https://youtu.be/9GCGn_STx-o?t=7932 The following is a transcript lightly edited for improved readability.
Bill Pulte:
Larry, maybe you could just say hi to everyone, and then, you know, you were the first money in Chewy, which I think is now, what, a 12 or 20 billion dollar company?
Maybe you could just walk us through how you worked with Ryan Cohen, what you saw in him that did it, and then we'll get in to your multi billion dollar fund after that.
Larry Cheng:
Sure, yea, I was the first investor to meet with Ryan in person, I think that was back in 2012, I ultimately invested in the company on behalf of Volition in 2013. We invested 15 million dollars in Chewy series A as the first institutional investor in the company.
Pulte:
Let's go! Can I ask how much that 15 million turned in to? Is that public, or no?
Larry Cheng:
It's not, but, hundreds of millions I would say.
Pulte:
Everybody is cheering for you.
Larry Cheng:
Alright! I remember the first meeting with Ryan, and my first impression of him was, he said he would spend every night reading the reviews on the site, of Chewy, and if there were any issues with anyone who was unhappy, he would personally go take the lead and try to and figure out to resolve issues, and right then and there I knew he was, as customer centric, as focused on customer delight, as anyone from a first impression perspective, but that only grew over the years that I've gotten to know him. So yea, we invested in the company, it was a huge success obviously, and Ryan is a generational entrepreneur.
Pulte:
And, how old are you Larry, cause I didn't look it up but you look young as hell.
Larry Cheng:
48
Pulte:
48, wow, you look good at 48. So, 48, and you got, how big is your fund now, a couple billion?
Larry Cheng:
About a couple billion in assets under management, just shy of that, yea.
Pulte:
And, what are you investing in, and, you've got a lot of fans here, I don't know, 20, 30 thousand followers on Twitter, something like that?
Larry Cheng:
Yea, we invest, Volition is a growth equity firm, so we invest in emerging growth tech companies, so these are companies with 5, 15 million in revenue, in that zone, growing 50 to 100 percent plus. So, really dynamic emerging tech companies. We have two sides of the house, software and services is one, and internet and consumer is the other. I lead the internet and consumer team, so that's all things e-commerce, digital media, ad tech, transactional services, consumer, retail, all that good stuff, all fun stuff.
Pulte:
Love it. Okay, so, is there anything you want to tell this crowd?
Larry Cheng:
I think this is truly inspirational that you guys are all together. You guys are really defining what it means for retail investors to be in community, and what comes from that. And so, you know, when I think about what, where this is headed and where communities are going, from impacting the financial markets, it's wherever you guys in this room want to go. Because you guys are on the forefront, and you're leading it, and so kudos to you guys, because, I think that the power of individual investors in community will only grow over time. And, there are days in the future, where rooms like what you have, will be more important and more influential than Goldman Sachs.
Pulte:
Wow. Did you hear that? Wow. That's amazing.
Larry, really appreciate the sentiment. And Larry, we've got, I'll have to send it to you later, but we've got an airport hanger full of people, this room cost way too much to rent, the stereos cost way too much, I'm gonna end up having to write probably a 40 thousand dollar check, which I'm happy to write, you know, 40 thousand dollars for this party, it's basically a party right, is this not a party?
But, anyway, we got basically, you know, we raised money for this. People donated 500 dollars. That's a lot of money. 500 dollars is a lot of money. People donated 500 dollars to come here to be in this room.
We have 250 people, everybody paid to be here, and I really appreciate you saying that this is the future of investing, because, Larry, you know, I invest for a living, these folks now invest for a living.
I also believe that this is the future too, of investing, and I believe that, you know, having somebody who is director of a 5 billion dollar company like you are, managing 2 billion dollars, thinking this is going to be, in your words, more powerful than Goldman Sachs? Did you guys hear what he just said?
He just said that groups like this are the future and are going to be more powerful than Goldman Sachs.
I mean, that's, I have the utmost respect for them, as I'm sure he does, but that is a huge statement.
So Larry, let's just finish up here, and I know, we're going to behave ourselves, because we know you're a sitting director of a public company.
So, we want to respect that.
But, can you maybe tell us your favorite thing, you work with Ryan Cohen very directly. You were his money in Chewy.
