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

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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.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

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

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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. 

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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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

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

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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. 

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 today is Chad Cascarilla, the CEO and co-founder of Paxos, which describes itself as a financial technology company “mobilizing assets at the speed of the internet.“ Thanks to more than 20 years of investing and financial services experience, Chad has a unique perspective on integrating blockchain technology with traditional systems. He also has one of my favorite bitcoin origin stories, which we explore. Before Paxos, Charles co-founded institutional asset management complex Cedar Hill Capital Partners in 2005 and its blockchain-focused venture capital subsidiary, Liberty City Ventures (LCV). Our conversation is less about cryptocurrencies and more about the history, current state, and potential future states of our financial system. Please enjoy.

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 work in the finance world before crypto’s

5:12 – Experience navigating the subprime mortgage trend and what it taught him about blockchain

9:59 – The levers that matter in the financial services industry today vs when he first started

14:07 – Open vs closed money in financial services

19:16 – How slowdowns are different in the modern era

23:06 – What would lead to a major winding down of global debt

27:09 – What would be his focus as a traditional investor

29:21 – How he first got involved with bitcoin

            29:47 – Elliott Wave Newsletter

31:53 – His measured view of Bitcoin and living through the volatility of it

            32:03 – Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

35:57 – Allocation of a portfolio which includes crypto

36:54 – His involvement and feelings on gold

37:56 – The formation of Paxos and the problem it exists to solve

41:34 – How Paxos is impacting the space

44:12 – Advantages of a private blockchain

43:59 – What is Pax Gold and how does it work

48:53 – Bad ways and situations to own gold

52:12 – Using a stable coin

56:00 – Biggest problem they are working on now

57:23 – What should people be paying attention to in the crypto currency space

            59:23 – Coindesk Research Archive

59:39 – Has the influx of interest in crypto helped in other spaces

1:02:11 – Other lessons people should learn from his career

1:04:53 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Chad

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

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. 

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

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

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My guest this week is Adam Ludwin, the founder and CEO of Chain, a blockchain technology company targeted at large enterprises. Before shifting his career to focus solely on crypto, Adam was a venture capitalist focused on FinTech, which is how he came across the Bitcoin whitepaper earlier than most. I called this episode “a Sober View on Crypto” because Adam’s take is so balanced. He is certainly long crypto, both in his portfolio and career, but he is very skeptical of much of what is happening in the ecosystem today. For example, he offers the best reason I’ve heard for not launching an ICO or investing in them. 

If you haven’t read Adam’s widely shared open letter to Jamie Dimon, it has become a must-read piece for crypto-enthusiasts. Read it as soon as you can.

I edited out an earlier chunk of our conversation as it was largely introductory. If you need a broader introduction to cryptocurrencies, I suggest starting with episode one of Hash Power and working your way forward. One key insight from Adam in our offline discussion what how cryptocurrencies function very much like equities or bonds. Just as equity financing enables the activity of joint stock corporations, cryptocurrencies enable activity in decentralized applications. We pick up our discussion with Adam discussing whether anyone really uses these decentralized apps today.

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

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Show Notes

2:35 - (First Question) – Will anyone use cryptocurrency in the real world at a large scale

3:43 – The idea of censorship resistance

12:29 – Will society be accepting of this technology

14:39 – Why decentralized apps can’t be acquired

18:24 – The idea of exponential vs linear improvements on a trend and if there are limits to the growth of decentralized technologies

23:26 – The struggle with early adaption of blockchain

25:41 – Best application for bitcoin, storing value

29:52 – Adam’s introduction to cryptoassets and how his thinking has evolved in the space

36:44 – In this hyper frothy market, is there a situation that makes an ICO exciting to Adam

43:51 – Even though it appears to be easy money, Adam explains why you shouldn’t just create an ICO

50:59 – A look at what Chain is doing and what Adam is excited about

53:23 – How does what Adam is working on help to improve the ledger of his clients

1:02:00 – Why you can easily be an early investor in crypto currency

1:04:27 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Adam

Learn More

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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.

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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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[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

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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

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My guest this week is Josh Wolfe, co-founder and managing partner at Lux Capital. I had Josh on the podcast last year which was one of the most popular episodes in the shows history. This is a continuation of our ongoing conversation about investing in the frontiers of technology. My favorite thing about Josh and the way that he invests is the mosaic that he and his team at Lux are constantly building to understand the world and where new companies may fit in. We cover a crazy variety of topics from business model innovation, roles of a CEO, the military, the death of privacy, and arrows of human progress. Please enjoy round two with Josh Wolfe.

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Show Notes

1:22 - (First Question) –Ability to tackle massive scale problems

4:05 – Key roles of leaders and his checklist for evaluating them

5:55 – Common traits among founders that make them incredible storytellers and leaders

10:22 – The concept of ill-liquidity

14:53 – Thoughts on the types of companies going public

16:41 – Most innovative business models

19:14 - Advice for LP’s

23:51 – Common devil

            24:01 – The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

25:09 – Big internal debates at his firm, starting with price discipline

28:45 – The value debate internally

33:34 – CRISPR from an investment standpoint

36:50 – Edge cases they are looking at

46:52 – How they target ideas in a single concept

            50:01 – The Coast of Utopia: Voyage, Shipwreck, Salvage

51:04 – New theses that they chase

56:31 – Recent adventure with special operations guys

Learn More

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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

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My guest this week is Keith Wasserman, co-founder of the real estate investment firm Gelt.

