The 16th Annual Sohn San Francisco Investment Conference (SohnSF) took place on Tuesday, October 28, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. PST and featured an all star line-up. The conference brings top investors, asset allocators, and industry leaders from Wall Street to Silicon Valley for a full day of ideas, insights in support of Bay Area youth.
Hedge Fund Alpha was at the event and you can find our in-depth coverage of the conference below by using the bold links or checking the PDF at the very bottom.
Also see:
- 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit
- 2025 Capitalize For Kids Investors Conference
- 2025 Invest For Kids Conference
2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference Speakers
Best Ideas Presentations:
Ravi Paidipaty, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Freestone Grove Partners
Ravi Paidipaty of Freestone Grove Partners pitched this tech/infrastructure equity as one of the few remaining “undiscovered” beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom. He said the market misjudges Semtech’s transition from a single-product company to a diversified leader in data-center interconnectivity, positioning it for a powerful earnings revision cycle. Paidipaty expects major upside as new product platforms address the industry’s biggest pain points in power efficiency, latency, and cost.
Full details are in the linked coverage.
See: Freestone Grove’s Paidipaty Likes This AI Play As One Of The Only “Undiscovered Stories” Left
Mike Wilkins, Managing Member, Kingsford Capital Management
Mike Wilkins of Kingsford Capital Management spoke at the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference, challenging the narrative that the United States faces a shortage of public companies. Instead, he argued the opposite: that markets are saturated with low-quality listings created by lax regulation and speculative financing structures. As one of the longest-tenured short-biased managers in the industry, Wilkins warned that decades of deregulation have diluted listing standards and flooded exchanges with what he called “junk” securities that destroy investor capital. Full details will be available in the linked coverage.
See: Kingsford Capital’s Mike Wilkins – The Delisting Crisis: A Case Study
Peter S. Park, Founder and Managing Member, Park West Asset Management
Peter S. Park of Park West Asset Management pitched a US gaming stock, arguing that a temporary structural dislocation is creating a rare value opportunity in a fundamentally strong gaming supplier. Park said the company’s decision to move from a dual US-Australian listing to a sole Australian listing has triggered forced selling from US institutions, followed by imminent mandated buying from Australian superannuation and index funds. He expects this flow-driven dynamic to catalyze a sharp multiple expansion once the technical overhang clears.
Readers can find more in the linked coverage.
See: Park West Bets Flow Dislocation Drives Opportunity In This Gaming Supply Equity
Dennis Allaire, Partner and Director of Research, SoMa Equity Partners
Dennis Allaire of SoMa Equity Partners pitched an EV stock, calling it the only electric vehicle maker outside China besides Tesla capable of reaching true mass-market scale and sustainable profitability. He argued that Rivian is entering a phase of transformational growth across both hardware and software, with an upcoming launch marking the company’s “Model 3 moment.” Allaire sees the company’s rapidly expanding product roadmap, new manufacturing capacity, and landmark software partnership with a major automaker as catalysts for a major re-rating.
See: SoMa Equity’s Dennis Allaire – This EV Maker Could 6x From Here
Chris Hansen, President and Founding Partner, Valiant Capital Management, L.P.
Chris Hansen of Valiant Capital Management pitched a company that he believes is one of the best positioned engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) specialists to benefit from a multi-decade power infrastructure buildout. He argued that the world’s growing energy demand, intensified by artificial intelligence and industrial reshoring, has outpaced the capacity to engineer and construct new natural gas power facilities. Hansen said this imbalance creates a major bottleneck for utilities and a powerful tailwind for the few firms capable of executing large-scale projects, with this name standing out as the top pure-play beneficiary.
See: Valiant’s Chris Hansen – This EPC Specialist Should Double Amid Growing Power Demands
Franklin Parlamis, Chief Investment Officer, Aequim Alternative Investments
Franklin Parlamis of Aequim Alternative Investments pitched a Bitcoin long/short arbitrage idea built around a convergence trade between spot Bitcoin and a publicly traded crypto vehicle. Parlamis argued that the vehicle’s roughly 50% premium to the value of its underlying Bitcoin holdings is structurally unsustainable and should erode toward parity. The trade, currently held in Aequim’s fund, involves buying a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund to maintain exposure to the cryptocurrency while shorting the other security, capturing the premium compression as the market normalizes.
