Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Samuels: Hiring a 24-year-old founder's son as CIO caused talent collapse

Sarah Samuels · Succession - Sarah Samuels on Generational Transitions (EP.400) · Aug 12, 2024 · at 33:51

Sarah Samuels (Partner at NEPC) gives Ted Seides a cautionary real-world example of failed generational succession at an investment management firm.

0:00 / 0:34exact quote · 34.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“This founder's son came to work for the company, 24 years old, becomes the CIO. So he's directing all sorts of stuff and managing people who are 20 to 30 years his senior. Of course we saw turnover, we saw cultural issues, we saw redemptions, and turns out the positions they had were highly illiquid and the stock Performance was just because people were buying and bidding them up. So that was not a sustainable situation and sort of exactly what not to do when it comes to bringing in that next generation and just skipping over all the talent and naming your son.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

More from Sarah Samuels

Disclosure
Samuels: NEPC resists paying 2-and-20 fees for PE returns driven by leverage
“We're happy to pay two in 20 for the first two, not so much for use of leverage, but it's interesting because some GPs think about the world that way, but many just say, well, it's all alpha.”
Sarah Samuels Aug 1, 2022 ▶ 30:43 Sarah Samuels – Framework and Rigor at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP.264)
Insight
Samuels: Concentrated founder equity drives risky outside GP stake sales
“If there's a large lump sum, whether it's a boutique firm or a huge organization, it's probably going to be tricky for that next gen to buy them out, which leads to Increased risk of a GP state coming in or an outside minority or majority investor, which neces…”
Sarah Samuels Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 13:28 Succession - Sarah Samuels on Generational Transitions (EP.400)
Assertion Supported
Samuels: VCs replace 75% of venture-backed founders by the time of IPO
“There's one study that found that about half of founders are replaced by VC firms who've invested in the company by the time they reach the third round of financing, and that's 75% of founders have been replaced by the time a company IPOs.”
Sarah Samuels Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 31:37 Succession - Sarah Samuels on Generational Transitions (EP.400)
Opinion
Samuels: First-time venture fund managers rarely understand portfolio construction
“I think portfolio construction is one thing, especially in the venture side, where newer funds, founders on the GP side, who haven't done this before, have very little idea of how to construct a portfolio, whether it's having reserves or position sizing, the p…”
Sarah Samuels Aug 12, 2024 ▶ 42:54 Succession - Sarah Samuels on Generational Transitions (EP.400)
Opinion
Samuels: Sole fiduciary structures pose governance challenges for public pensions
“When you have an institution that has a sole fiduciary, that can be tricky from a governance perspective.”
Sarah Samuels Aug 1, 2022 ▶ 12:05 Sarah Samuels – Framework and Rigor at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP.264)
Insight
Samuels: Granular private market exposure data is of limited use due to illiquidity
“Even if you knew your exposure to Chinese venture to the 10th point, you can't really trade on it because it's illiquid unless you do a secondary sale.”
Sarah Samuels Aug 1, 2022 ▶ 15:06 Sarah Samuels – Framework and Rigor at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP.264)
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 700 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.