Evan currently serves as Head of Venture Capital Investments and Research for Integra Global Advisors, a multi-family office. Prior to Integra, Evan served as Senior Manager of Data Science for Anheuser-Busch InBev where he oversaw data science and strategy for the US marketing organization. Prior to Anheuser-Busch, Evan spent two years as a Management Consultant at Marketing Management Analytics and held a technical role at Amazon. Evan earned an MS in Computer Science with a concentration in machine learning from Georgia Tech and studied computational and applied mathematics at the City University of New York and finance and psychology at the University of Miami.
You can find Evan on his socials here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanfinkel/
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
[03:27] What are the mechanics of a great cold email?
[07:54] Evan’s background in sports marketing
[10:54] The kinds of data to ignore as an LP
[13:01] Portability and replicability of track record
[19:57] How much thesis drift is too much?
[22:37] What happens when a partner isn’t pulling their weight?
[29:35] Why does Evan have two bachelor degrees?
[34:38] Why study quantum mechanics in applied math?
[38:25] Evan’s journey to Integra
[45:21] Buy vs Build at a fund-of-funds
[47:40] Questions to ask when choosing which vendor to work with
[51:24] How Evan thinks about operational diligence
[58:30] Setting up an information policy in your firm
[1:01:39] Valuation policy at a hedge fund vs VC fund
[1:11:12] Why doesn’t Integra have strict mandates for geographies to invest in?
[1:21:20] The fallacy with LPs overweighing DPI in 2020-2021
[1:27:15] Evan’s greatest life lesson
[1:28:14] Evan’s favorite kosher restaurants in NYC
[1:32:07] “Post-credit scene”
[1:34:24] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring!
[1:35:25] If you liked this episode, it would mean a lot if you left a like and shared this episode with one friend!
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Integra Global Advisors
- Jamie Rhode
- Verdis Investment Management
- Screendoor
- Anheuser-Busch
- TAMID at University of Miami
- University of Miami
- The Graduate Center, City University of New York
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Gil Orbach
- PII: personal identifiable information
- Carta
- Docusign
- ShareFile
- Tim Ferriss
- The Tim Ferriss Show
- Simon Coronel
- Simon Coronel on Tim Ferriss Show
- International Federation of Magic Societies (FISM)
- Amazon
- AT&T
- Raise Global
- Slush
- Tabernacle Steakhouse
- Barnea Bistro
- Patis
- Finn Murphy
- Nebular
SELECT QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“It’s important to be data-informed, not data-driven.” – Evan Finkel
“Not only does [an investment] have to be the best in that geography, it actually has to be better than the incremental dollar we could put in any other geography.” – Evan Finkel
“The way we think about VC is both on an absolute and a relative basis. On an absolute basis, we have to be able to underwrite a manager to 3X net or better, or ideally 4X net or better. Because otherwise the lockup doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense to lock up your money for 10, 12, or 15 years with pretty limited distributions. In order to be able to consider a VC fund for our portfolio, we have to be able to underwrite it to at least 3X, but ideally 4X or better.
“But then there’s also a relative component. We’re not looking for the best relative managers. Understanding whether this is a really good year or weak year… You might be the best manager of a given vintage, but in absolute terms, you actually might not be quite as impressive. […] It helps us contextualize the performance of a given manager.” – Evan Finkel
“DPI generated in a chaotic environment is sort of similar to TVPI generated in a chaotic environment. It’s great it happened, but let’s contextualize it properly and don’t overweight DPI when you’re evaluating managers.” – Evan Finkel
“In venture, we don’t look at IRR at all because manipulating IRR is far too easy with the timing of capital calls, credit lines, and various other levers that can be pulled by the GP.” – Evan Finkel
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