Welcome to the Westport Library. Today's program will begin momentarily, supported by Verso Studios, created locally and shared with the world.
Good evening everyone. Could I encourage you to please take your seats so we can get this party started. You've got plenty of room here. There's room in the grandstand there. There's some seats in the back. We got some seats up front here still. So, if we could get you to take your seats, we're going to get started.
Okay, how about that? Well, good evening everyone. You can say good evening back. It's good manners. On behalf of the Westport Library, welcome to the Tre Forum. My name is Bill Harmer. I'm the executive director of this incredible library. We are delighted to once again partner with Startup Westport for one of our favorite annual events celebrating innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and community impact.
The relationship between Startup Westport and the Westport Library is built on a shared belief that great ideas have the power to change lives, strengthen community, and create opportunity. Together, we've worked to create a place where entrepreneurs, creators, business leaders, students, and lifelong learners come together to explore what's next. If you've been here before, well, you know that the Westport Library is no longer a traditional library in the conventional sense. We have evolved into a platform for learning, creativity, entrepreneurship, and community engagement.
Through Verso Studios, we have built a state-of-the-art media and production facility. Through Verso University, we are helping people develop new skills, launch businesses, explore emerging technologies, and pursue personal and professional growth. And through initiatives like the one with Startup Westport, we are helping connect people with ideas, with resources, and one another together. Or tonight, rather, folks. That's what we're celebrating. That's the spirit.
We are honored to recognize Marc Lasry whose career exemplifies vision, discipline, risk-taking, innovation, and leadership. We are equally proud to recognize Club 203 with this year's community impact award. We're very excited for the meaningful work they do creating connection, belonging, and opportunities for adults with disabilities throughout our community.
These honorees remind us that innovation isn't only about business success. It is also about creating positive impact, opening doors for others, and strengthening the communities we call home. So, thank you all for being here tonight and for supporting the entrepreneurial and community spirit that makes Westport such a special place.
Okay, it is now my pleasure to introduce one of the driving forces behind Startup Westport, entrepreneur, community builder, and my friend Cliff Serlin.
All right. Hello everyone. Welcome. My name is Cliff Serlin. I'm the president of Startup Westport. First, a profound thank you to Bill Harmer, the Westport Library staff. We greatly appreciate our partnership. It is what enabled us to quite frankly build Startup Westport. So, thank you, Travis.
All right. Before we jump into tonight's main event, I wanted to get to know you all just a little bit better. So, how many people are here at their first Startup Westport event? If you could show me your hands. Wow. Okay. Thank you. Welcome. All right. Next question. How many of you here are entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs? Okay, I like it. Terrific. Let's talk about that.
What exactly is entrepreneurship and why is it important? I was recently having a conversation with a friend who's actually here tonight about this very specific topic and he said to me and I agree that everyone should consider themselves an entrepreneur. Why did he say that? Well, let's deconstruct that statement. Entrepreneurship means so many different things to so many different people. But at its core, it means taking agency and ownership of your life. Thinking and acting in an entrepreneurial manner creates the opportunity to have equity and ownership in your life. When people take equity and ownership in their life and daily activities, really, really good things happen.
A perfect example of that is a story that's told by Malcolm Gladwell in his amazing book, Outliers. Gladwell tells the story of how poverty was affecting certain areas in rural China. Nobody could come up with a way to solve this problem. There were countless numbers of different programs were put in place and they waited until somebody actually came up with the idea to create a manner, a program that gave ownership of the rice paddies that were being farmed by peasants to the actual peasant farmers. And immediately there was an incredible change in what happened in that region. Once the farmers realized the direct correlation between individual efforts and the rewards that they received from ownership, the entire region began to prosper.
Here in the United States in 2026, we are afforded so many opportunities. We have countless numbers of different avenues that we can pursue. Each one of us is our own white canvas waiting to paint a beautiful picture. We as individuals are capable of creating unique and magical things. But this path is not easy. The journey is littered with failure. Tonight we will hear about success and triumph. But that does not come without hardship.
Last year, Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, gave an amazing commencement speech at Dartmouth. When he looked back at his career, he realized that he had lost 44% of the points that he had played. That means that he failed to meet his objectives nearly half the time. That doesn't sound so good. But what made him unique and gave him the ability to become the number one tennis player in the world and redefine tennis was his ability to pick himself up, brush off the failure, and refocus on winning the next point. Resilience, determination, and perspective are critical aspects of every entrepreneurial journey. Many believe that nothing is learned through success. Instead, all learning comes through failure. A bit extreme, but you get the point.
So, this is where Startup Westport comes in. We are here to help. We have an amazing team. We are an organization of over 3,000 members and we have offerings designed to help and support entrepreneurs on their journey. And it is a journey. Trust me, I've experienced it firsthand. We now have the state's largest mentorship program. We have close to 600 people that have gone through our mentorship program. I recently read that 93% of all millionaires have one thing in common. They received some form of mentorship. That means they had someone who believed in them and helped coach them through the natural ups and downs. That's what we do here at Startup Westport.
