John Zito

And they would let those originators write a bunch of small loans.

And when they get to a certain quantum,

They would securitize those loans and distribute those loans through a distribution mechanism.

Because CS Stock was trading at such a discount to book, if they could sell it at book value, it was actually accretive.

But this was the classic Apollo deal.

It had mortgages.

It had solar.

It had...

Commercial real estate, it had consumer.

To underwrite all of those things was almost impossible for anyone in the market other than us because you had to have the full suite of the team and you had to bring on the full OPEX of the business.

So you're talking about 300 people.

In 22, when rates moved, they sent 2 million wires for margining, okay?

So you have to have the scale to actually do it.

You have to know all these asset classes, right?

And you have to have the experience of being able to take on a team culturally, integrate the team, all those things, and then execute on a plan.

So it got down to the wire.

I remember sitting here.

We were sitting here.

It was like midnight or 1 a.m., and I was eating Chinese food with one of the analysts and the deal partner.

I was like, this is fun.