Rame

New Rainmakers on Robert Holmes à Court out now. He quickly went from a lawyer in Western Australia to the country’s first billionaire in 15 years, but he lost that status even quicker. In this episode we break it all down.

I'm excited to launch something new: Weekly documentaries on the top stories in finance Here's the story of Trammell Crow (the founder of modern real estate private equity) "The Man Behind a $13 Billion Real Estate Empire" (02:17) THE WOUND (1914–1946) >born 1914, Dallas, 5th of 8 kids, 9 people in 3 rooms >dad is a bookkeeper, owns nothing >boss dies in 1928, dad loses everything overnight >14 years old, decides: employees are vulnerable, owners survive >grinds through the Depression, becomes youngest CPA in Texas at 24 (04:44) THE FIRST DEAL (1946–1948) >gets out of the Navy at 32, joins wife's dying grain warehouse >tenant says "we need more space, we're leaving" >Crow: "what if I build it for you?" - he's never built anything, he's an accountant >builds 11,250 sq ft when tenant only needs 6,750, fills the rest >50 warehouses in 3 years, just invented speculative building (07:47) THE 3 RULES (1948–1956) >Rule 1: never sell, hold everything >Rule 2: share equity with everyone, turn employees into owners >Rule 3: sign personally for everything, unlimited liability >"you can get rich selling real estate, you can only get wealthy owning it" >these 3 rules built the empire and nearly destroyed it, twice (09:48) THE FURNITURE MART (1956–1960) >visits Joe Kennedy's Merchandise Mart in Chicago, becomes obsessed >decides to build a furniture mart in Dallas, nobody wants it >one company: "we hope you don't build it" >his partner says let's quit, Crow goes silent, then: "I'm going to build the finest furniture mart in America" - rolls over and goes to sleep >builds it, it works, Dallas Market Center grows to 7M sq ft, largest wholesale complex in the world (12:43) EMPIRE BUILDING (1960–1973) >deploys young MBAs to new cities, gives them capital, autonomy, and ownership >Bob Glaze: 13 years, never got a raise from $16K salary, worth millions through partnership stakes >meets Mack Pogue, young broker, zero dev experience, forms Lincoln Property - becomes 2nd largest apartment manager in America >1971: 140M sq ft, 8,000 properties, 26 cities, 6 countries, Forbes calls him nation's biggest private landlord >Fortune headline: "Trammell Crow Succeeds Because YOU Want Him To" (20:21) THE FIRST CRISIS (1973–1977) >Arab oil embargo, oil prices quadruple, interest rates spike >personally liable for $433M, cash flow negative $25M/year >Federal Reserve puts him on credit watch, too big to fail >calls a partners meeting, asks them to liquidate their own wealth to save him - not legally obligated >one partner: "I don't think the partners are safe until you are safe" - they save him (25:15) THE COMEBACK (1977–1985) >back on Forbes 400 by 1982, net worth $500M >Harvard Business School asks: "most important element in business?" >Crow: "love" >builds the Anatole Hotel, numbers every single brick >1984: $13B in assets, 5,000 employees (29:09) THE SECOND CRISIS (1986–1989) >oil collapses, S&L crisis, Tax Reform Act kills real estate incentives >Dallas office vacancy hits 30% >Forbes: "the dinosaurs are dying" >partners hitting golf balls into empty buildings because there's nothing else to do >second crisis, same mistakes (30:48) LESSONS LEARNED (1989) >one partner sends a memo: "please outline mistakes you have made" >101 pages come back, single spaced, names attached >"we covered up mistakes because we could borrow more money" >"we continued to build because that's what we knew how to do" >"when you don't have staying power, you turn into the fish" (35:29) LEGACY (1989–2009) >2006: acquired by CBRE for $2.2B >alumni: Lincoln Property, Starwood, Transwestern, Spieker, Greystar >"spawned more millionaires than anybody in his generation" >dies in 2009 at 94, married to Margaret for 66 years >asked about retiring: "you'd waste yourself instead of using yourself" >partnership built the empire >partnership saved the empire >partnership outlasted the man who created it One more thing: If you're in real estate, private equity, or building anything on partnership, this one's for you This took 7 people weeks to create We spent weeks going through lost interviews, Forbes and Fortune investigations, library archives, and a 101-page internal document so that we could share this with you Our goal is to produce content like this every single week If you want to see more of this, like/repost the video, follow, reply, and share it with someone who needs to hear this story Produced by Collateral, the financial storytelling firm

One of the largest frauds of its time — and the first major computer fraud. Out of which came a company that compounded about 20% for 23 years. Jay Pritzker bought 9% in 1977. I still don’t know when he sold. Free to read. rockwoodnotes.com/darling-fraud-…

