Zack Ellison
Zack Ellison, MBA, MS, CFA, CAIA is the Founder and Managing General Partner of Applied Real Intelligence (A.R.I.) and the Chief Investment Officer of the A.R.I. Senior Secured Growth Credit Fund, which provides debt financing to America’s premier innovators and technology companies.
Zack previously worked as a loan underwriter, investment banker, corporate bond trader, and fixed income portfolio manager at five publicly traded firms, including three with over $1 trillion in assets – Scotia Bank, Deutsche Bank, and Sun Life. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MS in Risk Management from NYU Stern, and will complete his Doctorate in Business Administration at the University of Florida in 2025.
April 10, 2025
Venture Debt Deal Sourcing/Origination/Screening
• Where to source high-potential venture debt deals
• Balancing sponsor-backed vs. independent deals
• Avoiding adverse selection and chasing the wrong deals
• Structuring a systematic origination process
• Building rapport with founders, boards, and investors
• The role of brand and reputation in deal flow
• Lessons learned from the most successful (and unsuccessful) deals
Friday March 31, 2023
How the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank will Impact Venture Debt Moving Forward
- Strategies SVB used to dominate the VC ecosystem for venture loans
- Sizing up the competitive landscape of non-bank lenders aiming to fill the void
- How venture debt investments will change in the wake of SVB’s failure
- Discussion of the logical buyers of SVB’s venture loan portfolio
- Analysis of why the current banking crisis will likely drive down private valuations
