The Vampire Squid - SoundSage

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Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I just got back from a wonderful trip to Japan and Taiwan, extremely jetlagged, as it’s 5am currently in New York. Alas, as this podcast episode name sounds, I am putting the podcast on an indefinite pause due to a combination of work, learning, and side projects (crypto & blockchain) that I am working. Looking back on this incredible journey, I can’t believe the amount of episodes and reach that my podcast has had. That feeling of impact, of creating something from scratch is something that I have felt in love with, something that I want to replicate in my career, which has opened up my eyes to entrepreneurship. This is definitely not the end, but the closing of a chapter and I hope that you all stay tuned with what I am working on next!

Please continue to e-mail me and keep me updated on your success and journey! alan@thevampiresquid.com

With love,

Alan

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Welcome to Episode 56 of The Vampire Squid! Today we have on Bethy Hardeman, Chief Consumer Advocate, at Credit Karma! I wish I had taken a personal finance course in high school / college so I would have a better understanding of why a credit score is important, and the levers that I could pull to increase my score. Today’s episode is packed with advice on your credit score as well as debunking some myths about your credit score. Hope you all enjoy!

How did you get involved with Credit Karma and become the Chief Consumer Advocate?
What are some of the inputs for a Credit Score, and what is it used for?
Why your credit score isn’t just for credit cards
What are the levers to pull to increase your credit score and to do it faster?
Can having too high of a credit limit be bad for your credit score?
What are some of the other myths about your credit score that aren’t necessarily true?
How are users of Credit Karma affected by the Equifax, if it all?
Can opening too many credit cards be bad for your credit score?
When should one close a credit card?
What piece of advice would you leave my listeners with, especially ones in college or one or two jobs straight out of college?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today, we are going to talk about one of my favorite hobbies, Poker!, and how that relates to investing and finance. I’ve recently been watching a lot of poker online as well as reading Phil Hellmuth’s autobiography, Poker Brat, which gives a great insight into how Phil got so good at poker, and some of the risks he had to take to where got today. Today’s episode I will briefly go over one of the most famous types of poker games, Texas Hold’em, and then talk about what I think are transferable skills between playing poker and investing! I hope that you all enjoy!

How to play Texas Hold’em
Why Poker is not just about probability and statistics, and how it’s just as much about strategy and psychology
Why it’s fascinating to play poker with your friends and to see how they react under pressure
Skills that are transferable from Poker to Investing
Managing your bank roll
Making good decisions with incomplete information
Managing your emotions (going on “Tilt” in poker)
Why you and your friends should play games of poker!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today’s episode is with Eric Friedman, who is the head of Expa Labs, as six-month incubator for early-stage startups. This interview is one of the most informative and immediately applicable if you are interested in technology and / or pursuing entrepreneurship coming from a finance background. We dive into some great topics like the 1%, 9%, and 90% rule, how putting your own content out there is so critical, and why startups should not be over-glamorized like they have been in the media. I found this episode extremely rewarding, and the first 16 minutes dive into Eric’s background, and afterwards we dive into the meat of the episode. I hope that you all enjoy listening as much as I did recording!

How did you first get started in entrepreneurship and interested in technology?
How did you first get your job at union square ventures and what led you to work at Four Square?
What does a Business Development even mean at a company like Four Square?
What were some of the key takeaways that you had after working at Four Square for 6 years?
Why startups are not for everyone (16:30)
What are your thoughts on non-technical candidates pursuing entrepreneurship / startups and an emphasis on finance candidates specifically?
Why it’s important to ask “what happens here on Tuesday at 2pm?”
Instead of emailing a cover letter and resume to a startup CEO, maybe send them 3 things they could do
Why applying to a startup is effectively the opposite of applying to an investment bank / consultancy.
In what areas do you see finance candidate skill sets best applied in a startup environment?
Are there tests or ways to see if a finance candidate would succeed in a startup?
The 1% rule, 9% rule, and 90% rule – the challenge to publish
When you mention the name of the people at the company, since everyone has google alerts, they will read it!
How people can get over imposter syndrome when publishing content
Thoughts on transitioning straight into technology / entrepreneurship versus pursuing an MBA first
Three reasons to go to business school: Network, Direction, Education
Why there is so much turnover for millennials and in early-stage startups?
What is your last piece of advice for my listeners?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Happy labor day weekend, and I’ve missed you guys! Welcome back, and I’m super excited for this season of TVS and share with you things that I have learned as well as interviews that I have had. I hope everyone had an awesome summer break and is refreshed to get back into the swing of things! Today’s episode is with Brian Wong, who is the founder of Kiip, and graduated college at the age of 18! He’s also written a book called, The Cheat Code, and is one of the most eccentric and funny people that I have interviewed thus far. This episode is jam packed with awesome advice from Brian on how he has become a successful entrepreneur, his experience with finance and consideration of investment banking, and how being Asian can help conceal your age!

