Most investors who try this approach end up mediocre at everything rather than excellent at anything.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López built a $2.6 billion fortune by investing across fashion retail, transportation technology, banking in West Africa, and energy infrastructure. That range isn't random diversification or lucky timing. His successful investments share three consistent traits that transcend industry boundaries.
Understanding those patterns explains how someone who started in energy can successfully back a sunglasses company and a ride-sharing service. It also reveals why he's comfortable making concentrated bets in unfamiliar markets while many experienced investors struggle to expand beyond their specialty.
"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."
Trait 1: Exceptional people running operations
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López doesn't invest in business plans or market projections. He invests in people who demonstrate capability before he writes a check. That distinction matters more than most investors realize.
Spreadsheets can justify almost any opportunity. Market analyses can make failing businesses look promising. But the quality of the management team is harder to fake. Either they've executed successfully before or they haven't. Either they understand their industry deeply or they're still learning.
His philosophy centers on finding people who know more than he does about their specific domain. That seems 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.
The trait appears across his entire portfolio. Every successful investment started with recognizing exceptional people who had already demonstrated competence in their field.
Trait 2: Perfect timing in the value chain
The second trait separating Betancourt López's successful investments from his failures involves timing. Not just market timing-value chain positioning. He identifies where profits will emerge in an industry before others recognize the shift.
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.
"That's one of my biggest talents, I think where the chain of value, it's been moving along to have that anticipation that you're going to be placed there before it gets to that point," 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.
"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.
Hawkers demonstrated similar timing. The company invested in influencer marketing when it was still novel and inexpensive. As that channel became saturated and expensive, Betancourt López shifted resources into physical retail stores before other digital-native brands recognized the need.
"It's just to anticipate yourself where the market is going to move and the value in the chain is going to be," he said.
The ability to spot these shifts before they become obvious separates exceptional returns from average ones. It's not enough to recognize a good business-Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López positions investments where the economics will improve over time rather than deteriorate.
Trait 3: Ability to adapt and sustain
The third trait distinguishing successful investments is harder to identify upfront but becomes clear over time. Companies must demonstrate ability to adapt as markets evolve and sustain performance through changing conditions.
This trait separates businesses that enjoy brief success from those that build lasting value. Many companies can capture an opportunity and generate impressive initial growth. Few can reinvent themselves when that initial advantage disappears.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López sees this play out across industries. Fashion presents particular challenges because trends change quickly and consumer preferences shift constantly.
"Sustainability and profitability are two different things," he explained. "If profitable tomorrow, it doesn't mean you're going to be profitable forever. I think profitability is tough, but is something easier to achieve than sustainability, because in any industry, it's very hard to predict where the market is shifting."
He uses Hawkers as an example. The company must convince customers to buy sunglasses repeatedly while competing with established brands and new entrants.
"You have to convince everybody, all the market, everybody in the market, to buy a pair of sunglasses every day and put a lot of marketing and wake up the next day and do the same all over and all over and all over," Betancourt López said. "So it's a very, very, very hard sustainable company to keep it sustainable over time."
That requires constant reinvention. Hawkers started as a pure e-commerce brand, expanded into influencer marketing, opened physical stores, launched sustainability initiatives, and continues evolving its strategy. The ability to adapt distinguishes companies that last from those that fade after initial success.
The same principle applies across his portfolio. Energy markets shift based on geopolitics and technology. Transportation regulations change as governments respond to new business models. Banking in emerging markets requires flexibility as economic conditions evolve.
Companies that can't adapt eventually fail regardless of how well they started. The third trait Betancourt López looks for is evidence that management teams have navigated change before and demonstrated willingness to adjust strategy when circumstances demand it.
How the three traits work together
The three traits create a framework that works across industries. Exceptional people can identify where value is shifting and adapt when circumstances change. Perfect timing maximizes returns but only if the team can execute. Adaptability extends success beyond initial opportunities but requires capable leadership to implement.
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López looks for all three traits before committing capital. A company with great timing but weak management will squander the opportunity. Exceptional people in a poorly timed market will struggle to generate returns. Perfect timing and strong teams still fail if they can't adapt when advantages disappear.
His portfolio reflects this framework. Hawkers had proven management, entered the market when influencer marketing was cheap and effective, and demonstrated ability to evolve into physical retail. Auro Travel had capable founders, accumulated licenses before the ride-sharing market matured, and adapted its business model as competition intensified.
"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 intuition-refined through experience evaluating hundreds of opportunities-recognizes when companies demonstrate all three traits. The framework explains his success across unrelated industries and provides a replicable approach for investors willing to look beyond surface-level analysis.
