News
What We Look For When Visiting A Company – Missoula-based Front Street Capital – The Tarkio Fund
January 31, 2024/

If you have read any of our past letters, then you know how much Front Street Capital – The Tarkio Fund emphasize the criteria we use to select businesses for investment. We are constantly looking for leadership teams and cultures that exhibit:
1. Humility, Integrity, Trust
2. Long–Term Focus
3. Purpose and Passion
4. Teamwork – Cooperation, Not Competition
5. Employee Empowerment – Driving Fear Out of the Organization
6. Disciplined Capital Allocation
And you probably know that we spend a lot of time traveling to our companies (and a variety of other companies as well) learning about how these cultural principles show up in the operations of these businesses. One question we get a lot is: “What exactly are you looking for when you visit a company?” We’ll try to answer that question in this letter.
Running (and growing) a business is an endless series of problem–solving. Our criteria are designed to help us identify tools/skills/techniques/assets that companies are using to solve problems continuously in an innovative and evolutionary way. Here is a more detailed list of some of those assets (from our criteria)
All Shareholder Letters
MATR Supporters (view all)