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In the early 1990s, Trump’s Atlantic City Holdings and other ventures dragged down his business empire, leading to bankruptcy. To secure a bailout, he was aided by Wilbur Ross, who later became commerce secretary under Trump. At that time, Wilbur Ross represented the Rothschild banking interests. The Rothschilds, specifically the Wall Street mergers and acquisitions arm they opened in the 1980s, were responsible for bringing Robert Maxwell to New York. The narrative asserts that Trump, as a business icon, would not have existed beyond the early 1990s if it weren’t for the Rothschild banking interests, which are described as having extensive affiliations with people in the Epstein network. The transcript links Epstein’s financial crimes to currency speculation described by the New York Times as a “currency speculation cabal,” and names individuals such as Jamie Goldsmith as being backed by the Rothschilds, as well as George Soros, whose Quantum Fund in the late 1960s was bankrolled by French Rothschild interests. The account emphasizes a long and storied history between the Rothschild family and Zionism, including the establishment of the state of Israel, and portrays the Rothschilds as major patrons of that cause. It concludes by suggesting that the Rothschilds have had substantial influence over Trump, asserting that Trump owes them a great deal. Overall, the narrative draws a chain of connections: the Rothschild banking interests’ influence helped shape Trump’s rise and persistence as a prominent business figure, with Wilbur Ross’s bailout role in the 1990s serving as a pivotal link, and various high-profile financial networks—Epstein-related cohorts, currency speculation participants, and financiers like Jamie Goldsmith and George Soros—being connected to Rothschilds. It also foregrounds the Rothschilds’ historical ties to Zionism and the establishment of Israel as part of their influence, asserting that these relationships have translated into ongoing sway over Trump.

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In 2008, I faced a tough decision with around $30-40 million left. I had two options: invest it all in one company and let the other one fail, or split the money between both companies and risk losing both. It was like choosing which child to let starve. Unable to make that choice, I decided to divide the money between them. Luckily, both companies managed to succeed in the end.

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Speaker 1: Well, the intersection with the global financial crisis specifically is a wild story that to be truly told, you need to put the evidence on screen as well. But the short version is that he had a company called Liquid Funding Limited that was domiciled in The Bahamas that was partially owned by Bear Stearns. And Bear Stearns, you know, is where he had come up for a long time. And Liquid Funding Limited was selling CDOs, the same types of CDOs that eventually caused the global financial crisis. It was capitalized at, I believe, dollars 100,000,000 and allowed to sell $20,000,000,000 with a B of CDOs. Speaker 1: And I actually just was looking at that statistic earlier today because this is the craziest story. And that little CDO factory that Jeffrey Epstein was running tied into Bear Stearns. And if you recall, Bear Stearns was one of the, you know, the first to collapse, right? That shut down in the months directly preceding Bear Stearns starting to collapse. And Jeffrey Epstein redeemed all of those CDOs, all of those assets. Speaker 1: The terms are I don't know the technical terms for what he did. But basically, he made a run on the bank on those exact assets that were the exact problem. And he was tied into the exact bank that was financially distressed. And then he wound that whole company, Liquid Funding Limited, up and disappeared. And later, JPMorgan, the bank that he later worked with after, you know, Bear Stearns was his early banking career, and then he later was doing all of his money laundering and banking and referring of people at JPMorgan, They came in, swooped up Bear Stearns for pennies on the dollar. Speaker 1: They also later spun Liquid Funding Limited back up. There's a whole There's a very overt financial paper trail that Jeffrey Epstein was better acquainted with the problem than almost anyone in the world because he was deeply enmeshed in Bear Stearns and knew the leadership of Bear Stearns very well. And he understood CDOs, he was selling CDOs. And then he just so happens to wind his whole shop up and close it down and redeem it all right at the moment when things are about to go bust. So, that's a wild rabbit hole, and it's very interesting. Speaker 0: I mean, what is that? I mean, that suggests Well, it doesn't suggest it's like direct evidence of, if I'm assuming we can verify what you're saying, that the biggest events in the world are actually not quite as organic or accidental as we're led to believe and that, you know, this is like puppet master stuff. Mean, it is. I don't know what to say. I don't want this to be true, Speaker 1: but Speaker 0: that's what it looks

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After 9/11, I visited the Pentagon and was told we were going to war with Iraq, even though there was no connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda. The explanation was that we had a strong military and could take down governments. I later learned of a memo detailing plans to take out seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. I also had the opportunity to acquire the Twin Towers, which turned out to be very fortunate for my family. After 9/11, I was lucky to avoid going downtown that day. I had the obligation to collect insurance proceeds and got help from Governor Elliot Spitzer to get $4.5 billion. Some people believe that around 4,000 Israelis were warned not to go to work on 9/11.

