FIRST PRINCIPLES
Most investments are lonely
Buy a share on the ASX and you get a login, a half-yearly statement and a price that moves for reasons nobody can explain. You will never meet the other owners. You will never meet the people who run the company. You will never walk through the door.
Owning part of a private business can be completely different. There are only a handful of owners. You know who they are. You can meet the manager, visit the yard, ride along on a job. And when the people who own something together actually know each other, a few things tend to happen: decisions get better, problems surface sooner, and the whole thing becomes more enjoyable than a number on a screen.
The Owners' Circle is how we make that happen on purpose.
The people who own a business with you become the people you ride with.
WHAT WE'RE BUILDING
Businesses that earn. Places you'll want to be.
Every business we own earns its keep from the public, and every one is somewhere owners can enjoy too. The more we own, the more there is.
The machines
Motorbikes · Performance cars · Boats · Planes
A boat charter business on the harbour. A garage of track bikes and cars hired out for track days. In time, aircraft earning their way through scenic flights and fly-in trips. Each one runs as a business in its own right, booked by the public all year and by owners at owner rates.
The places
Bars · Restaurants · Cafés · Gyms · Bathhouses · Lodges
The bar after the ride, the café on the route, the gym, the bathhouse, lodges on the roads worth touring. Each one trades every day, and each one is one more door owners can walk through and feel at home.
HOW YOU JOIN
Owning comes first. The Circle comes with it.
1
Become
an owner Own a share of one of our businesses. That is the only way in. There is no separate membership and nothing to apply for.
2
You're
in the Circle Your place starts the day you become an owner and lasts as long as you own. Own more than one business and you're still one member, with a few more people to meet.
3
Enjoy
it together A calendar of curated events with the people who own alongside you. Come to everything, or come to one thing a year. Nobody keeps score.
THE CIRCLE CALENDAR
Something worth turning up for, every week
Curated, hosted and planned, so all you have to do is arrive. Groups are kept small on purpose: big enough to meet someone new, small enough to have a real conversation.
On the road
Weekday rides
Monthly
Led motorbike rides on the best roads around Sydney: the Old Pacific Highway, Putty Road, Macquarie Pass, on days when they are empty. A ride leader, a support vehicle, a coffee stop and lunch.
Drive days
Monthly
Convoy drives through the national parks and up into the mountains, finishing at a long lunch somewhere worth the trip. Bring the car you never get to drive properly.
Track days
Twice a year
Your car or bike on a real circuit, with instructors and sessions grouped by experience. A debrief over dinner, and a few stories that improve every time they are told.
On the water
Harbour days
Fortnightly through summer
Skippered days on the water: the harbour beaches, Middle Harbour, Pittwater. Swim, eat, and watch the city from the side most people only see on postcards.
Fishing days
Seasonal
An early start offshore after kingfish, or a slower day on the river. Breakfast on the boat, lunch back on land.
At the table
Whisky and cigar nights
Monthly
A private night at the bar, closed to the public. A tasting led by a distiller or a maker, good cigars on the terrace, and no one in a hurry to leave.
The owners' table
Quarterly
A long dinner at a restaurant worth the booking, with everyone who owns alongside you and the managers who run the businesses. Part celebration, part catch-up, part the best business conversation you'll have all quarter.
Chef's nights
Occasional
A private dining room, a chef cooking for the table, and wine chosen by someone who knows what they're doing.
Body and recovery
Training sessions
Weekly
Strength sessions and boxing pads with a coach, early, before the day starts. Breakfast together afterwards.
Sauna, plunge and recovery
Weekly
Private sessions at a bathhouse: sauna, cold plunge and remedial massage with qualified therapists. The best possible end to a long ride or a hard week.
Golf days
Seasonal
A round at a good course, a few side bets on the scorecard, and a long lunch at the nineteenth.
The big weekends
Fight nights and big games
When the big ones come
Good seats for the big fights, State of Origin and the grand finals, with dinner beforehand.
Grand Prix, Bathurst and MotoGP
Once or twice a year
Group trips to the events owners would go to anyway: grandstands or hospitality, travel organised, a great dinner the night before. Bathurst and Phillip Island are ridden or driven to, of course.
The owners' weekend
Once a year
A weekend away on the great roads (the Snowy Mountains, the Hunter, the Alpine Way) with a lodge, a chef and the whole Circle. Ride or drive in on Friday, ride or drive home on Sunday.
OWNER DAYS
Walk through the door of what you own
Once a year, every business we own opens its doors to its owners. Meet the team. Walk the yard. Look at the equipment your money paid for. Ride along on a job. Ask the manager anything.
It is the single best way to understand what you own, and most owners say it is the day they stop thinking of their investment as an investment and start thinking of it as their business.
WHO YOU'LL MEET
The right room
The Circle is made up of the people who own our businesses, and the people who run them:
- Business owners and founders who know what it took to build something
- Professionals — doctors, lawyers, engineers, executives — looking for a second way of being paid
- Recently retired owners who sold their own business and miss being part of one
- The managers who run our businesses day to day, and who are often the most interesting people at the table
Introductions happen naturally. Owners have found suppliers, clients, advisers, riding partners and a few good friends in the Circle. None of that is promised, but it happens when the right people keep turning up in the same place.
HOW THE CIRCLE IS RUN
Hosted properly, kept small, run with standards
Hosted. Every event is planned, booked and led. Routes are ridden beforehand. Boats come with skippers. Tables are booked. You just arrive.
Small. Most events are capped so everyone actually talks to each other. Popular events are balloted fairly among owners.
With standards. The Circle works because people trust each other. A few simple rules apply to everyone:
- No drinking before or during a ride or drive
- No photos of other owners without their permission
- What's discussed at the table stays at the table
- Respect for venue staff, skippers, instructors and each other
WHAT IT COSTS
Clear about who pays for what
- Hosted events (the rides, drives, harbour days, owners' tables, owner days) are paid for by Horvat Capital. They are never paid for out of owners' profit.
- Bigger trips (interstate weekends, the Grand Prix, travel and accommodation) are organised for the Circle and offered at cost.
- Your own costs — your bike, your car, your fuel, your green fees — are your own.
BEING STRAIGHT ABOUT IT
The Circle is a bonus, not a reason
The Owners' Circle is something we're proud of, but we would never want anyone to buy a share of a business because of it. Decide on the business: its accounts, its manager, its customers, its risks. If the business is right for you, the Circle is what makes owning it more enjoyable. If it isn't, no number of harbour days will fix that.
A few other things worth knowing:
- The calendar is a plan, not a promise, and events can change.
- The Circle doesn't change the risks of owning a business in any way.
- If you invest through a self-managed super fund, super rules can limit the personal benefits a member receives from an investment. We'll explain how the Circle works for SMSF owners before you commit.