20VC: Altimeter's Brad Gerstner on Why Supercycles and the Powerlaw is the Most Important Thing In Investing, Why Portfolio Diversification is the Opposite of Risk Mitigation and The #1 Question Brad Asks All New Recruits

**Harry Stebbings** (0:00)
Welcome back, this is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and wow, I am so excited for this show today. I was first introduced to this guest by Sonali Dureika at Excel, and since, he's given me the most incredible wisdom, time and advice. One of the greats of our business, and I've wanted to do this one for a long time, and so this one was such a joy to do. I'm thrilled to welcome Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO at Altimeter, a lifecycle technology investment firm that manages both public and private portfolios. Brad has personally participated in more than 100 IPOs as a sponsor, anchor and investor. And some of Brad's notable deals include Snowflake, Mongo, Bytedance, Gusto, Unity, Okta, Modern Treasury, and many more. And prior to founding Altimeter, check this out for a career diversity, Brad was the three-time co-founder where he sold all three businesses to IAC, Google, and March X. He was a founding principal at General Catalyst, he was a securities lawyer, a former deputy secretary of state of Indiana, and even a pilot. What an incredible array there, and I want to say again a huge thank you to Rich Barton, Bob Pittman, David Fialkow, Frank Slootman, Jamin Ball, Martin Casado, Lexi Reese, and many more for some amazing question suggestions, such a team effort on the schedule. But before we dive into the show today, if you are a venture capitalist or corporate strategist, I want to tell you about Tegas. Tegas is the only company in the world that aggregates qualitative information on private companies from seed stage to pre-IPO. With Tegas, you can access other VCs and founders, expert cool transcripts from previous rounds to help source fast-growing companies, create compelling emails to really get a founder to respond and be excited to speak, and to diligence companies when a round is moving fast. Tegas also provides the most flexible and highest quality way to run your own expert calls. With no upfront fees or call minimums, the ability to do a 30-minute call and simply pay the expert rate, an average of $300, Tegas makes expert calls easy. Find out why a majority of the top venture funds are using Tegas on a daily basis. Head over to tegas.co forward slash growth for your free trial. And speaking of incredible resources like Tegas there, I've always been a massive history fan. And so I want to talk about Cooley, the global law firm built around startups and venture capital. Since forming the first venture fund in Silicon Valley, Cooley is one of the most active law firms representing both early stage and late stage financings, handling more than 1300 private financings every year with an equal split of investor and company clients. So to learn more about the number one most active law firm representing VC backed companies going public, head over to cooley.com and also check out cooleygo.com, Cooley's award winning free legal resource for entrepreneurs. Finally, you have to check out MarketX. MarketX is a one stop shop for over 300 family offices, funds and high net worth individuals to access high growth private tech investment opportunities. With $100,000 in your MarketX investment account, you get access to investment opportunities in high growth companies all over the world. Plus, MarketX allows you to learn from global experts, get intimate interviews with startup executives behind the companies you're investing in. Their track record includes the likes of Airbnb, SpaceX, Palantir and many more incredible companies. That is marketxventures.com. But now I'm so thrilled to hand over to the one and only Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of Altimeter.
You have now arrived at your destination.
Brad, I don't think I've ever been quite so well-prepared for a show as I am for this one. You introduced me to some incredible people. Ravi Gupta, one of my favorites. I met Bob Pittman. Wonderful. I'm glad to have him coming on the show, and so he's coming on. Rich Barton, many more. But thank you so much for joining me today, Brad.

**Brad Gerstner** (3:41)
I mean, Harry, thanks for having me. As you know, I'm a huge fan, and I have to say it's an incredible honor to be podcast number 3300 I mean, I didn't make the first 3000, but, you know, 3300's not bad. Well, you know, I love Terry speechless to start.

**Harry Stebbings** (3:56)
Yeah, thank you for that. That really makes me feel brilliant. The truth is I wanted to build up to it. I didn't feel ready for you yet, Brad. That's the truth.

**Brad Gerstner** (4:04)
Wow, get on your feet.

**Harry Stebbings** (4:06)
The fact that I had Gurley on three times already.

**Brad Gerstner** (4:09)
Serious, Brad.