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The speaker outlines a project to map US State Department involvement with George Soros, The Open Society Foundations, and related entities across many countries, noting that the WikiLeaks cables (Kissinger, Carter, and Cablegate) cover 1973–2010 but omit the 1980s and 1990s. The goal is to create a comprehensive picture of how US policy has aligned with “George Soros, The Open Society Foundation, The Open Society Institute, every open society spandrel in every country.” The speaker highlights that Strobe Talbott in 1995 said US foreign policy had to be synchronized with allied governments and with Soros, describing it as “like working with a friendly, allied, independent entity, if not a government,” and stating that Soros then became “the number one political downer.” The narrative begins with precedents before the Open Society Foundation’s creation in 1979. In 1973–1975, Soros references appear in cables before the Open Society Foundation started. The speaker then focuses on a troubling example from 1976 in Gabon, via a Kissinger cable titled Visit by Brown and Root Executives to Gabon. Brown and Root, later Halliburton, is connected to George Soros through Brown and Root’s executives and projects. The CIA’s reaction to a Ramparts article about Brown and Root is discussed, showing Herman Brown (founder of Brown and Root) and his son George Rufus Brown as covert associates with the CIA under project LP coin, with Herman Brown serving as president and director of Brown and Root and trustee of the Brown Foundation. The claim is that both Herman Brown and his son had covert security clearances and were involved with CIA projects from 1965–1967, including potential service on the board of a CIA creation in Thailand/Laos. Brown and Root is described as one of Soros’s top five holdings in the mid-2000s, implying a CIA-connected origin for the company. A note is given that in Gabon, Soros Associates (founded by Paul Soros, George Soros’s older brother) is involved in port projects. Paul Soros’s shipping and engineering influence is illustrated by a Washington Post obituary, and the speaker mentions a related anecdote from Bill Burns’s autobiography The Back Channel about embassy construction projects in Russia being prebugged, and the implication that Western engineering firms with ties to intelligence could have facilitated spying. Before Open Society Foundations existed, in June 1975 Bandar Abbas Port Project in Iran involved three senior Dravo Corporation executives, plus International Systems, Van Houten Associates, and Soros Associates. The embassy was instructed to assist American bidders to ensure Soros Associates’ bid, noting Soros Associates’ engineering focus and the aim to eliminate competing bids. The government of Iran’s consideration of the American group and the influence of Soros’s bid on Iran’s judgment are documented. In Gabon, 1975–1976, financing arrangements are described: a financing package for Soros’s contract including a down payment by the Gabonese governor, an Export-Import Bank direct loan, and a First National City Bank loan, with the U.S. embassy consulting to emphasize more favorable terms and to potentially extend financing into a larger package. The accounts emphasize multiple U.S. government roles: Commerce Department, State Department, Export-Import Bank, and embassies, colluding to support Soros financing and projects, with the claim that this occurred years before the Open Society Foundations were created and began collaborating with U.S. agencies. The speaker suggests a long-standing family involvement, with older brother Paul Soros already coordinating with the State Department to secure deals for Soros Associates before 1979. The Mongolia story is promised as a later highlight. The compilation is framed as a five-decade pattern of government support for Soros-related deals, starting in 1973 and continuing through the Cablegate era.

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I worked with many Israeli prime ministers and had the idea to own the Twin Towers. Luckily, the governor of New York, George Pataki, decided to privatize the World Trade Center. I received a call from the governor's office asking if I would consider owning it. This turned out to be very beneficial for my family. On the morning of 9/11, I was getting ready to go to the dermatologist and was advised not to go downtown. We were fortunate to collect insurance proceeds, thanks to the help of the newly elected governor, Elliot Spitzer. He listened to me and ensured I received $4.5 billion within six months.

