Dan Ogden became the partner of a small chimney-sweeping business in 1973, leveraging his marketing skills that he had honed working at a Detroit radio station. He helped to grow the business into a nationwide franchise selling chimney sweep kits – top hat and all.

Over the next 15 years, he built several small businesses.

He learned how to make a business profitable, what could cause it to fail, and realized he was happiest working for himself.

He paused to think, what’s next?

Dan didn’t turn to a private bank. He had always worked with business owners, not financial advisors, and the way the industry talked about money never quite matched the way he had earned it.

He started reading Warren Buffett and attending Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meetings. He began looking at the public stock market the way he looked at small businesses: by asking whether each company was any good.

In 1989, he founded Dock Street.

The idea was simple. The same lens that had made him a successful operator—Is this business profitable? Does it generate cash? Does it reinvest wisely?—should also guide investing.

Public markets are just smaller pieces of real businesses, run by real people. They can be evaluated the same way.

35+ years later, that idea is still at the heart of what we do.

Our portfolio remains focused, and we still choose companies one by one. The clients we work best with are business owners; people who built something with their own hands and who see money the way Dan does… not the way Wall Street does.

Today, the firm is a family business. Dan’s son Spencer is now President. Our team has grown, and so has our performance.

The question we hear most often is still the same, too:

How do I invest beyond my business?

We are always happy to answer it.