Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 95% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Thome: Wisconsin universities generate $1B in annual research with minimal VC funding

Carrie Thome · Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160) · Oct 19, 2020 · at 47:18

Carrie Thome, former CIO of WARF and co-founder of NVNG, explains the venture funding gap between academic research output and startup capital in Wisconsin.

0:00 / 0:11exact quote · 11.2s

720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark

“Because the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the state universities, there's a billion dollar research spending every year, and there's just a fraction of venture capital that's dedicated to this.”

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 →

The claim, plainly

The University of Wisconsin–Madison and Wisconsin state universities conduct approximately $1 billion in annual research spending.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

According to official Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and University of Wisconsin–Madison financial reports, annual research expenditures at UW–Madison alone were $1.193 billion in FY 2017, $1.206 billion in FY 2018, $1.297 billion in FY 2019, and $1.364 billion in FY 2020. Accounting for the broader UW System (including UW–Milwaukee), total research expenditures reliably met and slightly exceeded the $1 billion annual figure stated by Carrie Thome on October 19, 2020.

NSF HERD Survey data recorded UW–Madison research and development expenditures of $1.206 billion in FY 2018, $1.297 billion in FY 2019, and $1.364 billion in FY 2020.
Official UW–Madison reporting confirmed research spending exceeding $1.36 billion for FY 2020.

Checked against

[1] nsf.gov [2] wisc.edu [3] facebook.com [4] wikipedia.org

NSF HERD survey University of Wisconsin Madison research expenditures 2019 2020 UW Madison annual research expenditures FY 2019 FY 2020

assessed as of 2026-09-02

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

University of Wisconsin-Madison venture capital

⚑ Spot an error? Report it

More from Carrie Thome

Insight

Thome: WARF avoided internal tactical allocation, citing geographic and talent constraints

“We weren't tactical. We knew how hard it was just to find active managers that could consistently do it. The idea that we were going to be able to pull this off in Madison, Wisconsin didn't seem terribly realistic, and if I did that, then I was betting on team…”

Carrie Thome Oct 19, 2020 ▶ 23:22 Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)

Insight

Thome argues private equity alpha cannot be separated from beta

“Private equity for sure. You can't separate the alpha from the beta. That's just one package.”

Carrie Thome Oct 19, 2020 ▶ 26:27 Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Thome: WARF ran a $6B notional portfolio via 2x leverage

“The rough numbers were shy of three billion dollars in total. And we had some other assets that had come in from the private foundation that we oversaw their assets. And we had about six billion of notional exposure. If you included the derivatives and the lev…”

Carrie Thome Oct 19, 2020 ▶ 35:37 Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Thome: WARF's levered bonds and alpha overlay delivered 200 bps excess return

“The levered bonds were the best performing asset class we had, which I think surprises some people. And we built a really good alpha engine, and it delivered. It was targeting 200 basis points of added return over the market exposure. That's what we targeted. …”

Carrie Thome Oct 19, 2020 ▶ 37:56 Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)

Disclosure

Thome: WARF eliminated beta from hedge funds and hedged traditional managers

“Hedge funds had to have no market exposure, and to the extent that we were still in traditional managers, we hedged out their beta exposure to match what we were targeting.”

Carrie Thome Oct 19, 2020 ▶ 29:52 Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Thome: WARF cut quant managers after observing total correlation in 2007

“There was a, when Tom ran the portfolio, I think we had every quant manager of notes that you could get. Not surprisingly, we found in 2007 that they all correlated together, so we got rid of some of that.”

Carrie Thome Oct 19, 2020 ▶ 30:17 Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)

Thome: Wisconsin universities generate $1B in annual research with minimal VC funding

More from Carrie Thome

Turn any episode into a week of clips.