“If the broking market was to shut down, it wouldn’t affect us,” he said. “The drivers of performance are to keep in touch with corporates and clients.”

The portfolio now invests in 35 stocks, and manages most of Glennon’s personal wealth, in addition to commitments from high-net-worth investors and some “sticky money from an old boss”.

His investment analysis focuses on corporate cashflows, balance sheet strength, profit and loss statements, and whether these attributes are available at a reasonable price.

During the formation of Adam Smith AM, an incubator was invited into the business, and the boutique sold 30 per cent of its equity to an offshore group. In contrast, Glennon Capital runs primarily off the founder’s capital and has fended off approaches from other parties.

“We’ve had plenty of offers from incubators, but our business is well capitalised and we’re not sure of what they would bring.”

He said the operational and sales support an incubator could provide would be useful, but that fund managers themselves were ultimately responsible for winning money from investors.

In small businesses, “equity is never worth much, but if you’re a big business that has a lot of retail money and you can change the head of equities without losing your retail rating, it can be”.