(First Meeting, EP.15) Private Equity Risk and Public Equity Opportunity at Verdad Advisers

Dan Rasmussen is the Founder and portfolio manager at Verdad Advisers, which he launched in 2014 to replicate the historical success of private equity in the public markets. He’s an outspoken critic of the market’s enthusiasm for private equity, resulting from research he conducted in the business while working at Bain Capital.

Our conversation covers Dan’s early education in the Socratic method, research into why private equity works, current risk in the private equity and private credit markets, and the launch of Verdad to find private equity-like outcomes in the public markets. We then turn to Verdad, including key lessons upon shifting to public equity investing, stock screens, portfolio construction, position sizing and the competitive advantage of capacity constraints. Lastly, we touch on Verdad’s written research and preparing a portfolio for a recession.

If you like Dan’s thought process, you can sign up to receive his team’s weekly research at verdadcap.com/strategy.