Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast is a special show with 3i Members co-founder Mark Gerson.

Alt Goes Mainstream’s first sponsor is 3i Members, an investing network built on community, collaboration and capital that was co-founded by Mark Gerson, Billy Libby, and Teddy Gold. 3i Members is a global deal network for accomplished private investors. Members uncover, share, and diligence high-quality investment opportunities in private markets. The network offers more than just investment opportunities, providing access to expert databases, legal services, international events and retreats, masterclasses, asset allocation workshops, and other resources.

Mark is a serial entrepreneur who has built a number of communities that have revolved around some form of crowdsourcing.

In addition to founding 3i Members, Mark founded Gerson Lehman Group, a knowledge brokerage and primary research firm, that figured out how to use the power of community to serve its customers. He also founded United Hatzalah, a crowd-sourced system of volunteer first response that enables Israelis to be treated within the moments separating life from death following any medical trauma. He also co-founded and is the Chairman of African Mission Healthcare, which enables Christian medical missionaries to provide clinical care, training, and medical infrastructure for people throughout Africa.

From co-founding United Hatzalah of Israel to building a unique community in the private markets space with 3i Members, Mark shares his experiences and the profound impact of community and crowdsourcing in both philanthropy and private markets. The episode dives into the intricacies of building capable, engaged communities, the conceptual differences between a network and a community, and the unique approach of 3i Members in creating a collaborative investing landscape. We discussed:

• Mark’s journey and the significance of pro-social behaviors and intellectual curiosity among investors.
• How 3i Members facilitates a space for private investors to share, scrutinize, and engage with high-quality investment opportunities.
• The importance of asking the right questions in investment.
• ROI-based philanthropy
• The value of non-transactional relationships within communities.

Thanks Mark for coming on the show to share your stories and wisdom.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to the Mainstream: The Alt Goes Mainstream Podcast Intro

00:42 Introducing 3i Members: A New Era of Investing

01:11 Mark Gerson's Journey: Building Communities and Crowdsourcing Success

02:59 The Power of Community in Crowdsourced First Response

07:59 3i Members: Crowdsourcing in the Investment World

09:44 The Art of Building and Maintaining Quality Networks

12:02 The Philosophy of No-Selling in Building Trust and Community

14:59 Engineering Serendipity: Fostering Organic Growth and Engagement

19:59 Investment Strategies and Learning from the 3i Community

24:40 The Future of Investing with 3i Members

34:51 ROI in Philanthropy: A New Approach to Giving

40:09 Closing Thoughts

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast provided us with an in-depth tour of financial markets with a student of both finance and history. And what a tour guide we had. Marc Rubinstein, an investment professional with 25 years of experience researching and investing in financial services joined us on the show.

Marc started his career as an equity research analyst, where he ultimately became a MD at Credit Suisse, leading the European banking sector equity research group before joining Lansdowne Partners. Lansdowne was one of Europe’s largest hedge funds, where he was a Partner and managed the award-winning $4B global long/short financials equity fund.

He retired from Lansdowne in 2016 and, after going back to school to obtain his MBA from LBS, he launched Net Interest, a wildly popular and incredibly thoughtful newsletter on financial sector themes. I find Marc’s thoughts and views on Net Interest equal parts insightful and digestible. Marc is also an active value investor and early-stage fintech investor, where he was an early investor in Revolut. He’s also a contributor to Bloomberg Opinion.

Marc and I had a fascinating conversation about a number of themes that are defining private markets. We discussed:

• Why most businesses are marketplaces and what that means for how one should evaluate a business.
• Whether or not private credit is a systemic risk.
• Why the Silicon Valley Bank crisis occurred and why private credit firms are filling the void.
• Where to look for new asset classes and how they become institutionalized.
• The nuts and bolts of alternative asset managers as businesses.
• Why pod shops have featured in the hedge fund world and why PE and VC will have different versions of pod shops.
• Why content is key for financial services businesses.
• How financial media has evolved and why the narrative arc of companies is a perspective that Marc enjoys covering

Thanks Marc for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom on financial services and financial markets.

Chapters

Introduction and Background

Getting into the World of Finance

Banks Today and the Rise of Alternative Asset Managers

Regulatory Concerns and Private Credit

Systemic Risk and Excessive Growth

Identifying Risks in Private Credit

Scale and Returns in Asset Management

The Growth of Large Platforms in Private Markets

The Equilibrium of Scale and Returns

The Convergence of Traditional and Alternative Asset Management

The Trend of Evergreen Funds in Private Markets

The Acquisition of GIP by BlackRock

The Competition Between BlackRock and Blackstone

The Merging of Traditional and Alternative Asset Management

The Future of Active Management

Lessons from the Financial Crisis

The Impact of Media on Financial Services

The Trend of Permanent Capital in Private Markets

The Evolution of Media in Financial Services

The Role of Content in Financial Services

The Importance of Understanding Financial Services History

The Relevance of Deep Analysis in Financial Services

Value Creation through Content

Different Paths for Content Businesses

Purity of Content in Financial Services

The Future of Content in Financial Services

The Impact of AI on Investment Recommendations

The Value of Artisanal Work and Intelligence

Pod Shops in Private Markets

GP Stakes as an Analogy to Pod Shops

The Psychology of Discounting Private Markets

The Growth and Sustainability of Private Markets

Infrastructure as an Interesting Alternative Investment

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s episode features an enabler of the micro VC movement who has now scaled his business into one of the industry’s larger fund administrators. Braughm Ricke is the Founder and CEO of Aduro Advisors, a leading fund administrator that has carved out a sterling reputation in the VC world.

He's grown the business to over $114B+ AUA and over 450+ customers, that counts many of the leading VC funds, including Lowercarbon, Cowboy Ventures, Ahoy Capital, Craft, Haystack, Boost VC, and others, as customers. They've also managed to combine a high-quality service with innovative technology and a partnership strategy that has enabled them to differentiate from other fund admins.

Prior to founding Aduro, Braughm was the founding CFO of True Ventures, a leading Silicon Valley VC fund. Braughm is incredibly knowledgeable about the private markets space more generally and is also an active investor in the private markets startup ecosystem, investing early in the likes of Carta, Allocate, Passthrough, Arch, and others.

Braughm and I had a fascinating conversation about the evolution of fund administration. We discussed:

• Why Braughm started with emerging managers and the unmet need he saw to serve them.
• Why he believed the emerging manager landscape would grow.
• How he’s moved upstream beyond venture capital clients.
• How fund admin can integrate technology.
• Will AI change fund administration?
• Advice Braughm would give to founders building in private markets.

Thanks Braughm for coming on the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast to share your wisdom on building a core infrastructure provider for private markets.