This was my first fully dedicated conversation on direct real estate investing, so we cover many different topics, including the pros and cons of different types of real estate, current valuations, risk vs. reward, tax protection, and the most interesting emergent areas.  

You can tell Keith is an entrepreneur at heart so I enjoyed his energy and all that he has learned. Please enjoy.

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Show Notes

1:15 - (First Question) – Their interest in apartments and mobile homes as investments

2:32 – The returns spectrum for different classes of real estate

4:03 – His early entrepreneurial ventures and the start of Gelt

7:45 – Don’t be afraid of negotiating

8:34 – Going through early deals in real estate

11:57 – How he determines when it’s time to sell a property

14:13 – How do they think about taxes in their investment offerings

16:57 – Depreciation strategies in real estate investing

18:27 – The evolution of the types of real estate properties they’ve invested in

21:41 – Most important factors when evaluating a building to invest in

23:50 – Barriers to entry

25:41 – Changes in his cost of capital

28:51 – Cost of debt and deciding how much to put into a building

30:33 – A look at the competition

34:51 – Effective marketing strategies

37:07 – How demographics impact their strategies

39:11 – The co-living space

40:34 – Cloud kitchens and how he would invest in these

46:11 – How autonomous vehicles will impact real estate

47:52 – Pros and cons of developing new properties vs buying existing ones

49:59 – Early stage investing interest

53:48 – Favorite business/entrepreneur story

55:10 – Advice for younger entrepreneurs

57:09 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Keith

Learn More

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My guest this week for the third time is Michael Mauboussin. If there is a major question about markets and investing, Michael has usually written one of the best pieces of research on that topic. Today’s conversation is a mix of several of his research pieces, but focuses on the sources of alpha. The framing of the conversation is the brilliant question “who is on the other side” of a given trade. If you are buying, who is selling, and why? Knowing the answer to this question is one key to understanding where excess return comes from. As is usual with Michael, we also explore tons of other interesting ideas that will serve as food for thought. Please enjoy.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

1:23 - (First Question) – An outline of the syllabus for the course he teaches

4:02 – What are smart people missing when it comes to decision making

5:33 – Why Michael went down the path of defining major investing concepts

            7:41 – On the impossibility of informational inefficient markets

9:14 – Beware behavioral finance

12:03 – What are the behavioral errors that people can take advantage of in a trade

15:14 – Timing opportunities

            17:25 – Modest Proposal Podcast Episode

17:47 – Where the analytical edge comes from

21:16 – Is there an advantage to exhibit time arbitrage

23:53 – Technical arbitrage

29:34 – What impact do flows into ETFs play on the market

32:25 – Informational edge and how you source that edge

36:39 – Biggest changes that he has seen on the buy side

43:18 -  How would Michael apply this as a sports GM

48:35 – His views on stock buybacks

            51:02 – The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

52:55 – EBIT to EBITDA paper

            54:43 – What Does a PE Multiple Mean?

59:28 – The concept of benign myths

1:02:06 – What the future holds of Michael

            1:04:17 – The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition

Learn More

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My guest this week is Albert Wenger, a managing partner at Union Square Ventures and the author of the book World After Capital.

Albert studied economics at Harvard and earned a PhD in information from technology, but if you’d asked me to guess before looking those up, I’d have guessed that he studied philosophy because of how widely he has thought about the world and the impact of technology.

Our conversation is about how technology is changing the world from an Industrial Age to a knowledge age. We explore how cryptocurrencies, low cost computing, and regulation will impact our future and why the transition may require delicate care.

I loved this conversation because of my obsession with the concept of scarcity. We explore what has been scarce through time and what may be scarce in the future. Albert is one of the most interesting thinkers I’ve come across and was a pleasure to speak with. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

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Links Referenced

World After Capital

Show Notes

2:16 – (First Question) –  Defining what it means to be human

            2:58 – World After Capital

3:56 – Trans-humans vs neo-humans

4:37 – The concept of Qualia

5:25 – Albert’s investment philosophy=

8:27 – How Albert began his exploration into cryptocurrencies

12:59 – Most exciting things blockchains could enable

14:27 – How does Albert view blockchain technology from the view of an venture capital investor

17:00 -  Why Albert thinks that the dominate cryptocurrency of our time may not exist just yet and what he is looking for in protocols that will become the leader in the space

20:16 – What are the central functions that will be important in cryptocurrencies

21:22 -   The state of regulation in the cryptocurrency space

27:37 – What has Albert most excited for the future of blockchain

29:10 – The idea of universal basic income

32:26 – How do you solve the problem of giving money value in a world of universal basic income

35:00 – How scarcity has changed over time

39:01 – Role of financial capital in the last 200 years of civilization

42:39 – Are we as a society only capable of solving problems once they become an immediate threat

44:15 – Explaining the idea of attention as a scarce resource

47:56 – The two key drivers of change; zero marginal cost distribution and universality of computational power

53:13 -  What should we as investors and inventors be focusing on as the new objective function

57:24 – Scariest aspect of this transition into the knowledge age

59:45 – Three basic freedoms we all seek; informational, economic, psychological

1:02:13 – Fermi’s paradox and the scarcity of attention

1:02:56 – How Albert thinks about his own day and wellbeing given all of this information

1:05:01 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Albert

Learn More

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My guest this week is Jeff Ma. Jeff was on the famous MIT Blackjack team from the book Bringing Down the House but has spent his career in an around fields of analytics and data science. He’s studied sports betting and analytics, built companies for analyzing human capital, and ran the data science and analytics group at Twitter. Here are links to his book, blog, and podcast. Our discussion is about a number of fascinating ways data is being used to make decisions in the worlds of sports and business. Please enjoy!

