That's right, tomorrow, Wednesday, I will be sitting down with John Hein and Gary Dell'Abate to discuss the day's Howard Stern show and more. And either this rings your bell or it doesn't. Either you're a fan of Howard or you're not. But Howard is the king of his world, which includes late night TV, it's the number one get in celebrity interviews, so...
I'm excited.
Tonight I went to Morton's for the Lead Edge Capital dinner. Pretty fascinating, one is rarely in such a group, people who've made it in their various fields and now have money to invest. The M&A attorney whose son started "The Source," the CFO of Dell who opened his own bank in Austin, the guy who started Playlist.com and even a headhunter for hedge funds, who knew there was such a thing?
Although Ilana Weinstein does have an undergraduate degree from Penn and an MBA from Harvard. Not that she's airy. Once you're in the club everybody's relaxed, but everybody's a self-starter, everybody saw the light and went their own way, it's kinda like the music business before it was codified, before they taught it at school, Jay Marciano dropped out of college to open a music store and then became a concert promoter, while still a student Irving Azoff represented WLS deejays and even flew to New York for an ultimately unproductive meeting with Morris Levy, Mo Ostin was running finance for Frank Sinatra before he became a label head, and the hedge fund/investment world is still a little wild despite now getting so much attention.
Mitchell Green, now thirty six, started Lead Edge Capital seven years ago. He had a hunch that Alibaba was a winner, he was right. But before that he raised $17 mil for a friend's business that turned into 80, quite a return, but Mitchell BELIEVED! That's akin to a music manager, or the old independent record company heads, never forget, Jerry Moss started out as a promotion man.
And after a bit of steak and wine, the discussion opens up. But it's not about the content, but the business. Kinda like in music, only in music the discussion is how many tickets Taylor Swift will sell, in this case it's about whether Netflix stock will go up or down. I was sitting next to an analyst, who'd spoken at the conference, sounds a bit like school, you've got to grind it out for quarterly numbers, they work hard for the money, and if you don't like it...
And I like being in New York.
Everybody in L.A. wears sunglasses. But in New York the buildings are so tall and block so much sun that I was the only one walking with shades.
And everybody does walk. It's good exercise. But when you bump into someone and excuse yourself you realize they're not paying attention, do this in L.A. and the person turns around and glares, in New York they just soldier on.
And they talk to you. This is what I hate about Los Angeles, the lack of banter. Everywhere you go, people start up a conversation, it's silent in the elevator in Los Angeles, but not in New York.
And speaking of elevators, I got into a conversation with a young woman from Mexico City. Her family spends summers in San Diego and Vail. You see there's a rich circuit, and there's tons of dough in Mexico, but most people are unaware, if you only saw how the other half lived, I went to Jerry Perenchio's house and remarked that if everybody saw the property there'd be riots in the streets, it's literally the "Beverly Hillbillies" house, there's a long access road in Bel-Air, and it just went on the market for $350 million, and you don't know even know who Jerry Perenchio was.
He was an agent, and so much more.
And he hated publicity.
But the point is most business is not like entertainment, the movers and shakers are not in it for the glory, so you've got no idea who they are or what they're doing or...
So it's fascinating to be let inside.
I'm leaving tomorrow, going to visit my mother after Howard, so for those of you who e-mailed me about getting together, mea culpa, I wanted to do so much of it, but not as much as I wanted to go the cookie place recommended by attorney Judy Tint, the Levaine Bakery (
www.levainbakery.com) even has lines, I jones for chocolate chip cookies, my absolute favorite was David's, I'm waiting to find something as good.
But there's always next time.
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