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Doug Ostrover

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2025-05-15
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2025-05-15
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  1. “That's what we expect when you're here. But we think if you're doing that, we can give you balance. And I think that's what we've largely achieved. Now, look, we're only a six-year-old firm. We're growing a lot. Time will tell if we can maintain it. But I'm pretty convinced that there's more than one way to run a business. And you can run a firm. And I think be highly successful. And people don't need to be here every night till 3 o'clock in the morning just to say that they were beard until three in the morning. So I want to turn to the firm and the investment side of the business. So why don't we start with when you created OutRock, what were you trying to accomplish as your own strategy? We started the firm in 2016 and I was lucky to be at Blackstone when I left. I think we had 80 billion, 90 billion. I don't know the exact number.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “We don't care if you're just out of college. If you think it's a bad investment, About 300 people, and we have not had one person in six years voluntarily leave, not one. And we're continuing to grow and build. And it's an exciting place to be. But we spend a lot of time talking about culture, doing off sites on culture, and looking for input from everyone on how to make it better. How do you balance the kinder, gentler desire of the firm in such a competitive landscape outside the firm? When I talk about things like mutual respect and constructive discussion, those are easy. Now, on the other hand, we are talking about, we expect excellence from people, from a big college football fan. I can't remember which coach. I think it was Nick Saban. But he said, listen, when you come to practice, we expect 100% effort 100% of the time.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Though was to create something that was a little kinder, a little more gentle, no FaceTime. People don't believe me, but I spend a lot of time talking about this and I really believe it. I think you can have a work-life balance. And so I tell everyone, don't miss your kids' school plays. Don't miss the parent-teacher event. Don't miss your spouse's anniversary. Don't plan that business trip to Asia when all of this is going on. Culture is an intangible. You know when it's working. You know when it's not. We have some very basic tenets. When you're here, you have to treat everyone with respect. We expect excellence, but you treat everyone with respect. The other thing is we want to hear everybody's voice. You think we're doing something we could be doing better. We want to hear it. If we're making an investment.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Culture, watching people like Steve Schwarzman and John Gray, especially watching them during a crisis. They led by example and they were calm and cool and trying to figure out, you know, there's a lot of pain in the world, but how could we come out of this stronger? And they came out much stronger. And that helped our business. But as I think about the culture we were trying to create, I think we saw an opportunity to create a culture that we could give people, our investors the same experience, the investment experience as a Blackstone, a KKR, or Carlisle, Apollo, any of the big firms. So whether it's anything in our back office, compliance, legal, cybersecurity, make that as good as you would find anywhere in the world. Build an investment team. I think it's better, but as good as anyone, my real goal.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “The economics. You have to be willing to get the best people. You have to create a great culture. And this is a people business. So we set out both at GSO and at my current firm to really attract the best and the brightest and give a great work environment as well as chance for upward mobility and to be really well compensated. So I want to fast forward when you started Alrock, what does that culture mean to you and what culture did you seek to replicate when I left Blackstone in the summer of 2015? I started thinking about leaving in 14. And it wasn't like I was unhappy there. It's an amazing firm and I felt really fortunate that we sold our firm to Blackstone because we sold in 08. So we were able to get through the crisis being part of Blackstone. And I learned a lot there. I learned a lot about”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “But we had a great partnership and we built a really good business there. Over the course of the period of time, both at CSDLJ and then GSO, what are the key components that allowed you to be successful both on the sell side and leverage finance and then lending to companies directly? The one thing I learned at a very early part of my career is how important it is to have great partners. If you can find people who you think are better than you in a lot of parts of business, but together, you know, like we had three of us, if we could take one plus one plus one and make it equal four or five, that's pretty valuable. And so I believe in that since day one. The other thing is it's a people business and you've got to hire great people. And I think as an owner of a business, you have to be willing to share.