Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Josh Harris

Transcript

Josh Harris · The David Rubenstein Show

0:02
Speaker 1: Josh Harris is a major figure in the investment world
0:05
Speaker 1: and the sports world. In the investment world, he was
0:07
Speaker 1: the co founder of Apollo, one of the largest private
0:10
Speaker 1: credit and private equity firms in the world. As a
0:12
Speaker 1: sports owner, he recently bought the Washington Commanders for six
0:16
Speaker 1: billion dollars, largest price ever paid for major sports franchise
0:19
Speaker 1: in the United States. Had a chance to sit down
0:21
Speaker 1: with Josh Harris recently to talk about his combined life
0:24
Speaker 1: as an investor and sports team owner.
0:27
Speaker 2: Josh, for those who.
0:28
Speaker 1: Don't know, was a co founder of Apollo, which is
0:31
Speaker 1: one of the largest private equity and private credit firms
0:33
Speaker 1: in the world.
0:34
Speaker 2: He is now the.
0:36
Speaker 1: Founder and managing director and CEO of a new firm
0:39
Speaker 1: based in Miami twenty six North. And as if that
0:43
Speaker 1: was not enough, you're also the lead partner in the
0:47
Speaker 1: Washington Commanders.
0:49
Speaker 2: You're also the lead.
0:51
Speaker 1: Partner managing director for the NBA Philadelphia seventy six ers.
0:56
Speaker 1: You're the co managing partner for the New Jersey Devils
0:59
Speaker 1: and the National Hotsky League. And you're one of the
1:02
Speaker 1: managing partners for the Crystal Palace English Premier Soccer team.
1:08
Speaker 2: And is that all anything? Today?
1:09
Speaker 1: You bought anything else today, married with five kids, okay,
1:13
Speaker 1: and witness harder five kids from getting married or all.
1:17
Speaker 3: The other things. It's all very rewarding. Okay.
1:20
Speaker 1: So let's talk about your new firm, twenty six North.
1:23
Speaker 1: Where did you get that name from?
1:25
Speaker 3: So it's a funny story.
1:26
Speaker 4: I hired a branding agency and spent a lot of money,
1:29
Speaker 4: and then they came up with five horrible names, and
1:32
Speaker 4: I threw all those in the trash and named it myself.
1:35
Speaker 4: So I when I left Apollo, I didn't I wasn't
1:40
Speaker 4: necessarily going to start another alternatives firm, but I realized that,
1:45
Speaker 4: you know, the big firms had built, you know, Carlisle
1:47
Speaker 4: amongst them, Apollo, black Stone, KKRTPG had built these incredible
1:51
Speaker 4: investing ecosystems, but many of them had gotten so big
1:55
Speaker 4: and become public companies, and they were sort of the
1:59
Speaker 4: beta of alls.
2:00
Speaker 3: They're so big that they need to, you know, get
2:02
Speaker 3: into very big areas pools of capital.
2:04
Speaker 4: And what had been left a little bit behind was Alpha,
2:09
Speaker 4: you know, really being the alpha of alts, you know.
2:12
Speaker 4: And so we decided that we could bring I decided
2:16
Speaker 4: that I could create a firm that had big firm
2:18
Speaker 4: capabilities that had all the trappings of a big firm.
2:22
Speaker 4: In our case, it's an integrated platform with debt and insurance,
2:26
Speaker 4: and it's an alpha creation team led by someone who
2:29
Speaker 4: left mackenzie incredible talent, and apply it against the middle market,
2:35
Speaker 4: in the upper middle market and deal with a lot
2:37
Speaker 4: more alignment where I'm the largest investor and everyone who's
2:41
Speaker 4: joining is not necessarily getting paid as much cash they might,
2:44
Speaker 4: but they're really going to benefit if the investors benefit.
2:47
Speaker 1: How much money have you raised and put into the
2:49
Speaker 1: firm so far?
2:50
Speaker 3: It's gone really well.
2:51
Speaker 4: We're at twenty three billion after twenty four months, which is,
2:55
Speaker 4: you know, beyond my wildest expectation. We have one hundred
2:58
Speaker 4: and twenty five people, and you know, it's an amazing culture,
3:02
Speaker 4: amazing people. People really jumped on the bandwagon and now
3:05
Speaker 4: we're I'm hard at work trying to create alpha. So
3:08
Speaker 4: in sports, you create, you have to create memories and
3:12
Speaker 4: win for the city. And in alternatives, investigators, you know,
3:17
Speaker 4: it's about returns. It's about alpha for retirees and pensioners.
