Mario Gabelli

They let macro noise short-circuit their logic.

Every January, there's the Barron's Roundtable with legends like John Neff and Mario Gabelli.

If you ignored their macro worrying and just bought their stock picks, you'd make a fortune.

But if you listen to their fears about interest rates, the money supply, and geopolitics, you'd be too terrified to ever invest.

So we would take thirty kids to Omaha every year for the annual meeting.

And I kinda grew up in that New York value mafia, going to hedge fund dinners with Lee Cooperman and Mario Gabelli and, uh, all the old greats.

And I kinda got steeped in the importance of free cash flow.

And I know Justin's gonna talk about cash flowing investments in the private markets.

What

Mario Gabelli would say, okay, earnings are there, give us our money back.

He would look for use of cash, dividend growth, and share buyback.

I was quite taken by NVIDIA's share buyback.

Okay, he just retired.

And then in that experience, I got to meet some incredible people and I kind of grew up in New York City in what we call the value mafia going to hedge fund dinners with Mario Gabelli and Lee Cooperman and all the greatest value investors of all time.

And that principal set up a course at his alma mater in the Midwest called the Warren Buffett Principles of Investing.

And we would take 30 students every year to meet Warren Buffett at the annual meeting and I learned those principles and it changed my life.