From Pre-Launch to Liftoff

Launching a hedge fund today means competing in a market dominated by scale, pod platforms, and allocator skepticism. Dardanelles Capital took a different path. Instead of relying on pedigree or infrastructure, founder Derek Brown built the firm around a disciplined, transparent portfolio process powered by Alpha Theory—and used that process to earn trust, performance, and independence from day one.

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Why read this case study:

• ‍See how an emerging manager proved institutional rigor pre-launch
  Learn how Dardanelles used a live, auditable process to stand out with seed investors and LPs.

• ‍Understand how conviction becomes position size
  Every idea was translated into explicit upside, downside, probabilities, and weights, removing emotion from sizing decisions.

• ‍Learn about “freshness” and how it became a competitive advantage
  Frequent re-underwriting of price targets improved calibration, clarity, and forward performance.

• ‍Discover how process enabled independence
  Dardanelles turned down pod capital and built the fund exactly as intended—without compromising philosophy.

If you’re launching a fund, scaling one, or pressure-testing your portfolio process, this case study shows what it looks like when structure becomes an edge.

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