Founders 100 ETF
Founders 100 ETF (ticker: FFF) is an actively managed US growth equity exchange-traded fund that invests in US-listed companies where an original founder still serves as a chief officer.
The fund owns 100 founder-led companies selected using fundamental financial criteria. It seeks long-term capital appreciation and has a gross expense ratio of 0.75%.[1]
Current portfolio holdings are published daily by Founder ETFs,[2] with additional fund information published monthly in the factsheet.[3]
History
The Founders 100 ETF began trading in December 2025 under the ticker FFF. The fund is a series of Founder Funds Trust, a Delaware statutory trust registered as an open-end management investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940.[4]
Michael Monaghan has managed the fund since its inception. Lauren Cassidy became Chief Investment Officer of Founder ETFs and a portfolio manager of FFF in July 2026.[5]
ETF.com profiled FFF in its Behind the Ticker series in March 2026, examining the fund's focus on founder-led companies and its investment methodology.[6]
Investment strategy
FFF defines a founder-led company as one in which an original founder continues to serve as a chief officer, such as chief executive officer, president, or chief technology officer. A founder serving solely as a director or chairman does not meet the fund's definition.[1]
The investment process identifies eligible founder-led companies from US-listed common stocks and real estate investment trusts. The strategy considers the 200 largest eligible public companies by free-float market capitalization and selects 100 using fundamental measures including balance sheets, income statements, cash flow, and valuation criteria.[1]
At least 80% of the investment process uses a systematic, rules-based fundamental methodology, while up to 20% may use a discretionary fundamental methodology.[1]
The portfolio is rebalanced quarterly. The active strategy also allows the portfolio managers to purchase eligible newly public founder-led company IPOs and sell companies following the departure of a qualifying founder.[7]
Founder-led investing
Research by Bain & Company examined founder-led and non-founder-led companies over the 25-year period from 1990 through 2014. Bain reported that founder-led companies generated 3.1 times the total shareholder returns of non-founder-led companies over the period.[8]
The research was also published by the Harvard Business Review, which examined the relationship between founder involvement and long-term corporate performance.[8]
The Financial Times subsequently examined founder-led businesses as an investment category, including characteristics associated with US founder-led companies and investor interest in them.[9]
Bain updated its analysis in 2026, reporting that founder-led companies in the S&P 500 generated 2.1 times the total shareholder returns of non-founder-led companies over the following 10 years, from 2015 through 2024. Founder-led technology companies generated 2.6 times the returns of non-founder-led technology companies over the period.[10]
Bain's definition of founder-led is broader than FFF's investment criteria. Bain includes companies in which a founder serves as chief executive officer or on the board, while FFF requires an original founder to continue serving as a chief officer.[10][1]
Characteristics
FFF is an actively managed, non-diversified fund with an investment objective of long-term capital appreciation. Its gross annual expense ratio is 0.75%.[1]
The fund's shares trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange under the ticker FFF.[1]
The prospectus identifies risks associated with active management, growth investing, market fluctuations and industry concentration. It also identifies risks associated specifically with founder-led companies, including the potential effect of a Founder's departure from a portfolio company.[1]
Media coverage
ETF.com featured FFF in its Behind the Ticker series in March 2026.[6]
Bloomberg Television featured the fund in June 2026 in a segment titled "The Fund that Tracks Founder-Led Companies".[11]
InvestmentNews examined the fund's investment methodology and research on founder-led companies in July 2026.[7]
In September 2026, Barry Ritholtz discussed founder-led investing and FFF with portfolio manager Michael Monaghan in his At the Money series.[12]
See also
- Exchange-traded fund
- Active management
- Growth investing
- Fundamental analysis
- Entrepreneurship
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Founder Funds Trust Prospectus". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 17, 2026. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ https://assets.founderetfs.com/holdings/latest.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- ↑ https://assets.founderetfs.com/factsheet/latest-factsheet.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- ↑ "Founders 100 ETF Summary Prospectus". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2025. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Founder Funds Trust, Post-Effective Amendment No. 3 to Form N-1A". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. August 6, 2026. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Behind the Ticker: The FFF ETF". ETF.com. March 9, 2026. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Why companies run by their founders tend to beat the market". InvestmentNews. July 28, 2026. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Founder-Led Companies Outperform the Rest—Here's Why". Harvard Business Review. March 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ "Why US founder-led businesses are so attractive to investors". Financial Times. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Allen, James; O'Keeffe, Dunigan; Kishore, Bhavya Nand (February 9, 2026). "The Magic of Founder-led Companies". Bain & Company. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ "The Fund that Tracks Founder-Led Companies". Bloomberg. June 29, 2026. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
- ↑ Ritholtz, Barry (September 16, 2026). "At The Money: Investing in Founder-Led Companies". The Big Picture. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
External links
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