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Show Notes

1:20 - (First Question) – How quantitative analytics have evolved in sports and how they’re being used

4:26 – Best role of humans in the analysis process

8:38 – Sports that are most interesting to observe through analytics

10:26 – How does luck play into sports analysis

11:54 – Team analytics vs better analytics

12:38 – Concentration of success among sports betters and their moats

14:58 – Favorite lessons learned from professional gamblers

16:45 – How analytics got introduced into gambling

19:21 – Understanding one’s own biases

24:04 – How he became VP of analytics at Twitter

28:37 – Primary lessons from the work evaluating human capital and talent with analytics

            28:59 – Niel Roberson Podcast Episode

31:40 – How to model people for success when hiring

33:29 – How to hire the right data scientists’ team

37:54 – Most interesting problems they tackled at twitter

42:31 – Responsibility of social platforms to police itself

45:34 – Areas that would interest him in the future as an investor

49:24 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Jeff

51:50 – Values instilled in him by his parents.

Learn More

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My guest today is Vaughn Tan, who studies quality, innovation, and organizational behavior. His resume is bonkers. He’s a PhD from Harvard, Was an infantry signals logistician in the Republic of Singapore Army, then worked at Google on advertising, Earth, Maps, spaceflight, and Fusion Tables. He’s also been a wood sculptor. But the topic of our conversation is how to foster quality and innovation in ourselves and inside of companies—lessons he learned in part by studying inside some of the world’s best restaurants. If you enjoy this conversation, I recommend you also check out his new book, The Uncertainty Mindset Innovation Insights from the Frontiers of Food. Please enjoy my conversation with Vaughn Tan.

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Show Notes

1:33 - (First Question) – Interesting ways to identify high quality

5:06 – The current problem with the way we think about the world

8:56 – How people think about their careers and college

11:21 – Uncertainty vs risk, and productive discomfort

19:08 – Cultivation of discomfort for an individual

24:05 – Successful innovation cultures

32:25 – Analyzing quality and restaurant bread

37:43 – The Slug idea

40:43 – His research project where he observed restaurants

45:44 – How do people mandate their own structure in the face of uncertainty

53:46 – How employees should approach this rent-to-buy hiring structure

57:17 – Example of someone who took advantage of uncertainty time

1:00:05 – Playful adults

            1:00:07 – Jerry Neumann Podcast Episode

1:03:10 – Other changes companies can make to their culture to be more innovative

1:08:19 – The difference between simplicity and complexity

1:11:12 – How he applies his thinking into several different ideas, like Cannabis

1:16:17 – Asking the right question

            1:19:05 – Andy Rachleff Podcast Episode

1:20:19 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Vaughn

Learn More

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My guest this week is Gavin Baker, the founder, and manager of Atreides Management. I met Gavin in the same way I meet many of the most interesting people, on twitter. His focus is on consumer and technology growth investing, which is the topic of our conversation. We discuss many of the largest trends in these sectors, several fascinating investment cases, and also explore the videogame industry in detail—which I found especially interesting. Please enjoy my conversation with Gavin Baker.

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Show Notes

1:16 – (first question) – His unique view on the markets

4:00 – Distilling Apple as a growth investment

6:44 – What is the most important lever for Apple looking forward

9:01 – His view on Intel

11:03 – Most important technological changes that may dictate his investing strategy

16:20 – How do you look at a big idea, like AR, and then apply to an individual business

            18:21 – Fortnite isn't a game, it's a place

            18:26– Fortnite Is the Future, but Probably Not for the Reasons You Think

18:56 – His insight into video games and their ability to control attention

28:36 – How do you invest in the gaming sector

40:06 – Favorite video games

32:07 – Why gaming and customer sector allows him to find Alpha richness

34:17 – Being in the top 1% of knowledge before investing in a company

36:24 – His view on value investing today and, in the future,

41:15 – Increase of regulatory capture 

42:01 – Headwinds to the tech companies today

43:50 – Thoughts on the Chinese internet market and how it impacts US markets

45:36 – How often companies look at China for ideas

46:21 – Role of alternative data in his process

49:36 – Big trends today we should be paying attention to

54:20 – the most interesting company he does not own

58:48 – Advice for new investors

1:00:17 – Non-obvious tech resources - TechMeme

1:00:50 – Favorite sci-fi character

1:01:19 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Learn More

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All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of O'shaughnessy asset management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Clients of O'shaughnessy asset management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. Clients of the podcast guest’s firm may also maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

My guests this week are Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the co-founders of Instagram. I met Kevin and Mike a few months ago over a shared interest in business and investing. I have found them both to be extremely good people who have a rare talent for finding and solving interesting problems. Indeed, problem-solving and jobs-to-be-done is a big part of our conversation. I realized walking into the podcast that Kevin and Mike have a rare set of experiences: having both built and sold an extremely successful product from scratch, but then also operated and scaled inside one of the largest businesses in the world. This means they have unique knowledge to offer just about anyone interested in business and products. We dig into all those lessons here. I am working on hosting more founders and CEOs on the podcast, and can’t think of a better pair to show you why I want to do so. Please enjoy my conversation with Kevin and Mike. 

