AWM Insights Financial and Investment News

Join Mena Hanna and Brandon Averill as they recap powerful lessons from a two-day Annual General Meeting in San Francisco, where the brightest minds in venture capital, tech, and professional sports converged. This episode explores how AI is reshaping the value of intelligence, why human judgment remains irreplaceable, and what it takes to access today’s most exclusive venture opportunities. Packed with remarkable stories, fresh data, and practical wisdom for building multi-generational wealth, you’ll get a front-row seat to the real conversations shaping the future of investing and family legacies. Don’t miss a rare inside look at the relationships, strategy, and vision driving AWM’s approach in this new era.

Chapters
(00:00) Humans and AI—The Power of Collaboration
(04:30) Inside the Annual Venture General Meeting
(06:00) Venture Access and the Intellectual Revolution
(09:00) Shifting Value and Human Oversight in Investing
(14:00) Investing Discipline and Diversification in Tech
(19:00) Human Element and Decision-Making in Wealth
(21:28) Reflection—Going Inward Before Upward

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Creators and Guests

Host
Brandon Averill
CEO and co-founder of AWM Capital
Host
Mena Hanna
Senior Investment Analyst at AWM Capital

What is AWM Insights Financial and Investment News?

A bite sized discussion on timely financial news and investment topics, to help you maximize your net worth and wealth for the next generation with Justin Dyer and Mena Hanna of AWM Capital.

Brandon Averill: You're
not competing against AI.

We're competing against
the peers that use AI.

'Cause at the end of the day, technology,
really only enables the change.

It's actually the people
that drive the change.

Mena Hanna: Intelligence
is going to get cheaper.

That's what happens in revolutions.

That's what happens in these new eras.

Technology is going to get cheaper.

Ultimately, what's gonna
matter is the human element.

Brandon Averill: They added up the revenue
of all the major sports in the United

States, and the total revenue generated
last year was something like $55 billion.

To put that into perspective,
Anthropic will generate that

revenue in the next six months.

Mena Hanna: Hey, everyone.

Welcome to another
episode of AWM Insights.

I am your host today filling
in for our CIO, Justin Dyer.

I am Mina Hanna, Portfolio Manager here

at AWM, and I'm joined by

an AWM

Insights OG, um, kind of the godfather

of, uh, AWM Insights, So, exciting day.

We were on the road actually
yesterday at an AGM.

And before we get into that Brandon,
tell me the most impactful story that

you heard from, this two-day AGM.

but

Brandon Averill: First off, Godfather.

I mean,

uh, I was so good that they
don't let me do this anymore.

Uh, but yeah,

It was, a, It was a great day.

Uh,

we heard some pretty
amazing things from some

pretty impact- impactful people that we'll

get into.

But

One of the craziest
stories we heard was, um,

really around…

It was a

story about a

um, a hospital

system CEO.

he was

you know, going through some
personal health challenges.

Uh, somebody with, you know, access
and resources to, uh, you would

think anything that he possibly
needs to get to the bottom of it.

And He was having this,
this these gut issues.

And

so, um,

you know, he'd gone to multiple doctors

within his system, outside his system,
and just kinda got to dead ends, done.

all the tests, done everything,
and kind of with the Hail

Mary goes, "You know what?

Let me just take all this and
I'm gonna throw it into AI."

um, and so he used one
of the big platforms.

and he fed all of his
testing data in there

And

everything, and, um, you know,
started to interact with it.

And it told him,

"Hey,

you know, this is kind of interesting.

Why don't you go run a couple more tests?"

And what do I have to lose?

You know, can't

find a solution anyways.

He went and ran a couple
more tests and um,

asked

him to fine-tune it one
more time, and he did

that.

And

it turned out it came back and it made
this suggestion around a diagnosis.

And so he took that diagnosis to
the doctors and was like, "Hey,

this is what it's telling me.

I've got a vitamin B1 deficiency."

And they're like, "No, you're nuts."

Like, "Nobody

has a vitamin B1 d- deficiency.

It's readily available

in

food, et cetera.

Uh, you'd have to either be, like,
a raging alcoholic and not eating.

That's how you get a
vitamin B1 deficiency."

And, um, so he, he walked
away a little discouraged.

Um, but it just sat with him, and
he's like, "This can't be right."

