Dan Ariely is a renowned behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur, and investor.  He is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.  Dan is the author of six books, most of which have the word “Irrationality” in the title and has a weekly column in the The Wall Street Journal called “Ask Ariely.” Dan’s TED Talks have been downloaded more than 10 million times. Dan also is a Founding Partner of Irrational Capital, an investment firm that identifies and quantifies the nuanced relationship between companies and their employees, and invests in human capital factors that are linked to long-term stock price performance.  Last month, Irrational Capital announced a strategic partnership with Jeff Ubben’s ValueAct Capital, a firm that shares their belief in the importance of the impact of corporate culture on long-term enterprise value. Our conversation starts with Dan’s journey studying pain and intuition and turns to applications of his research in the corporate setting.  We discuss his research process, measurement of human capital, applying experiments to an investment strategy, employee motivation and compensation schemes as investment factors, and constructing a portfolio of factors based purely on human capital.  We close by touching on Dan’s projects in government and with start-ups. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Mark Johnson is the Managing Partner of Astra Capital Management, a mid-market growth buyout firm specializing in the communications and technology services sectors. Mark co-founded Astra after twenty years of experience investing at JH Whitney, Blackstone, and Carlyle. He partnered with seasoned deal and operating executives and brought the best practices from large shops to Astra with an entrepreneurial lens to address a focused strategy in a new way.   Our conversation covers Mark’s unusually planned life path, lessons from industry giants, and the formation of Astra with a utopian ideal in mind.  We discuss the Astra team, thematic sourcing, financial creativity, deal dynamics, value creation within portfolio companies, factors of long-term success, co-investments, and club deals.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript