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to the QA cafe and yet another new location here at the Ritz Georgetown and the degrees bar and doesn't it remind you of some of the coziness of Nathan's which is which is nice but we have a wonderful guest here mark ein there are many things we're going to talk to him about but I just wanted to say mark you probably think people are here to listen to you talk about tennis and how to make millions but what they really want to know is how to get invited to your White House Correspondents Association brunch on Saturday it does happen doesn't it's a crazy time of year so I can't help but ask how do you feel about having Lindsey Lowen as a guest on your property is she coming yes that was in the papers yes she's coming this week and I didn't know I mean with Greta Van Susteren to the Saturday brunch well it's not really my part but now your bad guys away it's like you know it's it actually is and I've do let them use the property but I I'm involved but it's not really much have you ever partied with Lindsay I have not oh my mother is sitting behind me so I think I would not be in anyways - and we know a lot of realize but that brings me to something that that that really was interesting and researching you you are you know full on a local boy you were born where I was born in New York but we moved down here when I think we were about I was about 4 that's that's pretty much the beginning right yeah but - where did you where did you move to we I grew up in Chevy Chase we actually started in Grosvenor Park and Rockville - yeah I'm in buildings out there and then moved down by and Chevy Chase by Rock Creek Park and went to public elementary school junior high school and Bethesda Chevy Chase it's a public school all the way yeah what what do you what you know it's just interesting because growing up in DC I think has to be a real perk what do you remember about being a kid growing up in DC and in ways that it shaped you were you took advantage of it yeah it's interesting because my grown-up life feels so different from growing up in the suburbs in Washington I mean neither of my parents were really in politics my mom worked a little bit for a congressman from New York and my dad was a doctor and dermatologist right allergist allergen right and so I did just yeah but it was a wonderful place I think Washington is a great place to grow up I think it's a great place to for all of us to live it's a great place to do business and so it really was a wonderful place to to grow up yeah there's you know all the things that we all love about did you did you feel like DC was a separate place yeah I mean I think I really feel like I grew up in Chevy Chase more than I grew up in Washington spend a ton of time but you know but definitely took advantage of it came down town a lot but right feel probably different than if I had grown up in the city and gone to school in the city itself have you maintained the friendships a bunch of them yeah you know I grew up on the other side of the Virginia suburbs and all I wanted to do is get from here as fast as possible now of course obviously I'm here but did you ever have that wish to live elsewhere yeah and I did I went to college elsewhere I work in New York for a few years lived in LA went to school in Boston and then when I thought about settling down and having lived in all those places I wanted to try a lot of places and having experienced them all I actually thought about and I thought Washington is really where I wanted to come back it was the best place I'd been I think it's the best combination of a vibrant city with a lot going on but it's small enough so the N feel part of the community kids as I recall from high school kids don't sit around and say oh I want to grow up and be a venture capitalist I hang around the wrong kids but it's a it's an interesting place to end up and I wonder what the what the what the seeds were for you that that led you on that path I mean you you left high school and you went to Penn right yeah Wharton and then you went to Harvard for your business - yeah but but but what how did you what what was the thread that attracted you to this kind yeah you know from early on in my life I was always I think pretty entrepreneurial I mean we had a soccer team as little kids and in sixth grade our coach who organized it moved out of town and none of the parents decided to keep the team going and I was like I'm gonna keep this thing going this was what we all live for right and so in sixth grade goddess and Ally got us a coach got his practice got his uniforms and brought it together and then I had different businesses when I was a kid and I think I always want to do something entrepreneurial and so from early on business and doing entrepreneurial things with something that it is heroes in business I'm too embarrassed to tell you I think no that's what this is no I know there's me come on no you know actually I have to say I was in high school I actually think I would it was Donald Trump was actually very I think I'm I still think he's not a lot of great stuff and you know I think his family actually know some of them I think but now you know all about him right I just think I would pry my interests in style and be evolved a little bit but he was sort of an icon back when I was growing up and do you think he was a good choice to be the one to to develop the post office building they kill do a good job with it I think his daughter is amazing uh-huh a friend I know her a little bit I know her husband don't you to it pan at the same no she's big younger than me but I Jared who owns the New York Cassandra's question yes yeah right guy and they're a great couple and very serious and I and I do think they'll do a really good job of it can a person learn to be an entrepreneur or is it somehow in your in your code you know in your DNA it's an interesting thing because I you know I think it's a