And so he kept feeding it kept feeding it.

and sure enough, it, add-- it

ended up

diagnosing

him with a very specific, uh, genetic

disease

that he then took to the medical
professionals who probably studied

it at some point in time along the way

but had

forgotten about it.

'cause It was that rare.

And so I just thought it
was a pretty remarkable

example

of

how

quick and impactful the space can be.

I think, you know, one thing
that we heard as a theme

throughout the day, uh, was, you

know, AI can

really transform things, and I
think it's getting-- I mean, we

heard the, the stat, I think it was

Dave Morin that shared it.

like

AI

is actually less popular than ice in
this country, which is pretty remarkable.

But

I think that's because we

don't understand it.

And what we really learned and
I thought was hit on, uh, really

successfully is, how, you know, AI

can change things, it can speed
things up, but at the end of The day,

the

human is always gonna be involved.

And you know, I think
that was really impactful

for us as we think about how

we service clients as a human-centered
firm, uh, building a family office,

building 100-year families, how important
the human is to this entire relationship.

Mena_Audio: Yeah.

It's a, it's a tailwind.

It's not

a headwind.

It's something that can

help multiply and magnify work.

It's not something that
completely eliminates work

for, for the humans.

And yeah, it was, it was
a really cool experience.

So, so walk us through where, where
were we and what were we doing?

Brandon_Audio: Yeah.

So we- we're actually--

it's

a-- I think it's a cool
opportunity, to share.

Um,

you know, we were up in San Francisco.

Uh, we were

at, uh,

Next

Legacy is one of the venture
relationships that we have.

Uh,

Ryan Nece is a good friend,
managing partner of that

firm.

um, and, you know, we thought it
would be helpful to share with,

you all today a little bit of what

that experience was because it's
probably a unique, uh, viewpoint in

for a lot of people, especially our
clients, into what these annual general

meetings, look like and the impact.

this one happens to be unique
because there is a huge

cross-section of our world.

So, a huge athlete, entertainer,
uh, contingent there, but also some

of the leading venture capitalists,

technologists

really in the world.

um, and so we got to spend the whole day
there hearing from different people, I

would say, um, you know, to give Ryan the

kudos, I mean, he, he really helped
us shape a lot of our early thinking

on

approaching the venture
space, uh, for our clients.

Uh, And So to be there, with him and see
what he's built is pretty remarkable.

Um, But we had this through line.

AI is, the topic everywhere, right?

and Um, the alignment

came in the

in the-- combination of yes,

AI, but then the human and how
do these things relate together.

and

I would say the

it was

resounding through

the entire program.

Um, like I

said, these, you know, highly
successful venture capitalists all

view this, this in very similar
fashion, which is pretty cool.

Mena_Audio: Yeah.

And I think one of the-- at
least for me, one of the most

interesting takeaways was
a lot of the athletes that

I talk to are not allocating capital
to venture, because it's sort of

one of those asset classes and
industries that's hard to access.

You also have to be extremely
thoughtful to access it properly.

So yeah, it was it was pretty
remarkable seeing a lot of

people there that that were interested
in all of the stories, interested in the

asset class, but haven't had exposure
yet, just through some, some either access

issues or, or just strategic planning.

Um, so you you talked about

kind

of

intelligence in general.

I wanna highlight how we
think intelligence is actually

shifting and how things are

kind of being

commoditized

in a

way, and how we are going through
what, what someone there labeled

as the intellectual revolution.

You know, we've had the
Industrial Revolution.

We are going through the
intellectual revolution where

We're going to be living
v- much, much more,

call it streamlined lives.

Humans, and this is kind of where we
were talking about human tailwinds

and

humans mattering more, we're not going
to have to do a lot of the redundant

things A lot of these things are just
gonna be taken care of by an agent.

It is really going to shift
what matters and how things are

actually being measured in general.

There was one, one example that I
thought was, was so interesting.

Aluminum was actually the most
precious metal in the mid-1800s.

Um, it-- Yeah, Napoleon used it as
his silverware when he was greeting

royalty and, and high-standing people.

Th- there's a million, a million of
these use cases, way more expensive

than both gold and platinum.

But once we figured out
how to actually refine it

properly, it

completely changed the
value of, of the metal.