Brian’s contact info below:

Twitter

Email: brian@kiip.me

Which grades did you skip, and what was the experience like attending college at age 14?
How did you use your lowered age to your advantage in college?
Did you ever consider going into investment banking or consulting?
How did you know that you wanted to pursue entrepreneurship in college?
What are some of the characteristics of the “Entrepreneurial Mindset” that you mentioned?
Why is following your passion a terrible piece of advice?
How do you find your own superpower and harness that energy?
How did you develop your superpower of getting people excited about things?
How did you network your way into parties with Kevin Rose (Founder of Digg and ex-partner at Google Ventures?)
Where do you think the future of advertising is going? What are your thoughts on viral videos like those from Chubbies?
What was the motivation for writing your book, “The Cheat Codes?”
What piece of advice would you like to leave my listeners?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Congrats to everyone who has graduated or is currently graduating this year! I hope everyone gets to take some time off before you start your next venture whether that be starting a new job, going to get a masters, starting a business, or more! I will actually be taking a couple of months off as well due to some work commitments and travel commitment plans, but will be back in August where we will hit the ground running 🙂 I have some very exciting guests lined up, and look forward to introducing them to you when we start again in August. This will be a great time for new listeners to also get a chance to catch up on my old episodes!

As always, I will be very responsive over email at alan@thevampiresquid.com so please feel free to shoot me any questions or comments that you may have. I will also be posting regular updates on facebook.com/thevampiresquid about interesting things that I have been reading which may be helpful to you as well.

I hope everyone enjoys their summer break, and til August, Ciao!

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Happy episode number 52! Today I will be giving a quick introduction to Term Sheets, which is one of the first important steps for a material business agreement like debt financing or equity financing. Today we will focus on equity financing, specifically venture capital investments in start-ups! This episode was actually inspired after I watched an episode of Silicon Valley, where Erlich Bachman said, “If you utter the words virtual reality, venture capital firms will throw a term sheet at you.” In this episode, I will go over what is a term sheet, what it is used for, and what are some of the most common items on a term sheet. I hope this episode is informational and you learn a thing or two!

Please also see a sample term sheet that I found online which will be helpful in giving you some guidance in terms of what a term sheet actually looks like!

Sample Term Sheet Download

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Welcome back to episode 51 of The Vampire Squid! In today’s episode, we are going to be talking about “The Truth About Investing”, which is a presentation that Howard Marks (OakTree) created, which I found extremely insightful and a bit contrarian to how normal, everyday investors, like me, think. In this episode, I will go over some of my favorite quotes in the presentation and overlay my thoughts and experiences with some of the concepts that Howard Marks talks about. I hope that you learn a thing or two and enjoy the presentation (Attached Here)!

The Truth About Investing

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Episode 50!! Please see Part II of the interview that I did with Anthony Zhang where we dive deeper into his advice for first-time entrepreneurs and general advice for people that are facing setbacks in life, like not getting that job promotion, or not getting that grade that you wanted, how do you overcome and persevere through those challenges? I hope that you guys enjoy, and learn as much as I did from interviewing Anthony!

When did you have to start thinking about your startup after your accident?
What kept you motivated to try to get your company acquired while you were going through 5-6 hours of physical therapy everyday?
Did you use banks to help with the sale process or how did you get in touch with other companies to sell to?
How has the acquisition and transition process been? Do you feel that the strategy of JoyRun is in line with EnvoyNow?
What was the transition process of being the CEO and then becoming an employee of a company?
What is in your view the most important things when starting a company?
What are some of the ideas that you are planning to start in the future?
Since you’ve been through a traumatic accident, what advice do you give people that may not get that job promotion, or didn’t get the grade they wanted and feel like it’s the end of the world?
For people interested in entrepreneurship but don’t necessarily have an idea they want to pursue, what advice do you have for those people?
What advice would you like to leave my listeners with?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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I’m so excited to present this episode with, Anthony Zhang, who was the founder of EnvoyNow, a USC food delivery application. I first read about Anthony’s story in Fortune, where Anthony was a Thiel Fellow, Shark Tank Alum, in 500 Startups but went through a traumatic accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down… Anthony has been doing a lot better since, and managed to sell his start-up while going through hours of physical therapy a day. His grit and passion is to say the least inspiring, and I hope that you enjoy the episode.

Could you please give a brief background of yourself?
What made you decide to start EnvoyNow instead of pursuing investment banking or consulting?
What was it like to pitch Mark Cuban at USC for Shark Tank?
When did you know that you were going to win the Thiel fellowship?
How does the Thiel Fellowship work?
Transitioning to your accident, could you touch upon what happened, your thoughts, and what helped you persevere and get through the difficult times?
What gave you motivation to recover, any support systems you relied on, I’m curious what people strive towards or rely on during times of great difficulty?
How long did it take you to get better?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Women in Finance! One of the topics that I have been wanting to cover for a long time on TVS, and finally had the opportunity to do so with Valerie Wong. Today’s episode focuses a lot on the cultural biases that dominate the workspace, things that are useful for both males and females to be aware of. Valerie shares many solutions and tips on how to navigate these processes being a woman working in a still mostly male-centric industry and how we can go about improving the experience for women. I found many of the insights Valerie shared to be very helpful and hope you do too. Please enjoy!

Could you share some of your experiences or challenges that you have faced being a woman in finance?
Cultural biases that dominate the workforce
Being a Latina in finance
How can people become more ware of these biases that may be conscious or unconscious?
Would you mind sharing any specific work place examples of times of how you overcame these cultural biases?
Traits that were commonly associated with being feminine are now important in the workplace
Empathy, reciprocity, vulnerability, humility, inclusiveness, generosity, patience
What are the three pieces of advice that you would leave my listeners with?
Network, Advocates, and Sponsors
There is no one perfect path to success
Happiness comes from within

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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I’m very excited for this week’s episode with Valerie Wong, who is the president of Latinos in Finance and an employee of MSCI. We talk about two very important topics including being international and breaking into the United States for a finance role, as well as being a woman in finance. Valerie is originally from Panama and of Asian ethnic descent so very qualified to talk about both subjects very well! This week’s episode focuses more on the international portion (starting around 9 minutes in) and next week’s episode will focus on Valerie’s experience as a woman in finance!

