It is rare for a person to spend the first half of their working life in the public service and then pivot to build a multi-billion dollar financial business. Making the story even more remarkable is that this person grew up in regional Queensland - where financial products are hardly the main course of the local economy.

Ian Macoun, the Managing Director and Founder of Pinnacle Investment Management (ASX: PNI) was born in Rockhampton - a city best known for its cattle production. He left town to work for the Queensland Treasury before being poached as a 33-year-old to run the newly constructed Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC).

It was here that he was introduced to the world of investing. With QIC up and running, Macoun headed to Sydney, joining the private sector. A stint at Westpac opened his eyes to the opportunity in funds management and in 2000, he struck out with Mike Crivelli forming Perennial Funds Management.

It wasn't long though, and Macoun was thinking of an alternative funds management model. Taking minority ownerships in multiple managers, providing the onerous back office functions and accessing the key ingredient for any fund manager - funds.

He discovered this opportunity at stockbroker Wilsons Advisory. Macoun teamed up with Steve Wilson to change his fledgling Hyperion Funds Management arm into a multi-manager model. This was the birth of Pinnacle Investment Management.

Today, Pinnacle has been spun out of Wilson's and has 16 affiliates with a staggering $110 billion of total funds under management. It is growing rapidly and Macoun believes $200 billion is not out of the question.

In this episode of Sucess and More Interesting Stuff, Macoun opens up about his early years and upbringing, shares how he came up with the Pinnacle model and outlines his plans for the future.

Note: For disclosure purposes, the funds associated with Matthew Kidman own shares in Pinnacle Investment Management.

https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/no-shortcuts-how-ian-macoun-built-a-100-billion-funds-management-behemoth/

Traditionally, on the show, we talk to people involved in some shape or form with the share market. Today, we are excitedly going off-piste and delving into the unlisted world in one of Australia's outstanding success stories.

In 2008, Lina Calabria and two partners decided to start nine separate businesses as consultants. They had plenty of bright ideas and thought that creating a portfolio of companies, while unorthodox, was a low-risk path to success.

Within a few years, they selected Bellroy, an accessories business that specialises in male wallets, as the pick of the bunch. From humble beginnings, Bellroy, named after combining Bell's Beach and Fitzroy, has grown into a global brand with more than $130 million in sales.

Bellroy sells in dozens of countries and has created its own category called Carry. In other words, they design products you carry around, such as slim wallets, backpacks, work bags, duffel bags, totes, passport holders, and phone cases. It's niche but nicely profitable.

Today, Calabria sees a great opportunity to expand Bellroy in both products and countries, and she believes doubling and possibly tripling the business is a realistic goal.

Click on the player below to hear how Calabria and the team at Bellroy created their own category and navigated the trails of COVID-19 to build a business making a name on the global stage.

Stockbroking is a dangerous game. Investors depend on your advice, but the smallest slip-up can see the relationship turn nasty. As a result, most brokers tend to be as conservative as possible; not Hugh Robertson.

Robertson a 40-year veteran of the stockbroking scene in Melbourne, thrives at the risk end of the curve, specialising in micro and small cap stocks. He works like a gold prospector out in the field with his metal detector looking for the next big discovery.

His list of wins includes Monadelphous (ASX: MND), Service Stream (ASX: SSM), Bellamy’s (ASX: BAL), Hub24 (ASX: HUB), Afterpay and PSC Insurance (ASX: PSIN). He found most of those companies well before they'd been researched by the investment community and, in some cases, even before they listed on the share market.

Robertson has a unique style. He does not rely on numbers to make his decisions. To make matters harder, he has always found reading difficult. Instead, following his natural instincts, he garners information by getting to know people.

His conversations are endless and his intuition for what might work is uncanny. Most investors would've run into Robertson on Collins Street, with a cigarette in one hand and his mobile phone in the other, on the scent of the next big thing.

That doesn't mean he gets all his stock calls right – far from it. Like anyone dealing in small companies, there are always disappointments. His troubled children include Envirosuite (ASX: EVS) and Maggie Beer (ASX: MBH), but the ledger sits firmly in the positive.

Interestingly, Robertson is comfortable sitting on the boards of the companies he backs. Some people in the investment community would describe this as unorthodox, but Robertson likes to make sure he knows the people running the companies he's recommending to his clients. And if the company heads down the wrong path, he's prepared to make the changes required to right the ship.

His other great love is the land. Like most Collins Street farmers, it has been a rocky road. Early setbacks, though, have subsequently led to some prize properties in rural Victoria and probably the best garden in the state.

In this episode of Success and More Interesting Stuff, I speak with Hugh about his path to stockbroking, his passion for prospecting and some of the incredible stories he has brought to the market. Hugh also shares a few of the emerging companies catching his eye right now.