On the other side of the pitch.

Gerald was my best lad during the internship. He serves as an associate and contributes greatly to the team. His determination to put in the effort and do his work to the best of his ability really stood out. He spoke to me like a brother and so patiently mentored me, telling me what I needed to be aware of in the landscape. That was truly the best. He is an extremely kind soul, and his work ethic is unparalleled.

I love the way he conveys information to me. I love spotting algorithms in everything, especially in how Gerald conducts himself. He always starts with praise, then clearly touches on what went wrong and how to make it better.

For example, I remember using Claude to write a post-meeting report for a company. At the end, I had left in the AI blurb: “Is there anything else you’d like me to change about this report? Just do let me know.” He said very nicely:

“The first parts are all good, but don’t let this small error in your work undermine all the good work that you did!”

Of course, it was a huge blunder on my part—a giveaway that I had thrown it into Claude to generate a meeting summary just to complete it on time. But I loved the way he corrected me.

Even after I messed up several times, he was always there to bring me along and have deep talks with me about how money moves, the incentive structures in financial institutions, the common “2 and 20” structure in VC, and LPs and GPs. That’s a 2% annual management fee and 20% carried interest on profits, though terms vary by fund. GPs manage the fund, and LPs provide the capital! I know my work :)), thanks to you, Gerald!

Although I didn’t manage to finish the red book on investment banking 😛