For all those who have approached me and asked about becoming a mentor or a mentee, I encourage you to take the next step and actually sign up for the program. We've created an amazing platform that makes it easy to give back to your community. Here at Startup Westport, we are all about community, support, and relationships. There was a study that was done by Harvard University that spanned 80 years. I don't know if you have all read this, but starting in the 1930s and running through 2010. The study mapped out how to live and analyzed what led to a happy and fulfilling life. The conclusion of the study was that the most important aspects of happiness was not money. It was not titles. It was not awards. Instead, it was the quality of an individual's relationships.
Mentorship is all about relationships. It's about partnering with somebody on your journey to help you through the rough patches and also to celebrate the wins. In isolation, nothing is meaningful. But in collaboration, you will find joy, fulfillment, and purpose. As they say in the famous African proverb, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.
Okay, we have so many people to thank tonight. Most importantly, a call out to our sponsors, Wiggin and Dana, Myriad 360, Coastal Bridge Advisors, and the many individual donors who help us provide the necessary capital to throw events like tonight and not charge a membership fee to those that are here at Startup Westport. Also, a huge thank you to the volunteers that are here tonight as well as to our board of directors. All right, now let's get to the exciting stuff. We have a great evening in front of us. It's my privilege to now welcome to the stage my very good friend Dan O'Keefe. Dan is the commissioner of economic development for the state of Connecticut and he will speak to us about innovation that's happening within our state. Thank you.
Awesome as always. Thank you Cliff. I asked for a mobile microphone. My ADHD is way too strong to stand in front of a lecturer. Thank you. Always presents a challenge to the camera guy as I move. But there's so many new people in the audience tonight. So I wanted to tell my little public service origin story with apologies to those of you that have heard this, but Startup Westport was my first speech. Three years ago, I got a frantic call from a friend of Cliff's who said, 'Our speaker has canceled last minute. Do you have anyone who can make their mouth move?' And what had happened was, by the way, is Dan from Metahare? Dan, there he is. Dan got COVID. Sorry, man. That might have been a HIPAA violation. That's probably a HIPAA violation, but it turned out COVID was still a thing. And so I cobbled together some slides and they said it was Startup Westport. That's the only context I had. I will confess, I thought I would show up and there'd be six people sitting around a coffee table talking about startups. I show up and there's 300 people in the room. I was totally blown away. Tonight I learned there's now 3,700 members of this organization. So, it turns out the only thing more viral than COVID is Startup Westport. So, well done.
But what's happening, this was, I tell this story all the time showing up and finding out it's 300 now 3,700. What's happening is actually part of a broader story. It's happening throughout the state of Connecticut, which is we're experiencing a moment. It turned out the pandemic was the shock to the system our economy needed. We were one of the net beneficiaries of that rewriting of the economic rules that occurred since then. So let me give some history. So 2008 to 2018, what they now call the last decade. You know we got hammered by the global financial crisis. So in those 10 years our economy contracted on an inflation-adjusted basis. Just us, Mississippi, and Wyoming can say that. Marc, you don't have to be an investor to know that's not the direction you want things to move in. Since then, since 2018, we have added $100 billion to our economy. We're a $375 billion economy. So to call that a step function change doesn't do it justice. It's quite literally a hockey stick compared to what we had been experiencing.
And people always ask me like what's driving that? I can tell you the big industries continue to contribute nicely. So things like professional services, advanced manufacturing in support of our national defense, finance and insurance, healthcare, all the things we always hear about absolutely are all growing nicely and contributing. But the fastest growing contributor since then by a multiple is technology. And it's not just technology as it applies to the industries I just mentioned, that's captured in those industries. It's technology as a horizontal. We've seen our population increase every year since the pandemic. We're the only state in the region that can say that. By the way, last year our international in-migration got cut in half. We still grew, but the rhetoric that's happening is not helpful to our state's economy. Everyone should know that. But our population has continued to grow. And what we're seeing is what all the hands that went up in here when Cliff asked who was new tonight. We're seeing a lot of folks come into the state and seeing what I saw when I moved my family here in 2011. Incredible quality of life, incredible health care system, incredible education system. The soft and fluffy things that motivated me to raise my family here are now economic comparative advantage. So, what you're experiencing is that moment, I'm incredibly excited that you're all here continuing to drive it forward.
The last thing I wanted to say tonight, just given Marc is here, I don't know if any of you follow the travails of trying to keep the Connecticut Sun in our state. Connecticut Sun is our only professional sports team. It's our WNBA team. If there's one sport where Connecticut deserves to have a professional sport, it's women's basketball. 16 national championships. Yes. By the way, UConn's still here. That is actually our professional sports team. Go Huskies. But more players in the WNBA from UConn than any other school. More first round draft picks. Marc and I partnered on trying to keep that team here like you would not believe. This was months of working through problems, trying to find solutions. I know how busy Marc Lasry is, and every single time I called him, no matter where he was on the planet, he picked up the phone. Every time I called him, it was with a problem. Every time he came up with a more creative solution. That exercise, by the way, unfortunately, failed. For two reasons. It turns out we're 1% of the US population squeezed between two larger media markets. Who knew? Second reason, the league has monopolistic powers. So unfortunately that team is ultimately going to Houston. But I just wanted to comment because innovation isn't just what you're all doing and what the startup ecosystem is doing. It's also coming up with creative solutions to hard problems. And that's where I think Marc Lasry is so incredibly creative. So thank you all for being here tonight. Incredibly excited for all that you're doing.
