Milken Institute advisor and NeuroMetric.AI co-founder Calvin Cooper shares how tech and policy intersect to create inclusive prosperity.
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Show Notes:
In this Mission Matters episode, Adam Torres interviews Calvin Cooper, Advisor at The Milken Institute, Partner at Pilot Wave Holdings, and Co-founder at NeuroMetric.AI. Cooper breaks down the need to democratize private capital, close the AI performance gap, and empower local economies—all while aligning tech innovation with national policy for a more equitable future.
About Pilot Wave Holdings
Pilot Wave Holdings is a financial sponsor that thinks like a strategic. Our investment thesis is grounded in bringing modern technologies to traditional business models. We are hybrid investment professionals, operators, and technologists who grow the businesses we transact with and help them continue to be competitive in the technological age. Our team is comprised of senior executives, operators, and technologists, and pioneers, having held leadership positions at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Cerberus, Albertsons, Centerbridge, the World Bank, KPMG, Booz Allen, and many others.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I have Calvin Cooper on the line, and he’s an advisor at the Milken Institute.
He’s a partner over at Pilot Wave Holdings, and he’s co-founder of Neuro metric.ai. Cooper, welcome to the show. Thanks. I appreciate it. Excited to be here today. Alright, so for everybody listening, just so you know, this particular interview is part of our Milken Global Conference Coverage series, where we highlight and feature individuals that were either at the conference, attended the conference as attendees, as speakers, or in this case I understand Cooper that you have that you have worked on a research paper for the Milken Institute.
So maybe let’s start with that. So , talk to us a little bit about the paper. Yeah, it might be helpful to give some context on me and, and my beliefs and what mission matters. Like. I, I’m really excited about the premise of this podcast because I, I really believe that we should start there as we approach our life and our work.
And so I am a capitalist at heart with a passion for democratizing technology and financial markets and. I believe that democratic capitalism is the best system for creating prosperity and liberation for as many people as possible. When I say prosperity and liberation and abundance, I really mean that holistically, like spiritually, mentally.
Mm-hmm. Physically and then lastly financially. And so that’s really what drives a lot of my work and, and how I approach my career. Mm-hmm. A little bit more about that career. So, as a partner at Pilot Way, we acquire industrial legacy businesses and lead AI transformation and robotic automation.
And at neuro Metric, we’re. Pioneering programmable inference, time compute and AI infrastructure for open source models. So that enables governments and enterprises to close the performance gaps with big tech AI models. I think the, the future of ai, super intelligence is too important to be owned by big tech, and so we’re focused on closing the performance gap.
While, while helping enterprises and governments maintain control of their data mm-hmm. And privacy by making inference time, compute strategies easy to test, build, deploy, and maintain. And then as an advisor to the Milken Institute, I’m leading research around capital markets and American competitiveness.
And so the executive summary of that was published at the Milken Global Con Conference in May, and we’re completing the research now for publication later in the summer. Hmm. And is there, I guess one of the things that I, I’d like to do as well as we’re doing this covered series is maybe just talking a little bit more about the institute and in this case, how you got involved and how you partnered, like how did all that take place?
Yeah. So I have the opportunity to, to be part of a small team two years ago to help launch what was called the Initiative for Inclusive Entrepreneurship. It was announced by the last administration and we were focused on helping emerging managers be aware of and connect to this S-S-B-C-I program.
Which was a $10 billion program that went out from the Treasury Department to states, for states to set up platforms to become LPs or limited partner investors into venture funds and other funds. And so in that work, we hosted summits, we hosted round tables, we launched a few pilot programs. And the Milken Institute saw that work and we decided to partner.
And now that i, IE program is now part of the Milken Institute Finance program. Hmm. And so in that work, as we looked at, okay, what’s next after this pilot and everything we learned. We’re, we’re thinking through long-term implementation and impacts, and one thing I am personally very passionate about is research.