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Show Notes

1:38 – (first question) – Projects they’ve been working on since leaving Instagram

5:22 – How they can apply what they are learning in machine learning

7:18 – Most interesting experience diving back into data and machine learning

8:42 – How startups compare today to when they founded Instagram

13:23 – Judging founders and whether they know how to use their data effectively

14:26 – The jobs-to-be-done framework

19:14 – Laying out a vision vs solving problems that pop up

25:20 – Developing and sharing the principles of the company with the team

30:48 – Creating a community when it includes almost the entire world

39:03 – The most popular ways people used the platform

41:24 – What was the jobs-to-be-done rational behind the stories feature

44:15 – Interesting things that they saw as Instagram entered the developing world

46:40 – Their thoughts on how Instagram shaped culture and if they focused on those

52:58 – The new waves that they are observing right now

55:11 – How their thinking on leadership and teams changed during their time at Instagram and Facebook

1:03:23 – The pillars of a good business, including humility and confidence

1:06:06 – Focus on growth and distribution in a startup

1:10:01 – How early were they thinking about monetization on this free platform

1:13:43 – How do they think about how they invest their money and allocate resources

1:17:36 – Mentors for Kevin and Mike

1:20:30 – Their passion for learning to fly and the someday/maybe list

1:23:01 – Their interest in coffee

1:26:24 – Advice for everyone else

1:30:00 – Kindest thing anyone has done for them

Learn More

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My guest this week is Daniel Ek, the founder and CEO of Spotify.

In my conversations with Daniel, I’ve found him to be one of the most interesting and thoughtful business leaders in the world. You’ll see what I mean as you listen to our conversation.

We talk about Spotify plenty, but what I so enjoy about Daniel is his way of thinking in systems and frameworks. He is committed to evolution, innovation, and growth for both himself and for Spotify and is on my shortlist of CEOs to emulate.

This was one of my favorite conversations on the podcast, I hope you enjoy it.

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Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Show Notes

1:21 – (first question) – Management lessons from a Dubai chocolate maker

4:54 – Trends shaping the business landscape today: globalization, automation, and digitation

7:51 – How he thinks about the vertical integration of his business and scale

10:37 – Are companies doing a good job adjusting to the changes in the global business landscape

14:44 – How does Spotify view scale moving forward

17:59 – What trends has he seen among creators as a result of the Spotify platform

20:32 – The community benefit that has been created by the platform

23:47 – Intimacy of audio

25:31 – Creating an environment that continues to spur innovation

29:12 – Star vs constellation business strategy

32:21 – Measuring network health

35:12 – Spotify Originals and what his competition in the video market is doing

39:36 – How podcasts play into the growth strategy

43:04 – How did he solve the problem of competing with free

47:21 – Is their strategy repeatable, going after fractured suppliers

49:02 – Role of the CEO in a startup

51:22 – Others who have taught him great business lessons

53:18 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Daniel

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 George Rzepecki, the found and managing partner Raba, an Africa focused investment firm. George is making investments across Africa in early-stage companies. Africa represents a fascinating opportunity: a huge and diverse population and enormous room for per capita GDP growth. We cover all aspects of investing in the continent, including unique potential rewards and risks.

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

1:18 – (first question) – Interest in emerging markets and the tech landscape in Africa

4:57 – Similarities across all of the different metro markets across Africa

8:05 – Why has the continent lagged behind the rest of the world

10:49 – What is the history and landscape of capital in the African continent

13:32 – The market opportunity given the demographics

15:44 – US investment/involvement in Africa

18:06 – Kinds of companies that he likes to invest in

23:26 – Initiatives and investments that could help lift the population out of poverty: finance

29:33 – The public marketplace landscape in Africa

31:49 – Capacity on the private side

34:24 – How the valuation of deals compares to other markets

36:13 – Unique risks in the investments they are making

38:28 – Most exciting trends or changes he is seeing

40:22 – The professional investor environment

43:25 – How to learn more and get involved

            43:49 – China Africa Research Initiative

            44:17 – China Africa Project

            44:38 – Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest today is Chad Cascarilla, the CEO and co-founder of Paxos, which describes itself as a financial technology company “mobilizing assets at the speed of the internet.“ Thanks to more than 20 years of investing and financial services experience, Chad has a unique perspective on integrating blockchain technology with traditional systems. He also has one of my favorite bitcoin origin stories, which we explore. Before Paxos, Charles co-founded institutional asset management complex Cedar Hill Capital Partners in 2005 and its blockchain-focused venture capital subsidiary, Liberty City Ventures (LCV). Our conversation is less about cryptocurrencies and more about the history, current state, and potential future states of our financial system. Please enjoy.