3:21
Speaker 3: So I think that's what we're doing.
3:22
Speaker 1: To raise that kind of money, you had to go
3:24
Speaker 1: out and I guess ask people for money.
3:26
Speaker 2: So how did you do that? With all the sports teams?
3:28
Speaker 4: I spent a lot of time flying around. I mean literally,
3:30
Speaker 4: I have a mobile office.
3:32
Speaker 3: It's it's a plan.
3:33
Speaker 1: So you've already announced two deals, one just recently, one
3:36
Speaker 1: about a week or so ago. What we're so attractive
3:38
Speaker 1: about those deals?
3:39
Speaker 4: Private AQ was going through a bit of a transition
3:41
Speaker 4: where multiple values are peaked and they're on their way down,
3:45
Speaker 4: and so some of the returns haven't been as good
3:47
Speaker 4: and so we're benefiting from that.
3:50
Speaker 3: And so to a certain extent, we're buying really.
3:51
Speaker 4: Good businesses at much better pricing than others have in
3:56
Speaker 4: the past. So we're able to buy really good businesses,
3:59
Speaker 4: one in the fitness area and one creates electrical systems
4:03
Speaker 4: for data centers and stadiums, and we're buying them at
4:08
Speaker 4: seven times So unlike the sixty times cash flow, we're
4:12
Speaker 4: paying seven times cash. And that might compare to the
4:15
Speaker 4: industry that's paying ten or eleven times cash.
4:17
Speaker 3: So our strategy is to buy.
4:19
Speaker 4: Good businesses and kind of find those opportunities that are
4:22
Speaker 4: misvalued for some reason or another.
4:24
Speaker 1: So as you make investments, Now, are you worried about
4:27
Speaker 1: the geopolitical events around the world, what's going on in Israel, Daza, Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan,
4:32
Speaker 1: or you don't pay that much attention to that.
4:34
Speaker 3: Look, you have to pay attention to that.
4:35
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean obviously, right now, we have a
4:39
Speaker 4: market at all tim has and we have an economy
4:42
Speaker 4: that is cranking inflation. The Federal Reserve has done a
4:47
Speaker 4: good job of finding that.
4:51
Speaker 3: They call it goldilocks. Not too hot, not too cold.
4:53
Speaker 4: Inflation's coming down, but unemployment's low, and so things are
4:58
Speaker 4: pretty good and price is aggressive for the most part.
5:02
Speaker 4: The markets are at all time peak, pe multiples are
5:05
Speaker 4: very closed. So you've got to be cognizant that a
5:08
Speaker 4: geopolitical event can knock everything on its side, and so
5:12
Speaker 4: you have to just be careful, right, and you have
5:13
Speaker 4: to plan. Okay, what happens if oil price is spike? Right,
5:17
Speaker 4: that could be an outcome. For example, what happens if
5:22
Speaker 4: you know Israel were to you know, attack around So.
5:26
Speaker 1: As we talk, we're getting close to the next presidential election.
5:29
Speaker 3: Yes, we are so heard about that.
5:31
Speaker 1: Do you think it will make a difference to your
5:33
Speaker 1: investment approach if one party wins versus another party, or
5:37
Speaker 1: one party controls the Congress versus somebody controlling the White House.
5:40
Speaker 1: How do you look at the election impacting your business.
5:43
Speaker 4: The way we look at it that is, it's like
5:45
Speaker 4: a fifty to fifty election. I mean, you can go
5:48
Speaker 4: look at some betting sites and it's a real toss up.
5:52
Speaker 3: So it's really hard to predict. I think we have
5:54
Speaker 3: to be ready for every environment.
5:56
Speaker 4: Certainly there are different ranks and weaknesses. If you have
6:01
Speaker 4: a candidate that is more regulatory oriented, that might affect
6:06
Speaker 4: certain industries like energy or healthcare Differently, the antitrust policy
6:11
Speaker 4: could be different.
6:11
Speaker 3: That could affect acquisitions.
6:13
Speaker 4: So you have to think about all that and just
6:16
Speaker 4: be prepared for it.
