Firsthand Funds, the fast-growing San Jose, California-based specialist in technology sector funds is diversifying -- not its funds, but its product lineup. The firm has filed with the SEC to open five more funds. Three of those funds will be diversified growth funds and one will be broker sold. There is as of yet no launch date for the funds nor have the funds' managers been selected.

The filings mark a pair of firsts for Firsthand. The Multi-Cap Growth and Aggressive Growth funds will be its first non-sector funds. The Capital Appreciation fund will carry a load and be its first fund sold by brokers. The firm filed for the funds as advisors and investors started asking for more diversified offerings, reports Steven Witt, managing director at Firsthand.

The family's current offerings are now carried in the no-load programs of many wirehouses, including UBS PaineWebber and Merrill Lynch, but the fact that those offerings pay no commission has limited their appeal in that environment, said Witt.

He added that the decision to add a load offering was made in response to demand from that channel. "In the end they [brokers] want to please their customers and get paid," he said, adding that many individuals currently ask for Firsthand funds from their broker but not all of those investors end up with the firm. The Capital Appreciation fund is different enough to not compete directly with the firm's no-load offerings and to avoid creating channel conflict, Witt contended.

These funds mark a dramatic departure for the fund family that where executives liked to refer to their offerings as the "jalapeno on the pizza." The move also makes sense as the firm's asset base has been see-sawing with the Nasdaq. Assets in the firm's six existing funds climbed from less than $300 million to a peak of roughly $6 billion in the run-up from 1998 to 2000. They now rest at $1.7 billion, according to Financial Research Corporation.

The new funds are also designed to exploit the shop's growing roster of analysts (it now has nine) and to take advantage of the fact that top performing growth funds have been driven by technology stocks in recent years.

The remaining two funds -- Healthcare and Biotechnology -- will stay true to the firm's sector fund legacy.

The new offerings will offer a test to the firm whose executives focus on the technology and not fund industry expertise. A large part of the firm's success can be traced to the remarkable investment performance of its early funds and the ability of manager Kevin Landis to survive the demands of the media circuit.

Landis has also proven highly popular with the "Schwab" registered investment advisor and individual investors. Whether this brand will carry over to the registered rep market is something the firm will discover. It will also face marketing diversified funds outside of its narrow technology story.

Firsthand has spent significant resources building the firm from a handful of executives to a full-fledged investment management shop in recent years. It seems their efforts will be put to the test with the new offerings.  

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