Welcome to the first episode of Hash Power, an audio documentary that explores the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies with leaders in the field like Naval Ravikant, Olaf Carlson-Wee, Fred Ehrsam, & Ari Paul. Hash Power is meant to be an introduction, but really, it is an invitation to explore this emerging world on your own. 

In the coming weeks, we will cover the technology, the power of decentralization, bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs, cryptography and hashing. We will spend time with the leading active hedge fund managers in the field, and with outside investors who are both optimistic and skeptical. Episode one covers the big picture, and answers the question: what is blockchain and why might it significantly affect our world?

If you enjoy what follows, you’ll still be very early in understanding this field. Most don’t. So help me spread it like wildfire, because the more people that understand blockchain, the better its impact might become. Please enjoy episode one, and stay tuned next week for episode 2, which explores investing in cryptocurrencies.

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Books Referenced

The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age

Nostalgia for the Absolute

Links Referenced

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

Reddit User jav_rddt

SHA-256 Calculator

The BitCoin Model for Crowdfunding

Fat Protocols

#cryptotwitter

Show Notes

0:05 – Introduction

CHAPTER 1 – Understanding the Concept of Blockchain (3:25)

4:30 – Jeremiah Lowin explains how blockchain is like a database

            5:14 – Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

5:46 – Owning a digital asset

7:14 – Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angelist on how blockchains can help to create personal networks and organize humans

11:01 – How blockchains represent a way to coordinate global activity through tokens

13:33 – New coins popping up around data storage and utility needs like solar panels

14:57 – Permission vs permissionless networks

16:37 – Protocols and the introduction of scarcity

18:13 – Keeping track of scarcity and the introduction of tokens

18:49 – Societal structures and how blockchains will change them again

            18:51 – The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age

21:55 – The role of blockchains in the informational age and the rise of more individual sovereignty

23:29 - Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase, on the increasing shift to digital worlds led by incentive structures

CHAPTER 2 – Blockchain Technology (27:48)

            29:09 - Reddit User jav_rddt

            30:43 - SHA-256 Calculator

31:53 - Charlie Noyes, Pantera Capital, explains how SHA-256 was developed and what make its so special

35:48 – How miners create new blocks and the incentives to do so

40:22 – The nonce field

43:48 – The incentives that exist for miners and the arms race to build more powerful systems to mine

45:20 – The development of mining pools

46:54 – Ethereum, the “spiritual successor” to bitcoin

48:36 – How the Ether network is an ecosystem in which other tokens can sit

50:51 - Naval Ravikant on alternative coins or tokens

            50:50 - The BitCoin Model for Crowdfunding

51:37 – How the protocol creators are the ones getting wealthy

            52:35 – Fat Protocols

53:22 – Blockchain as an experiment in distributed government

54:47 – How cryptocurrency is more than just technology, it’s a movement

            54:50 – Nostalgia for the Absolute

            57:27 - #cryptotwitter

1:00:58 - Peter Jubber, of Fidelity, on how huge institutions, like theirs, are getting into the cryptocurrency game

1:4:01 –The notion of cooperation in an open source project or protocol

1:05:21- Olaf Carlson-Wee, first employee at Coinbase and the founder of Polychain, on the early excitement for cryptocurrency

1:06:56– Closing thoughts from Patrick

            Looking to work in this space - hashpowerdeveloper@gmail.com

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest today is with past guest Gavin Baker, the founder and CIO of Atreides Management, LP. We discuss investing during a bear market and the major ways in which the COVID19 outbreak has dramatically altered the investment landscape. Please enjoy my second conversation with Gavin Baker.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Show Notes

(1:40) – How he sees the markets right now

(3:06) – How he handles information uncertainty and the value spreads

(5:53) – Trading in today’s market and the volatility

(9:45) – How the economic activity squares with the amount of stimulus being pumped into the market

            (13:11) – Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders

(13:56) – Asset tests for individual companies in this environment

            (19:09) – This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

(20:45) – His take on software companies during the crisis

(28:57) – Fast pace of change during extreme times of duress

(35:14) – Space as a service

(39:52) – Attention and time inside digital universes and how investors can take advantage

(46:17) – Why chaos is a ladder

            (50:42) – It Was a Very Good Year: Extraordinary Moments in Stock Market History

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is Sarah Tavel, a general partner at Benchmark, working alongside past guests Bill Gurley and Chetan Puttagunta. Sarah has a long history as both an investor and as an operator.  She was an early product leader at Pinterest before joining Benchmark. Sarah has become one of my go-to resources for topics like networks, consumer technology, and marketplaces among many other topics. I’ve used her framework for how to think about client engagement, company data, and marketplace liquidity and quality over and over again in my business life. I’m so excited to finally have her on the show.  Please enjoy our conversation.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Show Notes

1:24 – (First question) - Lessons learned from watching the food delivery space

5:44 – Hip camp and how they are thinking about the space rental sector

            5:45 - The a16z Marketplace 100

7:47 – Valuing private companies vs public companies

9:37 – Building marketplaces

14:24 – Tipping a market

            14:30 – Bill Gurley Podcast Episode

18:09 – How to incorporate reputation scores into a network

19:55 – Search ranking as a tool for marketplaces

21:00 – Size of marketplaces vs their competitors

22:15 – Niching of marketplaces

            22:21 - Chetan Puttagunta Podcast Episode

23:26 – State of the consumer social sector

27:50 – The LinkedIn problem and how she would build a social platform

30:42 – Things that are piquing her interest in the consumer space

32:20 – Lessons learned about scaling while working at Pinterest

38:42 – Pricing and the marketplace

41:25 – Identifying and optimizing a Core Action in a digital business

44:18 – Accruing benefits and mounting losses as part of the product design

47:48 – Her investment in Reci

52:18 – How should companies gather the best data from their business

56:03 – Lessons to SaaS investing

56:29 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Sarah

57:45 – Most interesting philosophy lesson

            58:09 – Creating a Kingdom of Ends

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

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I came across this week’s guest thanks to the overlap of three passions of mine: data informed investing, value creation, and basketball. 

Sam Hinkie worked for more than a decade in the NBA with the Houston Rockets, and then most recently as the President and GM of the Philadelphia 76ers. He helped launch basketball's analytics movement when he joined the Houston Rockets in 2005, and is known for unique trade structuring and a keen focus on acquiring undervalued players. Today, he is also an investor and advisor to a limited number of young companies in which he feels his experience can improve outcomes. 

At one point in our conversation, Sam mentions that he tracked success via future financial outcomes, so I did some research and found many interesting stats about the 76ers surrounding Sam’s tenure. When he took over the franchise, it was 24th in ESPN’s franchise rankings, and today it is 4th. This is the result of an impressive crop of young talent—players like All-Star Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons—which resulted in large part from unconventional decisions Sam and his team made. 

While I’m sure these estimates are imperfect, Forbes estimated the 76ers value at around $418M when Sam took over and $1.2B a few months ago. NBA teams in general have grown in value, so a lot of that appreciation is obviously “beta,” but given that the 76ers had the top percentage growth number more recently of any team, some of it is “alpha,” too. While we can’t parse the exact amount, it seems his unique approach to building a team clearly created some large amount of current franchise equity value. And it looks like the dividends from those decisions will compound for many years to come. 

While basketball was where Sam plied his talents in the past, his approach is more elemental. It is about finding great people, using data, and structuring decisions that create the possibility of huge returns, be they financial or otherwise. I don’t know what Sam will do next, be it investing in companies, running one, or taking over another team, but I know it will be fun to watch. 

Please enjoy this unique episode with Sam Hinkie. 

