Private Equity & Institutional Investing

After retiring from active business life in 1999, I did a few private start-up investments. Alas, it was very interesting to see how people's attitudes changed once you gave them money. Until the minute you write the check, all they talk about is how much money they are going to make YOU, how hard they are going to work for YOU. The minute you wire them the money, that motivation changes overnight to "How can I take out the most money for MYSELF?" They go on vacation, buy a new company car, raise their salaries, hire overpaid employees... and 6 months later the money is gone.

As constantly chasing after people with lawyers is not what I like to do, I rather started doing my new projects on my own at that time.

Unless you have the right contracts and clauses in place for the (very frequent) case that your proteges don't perform, it's no fun. There are so many con artists out there whose whole purpose in life it is to chase & somehow get other people's money.

I have now teamed up with a seasoned investment banker and lawyer, Richard A. Freeman, to revive private equity investment on a more professional level. In January 2006, we launched Othello Investments together. We manage funds for wealthy individuals. Othello has a new concept: Rather than taking a percentage of funds under management, we share only excess profits (above a certain benchmark) with our investors. An investment bank should not get paid if we don't perform better than the market, should it?