Babson Professor Launches Entrepreneur ETF, Touts New “Entrepreneur Factor”

Entrepreneurs / 23rd November 2017

Babson College Professor Joel Shulmanhas launched an “Entrepreneur 30” Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). 

His innovative ETF holds a basket of the 30 largest Entrepreneur-led publicly-traded companies. The ETF was launched by Shulman, a professor at Babson College the No. 1 school for entrepreneurship, at the leading stock exchange (NYSE), on the first day of Global Entrepreneur Week with a newly released Institutional Investor publication. 

An afternoon agenda at the New York Stock Exchange included presentations by Babson College alumni, Bruce Herring ’87 (former CIO of Fidelity), Rusty Vanneman ’87 (CIO at CLS), Tom Lydon ’82 (ETF Trend Founder) and Steven Cutler MBA’61  (Founder of Essex Investments), as well as Scott Stone ’88 (CIO, Pentegra).  The presentations and panel discussions helped set the stage for ETF trends before culminating with an Entrepreneur 30 Closing Bell Celebration.

“Over the past 12 years not only has the Entrepreneur Factor been significant, it has been, by far, the most significant Factor in helping explain excess returns over the peer benchmark with his research as well as actual performance data,” says Shulman.

Shulman notes that his newest Entrepreneur 30 ETF, “employs proprietary research that creates a new Factor utilizing Management attributes.” He claims, “the Entrepreneur Factor helps explain excess returns over and above other well-known Factors such as Size, Value, Momentum and Industry sectors.” He believes that Investment Allocation experts who currently manage broad investment strategies based on Value, Growth, Size, Momentum and Industry Sectors, will soon realize benefits of this approach and will begin employing strategies and allocation models based on the new Entrepreneur Factor.

EntrepreneurShares, Shulman’s investment management firm, currently applies their Entrepreneur Factor across varying investment strategies including Market Cap, Industry Sector and Country.  The money management firm currently runs three mutual funds, one ETF and many separately managed accounts.  The historical performance among mutual funds and separately managed accounts has been recognized by Pension & Investments and The Wall Street Journal as exceptional, for varying time periods.   

The presentation and ETF launch coincides with the release of an Institutional Investor publication Leadership Matters: Crafting a Smart Beta Portfolio with a Founder-CEO Twist that details just one of Entrepreneurshares’ Management attributes. 

Other Babson community members that helped make the event possible included:

  • Greg Faulkner  MBA’86
  • Alice Thompson ’10
  • Jared Shulman  ’12
  • Alissa Shulman, ’14
  • Aleksandar Antelj ’17
  • Mihai Prisacariu ’17
  • Annie Arthur ’18
  • David Zamarin ’19
  • Lisa Couture MBA ’12

About Global Entrepreneurship Week

The ETF launch was part of Babson’s Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2017 (November 9-16) events and activities. Babson’s activities are a part of the thousands of events in 170 countries celebrating innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity, during GEW.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare. During one week each November, GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey. These activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities.

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