David Weisburd 🚀
@DWeisburd • 22,696 subscribers
How I Invest Podcast | Weisburd Capital
Videos
“Venture capital is not an asset class.” Ian Sigalow explains why diversification in venture can actually LOWER returns — and why only a small number of firms consistently matter. One of the clearest explanations of venture power laws and allocator behavior I’ve heard. Full conversation on YouTube.
David Weisburd 🚀960,387 views • 2 months ago
The hardest part of investing is not buying. It is refusing to sell. Anthony Pompliano 🌪 learned it the painful way: he mined ETH around $5, sold after a huge move, then watched it run to $1,400. Anthony Pompliano, investor and entrepreneur: "I am now convinced that actually selling is the much harder exercise." "If you go and you look at some of the best investors in the world, they just never sell." That is the Bitcoin lesson. It is also the Eli Lilly, Nvidia, SpaceX, and power-law lesson. The mistake is usually not missing the winner. It is letting go too early.
David Weisburd 🚀96,757 views • 11 days ago
A legendary M&A banker had one rule before every client pitch: "Don't forget to ask for the cookie." Matt Wells (AlphaSense) shared the story. The chairman was part of the breakup of the Bells. He flew the Concorde. He met the Queen. And before every pitch, he would corner the junior bankers with the same line. What he meant: "If you don't ask for the cookie, you're never going to get the cookie. You put all this work into this pitch. When you're in there with the client or potential client, ask for the mandate." Pitching is the easy part. Closing is the part most people skip. It applies to every high-stakes ask. Banking mandate. Job offer. LP commitment. Political endorsement. The work that wins is not the deck. It is the one sentence at the end where you actually ask. Ask for the cookie.
David Weisburd 🚀224,423 views • 1 month ago
President Gay has become a major liability for Harvard University: **🎥Shocking Video of President Gay’s Testimony to Congress on Tuesday, December 5’th below.** 1) If her inflammatory and Antisemitic statements continue Harvard will likely be charged under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VI clarified to explicitly include Antisemitism by the Biden Administration on September 26, 2023. 2) Harvard and other endowments may lose special tax exempt status. Treasury may argue that by taking a specific political position against Jewish Americans, a position that would not be taken against other ethnic groups, Harvard is politicizing itself and thus subject to ordinary tax treatment. This would be disastrous to Harvard University and Harvard Corporation and this could involuntarily drag along other endowments into a taxable status. 3) Donors, both Jewish and the 90% of alumni who do not share Antisemitic views will vote with their feet and as much as a predicted 60-90% of future donations may be lost from the alumni base. Non-Jewish alumni will be reluctant to step into the political crossfires by supporting an institution that explicitly condones and protects genocidal statements (shockingly in President Gay's own words). The vast majority (97% of donations) are made on a non-anonymous basis in order to build legacy at Harvard and with 1000's of causes competing with Harvard - donors will be reluctant to donate and be labeled bigoted and complicit in genocidal rhetoric through a historic lens. The Harvard Corporation has a Fiduciary duty to both the University and its alumni base to: 1) Remove President Gay effective immediately. 2) Take immediate action and expel students who are threatening and intimidating Jewish students with genocidial statements (no more teethless PR statements). 3) Outline specific policies that puts Harvard back into compliance to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VI and takes away the risk of litigation, loss of federal funding, and loss of tax exempt status. Action must be taken TODAY in order to turn around the disastrous mismanagement of Harvard University, Harvard Corporation, and the Harvard Brand by President Gay an institution President Gay inherited with a nearly 400 year track record and brand. Harvard alumni can no longer sit on the sidelines and hope that President Gay “pivots from Antisemitism”. We are asked at convocation to show class unity and to stand with our classmates. Today, Jewish Students and Alumni ask that ALL Harvad Alumni, Jewish, Arab, and Gentile, Straight or LGBTQ+, Black, Brown, White, Hispanic, stand with US and reject Genocide and its defenders. We implore Harvard Corporation to build the moral courage and to defend their Fiduciary duty. -A Concerned Alumni #Harvard #Antisemitism #CivilRights
David Weisburd 🚀3,622,862 views • 2 years ago
The most underappreciated founder demographic in New York City in May 2026, according to one of the most contrarian VCs in the country: nepo babies. Not the ones who inherit the family business. The ones who don't. Niko Bonatsos, formerly General Catalyst, now Verdict: "you need to pick the right nepo baby, the one who has huge chips on their shoulders, because they're not the ones that are in line to take over the family business" "individuals can have significant unfair advantage over others" The thesis: most people overestimate IQ and underestimate information alpha. A nepo founder with real agency, taste, and access becomes fluent in rooms it would take other founders a decade to even enter. Government rooms. Enterprise rooms. Sovereign capital rooms. The advantage isn't the trust fund. It's the proximity.