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Books Referenced

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think

Links Referenced

International Justice Mission

Show Notes

3:24 – (First Question) Advantages of having a long view and how to structurally harness one

6:08 – Using technology to foster an innovative culture

            6:18– Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

10:16 – Favorite example of applied innovation from Sam’s career

11:34 - Most fun aspect of doing data analytics early on the Houston Rockets

13:38 - Is there anything more important than courage in asymmetric outcomes

14:29 – How does Sam know when to let the art of decision making finish where the data started

16:29 - Pros and cons of a contrarian mindset

17:26 – Where he wanted to apply his knowledge in sports when first getting out of school and how his thinking is best applied in the current sports landscape

21:39 – How does he think about trying to find the equivalent of mispriced assets in the NBA

23:12 – Where tradition can be an impediment to innovation

25:07 – What did the team and workflow of the team look like in the front office

27:03 -  The measure of truth in a sports complex

29:10 – What were the early factors coming out of the data that helped to shape NBA teams

30:42 – Best tactics for hiring

33:59 – Process of recruiting spectacular people

35:39 – Thoughts on fostering a good marriage

37:57 – Picking your kids traits in your spouse

            38:02 – Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think

40:45 – What kind of markers does he look for when evaluating long term investment ideas

42:44 – His interest in machine learning

45:55 – What’s more exciting, the actual advances in machine learning or the applications that can be imagined as a result

            47:15– International Justice Mission

48:11 – How he got started teaching negotiations and some of the points he makes in that class

49:16 – Effective techniques for negotiating

50:03 – Is negotiating contentious, do you need empathy

50:41 – A Rorschach test of Sam based on his reading of Lessons of History (book)

53:01 – Biggest risk Sam took in his career

54:37 – Biggest risks Sam took while with the 76ers

58:09 – Do people undervalue asymmetric outcomes in the NBA 1:00:11 – The players Sam has enjoyed watching over the years

1:02:45 – Why Robert Caro is a favorite author of his

1:04:30 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Sam

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

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My guest this week is Bill Gurley, a general partner at Benchmark Capital and one my favorite investment thinkers. As you’ll hear, despite enormous success through his career, Bill is clearly still in love with business and investing. Where many might discuss past glories, I’ve been incredibly impressed with how both Bill and his partners emphasize the current portfolio and market landscape. I’m thankful to have had the chance to speak with him in this format. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Show Notes

1:13 - (First Question) – The idea of increasing returns

            1:21 – Competiting Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-in By Historical Events

            2:07 – Complex Systems Theory – Santa Fe Institute

4:35 – Markers that could be a sign of network effect in a company

6:27 – The opportunities for companies to capture network effect

8:46 – Are there certain teams/leaders that are more conducive to leading a network effect company

11:55 – Liquidity quality

13:35 – How important is the revenue model at the beginning

15:59 – Fascination with Nextdoor

            17:56 – Paradox of Choice

18:39 – Finding opportunities

20:17 – Potential marketplaces and assets that could be commoditized

            20:20 – All Markets Are Not Created Equal: 10 Factors To Consider When Evaluating Digital Marketplaces

21:39 – Usage yield on the world’s assets

23:50 – Has technology changed the world of value investing

26:28 – Hyper niche marketplaces

27:52 – Challenges of labor marketplaces

30:12 – User generated content businesses

32:44 – People who are capable of building UGC businesses

33:16 – His interest in Discord

34:31 – Factors of a healthy marketplace

37:57 – Fools’ gold in marketplace businesses

39:04 – How influx of cash is impacting the marketplace business landscape

            40:43 – All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club

43:20 – How does the influx of money into the space impact him

46:44 – Spending money to attack top brands

50:32 – Regulatory capture

53:36 – His thoughts on the IPO market

57:49 – How did he realize this was his passion

1:00:42 – Qualifying his passion

1:01:52 – Favorite thing about working with entrepreneurs

102:48 – Honing your craft

1:04:33 – Making yourself a good mentor

1:05:56 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is Peter Attia, M.D., whose mission is to understand and improve human lifespan and healthspan (or quality of life).  Reading Peter’s research, you find that there are many similarities between health and investing—ideas like compounding—which we explore in detail.

We spend a lot of time on mind, body, spirit and performance as it relates to living a better life. Of particular interest is the strategic problem that we face when studying longevity. As Peter puts it in our conversation: we are the species of interest, but we can’t conduct the kinds of experiments on humans—randomized trials, with control groups—that we apply to solve other big problems. So we have to back our way into a better understanding of longevity and quality of life.

To that end, we discuss what we can learn from studying centenarians, the problem of progress in science, a drug called Rapamycin (which Peter believes could be revolutionary), eating, the importance of muscle mass, and the idea of distressed tolerance.  We emerge with a framework for thinking about health and well-being which can hopefully help us all live longer, better lives. Please enjoy!

For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/attia

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

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In episode 1 of Hash Power, we explored blockchains as a technology—how they work, why tokens (also known as cryptocurrencies) are an integral part of any blockchain, and how these new networks might change the world. In episode two, we spend time with the leading investors in the field. Like any frenzied asset class, there are countless cryptocurrency hedge funds popping up everywhere. But founders from three of the original firms—Polychain, Metastable, and Blocktower Capital—are our primary guides this week.

As I speak, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies is $136B. There are hundreds of tokens currently available, but bitcoin and Ethereum represent 75% of the total market cap. $136B sounds like a big number, but its tiny relative to any other asset class—and I use that term with hesitation. To put it in perspective, that’s exactly the same size as the market cap of IBM. But IBM had more than $10B of earnings in 2016. Tokens have none. As you will hear, valuing tokens is a very hard exercise.

In such a nascent world, we are seeing investing strategies take hold. Olaf Carlson-Wee, Josh Seims, and Ari Paul walk us through different takes on cryptocurrency investing, be it early stage, long term buy and hold, or more hedge fund style strategies.

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Fat Protocols (Joel Monegro)

Show Notes

0:05 – Recap of part 1 and introduction to part 2 of Hash Power

2:58 – Ari Paul, CIO of Blocktower explains how he got involved in cryptocurrencies

5:23 – Why do we need bitcoin

7:23 – Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee on why the value of tokens accrue

9:23 – How main stream money is getting into this space

12:26- Useful comparisons when talking about ICOs when compared to IPOs

15:01 - Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angellist, is asked to explain the protocols of cryptocurrencies to platform businesses like Uber or Airbnb

17:43 – Naval’s interest in investing in cryptocurrencies

18:42 – Why average folks should avoid it before they dive thoroughly into the topic

20:25 – what are the most compelling counter arguments to using cryptocurrencies

23:07 - Olaf Carlson Wee on the lifecycle of a token

24:02 – SAFT note, Simple Agreement for Future Tokens

25:31 – What is the earliest stage that edge is most present for investors in cryptocurrency protocols

28:12 – How do you mitigate the volatility that is present in blockchain

31:18 - Jeremiah Lowin, a risk and statistics expert, who runs risk management for a large private family office, talks about why he no longer owns cryptocurrencies

 34:19 - Jordan Cooper, a venture capital investor, is optimistic about blockchains in general, but thinks there may be some overvaluations in current currencies

37:02 – How Jordan would value a single cryptocurrency

42:10 – Fat Protocols (Joel Monegro)

43:52 - Josh Seims, of Metastable, the value investor in blockchain?

51:15 - Ari Paul on the equivalent of listed stocks in the crypto currency world

52:33 – Understanding the concept of a coin in blockchain and how people are getting access to them

55:07 – The fairground analogy to understand cryptocurrencies

57:57 – What lessons from traditional markets can you apply to investing in cryptocurrencies

1:02:48 – Where do family offices stand when it comes to jumping into this space

1:06:51 – Ari is asked to discuss some of the alternative cryptocurrencies outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum. He starts with Ripple

1:10:27 – What would help firms or traders create edge in investing in cryptocurrencies

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Long-time listeners will have heard me joke before that this podcast should really be called “this is who are you up against.” I’ve been waiting for the right episode to deploy the joke as a title, and this week we have it. 

The joke is meant to convey how incredibly impressive these people are who we get to hear from every week. My guest this week is Josh Wolfe, a founding and managing partner at Lux Capital in New York City. Lux is a venture capital firm, but a highly unique one. They’ve spent more time in hard sciences and interesting nooks and crannies of the market than the typical VC firm.

Some of investing is zero sum: my outperformance is someone else’s underperformance. Sometimes, though, investing is positive sum. The combination of capital, ideas, people, drive, and raw energy leads to amazing new things. 