Oh, I want to say two other things quickly before I wrap. Sorry. We did announce $100 million innovation clusters program. Cliff specifically asked me to talk about how we're investing in innovation. We've made one announcement which is around Quantum CT in the quantum ecosystem and biotech in New Haven. We have two other finalists. One more around autonomous and by autonomous I don't just mean the physical, so physical meaning flight, surface, subsurface, but also autonomous meaning AI-driven decision-making which we're still working on pulling together working with our national defense primes. So we're investing aggressively against this backdrop of growth. And I'm excited to continue to do that with the governor's support. So, with that, I can wrap. Great to see you all again. Thank you all for being here. I'll be around tonight. If anybody has any questions or wants to chat, please come up and find me. Thanks so much.
Dan, thanks so much for those comments. Really appreciate it. Also, you're making us proud. You're on a winning streak. So, I think was it today that Unilever announced the investment in New Haven and the research facility? Congrats. Amazing. Connecticut is on a winning streak and in no short measure to Dan's efforts. So, thank you.
Okay. Just a quick pitch for our pitch competition. So, how many of you were here at our pitch competition this past November? Great. All right. It was an amazing event. We had 77 applications. We gave away $28,000 in non-dilutive funding. It was a Shark Tank-like competition. We're going to do it again. This year we're going to give away $30,000. So, if you know anybody who is starting a business here in Connecticut, we highly encourage them to apply. Applications, you can just click right here on the QR code. So, please encourage anyone you know to apply to the competition. It'll be super worthwhile.
Okay, next up we're going to change our focus and we're going to move to the community impact award. It is my pleasure to now introduce and call up to the stage Andrea Perillo. Andrea is last year's recipient of the community impact award. She is also the co-founder of Sweet Pea Bakery and is one of the coolest, most amazing human beings on this planet.
Good evening everyone. As Cliff said, my name is Andrea Perillo. I'm the co-founder of Sweet Pea Bakery. Last year, Sweet Pea was honored to receive Startup Westport's Community Impact Award. It is now my absolute pleasure and privilege to introduce this year's recipient, Club 203.
Club 203 was founded by Westport residents Stacy Curran, Shiruna Mahesh, and Katherine Turley Sonnet. Club 203 was born out of a simple but important need. They saw the limited social options available for adults with disabilities and recognized that keeping busy, having fun, staying active, and building friendships are all important parts of a healthy and fulfilling life beyond post-secondary education. What started as a way to fill that gap has grown into something truly special. Club 203 hosts monthly events attended by more than 100 participants and brings community together through holiday-themed gatherings and activities held throughout town supported by an incredible network of volunteers.
I have seen firsthand the impact these events have on participants because many of our Sweet Pea employees love attending these monthly get-togethers. Our former restaurant even hosted one of these events and our cookies are served at many of them. Friendships are formed, confidence grows, and a good time is had by all. These three powerhouse women are pillars of our community. Their vision, dedication, and compassion have created opportunities for connection, belonging, and joy for so many people. Please take a look at this short video.
I, as a volunteer, walk into a Club 203 event, it is the purest form of human interaction and expression that you could possibly hope to find.
We ended up as three moms who recognized that there was this huge gap for our kids and after they left high school and all of the social spaces disappeared for them.
There's just this literal drop in places to go, things to do and ways to engage with the public and with the community and with your friends. I think we need to do something like that has like a lot of people like getting together and doing something fun.
And so we got together and we just devised this idea that we wanted to create a space for our kids to find community, to find somebody to date, to find somebody to go out with on the weekends.
And so these three women came together and got it done.
Every time I come here, this is so much fun. Yes, you know, they're in so much therapy all their lives and now they're adults. This is the time for them to have fun and make connections and make meaningful connections. The joy, the people interacting and just so happy to be together and so relaxed and feel included and a part of something and something to look forward to.
Stacy really understood the need for the members. And I think, you know, an unintended consequence is now there's a community for the caregivers and the parents.
It's opening up the eyes of those in the community that know nothing about this population. And so I think it's a really valuable part of our community.
This is a totally volunteer group. They do it, you know, from the heart. It's not a business to them. It's a mission. And you can feel it. You can feel that passion.
And it's just positive. I think it feels like a family and a home. Like to me, it's just I love your sneakers. Can I have a hug? What? And it's the best.
What an amazing video. All right. Stacy, Shiruna, Katherine, please come up and accept the award.
Wow. Thanks, Cliff. And good evening, everybody. Andrea, thank you so much for your kind words. We are grateful for your inspiration and your commitment to building a more inclusive community with Sweet Pea Bakery. We would like to thank everyone at Startup Westport for this incredible impact award. We are truly honored to be here tonight and deeply appreciative of this recognition.
Special thanks to Jen Tucker whose early support helped make Club 203 a reality. Elaine Dey, director of human services. You are our rock. We could not do this without you and your amazing team. Dan, I did not see him today, but if he's here, wave. But Dan, you are our biggest fan and we are grateful for all your attention. Brian Kelsey, thank you. Thank you for creating this amazing video for us and donating your time.
We are deeply grateful to our community partners whose grants support Club 203. Westport Women's Club, Westport Rotary, Sunrise Rotary, and Museum of Contemporary Art who sponsor the art projects at each of our events. As you look at the screen behind us, you'll see the real story of Club 203. Every logo here represents connection, friendship, and community. It is these generous supporters who contribute year after year making us possible.
