EP.015: From Fidelity to Fudge: Jonathan Kasen’s Buffett-Inspired Bet on Chocolate

Jonathan Kasen spent over a decade as a portfolio manager at Fidelity, analyzing industrial and energy companies through the lens of four key elements: organic growth, operating leverage, free cash flow conversion, and reinvestment opportunities. Today, he’s applying those same principles to his latest venture: chocolate.

In this episode of Pitch The PM, Jonathan joins Doug Garber to talk about his journey from Wall Street to small business ownership. They dive deep into what makes a great compounder—public or private—and how Buffett’s See’s Candies investment and a shaky car ride with the Oracle himself helped shape Kasen’s thinking.

Choosing a great industry like chocolate is a good start and then management execution is the key to compounding. Kasen’s blueprint at Hillard’s is similar to See’s Candies regional strategy decades ago.

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Doug Garber on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-garber-42aa508

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