Inside the living room of investor and powerful asset manager Thomas Britton “Britt” Harris IV ‘80, couches and chairs lined with 20 to 25 students sit, listening, all eager to share their own knowledge and widen their perspectives as thoughtful discussion reverberates throughout the home. Students agree and disagree, nodding and shaking their heads with passion, waiting to interject with a counterpoint or support claims made by their peers. 

Some students watch and listen, taking note, while others boldly assert themselves, taking up space and making their opinions known; this weekly group discussion is referred to by the Titans of Investing, or Titans, as “Junto” — a term used by Benjamin Franklin to describe a group who discusses controversial topics in order to achieve mutual improvement for each member involved. The Junto ends with new lessons learned, wisdom shared and bonds strengthened.

Titans, a course funded and founded by Harris, serves to aid up-and-coming industry professionals by creating investment portfolios, learning from high-profile business leaders and focusing on ethics, all with the goal of creating lifelong bonds; the course is currently available at both Harris’ alma matter, Texas A&M, and the University of Texas. Harris stresses the importance of significance over success, forming Titans in order to equip students with the skills a traditional education does not provide and build on their previous knowledge of the corporate world. 

“College is about, primarily about, maturing into adulthood, of course, but secondly, about acquiring a technical competency,” Harris said. “A plane needs to have two wings, not one, so you have your work ability over here … but if you don’t have your relational wing … you’re not going to go very far.”

The course offers admission every semester with Harris hand-selecting the new Titans for each term. Harris said he looks for people of all backgrounds and character who are actively engaged in self-improvement as well as interested in “achieving significance.” One of the main goals of Titans, according to Harris, is to find one’s five lifelong friends as well as create a network of individuals who obtain both business success and purpose. 

“Success is not the top of the ladder,” Harris said. “ … At some point in your life, you have to become significant, and there’s a big difference between significance and success. Yes, maybe you have a big house … material things, but significance is how you’ve impacted the world and other people in a way that they’ll remember.”

The class meets on campus once a week for a three-hour session, sometimes with Harris or industry leaders presenting on important business concepts, such as investing and artificial intelligence, with the majority of class being entirely student-led. 

Beginning each week with an update from the strategy team, consisting of two co-CEOs of the class and the chief of staff, followed by an entertainment session, created and led every week by Harris. Then, reports from different teams in the class are presented, such as reports of market trends by the investment team and economic information updated weekly by the economics team. Afterward, the Titans meet at Harris’ house for dinner and further discussion of class topics as well as catch up on the events of the past week. 

“We go back to the house and have dinner, and that’s a good time to socialize, not only with each other, but also with Britt and other guests,” former Titan Thomas Dowdy ‘25 said. “And you can have some really interesting conversations with high-profile individuals and ask their real opinions on things, which I’d say is super rare.”

However, for Dowdy, the true impact of the course is neither the weekly Junto discussions nor the free dinner after each class — it’s the people. He said that the people he met through Titans are those he most likely would not have met elsewhere. Each Titan in his class has their own unique features, perspectives and upbringing which makes each semester different from the next. 

“Titans is about the people that are a part of the program, and then they go on to do great and impressive things with their lives,” Dowdy said. “ … And the key is they don’t just do things that are kind of seen by the world as cool and ambitious and lucrative, but they do those things with character and with the intention, I think, of being good and kind and having high values for themselves and carrying those [values] forward.” 

Titans not only provides friendships and business-based education, but also wisdom and advice to live by. Former Titan and finance graduate student Megha Subhash said that some of Harris’ words continue to widen her perspective and motivate her in her day-to-day life. For her, Titans was not only about the bonds made, but about the lessons learned and Harris’ example of radical generosity, an example Subhash is inspired to live by. 

“He’d always tell us, ‘Initiate and encourage, initiate and encourage,’” Subhash said. “And I think those words stay with me a lot. Now, when I have fear of doing something, I think those words come to mind.”

When selecting Titans, Harris looks for four requirements: unusually likely to be highly successful in business relatively early in life, the character to use whatever success they achieve for the benefit of others, are interesting and engaging and love to eat. Harris finds remnants of his own life and personality in these requirements, as he recounted how he went from having a summer job sweeping parking lots as a young man in Harlingen, to being chosen to serve as the CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world at his time of hiring. Harris said his Titans have also found similar levels of success.

“Titans is a quite a bit about what else you need,” Harris said. “It’s not just a class you take and forget about. We started with 12, now we’re 1,065 over 20 years, and I’d say about 89% are active. … The oldest Titan right now is 40 … they have already started 43 companies, those are valued over $6 billion.”

However, despite the financial success of its members, the members give the utmost importance to Titans’ ability to help them develop as people. According to Harris, Dowdy and Shubash, the connection and wisdom will have lasting effects throughout a Titan’s lifetime. 

“I had heard how the people who take the class walk away with two things: One, a greater understanding of the world and their place in the world, and [two], a group of friends who are lifelong,” Shubash said. “ … I think I really wanted to be a better citizen of the world, and a better person that would utilize their gifts the way they should.”