# Goldman's reputation and scale are hard to build incrementally

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/goldmans-reputation-and-scale-are-hard-to-build/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Lloyd Blankfein](https://realalpha.app/people/lloyd-blankfein/) · Lloyd Blankfein is a former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.
- Host: Jack Kokko · Founder & CEO, AlphaSense
- Show: How I Invest
- Episode: [Lloyd Blankfein at AlphaSummit: A Conversation with Jack Kokko (CEO of AlphaSense)](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/), Oct 27, 2025
- Moment: 21:17 to 24:14 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/goldmans-reputation-and-scale-are-hard-to-build/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/?t=1277

## Quote

> “what makes Goldman a Goldman is **the influence it has**, the reputation it has”
> — [Lloyd Blankfein](https://realalpha.app/people/lloyd-blankfein/) at [22:21](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/?t=1341) · How I Invest

## Takeaways

1. Goldman links capital providers with companies that need funding.
2. Its influence and reputation are difficult to build step by step.
3. Smaller firms can move faster but lack the same institutional reach.

## About this segment

Lloyd Blankfein says Goldman connects large pools of capital with businesses that need it. Its reputation and reach make the firm difficult to recreate from a startup.

From “Lloyd Blankfein at AlphaSummit: A Conversation with Jack Kokko (CEO of AlphaSense)”, Oct 27, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/)

## Transcript

From the transcript How I Invest publishes with the episode.

[21:22](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/?t=1282) I wonder, like, just taking that in another direction, with a thought experiment, if you think about, you know, the evolution of investment banking and where things are heading and take that even further, if you were starting Goldman Sachs today or an investment bank, how would you design it? What would be the edge today for that sort of built from scratch, new winning winning bank? You know, there's different directions you can go in.

[21:51](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/?t=1311) Like, you know, the difference in a Goldman Sachs and what a lot of people here are doing. Goldman Sachs is a big company. The burden is it's very hard to move it, very hard to affect it. And in a startup like you're well, not a startup at this point, but a young company and other young companies, big impact. You don't have to have a burden that anything you do could blow up the planet because you're still small enough that you can't even if you wanted to.

[22:16](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/?t=1336) And if you're a Goldman, you don't want to, but anything you do can. So how do you the idea of starting up a Goldman is very far is very hard to even imagine, because what makes Goldman a Goldman is the influence it has, the reputation it has, that the people who have capital and want to invest it, and the people who need capital, and can you know, and our role is kinda intermediating between those very, very large and kind of very capable and effective groups.

[22:47](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/?t=1367) You know, the people who are the most entrepreneurial and the biggest who have the most demand for something and the people who have the biggest supply of it is no almost is no way of incrementing your way to it. And, you know, a lot in my life, most a lot of people like you worked in an investment bank for a while and then when you want to be an entrepreneur and you want to so there are some You know who you are and there's some people who value that kind of big ship, big thing, influential thing with the burden of not being you know, knowing that you have to have a lot of partners and it's not you alone and you're wielding you know, you're you're you're driving a battleship.

[23:30](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/?t=1410) It could sometimes take 75 miles before you could turn it around and all the consequences of that. And there are some people who are wired to be more entrepreneurial and do things quicker, and you forego possibly the influence and, you know, unless you become one of, like, you know, one of the big hyperscalers who were both in this new world, and you can aspire to that, but that's rarefied atmosphere.

[23:54](https://realalpha.app/v/GRMhjOlVwMg/?t=1434) So what would I do today? You know, I now know what the all what the other I didn't do both. I was a big firm kind of a person, but I got to a level where you could kinda wield it. And so, you know, that was, you know, that was fun for a while and very much not fun for other at other times.