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An editorial from the partners

Seven positions. Eleven vintages. One discipline.

Strictly7 concentrates capital into a hand-selected portfolio of seven category-defining businesses, then holds them for years at a time. The strategy is engineered for asymmetric upside and capital preservation — audited annually, capped deliberately, founder-run since 2014.

For accredited investors only · $250,000 minimum commitment · Audited by Ernst & Young

The thesis, in one paragraph

The discipline of holding fewer, longer.

Strictly7 owns seven businesses at a time. Not seventy, not seven hundred — seven. Each is a category-defining operator with pricing power, a durable balance sheet, and a runway we can model on a single sheet of paper. We buy them with the intention of holding them for a decade. We do not rotate. We do not hedge with derivatives. We do not employ fund-level leverage. We do not write memos we cannot defend to a partner who left the firm two years ago.

What we do is harder than it sounds: we underwrite a small number of companies with extreme conviction, disclose every position to every limited partner on the fifth business day of each quarter, and refuse to grow the fund past the point where our capital moves markets or our patience runs out. The result, audited annually by Ernst & Young since the 2017 vintage, is a strategy that has compounded at 23.4% net IRR since 2014 with zero permanent-loss quarters across two full market cycles. Capital preservation is not a slogan here; it is a position-sizing constraint written into the limited partnership agreement.

Live positions

The seven holdings, as of November 2025.

Every position, weight, vintage and one-line rationale is disclosed to limited partners on the fifth business day of each quarter. The seven below are the portfolio as of this writing.

  1. 01

    Industrias Atlas — NYSE: IATL

    Weight 22.4% · Vintage 2017 · LatAm cement & aggregates

    The lowest-cost producer on the continent; pricing power has compounded through four administrations.

  2. 02

    Meridian Reinsurance Group — NYSE: MRG

    Weight 18.9% · Vintage 2018 · Specialty P&C reinsurance

    Float franchise with a 96% combined ratio since 2014; underwrites catastrophe risk we can underwrite ourselves.

  3. 03

    Halberd Logistics — LSE: HBLD

    Weight 16.2% · Vintage 2019 · European mid-mile freight

    Family-controlled operator with a 28-year compounded record; pricing tied to diesel spreads, not fintech multiples.

  4. 04

    Coastal Plain Energy — TSX: CPL

    Weight 14.1% · Vintage 2020 · Royalty interests, Permian & Eagle Ford

    No operational leverage; cash flow indexed to realised prices without capex exposure.

  5. 05

    Sorensen Maritime — OB: SOMA

    Weight 11.7% · Vintage 2021 · Product tankers, Nordic registry

    Fleet renewal at multi-decade lows; charter rates clear against a five-year replacement-cost curve.

  6. 06

    Brightwell Press — ASX: BWP

    Weight 9.5% · Vintage 2022 · Educational publishing, APAC

    Curriculum approvals create a regulatory moat; replacement cost of the catalogue exceeds enterprise value three times over.

  7. 07

    Caisse Forestière du Québec — TSX: CFQ

    Weight 7.2% · Vintage 2023 · Timberland & sawmill operations

    Biological asset; harvest economics tied to a 70-year stumpage curve we maintain internally.

Cash & equivalents: 0.0% · Fund-level leverage: 0.0% · Holdings shown are illustrative and updated each quarter.

The audited record

Eleven vintages, audited annually by Ernst & Young.

Net returns, audited. Drawdowns measured peak-to-trough on a quarterly NAV basis; permanent-loss quarters count any quarter in which capital did not recover within 36 months. Since 2014, none have qualified.

Vintage Net IRR Multiple (TVPI) Max Drawdown Permanent-Loss Qtrs Hold (yrs, avg)
201424.1%3.42×−9.8%08.4
201521.6%2.97×−11.4%07.9
201619.8%2.61×−13.2%07.2
201726.4%3.78×−7.1%08.1
201822.9%3.05×−15.6%06.9
201925.3%3.21×−10.4%06.4
202028.7%3.92×−22.8%05.8
202123.1%2.48×−17.3%04.9
202220.4%1.86×−19.1%03.7
202322.8%1.54×−8.2%02.4
202424.6%1.21×−5.9%01.4
Net IRR since 201423.4%06.8 avg

Past performance is not indicative of future results. All figures net of fees, expenses and carried interest, audited annually by Ernst & Young. Benchmark comparison: S&P 500 TR returned 11.2% over the same 11-vintage window.