I want to spend some more time on the fraud/bankruptcy/compounder article before publishing. So, instead, here's a little story about a 100-bagger Bob Pritzker made from the paint roller / DIY revolution. ~27% CAGR for ~20yrs. Free to read. rockwoodnotes.com/robert-a-pritz…

2025 Index -- A Letter a Day 124 Original Essays, Letters of Investors, Founders, and Operators, and Reposts Including: - 9 Original Essays introducing anthologies on Tiger Management and Warren Buffett, compilations including the Outstanding Investor Digest and investors at the Santa Fe Institute, and more --- - 60 New Letters spanning: - 12 New Letters from Fundamental Investors such as George Loening (Select Equity), Chris Hohn (TCI), and Steve Mandel (Lone Pine) - 6 New Letters from Macro/Pod Investors such as Steve Schonfeld (Schonfeld), David Tepper (Appaloosa and Carolina Panthers), and Stan Druckenmiller (Duquesne) - 6 New Letters from PE Investors such as Bill Chisholm (STG and Boston Celtics), David Blitzer (Blackstone), and Tully Friedman (Hellman & Friedman and Friedman, Fleischer & Lowe) - 8 New Letters from VC Investors such as Matt Cohler (Benchmark), Joel Cutler (General Catalyst), and Mike Speiser (Sutter Hill Ventures) - 15 New Letters from Founders such as Palmer Luckey (Anduril, Oculus, ModRetro), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), and Bom Kim (Coupang) - 13 New Letters from Operators such as Herb Allen Jr. (Allen & Co.), Greg Abel (Berkshire Hathaway), and Jayshree Ullal (Arista Networks) --- - 30 Old Letters spanning: - Investing Legends such as George Soros (Quantum Fund), Steve Jurvetson (DFJ and Future Ventures), and Arthur Rock (Davis & Rock) - Legendary Tech Founders such as Henry Singleton (Teledyne), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), and Michael Dell (Dell) - Celebrated Consumer Founders such as Ray Kroc (McDonalds), Howard Schultz (Starbucks), and Jim Sinegal (Costco) --- 16 Guest Essays from investor and founder friends of the newsletter spanning everything from investing and technology to medicine and life [Full Index and all letters in link in bio]

I’m currently staring at a 62-page court docket that references 7 boxes of physical documents from the 70s. I either pay to have them duplicated or travel to spend a week going through them by hand. I was serious when I said I’d turn every page on the Pritzkers. I am currently 25% funded to be able to do this full-time. And I’d truly love nothing else. If you’re interested and able to help fund this project, now’s a great time to sign up. The “Founding Member" tier closes in a couple months. Founding members who see the Pritzker project through to the end get lifetime free access to all my future projects, books, major works etc. For example, I’m preparing a historical document to be published next year (free for supporters). I’ve also found a figure central to the Pritzker story who lived an incredible life but doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. I’m considering a standalone biography for them. I’m having a lot of fun digging up history that is actively fading. You can support here: rockwoodnotes.com

@PEoperator At your service 🫡

I am obligated to repost all John Malone content. As usual, he was ahead of his time. Another great example here. Perspective matters. Thanks @rainmakerspod for flagging.

“The networks failed to view themselves as programmers & instead saw themselves as broadcasters. It was a classic error. They fought a new technology rather than try to own it.” - John Malone. You can’t fight gravity! The networks did & cable ate their lunch!

Richard Rainwater had a truly unique approach to investing and company building. Here’s how I summarize that approach / philosophy. Loved the series on him by @rainmakerspod

King of Distressed Deals Richard Rainwater made BILLIONS buying what Wall Street hated. Oil busts. Bankrupt drillers. Broken hospital chains. The Playbook

Jay Pritzker, Sam Zell, and the equity investment with bond-like characteristics rockwoodnotes.com/jay-pritzker-s…

@rhunterh 🐐

L.E.’s write up on the 8VC/Apollo partnership and what it means for capital markets and our conception of the firm graciously included in today’s Further Reading 🙏

Steve Mandel is an investor that nearly every professional investor respects, but few retail investors know about. Seth Klarman called him the best industry analyst he'd ever met and Julian Robertson called him the greatest analyst of all time, whereas my neighbor John asked, "Who's that?" Over his 30+ year investing career, he has generally shied away from the media. But recently, he sat down for an in-depth conversation with Rick Buhrman and Paul Buser of Sator Grove/Notre Dame to share how he architected one of the greatest investment firms of all time starting from the beginning. It's a particularly interesting conversation as he focuses on sharing how he built built and analyzes his own firm, rather than another company. He discusses how to build edge through culture, cultivating an environment where talent can thrive, succession planning, the Co-CIO model, adopting AI in the investment process, his best life advice, and more. Letter #302: Steve Mandel, Paul Buser, and Rick Buhrman (2025) Steve Mandel is the Founder of Lone Pine Capital and a former MD of Tiger Management. Paul and Rick are the Cofounders and Co-CEOs of Sator Grove Holdings and the Hosts of the Joys of Compounding podclass. [Full transcript in link in bio]

