Introduction

The Earth’s global surface temperature has risen by one degree Celsius since the industrial revolution, and two-thirds of that has occurred since 1975, at a rate of around 0.15–0.20 degrees Celsius per decade. With one additional degree of global surface temperature rising, the water deficit will double and deadly heat waves will occur annually; with two additional degrees, a third of all species could face extinction, and with three additional degrees, rampant forest fires could turn the Amazon into a savannah. Four additional degrees could mean widespread water scarcity and famine.

The policies required to reverse this process necessitate…

Two-thirds of Americans can’t pass a basic financial literacy test, an astounding statistic that has been a contributor to the drastic increase in credit card debt, personal bankruptcies, and lack of retirement savings. While substantial, systematic changes are required across the private and public markets, including in industries such as healthcare and education, there are also small changes in incorporating financial literacy into educational curriculums and professional training programs that can help mitigate these alarming trends.

In this live piece, I look to systematically analyze the major components of a financial plan, answering key questions that many individuals and families…

Defining a Required Return on Real Estate

Real estate is one of the most lucrative asset classes to invest in, returning in a range between 8% and 10% from 1993 to 2001, with returns more recently falling to around 5%. …

Having taken some time to reflect on my life, I have realized that many of the major occurrences I am proud of stem from the support, guidance, mentorship, and teaching that I have been so incredibly fortunate to have experienced. All in all, when I think about the little successes and accomplishments in my life, small in their magnitude and impact as they are, I can always trace back to a friend, mentor, teacher, and/or family member who was a major contributor to it.

I have thus decided to create this post as a living list, by no means comprehensive…

Humans are inherently social beings, resulting from the evolutionary stable state of cooperation that allowed the homo sapiens species to thrive into its current status. Indeed, that cooperation exists in the form of communication, the baseline entry point into the formulation of those trusting and mutually beneficial interactions.

Fascinatingly, our very well-being is directly correlated to our social interaction; however, it’s not the number of social interactions we engage in that boosts our happiness so much as the level of meaning which those conversations have for us.

In this piece, I have aggregated the relevant research in engaging in better…

Introduction

Venture capital investing is widely known for its Power Law returns, which, as Peter Thiel describes, is “in venture capital, the best investment in a successful fund equals or outperforms the entire rest of the fund combined.” Investing in early stage businesses encompasses significant risk- achieving product-market fit, scaling effectively, generating significant runway to realize a liquidation event- but contrary to popular belief, these risks are diligenced considerably by investors using tried and true playbooks and deep analysis.

This analysis has previously been somewhat of a black box. Kleiner Perkins, one of the most recognized names in venture responsible for…

In this article, I seek to play the role of a private equity investor, highlighting the investment process, including initial market analysis, competitive mapping, and cost structure evaluation, as well as the creation of a three-statement financial model for the leveraged buyout of multiple dental clinics in a roll up transaction.

The purpose is to highlight some of the skills associated with the private equity industry and provide insight into how to evaluate potential investments. The hypothetical investment is the purchase, using leverage, of 5 dental clinics in Chesterfield, Missouri.

The Dental Clinic Roll Up

Dentistry has attracted a considerable amount of private equity capital…

A best friend of mine recently sent me a YouTube video with the statement “worth spending an hr watching.” Typically, this can be a pretty jarring request; outside of Game of Thrones and movie Sunday’s, I can’t think of the last time that I have watched an hour video. That said, I gave it a try.

The video was Bill Gurley’s presentation at the McCombs School at the University of Texas on September 14th, 2018 titled “Runnin’ Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love.”

The video was so incredible that I proceeded to watch…