BARON iOPPORTUNITY FUND

stay. So, if you like funds that are new to the market place and invest in

those high-risk arenas. here's one that-- thus far-- is sporting above

average returns.

The lower-case "i" in the Baron iOpportunity Fund,(800-992-2766), stands for

three things; the Internet, information technology, and interactive

communications. Each represents the kinds of companies that Mitch Rubin, the

fund's portfolio manager, likes to keep his portfolio full of. "Technology,

the Internet or information technology stocks are some of the most exciting

stocks out there. And they are not all going out of business, " says Rubin,

who has been managing Baron's iOpportunity Fund since its inception in Feb.

2000.

What this value-discipline manager looks for from the companies he invests in

are those that he hopes will double in price over the next three or four

years. Even though he's found plenty of companies that have the potential to

meet that criteria, investing in this sector is, and probably always will be

volatile. As of May 21, however, the fund has managed to beat the averages

with a year-to-date total return of over 12 percent. Through May 17, the

average tech fund was down over 16 percent, according to Lipper.

Here's more about the fund:

Q: When you first started the fund, did you have any idea of rocky investment

climate you were getting into?

Rubin: We had a sense that the market was totally over valued and we had a

sense that the euphoria the market was perceiving wasn't research based. We

thought that bringing a research and fundamental value approach to this

sector could have relevance.

Every company goes through business cycles and every company goes through its

own internal corporate cycle. How they deal with those cycles and evolve is

what makes a great company. Since nothing (stock prices) ever goes linearly

up and to the right, and a good time to buy stocks is when other people are

freaked out by them, we were able to be forward thinking and tried to

position the fund to take advantage of the market.

Q:Tell me about your investment style.

Rubin: It's very much a fundamental research driven and long-term investment

approach. We do both top-down analysis to try to find important trends, and

then, bottoms-up analysis to find the best companies with the best management

teams.

Q: What are some of the trends you're seeing now?

Rubin: We're very bullish on the opportunities for the cable companies.

Comcast is one of our top holdings. Then we also own Insight Communications,

AOL, and NTL, which is the largest U. K's cable company.

Another trend that we think is a no-brainer is that wireless voice and data

traffic will continue to expand geometrically. We're playing that through

companies like American Tower and SBA Communications.

But our top holding is a company called Hotel Reservations Network (HRN) and

travel on the Internet has also been a big theme of ours.

We think travel is one of the great commerce categories that really does make

sense to do on the Internet as opposed to something like selling furniture.

HRN has one of the best business models around and they basically wholesale

hotel rooms at discounted prices. We bought it as an IPO during the first

quarter of 2000 and it's one of the first stocks that we bought for the fund.

Q: What about a name that you've been disappointed in.

Rubin: We're bullish on EMC, have lost of fair bit of money on it, but are

continuing to buy it because we think it's a great long-term idea.

The growth of data is expanding and more data was created in the last two

years than was created in all of time. That data needs to be stored. EMC has

been a storage-focused company for 20 years and were at the forefront of

creating the thought of networking and of managing your storage centrally.

Managing information is one of the most critical components of strategic

planning and even though the stock has fallen, we'll continue to add to our

position.

Q: What about risk?

Rubin:What has happened over the past year or so is that people had forgotten

that stocks actually are risky assets and can go down in price. People need

to extend their (investment) time horizons. You shouldn't buy a fund in hopes

of buying a bigger house in six months. Funds are really a long-term

investment.

This fund is going to be volatile because the sector is more volatile than

say bonds or drug stocks. And, this isn't a fund for all of your assets or

for every investor. It's for people who have a high-risk tolerance. It is a

fund for the riskier portion of your assets that you want dedicated to

technology- and Internet-oriented businesses with the realization that within

some periods of time you can lose money.

Baron iOpportunity Fund:

SYMBOL

BIOPX

TOP HOLDINGS

Hotel Reservations; SBA Comm: American Tower; TMP Worldwide;

and America Online.

PERFORMANCE

The inception date on this fund is Feb. 29, 2000. It's 2000

performance was down 38.98 percent. And, through May 21, the fund was up

12.1. percent.

TOLL-FREE NUMBER

800-992-2766

WEBSITE

www.baronfunds.com