I published research in the past with the National Venture Capital Association and others, and so this was an opportunity really to take a deep look at policy and what we can do to fund America’s techno industrial Renaissance. What are some maybe the key insights from the Milken Institute research and why is democratizing private capital essential for America’s economic future?
Oh, it’s, it’s so important. I think many of us have a real sense that capitalism isn’t working as efficiently as it should. Wealth is being concentrated at the top. There’s a lot of illiquidity in the capital markets. There’s been a slowdown in fund formation. I. And there’s a lot of talk around.
What I’ll say are, are sticks. So there’s a carrot and a stick situation, right? So if you think about tariffs and what we’re seeking to do there in the US is we’re seeking to reset the global trade order to negotiate in a way that works better for us on the home front so that companies build things here.
Employ people here and create more wealth here domestically. So that, that would be like a stick. Right? And then there are a bunch of other talks from different, spaces in the political spectrum around tax issues and things like that. So there’s, there’s so much in the public discourse around the stick, right?
But there’s not enough conversation around the care, the incentives around capital formation so that it can work better for us and align with our. National priorities. And so that’s really what I wanted to focus on was how can we incentivize productive capital formation in a way that will fund the techno industrial renaissance and do so in a way that works for.
More people and not just mega trillion dollar private equity funds or multi-billion dollar VC funds on the coast, that too, but how do we incentivize capital formation throughout the country in a broad way with emerging managers and local communities who are closer to the problem and the people and how do we do that?
In your opinion, what are the greatest barriers that you see to, to capital market, DeMar de demo democratization today? Like what, what are some of the greatest barriers that you see? Yeah, so, so quantitatively this can be measured, but then also qualitatively, we’ve had conversations with some of the largest.
LPs or limited partner investors in private markets. So you’re talking large pension and retirement systems, big endowments. We had calls at the Milken Institute. Some of them are advisors. We’ve done surveys with gps. And one thing that, that you find is that there’s, there’s a lot of, there’s trillions of dollars of capital locked up and sitting on the sidelines that can’t go back into.
Funding, even existing large managers of private capital. So large private equity and venture funds let alone recycling into emerging managers. Right? And one main issue is we don’t have our, our. Public markets isn’t operating the way it should be. So IPOs, initial public offerings are down by 50% over the past several decades, and that’s a major, major problem.
That means that when you invest in a private equity or a venture fund, it’s really hard to get your money back so that you can. Not only make new investments, but in the case of pension and retirement systems fund retirement obligations, right? So this is a real issue. We have to make it easier for companies to go public while also still maintaining investor protections.
So that, that’s one main issue is creating more liquidity in the public markets and scaling secondary. Private capital markets as well, and so that, that’s one area where we need, we really need to focus. Another is really lowering the barriers and focusing on emerging fund managers. So if you look at capital formation over the past few years, especially since interest rates rose in historic ways just a couple years back to respond to inflation, you’re seeing capital really being.
Accelerated and pooled e even further into managers on the coast. And this can be a real problem. They’re so big that the check sizes they have are bigger than oftentimes what small entrepreneurs in the Midwest can, can thoughtfully deploy. Also, sometimes you’re more removed from the local community and so.
Private equity sustains over 10 million jobs throughout the country. Seven of the top 10 publicly traded companies, accounting for over $15 trillion in wealth, receive early stage venture and angel funding early in their life cycle. So private equity and venture are, are really the engine of economic prosperity and growth in America.
But at the same time, there are, there are problems. There are. Often stripping foot strategies on the PE side, you know, buying companies, levering them up at the expense of local communities for financial gain or sometimes not so nefarious for gain, but just mm-hmm. Really a focus on multiple arbitraries or financial engineering and not incentivizing or thinking long term right.
With a three to five year. Yeah. Investment horizon. So that’s a problem. And those emerging managers often with hybrid models we’re seeing emerge that really blend private equity and venture strategies or evergreen models and strategies that really are focused on holding. Portfolios investing and building and growing those businesses in those communities.
