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Power Forward Management
Mark Strome founded Power Forward Management in 1995 as a concentrated crossover hedge fund that placed outsized bets on tech and media before the dot-com...
Power Forward Management
Mark E. Strome founded Power Forward Management in 1995 after serving as a managing director at Levinson Partners. The New York-based firm emerged during the pre-dot-com era synthetic growth wave, focusing on emerging technology, media, and telecommunications companies. Strome's investment approach leaned heavily on concentrated positions — taking significant ownership stakes in high-conviction names — a style that produced outsized returns and drew substantial attention during the late 1990s bull market. The firm deployed capital across public equities, venture-stage private placements, and pre-IPO rounds. Power Forward Management operated with a crossover structure before the term became widely used in institutional portfolios. Confirmed public filings and press reports from the period show the firm taking large, often activist-style positions in companies including StarMedia Network, an early Latin American internet portal, and BigStar Entertainment, an online video retailer. The geographic footprint extended beyond US borders, with a particular concentration in Latin American emerging technology and media names during the region's first digital expansion. In 1996, the firm reported a net return of approximately 77 percent to the Wall Street Journal, making it one of the top-performing hedge funds in the database of MAR/Hedge at that time (per The Wall Street Journal, 1997). Strome managed the firm from its New York office and became a recognizable figure in the hedge-fund boom narrative of the late 1990s, profiled alongside peers who rode the technology wave. Public records show the firm's activities diminished after the dot-com correction, and Strome later shifted focus to philanthropy and personal investment vehicles, including the Strome Family Foundation. Power Forward Management operated as an owner-operator-led hedge fund, not an institutional platform. Its structural differentiator was the founder's willingness to hold concentrated, sometimes illiquid positions in a limited number of high-conviction names — a concentration-risk posture more typical of venture capital than the diversified hedge-fund model of its peers. The governance was sole-founder-driven, with no succession structure or institutionalized investment committee.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
1995
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Principals
Mark E. Strome
Founder and Chief Investment Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Power Forward Management and what is the firm's investment style?
Mark E. Strome founded Power Forward Management in 1995 after his tenure at Levinson Partners, where he was a managing director. Strome's investment style was characterized by concentrated, high-conviction bets, often taking significant equity stakes in a small number of companies. This approach blended public equity and late-stage private investments, operating as what would now be called a crossover strategy.
What was the firm's most notable period of performance?
Power Forward Management gained significant attention for its performance during the late-1990s technology boom. The Wall Street Journal reported in 1997 that the firm posted a 77 percent net return in 1996, making it one of the top-performing hedge funds in the MAR/Hedge universe at that time. Strome was frequently profiled alongside other prominent managers who capitalized on the pre-dot-com surge in technology and media stocks.
Did Power Forward Management invest primarily in public equities or private companies?
The firm operated a hybrid mandate that included concentrated public-equity positions, venture-stage private placements, and pre-IPO investments. This crossover structure was uncommon among hedge funds in the mid-1990s. The portfolio spanned emerging technology, media, and telecommunications companies, with a noted concentration in Latin American internet names during the region's first digital buildout.
Is Power Forward Management still actively managing outside capital?
Public records indicate that Power Forward Management's institutional investment activities diminished substantially after the dot-com correction of the early 2000s. Mark Strome shifted much of his focus toward philanthropy, notably through the Strome Family Foundation. There is no evidence of the firm actively raising or managing commingled outside capital in recent years.
What differentiated Power Forward Management's structure from other hedge funds of its era?
The firm ran a founders-operator model with no institutionalized investment committee or distributed portfolio-manager structure. Its chief differentiator was extreme concentration risk: Strome was known to hold large, sometimes illiquid stakes in only a handful of high-conviction names. This produced high portfolio volatility — including the 77 percent gain reported in 1996 — but lacked the diversification typical of 1990s multi-strategy or long-short peers.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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