00:15:01 · Ron Biscardi
That has been a huge issue which really hurt the ability of, I would say, illiquid funds, private equity, private credit, and maybe not private credit as much because they do cash flow more, but venture, I think, was the most hurt by this dynamic. And we saw at our our cap intro events over the last three years, venture funds had the hardest time even getting meetings with institutional investors because they felt like I can't keep putting as much capital into this illiquid asset class that doesn't return money fast enough to me. Well, with the year we've had in the IPO market with SpaceX obviously leading the way, that whole dynamic shifted dramatically. And and I saw it literally across two events. One I held in late February where venture funds really, really struggled to even get meetings. Then I had another event in New York in June, completely different scenario. Venture funds were the belle of the ball. They got a ton of meetings and we saw, wow, there's this huge renewed interest, obviously very much tied to the timing of the SpaceX IPO, I'm sure. So I think with Anthropic going public, my expectation is that that momentum that started mid year should absolutely carry through. And we are seeing it in another event that we're throwing in Austin in a couple of weeks where we've got thousands of people coming in to meet with tech CEOs. So I do think there is still tremendous interest in... Look, if you want the best investment returns, you have to be a tech investor, generally speaking. There are pockets where really smart investors create other strategies that may perform for a period of time. But generally speaking, the best investments in history have come from technological innovations driven by companies like SpaceX and Anthropic. So my expectation is that this is gonna run a fair amount longer. Another, I'd say, difference in this particular era of tech investing is that these AI companies are generating tremendous amounts of cash flow or I should say revenue. Anthropic's revenue growth is like nothing we have ever seen from any company in the history of business. That's really, really unique. I'm a business guy who grew up in the .com era. And I remember to this day how we would meet companies that had no revenue, really no customers, but they had a ton of eyeballs hitting their website and they were raising millions and millions of dollars.
00:17:41 · Ron Biscardi
In the midst of that, a lot of us were looking at it saying like, this is crazy. Like, this has to be a bubble. This can't go on forever because sooner or later, you have to generate revenue to survive as a business. That's not the case in this AI era. These companies are incredible revenue generators. So it's it's a real... It's a really interesting twist to figure out, well, is it really a bubble? If you go from 0 to 16,000,000,000 a year in revenue in four years or five years, whatever it's been, that that company should be worth a lot of money. Now I don't know if it should be worth 2,000,000,000,000, but but it is certainly an incredibly valuable asset. So investors, I think, are are trying to figure out all of these, you know, different dynamics. And it... It's... My my guess is that venture is gonna be a really strong asset class for at least a few more years.
00:18:40 · Anthony Pompliano
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00:20:19 · Ron Biscardi
[00:20:19] S0: Bitcoin? So, I will say, like, digital currencies have been a wild ride in my world for, like, five years now. We saw the, you know, the huge spike that happened and then the nuclear winter of, of crypto. I would say institutions have been curious about this for a long, long time. I think, generally speaking, where, you know, five or six years ago, there was a huge percentage of them who just thought Bitcoin is snake oil. Like, this is not real. This is never really gonna be an investable asset class. That has completely changed. I would... I don't really know anyone who says anything like that anymore. I think people now see that it is a completely legitimate asset class, but I I think a huge disappointment, frankly, of the Trump administration has been the inability to get regulations passed to make it institutional grade. You know, if you're if you're a portfolio manager for a sovereign wealth fund or for, you know, a multibillion dollar endowment or foundation, you need guardrails. You know? You're... You don't wanna put certainly a large amount of capital at risk into an asset class that you don't know has the proper guardrails. Like, our our public markets are incredibly well functioning. They're the best public markets in the world largely because, I mean, obviously, capitalism at the core of our system is the main driver, but you... They wouldn't be as successful as they are if it wasn't for the regulatory infrastructure that also protects investors and that sets up... You know, it's like you can't have a football game with no referees on the field. You know, you need rules and you need a system for all the players to play within. It needs to be fair. And we thought the Trump administration was gonna make more progress, I think, in this regard to to create that for the crypto industry. It hasn't happened. I think if it did happen, you would see a massive influx of institutional money come into this asset class that frankly, I... Will they dabble in it and throw small small checks, you know, small percentages of their overall portfolio into it? Sure. So, like, get more familiar with it. But... And it it is popular at our cap intro events. Know, we'll have 50 to a 100 funds that are in crypto or at least have a significant amount of their investment strategy in crypto.
00:22:56 · Ron Biscardi, Anthony Pompliano
And they get a lot of meetings with investors, but I don't hear the next step, which is stories of how those investors are writing billion dollar checks to go into those funds. There are some funds who have reached scale like that, but I think most of their capital is coming from family offices and individuals more so than pension funds and foundations, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, groups like that. We just need that regulatory infrastructure. And if we could do it, I think the asset class would absolutely explode. [00:23:32] S1: Now when you think about unlocking that capital, is it just a matter of, like, regulation and and kind of government related things, or are there other aspects that are important for for that capital to flow?
00:23:32 · Anthony Pompliano, Ron Biscardi
[00:23:32] S1: Now when you think about unlocking that capital, is it just a matter of, like, regulation and and kind of government related things, or are there other aspects that are important for for that capital to flow? [00:23:43] S0: I I think that is the number one issue right now. I think, you know, five years ago, they had... There was just a lack of information and education and understanding of the space. I think that has largely changed. I mean, I'll tell you in... I think it was in our 2022 event, we had... It was only 16 or 17 digital asset funds in our event. They got 800 meetings among them. That's when it really kind of hit my radar, and I said, wow. There is a tremendous amount of interest in this particular space. And what we... We went to the investors who were in these meetings and said, what was your interest there? And across the board, they were using these meetings to bring themselves up to speed. You know, everyone was curious about it. Everyone wanted to get educated on it. They still get, I'd say, like their fair share of meetings and our events, but but I think the number one thing investors are waiting for are these guardrails to give them comfort that they can invest safely. And then, of course, you know, like, the the recent Binance news is not doing the industry any favors. You know? It's it's... You... You've gotta you've gotta set up a system where things like that just can't happen.