ShawSpring Partners

Dennis Hong

Dennis Hong runs ShawSpring Partners, a Boston-based investment firm he founded in 2014. He grew up in Brampton, Ontario, the son of two shopkeepers, and was the first in his family to go to university. His path into investing started almost by accident: scanning Yale's campus job board for the highest-paying work, he landed a post at the university's Investments Office, where he learned the craft under David Swensen. After graduating in 2005, he worked at Matrix Capital Management and Altimeter Capital Management before founding his own firm. Hong started ShawSpring after his first year at Harvard Business School, leaving the MBA program in 2014 to launch the firm with backing from the family investment office of a prominent Boston entrepreneur. The bet paid off quickly enough that he never returned to finish his degree. ShawSpring takes a long-term, highly concentrated approach, holding just a handful of high-quality businesses—typically five to ten—that Hong believes have durable competitive advantages, strong cash generation, and management he trusts to treat shareholders fairly. He looks for industry leaders in technology, internet, and consumer markets around the world and expects to own them for years rather than trade them. He does not push for changes at the companies he owns; he simply picks the ones he thinks are already run well and holds on.