Episode summary
Marc Lipschultz, Co-CEO, Blue Owl - how to skate to where the puck is going
Alt Goes Mainstream
· · Hosts: Michael Sidgmore · Guests: Marc Lipschultz
Summary
Marc Lipschultz argues that Blue Owl’s growth came from building around culture, permanent capital, and the wealth channel from day one. He traces the firm’s roots to KKR in 1995, then says Blue Owl was designed as a purpose-built platform for a much larger private markets universe, with institutions and individuals treated as peers. Growth, in his view, is an output of doing the basics well: mutual respect, constructive dialogue, and delivering for LPs whose capital represents retirement savings and pensions.
A major theme is that wealth investors should get the same investment experience institutions get, not a repackaged product. Lipschultz says Blue Owl invested early in people, operations, and education so it could serve advisors and their clients at scale, while still matching specific needs across private credit, real estate, GP stakes, and digital infrastructure. He repeatedly emphasizes that the firm is not trying to be everything to everyone, but instead to offer best-in-breed solutions where demand for capital is high and the partner matters.
He also makes the case that scale has improved rather than weakened Blue Owl’s credit quality, citing more than $100 billion of originated credit and a running loss rate of 11 basis points a year. He sees private credit, asset-based finance, and data-center financing continuing to move away from public markets and toward private solutions, with permanent capital giving the firm durability and flexibility to be a long-term partner.
Key takeaways
- Lipschultz says Blue Owl’s wealth strategy was built from the start to give individuals the same investment experience as institutions.
- He argues culture is a competitive advantage, and growth is an output of mutual respect, excellence, and accountability to LPs.
- He says Blue Owl’s 125,000 investors required an overbuilt operating backbone and a unified wealth platform of about 140 people.
- He claims scale has helped credit quality, citing over $100 billion of originated credit and an 11-basis-point running loss rate.
- He expects private credit and asset-based finance to keep taking share as borrowers seek predictability, privacy, and partnership.
Notable quotes
“great culture allows you to deliver great results. Great results yields growth. Growth isn't an input to me. Growth is an output”
“we built our firm from brick one with this idea that individuals and institutions are peers”
“the handful of us that are the largest providers to the largest users, it's mostly the same people”
“Our running loss rate has been 11 basis points a year”
How the episode opens
Everybody gets a piece. We're going mainream. Everybody's going to eat.
We're going mainream. All my family see. See you on mainream.
We're going mainream. From Wall Street to Melrose Avenue. We're going mainream venture capitalists to athletes to creators to the person who's collecting trading cards.
We're going mainream collision of culture and finance. We're going welcome back to the alt goes mainstream podcast. We had a chance to sit down recently with blue alowl co-CEO Mark Lip Schultz at their nest network summit for RAAS and private banks in Laguna Beach.
It was a perfect setting to discuss Blue's incredible growth, which has been in part due to their unique and focused partnership with the Wealth Channel. Blue AL is one of the industry's largest alternative asset managers and has charted an impressive growth path in the 9 years since their founding. They've scaled to over 250 billion of AUM and have proven to be one of the top firms in raising capital from the wealth channel.
Mark is a private markets industry veteran who has been instrumental in building not just one but two of the industry's biggest players. He spent over two decades at KKR serving on the firm's management committee and was the global head of energy and infrastructure after joining the firm as one of the first 20 employees. He then partnered with Blackstone GSO founder Doug Ostrover and Goldman Sachs partner and co-head of leverage finance Craig Packer to co-found Alro Capital Partners, the predecessor firm to Blue's credit platform.
Al Rock combined with Dial Capital Partners to become a publicly traded entity Blue Owl in May 2021 and has since grown to over 250 billion in AUM and $2.2 billion in revenue. Al Rock and now Blue's Flight is emblematic of the evolution of alternative asset managers.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- alt managers mainstreaming
- private credit growth
- scale matters
- permanent capital
- private wealth focus
Companies and tickers mentioned
- OWL
- KKR
- BX
- GS
- Blue Owl
- KKR
- Blackstone GSO
- Goldman Sachs
- Owl Rock Capital Partners
- Dyal Capital Partners
Watch the episode
Watch “Marc Lipschultz, Co-CEO, Blue Owl - how to skate to where the puck is going” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Alt Goes Mainstream, this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Sidgmore. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
