My Learnings from Age Eighteen to Forty:
1984: I start my career on Wall Street as a cold caller at Lehman Brothers. That year I acquire defaulted debt for $70 per $1,000 bond in a small public company, CGS Scientific, a thermocouple manufacturer. It’s my first Board seat and after converting the debt into equity, I get the company listed on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. I sell my stock three years later for a 50x return on my money. This was important for me because it proved “big baggers” existed and I was sure there were more where this one came from. I was hooked on value investing in small companies.
1986: I graduate from college and become Assistant to the President of D.H. Blair. I work here for one year and learn a lot about financing small companies. During this time, Blair owner Morty Davis is reputed to be the highest paid person on Wall Street; I am certainly the lowest paid.
1988: I acquire control of Lindly & Company, a publicly traded textile machinery manufacturer. I manage to triple the sales and quadruple the costs of the firm. Something has to change as the company flirts with insolvency. I announce the firm is being liquidated and sell enough spare parts to pay our debts and recapture shareholders' investment.
1991: Acquired a large stake in American Electromedics and October Films and distributed the shares to the Lindly shareholders. My partner and I turned AECO from losing $1,000,000 per year to making $1,000,000 per year. The big success came for this business when a German subsidiary we acquired for $500,000 went public at a $200 million valuation.
1994: Start Optimer as a textile fiber development company with my brother and father. Eventually my sister joins us and in 2004 Readers Digest calls our product, Dri-release®, “One of America’s 100 Most Important New Discoveries.”
1996: Initial investor in Bluegill Technologies at an initial valuation of $3,000,000. In 1999 Bluegill is acquired by Checkfree for $250 million. Far more than the money I made from this transaction, I valued my friend Hal Davis completely transforming my understanding of how to build a valuable company.
2002: Acquire a $150 million portfolio of 16 joint venture securities from Elan Pharmaceuticals through Shelly Bay Holdings and later Edson Moore Healthcare Ventures. We eventually exit seven of these investments at two- to twenty-fold returns. Two were zeroes.
2003: Joined the Board of Elite Pharmaceuticals and eventually fire the founder and become Chairman and hire an industry veteran, Buddy Berk, to be CEO. We launch the Company’s first product within the first year. I resign as Chairman, Buddy raises $6.6 million, and Edson Moore exits at a 5x return.
2004: Become Chairman of ImaRx Therapeutics, another Edson Moore company, and in 1½ years raise $17 million from high-net-worth individuals at pre-money valuations of $20, $40 and $68 million.
1986: I graduate from college and become Assistant to the President of D.H. Blair. I work here for one year and learn a lot about financing small companies. During this time, Blair owner Morty Davis is reputed to be the highest paid person on Wall Street; I am certainly the lowest paid.
1988: I acquire control of Lindly & Company, a publicly traded textile machinery manufacturer. I manage to triple the sales and quadruple the costs of the firm. Something has to change as the company flirts with insolvency. I announce the firm is being liquidated and sell enough spare parts to pay our debts and recapture shareholders' investment.
1991: Acquired a large stake in American Electromedics and October Films and distributed the shares to the Lindly shareholders. My partner and I turned AECO from losing $1,000,000 per year to making $1,000,000 per year. The big success came for this business when a German subsidiary we acquired for $500,000 went public at a $200 million valuation.
1994: Start Optimer as a textile fiber development company with my brother and father. Eventually my sister joins us and in 2004 Readers Digest calls our product, Dri-release®, “One of America’s 100 Most Important New Discoveries.”
1996: Initial investor in Bluegill Technologies at an initial valuation of $3,000,000. In 1999 Bluegill is acquired by Checkfree for $250 million. Far more than the money I made from this transaction, I valued my friend Hal Davis completely transforming my understanding of how to build a valuable company.
2002: Acquire a $150 million portfolio of 16 joint venture securities from Elan Pharmaceuticals through Shelly Bay Holdings and later Edson Moore Healthcare Ventures. We eventually exit seven of these investments at two- to twenty-fold returns. Two were zeroes.
2003: Joined the Board of Elite Pharmaceuticals and eventually fire the founder and become Chairman and hire an industry veteran, Buddy Berk, to be CEO. We launch the Company’s first product within the first year. I resign as Chairman, Buddy raises $6.6 million, and Edson Moore exits at a 5x return.
2004: Become Chairman of ImaRx Therapeutics, another Edson Moore company, and in 1½ years raise $17 million from high-net-worth individuals at pre-money valuations of $20, $40 and $68 million.
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