6:17
Speaker 3: I think that if there's no.
6:18
Speaker 4: Outcome, clear outcome could create some violatility that might be
6:23
Speaker 4: a buying opportunity.
6:24
Speaker 3: So I think we think.
6:25
Speaker 4: About all of it, and we plan for all of it,
6:28
Speaker 4: but then we get ready to pivot one way or another,
6:31
Speaker 4: and we make sure the stuff we're doing now is
6:33
Speaker 4: very robust, that it maybe has less leverage, that it's
6:37
Speaker 4: more sustainable under any scenario that could come out.
6:41
Speaker 1: So do you get involved in the campaign. You're not
6:42
Speaker 1: a donor, you're not a supporter. You just stay out
6:44
Speaker 1: of it.
6:45
Speaker 4: You get involved with politics in many cases, I fans
6:48
Speaker 4: that are you know, on both sides of the aisle, right,
6:51
Speaker 4: so it becomes controversial, and sports are supposed to bring
6:54
Speaker 4: people together.
6:55
Speaker 3: And so I keep my opinions to myself.
6:56
Speaker 4: Really, I stay out of politics, and I'm pretty don't.
6:59
Speaker 4: I don't get involved, even though I mean obviously I care.
7:03
Speaker 4: I care about the world, but it's like my my
7:06
Speaker 4: ability to create impact is through these platforms, and so
7:09
Speaker 4: that sort of keeps me out of politics.
7:11
Speaker 2: Let's go back to your youth.
7:12
Speaker 1: You were you were born in this area, and you
7:15
Speaker 1: grew up in Bethesda, grew up in Chevy Chase, Chevy
7:18
Speaker 1: Chase Beesda Chevy Chase Cherry, which is I don't know, okay, So, uh,
7:23
Speaker 1: you went to high school and then you went to here,
7:27
Speaker 1: and then you went to Penn, right. And while you
7:29
Speaker 1: said you weren't you know, a great academic or something,
7:32
Speaker 1: you graduated Summa cum Cloudy.
7:34
Speaker 2: So you must have been pretty good.
7:35
Speaker 3: Yes, I got I got better as I was on.
7:37
Speaker 4: So my dad had gone to Penn and also I
7:41
Speaker 4: was a wrestler and they had a wrestling team and
7:43
Speaker 4: so I started talking to the coach, and so I
7:45
Speaker 4: kind of got into Penn even though I probably was
7:49
Speaker 4: an aspirational candidate for Ben that was my highest shot.
7:53
Speaker 2: But did you wrestle with Penn?
7:54
Speaker 3: I did?
7:55
Speaker 2: Then what did you do right after your graduation?
7:56
Speaker 4: I went to Drexel, which was a storied investment bank
8:00
Speaker 4: that was Michael Milken and Direxel was I always liked
8:04
Speaker 4: in my career.
8:05
Speaker 3: I always fought I always.
8:06
Speaker 4: Went to aspirationally what I felt was where I could
8:09
Speaker 4: get the best experience with the smartest people. So I
8:11
Speaker 4: was there nineteen o six to nineteen eighty. It was
8:14
Speaker 4: killing it. And then I've had one business school Harvard,
8:18
Speaker 4: and I said, look, if I am blessed to get
8:20
Speaker 4: into Harvard, I know I read the book like we
8:23
Speaker 4: don't learn in Harvard Physical and I was like, if
8:25
Speaker 4: I can get into this place, I'll go.
8:27
Speaker 3: And I went, and then what.
8:28
Speaker 2: Did you do?
8:29
Speaker 3: So then I, you know, it's interesting.
8:31
Speaker 4: I felt that private equity was I wanted to be
8:35
Speaker 4: involved with companies versus just being at a bank, and
8:39
Speaker 4: private equity seemed like the way to get the most
8:41
Speaker 4: responsibility and was where all the smartest people were going
8:44
Speaker 4: and I joined this five year old young firm called Blackstone.
8:48
Speaker 4: I went there and three months into it, you know,
8:53
Speaker 4: Drexel went out of business and I got a call
8:55
Speaker 4: from Mark Rowan, who had been the star he did Drexel,
9:00
Speaker 4: who I'd work with, and he said, look, we're starting
9:02
Speaker 4: up this firm. And initially I was like, eh, I'm good.
