Block’s Post

Recently, I had the honor of speaking with Aoifinn Devitt on her Fifty Faces podcast about my background and career history in investing, as well as the importance of a strong culture and the assurance of psychological safety in investment management firms. A strong culture should be based on a clear mission, vision, or purpose – enforced by a company’s people in their day-to-day work but also by the behavior and conduct of the leadership. And when there is psychological safety on top of that, there are fewer errors, better teamwork and cohesion, less turnover, and better investment outcomes. I have found the combination of a strong culture and psychological safety to be extremely powerful, but ephemeral unless a firm remains committed to maintaining both. #HardingLoevner

Continuing my Included VC Investment Committee Insight series. We had the honor to have a Senior Associate at Notion Capital, Radu Bozga join in at our second IC session. 🌟 Below are the invaluable insights and lessons I gained from his live deck review. One key takeaway: 'Be close enough to the market to understand it, but not close enough to overlook a risk.' 💡 Thank you,Radu Bozga, for the incredible session and learning opportunity. We hope to see you back again soon! 💼✨ Link to part 1: https://lnkd.in/eTjdZdct #InvestmentCommitteeInsights #VC #StartupEvaluation #NotionCapital #VentureCapital #Pitchdecks #IncludedVC

🔥 THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO ASK JAMIE DIMON AND RAY DALIO A QUESTION 👇👇👇 Here at Finimize, we’re gearing up for our Modern Investor Summit – the biggest event of its kind – complete with a Wall Street-studded lineup of speakers. Speakers at our Modern Investor Summit on December 5th and 6th include: ▶️ Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates ▶️ Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan chairman and CEO  ▶️ Cathie Wood, founder, CEO, and CIO of Ark Invest ▶️ Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab …and many more You can submit your questions in the next 24 HOURS by using the link in the comments 👇👇👇

In his latest MB on VC article "The (Not-so) Secret to Identifying Expert Money Managers," BIP Ventures Managing Partner Mark Buffington delves into the science of identifying expert fund managers. Many capital allocators miss the mark, often settling for surface-level indicators rather than spotting emerging experts before the general market does. Mark advocates for a systematic approach rooted in Expertise Studies. The multidisciplinary field provides a framework to evaluate managers on mentorship, self-motivation, and a robust measurement system, among other qualifiers. Read this academic, actionable piece here: #InvestmentManagement #ExpertiseStudies #CapitalAllocation #BIPVentures

12 Early Stage Investing Insights I Wish I Had Known Earlier:

Laura and Nato are live to talk about all the twists and turns that brought them to funding and running a venture capital firm. Learn more about their journey and start building your own assets with the Zero Trust Cockpit with Cloud-Jutsu: https://lnkd.in/gbvDYEWk

The 14th edition of the Alt Goes Mainstream by The AGM Collective is out! Every Sunday, I share news, trends, job postings at alts companies, and insights on the continuing evolution and innovation in private markets. This weekend's AGM Alts Weekly dives into lessons learned from this week's AGM podcast with John Burbank and Ken Wallace from Nimble Partners, LLC. John, who was a prolific global macro hedge fund manager since the early 2000s from founding Passport Capital, and Ken, who has backed some of the best-performing emerging manager VCs, including Chris Sacca's famed Lowercase Capital fund that returned over 200x, in his time at Industry Ventures, provide unique perspectives and investing lessons. I’ve distilled their podcast down into four W’s of investing. 🌎 World: Macro matters because big trends will drive returns. 🏆 Winners: Winners will win big. ⏳ Waiting: Going long duration is a superpower. 🏀 Warriors: Why John's investment in the Golden State Warriors is a lesson on investing in the best. Read the full post 👇 This AGM Alts Weekly covers: 🗂️ AGM Index, an index that tracks the leading publicly traded alternative asset managers. 🗞️ AGM News of the Week, this week covering:  📌 Institutional Investor's Hannah Zhang on how endowments and foundations are fueling OCIO growth. 📌 Financial Times' William Louch & Josephine Cumbo on private equity firms offering fee concessions to raise their current funds. 📌 PitchBook Data's Nicolas Moura, CFA, Charlie Farber, Oscar Allaway on the increased participation of private capital in European football. I share thoughts about trends covered in this great PitchBook report. I've covered this topic on Alt Goes Mainstream in the past - and you can hear from Shaun Harvey of Wrexham AFC, Julie Uhrman of Angel City Football Club, & Nicolas Julia of Sorare for deep dives into the continued evolution of sports as an investable opportunity. 💻 Who is hiring: Senior-level positions from companies like 73 Strings, bunch, iCapital, Republic, Allocate, Isomer Capital. Subscribe 👇 to see what's going on in alts so you and your firm can stay up to date on the latest trends and navigate this rapidly changing landscape as alts go mainstream. https://lnkd.in/etb8c7e7

New Post: MiB: Michael Rockefeller, Woodline Partners -     This week, we speak with Michael Rockefeller, Co-Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of Woodline Partners. The firm launched in 2019 with around $2 billion in initial assets, and became one of the fastest-growing emerging funds over the past few years. They now manage $7 billion in assets. The hedge fund implements a market-neutral equity strategy, focused on generating “idiosyncratic alpha” and “avoiding systemic risk factors.” Previously, he worked as a Portfolio Manager at Citadel Global Equities and as an Analyst at Millennium Management. We discuss why Woodline does not focus on Macro events, as they are market-neutral. They seek out the best and worst stocks in various sectors to run a long short portfolio. A list of his favorite books is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here next week. You can stream and download our full conversation, including any podcast extras, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Bloomberg. All of our earlier podcasts on your favorite pod hosts can be found here. Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Stephen Suttmeier, director and the Chief Equity Technical Strategist at Merrill Lynch. His regular publications include the Monthly Chart Portfolio of Global Markets, Sectors and Stocks on the Move. Stephen is a highly ranked analyst, was Institutional Investor All-America Research Poll, and was the winner in the Best Bank for Equity Research category in the 2016 and 2017 Technical Analyst Awards.     Mike Rockefeller Books   Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle by John Rolfe and Peter Troob   Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson       #MiB #Michael #Rockefeller #Woodline #Partnershttps://dailylifefinance.com/mib-michael-rockefeller-woodline-partners/

What's more important, return on investment or a story? The answer may surprise you. In just one instance of a compelling narrative in spite of terrible returns, Ark Invest has destroyed $14 billion of its investors' hard earned capital over the last few years, while the company has pocketed hundreds of millions in fees. Sometimes a story is all you need and investing acumen be damned. https://lnkd.in/geFAU2qy If you answered "returns" to the above question, then you're more like us. We've been in the returns business for almost a decade and plan to continue on that same path for a small cohort of like-minded investors. We think that's a more compelling story than one of grandiose proclamations that never seem to come true.

Franklin Venture Partners is a corporate venture capital arm of Franklin Templeton. Franklin Venture Partners invest in mid- and late-stage private companies it believes are poised for transformative impacts across multiple industries. They bring together multiple investment managers with specialized capabilities, so you can easily access a broad range of solutions through one trusted global partner. They have broadened their capabilities by attracting leading public and private market investment managers to their firm. They preserve the investment independence of each manager and underpin it with large-scale expertise in distribution, marketing, operations, and risk management practices. And their strong corporate balance sheet provides them with financial stability to support these investment capabilities across market cycles, which allows each manager to stay true to their process, philosophy, and style. https://lnkd.in/gZVRgMm3 #venturecapital #firm #enterprenuers