startups backed by the likes of Y Combinator. For example, Richard was an early investor in the company Estimote, which won the 2013 Tech Crunch disrupt in the Hardware category. Part of the reason why Richard is such a fascinating person to talk to, is that he is involved in a variety of projects outside of his main work. He is the founder of Cambentrepreneurs, an alumni network for the graduates of Cambridge University and others focusing on entrepreneurship. He is also the license holder of Tedx Kazimierz, which is an independently organized Ted event in Krakow, Poland.

Show notes and links: http://www.thewallstreetlab.com/episode-05-richard-lucas-angel-investing/

Our interview with Richard is jam-packed with really great and practical insights into the mind of someone who, in his own words, thinks about the world in terms of problems and solutions. We touch on some of the red flags he looks for before deciding to invest in a business and the importance of building a company with an exit plan in mind:

“If you don’t build a company with an exit in mind, then you don’t really prepare for it.” Richard Lucas

We also discuss the reasons why he has deliberately decided not to exited any of his business, despite having received offers to sell them:

“I’ve never done an exit and that is not because I have never been offered money for my businesses, but it never seemed sensible to take money at 3x or 4x earnings, because 3 or 4 years later you have got the same amount of money if the company doesn’t fail, and you still own it.” Richard Lucas

We also talk about his early experience as an entrepreneur and the lessons he learned, which he openly shares with us. You - yes, you - are lucky for living in an era of information abundance. Don’t take our word for it:

“The great advantage for listeners now is: you can be 19 and or even 10 and listen to this and think: oh, I won’t make the same mistake as Richard Lucas. I am really jealous of you guys for being able to compress all that knowledge”. Richard Lucas

And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

As always, make sure you share the podcast with anyone you think might benefit from the information. And, if you want to be really cool, please leave us a 5-Star review on iTunes.

The next episode will come out on February 9th, in which we share a great conversation with Dr. Nelson Lacey, the director of exams for the CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst) Association.

Stay tuned!

For more information and to subscribe visit us at: http://www.thewallstreetlab.com/

Time Stamps:

• 02:15 –Richard explains what is it that he does for a living
• 09:20 –On holding onto the companies in the long run and not liquidating angel investments
• 11:10 – Richard’s first angel investment
• 14:40 – Acquisitions – deal structuring
• 15:50 – Opportunities created by Angel investing
• 17:05 – Difficulties of B2B businesses
• 20:35 – How Richard tacks the developments in the markets of his portfolio companies
• 22:35 – Media Richard Follows
• 24:50 – How Richard Screens investment ideas
• 27:35 – Typical process of Angel Investing and how to approach an angel investor?
• 33:20 –Is working for a start-up an easier life than a typical job?
• 38:30 – Importance of experience of working at Start-ups
• 41:20 – The way to agree on the pre-money valuation
• 43:00 – Richard’s favourite portfolio company
• 45:45 – Company culture and focus in a start up
• 47:00 – On financial success of a business
• 50:35 – Richard on giving advice to his younger self
• 57:07 – Other projects Richard is working on

Links:

• Richard’s Blog – www.richardlucas.com
• Project Kazimierz Podcast – www.projectkazimierz.com
• TEDxKazimierz – www.tedxkazimierz.com
• The Alumni Group for Entrepreneurship Support by/for Cambridge University Alumni – https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/get-involved/find-a-group/cambentrepreneurs
• Krakow Enterprise Mondays – https://www.facebook.com/Krakowenterprisemondays
• Open Coffee Krakow – www.ockrk.co
• Krakow St...

Howard Marks is co-chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management a leading global investment firm with deep expertise in credit strategies, which manages more than $120 billion in assets. Howard is the bestselling author of the two highly influential books: "Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side" and "The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor". He is also known for his very insightful investor letters, which has been claimed to be must-read material by many well-known investors, including none other than Warren Buffett. Howard holds a B.S.Ec. degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a major in finance and an M.B.A. in accounting and marketing from the University of Chicago.

“Experience is what you got, when you didn’t get what you wanted” – Howard Marks

In our conversation we discuss:

• How Oaktree experienced raising and deploying capital during the GFC of 2008
• The difference between scepticism and negativism
• The similarities between investing and tennis
• The rise of passive investing
• The importance of being a contrarian
• The mood swings of market participants and how that affects one’s own investment decision
• Why he writes and what has kept him motivated to write even though his letters once were not as popular as they are today
• And much more!

“When I see memos from Howard Marks in my mail, they're the first thing I open and read" – Warren Buffett

"Howard is a legendary investor" – Tony Robbins

As always, please do not forget to take 17 seconds to leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts from.

Be well and #stayhome!

Luke, Leo & Andy

P.s. The content of this conversation is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial, accounting, legal, tax.... advice. You know the drill, right? If you want to listen to the full disclaimer, just skip through the amazing conversation with Howard, and go straight to the end of the episode and you will be highly entertained.

Christopher (“Chris”) Schelling is the Director responsible for Private Equity investments at Texas Municipal Retirement System (“TMRS”). Prior to joining TRMS, Chris served as Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Director of Absolute & Real Return at Kentucky Retirement Systems and as an Adjunct Professor of Finance at University of Kentucky, where he taught a class in Alternative Investments.

He If you are an allocator and want to know more about how some of the best in the business go about vetting their private equity fund managers, this episode is for you! Aside from being a well-known columnist for Institutional Investor, and a guy who makes his passion, deep understanding and curiosity for the profession very evident, Chris takes quite a scientific approach to manager selection. We start our conversation by going through Chris’ career, we move on to discuss the due diligence process at TMRS in more detail, covering topics such as their sourcing funnel, how they sperate the “wheat from the chaff” and their investment their investment approval process. We then get very specific about how Chis and his colleagues at TMRS evaluate one of the 4 P’s of manager selection, the People (the other three being Process, Product and Performance). In fact, Chris wrote a great article for Chief Investment Officer about the topic titled “Psyching out Money Managers”, which you can find here and serves as great background for that discussion. Finally, Chris talks about careers as an allocator and what it takes to succeed in this field.

In such trying times marked loneliness and social distancing, give your friends (and your enemies, who knows?) the gift of knowledge and companionship by sharing this podcast with them.

Also, please don’t don’t forget to take 23 seconds to leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts from.

By the way – don’t take anything said in this episode as investment advice. It is not! We might just as well have made all of this up. Be smart and speak to an investment professional if you are looking for advice. For a full version of the disclaimer, I would recommend you go to the very end of this recording. Luke’s sexy British accent alone will make it all worth it!

Be well and #stayhome!

Luke, Leo & Andy

Michael O’Sullivan is the author of the book 'The Levelling' - What's Next After Globalisation? He has a blog with the same name. He is a World Economic Forum Global Futures Council member and Forbes contributor. Michael holds a PhD from Oxford and is the former Chief Investment Officer for International Wealth Management of Credit Suisse.

We talk about his different roles, like being an equity strategist and of course his work as CIO for Credit Suisse. We talk about education and Michael lets us in on his career advice, what it takes to succeed in Finance and the skills a CIO needs. We then jump into Michael’s book “The Levelling” and speak about economics, the impact of globalization, the global financial crisis and many more interesting topics.