Austin, Texas, United States
Joe Magyer is the Founder and Managing Partner of Seaplane Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Austin, TX. He is also the host of the Host of Investing in Startups podcast. Joe is a 2nd-time investment firm founder having co-founded Lakehouse Capital in Sydney, Australia in 2016. Joe managed almost A$1 billion at Lakehouse and served as its Chief Investment Officer before stepping back in October 2021 to return to the US and settle with his family in Austin. A frequent speaker and media contributor, Joe has appeared on ABC, Bloomberg, CNN, and CNBC, and been dubbed a “legend” by Livewire Markets. He’s a two-time Motley Fool Hall of Fame inductee and was twice a Finalist for Money Management’s Fund Manager of the Year.
Founder and Managing Partner of Seaplane Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in Austin, TX. Lead firm investment strategy, sourcing, diligence, and decision making as well as supporting portfolio company founders on everything from content to capital allocation.
Founder and Host of Investing in Startups. Investing in Startups explores the strategies and stories of some of the leading minds in early stage startup investing.
Allocated our family’s capital into early stage venture investments. Focus areas for venture included businesses geared around recurring revenue and network effects.
Portfolio Manager of the Lakehouse Global Growth Fund, a high-conviction, low-turnover managed fund operated from Sydney, Australia. Oversee portfolio construction, risk management, and idea generation process as well as researching companies and meeting with current and potential portfolio companies. The Fund returned a 24.9% net annualised return during Joe's tenure as Portfolio Manager (November 2017 - October 2021) compared to 12.7% for its benchmark, the MSCI ACWI NTR in AUD, and held a 5-star overall rating from Morningstar as of October 2021.
Portfolio Manager of the Lakehouse Small Companies Fund, high-conviction, low-turnover managed fund operated from Sydney, Australia. Oversee portfolio construction, risk management, and idea generation process as well as researching companies and meeting with current and potential portfolio companies. The Fund returned a 24.0% annualised net return during Joe's tenure as Portfolio Manager (November 2016 - October 2021) compared to 11.9% for its benchmark, the ASX Small Ords Accumulation Index, and held a 4-star overall rating from Morningstar as of October 2021.
Leader of the investing team at The Motley Fool Australia. Priorities were the following. First, delight our Australian members with winning investing advice. Second, enable continued scaling of our business via technology and sound, repeatable investment processes that play to our cultural strengths. Third, deploy, develop, and recruit first-rate investing talent. Finally, act as an ambassador for our brand on the likes of CNBC and Sky Business, as well as writing a regular column for the Australian Financial Review.
Portfolio manager for Motley Fool Pro, a high-conviction, real-money portfolio service funded by $1 million of the Fool's own capital. Motley Fool Pro has a mandate that spanned the ASX with a particular focus on small-cap shares. During Joe's tenure as the Portfolio Manager of Motley Fool Pro, from inception at the end of March 2014 through mid-August 2016, the portfolio returned a gross annualised total return of 27.5% vs. 5.8% for its benchmark, the ASX All Ords Accumulation Index.
Chief investment strategist for The Motley Fool's flagship value investing premium service, Inside Value. The service was recognized in the Wall Street Journal in August 2013 as the best-performing investment newsletter in America of the past five years. Hulbert Financial Digest also rated Inside Value among the top 10 best-performing newsletters over the previous 3 and 5 years as of the end of 2013. Inside Value was also the only service tracked by Hulbert's to outperform the Wilshire 5000 in every calendar year from 2008-2014. In addition to core investing duties, I regularly fielded media requests ranging from CNBC to the Washington Post and was a fixture on Fool's highly-rated podcast, Market Foolery, and radio show, Motley Fool Money.