He Ran a Hedge Fund in Beverly Hills.

Everyone in business is chasing scale. 

The bigger the list, the better the business. That is how the industry works.

Jeff Bierman is doing the opposite.

When he ran his hedge fund in Beverly Hills, he had a small number of clients. A handful. He knew every one of them personally, their situation, their goals, how they thought about risk.

He said that intimacy made him sharper. When you know who is counting on you, the work is different.

Then he went to TD Ameritrade. Seven million retail clients. He gained reach and lost everything else.

He told me he has missed that intimacy ever since.

The Burn Signal is his way back to it. 

He is capping his new service at 50 people, not because of a technical limitation but because 50 is the number where he still knows who he is trading for.

I have known Jeff for over 20 years. 

I know what he looks like when he is going through the motions and what he looks like when he actually cares.

What he showed me earlier this week was the second thing. 

He has been offered a full-time tenure track position at a major university multiple times and turned it down every time.

His reason: he would rather be trading with members than sitting in a classroom with undergrads who are complaining to him.

When you watch the replay, pay attention to that section. 

It tells you everything about how seriously he is taking the 50 people who join.

To your success,

Don Kaufman