Please give us a quick background on where you’re from and how you got to where you are today.
What was the initial interest for studying accounting in college?
What do you do at MSCI
What are the major competitors of MSCI like the Dow Jones and S&P
What were the key drivers that allowed you to break into the US and what were the initial motivations to come to the United States to work in finance? (9:07 minutes)
Do you have any advice for international students that want to come to the US, and what are some of the most common ways that people do come to the US?
Do you see that there are many jobs opportunities in the US for international students interested in finance?
What was the adjustment from Panama to the United States like? Were there any customs that were challenging at first?
Tell me more about how you got involved in Latinos in Finance and became the president?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today’s episode is on trading precious metals, specifically gold and silver! I’ve always been interested in learning about what drives the prices of gold and silver and how to add it to my portfolio. This episode was extremely informative for me and hope it is for you as well. I had the pleasure of interviewing Peter Hug from Kitco, who has been trading since the 70’s!

What is your background, and how long have you been trading precious metals?
Is it correct to think of gold and silver as hedges to the equities market, when stocks go up, gold goes down and vice versa?
How does one begin to learn or gain experience in trading precious metals?
What are the main drivers and levers of precious metals like gold and silver?
Precious metals are primarily driven by US factors
How should a 25 year old think about investing in gold, what percent of the portfolio should it make up of the total?
Is gold a good long-term investment or is it better suited for hedging?
Are you able to short gold?
What do you forecast will happen to gold for the next 3-5 years?
How will the Trump administration impact gold?
Tell me more about Kitco and what you do there?
What’s one piece of advice that you would leave my listeners with?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today is Part II of the episode with Scott Tindle, co-founder of Finimize! This episode dives a bit deeper into how Finimize is performing in addition to learning more about what people have the most difficulty understanding in terms of concepts in finance. I definitely learned a lot doing this episode, and hope that you all enjoy!

How many users do you currently have and what’s the open rate of the emails?
What are the most difficult concepts for people not in finance to understand?
Concepts to understand
How big is your team at Finimize?
Do you plan on expanding into different languages?
What was the most difficult part of starting Finimize?
How do other firms fake user growth by using click farms?
What is one piece of advice that you would like to leave our listeners with?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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If you have experience with mobile graphic design, please reach out to me alan@thevampiresquid.com

Please welcome a special guest for this week, Scott Tindle, who is the co-founder of Finimize, an easy to understand newsletter of financial news that I have been using for the last year! We discuss Scott’s background and inspiration to quit his job in selling mortgage backed securities and ultimately start Finimize. I hope you guys enjoy!

Give me a brief background and what inspired you to make the decisions you have.
Was the housing crisis and mortgage backed security bubble different in Europe compared to the US?
Why made you quit your job at Barclays after 7 years to do something entrepreneurial?
Do you use Tinder in London?
Why did you start Finimize, and what is the ultimate goal of the company?
How do you source your content, I’ve been curious how media companies do this?
Do people have different Finimize for the their respective country?
How do you guys make money?
Finimize my life (FML) – Digital personal, financial guidance
How does FML work, is it similar to a robo-advisor?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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I’m very excited about today’s episode because it is on two of the most fascinating emerging technologies out there, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Today, we have on Jacob Mullins from Shasta Ventures who focuses on these types of emerging technologies and we get to hear his take on the landscape and how it is developing. Super cool episode and I hope that you all enjoy!

Jacob Mullins

What does it mean to have Presence in Virtual Reality?
How Nausea may be caused by the LACK of senses being tricked
Do you think VR will always be a headset and earset, or what is the next step in the technology?
What do you think of Elon Musk’s comments that we are more likely than not living in a virtual reality?
What are your thoughts on artificial intelligence in terms of will it be good or bad for human kind?
What are the potential theories of what could happen when we reach the Singularity or general intelligence?
What are your thoughts on the depiction of AI in movies like Ex-Machina and Her?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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We have a great interview for you guys today with Jacob Mullins from Shasta Ventures! Jacob has a strong entrepreneurial background and has founded multiple companies before he joined and rejoined Shasta Ventures where he now focuses on emerging technologies and trends. In this interview, we cover Jacob’s entrepreneurial pursuits like founding a CPG company, being the 2nd employee of VentureBeat, and starting ExitRound (a marketplace for M&A). Hope you all enjoy!

Jacob Mullins

What is your background and how did you end up at Shasta Ventures?
Talk a little about your entrepreneurial background when you were in college selling plant supplements
What were the major challenges that you found working on a CPG startup company?
CPG space is one of the most competitive markets out there
Merging his company into a public shell (reverse IPO)
Working at Microsoft and VentureBeat and leaving the CPG space
Starting ExitRound – a marketplace for buyers and sellers of companies
A dating site for buyers and sellers to find each other 🙂
80% of M&A deals coming under $100mm, which bankers don’t focus on
What was it like being the 2nd employee of VentureBeat?
Being the first business manager focusing on building revenue for the blog
The competitiveness of the technology blogging space

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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We continue our conversation with Aswath Damodaran where we dive into the technology industry, great books to get read if you want to learn about finance, and Aswath’s thoughts on the market. I hope you enjoy!

