We were lucky to catch up with Ashkan Mapar recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashkan , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

Everything. The world of finance, and more specifically Investment Management, is one that is built off of tradition. There is usually little innovation relative to other industries such as tech, healthcare, etc. Being a younger portfolio manager compared to the rest of my peers, I try to shake things up daily and look at investing differently than how the majority do which you can catch a glimpse of on our strategy page at alumnicapital.com.

An example of how we do things differently would be the way we structure our investments in small cap companies and the way we structure our overall portfolio. The industry standard amongst investment managers is to stay away from smaller companies that are obscure or out of favor. For me, that’s when I get excited and want to do a deeper dive. The best opportunities I’ve come across are usually companies that the majority have never heard of or the companies everyone has written off as a failure. Therefore by going against the industry standard and what most of my peers are doing, I’m able to structure and invest in diamonds in the rough before anyone else can.

Beyond investing, I try to do things differently as it relates to lifestyle and culture at my fund. I don’t care about prestige or prior work experience as much as others. I care about building a team that is set on three things: working hard, working smart, and most importantly – having fun.

Ashkan , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I recently graduated from UC San Diego a little over a year ago and subsequently launched my second fund called Alumni Capital Management as the General Partner and Portfolio Manager. At Alumni Capital, we focus on making opportunistic and event-driven investments into small cap companies under a $2B market cap, with an emphasis on life sciences, technology, and energy. We are a fund made up of both alumni and students from various schools throughout the U.S. and do not come from prestigious backgrounds. The youth and various backgrounds within my team gives my fund a strong edge compared to other investors and allows us to approach our investments from a different angle. Alumni Capital is based out of NYC (where I’m located most of the time) but also still carries a presence in San Diego & Los Angeles.

Any advice for managing a team?

There’s only two things that matter as a leader – leading by example and being positive. When times get tough or when new doors open up, your team looks at you for guidance to lead them forward. The easiest way to do that is to show your team what to do through your actions and to spread a positive mindset at all times. This almost always leads to a high morale and a trusting group of people to work with.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are definitely a few books that have impacted my mindset and philosophy both in life and business (with a few of them being on my website’s strategy page). The main book I’ll talk about is Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, which is a series of interviews with various investors / traders that shows the rise of each one, how they got to where they are, and how their strategy was different than the average guy. This book did two things for me – gave me my first real introduction to the different investment strategies out there and showed me that to be successful as an investor, you have to find something that makes you different than the next guy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alumnicapital.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alumnicapital
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ashkanmapar

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