To figure out how to invest better, we asked what the people who really know how to invest do: billionaires, family offices and pension funds. They have lots of capital and no restrictions on where they put it. If a deal exists, they can find it and invest in it.
One of the things we learned about was David Swensen. He has since passed away, but for 35 years he ran Yale University’s endowment, and he changed investing forever. He took the endowment from $1 billion to over $30 billion, and he didn’t do it in the stock market. He did it with private equity. This excerpt is from our August 2026 investor luncheon in Washington, DC.
Key points
- Billionaires, family offices and pension funds can invest anywhere.
- David Swensen ran Yale’s endowment for 35 years.
- He grew it from $1 billion to over $30 billion, mainly with private equity rather than stocks.
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