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Specifically, I set out to buy credit default swaps on subordinated tranches of subprime residential mortgage backed securities. We would ultimately use nine different Wall Street dealer counterparties. To be clear well, first I'd say Lehman and Baer, I avoided for obvious reasons, even back then. Goldman Sachs featured very prominently early on. They were a very anxious crew. To be clear, these credit default swaps that I'm buying would rise in value as mortgages are written off and the value of these tranches fell. Goldman Sachs in the spring of 'seven appeared to us to want to make its trade bigger. They wanted a bigger piece of the big short. A lower price, therefore, would benefit Goldman Sachs, and that's how Wall Street works. Incredibly, it would later be reported that more than $60,000,000,000,000, $60,000,000,000,000 in credit derivatives were in effect at the peak.

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I recount a meeting I had with a board at Safeguard Scientifics, where a firm co-located with them had a board member present. I demonstrated what was possible if we reengineered the government money, arguing there was enormous opportunity to build vast financial equity gains and capital gains, and that pension funds could profit by reengineering how the federal budget worked to create a more productive economy. The president of the largest pension fund in the country attended and told me, “you don’t understand.” He explained that this is what they had tried to do when he was younger, working with a group of activists, and they were able to stop them. I naively said, “you didn’t have the Internet. You couldn’t get the learning speeds up locally high enough to jump the curve.” He froze, looked at me, and said, “you don’t understand. It’s too late.” I asked, “what do you mean it’s too late?” He replied, “it’s too late. They’ve given up on the country and they’re gonna move all the money out of the country starting in the fall.” He said, “you’ve got to get to Nick Brady.” Brady had been the chairman of the firm I was a partner at on Wall Street and later became secretary of the treasury in the first Bush administration, known as a leader in how the financial system runs. So the instruction was to get to Nick Brady. I thought the message meant we had been directed to reallocate equity in the pension funds to emerging market investments, which made sense because growth rates in Asia and emerging markets exceeded those in mature economies. But then, at the outset, he mentioned “they’re moving all the money out starting the fall.” That fall marked the beginning of fiscal 1998, when enormous amounts of money began disappearing from my old agencies, HUD and the Department of Defense. What I later came to believe, and we have a website dedicated to presenting documents and analysis on this, is missingmoney.salaire.com. I realized that what he was referring to was a financial coup—an attempt to end the system where bankers controlled monetary policy while the people’s representatives controlled fiscal policy, and instead move to a process in which bankers controlled both. Rather than pursuing new legislation, they would leverage debt, issue vast debt, and siphon money out the back door, effectively conducting a financial coup d’etat, which is what I think has happened.

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I studied economics at Harvard and made money by betting against Home Shopping Network stock. This led me to learn about derivatives and start a hedge fund in 1987 with $265,000. Despite starting just before the crash of '87, our portfolio thrived in market volatility, attracting more capital.

