No Money

Privat Equity Founders to Study based on Situations DM me “PE” if you’re interested in growing your business with private equity like these people. NO MONEY: David M. Rubenstein — postal clerk’s son who put himself through Duke & Chicago Law, co-founded a $470B private equity empire.
Carl Icahn — cantor’s kid from working-class Queens to Wall Street’s most feared raider.
Sam Zell — managed a college apartment building for free rent, built a billion-dollar real estate empire.
Chinh Chu — fled Vietnam with $10 to his family’s name, became Blackstone’s longest-serving dealmaker. NO CONNECTIONS:
Orlando Bravo — Puerto Rican kid with zero Wall Street ties, built one of the biggest software buyout firms alive.
Alec Gores — landed from Israel with $40 and two suitcases, built a private equity firm out of his parents’ basement.
Marc Lasry — Moroccan refugee who shared a bedroom with three siblings for a decade, built a multibillion-dollar investment firm.
Romesh T. Wadhwani — Indian immigrant engineer with zero finance pedigree, built and sold companies worth billions. STARTING LATER IN LIFE:
Wilbur L. Ross Jr. — 24 years advising other people’s bankruptcies before starting his own buyout fund at 62.
Kirk Kerkorian — 8th-grade dropout and boxer who took over MGM in his 50s and kept dealing into his 80s.
David H. Murdock — homeless in his 20s, took control of Dole at 62, took it private again at 90.
Harold Simmons — ran a pharmacy chain for over a decade before pioneering the leveraged buyout in his 40s. SYSTEM AGAINST YOU:
Hollie Moore Haynes — left Silver Lake knowing she’d never lead a firm run by men, built her own $1.7B firm instead.
Robert L. Johnson — turned two hours of late-night airtime into BET, became America’s first Black billionaire, then built his own private equity firm.
Lauren Leichtman — pushed past a hostile old boys’ club to become the world’s first woman private equity billionaire.
Robert F. Smith — built the largest software private equity firm ever run by a Black founder, became the wealthiest Black American. #privateequity