Jonah Lupton Social Capital

Jonah Lupton recently joined Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social Capital as one of its 11 new emerging managers. This put him in the spotlight, as he’s working with one of the most charismatic and high-profile investors of modern times. But it also increases interest in the man himself, along with his track record.

This is the Jonah Lupton Social Capital story.

Lupton has an extraordinary career history – he’s been the CEO and Founder of SoundGuard, Founder of Jool Media, and Founder of InterCapital Group. In each of these positions, he showed his leadership abilities and generated returns for his investors.

His successes earned Lupton Palihapitiya’s attention, and he was recruited into the fold in the first quarter of 2021. Now he’s part of the most popular venture capitalist fund on social media that has a singular goal of disrupting the old guard and bringing a new breed of innovative businesses to the forefront.

Let’s dive into who Lupton is and why Palihapitiya brought him into the fold.

Who Is Jonah Lupton?

Lupton is an entrepreneur and growth investor from Florida, and is currently based in the greater Boston area. He’s part of a new generation of investors who actively grow and leverage social media for business. This means he’s savvy in both online culture and securities markets.

His social network savvy online helped grow his Twitter following to over half a million followers and counting.

He makes his portfolio public in a Google spreadsheet that’s shared on his accounts and website. This helps anyone follow his moves on a mostly daily basis. Although you can’t follow his moves in real time on the spreadsheet, he also actively tweets the moves he’s considering.

Updated portfolio: https://t.co/nXBRI3PKKM$UPST continues to blow my mind. I trimmed 1/4 of my position today b/c it was too big

I started a position in $AMTX after due diligence and talking to industry experts. This stock should be trading at $40+
IP: https://t.co/hRjCjouUOe

— Jonah Lupton (@JonahLupton) March 22, 2021

It’s this transparency that ultimately makes Lupton a big draw on Stock Market Twitter (otherwise known as FinTwit). In fact, he has a presence on platforms like YouTube and the general web through his own website, Fintrics.ai, and Stocktwits, among others.  

This makes Lupton an ideal fit for Social Capital’s emerging managers.

Jonah Lupton Social Capital

Social Capital has a mission to advance humanity by solving problems. It invests in entrepreneurs and businesses building solutions for the world’s hardest problems. The team assembles experts and intellectual property to figure out what resources are really needed to get from point A to point B.

And they’re not just passive investors – the firm leverages machine learning and data to build the companies in which it is invested. This optimizes its operations to give the fund the best chance for successfully navigating the rocky roads on the journey to truly disrupt industries and revolutionize technology.

The company is aptly named for the term “social capital,” which describes networks of people relationships. These relationships are the foundation of society and determine how it evolves and grows moving forward. And Lupton’s role in this organization will be as a growth investor.

Jonah Lupton Growth Investor

Lupton is a growth investor who targets small companies (under $10Bn) with growth expected to outperform their respective sectors and the broader market.

Five key factors considered in stock evaluation are:

1.     Historical earnings growth

2.     Projected future growth

3.     Profit margins

4.     Return on equity (ROE)

5.     Share price performance

These factors help identify investments in rapidly expanding markets where new technologies are being developed. Instead of focusing strictly on the company’s ability to maintain value, they specifically seek capital appreciation.

In this style, they’re different than dividend investors seeking liquidity. Any excess liquidity is invested directly back into the business to keep it growing. The end goal put simply is to turn a minnow sized company into a whale as fast as possible.

Many tech stocks are growth stocks, and that’s why they trade at a higher P/E ratios than other industries. Lupton is seeking new companies with a high growth potential, and tracking both his Google spreadsheet portfolio and online presence gives an insight into exactly what he’s invested in and why.

Jonah Lupton Stock Picks

Lupton has a broad portfolio, but we’ll zero in on his top five stock picks from both his personal portfolio and Social Capital fund (as of March 2021). The same five companies are held in both, but they’re in a different order. Here’s his personal top 5:

1.     Upstart Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UPST)

2.     DermTech Inc (NASDAQ:DMTK)

3.     Mohawk Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MWK)

4.     TransMedics Group Inc (NASDAQ:TMDX)

5.     Celsius Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ:CELH)

And here’s the top 5 from his Social Capital fund:

1.     Upstart Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UPST)

2.     DermTech Inc (NASDAQ:DMTK)

3.     TransMedics Group Inc (NASDAQ:TMDX)

4.     Mohawk Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MWK)

5.     Celsius Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ:CELH)

Each of these companies represents his beliefs in what a growth stock should be in this decade. Upstart is an online lending platform that uses non-traditional variables to determine creditworthiness. DermTech is a melanoma and skin cancer detection technology company.

Mohawk Group is a data-driven consumer goods company using artificial intelligence to identify underserved areas without a clear market leader. TransMedics creates an organ transport system that’s saving lives. Celsius is a leading beverage company in the transforming sparkling drink space.

And his track record is great so far.

Jonah Lupton Track Record

Upstart Holdings grew from $30.00 to over $150.00 in its first four months, which already gives its early investors a great return. Celsius more than doubled at the end of 2020, and DermTech more than tripled. And Mohawk grew nearly 6x in 2020, as the rush to ecommerce favored its position.

Of course, this is just his historical track record – the real test will be in how these companies grow moving forward. That remains to be seen as some have to pass through clinical trials that can take a long time.

However, many analysts believe that they’ll continue their growth trajectories over the next ten years.

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The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Financhill has a disclosure policy. This post may contain affiliate links or links from our sponsors.