We'd love to recognize our Club 203 members and volunteers. If you're here tonight, please give us a wave. Yay. Thank you guys. You guys are the heart of this organization. This award belongs to you. What started as recognizing a need for inclusive social connections and meaningful community for adults with disabilities evolved into something so much bigger than we ever imagined. What we have created is belonging. A place where friendships are formed, where our members feel seen, valued, and included, where parents and families find connection and support, and where volunteers discover they often receive far more than they give. We are so proud of this community and deeply thankful to everyone who continues to believe in our mission and help us grow. Here to outline Club 203's journey is my friend and co-founder Katherine Turley Sonnet.
All right. Thanks Shiruna. Our story truly reflects the spirit of Westport. In 2021, mid-pandemic, I moved from Manhattan via Southern California to Westport with my lovely neurodivergent adult daughter Elizabeth. As a professor of museum studies, I immediately connected with the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Westport, where I initiated an outreach proposal to provide healing art experiences for the neurodivergent community. This was warmly received and I began working with Jodie Felton, the president of the board, on this rich project. She immediately connected me with Stacy Curran as the source of all local information for adults with disabilities.
We immediately met for coffee at the Porch, Andrea's Porch, and both expressed the need for social opportunities for our adult children. I shared an amazing program that Elizabeth participated in at the Marlene Meyerson JCC in the city. And Stacy responded with, 'Let's start a mini version of that in Westport. Are you in?' And that was my first time meeting Stacy. And as everyone who knows her, she is a force of nature. And boom, she pulled in the resources of our incredibly generous town hall, human resources, support from the commission on people with disabilities and we were off and running. We both knew immediately that we needed someone with both the heart for the project and the technical skills to build a website and front our social media. And Shiruna Mahesh was the perfect match for us. So there we were, three moms with neurodivergent adult children trying to solve a problem that was near and dear to our hearts.
Five months later, we had our first Club 203 event at MoCA. We hoped for 25 to 30 people to show up and we ended up with over a hundred. And with the help of our volunteers, the amazing Westport police directing traffic, Channel 12 covering us and our event, and Westport Lifestyle featuring us, we were off to the races. That night really truly confirmed though for the three of us that there was a huge need that was not being met and we had important work to do. Our friendship has grown alongside this amazing project, which would not have legs without the support of the incredibly generous Westport community. And as we finish our fourth year, we are ready to grow. We hope to find a permanent space for small group educational programming that will continue to enrich the lives of our members. And we have also had requests to replicate Club 203 not only in other parts of Connecticut but in several other states. So if anyone out there has the heart, passion, and resources to help, we are ready for the next expanded iteration of Club 203. And I'm now going to pass it off to the amazing co-founder Stacy Curran.
Wow. Good evening. I'm Stacy Curran, co-founder of Club 203. And thank you, Startup Westport. So, before every Club 203 event, we gather our incredible volunteers and have a quick meeting to talk about the run of show, go over the plan for the night, and talk about what needs to get done. And every one of those meetings, I cry. Not out of sadness, quite the opposite. I cry because we continue to witness the extraordinary impact that Club 203 has on so many individuals and families. There's music and dancing and art and food and fun. But what stays with us most? The parents and caregivers that seek us out and tell us what these nights mean to their children.
They tell us their son and daughter finally has something to look forward to. They have a calendar with the dates circled and they start a countdown before the next event. They tell us their adult child finally feels a part of something. And something else beautiful is happening. Parents have found each other. They're navigating similar challenges, similar difficulties, and they're finding support in one another. Because many of us know firsthand what happens when formal education stops. The day the bus stops coming and suddenly families are left asking what comes next? How do I create a meaningful life for my adult child? For many adults with disabilities, life becomes deeply isolating. And that's why Club 203 matters. What happens at our gatherings is more than a party. It's belonging. It's friendship and it's human connection. Our members seek each other out. They are the heartbeat of every event. And the heart of Club 203 is its volunteers. They show up with endless energy and dedication and say yes to anything we ask before we even finish asking. This entire organization is built on the shoulders of volunteers and this very community.
As Katherine alluded to, in September, we begin our fifth year of Club 203. And in a world moving so much faster and technology is automating so much of life, what you are honoring here tonight is something deeply human. It's human togetherness and it's human contact and it's the importance of being together. The three of us saw a need and we hope to create something meaningful. And if in some small way we leave this community a little bit better, a little kinder, and a little less lonely, then every moment has been worth it. So, in closing, thank you Startup Westport for finding us and honoring us. Thank you to every volunteer, every venue, and every supporter. You know who you are. And most importantly, thank you every 203 member that walks through our doors. You are the joy. Thank you.
Well, that's what it's all about. Thank you all three, for all that you've done for our community. Thank you for those comments and we so appreciate you joining us here tonight. And to all Club 203, thank you. Okay, now we're going to change gears and we're going to shift over to our innovator of the year award and our conversation with Marc and Craig. Before we do that, we're going to ask Mark Shapiro to come up. Mark Shapiro was last year's innovator of the year. And I also want to do a special call out to Jimmy Petero. Jimmy, where are you? Okay. Hey, Jimmy. Jimmy was our first innovator of the year. So, we've done the innovator of the year three times. Started with Jimmy, went to Mark, and now we're moving over to Marc Lasry. So, amazing group of people. Thank you all so much. Jimmy, thank you for your support. Mark Shapiro, thank you for your support. And take it away, Mark.