What's your favorite thing about Ryan Cohen? Let's start there.
Larry Cheng:
Ryan is as contrarian as they come. So he's an independent thinker. He is not afraid to buck the trend, as you all know. And, he is such an original contrarian thinker. So it's inspiring to be around that. So, he's one of a kind in that respect. So that's probably my favorite thing.
Pulte:
Love it. And, again, I'm keeping it very generic, but you feel free to tell me what or what not you'll answer, these are like softball questions.
I think everybody in this room loves what I'm about to ask, which is, what is he like, inter-personally working with him?
So, everybody has all these different conspiracies, they have all these different things, people are trying to do stories on him -- you're actually somebody who is credible who works with him day to day, week to week, month to month.
What is he like when you're dealing with him inter-personally, what is he like to work with?
Larry Cheng:
It's kind of funny, when some of the articles would come out with pictures of him in kind of this foreboding, suit in a dark room, I would text him and say, that picture looks ridiculous.
And I would say, Ryan is actually quite humble and open handed as a person, and so, he listens, but he's very directed in what he wants to do.
Pulte:
Is he funny? Is he funny?
Larry Cheng:
He's a funny guy. He's actually rather understated. He's funny but understated. Very humble. And, don't imagine a foreboding, huge, ominous figure. That's not Ryan Cohen. He's very customer-centric, and just a very independent thinker, as I mentioned before.
That's how I would describe him.
Pulte:
Love it. What other questions about Ryan Cohen do we have? We have to keep it very generic.
Kais:
Did you have the chance to meet Ted Cohen?
Larry Cheng:
I did not.
Kais:
I'm sure you heard Ryan talking about his father. Can you tell us, some things you heard from him about his father?
Larry Cheng:
I think it's best for Ryan to talk about his father. All I will say is that, his father is an inspiration to him.
Pulte:
Very good. Thank you Larry.
Have you heard of the PP show before tonight, or no Larry?
Larry Cheng:
I have.
PP:
Oh really? What do you think about the PP show, Larry?
Larry Cheng:
Honestly, I didn't know much, but, I think I saw, Bill you went on it once.
Pulte:
Yes I did. Yes I did.
Larry Cheng:
That's where it came across my radar.
PP:
I just have a question pertaining to Ryan Cohen. Based off, you know, you know Ryan Cohen's humor, and things like that. In your opinion, and again, you can't speak on behalf of Ryan Cohen,
Do you think he likes the PP show, where we slap people with dildos, things like that?
Larry Cheng:
I've never specifically asked him about that, so I can't answer.
Pulte:
Well thank you for being such a good sport. We really appreciate you Larry. Thank you for coming.
You have a special announcement that you want to make for everybody here, you have kind of a surprise gift.
Larry Cheng:
Yes, thank you. Actually, Bill, you were kind of my inspiration for this, not gonna lie. I saw, you were doing a lot of great things for the community, and so some of you who follow me will know that we've done some giveaways, during the holiday season with some of my companies. We are doing one today, with Grove Collaborative, which is a sustainable household essentials retail store, e-commerce store.
What I thought I'd do, since I was coming on today, is I would like to give all of the attendees of today's event a 100 dollar gift card to Grove.
Hopefully you can go and have some holiday fun there. We'll find a way to get your email so that we can email you those gift cards, but just my way of saying happy holidays to the whole community.
Pulte:
Very good. Everybody is clapping for you in the room, so thank you very much. If you guys didn't hear in the back of the room, Larry is gonna give everybody a hundred dollars, which is amazing, that's like, you know, 25 grand. So, you know, if you paid 500 tonight, you're getting at least 100 back. And, Kais is going to give for people he wants to give the people another hundred.
Kais:
Everybody.
Pulte:
Everybody, wow. And that's worth a hundred dollars right there.
So, Larry, I can't thank you enough for coming on. Hopefully -- I think we kept it like ultra PG. I don't even know if you can keep it more PG than that. But we appreciate it, we hope to have you on again. And, we'd love to do it in person some time. But, thanks again for everything, and being here.
Everybody's chanting Larry.
Larry Cheng:
Thanks so much, good to see you guys.