See: Aequim’s Franklin Parlamis Pitches Bitcoin Long/Short Arbitrage Idea
Jacob Rubin, Founder and Managing Member, Philosophy Capital Management LLC
Jacob Rubin, Founder and Managing Member of Philosophy Capital Management, pitched this real estate broker as a long idea at the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference, calling it a rare case of “low downside, high torque” upside potential. Rubin believes that the firm, following its announced acquisition of a rival, is set to become the dominant U.S. residential brokerage with unmatched scale, technology, and operating leverage. He argued the firm’s earnings could triple over the next three years, setting up a potential 2x–4x return as the housing cycle recovers.
See: Philosophy Capital – This Real Estate Broker Has Low Downside And Could Quadruple
Blake Schaefer, Founding Partner, Environmental Commodity Partners
Blake Schaefer, Partner at Environmental Commodity Partners (ECP), pitched California Carbon Allowances (CCAs) as a long idea, describing it as a highly asymmetric opportunity driven by regulatory clarity and mandated supply tightening. He highlighted that California’s recent extension of its Cap-and-Trade program through 2045 and the planned removal of roughly 115 million tons of carbon allowances will flip the market from surplus to deficit, driving prices meaningfully higher from current levels around $32. Schaefer views the setup as one of the most compelling risk/reward opportunities in environmental commodities, with downside protection from the program’s price floor.
See: ECP Sees Asymmetric Value in California Carbon Market
Louis Chang, Founder and CIO, Gavilan Investment Partners
Louis Chang, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Gavilan Investment Partners, pitched an e-commerce stock as his top long idea at the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference. Chang called the company a “founder-led e-commerce powerhouse” with an “insurmountable logistics lead” in South Korea and a rapidly scaling new market in a major Asian developed country. He argued that the company’s unmatched fulfillment infrastructure, dominant customer engagement, and strong execution under their CEO made for sustained market leadership. With one country emerging as a second growth engine, Chang sees the stock doubling to tripling over the next three to five years, driven by both margin expansion and accelerating international revenue.
See: Gavilan’s Chang – This Founder-Led E-Commerce Has “Insurmountable Lead” And Could 3x
Next Wave Sohn San Francisco Investment Conference
Jim Edwards, Managing Partner, Maestria Partners
Jim Edwards, Founder of Maestria Partners, mentioned an adtech company as his top long idea at the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Investment Conference, calling it a “cash-generative toll operator” poised to benefit from the accelerating shift of TV viewing and ad budgets to streaming. Edwards believes this company, the largest independent supply-side ad platform with a dominant position in connected TV, is set to compound cash flow at over 20% annually while gaining market share from Google in open internet advertising. He sees potential 3x–5x upside over the next five years as Netflix and Disney scale their ad businesses, real-time bidding penetration deepens, and regulatory changes in the Google ad tech case drive incremental share gains.
See: Maestria Partners’ Jim Edwards – This Adtech Dominant Player Could 5x
Gaurav Gupta, Founder & CIO, Floating Capital
Gaurav Gupta, Founder and CIO of Floating Capital, mentioned a software equity as a long idea at the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference, calling it a deeply mispriced software leader poised for a multi-bagger recovery. Gupta argued that the stock, the backend platform powering mortgage digitization for major lenders like Wells Fargo, trades at just a $1 billion market cap despite major cost cuts, share gains, and rising efficiency. With mortgage volumes expected to normalize and free cash flow potentially reaching $250 million by 2027, Gupta sees an asymmetric setup offering 3x–5x upside over the next few years.
See: Floating Capital – Digitizing Mortgages Makes This Company A Potential Multi-bagger
Shaun Mehra, Founder, Ishara Investments
Shaun Mehra, Founder of Ishara Investments, mentioned a biotech as a long idea at the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference, highlighting it as a biotech with strong Phase 3 results and major rerating potential. Mehra argued that the company’s lead drug, which affects 7 million Americans, has shown meaningful functional improvement and could generate over $10 billion in U.S. peak sales. Following an interim setback earlier this year and a recent Phase 3 success, Ishara sees the company’s $4–5 billion valuation as deeply discounted, with room to more than double as the market absorbs the data and a 2026 approval and launch approach.
See: Ishara’s Shaun Mehra Says This Biotech Should More Than Double
Jun Y. Oh, CIO, Griet Capital
Jun Y. Oh, Founder and CIO of Griet Capital, pitched a “boring” company as a long idea at the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference, calling it a Japanese med-tech compounder hiding in plain sight. Oh highlighted the firm’s niche dominance in surgical knives, eyeless needles, and dental instruments, arguing that a temporary China recall and heavy capex cycle have obscured a major free cash flow inflection.
