Compounding the difficulties, the fund didn't have much discipline in selling positions. It's a problem O'Halloran has addressed. For instance, Developing Growth snapped up shares of Crocs (CROX) at its initial public offering at about $10 a share. "Nobody believed that it was anything other than a fad for the first nine months," O'Halloran says. "But we owned it pretty big." Yet once sales growth slowed from about 150% to just 40%, O'Halloran started selling.

The fund also recently sold its Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) holdings, which had jumped 140% in the four months from March through early July. Now, "we have a selling process which is the mirror image of the buying process," O'Halloran says.

The biggest individual issue in the portfolio is EnerNoc (ENOC), an alternative-energy provider that offers excess capacity to utilities and other network-grid operators. It's one of the handful of names in the portfolio that isn't yet profitable. EnerNoc lost $1.88 a share in 2008, and is going to lose 82 cents a share this year, according to O'Halloran, who has about 8% of the portfolio in alternative energy. "But they are going to make money next year, so we can see a path to profitability," he says. Shares of EnerNoc climbed from less than $8 a share in January of 2009 to above $30 earlier this month.

O'Halloran's predominant theme is the Internet. He estimates 15% of the portfolio would be either pure Internet businesses, such as online jeweler Blue Nile (NILE), or those conducting their principal up-front customer relationships over the Internet, such as Netflix (NFLX).

O'Halloran's predominant theme is the Internet. He estimates 15% of the portfolio would be either pure Internet businesses, such as online jeweler Blue Nile (NILE), or those conducting their principal up-front customer relationships over the Internet, such as Netflix (NFLX).

Among his tech-related holdings is the commercial printer VistaPrint (VPRT). Printing usually is a commoditized business, but the Internet allows VistaPrint to reach an extraordinary number of small businesses and achieve economies of scale. O'Halloran notes VistaPrint has boosted its sales to $500 million in the latest fiscal year, from about $6 million in 2001.

Other top holdings include Concur Technologies (CNQR), a developer of software that handles employee expenses, and MercadoLibre (MELI), which O'Halloran describes as the "eBay of Latin America."

Other top holdings include Concur Technologies (CNQR), a developer of software that handles employee expenses, and MercadoLibre (MELI), which O'Halloran describes as the "eBay of Latin America."