Martín Escobari - Inside General Atlantic

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
The best operators have a relentless focus on leverage, finding ways to multiply their impact rather than just working harder. But here's what I see happening in finance teams everywhere. Brilliant people getting buried in expense management busywork. If you think about it, you become a finance leader because you love strategic work, modeling scenarios, optimizing capital allocation, finding the insights that actually move the business forward. But instead, you're chasing receipts and categorizing transactions. It's the opposite of leverage. This is exactly why I'm so bullish on what the team at Ramp has built. Kareem and Eric understood that every minute spent on manual expense management is a minute stolen from high-leverage work, so they automated all of it. Automatic categorization, receipt matching, spending controls that actually work. I love the network effect that this creates. When finance teams at companies like Shopify and Stripe automate the mundane stuff, they free up cycles to think bigger, to ask bigger questions, spot patterns others miss, and make the kind of strategic bets that separate great companies from good ones. The math is simple. Get your time back. Focus on what matters. Check out ramp.com/invest and see what happens when you eliminate the busy work. Cards issued by Sutton Bank, member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. One of the hardest parts of investing is seeing what's shifting before everyone else does. AlphaSense is helping investors do exactly that. You may already know AlphaSense as the market intelligence platform trusted by 75% of the world's top hedge funds, providing access to over 500 million premium sources from company filings and broker research to news, trade journals, and over 200,000 expert transcript calls. What you might not know is that they've recently launched something game changing, AI-powered channel checks. Channel checks give you a real-time, expert-driven perspective on public companies, weeks before they show in earnings or consensus revisions. AlphaSense uses an AI interviewer to run thousands of expert calls with real human experts every month, asking consistent questions across experts so the signals are clean, comparable, and useful. You get live updates as interviews come in, full transcript access, and coverage across every major sector. Instantly compare insights across experts and analyze quarter-over-quarter trends in sentiment and key performance indicators. For investors trying to stay ahead of the fast-moving markets, it's already table stakes. To me, Ridgeline isn't just a software provider, it's a true partner in innovation. They're redefining what's possible in asset management technology, helping firms scale faster, operate smarter, and stay ahead of the curve. I want to share a real-world example of how they're making a difference. Let me introduce you to Brian.
Brian, please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role.

**Brian Strang** (2:24)
My name is Brian Strang. I'm the Technical Operations Lead and I work at Congress Asset Management.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:30)
How would you describe your experience working with Ridgeline?

**Brian Strang** (2:32)
Ridgeline is a technology partner, not a software vendor, and the people really care. I get sales calls all the time and I ignore them. Ridgeline sold me very quickly. We went from $7 billion to $23 billion and the goal is $50 billion. Ridgeline was the clear front-runner to help us scale.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:48)
In your view, what most distinguishes Ridgeline?

**Brian Strang** (2:51)
They reimagined how this industry should work. It was obvious that they were operating on another level.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:58)
It's worth reaching out to Ridgeline to see what the unlock can be for your firm. 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_3** (3:33)
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** (4:02)
My guest today is Martín Escobari. Martín is Co-President and Head of Global Growth Equity at General Atlantic. We talk about General Atlantic's unique founding story and how its long-term structure, including permanent capital, a single P&L and partnership culture, allows it to invest differently than other growth equity firms. We discuss the firm's global perspective and particularly why the premium on US equities is creating compelling opportunities across international and emerging markets. Martín has spent his career investing through bubbles, market cycles and technological shifts. He shares his investing framework for balancing intuition with analysis, his approach to spearfishing for once-in-a-decade opportunities, and why he believes this is the best window for growth equity since 2009 Martín also reflects on his incredible personal story. He talks about growing up in turbulent Bolivia and the role of curiosity and optimism in sustaining a long investing career. Martín's infectious energy and genuine love for investing made this conversation both insightful and a lot of fun. Please enjoy my great conversation with Martín Escobari.