Podcast

Episode 29: Alexander Portz joins us to talk growth investing in the UK and abroad

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Frazis Capital Partners
06/10/2020
Australian Financial Review

Australian Financial Review

Hello all, Tom Richardson at the Australian Financial Review featured us in an article available online here. Hope you’ve had an…

Michael Frazis

Portfolio Manager, Managing Partner

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Alexander began his career investing in technology for UK funds management giant Neptune, before joining London-based VC fund Redline Capital. It’s rare indeed to speak to someone with experience across the public and private side of tech investing. 

We had a fascinating chat covering robotic process automation, innovation investing, and life in venture capital vs public markets. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-portz-3a265236/

https://www.redline-capital.com/

0:50 – Alex talks about his start in public markets
2:30 – Tech investing at Neptune Capital
3:50 – Alex discusses a high-performing company during his time at Neptune
6:20 – Michael and Alex discuss a stand-out semiconductor manufacturer
8:05 – The importance of investing in high quality companies
9:25 – Investing using an EV/Sales ratio and sales growth (Shopify as an example)
9:50 – The opportunity presented by Blue Prism
10:00 – Alex and Michael extensively discuss Blue Prism
15:05 – Alex outlines his firm’s investment in Catalytic, an innovative ‘SAAS-linker’
18:10 – How Alex is finding the change between public markets and venture capital (VC)
20:40 – Carrying out due diligence on a VC deal compared to public markets research (sourcing, sector research etc)
23:05 – The incentives of public companies’ management to always be positive
25:45 – How Alex splits his time within VC
29:20 – Some exciting thematics, such as quantum computing
30:55 – The concept of Moore’s law
33:00 – The highest quality sources of learning in quantum computing
34:24 – The opportunity in mental health software such as Catasys
36:50 – Expensive data paid for by hedge funds
39:30 – The importance of reviewing companies’ real-time data before the rest of the market
41:10 – Some useful data points that can be gathered from LinkedIn
42:40 – Alex’s recent public markets’ investments in high growth SAAS
44:00 – Michael outlines the fund’s recent strategy of buying coronavirus ‘recovery plays’
47:10 – Are MongoDB and Shopify overvalued?
49:50 – Alex discusses his positive outlook on lithium
52:00 – Michael and Alex reminisce on their scientific research projects at Oxford

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