Podcast Summary: The Investor With Joel Palathinkal Episode: Trish Spurlin – Investments Director, Babson College
Date: September 25, 2025
Host: Dr. Joel Palathinkal
Guest: Trish Spurlin

Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Trish Spurlin, the Investments Director at Babson College, who oversees private equity and venture capital strategy for Babson’s endowment. The discussion explores her atypical career trajectory, lessons from building a fractional CFO business, the mechanics of team-building and leadership, and practical advice for aspiring allocators and fund managers. Trish also offers nuanced wisdom on relationship-building with LPs, decision-making frameworks for investments, and reflections on the evolving landscape of institutional capital allocation.

Key Topics and Insights

1. Trish’s Career Path: From Athlete to Allocator

• Early Years and Education [02:34]
  • Grew up in Annapolis, Maryland; attended Salisbury University primarily for lacrosse.
  • Experimented with potential careers (athletic training, fashion merchandising).
  • Settled into finance/accounting, choosing public accounting over investment banking to avoid relocating to New York.
  • “There was a point in time where I thought I might be an athletic trainer. I did kind of like a shadowing of a football game and one person got hurt and I passed out. So that was quickly off the table of options.” [02:52]
• Pivot to Tech and Entrepreneurship
  • Transitioned from accounting to a tech startup in Baltimore, handling corporate finance and operations up to a complex bankruptcy process.
  • Founded a fractional CFO business to help startups avoid common mistakes.
• Babson College and Investment Management [04:04, 05:35]
  • Joined Babson for her MBA, balancing business-building with endowment work.
  • Hired for venture capital relationship experience; unexpectedly rose to Investments Director.
  • “I didn't know this was a job … About halfway through the second year of my MBA program … they basically offered me to take over as investment manager and build their internal investment office.” [05:38]

2. Career Exploration and Taking Risks [07:10]

• Parent’s Influence and Portfolio Perspective
  • Trish views careers as portfolios, constantly acquiring experiences and never “starting over.”
  • “Your career is kind of like a portfolio, right? As you go along, you're gathering these experiences, and you're never going to be where you started again because you have all of those learnings from before.” [07:14]
• Seeking Variety and Embracing Change
  • Finds fulfillment in solving different problems; asset allocation suits her curiosity.
  • Advocates for calculated risk-taking: “What's the biggest risk that I can take in my career without totally messing it up?” [08:15]

3. Building a Business Through Value and Learning [11:35]

• Giving Before Asking
  • Advocates providing free value to build trust; compares to offering marketing services or running ads at no initial cost.
• Learning By Doing (and Sometimes for Cheap)
  • Early work at Babson paid less than her CFO gigs, but Trish saw this as an investment in her learning.
• Networking and Personal Branding
  • Cultivated a reputation by helping classmates and startups, which expanded her network and business organically.

4. Operator Experience and Investment Leadership [16:35]

• Operator Background Empathy
  • Having run businesses themselves, allocators can empathize with portfolio founders, spot emerging problems, and appreciate entrepreneurial risk.
  • “Running a fund is a business, so you are going to be thrown into that whether you want it or not.” [16:36]
• Resilience and Grit
  • Experience as an operator or business owner often translates into better resilience during the fundraising “slog.”

5. Breaking Into PE/VC: Must-Have Skills [19:43]

• Hard Skills
  • Analytical fluency: Ability to understand P&L, financial statements, deal analysis.
  • “You have to have some capacity of analytics… It's not something that you, if you don't know it now, you're never going to be able to do it.” [19:44]
• Soft Skills
  • Curiosity, social interaction, active listening and summarizing, advocacy for ideas.
  • Confidence to “put words around gut feelings” and convince investment committees.
  • “The ability to summarize information succinctly and to document it so that you're not asking GPs the same thing over and over again… You have to be able to advocate for your ideas.” [21:55]
• Team Fit and Humility
  • Not everyone must lead—acknowledging team needs is key; balance between confidence and humility is crucial.
  • “You want someone who is confident enough to lead a meeting … but you also need someone who's humble enough to learn from the other people in the room. And finding that balance can be really tricky.” [25:13]

6. Building and Motivating Teams [27:58]

• Understanding Incentives
  • Direct conversation is key; don’t assume what motivates a team member.
• Growth Paths and Retaining Talent
  • Recognizes changing career ambitions; micromanaging is a red flag.
  • “Great people want to solve problems on their own and you have to give them the space to do that or they will get bored and they will leave.” [28:53]
• Culture Matters
  • Babson’s no-jerks rule: “If we wouldn't want to go out for coffee with them, we don't hire them. Life’s too short.” [30:38]

7. Peer Learning and Allocator Environment [31:24]

• Learning from Advisory Boards
  • Leverages experienced LPs and GPs for quick “10,000 hours” of wisdom.
• Current Market View
  • Insights from value/inflationary environments inform today’s decisions: maintain consistency and a strong stomach during volatility.