David Weisburd 🚀87,457 views • 1 month ago
A tax-loss harvesting product can charge 2.95% and underperform by roughly 2.95%. That is not tax alpha. That is fee alpha for the manager. Shang Chou, a top J.P. Morgan banker, saw a strategy with "a basket of 11 ETF holdings" that charged "as much as 2.95 % on the management fee." Its track record had "underperformed by roughly 2.95 % to the index." If the pitch starts with taxes instead of economic substance, I get nervous.
David Weisburd 🚀20,625 views • 1 month ago
The CFOs of OpenAI and Anthropic are going on X saying they will not honor unauthorized secondary transactions. On top of that, some of those shares have been double, triple, quadruple sold. A reckoning is coming. "I actually think some people will go to jail." That's not a hot take – that's rehypothecation. And the retail investors left holding those bags are going to find out the hard way. The CFO of OpenAI or Anthropic is not going to spend political capital managing the fallout from a grandmother who lost her life savings. Jared Carmel of Manhattan Venture Partners saw the same thing: "$25,000 checks are going to sue you a lot quicker than your million dollar check when it doesn't hurt as much for them." 92% of secondary transactions today are already institutional. The 8% that's retail is where all the published data comes from – and where all the fraud is concentrated. When the reckoning hits, institutional capital will be there to buy. It always is.
David Weisburd 🚀22,896 views • 1 month ago
Below is my conversation with @jason directly posted on the X platform. We discuss how Jason returned 4,000x ($25K into $100MM) on a single investment and How Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Y-Combinator compete in a hypercompetitive market. “I can tell you the Sequoia team is very competitive. Every time I go by that office, people are talking about the transition. The last two or three times I was there, Doug Leone was in the office. You know, he's retired? I don't know if that's correct because I see him there. People like Bill Gurley, he's retired? Every time I see him, he's talking to startups and he's on the boards of all these companies. Vinod Khosla is in his seventies and he's in meetings.” (00:00) Episode Preview (01:15) Fundraising for LAUNCH and LP investing experience (02:10) Sequoia’s investments in Twitter and Zynga (03:12) Being Sequoia’s first venture scout and earning 50% carry (04:28) Venture wealth bombs (08:06) Jason’s 4,000x investment in Uber (09:44) Loyalty in venture (10:07) Investing in Superhuman (13:15) How Jason got a 200x on an AngelList syndicate deal (14:20) Episode Sponsor (14:59) Unlocking value through secondaries (15:41) Qualities of top managers (16:23) Jason’s current fund (17:21) Aligning incentives through a GP commitment (20:54) Sourcing deals through Syndicate investments (23:56) The importance of social proof (25:04) Dealflow is destiny (28:23) The importance of ownership (29:51) Sharp elbows in Series A and beyond (31:28) Jason’s current portfolio construction (32:29) YCs impact on venture (34:05) Playing for carry, the importance of a techstack and the myth of work life balance (36:19) Venture is a competition (37:06) Why early stage venture is not zero-sum #OpenLP Turpentine Erik Torenberg Thank you to our sponsor @tactycHQ
David Weisburd 🚀176,447 views • 2 years ago
BREAKING: Blake Scholl on the Future of Supersonic Flight This might be one of the most inspiring founder stories you’ll ever hear. Highlights from my conversation with Blake Scholl (Blake Scholl 🛫 ) (00:00) How a tweet from Elon led to a White House invitation (01:45) The painful lead-up to YC Demo Day — and how Virgin saved Boom (03:13) How Richard Branson said “yes” after a 15-minute meeting (06:30) From cardboard mockups to global headlines in 48 hours (10:18) The first supersonic jet since Concorde — and how Boom built it (14:06) Why you should always work on what you love, not your resume (17:14) Why big ideas are actually easier to build than small ones (26:13) The plan to legalize supersonic flight over the U.S. (29:22) The second-order effects of faster travel — business, culture, humanity (46:49) When you can expect to fly supersonic again 🎥 Full episode below 👇
David Weisburd 🚀15,730 views • 9 months ago
I’m excited to announce the launch of my new podcast The Limited Partner with Erik Torenberg examining Venture Capital through the lens of Limited Partners. This show is a part of the Turpentine network. Our first podcast is with Chris Douvos 🇺🇸 known as “The Super LP” and the co-founder of the #OpenLP ecosystem. Spotify: Youtube:
David Weisburd 🚀19,616 views • 3 years ago
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