Paul Orfalea's passion for understanding and participating in the financial markets goes back to his youth. In junior high, Paul would routinely skip school and take the bus alone to the office of a family friend, a stock broker, who he would beg to show him what he was doing and why. By the time Paul was in college, he had learned so much that he entered a student contest creating phantom stock market accounts. Out of hundreds of entries, Paul won first place by "earning" the most appreciation on his investment.

After the sale of Kinko’s, Paul combined his talent for identifying investment opportunities with his skills and experience in running a $2 billion business. Together with WCAM President Lance Helfert, he created West Coast Asset Management, Inc. (WCAM), an independent Investment Advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. West Coast Asset Management provides exclusive equity and fixed income management to high-net worth individuals, institutions and charitable foundations. Client assets are managed with discretion and held in individual accounts at third party institutional custodians.