Asynchronicity

When Cortlandt sparks an opportunity for a member to deploy several hundred million dollars of capital I consider it a win for all of us.

This week, a Cortlandt member watched the replay of our recent Forum with Blu Putnam and was struck by Blu’s comments about the implications for hurricane risk in the current La Niña (and possible shift to El Niño as summer approaches) weather patterns, and my comments about a Cortlandt initiative to invest in the hardening cat risk insurance markets driven by this phenomenon. He reached out to me, explaining that he had experience with this type of trade from previous dislocations in the cat insurance markets, for an introduction to the Cortlandt members involved in the project and a series of discussions and strategizing ensued. The rapid engagement that took place, I’d like to think, is a reflection of the implicit trust among Cortlandt members. It’s still too early to tell if this is an actionable opportunity, but all members will have the opportunity to invest pari passu if it becomes so.

When I step back and consider the way this potential opportunity came together, I’m struck by two things: (i) asynchronicity, and (ii) the importance of continuing to build the ‘Cortlandt Brain’.

Each of these topics warrants thorough exploration, but for the sake of brevity in this week’s note I’m going to limit myself to a few short comments: We’ve generally found synchronous content to be more rewarding, but with members across continents and time zones, let alone everyone’s busy schedules, asynchronous engagement must be part of the model. Most Cortlandt opportunities have sprung from live conversations, so it’s satisfying to see the potential in content that members can consume at their convenience. We will be experimenting with more of this in the future.