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

1:32 - (First Question) – His work in the finance world before crypto’s

5:12 – Experience navigating the subprime mortgage trend and what it taught him about blockchain

9:59 – The levers that matter in the financial services industry today vs when he first started

14:07 – Open vs closed money in financial services

19:16 – How slowdowns are different in the modern era

23:06 – What would lead to a major winding down of global debt

27:09 – What would be his focus as a traditional investor

29:21 – How he first got involved with bitcoin

            29:47 – Elliott Wave Newsletter

31:53 – His measured view of Bitcoin and living through the volatility of it

            32:03 – Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

35:57 – Allocation of a portfolio which includes crypto

36:54 – His involvement and feelings on gold

37:56 – The formation of Paxos and the problem it exists to solve

41:34 – How Paxos is impacting the space

44:12 – Advantages of a private blockchain

43:59 – What is Pax Gold and how does it work

48:53 – Bad ways and situations to own gold

52:12 – Using a stable coin

56:00 – Biggest problem they are working on now

57:23 – What should people be paying attention to in the crypto currency space

            59:23 – Coindesk Research Archive

59:39 – Has the influx of interest in crypto helped in other spaces

1:02:11 – Other lessons people should learn from his career

1:04:53 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Chad

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest this week is Bill Gurley, general partner at Benchmark Capital. Our conversation is about one specific issue that has popped up as a topic of interest in the investing community in recent months: the comparison between bringing a company public through a traditional IPO vs. what’s known as a direct listing.

As a third party observer with no real dog in the hunt (as we don’t buy IPOs at O’Shaughnessy Asset Management), I thought this was a small and nuanced issue. I’ve therefore been surprised by the strength of opinions on both sides of this issue as I’ve explored it behind the scenes this past week. It feels almost like I’ve encountered a political third rail, where one side throws a lot of vitriol towards the other. 

To be clear, this episode is very much in favor of direct listings instead of traditional IPOs. For those that want a good discussion of the IPO process and its upsides, check out episode 173 of the Exponent podcast with Ben Thompson. 

Now please enjoy my very interesting conversation with Bill Gurley

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Show Notes

1:22 - (First Question) – His view on the IPO process

5:42 – Will now be the turning point for IPO’s

6:40 – The engagement between a new company going public and their counterparty and the IPO process

13:38 – The math of capital costs

18:18 – Banks that underprice the IPO’s

20:45 – The psychology of IPO’s

23:14 – The pop in the IPO and the media

24:54 – The value that shareholders give vs VC’s

25:37 – The Green Shoots

28:17 – The lock-up

31:40 – Direct listings vs IPO’s

            36:07 – Spotify’s CEO Reveals Why He’s Not Doing a Traditional IPO

38:23 – The capital raised in an IPO and diluting the company

40:18 – Privilege access and buy-side firms

43:33 – What will actually lead to changes in the IPO space

44:48 – Why he became so interested in the IPO space

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest this week is Albert Wenger, a managing partner at Union Square Ventures and the author of the book World After Capital.

Albert studied economics at Harvard and earned a PhD in information from technology, but if you’d asked me to guess before looking those up, I’d have guessed that he studied philosophy because of how widely he has thought about the world and the impact of technology.

Our conversation is about how technology is changing the world from an Industrial Age to a knowledge age. We explore how cryptocurrencies, low cost computing, and regulation will impact our future and why the transition may require delicate care.

I loved this conversation because of my obsession with the concept of scarcity. We explore what has been scarce through time and what may be scarce in the future. Albert is one of the most interesting thinkers I’ve come across and was a pleasure to speak with. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

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

World After Capital

Show Notes

2:16 – (First Question) –  Defining what it means to be human

            2:58 – World After Capital

3:56 – Trans-humans vs neo-humans

4:37 – The concept of Qualia

5:25 – Albert’s investment philosophy=

8:27 – How Albert began his exploration into cryptocurrencies

12:59 – Most exciting things blockchains could enable

14:27 – How does Albert view blockchain technology from the view of an venture capital investor

17:00 -  Why Albert thinks that the dominate cryptocurrency of our time may not exist just yet and what he is looking for in protocols that will become the leader in the space

20:16 – What are the central functions that will be important in cryptocurrencies

21:22 -   The state of regulation in the cryptocurrency space

27:37 – What has Albert most excited for the future of blockchain

29:10 – The idea of universal basic income

32:26 – How do you solve the problem of giving money value in a world of universal basic income

35:00 – How scarcity has changed over time

39:01 – Role of financial capital in the last 200 years of civilization

42:39 – Are we as a society only capable of solving problems once they become an immediate threat

44:15 – Explaining the idea of attention as a scarce resource

47:56 – The two key drivers of change; zero marginal cost distribution and universality of computational power

53:13 -  What should we as investors and inventors be focusing on as the new objective function

57:24 – Scariest aspect of this transition into the knowledge age

59:45 – Three basic freedoms we all seek; informational, economic, psychological

1:02:13 – Fermi’s paradox and the scarcity of attention

1:02:56 – How Albert thinks about his own day and wellbeing given all of this information

1:05:01 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Albert

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest this week are Matt Smith and Ian singer of Deep Basin Capital, a hedge fund specializing in the energy sector.

I first met Matt almost 10 years and, in that time, I’ve grown to respect him as much as any investor that I’ve ever met. Now having spent time with Ian, who specializes in oil and gas field exploration companies and the rest of the Deep Basin team, I have similar respect and admiration for all of them.

Deep Basin does almost the exact opposite of what us quants do. In fact, their entire goal is to build a portfolio of mostly idiosyncratic or stock specific risk, the very thing us quants mostly remove from portfolios. Deep Basin positions the portfolio to make a series of carefully constructed bets, long and short, without taking market risk, style-factor risk, or even commodity risk. They use a hybrid fundamental and quantitative process which we explore in detail.  This is definitely another good example of who we are all up against in public markets.

