Why Does Alex Davis Only Back Companies That Are Already Winning?

Alex Davis says Disruptive was not built as a fee business by people who had left banking for venture. The question was whether private companies that already looked headed for the public market could be bought before the listing, first for friends and a few institutions, and whether that could be a firm. What stayed true, in 2012 and again over the last year, is a short list of companies that are alone in their category, and the demand to own them early.

Amazon, about 25 years ago, is his picture of the point. He remembers it then as a $300 million private company with a $60 million public float. It looked expensive. It is a $3 trillion business now. A basis that starts before a company like that is public is the case for the strategy. Picking companies with no product-market fit and no technical breakthrough is the harder job, and it is not this job. He wants companies that are already winning. The comparison is an undefeated team with one game left and a likely trip to the Super Bowl. Would you bet on that team, and could you still get odds where the upside is not capped? His view is that you could.