Generating Alpha Podcast

Amir Fischer
  • 4.8 (6)
  • Investing
  • Updated Daily

Generating Alpha brings the next generation of investors face-to-face with legends of finance. Hosted by a 17-year-old, it features rare conversations with icons like Steve Cohen, Howard Marks, Barry Sternlicht, Jim Chanos, and Tim Draper. Guests open up with untold stories: from childhood sparks to empire-building moments, sharing lessons you won’t find in textbooks. For students, young professionals, and anyone curious about how the greats think, Generating Alpha offers an unfiltered look into the minds shaping the future of investing.

  1. 2d ago

    Episode 57: David Gross - Managing Partner of Bain Capital

    This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with David Gross, Managing Partner of Bain Capital, one of the world's largest private investment firms with roughly $225 billion in assets under management, and the first person to lead it alone since Mitt Romney. David grew up between Ohio and upstate New York. At Wharton in the late 1980s, he became fascinated with Japan, then seen as America's great economic challenger, and on a mentor's suggestion went to see it for himself. He landed in Tokyo in 1992 to join NEC just as the bubble was bursting, then returned for Harvard Business School and Bain & Company before joining Bain Capital in 2000. It was in Japan where David built the career that would define him. Once convinced private equity there would never work, he opened Bain Capital's Tokyo office in 2006. While other Western firms came and went, he stayed for twenty years, completing 45 deals without a single bankruptcy and building Bain's Asia business into one multi-asset platform. He led the $18 billion acquisition of Kioxia, carried it through a memory market collapse, and exited this summer with roughly $15 billion in profit. In January, he became Bain Capital's sole Managing Partner. In our conversation, we explored what four years at NEC taught him about Japanese business, why he changed his mind about private equity in Japan, the inside story of Kioxia, the lessons he took from Bain's founding generation, why the firm measures itself on performance rather than AUM and will never go public, how he's training an AI model on Bain's own deal history, and the advice he'd give a 17-year-old today. It's a rare look inside one of the most patient and globally minded leaders in private markets — and a masterclass in staying the course when everyone else leaves.

  2. Jul 8

    Episode 56: Gavin Baker - Managing Partner of Atreides Management

    This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with Gavin Baker, founder and CIO of Atreides Management, one of the most respected technology-focused investment firms in the market today. Gavin grew up in Houston, Texas, the son of two attorneys, with an early obsession with history, books, and games of skill and chance. He arrived at investing almost by accident — a college internship at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette introduced him to equity research, and he never looked back. After graduating from Dartmouth, he joined Fidelity Investments, where he would spend over a decade covering semiconductors, pharma, telecom, and retail before rising to manage the $17 billion OTC fund. It was at Fidelity where Gavin developed the convictions that would define his career. As a young semiconductor analyst, he was among the first to identify the inventory buildup that preceded the dot-com crash. He built early, high-conviction positions in NVIDIA and Tesla, and was an early institutional investor in SpaceX. After leaving Fidelity, he founded Atreides Management, where he has continued to focus on deep tech, semiconductors, and the infrastructure underpinning artificial intelligence. In our conversation, we explored Gavin's unlikely path from aspiring rock climber to one of the sharpest technology investors of his generation, the frameworks he built covering commodities and semiconductors early in his career, what makes Jensen Huang and Elon Musk generationally exceptional, how he thinks about the AI buildout relative to every prior technology cycle, the psychology of navigating drawdowns, and the advice he gives to young investors starting out today. It's a rare look inside one of the most rigorous and historically grounded investment minds in public markets — and a masterclass in finding conviction at the earliest stages of transformative technology. This was filmed in February 2026

  3. Jun 22

    Episode 55: Economic Myths with Jeff Yass - Co-Founder and Managing Director of Susquehanna

    This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with Jeff Yass — co-founder and managing director of Susquehanna, one of the largest trading and quantitative finance firms in the world — and the first repeat guest in the history of the show. This one is different. The first time around, we walked through prediction markets. This time we skipped that entirely and went straight at the ideas — the economic myths Jeff thinks the majority of people get backwards. We covered a lot of ground: why comparing the national debt to GDP is the wrong way to think about whether America owes too much, why consumer surplus means the people we vilify as billionaires may be the ones giving society the most value, what's actually broken about the progressive tax system, and why he believes school choice and vouchers are one of the most underrated ideas in the country. It's a fast, contrarian tour through the things Jeff believes most people get wrong about taxes, markets, and value creation — and a rare chance to hear one of the sharpest probabilistic thinkers alive lay out his first principles.