And I think this is a good time to also
say that gold is at $4,000 an ounce.

Uh, so, so we were right on, on not
investing in commodities in general.

But, uh, but getting back to topic,

there is going to be a shift
in how things are judged

how things

are valued.

and at the end of the day, I think

what AI

is actually doing is it's

enabling people to do the things that

matter and spend more
time doing the things that

actually matter, which

should actually

add a lot of value in general.

You can always have, even in
our case, you can have AI take a

look at your portfolio, take a
look at, you know, the massive

portfolios of, of some of the clients
that we have that transfer in,

and

give you suggestions that are potentially
semi-similar to what we would do.

But It wouldn't be probably A, exactly
the same, and there is, I would

argue, an added value of having human
oversight to something like this,

making sure that there isn't something
that's being missed, that the AI is

understanding your family goals, the
family element, the human element.

That is that is where we
specifically add value, and, and I

thought it was an interesting-- The
aluminum example was an interesting

example that shows kind of the
shift in value and the shift of

How this intellectual revolution might,
might impact what actually matters

and what's measured down the road.

Yeah.

Brandon_Audio: a great point.

I

mean, I, it…

at the end of the day, there's
this saying, right, like,

um, history doesn't often repeat
itself, but it rhymes, and

we've heard this story before.

Um, you know, there was an example
of going through, um, really, uh,

and I'm not an art history major,
but there was an example going

th-th-through the different art periods.

and

it went from hieroglyphics

where it

was like

stick figures and- Yeah

the whole realism

movement.

And the

whole

point was, uh, art originally evolved
so that way we could arrive at reality.

Uh, and then

somewhere along the

line, I think it was the
1850s the photograph.

showed up and at that point,
everybody was like, "Oh, art's dead."

You know, the photograph's here, we're

gonna stop painting,
all that's gonna happen.

Um,

but what

ended up happening, of course,
that's not what took hold.

it became, uh,

impressionism and

Monet and all these
different examples, right?

Of

art,

as we potentially know it today.

and we're seeing shifts in

art, we're seeing it with music
and uh, other types of art as well.

Um, but I

think

that's

the important point is it's
gonna allow us to be more human.

it's gonna allow us to be more creative.

um, and you know, you could probably
think of a million examples along the line

where, uh, something, you know, we went
through the, the technology revolution

and,

um, you know, placing stock trades that
uh, I mean, you used to have to fill out

a piece of paper, you know, run that down
to the trading floor, Somebody had to

grab that, somebody do something else.

Like, that's insane.

Now we do it

electronically,

and we're the-- we're better off for it.

Um, and so I think y- taking
that same approach with AI,

uh,

we're gonna see more and more with this.

and I think it's always a good reminder.

we had, uh…

There was a CEO

there Carl

Essenbach, um, that, uh,

was a very,

impactful

speaker in his own right but really talked
about this and had the quote, you know,

Brandon Averill: you're
not competing against AI.

um, we're competing against
the peers that you, uh, use AI.

'Cause at the end of the
day, technology, you know, it

really only enables the change.

it's actually

the people that drive the change.

Brandon_Audio: And so I think it's
a good-- it's just a good reminder

as we went through this, like, this

is all exciting.

It's all

changing.

It's a little scary for

sure.

We think, you know,
jobs are gonna go away.

They are gonna go away, but other
jobs will get created, and I think

that's just a good reminder to have.

Mena_Audio: good reminder to have.

Totally.

And,

and one other kind of

example that I know we
were talking about before,

the human element

is still what is going to drive all of

this

We're not tomorrow gonna wake up with
a robot that's developed that can

pitch a baseball and another robot
that can actually hit a baseball.

You know, we were talking about how robots
today can actually pitch potentially

a baseball at 150 miles an hour.

That's not gonna get rid of pitchers.

Right.

No one's, no one's going to wanna watch

a robot

baseball game.

We wanna watch people, we wanna
have that human experience.

We wanna understand the stories of where
all of these players have come from

what they actually wanna accomplish.

Now, how

might AI actually creep into
baseball a little bit more?

I think we're kinda seeing It with
like ESPN, some of the interesting

statistics that ESPN obviously leverages
AI to, to make things a little bit

more interesting and make things maybe
a little bit more human-centered.

