
Mickey Mouse fund
Starting out
Holte Capital opened for business on 1 November 2002. We arrived at
the office drained from the drama of the previous week’s fund-raising.
At the 8am opening bell Brian sent me an email: ‘Houston, we have
lift-off’, which led to more self-deprecating banter about what a big bad
hedge fund we were, now that we had $3.5 million to throw around.
‘Corporate Europe, be afraid – Holte Capital is ready to make you
dance’, ‘The evil empire is ready to strike’, etc. Then it was back to work.
In the run-up to launch we had put together a ‘paper portfolio’
of securities we planned to invest in once we we