A podcast about investing in people. Every Monday to Friday, I share what I’ve learned from studying people and companies by exploring the link between human performance and investing. With the goal of helping leaders build utopian companies, this podcast documents the pursuit to become a little wiser every day. I’m your host, Daniel Lee. The creator of OMD Ventures.
August 10, 2020: Starting with questioning the basics of small-cap, illiquid companies to Value vs. Growth, diversification and the concept of “moats”, I decided to think through what could actually be true about investing and how looking at companies as cities that develop people could be a pond to fish in. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
August 7, 2020: Learning from a series of episodes from the Tech Buzz China Podcast to learn about Tencent, BABA, Meituan Dianping and Bytedance. Expanding the depth (lack thereof) of my knowledge of the Chinese tech landscape from "1mm to 5cm”. Then, I get some perspective on the Big Tech hearings from Ben Thompson's Stratechery summary. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
August 6, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: It's the one book everyone in the world should read, especially those in positions of power. It will make you live longer, perform better and make society better. Rating On Time Of Review: 10/10. This book should be required reading in every school, and for every adult…. It's a travesty that it isn't. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
August 5, 2020: Learning about the perspective of value and growth investing through James Anderson's 5 part series comparing the teachings of Ben Graham to the philosophy of growth investing he has developed at Baillie Gifford. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
August 3, 2020: Discovering James Anderson, Joint Manager of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust at Baillie Gifford. Looking into the approach of growth investing, margin of potential upside, how following Buffett may have stopped a generation of investors from learning and Growth at an Unreasonable Price. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 30/31: A series of learnings over the last few days. A focus on breadth over depth from personal finance, traveling opportunity for Canadians and finding the real life reference for Nassim Taleb's Fat Tony. Then, a detour to nuclear fusion for investments and a rabbit hole into Chamath's early career to get some perspective for your late-20s and quick looks at Box and Slack. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 29, 2020: Learning from Buffett's and Munger's Q&A on management and culture with snippets on mistakes and businesses. Core to the learnings were their view on compensation, assessing CEOs, and the most important trait in management. All from the Buffett FAQ site that acts as a precursor to the CNBC archive of Berkshire videos. Special thanks to the Focused Compounding podcast for enlightening me to this wonderful site. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 28, 2020: Short learning episode from Tim Ferriss' interview with Brad Feld. Key learnings for me were on the idea of “Topaphillia” in picking a city to live in, perspective on the early part of his career that isn't mentioned in pop-media, difference between a coach and therapist with mentions of Jerry Colonna and the monthly system he uses with his wife and how I think that has a wider application in organizations. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 27, 2020: Thinking through the relationship of management and business model in creating upside potential and downside protection for various businesses, Maria Konnikova's fascinating career and skill/people in poker, and David Epstein on accumulating diverse experiences for a fulfilling career, questioning the ‘grit' research and stories on what makes a successful comic book creator and Nintendo's Gameboy story. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 20, 2020: Learning about, the newly IPO'd insurance company, Lemonade's foray into pet insurance as a possible irrational competitor; Mark Seller's famous ‘07 speech on what makes a ‘Great Investor' (hint: writing is important); a story of Les Schwab Tires and common sense profit sharing. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 17, 2020: A series of learnings from various sources/methods. Learning about the Indonesian e-Commerce landscape and its dominant Tokopedia platform from a conversation, Patagonia and The North Face's founding stories and the power of their brand from the Business Wars podcast and thinking about Intuit's business model after learning Scuttleblurb's article. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 16, 2020: Pulling out nuggets from reading through HEICO's shareholder letters from 2011 - 2019. HEICO's known as a popular “compounder” and “high-performing conglomerate” so the mission was to see if management shared lessons on their decentralized organization structure. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 14/15, 2020: Looking into the company on a mission to unleash the potential of every team. Sharing high level thoughts on the culture, management and business model from shareholder letters and annual reports of Atlassian. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 13, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: As the coach to the CEO/Founder of many world-changing companies, the book can be summarized by the introduction to Bill Campbell's manifesto: People are the foundation of any company's success. The primary job of each manager is to help people be more effective in their job and to grow and develop. Rating On Time Of Review: It's one of the few books that define what I want to do with my life. A one of a kind book 10/10. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 10, 2020: Summarizing learnings from three particular podcast series. First is the organization model of NBA vs. MLB and how a revenue-sharing model where incentives are aligned with stakeholders come to reckoning in times of crisis. Second is a series on WeWork's founder and a look at what life was like in the fast-growth era of the business. Third is a series looking at the battle between Lyft and Uber… looking at the different founding stories, tactics by the founders to build the business and hints at what the cultural difference internally could've been like. