John Felix is the Head of Emerging Managers at Allocate where he leads manager diligence and product innovation within the emerging manager ecosystem. Prior to joining Allocate, John worked at Bowdoin College’s Office of Investments, helping to invest the $2.8 billion endowment across all asset classes, focusing on venture capital. Prior to Bowdoin, John worked at Edgehill Endowment Partners, a $2 billion boutique OCIO. At Edgehill, John was responsible for building out the firm’s venture capital portfolio, sourcing and leading all venture fund commitments. John started his career at Washington University’s Investment Management Company as a member of the small investment team responsible for managing the university’s now $15 billion endowment. John graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BSBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship.
You can find John on his socials here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnfelix12/
Twitter: https://x.com/johnfelix123
And huge thanks to this episode’s sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch the episode on YouTube here.
Brought to you by Alchemist Accelerator.
OUTLINE:
[00:00] Intro
[02:35] The band that started it all
[08:43] How did a band of 3 become a band of 5?
[10:39] What bands served as inspiration for John?
[13:37] Lessons on building teams and trust
[19:48] The mischance that led John into the endowment world
[22:34] What John learned under 3 different CIOs
[26:20] What does concentration mean for Washington University’s endowment?
[33:53] Portfolio construction perspectives at an endowment
[36:26] The flaws of GP commits
[41:25] How has John’s approach to emerging managers changed over the years?
[44:17] What is key person risk?
[47:06] One of the biggest challenges emerging managers face
[50:45] Balancing over- and under-diligencing an emerging manager
[56:28] What are traits that GPs think are unique but actually aren’t?
[1:03:36] What makes a great cold email?
[1:08:40] As a sports fan, do the highs or lows hit harder?
[1:11:53] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring!
[1:12:54] Let me know if you enjoyed this episode with a like, comment or share!
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Allocate
- S1E8: Samir Kaji
- Washington University Investment Management Company (WUIMC)
- Edgehill Endowment Partners
- Bowdoin College Endowment
- New York Giants
- Led Zeppelin
- Pink Floyd
- U2
- Mike Tyson
- Erica Wenger
- Park Rangers Capital
- Blue Ridge Capital
- Washington University of St. Louis
- Kimberly Gayle Walker
- Eric Upin
- Makena Capital
- Point Olema Capital Partners
- Scott Wilson
- Grinnell College Endowment
- Vinod Khosla
- Khosla Ventures
- Matt Curtolo
- Hana Yang
- Samir Kaji
- Oren Zeev
- Olivia Joslin
- Chris Paik
- Pace Capital
- Chris Paik’s tweet on investing in companies that can’t be described by a single sentence
- Marc Andreessen
- Dick Costolo
- Ron Conway
- Philadelphia Eagles
- Igor Shesterkin
- New York Rangers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Saquon Barkley
SELECT QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“Being too dogmatic about things or having too black or white views will prohibit a lot of LPs from making really, really good investments.” – John Felix
“The biggest leverage on time you can get is identifying which questions are the need-to-haves versus nice-to-haves and knowing when enough work is enough.” – John Felix
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