Episode summary
Mark Gerson, Co-Founder, 3i Members - building engaged investing communities
Alt Goes Mainstream
· · Hosts: Michael Sidgmore · Guests: Mark Gerson
Summary
Mark Gerson frames 3i Members as an investment community built on crowdsourcing, not just a deal-sourcing platform. He distinguishes a true community from a network as a group with affection, obligation, and a shared mission, and says that principle is what made United Hatzalah effective and now shapes 3i Members.
At 3i, the shared mission is finding and assessing private-market opportunities, with members sourcing deals, surfacing experts, and pressure-testing ideas together. Gerson says the firm is intentionally selective: members must be recommended, invest significantly, be intellectually curious, and be pro-social. The group also insists on a strict “no selling” ethos at its roughly 200 in-person events a year, which he says preserves trust and makes serendipity possible.
Gerson argues that the real value of the platform is not just access to more deals but better decisions. About a quarter of members submit opportunities each month, a committee narrows roughly 110 submissions to two or three presentations, and follow-up discussions can include 50 to 100 peers who help members ask better questions and avoid mistakes. He says he now does most of his own investing through 3i because the platform continually surfaces niche, non-correlated opportunities and gives him a built-in investment committee.
He also extends the same ROI mindset to philanthropy, saying donors should measure lives saved, pain reduced, or opportunities created per dollar. Using United Hatzalah as an example, he claims the organization can roughly quantify the cost per life-saving equivalent at about $500.
Key takeaways
- Mark Gerson says 3i Members is built around crowdsourcing private-market deal flow and diligence, not around selling products or services.
- He says 3i keeps quality high by admitting only members who are recommended, invest significantly, are intellectually curious, and are nice and pro-social.
- Gerson says roughly a quarter of the 430-450 members submit deals each month, and a committee trims about 110 submissions down to two or three presentations.
- He says the platform’s biggest value is helping members ask better questions and avoid bad investments, even if that value is hard to quantify.
- Gerson argues philanthropy should be evaluated with ROI discipline, and says United Hatzalah measures life-saving equivalent at about $500 per life saved equivalent.
Notable quotes
“a community is a group of people who are devoted to doing things with and for each other and have some sense of affection and obligation for each other”
“There has to be a unifying principle in every highly functioning community”
“one of the best applications of crowdsourcing and maybe the best in a business contact is deal generation and deal assessment”
“the hardest thing in life is knowing what What are the questions to ask”
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 main collision of culture and finance. Welcome back to the Alco mainstream podcast. Alco's mainstream's first sponsor is 3II members, an investing network built on community, collaboration, and capital that was co-founded by Mark Gerson, Billy Libby, and Teddy Gold.
3II Members is a global deal network for accomplished private investors. Members uncover, share, and diligence high-quality investment opportunities in private markets. The network offers more than just investment opportunities, providing access to expert databases, legal services, international events and retreats, master classes, asset allocation workshops, and other resources.
Today's podcast is a special show with three members co-founder Mark Person. Mark is a serial entrepreneur who has built a number of communities that have revolved around some form of crowdsourcing. In addition to founding three members, Mark founded Gerson Leman Group, a knowledge brokerage and primary research firm that figured out how to use the power of community to serve its customers.
He also founded United Hatsala, a crowdsource system of volunteer first response that enables Israelis to be treated within moments, separating life from death following any medical trauma. He also co-founded and is the chairman of African Mission Healthcare, which enables Christian medical missionaries to provide clinical care, training, and medical infrastructure for people throughout Africa. Mark and I had a fascinating conversation about what it takes to build a thriving and engaged community, all built on the concept of crowdsourcing skills, knowledge, and networks.
Mark and I discussed how he thinks about the difference between a community and a network, how networks can maintain quality as they grow, and why and how Mark built 3II members.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private markets community
- crowdsourcing investing
- network vs community
- asking better questions in investing
- roi-based philanthropy
Companies and tickers mentioned
- 3i Members
- Gerson Lehman Group
- United Hatzalah
- African Mission Healthcare
Watch the episode
Watch “Mark Gerson, Co-Founder, 3i Members - building engaged investing communities” 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.