I think the best investing and best investors of the future will be more collaborative than competitive. After finishing with Josh, I couldn’t stop thinking “god, do I want to be involved with whatever he’s doing, if only just to learn.” 

This conversation made me rethink my joke “this is who are you up against.” Now I won’t think of it as a zero-sum joke, but instead as a reminder: this is the kind of person who is out there. You better find your niche, and still be the absolute best you can within that niche.  

Please enjoy this killer conversation with Josh Wolfe. We cover just about everything. 

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Investing in Biofuels or Biofools?

Ali Hamed podcast

Alex Moazed podcast

Andy Rachleff podcast

Popplet

@wolfejosh

Books Referenced

Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy

World After Capital

Show Notes

2:35 – (First Question) – Lux Capital and the kind of investments they have made over the years 

5:42 – The formation of the investment philosophy for Lux 

8:17 – Why randomness and optionality are important cornerstones to the philosophy 

9:52 – Investment philosophy 100-0-100 (ambition, arrogance, intellectual humility) 

10:40 – How Josh manages his time and attention

            12:53 – Investing in Biofuels or Biofools?

13:29 – Obsession with nuclear 

15:15 – Investment in metamaterials 

18:28 – Focus on autonomous vehicles 

21:02 – How all of these gambles are viewed by Josh’s investors 

22:56 – Tattoo technology

            24:20 – Ali Hamed podcast

24:36 – How Josh evaluates people when considering early stage investments

            24:45 – Alex Moazed podcast

            24:49 – Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy

28:10 – Why the minority opinion tends to lead to the best outcomes 

29:50 – Memorable experience investing in a founder 

30:44 – The idea of thesis driven approach to private investment    

            30:56 – Andy Rachleff podcast

32:38 – Crazy thesis – understanding the emotional needs of our pets 

34:59 – Crazy thesis – Turning genetic abnormalities into treatments and cures for common conditions

38:03 – Josh’s learning process through these theses

            38:34 – Popplet

39:56 – Understanding rebel scientists when it’s impossible to predict what is going to happen

44:35 – Can the charge forward mindset be cultivated, or does it have to come naturally

45:49 – Investors that Josh has learned the most from

47:37 – Josh’s comfort investing outside of his usual asset class

            49:03 – @wolfejosh

50:56 – What is the thinking with the short strategy at Lux

52:31 – SpaceX vs Tesla, good business vs bad business

53:42 – How Josh approaches the quality of a business

            54:15 – World After Capital

55:16 – How does Josh evaluate competitive advantage

56:45 – Where are we in the venture capital landscape

1:01:42 – How does his outlook on venture capital affect the way Lux is run

1:02:48 – thoughts on cryptocurrency

1:05:28 – An overview of Santa Fe Institute

1:07:22 – What is the most memorable conversation Josh has ever had

1:09:34 – What is Josh’s objective function in life

1:12:43 – Are there people that Josh disagrees with but deeply respects

1:13:32 – Kindest thing anyone has ever done for Josh  

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Peter is a geopolitical strategist who combines expertise in demography, economics, energy, politics, technology, and security to assess an uncertain future. Before founding his own strategy firm, Peter helped develop the analytical models for Stratfor, one of the world’s premier private intelligence companies.  

I came across Peter via his books the Accidental Superpower and the Absent Superpower. We discuss America’s changing place in the world and four additional countries poised to do well in the future. Spoiler alert: he believes the U.S. is particularly well positioned. 

While we don’t discuss equity markets per se, all of what we talk about will obviously impact companies across the world for the remainder of our careers. Please enjoy our conversation.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Show Notes

1:32 - (First Question) – His model of the world

4:05 – What makes for a strategically advantaged country

5:35 – History of the Bretton Woods agreement and the order that it created

8:47 – The security apparatus that has made globalization of manufacturing possible

12:04 – The US’s pullback from being the naval police of global trade

            12:08 – The Absent Superpower: The Shale Revolution and a World Without America

14:57 – How energy has played into America’s disinterest abroad

21:52 – Moving towards global disorder

24:55 – Characterizing factors that will impact countries in any collapse

27:38 – How this manifest in physical conflict

32:44 – How the new world order will end the ease of innovation we are accustomed to today

34:13 – What gets the US to reengage before this new world order

38:08 – Demographics that make a country prepared for this, Japan as an example

40:57 – A look at China

43:59 – What the story is about Argentina

45:52 – How North America fares based on their geography and relationships

49:50 – The trader wars that are currently ongoing

52:17 – US political system

56:15 – Most important policy issues moving forward

58:27 – His view on American infrastructure

1:00:33 – Technologies that interest him the most

1:02:55 – What he is watching most closely in his research, starting with media

1:05:59 – What are and should be the countries of the future

1:06:55 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Peter

1:07:32 – Favorite places he’s been

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

This week’s guest is Brent Beshore, Founder and CEO of adventur.es, a family of companies that invests in family-owned companies. Brent has a very specific mission with this company, to cultivate a disaster resistant, compound interest machine. At just 33 years of age he has already built a portfolio of private companies that has produced impressive results.  He’s done all this out of the limelight and with no outside investors.  Brent discusses his rewarding but difficult journey and what he has learned, including sourcing and evaluating businesses, how he and his team have improved profitability at his portfolio companies after acquisition and so much more.

For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to investorfieldguide.com/beshore/

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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In this episode, Patrick and Jason Zweig reflect on investing, financial advice, books, and life in general. The method for living discussed in the last 30 minutes will be useful for everyone.

Jason is the Intelligent Investor columnist for the Wall Street Journal and author of several books including his latest “The Devil’s Financial Dictionary.”  His insights and advice are the results a life of critical thinking, reading, writing, humility, and curiosity.  I think you are going to get a lot from this in-depth conversation.  

Enjoy!

For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to investorfieldguide.com/zweig/

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest today is Arianna Simpson, who has spent her career in an around the world of technology working at startups, Facebook, and now in venture capital as an investor focused on the world of cryptocurrencies.

I met Arianna when I hosted a panel at a big investing conference in New York City and she was one of the panelists. On the panel, I found her style to be very straightforward and compelling. It is clear that she loves to learn and that the best manifestation of her style of learning is investing in technology.

In our conversation we discuss broad trends in crypto that we haven’t spent much time on before: decentralized versus centralized exchanges, privacy coins, and evaluating a found or early team. We build a framework for learning about this new asset class, discuss the importance of travel, and the value of pushing oneself outside of comfort zones.

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

Please enjoy our conversation

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

2:12 – (First question) – How to teach someone else to build an investing philosophy around crypto

4:00 – The major risk factors to investing in crypto

6:28 – best practices for mitigating risk

7:39 – What factors to think about when it comes to whether a token will lose all value or not

8:39 -  Taking a pulse of the investment community on crypto

11:36 – How she heard about and became interested in crypto currencies

12:34 – Are people really using crypto currency as a hedge against rampant inflation

13:52 – Investing thesis in the space

14:07 – Arianna’s systems for learning about cryptocurrencies and staying up to date on them

15:19 – Arianna’s take on the issue of increasing transactional through put

16:49 – Layer 1 solutions and making it all scalable on a blockchain

17:56 – her take on the fat protocol thesis

20:32 – Defining utility vs security tokens

21:54 – evaluating different coins

21:02 – Why cross currency swaps are important and how they work

26:17 – What are the chances of a scenario where there’s just one token and everything is built off of that one

28:02 -  Comparing centralized and decentralized exchanges

29:47 – How the traditional investing world is going to regulate transaction involving cryptocurrencies and view security around those transactions

31:54– Impact this will have on capital formation

33:44 – Evaluating teams behind crypto companies

35:48 – The importance of gut when evaluating people

38:47 – How Arianna’s global upbringing impacts her thinking on the technology

39:51 – What countries or regions have had the largest impact on Arianna’s investing philosophy

42:41 – Doing things you’re not qualified for

43:59 – Gender imbalance in crypto and what can be done to shift that

45:28 – Most recent thing that has gotten Arianna excited in the crypto space

46:15 – Explaining Zero X

47:33 – How her views on reading have evolved

48:54 - Kindest thing anyone has done for Arianna

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest today is Michael Mauboussin, who is the head of global financial strategies at Credit Suisse and is on my short list of must read writers on all things investing. If you read his entire catalogue, Howard Marks's memos, and Buffett's shareholder letters, you be sitting pretty. Michael was also a big reason for the early success of this show appearing as my second guest and now my 37th. He and his team have been prolific in the last six months, publishing several long research reports on the most interesting aspects of the investing landscape. In this conversation, we talk about business moats, industry analysis, and how to combine man and machine when building an investment strategy and portfolio. As I tell Michael at the end, you won't be able to listen to this episode at two times speed, because we go deep quickly.