little bit of both I think you have entrepreneurial instincts but if people now look and say god you're such a risk-taker and you're so entrepreneurial but I'll tell you when I my first big entrepreneurial thing when I left the Carlyle Group to start my own firm I did it and we sort of launched it and the next day I woke up in the middle night at 3 a.m. and a cold sweat and I'd heard the expression cold sweat but I didn't actually ever experience it and I woke up and said wow this is what a cold sweat looks like feels like looks like and feels like and and it lasted for two months almost every single day night day night all three three just 3:30 the more I go oh my goodness what am i doing I'm so far out there I now have employers I'm responsible for what was your how far out there financially were you at the time it wasn't even that you know it's funny for me business is so little about the money it's more don't truly Omar you give me that look it's true no it truly it isn't it's truly it's I mean what kept me up the middle night it had nothing to do financially I wasn't that far out there it was more I felt an obligation to my investors who had given me money I feel a huge obligation and the people we hire who can trust you with their lives and that's that responsibility is is truly what drives you but also scarcity with so I think you're saying that it's in your DNA that you can't really teach I think it was but I had to have to get him locked and it wasn't something that you know I was necessarily totally comfortable for with until I had done and that was a pen yeah I mean I had done different things but those little things are different from actually when you do it on a bigger scale going to the Carlyle Group had to be very well how was Goldman Sachs first and then Carlisle all in sacks and then a West Coast venture capital private equity firm called front wood Association and after business school was deciding between going back there we're working at Carlisle Carlisle in 1992 was like thirty people they we had a hundred million dollar fund we were having trouble raising a second fund to be quite honest and how old were you I was I was like 27 yeah and it was great and I rash young man here yeah and I you know I it was a great place to come and at the time when I was getting out of business school it was the only thing in Washington I thought I could do I mean the business means come so much further if I was graduating now there'd be a lot more venture firms private equity firms interesting businesses in 1992 they didn't want to do real estate there wasn't nearly as many things to do of the founders of Carlisle who would you say was most your mentor David David Rubenstein yeah he's he's amazing they're all great and it he's sat right there I I saw that yeah what did you learn from him I mean if if if there's something you take its focus yeah people ask why so you know the the Carlisle story was you know 30 people hundred million dollars under management I left seven years later I think we had six or eight six to seven billion dollars and maybe we had two or three hundred people it's now a hundred and eighty billion and a thousand people so I was tell David you seemed it done okay since I've been gone and he says yeah we beat by but but that firm success is really do the investment success is due to Bill Conway is a massively talented ambassador but what separated them is you had a guy David Rubenstein who all he focused on was growing the firm he woke up every day to have a guy who works harder than anyone who's incredibly smart personable and driven his personal story to his very interesting unbelievable yeah and he literally woke up every day for last 20 years and just said not had oh he wasn't focused on making investments or finding vestments he was solely focused on how do I grow the firm and the result is what you say right did you keep any piece of that action I have investments in the funds none of the firm now big a venture capitalist is about investing in businesses and companies how do you how did they get your attention and how do you evaluate them well when you put out a shingle saying you have money to invest people find you so they find you so you know but you're also looking you're looking but but also people are pretty aggressive entrepreneurs I mean I always say that are the best people the ones who come after you you know it's interesting I actually if someone said this early on I think it's true I think the best ones are the font ones who find a warm introduction to you because the ones that just come over the transom that just are a cold call you get so many of them you tend to ignore them but the ones who find a connection to you yeah tend to be the best they also tend to be the ones who are successful in growing their businesses well this is a lesson yeah the entrepreneurs are there that are debating whether to to you know to pounce on somebody like yeah it's not a bad thing yeah I was people and I think as investors we always view the fundraising is your first cell and being an entrepreneur really at some level is all about selling and if you can't effectively get the meetings and then raise the money that you probably not gonna sell your product or anything else it's the evaluation something done by a team or is it in your gut their analysis is a team and the dialogue gives a team in things I've done and at this point in my life at the end of the day the call is mine yeah so but you you try to get a lot of people's views on it and there any way at all I make a decision when did you finally start sleeping through the night and then more importantly when did you realize you were rich I started sleeping through the night I'll tell you when that happens no it's probably it took a couple months and now it's late but there's other times where in the middle of staffing well but when you're working on deals yeah here what wondering if you're gonna get out because