9:06
Speaker 3: You know, you guys just went out of business.
9:09
Speaker 4: But we I decided to follow him and Leon black
9:14
Speaker 4: and I joined Pollow, which had twelve people.
9:16
Speaker 3: At that point.
9:17
Speaker 1: All right, so you started helped to start that firm.
9:19
Speaker 1: You're one of the co founders and you were there
9:20
Speaker 1: for how many years before you left? Thirty two years, okay,
9:23
Speaker 1: and you were the head of private equity, and so.
9:25
Speaker 3: I started off.
9:26
Speaker 4: I mean literally there was only twelve people, so we
9:28
Speaker 4: all were just doing.
9:29
Speaker 2: But at the end you were leading the private equity.
9:31
Speaker 4: So I was leading private equity, and then I was
9:34
Speaker 4: running the firm.
9:35
Speaker 3: So the firm went public.
9:36
Speaker 4: What happens in the investing businesses, you get kicked upstairs,
9:41
Speaker 4: and so ultimately, you know, it became the three of
9:44
Speaker 4: us formed an executive committee and we were running the firm,
9:47
Speaker 4: and I was running the firm day to day and.
9:48
Speaker 2: You joined the firm. How many people did Apollo House well?
9:52
Speaker 1: And now it has a market cap of eighty billion dollars.
9:55
Speaker 4: Seventy and eighty billion dollars depending on the day. So
9:57
Speaker 4: it's you know, I'm very proud of it. I mean,
9:59
Speaker 4: I'm still very large shoulder, and you know, it was
10:02
Speaker 4: a great thing to have created, and you know now
10:08
Speaker 4: to be able to you know, have a second act,
10:10
Speaker 4: which is twenty six North, but also with sports with
10:12
Speaker 4: the Commanders, uh, you know, and I and I and
10:15
Speaker 4: I sort of think what I do here in Washington
10:18
Speaker 4: is a very big deal, even though Pile has been
10:21
Speaker 4: a very big deal. So this is you know, you know,
10:24
Speaker 4: really important to my legacy.
10:26
Speaker 1: When you bought the Washington Commanders, people were a gas
10:30
Speaker 1: that the price you paid it was six billion dollars.
10:33
Speaker 1: No team in the United States had ever been sold
10:35
Speaker 1: for that. I'm not sure any team in the world
10:37
Speaker 1: ever been sold for six billion dollars. Were you shocked
10:39
Speaker 1: at the price that you had to pay and did
10:42
Speaker 1: you have any second thoughts about it? Or now that
10:45
Speaker 1: other teams seem to be valued even higher than that
10:47
Speaker 1: as they sell off pieces to private equity firms. Do
10:50
Speaker 1: you think you got a bargain, And.
10:52
Speaker 4: So at the time I would have preferred to pay
10:55
Speaker 4: less we had, and so I joked at my credentials
10:59
Speaker 4: as a value us there were shattered. We paid the
11:02
Speaker 4: highest price in the history of the world for our
11:04
Speaker 4: sports team, but that was quickly a surpassed. But you know,
11:07
Speaker 4: I had a long run vision that the NFL was
11:11
Speaker 4: the dominant was a dominant sport in the world, that
11:13
Speaker 4: it would you know, the media rights would continue to
11:17
Speaker 4: appreciate as global.
11:18
Speaker 3: Audiences flooded in.
11:20
Speaker 4: I felt that there would be upward pressure on values. Also,
11:24
Speaker 4: you know, was aware that the NFL was considering letting
11:28
Speaker 4: and private equity alternative forms of capital. And so for
11:31
Speaker 4: all those reasons, I felt that that people would look
11:33
Speaker 4: back on it and say it was a good deal.
11:35
Speaker 4: And it's proven as such. I mean, obviously you mentioned
11:39
Speaker 4: that the current values.
11:42
Speaker 3: A couple of rumors out.
11:43
Speaker 4: There that that numbers starting with an eight billion will
11:48
Speaker 4: be invested for teams, and I think those are true rumors.
11:52
Speaker 1: So the team you inherited wasn't doing that well. I
11:54
Speaker 1: think it's fair to say the team is now four
11:57
Speaker 1: and one four and one let's go and you have
12:01
Speaker 1: a star quarterback drafted, the Heisman Trophy winner for last year.
12:05
Speaker 2: He's done extremely well.
