“Once you hit a billion dollars, you should probably consider some sort of internal team. Just to mitigate risk. There’s audit risk involved when you have such a small number of people managing a huge pool of capital. It’s going to differ for everyone. That’s probably a good benchmark.” — Trish Spurlin
Trish Spurlin is the Investment Director at Babson’s $800M endowment, covering private markets investing with a large focus on venture. In fact 70% of their private equity portfolio is venture capital. Quite a unique strategy for an endowment to take. Why? An endowment is required to provide, in this case, the university money every single year, anywhere from 5% to 60% of a university’s annual budget. And to invest in an illiquid asset class aka venture capital that doesn’t return capital till a decade later, if not longer, takes courage.
You can find Trish on her socials here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishspurlin/
X / Twitter: https://x.com/trishdigi
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch the episode on YouTube here.
OUTLINE:
[00:00] Intro
[01:45] Sports in Trish’s life
[05:10] How does success fuel inhibit ambition? How does it inhibit ambition?
[07:35] How do you underwrite long term motivation?
[13:21] How fast you order something might matter
[16:04] Can Trish angel invest outside of Babson?
[17:08] Endowment with a $80M budget
[19:54] Should you hire an outsourced CIO?
[24:18] Endowment with a $8B budget
[27:47] Babson’s liquidity requirements
[30:33] How to ask about a senior partner leaving
[34:05] How does Trish build trust with her GPs?
[37:48] Trish’s interests vs Babson’s interests
[45:24] Hank Sauce
[47:26] Why is Ocean City Boardwalk special?
[48:51] What serves as a reminder to Trish we’re still in the good ol’ days?
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Babson College Endowment
- Babson College
- Archbishop Spalding High School
- Chris Douvos
- El Pack w/ Chris Douvos: Venture Capital is DEAD!
- The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF)
- KPMG
- Hank Sauce
- Hank Sauce Camouflage
- Hank Sauce Cilanktro
- K Coast Surf Shop
- The Jolly Roger Restaurant
- Ocean City Boardwalk
- The Office
SELECT QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“What have [ambitious people’s] transition periods looked like? A lot of times when people do really cool things, there are 2-3 years after where they just don’t know what to do with themselves. That’s very normal. You see that with Olympians. You see that with astronauts.” — Trish Spurlin
“Once you hit a billion dollars, you should probably consider some sort of internal team. Just to mitigate risk. There’s audit risk involved when you have such a small number of people managing a huge pool of capital. It’s going to differ for everyone. That’s probably a good benchmark.” — Trish Spurlin
“If you want to be told things when they aren’t going well, you can’t freak out when somebody tells you something that’s not going well. No emails in caps. No yelling. Take a moment to digest what you’re being told. You’re collecting information. You can discuss that information when the time is appropriate.” — Trish Spurlin