For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/michael

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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For the 100th episode, I’ve brought back my good friend Brent Beshore. Brent was the 10th guest on the podcast, after we met because of a mutual interest in capital allocation. I quickly learned that Brent was one of the most unique and thoughtful investors around. He was an entrepreneur from the moment he left school, trying many different things before finding a fit buying smaller business with the intention of owning them forever. What amazes me about Brent is his encyclopedic understanding of business and the nuances of different business models and deal structures. This comes from reps. He and his team have looked at about 12,000 deals over the years, at every kind of business that you could imagine. I’ve been with him when he goes through this process and it’s fun to hear what makes certain businesses stand out from others, which is largely the topic of this conversation. You all know transparency is key for me, so it’s important to know that my family and I are investors in a fund called permanent equity, run by Brent and his firm Adventure.es. To commemorate this milestone episode, I can think of no one better than Brent, because he exemplifies what has made this podcast so fun for me: learning from other people who are willing to share what they themselves have learned through fun, blood, sweat, and tears. Please enjoy our conversation, and thank you so much for coming along on this journey. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Show Notes

2:02 - (First Question) – How does he think about optimizing risk in terms of the capital stack when looking at deals

5:27 – What conditions would they add debt down the road after investing in a company

6:52 – What business sectors are most intriguing for Morgan to invest in right now

            6:57 – Trent Griffin Podcast

9:34 – Why no HVAC businesses if it’s such an attractive sector

13:56 – thoughts on rolling up similar businesses and horizontal scale

16:04 – Another industry Brent would focus on

18:02 – Difference between property management in larger cities vs smaller metro areas

18:51 – What role does profit margin play when Brent is evaluating a business

22:46 – The appeal of a hyper cyclical business

            22:52 – Brent Beshore Podcast Episode

27:27 – Favorite counter cyclical business

28:14 – How they judge assets, tangible vs intangible assets

33:58 – How does he think about wage inflation when considering the cost of a business

37:21 – His fascination with pet crematoriums

38:57 – History of the permanent equity fund and the changes by having a larger pool of capital

43:48 – Pitching investors on a new structure for the business

46:14 – How will this business model scale

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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[REPLAY]

My guest this week is Peter Attia, M.D., whose mission is to understand and improve human lifespan and healthspan (or quality of life).  Reading Peter’s research, you find that there are many similarities between health and investing—ideas like compounding—which we explore in detail.

We spend a lot of time on mind, body, spirit and performance as it relates to living a better life. Of particular interest is the strategic problem that we face when studying longevity. As Peter puts it in our conversation: we are the species of interest, but we can’t conduct the kinds of experiments on humans—randomized trials, with control groups—that we apply to solve other big problems. So we have to back our way into a better understanding of longevity and quality of life.

To that end, we discuss what we can learn from studying centenarians, the problem of progress in science, a drug called Rapamycin (which Peter believes could be revolutionary), eating, the importance of muscle mass, and the idea of distressed tolerance.  We emerge with a framework for thinking about health and well-being which can hopefully help us all live longer, better lives. Please enjoy!

For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/attia

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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Posts From Peter Attia That You Should Read

Do Calories Matter

How You Move Defines How You Live

2016 Update

Long List of Questions Answered: Part 1 and Part 2

Links Referenced

The Scientific Method-Richard Feynman

Knowing Versus Understanding-Feynman again

Books Referenced

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Diffusion of Innovations

Good Calories, Bad Calories

Show Notes

2:31  – (first question) – Getting Peter to define the concept of wealth and how it might have changed in his life

5:01 – How do you increase the number of really good people in your life.

6:50 – Looking at the relationship between healthspan and lifespan and a chart that Peter created on this specific topic.

11:11 – Drilling down into the different dimensions and aspects of this chart that could be most important for people, especially how compounding plays into our health.

16:57 – The difference between strategies and tactics that will help you extend lifespan

17:54 – The Scientific Method-Richard Feynman

21:41 – Different types of intermittent fasting

28:59 – What role does repair play in health

34:17 – Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

36:01 – Looking back, what health trends today will look absurd

36:19 – Diffusion of Innovations

39:24 – What are the primary benefits of weight lifting

40:21 – The importance of glucose disposal

45:07 – Good Calories, Bad Calories

46:31 – What is the state of progress in the scientific community

52:14 – Peter is asked about how he guards against getting too attached to old beliefs

1:01:51 – A look at how performance relates to healthspan

1:03:34 –Peter’s first great auto-racing experience

1:09:17 – Looking into Peter’s medical practice and understanding his thinking that goes into helping people

1:18:11 – The most memorable day in Peter’s career

1:22:31 – The kindest thing anyone has done for Peter

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Brent Beshore and I spoke for 10 hours about all things investing and business, and decided to record a 2-hour chunk of our conversation. We start by discussing private equity, venture capital, and the importance of brand. We then explore the difference between public and private company valuation, and the potent idea of peer mentorship.  The conversation wraps up with Brent’s recent experience with one of the greatest investors and thinkers of all time.  Above all, this is a conversation about what is right and wrong in the world of money management and investing, and where the business is heading.  Please enjoy!

For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to investorfieldguide.com/adventures/

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest this week is David Epstein. David is a writer and researcher extraordinaire and the author of two great books. His second, Range, is out today and I highly recommend it. We discuss the pros and cons of both the generalist and specialist mindsets in detail and go down many interesting trails along the way. Please enjoy our conversation.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

1:12 - (First Question) – What he uncovered in “The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance” that led him to his latest book

            2:38 – Debate with Malcolm Gladwell (YouTube)

4:12 – What did the public pay most attention to and what did they gloss over

7:56 – How his views on nature vs nurture shifted during the process of writing The Sports Gene

10:05 – Blending practice with your nature

13:04 – His process of reading 10 journal articles a day as part of his research

19:06 – Exploring his new book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”, and his idea of Martian tennis

23:03 – Idea of the cult of the head start and how we set up our own feedback loops

28:58 – What does his research say about the nations education system

30:42 – The Flynn Effect chapter

33:54 – Hacks for learning

37:52 – The concept of struggle and harnessing the power of it

46:31 – Personality changes and how to drive those changes in a positive way

52:00 – Using the outside perspective in businesses for more productive outcomes and how it applied to Nintendo

            52:59 – Josh Wolfe Podcast Episode

1:04:45 – Other examples of using withered technologies, 3M

1:09:00 – The arc of his work and how it has evolved

1:13:54 – Taking a different view on problems

            1:17:52 – Ending Medical Reversal: Improving Outcomes, Saving Lives

1:18:04– Anyway to change these bad trends with new strategies

Learn More

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My guest this week is Chris Douvos, a managing partner at Venture Investment Associates, which allocates 1.6B in behalf of investors. 

Chris is the first professional allocator I’ve spoken with who focuses specifically on venture capital funds, so I had a ton of questions for him on how to build a portfolio in an asset class known for uncertain, but often enormous, outcomes.

We discuss the major recent changes in the asset class and where things might be going.

I sought Chris out because while this is an investment style that is full of creativity and hope, I’ve always felt it could use a healthy dose of skepticism and a value investor’s mindset. He delivers in spades as we try to separate the real from the ideal. 

We didn’t record it, but Chris’s tour of Palo Alto was one of the most interesting and entertaining hours I’ve spent. He is a student of history and markets, and I look forward to learning more from him in the future. 

