In response to my post on VC’s increasing use of operationally focused team members, HBS professor Noam Wasserman sent me an excerpt of his dissertation on ‘The Venture Capitalist as Entrepreneur: The Characteristics and Dynamics Within VC Firms’. A key point he makes in this paper is that, “Most strikingly, a large percentage of the...
[Continue Reading]How Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds Grow the Value of Portfolio Companies
One of the major themes of the evolution of the private equity industry for the past decade has been the growth of internal groups focused on enhancing the value of portfolio companies. Twenty years ago, the great majority of the people working in private equity came out of investment banking, i.e., a deal background. Today,...
[Continue Reading]Visiting Singapore April 23-29: Presenting to Founder Institute, Venture Capital & Private Equity Association, CFA Singapore, and others
I’m very excited to be visiting Singapore for the first time April 23-29; I may stay longer in Asia depending on business exigencies. I’m visiting as part of the faculty for the local launch of Founder Institute, with sponsorship from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and others. I will also be meeting with some...
[Continue Reading]Launch of Track.com, a market for independent Wall Street research
Four days ago, a team of Wall Street veterans launched Track.com, a new marketplace for independent research providers. I met with the management team today. Track.com offers independent research providers a platform to distribute their intellectual property. Buyers pay subscriptions for access to the pool of content. Similar to Value Investors Club, the general public...
[Continue Reading]Martin Wolf and Robert Shiller: The Future of Investing
(Milton Friedman) I attended breakfast yesterday morning at the Levin Institute and heard a discussion between Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times, and Robert Shiller, Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics, Yale University. My notes follow: WOLF: You used to be one of the few Keynesians in economics. Suddenly in a...
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