#36- Zack Ellison, MBA, MS, CFA, CAIA, Managing General Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Applied Real Intelligence, LLC (A.R.I.) (recorded 08/04/25)

Zack is a venture debt investment fund manager and podcast host.  He is also an author with a very unique perspective being a part of some of the biggest bond trades of all time.  A.R.I. provides growth credit to the best VC-backed technology companies in North America. He was Director of U.S. Public Fixed Income at Sun Life Financial.  Prior to Sun Life, Zack was a corporate bond and credit default swap trader at Deutsche Bank.  During the GFC, he was an investment banker where he successfully underwrote and managed a portfolio of leveraged media, tech, and telecom loans at Scotia Bank.   Zack talks to Jim and Talley about how venture debt works.  The strategy includes lending against revenue vs. hard assets for typical loans. In many cases it's the intellectual property that is used as the collateral for these loans.  Learn about why private lending has taken off and more specifically concerning the fast moving tech sector.