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Worked for him, but the three of us said Bennett Goodman, Trip Smith, and myself, let's go start this firm called GSO. We're going to do something that nobody really had ever done, and that was marry both public market expertise with origination. And direct lending wasn't really a thing back then. And we thought we had originated tens of billions of product over our career. And we thought we could continue to do that and not be so reliant on Wall Street. So we left. And as you can imagine, leaving a really nice high-paying job, it was nerve-wracking. And remember, we left in 05, 05, 06, 07 were some of the best years ever for Wall Street. So people were calling us constantly saying, you guys made the biggest mistake of your lives. Why would you leave? We're killing it.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Would have worked out fine, but DLJ was a special firm and I made some unique partnerships there. What led to you ultimately leaving and co-founding GSO? I started at DLJ in 92. I left in 2005. Now in 2000, DLJ was bought by Credit Suisse. In 2005, there was a change at Credit Suisse. John Mack, who had been the CEO, was pushed out. And a guy named Ozzy Grubel, who was his co-head, took over. And then they anointed a guy named Brady Dugan, who we were friends with, to run the U.S., but we thought that was a good time to pass the reins. And we had been really intrigued with the asset management business. And so with my two partners, who we have been running the business, actually been at Goodman, ran the business.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “A joke on me. I thought one of my friends was playing a joke. So I had my wife call, the number he left. And someone answered said, Greenberg residence. So we hung up immediately. A few hours later I called. And I went over and had breakfast with him the next day. And just an incredible gentleman, so impressive and sightful. And I really enjoyed my time with him. Unfortunately, he ran the firm. And I wasn't going to be working for him. And I decided to go to DLJ and I would say is probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. You know, there's that movie with Gwyneth Paltro. I think it's called Sliding Doors. She runs to get the subway. One part of the movie is she makes it and she ends up meeting her future husband. The other one she misses it stays with her current boyfriend. Both work out fine.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “So I go to Bear Sterns, I tell them, look, unfortunately, I'm going to go across the street to DLJ. This is a true story. So I'm living in a two-story walk-up, only air conditioning in the bedroom, not in the living room. Just to give you an idea what it was like. But a great apartment. And so I come home. If you remember the old-fashioned answering machines, you'd have to go and hit the button. So I hit the button, you know, it makes the sound beep. And I hear the guy with a bit of a southern accent. He says, Doug, this is a Greenberg on the phone. I hear you're about to take a job at DLJ. Before you do that, any chance we could have breakfast tomorrow. So I think I'm 29 at the time, maybe just turning 30 and ice Greenberg was a legend. He ran Bear Stearns forever. I had never met him. And I have to tell you, I thought someone was playing.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Side of the street. So EF Hutton had some financial issues. I left Hutton and I went to a firm called LF Rothschild. And then they had some issues. At Rothschild, I had made the move after a couple of years of banking. First, I became what was called a desk analyst working on special situations. Then I moved into sales. Rothschild had some issues, so I went to Wasserstein Pirella, who had started a high yield business. I like being chosen to go into leverage finance. I decided I wanted to go to a bigger firm. And I got offers from two firms. One was Bear Stearns, and the other was a firm called DLJ, Donaldson Lufkin Genret. They're both great firms, but I really liked the people at DLJ more. There was just something I related to. The problem was... DLJ was offering me maturely less than what Bear was offering me. But I just decided.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “I have to admit, having been in public finance moving to corporate finance, I was ill-prepared. And it was much more accounting focused than working for a municipality. And I remember sneaking out and getting tutored by a professor at NYU on financial modeling and just getting better at accounting. So it was a year or two of really hustling, but it was an interesting time because Drexel was still the dominant player in the marketplace. So to pick up any market share was a real challenge, but this was a really small group. So as a 26-year-old associate, I had the flexibility to call on companies and pitch them. And I was very fortunate. It was exciting. So how did it evolve from there through the rest of your time on the cell?”