Legendary investor Julian Robertson has died, but leaves behind many powerful wards – TechCrunch

His hedge fund investors didn’t want to listen to him when, in 1999, Julian Robertson questioned the reasonableness of the prices being paid for shares in nascent Internet companies. So, months after being heckled for 15 minutes at the annual shareholders meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York in October 1999, he began the process of closing his store. “It doesn’t make sense to put our investors at risk in a market that I honestly don’t understand,” he said. according to reports wrote to them in March 2000. “After careful consideration, I have decided to return all capital to our investors, effectively bringing down the curtain on Tiger Funds.”

In April 2000, the technology market began to collapse.

His good times only cemented the legend of Robertson, who just died at age 90 of heart complications, according to his representative, but who until age 67 headed Tiger Management, one of the biggest, best-known and best-performing hedge funds in the 70-year-old hedge industry. – funds.

You don’t have to look far to appreciate its lasting influence. While Tiger Management reportedly boasts an average annual return of more than 30% over its 20-year existence, the sheer number of investment managers that have come out of Robertson’s 200-strong team has become almost as legendary. Among the many hedge funds run by people who worked with Robertson — known as the “Tiger Cubs” — are Tiger Global, Lone Pine, Coatue Management, Viking Global, D1 Capital and Pantera Capital, and it’s just sample.

“Amazingly, Julian Robertson touches trillions of dollars in assets under management because so many people have worked for him directly [or] indirectly,” by Daniel Strachman, author Julian Robertson: A Tiger in the Land of Bulls and Bearssaid the Financial Times last year.

Not surprisingly, Robertson’s protégés rave about him as an investor as well as a philanthropist. In addition to Robertson’s own the foundation of the familyand Tiger Foundationa nonprofit that says it has awarded more than $250 million in grants to organizations working to break the cycle of poverty in New York City, Robertson in 2017 signed Making a promisewhich asks participants to give away at least half of their wealth.

One of those protégés is Coatue founder Philippe Lafont, who worked for Robertson for three years before striking out on his own in 1999 with reports 45 million dollars that, unlike Robertson, he immediately began investing in technology stocks. (Lafont lost money in the recession the following year, but survived it.)

Coatue is a cross fund named after A the beach off the coast of Nantucket — mine squeezed and this year due to the fall in both public and private tech stocks. Still, Coatue grew its assets under management to nearly $60 billion by the end of last year, and Laffont apparently credits Robertson with that success.

“Julian was a legendary investor and a generous mentor,” Lafont said in a statement sent to TechCrunch this morning. “He did so much good in the world, and so often when no one was looking. We all feel lonelier without him here. He left a wonderful legacy that many of us will continue to live on. I consider myself lucky to have had his friendship and mentorship in my life.”

Another of Robertson’s famous protégés is Chase Coleman, who worked as an investment analyst at Tiger Management for nearly four years before the hedge fund folded. Coleman, who launched Tiger Global Management the following year in 2001, also credits Robertson as a big part of the career he has enjoyed.

In a statement sent to TechCrunch today, Coleman writes, “Julian was a pioneer and giant in our industry, respected both for his ability as an investor and for the integrity, honesty, loyalty and competitiveness he demonstrated as a leader. He took the time to be a true mentor, always leading by example and pushing us all to be the best version of ourselves. For that and for his friendship I am forever grateful. He will be sorely missed, but his impact on me and countless others, as well as the many communities he touched through his philanthropy, will live on.”

Like Coatue, Tiger Global is a crossover fund that increasingly invests in private technology companies as well as public companies. Like Coatue, it was also comparable heavy 2022, thanks to the market’s fascinating zigzags and vices. (In truth, the same is true of many companies, including Viking Global, whose founder, Andreas Halvorsen, once traded shares at Tiger Management and, like Lafont, went on his own with Viking in 1999. His main fund is on track for him worst year ever(Bloomberg reported last month.)

Indeed, it’s easy to wonder what Robertson, whose success has been all about buying low-cost stocks with good profit prospects, thought about these cubs’ aggressive moves into late-stage private tech companies, especially given that some of them paid any price last year. while achieving sky-high valuations.

If Robertson ever doubted their different approaches, he never said so publicly. Even when Archegos Capital Management—the family office of another protégé, Bill Hwan—suddenly collapsed into spectacular fashion last year (Hwang was accused of massive fraud SEC in April), Robertson defended Hwang in a rare interview with the FT, telling the exit last summer: “Bill is a good friend and I know Bill well. I think he made a mistake and I expect him to recover from that and move on.”