Alex Branton on NAV Lending, Valuation Discipline and Building Nodem
Nodem's founder and CIO speaks to Siena Secondary Fund's Secondary Thoughts interview series
Nodem's founder and CIO, Alex Branton, sat down with Annika Ljaš Eilat for Secondary Thoughts by Siena — an interview series from Siena Secondary Fund, a leading European VC secondaries investor with portfolio companies including Bolt, Oura and Booksy.
The conversation covers how Alex's experience advising family offices at Cambridge Associates shaped his view of private market illiquidity, why independent bottom-up underwriting matters more than geography, and how Nodem distinguishes genuine non-sellers from borrowers who should be selling.
Alex also discusses what the arrival of large institutional NAV lenders means for mid-market borrowers, lessons from building Sturgeon Capital to $300m AUM, the role of public capital in private markets, and the single most expensive lesson he has learned about liquidity across multiple hype cycles.