Richard L. Brandt & Thomas Weisel 
Capital Instincts 
Life As an Entrepreneur, Financier, and Athlete

An insider’s view of the investment banking world from someone
who is actually shaping it

Powerful, controversial and determined, Thomas Weisel is known
for his unwavering focus on winning the race, whether he is
competing in a national cycling championship, sponsoring Tour de
France winner Lance Armstrong or negotiating with business
competitors. For twenty-seven years he ran one of the major
investment banks on the West Coast, bringing public companies such
as Applied Materials, Siebel Systems and Yahoo! and was
instrumental in establishing San Francisco as an alternative
financial center to Wall Street. In 1997 he sold his company to
Nations Bank, which later merged with Bank of America. Unhappy with
his treatment after the merger, Weisel trumped Bank of America by
negotiating a separation package that included $500 million in
stock options and the ability to hire away crucial Bank of America
management. Within two years, the investment bank he started,
Thomas Weisel Partners, reached half a billion dollars in revenues
and negotiated high-profile deals such as Yahoo!’s merger with
Geocities. Power Investor weaves Weisel’s approach to success, his
competitive nature and love of cycling into a fascinating inside
account of the cutthroat world of investment banking.

Thomas Weisel (San Francisco, CA) is the founder, CEO and
Chairman of the Executive Committee of Thomas Weisel Partners, a
research-driven merchant bank exclusively focused on the growth
sectors of the U.S. economy. He is founder and president of
Tailwind Sports, which manages the U.S. Postal Service cycling
team, and was an Olympic-class speed skater and the former chairman
of the U.S. Ski Foundation.

Richard Brandt (San Francisco, CA) has twenty years’
experience as a leading business journalist. He was a senior
reporter for Business Week for fourteen years and editor in chief of
the technology business magazine Upside for four years.

Table of Content

Foreword.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

Never Underestimate Thom Weisel.

Life on the Edge of a Precipice.

Of Midget Boys and Men.

Breaking Away.

A Goof Place to Be.

Passion Is Good.

Skiing, Cycling, Selling Stocks.

Postal Services.

The Buildup.

Politics and Art.

The Big Sale.

The Big Boom.

Conflicted.

The New Age and Old Age.

Endnotes.

Timeline.

Index.

About the author

RICHARD L. BRANDT is one of the few journalists who has gained
Weisel’s trust, and has contacts deep within the worlds of finance
and technology. A veteran journalist with over twenty years’
experience, Brandt was formerly Editor-in-Chief of Upside magazine.
Prior to joining Upside, Brandt was a senior reporter for
Business Week for fourteen years.

THOMAS WEISEL has led his most recent firm, Thomas Weisel Partners
(TWP), to the top of the investment banking world. His negotiation
tactics, strong stomach for risk, and ability to ferret out
influential investment trends are legendary. Weisel has expanded
the firm into a multifaceted merchant bank that, in only four years
of existence, has orchestrated $135 billion worth of public and
private stock offerings and mergers, invests in private companies
with two funds totaling $1.6 billion, manages over $5 billion worth
of assets for private clients, and acts as a prime broker for many
of the world’s largest financial institutions.