Please enjoy our conversation

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Books Referenced

Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment

Links Referenced

Domino Rally Business Models

All About the Benjamins

Speak Like the Locals

David Salem podcast episode

Curveball

Show Notes

2:18 – (First question) – Four factors that Chris thinks are important for future success of venture firms; portfolio concentration; repeatability; being early; size discipline

7:40 – What the venture landscape looks like today from Chris’s viewpoint

            8:32 – Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment

14:07 – Is there a glut of startups making it difficult for investors

17:33 – How does Chris think about the investments that are a bit different from what everyone else is investing in in Silicon Valley

19:17 – Why he focuses on college campuses for innovation

20:54 – The role that geography plays in venture

25:06 – The Four M’s; money, momentum, mentorship, entrepreneurial management

27:13 – Chris’s perspective on crypto currency as a threat to venture capital

31:44 – The idea of venture capitalists as service providers to the companies they are investing in

35:15 -  Views on investing in hyper focused VC’s vs those that are generalists and just go after the best opportunities in any sector

39:00 – What hot button areas are of most interest to Chris and why, from an investment standpoint

            39:38 – Domino Rally Business Models

42:22 -  What can a public market investor learn from a value venture investor who mostly has to rely on qualitative metrics

            43:08 – All About the Benjamins

44:38 – Portfolio construction in the world of venture

            46:40 – Speak Like the Locals

48:00 -  What are the characteristics that Chris looks for in managers, as an allocator

53:52 – What type of investors should and should not be in venture

59:15 – What type of allocator would Chris give all of his money to

            59:47 – David Salem podcast episode

            1:01:06 – Curveball

1:01:40 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Chris

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest today is Ben Savage, a partner at Clocktower ventures. Ben is focused on financial technology, fintech, investing which is the topic of our conversation. I’ve been making the fintech is rounds of late, and plan on making a few of these conversations public. Ben is the first in what may be a mini-series because of the sheer amount I learned in our discussion. We cover all aspects of the fintech ecosystem. I hope you enjoy.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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 Show Notes

1:15 (First Question) – The market portfolio and how technology will move us away from liquid markets

7:24 – Businesses that are making assets that weren’t investable, investable

            9:11 – Ryan Caldbeck Podcast Episode

12:03 – Most interesting places where technology is creating investment opportunities

18:33 – Assets that are likely to tap into new sources of beta

23:46 – How well are investors prepared for the changes that are coming

28:35 – Trends in asset management with technology

33:05 – View on cryptocurrency and blockchain

36:45 – Places where startups can reduce costs/fees and create efficiencies

40:17 – Views on private equity markets and their future

45:40 – Privilege of access problem

48:50 – Verticals in fintech that are interesting to him

59:53 – The importance of focus and niche

1:02:26 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Ben

Learn More

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A very short introduction today because my guest is anonymous. Suffice it to say he manages a large pool of private capital.

He goes by the pseudonym “modest proposal” and his twitter presence is one of the reasons I first got on and now stay on the platform.

He is level headed, smart, and skeptical by nature, all of which made for a great conversation. We discuss how difficult the market has become for active investors, thematic investment opportunities, and the potential sources of market mispricings.

Please enjoy our conversation, and let me know which other anonymous accounts you’d like to hear from.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Links Referenced

Factors from Scratch: A look back, and forward, at how, when, and why factors work

Josh Wolf Podcast Episode

Mike Zapata Podcast Episode

Michael Mauboussin Podcast Episode

Show Notes

1:55 - (First Question) - How value investing has changed

5:45 – How does he apply the lens of market over-reaction to the current market today

            5:47 – Factors from Scratch: A look back, and forward, at how, when, and why factors work

            7:06 – Josh Wolf Podcast Episode

8:35 – Areas where he prepares most

            8:36 – Mike Zapata Podcast Episode

12:18 – Where markets may be over reacting in media

20:10 – How does he invest on this thinking

            20:44 – Michael Mauboussin Podcast Episode

22:35 – Other parts of media that he finds interesting

27:35 – Aggregation theory and how it plays into his investment philosophy

31:06 – Structuring a long-short portfolio in today’s media market

35:59 – Customer acquisition costs and how it’s impacting retailers

40:51 – The role of physical locations in a world that was upended by virtual retailers

49:41 – Consumer Internet Story thesis and what he’s seen during his career

58:11 – Why the FANG stocks can’t win in the niches

1:02:25 – The distrusted 50

1:05:00 – How he thinks about Capital Allocation and buybacks

1:11:08 – His view on international equity markets

1:13:58 – His take on the asset management business

1:19:38 – Allocation of a portfolio in between periods of conviction

1:21:08 – People that he has learned the most from

1:23:54 – How do you identify people who are capable of evolving after a rough spot

1:26:53 - How does he force himself to adapt to new conditions and evolve

1:30:31 - Thoughts in investing in cannabis industry

1:32:31 – Conditions where he would get interested in crypto currency

1:36:20 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Learn More

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My guest today is Shishir Mehrotra and the topic of our conversation is the bundle: offering access to multiple products, services, or providers for a single bundled price. This topic is full of incorrect pre-conceived notions, and as it turns out, the bundle is one of the most powerful ideas in business. Properly harnessed it is good for everyone involved. Shishir explains the ins and outs of bundles in this conversation.

Shishir ran product at YouTube for years and sits on the Spotify board of directors. He founded and now leads Coda (which is “A Doc” spelled backwards) in 2014, to bundle together productivity apps like docs, spreadsheets, databases, and applications. I love this wonky, detailed conversation which has me thinking differently about many businesses and business strategy. Please enjoy.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

(2:08) – (First question) – The arc of his career

(3:32) – Why he has an interest in bundling

(7:45) – The concepts of superfan, casualfan, and nonfan businesses

(11:05) – Using Spotify as an example of bundles

(13:24) – The first myth of bundling: Bundling is bad for consumers

(17:53) – The second myth of bundling: 1st vs 3rd party providers and the bundlers

(23:03) – Low usage but high Marginal Churn Contribution (MCC) business

(24:26) – How insurance fits into these models  

(26:37) – Myth 3 of bundling: How this impacts consumers

(32:12) – How marginal costs play into the thinking of bundling

(34:54) – Myth 4: Bundling things that have nothing to do with each other

(39:51) – How bundling companies can apply this into their product development

(43:21) – Strategic advice to companies building bundles

(49:01) – How price and pricing power play into advantages for certain bundlers

(54:16) – How does bundling play into his investing thesis

(56:47) – Most interesting bundles he’s observed

            (58:44) – Eigenquestions: The Art of Framing Problems

(59:14) – What the future of this trend is

(1:02:24) – What is an eigenquestion

(1:06:29) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Learn More

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My guest today is Hamilton Helmer, the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Strategy Capital and the author of one of the best business books in history called 7 Powers, which is the topic of much of our conversation. He has spent his career as a practicing business strategist: advising companies, investing based on strategic insights and teaching strategy.  In the last three decades, he has also utilized his strategy concepts as a public equity investor. In this conversation we cover all seven business powers, from counter-positioning to scale economies, and how companies earn and keep those powers. Any investor or businessperson should understand these concepts, and 7 Powers is the best work I’ve seen that explains them in depth. Please enjoy our conversation.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

(1:31) – (First question)  - What power means to him

(5:05) – Benefits being more common than barriers in the power equation

(6:28) – How early-stage companies develop their barriers

(11:23) – The power of counter positioning and how he’s seen it applied

(14:47) – The product side of counter positioning

            (16:39) – Daniel Ek Podcast episode

(17:27) – Applying the idea of counter positioning to yourself

(20:40) – A cornered resource

(23:49) – A look at google as a cornered resource

(27:12) – Unique power of network economies

(31:18) – What subtleties disqualify network effects

(32:54) – Nuances of scale economies

(35:56) – Learning economies and who can scale it better

(37:07) – Building a switching cost and barrier into your business

(40:10) – Branding as power

(44:27) – Defining process power and how it differs from scale economies

(46:40) – The notion of the time lag and cash flow

(50:42) – Why is so much power concentrated in technology businesses

(52:07) – What does power mean for customers

(53:43) – Developing power as an art vs science, and the best power artists

(55:08) – The kindest thing anyone has done for him

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest today is Tobi Lutke, the co-founder, and CEO of Shopify.  This is both a timely and evergreen conversation.  Timely, as the world as moved aggressively digital in the past two months, and Shopify powers so much of digital commerce.  Evergreen, because while we touch on Covid and the Shopify business, this is much more a conversation on business and personal principles, learning, design, and growth. Tobi is one of the CEO’s I look up to most for the type of company he is building and for the way he conducts himself.  We discuss business focus, why video games help you learn the power of attention, what design means for products and organizations, and much more. Please enjoy my conversation with Tobi Lutke.

