Bill Gurley

I think it was Zerp and pre-LLM.

I think post-LLM, the world believes, and I think this is my fifth point or something, but the world believes AI is the biggest platform shift in anyone's lifetime.

And so if you believe that...

And then the other thing, I go back to when Mobison and I were back at First Boston 30-something years ago.

The notions of network effects and compounding effects weren't well understood or recognized or believed.

I think that's a wholesale belief right now.

And so people that have watched Google or Meta go from...

looking expensive at $12 billion to $3 trillion.

If they assume something might be that, they can't overpay in their mind.

which I think is rational for the independent player.

If everyone does it, the market's starting to price it in.

But we'll see.

The next big thing we're talking about is many LPs, not all LPs, but many LPs have a liquidity problem.

And that's a new reality.

It's tied to the lack of IPOs and the lack of M&A.

It's also fairly new and unique.

I found this stat in the first quarter of 2025, U.S.

colleges and universities issued $12 billion of debt.

which was the third highest quarter ever.

That's an interesting reality if you're using debt to fund capital commitments because your endowment doesn't have the liquidity it needs to pay out the three or 5% or whatever it is that they always had traditionally paid out.