37: 37th CONKERS' CORNER : 19th December 2016 : Conkers Corner speaking with David Stredder

Welcome to the 37th CONKERS’ CORNER recorded on 17th November 2016. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking Property entrepreneur, millionaire ISA investor, Founder of Mello events and Director of ShareSoc @carmensfella David Stredder.

David comes from a very humble background and was brought up in Lytham St. Annes in Lancashire. David states “my Mum and Dad were the best parents you could have” and it is clear that they provided him with the foundations for his entrepreneurial zeal and drive to achieve to attain a good education and financial independence. His Mum would give him spelling and Maths tests after school and when he was eleven years of age, she entered him into the scholarship test for the top school in Lancashire. David passed the test and “went from being on free school milk at my smaller school” to one of the big boys at a part boarding school.

David always worked during the school holidays and decided early on that he would not go to University. His mind was always on making money and although he went on to sixth form education, he opted for a computer operator job with a big Insurance company. He says however, that he was rubbish…”it was just way beyond me”. David’s next role was in London as an Information Officer. Part of it was sport journalism and also taking dignitaries around Central London. This job provided David with lots of additional time on his hands and he decided to get into property and he invested some of his growing savings into two flats. He later found that his friends that had chosen to go University, needed to come to London for work and needed accommodation. Before he knew it, he had built up the second largest property management company in South London.

He sold this property business to an industry consolidator in the late nineties and decided to spread his money into investments that provided him with a return. Shortly after this David formed a group for a monthly meet-up at a local restaurant called Mello. Thus, Mello events was born and grew and grew http://mello-events.co.uk/about-us/ Since then he has concentrated on his listed and unlisted investments and is an active small cap investor. As a proactive investor, David also became a founder and Director of ShareSoc http://www.sharesoc.org/directors.html fighting on behalf of private shareholders’ rights. ShareSoc do this by promoting shareholders’ rights to companies and by seeking to influence Government and regulatory policy.

David’s investment strategy is one of finding small-cap companies that are lowly rated and are often family owned business. He position sizes all his investments and is a very patient investor. David’s winning strategy eventually came to the attention of the author Guy Thomas and he was interviewed for his book “Free Capital, How 12 Private Investors Made Millions in the Stock Market”. A book that I read some years ago and found thoroughly insightful.

Listen now to gain insights into how David went from his very humble beginnings to become a property entrepreneur and Millionaire ISA investor. Learn from the lessons in his successful, insightful investing journey.