12:06
Speaker 1: So what's the greatest thrill buying a team in your
12:10
Speaker 1: own hometown, being there to cheer the players on. You
12:13
Speaker 1: go into the locker rooms and tell them win one
12:15
Speaker 1: for the Gipper or something like that.
12:17
Speaker 4: You try to avoid they've heard every speech.
12:19
Speaker 3: But look, I think for me personally, the elation.
12:22
Speaker 4: That you feel, I mean, obviously it's you know, I've
12:25
Speaker 4: been very blessed to be involved with a lot of
12:29
Speaker 4: successes in the business world. But the elation you feel
12:33
Speaker 4: being part of a crowd when the team wins, being
12:38
Speaker 4: amongst the fans, you know, that's really something special and
12:41
Speaker 4: it's a shared experience. It's a community, and it's amazing
12:45
Speaker 4: being bolved with. So being I'd say, of all the things, Look, obviously,
12:50
Speaker 4: owning a team in your hometown is incredible.
12:52
Speaker 1: When you started buying these teams, you started buying the
12:55
Speaker 1: seventy six ers first, and you paid a price that
12:58
Speaker 1: seemed reasonably.
12:59
Speaker 2: High for people at that time.
13:02
Speaker 1: Two hundred eighty million, while okay, two hundred eighty million today,
13:05
Speaker 1: these NFL, these NBA franchises are four or five billion
13:09
Speaker 1: or more. So what did people say to you when
13:12
Speaker 1: you were at Apollo. You're running the private equity business
13:16
Speaker 1: and you say, by the way, guys, I'm going to
13:17
Speaker 1: go buy a basketball team. Did your partners say why
13:21
Speaker 1: are you doing that? And did your investors say you
13:23
Speaker 1: shouldn't be doing that.
13:24
Speaker 4: My partners at Apollo were sort of like.
13:27
Speaker 3: Just don't let this interfere with your day job.
13:29
Speaker 4: They were very supportive of it at that time, you know, investors,
13:34
Speaker 4: you know, I think initially there were they scratched their head.
13:39
Speaker 4: But what happened was they realized that it wasn't interfering
13:43
Speaker 4: with my day job. I was how focused I was
13:46
Speaker 4: a pole continue to flourish, and they realized that there
13:49
Speaker 4: is a synergy. Like you learn a lot about life
13:51
Speaker 4: in sports. You learn a lot about being a steward
13:54
Speaker 4: and culture and people and so over time, you know,
13:58
Speaker 4: as I went on this journey, everyone was supportive.
14:02
Speaker 1: Hey, well, I thought you made a commitment at the
14:03
Speaker 1: time that you would attend every home game or every game.
14:06
Speaker 2: So how did you manage to do that?
14:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there are eighty two basketball games. I never
14:11
Speaker 3: made it. I certainly when you own.
14:13
Speaker 4: First of all, I've never missed a football game so
14:15
Speaker 4: since I've owned the team, So keep going home or away.
14:20
Speaker 3: There's less of those.
14:21
Speaker 4: But now, look, I think if you if you are
14:23
Speaker 4: the managing partner of a team, and really for me
14:26
Speaker 4: it's these two teams, because I have partners that handle
14:30
Speaker 4: the other teams and I'm more of an investor. I'd
14:33
Speaker 4: say that you have to be present. You have to
14:36
Speaker 4: be You're accountable to the city. They people want to
14:40
Speaker 4: see you there. The players notice, you know if you're there,
14:46
Speaker 4: and you know, people want to make sure that you're
14:48
Speaker 4: aware of your present, you're watching. They don't want you
14:50
Speaker 4: to be overly involved, at least I don't think you
14:52
Speaker 4: should be.
14:53
Speaker 3: And so you got to be at a lot of games.
14:56
Speaker 4: And for me, some people play golf, some people played
14:59
Speaker 4: ten as I work and I go to sports and.
15:03
Speaker 3: Hang out with my family.
15:04
Speaker 1: So now you have a football team, a basketball team,
15:07
Speaker 1: a hockey team, a soccer team. Are you done or
15:10
Speaker 1: are you thinking about a baseball team or something else.
15:13
Speaker 3: I'm pretty good right now.
15:14
Speaker 4: I'm focused on winning in Washington and winning in Philly
15:18
Speaker 4: and support you know, in basketball, winning and Washington football.
