Bio
If you go to my LinkedIn page you can find my current detailed resume, but I thought a blog site should have a more personal perspective. Those who know me would describe me as intense, introspective and inquiring. In most things I do I try and find connections between disparate object and event. We are a function of our experiences, and mine are a combination of rigorous analytics and creative problem solving. My 25 years in finance, at Arthur Anderson and Goldman, Sachs gave me an economics and macro training that complemented the basic analysis skills that come from studying mathematics, philosophy and logic at Oxford.
Though my day job is to work with entrepreneurs in private companies, I keep an unhealthy interest in the public markets and the larger macro trends that drive the economy. I moved to focus on the private markets as I increasingly was concerned as to how public investing had become a game, more about momentum, technicals, and trading off of others’ concentrated positions than the fundamental responsibility to allocate capital efficiently. Private investing, by comparison, has led to a refreshing view of a capitalist life. Trying to allocate capital to those companies that can grow. Simple to state, artful to do, imperfect in execution.
It was in 1999 that I started to make private investments, initially to diversify from the concentrated public market exposure that comes from working on trading floor of a large investment bank. One investment led to another, and now with over forty investments in over a dozen companies, and a never ending in-tray of potential investments I feel that I have some perspective on the area I like to focus on. To get a better idea of my investment philosophy you can check out the ff Asset Management’s website. My portfolio is dominated by investments in early stage companies with strong management teams that have a low CapEx approach. I like to find Internet enabled disruptive business model with high operating leverage.
On a personal level I am an early adopter i.e. a tad geeky, a believer in the less-is-more approach (that simplicity and clarity lead to good design) and have the wondrous support of my wife, Julia, of over 25 years and have been blessed with five wonderful children.