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As president of The United States, I will always support Jewish Americans and I was always I will always be a friend and a champion to the Jewish people. I have been and I will say, you know, if you go back ten, twelve, fifteen years ago at the most, the strongest lobby in Washington was the Jewish lobby. It was Israel. That's no longer true. You have to be very careful. You have a congress in particular, which is becoming anti Semitic. You have AOC plus three. You have those people. Ilhan Omar, she hates Jewish people. And you have to be very careful because there's been a big change. You know, if you go back fifteen years ago, I'm not Jewish, but my father was very friendly with many, many Jewish people. He was honored by federation. I would go with him to federation of Jewish philanthropies and many other things. And, we grew up respecting and loving Jewish people. You know, you don't even think about it, in Brooklyn, in Queens mostly. And my father didn't go to Manhattan. He never went to Manhattan from the standpoint. He could never understand how in Brooklyn you could buy a piece of land for $3 a foot and how in Manhattan you had to pay a thousand dollars a foot. He said, I can't get that. I don't like it. I like to buy it for 3. So it was different. It's a different thinking. In a way, I'm glad he didn't do that because he let me have some of that fun. And it was I had a lot of fun in Manhattan. We did great. But my father would tell me the most powerful lobby that there is in this country is the Jewish lobby. It's the Israeli lobby. It's not that way anymore. You have a lot of people in your way. You have a lot of people that, don't wanna help Israel. You have a lot of people in congress that don't like Israel. You have a lot of people in congress that, in a way, I think, Mike, we could say it. Right? You're there. You're doing an amazing job, Mike Lawlor. You they hate they hate Israel. They hate Israel. And if you would have told me fifteen years ago that that was possible, Jason, I would have said there's no way. There's no way that's possible. But it's happening. And, obviously, it's getting progressively worse. Less so in the Senate, but the Senate's starting also. You get glimmers, you know, when I'm in the back rooms talking to people. You get glimmers of statements that you say, woah, where did that come from? So we have to be, Sid, we have to be very careful because it's bad things are happening. And then you see what goes on in Australia or October 7. How about October 7? And then you have people that deny it ever happened. How about the people that deny like, they deny the Holocaust, but, you know, you figure, well, that's just many years. Well, October 7 is not many years at all. And you have people that deny October's I saw tape that I wish I never saw it, actually. I wish I never saw it. I got to see tape that some of you got to see. But as president, I got to see things I wish I never saw. But there's no denying it. But then they'll say, oh, the tape was a rigged tape. It was a tape that never existed. They made it up. It's just propaganda. I don't know if they believe it. I don't think they believe it, but you have to be very, very careful. Bad things are happening, and we're not gonna let that happen. Well, I'm president and the DOJ and Harmeet, we're not we're not gonna let it happen. But please, please be vigilant and careful because you have some bad people that, are now in congress that were unthinkable unthinkable to be in congress twelve, thirteen, fourteen years ago, fifteen years ago. Within

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Rothschild Asset Management was mentioned. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, thousands of Israelis were warned about 9/11, with 4,000 expected to be at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon that day. The warning was reportedly sent through a messaging system called Odigo. The message warned people not to be at the World Trade Center at 8:45 because all hell would break loose. The speaker claims that the 4,000 Israelis who avoided harm received this warning.

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Speaker 0 contends that the entire Jeffrey Epstein story can be explained if Ace Greenberg brought Jeffrey Epstein into the BCCI deals at Bear Stearns. This, he says, would explain Epstein’s meteoric rise and why many were charmed by him, suggesting the charm was not genuine. He asserts that by 1982 Epstein was already meeting with major intelligence figures, including the CIA, MI6, and Saudi intelligence officials, as well as Doug Lee, Stan Pottinger, Adnan Khashoggi, and Middle Eastern sheiks. The claim is that Epstein handled BCCI at Bear Stearns, disguising illegal weapon sales as complex financial transactions for commodities or oil, which, he argues, explains Epstein’s specialty in complex financial transactions and why he was put on the BCCI account. The narrative connects Epstein’s work with Edgar Bronfman, claiming BCCI was helping US, Saudi, British, and Israeli interests in the Iran-Iraq affair and in Afghanistan. This, he says, explains how Epstein was protected whenever he encountered fraud trouble and that the justice department took action against him for securities violations, yet Epstein publicly stated in court that Bear Stearns was secretly moving money for the CIA, a claim he asserts cannot be disclosed in open court, hence the decision not to prosecute. Further, he claims Epstein had French intelligence connections, British intelligence connections, Israeli intelligence connections, and Saudi intelligence connections, all linked to his broader CIA connections. He ties these networks back to the Safari Club network of the late 1970s, which he says later scaled up into BCCI.

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I studied economics at Harvard and made money by betting against Home Shopping Network stock. This led me to learn about derivatives and start a hedge fund in 1987 with $265,000. Equipped with technology like a fax machine and a satellite dish, I navigated the market crash of '87 successfully. Our fund grew to manage $1,000,000 in capital.