What are your thoughts on growth stocks particularly in the technology industry?
Even though it feels like that now, all companies at one point were like tech companies
Tech companies can just do it much more quickly – they live in dog years
What do you think of companies valuing themselves off of users or clicks?
What are your thoughts on technology companies potentially never making money?
Have you considered going into the hedge fund industry?
What are some of the biggest things that you learned from your students?
What should students be reading to better understand finance?
Read the Wall Street Journal
Stocks for the Long Run – Jeremy Siegel
Security Analysis – Ben Graham
The education of a speculator
Do you think we are currently in a bubble?
What are your thoughts on dcf vs. comps?
What are other ways to calculate intrinsic value?
Is there an advantage to playing the pricing game vs. the valuation game?
What are your hobbies outside of teaching and valuation?
Do you think there is a lack of transparency in finance today?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Wow, I had to bring on an incredibly special guest for the 40th episode of The Vampire Squid! Today’s episode, we have Aswath Damodaran, who I’m sure many of you know well in finance. He is considered the go-to expert for valuation and has taught at NYU for over 30 years. His blogs Musings on Markets is well recognized among all those who work in finance, and I’m thrilled that he was willing to appear on TVS. This episode is JAM PACKED with views that challenged many of my prior beliefs in finance. I hope you all enjoy…

What is your background and how did you initially get interested in finance?
Sex, Stock, and Salvation
The study of money
What are the biggest misconceptions of finance for those who haven’t learned it before?
Everything is about finance (i.e. Superbowl, World Cup, and Lady Gaga)
The louder it talks, the more it changes the game
Is there anything out there that isn’t driven by finance?
There’s some things driven by altruism, but most in money and finance
Given the negative perception of finance, how do you help bridge that gap?
Not my job
People don’t like bankers, lawyers, athletes, who do people even like these days?
How have your goals changed since the beginning of teaching to now?
I don’t have any goals except to teach
Life is incremental, it adds up and I live life semester to semester
You don’t need big goals to succeed, small things today will take care of big things later
My job is learning, and learning never ends
Is valuation an art or a science?
Neither, it’s a craft
People who say it’s an art want a license to teach anything they want
People who say it’s a science just want to use formulas
What do you think about market valuations vs. fair value?
Markets don’t value companies, they price them
To invest you need faith
Most investors are not investors, they are traders (even a lot of Portfolio Managers)
The Stock market can be irrational longer than you can be solvent
Which investors do you admire?
Bill Ackman, Carl Icahn, Warren Buffet all have qualities that I like, but they also have faults
Buying a “How to invest like Warren Buffet” book is a waste of time, figure out your strengths
What faults do you see in Warren Buffet?
He can be hypocritical when he speaks about corporate governance
He is very consistent and knows his strengths and weaknesses

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Welcome back to Part II of the episode with Patrick Curtis, founder of Wall Street Oasis. In this episode, we dive into Patrick’s experiences in Buenos Aires, his favorite wall street oasis stories, how he deals with “fake news”, and much more. We got some exciting guests about to come on to the podcast so stay tuned!!

Why did you decide to move to Buenos Aires?
How was it running WSO when living in South America?
What were some of your favorite stories on Wall Street Oasis?
Where are you going to take Wall Street Oasis now?
What was the original motivation for starting Wall Street Oasis?
How do you prevent “fake news” on W all Street Oasis?
How do you like California vs. New York?
What do you think about the current sentiment around finance / culture?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today we have on a very special guest, Patrick Curtis, who is the founder of WallStreetOasis.com! I met Patrick a few months ago and we’ve stayed in touch and gotten drinks a couple times, but thought he would be incredibly interesting to bring on the podcast given his experience working in finance and starting his own company. Hope you enjoy the conversation!

Tell me a bit about your background
Williams College
Wharton Undergrad
Rothschild Investment Banking
TailWind Capital
Going from a Yoga Studio to Investment Banking
Competitiveness of Investment Banking Internships nowadays
How the banking culture was in 2002 after 9/11 and the dot com bubble crash compared to today
What it was like transitioning from Banking to Private Equity
Getting fired from your first private equity job and the lessons Patrick learned
How did you start Wall Street Oasis and what were some of the roadblocks that you faced initially?
Technical challenges
Working with developers
What was the decision to go to Wharton to get your MBA? How did that affect Wall Street Oasis?
Party, Travel, Wall Street Oasis (PTW)

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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This week’s episode is on studying for the GMAT, which I thought would be a nice follow up to last week’s episode on The Virtual MBA. I will provide some tips on how I went about studying for the test and things that I wish I had known prior to studying. Hope you enjoy!

Overview of the GMAT
Writing, Integrative Reasoning, Quant, and Verbal
Adaptive Test
Computer Based
Studying for the exam
Amount of Time
Resources used
Manhattan Prep
Veritas Prep
Blogs
GMAT Club
BeattheGMAT
Tips
Getting the first 10 questions correct
Replicating the testing environment
Understanding your math score
Picking your friends’ brains

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today’s podcast will be cross listed with one of my friends who recently started his podcast, The Virtual MBA. On this episode, Alex and I dive a bit into my background of where I grew up, went to school, and some of the decisions that have now landed me in NY! I hope that you enjoy, and feel free to reach out with any questions or suggestions.

