Investing is not a science. Investing is a craft. You can learn the techniques, but the rest comes down to practice, experience and emotional control.
Sam Hollanders
When Joel and Sam met, it was immediately clear that they shared a long-term ambition: to create a fund where investors only pay for performance, inspired by the Warren Buffett Partnerships model.
For years, Sam had been writing an investment newsletter, sharing his insights and passion for value investing. Yet he noticed something troubling: while readers enjoyed his analysis, they often failed to translate the ideas into the right actions. At some point he thought: “If that’s the case, I might as well do it myself.” In one of his newsletters he openly wrote that he was looking for a partner to launch a fund.
That message reached Joel at exactly the right time. He had been searching for genuine value investing opportunities, speaking with multiple asset managers about their so-called “value funds.” What he found instead were portfolios filled with index-hugging strategies and big-name stocks, included mostly because “clients like to see familiar companies in a fund.” None of these funds captured the essence of true value investing.
Meanwhile, Joël had been immersing himself in the strategies and mental models of the great value investors. When he came across Sam’s call for a partner, it felt like the missing piece: finally, the chance to build the kind of authentic, performance-driven value investing fund he had been looking for.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Sam gained experience as an entrepreneur in his parents’ four multimedia stores,
which he later owned together with his sister.
He has been actively involved in investing since 1999, but only began consistently
applying the principles of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett, the sustainable rules of value investing, from 2004 after his first few years of learning. Sam wrote an extensive course on the best practices of value investing, which formed the basis of his book “Double Your Money in Five Years”. Since 2011, he has been an analyst and chief editor for investment magazines (BeursLoper, SMART Capital, BeursMagazine).
Investing is not a science. Investing is a craft. You can learn the techniques, but the rest comes down to practice, experience and emotional control.
Sam Hollanders
Joël has thirty years of experience in ICT, fifteen of which as a managing partner of Newtel. Following the merger with sister company Nextel, he exited through the sale to Telenet in 2018.
As a former youth chess player, he has retained his passion for chess. In 2010, the Go for Grandmaster non-profit organisation was founded with the aim of providing additional incentives and opportunities for Belgian top youth to reach the world top level. These days, you can find Joël on rented sailing boats or occasionally in Nieuwpoort as a sailing instructor.
My passion is to teach young people. That is why I like to be a guest speaker for VFB (Flemish Federation of Investors), give guest lectures or organise webinars myself.
Joël Schols
These world-class investors have shown us the way to the fairest cost model for an equity fund. Both applied the zero-management principle for their investors: no management fee, only a performance-based fee. Additionally, we apply a high-watermark. This means that we can only charge a performance fee once any previous losses have been fully recovered and a new peak in value has been reached. In other words: we only succeed when our investors succeed.
1957 – 1969 Buffett Partnerships
Buffett is the very first investor to start a fund on a ‘no cure no pay’ basis. He learned the principles of value investing from his teacher Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School.
His results speak for themselves. From 1957 onwards, there was no less than a 31.6% annual return, a phenomenal result. Each dollar invested had grown to almost 27 dollars in 12 years.
1997 – present Aquamarine Fund
Spier calls himself a passionate disciple of Warren Buffet. He is a fervent proponent of the zero management fee principle. He organised a symposium on the “zero management fee” theme which persuaded us to apply it.
In the meantime, we have come to know Guy as not only a good investor, but also a very amiable man. We feel blessed to be part of the ValueX community.
