Caryn Seidman-Becker: If Not Me, Then Who?

Last year, I had the pleasure of interviewing Caryn Seidman-Becker , the CEO and Founder of CLEAR, the incredible biometric technology company that allows its members to skip long lines at 43 different airports in the United States, 15 arena and stadium locations, and 230 airports around the world.??But before taking the helm of CLEAR, Caryn was a fund manager at her own money management firm, Arience Capital, which shut down during the 2008 financial crisis.?Caryn had a candid conversation with me about the difficult decision to close her fund, the value of failure, and finding the courage to forge a new path for herself.

On September 3, 2002, after having her first daughter Olivia, Caryn started Arience Capital Management – the name was a combination of “art” and “science” – and was focused on investing in long-term, value oriented equities.?Caryn loved looking at secular trends evaluating the management team of different companies, and loved being judged fairly based on the performance of her fund.

And perform she did: Caryn’s hedge fund was up 17.57% in 2005 and 12.78% in 2006, and at its peak Arience employed 20 people and managed more than $1.5 billion in assets.

And then came 2008.?In late February, Arience was still up 7.7% – and then the market crashed, causing the hedge fund to lose 38.49% for the year. During that time, 770 hedge funds decided to cease operations and liquidate funds – and so did Arience.?On December 12, 2008, Caryn announced that Arience would return 95% of investors’ money by January of the next year. “This decision,” Caryn wrote to a letter to investors, “stems from our belief that the current market environment is incompatible with our investment style and process.”

For Caryn, having to liquidate Arience’s funds sometimes felt humiliating.?At dinner parties, people often passed right over her to talk to her husband who works at Apollo, one of the largest and most prestigious private equity firms in the world.??When Arience closed, it was difficult because her colleagues and employees had become like family to her.

At that point Caryn found herself at an inflection point as she considered her next steps.??After working in financial services 24/7 for 14 years, she asked herself if this was really what she wanted to keep doing going forward.?“I did not want to die with people saying that I picked good stocks,” Caryn said. “I wanted to build something to make the world a better place.”

Life is short, and Caryn had the grit and courage to show up at a bankruptcy auction in February 2010 and buy CLEAR for $5.87 million – much of which was her own money.?CLEAR went public on June 30, 2021 and currently has a market capitalization of $3.23 billion.?It’s a great lesson that failure does not have to be a fatal blow to your career – that we learn from it, get a sense of freedom from it to try new things, and learn that it can be the best motivator to find your vision and ask yourself – if not me, then who?

This article is based on my interview with Caryn Seidman-Becker , the Chair and CEO of CLEAR , an expedited airport security service that she took public in June 2021 at a $4 billion valuation.?Before CLEAR, Caryn built a successful career in asset management, first at Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder and later at Iridian Asset Management .?In 2002, she founded her own money management firm Arience Capital , grew it to $1.5 billion in assets, and closed it in December 2008 .?Caryn sits on the boards of Home Depot and Lemonade , and in 2021 Forbes named Caryn the 27th wealthiest self-made woman in the United States.?Caryn is also a dedicated philanthropist who created The Happy Elephant Foundation in 2004, which supports education, child wellness, and the New York City community, and she sits on the board of the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.?Listen to the full episode here .

You may also enjoy other episodes on?In Search of Excellence , which can be found on?Apple Podcasts ,?Spotify ,?Google Podcasts ,?Overcast , and?YouTube .

Randall Kaplan ?is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, philanthropist, and podcaster.?He is the founder and CEO of?JUMP Investors , a venture capital firm that has invested in more than 80 early-to-late-stage technology companies, including Google, Seagate, and Lyft.?Randall is a Co-Founder of?Akamai Technologies , a publicly-traded technology company that has 8,000 employees around the world and earned $3.8 billion in 2022 revenues.?He is also the Founder and CEO of?Sandee , the largest provider of information about beaches in the world with over 100 categories of information for more than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries.

Randall is the host of?In Search of Excellence , a podcast designed to motivate and inspire others to reach their potential and achieve excellence in all aspects of life.?Randall’s guests have included?Mark Cuban ,?Kevin O'Leary ,?David Solomon ,?Bob Pittman ,?Sharon Stone ,?David Rubenstein ,?Steve Case ,?Orlando Bravo ,?Sammy Hagar ,?Sam Zell ,?Rachel Zoe ,?Tim Draper ,?Kliff Kingsbury , and?Eric Garcetti , among many others.?Randall is also a dedicated philanthropist – he is the founder of?The Justice Ball ?which has raised more than $8 million for a non-profit legal clinic that aids more than 12,000 poor, sick, elderly, and homeless residents of Los Angeles each year, and is the Co-Founder of?The Imagine Ball ?which has raised millions of dollars and is dedicated to ending the cycle of poverty and homelessness in Los Angeles.

Read Randall's full bio at?www.randallkaplan.com .