45: $700 Million Small Cap Credit Fund Manager Hunter Hayes of Intrepid Capital on Building a New Strategy Within a Successful Boutique | How Owning Your Different Unlocks Growth | Why Specializing is the Key to Scaling

Billion Dollar Backstory

If your analytical brain needs FACTS to back up the power of left-brain growth tactics, you’re in luck.

Today's guest, Hunter Hayes, combines his classical piano training with impressive business sense, showing that there’s real power in combining art and science to edge ahead in the fund world.

In this episode, he and Stacy discuss:

• His journey from pianist and D1 track star to successful fund manager
• The differentiation playbook that boosted Intrepid Income Fund (ICMUX) from $50M to $550M AUM
• How he spotted inefficiencies in the small-cap fixed-income world, giving Intrepid a competitive edge
• The simple habits that helped him gain traction in the fund world
• His top tips for new fund managers

About Hunter Hayes:

Hunter Hayes is the Chief Investment Officer at Intrepid Capital, which he joined in 2017 after working in credit at Eaton Vance (now Morgan Stanley) and consulting at Deloitte.

Hunter wears lots of hats at Intrepid, which has AUM of ~$900 million, but is primarily a portfolio manager of the Intrepid Income Fund (ICMUX) and the separately managed Intrepid Income portfolio, which has collectively grown from ~$50 million of AUM in 2019 to ~$550 million of AUM today. Hunter focuses mainly on liquid, small-cap credit investments and was previously a research analyst covering small-cap securities.

He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree in Finance and his Bachelor of Music degree in Performance Piano from Auburn University, where he also competed as a scholarship track and field athlete. Outside of work, he is an avid runner and musician.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Books: Once a Runner by John L. Parker Jr. , How My Heart Sings by Bill Evans

Songs: Nas - N.Y. State of Mind

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