  4. May 20

    Episode 54: Michael Shvo - Chairman and CEO of SHVO

    This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with Michael Shvo — real estate developer, art collector, and founder of SHVO, one of the most distinctive luxury development firms in the world. Michael grew up in Arsuf, Israel, the son of two organic chemistry professors. As a teenager he taught himself to trade oil and gas stocks, made millions, and lost it all before finishing school. He completed his military service, moved to New York at 23 with $3,000 to his name, and talked his way into a job at Douglas Elliman — where he invented the concept of the real estate team, building a group of 27 people around him and doing over $300 million in sales to become the firm's top broker. He left in 2004 to found SHVO, and within four years had done $15 billion in transactions worldwide. But what set him apart wasn't the volume — it was the vision. Michael pioneered the marriage of fashion and real estate, bringing Armani into residential development before anyone else thought to, and went on to build a firm defined as much by art and culture as by architecture and capital. Today SHVO oversees more than $8 billion in assets across five major American markets, with properties that include 711 Fifth Avenue, the Crown Building, and Big Red in Chicago. In our conversation, we talked about growing up between two worlds, building one of the most recognized names in luxury real estate from nothing, what he actually means when he talks about luxury, and how he keeps spotting iconic properties before the rest of the market catches on. It's a rare look inside the mind of a developer who has never once built anything ordinary.

  5. May 11

    Episode 53: Christian Angermayer - Founder of Apeiron Investment Group

    This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with Christian Angermayer — serial entrepreneur, biotech pioneer, and founder of Apeiron Investment Group, one of the most unconventional private investment firms in the world. Christian grew up in a small town in Bavaria and dropped out of university at 20 to co-found Ribopharma, a biotech built on groundbreaking RNA interference technology. He sold it to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals before turning 25, and has spent the two decades since founding three unicorns, backing four more, and completing over 50 IPOs and M&A transactions across life sciences, fintech, crypto, and frontier technology. His most defining chapter has been psychedelics. At a time when psilocybin was still considered fringe science, Christian seed-funded Compass Pathways and founded atai Life Sciences — taking it public on Nasdaq at a $3.2 billion valuation — almost single-handedly transforming psychedelic medicine from a relic of the 1960s into one of the most compelling frontiers in modern psychiatry. His latest bet is just as bold. This past Friday, Enhanced Games — his performance-enhancing-drug-permitted alternative to the Olympics that doubles as a performance medicine and telehealth platform — debuted on the NYSE at a $1.2 billion valuation. In our conversation, we talked about betting on ideas before the world is ready, building and IPOing companies across entirely different industries, the science and philosophy behind the psychedelic renaissance, and what Enhanced Games is actually building beyond the headlines. It's a rare look inside the mind of a builder who keeps finding the future before anyone else does.

  6. May 4

    Episode 52: Michael Paulus - Founder of PCM Encore

    This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with Michael Paulus — serial entrepreneur, fintech pioneer, and founder of PCM Encore, one of the fastest-growing fiduciary wealth management firms in the country. Michael earned his undergraduate degree in Economics and a Master's in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford, where he helped manage a portion of the university's endowment through the student-run Blyth Fund. He went on to consult at Boston Consulting Group and became a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz before co-founding Assurance IQ — an insurance technology platform he bootstrapped to a billion-dollar exit to Prudential Financial, making him one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the country. He also helped build Addepar, a financial analytics platform now reporting on trillions in assets. But PCM Encore is his most personal bet. Frustrated that no wealth manager could deliver the conflict-free, sophisticated solutions his own family needed, he built the platform himself — then opened it to the world. The firm crossed $1.2 billion in AUM within six months of launching to outside families, operating as a 100% employee-owned fiduciary with no commissions, no hidden fees, and no products to push. In our conversation, we talked about the lessons from bootstrapping and exiting a billion-dollar business, why he believes wealth management is fundamentally broken, what it really means to be a fiduciary, and how he thinks about portfolio construction for high-net-worth families. It's a rare look inside the mind of a builder who keeps finding new industries to reinvent — and winning. Presented by: rho.co/generatingalpha

