Startup investment management firms no longer are named for the founding principals.
Many of the firms launched in 1998 picked names from nature or antiquity.
"Stamper and Wisneski doesn't mean anything," said Roger Stamper of Spyglass Asset Management, a Toledo firm he formed with Mark Wisneski last summer.
"A spyglass is a small telescope. ... What logo could you come up with for Toledo?"
The principals at Atlas Capital Management LLC, Minneapolis, chose a name they liked, then created a graphic logo.
"We wanted the firm to have its own identity," said Scott Bettin, who started the firm this year with fellow money manager Tim Palmer. "Years from now, when Tim and I want to take a lesser role and hand the reins over to the next group, they won't be encumbered by the names."
Sawgrass Asset Management LLC, Jacksonville, Fla., takes its name from a plant. Osprey Partners recalls a black and white diving bird. Other names that have popped up in recent years conjure images of windswept Texas prairies: High Rock LLC, Ironwood Capital Management Inc. and Rockwood Capital Management.
Does this make Peregrine Capital Management, formed in 1984, a trendsetter?
