Masters in Business: "Finding Value Investments with Patient Capital's Samantha McLemore"

Host: Barry Ritholtz (Bloomberg)
Guest: Samantha McLemore, Founder & CIO of Patient Capital
Recorded Live: The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Date: December 19, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features a live conversation between Barry Ritholtz and Samantha McLemore, founder and Chief Investment Officer of Patient Capital. Renowned as Bill Miller’s protégé and now the manager of the Opportunity Equity Fund, McLemore shares her unique approach to investing—fusing value and growth, embracing contrarian philosophies, and championing patience as both a process and brand. The discussion covers her formative years working alongside Miller, her personal investment philosophies, adapting to technological revolutions (especially AI), strategies for enduring in volatile markets, and advice for the next generation of investors.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Samantha McLemore’s Background and Origin Story (04:03–07:43)

• Educational Path: Originally a chemistry major, McLemore switched to accounting and business after realizing better alignment with her analytical strengths.

  “I like to be good at things. And I got to college and that first class, I quickly realized I was not so good at it.” (04:40)

• Early Interest in Markets: Inspired by her father’s tech investments during the 1990s bull market and through joining the investment club at Washington and Lee.
• Landing the Legg Mason Job: McLemore credits luck and initiative—she was the only student who gave Bill Miller a resume after he spoke at her college.

  “Everyone said there's no way you can get a job in investment management ... I think I was the only one that sent in my resume.” (07:00)

The Bill Miller Apprenticeship & Value Investing Philosophy (07:43–10:51)

• Miller’s Influence: McLemore’s desk was always by Miller’s, allowing for hands-on learning and engagement with top business leaders.

  “It's an apprenticeship business ... he liked to teach. And so I would go in his office, we would look at the Bloomberg and look at stock charts.” (08:01)

• Understanding Value: Emphasizes Miller’s contrarian view—great investments may not look like traditional value stocks today, but are identified by long-term compounding.

  “Why would you...exclude what you know are the best values in the market? That doesn't make sense.” (10:24)

Opportunity Equity Fund: High-Conviction, Flexible Investing (10:51–15:21)

• Unconventional Approach: The fund’s core is flexibility—investing wherever the best values are, unencumbered by traditional "style boxes."
• Portfolio Components: Blends “attractively valued compounders” (e.g., Amazon, Alphabet), classic value plays (Citigroup, GM), and misunderstood early-stage names.
• Performance: The fund consistently beat its benchmarks in multiple time frames (year-to-date, 1 year, 3 year, since inception).
• Industry Challenge: Despite strong results, being labeled “value” is a headwind—allocators may ignore strong-performing value managers in growth-favoring markets.

  “No one cares. We're like, but we've done really well and we're beating the market every year since Sam took over. And it's like, it doesn't matter.” (13:13)

Defining Investment Style: Value, Growth, or Both? (14:19–15:21)

• McLemore’s philosophy is rigorous bottom-up value: every holding must be undervalued on a present-value basis, but diversification across growth and cyclicality provides resilience.

The Genesis and Philosophy Behind Patient Capital (15:21–18:14)

• Independence and Diversity: Launching Patient Capital stemmed from a desire to build her track record and address institutional interest in women- and minority-led firms.
• Naming: Emphasizes the critical virtue of patience in long-term investing.
• Matching Philosophy to Structure: Maintains a unified process and philosophy across mutual funds and private funds despite regulatory differences.

Notable Quotes & Insights

On Contrarian Value and Conviction (Bill Miller’s Influence)

“We don’t know what the best values in the market are today... But we do know, if we look back over long periods of time, what the best values are...the names that can grow and compound value over long periods… they don’t tend to trade at low multiples.”
– Samantha McLemore, 10:24

On Opportunities in Difficult Markets

“If you deliver results, everything else will work out. I’ve seen this in this business time and time again.”
– Samantha McLemore, 13:13

On Patient Capital’s Approach Across Structures

“I like to think one philosophy, one process, one team.... The mutual fund has more restrictions ... [but] we’re just looking for the best ideas in the market.”
– Samantha McLemore, 17:48

Segment Timestamps and Highlights

On Bitcoin as a (Contrarian) Value Trade (21:24–23:33)

• McLemore missed early in bitcoin but bought in 2020, viewing it as “digital gold,” supported by generational adoption and its resilience post-crashes.
• Projects potential for bitcoin’s long-term value if parallels with gold hold.

“If you do that math today, Bitcoin could be worth 1.3, $1.4 million a share or a coin sometime in the future.” (22:48)

Career Detours: The Vermont Innkeeping Fiasco (23:33–26:47)

• Bought and ran an inn post-2008, learned firsthand how hard small businesses are, and promptly returned to markets.

“I like markets. I can sit at my desk and make a lot of money doing very little versus managing a chef who has, you know, a lot of issues.” (26:20)

Mindset, Philosophy, and Resilience (26:57–29:15)

• Meditation, stoicism, and Buddhism are essential tools; investing is as much about temperament and managing emotion as analytics.

“People know you shouldn’t sell when the markets are down, mostly. But it’s hard to do that because you feel like your wealth is at risk.” (28:01)

• Only a long time horizon makes equities “almost nothing safer.”

Artificial Intelligence: Opportunity and Risk (29:15–38:42)

• AI is seen by all experts as “completely transformational”—parallel to the industrial or digital revolution.
• Current “AI bubble” fears are overblown; today’s valuations in leading tech differ significantly from the late 1990s bubble (e.g. Nvidia, 28x next-year earnings with stellar growth).
• The real AI risk is in potential overcommitment and infrastructure spending by immature firms, not in the business models of established hyperscalers.
• AI’s impact on employment: greatest disruption in entry-level and white-collar roles; future belongs to creativity and complex problem-solving.