This episode is brought to you by the MIT investment management company (MITIMCO)

Reach out or learn more: 

• Email: partner@mitimco.org
• Website: https://mitimco.org/partner/
• MITIMCo 10 year Letter: https://mitimco.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MITIMCo-Alumni-Letter.pdf
• MITIMCo brochure: https://mitimco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MITIMCo-Brochure_web_2018-12-05.pdf

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Show Notes

(2:35) – (First question) – The launch of the new Shopify shop app

            (2:44) – Deniel Ek Podcast Episode

            (2:45) – Jeff Lawson Podcast Episode

(4:56) – Having the right focus and growing a good business

(9:06) – Marketplace business model vs the merchant driven business model

            9:16 – Bill Gurley Podcast Appearances - 162 | 144 | 137

(11:47) – His role as a decisionmaker as CEO of the company

(14:07) – What does he mean when he talks about quality

(18:28) – His thinking on design and quality

            (18:32) – Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

            (19:59) – The Design of Everyday Things

(21:06) – Friction as a force in business and manufacturing

(26:04) – His thoughts on systems and being free of process           

(26:08) – The Systems Bible

 (30:01) – The game of Factoria and how it relates to systems

            (32:16) – Transfer Learning

(34:33) – What Real-Time Strategy games have taught Tobi

(38:30) – Building context inside of a company and making it scale

(41:17) – Personality typing

(46:22) – The Tobi Blueprint

(46:04) – Why he likes The Guide to the Good Life and stoicism

(55:38) – Raising kids and the impact of Covid

(1:03:16) – The kindest thing anyone has done for Tobi

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest today is popular past guest Ali Hamed, who joins us for an update on private credit. We discuss what has happened so far, what parts of the market are frozen, and where opportunities may lie. We also talk about how the world has shifted digitally since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Please enjoy my conversation with my friend Ali Hamed.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

(1:41) – (First question) – World of private credit in the pandemic age

(4:50) – Bag of uncertainty

(6:27) – Important levers in private credit

(9:15) – Scary scenarios and systemic risks in this world

(13:21) – General trends in the credit data

(15:30) – Are investors factoring government response properly

(17:02) – Defining advanced rates

(20:18) – Focus on quality vs rate of return now

(22:26) – Pockets of opportunity as uncertainty declines

(26:06) – Online ecommerce platforms, like the YouTube economy

(29:40) – Non advertising driven ecommerce platforms

(31:54) – How venture capital is responding

(38:19) – How junior debt could be am opportunity

(40:17) – Trends he’s thinking about; redefining small businesses

(43:07) – Ali Hamed Podcast Episode

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest today for a flash update is Chris Bloomstran, the founder and CIO of Semper Augustus and a popular past guest on the show. We talk about his view on the state of the public equity market, why it will be hard for the market to deliver great returns for the next decade relative to the last, and where opportunities may lie. Please enjoy.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Show Notes

(1:42) – (First question) – Adjustments to his portfolio in the age of a pandemic

            (6:41) – Chris Bloomstran Podcast Episode

            (9:36) – The Federal Reserve Act

(12:32) – Surprising action in the markets during the crisis

            (13:08) – 2020 Investment Letter

(15:02) – Why we won’t see the same performance in tech over the future as we’ve seen the last decade

(21:00) – The carnage in energy sector and return potential

(30:06) – Berkshires activity since the crisis started

(35:48) – Where sectors are valued in the current market

(41:12) – Expectation for deflation over inflation 

(48:54) – Characteristics to look for in businesses to own over the next 10 years

(52:05) – Economic factors they are focusing on

Learn More

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My guest today is Josh Kopelman, the founder of famed venture capital firm First Round Capital. Prior to starting First Round, which has invested at the earliest stages in companies like Square, Uber, and Roblox, Josh was a three-time entrepreneur, so our conversation spans early-stage investing, business building, and entrepreneurship. I’ll not sure forget his analogy distinguishing between navigators and cartographers, nor the rest of the interesting ideas he shared after seeing and investing in so many great businesses. We also discuss how First Round has bucked the trend to build what I’d call a platform adjacent to the core investing business which does a lot for their entrepreneurs and is a model for other professional investing firms, both in venture and elsewhere. Please enjoy my conversation with Josh Kopelman. 

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Show Notes

(2:05) – (First question) – How pandemic has impacted their investing strategies

(3:54) – How this stressful environment impacts founders

(6:23) – His early career as a founder and how startup culture has changed

(10:15) – Most important lessons from his entrepreneurial career and building from just an idea

(11:50) – How to analyze a founder

(14:05) – Common disagreements when it comes to deciding on an investment

(15:33) – How many opportunities they evaluate in a meeting

(16:16) – The curvy road to their investment in Roadblox

(17:52) – Whether the concept for a platform is overused

(19:36) – Founders asking what google search they should build on

(20:46) – Solving existing or forecasted problems

(25:39) – How the startup scene is impacted by the huge legacy tech companies

(30:28) – What makes a great early stage investor

(32:19) – Do they focus on founders or themes

(33:19) – Where will valuations and returns come back to after the pandemic

(36:30) – How are business models evolving in technology entrepreneurship

            (36:31) – Matt Clifford Podcast Episode

(39:40) – The Dorm Room Fund

(43:02) – Whether investment funds should have their own platform

(47:31) – Product mistakes in software building

(51:52) – What he’s most excited about for the future

(54:05) – The kindest thing anyone has done for him 

Learn More

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My guest today is Manny Stotz, the founder of Kingsway Capital. Manny is one of the leading investors in Frontier Markets, investing in equities in countries like Egypt, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. We discuss the opportunity in these markets from all angles: demographics, valuations, sectors and beyond. It is important to note that we recorded this conversation before COVID, and these markets have fallen 30% without a similar rebound in prices that we’ve seen in the U.S. As you listen you’ll hear why this may be relevant for the companies Manny focuses on and may accentuate the opportunity in Frontier Markets even relative to the numbers quoted in this conversation. Listeners will know my interest in Frontier Markets runs deep, so I was excited to have one of the categories leading investors join me.