What is your background?
How would you describe your analyst career?
What made you decide to do PE in NY?
What are your thoughts on the 2 + 2 + 2 path?
What else are you considering?
How did you start your podcast, The Vampire Squid?
What is the purpose of the podcast?
Do you still play golf in NY?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Welcome back to Part II of the interview with Jeff Schneider, the CFO from Royalty Exchange. In today’s follow up to last week’s talk, we finish the conversation we had on the music industry and Royalties. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of the episode!

How has piracy affected Royalty Exchange and royalties in general?
How does Royalty Exchange make money? Who pays the fee?
Who are some of the other notable artists / songs you have on your platform?
How many years do I receive the royalty?
Do you have EDM music on your platform?
What is your day to day as CFO?
How does the bidding process work?
Where do you expect Royalty Exchange to go in the next 3-5 years?
Who are your main competitors?
Can anyone just bid on these auctions at Royalty Exchange?
Did your MBA help you in your current role as CFO?
What’s it like working in the music industry?
How are the artists in real life?
Are you a belieber?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Really excited for this episode as we explore a completely new investment vehicle, investing in royalties from music artists! I bring on Jeff Schneider, the CFO from Royalty Exchange , to share his path to becoming a CFO and insights into how the investment structure at Royalty Exchange works. Some of the artists that have used Royalty Exchange as a platform have included the artist who created the theme song for Dora the Explorer, music for Dumb and Dumber, and a Barry White Song!

Jeff’s experience going directly from undergrad to MBA without any work experience
Interviewing for jobs when you have less experience
What he changed from going from no job offers to four job offers
What it was like working with James Altucher (one of the people who inspired me to create a podcast!)!
Jeff’s experience helping create “Early to Rise”
Helping people live better and more intentional lives
How Jeff has deleted all social media off of his mobile device
How did all of Jeff’s experience culminate into the CFO role at Royalty Exchange
What is Royalty Exchange? (10:36min)
Alternative Asset Marketplace
How Royalty Exchange helps fund artist’s careers
How to do your due diligence before investing into the catalog of royalties
Does emotional ties to the music skew investment decisions
How someone purchased the theme song to Dora the explorer!
What are the economics of investing on the Royalty Exchange platform?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@the vampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Happy New Year! Welcome back to The Vampire Squid, I’m incredibly excited for this year and for what is to come for TVS. Today’s episode will be on Market Indices and Exchanges like the S&P 500, DJIA, NYSE, and NASDAQ. I think this is an incredibly important episode because of the volatility that we have been seeing in the stock market, as well as everything that is to come that will affect how the markets perform.

Difference between Market Indices and Market Exchanges
Market Indices
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)
S&P 500
Russell 2000
Market Exchanges
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
NASDAQ
DJIA Overview
30 companies represented
Price-weighted and scaled averages
S&P 500 Overview
500 companies represented
Market cap weighted
Russell 2000
NYSE
Oldest and largest exchange
Blue Chip Stocks
~$500k to list
NASDAQ
Newer exchange
Tech dominated
~$50-$75k to list
Why this is importnat and useful for you to understand!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Greetings from the Galapagos Islands!! Before we start, if you are a developer (iOS), shoot me an email!! I hope everyone is getting some time off for the holidays! This episode is short and sweet and a quick review of how far The Vampire Squid has come in 2016, and what I hope to accomplish in 2017. Thank you all for your help along the way, I couldn’t have done it without you all.

Talk to you guys in the new year 🙂

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Welcome to Part II of the interview with Karen Ho, our expert on Wall Street Anthropology! This episode continues with quality insights from Karen as we continue to discuss past recessions, training, and socioeconomic inequality.

Email Address: karenho@umn.edu

Is Wall Street culture all bad?
What were the similarities and differences between the 2001 Dot Com Crash vs. the Mortgage Housing Crisis of 2008?
Collateralized Mortgage Obligations
How the market was driven by high finance and bonuses
Dismantling of Glass-Steagall
How AIG became much bigger than just an insurance firm
Credit Default Swaps
How insurance firms and insurance holders can sometimes switch roles!
State of emergency becoming a state of exception
How can we improve the image of wall street or increase transparency?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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I’m so excited to introduce this episode, one of the most revealing and informative ones that I have done to date! Please welcome a special guest, Karen Ho, an American Anthropologist, who studies wall street culture. Karen is currently teaching at the University of Minnesota, and received her PhD at Princeton and undergraduate and masters at Stanford all in anthropology. This episode is jam packed in that we talk about the three part wall street cocktail, short-termism, greed, etc. etc. Please enjoy!

Karen’s background and how she got interested in studying Wall Street Culture
Making the strange familiar, and making the familiar strange
Why saying Wall Street Culture is Greedy is too surface level
How Wall Street Culture Cocktail came to be
Smartness
Only recruiting from Harvard and Princeton
Short-Term-ism
2 year analyst programs and burnout from investment banking
Bonus Structure
Being paid out on a transaction basis instead of long term value
Was this culture prevalent in all levels of finance (Analyst to MD)
Ringing the cash register to many times in the short term
Is there a solution for this?
“Draining the swamp”!
Changing the Wall Street Pay Structure to promote long term value

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Welcome back everyone and to Part II of the hedge fund episode with Jesse Felder! I recently did some very exciting interviews as well that I can’t wait to share with everyone shortly 🙂 Hope you enjoy and please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or comments

Twitter: @jessefelder

How many stocks do you hold in a portfolio?
What are the traits that make a good hedge fund investor?
What can junior people do to stand out and impress hedge fund investors in interviews?
A whatever it takes attitude
Flattering the interviewer and being proactive
Work ethic
Being successful but maintaining high ethical standards
Books and websites that are helpful
Howard Marks – The Most Important Thing
The Market Wizards
Fooling some of the people all of the time
Reminiscences of a stock operator
Jesse Livermore – Boy Plunger
Views on the current stock market
Buffet Measure – Market Cap to GDP
Median Price to Sales Ratio
Recent Trump Rally
Interest Rates

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Today, we have brought on Jesse Felder, who is the author of The Felder Report, that educates and informs individual investors about the issues most important to success in the financial markets. Jesse used to work at Bear Stearns and then broke off to help start his own hedge fund. I hope you enjoy this episode!

Jesse Felder’s background at Bear Stearns
How studying English and literature instead of finance can be valuable
Shakespeare
Human Behavior
How I wish I studied philosophy in School!
Books that Jesse recommends
The Dao of Capital
Jesse’s Hedge Fund
Paying attention to insider selling and trading
Looking at Longs and shorts but using insider trading to confirm trades

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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This week’s episode will be on early stage employee stock options, an episode very critical for anyone interested in joining an early stage company that offers them stock options. We talk about the valuation, tax liability, and questions to ask about the company to make sure you are getting the best compensation package possible. I hope you enjoy!

How do employee stock options work?
Compensation and share in the company
Vesting Schedule
Exercise dates
Taxes
Example of an employee stock option package
Paying millions in tax liabilities for high growth technology startups
Making it difficult for employees to leave
Retaining Talent
New law proposed in Congress
H.R. 5719 – 114th Congress
Empowering Employees through Stock Ownership Act
Why is this important to you?
Negotiating your stock option package
Monthly vesting
Longer exercise period
Shorter vesting cycle
Additional options on performance
Questions to ask
Fully diluted basis
Further rounds needed before going public
Any Debt?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today’s episode is on one of my favorite TV shows, Shark Tank which is about entrepreneurs pitching the “Sharks” which include the likes of Mark Cuban, Daymond John, and Chris Sacca. We will go over the most common types of investments that are made on Shark Tank, the pros and cons of different investment structures, and one of my favorite episodes!

Overview of Shark Tank
The Sharks
Common industries represented
Different Investment Structures
Cash for Equity
Debt (loans)
Royalty
Shark Tank vs. Venture capital Investments
Similarities and Differences
Valuation ranges
Questions asked
Coffee Meets Bagel Review
How is this applicable to you?
Creating your own company
Pitching Angel Investors and VC’s

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today’s episode is on Activist Investing, something that has become quite prolific over the last decade with the induction of the internet, media, and smartphones. Activist investing is contrary to passive investing, which we discussed at length previous episodes. I hope you find this episode both informational and entertaining!

Difference between Passive vs. Active Investors
Activist Landscape
Notable Activist Investors
Proliferation of Activist Investing
Technology
Public Information and Research
Activist Investor Toolbox
Operational Improvements
Corporate Governance
Financial
Strategic
M&A
Steps Activist Investors take to implement change
Acquiring shares
Public Announcement
Working with Company or Proxy Fights
How is this applicable to you and me?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Happy early Halloween! Part II of the Trading Options episode with Kirk Du Plessis. This episode covers a lot of great information on questions that I had for trading options and Kirk’s entrepreneurial spirit for starting his own company, Optionalpha.com, after working on wall street. Please enjoy!

What happens if you forget about your options, and they expire in the money?
Do you have to have enough money in your account to buy all the options?
What happens during a “margin call”
What were the steps and mindset for starting Optionalpha?
What were some of the challenges that you faced while starting Optionalpha
Playing to your strengths and researching your customers
What if you are a millennial and don’t have necessarily the amount of time or capital, how do you suggest they trade options?
Why more money doesn’t necessarily make you a better trader
Are you more busy than someone who builds 150 homes a year?
Being consistent and persistent

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Today’s episode we dive deeper into trading options with Kirk Du Plessis, who is the founder of Optionalpha.com, an educational option trading site. This episode and Part II are packed with great nuggets of information on how to trade options, calculating success of trades, and even Kirk’s entrepreneurial spirit in quitting banking and starting his own platform and company trading options. I hope that you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed interviewing Kirk.

Kirk also runs a successful options trading podcast which I used while learning to trade options.

Kirk’s background in college, investment banking, REITs, and then starting trading options
How to Calculate the success of a trade for options
Implied Volatility
Time Decay
Calculating the standard deviation of stock price movement – (Stock price) x (Annualized Implied Volatility) x (Square Root of [days to expiration / 365]) = 1 standard deviation
One standard deviation = 68% chance
Mistakes to avoid while initially trading options
Option size – 1-5% of portfolio size
The frequency that you trade to hit law of large numbers
Not being a net option seller
How insurance companies are basically option sellers
Warren Buffet selling over $5bn of options over the last few years
Indicators to look for as a beginner trading options
Aggressive vs. non-Aggressive strategies

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Hey everyone! Just got back from California so apologies for the late post. Today, we are going to be talking about a very important subject, managing stress and maintaining a positive attitude. I know that in my career as well as in school, I have had to deal with stressful situations, and felt that this is an important topic to talk about.

Also, before we start, if you’re interested in helping out with TVS, please shoot me an email at alan@thevampiresquid.com. I haven’t thought of the complete structure of how it will work, but would love to see how much interest there is in helping out with producing TVS.