What makes this story unique is that we are investors in Deep Basin’s management company and so have a clear interest in their ongoing success. Listeners know that I want to be as transparent as possible on this podcast so we event spend a little time telling the story about how it all came together a few years ago.

I have learned a ton about investing from my countless hours with this team and hope that this conversation gives you a glimpse into what is happening at the cutting edge of investing in the world of hedge funds.

Please enjoy my conversation with Deep Basin

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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Books Referenced

Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns

Show Notes

2:47 – (First Question) –  Looking at the universe of the energy space that they are focusing on

7:48 – Breaking down the important components and their labels in this space

10:27 – What makes energy companies distinct from the broader market.

12:52 – How the isolate unique value creation

14:58 – Ian’s take on the upstream part of the business where he has spent a lot of time

18:35 – How does Deep Basin use data and what edge do they derive from it.

21:31 – What insight are they looking for from updated well data

23:59 – How do they use combine the business value that they measure with the market price that is being forecasted

            24:40 – Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns

29:34 – How do they build an actual portfolio

31:51 – Their systematic approach to energy investing

37:53 – What are their thoughts about using leverage when making investments in the energy space

40:53 – A look at the changes to the hedge fund industry over the entirety of their careers

45:46 – Defining the culture of Deep Basin

49:15 – The story of how OSAM and the O’Shaughnessy’s came to be investors in the Deep Basin

54:13 – Kindest thing anyone has done for each of them

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest this week is Pat Dorsey, who was the longtime director of equity research at Morningstar, where he specialized in economic moats: sources of sustained competitive advantage that allow a few companies to deliver huge returns over time. Several years ago he left Morningstar to form his own asset management firm, Dorsey asset management, and build a portfolio of companies with wide moats like those he studied at Morningstar. And while moats are critical, equally important is how companies allocate the capital generated--or made possible--by the existence of the moat.  

A special thank you to Brian Bares who introduced me to Pat, and to Will Thorndike--an earlier guest on the show. In the vast majority of conversations you hear on this show, I'm meeting the guest for the first time. I mention this to encourage you to connect me with anyone whose story or way of looking at the world might resonate. Always feel free to contact me with ideas.  

Pat and I begin our discussion with the key differences between the sell side and the buy side, and then discuss all aspects of moats and capital allocation. 

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

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

Show Notes

2:23 – (First question) – Transition from the sell side to the buy side and the biggest surprise 

3:40 – What is a moat 

5:16 – What part of the stock market universe has a moat 

6:57 – Pat’s framework for identifying moat, starting with intangibles 

8:32 – The power of brands 

9:44 – what chance does an upstart have to come in and usurp a well-established brand   

12:24 – Switching costs as part of the framework for identifying a moat 

14:55 – The third component of identifying a moat, network effects, and what businesses should do to effectively build one 

17:29 – Last component, cost advantages/economies of scale 

19:29 – How do you analyze these four components into an investing framework that can be built into an actual strategy 

21:13 – How does Pat think about this from a mis-pricing standpoint 

23:37  – How does Pat incorporate current price of a company in consideration for future returns when pricing a moat 

25:39 – How should a company with a moat operate to protect that characteristic, especially when it comes to their capital allocation 

26:51 – Which characteristic of a moat does Pat find most intriguing 

30:35 – What makes for good and smart capital allocation 

35:58 – What is Pat’s process for identifying the best investment opportunities 

38:38 – What are good economics when looking at a company 

41:03 – If Pat could take any business, but have to swap leadership, what would he choose. 

44:13 – Back to his process of finding investment opportunities 

46:05 – Kindest thing anyone has ever done for Pat

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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Read more at https://investlikethebest.libsyn.com/pat-dorsey-buying-companies-with-economic-moats-invest-like-the-best-ep51#oBGdOp1br4EMtORd.99

My guest this week is Joe McLean, the founder of Intersect Capital, which provides financial advisory services to a variety of clients, including a number of NBA players and other professional athletes. 

What I loved about this conversation was the weaving of sport, coaching, and finance into a cohesive whole. There’s so much to take from this discussion—from the importance of service and low self-orientation to the impact of strict standards for who you work with, to common mistakes we all tend to make with money.

Please enjoy my conversation with Joe McLean.

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

1:18 - (First Question) – His backstory and the combination of athleticism and finance

2:43 – His time in Ireland

3:29 – Moving away from basketball and into finance

6:08 – What the Intersect business is today and his early lessons

7:55 – Most important coach/mentor

8:59 – Where the name Intersect came from

10:22 – Setting high standards early on

12:35 – Biggest mistakes he saw in his early clients

14:04 – Developing his value proposition to clients

14:24 – Michael Kitces Podcast Episode

16:57 – Process when he’s working with a client signing a new athletic contract

19:53 – The concept of a Pro’s Pro and Top 50 Reasons Professional Athletes Remain Wealthy