Please enjoy my conversation with Manny Stotz.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Show Notes

2:07 – (First question) – How Kingsway was conceived, their focus on frontier emerging markets, and his career path

11:57 – What are the best company builders good at when it comes to fostering a brand

18:30 – How country-specific factors impact the tailwind

25:43 – How markets are faring in these special circumstances

32:09 – Building a book in many of the markets they trade-in

37:10 – Understanding your edge in frontier markets, showing up

39:59 – Importance of solid distribution for the companies he invests in

42:12 – Concentration in various markets

44:10 – Moving beyond consumer brands in these markets

47:14 – Some of the most interesting countries they are looking into and the country business model

            47:42 – Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

            47:44 – Civilization: The West and the Rest

            47:46 – Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

53:21 – New topics he’s excited to learn about that will impact his business over the next 10-20 years

55:37 – Best way for people to get involved and invest in these markets

58:17 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Learn More

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My guest this week is Sarah Tavel, a general partner at Benchmark, working alongside past guests Bill Gurley and Chetan Puttagunta. Sarah has a long history as both an investor and as an operator.  She was an early product leader at Pinterest before joining Benchmark. Sarah has become one of my go-to resources for topics like networks, consumer technology, and marketplaces among many other topics. I’ve used her framework for how to think about client engagement, company data, and marketplace liquidity and quality over and over again in my business life. I’m so excited to finally have her on the show.  Please enjoy our conversation.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

1:24 – (First question) - Lessons learned from watching the food delivery space

5:44 – Hip camp and how they are thinking about the space rental sector

            5:45 - The a16z Marketplace 100

7:47 – Valuing private companies vs public companies

9:37 – Building marketplaces

14:24 – Tipping a market

            14:30 – Bill Gurley Podcast Episode

18:09 – How to incorporate reputation scores into a network

19:55 – Search ranking as a tool for marketplaces

21:00 – Size of marketplaces vs their competitors

22:15 – Niching of marketplaces

            22:21 - Chetan Puttagunta Podcast Episode

23:26 – State of the consumer social sector

27:50 – The LinkedIn problem and how she would build a social platform

30:42 – Things that are piquing her interest in the consumer space

32:20 – Lessons learned about scaling while working at Pinterest

38:42 – Pricing and the marketplace

41:25 – Identifying and optimizing a Core Action in a digital business

44:18 – Accruing benefits and mounting losses as part of the product design

47:48 – Her investment in Reci

52:18 – How should companies gather the best data from their business

56:03 – Lessons to SaaS investing

56:29 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Sarah

57:45 – Most interesting philosophy lesson

            58:09 – Creating a Kingdom of Ends

Learn More

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In the midst of the worldwide quarantine, my friend Boyd Varty decided to begin an adventure he has been considering for a long time: a 40 day and 40 night stay in the African wilderness. I’m releasing this short conversation with Boyd to pique your interest in his daily dispatches. He will be taking short audio journal-like recordings and sharing them with the world as he goes. As of today they are several that you can listen to by subscribing to the Track Your Life podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please enjoy this short chat with my good friend Boyd Varty.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

(0:31) – The start of his 40-day trip

(1:42) – Origin of the word quarantine and how it led to this journey

(3:07) – History of this idea

(6:14) – The logistics of this 40-day venture

(9:59) – His experience doing this before and how it changed his psyche

(12:07) – What is he most fearful of

(13:22) – How he feels about sharing this experience when he returns

(15:47) – The mental preparation to this journey

            (15:48) – Priya Parker Podcast Episode

            (15:49) – The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters

(17:33) – How can outsiders make a connection to Boyd while he’s in this isolation

(19:55) – How can people actually follow him on this journey

            (20:23) – Track Your Life with Boyd Varty Podcast – Apple Podcasts | Spotify

            (20:33) – Instagram - @boyd_varty

            (20:36) – boydvarty.com

            (20:43) – 40daysand40nights.com

(21:05) – The story of the 17 lions

Learn More

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My guest today is with past guest Gavin Baker, the founder and CIO of Atreides Management, LP. We discuss investing during a bear market and the major ways in which the COVID19 outbreak has dramatically altered the investment landscape. Please enjoy my second conversation with Gavin Baker.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Show Notes

(1:40) – How he sees the markets right now

(3:06) – How he handles information uncertainty and the value spreads

(5:53) – Trading in today’s market and the volatility

(9:45) – How the economic activity squares with the amount of stimulus being pumped into the market

            (13:11) – Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders

(13:56) – Asset tests for individual companies in this environment

            (19:09) – This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

(20:45) – His take on software companies during the crisis

(28:57) – Fast pace of change during extreme times of duress

(35:14) – Space as a service

(39:52) – Attention and time inside digital universes and how investors can take advantage

(46:17) – Why chaos is a ladder

            (50:42) – It Was a Very Good Year: Extraordinary Moments in Stock Market History

Learn More

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My guest today is D.A. Wallach, one of the more interesting investors I’ve come across. He is the former lead singer of the group Chester French and the former artist-in-residence at Spotify, where he was also an early investor. While he’s also an early investor in companies like SpaceX, his focus the last 5 years has been on early stage health care investing, which is the topic of this conversation. We discuss the entire life sciences and heath care investing ecosystem. This was recorded in the very early days of the Coronavirus outbreak so while we touch on it briefly it isn’t the primary focus, and I intend on returning to more traditional episodes like this one in the coming weeks, meant to be evergreen conversations. Please enjoy my conversation with D.A. Wallach.

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Show Notes

1:31 – (First question) – Where is interest in healthcare started

4:04 – How to categorize health services

5:13 – The product of medicine

6:56 – How medicine is changing in 2020

10:17 – What is enabling innovation in medicine

12:41 – Manufacturing of solutions, gene therapy example

17:16 – Using CRISPR

19:47 – Pros and cons, and the morality of gene intervention

23:44 – How progress is being made in medical breakthroughs

26:51 – What is the business and investment world seeing on the longevity side

30:15 – What is next in the wearable medical tracking trend

33:04 – The personalization of medical treatments

34:31 – How he thinks about all of this from an investing standpoint

36:37 – Exiting these companies

39:41 – How he thinks about founders in this space

42:35 – Drug prices

            42:46 – The Paradox of Pricing

46:45 – What will lead to a change in the pricing of drugs

49:05 – The delivery side of healthcare

51:09 – Investments that could improve the delivery side of healthcare

53:33 – Thoughts on the anti-interventionist line of thinking in the medical world

57:50 – Lessons from his health portfolio

1:02:33 – Other frontiers that pique his interest, including gut biome

1:06:46 – His career in music

1:08:20 – Lessons he learned during his time in the music industry

1:10:19 – Opportunities in the music industry as an investor

1:12:29 – Kindest thing anyone has done for DA

Learn More

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My guest today is Chad Cascarilla, here to discuss some of the tail risks in the economy and markets as of March 24th in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Chad was one of the most successful investors during the global financial crisis with a specialty in the banking and finance systems. He now runs Paxos, a trust company which trades and custodies unique products like pax gold, bitcoin, and other tokenized assets including simple pax dollars. I feel it is important to avoid confirmation bias in times like this and not just talk to people are optimistic or long, and while I still believe this is ultimately a positive and optimistic conversation, Chad acknowledges and outlines scenarios that few are talking about yet in the markets.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Show Notes

(2:04) – (First question) – Today’s market and the porridge scenario

(7:38) – Risks to the market that people aren’t focused on

(10:54) – What lessons from 2008 do we need to heed this time

(13:07) – How does he think about inflation on the other side of this crisis

(16:02) – What does a too cold recovery look like

(20:35) – Benefits of nationalizing the banks vs pumping liquidity

(24:13) – What does the just right recovery look like

(25:24) – Assets that might be ideal to hold in a too hot or too cold scenario

(29:00) – His take on how Bitcoin has performed during this crisis

(31:53) – The US’s inherent strengths compared to the rest of the global economy

(34:50) – Advice for people

            (38:59) – Paxos.com

(39:48) – What is he monitoring to see which way things shake out

Learn More

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My conversation today is with my close friend Brent Beshore. Brent is a private equity investor who owns and interacts with many small businesses, which have been hit especially hard by COVID. We discuss the various impacts that COVID has had and may have on both small business and the private equity investing community. Brent also proposes some policy actions which he thinks may help those most in need. Please enjoy.

