The Acquirers Podcast · Thursday, August 6, 2026
Ralph Molinaro shared that he did not initially aim to be an investor, but his entrepreneurial program in college exposed him to value investing. He learned from a mentor that investing in public companies is akin to being a business owner. He focuses on small-cap and micro-cap stocks, avoiding index investing.
“I don't want to be an investor. I had no interest in the stock market.”
“And it wasn't until I met a mentor through my entrepreneur program in college, went to a small school called San Diego State and he kind of gave me the idea of enlightenment for value investing.”
“He said, Ralph, you know, you don't have to be a small business owner like me. You can invest in small companies, same size as mine, um, but in the public stock market. You can do that with companies like microcap companies.”
“And so I have never invested in an index. I've always invested personally and small caps and microcaps.”