The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 12 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
MSD loses to Blackstone and Brookfield on price, competes on duration
“I don't want to go compete against Blackstone and Brookfield in real estate on price. We're going to lose all day long. But if we can compete on duration, we'll do that.”
Lemkau invested in Travis Kalanick's next venture through MSD Partners
“And initially it actually began a relationship where after he and I for months had been at odds, have become friends in the subsequent world as I've gone on to MSD, actually become an investor behind him in his next venture because he, I do think he's a really…”
Capital duration allows investors to see through cycles without forced selling
“One of the great advantages I think we've had has been duration of capital, really taking the advantage to see through quarters, see through cycles, but also not be forced to sell because you're looking for Capital return, but being able to hold businesses for…”
Michael Dell plans to donate all his wealth during his lifetime
“At some point in his lifetime or shortly thereafter, his plan is to give all his money away and doesn't want that to cripple the firm.”
Compounding capital yields meaningfully different outcomes compared to maximizing pre-tax income
“Compounding capital can make a lot of difference. You spend your life in a world of maximizing pre-tax income, and you go to a world of actually compounding capital, if you think about it from an investment standpoint, and it's meaningfully different.”
MSD spun out its last public strategy to focus on differentiated edge
“From a public market standpoint, when I got here, we spun out our last public market strategy, really great investor, good business. We actually took a stake in his GP and gave him a bunch of capital, but it just, in the theme of where are we differentiated an…”
Leveraged co-investment forces managers to prioritize downside protection
“If you've got investors with leverage, they're focused on not losing money, number one. The leverage works both ways, and they're focused on really compounding wealth over the long term”
MSD's first growth equity investments included Stripe, Fanatics, and Airtable
“Our first investment was in Stripe. We've invested in companies like Fanatics and Goodleap and Airtable and Service Titan.”
MSD employees are the largest investor across MSD funds outside the Dells
“Outside of the Dell family, if you look at the partners and employees of the firm, we are the biggest investor across all our funds”
MSD tested BDT partnership by raising hospitality capital from BDT's LPs
“We'd created this hospitality vehicle with all of our High-end hotels, and stuck them in a permanent vehicle, and then raised capital into it, and we actually used BDT to raise that capital from their LP base, because we wanted to see their investors like our …”
BDT Partners is raising a private equity fund exceeding $10 billion
“You get real scale and private equity that are in the process of raising a significant fund, ten billion dollar plus fund, that'll go alongside our similarly scaled credit and real estate businesses.”
MSD aligns investor team wealth with carry rather than management fee generation
“Now, the vast majority of my investing teams here of the potential wealth creation is around their economics in the carry and their co-invest.
So that's what I still want.
I still want them focused on that as opposed to focus on generating fees.”