Dec 30, 2024 · 34m · capital-allocators
Year in Review 2024 (EP.424)
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this special 2024 Year in Review episode, Capital Allocators CEO Hank Sturmack interviews host Ted Seides to evaluate the platform's key research, notable podcast dialogues, and broader institutional investing dynamics. Together, they outline strategic initiatives for 2025 spanning expanded summits, executive education cohorts, fintech investments, and organizational scaling.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Ted holds 86.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Ted as informed peer 5.9 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.1 Ted pushing back 0.0
speaking balance: gold is Ted, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 13:57 Playful disagreement on Treasury nomination
Hank jokingly pushes back against the premise that Scott Bessent was nominated as Treasury Secretary because of his podcast appearance.
Hardest push from Ted ▶ 13:59 Ted yields on podcast influence jokeIn a completely collaborative episode, Ted immediately agrees with Hank's playful correction regarding the political appointment.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:55 Revisiting Swensen's boutique manager doctrineTed educates the audience on why David Swensen's anti-growth manager doctrine overlooks the necessity of healthy business expansion for long-term investment performance.
Ted holds their own ▶ 10:12 Detailed breakdown of institutional growth channelsTed demonstrates comprehensive market knowledge by contrasting private wealth distribution flows with sovereign wealth engagement models and insurance-credit liability matching.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Ted as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Ted pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job Announcement: Head of Business Development | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Hank opens with a business development hiring announcement and then asks Ted about his written pieces from 2024. Ted explains the strategic intent behind the investment office and investment manager playbooks, reflecting on balancing organizational growth with performance alignment. | |
| Growth Frontiers in a Mature Asset Management Industry | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ted demonstrates deep industry knowledge when asked about growth frontiers in mature asset management. He details specific dynamics in private wealth distribution, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, and credit-insurance linkups like Apollo and Athene. | |
| Reflecting on Memorable 2024 Podcast Guests | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Ted recounts memorable guests from 2024, including Mike Milken, 3G Capital, and Scott Bessent. Hank offers a lighthearted joke clarifying that Bessent's Treasury Secretary nomination was not solely due to the podcast, which Ted playfully accepts. | |
| Previewing Anticipated Podcast Guests for 2025 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ted previews upcoming guests for 2025 and shares his personal co-investment activity. He outlines a contrarian thesis on launching a middle-market SPAC to provide liquidity amid private equity exit challenges. | |
| Key Themes: PE Cycles, US Policy, and AI | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ted synthesizes key industry themes on allocators' minds, including PE liquidity distributions, macroeconomic policy realignments, and AI impacts. He also details the business side of the podcast and summit expansions. | |
| The Unique Relationship-Centric Format of Summits | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ted details the operational structure of their summits and Capital Allocators University, contrasting small-group peer discussions with traditional broadcast-style conferences. The interaction is fully aligned and collaborative. | |
| New Initiatives: Strategic Investments in Ecosystem Startups | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ted discusses new strategic angel investments in software and tools serving allocators alongside KDX/Ashby Monk. He also acknowledges the extensive network of outsourced partners that enables their small team to operate at scale. | |
| 2024 Reflections: Unreasonable Hospitality and Event Design | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Answering rapid-fire questions, Ted reflects on learning principles of unreasonable hospitality from Will Guidara. He describes turning the conference book giveaway into an institutionalized relationship-building process. | |
| Core Life Lesson: The Power of Asking for Help | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ted closes with a core personal lesson on the value and flywheel effects of asking for help, thanking Hank and the listener community as the episode wraps up. |
Statements from this episode (14)
Seides: Swensen model ignores that business growth improves manager performance
“And while that's pristine, there's a part of that that doesn't consider the necessity of a successful business in generating optimal investment performance. Oftentimes, allocators see a manager, they like getting there early, someone who's great, delivering pe…”
Seides: Big banks allocated $65B to alts vs $5B-$10B from SWFs
“There were some astounding statistics that I saw from Of something like sixty-five billion dollars in assets got allocated from the four large bulge bracket banks to, say, private equity, private credit, and infrastructure funds. And you could compare that to …”
Seides: Insurance liabilities provide extremely low capital cost for credit managers
“It started with Apollo buying Athene, and more and more you see the insurance liability base matches really well with credit with some incremental yield, and it's an extremely low cost of capital for the managers.”
Seides: New distribution channels in asset management make incumbents win more
“The challenge is that all of those channels make the winners win more.”
Seides: 3G Capital's Burger King deal is among best in PE history
“I had the great opportunity to interview the guys at three G Alex Baring and Daniel Schwartz talking both about three G and their Burger King deal, which is one of the most successful private equity deals ever.”
Seides: Oldwell Labs Is the Best Software for Allocator Manager Search
“And I also made an investment in Oldwell Labs run by Campbell Wilson, Which is the very best software I've seen to help allocators find and monitor managers.”
Seides: SPACs will not be the next big PE liquidity solution
“And SPACs will not be the next innovative solution. They were just far too maligned from the last cycle, but it is a potential exit route for certain companies.”
Seides: Allocators fear delayed PE distributions, not 2008-style liquidity crises
“When you talk to allocators, they're not actually worried about liquidity. This is nothing like 2008, but they are wondering when will distributions come back and how will they address continuing to invest in the private markets?”
Seides: Private market bottlenecks have strained both private and public fundraising
“On the capital side, fundraising has been really hard. You've had this bottleneck in the private markets that's also affected public market fundraising.”
Seides: Consolidation is accelerating among institutional allocators and asset managers
“You're starting to see consolidation. We just put out a conversation about consolidation on the allocator side. There's certainly a lot more of that happening on the manager side as well.”
Seides: Allocators avoid emerging managers unless they are pre-vetted
“No allocator actually wants to meet with small and emerging managers. They really want to meet with good ones. They just don't want to have to go through all of the chaff to find the wheat.”
Seides: Relationship development is the most important driver of capital flows
“And what we find is that it's just really engaging in the process of relationship development, which is probably the most important aspect of capital flowing over time.”
Seides: Key business disciplines are rarely taught in the investing industry
“There are all these disciplines that people learn in almost any field that In the business world, except for investing, but they're incredibly important for success in investing. So think of things like decision-making and leadership and management and intervi…”