And it’s really challenging often for emerging managers to attract capital. So that’s one area of the work is looking at how we can lower the barriers. But also how do we incentivize capital formation around emerging managers? Hmm. And so that’s another area. And then there’s some things that we can do around tax and, and other incentives particularly around critical industries like ai, defense critical mineral refining that we can do to, to.
Focus private capital around the sectors that are really strategic to American prosperity. And lastly I’ll mention is that there are some really successful public, private philanthropic models throughout the country that, that we could take a look at refining, scaling, and duplicating some that I’ll mention.
It would be like jobs. Ohio is really notable for the work they’ve done to really, create partnerships that incentivize one, attracting corporations to the region to invest in building data centers and factories and things like that. And their frontier that serves as an anchor LP and emerging managers in the state.
And that’s something that I experienced directly. Created a pathway for me to break into the venture industry in Ohio before it was cool. And so, mm-hmm. I helped raise a $50 million fund, NCT Ventures, that was an early stage investor into entrepreneurs in the Midwest. And without funds like that before larger funds really took notice, there really wasn’t an opportunity for local entrepreneurs there to, attract venture capital. And so that, that’s was played a big role in my career. So I, I experienced firsthand the power of these public-private partnerships and how they can spur capital formation with emerging managers. Hmm. What kind of trends are you following? I mean, you’re, you’re in the middle of a lot of different areas, whether it’s technology, entrepreneurship, policy, like what kind of trends are you following?
I mean, I think the most important trend I’m following is, is AI from strip to industrial applications. I think this is more important than many people even realize. It’s not just gonna be a chat interface to replace, you know, your Google query. There, there’s, there are some real powerful opportunities to create more revenue, top line growth in companies and also make businesses more efficient.
And I think that’s really exciting. I think some people, many people are worried about what that’s gonna do to employment, but, there’s a real opportunity to grow businesses, many more companies to create more products here domestically. You know, short, I’ll say we can’t compete with China and we don’t want to on labor costs, right?
But we can on technology and robotics and automation, and that’s really exciting. As you reflect in your journey, Cooper, what kind of advice would you offer to, you know, emerging entrepreneurs? Even emerging managers especially if they’re, they’re passionate about societal impact. Focus on your core.
And what, what I mean by that is, so I started my career in early stage venture. And then I started a company, Rove. We raised a $10 million seed round from Drive Capital and then built that company. Ended up selling it two years ago, and then we took the acquire public through a direct listing.
So ran the lap of raising venture capital from LPs, investing it, raising venture capital for VCs, building a company, selling it. And the most important lesson I learned in my life is that work is always gonna be here. And it’s very easy for entrepreneurs and for anybody for that matter, to just get swept away.
At, at the whims of life and our demands of daily life and our work and, and our family not to lose. We should not lose sight of. What connects us to the divine first, so spiritual fulfillment and abundance. And then next, mental and creative and then next, physical health. And then really lastly thinking about your work.
And so when you organize your life in that way, you’re a much happier person, but you’re also way more productive and you can really start your day out with meditation or prayer, physical fitness. Then getting into the work. That’s so important. Yeah. Cooper, man, this has been a lot of fun having you on the show today.
I learned a lot. I’m sure my audience got a lot of it out of it as well. That being said, if somebody’s listening or watching this and they wanna connect, they wanna follow up and continue the dialogue, how do they do that? So you can follow me on X. So I’m at. Cooper nyc. So feel free to shoot me a dm.
But if you’re interested in the research just go to milken institute.org that’s gonna be coming out here later this summer, and really excited to make an impact. So hopefully you’ll follow the work, but also promote it. I’ve been having. A lot of conversations on the hill with senators, congressmen, there’s, there’s some momentum, and so we can really make an impact so that we can fund our techno industrial Renaissance in a way that works for everyone.
Wonderful, and everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll put some of that information in the show notes, so you can just click on it. Head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show.
Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Cooper, thanks again for coming on the show. Thank you.