15:20
Speaker 4: And then letting my partners in London and in Newark,
15:24
Speaker 4: David Blitzer and Stephen Parrish. Okay, you know win in
15:27
Speaker 4: New Jersey and London.
15:29
Speaker 3: I go to two or three.
15:30
Speaker 4: I do go to a few football matches as a
15:33
Speaker 4: European football matches. I love it, but mostly watching on
15:36
Speaker 4: TV and then go as many high games I can.
15:38
Speaker 4: But right now I got my focus on these two
15:41
Speaker 4: teams and my business and my family.
15:43
Speaker 1: When you own a sports team, U, let's suppose the
15:45
Speaker 1: team isn't going to win that game, can't win every game?
15:48
Speaker 1: And do you think you can leave early or as
15:50
Speaker 1: the owner, you know people are watching. I always wonder
15:52
Speaker 1: can you leave early or you have to wait till
15:54
Speaker 1: the bitter round.
15:55
Speaker 4: I think you can leave early unless you really I
15:56
Speaker 4: think you have to stay there and you have look,
15:59
Speaker 4: I think lose. You're part of the fabric of the team,
16:02
Speaker 4: right and you're there with the players. And I mean, listen,
16:06
Speaker 4: if you really have to leave earlier. But I'm saying,
16:07
Speaker 4: as a rule, you're there, right, You're there.
16:11
Speaker 3: Winner lives.
16:11
Speaker 4: You're not gonna win every game, and so like if
16:14
Speaker 4: you leave right then you then then what's the message
16:17
Speaker 4: in that?
16:17
Speaker 2: Right?
16:17
Speaker 4: So I think you're there till the end, you know,
16:20
Speaker 4: and and you're there after the game, you know, with.
16:23
Speaker 3: Them, and then you leave, you know, once Winter lose. Well,
16:27
Speaker 3: it's a lot funner when you win, believe me. I mean,
16:30
Speaker 3: you go on Instagram.
16:30
Speaker 4: You watch the Commanders locker room, they.
16:32
Speaker 3: Have some of it.
16:33
Speaker 4: When we win, I mean it's insane how excited everyone is.
16:36
Speaker 4: And when they lose, you know, people aren't very happy.
16:39
Speaker 4: So I think that, but you just have to be
16:41
Speaker 4: there as part of that fabric. And and by the way,
16:44
Speaker 4: everyone does it differently, That's why I do it.
16:47
Speaker 1: And the Washington Commanders have been playing in a stadium
16:50
Speaker 1: that was built by two previous owners two times ago.
16:54
Speaker 2: I guess it was under Jack ken Cook.
16:56
Speaker 1: So are you going to have a new stadium sometime
16:59
Speaker 1: soon and where you want to put it?
17:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we're we're committed to doing that. I mean,
17:04
Speaker 4: obviously just put eighty million in the old stadium because
17:06
Speaker 4: it really need needed some work, and it needs more work,
17:09
Speaker 4: and we're fixing things as fast as we can. But
17:10
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, a modern stadium and
17:14
Speaker 4: where the premium is situated, and how the Wi Fi
17:17
Speaker 4: is set up, and where the field is real to
17:19
Speaker 4: the seats and a lot of different things.
17:21
Speaker 3: You can only go so far with an older stamps.
17:23
Speaker 3: So we'd like to build a new stadium.
17:24
Speaker 4: Obviously you need support support of whatever jurisdiction you build
17:28
Speaker 4: it in.
17:29
Speaker 3: UH.
17:30
Speaker 4: The first part of that is a community dialogue, and
17:33
Speaker 4: we're having those dialogues in DC, We're having those dialogues
17:36
Speaker 4: in Maryland and and you know where we play UH,
17:40
Speaker 4: and so we're focused on building a new stadium. We're
17:44
Speaker 4: in the first part of those dialogues, and we've got
17:46
Speaker 4: to get the communities and the politicians rallied behind us.
17:50
Speaker 4: And in the case of DC, right the most likely
17:53
Speaker 4: thing is RFK obviously where we all grew up going
17:57
Speaker 4: football games, and that is currently owned by the federal government,
18:03
Speaker 4: is controlled by the Federal Garment. So we've got to
18:05
Speaker 4: get that back to DC and then DC can decide
18:08
Speaker 4: what it wants to do.
