Philippe Laffont Rare Interview on Coatue Beginnings [VIDEO]

Philippe Laffont, Founder & CEO – Coatue Management: Part I and part II

“You need to do two things when you graduate. You need to do them both passionately. You need to do one thing passionately that is the obvious thing that you are supposed to do after you graduate…At the same time…you need to do one thing completely off the beaten path, but also passionately.”

“In your professional life, you’re going to, more than once, come across something that goes absolutely the opposite way of what you were hoping…For the average person, you have to be ready for the fact that things are not going to be as expected.”

After graduating from MIT, Philippe Laffont began his career in management consulting at McKinsey & Co. Three years later, he met his wife-to-be and moved to Spain to work for her family. During this period, Philippe and his brother began buying technology stocks in their spare time, and a year later he moved to New York to pursue his passion in tech investing. Philippe took a job working for free at a small mutual fund. Eventually he connected with Julian Roberston and was hired by Tiger Management. In 1999, he left Tiger to found Coatue Management, which is now a leading tech-focused, long/short equity hedge fund. He presently holds the position of CEO.