David Rubenstein recounts the founding team and initial fundraise of The Carlyle Group in 1987.
Disclosure
Rubenstein: Carlyle pioneered the multi-product platform model in private equity
“If Carlisle was innovative in anything, it was probably the idea that we would try to create a fidelity or a T. Rowe price of private equity, which is to say, We wouldn't have one buyout fund every four years. We'd have a buyout fund, and then after we raised …”
Opinion
Rubenstein: Fundraising lacks dealmakers' social status in private equity
“I do think that fundraising is something that doesn't have the social status that maybe dealmakers have accorded themselves. In other words, if you look at the totem pole of people in the private equity world or in the investment world, people generally don't …”
Insight
Rubenstein: 90% of buyouts succeed, while historically 90% of VC deals failed
“But I would say 90% of the times buyouts will work. Venture capital, which we were not really in, probably 90% of those deals didn't work.”
Assertion Supported
Rubenstein: Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, Apollo make 95% of profits in developed markets
“In the end, if you look at the large firms that we're now talking about, and I'll use the four big ones, Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, and Apollo. They make 95% of their money in the developed markets. I'm counting China and India, I suppose, is developed for this…”
Insight
Rubenstein: Public PE shareholders want fee growth, LP investors want return rates
“The masters that buy your stock are interested in growing earnings, which is typically fee related earnings and growing them every quarter in a fairly consistent way. And the people that invest in your funds are more interested in the rates of return that you'…”
Disclosure
Rubenstein's family office backs an enormous number of first-time funds
“In my family office, I invest an enormous number of first funds because I think they're smaller and they probably need me more and I can probably pay more attention to what they're doing and there'll be more co-investment opportunities and so forth”