10 lessons from my NYC trip

I got a lot of positive feedback on last year’s NYC note.

I just got back from another trip, so I decided to run it back and look forward to your feedback.

A photo from the recent NYC LP Event, where you can clearly see that I need to improve my camera skills :)

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Here’s what I got out of my 10 meetings (and the many folks I met at the NYC LP Meetup:

• The ~only path to real wealth involves owning something (either directly or perhaps owning shares in your employer)

• I spoke to someone who’s extremely successful by all measures, but feels stuck in his job - I think this is more common than most think. I wish I realized this earlier in life as well.

• This reminded me of Naval’s tweet below… I would highly recommend looking through the entire thread (easily one of the best things I’ve ever read)

• Learn to invest, ideally earlier in your life … treasuries won’t take you far over a long period of time

• I heard regrets about being too conservative around savings from someone who’s extremely financially savvy

• What’s interesting about this is that people’s careers (what they do at work) is sometimes so different from how they deploy their own cash

• I would recommend reading Is real estate better than treasuries and an investor’s mindset and principles for more on this topic - the balance between taking on balanced amounts of risk isn’t so simple

• The 1031 market is extremely inefficient, particularly for how much capital flows through this space

• Most people think that you just “identify” deals through your network, but this is rather complicated even for those with impressive networks

• The same thing is true about LP investments by the way.. most people think LPs just find deals through their network, but I can assure you this is far from the truth - the most impressive people with a lot of capital to deploy aren’t sure where to start

• My guess is that this will evolve quite a bit over the next 5 years

• When you zoom out to a long enough time horizon, even the most impressive asset managers have challenges

• I had the opportunity to speak to one of the founding members of one of the largest asset managers and he described the brutal first few years, the run up, and then his feelings when challenges hit .. and then the impressive (but slow & painful) recovery

• The big differentiator here, in his opinion, was how GPs dealt with distress.. many put up their hands and focused on deploying new capital since their promote (and one could say financial incentive) was ~gone, but the key was working through the issues in order to keep their reputation

• I actually wrote about this in the GP section of my 2025 predictions - your best LP is your existing one

• See more on this (as it relates to LP investments) in Track Record Audit

• Similar to multifamily, industrial rents have struggled and have dropped year over year in many markets

• I spoke to someone who manages a very large industrial portfolio and they expressed this sentiment

• Businesses are gun shy when it comes to leasing new warehouse space - trying to work with what they have as they attempt to get a clearer economic outlook

• This is even happening in some major markets like NY/NJ

• See my note on gain to lease here (#3 in the LP section)

• If you have a unique edge to get deal flow, use it while you can

• I spoke to a top athlete and we had a really fascinating conversation

• Somehow, it ended up with me telling him about what I like to tell high school students all the time (because the same - to an even larger extent) applies to him

• A high school student can email ~anyone and as long as the email is thoughtful the response rate will likely be >75%. Why? Because they’re in high school!

• As soon as they go to college they immediately become "just another college kid bothering me with a cold email" even though it’s the same person

• I don’t make the rules.. but this is true :) So if this applies to you in any way, use your unfair advantage while you can!

• GP LP Marketplace is inefficient and LPs are “forced” to make decisions based on a limited set of deals

• I had several fascinating conversations with senior investments professionals and executives about my idea and got a lot of feedback

• The most relevant point to share publicly is that there’s this notion that it’s easy to find deals for LPs and I just don’t think that’s true.

• Further, I think many LPs make decisions in a vacuum … they get a deal or two, have some money to deploy, and choose one of the two. The reality is that there are hundreds (thousands?!) of deals that are raising money in the US on any given day and seeing them (and comparing the investment opportunities to one another) gives something to the LP that they currently don’t have … hopefully I can help!

• If someone makes money, they attribute the success to skill. If they lose money, they say it was bad luck.

• I had this fascinating conversation with a top hedge fund manager and he shares this sentiment with me

• I think this applies - in a major way - to both GPs and LPs .. it’s hard work going through a post mortem when something went wrong and attributing losses to bad luck is generally a recipe for making the same mistake again

• Secondaries market seems to be picking up for LPs, yet there’s no clear solution

• There doesn’t seem to be an easy option for LPs to trade in and out of existing positions

• There’s typically a right of first refusal (for the GP), but I wonder why this is difficult … if you have any insights as an LP that tried to sell a position I’d be curious to chat

• Miscellaneous

• I had a bunch of conversations around the implications of the California prices .. it seems to me like there will be temporary and perhaps longer term implications to the state (and perhaps some migration to other states)

• The congestion pricing fee in Manhattan was fascinating to experience and I pondered how this would impact businesses and real estate in Manhattan

• For example, will this discriminate against the lower income consumer and thereby impact businesses who sold to those folks previously?

• Office use is another interesting one - perhaps owners will have a harder time leasing Manhattan space if a given tenant has price conscious staff (and the tenant might take a survey and find something closer to employees - e.g. NJ)

• There seems to be a massive demand for LP networking events. I was so touched by all the people who came out with such short notice… all fascinating people wanting to speak to another another and compare notes

• Noted, and more to come on this soon!

• NYC is one of a kind :)

Thank you so much for reading, I hope this was helpful and look forward to your feedback as always.

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