Exchanges The Growth Playbook: Goldman Sachs’ Darren Cohen on Building a Growth Investing Platform
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Sep 9, 2025 
Darren Cohen, co-head and chief investment officer of Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, shares his unique journey from potential careers in philosophy or law to tech investing. He reflects on lessons learned from the tech bubble and underscores the importance of a long-term investment strategy. The conversation dives into current opportunities in AI, SaaS, and healthcare technology, while emphasizing the transformative power of AI in reshaping investment approaches. Cohen also highlights untapped sectors and the critical infrastructure needed to harness their potential.
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Model Upside And Downside To Gauge Risk
- Living through the 1999–2000 tech cycle taught Darren to build upside/downside models and focus on risk-adjusted returns.
- That three-model framework (base, upside, downside) remains central to his growth investing approach.
Why He Left Hedge Funds For Private Investing
- Darren recounts working at a global TMT hedge fund where he digested overnight markets and learned the intensity of short-term mark-to-market sensitivity.
- After his first child he chose to leave high-frequency volatility and pursue longer-term private investing to build companies.
Building Trading Infrastructure With Strategic Capital
- In strategic investing at Goldman he backed and built trading platforms and exchanges that helped digitize capital markets.
- Those investments grew from hundreds of millions to billions and endured through the financial crisis, validating their long-term value.