With automation complete, margins recovering, and sales expected to grow around 11 percent annually through 2029, Oh believes the company’s valuation is roughly 10 times EBITDA compared with 14 to 16 times for peers offering significant upside. Griet projects about ¥33 billion in free cash flow over the next four years, making a potential stock double plausible as earnings normalize and capital returns rise.
See: Jun Y. Oh, CIO, Griet Capital – This Boring Japanese Med-tech Can Double
The Big Pitch – Cal vs. Stanford
At the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference, “The Big Pitch – Cal vs. Stanford” featured UC Berkeley’s short on a food company and Stanford’s long on a project management company. The Berkeley team argued that the food producer’s pricing power is an illusion created by the temporary avian flu supply shock, with egg prices normalizing and private-label competition surging, setting the stage for revenue and margin contraction.
Stanford’s presenters countered with a bullish case for one stock, highlighting its accelerating enterprise adoption, 90 percent gross margins, and underappreciated upside from new AI-driven automation tools following an overdone selloff.
See: Cal vs. Stanford – Avian Flu Winner Vs Project Management Firm Wins With AI
iConnections: The Allocators Perspective
The panel “iConnections Presents: The Allocators Perspective” featured Jim DeWolfe of Northside Capital, Jackson Garton of Makena Capital, and Michael McIntosh of IEQ Capital, who discussed market positioning, private market opportunities, and the growing use of AI in investment processes.
Each firm is using AI to improve speed and decision quality, with Makena analyzing decades of investment memos, IEQ screening thousands of deals each year, and Northside applying AI in compliance and research. All three emphasized that AI enhances, rather than replaces, human judgment, while disciplined liquidity management and risk allocation remain central to their approach.
See: How Allocators Are Using AI In Their Investment Process
Investing in China: Challenge and Opportunity
The “Investing in China: Challenge and Opportunity” panel featured Melissa J. Ma of Asia Alternatives Capital Partners and Jeff Shen of BlackRock, who highlighted long-term investment opportunities in Asia amid short-term geopolitical disruptions. Both emphasized structural growth drivers in demographics, technology, and supply chains. Ma focused on private markets, where rapid innovation and post-COVID valuation gaps create a rare opportunity to acquire quality assets at discounted prices. Shen detailed public equity opportunities in China, where policy, retail activity, and sentiment divergences make long short strategies attractive.
See: Asia Alternatives & BlackRock’s Systemic Active Equities On The Unique Opportunities In Asia
Beneficiary Presentation: Investing in Our Future: Policy, Philanthropy, and Partnership
Ayesha Curry, Co-Founder of Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and Founder of Sweet July, shares insights on how cross-sector collaboration between government, nonprofits, and private funders is driving meaningful change for Bay Area youth.
- Ayesha Curry, Co-Founder, Eat. Learn. Play Foundation & Founder, Sweet July
In Conversation With - Seth Blackman, CPA, KPMG
Also see Full 2024 Sohn Hong Kong Conference Coverage
Additional Programming:
SohnSF Leadership Forum: The Power of Mindset
A fireside chat with Keren Eldad, Executive Coach, With Enthusiasm Coaching, INC, in conversation with Lindsay Costigan, CAIA, Managing Director, BNP Paribas.
“The Big Pitch” Cal vs. Stanford The second annual student stock pitch competition, featuring undergraduate investors from UC Berkeley and Stanford University, presented live on the main stage.
“The San Francisco conference exemplifies the Bay Area’s commitment to both investment excellence and community impact,” said Seth Blackman, Board President of Sohn San Francisco. “We bring together the region’s most talented investors for a day of actionable investment ideas while supporting organizations that transform educational opportunities for underserved youth throughout the Bay Area.”
Funds raised at the conference benefit Bay Area nonprofits serving disadvantaged youth, continuing the legacy of over $3.5 million raised to date. The 2025 beneficiaries include The Posse Foundation, SMART*, and Eat. Learn. Play.
Presented in partnership with CNBC, iConnections, and CalAlts, SohnSF has raised over $3.5 million to date, benefiting organizations dedicated to improving graduation rates, expanding access to higher education, and opening doors to vocational training. A portion of proceeds also supports the Sohn Conference Foundation’s global mission to advance pediatric cancer research and other public health priorities.
About SohnSF
Sohn San Francisco is part of the global Sohn Conference Foundation series, which gathers world-class investors to share knowledge and give back to local communities. In San Francisco, proceeds directly support Bay Area nonprofits working to improve educational opportunities and life outcomes for underserved youth.
For more information on registration, sponsorship, and the full agenda, visit sohnsf.org.
See the full PDF of our coverage of the 2025 Sohn San Francisco Conference below.
