The Founder
Eric Schleien
Texas-based investor, host of The Intelligent Investing Podcast, and the founder of SmokeDaddy. Cigars rolled in Texas by a master Cuban torcedor with decades at the bench.
- Founded
- 2026
- Made in
- Texas, USA
- Production
- One pair of hands
Eric is the founder of Granite State Capital Management, a value-oriented investment firm. He has spent years studying the long compounders: businesses, ideas, and now leaves of tobacco that get better the more time and attention you give them.
His commentary on markets has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CoinDesk, GuruFocus, and Seeking Alpha. On his podcast, he interviews investors, founders, and operators about how they actually think.
SmokeDaddy is his obsession, made real by other people's hands. Every cigar is rolled in Texas by a master Cuban torcedor with decades at the bench. No factory. No marketing trick. Just better tobacco, rolled by someone who has been doing this longer than most cigar companies have existed.
Why SmokeDaddy exists
In Eric's words
I wanted to create the most elegant cigar line in the world.
Not the biggest. Not the loudest. The most elegant. The kind of cigar where every variable, from the soil to the leaf to the hand that rolls it, has been pushed as close to right as a person can push it. The kind you don't have to grade on a curve.
That's why I went looking for a master Cuban torcedor. Someone who had built great cigars with his own hands, leaf by leaf, for decades. I don't roll. He does. My job is to find the right leaf, listen to what he tells me about it, and stay out of his way at the bench.
That's SmokeDaddy. One man's obsession, made real by someone who has been doing this longer than most cigar companies have existed, sold to people who actually want to know the difference.
As featured in
Questions
- Are you the same Eric Schleien who runs Granite State Capital Management?
- Yes. Eric is a Texas-based value investor, the founder of Granite State Capital Management, and the host of The Intelligent Investing Podcast. SmokeDaddy is his cigar company.
- Where is SmokeDaddy made?
- Every SmokeDaddy cigar is hand-rolled in Texas under the guidance of a master Cuban torcedor whose name stays at the rolling table. There is no factory and no second roller.
- Can I buy a SmokeDaddy cigar?
- Production is permanently capped at what one pair of hands can produce. Both cigars in the current library are spoken for. Join the waitlist on a product page for first notice when a slot opens.
- Why so few cigars?
- Because we refuse to compromise on leaf, hand, or time. Scaling means hiring a second roller, stretching a blend, or shortening fermentation. We do none of those things.