“Dario Amade, the CEO of Anthropic has said, said he believes that the white collar unemployment rate will be 5 to 25% in one to five years.” (33:01)

• Uses AI tools for research and operational efficiency, but believes "time arbitrage and patience" remain harder for machines to replicate.

Market Cycle Comparisons: Dot-Com Bubble vs. Now (38:42–41:45)

• Similarities: overall market valuations are high.
• Differences: Today’s tech leaders are highly profitable, well-capitalized, with clear unmet demand (vs. 1999’s speculative, loss-making ventures).
• Current market leadership is less concentrated; the infrastructure build is meeting current—not speculative—demand.

Using Macro Views Carefully (41:14–43:03)

• McLemore analyzes macro conditions and economic cycles for fundamental business impact but recognizes that nobody can reliably predict recessions.

“Economists don’t do it, investors don’t do it. So it’s a futile effort.” (41:45)

• Stays focused on fundamentals, scenario analysis, and intrinsic value.

Market Sentiment and Bubble Talk (45:55–48:15)

• Bubble fears proliferate absent real psychological extremity; when all are fearful, risks decrease.

"A bubble is characterized by psychological extremeness...when everyone's bemoaning a bubble...that Makes a bubble much less likely.” (46:43)

• Current valuations of leaders like Nvidia are justified by actual growth, not mere optimism.

Evaluating Value Across the Market (48:15–51:08)

• Not all high-valued segments are overvalued—quality justifies premium.
• She’s finding value in healthcare and small-caps, noting recent historical lows.

“Health care until recently was at a 50-year relative valuation low.” (49:26)

• Long-term patience and willingness to withstand short-term underperformance are key to capturing outsized returns.

The Power of Big Winners & The Pain of Omission (51:31–53:38)

“The big money are made in the big moves. And actually holding them is even harder than looking for them.” (51:31)
“Most of those type of errors, when something’s not in your portfolio, you don’t see it ... but it has a huge impact on your ability to grow wealth.”

Advice & Reflections

For Aspiring Investors (55:17–56:27)

• Go for it and be persistent; tailor each job application and follow up. True interest and perseverance stand out in today’s distracted applicant pool.

What She Wishes She Knew at the Start (56:37–57:35)

• Be Patient. The power of compounding and holding onto big winners is vastly underestimated.

“Buy Nvidia. I know you told me I couldn’t do this. Buy Amazon. Buy Bitcoin. Don’t miss, you know... The power of patience and compounding... you invest... and you’re going to have a couple ... big drawdowns … but it’s so easy to underestimate just how powerful that can be.” (56:37)

Book Recommendations (53:51–55:17)

• 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin — for market history perspective.
• The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter — on personal growth by embracing discomfort.
• Encourages learning from history and seeking challenges that foster growth.

Memorable Moments

• Auctioned inn & reality show: McLemore’s family adventure in Vermont innkeeping, learning (the hard way) to stick to her strengths in markets over hospitality. (23:33–26:47)
• Bitcoin hesitation: Regret at not following Miller in when Bitcoin cost only a few hundred dollars—a lesson in keeping an open mind and acknowledging mistakes. (21:47–23:33)
• Journaling, meditation, stoicism: Cites these as vital for managing psychology in volatile times. (27:10–29:15)

Summary Table of Notable Quotes

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|-----------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 04:40 | McLemore | "I like to be good at things. And I got to college and that first class, I quickly realized I was not so good at it." | | 07:00 | McLemore | "Everyone said there's no way you can get a job in investment management...only one that sent in my resume." | | 10:24 | McLemore | "Why would you...exclude what you know are the best values in the market? That doesn't make sense." | | 13:13 | McLemore | "If you deliver results, everything else will work out. I’ve seen this in this business time and time again." | | 22:48 | McLemore | "Bitcoin could be worth 1.3, $1.4 million a share or a coin sometime in the future." | | 28:01 | McLemore | "People know you shouldn’t sell when the markets are down, mostly. But it’s hard to do that because you feel like your wealth is at risk." | | 33:01 | McLemore | “Dario Amade, the CEO of Anthropic has said, said he believes...the white collar unemployment rate will be 5 to 25% in 1 to 5 years.” | | 46:43 | McLemore | "A bubble is characterized by psychological extremeness...when everyone's bemoaning a bubble...much less likely." | | 51:31 | McLemore | “The big money are made in the big moves. And actually holding them is even harder than looking for them.” | | 56:37 | McLemore | “The power of patience and compounding...you invest...and you're going to have a couple...big drawdowns...so easy to underestimate just how powerful that can be.” |

Concluding Takeaways

• Patience and time horizon are McLemore’s core investing virtues.
• Flexible, high-conviction portfolios outperform by blending value and growth, not being confined to style boxes.
• Big returns come from holding long-term compounding winners and avoiding behavioral pitfalls.
• AI and market structure changes are both threat and opportunity, but human creativity and patience still offer a sustainable edge.
• For aspiring professionals: Initiative, persistence, and genuine interest set you apart; learning from each experience (even failed innkeeping) is part of the journey.

For listeners and investors alike, this episode is a deep dive into the mindset, practices, and adaptability required for long-term success in investing—through bubbles, technological revolution, and personal misadventure alike.