What is stress in work?
Not enough time to finish the work that needs to be done
Not understanding how to do the work that needs to be done
Preventing stress
Saying no and managing expectations
Not being afraid to ask questions
Hypothetical scenarios and how to deal with them
Thinking I understood what needed to be done when I didn’t really
Client giving 7 days of work that needed to be done in 4 days
Other Tips for managing stress
Taking a walk outside
Eating Clean
Having a go to music playlist
Talking it out with a friend

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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In Part II of the Venture Capital Overview with Charlie O’Donnell, we continue our conversation about VC, entrepreneurship, and more! Please see note details below, and hope that you enjoy 🙂

Email: charlie@brooklynbridge.vc

How did your experience running a startup help you with your VC experience?
How a 7-year time frame correlates to understanding a cycle and getting good at VC investing.
Anchor investors and the challenges of raising a first round fund, and then a second round fund.
How early stage investing is different from later stage investing?
What are the pros and cons of New York vs. Silicon Valley for a career in technology?
Why some people may see Venture Capitalists as “Jerks”
Advice for those interested in working in Venture Capital

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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For the 20th episode of The Vampire Squid, we had to bring on a very special guest. Please welcome Charlie O’Donnell! Charlie is the founder of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the first analyst at Union Square Ventures, writer of one of the most popular VC blogs This is Going to be Big, and I could go on and on. This was one of the most fun and informative interviews that I have conducted and Charlie is extremely funny, insightful, in-depth, and down to earth as he shares his experience and learnings with all of us.

Email: charlie@brooklynbridge.vc

What was the decision making process of majoring in Finance, and then going to work at GM?
How did you transition from GM to Union Square Ventures and how did you meet Fred Wilson?
Since they were only a 2 – person fund, how did you evaluate making the decision to join Union Square Ventures?
What was the biggest takeaway from your two years at Union Square Ventures, what did you learn?
How Charlie has helped build the New York tech community (blog, host dinners, events)
How was doing the entrepreneurship route, starting your company Path 101?
What advice do you have for people in finance going into entrepreneurship?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Disclaimer: “Today’s episode does not condone or promote the trading of any single stock equities. The content in today’s episode are for educational purposes only and I am speaking on behalf of myself without further representation.”

Andre Agassi “Open” – http://cpor.org/ri/Agassi-Open-An-Autobiography.pdf

Investment Checklist – http://mebfaber.com/2011/01/20/hedge-fund-analyst-checklist/

Two pronged thought process for investing in Stock
Is this a fundamentally good company?
Is this the right time to invest?
My favorite questions
Do you understand this business
What is the competitive advantage of the business
How is this company going to grow?
What are some reasonable events that could cause this investment to drop?
What is your edge, investment thesis, hypothesis?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Welcome back to another episode of The Vampire Squid! Today, we’re going to be talking about trading options. For compliance reasons, please note that “Today’s episode does not condone or promote the trading of any single stock equities. The content in today’s episode are for educational purposes only and I am speaking on behalf of myself without further representation.”

Also, shout to Val and Geoff who contributed $100 and $20 per month respectively, you guys rock :)!

What are options?
Call Options
Put Options
What comprises the value of an option?
Underlying stock value
Time Value
Including Volatility
What are Strike Prices, Expiration dates, and premiums on Options
Examples
How to actually trade options
Margin account
Selling a naked call option
Selling a covered call option
Strangles, straddles, butterflies, etc. that we will cover in another episode
Power of Options
Trading option example vs. purchasing underlying stock
Things I wish I knew before trading options
People don’t usually exercise the option contract
Trading options is really hard
Getting direction correct but still losing money due to time decay
Never trading over 5% of your portfolio in any single option
Conclusions

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Welcome to episode 17 of The Vampire Squid! Today, we will be talking about Banking vs. Consulting since I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking me about the differences between the two as well as my decision to pursue banking over consulting. Also, if you guys are interested in helping support The Vampire Squid, please check out my Patreon page here!

https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

Recruiting
Recruiting for both banking and consulting
How to make a decision between the two industries
Going to the best firm that you can possibly get into regardless of banking or consulting
Lifestyle
Work hours differences
Traveling differences
Getting Business school paid for and the caveat that you should know!!
Work
Tools used in both banking and consulting
Differences in financial modeling and operational analysis
Exit Opportunities
Fortune 500 companies
Startups
Private Equity Firms
Starting your own business
My decision between banking vs. consulting
Upcoming episodes (venture capital) stay tuned 🙂

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1. To support us check us out at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thevampiresquid

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Hope everyone had a great labor day weekend! Today we are going to be talking about Leveraged Buy Outs, another form of valuation and modeling. As promised, please see a link to the actual model of an LBO, and a more detailed explanation in case you are interested.

LBO Model

LBO Detailed Overview

LBO Drivers
Purchase Price
Debt Quantum
Interest Rate
Synergies
Exit Price
Dividend Recap
Walk through of an LBO
Types of companies that are good LBO Candidates
High Cash Flow Generating
Stable and predictable business
Companies where you can cut costs
Low CapEx business
How buying a home is similar to an LBO transaction

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

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New York vs. San Francisco! Two of my favorite cities that I have ever lived in. In this episode, we will dive deep into the major differences between New York and San Francisco from a career perspective and a lifestyle perspective. Overall, I would say please don’t be nervous to move to a new city if you have a great opportunity to do so. It will be difficult at first but it will force you to step outside of your comfort zone but you will quickly adapt and make new friends and get to enjoy a completely new city!