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I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to own the Twin Towers when the governor of New York decided to privatize the World Trade Center. On the morning of 9/11, I was getting ready to go to the dermatologist and luckily avoided going downtown. After the tragedy, I needed help collecting insurance proceeds, so I reached out to the newly elected governor, Elliot Spitzer, who was a friend. He listened and managed to secure $4.5 billion for me within six months. Overall, we were very lucky throughout these events.

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Joe, who ran a hedge fund, failed to hedge the position for 8 years. The hedge would have allowed them to benefit from the upside without any downside. This missed opportunity caused pain for everyone else, but they could have capitalized on it and potentially gained more talent. Instead of having 4.5 million, they could have had 12 million. It would have been better for them if the market went down because they would have been stronger compared to weaker players. Either way, they would have been protected.

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In Atlantic City, Donald Trump acquired three casinos. Despite the risk of overexpansion, he continued to build and enlarge his brand, attracting numerous banks. By the time the banks realized he was nearly a billion dollars in debt, he had become too big to foreclose on.

Founders

Sam Zell's Autobiography
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Sam Zell’s autobiography opens with a blunt creed: entrepreneurship is a calling, not a hobby. From a restless boy in Chicago to the Forbes 400, Zell maps a life built on candor, audacious risk-taking, and a stubborn refusal to follow the crowd. The book, Am I Being Too Subtle? Straight Talk from a Business Rebel, lays out his philosophy—what he calls Zellisms—and his view that conventional wisdom is only a reference point. He promises to reveal which risks paid off, which didn’t, and what he learned building a portfolio of companies. Zell describes independence formed early, shaped by a father who insisted reputation is your most important asset and by a refugee upbringing that makes time precious. His family escaped Poland during the rise of the Nazis; a last-train dash and a two-year odyssey to America left him with deep gratitude for opportunity. He recalls a line about a refugee never forgetting and the conviction that rules should be questioned. He bootstrapped his early ventures, even buying a Playboy magazine for 50 cents and learning the power of scarcity. Two mentors steer the arc of his career: Jay Pritzker, who persuades him to connect with money and deals rather than stay in a traditional firm, and Bob Lurie, his enduring partner who shares a love for puzzle-like transactions. Zell prizes tenacity, focuses on a handful of critical variables, and builds long-term relationships spanning decades. He favors smaller markets over crowded metros, builds a block-long portfolio in Ann Arbor, and lives by the rule of going left when others go right, especially in negotiations and pricing. Arbitrage and scale follow as he reframes real estate as a public, liquid asset class. In the 1970s and 1980s he earned the nickname grave dancer for acquiring billions in assets with little cash down during downturns, a prelude to the rise of REITs. The Equity Office sale to Blackstone in 2007 for about $39 billion caps the story, illustrating his view that timing and liquidity determine value. Personal trials—Bob Lurie’s illness and death, a divorce, a recession—test his resolve, but he adopts a creed: time is precious, culture is built by fast, decisive action, and opportunity favors the prepared.

The Knowledge Project

Stephen Schwarzman | The Knowledge Project #69
Guests: Stephen Schwarzman
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Stephen Schwarzman emphasizes the importance of not losing money, likening his approach to that of a doctor who prioritizes doing no harm. In a conversation with Shane Parrish, he shares lessons from his upbringing, including the value of self-validation and perseverance instilled by his parents. He recounts the influence of his high school track coach, Jack Armstrong, who taught him to push limits and prepare rigorously for competition. Schwarzman reflects on his early career in investment banking, starting at Donaldson, Lufkin, Generate, where he initially struggled due to a lack of knowledge. After serving in the Army, he attended Harvard Business School but found it uninteresting and nearly dropped out. He eventually joined Lehman Brothers, where he learned the ropes of corporate finance. In 1985, Schwarzman co-founded Blackstone with Pete Peterson, initially facing challenges in securing clients due to their lack of established reputation. They eventually raised significant capital, despite early setbacks, and developed a culture focused on rigorous decision-making and risk assessment. Schwarzman stresses the importance of learning from mistakes and fostering a supportive environment for team members. He discusses the financial crisis of 2008, noting that while many firms struggled, Blackstone thrived due to strategic acquisitions made prior to the downturn. Schwarzman believes that understanding market cycles and maintaining a conservative approach are key to success in real estate and finance. He concludes that the best executives are made through experience and training, and that aiming for big ideas can yield greater rewards.