22:40 – Managing clients’ interest in creating businesses off their brand

24:20 – The role media plays in athletes’ long-term strategies

25:40 – Getting early clients into compliance with his strategy

28:24 – Daily maintenance role he plays with clients

32:24 – What has impressed him most from his young clients

33:36 – What makes for a great coach

34:50 – The meaning of “all in” to Joe

35:54 – His assessment of the financial services industry today

37:32 – Where his value in service came from

39:05 – Longer term vision for his business

40:33 – Unique ways he finds himself helping his clients

43:49 – Watching his client’s mentor the next generation

45:10 – Historical players and teams he personally admires

46:22 – Athletes and venture capital investing

47:38 – Who makes up his trust network

49:09 – What he’s most excited about for the future of the business

49:46 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Joe

50:24 – Biggest impact a coach had on his life

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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This week’s guest is, Zack Kanter, the founder and CEO of the Stedi.  Zack and I decided not to talk much about his business on this podcast and opted instead to explore more generally, so a bit of an introduction to what they do may be helpful here for some extra context. Stedi is a platform for exchanging and automating 300+ types of business-to-business transactions - transactions like purchase orders, invoices, etc. It’s a modern take on an archaic protocol called EDI - electronic data interchange, something I’d never even heard of until several months ago. Learning about EDI is a bit like finding out about the Matrix - every physical object you come across, from the food you ate for breakfast to the clothes you’re wearing and consumer electronics you use - anything with a barcode on it - was likely touched by EDI, often dozens of times before making it into your hands. Stedi is the first update to this messaging later in decades.

Our conversation in this podcast is about business in general, starting with Zack’s fascination with Walmart and Amazon. I should also not that my family is a recent investor in Stedi, and I’m thankful to have learned a great deal from him over the past few months. 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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Show Notes

1:52 - (First Question) – Interest in Walmart and Amazon

            4:02 – Sam Walton: Made In America

4:49 – What from their success can be applied elsewhere

11:07– The idea of tempo with a business

17:17 – Ability for a business to expand laterally

24:33 - Magic of Amazon as a constitution

26:24 – The concept of the OODA loop

            26:40 – Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

31:51 – Orientation within software businesses

            32:24 – The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small

38:03 – Lessons in building software

            38:37– Certain to Win: The Strategy of John Boyd, Applied to Business

41:51 – Setting a common vision for a company

44:14 – Changing the dynamic of teams and how different size teams can accomplish different things

48:00 – How leaders should think about build vs buy

51:07 – The different types of value propositions

53:07 – Utility for companies

57:31 – Concept of network health and the best question from VCs

1:04:04 – Massive projects are less frequent in a world where we can do a lot quickly

            1:04:08 – Wait but Why

1:09:37 – Just in time vs just in case learning framework

1:11:55 – His favorite question

1:13:39 – Why is most commonly heard advice wrong

1:18:06 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Zack

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest this week is Chris Bloomstran, the president and chief investment officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group. He became famous in investing circles a few years back for his incredibly detailed investigations of Berkshire Hathaway. While we do cover Berkshire towards the end of the conversation, we spend most of our time talking about what makes for a quality business. I loved some of his angles on the current landscape, including our discussion of companies like Richemont and Disney which are actively taking distribution back in house. 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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Show Notes

1:18 - (First Question) – Largest investing error

4:52 – Defining quality investor and their investment strategy

11:48 – Incremental return on capital and other themes that they focus on with investments

15:33 – Importance of unique business models

22:58 – Ownership of the customer relationship

28:06 – Bringing distribution back in house

29:55 – Doing something unique with owned distribution

32:40 – His thoughts on growth and value

            32:42 – Chuck Akre podcast episode

37:12 – History of his interest in Berkshire Hathaway and he characterizes the business

53:29 – How is Berkshire protected into the future

59:17 – Most important trends in adjustments

1:08:00 – Which sectors or industries would he focus on

1:10:02 – Most intriguing business he’s unlikely to own

1:11:44 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Learn More

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My guest this week is Brian Christian, the author of two of my favorite recent books: Algorithms to Live By and The Most Human Human. Our conversation covers the present and future of how humans interact with and use computers. Brian’s thoughts on the nature of intelligence and what it means to be human continue to make me think about what works, and life, will be like in the future. 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

1:11 - (First Question) – Summarizing his collection of interests that led to his three books

2:59 – Biggest questions in AI

3:43 – Defining AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and its history

            5:18 – Computing Machinery and Intelligence

7:54 – The idea of the most human human

9:59 – Tactics that have changed the most in learning to be the most human human

16:10 –Tests for measuring AGI and updates made to them

20:12 – Concerns for once we have AGI

26:06 – Self-awareness as a threshold for AGI

31:58 – Skeptics’ take on AGI

37:14 – Advice for people building careers and how AGI will impact work

38:16 – Explore/Exploit trade-off

44:57 – How to explore/exploit applies to business concepts

49:16 – Impacts of AGI on the economy

52:40 – Highlights from his second book

57:39 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Brian

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 

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My guest this week is Eric Sorensen, the CEO of Panagora asset management, which manages more than $46B for clients across a variety of strategies.

Eric began his career serving in the Air Force as both a pilot and instructor in high-performance jet aircraft. He then accumulated 40 years of quantitative research and investment experience, with a Ph.D. along the way.

Please enjoy our conversation on the changing landscape of quantitative investment strategies.

