The Twenty Minute VCBrad Gerstner: How I Pick Companies; Lessons from Warren Buffet; Chamath vs Gurley | E935
Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- October 10, 2022
- Duration
- 1h 26m
- Channel
- The Twenty Minute VC
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
Brad Gerstner is the Founder and CEO of Altimeter, a life-cycle technology investment firm that manages public and private portfolios. Brad has personally participated in more than 100 IPOs as a sponsor, anchor, and investor. Brad’s notable deals include Snowflake, Mongo, Bytedance, Gusto, Unity, Okta, dbt, Modern Treasury, EPIC Games, Hotel Tonight and Zillow. Prior to founding Altimeter, Brad was a 3-time co-founder where he sold all three businesses (to IAC, Google and Marchex), a founding principal at General Catalyst; a securities lawyer, a former Deputy Secretary of State of Indiana, and a pilot. ------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:02 Brad’s Backstory 5:35 How did your childhood impact your parenting? 6:28 How did you found Altimeter? 10:00 What is the power law? 12:04 The Three Supercycles 15:31 How do you pick companies? 21:01 How do you communicate with founders? 23:55 Price Sensitivity on Reserves 26:04 Value reshuffling 28:59 How does rate of change with interest rates affect your decisions? 32:40 Gurley vs. Chamath 34:50 When’s the right time to take cash off the table? 38:22 Marking Down Books 40:36 Misalignment Between Fees & Alignment 43:29 The Structural Problem with LPs 46:13 Portfolio Concentration 52:30 Altimeter’s Cultural Northstar 54:08 Advice to Young Investors 58:18 Does hustle get in the way of loyalty and discipline? 1:00:17 Biggest Hiring Mistakes 1:02:45 How is Altimeter structured? 1:04:21 Biggest Challenge in Firm Building 1:05:48 What is your relationship to money today? 1:10:23 How do you think about ego management? 1:14:07 How has relationship with friends and family changed? 1:18:36 Brad's Favourite Book 1:19:14 How do you evaluate the next few years for SPACs? 1:20:05 Best investment advice and warning 1:21:03 What is so special about Burning Man? 1:22:41 Brad's Biggest Insecurity 1:24:40 Where do you see Altimeter in 10 years time? ------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Brad Gerstner We Discuss: 1.) From Humble Beginnings in Indiana to 100 IPOs: When did Brad realize his original love of finance and entrepreneurship? What one single question does Brad ask all potential new recruits to determine if they have hustle? What does Brad know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his career? 2.) The Power Law and Supercycles: What is a power law? Why is it the single most important thing in investing? How do the best investors in the world build a framework around supercycles? How does Brad approach market sizing? How does Brad think about market creation when aligning that to his thesis of investing in power laws? How does Brad determine if a large opportunity is a “super-cyle” or a short, time-stamped fad that is unsustainable? How does Brad assess the importance of market timing? 3.) Building Anti-Fragile Portfolios: Portfolio Construction: Why does Brad disagree that the answer to risk mitigation is portfolio diversification? How many companies is enough companies for a diverse portfolio? Price Sensitivity: How does Brad reflect on his own relationship to price? How does this process and mindset change on re-investments? What is needed for Brad to re-invest? Time to Exit: How does Brad analyze when is the right time to exit a position? What are the single biggest mistakes people make when it comes to timing their exit? 4.) The Venture Landscape: Today, What is Happening? Why does Brad believe what has happened over the last 24 months is a great disservice to founders? What are the biggest examples of a complete lack of investor discipline? How should we think about private company valuations in today’s market? Is today’s pricing actually just the new normal? How has the public market pricing impacted the deployment of growth stage checks? How will this play out in the next 12 months? Why does Brad believe there is “not blood on the streets yet”? How does the speed of interest rate change impact our ecosystem so dramatically? ------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/brad-gerstner/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Brad Gerstner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/altcap ------------------------------------- #altimetercapital #bradgerstner #harrystebbings #20VC #venturecapital #venturecapitalist #warrenbuffet #billgurly #chamathpalihapitiya
SPEAKERS
Harry Stebbings
hostBrad Gerstner
guestNarrator
other
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Harry Stebbings and Brad Gerstner, Brad Gerstner: How I Pick Companies; Lessons from Warren Buffet; Chamath vs Gurley | E935 explores brad Gerstner on Power Laws, Purposeful Wealth, and Essentialist Investing Brad Gerstner traces his journey from a financially struggling Indiana childhood to founding Altimeter, explaining how early hardship shaped his risk appetite, ethics, and approach to fatherhood and money. He outlines his investing philosophy around power laws and “super cycles,” arguing for concentrated, thesis-driven bets instead of index-like diversification or FOMO-driven deal making. Gerstner emphasizes discipline on valuation, reserves, and liquidity, especially in the context of changing interest rates, inflated private marks, and recent market excesses. Beyond investing, he stresses essentialism, ego control, and intentional living—using wealth to enable impact, maintain grounded relationships, and raise non‑entitled children.
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