E276: Lessons from Allocating $70B as CIO at the University of Texas

What if the most powerful investment strategy isn’t optimization but making one truly great decision each year? In this episode, I talk with Joshua Browder, Founder and CEO of DoNotPay and a solo pre-pre-seed investor, about how momentum, conviction, and first-belief investing create outsize outcomes. Joshua shares how DoNotPay became a profitable, dividend-paying AI consumer company with a team of 14, why he focuses on backing founders before they look credentialed, and how acting decisively on binary choices can matter more than years of incremental improvement. We also explore why grit beats IQ, how momentum keeps startups alive, and what it really takes to be a founder’s first believer.

Why is the hardest discipline in growth equity not finding great companies but refusing to grow past the point where returns break? In this episode, I talk with Deepak Sindwani, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Wavecrest Growth Partners, about why fund size discipline, culture, and integrity matter more than optics in building a great investment firm. Deepak explains why Wavecrest capped Fund III at $450M despite excess demand, how staying in the sub-$50M equity check range preserves alpha, and why being a true growth partner — not a financial engineer — creates better outcomes for founders and investors alike.

Why do the biggest investing breakthroughs come not from complexity, but from simplicity and why is that so hard for smart people to accept? In this episode, I talk with Britt Harris, one of the most experienced institutional investors in the world, about what really drives long-term investment success inside large pools of capital. Britt explains why simplicity beats complexity, how scale creates negotiating power and structural advantage, and why engagement — not intelligence — is the true separator of performance. We discuss how innovation in investing is usually recombination, not invention, why empowered teams outperform credentialed ones, and how leaders can systematically create cultures that compound.

Why do the people who build the most meaningful things almost always choose the hardest path and what does that unlock in the long run? In this episode, I talk with Larsen Jensen, Founding General Partner of Harpoon Ventures, about why deliberately choosing difficult problems builds the resilience, clarity, and long-term edge required to create category-defining companies. Larsen shares lessons from his time as an Olympic medalist and Navy SEAL, how those experiences shaped his investing philosophy, and why venture capital is ultimately a power-law game driven by rare outliers. We explore how founders develop mental toughness, how conviction is formed under uncertainty, and why great investors learn to trust teams more than models.

What if the biggest barrier to earning returns in alternatives isn’t access, fees, or performance but friction, complexity, and behavior? In this episode, I talk with Brett Hillard, Founder and CEO of GLASFunds, about why infrastructure matters more than selection in alternative investing. Brett explains how GLASFunds helps wealth managers implement alternatives at scale, why K-1 friction keeps investors out of high-return asset classes, and how thoughtful design around vintages, liquidity, and reporting can dramatically improve long-term outcomes. We also explore why “alternatives” is an overused label, how to build portfolios across vintages, and why illiquidity can actually protect investors from themselves.

What if managing your own capital and not outsourcing it is the highest-return investment decision you can make? In this episode, I talk with Alex Tonelli, Co-Founder of Endurance, about what changes when entrepreneurs manage their own money with the same first-principles thinking they use to build companies. Alex explains how Endurance evolved from a startup holding company into a highly structured family investment office, why principal-driven capital behaves differently than institutional capital, and how disciplined portfolio construction, vintage diversification, and contrarian thinking create durable long-term returns. We also explore why institutions systematically underperform their opportunity set — and how to avoid the behavioral traps that cause it.

What kind of entrepreneur decides to bring back extinct species and why might that become one of the most important businesses of our lifetime? In this episode, I talk with Ben Lamm, Co-Founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences, about why de-extinction is not science fiction but an engineering problem — and how solving it is creating breakthrough technologies across biology, conservation, and medicine. Ben shares how Colossal evolved from a bold idea into a multi-billion-dollar platform, why mammoths, dire wolves, and dodos became cultural gateways into serious science, and how mission-driven companies can attract talent, capital, and public imagination at once.

How do you spot a frontier-tech company before it becomes obvious and why is being early so much harder than being right? In this episode, I talk with Jonathan Lacoste, Founder and General Partner of Space VC, about investing at the moment when ideas are still non-consensus. Jonathan explains the difference between deep tech and frontier tech, why founder migration is the strongest signal of emerging opportunity, and how pre-seed investors create alpha by backing contrarian founders before markets agree. We discuss how grit and mission outperform IQ, why concentration beats diversification in early-stage portfolios, and how patience compounds into an edge over time.

What if the most important decision in wealth planning isn’t the tax strategy—but who you trust to make decisions when you no longer can? In this episode, I talk with Thomas Monroe, Founder and President of Blue Sky Trust, about the real role of a trustee and why independence, judgment, and governance matter more than technical structuring alone. Thomas explains how trustees sit at the intersection of tax, legal, investment, and family dynamics—and why poor trustee selection can quietly undermine even the most sophisticated planning. We explore real-world trust use cases, parenting and purpose across generations, and how thoughtful structuring creates optionality without eroding values.

What happens when you throw out the playbook of traditional private equity and instead build businesses with permanent capital, no exits, and no management fees? In this episode, I talk with Brent Beshore, founder and CEO of Permanent Equity, about a radically different approach to investing that focuses on ownership, compounding, and alignment with operators over decades—not years. Brent explains why avoiding leverage and fees isn’t just philosophically different but materially better for long-term outcomes, how Permanent Equity partners with founders who want legacy and culture to endure, and why patient reinvestment beats short-term optimization. We break down how permanent capital accelerates growth, how to think about cash flow vs. IRR optics, and the unique investor mindset required to succeed outside the traditional private equity model.