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Jason Wild - From $80k to $1.7Bn
Jason Wild is the founder and President of JWAM, an SEC-registered investment adviser with over $1.7 billion under management. Jason found investing during his last year of pharmacy school.
Taking Peter Lynch seriously, he invested every other paycheck in pharmaceutical ideas he thought were undervalued.
His theses were correct far more often than they weren't and he made himself almost a half million dollars in the market.
After proving his competence, he started a fund with a mere $80,000.
Today, that fund manages over $1.7Bn.
Jason's initial strategy focused on specialty pharmaceuticals.
His knowledge base enabled him to assess asset bases and M&A quickly (and correctly).
After pitching a company on an M&A opportunity, and getting nothing in return, Jason decided to take matters into his own hands.
He decided to purchase Arbor Pharmaceuticals for $2.5mm dollars and built the company via M&A. After 3 years, KKR bought a portion of Arbor; valuing the enterprise at $1.1Bn.
Today, Jason is Chairman and Interim CEO of TerrAscend Corporation, a cannabis company with multi state operations in the US.
His official Bio is as follows:
"Jason Wild is the founder and President of JWAM, an SEC-registered investment adviser with over $1.7 billion under management. After starting his first fund in 1998 with only $80,000 AUM, Jason achieved early success by leveraging his background as a pharmacist to find undervalued specialty pharmaceutical companies and by managing the firm’s investments for long-term growth. After building a strong track record as a stock picker, Jason expanded his investment universe and applied his experience and extensive healthcare network to private market opportunities. He has since established himself as a highly respected investor and sought-after partner for both public and private companies."
Adam Robinson - A Unique Mind
Adam Robinson is the Co-Founder of The Princeton Review, a NY Times Best Selling author, and a US Chess Federation life master.
He currently works as a global macro advisor to the heads of some of the world's largest hedge funds through Robinson Global Strategies.
Bill has wanted to interview Adam since he heard Tim Ferris interview Adam at The 92nd St. Y.
You can find one of his episodes with Tim Ferris at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSyMmleisQM.
See also Adam's interview with Shane Parrish at https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/adam-robinson-pt1/.
Finally, Adam recently did a 4-hour interview with Kevin and Fred.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU_AM9VDgFs.
In this episode, Bill follows up on some of the thoughts Adam gave Bill via various interviews.
They start out talking about the concept of "things that are blatantly obvious and those that make no sense."
This was one of the first concepts that Adam said where Bill said "wow, that's an interesting way to frame investing thoughts."
Following that conversation, Bill follows up on many of the issues that he's wondered about as he's found as he's listened to Adam. This is a wide-ranging conversation that covers a lot of investing and some life.