Good morning! South Korean AI cloud firm Elice plunged 30% in its market debut, deepening doubts about the AI trade. Anthropic could spend $750 billion on additional computing power in the coming years. And Salesforce agreed to buy Braze for about $5.66 billion, adding a customer-engagement platform to its portfolio.

The ultrawealthy are reshaping Nashville with Lamborghinis and $35 million estates. Citrini Research says life sciences companies could benefit from a surge in AI-fueled drug discovery. And Blackstone raised $8.7 billion for a fund focused on cleaner energy.

Plus: Steve Cohen backs Hertz’s robotaxi ambitions, 3 habits for maintaining close friendships, and why high performers leave before you know they’re gone.

Buying shares of a private company is one decision. What you do with them later is another. Explore Augment's Private Liquidity Network.

PE investors want their cash back, but sluggish IPO and deal markets have made selling companies difficult. So buyout firms are having their portfolio companies borrow money to fund investor payouts, commonly known as a dividend recapitalization.

Distributions have dropped from more than 30% of starting NAV in 2022 to ~12% today, per PitchBook data, while Bain estimates ~$3.8 trillion of unsold buyout assets, with average holding periods stretching to seven years.

And with investors wanting returns, lenders are happy to help. Credit investors have money to deploy because fewer acquisitions are generating new loans, and Moody’s estimates PE-owned companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (the EMEA region) could borrow another ~$46 billion before reaching leverage levels that typically trigger a downgrade. 

Moody’s says most recent dividend recaps involved companies that beat their original business plans, concentrated in services, consumer products and manufacturing, with enough cash flow to absorb the added interest. 

But a recap doesn’t eliminate the need to find a buyer. A recap can also leave the business with less room to weather a downturn and could complicate an IPO, since prospective investors generally want to see a record of falling leverage. And if exits remain scarce, Moody’s worries sponsors could exhaust their strongest recap candidates and ask weaker credits to fund the payouts.

Takeaway: Dividend recaps can bridge a slow exit market, returning cash to LPs without forcing a sale at a discount, as long as the borrowing rests on earnings a company has already delivered. The risk comes when the pressure to distribute starts to outweigh the balance sheet’s ability to carry the debt.

Finding a private-market opportunity is one process. Deciding what to do with the position later, whether to add to it or sell it, has usually meant starting over: a new search, a new counterparty, a new stack of paperwork.

Augment built the Private Liquidity Network to change that. It is a self-serve platform that facilitates eligible secondary transactions for units of pre-IPO funds. Investors buy units in a Collective fund, which holds the underlying private-company shares. Eligible holders may be able to place a sell order on a position directly from their portfolio, and eligible buyers on the network can see it. Individuals, institutions, and brokerage and wealth partners trade on the same rails.

Accredited investors can use Augment to explore more than 700 private companies, with private-market pricing data, on desktop or mobile. Minimums start at $10K. No additional Augment-level management fees or carried interest. Underlying investment vehicles may impose fees and carried interest. Brokerage services are provided through Augment Capital, LLC, a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are provided through Augment Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Explore the Private Liquidity Network on Augment.*

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Description: Trillion Dollar Coach explores the leadership philosophy of Bill Campbell, the legendary executive coach who helped shape some of Silicon Valley's most successful companies, including Google, Apple, and Intuit. Drawing on interviews with more than 80 people who knew and worked with Campbell, the authors reveal how he built trusting relationships, developed exceptional leaders, and helped teams navigate conflict, make better decisions, and achieve extraordinary results. Campbell believed that successful leadership begins with people, emphasizing empathy, genuine relationships, constructive feedback, and a strong sense of teamwork. He encouraged executives to create environments where employees felt supported, challenged, and empowered to perform at their best. The book translates his approach into practical principles for hiring talent, running effective meetings, managing disagreements, building team culture, and developing future leaders. Its central message is that business success depends not only on strategy and execution but also on the quality of relationships between the people responsible for delivering results.

Book Length: 240 pages
Release Date: April 16, 2019

Ideal For: Executives, managers, entrepreneurs, aspiring CFOs, and professionals looking to strengthen their leadership and people-management skills. Particularly valuable for leaders building high-performing teams, navigating organizational change, developing talent, and learning how to balance accountability with empathy.

Great leadership is not just about making the right decisions. It is about building the trust, relationships, and teams that make extraordinary results possible.

Every unpaid invoice is a free loan to your customer. Across the economy that adds up to $16 trillion sitting in receivables. Somebody on your finance team is probably chasing part of that by email right now.

Stuut just raised a $52.5M Series B led by Insight Partners, with a16z, Microsoft's M12 and Activant, to automate the chase. It's an AI coworker that handles credit, collections, cash application and payments over email, text and voice, so your team doesn’t need to play detective (or collections agency) on overdue accounts.

Built for PE firm and operating partners, customers report DSO (or “Days Sales Outstanding”) down 47%. This means you get paid faster by spending less time tracking down your money.

See how Stuut can assist in your collections.

In a 2003 paper in Science, Eric Johnson and Daniel Goldstein compared two neighboring countries with similar cultures. In Austria, people are organ donors unless they opt out, and about 99 percent are. In Germany, people must opt in, and about 12 percent were.

Almost nobody changes the pre-selected option, because changing it takes effort and attention. One caveat is that registration is not transplants. Hospital systems and family consent still decide whether a donation happens.

Whoever sets the default sets the outcome for most people. Check the defaults you control, like meeting length, auto-renewal, and enrollment forms, because most people will keep whatever you set.

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