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Show Notes

1:13 – (First question) – What Brent sees as the current landscape for small businesses

3:25 – The real problem for small businesses right now

6:02 – How long can small businesses survive these freezes

9:14 – Ideas to help businesses stay afloat during a global shutdown

11:01 – The cost of restarting businesses on the other side of this  

13:41 – Policies that could help

            14:30 – government co-paying some business expenses

            16:05 – Suspending payroll taxes

            16:17 – The small business bond

            18:00 – Wider latitude for banks

20:03 – How effective would Brent’s ideas actually be at lessening the pain

22:41 – A look at how things look in the private equity complex

25:39 – What are the potential opportunities out there

29:24 – What is a balance sheet product

32:00 – How this is personally impacting Brent

34:20 – How this is personally impacting Patrick

35:45 – Importance of relationships for personal health

Learn More

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My guest this morning is Dan Rasmussen of Verdad Capital. Like me, Dan and his firm focus on quantitative research. Just a month before the COVID crisis hit markets, they completely and published a study on investing during periods of market crisis, which is the topic of this conversation. We discuss what works and what doesn’t during and after acute periods of panic in markets. I think you’ll find it extremely informative. Because Dan’s firm and my own share many beliefs about investing and conduct similar flavors of research, I try to offer devil’s advocate questions throughout. Please enjoy.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

1:54 – (First question) – What he sees in the markets today given the atmosphere right now

4:26 – An overview of their study: Crisis Investing: How to Maximize Return During Market Panics

8:38 – How things get more predictable during crisis

11:15 – The length of these crises and assets they focused on

12:40 – What happens to bonds and credit during these times

15:50 – Geography of crises

18:14 – How does this impact the philosophy of just index investing

20:40 – Positioning of value in this market

27:50 – Lessons from other crises

32:21 – Importance of a blended factor approach

35:44 – Role of momentum

38:10 – What else he is paying attention to during this crisis

Learn More

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My guests today are Bill Gurley and Chetan Puttagunta, both partners at benchmark capital. We review the early stage investing world in the face of coronavirus in a very timely conversation, which is one that will remain valuable once this crisis is done. We discuss enterprise and consumer, funding and growth, and the entrepreneurial spirit in the face of a crisis. Please enjoy.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.

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Show Notes

1:44 – (First question) – Landscape for venture capital ecosystem

6:47 – The experience in 2009 and the entrepreneurs that tend to rise to the top

8:24 – The relationship between early stage companies and public investors

10:45 – How this crisis impacts enterprise businesses vs the broader corporate sector

14:46 – Advice for early stage companies in a period like this

18:23 – What Chetan was doing during the last downturn and what he learned during it

20:27 – Early stage vs late stage companies in this environment

            22:57 – On the Road to Recap

23:00 – Benefits of being small in a period like this

25:22 – How portfolio companies are responding and pivoting during this period

29:33 – Best practices for remote companies

31:39 – Themes that stand out during this period

34:51 – Closing thoughts 

Learn More

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My guest in this flash podcast is Bryan Krug of Artisan partners. We discuss what has happened so far in the corporate high yield and investment-grade credit markets, and the loan market. We compare today’s environment to the financial crisis and other past crises with lots of nuances that I hope will be helpful to bond and equity investors. Please enjoy.

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Show Notes

1:08 – (First question) – An overview of what he covers in the corporate credit markets

1:52 – How things have changed in the last couple of weeks

3:56 – Composition of the high yield market

7:07 – Major sectors of the high yield market outside of energy

8:39 – How do they price the risk in securities right now

11:21 – How do they handicap a great unknown

13:00 – Risk for broader contagion in the overall credit markets

14:49 – What’s the downside potential here

16:31 – Potential for upside

18:33 – How does he view companies that are drawing down on their entire line of credit

19:44 – An overview of the loan market

20:42 – What warning signs equity investors should be watching for in the bond markets

21:57 – What do credit spreads look like today compared to before this crisis

Learn More

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This week, I’ll be recording and immediately releasing a series of conversations on business and market reactions to the spread of coronavirus. The conversations will be on oil and gas, corporate credit, and the reaction within the venture capital community. Today’s conversation is with Matt Smith, Ian Singer, and Kobi Platt of Deep Basin Capital. We are investors in Deep Basin, and they were past guests on the podcast. We discuss the new price war in the oil markets and the impact it might have on equities and especially on U.S. oil producers. Please enjoy.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

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Show Notes

1:59 – (First question) – An overview of the global oil market and demand

3:37 – Supply and demand shocks we’ve seen lately

6:22 – What happened this weekend with Russia and Saudi Arabia and why the outcome was so shocking

9:45 – The knock-on effects of this activity on equities

14:24 – Impact on US energy production

18:29 – What other industries will feel the effect of reduced production in the US

20:35 – Defining a price war and how victory is defined

27:53 – Saudi Arabia’s calculus in this energy fight.

31:11 – How does all of this change what factors they use to analyze companies

35:43 – What it actually looks like within the commodities markets to trade energy

40:01 – What uncertainty is most intriguing to each of them

43:00 – The long-term interest in investing in the energy sector

Learn More

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My guest this week is Peter Zeihan, the author of a new book, the Disunited Nations.  Peter was an extremely popular guest on the show last year and after reading his new book, I knew we had a lot to discuss in round 2.  In this conversation, we discuss two ways of ruling the world, the coming American disinterest in global affairs, and which country are poised to do well int eh future.  We explore military and non-military technologies, political changes, and up and coming alliances like that between the United States and Mexico.  As with last time, peter packs more information into an hour than just about anybody.  Please enjoy our conversation.

This episode is brought to by Koyfin.

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Show Notes

1:57 – (First question) – What makes for a successful country

6:02 – Five first-tier countries that are well positioned

7:14 – Ruling the world, US carrot model vs British stick model

9:39 – How other countries will use these models in the future

12:59 – The surprising reliance of Iran and Russia on the US

15:24– Key points of his research on the Middle East

18:36 – Advice for how those operating in the US should think about future business investments

23:05 – The future of manufacturing partnerships with the US and the focus on Mexico

27:30 – What Coronavirus has taught us about the world economy

30:01 – What the primaries and election are teaching us

35:09 – What role does Africa play in the future

38:36 – Strong and weak players in Europe and how Brexit has impacted things

44:41 – The future for nuclear power

46:27 – The outlook for South America

50:42 – The trends and future in military technology

55:03 – Non-military technology that will have a major impact

58:26 – Skills young people should focus on for the future

1:00:07 – Coronavirus as a dress rehearsal for large scale disruptions to the world

Learn More

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My guest this week is Jeff Lawson, the Founder, and CEO of Twilio. Twilio is a 15-billion-dollar company offering a cloud communications platform to its customers.  Twilio is used by customers like Lyft, Twitch, and Yelp to make communications in their products easy.  Jeff and I talk about why it pays to be a platform, how to be a platform, and how to sculpt a company culture. This is a must-listen for anyone building a business whether it’s a tech business or not.

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Show Notes

1:18 – (First Question) –  Company vowels and draw the owl

5:26 – Significance of API’s

12:14 – How non-software businesses can transition into the space

         17:50 - Agile way of working at ING Belgium (video)

18:38 – How they strategize their product build

23:27 – The idea of asking your developer and why it’s so important to them

33:02 – How they codified their business culture

45:12 – Parting advice for people building platforms

48:13 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Jeff 

Learn More

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Niko Canner is the founder of Incandescent where he and his team help the leaders of large companies in the areas of strategy and innovation. He was also the founder of Katzenbach Partners and a member of Bridgewater’s management committee. Niko is a fantastic writer, and I highly recommend you check out his blog “On Human Enterprise,” which has posts on many of the most interesting aspects of business and personal purpose. This conversation was inspired by many of those posts. Please enjoy.

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Show Notes

1:17 – (First Question) – The story of Doctor V

            3:24 – Aravind and the Choice of Great Achievement

4:00 – Becoming the perfect instrument

6:05 – What is Niko planning to be the perfect instrument of

8:18 – How should individuals think about finding what they can be the perfect instrument of

            8:59 – Brett Victor – Inventing on Principle

10:59 – How do businesses apply this principle

13:20 – Making choices easier

16:43 – Era’s to a company and when it’s time to start a new one

19:52 – How can business culture be cultivated and useful

22:53 – Cultures at the tail end of a distribution

24:33 – Can hierarchy be fluid, or does it need to be a dedicated corporate structure

27:47 – My Unlikeliest Favorite Business Book

            28:03 – The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: It's Not About the Money...It's About Being the Best You Can Be!

30:46 – The Red Test and how it can be used by businesses

36:54 - Ten Principles for How to Run a Company

42:25 – Dealing with the sponsor owner brief in the software world

45:24 – How does one choose customers

46:32 – Bill Hubbard passage – A Theory for Practice: Architecture in Three Discourses

49:09 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Niko

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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