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Bill Ackman: SVB Collapse, Biden vs Trump, How I Lost $400M on Netflix, Bill's 10-Year Long

Bill Ackman is the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC-registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets. Bill is also a member of the board of Universal Music Group N.V. He serves as a member of the Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School. Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC. --------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:40 How Bill Raised His First Fund 4:13 Bill’s Relationship with David Berkowitz 6:40 How Bill Decides Who to Trust 8:27 What is Bill running from/towards? 10:26 Losing $400M on Netflix 18:19 Tips for Position-Sizing 23:35 Why Bill Posts on Twitter 26:58 The SVB Banking Crisis 42:31 Bill’s Relationship to Money 45:58 Tips for a Happy Marriage 49:26 Tips for Raising Kids as a Rich Person 51:50 The Trend Most Investors Are Missing 52:48 Who Bill Most Admires 53:50 Bill’s Favorite 10-Year Long & Short 55:08 Why Bill’s SPAC Failed 57:26 Bill’s Idea to Fix Income Inequality 1:00:42 Problems with the Tax Code Today 1:03:35 What scares Bill Ackman about the economy? 1:05:40 Will America be stronger or weaker in 10 years? ---------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Bill Ackman We Discuss: 1. From HBS to Starting Your First Fund: - How did Bill go from HBS to raising his first fund in Gotham Partners? How was that first fundraise? - From 100 meetings, what worked? What did not work? What were the core fundraising lessons? - What did Bill learn about great partnerships from his time with David building Gotham? 2. Bill Ackman: A Winner’s Mindset: How To Deal with the Highs and Lows: - On reflection, what have been the most challenging times for Bill professionally? - What does he say to himself when he is going through the hardest times? What is his mind talk? - When the war is lost and it is time for learning, how does Bill reflect and learn from losses? - Bill has previously described himself as “the most persistent man in America”. How does Bill know when enough is enough, he was wrong and it is time to change his approach? 3. Bill Ackman: SVB + Bank Runs and The Future of our Financial System: - Why does Bill believe that the depositor guarantees for SVB and Signature Bank have created a “Three Tier Banking System”? What are those three tiers? - Why does Bill believe that SVB is now the safest place to deposit your money? Why is First Republic Bank and SVB very different in terms of their exposure? - What can be done to prevent further bank runs? What should the Fed be doing? Why are they not doing it? What would Bill do if he was in charge of the Fed? - Why does Bill believe the current levels of FDIC insurance are insufficient and outdated? What should be used in their place? 4. Bill Ackman: The World Around Us & Potential Politician - Why does Bill want Jamie Dimon to run for President? If it is Trump vs Biden, who wins? - Why does Bill believe Biden’s tax policies destroy the US economy? What should we have instead? - Why does Bill believe we should give every newborn baby $6,500 and invest it for them when born? - What are Bill’s 10-Year Long’s and 10-Year Shorts? Why them? - Would Bill ever run for politics? When is the right time? ------------------------------------------------ Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact/ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on X: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Bill Ackman on X: https://twitter.com/BillAckman Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com ------------------------------------------- #BillAckman #HarryStebbings #SVBcollapse #pershingsquare

Bill AckmanguestHarry Stebbingshost
Mar 19, 20231h 6mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Bill Ackman on risk, resilience, politics, and fixing capitalism’s flaws

  1. Bill Ackman recounts his early days raising Gotham’s first fund, lessons from key failures like Gotham’s closure and the $400M Netflix loss, and how those experiences shaped his approach to risk, liquidity, and position sizing at Pershing Square.
  2. He explains why he is outspoken publicly, especially on Twitter, and lays out his views on banking fragility, the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, FDIC reform, inflation, and how the Fed should respond to current financial instability.
  3. Ackman explores broader themes including free speech, wealth inequality, smarter tax design, and the role of ownership and compounding in addressing inequality, along with his evolving relationship to money and philanthropy.
  4. On the personal side, he discusses trust, partnership, marriage, parenting in a world of privilege, and hints at a possible future in politics while remaining an optimist about America’s long‑term trajectory.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Choose partners you deeply trust and listen to your gut.

Ackman emphasizes that long‑term partnerships work only when built on total trust and aligned character; his rare disappointments came when he ignored early “spidey sense” concerns about people.

Design your investment vehicle to match assets and liabilities.

Gotham’s downfall stemmed from mixing illiquid private investments with redeemable capital; Pershing Square was built to avoid this asset‑liability mismatch by focusing on large, liquid public companies.

Systematically learn from both losses and missed opportunities.

He analyzes not only losing investments (e.g., Netflix) but also under‑sized or missed trades (like his interest‑rate hedge), arguing that failing to act boldly on well‑founded views can be as costly as explicit losses.

In crises, focus on daily progress and physical and mental hygiene.

His playbook for dark periods includes sleep, nutrition, exercise, surrounding yourself with people who love you, and making incremental daily progress—leveraging compounding to dig out over months.

Bank stability now requires broader, clearer deposit guarantees.

He argues the SVB episode exposed systemic risk from partial guarantees; a temporary blanket deposit guarantee followed by a reformed FDIC regime with higher insured limits is, in his view, essential to stop runs on regional banks.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

You don’t want to have a tax policy that destroys the economy.

— Bill Ackman

Don’t let the past disrupt the future… start with a blank sheet of paper.

— Bill Ackman

Experience is making mistakes and learning from them.

— Bill Ackman

My conflict, if you will, is I’m long America.

— Bill Ackman

I’ve been consistently happy pretty much since birth.

— Bill Ackman

Early career, raising Gotham Partners, and lessons on trust and partnershipsHandling failure: Gotham’s wind‑down, 2015–2017 slump, and the Netflix lossRisk management, liquidity, hedging, and position sizing at Pershing SquarePublic activism, free speech, and Ackman’s use of Twitter to influence policyBanking system fragility, SVB collapse, FDIC insurance, and Fed policyWealth inequality, tax policy, and ideas for broadening asset ownershipPersonal life: happiness, marriage, parenting, and potential future in politics

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