All right. Good evening, everyone. Let me start by saying that every time I walk into this building, I'm reminded that we are truly so fortunate to have such a beautiful and inspirational destination like this in our hometown. The Westport Library thrives at the intersection of education, entrepreneurship, community, and really remains a beacon of our town and our culture. And tonight, this space once again serves as the backdrop for what will certainly be another great conversation moderated by one of the best on-air television personalities in the business, Craig Melvin.
Craig is one of the most respected journalists in America today. An esteemed, award-winning broadcaster and of course the co-anchor of the Today Show. My personal favorite is when he hosts the Olympics. He's done an extraordinary job at that, not once but a few times. For years, Craig has been at the center of the biggest stories shaping our world, leading thoughtful conversations with some of the most influential figures across business, across politics, across culture. He's masterful at his craft, a curious interviewer with a remarkable ability to connect with people. Of course around here we also know Craig as a proud Westporter, notably with his restaurant in Saugatuck, The Bridge. He's a community leader. He's a philanthropist. He's a family man. His wife Lindsay is here with us this evening. There's no doubt that he will lead a terrific discussion tonight with this year's innovator of the year.
Which of course brings me to the reason or one of the reasons I should say, ladies, that was such an impressive presentation. One of the reasons we're all here tonight, which is that last year as Craig mentioned I had the privilege of standing here to receive the innovator of the year award. And this evening, it is my distinct pleasure to introduce a man who's really out of central casting for this honor, Marc Lasry. Fresh from Paris, France. I've known Marc for more than a decade. I watched him in action, witnessing not only his extraordinary innovations come to life, but also the leadership and values that are central to those accomplishments. And watching all of that has been a true gift.
It's impossible to confuse Marc Lasry with anyone else because he has had a most singular life. He was born in Marrakesh, Morocco. And he came to the United States with his family in search of course of opportunity. The classic pursuit of the American dream. They settled in West Hartford in a very small house. But what they lacked in means, they made up for with determination, grit, and their belief in what was possible.
Marc earned academic scholarships to both college and law school. At Clark University, he somehow pulled off what I call a mind-body triumph. He became captain of the chess team and also point guard of the basketball team. Professionally, Marc didn't just succeed, he helped define an entire field when he entered the arena of business. He essentially wrote the playbook on investing in distressed debt. And he went on to co-found Avenue Capital, building it into one of the world's most respected investment firms.
I worked with him and his team while I was at Six Flags, and I can tell you firsthand, Marc has a knack for always surrounding himself with the best and the brightest. He searches for it. He recruits it. He closes it. He develops it. He nurtures it. And underneath all of that, the bedrock is truly entrepreneurship and innovation.
When he purchased the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014, his versatility and his passion were on display all the time, helping not only lead their remarkable turnaround, which culminated in an NBA title, but he revitalized downtown Milwaukee. I really encourage you, if you haven't been there as of late, put it on your calendar. And this coming from someone who grew up in Chicago.
Today, Marc oversees a broad and dynamic sports investment portfolio. It's ironic because when I got to know Marc at Six Flags, there really was no sports other than the point guard mentioned and referenced in history. There wasn't any sports in his portfolio. But quickly over time, it became women's soccer. It became minor league baseball. It's sailing and even a professional bull riders team right across the river in New York City. When Marc sets his eyes on something, he reaches that mark.
He started his first company with his sister Sonia and he continues to work alongside her today. Family has always been at the center of his journey. He's the proud father of three and he's approached both his personal and his professional life in a way that reflects his values. Marc has long believed that success and responsibility are absolutely inseparable and he puts that principle into action every single day. Advancing education, supporting medical institutions, and investing in future generations, not to mention the town he resides in, Westport, Connecticut. So, yes, Marc Lasry is an outstanding innovator, clearly worthy of tonight's award, but he's also one of the most grounded, honest, and impressive people you will ever meet. He's bold. He's daring. He takes chances. He puts his money where his mouth is. Please join me in welcoming this year's Innovator of the Year recipient, my good friend, Marc Lasry.
That was a hell of an introduction. My god. You're not dying, are you? No, I'm good. Good. All right. My wife's here. She heard the whole thing. It was good. Thank you, Mark Shapiro. Thank you. Thank you so much. Especially considering I know you've got to catch a flight here in a little bit. And a big thanks to all of you for being here on a school night in Westport, Connecticut at this beautiful library that is so much more than that. Every time we come, we're just gobsmacked by it. My 12-year-old and my nine-year-old, they grew up in this library when it was not this library. And my mother, who's with me tonight, she came in today, she's like, 'Oh my god, they really, they've really, this is so much nicer than it was.' She hasn't been here in a while. My parents are in from South Carolina, my mom and my dad. They came in on Saturday, and in the span of three days, we've dragged them to two travel basketball games, a three-hour dance recital, a two-hour piano recital, and now this. So it may be sometime before they come back. So, thanks, Mom and Dad.
