Transcript
Pomona Investment Fund Announcer (0:00)
In private equity secondaries, relationships aren't just an edge, they're everything. Trust and reputation open doors long after deals close. For 10 years, the Pomona Investment Fund has brought institutional private equity exposure to individual investors, delivering opportunities others can't. Think private equity is just for large institutions, think again. All investments carry risk, including possible loss of principal. For details on the Pomona Investment Fund and its risks, Visit Pomona Investment Fund.com investors.
Disclosure Announcer (0:30)
Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode.
Ben Johnson (0:36)
Hi, and welcome to the Longview. I'm Ben Johnson, head of Client solutions with Morningstar.
Amy Arnott (0:41)
And I'm Amy Arnott, portfolio strategist for Morningstar.
Ben Johnson (0:45)
Today's guest on the Longview is Pat Dorsey. Pat is the founder of Dorsey Asset Management, a boutique asset manager serving institutional clients. From 2000 to 2011, Pat was the director of equity research for Morningstar, where he led the growth of Morningstar's equity research group from 20 to 90 analysts. Pat was instrumental in the development of Morningstar's economic moat ratings, as well as the methodology behind Morningstar's framework for analyzing competitive advantage. Pat is also the author of two books, the Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing and the Little Book that Builds Wealth. Pat holds a master's degree in political science from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in government from Wesleyan University. Pat is a CFA charter holder. Well, Pat, welcome to the Longview. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Pat Dorsey (1:41)
Yeah, you bet. Happy to be here.
Ben Johnson (1:43)
So, Pat, I want to start with, I guess, maybe a question of identity. Specifically, you've developed a reputation as sort of the quote, unquote, moat guy. So if we can start by firstly defining what is a moat in your mind, your interpretation. And how did you wind up becoming the moat guy?
Pat Dorsey (2:05)
I mean, look, a moat is just a structural competitive advantage, something that's an attribute of a business that makes it difficult to compete with them and generally lends them some pricing power. Could be scale, could be switching costs, could be a brand, a few different things. I think the origin of it is simply my time at Morningstar. When we launched coverage of individual stocks in 2001 or so, we were a new entrant to the industry. Obviously, Morningstar had been well known for mutual funds, but was not known for equity research. And frankly, equity research is a commodity. You take the logo off of a Goldman Sachs or a Bernstein Report, you don't really know who wrote it. And so the goal was to differentiate ourselves and then also try to offer something, a perspective that was useful for investors and Competitive advantage had never really been categorized or codified anyway. And so that was the moat framework that I helped develop. And there's obviously been lots written about it since, a lot of it that's vastly more intelligent than anything I ever came up with. Probably because we were some of the first ones to take that Warren Buffett phrase of economic moat and, you know, codify it, categorize it, probably why the label stuck.
