explore

The objective of the explore phase is to gather data about the brand, the business and its context through a questionnaire shared with Abbas Hazijadeh and any other available Stoke Park Capital internal stakeholders. 

The questionnaire can be found here.

Below is the data that informed the following phase: understand.

1. What is the shittiest movie or song you've ever seen or heard? Why was it shitty?

Anything by pitbull; too loud, too obvious, too simple/basic

2. What is the ideology that drives what you do?

Investment management is about being right and having the resourcefulness to get your views expressed via other ppls money. Thats fun. Making money is also fun. Not needing to work anymore is probably the funnest. 

3. What is the achievement in your life/career that you're most proud of?

Leaving a private equity job with nothing really to show for in the belief that I would be better if not hampered by other people's directions (even if they were more senior or more experienced) and then getting lucky enough to actually get it done

4. What are the things happening in your life right now that you are most excited about?

Word of mouth

5. What should the Stoke Park Capital brand do for people that other brands cannot?

Nothing really; the brand should communicate reliability, past success and longevity into the future. It should look professional and simple, but edgy enough to be noticed. A tall order...

6. How did you come up with the name for the company?

Investment firms are often named after places; this golf club is outside of london. Its also the name of the golf course featured in goldfinger and in layer cake

7. If Stoke Park Capital could be anything else, what would it be?

We would be good at anything that requires abstract thinking combined w getting ppl to do things. Ie. we'd be good buyers of bankrupt companies, good investors in foreign markets. We would not be good with anything that requires production processes or detailed minutia 

8. What's happening in real estate investment landscape right now that makes Stoke Park Capital important?

Germany is at the beginning of a real estate boom caused by loose central bank monetary policy. Foreign money wants to come into Germany. Most German real estate companies are "closed" minded and wont work well w foreigners -- that combination is our opportunity 

9. What's one thing that Stoke Park Capital has to change about the world?

Make rich people and institutions richer haha

10. What's the one thing that Stoke Park Capital should preserve about the world?

The ability for ppl to trust each other across borders (trust is the coin of realm -- read civilisation as we know it)

11. If Stoke Park Capital's last words were a tweet, what would it be?

Death before dishonor

12. Who is the Stoke Park Capital target person?

Age: 35 - 60
Gender: Male
Occupation: Management / bureaucrat type / greedy investment guy
Passion: Expensive things, powerful institutions
Values: Big organizations are positive, small ones are negative (with the exception of select small ones that nimbly outperform) 

13. Where is this target person from?

Both, domestic Germany, International: US, UK, East Asia, Mid East

14. What kinds of brands does this person believe in?

Blackstone, Apollo, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Nike, Rolex, Barbour, Ralph Lauren, Hermes (the higher end ones), Mercedes, Bugatti 

15. What is this target person most afraid of?

Failure, embarrassment, taking risk 

16. What is this target person's biggest aspirations?

Safely rising to ever higher levels of salary and power

17. According to this person, what would be the most appealing aspects about Stoke Park Capital?

Personalized service, access to better deals, smarter than big guys, nimble but not risky bc of trackrecord w other big insitutions

18. According to this person, what would be the most unattractive aspects about Stoke Park Capital?

Small outfit, young (!!!) team, Berlin based insteaf of munich, frankfurt of london

19. Who are Stoke Park Capital's direct competitors?

Pramerica, acres (http://www.acrest.de/), art invest (http://www.art-invest.de/de/home.html#), http://lubertadler.com/, https://www.mountkellett.com/

20. Who are Stoke Park Capital's indirect competitors?

Blackstone, Lonestar, Fidelity, Blackrock, Wealthfront,

21. Is there a direct competitor--domestic or foreign--that you admire?

Blackstone

22. What are your three most important measurable goals?

Assets under management
Quality of team
How smart our deals are

23. Where will Stoke Park Capital be in 5 years?

Team of 20 people, 1 billion under management, investing in real estate and holding companies

24. Where will Stoke Park Capital be in 10 years?

International and very flexible (in terms of what we can buy and invest in) version of 5 years