The $2.6 billion formula that Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López uses to evaluate every investment
Most investors stick to what they know. Tech investors fund tech companies. Real estate professionals invest in property. Energy executives put money into oil and gas ventures. The conventional wisdom suggests that specialization reduces risk and leverages existing expertise.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López operates differently. His portfolio spans fashion retail, transportation technology, banking in West Africa, and energy infrastructure. With a net worth exceeding $2.6 billion, he’s demonstrated an ability to evaluate opportunities across unrelated industries and generate returns that most specialists never achieve.
That range isn’t random diversification or lucky timing. Betancourt López applies a consistent framework to every investment decision—a formula that values specific patterns over industry familiarity. It explains why he’s comfortable making big bets in unfamiliar markets while many experienced investors struggle to expand beyond their home territory.
“There are 10,000 good ideas out there,” Betancourt López said. “But not all of them come to be a successful venture because there are many factors that make them successful. The most critical one is the people.”
People matter more than business plans
Financial projections look impressive in PowerPoint decks. Market analyses can justify almost any opportunity. Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López starts every investment evaluation by assessing the people running the operation—and spreadsheets can’t fake that.
His philosophy centers on finding people who know more than he does about their specific domain. That might seem counterintuitive. Most investors want to feel smarter than the entrepreneurs they’re backing. Betancourt López wants the opposite.
“When I hire people, I take a real hard look at the experience they have,” he explained. “I like to know that they know more than me, that they’re better than me, that they have better knowledge than me on that industry.”
That approach enabled his investment in Hawkers. The founding team had already proven they understood their customer and could execute with limited resources. They didn’t need someone to tell them how to sell sunglasses online—they needed capital and operational support to scale what was already working.
The same pattern appeared with his early backing of Auro Travel. The founders understood Spain’s regulatory environment for ride-sharing and had identified an opportunity to accumulate vehicle-for-hire licenses before the market matured. Betancourt López recognized their expertise and provided resources to accelerate their strategy.
“The first thing I look at is the management—their philosophy and the way they function,” he said. “That’s what makes a difference there. I always like to meet the key people and see if they are good entrepreneurs. For me, the big rationale is understanding that the people behind it are the right people.”
This people-first framework allows Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López to invest across industries without becoming an expert in each. He doesn’t need to understand every detail of eyewear manufacturing or ride-sharing logistics. He needs to identify capable teams and provide them with capital and support to execute their vision.
Anticipating where profits will appear next
The second component of Betancourt López’s investment formula involves identifying where profits will emerge in an industry’s value chain before others recognize the shift. This skill separates adequate returns from exceptional ones.
He uses historical examples to illustrate the concept. During the early oil industry, refiners captured most profits because they controlled a critical bottleneck. Standard Oil built its empire by guaranteeing product quality through refining capacity.
Later, as oil became scarce, exploration and production companies captured more value than refiners. When wars disrupted supply chains, shipping companies like those owned by Aristotle Onassis generated enormous returns.
“It’s the way you place yourself in any industry, that can capture that margin and create that value for yourself or for the investors,” Betancourt López explained.
His investment in Auro Travel demonstrates this principle in action. Recognizing that ride-sharing would eventually expand into Spain, he supported the accumulation of approximately 2,000 vehicle-for-hire licenses before Uber and other platforms entered the market aggressively. Those licenses became increasingly valuable as the ride-sharing industry matured.
“When we started the traveling business in Spain, Auro, we knew that Uber was going to come to Spain and we started accumulating all the licenses,” he noted. “It was a gamble, but it was a calculated gamble because we knew that the market, it was going to shift to private riding industry instead of taxis.”
The strategy worked. By November 2022, ride-sharing giants Uber and Cabify each made acquisition bids around €200 million for Auro. What seemed like an expensive bet on regulatory arbitrage became a highly valuable asset as the market evolved.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López applies this same analytical approach across his portfolio. He studies how value moves through an industry over time and positions investments where he expects margins to expand rather than contract.
Swinging for home runs
Most investors and financial advisors preach diversification to minimize downside risk. Spread money across many opportunities, accept modest returns, avoid catastrophic losses. Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López rejects that approach entirely.
“I hit more home runs than I strike out,” he said. “I’m very proud of that, that I don’t swing for first base. I always swing for a home run, and I do strike out and that’s a human thing, nobody gets everything perfect, but I have a good batting average.”
His portfolio strategy accepts that most investments won’t work. Rather than trying to minimize failures, he focuses on maximizing wins. The successful ventures need to generate enough return to cover the losses and still produce exceptional gains.
“I consider myself a very high risk taker, a massive risk taker,” Betancourt López acknowledged. “But like I said, I have a good batting average, in the analogy of baseball.”
The math behind this approach is straightforward but requires nerves most investors don’t have. With a portfolio of ten investments where each is a high-stakes bet, two exceptional successes can offset eight failures and still generate substantial profits.
“When you have a portfolio of 10 investments and they’re all very, very high stakes, big return or nothing, if two of them goes well, they pay for the eight and make you a good profit for everything else,” he explained.
This philosophy shapes how Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López sizes positions and allocates capital. He doesn’t spread resources thinly across many opportunities. He makes concentrated bets on situations where he’s identified strong teams operating in markets where value is shifting.
The approach also influences how he supports struggling investments. Rather than cutting losses early, he often increases support when ventures face challenges.
“I’m the person that, when it goes bad, I sink with the ship. I don’t walk out of the ship,” Betancourt López said. “But those investments that have gone bad, if you hold them long enough, maybe they come back. But I never leave them alone. So I try to support them all the way.”
Taking an active role
The final element of Betancourt López’s investment formula involves taking operational roles rather than remaining a passive capital provider. He doesn’t just write checks—he joins boards, accepts executive positions, and involves himself in strategic decisions.
After leading the €50 million Series A investment in Hawkers in October 2016, he became president the following month. That hands-on approach enabled him to implement the operational changes necessary to scale the business—bringing manufacturing in-house, expanding physical retail locations, and optimizing supply chains across three continents.
“I make my investment, I make sure the structure of command is in place and I can go in and out as I please but it’s a standalone investment,” he explained. “It doesn’t need me, but it has my attention every time I can be there.”
This active involvement applies across his portfolio through O’Hara Administration, the investment group he leads. Rather than delegating all decisions to fund managers, Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López maintains direct engagement with portfolio companies.
That approach provides earlier visibility into problems and opportunities while building relationships that facilitate operational improvements. It’s the difference between being an investor and being a partner.
The combination of these four elements—evaluating people first, anticipating value chain shifts, taking concentrated high-risk positions, and maintaining active involvement—creates a framework that works across industries and geographies. It explains how someone who started in energy infrastructure can successfully invest in fashion retail and transportation technology.
“Everything I do is based on intuition and information,” Betancourt López said. “Intuition based on the right information and the right people that surrounds you.”
That formula has generated billions in value while creating a portfolio diverse enough to weather challenges in any single sector. It’s a replicable approach for investors willing to accept volatility in exchange for exceptional returns.
Related: These 4 tips helped Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt Lopez build his billion-dollar empire