18:09
Speaker 3: But that right now is what we're working on.
18:11
Speaker 1: What do you do for philanthropy? Do you have a foundation,
18:14
Speaker 1: what do you do? What are your areas of interest?
18:16
Speaker 3: Yes, I have a foundation.
18:17
Speaker 4: Obviously, what I'm interested in is, look, people paid it
18:20
Speaker 4: forward for me.
18:21
Speaker 3: My thing is is three things.
18:23
Speaker 4: One is intergenerational wealth transferred, so going into communities and
18:29
Speaker 4: need and then not just giving money away, but teaching,
18:33
Speaker 4: you know, getting people jobs, getting people educated, or helping
18:36
Speaker 4: them get their own jobs and create enough money where
18:40
Speaker 4: they can then create a path for their own kids,
18:44
Speaker 4: for their own family, they can have pride in their
18:45
Speaker 4: own environment. We backed a company called Mosaic and Philly.
18:49
Speaker 4: It's a black owned, black lead development firm. They build
18:53
Speaker 4: in tough areas, they build affordable housing and supermarket. They
18:56
Speaker 4: put a supermarket into a food desert. They're also building.
18:59
Speaker 3: Here in the DC area. And then it's about the
19:02
Speaker 3: power of sports.
19:02
Speaker 4: So like you know, obviously the sports changed my life,
19:06
Speaker 4: Wrestling change my life, and I want everyone's kids to
19:09
Speaker 4: have the same opportunity of my kids, you to play sports,
19:11
Speaker 4: to experience sports. So whether it's my personal foundation where
19:15
Speaker 4: we back a lot of programs, Police Athletic League, After
19:19
Speaker 4: School All Stars, America Scores, but you know the high schools,
19:24
Speaker 4: no one can forward sports programs, and so allowing kids
19:27
Speaker 4: to play sports and experience that in the discipline and
19:31
Speaker 4: the camaraderie that comes with that, you know, that's a
19:33
Speaker 4: big part of what we do.
19:34
Speaker 1: So how do you compare the thrill of making a
19:36
Speaker 1: great investment at say at Apollo or now in your
19:39
Speaker 1: new firm twenty six North with winning a sports event
19:42
Speaker 1: or winning a championship.
19:43
Speaker 3: I used to.
19:46
Speaker 4: I feel a great sense of pride when I would
19:49
Speaker 4: exit an investment.
19:50
Speaker 3: I mean I would sit there and I would think.
19:51
Speaker 4: About it, and I would think about what had happened
19:55
Speaker 4: and lives that have been changed, and.
19:57
Speaker 3: I would have a glow.
19:58
Speaker 2: Right.
19:58
Speaker 4: But the euphoria have a big when just the absolute
20:01
Speaker 4: high emotional state you get into the immediacy of that
20:06
Speaker 4: is amazing.
20:08
Speaker 1: So the private equity world has a lot of big
20:10
Speaker 1: names and big egos, and the sports world has a
20:13
Speaker 1: lot of big names of big egos. Where are the
20:14
Speaker 1: egos bigger in sports or in private equity?
20:19
Speaker 3: I would say that it's there. They're big on both
20:22
Speaker 3: in both places.
20:23
Speaker 4: But you know, in terms of look, I think sports
20:26
Speaker 4: is more public, right the public gets to know the
20:28
Speaker 4: people bigger. I think private equity is you know, you know,
20:33
Speaker 4: it's it's more under wraps, if you will.
20:36
Speaker 1: So, like when you're in a restaurant in Washington, Yes
20:38
Speaker 1: or Philadelphia, does anybody ever come up to you and
20:40
Speaker 1: say you did a great deal on Apollo to congratulations,
20:44
Speaker 1: or they say that you to play this player or
20:46
Speaker 1: a Treeftis player. What do you get more of that
20:48
Speaker 1: when you're about the sports than the private.
20:50
Speaker 3: This is an incredible thing.
20:50
Speaker 4: So you say, line up, Usel has you know, thousands
20:53
Speaker 4: of us We had fifteen twenty thousand players.
20:55
Speaker 3: We had companies that had.
20:57
Speaker 4: Sixty seven I think we used to say we had
20:59
Speaker 4: you know, two hundred.
21:00
Speaker 3: Maybe thousand employees across our.
