Today we host Dr. Meir Statman, somebody who was extremely productive during the pandemic, which included completing his new book A Wealth of Well Being. For those familiar with his behavioral finance research, Meir needs no introduction. For the rest of you listening, Meir has devoted his entire career to behavioral finance and making better investment decisions. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to host Meir for an event before the pandemic, but this is the first time he has been on...

Our guest today is Sion Evans, CFA, Senior Investment Manager at VenCap, one of the longest-established investment management and advisory firms active in the VC industry today. They’ve made over 500 commitments to venture capital funds in the US, Europe, China and India.    In today’s episode, Sion gives a masterclass on what the data says about venture capital. We spend a lot of time on the importance of capturing the fund returners, why power laws drive venture returns, and what the...

Our returning guest today is Vikram Mansharamani, a global trend-watcher who shows people how to anticipate the future, manage risk and spot opportunities.   In today’s episode, Vikram updates us on what’s been a busy three years since he first came on the podcast. We discuss his senatorial campaign in New Hampshire, his unfortunate split at Harvard, and then get into his new book, The Making of a Generalist. He gives a brief overview of the book and then apply his generalist lens to talk...

Today we host Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management. For most of us in the investment community, Howard needs no introduction. He is somebody we have looked forward to hosting for quite some time and I couldn’t think of anybody better to kick off year five of the Investors First Podcast. We could go on and on about his track record, whether it be his time at the University of Pennsylvania or the University of Chicago, his firm’s investment performance, or his various professional...

Our guest today is Adam Nash, the co-founder & CEO of Daffy.org, a modern platform and community for charitable giving that allows you to sign up for your donor-advised fund. Adam has served as an executive, angel investor, and advisor to some of the most successful technology companies to come out of Silicon Valley, including Dropbox, LinkedIn, eBay, and Apple. Adam also served as President & CEO of Wealthfront.    In today’s episode, Adam explains why his time at Wealthfront gave...

Today we host Professor Aswath Damodaran, where we speak about how Aswath gained his love for teaching and how it led to him becoming an expert in valuation. The episode quickly veered into a sharp critique of the shortcomings of ESG investing. We also discuss market efficiency as it relates to active vs. passive investing, his story approach to individual companies, the future of education, career advice for finance professionals and more.    Our hosts today are Steve Curley, CFA &...

Today we host Phil Hayes, The ESOP Guy, where we speak about how Phil went from banker to Managing Partner of a large regional accounting firm (as a non-CPA) to now becoming an expert in ESOP’s.     In today’s episode, we speak about exit strategies in general, where ESOP’s fit, the mechanics of ESOP transactions and the tax advantages of this structure. We then bounce around and discuss everything all at once ranging from 1042 exchanges with qualified replacement property, to whether this...

Our guest today is Peter Atwater, President of Financial Insyghts and an adjunct professor at William & Mary and the University of Delaware. He studies the impact of changing confidence on consumer decision-making, using his research to advise investors, business leaders, and policymakers. In 2023, he released the book, The Confidence Map: Charting a Path from Chaos to Clarity.    In today’s episode, Peter walks through some of the key topics in the world today, including the dominance...

Our guest today is Orlando’s own fantasy football expert, KC Joyner. KC used to work for ESPN and now runs his own website called The Football Scientist. We’ve had lots of amazing podcast guests since we started in March 2020, but since last year’s episode with KC was the second most downloaded episode of any episode we’ve had, we had to invite him back on.     In today’s episode, KC explains how another past podcast guest Peter Zeihan’s geopolitical framework applies to fantasy football....

Our guest today is Cameron Dawson, Chief Investment Officer of NewEdge Wealth. Cameron is a Florida native, Rollins college graduate and former board member of the CFA Society of Orlando.  In today’s episode, Cameron talks about her overall view of the markets. She touches on value, emerging markets, alternatives, and why she’s keeping a close eye on the Bank of Japan going forward.  Our co-hosts today are Chris Cannon, CFA, and myself, Colby Donovan, CFA. Please enjoy the episode.  Follow...

Our guests today are David Lau and Wade Pfau. These two individuals have been collaborating for quite some time to solve retirement income puzzles for investors. David has been doing it with DPL, bridging the gap between low cost insurance and Fee Only wealth management firms. On the other hand, Wade has been approaching retirement solutions from the academic lens with rigorous research.    In today’s episode, we discuss the potential blind spot in Fee-Only wealth management firms as it...

In today’s episode, we host Wes Gray, CEO of Alpha Architect. Founded in 2010, Alpha Architect is a research focused quant firm that put themselves on the map offering value and momentum factor exposures, but it doesn’t stop there. Wes and his group have evolved to offer advanced tax strategies in the form of ETF’s, separately managed accounts (SMA’s), and ETF white-labeled services. Wes has an incredible bio that starts with humble beginnings growing up on a ranch. He later becomes a Captain...