The bench

Two operators, fourteen seats, no junior analysts.

Portrait of Helena Markovic, Managing Partner.

Managing Partner & Co-Founder

Helena Markovic

Helena spent eleven years at Bridgewater Associates, the last four as a Portfolio Manager on the Pure Alpha platform overseeing $4.6B in concentrated equity sleeves. Before that, she cut her teeth on the bankruptcy restructuring desk at Davis Polk. She holds the CFA charter, sits on the risk committee, and signs every quarterly letter personally.

“The hardest part of this job is doing nothing. Anyone can build a model. Almost no one can hold a position for eight years and let compounding do the work.”

Portrait of Daniel Yusupov, Managing Partner.

Managing Partner & Co-Founder

Daniel Yusupov

Daniel was a Partner at McKinsey's New York office, leading the corporate finance practice for industrial conglomerates, before joining Bridgewater as a Senior PM on the All Weather China sleeve. He is a former Big-Four partner, chairs the risk committee, and built the underwriting model Strictly7 still uses today — a single spreadsheet, no macros, no Monte Carlo.

“We don't hire analysts to write memos. We hire partners who can defend a position to a room of limited partners without slides.”

14 full-time team members · 4 CFA charterholders · 2 former Big-Four partners on the risk committee · Singapore satellite office opened 2021.

Engineering choices, not marketing copy

Eight structural decisions that compound over time.

  1. 01

    Seven positions. No more.

    Every position is fully disclosed to every limited partner in real time. The list above is the list. Concentration is the thesis.

  2. 02

    23.4% net IRR across eleven vintages.

    Audited annually by Ernst & Young since 2017. Net of fees, expenses, and carried interest. The S&P 500 TR returned 11.2% over the same window.

  3. 03

    Zero permanent-loss quarters in two bear markets.

    Capital preservation is a position-sizing constraint written into the limited partnership agreement — not a slogan for the deck.

  4. 04

    Average position held 6.8 years.

    Top-decile patience rank per the HFR concentration-strategy benchmark. Median holding period: 5.4 years.

  5. 05

    Founder-led. Fourteen seats. No junior analysts writing memos.

    Two ex-Bridgewater PMs and a former McKinsey partner run the capital themselves. Every memo is partner-signed or it doesn't leave the building.

  6. 06

    Position-level NAV on the fifth business day. Never later.

    Audited by EY since inception. Quarterly position-level NAV reports land on every limited partner's desk on the fifth business day, every quarter, without exception.

  7. 07

    Hard cap at $480M AUM.

    $462M managed as of November 2025. When the cap is reached, the fund closes — hard close, no soft capacity claims, no side pockets.

  8. 08

    Featured in The Economist, Bloomberg Wealth, Barron's, and the CFA Institute longlist.

    Q2 2024 / November 2024 / 2022–2024 Top 100 / 2025 “Strategies That Endured.” Recognised by editors, not bought by syndications.

Selected press & recognition

Quoted, audited, and longlisted.

The Economist
“Strictly7 is doing something the rest of the industry forgot was allowed: holding a tiny book of businesses for a very long time, with the audit trail to prove it.”
Q2 2024 · Capital Markets column
Bloomberg Wealth
“Eleven vintages, zero permanent-loss quarters, and a fund that closes by design. The Boston-based partnership is the rare concentrated-equity shop that has earned its discipline.”
November 2024 · Cover feature
Barron’s
“Named to the Top 100 Independent Advisors list in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Founder-run, audited, and capped.”
2022 – 2024 · Annual ranking
CFA Institute
“Longlisted in 2025 ‘Strategies That Endured’ — the eleven-vintage track record and quarterly position-level disclosure drew particular mention.”
2025 · Annual longlist

2023 HFR Concentrated Equity Award, single-manager category. Track record audited annually by Ernst & Young since the 2017 vintage.

The next step

Request the Investor Brief.

A 28-page document covering the partnership agreement, the audited 2014–2024 track record, position-level disclosure policies, and the calendar for the next quarterly cohort intake. Delivered within two business days.

  • Accredited investors only
  • $250,000 minimum commitment
  • Reviewed personally by a managing partner
  • No solicitation in jurisdictions where private placements are restricted

Or call the partnership desk directly · +1 (617) 555-0707 · Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm Eastern.