Michael Ovitz – Reinventing Talent and Building Momentum at Treville (EP.455)

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Investing, Capitalallocation, Business

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Ovitz is the legendary co-founder of Creative Artists Agency, where he transformed Hollywood’s talent business and built the most powerful force in entertainment. In his time at CAA, Michael shaped the trajectories of artists, filmmakers, and companies, including actors Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, Bill Murray, Sylvester Stallone, and Barbra Streisand, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, author Michael Crichton, talk show host David Letterman, the Coca Cola Company, and many, many more. Michael transitioned from entertainment to investing thirty years ago, advising Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz on the creation of a16z, and most recently, partnering with Ali Hamed as Chairman of Treville Capital Group. Ali has twice been a past guest on the show, and those conversations are replayed in the feed.

Our conversation begins with Michael’s formative influences from his upbringing, early lessons that shaped his relentless drive, and origins of CAA. We cover his fascination with creativity, CAA’s culture of empowerment, honesty, and momentum, and frameworks for building businesses, assessing talent, focusing on relationships, and learning from new industries.

We then turn to Michael’s recent work with Ali at Treville. We discuss the beginning of their partnership, the process of scaling, the building of momentum, and the systems that foster accountability, relentless follow-up, and refreshing of relationships. Michael closes with candid reflections on his mistakes and life lessons that continue to shape his remarkable path.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Capital allocators is brought to you by my friends at WCM Investment Management.
0:07.5	To outperform the markets, you have to do something differently from others.
0:11.9	In my 30-something years investing in managers, there may be no one I've come across who does that as clearly and as well as WCM.
0:20.1	I've seen it up close as an investor in their
0:22.3	international growth strategy for the last five years. WCM is a global equity investment manager
0:28.9	majority owned by its employees. They believe that being based on the West Coast, away from
0:34.7	the influence of Wall Street Groupthink, provides them with the freedom
0:37.9	to live out their investment team's core values, think different, and get better.
0:43.5	As advocates of integrating culture research into the investment process and advancing
0:48.3	wide moat investing with the concept of moat trajectory, WCM has delivered differentiated returns while building concentrated
0:56.2	portfolios designed to stand out from the crowd. WCM is committed to defying the status quo
1:03.1	by dismantling outdated practices, believing in the extraordinary capabilities of its people,
1:08.8	and fostering optimism to inspire each individual
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1:21.3	And tune in to this slot on the show to hear more about WCM all year long.
1:26.9	This testimonial is being provided by Ted Sides and capital allocators who have been
1:30.2	compensated a flat fee by WCM.
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1:41.1	Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principle.
	...

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