Today we host Jan van Eck for the second time on the Investors First Podcast. Jan is the CEO of VanEck, a global asset manager with over $57 billion in assets under management, including ETF’s, mutual funds, SMA’s, UCITS and more. Since our first recording with Jan in April 2020, Jan took the initiative to create a financial history course at VanEck during the pandemic. Jan is a brilliant investment professional with a passion for financial history. Beyond VanEck’s work as a pioneer in the...

Our guest today are Rick Bookstaber and Govinda Quish, co-founders at Fabric Risk, which provides factor-based risk management applications for investment advisors, consultants and family offices. This is the second time we have hosted Rick on our podcast, with this time focused on the current state of banking and the risks of contagion, as well as other risks in public and private markets. We encourage you to listen to our prior episode with Rick to learn more about his background or visit...

Our guests today are Dan Rasmussen and Bob Elliott. This is the first time both Dan and Bob have shared a podcast stage and they did not disappoint. In today’s episode, we discuss Dan and Bob’s time at Bain Capital and Bridgewater and how that experience led to founding their respective firms. We then discuss the idea of return smoothing in venture capital, whether active management has an edge in this market environment, is alpha just beta waiting to be discovered, the flaws of private...

Our guest today is Jeffrey Sherman, Deputy CIO of DoubleLine, which manages over $100 billion.  Jeffrey oversees and administers DoubleLine’s Investment Management sub-committee coordinating and implementing policies and processes across the investment teams. He also serves as lead portfolio manager for multi-sector and derivative-based strategies. In today’s episode, Jeffrey shares how he views the investment landscape as we kick off a new year. He touches on inflation, interest rates, and...

Our guest today is Mark Brewer, President and CEO of the Central Florida Foundation. Mark frequently advises private and corporate foundation grantmakers across the region and plays a public policy advisory role on strategy and advisory boards around the state of Florida.   Our conversation on this Giving Tuesday focuses on the role philanthropy in society, best practices on how to be strategic about causes you choose to support, and the major areas of need in Central Florida today.   Our...

Our guests today are David Berns & Mike Taylor. David Berns is Chief Investment Officer & Co-Founder of Simplify Asset Management, which is focused on creating hedge fund and structured product strategies in a liquid, transparent, tax-efficient and low cost vehicle (ETF’s). David has a PhD in Physics from MIT in the field of Quantum Computation. Mike Taylor is Portfolio Manager for the health care strategy at Simplify, which is one of the most unique strategies in the investment...

Dr. Snaith is the Director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting and a nationally recognized economist in the field of business and economic forecasting. An award-winning forecaster, researcher and professor, Snaith applies academic expertise to solve real-world problems. He has served as a consultant for local governments and multi-national corporations such as Compaq, Dell and IBM.  Snaith holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Pennsylvania State University. ...

Our guest today is Zach Conway, Founder and CEO of Seeds Investor. Seeds Investor is a new wealth technology platform designed to empower advisors to better understand investors and deliver the personalized portfolios that align. In addition to Seeds, Zach is a Managing Director with the Conway Wealth Group, a private advisory firm based in Parsippany, New Jersey. Prior to the Conway Group, Zach served as Editorial Manager at Standard & Poor’s. Zach is a contributor to Forbes, Founder...

Our guest today is Andrew Beer, Managing Member and Co-Portfolio manager for Dynamic Beta Investments, an investment firm founded in 2012. Over the past decade, Andrew’s singular focus has been to identify strategies to match or outperform portfolios of leading hedge funds with low fees, daily liquidity, and less downside risk. Andrew has been in and around the financial services and hedge fund industry in particular for more than 25 years. In today’s episode, we will discuss Andrew’s...

Our guest today is KC Joyner, a fantasy football guru and pioneer of the football analytics revolution, featured on ESPN and The Athletic. He is Founder of the Football Scientist, a data analytics subscription service designed to help you win your fantasy football league. KC left his career in telecom to pursue a lifelong dream of writing a Bill James-style book about football. 19 months later, his detailed tape breakdowns of the 2003 and 2004 season led to the self-publication of Joyner’s...

Our guest today is Ranji Nagaswami, Managing Director, Chief Strategy/Commercial Officer at SVP Global. Headquartered in Greenwich, CT. SVP is a global investment firm focused on distressed debt and private equity opportunities. Founded in 2001, SVP has over $18 billion in assets under management, 4 offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia and has ~140 employees and over 60 investment professionals. Ranji is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute and is also the Founder and Lead Moderator...

Our guest today is Samir Vasavada, co-founder & CEO of Vise. Samir came up with the idea for Vise when him and Runik Mehrotra (fellow co-founder) were teenagers. Samir is responsible for Operations, Business Development and managing a team of Engineers and Ph.D. AI and Quantitative Finance Researchers at Vise. Vise is a venture-backed FinTech startup using Artificial Intelligence to revolutionize Portfolio Construction and Management for Financial Advisors. Vise has raised enough capital...