Public and Private Ownership
We view common stocks as fractional ownership interests in businesses. The objective is to own great businesses at prices below our intrinsic value estimates, in the public markets and, as public and private markets converge, in later-stage companies that we consider to be unicorn, must-own businesses. We invest only when the investors on our proprietary GOAT investor list already have a position. The idea is simple, implementation and the required conviction is not.
Client portfolio concentration will be customized to appropriate risk tolerance constraints.
Research · Co-ownership · Patience
About
We maintain a proprietary GOAT investor list of those we believe to be the great investors of this generation. We study their ownership as a signal of where serious capital has already been committed, and as a constraint on where we will commit ours.
We own public companies with the intention of holding them for years, and sometimes for more than a decade. We apply the same standard to later-stage private unicorns, as public and private markets continue to converge. We measure progress in the compounding of intrinsic value, not in the noise of any one quarter.
Businesses of uncommon quality, public or late-stage private. Situations in which the upside is substantially greater than the risk of permanent capital loss. Companies that can reinvest at high rates of return.
We do not invest unless an investor on our proprietary GOAT investor list already owns the security. That is not a preference. It is the rule that governs every commitment of capital.
We measure our horizon in years. We would rather hold cash than own a business that does not meet our standard. We do not confuse activity with progress.
Approach
We look for four kinds of opportunity, and we apply the same standard to later-stage private companies. In every case, we invest only if the idea also satisfies our GOAT ownership requirement.
Businesses of uncommon quality, and the entrepreneurs who built them, that we would be prepared to own for many years. Whether the company is listed or still private is a secondary question.
Situations in which the upside is substantially greater than the risk of permanent capital loss, purchased at a price that still leaves a margin of safety.
Businesses that can reinvest incremental capital at high rates of return, and that therefore compound intrinsic value over long periods.
Companies in which several investors on our proprietary GOAT investor list have been adding in recent filings. We treat that as confirmation of our own work, never as a substitute for it.
Horizon
The same businesses, and often the same owners, now appear on both sides of the listing line. Later-stage private unicorns must meet the same test of quality, and the same GOAT ownership requirement, as a public holding.
We seek companies that already have scale, proven operators, and a path we can underwrite. We are prepared to own them through a public listing or a long private hold. We are not in the business of funding experiments.
Research that stops at the listing line is incomplete. We follow the business, and the owners, wherever they sit.
Services
The same research process. The same ownership requirement. We buy when both are satisfied. We wait when they are not.
Concentrated ownership of public companies, and of later-stage private companies when the same requirement is met. Built around the four categories above. Held with the intention of compounding for years.
Individually managed accounts that follow the same process, with appropriate regard for taxes, investment guidelines, and reporting.
Fewer holdings. The same filter. Sized with attention to the risk of permanent capital loss, not next quarter’s mark-to-market.
We hold cash to meet known obligations, and when too few ideas meet our standard. Cash is not a separate strategy. It is what remains when we refuse to lower the bar.
Who We Serve
Investors who want a partner with a clear process and a horizon measured in years.
Family capital that requires a partner prepared to think in decades, not reporting periods.
Operators with exceptional founder DNA who are trying to solve structural problems.
Endowments, foundations, and other long-term pools of capital that want a rigorous equity process and straightforward reporting.
Contact
If this approach to ownership is of interest, we would be glad to hear from you. There is no presentation to sit through. Only a conversation about whether the process is a fit.
pato@goatholdingscapital.comWe generally respond within two business days.
Thank you. We will be in touch shortly. You may also reach us at pato@goatholdingscapital.com.