you're often competing against other people I would imagine yeah but but seriously you know even though you say it's not about the money making money is a measure of success yeah and there had to be a moment when you thought oh my god you know I can do this yeah I'm making money yeah well I think it was those first years at Carlile I mean I was making investments and they were successful and I was getting you know paid for it and I realized a I start to have enough so that I can wake up in the morning and do what I want and be I think I can keep doing this for a long time and so I said okay things wouldn't be on that dimension things are gonna be okay did you did you tell your parents I mean was there like a marina said guess what you know I'm I'm set now I try to keep that stuff pride you haven't told your mother yet that your actual thanks for breaking the news appreciate now another part of your life back then which i think is interesting because there had to be a juncture where you were gonna be a businessman or we go into sports because you were a very talented tennis player and did you have this fantasy of maybe well I I did have a fantasy but I very early on realize that that wasn't gonna be what I could do how far up in the I mean I was you know yeah so as a kid I was you know the local junior player but not at the level where that was gonna be what I did I did you know at probably an early point dream about maybe doing that but I realized early on that wasn't gonna be my calling yeah so I think you're talking about later in life in the last one you you had this passion yeah I mean obviously your business success enabled you to kind of bring this passion back into your life yeah I mean what you know I mean you've been very philanthropic you get involved in many things but to take on the project of starting a yeah tennis enterprise that's that's big and I assume that was your money not other people's money 100% mine yeah so that meant love and passion yeah so how did that how did that happen yeah so the castle started for a couple things came together when obviously tennis has been a big part of my life and I friend to play on the tour and five summers ago one of the guys played World Team Tennis which is a league that was started 35 years ago by Billie Jean King and I knew of it growing up and I he told me how great it was and how much he loved playing and how much the fans loved it and I just thought I wonder why we've never had a team in Washington and I had thought about buying or investing in other teams and just hit me and so I asked him to introduce me to Billie Jean King and she we met at the US Open in 2007 and she said I've always wanted a team in DC it's a great tennis we had tennis here didn't we had bowlegs Mason but we did have a World Team Tennis time which is different and complementary but different and so I'm kind of tennis for dummies so ya know know that I mean I was a Balkan at that tournament that was a big part of my life but she never had a world TeamTennis even she was very interested and so we spent some time together and I decided to do it but it was partially tennis and partially I had had a conversation earlier that year at the deputy mayor of Washington who was a guy that we had got was that or Dan Tangherlini was now there's an hour run GSA yeah GSA talked about taking on a project and he's an awesome talent I mean he's an awesome talent he's done so many things and we used to get together a couple times a year and just brainstorm about things and one of the things we talked about is you know in Chicago in the summer people are out doing things they're centers of activities in the parts we just don't really have that and watch them you have them all and you have a little bit different summer though don't you think a little hotter but we still said wouldn't it be great to have that and so in the back of my mind when I was thinking about this was why don't we create a center of fun activity with tennis as part of it but then a whole bunch of other things and so you know the first stadium was down on the old city center a lot bright but you probably knew wasn't going to last no we knew it we lasted longer than we thought it was and then we're now down on the waterfront and and so while tennis is part of it truly this is more about a community yeah and I say to anybody here or who's watching if they haven't been down there that it's really an incredible setting because if you sit in the right place in the stands you see the tennis and you get the breeze off the river and it's it's a special place I of course now with the development going on down there I don't know how long you're gonna have that look yeah well thanks for that well you're an entrepreneur you're gonna will be all right wait we at leave we actually think we have a few years they may start building what are we exactly where we are before this next season but then there's a place further down on the same part of the waterfront that we could move to but what do people have to look forward to with this summer's tournament yeah I've got coming in Serena Williams the sweetest Millions both on the team super Serena's been with John back and rather than John Key macro come he's not coming this year but you know the big thing is really you know last year we won the championship the second time in three years and our four years history we were the first perfect see at the first perfect season in the 35-year history of the league and so it's interesting any people when they first came and our fans first came it was for Serena and Venus and McEnroe now we actually put as many people in the seats when no one's there and they're just rooting for our players who they've gotten it now if he jumps in our coach they ender pays everything else and so it's been um it's been good what does it cost to go what does it cost tickets start at $15 and it just depends now we are living in a wonderful time in Washington