Special Situations in Private Markets

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(00:03:15) - (First question) - What defines the nature of a perfect business in his mind

(00:05:21) - Key characteristics he’d look for in a perfect investment

(00:09:58) - Coordination problems that excite him

(00:14:02) - Raising funds and ghostship companies 

(00:16:17) - Examples of a special situations transaction in private markets 

(00:18:55) - Building up a sourcing mechanism

(00:22:18) - The biggest mistakes he’s seen in buying and selling companies 

(00:25:42) - Refining the underwriting process

(00:28:57) - Thoughts about minimum rates of return and multiples on capital for the investments he makes 

(00:30:44) - Being lazy enough to wait for good deals on enduring businesses 

(00:33:32) - Why people do things they don’t like 

(00:35:47) - Whether or not he feels like he knows what he wants in life

(00:40:48) - Invest Like The Best - Kevin Kelly; The reward for good work is more work 

(00:42:58) - Hiring CEOs

(00:44:54) - Really good respective returns in low risk companies and why those opportunities continue to persist   

(00:47:05) - Tactics for negotiating with and sourcing CEOs  

(00:50:37) - Binaries - pre and post fall

(00:55:58) - Being hard to kill

(00:59:15) - His favorite interview question 

(01:06:07) - Having an audience is incredibly underpriced 

(01:10:13) - What else is significantly underpriced

(01:12:14) - Things he feels are overpriced today writ large

(01:15:54) - Criticisms of the cult of learning

(01:20:21) - The one call that everyone needs to make 

(01:27:18) - Meeting your heroes and having mentors 

(01:30:48) - Notable differences between the business environments of Canada and the US

(01:33:13) - Lessons learned from people he admires and models for seeing the world 

(01:35:35) - Views he holds that would make people scratch their heads

(01:40:02) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him