Founder’s Story

In this episode of the Capital Cycle podcast, Edward Chancellor interviews Neil Osterer, a founding partner of Marathon Asset Management, about his career, Marathon's investment philosophy, and significant investment periods over the last 30 years. Osterer discusses the origins of Marathon's long-term investment approach, influenced by the PC boom bust and the importance of positive capital cycles. The conversation covers Marathon's distrust of investment bankers and brokers, the challenges faced during the TMT bubble, and the firm's horizontal approach to investing, which combines value and growth strategies. Osterer also shares his investing rules of thumb, red flags for management, and the significance of meeting with company managers to assess their capital allocation decisions and corporate culture.