where as we're reporting this just last night the caps you know finished off the Bruins and the Nats are at the top of the league and tonight presumably will learn that we're going to get a new quarterback for the Redskins and the Wizards have actually won some games yeah do you do you have a seat at the table with all those big boys and those names I mean a lot of really nice to you that we're all friends we've all been in the business community together so yeah we're all friends and I and the great thing it's true in business it's true in sports I grow mean that's one of the great things about being in this community is people root for each other right no and I always think about how different that is than say truly I think I love New York and I spent a lot of time there but I think we have a different culture here where people try to help each other and when I was watching this team every single one of those teams helped us in some way they sent out email offers to their fans to try to get attention for us and we did the same for them and so I think the culture among sports the sports teams is very consistent with the culture in the business community which is we all try to help each other you mentioned the business community I know you're a member of the Economic Club of Washington you may even be on the board I don't recall but how do you explain at a local level Washington essentially so far sort of surviving the market crash yeah I mean it just we're just the drivers of our me are somewhat different you know I mean we're driven by government and I and real estate in different and technology a little bit obviously you know Jim Kim's he's over there as truly one of the icons and our business and technology community say the same about you you wouldn't be true it wouldn't be true because because truly AOL I think was an inflection point of me what Jim did in that time payment for washing huge huge it and that's when I say when in 1982 I came here and Carl I was the only thing I was gonna I could really do you know the rise of AOL almost more than anything else changed that because it proved there'd be a technology there could be a technology community a lot of things grew up around that a lot of the people who were there at a senior level went on and funded other companies became venture capitalists became entrepreneurs and added a little bit of diversity to our base so so so that's it I do think so I think that's why this community is different the drivers are just different we're not quite as market driven while the market has some impacted in the last election were you a great person or a Fenty person Wow well mark I'm sure it's public records ya know I don't know I mean I actually did I had no no I dunno I was I was I was hired a I had known Adrienne and it was very involved in his education efforts well Michele and as you know right chairman of the DC Public Education Fund which raises the money for the school system so I was close to him I didn't know the current mayor but I've become very good friends with the current mayor and and you know and I think he's a really terrific guy he's really thoughtful and driven and trying to right thing so do you what do you think drives the city more business or or real-estate development I still think it's more driven I think real estate is still probably a bigger part of the local economy but it's changing and that's DC itself I think if you look regionally I think it's probably more other things and by the way it's not just technology it's biotech is is great here you know telecom is is great but you're invested in telecom and telecom that was about and stuff that I've done and so and obviously government contractors and I think if there's a threat to the region it is that government actually is spending less they're taking less space and I think that that's there's one thing that we have to work but don't you know yes I said it sometimes feel to me as one who's also grown up here that we're going through a very big sea change that we may not even recognize till further down the road where Congress really doesn't live here anymore you know they're connecting more and more like a state legislature all the time they're their families aren't here their kids don't go to school with our kids and that we are becoming more our own City to you do you sense that do you that do you think it's driven by the entrepreneurs like this yeah I think we in that boy I think the city definitely is diversified away and less dependent on that I think the phenomenon you talk about is really bad for the country I think the people another issue gets all another issue but I think it's an important issue one of the reasons they don't speak to each other right because they don't they don't go to Athens together oh well can we talk about that for a little bit what's your favorite Nathan story with some famous person today famous person I'm something that no one's ever heard before person story ok I'm sorry I missed was the night that John Riggins used to come in after Redskins games and tie one on yeah those and then the best was that he'd sometimes end up in the hospital the next day in traction nothing to do with Nathan's but just to do with the game but he'd have Nathan's send him fettuccine alfredo in a box and my husband would send it up with a waiter to Sibley but they they'd hide a bottle of Moet inside the box with them a cheney alfredo so the good old days we get into whether you behave yourself or not i want it i want to go back to business for a second week are you involved are you invested in real estate I mean big real estate here I own some house yeah no no no I have a saying I do I actually own a property near the ballpark buildings actually no it's an industrial property down the buzzards point and have an option on something else down there I think would you ever build an office building sure so what do you think of this proposal that seems to be