Dear subscriber,

Welcome to Empire Elite Growth!

We appreciate you taking the time to join us and read about our strategy.

Our primary goal is to help you make money... But while we do so, we also hope to inform, educate, and entertain you.

Let me start by telling you a bit about myself...

My name is Enrique Abeyta. I've been a professional money manager and investor on Wall Street for more than 25 years. I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, a child of Mexican and Uruguayan ancestry. (Not a lot of those on Wall Street!)

Even though I didn't have any money to invest, I became fascinated with the stock market at age 16 when my high school economics professor challenged the class to do a stock-picking contest. (I won!) This experience, coupled with growing up poor, led me to decide to attend the best undergraduate business program in the world – the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

A distinguished group of young students at Wharton made the early decision to become professional investors for a living. Unsurprisingly, the school has produced some of the top money managers in the world. Collectively, my classmates from my time at Wharton manage close to $1 trillion. It is the single best training ground for future professional investors.

At Wharton, I triple-majored in finance, multinational management, and Japanese. I served as the director of Research and Trading for the Pennsylvania Investment Alliance – one of the country's oldest student-run investment clubs. Additionally, I helped found the Wharton Fellows Fund, which was also student-run and contributed to the university's endowment.

After working summer stints at banking giants Lehman Brothers and Barings Securities, I decided to join Lehman as a banker. There, I worked as a junior technology, media, and telecom ("TMT") investment banker for about a year... But after my boss got fired, I decided to move into investing.

Right out of Lehman, I landed an analyst position with legendary Wall Street investor Martin Sosnoff. Martin ran one of the oldest hedge funds in existence, dating back to 1960. As a 25-year-old, I was one of four analysts managing $3 billion of investor capital for institutional and high-net-worth accounts, as well as two smaller hedge funds. My apprenticeship was quick – and happened right as the crisis at Long-Term Capital Management was unfolding – and I became a portfolio manager at the ripe old age of 26.

After studying under Martin for several years, I eventually launched my own fund with two partners. We were all in our late 20s or early 30s, but backed by Goldman Sachs and others (including famed Tiger Management head trader Tiger Williams), we launched Stadia Capital in March 2001 with a grand total of $585,000 in assets under management.

Although we didn't have many assets at the time, we were diligent and had a knack for making money in down markets (including the tragic events on 9/11). We built a reputation for being a great customer-focused money management business. We attracted a lot of attention and quickly grew the fund to $1.4 billion in assets in a little more than two years. (By 2004, we were the 82nd-largest hedge fund in the world.)

This experience taught me a great deal. It also awakened an entrepreneurial spirit in me that has continued to this day, making me a better investor.

After five successful years with my partners at Stadia Capital, I decided to branch out and launched my own hedge fund, 360 Global Capital.

We launched with about $100 million in assets in late 2008... just weeks before Lehman went bankrupt. (I always joke that if you see me getting ready to start another fund, get ready to go short.)

Despite the volatility, we again made money in that difficult market and grew to about $250 million in assets within a couple of years. But we were forced to close up shop in 2011 after our largest investor had to pull out and withdraw its money due to some unfortunate circumstances. Still, I learned a lot from that "failure," too... Most of all, that the key to investing is staying alive long enough to realize the value of your investments.

I quickly partnered with an old colleague who had just started a new fund called Falcon Edge Capital. We quickly grew to several billion in assets. Here, I worked on investments in both public and private companies and continued to develop my skills.

In 2016, my career took an unexpected turn...

I was approached with the idea of starting a digital media company with a focus on rock music, heavy metal, and tattoos – all passions of mine. I saw a lot of opportunity in the digital media and e-commerce space... So I jumped at the chance, becoming CEO and founder of our company, Project M Group. That company is still active today. We own the No. 1 global media brand in rock and heavy metal media, Revolver magazine. Though I'm no longer involved in the day-to-day operations, I remain passionate about these areas.

This opportunity further cemented my "real world" business knowledge, especially in one of the most cutting-edge areas of the economy: digital and e-commerce.

When I left Wall Street to start an Internet-based company, I didn't do it because I had lost interest in investing. I did it because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Investing was still very much in my blood. (As my wife will attest, CNBC has been playing in the background in our house for the last 20 years.)

So when my friend Whitney Tilson told me in early 2019 that he was starting an investment research business called Empire Financial Research, he had my attention.

The investment research industry seemed like a natural fit for me... In addition to running a digital media company, I had been the editor in chief of the second-largest newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania. My funds had also been known for writing informative and entertaining investor letters over the years.

As much as I love the markets and investing, I've always enjoyed discussing ideas and interacting with – and educating – other investors.

Plus, I've always admired Whitney. He's one of the best human beings I have ever met. The idea of working with him was a no-brainer, so I approached him about joining his new endeavor. A few months later, I officially came on board.

With Empire Elite Growth, my goal is to take my 25-plus years of frontline investment experience, along with my real-world business experience, and turn that into profitable stock ideas for you, my subscriber.

Regards,

Enrique Abeyta

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