But the players are never gonna disappear,
the people are never gonna disappear.

AI is just an another, another enabler
to actually make people shine a little

brighter.

Brandon_Audio: Yeah, for sure.

I think the other thing is

I mean, I guess take all of this
like AI is exciting and it's

gonna change the way we live.

I think that's, you know, hopefully a
pretty obvious statement at this point.

But, you know, purpose of this podcast

is investing,

and so I

think kinda drawing this
back, some of the lessons

or the confirmations
that came out of it for

me were,

you know, how do you invest
with all of this going on?

How do you know who's gonna win?

You know, what's the

best way to approach
and build the portfolio?

Um, And you know, I'd
love for you to hit on?

that, Mina.

You're, you're the one that sits in that

seat and

really

thinks about these things.

Um, but you know, we did hear
an example the the founder

uh,

And CEO, of Hex.ai,

uh, went through a

whole process of, of

really the defining decisions
that he's had to make along

the lines,

um,

to

really put that company.

in a successful position.

And, you know, it's not a unique story.

You go through these ups and downs
and these inflection points, and

at the speed of all of this
moving, there are things

that they are working and spending
millions of dollars on developing that

tomorrow

they are going to

tear up and start all over again.

And it's pretty fascinating just to hear
the process that they're going through.

Um, So I'd love to hear like and then
you got-- we had Miracor, you know,

talking about- Yeah … the success there.

Like, there are people attacking
this from all angles, and I

think

it was a, for me, it was actually
a, a validator of how we build.

we build diversified allocations
into these spaces because we don't

know tomorrow whether it's gonna be
Hex or Miracor or w- name your AI

tool or company.

Um, but how do

we actually go about investing in
this space, making sure that, uh,

that we're not missing out on the
opportunity that's right in front of us?

Mena_Audio: Yeah.

The

interesting thing is, uh, this
is a statistic that they quoted.

Only 2% of employees

today, of workers, actually use AI
in sophisticated-- in a sophisticated

fashion, and only four out of ten
Americans actually use a chatbot.

So on that end, we are still
in the very, very early innings

With

that being said, um, there is a lot
of, call it froth in the market.

There's a lot that's going on.

There's a lot of funding
that's coming into the markets.

There's a lot of potentially
companies that shouldn't be funded.

It kind of reminds me, and this was
a topic that came up, um, that we've

had on our podcast, and it came
up yesterday of the dot-com bubble

and

the dot-com era, where a lot of companies
got funded that shouldn't have been.

A lot of companies went to zero.

But you also had an emergence in some just
foundational and fundamental businesses

that are still ever present today.

Amazon, Google, eBay, they all
either arose or really gained

traction

during or in the shadow
of the dot-com bubble.

So with that in mind, You kind
of have to construct a portfolio.

Discipline matters even, even more

today- Yeah … than it did in the past.

You do have to construct a
portfolio that is diversified,

where

you do have access to

a

lot of

companies, because you don't
know what your outcomes are

actually going to come from.

Another item that came out in
this conference is roughly 5%

Mena Hanna: five percent

Mena_Audio: of

venture-backed

companies generated 90%
of the industry's profits.

So if you really think about it,
probably 70% of, of the businesses

returned little, if, if nothing.

Um, so it is even more important

to

find those best-in-class managers to
also diversify within those best-in-class

managers because when you think about
it from a from a numerical standpoint,

each one of these managers is taking

30 to 40 shops on goal.

It's

a good amount, but if you just
over concentrate in one manager,

you're probably

going to miss that unicorn, the
next Anthropic, the next OpenAI.

You do have to

have broad-based diversification, and what
that means to us is 500 to 1,000 companies

in every vintage year.

Our clients invest in five
to seven vintage years,

So

you're looking at 3,000 to
5,000 companies in general.

That is where we feel
comfortable of hitting on

these mega companies,
these mega businesses

that

40, 50, 100X and return what's required
to actually make up for the losers.

I think one, one of the, one
of the themes is the power law

is just becoming more apparent.

So the way that, you

kind

of protect yourself and also improve your
odds of success is, is diversifying and

you know, being selective, but also taking
shots where, where it makes sense to take

shots

Brandon_Audio: I think
that's, that's huge.

