Leffell: 10 East achieved 20% return financing a Boy Scouts litigation firm
“So we were able to make a loan to a law firm And we were secured by the value of the claims that they were amassing. I think we had nine to one collateral coverage, and it generated a better than 20% return in a year and a half.”
Leffell personally co-invests in every single 10 East deal
“Some people think this is highly relevant, but I personally invest in everything that we do.”
Leffell: Intelligent investment ideas must fit on a single page
“I think quite frankly, if somebody cannot communicate an intelligent investment idea in one page, they should go back and do it again. There's no reason certainly for an intelligent executive summary to be more than a page long, and I'm not talking about eight…”
Leffell: Newly matched co-founders pose high risk of a six-month breakup
“First off, if we're looking at a sponsor and there's two partners and they've never worked together before, that's something I'm always apprehensive about. I think that one of them will not be there in six months, and I don't want that institutional risk.”
Leffell: Aging VC and PE funds will soon create forced-selling opportunities
“Whether it's banks or fund selling, we're going to see opportunities where venture capital and private equity funds are winding down. They're at their ten-year Limit. Maybe they can get another year. They're gonna have to sell things.”
Leffell: Large private fund incentives drive indiscriminate capital deployment
“Some of the large investors are geared to certain strategies that incentivize them to write huge tickets irrespective of the market environment. In a way, that's indiscriminate capital deployment, which is really a big no-no in investing.”
Leffell: Davidson Kempner pooled partner profits to prevent desk capital hoarding
“Every partner in the firm did well if the firm did well, and did poorly if the firm did poorly. And the hope there was that If merger arbitrage is having a gangbang year, then the guys in distress where I was would not glom onto capital for mediocre ideas. We …”
Leffell refuses any investment opportunity if counterparties rush his decision
“The other big coaching thing here is never rush. When somebody is rushing you to make a decision, back then it was enough to say I'm not doing it, and to this day I won't do it. If somebody's rushing me that you have to act now on a new idea, say what was tomo…”
Leffell: Davidson Kempner acquired unfunded revolvers while being paid 50 cents
“To try to explain to somebody that you were buying an unfunded revolver at 50 cents on the dollar, and the seller was going to give you 50 cents, so forever unfunded, you just pocketed 50 cents, was pretty entertaining, and we ended up doing it.”