coming from Mayor Gray and Congressman ice about possibly allowing ya to raise the height of buildings well I think there's two things do you raise it unlimited or do you add one-story there would be some of people of Washington who would said you can't raise it one no and or or none so one is do you just allow you know big buildings some people say just add a floor some say don't do anything I'm probably more of don't at it I think it I think its core to the character of the city I think it's part of the core of the stability of our economy is that office space is tight and it makes for a great real estate market if that's the interesting thing I how people sort of match up all the factors they think about real estate developer and you happen to be the first one to build the building maybe you make money but if you own anything else and and the market starts to loosen up like it does everywhere else then you're gonna lose you know and we have one of the best it's not the best real estate market in the world one of the top five over a very long time period and that would change if you did it so I'm probably more against changing it than anything where where do you have your office we like two offices one is revenger house and for the tennis team is on 7th Street half a block from the Verizon Center so we went down there in 1999 it's the three floors above the don't own your building I've tried I wish okay Douglas Jamal's done very well he's been very good to us but he's been very well for himself and then castle systems which is a business that I own has a office in Falls Church yeah Castle systems I mean I don't know how long you've owned it but I just remember it yeah years about that it was how I got in and out of the various offices where I work or how close are we to having to use our eyeballs to get in and out of the places we work some people I mean some people would like that it probably a higher level security and it's coming do you already provide that technology you can it's - it's not if you sort have to look into some goggles so no one really wants to go through it but but retinal identification is available always looks better in the movies that's way better yeah but but you know there will come a point in whether it's retinal or just facial recognition those things are all are all coming but yeah it's a great company and that's a four we're celebrating our 40th anniversary fortunate to to buy it the entrepreneur gets all the success for building it but it's when I first met the company I realize you don't get many chances to own a company that's an iconic company it's like FedEx Kleenex and people pull out say Oh Castle this is my castle card yeah and about sixty percent of the time and watching do they sometimes not connect the name of the tennis team often that's fine actually I just thought you thought up the name castles Burton you know we've sort of we have the whole you know Knight and we've sort of turned it into something I think in some ways the tennis team well known at this point than the business which is fine as well dude do you do you know how many companies you have I know how many I own entirely how many iPad vestments and how many companies do you an entirely well or the majority are the majority fair enough to - yeah okay and then others another have investments with other people do you play favorites between the two castles is one and is the other one Telecom or well I mean castle systems have tennis team but then I have investments and a lot of companies with other people and you can appeal to your sort of hobbies or personal interests yeah I mean obviously the tennis team that's then beyond that yeah I'll Groupons Duncan jealous right something like that fun thing yeah get Donuts every morning in the office you know I think all of them in some way I mean it's some way the joy is sometimes in what the company does sometimes it's just growing and building something creating something you know and how busy does this keep you very busy here or in the air I mean are you a traveling man or I travel a lot but I try to stick around I try I used to travel a lot more but I I like working very closely with the companies were invested in and so I find that a lot easier a big so the core team in our office is about four or five but then the tennis team grows to 35 people and season that's in our office Castle systems has close to 500 employees yeah well used I bring up your busyness because one of the things you did several years ago was by Katherine Graham's house and it was very interesting you and I will say you you gave me a tour last Saturday which I found to be really interesting and I'm very grateful and I think you should make a regular weekend have it as this giving people tours of the house because when you are in that house I don't know you well but a dimension of your personality comes to life that people probably don't usually see it's it's like to hear you talk about it it's like you were saying there's all these things I could do in the world but I got myself this and I have a plan and I'm gonna take my time fulfilling my plan but when you when you bought it and it still had furniture in it when you bought it so obviously it was something you had your eye on pretty fast was does it fall into some kind of vision of your life that you have yeah that's a good that's a good way of putting it it I don't know that it did I didn't it didn't fit into a vision but when I I didn't know the house at all mm-hm my Heidi had fields over there my wonderful real estate adviser who helped me buy the house and she called me because I was I had looked at stuff I actually looked at doing something near Jim's house sober in Virginia and then this one came about and and when I didn't know it but when I saw it I you know I at that point this is mm there's something I had decided that I was gonna be in Washington for the rest of my life and this is where I was gonna build