Episode 29: Alexander Portz joins us to talk growth investing in the UK and abroad

Alexander began his career investing in technology for UK funds management giant Neptune, before joining London-based VC fund Redline Capital. It's rare indeed to speak to someone with experience across the public and private side of tech investing.  We had a fascinating chat covering robotic process automation, innovation investing, and life in venture capital vs public markets.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-portz-3a265236/ https://www.redline-capital.com/ 0:50 - Alex talks about his start in public markets 2:30 - Tech investing at Neptune Capital 3:50 - Alex discusses a high-performing company during his time at Neptune 6:20 - Michael and Alex discuss a stand-out semiconductor manufacturer 8:05 - The importance of investing in high quality companies 9:25 - Investing using an EV/Sales ratio and sales growth (Shopify as an example) 9:50 - The opportunity presented by Blue Prism 10:00 - Alex and Michael extensively discuss Blue Prism 15:05 - Alex outlines his firm's investment in Catalytic, an innovative 'SAAS-linker' 18:10 - How Alex is finding the change between public markets and venture capital (VC) 20:40 - Carrying out due diligence on a VC deal compared to public markets research (sourcing, sector research etc) 23:05 - The incentives of public companies' management to always be positive 25:45 - How Alex splits his time within VC 29:20 - Some exciting thematics, such as quantum computing 30:55 - The concept of Moore's law 33:00 - The highest quality sources of learning in quantum computing 34:24 - The opportunity in mental health software such as Catasys 36:50 - Expensive data paid for by hedge funds 39:30 - The importance of reviewing companies' real-time data before the rest of the market 41:10 - Some useful data points that can be gathered from LinkedIn 42:40 - Alex's recent public markets' investments in high growth SAAS 44:00 - Michael outlines the fund's recent strategy of buying coronavirus 'recovery plays' 47:10 - Are MongoDB and Shopify overvalued? 49:50 - Alex discusses his positive outlook on lithium 52:00 - Michael and Alex reminisce on their scientific research projects at Oxford