8. Reading, Learning, and Curiosity [34:21]

• Staying Updated
  • Recommends reading: Axios Pro Rata, Pitchbook newsletters, Wall Street Journal.
• Podcasts and Blogs
  • Suggests ‘Super Clusters,’ ‘Origins’ podcast (Beezer Clarkson & Nick Charles), and ‘20VC.’
  • Importance of reading as part of the allocator’s job: “If it seems tangentially relevant, read it.” [35:20]

9. Relationship Management with LPs [40:29]

• Office Hours and Community Building
  • Trish runs monthly office hours for emerging managers (“shout out to the Bridge Funding Global”).
• How to Follow Up with LPs
  • A six-month cadence is “very reasonable” for check-ins, aiming for 2-3 meetings (ideally in-person) per year.
  • “If an LP wants to work with you, you will know it… Don’t take lack of responses personally. Take it as an opportunity to save your time.” [42:14]

10. Investment Decision Framework [45:43]

• Four-Step Lens for Investments
  • Team, Strategy, Track Record, Portfolio Fit (“Babson fit”).
  • “Arguably, team is the most important one… are they good people? Do founders want to work with them? Do other GPs like them?”
  • Historical performance is a lagging indicator: “It’s kind of a lazy way to assess a manager … we try to shift our mindset to: have they done cool things before?” [47:18]
  • Portfolio construction should avoid overexposure to one “mafia” or network.

11. Secondaries and DPI Nuance [50:20]

• Case-by-Case Decision Making
  • Not anti-secondary, but warns against early DPI pressure compromising long-term returns.
  • “My point was I feel like emerging managers are being pressured to sell their best assets early to create DPI that shouldn’t exist yet, and that … is not long-term sustainable.” [51:16]
  • What matters: a manager’s critical thinking over time, not just catching exits perfectly.

12. Final Advice and Parting Wisdom [53:58]

• Crucial Life and Career Lesson
  • “Just because a conversation is hard doesn’t mean you don’t have it.” [53:58]
  • Especially relevant for LP/GP relationships—transparency and addressing difficult topics matter most.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Your career is kind of like a portfolio… you're never going to be where you started again.” — Trish, [07:14]
• “Great people want to solve problems on their own and you have to give them the space to do that or they will get bored and they will leave.” — Trish, [28:53]
• “If an LP wants to work with you, you will know it.” — Trish, [42:14]
• “Just because a conversation is hard doesn’t mean you don’t have it.” — Trish, [53:58]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Trish’s Early Path and Education — [02:34]
• Transition to Tech and Entrepreneurship — [04:04]
• Babson Allocation Role — [05:35]
• Exploring Career Changes & Risk — [07:10]
• Building Businesses and Providing Value — [11:35]
• Operator Experience Empathy in Investing — [16:35]
• Skills Needed to Break In (PE/VC) — [19:43]
• Building/Motivating Teams and Culture — [27:58]
• Learning from Peers and Advisory Boards — [31:24]
• Keeping Informed: Reading & Podcasts — [34:21]
• LP Relationship Management (FAQ Segment) — [40:29]
• Investment Decision-Making Framework — [45:43]
• Secondaries & DPI FAQ — [50:20]
• Final Parting Advice — [53:58]

Tone and Style

Trish is candid, practical, warm, and thoughtful. The conversation blends storytelling with actionable takeaways, blending encouragement for experimentation with a nuanced grasp of institutional investment discipline. The tone is welcoming, often informal, and grounded in lived experience.

For More

• Follow Trish’s work at Babson and watch for her office hours for deeper community engagement.
• Explore recommended resources: Axios Pro Rata, Pitchbook, Wall Street Journal, Origins podcast, and more.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about institutional investment, breaking into PE/VC, or sharpening their leadership and decision-making in high-performing teams.