OpenAI, Stripe, Kalshi & Investing Before the IPO

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**Ann Berry** (0:27)
For Friday, July 17th, it's Brew Markets Daily, and I'm Ann Berry.
Private tech companies, OpenAI, Kalshi, Stripe, and until recently, SpaceX, all with high visibility, mass appeal, but limited access when it comes to the chance to invest in them, stoking a long-standing debate over whether retail investors are perhaps inevitably left holding the bag when these kinds of companies finally go public and there's an enthusiastic rush for everyday traders to get in at last. So this can yield profits to long-term venture capital investors who go in years or even decades earlier, but can leave public shareholders bearing the risk like that we've just seen come to life with SpaceX, whose stock price this week hit a level below its $135 debut a mere month after its IPO.
Well, the mission of giving public market investors access to private venture-backed companies has been pursued by multiple fund managers. From Cathie Wood's ARK Invest to now Powerlaw Corp. Powerlaw listed on the NASDAQ recently, Justin May, ticker PWRL, and holds positions in many of those high-profile tech names. From OpenAI to Canva, Perplexity to Jeff Bezos' Prometheus Industries. Well, we've been watching this group of publicly traded funds for a while and have been keeping ready a long list of questions on how these actually work. So we were delighted to welcome to today's show, Powerlaw's CEO, Mike Dinsdale, for a very candid conversation on what happens at Powerlaw when one of its private portfolio companies goes public, just happened with its position in SpaceX. How Powerlaw goes about sourcing deals, the challenges of valuing private companies in pretty much any scenario, but especially for retail investors who really want to do their own homework on the underlying portfolios of these funds. Plus what it is that drives the share price of Powerlaw in this volatile, evolving market. Well, Mike, CEO of Powerlaw, was unafraid to answer a barrage of questions. So stay with us for a fun one for this Summer Friday. In your own words, just describe if you don't mind what it is that Powerlaw does. It's a pretty unusual structure.

**Mike Dinsdale** (2:35)
Yeah, so Powerlaw is actually a fund that's trading on NASDAQ under the ticker PWRL. Our firm is called Powerlaw Capital Group. And so the thesis behind Powerlaw, or the first flagship fund, and the goal that was to build a portfolio of the best of the best, 15 names in tech, and then provide access to all. And as we thought about the venture ecosystem and what we wanted to do next in terms of raising additional venture, we looked at the $3 trillion is invested in venture, and the issues that have been developing over time in terms of just elongation of funds, no capital return. And then there's a big trend happening around giving access to privates. There's $25 trillion in US retirement accounts. We want to take to market a product that focused on both sides of that ecosystem, giving access to privates, solving the structural problems that have been developing in venture, and then opening up access to all around the world to the value creation that's been happening with private companies. And that's what we're all about.

**Ann Berry** (3:34)
So you're a closed-end fund, just to clarify for folks how you're structured. I want to talk about your portfolio, because while your pedigree has been in investing in private companies, you've actually now got one significant public name in there. So I have in front of me, I'm on your investor relations page, and you list, of course, as regulators require you to do your portfolio every quarter. So this is as of 6.30.
And as of 6.30, SpaceX was 19.4% of your portfolio. Now just given the IPO, walk us through, if you don't mind Mike, the rationale for someone to invest in Powerlaw is just going and buying that stock themselves directly.

**Mike Dinsdale** (4:14)
Yeah, sure. So there's one clarification. We're actually mandated by the SEC to report our NAV on a monthly basis. So we're the first fund that's actually doing that. On a quarterly basis, we of course report the same as other public funds. In terms of the NAV of our fund, as of June 30, it's actually 700 million in NAV. And that's on a cost basis of 400 million, which we closed in July of 2025 So in under a year, we've had great performance in the fund. In terms of the concentration in SpaceX, so now that SpaceX is public, our value as a fund is to give access to privates. And so as that lockup comes off on SpaceX, we'll sell down that position over time, as makes sense, and then redeploy that capital into the next group of private companies or into existing names all along the same theme with our flagship fund, which is best to the best concentration in 15 material positions. So as companies go public, OpenAI is our second largest position. And as OpenAI goes public, it'll be the same thing, that our value is around access to privates. So we'll sell down that position, reinvest in either a new name or continue to build positions in existing names in our portfolio.