YouSaid · the spoken record

Mark Johnson

lines on the record
60
first
2021-05-06
most recent
2021-05-06
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “At each of the firms I was lucky to work at. So at Whitney, the entire firm sat around one table every Monday morning. When a deal was done, we sort of introduced the deal to the partnership. It was still the days when it felt like you were investing your own money. It felt like a true partnership and the explosion of capital that we saw in private equity over the 20 years that would follow hadn't really occurred yet. It taught me one of the most basic lessons, which is in deal analysis and in running a firm, you've got to have that commitment that we're all in the same boat together concept. And what I loved about my time at Whitney is I never lost that, no matter if I was flying to Tokyo to work on a megabyte out or if I was restarting the equation at Astra on our first deal, but treat everything like you're curating something very special for yourself, others, and they treat your LP's capital as though it was.”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “That decade or more that you were working for the Carlisle BlackRocks, the large private equity firm in the real heyday, which probably continues, what did you learn about the business that you wanted to replicate?”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Sure. I would say responsibility. I felt very much throughout my career that others could have done all that I did as well or better than I did, whether it was the chance to go to a great high school, just the fact that you've got such a nurturing family at home and access to resources and inspiration and athletics. And for me, I felt a determination to invest in myself and invest in them as almost a thank you to those that came before me because I couldn't afford to rest on my laurels and that stuck with me throughout my career.”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “You had this path laid out, as you said. And a lot of times people with that kind of pedigree, you know, you go to Princeton, you go to Wall Street, you have these visions of being on a track somewhere along the way. Sometimes people fall off that track for good reasons. And I'm curious, what was it about laying off that path that led you to stay on it?”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Was in lacrosse in college at Princeton. Although athletically I think of swimming as the sport that I really focused on growing up. So growing up here in Washington, I spent most of my time in the swimming pool when I wasn't studying or at home. And that was probably the driving force in my life athletically. Lacrosse was something I did for fun in high school. But when I went to college, my swimming career ended, I swum too much butterfly, I think, and suffered shoulder injury in my senior year in high school and then switched and walked onto the lacrosse team at Princeton. And we were lucky enough, my freshman year and my junior year to win the national championships in 92 and 94.”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “And also, I got to experience the amazing wave that was the early 2000s and 2010 to 2015 time period where Like Blackstone and Carlisle that I was at went from Medium sized, if you will, it felt large, but we didn't realize just how small it was until capital ballooned and deals So, Mark, I want to pull a few threads out. You just blew by two national championships. What sport was that in a college?”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Going to leave here. I'm going to go work at an investment bank for a couple of years. Maybe then I'll work at Firm. I'd like to go to Harvard Business School probably. Carlis Of and I'd love to work there one day.”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “So things that Science Partially because I read liars. Poker. My senior year in high school, and Michael Lewis went to Princeton. It seemed to get him to Wall Street”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “The investing part of my career really began as a matriculation and exploration. Into the finance world generally. I started in investment banking. And then while I was at Merrill Lynch, I worked on a deal called Park Communications. It was an odd communications broadcasting company that was owned by two entrepreneurs with 100% debt. And we were in the process of refinancing that debt package to the tune of making those two founders $200 million of profit with zero dollars invested. I called it the Miller Company. And this idea of leverage and how it could be used to create value for ownership and for investors was powerfully brought to my attention in that experience. Circa 1996 or so during my investigation. Time. But I was always attracted to Wall Street. My days in high school. I participated in a program called the Lead Program”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Guest on today's show is Mark Johnson, the managing partner of Astra Capital Management, a mid-market growth buyout firm specializing in the communications and technology services sectors. Mark co-founded Astra after 20 years of experience investing at JH Whitney, Blackstone, and Carlisle. He partnered with seasoned deal and operating executives and brought the best practices from large shops to Astra with an entrepreneurial lens to address a focused strategy in a new way. Our conversation covers Mark's unusually planned life path, lessons from industry giants, and the formation of Astra with a utopian ideal in mind. We discuss the Astra team, thematic sourcing, financial creativity, deal dynamics, value creation within portfolio companies, factors of long-term success,”

    2021-05-06 · Capital Allocators · Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source