How chief investment officers (CIOs) go about making their decisions ”” which, they hope, will make money ”” has proven to be a lucrative concern for Greenwich resident Ted Seides.
The one-time president and co-CIO at New York City investment management firm Protégé Partners has for the past five years hosted the increasingly popular “Capital Allocators” podcast. On March 23 he took the next natural step of gleaning some of its most cogent points into a like-titled book.
“I was one of the first guests on Patrick O”™Shaughnessy”™s ”˜Invest Like the Best”™ podcast,” Seides said, referring to the principal and CEO of Stamford-based O”™Shaughnessy Asset Management. “It was a fantastic conversation and gave me the idea of starting my own podcast and talking with my friends.”
That concept quickly branched out, mostly through word of mouth, as the podcast began gaining traction. It experienced audience growth of 100% in 2020 and, as of January, has passed the 5 million-download mark.
Guests have ranged from former BlueMountain Capital Director of Research/current Counterpoint Global Head of Consilient Research Michael Mauboussin; Social Capital founder/CEO Chamath Palihapitiya; and even decision strategist and one-time professional poker player Annie Duke, one of whose episodes is still the podcast”™s most popular.
Seides told the Business Journal that his approach to topics such as sustainable investing, strategies and processes is to try and be conversational and more “fun” than what others in a sometimes dry field offer.
“Someone like Annie opened my eyes to the ”˜science”™ of decision-making, which is something I previously hadn”™t been privy to,” Seides said. “I thought that having more or less face-to-face conversations with thought leaders from a variety of backgrounds about how to negotiate, how to set aside the right time and resources to accomplish a goal, would be helpful to people.”
For the “Capital Allocators” book, Seides originally included something from nearly every podcast guest. He expressed thanks to publisher Harriman House for guiding him through a process that brought the advice and wisdom offered down to less than 200 pages.
“I ended up trying to distill the lessons I had learned,” he said. “What the book is not is the ”˜definitive guide”™ to anything. Instead I wanted to focus on the tools a CIO needs, the framework and how you go about the investing process.”
Promoted as a one-of-a-kind book ”” “I”™m not aware of anything else exactly like it,” Seides said ”” the tome is aimed at both current and aspiring CIOs, as well as the money managers who work with them and anyone looking to prudently allocate a pool of capital.
Included are best practices for interviewing, negotiations, leadership and management; investment frameworks across governance, strategy and technological innovation; personal stories and advice from experts from around the world; and, especially intriguing, an “Initial Manager Meeting Outline” that features topics for discussion, rather than specific questions.
There is also a list of the top 10 quotes from the podcast”™s first 150 episodes, which Seides cautioned are not meant to be comprehensive or even presented in preferred order ”” though it”™s hard to argue with No. 1, “Anyone who thinks nothing lasts forever has never invested in a bad private equity fund,” courtesy of University of Cincinnati CIO Karl Scheer.
“It”™s the kind of book I wish I”™d had when I was starting out,” Seides said. “I think the lessons about decision-making are broadly applicable to life and I hope it”™s useful to lots of different people.”
