Legendary investor James Anderson views a globally distributed team with inherent communication friction as a benefit. This "grit in the system" prevents the team from getting sucked into reacting to daily market noise and helps them maintain focus on long-term, power-law returns.

Raising billions isn't a single meeting. It’s a lengthy process of due diligence where investors vet the team, track record, and operations. Thomas Mueller-Borja jokes this requires "high levels of serotonin" to handle the long timelines and frequent rejections.

Instead of presenting information that can be read in an email, a successful founder sent updates beforehand. This freed up meeting time for strategic discussions on product, capital, and hiring, which accelerated the company's growth.

Previously, PE firms could raise a fund and then largely ignore LPs for years. Today's competitive landscape demands constant, 'off-cycle' relationship building. Firms that only appear with their hat in hand when they need money will fail to secure commitments from sophisticated institutional allocators.

The founder's number one piece of advice is to 'get on the plane.' In an era of digital communication, physically meeting customers is a powerful differentiator. He was shocked by how many customers said his was the only startup vendor to ever visit their office. This direct, in-person connection provides insights that competitors miss.

Thomas Mueller-Borja's typical day highlights the intense global nature of his role, juggling investment committees across continents from a hotel room before meeting local clients. This demonstrates the extreme demands and time-zone management required in senior global finance.

As work becomes more dominated by AI and digital interactions, professionals are experiencing an "existential crisis" and actively seeking genuine human connection. This creates a significant opportunity for in-person events that prioritize community over just content, fulfilling a need for real-world interaction.

In today's crowded market, the key PE differentiator is no longer financial engineering but the ability to identify and cultivate relationships with target companies months or years before a sale process. This provides the necessary time for deep diligence and strategic planning.

Instead of following trends, JPMorgan's CEO is using a massive investment in a hyper-amenitized headquarters to actively pull the corporate world back to in-office work. This building acts as a 3-billion-dollar argument that the physical office is the future, influencing other leaders who are uncertain about remote work.