Patrick O'Shaughnessy

There are only a handful of truly great businesses and even fewer great CEOs.

So instead of diversifying broadly, they concentrate deeply.

Their model is to raise capital with the intention of making just one investment per fund, commit meaningful amounts of their own money alongside their partners, and focus all their time and the best people on that single opportunity.

What sets them apart is that they come to investing as operators.

Alex previously ran the largest railroad in Latin America, and Daniel served as the CEO of Burger King, and many of their partners have spent years as CEOs, CFOs, or senior operators inside of complex organizations.

When 3G buys a company, they step in as operators, align incentives with ownership, and work alongside management to improve the business.

That approach has produced a series of iconic deals, including Burger King, Tim Hortons, Hunter Douglas, and Skechers.

Along the way, they've also become known for developing talent, giving young leaders real responsibility and ownership, and holding an unusually high bar.

Please enjoy this great conversation with Alex and Daniel.

Once you've heard from Alex and Daniel, I highly recommend you also read our in-depth profile on them and 3G Capital.

They gave our managing editor, Dom Cook, unprecedented access, and the outcome is an excellent profile about the 50-year history of 3G and how the model began with Jorge Paulo Leman in Brazil.

I want to start with this one investment per fund concept because, first of all, I just think it's extremely cool to think about having a big pool of capital to deploy into one thing and all the work that goes into that, what ends up being that one thing, despite looking at countless other businesses.

Where did that concept come from?

Because it must dictate so much about the nature and culture of investment strategy, firm, people.

One investment per fund sounds interesting, and I know it is from our past discussions.

Where did that come from?

Is there any psychological fear pressure associated with knowing that it's just one, all eggs in one basket and watch the basket very closely?

Like what psychology does that feel like?

If you think back to that, the very first days, 2004, thereabouts, through to today, 20 years, how has your idea of what constitutes a great business changed the most through all of these investigations and running the five, six businesses?

What's most changed about your views?