21:02
Speaker 4: Portfolio, and then we had millions of beneficiarias. And so
21:05
Speaker 4: what you're doing, you're touching a lot of lives as
21:07
Speaker 4: an investor, as an entrepreneur building these these firms.
21:12
Speaker 3: But on the other hand, like no one cares about
21:14
Speaker 3: the price of price of polypropylene.
21:16
Speaker 4: No one cares, And everyone cares about the starting lineup
21:19
Speaker 4: of the Washington Commanders or the Sixers, and like you
21:23
Speaker 4: can't now people come up to me all the time
21:25
Speaker 4: and it's not about alternatives, right, It's about sports.
21:28
Speaker 3: And so the.
21:29
Speaker 4: Impact on the public at large in terms of the psyche,
21:34
Speaker 4: and you know, the feeling in the city is so different.
21:38
Speaker 2: Right.
21:38
Speaker 1: It'suppose somebody is watching this and say I want to
21:40
Speaker 1: be like Josh Harris, I want to own sports teams,
21:42
Speaker 1: be a financial success.
21:44
Speaker 2: What is the key to success?
21:45
Speaker 1: Is it wrestling as a young person or what is
21:47
Speaker 1: it that makes somebody uh into you? How would you
21:51
Speaker 1: what advice would you give to your own children or
21:52
Speaker 1: other people who want to be like you.
21:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that it's about excellence and so being
21:59
Speaker 4: whatever you do a you have to enjoy it. And
22:02
Speaker 4: I think it's about being all in. I think it's
22:04
Speaker 4: go big or go home. It's like an all in
22:07
Speaker 4: mentality where you know, like I said, you know, you're
22:09
Speaker 4: only on earth for a little bit, so you know,
22:12
Speaker 4: throw it on. I tell my kids that, you know,
22:15
Speaker 4: unfortunately ages sixteen to thirty, right, those are your fun at.
22:19
Speaker 3: You know, I look back on those and even though.
22:21
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously I'm very blessed, I'm very grateful for
22:24
Speaker 4: my life. You know, the maximum fun you have is
22:27
Speaker 4: in those years that those are really fun times. But
22:29
Speaker 4: on the other hand, you know, you're building your own narrative.
22:32
Speaker 4: You're building you.
22:33
Speaker 3: Know, your story, right, and so you got to bring it.
22:36
Speaker 4: It's got to be work hard and play hard, and
22:38
Speaker 4: so yeah, there'll be times where you have to stay
22:41
Speaker 4: up and you can't go out with your friends and
22:43
Speaker 4: you've got to like get the a's. And so I
22:45
Speaker 4: think it's about excellence. It's about doing things you like.
22:47
Speaker 4: And then I think it's about making smart decisions. And
22:50
Speaker 4: I look at every decision I've made. When I decided
22:53
Speaker 4: to leave Blackstone to go to Apollo, that was a risk, right,
22:56
Speaker 4: and I felt that I weigh it like and investment.
22:59
Speaker 4: I treat it my choices as an investment. I think
23:02
Speaker 4: who you marry is a critical decision. So I mean,
23:05
Speaker 4: obviously that's maybe the most important decision your life. So
23:08
Speaker 4: these big decisions, you know, really take a step back.
23:12
Speaker 3: However, you do it right down the pluses and the minuss.
23:14
Speaker 4: Think about it as risk return and investment, and make
23:18
Speaker 4: wise choices.
23:19
Speaker 1: And you think that you'll win a super Bowl next
23:21
Speaker 1: year or this year or how long before.
23:24
Speaker 3: No proclamations. All I can tell. All I can say is.
23:27
Speaker 4: That I am going to put my all into making
23:30
Speaker 4: this an elite team, and we're going to create a
23:32
Speaker 4: lot of shots at winning a super Bowl, and we're
23:36
Speaker 4: going to do our best.
23:37
Speaker 1: You know, if you get a call from Joe Embiid,
23:39
Speaker 1: your star player, and you've got a same simultaneous call
23:43
Speaker 1: from one of your children. Which call do you take first?
23:48
Speaker 3: I'll pick on my son really quick. Okay, can I
23:50
Speaker 3: call you back? I'm all with TWE.
23:54
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
23:57
Speaker 1: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
24:01
Speaker 1: wherever you listen
24:10
Speaker 3: M