@kevg1412 @atelicinvest @StockCompil @CogniCarbon @atelicinvest is the 🐐

Three new tools I've really enjoyed playing with recently are: 1/ Ticker Notes by @atelicinvest 2/ HF Best Ideas by @StockCompil 3/ Chinese Peptides Explorer by @CogniCarbon

Wrote a case study on a special situation I did in 2017 — Forward Pharma A/S (FWP). 50% absolute return in a few months with very minimal risk. Too bad they don’t all come this easy. ryanlundeen.com/forward-pharma…

@sajithpai Thanks for listening! 🙏

New edition of the now less irregular newsletter is out. This was issue #39. This time there are no writings (busy with chapter 3 of the PMF Playbook). But there are lots of thoughts on, and links, to podcasts, and articles that I found interesting. Podcasts 1/ @rainmakerspod with a deeply researched duo of episodes on Richard Rainwater, the greater GP ever and one of the great investing minds. h/t @GrahamDuncanNYC for the Rainwater reference. 2/ @FoundersPodcast + @jacksondahl on the @DialecticPod - this one will stay with me for a long long time 3/ @nytdavidbrooks in convo w @tylercowen on a hard to define podcast episode, but makes a telling point that we are seeing a decline of audacious works (novels, paintings, music) in the humanities today 4/ @joshk of @firstround introduces the venture arrogance score on the @uncapped_pod w @jaltma 5/ @Nakul Mandan of @AudaciousHQ describes why you should never give a great candidate an offer on a Friday (unless you are prepared to spend the Friday wooing them) or at least let them go into the Friday without knowing where they stand, in the @IO__podcast w @thogge and @sterlingmsnow 6/ Other podcasts - @dwarkesh on Uncapped, @rajeevsula on the @blumeventures podcast, @jliemandt and @PeterLacaillade on @joincolossus w @patrick_oshag, @jimmyasoni and @danwwang on How I Write w @david_perell Articles 1/ Why all restaurants don't invest in training waitstaff, by @kevinakwok (ok it is more a piece on strategy than restaurants!) 2/ Container theory by @SparksRemarks 3/ How AI is influencing and impacting private markets by @PhysicsBliss @TerranceMott in the @ColossusReview 4/ why @PalantirTech's makes its employees read the acting book Impro by @mariogabriele in the @thegeneralistco 5/ Good books are akin to “soda cans left in a hot car” says @phokarlsson in his essay 'How I Read' 6/ Other articles: @radhika_agar 's writings on skin health, Notes on shadowing a hospitalist by Human Invariant (great anon blog), How AI will create value but we will not be able to capture much of it, by @reactionwheel, @domcooke 's excellent profile of Thomas Peterffy, @alysha_lobo 's writing, especially the two essays on Indian Tier 2 cities Hubli, Belgaum, and their emergence as manufacturing / industrial minihubs. Phew!

"Throughout my business career I have frequently made investments that seemed counterintuitive at times - that seemed pretty desperate for the business involved. And those have been the ones that generally have worked out the best for me." - Phil Anschutz

Stan Druckenmiller turned $900k into $12bn through 30% returns for 30 years with no down years and only 3 down quarters despite multiple crises, including the Savings & Loans Crisis, Black Monday, Black Wednesday, the Asian Financial Crisis, the Dot-com Bubble burst, and the Great Recession. While he is active on the media circuit today, he never gave a public long-form talk while actively managing client money. But in 2009, one year before he retired, he gave a fireside chat reflecting on his career up until that point. Perhaps because he was still active, or because he was speaking to a group of traders (that he worked with, no less), he is more precise in his answers than he typically is, including specific details and numbers with regards to his trading process, frameworks for position sizing, the setups and aftermaths of specific trades and trading periods (including how he actually made money on the bet that broke the Bank of England and the “worst memory of his life” trading the Indonesian Rupiah), and more! Letter #300: Stan Druckenmiller and Jeff Feig (2009) Stan Druckenmiller was the Founder of Duquesne Capital and Manager of the Quantum Fund. Jeff Feig was most recently at Fortress Investment Group as Co-CIO of the Fortress Macro Fund & Co-President of Liquid Markets, and before that Global Head of Foreign Exchange at Citi. [Full transcript Stan’s fireside chat in link in bio]

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/24-… open.spotify.com/episode/6Y9l8P…

New Rainmakers on Robert Holmes à Court out now. He quickly went from a lawyer in Western Australia to the country’s first billionaire in 15 years, but he lost that status even quicker. In this episode we break it all down.