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Tax code. And they have outlawed this area that I had focused on. And so I take the subway downtown. I think I'm 26 years old at the time. And I'm certain I am out of a job. And I've only been working for three, four years. And so I show up and they say, pack up your things. And I thought, again, we were getting fired. And they said, you know, this team has worked with a lot of small companies. We're going to move you across the street. You're now the new junk bung group in corporate finance. And that's how I got involved. Pure luck. Drexel was the dominant firm at the time. And we were setting off on a course to try to get maybe a point or two of market share. So it was an exciting time. I think it was 86, 87, and I was very fortunate to get involved in it. What do you remember most of your earliest lessons in the business?”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Probably 1985, maybe 86. That was one of the most profitable areas at EF Hutton. And the group I was fortunate enough to get a job with specialized in a form of public finance called industrial revenue bonds, which is a fancy way of saying they would go to companies. They would help them do a financing on a project that would help a community. And if it was helping a community, they could get municipal status, which means interest rates were very high then, but municipal rates were much lower. So they could save a lot. So we were working with small companies, building a small factory. It would be 10 employees. We'd get it qualified for this municipal status, and we could save hundreds and hundreds of basis points. So one day I wake up, I'm walking to the subway, I get my Wall Street Journal, and they've changed the”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “that I got any real exposure to Wall Street and I was fortunate enough to get a job after lots of rejection but it's somehow all worked out so if you go back in those early Wall Street years early on you got into leverage finance what was it that made it an attractive place to be well if I'm being 100% honest I didn't pick leverage finance leverage finance actually picked me and I pinch myself every day that I was fortunate enough to get into it. I started my career at a firm called the EF Hutton, which probably most of your listeners have never heard of, but it was a pretty big firm back then. And I was in a program where I rotated around the firm. And I probably didn't make the wisest choice, but I decided that I would go into municipal finance. And at the time, this was”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Doug, great to see you. Well, thanks for taking the time today. I appreciate it. Why don't we go back to the beginning and maybe start with what drove your initial interest, even in just the business world? I grew up in Somerset, New Jersey, middle class area. It was a Levittown with four different styles of homes and the rich people in our neighborhood, they had one extra tree because everyone's landscaping was identical. My father was in the textile business. He worked for his brother. We were very close and I was always enamored of business and sat at his hip and learned a lot. But I have to admit, with regard to Wall Street, I had no exposure. I mean, in that area where we lived, there was no one who worked on Wall Street. And so it really wasn't until I got to college.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Our conversation covers Doug's beginnings in leverage finance, the founding of GSO, and keys to his early success. We then turn to the importance of culture, sourcing investment opportunities, the underwriting process, and working with both GPs and LPs. We close with Doug's perspective on the recent formation of Blue Owl and what the future holds for direct lending. Please enjoy my conversation with Doug Ostrover.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “My guest on the sixth episode of Private Equity Masters is Doug Ostrover, the co-founder and CEO of Blue Owl Capital, a public company born out of a merger between Alrock Capital and Dial Capital. Doug is also the CEO and co-CIO of Owlrock Capital, a direct lender to middlemarket companies that he co-founded in 2016 and today manages $30 billion in permanent capital assets. The combined blue owl manages approximately $53 billion in assets, over 90% of which is in permanent capital vehicles. Previously, Doug was one of the founders and the O in GSO Capital Partners, which today is Blackstone's alternative credit platform. He's been involved in leveraged finance working with private equity sponsors for 30 years.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Hello, I'm Ted Sides, and this is Capital Allocators. This show is an open exploration of the people and process behind capital allocation through conversations with leaders in the money game, we learn how these holders of the keys to the kingdom allocate their time and their capital. You can keep up to date by visiting Capitolocators.com. Over the last decade or two, no asset class has generated as much interest and investment dollar returns as private equity. This eight-part miniseries, private equity masters, is a set of conversations with some of the longtime leaders in the space. We'll hear their stories, those of their firms, and their perspectives on this all-important area of the capital markets.”

    2025-05-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source