my life and I wanted a place that I could call my home for you know 50 60 70 years so when I saw it I thought I think it's gonna be hard to find something as special as this that fits that vision and my hesitancy on it was that I didn't want to be known for it and if anything well gosh yeah sometimes the best laid plans no but but I I really didn't I mean I to me that whole SOT the notoriety part of it was you know negative well that was the the reason I didn't do it for a while I'm Heidi can attest I struggled hard with it and it took a long time to do it not because of the house but because did I want that part of it and you know and then it was right after 9/11 actually it was right after 9/11 and after 9/11 I actually had a few friends who died in 9/11 you're not great friends but people I knew a guy who work with and I thought to myself like you only have one life don't be afraid for that reason you know don't not do it for that reason don't let that not be the reason and you'll deal with it and that's why in the end I decided to do it was I just thought this is gonna be a special place and if I'm gonna make my life in this community this will be a really special part of it but then they took the furniture out and handed you the keys and you walked in and you realized you had interestingly not a monumental systems renovation you needed to but a monumental cosmetic renovation you feel you need to yeah I mean I think it's a real I think to do it right is a real project you know I think you know it's not gonna make is you know we talked about working to it's nothing extensive externally but internally it definitely needs some rearranging and a whole bunch of snot-nosed modernizing right as many as it's do exactly exactly so it's it's a serious it's a serious project did it that way and you are a student of the homes history yeah fun to listen to that yeah backs the front and the Front's the back and I also thought it was at you said it's public records you paid eight million dollars for it and so I asked you how many times people have tried to buy it from you and you said fairly off fairly off yeah and what do you tell them it's not for sale I mean it's it really you know I have had a lot of people go through and people have talked about it and we've it's not that I haven't thought I will admit it's not that I haven't thought about it at times and again Heidi Kidd attest to this because she's been through this with me at the end I just don't want to give up something that I view as my home for for the line you have all these plants that but you haven't found an architect yet we have not found one to settle in on so this is basically yeah we're call for an architect architects Architects please decorator decorator actor yeah but but to there you know this is not a big surprise that there people who are like what's mark I'm gonna do that that house what do you say to them leave me alone they I think they asked you not me because I don't they don't because I don't get that directly um you know I don't know what I would say I'm not gonna it's nothing that's gonna be overly next you know extensive you can say it's none of their business you know it's alright yeah and that's generally why I don't talk about it but and maybe you know and I don't have those discussions but it was someone asked it I want to answer that's what I that's what I'd say I think it takes it takes a modder not you know it takes some modernizing and you know is you know you were there you've seen it so we've been we've you know we've kept we painted it we've landscape debt and so we've tried to keep it and you have a big party there every year on the weekend of the correspondents to see someone else has a big party someone else I get thirty out okay so I gathered in listening to you that when you look at whether when you were walking around these vast rooms you said you're very happy living in palaces yeah so you see this is where you might live someday do you see yourself living there alone or with a spouse do you see yourself raising a family there yes no no I see raising a family there because because I guess you know you have a reputation as a Playboy Oh do you think that's unfounded I think that is unfounded actually in recent years yeah well but you know it's out there I don't know these people tell you all these things about me they don't tell me the other Facebook page I do other well it's it's not to put you on the spot it's just that I think that it's not a month it's if you're in Washington and you young and attractive and have a lot of money and you're not married and since we know that the population is proportionately at the advantage of the men everybody's paying attention so but you are out and about I mean it's mostly for good works thanks to try or do you like do you just like social life well I I want to think about most of my day especially in you know the last five or ten years I think it's a lot is it's a lot for work or community or stuff like that and then there's other stuff yeah I like people so I like doing stuff I like doing it more you know mainly with people my friends and things I'm interested in are you shy person do you think I think a little bit of both yeah I think at times yeah maybe that is part and parcel with being in investments that you kind of want which a private business to be a private business yeah and I think it's also just the way I was brought up a little bit you know it's not you're brought up well I was brought up the best do you have brothers and sisters I do I have a younger brother who lives in Paris he's moving back does he have a guest room he does do you want to stay there are you thinking of you depending on how this goes Carol I can maybe make no it's great and actually has been it's truly is great it is yeah let's keep going what is that there are a lot of people to you but I know you were reluctant but I think people like me I really first made them thank you