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
Roth: Goldman Sachs experiences tension between rep and firm goals
“This is not to pick on Goldman. They are a great firm. We would not be here if it weren't for them, but that firm is where there's tension. Between the goals of the individual rep and the firm's goals.”
Roth: Alpha in merger and convertible arbitrage no longer exists
“Merge your ARB, convert ARB, that alpha doesn't exist anymore.”
Roth: Wealth boutiques owned by PE or banks cannot remain boutiques
“This is part of the challenge that will happen with consolidation, which is you can't be a boutique owned by P.E., owned by a bank, and still be comfortable that you're gonna still play just beneath the surface, because scale matters in those firms.”
Roth: Running a non-profit board like a business will fail
“And the truth is, if you try to run a nonprofit board as a business, it will fail.”
Roth: Secondary liquidity relieves anxiety and stress for first-time founders
“Once there's some liquidity off the table, and I think this is probably true for a lot of first-time founders, you relax. I think that our anxiety and stress, while we would say we were fun-loving guys and we didn't bring anybody down in the office, my guess i…”
Roth: No scientific formula guarantees families stick to asset allocations in downturns
“There isn't a scientific methodology to getting to the exact right asset allocation that a family will not only stay the course during difficult times, but buy their losers and sell their winners to make sure that we stay rebalanced.”
Roth: Striving for excellence requires accepting the friction of manager turnover
“If you're trying for excellence, you can't ever get comfortable that it's just ok. And when it's not, be ready for all the commotion that comes with turnover. You gotta tell the manager. You gotta tell the client that things didn't work out the way that you pl…”
Roth: Enduring investment firms require founders to accept dilution
“You have to be willing to be diluted. You have to be willing to know that you're not going to be selling at the highest print, but what you are getting is a firm that's going to be around a lot longer than we are.”
Roth: Good non-profit governance strictly requires board term limits
“Good governance to me, there has to be term limits. And after your ninth year on the board, even if you feel like you are irreplaceable, you aren't.”
Roth: BBR Partners manages $32B across roughly 180 families
“And where we are today is we have a 190 people at the firm. In three offices, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, we manage money exclusively for wealthy families. There are about a 180 families where we're overseeing their wealth, and that's thirty two bill…”
Roth: Early revenue pressure makes it hard to reject ill-fitting clients
“It's pretty hard in the beginning to say no to revenue. We made some mistakes along the way there, but once we were comfortable, once we knew we were a company built to last, we could then say, even for clients that wanted to hire us and that would have moved …”