The Megyn Kelly Show

Jordan Belfort on His Incredible Life, Victimhood Mentality, and the Keys to Entrepreneurial Success
Guests: Jordan Belfort
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In this episode of the Megyn Kelly Show, Megyn Kelly interviews Jordan Belfort, famously known as the "Wolf of Wall Street." Belfort recounts his rise and fall in the 1980s and 90s as he ran a successful brokerage firm involved in a pump-and-dump scheme, which ultimately led to his 22-month prison sentence. He discusses his middle-class upbringing in Bayside, Queens, where his CPA parents struggled financially despite their education and hard work. This experience shaped his understanding of financial success, emphasizing the importance of risk-taking and sales skills. Belfort shares how he became a skilled salesman, attributing it to both natural talent and years of training. He recalls his early ventures, including a failed attempt at dental school and a job selling meat door-to-door, which honed his sales abilities. His journey led him to Wall Street, where he worked at LS Rothschild before the 1987 market crash ended that chapter. He then founded Stratton Oakmont, where he employed aggressive sales tactics and trained brokers to sell penny stocks to wealthy clients. The conversation touches on the excesses of Belfort's lifestyle, including rampant drug use and debauchery, which he describes as a product of the high-pressure environment on Wall Street. He reflects on the moral compromises he made, noting that once he crossed ethical lines, it became easier to continue down that path. Belfort discusses his eventual arrest, the cooperation with authorities, and the emotional toll of betraying friends while wearing a wire for the FBI. After serving his sentence, Belfort wrote his memoir, which became a bestseller and inspired a blockbuster film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He emphasizes the lessons learned from his experiences, advocating for ethical behavior and the importance of hard work. Belfort now focuses on entrepreneurship, teaching sales techniques and sharing his story as a cautionary tale, encouraging others to learn from his mistakes while aspiring for success. He concludes by urging young people to model the positive aspects of his journey while avoiding the pitfalls that led to his downfall.

20VC

Billy Hult: 27 Years of Compounding Growth Leading to the Market Leader with $1.4BN in Revenue|E1134
Guests: Billy Hult
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Growing up in Manhattan, Billy emphasizes grit, resilience, and street smarts over pedigree. He recalls a quiet childhood, flourishing when engaged and struggling with things that bored him. His first job was an off-track betting clerk in the South Bronx, a tough apprenticeship—the school of hard knocks that forged his belief in effort and focus. As a CEO, he frames leadership as people management first: set the strategy, then roll up sleeves to execute. He stresses that a company is people, with egos and personalities, and leaders must be external faces while also driving execution. He admires Jamie Dimon’s client focus and uses it as a benchmark for difference-making. He describes making big bets on people, not just deals, and admits that half the bets work while the rest require adaptation or replacement. He reflects on Bear Stearns, 9/11, and 2008 as defining crises, noting how market shocks test nerve, leadership, and the ability to preserve structure amid volatility and geopolitics. On balance, he weighs privilege against hustle, keeps time boundaries strict, and values authentic leadership over charm alone. He cites parenting, regret about missing his kids’ moments, and the need to balance fame, power, and money. He ends by recommending Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe and expressing optimism about Tradeweb’s path.

20VC

Roger Ehrenberg: Why VC Returns Will Get Worse & Why LP Incentive Structures are so Broken | E1117
Guests: Roger Ehrenberg
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Venture is not going to be commoditized. Mid- and late-stage funds may look more like institutional asset management, but incubation, pre-seed, and seed occupy a different place in the universe. The best firms charge premium fees and still outperform after fees, justifying the cost. Boutique investors remain essential, helping founders run experiments to reach product-market fit and serving as the farm system for larger capital to scale the winners. Liquidity has shifted: the greatest source of liquidity now will be continuation funds; existing portfolios raising money from net new investors, and this reflects today’s valuations. Sovereigns were not major players in the last VC cycle, and now they are everywhere. The approach hinges on a fair, market-clearing price for the portfolio that satisfies both the current manager and the net-new continuation fund investor. Exits are framed around IPO readiness with a two-year lead time, and continuation funds are used when IPOs and M&A are scarce. Traditional LP structures are broken; endowments struggle when profit is not the sole driver. Notre Dame’s investment office embodies a mission-driven, long-term approach, prioritizing diligence and relationships over fees. The takeaway: the best endowments invest in people and in mission, not just capital. I remember realizing I could make a lot of money at about 28 or 29 on Wall Street: a $320,000 bonus on a $95,000 base, total $415,000. A later equity program and a six-figure windfall followed, shaping my view of money. Wealth changed little in daily life; we optimized for family. Be different, take risk, don’t play it safe. In ten years I’ll be 68; my children will be 36 and 33, and I hope they run pieces of our family business day-to-day, with me serving more as chair.

