Mohnish Pabrai

Mohnish Pabrai is an Indian-American investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who is the managing partner of Pabrai Investment Funds. He is one of the most successful and openly honest value investors of his generation — and he'll be the first to tell you that he shamelessly cloned his entire approach from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger.

Born in Mumbai in 1964, Pabrai came to the United States in 1983 to study at Clemson University. After working at Tellabs, he started his IT consulting firm TransTech, Inc. in 1991 with $30,000 from his 401(k) and $70,000 in credit card debt. He sold it in 2000 for $20 million to Kurt Salmon Associates.

In 1999, he launched Pabrai Investment Funds modeled directly on Buffett's original partnership structure — the same fee arrangement, the same concentrated approach, the same long-term orientation. His investment philosophy, which he calls the 'Dhandho Framework,' can be summarized as: 'Heads, I win. Tails, I don't lose much.' He looks for low-risk, high-uncertainty situations where the downside is limited but the upside is enormous.

Pabrai is perhaps best known for his principle of 'Few Bets, Big Bets, Infrequent Bets.' He typically holds fewer than 10 positions and concentrates heavily in his highest-conviction ideas. He doesn't try to be smart every day — he waits for the obvious, screaming opportunities and then bets big.

In 2007, Pabrai and Guy Spier famously paid $650,100 at a charity auction to have lunch with Warren Buffett. Pabrai has said the experience was worth every penny and more — not for stock tips, but for life lessons.

Through the Dakshana Foundation, Pabrai and his wife Harina Kapoor fund intensive coaching for underprivileged Indian students preparing for IIT entrance exams, transforming thousands of lives. He aims to recycle the majority of his wealth back to society.

Born June 12, 1964, in Mumbai, India, Pabrai grew up watching his father start and run several businesses — some successful, some not. This entrepreneurial upbringing taught him early that business failure isn't fatal and that asymmetric bets are the foundation of wealth creation. He came to the United States in 1983, studied electrical engineering at Clemson University, and worked at Tellabs before launching TransTech. His father's fearless entrepreneurship became the template for the Dhandho framework.