Sanjay Gupta ’96, Entrepreneur, Investor, and a Splash of Indiana Jones

Sanjay Gupta ’96 majored in computer science at Dartmouth, and began his career in the tech sector. He moved into finance after working with startups, but retained his entrepreneurial and adventurous mindset. He is now Founder and CEO of Britannica Capital, which invests globally on behalf of sophisticated clients around the world. We sat down with Sanjay to get his thoughts on the entrepreneurial heart of global macro investing.

You have a pretty unique way of melding business and investments, having researched 84 countries—some by motorcycle--in search of investment opportunities. You travel constantly to visit all major economies and stay up-to-date on market forces in each. What inspired you to create such an unconventional approach? How do you make it work?

I believe that on-the-ground research from country to country, city to city and village to village, is essential to creating a proper investment platform. By doing this you see local businesses everywhere and examine the surrounding infrastructure, politics and even their geography. You learn first-hand how the entire world really works, and this helps me build a platform with a sustainable edge in my area of investing, referred to as ‘global macro investing’ or ‘multi-strategy’ investing.

I also believe that this approach is essential to understanding the world we live in. In other words, if you haven’t ridden your motorbike through Africa, I don’t think you can fully understand Africa, African investments, international trade, or even the US and EU foreign aid, intelligence gathering and other programs. You can’t understand most wars, nor can you have an informed opinion on anything that matters, not just in Africa, but outside Africa as well, because everything is interconnected. I know by saying this I am probably losing a few people--nobody likes to hear that their understanding is imperfect, and very few people have driven through Africa let alone the world. But that’s the reality of living in a complex, specialized, rapidly-changing world. If you haven’t been out there driving from village to village, talking to entrepreneurs and others, and if you haven’t seen things first-hand, you shouldn’t be investing out there.

A folly of market professionals is assuming that understanding cross-asset money flows and cross-border geopolitics is simple. It is not. Trying to understand it by merely reading The Economist and The Financial Times is a convenient delusion. Before entering a country [as investors], my colleagues and I probably read every available book and article on a given country and its economy, but upon arrival we found that in almost every instance, the views expressed by authors of popular books were poorly researched and simply false. Generally, they are recitations of “acceptable” views from the media and big brokerages, almost none of whom have been to any of these places they wrote entire books about. And just flying into the capital doesn’t count. Another issue is that a few people with on-the-ground experience, like journalists, don’t usually have the business or investing background to make sense of things for you. Unfortunately, some investors are not willing to do this type of exhaustive search.

To be sure, it is not entertainment. It requires herculean stamina to ride your thousand-pound bike through potholes for twelve hours every day, dodging criminals, militia and thugs, and arriving at a village inn to do office work before getting some sleep. It’s simply too hard and inconvenient for many Wall Street firms.

This creates an opportunity for us at Britannica Capital.

For Dartmouth students, if you want to become an international entrepreneur, or if you want to become a global macroeconomics based investor, if you want to run a hedge fund of this nature, then you have no choice but to do this type of research. In the movie, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Professor Indiana Jones tells his students, “If you want to be a good archeologist, you’ve got to get out of the library.” In the same way, my colleagues and I have always known that if you want to be a good investor, you must get out of the boardroom, kick the tires, examine the factories, visit local brokers, cross borders in your own vehicles, visit stock exchanges, and do your own homework in the field. That’s why I've driven over 100,000 miles throughout the world, visiting factories and stock exchanges.

What advice do you have for students about using their time, relationships, and opportunities at Dartmouth to prepare for this kind of career?

I believe that regular, ongoing physical training is the first component of a successful career and life. Competitive sports at Dartmouth are a great way to form good, lifelong habits. I used to row at Dartmouth. Since then I have rowed at various competitive clubs in London and Stockholm, etc. The older you are, the more you have to train consistently for physical fitness, which helps with mental and spiritual fitness. You will need stamina and a clear head to succeed as an entrepreneur—no matter what field you are in.

Dartmouth can also help with diversification, which at its core is really acknowledgement of the fact that things always change, and being ‘diversified’ means that you are willing to be flexible in your approach and your pursuits overall. Most things are cyclical, including what the market wants--and perhaps even your own temperament and values. It’s a myth that values are stable. Just as markets are dynamic with their valuations, we change as we grow older or get different perspectives. Dartmouth is a safe zone where you can experiment with different things.

Lastly, a good education should be about learning to be imperfect and to be just ‘good enough.’ It is better to do things imperfectly, even badly, than to pursue perfection. It’s unachievable, and you may hold yourself back by focusing on being perfect. This career is not for people who want to prove to others how good they are, how smart they are or how right they turned out to be. You can't care much about others’ opinions, brands, validation, or pedigrees. Audacity is a tremendous asset in this business, just as it is in life. At Dartmouth, seek out audacious peers who are not afraid to take risks and put themselves out there. 

Are there a few simple rules, lessons, processes or mantras you adhere to as you go down this road?

Yes – here are a few simple rules I follow:

• Titles mean nothing. Everyone has to be a willing to do the most menial tasks, if that’s what’s really required on a given day. This applies to organizations of all shapes and sizes.
• Even when it’s sunny, prepare for rain. Your endeavors are a long journey. Everything changes, and markets and startups are unpredictable. Things will go wrong. People will quit. You will run out of money. You have to prepare for the opposite of what you think may happen. Invest in the right kinds of insurances to cut off extreme downsides. And you have to have a margin for this.
• You can’t do it all yourself. You don’t necessarily need a cofounder, but you do need a team.
• Do fewer things. Everything takes three times longer than you think it will take…and many things still won’t happen. Besides my to-do list, I also keep a list of things to NOT do, and that list is the one that should be getting longer. Focus on the one or two things that matter the most.
• Remember that building a team is hard. Finding people who are not only smart across a broad range of needed skills, but also are excited about what you do, takes more time than you would ever think. Plan accordingly.
• Lastly, the first few employees are the most important because they are your company's core DNA. Conduct in-person interviews with their former employers before hiring them. If that’s not possible, perhaps don’t hire them.

What advice do you have for students about using their time, relationships, and opportunities at Dartmouth to prepare for this kind of career?

I believe that regular, ongoing physical training is the first component of a successful career and life. Competitive sports at Dartmouth are a great way to form good, lifelong habits. I used to row at Dartmouth. Since then I have rowed at various competitive clubs in London and Stockholm, etc. The older you are, the more you have to train consistently for physical fitness, which helps with mental and spiritual fitness. You will need stamina and a clear head to succeed as an entrepreneur—no matter what field you are in.

Dartmouth can also help with diversification, which at its core is really acknowledgement of the fact that things always change, and being ‘diversified’ means that you are willing to be flexible in your approach and your pursuits overall. Most things are cyclical, including what the market wants--and perhaps even your own temperament and values. It’s a myth that values are stable. Just as markets are dynamic with their valuations, we change as we grow older or get different perspectives. Dartmouth is a safe zone where you can experiment with different things.

Lastly, a good education should be about learning to be imperfect and to be just ‘good enough.’ It is better to do things imperfectly, even badly, than to strive to be unbelievably awesome on day one; because those who strive for perfection never manage to even launch. This career is not for people who want to prove to others how good they are, how smart they are or how right they turned out to be. It’s for those few corporate and other ‘misfits’ who don’t care much about others’ opinions, brands, validation, pedigrees, or even advice. Audacity is a tremendous asset in this business, just as it is in life. At Dartmouth, you can seek to associate with audacious peers who are not afraid to take risks and put themselves out there.