YouSaid · the spoken record

Matt Miller

lines on the record: 61
first: 2024-10-14
most recent: 2024-10-14
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

“So non op is really just a fancy way of saying you're a participant drilling wells and your parapaso with the operator. So the operator might be a name that you'd recognize like Exxon or Chevron, but it may be a name you don't recognize like an Admiral Permian or something along those lines. This was the advent of shale. So shale was just a large theme in upstream. A lot of capital chasing it. And our perspective was there was too much money chasing it. It sounds ironic to say, hey, we're going to go out and raise money against a shale investment thesis when our core thesis was shale was over capitalized. But it was overcapitalized on that operated side of the ball. Really who's drilling the wells? There was tons of private equity capital available, tons of public equity available, tons of debt options available. And you were over capitalizing a commodity. What we saw is the opportunity to get our partners into effectively the same geology, the same kind of”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We started Grayrock, we had a thesis focused on natural resources, which is code for oil and gas. It's illegal to call it oil and gas these days. So it's natural resources. It's all been rebranded. We had a thesis around a little niche asset class called nonoperated working interests, something most people probably never heard of. I saw a space that was very large in terms of CapEx that's happening every single year. I saw a space that by virtue of having that.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was a small firm, and I was in charge of the land component piece of the business. We owned about a million acres on shore, largely in the Marcella shale, but some in the Eagle Fir down in South Texas as well. And I learned about myself that I really liked talking to landowners. I really liked trying to get deals done and this kind of nuts and bolts fashion. I also learned about myself. I don't like complicated financial engineering. I don't like inserting puts and calls in preferred equity and ring fencing debt securities because maybe I'm too dumb to understand it, but I think that it just ends up with misalignment and transactions where everybody thinks they're on the same page, but they end up really not on the same page. And I'm very thankful for that experience for my old firm. They gave me an enormous amount of responsibility very early. And I don't think I could have gotten that exposure at another firm, just in terms of really being in charge of very large investment programs very early on, all the way from.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Big deal so far. Well, the Middle East still needs power. What do they use? They use crude oil. So in this butterfly effect of the system, you actually have created more carbon emissions. You didn't see that one coming. So we see those butterfly effects of how the energy ecosystem is actually completely intertwined with each other. Energy like pharma, if you're a tourist, you're probably going to get your face ripped off. And if you don't know a component piece of the energy ecosystem or maybe the second and third layer of the onion, you can really miss something really bad.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was probably that I had it wrong. So I started out at McKinsey being solar is the answer. I meant this at my core. I just thought we got to build solar tomorrow and I'm super concerned and we've got to get this done. And then getting inside of an actual energy transaction. In this case, we were investing in Marcella shale natural gas, getting inside of that and understanding there are some real trade-offs involved with a one-size-fits-all solar solution. So understanding these butterfly effects that are really complicated. I'll give you an example. What's a butterfly effect in energy? In the North Sea, so by the United Kingdom, they've built out a lot of wind power. A couple years ago, there were insufficient wind speeds to produce enough power. That means we got to fire up some natural gas power plants. Okay, so they import natural gas from the Middle East to fire up in United Kingdom power plants.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Over caught hedge funds, but I worked on telecom, I worked in a casino, I worked for a jet manufacturer, I worked for ultimately energy. And that's how I got to Dallas was my last client at McKinsey was the CEO of a large corporation. They had had a leverage buyout. He did very well for himself and hired McKinsey to say, help me invest this money in the energy ecosystem well. That's how this all got started. I can remember asking in that conference room, I've never done oil and gas, what is this? They want me to do the financial model, you little guy. I had a guy explain it to me in 15 minutes and there was all of a sudden an oil and gas expert. That's really what I valued about UVA to McKinsey to then energy private equity. It was a circuitous route, but I do believe I landed in the right spot.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I actually started out as an English major and a religious studies major. And I landed in the commerce school at UVA. My joke is I ended up a religious studies minor, so I sold my soul to the devil in the commerce school but tried to make it up to God on the back half. Look, I think that's a lot of who you're surrounded by. UVA really did allow you the capacity to explore what you wanted to do with your life. I was really passionate about reading, really passionate about writing. I thought I wanted to be a professor and also just studying religion not from your FCA and young life leader, but with an academic lens is a totally different ball of wax. I think the commerce school at UVA gave us a real exposure to various elements of business and a phenomenal network that you're able to tap into, ask questions of folks who have been through it, seen it. And really at the end of the day, the reason why I started at McKinsey was I didn't really know what industry I wanted to be in. I kind of had a hunch I wanted to do private equity.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I like to think that that core part of me survives in some Greyrock ethos of on one hand, if you think it's bad, it's probably not as bad as it can be and things are capable of getting better, but also just a genuine spirit of thankfulness for what we've been able to achieve professionally.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You and me both. I grew up in a little town, Athens, Georgia, where the university is home of the dogs. How about them? And went from there to the University of Virginia and on to McKenzie. So I've had a very great and lucky and fortunate path, but something that people may not know about me when they look at me. They look at me and they maybe think, hey, I grew up at the country club. That kid grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, but growing up, you know, we didn't have any money. We were not blessed. My parents got divorced. We had to live above my father's furniture store. He had a little antique store in Athens. We had to drive his furniture delivered. Steering column didn't work. Only two seats. I was surfing in the back. My sister got the front seat. So I think that that experience gave me a lot of thankfulness for where I landed later in life just to say how thankful I am for where I am today. But it also puts a chip on your shoulder. So went to the University of Virginia, went to McKinsey, worked at a private equity fund in Dallas for five years, and then started Grey Rock about 11 years ago.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Appreciate you having me on. Woke up this morning. Pretty excited about being on here. My wife says I have a real face for a podcast, so thank you.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Guest on today's show is Matt Miller, managing director of Gray Rock Investment Partners. Matt co-founded Grayrock as a traditional oil and gas manager in 2013. Today, the firm manages a billion dollars across both natural resources and renewables by identifying attractive niches in each that do not trade off human interest for returns. Conversation covers Matt's path to the energy sector and founding of Gray Rock, the ongoing need for natural resources, and the identification of dislocations that create niche opportunities. We turn to Grayrock's own energy transition intended to resolve ESG pressures while meeting client return objectives, including the overcapitalization of most renewable strategies, discovery of an attractive niche in carbon capture, and complexity in making it work.”
2024-10-14 · Capital Allocators · Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock (EP.412) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source