Joey Levin on Investing, Simplicity and Leading Through a Market Reset

Joey Levin, then CEO of IAC and Angi, joins Harry Stebbings to discuss leadership, investing and company building in February 2023. Levin says he wanted to be a lawyer as a child and was inspired by Clarence Darrow and his own father.

Levin believes achievement often appears in clusters because people see what is possible through role models and peers. He names Barry Diller, Jack Welch and family members among those who advised him. Their example, he says, helped him understand the scope of what he could pursue.

Looking back on two decades at IAC, Levin credits hard work and having opinions. When evaluating acquisitions he tried to read filings, transcripts and other material until he understood a business deeply. He favors strong opinions held loosely: take a position, but remain open to changing it.

For graduates, he suggests paying attention to the topics they naturally read and talk about. Work that genuinely interests someone can sustain effort for longer, even when the work is uncomfortable. His own interest in business books helped point him toward a career he wanted to keep doing.

Levin describes the market adjustment then under way as challenging for IAC: valuations, revenue expectations, expenses and access to credit could all change quickly. People who had worked through a long rising market had to unlearn habits formed in that environment. This is his account of conditions in early 2023.

He argues that government responses to the 2008 crisis and the pandemic were important, but worries that repeated rescues can encourage an expectation that help will always arrive. Stebbings raises concerns about employee expectations. These are their interpretations of incentives and workplace attitudes, not evidence about every younger worker.

To manage morale, Levin values a mix of people who have experienced previous cycles and colleagues encountering one for the first time. Shared institutional experience can give teams perspective without leaving one veteran isolated as the only voice of caution.

Levin challenges the narrow use of ‘value investing’ to mean only buying low-multiple assets. An investor may pay a high multiple and still see value if future growth justifies the price. IAC, he says, considers both low-priced and higher-multiple opportunities; the distinction depends on expected value, not a guaranteed outcome.

Being greedy when others are fearful requires capital already available before the downturn, Levin says. Holding that capacity through a boom is difficult because assets look attractive and cash can seem idle. He says IAC then had more than $1 billion in cash and no debt at the parent level; this is a time-specific company statement and does not describe subsidiaries’ finances.

Levin sees public and private valuations diverging during market transitions. He argues that private companies may avoid a financing when they have cash, while investors, LPs and employees may have incentives to preserve existing marks. Public markets include short sellers as well as buyers, producing a different price-discovery process. These are his interpretations, not proof that every private mark is inaccurate.

He agrees with Orlando Bravo’s view that the market conditions then prevailing were relatively reasonable, rather than assuming a quick return to prior multiples. He expects earnings to grow over time but sees no obvious near-term catalyst for multiple expansion. This is a 2023 judgment, not a forecast of a guaranteed path.

Levin calls simplification the source of margin. A marketplace serves customers on both supply and demand sides; it earns a margin by reducing complexity for them. He extends the same principle to simpler prices, presentations and purchase flows, saying fewer steps can improve conversion.

One common mistake, in his view, is pursuing too many projects because the total addressable market looks large. Companies with abundant capital can spread across products and competitors before proving which opportunities matter. Levin recommends identifying work that simplifies the experience and concentrating resources there.

For messaging, Levin recalls his father making the children memorize a passage from The Elements of Style about eliminating unnecessary words and parts. He applies the principle to business communications: explain what the company does without adding language that obscures the point.

Levin says company values can help distinguish an opportunity from a distraction if they are specific enough to guide decisions. At Angi, where he had recently become CEO, the team changed a general ‘customer first’ idea into ‘build lifelong customers’. He says the more specific standard affects priorities and product choices.

Values should sometimes make a team uncomfortable, he argues. Colleagues should be able to ask whether a proposed product or decision passes the value test, without making the challenge personal. A single transaction and a lasting relationship may call for different choices.

Asked how he can lead both IAC and Angi, Levin says colleagues including CFO Chris Halpin and chairman Barry Diller stepped up elsewhere, creating time for him. He acknowledges that the two roles take time from his personal life, while saying he enjoys both. This is his account of his own management arrangement.

Levin criticizes a feature of the SPAC process as he understands it: a company can grant a third party a multi-month option to take its story to public investors at a critical moment. He believes the option can be costly when conditions change. This is his assessment of the structure, not a claim that every SPAC transaction has identical terms or outcomes.

Stebbings argues that very early companies can be distracted by public-company obligations. Levin agrees those burdens are real, but notes that a SPAC may provide capital unavailable in the same amount elsewhere. The value of the route depends on the alternatives and the business’s ability to use that capital.

Levin says a wave of small public companies can exceed the capacity of investors who have time to analyze them. He credits investor Henry Ellenbogen with warning him about that problem. Some companies, he speculates, may grow large enough to attract attention; others may return to private ownership.

On money, Levin recalls seeing an inflated sense of his net worth on paper around November 2021 and then watching values change sharply. He tries to remember that wealth can rise or fall and to compare his circumstances with earlier moments when he already felt fortunate. The account distinguishes paper value from cash realized.

Stebbings asks how parents can encourage ambition when children grow up with financial comfort. Levin says he and his wife have not solved the problem, though he credits her with keeping the family grounded. He sees a tension between believing adversity builds character and wanting to protect children from it.

Looking back at investments not sold at the peak, Levin cautions against imagining one would always buy at the bottom and sell at the top. He would rather evaluate whether he still believes in the business, team and market. Holding can also involve risk; his remarks are a philosophy, not a guarantee that every long-term investment will win.

Levin credits his mother’s frugality with shaping his attitude toward money. He recalls restrictions on restaurant extras and looking for deals, while explicitly saying his family did not face hardship in that sense. He believes the experience encouraged ambition, although he has not reproduced the same strict approach with his own children.

Persistence does not mean continuing automatically. Levin says the question is whether the current thesis still makes sense, not merely whether one believed it before. He recalls several failed plans at the business that became Dotdash Meredith; management returned with revised plans, and one eventually worked in his account.

Each new attempt should be evaluated on its own merits rather than justified by sunk costs. If a proposed plan merely repeats what failed and no longer makes sense, it may be time to stop or find someone with a better approach. Levin sees balancing short- and long-term resources as a central CEO responsibility.

In a quick-fire round, Levin says the market reversal he had expected is less pleasant to live through than to anticipate, particularly when jobs are affected. He considers persistence both a strength and, at times, a weakness. His praise for Jack Welch as a board member centers on instinct and understanding how others think.

Asked about marriage, he emphasizes love, respect and choosing when an opinion matters enough to press. On venture, he says he does not spend much time thinking about changing the industry but believes too much cash harmed some companies during the boom. These are personal judgments, not universal rules.

Levin says he cannot predict his personal life five years ahead, but expects to remain at IAC. In business planning he wants a multi-year and even enduring perspective while balancing immediate needs. Stebbings closes by thanking him for a conversation spanning management, money and markets.