Episode summary
Built to Scale: The J.P. Morgan Growth Playbook
How I Invest With David Weisburd
· · Hosts: David Weisburd · Guests: Paris Heymann
Summary
Paris Heymann argues that J.P. Morgan’s edge in venture and growth investing is not just capital, but a platform built around its scale as a buyer of technology. He points to the firm’s $20 billion in annual technology purchasing, 60,000 technologists, and $2 billion in AI spend as reasons private technology companies may value the relationship beyond money alone.
A major theme is that public and private market boundaries are blurring. Paris says companies are staying private for about 15 years on average, versus seven years a decade ago, and that more value is accruing before IPO. He expects the industry to evolve toward multi-stage models, continuation vehicles, and other structures that better capture long-duration private compounding.
Paris also argues that AI is shifting value from selling software to selling work. He says companies increasingly need to monetize labor workflows directly, not just provide tools, and that both vertical and horizontal AI can win depending on the use case. Across the conversation, he emphasizes founder quality, patience, and power laws: the best companies compound far beyond early expectations, while valuation matters less than finding exceptional teams with durable market leadership.
Key takeaways
- Paris Heymann says J.P. Morgan’s venture edge comes from platform scale, including $20 billion of annual technology purchases and 60,000 technologists, not just capital.
- Paris says companies are staying private for about 15 years on average, up from seven years a decade ago, pushing more value creation into private markets.
- Paris expects AI businesses to win by selling work directly, because labor spend is far larger than traditional IT budgets.
- Paris says valuation should come last; market size, leadership, and team quality matter more than the initial multiple.
- Paris argues power laws still dominate growth investing, so a small number of exceptional companies drive most outcomes.
Notable quotes
“We spend $20 billion annually as an organization purchasing technology. We employ 60,000 technologists. We spend $2 billion in AI”
“We're definitely seeing companies stay private for longer. The typical company today is staying private for about 15 years before going public”
“What's changing is companies now are selling the work more than the technology itself”
“Valuation is always the piece that we try to put last in our analysis”
“One piece of timeless advice that uh that I got time and again and was very difficult to to hear at that age was was be patient”
How the episode opens
What is JP Morgan's right to win in venture capital? — We spend $20 billion annually as an organization purchasing technology. We employ 60,000 technologists. We spend $2 billion in AI. And that confluence of factors I think makes us a very attractive partner to private technology companies.
A bit of contrarian take on capital. I'm getting ready for my interview with a CIO of Mubadala Capital and I believe that if you have enough capital, it's sovereign wealth fund of United Arab Emirates. If you have enough capital, it becomes its own advantage.
Think of it as this glass shaped where you have very few people that are smart investors putting 25 to 250k checks and then very few people are able to really deploy the balance sheet. And I put JP Morgan into this ladder camp that there isn't that many people that could write these huge checks.
Definitely capital is an advantage. I think it goes back to this idea of in general we're seeing in our industry more of this platform approach where you're right to win becomes about all of the different sort of aspects of your organization and so I think capital's one of them. I do think that at the end of the day entrepreneurs and this is sometimes forgotten.
These are unique amazing people. Again they face typically a lot of adversity. You know, there's been a lot of screening patterns for like what makes an incredible entrepreneur and no one's really been able to figure it out.
That's why I guess they're called unicorns or outliers for a reason. I do think that authenticity is really important. So, while capital is a big piece of the equation, when you sit face to face with a founder and you're able to say, I purchased your technology.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- public private market divide
- multi-stage investing platforms
- ai business model shift
- venture capital staying private longer
- power laws in markets
Companies and tickers mentioned
- J.P. Morgan Private Capital
- J.P. Morgan Asset Management
- J.P. Morgan
Watch the episode
Watch “Built to Scale: The J.P. Morgan Growth Playbook” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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How I Invest With David Weisburd, this episode and its artwork belong to David Weisburd. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
