It's Not Magic, a Sixth Street podcast

It's Not Magic, a Sixth Street podcast

It's Not Magic is a podcast about building things, without the pretense. Our host is David Stiepleman, Co-Founder and Co-President of Sixth Street, a leading global investment firm. We talk to founders and industry leaders and get them to explain, in plain English, what they do and how they do it. Building a business is a lot of things, but…It’s Not Magic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

October 23, 2024 39 mins

What happens when you put two strangers from across the political divide together, not to talk about politics, but just to get to know each other as human beings? That’s what Dave Isay set out to answer.


From twenty-plus years of running StoryCorps, Dave has shown time and again the importance of recognizing the value of humanity in everyone regardless of their politics, religion, or background, and how the act of listening can...

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During Westbound Equity Partners’ Annual Summit, Sixth Street Co-Founder and Co-President, David Stiepleman sat down with award-winning AI researcher and best-selling author Dr. Joy Buolamwini for a conversation about, in the words of her Algorithmic Justice League, getting the world to “remember that who codes matters, how we code matters, and that we can code a better future.”

 

On this episode of It’s Not Magic, you’ll hear h...

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Steve Kerr has won nine NBA championships as a member of three different dynasties: as Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors and as a player for the San Antonio Spurs and Chicago Bulls. 

 

Earlier this month at the Sixth Street Offsite, he was gracious enough to spend time with our team and share what he’s learned about leadership and life over the course of his career.

 

His conversation with Sixth Street’s David Sti...

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During Sixth Street’s annual MaSH CxO Summit, David Stiepleman recorded our latest episode with two longtime political experts who have run dozens of statewide and national campaigns for Republicans and Democrats. The conversation was in front of a live audience of CEOs and other leaders from across our growth equity portfolio, and we dove into current political, geopolitical, and macro trends in this election year affecting their ...

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Sixth Street Co-founder and Partner Vijay Mohan sat down in our San Francisco office with two accomplished executives in the professional soccer world for a conversation about the power of accessibility in sports and how it can influence communities.

 

On this episode of It’s Not Magic, Vijay guest hosted a discussion with Ed Foster-Simeon, President & CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation, and Danielle Slaton, a former USWNT pl...

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During a time of unspeakable evil, there were very few, very brave people who risked their own lives to save others. Richard Hurowitz’s most recent book, In the Garden of the Righteous, brings forward 10 little-known stories of those who went above and beyond to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. An Italian Tour de France champion. A Portuguese diplomat. A circus ringmaster. Why did these people decide to act when others didn’t? Our...

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Two seasoned dealmakers, business builders, and friends of over twenty-five years sit down to have a frank discussion about the evolution of business, law, culture, and management. David Stiepleman, Co-Founder and Co-President of global investment firm Sixth Street, and Michael Gerstenzang, Managing Partner of global law firm Cleary Gottlieb, discuss the art of commercialism, the best ways to get buy-in from high-achieving groups, ...

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Our Sixth Street team plus friends from across our Dallas network came together for a night of conversation to discuss business leadership, culture, and connections. We were honored to be joined by our great friends United States Air Force Major General (ret.), Rod Lewis, True Ventures EIR and Investor Clarence Bethea, and Westbound Equity Partners co-founder Sean Mendy in a discussion led by Sixth Street Founder and Co-President D...

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The San Antonio Spurs have 5 NBA championships, but some of their biggest wins and longest-lasting contributions have come off the court. Dr. Kara C. Allen, the first NBA team executive dedicated exclusively to impact, joins to talk about the Spurs’ commitment to ensuring that the community always remains a priority in everything they do.


We learn how values translate into action for a franchise that’s developing the next genera...

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August 14, 2023 45 mins
Bill Block, CEO of Miramax, joins us to share his approach to successfully running an award-winning film and television production company. Starting as a Hollywood superagent, Bill has gone on to produce hit films like Bad Moms, The Blair Witch Project, District 9, Halloween (2018), Requiem for a Dream, and the more recent He’s All That starring Addison Rae of TikTok fame. Bill and David talk through a lifetime of movie business kn...

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Aly Wagner, lead analyst for Fox’s broadcast of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and co-chair of Bay FC, joins us to talk about her career progression from winning gold medals for the U.S. Women’s National Team to announcing the games to co-founding a National Women’s Soccer League expansion franchise.


We ask her about her trailblazing path as the first woman to announce a Men’s World Cup game, and how she’s applied the lessons s...

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Why shouldn’t paying rent on time help you build your credit score?We sit down with Wemimo Abbey, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Esusu, to discuss how he convinced credit ratings agencies, landlords, and renters to use Esusu to help build fuller credit profiles. Motivated by his family’s own experience when applying for a loan after immigrating to the U.S. from Nigeria, Wemimo developed a product that boosts credit scores and helps owner...

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Recorded live at the Sixth Street offsite in Austin, Texas. Former Golden State Warriors President, NBA Hall of Famer, and Bay FC board member Rick Welts joins our host David Stiepleman to talk about pioneering moments in the history of the NBA, including the inception of the Slam Dunk Contest and All-Star Weekend. Rick and David also discuss the key trends driving the future of sports.

 

This is a special episode to kick o...

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San Francisco has a powerful asset in its fight against its well-publicized civic challenges: its caring community of doers.


Kanishka Cheng, founder and CEO of TogetherSF, is working to revitalize the city by reconnecting its residents with their government. She’s built an organization, with the backing of Sequoia’s Michael Moritz, that provides educational resources and spaces for open dialogue on how to solve the complex issue...

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Season 3 of INM opens with Frank Doyle, Dean of Harvard University’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). Frank takes us inside Harvard’s efforts to cultivate interdisciplinary collaboration and to grow an engineering school within the “176-year-old startup.” With his inspiring vision for the future of problem solving, Frank challenges us to think bigger and bolder and to embrace the people around us a...

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The microchip powers everything we do — from our iPhones, to the cars we drive, to missile guidance systems. Do we take for granted how much the world depends on such a scarce resource? For our Season 2 finale, we are joined by Chris Miller, Professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and author of the Financial Times 2022 Book of the Year, “Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology,” to learn how a grou...

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Dr. Amy Abernethy is known for modernizing the FDA’s approach to big data. Now as President of Product Development and Chief Medical Officer of Alphabet’s Verily, and a member of Sixth Street’s Scientific Advisory Board, she’s exploring approaches to real-world data and developing tools to bring advanced therapeutics to patients. Amy joins our host, David Stiepleman, as well as Sixth Street’s Vice Chairman, Marty Chavez, as we disc...

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Join us as we explore the success of STAT – the fast-growing media company delivering trusted news on health, medicine, and the life sciences. After being the first to break the COVID-19 story in January 2020, STAT became a go-to source for information during the pandemic with over 26 million visitors in March 2020 alone. In this conversation, co-founder and executive editor Rick Berke reveals where things have gone right (and wron...

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What’s it like running one of the fastest growing tech companies in France? Jonathan Cherki, founder and CEO of Contentsquare, joins us from New York to talk about how his company became a global leader in helping brands enhance their customers’ digital experience. We discuss why Jon left his family’s dry legume supply business to found a tech company, the strategy behind Contentsquare’s rapid growth, and what’s next for brands aft...

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November 21, 2022 35 mins
What’s it like leading a family business that invests in everything from baseball to robotics to soft drinks? We went to Minneapolis to talk with Jim Pohlad, chairman of the Minnesota Twins and co-head of the Pohlad Companies, about the balance between building for the long-term and the desire to “win now,” the process behind designing the Twins’ much-loved Target Field, and his family’s enduring commitment to their home state and ...

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