20VC

Celtics Owner Steve Pagliuca: What Went Wrong with the Chelsea FC Acquisition | 20VC #976
Guests: Steve Pagliuca
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Harry Stebbings welcomes Steve Pagliuca and starts with a memory of Duke University, the moving van, and a green duffel bag that held almost everything he owned. He credits a supportive family, especially his mother, with believing in him and setting a standard for hard work and presence. He explains how he prioritizes family—attending nearly all his children's games and coaching more than a hundred teams—and notes that balance is hard but essential in a demanding career. He discusses the pivotal moment that shaped his career: a summer at Bain & Company in 1981, which led him to Bain Capital and a transformation from a furniture mover to a growth-minded investor. Mentors like Harry Strachan and Mike DeMato taught him to offer constructive critique without judgment and to balance aggressiveness with perception. He emphasizes a two‑way, fact‑based approach—evaluating markets and growth opportunities while assessing the people behind the plan—and cites Gartner as a key early success that underscored the value of growth over mere cost cutting. He reflects on Bain Capital’s growth from a consulting-inspired ownership model to a global firm with a disciplined, investor-aligned culture and a three-pronged approach to value creation: grow the business, leverage a global network, and back the people running the companies. He contrasts the Celtics and the business with media scrutiny, stressing continuity, patient capital, and a stewardship mindset. He cites diversification, macro awareness, and a willingness to back high‑risk bets in biotech and AI as part of a long‑term plan to leave a lasting impact while mentoring the next generation.

Founders

The Biography of Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys)
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A single-minded, high-velocity operator, Jerry Jones turns a debt-ridden NFL team into a profitable empire. The story begins in rural Arkansas, where Pat Jones builds a fruit stand that grows into a bustling grocery business, pulling young Jerry into nonstop work from dawn to midnight. His father’s creed—people, work, and money—becomes Jerry’s blueprint: a relentless drive to win and a knack for turning every encounter into opportunity. The grown man is described as a boundless promoter with a taste for flamboyant risk and a fearless posture toward any challenge. After college, Jones dives into oil and gas, diversifying into insurance, real estate, pizza, and chicken. He borrows heavily, rides a brutal '60s–'70s stretch of near-bankruptcy, and endures a half‑million‑dollar land bet that bankers eventually extend because of a banker’s sympathy. The Aroma Production venture, formed with Bill Sparks, yields rapid wells; the first success brings about 4 million in value, and the group eventually sells Aroma for $175 million in 1987, with total gains surpassing $300 million. The arc reveals a relentless appetite for risk and a talent for turning misfires into windfalls. Jones’ route to the Cowboys is a money-driven sprint: by the late 1980s he has about $90 million in cash, borrows aggressively, and persuades Bum Bright to sell for $140 million. He replaces staff and coaches, enforces a ruthless cost-control regime, and begins unlocking revenue from overlooked sources: luxury suites, better seat allocation, in-stadium advertising, and a beer license that unlocks multi-million-dollar profits. He builds a lean, revenue-driven organization and couples that with a magnetic, showman-promoter persona that blends PT Barnum with hard-edged executive discipline. Across the narrative, Jones is depicted as an extrovert who can pivot from charm to tough negotiation, a promoter who believes in speed, decisive action, and bets clustered together. The payoff is a turnaround that transforms a $9 million loss in 1988 into sustained profitability and growth, illustrating how vision, self-belief, and relentless execution can redefine a sports franchise.

