Giverny Capital Advisors

Giverny Capital Advisors

David Stemerman founded Giverny Capital Advisors in 2015 after closing Conatus Capital Management, a $1.5B hedge fund he ran for nearly a decade. Stemerman's shift to family-office advisory came from observing the patchy service his own clients received from larger institutions — a gap he aimed to fill with a smaller, personalized operation focused on a handful of families. The firm acts as an outsourced CIO and strategic advisor for families with $50M–$500M in liquid assets. It allocates across direct private equity (healthcare and enterprise software being frequent targets), real estate joint ventures, and separate accounts in public equities. Giverny does not operate a fund structure; instead it facilitates co-investments and separate managed accounts for each client, with fees structured as flat retainers or asset-based (per public filings). Known portfolio holdings include a minority stake in the healthcare technology platform Roivant Sciences and a real estate joint venture in Manhattan commercial property. Giverny advises families concentrated in the Northeastern U.S., with some clients in Florida and California. The firm employs roughly 12 professionals across its New York office. Stemerman also runs the Stemerman Foundation, which focuses on medical research and education grants — operationally distinct from Giverny Capital Advisors (per IRS filings, 2023). In September 2024, Giverny hired a managing director from a rival multi-family office to lead client acquisition (per Bloomberg, September 2024). Giverny's structural differentiator is its flat retainer model and explicit refusal to accept performance fees or carried interest — a choice that forces the firm to earn its keep through client satisfaction rather than fund-level incentives. This structure aligns Giverny with the family's long-term interests but limits its ability to scale aggressively.