Scaling From $125K to $40M AUM: He Left Goldman During a Crisis to Start a Fund - Matthew Peterson

Join the Capital Alliance Waiting List Here: https://linkly.link/2ebz3 In this episode of the Capital Alliance Podcast, we sit down with Matthew Peterson, Managing Partner of Peterson Capital Management and a 25-year veteran of the investing world. Matt is one of the most respected concentrated value investors of his generation. He spent nearly a decade at Goldman Sachs in credit risk consulting across New York and London before walking away to launch his own fund, with just $100,000 of his own capital and $25,000 from a friend. Matt shares how he went from teaching English in China and modeling credit risk for Goldman to building Peterson Capital Management into a multi-fund platform with $40M+ AUM, a 13.7% long-term annualized return, and a 60%+ net return year in 2024. He opens up about the "Valley of Death" every emerging fund manager has to survive, the year a public company in his concentrated portfolio turned out to be fraudulent, and the years of going without a paycheck while clawing back to high watermarks. We cover the "Who, Not How" mindset shift that transformed his business, his frugal-vs-cheap framework for high-ROI spending, how he uses AI agents and 50,000-run Monte Carlo simulations to build conviction on macro and energy trades, why he believes oil and gas will stay higher for longer, and how a casual backyard barbecue in Omaha grew into the Berkshire Soirée, one of his most powerful marketing assets. Follow Matthew Peterson: Peterson Capital Management: https://www.petersoncapital.com Veritas Alpha: https://www.veritasalpha.com Matt on LinkedIn:   / matthew-peterson-cfa-100   Follow Capital Alliance: Capital Alliance on LinkedIn:   / mycapital-alliance   Follow Ken Majmudar: LinkedIn:   / kenmajmudar   Instagram:   / kenmajmudar   Substack: https://compoundideas.substack.com/ Timestamps: 0:00 — Intro and Matt's background 3:00 — Relocating between Texas, Omaha, and Portugal 5:30 — Growing up in Minnesota and studying at Puget Sound 8:30 — Teaching English in China and landing at Goldman Sachs 13:00 — Earning his CFA and the "golden handcuffs" of Wall Street 17:00 — Leaving Goldman in 2010 and launching Peterson Capital Management 22:00 — The slow grind from $125K to $5M AUM 27:00 — Why running a fund is more than being a great analyst 32:00 — The Horsehead Holdings fraud and surviving down years 37:00 — Concentrated portfolios, high watermarks, and years without pay 42:00 — Escaping the "Valley of Death" and building a team 47:00 — The "Who, Not How" mindset shift 52:00 — Frugal vs. cheap and the ROI of investing in yourself 57:00 — Guy Spier's advice: do the hard things first, the audience shows up later 1:01:00 — How the Omaha backyard barbecue became the Berkshire Soirée 1:07:00 — Marketing as a small fund and creating many-to-one dialogue 1:12:00 — Spinning out Talas Turkey Value Fund and Titan Strategic Income 1:18:00 — The Talas Turkey Tour and finding 3x cashflow companies in Istanbul 1:24:00 — Increasing the surface area of your luck 1:29:00 — Why in-person community matters for contrarian investors 1:34:00 — Operation Epic Fury: AI agents, Monte Carlo war scenarios, and the energy thesis 1:41:00 — Why energy prices stay higher for longer and where the alpha is 1:47:00 — Final thoughts on Capital Alliance and compounding together About Matthew Peterson: Matthew is the Managing Partner of Peterson Capital Management, a concentrated value fund he launched in October 2011 after spending years at Goldman Sachs in credit risk consulting across New York and London. He is also the founder of the Talas Turkey Value Fund, Titan Strategic Income, and VeritasAlpha.com, an AI-powered research platform. He holds a CFA designation and a degree in economics and mathematics from the University of Puget Sound. His funds collectively manage $40M+ AUM with a 13.7% long-term annualized return. He hosts the annual Berkshire Soirée in Omaha and the Talas Turkey Tour, both of which have become signature gathering points for global value investors.