Founders

Jim Simons Created The World's Greatest Money Making Machine
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Jim Simons built what many call the greatest money-making machine by treating markets as a solvable, data-driven system rather than a battlefield of hunches. A mathematician and codebreaker, he believed markets move in orderly patterns that only data can reveal. In a Long Island office, he assembled mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists to collect historic records and develop algorithms. Early moves included trading commodities at Meil Lynch while in grad school, showing a hunger for wealth and a preference for thinking over conventional careers. He studied at MIT, earned his PhD at Berkeley, and soon joined the Institute for Defense Analysis, where he learned to think in problems rather than disciplines. This narrative draws on The Man Who Solved the Market by Gregory Zuckerman. At 26, he left academia to trade currency and, after a decade of experiments and near misses, launched Renaissance Technologies with a group and conviction: finance could be modeled like a scientific problem. The early fund grew from a $4 million seed to tens of millions as it rode currency moves, but the experiment sputtered. A pivotal split with partner Leonard Bomb in 1984 after a drawdown taught him the fragility of collaboration. In 1988 the Medallion Fund began its long, money-making run, powered by a data-centric approach that would outpace intuition and become legendary. Behind the systems was a focus on data. Simons gathered prices back to the 1800s, collected Federal Reserve data by hand, and hired Strauss to clean sources into a searchable database. He recruited from IBM's computational linguistics group, bringing Peter Brown and Mercer, and he insisted that the best minds work with the best tools. When a market move did not fit a model, their instinct was to test, not abandon. Axecom formed with James Axe and Sandor Strauss, building the data backbone that would support Medallion, while Burl Camp pushed for shorter holding periods to amplify edge. By 1990, after trials with partners, Simons reorganized Medallion around short-term edge. Burl Camp's push for frequent turnover yielded gains, and Axe exited with a payout as Simons bought out his stake. The fund grew, but secrecy intensified: by the early 1990s Renaissance was private, with profits distributed to employees rather than outside investors. Simons articulated five guiding principles in later years: do something new; surround yourself with the smartest people; be guided by beauty; don't give up easily; hope for good luck.

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Who Is Michael Ovitz?: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Most Powerful Man in Hollywood
reSee.it Podcast Summary
From a valley-born dreamer to Hollywood's most influential dealmaker, Michael Ovitz's rise reads like a blueprint for relentless leverage. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, he watched the Beverly Hills mansions and resolved never to settle for a boxed-in life. He devoured biographies of Carnegie, Churchill, and Rothschild, fueling a work ethic that would outlast rivals. At nine he discovered motion pictures, sneaking into studios to study who held real power, and he trained himself to outwork peers for a future in show business. His career began in the William Morris mail room, where most trainees drop out after seven years. Ovitz showed up at 7 a.m., learned the lay of the land, and became Sam Weisborg's after-hours assistant, stocking the fridge and organizing memos. He built relationships, observed who mattered, and soon positioned himself as indispensable. With Ron, he founded Creative Artists Agency, articulating five principles: equal equity, rapid growth, shared client rosters, no turf wars, and a bias toward creating opportunities rather than waiting for them. They pioneered a packaging-heavy model that bundled development across multiple clients, saving studios headaches and multiplying commissions. A pivotal early win was Shogun, pushed into production after years of resistance at William Morris. The success proved their method: identify opportunities, assemble writers, directors, and actors, and market the finished package. Ovitz studied industry history by watching films with mentors, absorbing lessons from Lou Wasserman and other power brokers. The Panasonic-MCA Universal deal then crystallized the scale, earning CIA hundreds of millions and transforming Ovitz's industry standing, while expanding the firm's influence across entertainment ecosystems. Yet the path brought sharp clashes. He moved to Disney, clashing with Eisner and facing a brutal co-founder split with Ron. After fourteen months he was out, a setback that did not halt him. He pivoted to Silicon Valley, pursued investments, and refined his approach to monetize leverage beyond agency work. He recalls a grueling schedule—early starts, hundreds of calls, constant travel—and the personal cost: distance from family and the longing for the camaraderie of his colleagues that shaped his life's work.
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