00:37:39 · Jenny Johnson
[00:37:39] S1: My grandfather actually had a brokerage business, and he was a huge fan of Ben Franklin, and he decided to create a subsidiary. So he decided to name it after Ben Franklin, and so it was Franklin Funds. My father served some time in the military, came out, he was 24 or 25 years old, his older brother took over the brokerage business, and he said, I really want to do my own thing. Can I talk to my grandfather and said, I'd like to take over this subsidiary? So it was $2,500,000 in AUM assets and $10,000 in revenue. And he said, I was making 2 to $300,100 dollars a month, but that wasn't a bad salary for a new he kind of looked at himself even though he'd done four years in the Army. He goes, But that wasn't a bad salary coming out. So that was 1955. I was in college, I think it was probably 1983 or '84, that I attended our first billion dollar party. So it took that long to We get to a billion acquired a company in California, that's why we moved out in California. And it was, I think Franklin was like 60,000,000 in AUM in 1973. And the company that we acquired was maybe 120,000,000 or something like that. And then the market tanked the next year. And so I think that we eked out a $5,000 profit for the entire year in I think 1973 or 1974. But it's still a good business and you just keep at it. I actually think a lot of things as to why my grandfather set up the business, which was, at the time, the average person couldn't get access to the excess returns of the equity markets. And so this innovation was created. Why don't we pool people's money? We'll give them expert advice, we'll make it at a reasonable price, and they'll get diversification that they could never get if they were on their own. And that was kind of the concept. And I do think we're at a similar thing on the private markets now. Companies waiting so much longer, you know, credit being a lot of the debt goes into private credit. We've got to make sure it's fair and democratized for people to get access while recognizing these are absolutely illiquid vehicles. But they can get an excess return because of the illiquidity.
00:40:07 · Molly O'Shea, Jenny Johnson
[00:40:07] S0: We've been seeing that publicly listed, closed funds, all of that kind of thing. VCX is one of my sponsors, and they created a vehicle of all these pre IPO companies so you can get democratized access to these As we wrap up, I have one final question. This is the hardest question I'll ask you today. Are you ready? [00:40:27] S1: Yeah, I'm ready. [00:40:28] S0: Who is the modern day Benjamin Franklin? [00:40:32] S1: I have to say, and this is, because I one time asked my team to do a, because our logo, everybody thinks it looks so old, and I was like, old? Are you kidding me? Ben Franklin was a rock star. You gotta understand. This guy was like... I mean, not only was he an inventor, a politician, a philanthropist, you know, he... Such an amazing, really, really well liked, the ladies loved him in France kind of thing. Right? So I said, so we should do something like who would Ben Franklin be today? And I have to say, the one I'd say the most comes close is Elon Musk. There's... What comes back... Well, people say, oh, but Elon isn't as much of a philanthropist or Elon isn't this or that, whatever. There's no perfect match. A lot of times a person is made a little bit by their time, but I think that there is no person who's had more significant impact on really where we are in the technological advances today than Elon has. [00:41:32] S0: He did say he's going to give one SpaceX share to all of the children in America. Love that. That's awesome.
00:41:32 · Molly O'Shea, Jenny Johnson
[00:41:32] S0: He did say he's going to give one SpaceX share to all of the children in America. Love that. That's awesome. [00:41:40] S1: Which is, There you go. See He's getting that flick. Ben Franklin probably had to make his money too before he actually was able to do the philanthropy side. So I'm going with Elon. [00:41:51] S0: Great answer. Alright. Well, Johnson, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. [00:41:55] S1: No. Thank you. It's great. [00:41:56] S0: So much fun. Hey. It's Molly. If you enjoy our interviews, check out our newsletter, sorcery.vc, where we deliver a once a week top deals and tech headlines email and also go deeper on our podcast interviews. Subscribe to Sourcery today. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen. Link in description to sign up.