Graham Weaver - Building Alpine

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
Something I speak about frequently on Invest Like the Best is the idea of life's work. A more fun way to think about it is that I'm looking for maniacs on a mission. This is the basis for our investment firm PositiveSum, and it's the reason why I'm so enthusiastic about our presenting sponsor, Ramp. Not only are the founders, Kareem and Eric, life's work level founders certainly maniacs on a mission, they have created a product that is effectively an unlock for founders and finance team to do more of their life's work by streamlining financial operations, saving everyone their most precious resource, time. Ramp has built a command and control system for corporate cards and expense management. You can issue cards, manage approvals, make vendor payments of all kinds, and even automate closing your books all in one place. Speaking from my own experience using Ramp for my business, the product is wildly intuitive, simplistic, and makes life so much easier that you'll feel bad for any company who hasn't yet made the switch. The Ramp team is relentless, and the product continues to evolve to save you time that you would never have dreamed of getting back. To me, there is nothing more interesting than technologies that reduce friction for other entrepreneurs to be able to build the thing that they want to. So much attention has gone to cloud computing, APIs, and other ways of making life easy for founders. What Ramp has done and is doing is build yet another set of tools in this category. To get started, go to ramp.com. Cards issued by Celtic Bank and Sutton Bank, member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. Hey, everyone. Patrick O'Shaughnessy here. If you've been thinking about the infrastructure behind AI, what's powering it, where capital is flowing, and how to stay ahead of the curve, you'll want to join me for a live webcast I'm hosting with AlphaSense. It's called What's Next for AI and Data Centers, and we're diving into the future of cloud compute, data center investment, and the cybersecurity landscape that's forming around it. I'll be joined by Michelle Brophy from AlphaSense and Gary Michel, formerly of AWS, to break down the most important forces shaping this space. We'll also get into topics like the investment impact of Google's acquisition of WIS and how tools like DeepSeek are influencing spend roadmaps. The event is happening Wednesday, May 21st at 12 p.m. Eastern time, and I'd love to have you there. Head to alphasense.com/invest to register. Again, that's alphasense.com/invest. Hope to see you there. Ridgeline gets me so excited because every investment professional knows the core challenge that they saw. You love the core work of investing, but operational complexities eat up valuable time and energy. That's where Ridgeline comes in. Ridgeline is an all-in-one operating system designed specifically for investment managers, and their momentum has been incredible. With about $350 billion now committed to the platform, and a 60% increase in customers since just October, firms are flocking to Ridgeline for good reason. They've been leading the investment management tech industry and AI for over a year with 100% of their users opting into their AI capabilities, putting them light years ahead of other vendors thanks to their single source of data. And they recently released the industry's first AI agents, digital coworkers that can operate independently. Their customers are already using this highly innovative technology and calling it mind-blowing. You don't have to put up with the juggling multiple legacy systems and spending endless quarter ends compiling reports. Ridgeline has created a comprehensive cloud platform that handles everything in real time, from trading and portfolio management, to compliance and client reporting. It's worth reaching out to Ridgeline to see what the experience can be like with a single platform. Visit ridgelineapps.com to schedule a demo.
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, stories and strategies that will help you better invest both your time and your money. If you enjoy these conversations and want to go deeper, check out Colossus Review, our quarterly publication with in-depth profiles of the people shaping business and investing. You can find Colossus Review along with all of our podcasts at joincolossus.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:51)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of PositiveSum. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of PositiveSum. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Clients of PositiveSum may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. To learn more, visit PSUMVC.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (4:19)
My guest today is Graham Weaver. Graham is the founder of Alpine Investors, a large private equity firm targeting an interesting market inefficiency. Alpine focuses on the thousands of $20 million or so revenue businesses whose baby boomer owners want to retire but lack succession plans. Alpine buys companies and installs 28-year-old military veterans and top MBA graduates as CEOs, leveraging 25 years of intellectual property on how young executives can successfully run established businesses. Alpine's CEO and training program is now the most applied-to job at Harvard, Stanford, and Kellogg Business Schools. In this conversation, we discuss the past, present, and future of their unique approach. Please enjoy my conversation with Graham Weaver.