Bill Ackman: Investment Strategy, What the Market is Missing, How AI Breaks Businesses
(0:00) Bill Ackman joins the show!
(0:30) Evolving investment philosophy: What's changed over 20 years?
(4:40) AI: Greatest time to build a business, and a major threat to portfolios
(7:50) Predicting market moves, the "rubber band effect"
(16:00) Owning founder-led companies
(19:30) Building the next Berkshire Hathaway
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An activist investor on challenging the status quo | Bill Ackman
Bill Ackman has made billions of dollars — and a name for himself — as an activist investor, buying up stock to push for change at companies. In this wide-ranging conversation with author and business ethics professor Alison Taylor, Ackman discusses how he's bringing his activism into the social and political spheres — and shares his thoughts on free speech, his notoriously long posts on X, the conversation around Harvard and DEI and more.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#413 – Bill Ackman: Investing, Financial Battles, Harvard, DEI, X & Free Speech
Bill Ackman is an investor who has led some of the biggest and controversial financial trades in history. He is founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/bill-ackman-transcript
EPISODE LINKS:
Bill’s X: https://twitter.com/BillAckman
Pershing Square Holdings: https://pershingsquareholdings.com/
Pershing Square Foundation: https://pershingsquarefoundation.org
Neri Oxman conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbPHojL_61U
Books mentioned:
The Intelligent Investor: https://amzn.to/3ONnaZy
America’s Cultural Revolution: https://amzn.to/3SDz1dY
PODCAST INFO:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(08:55) – Investing basics
(13:47) – Investing in music
(22:08) – Process of researching companies
(26:47) – Investing in restaurants
(32:16) – Investing in Google
(37:58) – AI
(43:13) – Warren Buffet
(45:22) – Psychology of investing
(54:53) – Activist investing
(1:04:41) – General Growth Properties
(1:20:57) – Canadian Pacific Railway
(1:28:21) – OpenAI
(1:32:32) – Biggest loss and lowest point
(1:47:21) – Herbalife and Carl Icahn
(2:04:11) – Oct 7
(2:10:42) – College campus protests
(2:29:09) – DEI in universities
(2:50:00) – Neri Oxman
(3:15:30) – X and free speech
(3:19:54) – Trump
(3:27:30) – Dean Phillips
(3:34:36) – Future
20VC: Bill Ackman on The Banking Crisis, What the Fed Should Do, The Three-Tiered Banking System, Why SVB is the Safest, Why Jamie Dimon Should Run For President & Investing Lessons; Losing $400M on Netflix and Making $2.8BN in COVID
Bill Ackman is the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC-registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets. Bill is also a member of the board of Universal Music Group N.V. He serves as a member of the Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a member of the Board of Dean's Advisors of the Harvard Business School. Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC.
In Today's Episode with Bill Ackman We Discuss:
1.) From HBS to Starting Your First Fund:
How did Bill go from HBS to raising his first fund in Gotham Partners? How was that first fundraise?
From 100 meetings, what worked? What did not work? What were the core fundraising lessons?
What did Bill learn about great partnerships from his time with David building Gotham?
2.) Bill Ackman: A Winner's Mindset: How To Deal with the Highs and Lows:
On reflection, what have been the most challenging times for Bill professionally?
What does he say to himself when he is going through the hardest times? What is his mind talk?
When the war is lost and it is time for learning, how does Bill reflect and learn from losses?
Bill has previously described himself as "the most persistent man in America". How does Bill know when enough is enough, he was wrong and it is time to change his approach?
3.) Bill Ackman: SVB + Bank Runs and The Future of our Financial System:
Why does Bill believe that the depositor guarantees for SVB and Signature Bank have created a "Three Tier Banking System"? What are those three tiers?
Why does Bill believe that SVB is now the safest place to deposit your money? Why is First Republic Bank and SVB very different in terms of their exposure?
What can be done to prevent further bank runs? What should the Fed be doing? Why are they not doing it? What would Bill do if he was in charge of the Fed?
Why does Bill believe the current levels of FDIC insurance are insufficient and outdated? What should be used in their place?
4.) Bill Ackman: The World Around Us & Potential Politician
Why does Bill want Jamie Dimon to run for President? If it is Trump vs Biden, who wins?
Why does Bill believe Biden's tax policies destroy the US economy? What should we have instead?
Why does Bill believe we should give every newborn baby $6,500 and invest it for them when born?
What are Bill's 10-Year Long's and 10-Year Shorts? Why them?
Would Bill ever run for politics? When is the right time?
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