The other quote that I'd be
remiss if we didn't mention,

um, or

stat rather, uh, somebody highlighted that

because

there were so many athletes in the
round or i-in the room yesterday, um,

Brandon Averill: they added up the
revenue of all the major sports, uh, in

the United States, and the

total, uh, revenue generated last year was
something like $55 billion Uh, and to put

that into perspective, what's happening

AI

in AI.

and tech right now is Anthropic

will generate that revenue
in the next six months.

Yeah.

Like, that is

insane, uh,

that one

company,

the

entire

Sports industry

in

the United States.

It's, it's remarkable when you start
to think about the scale and what that

impact means ultimately long term.

Um,

And then I would just
say, you know, the other

uh,

lessons that you know,
certainly sitting in that room.

really on a,

on a--

with my client hat on my, you
know, how, how do we relate this

to clients and what are the lessons

that I would

be pulling

out of, this as a

client, um, is, you know,

in all this

tech, like

Mena Hanna: I

found it extremely comforting
throughout the team development.

Brandon_Audio: found it extremely
comforting around the human element.

I found

it extremely comforting knowing that we
have all this technological advancement

coming, but at the end of the-- day, it

is still the humans that drive things.

Um, so that was, that was

certainly one lesson.

We had the opportunity

to

hear from people like, Larry Fitzgerald,
who, uh, And LL Cool J, which,

he, you know

I don't know that I shouldn't
have expected this from him, but

was one of the most impressive
people I've ever s-heard speak.

Uh, just incredibly articulate,

very

thoughtful, um, you know,
just, just fantastic.

and

he he even had the

point, like the, the…

incalculable human will.

So it's like, you know What

we can't

measure is still is a man's heart.

And all athletes know, this right?

We've all played with a guy that
was immensely talented, um, and

maybe even got picked really high,

but you, knew, knew in the back of your

head there's no

way

he was

gonna make it.

Um, and then you played with a guy who,

you

know, maybe lacked some of the physical

tools,

but there was no doubt that Dustin
Pedroia was gonna have success

in the big leagues, um, if you
played with him or you knew him.

And so I think Like that human
element still carries through

in so many of these, uh, so

many of these areas.

Um, And so I just thought
that was really comforting.

And then the last thing was, I'm
always reminded and I'd be, you

know, I, I definitely wanna mention,
I'm always reminded of, you know,

the--

who we're competing against.

when I'm in that room.

And, you know, oftentimes clients bring

deals to us take a look at this and
the opportunity, and that's awesome.

We love talking about

that type

of stuff.

Um, but at the

end of the day, you know,

um- I

is sitting there and

asking the question, wow, I'm competing
against these men and women that do

this on a daily basis and look at

these

companies on a daily basis.

Um,

it's quite humbling to
sit there and go, "Oh,

I

might be excited about this
company," but like, why is it here?

And then ultimately, am I equipped
to make a better decision on this

company than, you know, the, the GPs

that

we have picked, these investors
that we have picked to invest with?

Um, I, I'm not

taking that bet.

You

know, I always

Make the joke

like I, I did play a little

pro ball, believe it or not, but

I'm not running over and pinch-hitting

for Ohtani tonight.

Like, that would be silly.

that's, what we're talking about
here, and I'm always reminded

of that being in that room.

Mena_Audio: Totally.

And that's, that's actually, uh,
that's a that's a great place to wrap.

so in this world,

Mena Hanna: intelligence
is going to get cheaper.

That's what happens in revolutions.

That's what happens in these tectonic
shifts, um, in these new eras.

Technology is going to get cheaper.

Ultimately, what's gonna
matter is the, human element.

Mena_Audio: It's gonna matter when
it comes to investments in general,

And

I would say it's gonna matter
even more when it comes to setting

intention about how you actually
wanna build your 100-year family,

what

principles you wanna think about, and

and yeah,

who you actually wanna
take this journey with.

So

kind of

gonna end

with uh, with a last quote that, that
we thought was cool here: "Before you

can go upward, you have to go inward."

I think that's very reflective
of the conversation that,

uh, that,

we just had.

Uh, no need to go further on that.

Uh, if you guys have any
questions, please shoot me a text

or give me a call, 626-862-0355.

And on that note, own your wealth,
make an impact, and always be a pro.

Thanks for listening.