Non-Traditional Endowment Investing

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[00:02:38] - [First question] - What he learned about markets from quant fixed income trading 

[00:04:42] - How his experience shaped his degree of skepticism of the world

[00:05:15] - The story that brought him to Grinnell College 

[00:06:45] - What his education was like back in 2010 and what seemed sensible and insane when he arrived

[00:08:05] - The style of investment he learned at Grinnell compared to his style now

[00:09:37] - His philosophy around trying to have more direct ownership

[00:11:00] - Why their co-investment approach is outperforming the rest 

[00:12:03] - Lessons learned about choosing good partners and doing it effectively over time

[00:13:51] - Things that are most enjoyable about getting to know new managers 

[00:14:25] - The role that global travel and having boots on the ground plays in his success

[00:16:17] - Why they spend so much time in frontier and emerging markets

[00:18:21] - Lessons learned from investing in China and thoughts on it today 

[00:20:10] - What else he’s learned in continental Asia outside of China

[00:21:02] - Interests and red flags when it comes to investing in the venture space

[00:23:16] - The worst things he sees from venture investors 

[00:24:39] - Whether or not venture investors should care more 

[00:26:16] - The virtues and vices in private equity and his thoughts on that space

[00:27:55] - What percentage of investors in private equity are investors versus just involved to try and engineer returns

[00:28:59] - His impressions on hedge funds and the evolution of the hedge fund model

[00:31:18] - The role that credit can play in a portfolio like the one he manages now 

[00:33:10] - Common characteristics of managers that perform well in credit 

[00:34:20] - How he thinks about the sources of returns in the “other” portfolio category 

[00:36:34] - Everything he’s learned about asset managers acting as asset gatherers

[00:39:35] - Ways he fights convergence and tracking error overseeing so much capital 

[00:41:49] - What it’s like to go through the bad side of tracking error

[00:44:27] - Thoughts on how the macro environment influences allocating time and resources

[00:45:43] - What he sees as a normal level of tracking error for endowments and foundations

[00:46:59] - Why such big pools of institutional capital tend to look so similar 

[00:48:10] - Whether or not real estate sits somewhere between stocks and bonds

[00:49:07] - The cultivation of a talented investment team and effectively teaching investing 

[00:51:10] - Colliding managers in a fun and spirited way at meetings 

[00:52:16] - An investing trip from his career that he finds most memorable

[00:53:34] - Whether or not the factors that sort winners from losers will be different today compared to a decade ago

[00:52:50] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him