The Chainsmokers - Music & Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.430]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Colossus

Investing, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guests today are Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, who you might know as The Chainsmokers. We explore their fascinating evolution from scrappy DJs to global superstars to serious venture capitalists with their fund Mantis. Drew and Alex share how the same high-touch, relationship-driven approach that built their music empire now defines their investment philosophy. Their framework for backing founders mirrors their artistic process: they invest in obsessive individuals who will pursue their vision regardless of external validation, much like how they've remained authentic to their sound despite industry pressures. We discuss parallels between creative iteration in music and venture investing, particularly around managing failure, maintaining intentionality in an age of abundance, and the importance of taste as a differentiating factor. Please enjoy this fascinating discussion with The Chainsmokers, Alex Pall and Drew Taggart. 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 ⁠Arcana⁠. Arcana is the world’s most advanced portfolio intelligence platform, trusted by institutional investors managing trillions in AUM — including market neutral, long-short, long-only, and capital allocators. Arcana enables portfolio managers, risk teams, analysts, and CIOs to drill into exposures and idio, construct optimal portfolios, and decompose performance at incredible granularity. Visit ⁠arcana.io⁠ to request a demo and learn more. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Show Notes: (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best (00:06:16) The Creative Process Behind Songwriting (00:07:33) Exploring the Emotional Depths of Music (00:11:50) Navigating the Music Industry and AI (00:17:45) The Importance of World Building in Music (00:21:27) Finding Your Creative Itch (00:35:04) The Chainsmokers' Journey and Work Ethic (00:40:37) The Business Side of the Chainsmokers (00:45:43) Venturing into Tech and Investments (00:51:39) The Evolution of Mantis (00:53:11) Overcoming Celebrity Investor Stereotypes (00:55:20) Supporting Founders Like Record Labels (00:57:26) The Art of Collaboration (01:04:02) The Grind to Success (01:13:49) Investing Insights and Evolution (01:26:39) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done for Drew and Alex

Transcript

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0:00.0	Something I speak about frequently on Invest Like the Best is the idea of life's work.
0:04.5	A more fun way to think about it is that I'm looking for maniacs on a mission.
0:08.5	This is the basis for our investment firm, Positive Sum, and it's the reason why I'm so enthusiastic about our presenting sponsor, Ramp.
0:15.0	Not only are the founders, Karim and Eric, life's work-level founders, certainly maniacs on a mission.
0:20.0	They have created a product that is effectively an unlock for founders and finance team to do more of their life's work
0:25.5	by streamlining financial operations, saving everyone their most precious resource time.
0:30.9	Ramp has built a command and control system for corporate cards and expense management.
0:35.1	You can issue cards, manage approvals, make vendor payments of all kinds, and even automate
0:39.4	closing your books all in one place.
0:41.7	Speaking from my own experience using Ramp for my business, the product is wildly intuitive,
0:46.4	simplistic, and makes life so much easier that you'll feel bad for any company who hasn't
0:50.4	yet made the switch.
0:52.5	The Ramp team is relentless, and the product continues to evolve to save you time
0:56.0	that you would never have dreamed of getting back.
0:58.2	To me, there is nothing more interesting
1:00.0	than technologies that reduce friction for other entrepreneurs
1:03.7	to be able to build the thing that they want to.
1:06.2	So much attention has gone to cloud computing,
1:08.8	APIs, and other ways of making life easy for founders,
1:12.5	what RAMP has done and is doing is build yet another set of tools in this category.
1:18.0	To get started, go to ramp.com.
1:20.5	Cards issued by Celtic Bank and Sutton Bank, member FDIC.
	...

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