And thank you Marc Lasry for being here tonight and for being just such an example to so many in so many different ways. Not just a fantastic businessman but a wonderful family man as well and is someone who enjoys men's fashion. I looked down at your shoes about 10 minutes ago. I was like I've got the same damn pair of Zegnas. I was like Mitchell. He's like yeah Mitchell's. Bill Mitchell here. Bill was here earlier and I want someone to tell him that I gave him the obligatory shout out contractually to continue to receive my discount. I have to acknowledge Mitchell's in every public appearance.
Let's talk about you. Marc and I chatted on the phone briefly this afternoon and you can tell a lot about a man by what he mentions first in a conversation with someone he's never talked to. And one of the first things that Marc mentioned to me, didn't talk about all the money that he's made, didn't talk about all the success, he didn't talk about his bull riding team in New York. He mentioned his kids and his wife, the five kids, 14 grandchildren. That's the, yeah, that's by the way, just to be clear, five kids is pretty impressive. 14 grandkids. He really didn't have a hand in it. But yes, it's a blessing nonetheless. But I don't think a lot of folks fully appreciate your backstory, how you started, not just the fact that you were born in Morocco, but the circumstances into which you were born. Let's start from the beginning.
Sure. First, thank you for the Westport Library. Thank you, Cliff. Marc, I'm going to have you introduce me every time. I thought it was great, you know. No, I'm serious. Like I'm just, you're going to come with me wherever we go. I want to thank Jimmy for being here. I know you were the first person to be honored. And I always worry following actually for the previous honorees. You guys were great and I thought what you're doing is fabulous. I think for me it's a little bit of what Marc said. You know, I was born in Morocco and my mom was a big believer that we needed to come to the United States and we, my father was not. He was a big believer since he didn't speak the language, we should go to Paris and France because we all spoke French. So, we went to France. We stayed there six months and then my mother won obviously. So we came and we grew up in West Hartford in a very small house.
Hartford and my mom was pretty simple. She became a teacher and she just said, look, we can't afford for you to go to college. So I went to public school and you have to get a scholarship. And she goes, look, it's easy, if you don't get a scholarship you can't live here. So, no, I know she loved me. It was true love. But it was tough love. And I went to Clark, I met my wife. We met first day of school. We've been married 42 years.
I think it's the best 42 years she's ever had.
Children. You're a child bride.
Yeah. And same thing. Went to law school and got involved. I started as a bankruptcy lawyer. I thought I'd be a physics professor. Basketball was something I wanted to do. A lack of talent stopped me. I don't know why. They don't make that many great Jewish basketball players.
We're trying, man. We're trying.
Height and skill is a problem. And then I got involved in bankruptcy. I practiced for one solid year, got out and got involved on the investment side and was pretty good at it and that was it.
Yeah, that's, yeah, pretty good at it. That was it. But you also, you clerked at one point for a bankruptcy judge. How instrumental was that in terms of the...
It was, I got a clerkship, I got the highest grade in the class and that teacher was best friends with the judge. So, I got the bankruptcy clerkship because of that. You get offers to go work at every bankruptcy firm and I worked at a firm and then an investment firm that was specializing in that said income. I was making 30,000 a year. They offered me 50,000. We had our first child. Seemed like a huge amount of money. So, left and that's how I got involved on the investment side. But yeah, law was great. I would recommend it to everybody. It's a great background. It really is. It's nice. I think it was helpful. But because I was a lawyer and I could understand the law and I could do numbers pretty easily, that gave me an edge. So, I don't think without that background I would have been able to do what I did.
What was the first job in finance?
It was a small investment firm. I worked there for about a year. All right. So, here we'll make this interactive. I made them 25 million. This is in 1986. That's a shitload of money back then.
It's a shitload of money now, but...
No, back then it was a shitload. All right. What do you think my bonus was? If you make somebody $25 million, what do you think your bonus should be?
What it should be? A half million.
All right. What does everybody think?
Yeah, right. 5 million. You're my guy.
I'm going to come work for you.
It's a town full of finance people clearly. I'm like, half million sounds like a lot.
And you left the next day.
No, you also get the attaboy. You know, when somebody goes, 'You're so good. We love you. Next year is your year.' And I don't know, you've never heard that, right? And I got the attaboy and then I left and I went to work at a firm, Counting Company. They paid me 100,000. I made them 60% a year for about two years and I left to go to the Bass Group, the Bass Brothers, and they gave me 125 million at the time. Believe it or not, we were the largest fund in the United States at 125 million that you didn't have funds.
It was 1988. And then I ended up, I did it for two years, we did about 30% a year and then when I was 30 years old I left and I made about $10 million. So, gave half of it, my wife and I put away. The other half I invested and we sort of doubled that money every year for about five years.
And pretty remarkable, right? Yeah. No, that's worthy of applause. Yes. Tell us about this story where at some point you decide to raise money from friends and family to start a venture. Tell that story.
So in '95, wanted to start a fund. So we started with about 7 million and went to the Bass family and a couple people. We started with our capital and the firm grew from there. That was in 1995. By 1998 we were running I think 200 million. By 2000 we're running a billion. 2005, 10, and then by 2010 we're running 25 billion. So it grew exponentially.
For folks who aren't familiar with precisely how it is, you've built this vast fortune and Mr. Shapiro alluded to it. Distressed debt. That's fair to say sort of always been your bailiwick.
Yeah, you could. Problem with distressed debt is people are naturally nervous when something bad happens. So they become non-economic sellers. So...
