Investment Philosophy

EMA was founded in 2006 with a mission of focusing on “growth at a reasonable price” (GARP) equity investments. This philosophy grew out of Mr. Lepard’s 23 year VC investing experience in emerging technology and service companies. He was a Partner in two large VC firms from 1983-2006. He and his Partners participated in the growth of the PC, software, graphics, technology services, network equipment and Internet industries.

In 2006, our first theme was in developing countries, principally India, China and Brazil. Throughout 2006 and 2007, EMA could see the credit bubble forming in the US housing and credit markets. In 2008, EMA began to take profits in the BRIC investments and place shorts on highly levered US financials during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). As the GFC unfolded, EMA was stunned by the magnitude of the monetary experiment conducted by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks. We concluded that zero bound interest rate policy (ZIRP) and quantitative easing (QE) were akin to “printing money” and would ultimately lead to inflation. Given that macro backdrop, we pivoted our focus to gold and silver mining companies which provide the best returns of all equity classes in inflationary environments. EMA has also adopted Bitcoin as another form of monetary debasement insurance. We have made investments in both Bitcoin itself as well as in several Bitcoin-related private equity investments.

Risk Adjusted Return Sweet Spot = GARP

The GARP philosophy starts with identifying a major technological, consumer or macro trend. Research is then conducted to find the best corporate beneficiaries of that trend. Finally, valuation screens are applied to purchase attractive equities at reasonable prices (e.g. Price/Sales & Price/Earnings) based upon current and anticipated results. GARP is the “sweet spot” of equity investing. The major trend provides a “tail wind” and as the trend becomes more obvious, the winning companies experience multiple expansion. This provides an investment return “two-fer” of earnings growth and multiple expansion.

Asymmetry of Returns

This GARP style of investing provides asymmetry in returns with limited downside, and upside that is multiples of the capital invested