  7. Apr 1

    Episode 51: Fabrice Grinda - Founding Partner of FJ Labs

    This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with Fabrice Grinda — serial entrepreneur, prolific angel investor, and founding partner of FJ Labs, one of the most active venture funds in the world with over 1,100 investments across six continents. Fabrice grew up in Nice, France, the son of a doctor. He arrived at Princeton, graduated summa cum laude in economics, and was already running his first business — Princeton International Computers, exporting hardware to Europe — before he had his degree. He spent a matter of months at McKinsey before walking away at 23 to launch Aucland, a direct eBay competitor in France that became one of Europe's largest auction sites. From there he built Zingy, a mobile media company he scaled to $200 million in revenue in four years, before founding OLX in 2006 — a classified ads marketplace that grew to 350 million monthly users across 40 countries and became one of the most trafficked websites on the internet. Along the way, he tried to buy the Alibaba.com domain from an unknown Jack Ma — and ended up an early investor in Alibaba instead. Forbes later named him the #1 angel investor in the world. Today, through FJ Labs, he has made over 1,100 investments and seen more than 300 exits — backing companies like Coupang, Delivery Hero, and Rappi — all without leading rounds, taking board seats, or spending more than two calls on a decision. But what makes Fabrice genuinely singular isn't just the track record. It's the intentionality behind it. In 2012, he gave away all his possessions. He's designed his life around Turks & Caicos, New York, and Revelstoke, optimizing not for accumulation but for happiness on his own terms. In our conversation, we talked about growing up in France and catching the entrepreneurship bug early, what he learned from nearly going bankrupt and borrowing on credit cards to make payroll, the contrarian logic behind launching OLX in over 100 countries simultaneously, his pattern recognition for great marketplace businesses at the seed stage, why his two-call investment model is a feature and not a bug, and how he thinks about designing a life most people never consider. It's a rare look inside one of the most prolific and unconventional investing minds of his generation — and a masterclass in building wealth, companies, and a life entirely on your own terms. Presented by: ⁠rho.co/generatingalpha⁠

  8. Feb 24

    Episode 50: Ian Livingstone - Co-Founder of London Regional Properties

    This week on Generating Alpha, I sat down with Ian Livingstone, co-founder of London Regional Properties, one of Europe's most successful and enduring private investment firms — with over $30 billion deployed across four decades and approximately $10 billion in assets under management today. Ian's journey began in Ealing, London, where he grew up the son of a dentist. After qualifying as an optometrist in 1984, he opened his first eyewear store in 1989. Within three years he'd acquired the David Clulow chain, growing it to 170 stores across the UK including concessions in Harrods and Selfridges. He served as chairman of the Optika Clulow Group for two decades, building it into one of the leading optical retail businesses in Europe, before selling to Luxottica in 2011. But the business that would define his career began in 1987, when Ian and his brother Richard founded London Regional Properties at the height of a commercial property crash — buying distressed assets at half price while every institution in the market was running for the exits. That contrarian bet became the foundation of a portfolio that today spans David Lloyd Leisure, Hilton hotels in London, the leasehold on Cliveden House, a $2 billion development in Panama City, and the Fairmont Monte Carlo — one of the most iconic hotel addresses in the world, which Ian acquired in 2007 and spent nearly two decades transforming. Along the way, they provided seed funding for Evolution Gaming, a Swedish online gambling company whose 8.6% stake grew into a position worth nearly $3 billion. Through it all, Ian and his brother have retained full family control — no outside capital, no institutional partners, no compromise. In our conversation, we explored Ian's unlikely path from optometrist to entrepreneur, the philosophy behind buying aggressively when everyone else was selling, how he thinks about opportunity across wildly different asset classes, the story behind the Fairmont Monte Carlo, what nearly four decades of family control actually looks like, and where he sees the market today. It's a rare look inside one of the most deliberate and disciplined investing minds in Europe and across global markets — and a masterclass in building lasting private wealth on your own terms. Presented by: rho.co/generatingalpha

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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Generating Alpha brings the next generation of investors face-to-face with legends of finance. Hosted by a 17-year-old, it features rare conversations with icons like Steve Cohen, Howard Marks, Barry Sternlicht, Jim Chanos, and Tim Draper. Guests open up with untold stories: from childhood sparks to empire-building moments, sharing lessons you won’t find in textbooks. For students, young professionals, and anyone curious about how the greats think, Generating Alpha offers an unfiltered look into the minds shaping the future of investing.

Information

  • Creator
    Amir Fischer
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    54
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Amir Fischer
  • Show Website
    Generating Alpha Podcast

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