Finimize – Great for digesting finance in a easy to understand way

Career
San Francisco vs. New York
Technology
Proximity to Silicon Valley
Range of products from IPOs, Private placements, M&A, Financing
Exit Opportunities
Lifestyle
Weather
Bar and Clubs
Weekend trips
Food Scene
Pace of both cities

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

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Today’s episode will cover another one of the most common valuation techniques, Comparable Companies Analysis, which is an extrinsic form of valuation that people use for companies. Hope that you enjoy the episode and takeaway understanding how this method is used!

Extrinsic Valuation
Ratios
Common Comps Multiples
EV / Revenue
EV / EBITDA
Price / Earnings
Drivers and lever that go into Comps
If two companies are identical in terms of size, industry, technology, etc. but one grows quicker than the other, which company would you be more willing to pay for?
Why are comparable companies analysis useful?
Valuing private companies – Snapchat
Determining valuation in an M&A situation
Things to be careful about when performing this analysis
Picking the right set of comparable companies
Using the right multiples i.e. EV / Rev vs. Price / Earnings
Pros and Cons of this type of analysis
How can this be applied to everyday life?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

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Welcome to the first valuation episode! Today we will talk about Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis, one of the most common types of valuation that people in finance use. As promised, please see attached links to an actual DCF model, in addition to more of the granularity of the formula in case you are interested.

DCF Model – http://macabacus.com/valuation/dcf/overview

Detailed DCF explanation – http://www.investopedia.com/university/dcf/

Intrinsic Valuation of a company
What is the time value of money?
Would you rather have $1 today or $1 a year from now?
Projecting out your cash flows
What do you do for your terminal value?
Perpetuity Growth Method
Exit Multiples
Why do you have to use a discount rate? What’s an easy to understand example?
Cons of a DCF Valuation
Assumptions
Predictability of cash flows
Pros of a DCF Valuation
Intrinsic valuation of a company

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

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Welcome back! As many of you know starting today, we will be releasing one episode per week on Sundays. First day of work tomorrow!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-mehra-842b9a47

Today we have a very special guest, Shaun Mehra. Shaun worked as a private equity analyst at Silver Lake Partners, a large cap private equity fund focused on technology investments. We go over Shaun’s day to day, investment thesis, and advice to break into the industry. Very fun episode, hope you enjoy!

What’s your background story?
Before Silver Lake Partners, what were your thoughts on our summer at GS?
How was it helpful to your time at Silver Lake Partners?
What does Silver Lake Partners do? What’s the high level overview?
How did you get the job? What was the interview process like?
What do you do on a day to day basis? From when you wake up to sleep?
Walk me through your investment thought process.
What skills have you acquired since working for Silver Lake Partners?
What advice do you have for kids that are looking to break into private equity?
Fun Questions
What is your favorite book that you’ve read and why?
Favorite restaurant in the city
How do you stay motivated, or what motivates you?
How can we improve on increasing transparency in finance?

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

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Welcome back for the last episode of the three part series on investment banking recruiting, technicals! Before we begin, check out this recent article that was written about us in The Globe and Mail.

Best Resources for preparing for Technicals
Friends that have worked in investment banking
Wall Street Oasis Prep Guide
Rosenbaum and Pearl
Sections for Investment Banking Technicals
Financial Statements
How they tie to one another
Specific line items on the financial statements
How changes affect the three financial statements
$10 increase in depreciation
Valuation
Discounted Cash Flow Analysis
Comparable Companies Analysis
Precedent Transactions
Leveraged Buyouts
Resources
Excel Models
Brain Teasers
Case Study Questions
How many cigarettes are smoked in a day?
How many ping pong balls can you fit in a 747
How many customers enter the grocery store down the street
How to answer questions that you don’t know the answer to
General Closing Tips

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

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Welcome to Part II of the Investment Banking Recruiting series. Today, we are talking about behavorial questions which are arguably more important than technicals. We also touch briefly on networking as I did not cover this subject as much in the first IB Recruiting Episode.

Make sure to have a theme or message you want to convey across in the interview
Prepare every line item on your resume so you can speak extensively to it
Questions, answers, and why they are asking them
Walk me through your resume, give me your background
Why do you want to work at X investment bank
Why do you want to work in investment banking
Are you interviewing only with investment banks, or also consulting and other firms?
Tell me about a time you had a conflict on a team and how did you resolve it?
Tell me about a time you went against the grain or challenged the status quo
Tell me about your greatest accomplishment
Tell me your strengths and weaknesses
Tell me about a time that you failed
What do you do for fun?
Ethical questions

As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Email me directly at alan@thevampiresquid.com or on the contact form. Also, please subscribe to my facebook page for live updates facebook.com/thevampiresquid. Also follow me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Alan-Li-1

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Finally got around to jotting down some notes for the investment banking recruiting process that is up and coming for many of you! This series will be broken up into three parts: the overview, behavorials, and technicals, as it was too much to jam into one episode.

Investment Banking Timeline
New Goldman initiative for first round video interviews
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-goldman-sachs-hiring-idUSKCN0Z929M
Investment Banking Information Sessions
To go or not to go
Resume Screens
Who screens your resumes?
What do they look for?
First Round Interviews
Dress Code
Picking interview time slots
What are they looking for?
Final Round Interviews (Superdays)
How many interviews do you have?
What to do if you are interviewing with a partner
Tips I wish I knew
Exploding Offers
Random questions like, “Tell me your favorite joke”, “What do you do better than 99% of the world?” etc.
Videotaping yourself for practice