Matthew Schissler of Paradise Valley holds positions in small and mid-cap public companies through his funds, and he is also a part owner in a commuter airline, an insurance company, and boutique fitness franchises. Those are not separate activities. They are part of the same capital allocation framework.
Most investors operate in one world or the other. They run public market portfolios, or they do private deals. The crossover investor who is genuinely active in both tends to see things that specialists in either category miss.
Why the Combination Works
Public market investing and private ownership require different skills, but they inform each other in ways that single-track investors do not always appreciate. What you learn running a direct stake in a private operating business changes how you read a public company’s financial statements.
When you have been inside a business dealing with cash flow timing, customer concentration, and operational constraints, you know what those line items actually represent. A number in a 10-K is a description of something that happened. Having operated gives you a better read on whether it is a real number or a managed one.
What Private Ownership Teaches About Risk
Schissler’s private investments span industries that do not obviously connect: regional aviation, insurance, and fitness franchising. What they share is that they are operationally driven businesses where margins depend on execution, not just market conditions.
That exposure to operational risk is different from the market risk in public equities. Both are real, but they do not move together. An economic environment that pressures public markets might not affect a commuter airline’s revenue. The combination adds a different kind of resilience.
Board and Advisory Work as a Bridge
Schissler has served in founding, advisory, director, and executive roles across private and publicly traded companies. That history means he has been on both sides of the table in both markets: evaluating the company from the outside and running it from the inside.
That experience matters when you are building a mixed portfolio because the skills for evaluating private deals and public positions are not as different as the markets suggest. Both require understanding the business, the team, and the capital structure.
What the Mixed Portfolio Requires
Managing investments across public and private structures is not just a research challenge. It is a liquidity management challenge. Public positions can be exited quickly. Private ownership cannot.
Schissler’s approach to that trade-off reflects his background in deal management and capital structure work. Knowing how to think about exit from the beginning, and how to balance illiquid stakes against more liquid positions, is part of what makes the mixed portfolio workable rather than just complicated.
The point of spanning both markets is not diversification for its own sake. It is the compounding of insight across two different types of ownership. Public market rigor makes you a better private investor. Private ownership makes you a sharper reader of public companies.