Vantage point: Investing in innovation  

Baillie Gifford manager on why he sold Tesla but retains SpaceX

Brodie says the decade prior to the present rate rising cycle, “aspects of the previous decade were weird. Mediocre ideas with questionable unit economics got funding. And it created a kind of laziness, as some founders started to believe that just by throwing a wall of money at something they could create scale".

"But it doesn’t work like that," he added. "Weird distortions came into markets back then. And where we are now in markets, it's not that there is no capital around, just that the quality of the ideas has to be better, and the quality of the people. From my point if view that's definitely a positive.” 

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The funds Brodie runs aim to invest in companies that are at an earlier stage than other Baille Gifford funds, such as Scottish Mortgage. 

David.Thorpe@ft.com