TEP Investments: Recent Episodes

Tom Perfrement

We investigate the behaviours, habits, insights, skills, and psychology of high performing individuals both within and outside of the investing world.

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My guest on Episode 7 is Hayden Smith, a Co-Founder and the CTO of Pearler Investments, and a personal long-term passive index investor. Pearler Investments is an investment and financial platform that was founded by three friends in 2018 who wanted to help Australians find financial freedom and simplify investing.

Episode Content:

    • Hayden’s background growing up in Ballina, NSW, his formative learnings and his pathway into the engineering world, starting at UNSW.
    • Experiences volunteering for SunSWIFT, UNSW’s solar car racing team, setting the FIA World Record for the world's fastest electric vehicle over 500km in 2014.
    • The early stages and ongoing evolution of Pearler Investments – how the idea was first formed.
    • Pearler’s unique model, the competitive advantage of the platform, and what the platform has achieved so far.
    • The future for Pearler Investments, what excites Hayden most about the potential for the company and individual private investing.
    • Hayden’s tips on high performing habits that can help listeners become more effective at their life's pursuits.

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Episode Summary:

My guest on Episode 6 is Andrew Page, the Founder and Managing Director of Strawman, and longtime personal microcap investor. Strawman is Australia’s premier online investment club providing independent, peer-reviewed research and recommendations from Australia’s best private investors. https://strawman.com/.

Episode Content:

    • Andrew’s background growing up in Tamworth, NSW, his formative learnings and his pathway into the finance world, starting his career at CommSec.
    • Experiences setting up ‘Electric Bean’, as an entrepreneur and subsequent experiences at Hubb Financial Group, Team Invest and the Motley Fool.
    • The early stages and ongoing evolution of Strawman.com – how the idea was first formed.
    • Strawman’s unique model, the extraordinary range of investors on the platform, and what the platform has achieved so far.
    • The future for Strawman.com, what excites Andrew most about his decision to go full time with Strawman and full-time private investing.
    • Andrew’s tips on high performing habits that can help listeners become more effective at their life's pursuits.

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Episode Summary:

My guest on Episode 5 is Luke Winchester, former Portfolio Manager with Oracle Investment Management, and longtime personal microcap investor. Luke has leveraged his passion and highly successful track record to found Merewether Capital, which is a microcap focused fund based in Newcastle. (https://www.merewethercapital.com.au/)

Episode Content:

  • Luke’s background growing up in Newcastle, NSW, his formative learnings and his pathway into funds management from an early career in industrial relations.
  • Experiences working for Oracle Investment Management and major learnings.
  • The early stages and ongoing evolution of Merewether Capital – how the idea was first formed.
  • Merewether Capital’s unique model, what a typical investment looks like, and what Luke looks for in management teams.
  • The future for Merewether Capital, what excites Luke most about his decision to go full time with Merewether and his long-term ambitions.
  • Luke’s tips on high performing habits that can help listeners become more effective at their life's pursuits.

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Episode Summary:

My guest on Episode 4 is Mark Monfort. Mark is a data analytics and technology advocate at heart. He lives and breathes the ecosystem and has a storied career focusing on the creation of data-driven solutions across a variety of industries in Australia and overseas. Leveraging the knowledge learned from working in equity research firms and at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), he has a strong knowledge of the capital markets here and overseas and is the Founder of the free tool ETF Tracker (https://www.etftracker.com.au/).

Episode Content:

  • Mark’s background growing up in Western Sydney, NSW, and his formative learnings.

  • Early professional experiences working as an auditor for PwC, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank and then management consultant which formed Mark’s passion for analytics and the power of technology and data.

  • Major learnings from Mark’s experiences in investment banking working for a quant research firm, QMG, Canaccord Genuity in London and the ASX. We also cover QMG’s unique brand of data-driven equity research.

  • A deep dive into the ETF space. Mark explains the origins of the popular ETF Tracker tool and highlights some of the major thematic trends that he is seeing in the ETF space.

  • The state of data analytics within equity research and insights into how funds are changing in their approach to using data & analytics.

