Stephen Yiu misses playing crazy golf at the London offices of Blue Whale Capital LLP, the firm he founded with British billionaire Peter Hargreaves in 2016.

Not just because the pre-pandemic daily ritual was a way to briefly relax with colleagues during lunchtime, but because it was something “you need to win,” according to Yiu. The sentiment is reflected in his other interests, too.

His favorite film is “The Last Dance,” the 10-part documentary chronicling basketball legend Michael Jordan’s single-minded dedication to trouncing his opponents. His recruit training at a unit of the British Army Reserve inspired his firm’s motto: “Excellence Will Be Tolerated.”

That could all be dismissed as empty bluster, but for the fact that Yiu and Blue Whale do win, regularly. The company’s five-person investment team has posted a net annualized return of 19% since the launch of the Blue Whale Growth Fund in September 2017. A $1,000 investment at the start would have been worth $1,653 at the end of July. The fund has increased 16% in 2020 through the end of last month, in contrast to most major equity indexes across the globe that are down or largely flat.

Blue Whale, which got it start with 25 million pounds ($33 million) in seed capital from Hargreaves, now manages more than 450 million pounds of assets. Yiu, 42, says about two-thirds of his clients are individual investors. He talked about what inspired his firm’s name, how Netflix Inc. is similar to a soccer team and climbing the Great Pyramid of Giza in his early 20s. His comments have been edited and condensed.

Where does the name of your firm come from?
I came up with the name in 2006. I was inspired by the blue whale skeleton at London’s Natural History Museum.

Have you been working from home?
I have been in the office the whole time. I can walk to work.

Why?
As the lockdown was approaching, financial markets were in disarray. We have the market going down 10% in a day. You have stocks going down 15% to 20% in a day. There’s a lot of uncertainty.

Obviously I have my Bloomberg back home, but my internet connection isn’t as robust as the one in the office. If something happened and we’re not able to act accordingly, or on a timely basis, it could cost our investors’ performance. That’s something that I can’t afford to do.

Why do you hold a lot of technology stocks?
We ended up with such a high exposure to technology-related names because, in an uncertain world, companies with a business model based on recurring revenue and structural growth drivers can grow irrespective of macroeconomic uncertainties.

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