Sam Hinkie - Find Your People - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Technology, Business, Investing

4.7 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we are replaying one of my favorite conversations with Sam Hinkie. Sam worked for more than a decade in the NBA with the Houston Rockets and then as the President and GM of the Philadelphia 76ers. And now, after years of personal investing, he has launched his own venture capital firm, 87 Capital. Every conversation I have with Sam is alive with insight, and this one is no different. We explore the idea of studying the "breadcrumbs" that someone leaves behind as a way to track their progress and trajectory, finding and attracting the right people into one’s orbit, and the lessons from the NBA that most shape his investing career. Sam has taught me the most about the topic of building trust, which we cover here as well. I am excited to share my conversation with Sam with all of you. Please enjoy! For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ramp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ramp.com/invest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. – This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ridgeline⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ridgeline has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Head to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ridgelineapps.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more about the platform. – This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ AlphaSense⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Alpha-Sense.com/Invest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegus help you make smarter decisions faster. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Show Notes: (0:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (3:48) Conducting a good interview (5:58) Drilling into topics to learn more about people (10:36) Interest in digital breadcrumbs and how to follow them (14:02) Building context around founders vs analyzing their pitch decks (17:20) A real world example of the bread crumb strategy, Houston Rockets GM (23:07) Shifting to a people-first focus (28:24) Most amazing thing someone did in early days of working with Sam (30:18) Lessons from sports that he carries with him (32:31) Exceptions to relationships being a key to success (36:07) Avoiding transactional type people (37:04) Most effective lessons he brought to sports from the investing world (40:01) Ideas from the sports world he is bringing to the investing world (50:33) Lessons learned from watching them build trust (52:26) Market areas that have his attention (54:13) Fascination into API’s (1:01:26) Playing the long game (1:04:29) Calling it 87 Capital (1:06:52) What can Caro teach us about the long game (1:12:58) The power of breadcrumbs and how people can start to lay them out

Transcript

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0:00.0	The best operators have a relentless focus on leverage, finding ways to multiply their impact
0:04.7	rather than just working harder. But here's what I see happening in finance teams everywhere,
0:09.0	brilliant people getting buried in expense management busy work. If you think about it,
0:12.8	you become a finance leader because you love strategic work, modeling scenarios, optimizing capital
0:17.2	allocation, finding the insights that actually move the business forward. But instead,
0:20.8	you're chasing receipts and categorizing transactions.
0:23.1	It's the opposite of leverage.
0:24.8	This is exactly why I'm so bullish on what the team at Ramp has built.
0:28.5	Kareem and Eric understood that every minute spent on manual expense management is a minute
0:32.4	stolen from high leverage work.
0:34.0	So they automated all of it.
0:35.6	Automatic categorization, receipt matching, spending controls that
0:38.6	actually work. I love the network effect that this creates. When finance teams at companies like Shopify
0:43.7	and Stripe automate the mundane stuff, they free up cycles to think bigger, to ask for your questions,
0:48.5	spot patterns others miss, and make the kind of strategic bets that separate great companies from good
0:53.0	ones. The math is simple. Get your time back, focus on what matters.
0:57.2	Check out ramp.com slash invest and see what happens when you eliminate the busy work.
1:01.4	Cards issued by Sutton Bank, member FDIC, terms and conditions apply.
1:05.7	In asset management, growth often depends on customization.
1:08.6	It's the nature of the beast in our industry, and I know having
1:11.1	experienced the problem firsthand as an active manager, it's a competitive differentiator to tailor
1:15.8	products and services to clients' preferences. Those of us growing our businesses always want to say yes
	...

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