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 9, 2020: A day of podcast marathons and two took up significant mindspace for me. One was on learning about bundling from Shishir Mehrotra (Founder of Coda and Product at Youtube) interview on Invest Like The Best podcast. Though I learned a lot about bundling, the big trigger was that he was coached by Bill Campbell. The second was Chamath's interview on the Odd Lots podcast. It's always entertaining to hear Chamath's views but the most insight was on his views on addressing racism and that took me down a rabbit hole reflecting on my own experience. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 8, 2020: First look at Roku (ROKU). Learning about streaming platforms, the business model, market dynamics and my concerns with the business and management. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 7, 2020: High level look at the food delivery market with my ramblings, thoughts from reviewing my notes on Nomad Investment's Nick Sleep, and learnings from Invest Like The Best interview with Charlie Songhurst on his learnings from angel investing in ~500 companies. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 6, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: A thought-provoking book on the value of radical self-inquiry for a person but also the organization he leads, through the coaching and story of the VC turned CEO whisperer. Rating On Time Of Review: A thinker. A reference book for the questions. It needs to be read at the right time, like most books. That'll make the difference of whether it's a 3/10 or a 8/10. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 3, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: The story of an industrial conglomerate in Brazil with a leader using his uncommon sense to create an unconventional workplace that focuses on investing in quality of life for business success. Rating On Time Of Review: Best business book. 10/10. Just study this over and over again. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
July 2, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: The story of an industrial conglomerate in Brazil with a leader using his uncommon sense to create an unconventional workplace that focuses on investing in quality of life for business success. Rating On Time Of Review: Best business book. 10/10. Just study this over and over again. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 30, 2020: First look at Alphabet. Splitting the research into multiple parts. Continuing from yesterday, in this episode I'll look into costs, margins, returns on capital, reinvestment, culture, management and the like. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 29, 2020: First look at Alphabet. Splitting the research into multiple parts. Today I look into some elements that make GOOG "not a conventional company”, how it makes money, customers, and market position of its major product segments. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 26, 2020: An interview with Katie Wyka, Performance Coach at Clio. Learning about Clio's culture/values, Katie's role in talent acceleration as Clio's first in-house coach, the frameworks for coaching, measuring ROI from coaching, building trust and everything to do with developing people. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 24+25, 2020: One-Sentence Summary - A challenging set of essays that genuinely makes you “think” as it outlays the value of independent thought that is so rare in the world. Rating On Time Of Review - It was okay. It's a classic so I'd like to revisit it again in the future. I think there is enough there to warrant a second try. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 23, 2020: Talking through an essay I wrote on "How to Read a Book Every 2 Weeks”. Going over my system currently (my best one yet) and all the past systems that didn't work. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 22, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: A fictional tale that masterfully incorporates various mental models on the singular focus of embarking on the journey to live a life of purpose. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 19, 2020: A narration of incoherent thoughts I had trying to grapple with why ROIC matters, its relationship with valuation (i.e. IRR) and trying to look at margin of safety differently. A revelation of how little I know and how I noodle investing concepts. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 18, 2020: A curiosity-driven adventure took me down the rabbit hole of learning about Peter Diamandis' 29 Laws and Maria Popova's essay on Finding Purpose through 7 fascinating people. This started my annual pilgrimage to Paul Graham's essays digging into various models for Doing What You Love. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 17, 2020: Talking about a position I took that accounted for 40% of my portfolio and one I exited with losing 15% of my net worth. A reflection on how it started, what it was like as a quick post mortem from the 2 years of holding this position. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 16, 2020: A first look at Pinterest, company living on making inspirations come true, and the world of digital advertising. I'm not a Pinterest user. Just putting it out there. Though, I did try using it once and didn't understand what the point of it was. Over time, as I saw the business grow, IPO, and even expand into Toronto… I got curious on how this could be. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 15, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: Probably one of the best books on the psychology of happiness and how we fool ourselves. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 12, 2020: Learnings inspired by listening to Invest Like The Best podcast episodes with Sarah Tavel of Benchmark and Jeff Lawson of Twilio. This took me down the rabbit hole of learning about 100 marketplaces from a16z's article on private/startups and First Round Capital's focused interview with Jeff Lawson on Twilio's values and culture. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 11, 2020: A first pass look at Wix, a cloud-based website design and hosting platform. A company "founded on the belief that the Internet should be accessible to everyone to develop, create and contribute, irrespective of their level of coding skill." Aka, it started out as a DIY website platform for non-tech folks like yours truly. Once again, I use Phil Fisher's 15 point investment checklist as a foundation. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 10, 2020: Learning about Open Source with LEGOs, Illinois Tool Works' decentralized business model, a Canadian box company that rewards cost savings with money, and Benchmark's bottom-up investing approach to venture and using Gall's Law as a model supporting it. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 9, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: An excellent overview of building a framework to achieve peak performance in sports and life through the lens of tennis. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 8, 2020: One-Sentence Summary: It's the book to read when you feel resistance, envy, failure, and anger at the world because the problem is you and all you need is the perspective this book provides. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 5, 2020: A medley of learnings from the Invest Like The Best podcasts' interviews with Ben Thompson of Stratechery and Bill Gurley of Benchmark. Learning about what makes a platform vs. aggregator, the moats that make these businesses thrive, building a media business and mental models for identifying ‘potentially' successful marketplace businesses. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 4, 2020: A first look at Lululemon through its 2019 annual report, proxy statement and articles into the company's culture and history. Once again, I use Phil Fisher's 15-point investment checklist as the foundation and if I were to hint on the verdict…. It's been disappointments on its management for a business I had high hopes for. I still recommend taking a look at the business that brought us athleisure. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 3, 2020: Sharing learnings from Money Compound Fund's 2019 Q3 Letter by Michael Shearn. Michael wrote the Investment Checklist but his investment philosophy has evolved since writing his book and this letter is an amazing checklist for analyzing culture, management and business model for compounders. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 2, 2020: Looking at Workday, the HR & Finance ERP provider, using Phil Fisher's 15 point investment checklist. A first pass of the company from the 2019 annual report, proxy statement, articles on culture and personal anecdotes from my accounting/consulting days. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
June 1, 2020: One-sentence summary on the Art of Learning: Learning bottom-up tactics/strategies for optimal performance from a chess grandmaster turned world champion martial artist Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
May 29, 2020: I spend most of the day learning about calisthenics training and trying to incorporate powerlifting program disciplines into. It resulted in the base version of my first bodyweight strength training program and specific strength/skills goals the program is focused on achieving. Then, the day was spend learning about a unique value investor: Josh Tarsoff of Greenlea Capital Partners. Josh has an investment style that looks at compounders, company culture, mission-driven businesses and a contrarian look at company valuations that I love. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
May 28, 2020: Learning about Spotify's Culture from Corporate Rebel's 2-part report, learning to cold brew coffee at home from Starbucks, external validation on OMD Daily, rethinking about management from the Focused Compounding podcast. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
May 27, 2020: Investment research on Spotify using Phil Fisher's 15 point checklist as a foundation. Information obtained from reading the 2019 annual report and 2019 Q4 shareholder letter. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
May 26, 2020: Research into Atlassian using Phil Fisher's 15 point investment checklist. This was a first-take of the company after reading the 2019 annual report and Q4 2019 shareholder letter. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
May 25, 2020: A hodge podge of learnings on - Rule of 240 from Focused Compounding, Occam's Razor and Charlie Munger, High Inflation Investing from The Investor's Podcast and Focused Compounding, Modest Proposal on Invest like the Best, and Chris Mayer on Meb Faber Show. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
2020-05-22: Today's episode is a conversation with Francois Le Nguyen, General Manager of Entrepreneur First (EF). We start out by learning about EF, how they invest in talent and Frankie's experience launching the program in Canada. We also dig into Frankie's fascinating career starting as a teenage entrepreneur running a web development business before university, to spending six years in product management in Montreal and Singapore, and joining EF in Singapore. Given my fascination with investing in people, we also explore Frankie's experience with identifying talent, how the program helps produce successful teams of co-founders and companies, some characteristics that tie in the successful teams in the past and much more! Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
May 21, 2020: Learnings from writing an investment research report for Morningstar. A financial data platform that's ingrained with a culture of cost-discipline and contrarian attitudes that has a shot of displacing the existing order. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
May 20, 2020: A hodge podge of learnings today. All breadth and no depth. Talking about Constellation's exciting acquisition of Topics starting the spin-off train, Spotify's deal with Joe Rogan breaking my heart (short-term), talking with a friend who owns a coffee shop chain in Toronto, and a key learning/appreciation from Li Lu of Himalaya Capital's 2013 lecture. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
May 19, 2020: Today's conversation is with Ricky Zhang, the Founder of Prince of Travel. I first interviewed Ricky on episode 17 of the Accounted For podcast where we go through his career journey to starting Prince of Travel and I will include the episode link in the show notes at omdventures.com/omddaily. For those of you who aren't familiar, Prince of Travel is the go-to website for Canadians who want to learn about and plan luxury travel and Ricky shares various reviews and tactics to help Canadians achieve their luxury travel goals. In this catch-up conversation, I ask Ricky about the his experience in the travel industry during the COVID era, his journey in 2019 of growing the business, tactics related to running a media company and much more! Please note that this interview was recorded at the end of April and we suffer some sound difficulties due to internet connectivity issues near the end.. something I hope you can forgive me on. Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder Music by icons8.com
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