Welcome to The Outsiders Corner
Have you ever walked into a restaurant and, before even reading the menu, started estimating rent, wages, and how many tables they’d need to turn just to break even?
That’s me, Ole. I’ve been that person for most of my adult life—constantly wondering how businesses work, why some thrive, and why others quietly disappear.
But I rarely had anyone to share that curiosity with. So in early 2024, I started writing here—mostly to clarify my own thinking. I’ve learned that putting an idea into plain, written words often reveals whether it truly holds up. If I can’t explain the investment case simply, I probably don’t understand it well enough.
Background
I don’t come from finance. My degree is in Sports Science. So when I began writing about business models and capital allocation, I didn’t expect this little project to gain much traction. But to my surprise—and gratitude—it’s grown far beyond what I imagined.
Today, I’m self-employed, offering consultancy services in sports, mostly through a larger firm where I also sit on the board. I’ve worked with elite soccer teams, led medical testing programs, and now coach athletes headed to the Olympics.
Alongside that, a close friend and I are building a small local business — capital-light, people-driven, and the kind where execution matters more than capital or scale.
It’s exactly the kind of business you build when you also have a passion for putting your savings to work in great companies around the world. We don’t want to interrupt the compounding machine that’s beginning to shape our future finances and freedom more than our salaries ever could alone — a portfolio of what we believe are companies run by operators steadily growing per-share earning power over time.
We wrote a short piece on the power of aligning with such operators earlier this year.
What This Corner Is About
The name The Outsiders Corner comes from two places.
First, our own background—unconventional.
Second, from The Outsiders, one of our favorite books profiling eight CEOs who compounded capital not with charisma or scale—but with discipline.
That’s the lens we bring to everything here. Not narratives. Not noise. Just the quiet mechanics of value creation.
We look for a rare combination:
Great operators + great businesses + long reinvestment runways.
This rests on two core beliefs:
Investor returns follow business returns.
Business returns come from reinvesting capital at high rates for a long time.
Or in plain math:
Total Shareholder Return = EPS Growth + Dividend Yield ± Multiple Change
And EPS Growth = ROIIC × Reinvestment Rate
Of course, companies can grow EPS through other levers too—like adding debt or issuing equity. But we prefer those where growth stems primarily from high-return reinvestment—not from stretching the balance sheet or diluting us as owners.
Most investors chase the final line on shareholder returns: Price.
We spend more time on what happens within the business — how capital is actually used.
That’s what this corner is about: studying the reinvestment engines that quietly build wealth, year after year.
What You’ll Get
With this mindset, most businesses aren’t worth owning. We don’t chase hype or try to time the cycle. Instead, we look for the rare few—those with durable models, long reinvestment opportunities, and disciplined leaders who build value steadily, year after year.
That sometimes means going against the crowd: skipping flashy roll-ups doing M&A at inflated multiples, or passing on cyclical favorites buying back stock at all-time highs.
If that sounds like the kind of investing you’re drawn to, you’re in the right place.
You can start by exploring our free writeups. And if you want access to everything— deep dives, premium posts, and regular portfolio updates — consider becoming a paid subscriber to Within the Corner.
Thanks for being here.
Cheers, Ole
Disclosure:
Nothing shared on The Outsiders Corner should be considered financial advice. All content is for informational and educational purposes only. I may hold personal investments in some of the companies mentioned. Please do your own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.