Explain that term for non-finance folks. Non-economic seller.
So you sell because you have to. So you own a house and you buy the house, you're really excited and you lose your job and you have problems. So now you sell the house not because you want to sell the house but because you have to. You become non-economic. And so back then you were buying from non-economic sellers. People who would have to sell and didn't care about the price. So, you would take advantage of that. People say you took advantage of it. I say I was providing a service. I was providing liquidity. I was helping. Most people don't agree with that.
I appreciate your candor.
But that's what we did. So, we were, and you know, we did, look, the only way you grow is you got to do well. So we averaged like 15, 20% a year and so we made a lot of money for our investors and for ourselves.
But you also took big swings. You took a lot of, you took big risks. As someone who's done this so long, so well, how do you know when you have enough information to act to make a decision or do you ever know?
You don't know. I think you never know. Like, all right. Here's a simple way to look at it. You have it. What kind of phone do you have? Apple. Great. Who here owns Apple stock? All right. Great. Why do you own it? You think it's going up? Does well every year, has for 30 years. Yeah. You're not buying it to go down. No. All right. Who'd you buy it from? Somebody who thought it was going down.
Right? That person didn't go, 'You know what? Why don't you make a lot of money? I'm done. It's your turn.' Correct. Right. So, everybody you bought your stock from thought it was going down. That's all investing is. Somebody's making a decision. Right or wrong. All right. My job is I try to figure out, obviously I think I'm right. I'm not right all the time. I just got to be right most of the time. Like look, in 2008 we were running 20 billion. We lost $5 billion that year.
That was it. For those of you who missed it, that was with the B. Yes.
All right. I think I lost 10, 15 pounds. I couldn't eat. Everything you bought was going down. Made no difference. I remember once we did, I've told this story before, but has anybody heard of a company called Ford? Right there. They make cars, trucks. All right. Ford started at par which was 100 cents. We started buying it at 80, kept going down 70, 60, 50. We had 500 million. So imagine losing, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars. And I remember the analyst, you know, we sit on a trading floor and the analyst and the trader go, 'Hey, there's another hundred million for sale.' I was like, 'I don't care. I don't want to buy it.' And the analyst goes, 'No, no, you know, you got to love what young analyst.' They're like, 'No, Mark, it's great.' I'm like, 'Shut up. I've already lost a shitload of money. I don't care what you say.' And he goes, 'No, no, Mark. It's really good.' I'm like, 'Okay, I don't want to look at you.' And the trader goes, 'What do you want me to do?' I'm like, 'I don't want to buy it.' And he goes, 'Well, we're sort of obligated. We've been talking.' I'm like, 'All right, just give him a stupid bid. Give him a bid of 30.' He goes, 'You won't hit it.' I go, 'I don't care. We bid 30.' You look at the trader and he goes, 'Okay, thank you.' And I said, 'Why are you thanking him?' He goes, 'We just bought it.' Oh, boy. Okay. So the problem with just buying that is on your 500 million, you got to mark it down 20 points. So I just lost 100 million buying a hundred million of something. And yeah, the analyst, last week loves analysts. He goes, 'Ah, that's great.' I go, 'You're fired.' He goes, 'No, no, Mark. It's great.' I go, 'No, no, seriously, you're fired.' He goes, 'Really?' I go, 'Yeah, yeah.' And you know, whatever. He gets up, goes to the bathroom, throws up, comes back, and goes, 'You're kidding, I hope.' I go, 'Yes, I'm kidding. Just I never want to see you again.' And that's what it was. Now, the guy who sold obviously thought it was going lower.
All right. So the following year, so we lost whatever five billion, which was huge. And investors would call you up and say, 'Whatever you do, do not invest.' I go, 'Okay, why not?' They go, 'Cuz everything's going down.' I'm like, 'Right, that's when you should buy.' Like, 'No.' I didn't listen. So the following year we're up 66%. So we did great. And then I made enough money to buy the Milwaukee Bucks.
Did you always want to, there's some Bucks fans here. Did you always want to own a pro sports team?
Well, I mean, yes. My wife certainly would, but...
From what age? Like from when you were a kid or when you just started making...
When you realized you couldn't be on the team. That's when you figure I'll buy a team and then I'll try to get on the team and then the NBA tells you you can't. So you're like, really? But I got to play in the celebrity all-star game.
Helps when you own the arena.
Yes. Yeah. But you'll like this. So does everybody know who Mark Cuban is? Right. So Cuban, Mark and I are playing against each other. So I go to him and say, 'Listen, it's on national TV. Whatever you do, I'll cover you. You cover me. I'll let you score. You let me score. That way we look good.' Right. Doesn't that make sense? Yeah. You know what he says? No. Literally goes, 'No, game on.' Like, you know, real serious. And I'm like, 'Really?' And so his coach, the celebrity coach was Draymond Green.
And I, you know, it's 8-minute quarter. So Mark and I come in for the first four minutes. We come off. Then the second quarter starts and I come in a little bit earlier and I look at Draymond who's there and I'm like, 'Hey, heads up. I was talking to Cuban. He says you're the worst player in the NBA.' That was all he needed. And he goes, 'What do you mean?' I'm like, 'I don't know.' He says, 'Like, you're really overrated.' I was sticking up for you, man, but he doesn't like you. He didn't play the rest of the game. I scored nine points. It's on YouTube. You shouldn't miss it. And you know afterwards Mark's like, 'You know what happened? Like Draymond didn't play him.' I'm like, 'Yeah, I told him you said he sucked.' Game on. Whatever. That was Mark.