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

1:15 - (First Question) – His background in the Air Force

            1:23 – Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

3:18 – Training people on high-performance machines

4:47 – Traits that made for better pilots

5:51 – The evolution of quantitative equity research and its stages

7:56 – How his research led to becoming a practitioner

9:10 - The early feature sets in his research

10:44 – Tradeoffs in the spectrum of interpretability

12:08 – Early days of his practitioner career

13:24 – Risk Premia and the 5 C’s

14:28 – Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management: Modern Techniques and Applications

17:13 – Applying the 5 C’s to value investing

18:38 – Knowing when a strategy/signal is broken

21:24 – What does this strategy plan mean for his firm today

24:56 – Mixing expert systems and portfolio construction

30:07 – Natural language processing

32:00 – The cultivating the power and creativity to ask good questions

35:13 – The concept of a research graveyard

37:45 – State of risk premia today

40:04 – Active equity process

46:37 – Frontiers of research that he’s excited about

48:53 – Safe havens for non-quantitative investors

52:16– Advice for young quants

54:36 – Quants on the buy-side that he admires

55:41 – 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

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Jane McGonigal, PhD is a world-renowned designer of alternate reality games — or, games that are designed to improve real lives and solve real problems.

She is the Author of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and is the inventor and co-founder of SuperBetter, a game that has helped nearly a million players tackle real-life health challenges such as depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury.

Our conversation is about how to design useful games, how games effect us and our kids, and what the future might hold. Please enjoy.

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

1:22 - (First Question) – Her take on the history of gaming and studying the players themselves

3:44 – Where her passion for gaming really started

4:55 – Her take on flow states

7:47 – Kids and gaming

10:32 – Advice for parents when it comes to the role of games

            11:06 – SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient--Powered by the Science of Games

13:53 – Types of games that develop the right skills for kids

16:20 – Four things all games share in common

            16:23 – Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

20:50 – Her take on Carse’s theory about infinite gaming

            21:04 – Finite and Infinite Games

26:28 – How to understand gaming culture if you’ve never played a game before

28:28 – Amazon and gaming

31:18 – How fun makes anything more enjoyable

34:55 – How game designers calibrate feedback loops

39:14 – The good and bad of gamifying life

45:01 – What is the superbetter app

52:43 - Why powerups and bad guys are so important in games

57:03 – Secret identity

59:04 – Playing with boundaries

1:00:36 – Most worried about in the gaming world, and most exited about

1:07:32 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Jane

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.

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

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

This week I have a very special guest years in the making. Like another favorite episode, with anonymous guest Modest Proposal, this conversation is with one of the stars of the financial twitter universe who writes anonymously and goes by the pseudonym Jesse Livermore. I met Jesse 6 years ago after reading his unbelievably unique investing research, which tackled all the big and interesting issues in markets. He now also works with me as a research partner at OSAM, where’s he’s used our data to continue to his search for truth in markets. Despite being one of the brightest minds I’ve encountered he is also as humble and unassuming as they come. I’m at least a slightly better person because of trying to emulate how he conducts himself. I get to have many conversations with him that go from 0-100 fast, and I’m thrilled to be able to share one of those with you.

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

1:33 - (First Question) – Jesse’s origin story for investing

4:37 – Exploring his ways of problem solving starting with intuitive

            7:53 – David Epstein Podcast Episode

11:46 – Looking at the analytical way of problem solving

15:42 – Statistical inference

24:45 – Should we opt for simplicity in the investment process

25:26 – Does his own investing include all three, intuition, analysis, and statistics

26:09 – The evolution of his research, process, and thinking on various investment factors.

31:38 – Thoughts on inflation and its impact on market valuation

40:05 – The Earnings Mirage

46:25 – Free Cash flow and valuations

50:51 – What should investors take away from this research

53:01 – Thoughts on trend as an interesting market signal

59:00 – The problems with trend

1:00:34 – Post on “The Single Greatest Predictor of Future Stock Market Returns”

1:11:15 – His work into understanding factors

1:15:36 – Looking at momentum

1:18:16 – His curiosity into the current market cycle

1:20:04 – Lessons learned from his time in the military, an effective way to create an environment where people can safely disagree with their co-workers

1:30:10 – The concept of progress in meaningful work

1:33:08 – 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 today is Chuck Akre, a now widely famous investor who founded Akre Capital Management in 1989, which now manages approximately $10B dollars. We discuss his investing style and his “three-legged stool” for evaluating companies. Please enjoy this great 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

1:06 - (First Question) – Advantage of being in Middleburg, Virginia

2:11 – What a day looks like for Chuck

3:06 – Why imagination is more important than knowledge

3:38 – Difference between curiosity and imagination

4:38 – The origins of the Nirvana Three-Legged Stool concept

10:14 – First leg of the stool, Extraordinary business and ROE’s with a focus on Bandag.

14:36 – How his evaluations of value has changed over the last 10-15 years

16:10 – A look at recent businesses that he’s bought and why they are interesting

19:56 – Why they keep things simple

21:35 – Second leg of the stool, the people involved and characteristics of managers he has invested in

23:20 – Role of capital allocation in the people he focuses on

28:03 – Favorite biographies

            28:22 – 100 to 1 in the Stock Market: A Distinguished Security Analyst Tells How to Make More of Your Investment Opportunities

29:34 – Third leg of the stool, reinvestment

21:09 – How does he think about diversifying across an investment area

33:32 – Great businesses wrapped in a bad balance sheet

37:35 – What would cause him to sell

38:52 – What does he look for in people

43:27 – How curiosity has impacted his interest in land conservation

43:51 – Advice for investors, especially younger ones

46:14 – 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