Craig Shapiro – Better for You, Better for the World

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
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Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy and this is Invest Like the Best. This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, methods, stories, and of strategies that will help you better invest both your time and your money. You can learn more and stay up to date at investorfieldguide.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:59)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is a principal and portfolio manager at O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Clients of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (1:21)
This week we dive into the world of venture capital. My guest is Craig Shapiro, founder and CEO of the New York-based Collaborative Fund, which was an early investor in companies like Lyft, Kickstarter and Reddit. Craig's mission at the Collaborative Fund is to find and invest in companies that are both better for you and better for the world, a unique combination which leads to very interesting investments.
One of the great things about getting older is the ability to judge people's character faster and more accurately. Within five minutes, Craig made a very strong impression on me as a person. You can tell that he is both humble and kind, but also driven and incisive. This is a special person and a special guest on the show. Like the Ted Cides episode on hedge funds, this conversation on venture capital is a great high-level introduction to alternative investing. You can find show notes for this episode at investorfieldguide.com forward slash Shapiro. Please enjoy our conversation.
I read a post by yours which has really inspired me, which is the one about roots and the importance of personal roots in sort of the outcomes in your life and your professional career. I would love to start by hearing a little bit about your personal roots and how they sprouted what has become the Collaborative Fund.

**Craig Shapiro** (2:39)
Yeah, well, you know, my grandfather was an immigrant to the United States. He came over from Russia in the luggage section of a boat, you know, one of these stories where he came in into Ellis Island, lived in the Lower East Side at a very young age, never had a formal education beyond elementary school and started out with a push cart, you know, he was selling fruit and produce on a cart and somehow made his way down to Washington, DC got married and raised my father and his two brothers above a small grocery store.
And you know, that story of just kind of lifting himself up by his bootstraps and, you know, creating a life for him and his wife and my father and his two brothers is kind of the American dream in its truest form and it just inspired me in so many ways. I mean, it's just incredible to have thought about all of the challenges that he faced and in talking to him before he passed, you know, one of the things that I feel like he passed down to myself and to the rest of our family was just the belief in kind of working together that you can't go alone and that was part of the thinking behind Collaborative Fund was, you know, kind of supporting people who are just getting started, who against all odds were trying to do something positive and helping them and capital is, you know, in essence, it is the most universal kind of resource, certainly not the only and maybe not even the most important, but it's universally needed when starting a business and so that kind of inspired me, you know, as kind of a mechanism for supporting entrepreneurs and I think about that often. You know, I don't want to belabor the point, but I do feel like that background and your roots are both a metaphor but also, you know, literal translation of like what we're growing here and that, you know, that seed blossomed into, you know, I think in my case, a wonderful family and, you know, I'm hoping that with Collaborative Fund, you know, we're able to kind of build a similar organization using some of the same principles and values.