Discerene Core Values

1. Act with integrity and honesty.

  • Our reputation, and the trust of others, is our most important asset. We work hard to earn and keep it.
    We strive to be known for our honesty and integrity in all our dealings. In commercial matters, we play and negotiate hard, but fair.
  • We strive to be known for our honesty and integrity in all our dealings. In commercial matters, we play and negotiate hard, but fair.

‍2. Be good stewards and good partners.

  • Each Discerene person thinks and behaves like an owner.
  • We strive to be true fiduciaries of our investors’ capital.
  • We strive to be good stewards of Firm capital. We are unafraid to invest Firm resources for the long term if they are NPV-positive and value-creating. However, we strive to avoid waste and inefficiencies, and conspicuous spending for its own sake.

‍3. Build a win-win team.

  • We are in this together: We strive to maintain a spirit of collaboration and teamwork. The whole is better than the sum of its parts.
  • We are patient and resilient. When the going gets tough, we do not give up, but will fight for each other. We “fall in” and not “fall out.”
  • We strive to enable our employees, families, and friends to flourish.

‍4. Strive to be A-players.

  • We push each other to get better in the pursuit of excellence and ultimate truth.
  • We are driven, competitive, and ambitious. We are unafraid to work hard to achieve our goals.
  • We strive to have a growth mindset as a Firm, focused on what we can do better, not just on what we do well.
  • We strive to become the best investors we can be.
  • We strive to maintain high standards of research quality, analytical rigor, depth, and breadth, and a relentless emphasis on expanding mental models and reducing blind spots.
  • We are brutally honest about our shortcomings and are willing to work to overcome them, with the goal of trying to achieve strong absolute long-term compounded returns.
  • We strive to run the Firm’s operations in a best-in-class manner.
  • We strive to build a best-in-class partnership. We want to attract, retain, and develop excellent people on the team, attract the highest-quality investors, and invest with the best management teams and companies we can afford.
  • We strive to recognize, encourage, and reward excellence wherever we find it, within and outside the Firm.
  • We strive to be unafraid to make tough decisions and changes that are necessary to maintain the Firm’s culture of excellence.

‍5. Think long term.

  • We trade off short-term gains for better long-term outcomes.
  • We strive to play the “Infinite Game,” i.e., multi-round games with no ending.
    In business dealings, we care about relationships, not transactions. In particular, we strive to build generational partnerships with our investors.
  • In investing, we care about long-term success, not short-term profits. We will sacrifice the latter for the former.

‍6. Be first-principles-based thinkers, learners, and visionaries.

  • We strive to reason from first principles instead of relying on conventional wisdom in all aspects of what we do, including in investing and how we build the Firm.
  • We think independently and “outside the box.” We are not ruled by dogma but are guided by a commitment to the truth.
  • We strive to be curious, creative, imaginative, and playful in our problem solving.
  • We strive to use mistakes as learning opportunities and catalysts for constructive and sustained change.
  • We strive to be intellectually humble: Truth lies out in the world, not in our heads.
  • We strive to be unafraid to be contrarian: Truth lies not in consensus.
  • We strive to be lifelong learners: Truth is there for the discovering.

‍7. Do good and make a positive difference.

  • We strive to be givers, not just takers. People should be better off for having known us.
  • We strive to use our influence, networks, and position as a force for good for both individual people we are in positions to help and broader goals/causes we support.
  • We strive to be a positive influence on our portfolio companies, in terms of both business outcomes and business ethics.