2024.04.05
Investment diligence as a mosaic & creative blocks
My first podcast appearance was just released this week, linked below to listen, share, illustrate, etc. The main topic is institutional investing into venture capital, as well as how to overcome scale and governance challenges in doing so. More so, it’s about the need to approach investing like art, to work at the intersection of creativity and conviction.
David Zhou highlighted this quote from the episode: “Don’t overweight the quantitative over the qualitative.” I’ve often run into the misperception that investing like art is all qualitative—no research, no analysis, only vibes. That’s not how I see it. The work involved to create an investment opportunity is like a mosaic, with many different pieces and elements coming together to form a decision. The quantitative analysis of a manager’s performance plays an important part, but it’s still just one piece—it shouldn’t be the totality of the diligence work. If it did, that institution’s portfolio would just be chasing the performance, trends, and cycles of past funds. They’d miss whatever waves are coming next.
Lastly, this is the first public content I’ve been involved with in a while. Despite talking a lot about investing with creativity, I’ve felt a block in creative pursuits (writing included) these past couple years. This podcast is a step towards cracking that block.
I hope you enjoy the podcast, and the eclipse on Monday (for all those who celebrate).