  • Mark’s personal portfolio composition and his personal investing style.

  • Mark’s tips on high-performing habits that can help listeners become more effective at their life pursuits.

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Our guests on Episode 3 are Adrian Petersen and Alex Khor, former management consultants with Bain and McKinsey, turned venture capitalists. Alex and Adrian have co-founded Afterwork Ventures, which is VC fund based across Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. with a highly unique model. (https://www.afterwork.vc/).

Episode Content:

  • Adrian and Alex’s background growing up in Perth, WA, their formative learnings, and their pathway into management consulting.

  • Experiences working for McKinsey and Bain and major learnings.

  • The early stages and evolution of Afterwork Ventures – how the idea was first formed.

  • Afterwork Ventures unique VC model, what a typical investment looks like, and what Adrian and Alex look for in Founders.

  • The future for Afterwork, what excites Alex and Adrian most about their decision to go full time with Afterwork and their long-term ambitions.

  • Adrian & Alex’s tips on high-performing habits that can help listeners become more effective at their life's pursuits.

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Episode Summary: Our guest on Episode 2 is Maria Rotilu, a former management consultant turned venture builder who helped startups like Uber and Branch.co scale in sub-saharan Africa. Maria enjoys helping technology businesses reach scale and is currently the Managing Director of the Oxford Seed Fund where she leads a team of Oxford MBA students.

Episode Content: Maria’s background growing up in Nigeria, formative learnings and her pathway into computer science & software engineering.| Maria’s journey to management consulting, the transition into entrepreneurship and reflections on why entrepreneurship is a major passion. | Scaling Uber and Branch.co in Sub-Saharan Africa in general management roles. | The Oxford Seed Fund, operating model, current focus and ambitions for the organisation going forward. | What questions Maria likes to ask startups and management teams of companies that may become potential investments. | Maria’s current view of the public markets, and personal strategies for private investing on the share market or elsewhere. | Maria’s tips on high performing habits that can help listeners become more effective at their life's pursuits. | The lack of progress on gender inclusivity and equality within the venture capital and entrepreneurship ecosystem and why we have so much further to go to achieve parity.

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Episode Summary:

Our guest on Episode 1 is Eric Schneider, a Harvard Business School MBA student, former aviation engineer and management consultant, entrepreneur and investor. Eric recently finished a stint at 25madison – a prestigious venture studio. The Venture studio model involves a unique mix of operating & building early-stage companies in addition to investing in them. https://www.25madison.com/

Episode Content:

  • Eric's background in the US, formative learnings and pathway into aviation engineering.
  • Eric's journey to management consulting and Harvard Business School, and reflections on his experiences.
  • The start-up studio/venture studio model of investing, working at 25madison and a day in the life of a VC investor.
  • What aspects of investing Eric is most passionate about and what skillsets are most important for high performing investors.
  • The importance of investing in Founder-led businesses and why they are unique.
  • High performing habits that can help listeners become more effective at their life's pursuits.

Further Content:

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This is the trailer for TEP Investments, a podcast exploring the world of small-cap stock picking.

For those that don’t have any context on me, I’ve made the leap into full time private investing after 7 years of investing part-time alongside a management consulting career. I’m a 20 something-year-old from Australia and I’m currently based in the UK where I am completing an MBA at Oxford University.

The journey into full time investing is a pathway I am relishing. I relish the challenge. I relish the people, the places, the companies, and the rollercoaster that is the ASX small-cap space.

This podcast is in search of extra-ordinary performance. We want to investigate the behaviours, habits, insights, skills, and psychology that will allow us to be in the top 1%. The top 1% of Australia’s private retail investors.

We will have will guests from both within and outside of the investing world; CEOs. Board Directors. Portfolio Managers. Athletes. Private investors. Artists. Lawyers. Doctors and Engineers.

We want to explore the personalities and the stories of Australia’s best-performing retail investors. Because the truth is -- the best of the best private individual investors are outperforming Australia’s fund managers.

Without further ado, welcome, and I hope you enjoy the series.

T.E.P.