Pods & Recs: No. 188
Today we have Benchmark and Wealthfront co-founder Andy Rachleff on the lessons he’s learned in his career, Jeff Hooke on why the success of private equity is a myth, PIMCO’s Erin Browne with her thoughts and concerns about the market today, and an interview with Haralabos Voulgaris discussing his time with the Dallas Mavericks.
Investing
***Must Listen*** Village Global’s Venture Stories: Andy Rachleff on Investing, Company-Building & Product Market Fit… Lessons from Wealthfront & Benchmark. Few people can have one big success in their life, let alone two. Rachleff falls in the second bucket. He co-founded Benchmark, the legendary VC firm, and was there from 1994–2005. He has since co-founded Wealthfront, a low fee robo-advisor. He shares what led Benchmark to have an equal ownership and compensation structure for partners. Then he explains how his time helping endowments gave him the idea for Wealthfront and shares insights he’s learned since founding the company. [October 19, 2021–43 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker
Odd Lots: Goldman’s Jeff Currie: It’s a Commodities Supercycle, and We Still Haven’t Hit Max Pain. Jeff Currie is the Global Head of Commodities Research at Goldman Sachs and discusses the recent tear in certain commodity prices. He was a commodity bull in January and explains why he remains bullish going forward. He spends a lot of time discussing the rise in oil prices, driven by the lack of investment in the oil & gas sector and the impact of ESG. [October 18, 2021–47 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
Top Traders Unplugged: SI161: Retaking the Turtle Trader Entrance Exam ft Jerry Parker. This fun episode features Jerry Parker answering the original interview questions from Richard Dennis’s famous Turtle Trader program, which he originally took decades ago. Parker’s rationale for each answer serves as a masterclass on the mentality that a trend-follower must have to do well. You can take the test yourself by scrolling down on this link. [October 9, 2021–61 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
The Meb Faber Show
#360 — Erin Browne, PIMCO — I Combine Both A Quantitative Approach As A Starting Point…And Then Overlay A Discretionary Point of View. PIMCO’s Erin Browne discusses all things macro and how her experience as a Strategist at Moore Capital, PM at Point72, and most recently Head of Asset Allocation for UBS Asset Management has helped her develop a framework for looking at the market through both a quantitative and discretionary approach. Erin applies that lens to the world today and shares what she sees, notably the risk of a continued rise in energy prices. She walks us through how that may impact different asset classes and commodity prices. Finally, she looks at global equity markets and shares how the U.S. market compares to Europe, China, and emerging markets. [October 18, 2021–58 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
#361 — Jeff Hooke, Johns Hopkins — The Buyout Business…Has Not Outperformed The Public Stock Markets For The Last 10 or 15 Years. Hooke is a professor at Johns Hopkins and author of The Myth of Private Equity, which explains why the idea that private equity can achieve superior returns and do so with less risk is just not true. He dives into the lack of transparency around fees and returns and then discusses the recent approval to allow 401(k) plans to include private equity investments, specifically why that goes against what the great John Bogle believed. [October 20, 2021–54 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
The Best Investment Writing Volume 5: Sean Duffin, Cambridge Associates — Benefits of Global Diversification. Listen to Sean Duffin read his piece, Benefits of Global Diversification. [October 15, 2021–22 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
The Rest
***Must Listen*** ESPN Daily: EXCLUSIVE: Was a Former NBA Bettor Running the Mavs? Earlier this year, The Athletic ran a story about dysfunction within the Dallas Mavericks organization, with tension between big names like Mark Cuban, Rick Carlisle, Luka Doncic, and Haralabos Voulgaris. You might not have heard of Voulgaris, but he’s likely the most successful gambler in NBA history, earning hundreds of millions of dollars. After Mark Cuban hired him to be a consultant with the team in 2010, his influence grew and he essentially became the ‘shadow GM’ of the team. This episode is his first interview since The Athletic’s story ran earlier this year and is an inside look at the possible dysfunction that can happen without a solid organizational structure. [October 21, 2021–63 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
The Jordan Harbinger Show: 573: David Buss | When Men Behave Badly. Buss is considered the world’s leading scientific expert on the evolutionary psychology of human mating strategies and recently released the book, When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault. He dives into the difference between male and female mating strategies, the different factors that drive infidelity in both sexes, and shares some tough information on rape and sexual assault that he’s learned over his career. [October 14, 2021–86 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (Serial Entrepreneur):
- Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick: People, Probabilities, and Big Moves to Beat the Odds by Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, Sven Smit
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
Fidji Simo (CEO, Instacart):
Ankur Nagpal (Founding Partner @ Vibe Capital):
