Ken Moelis' Secret Weapon
The real life power of a personal network...
Good morning, everyone.
This week’s newsletter includes: the real life legend of Ken Moelis, one of the most respected and admired banker in the world. And the kind white lie he told me…
The Power Of A Personal Network
Ken Moelis quit his prestigious, well-paid job in finance to start his own firm. No one thought it would work, but one unbelievable deal changed everything…
In 2007, Ken Moelis was at the top of his game.
He was driving record profits as President of UBS Investment Bank and was known as Wall Street’s most powerful dealmaker - a ‘master of the universe’.
But he was tired.
Tired of corporate bureaucracy.
Tired of being part of the machine...
Determined to build something new, at 48-years old Ken did the unthinkable.
He quit.
Ken left UBS and began plotting the creation of a new firm to provide strategic advice on M&A: ‘Moelis & Company’.
No-one believed it would work.
In fact, his own company were so confident he would fail, during his garden leave Ken was allowed to meet old colleagues to discuss a business plan!
He recalled: “UBS were so unconcerned that while I was on gardening leave they let some of my team work up a business plan with me.
Ken had no start-up experience, no office, no employees and the global economy was on the brink of collapse.
The outlook was bleak.
However, Ken had a secret weapon – relationships.
Between leaving UBS, Ken wasted no time, building a small team and secured backing from 10 of the largest US institutional investors through his network of relationships built over decades.
Incredibly, just days after Ken’s contract with UBS expired, his brand new company landed its first ever advisory mandate: the enormous $26Billion sale of Hilton Hotels to the Blackstone Group.
The Hilton-Blackstone deal put Moelis & Company firmly on the map - just days after it was founded.
More deals followed, including mandates advising Yahoo and Anheuser-Busch on multi-billion dollar deals.
Today, Moelis & Company is a global investment banking powerhouse, with over 20 offices worldwide and billions in annual revenue.
Ken looked back on the skepticism he faced in the early days:
“Do you know how many people told me we were going to go bankrupt?
Eve-ry-one!”
Recommendation’s
I met Ken recently in a social setting - surprisingly humble and sharp as ever. He even said he’s seen me on Linkedin - though he may have just been polite! Lol.
Ken rarely gives long interviews outside of markets, but check out the first 20mins of this lecture from 2015 - well worth your time.
1,000 smart finance and business executives subscribe to Business Story, including senior exec’s from Blackstone, PIMCO, Goldman Sachs and Citadel. If you know someone who would enjoy this kind of content, forward this on to them.
Joseph Cass