Along those lines, before we get back to your career, Wednesday night, Knicks-Spurs, game one. Who do we like in the series?
Um, come on. No, it's going to be a tough series. I mean, look, normally the best player on the court, their team should win, that's Wembanyama. But Knicks are playing great.
But if you were investing, if you're betting on the game...
There's the door, buddy. There's the door.
Okay. Well, seven at least. That's good for ABC and ESPN. You're welcome, Jimmy. You're welcome. That was just for you. Speaking of Jimmy and ESPN, my wife Lindsay's here tonight, who worked there for a number of years, and we came to Westport 15 years ago before we had kids. And we came because she was going to Bristol. I was going into the city. The town was equidistant. We didn't know anybody. Everyone was in finance. We felt really out of place for a long time until we found our tribe. How did you land here in Westport?
So my parents lived in Hartford. Kathy's sister Cindy and my brother-in-law Allan lived here in Westport. And we were going between Greenwich and Westport. Our kids are the same age, so we figured closer to my parents. Kathy's sister's here. Yeah. So, we picked Westport and it turned out to be great.
The rest is history. Let's get back to the business for a second here because you've been in the game for a long time. In terms of the ways in which it has changed and I want to talk specifically about AI and artificial intelligence in just a moment. But going back to your early days in the 80s, talk to me about guiding principles then and some of the philosophies that would lead to success back then versus philosophies now and how they're different or are they different?
I don't think it is. I think look, investing is all about you're making a bet on the information that you have and it's how you process that information, right? You bought Apple for whatever reasons and I buy things for whatever reasons, but we all have the same information. I process it differently and for whatever reason that works.
How do you process it? How so? You get information from one of your well-regarded analysts and you take that information and you do what with it?
I try to simplify things. I try to understand, okay, what is the company really making? What is it paying out in interest? What's the debt? What's the likelihood of it repaying? Because you're always buying something at a discount, right? So whenever you buy something at a discount, it's because there's a belief that things can go wrong or things can go right. And for me, I always look just at liquidation values. I look at what if everything goes wrong, am I okay? I'm not trying to hit home runs like AI or anybody who's investing in the markets hitting home runs. All I try to do is if I can make 15%, 20%. You know, you do that over a long time, it adds up. So, we're trying to hit singles and doubles. So, if I buy something at 60, I don't care if I don't make money. I just don't want to lose money. That's the difference. You're buying something and you're buying it because you say, 'I'm going to buy it for a dollar and I hope it's worth five.' Right? I don't think I've ever been to a cocktail party where seems like everybody you talk to. So they go, 'Oh, you're in the investment world.' I go, 'Yes.' They go, 'You know, I bought something for a dollar and I made 10 times my money.' I'm like, 'Wow, that's fabulous. Have you ever lost money?' They go, 'No, no.' I'm like, 'Okay, it's fair.' No, right. I mean, there, I've never met people, you know, in the investment world, you people lose money, right? But at cocktail parties, nobody loses. No one's ever lost. No. It's like when you talk to someone who's been in a car accident and you've never talked to someone who's like, 'It was my fault.' Everyone's always like, 'It was, you won't believe what they did. It's horrible.' Yeah. No, it's a fair point.
Let's talk about AI for a moment. Do you think this is a movement? Do you think it's a moment? Do you think we're on the cusp of a bubble? What say you, Mark?
Well, all right. There's a company SpaceX makes I think 20 billion. It's going to get valued at 1.8 trillion. So it's trading at greater than 100 times. Doesn't make sense to me, you know. So I think all these valuations are way too high. Doesn't mean they're not going to go higher, but they'll come back and they always will come back. And I think if you look at the internet, yes, I said it again. You know, my wife loves it. You know, we're at dinner with the kids. I go, you know, before the internet. And like, you know, your kids look at you go, 'What are you talking about? The internet's always been here.' Like, 'No, no, before.'
No, no, no. I remember too.
Right. Before the internet, you didn't know there was this company called Yahoo, right? There was Ask Jeeves. There was all these companies. Do you remember these?
Earthlink, right? Yeah. See, everybody... Yeah. Yeah. Who invested in those? No, everybody did Google, right?
You got Google was this little company. Yeah. Yahoo was supposed to win. There was this other company. You may have heard of it. AOL.
Remember AOL? And AOL was the leader.
Yeah. It was the leader. Where are they?
They're out. So, yes, there's going to be three or four companies that are going to dominate. It looks like Anthropic should be one. Maybe OpenAI, but I don't know. It's not my world. I'll wait. Like people have problems. I'll wait.
That serves you well, that philosophy.
I don't know. What's the harm?
What are you incorporating AI into your strategies now? Developing those strategies or...
No, no, we use it. You use it for research. You use it for what it's really good at. It's not, you don't need AI to make your decision. AI will help you in making a decision. I think the analysts use it a ton. But I think it's how you use it, but I'm a big believer that, you know, ultimately you're going to make a decision, I make a decision, right? Can AI replace you? No.
