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My guest today is Emmett Shear, founder and CEO of Twitch. Twitch is the world's leading live streaming platform for gamers, which was acquired by Amazon in 2014. We talk about how Twitch empowers streamers to monetize their audience, the necessity of picking a customer early in a business, and the lessons Emmett learned scaling Twitch from an online reality TV show to a global brand inside Amazon. We also discuss how Twitch has helped create a new language in the internet age with emotes, a topic I am fascinated by. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Emmett Shear.   This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.    This episode is also brought to you by Solo Stove. There's simply no better way to create good moments this holiday season than around a fire with a Solo Stove Bonfire.  Complete with 30-day return policy and a lifetime warranty, the unit is made entirely of stainless steel, and at just 20 pounds, the Solo Stove Bonfire is easy to transport for a perfect evening in the backyard, at the campground, or on the beach. Get $5 off with code Patrick5 before December 31st 2020.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:52) – (First question) – History of interactive entertainment (4:10) – Interactivity from the clubs in Vienna and what he learned from that (5:16) – Origins of Justin.TV and when gaming became the focus for Twitch (8:59) – What he enjoyed about video streaming games early on (10:21) – Interactive experience between creators and community (12:28) – Emotes on twitch and how they came to be (14:45) – Business of emotes and the affiliates (16:27) – How these features are proliferating out on the internet and changing it (17:21) – How far we are in the streamer-influencer phenomenon (20:00) – Building an effective platform for fans (23:07) – Evolution of the just chatting piece of Twitch (24:58) – Favorite parts of Twitch from followers: Chess (26:45) – Running a business within a larger business (28:09) – Most interesting trend in the market today (30:40) – Effective ways for recruiting the team (31:35) – Most curious about what is happening on the internet today (33:06) – Advice from the early days of Twitch             (35:55) – Ira Glass video taste and making things (36:34) – Focus on strategic mission (38:06) – Identifying the customer (40:40) – Starting small (41:45) – Investors focus on potential market size (43:00) – Most common reasons talented people fail (43:47) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guests today are Raju Rishi, Nikita Singareddy, and Jason Black of RRE Ventures. RRE is a New York-based VC firm investing in early-stage start-ups with more than 400 investments over its 25 year history. Raju, Nikita, and Jason focus their time in the world of healthcare investing, a topic I haven't explored much personally or on this show. We discuss the current landscape for healthcare investing, the variety of stakeholders in the healthcare value chain, the opportunities for founders and investors in the space, what excites them most about the future of the space, and the impact COVID has had in shaking up the industry. I hope you enjoy my conversation with the RRE team.    This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.  Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com                                                    Ladder Teams is a modern personal training experience with expertly designed workout plans, 1x1 access to some of the best coaches in the world, and the power of community, all delivered to your phone.  If you’re looking to switch up your fitness routine at home or if you are back at the gym and looking to refresh your training plan Ladder Teams has a program for you. Check out https://ladder.fit/Patrick to download the app and get started.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:34) – (First question) – How the team think about attractive investment concepts (7:13) – The current landscape for healthcare investments (8:53) – Complications in pricing healthcare and where it needs to change             (17:45) – Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know about Health Care Is Wrong (17:55) – The major stakeholders and where the innovation is coming from             (18:22) – The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine Is in Your Hands (24:43) – How Covid is changing the healthcare sector (28:43) – Cutting edge of remote patient monitoring (37:03) – Passive monitoring and future tech of healthcare (39:38) – Improving the clinical trial process (44:54) – Doctors being lost in the shuffle and improving the experience for them (50:20) – Excites them most about the future of the space (56:17) – Kindest thing anyone has done for them   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Nick Kokonas, the co-founder of the 3 of the best restaurants and bars in America - Alinea, Next, and The Aviary as well as the co-founder and CEO of Tock, a comprehensive booking system for restaurants. This was one of my favorite conversations in the history of the show. Nick is a philosophy major turned derivatives trader that is now one of the most well-known names in the restaurant and hospitality industry. We cover so many topics I can’t list them here, but I’ll remember it for why it's so important for a business to really know what it's selling and then actually sell it. Nick also pulls back the curtain on why restaurants and even book publishers can be great businesses if you do them in the right way. I felt like this conversation could have gone on for hours and I hope you enjoy it.   This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.    This episode is also brought to you by Solo Stove. There's simply no better way to create good moments this holiday season than around a fire with a Solo Stove Bonfire.  Complete with 30-day return policy and a lifetime warranty, the unit is made entirely of stainless steel, and at just 20 pounds, the Solo Stove Bonfire is easy to transport for a perfect evening in the backyard, at the campground, or on the beach. Get $5 off with code Patrick5 before December 31st 2020.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (3:02) – (First question) – Why he thinks it’s so important to own something (4:35) – Make decisions that have outcomes (7:00) – His interest in the restaurant business (8:54) – Why restaurants are so tough (12:05) – How their business mindset changed their running of the restaurant (14:35) – Words they would avoid in the restaurant (16:19) – Asking the right questions in the restaurant business (20:40) – Importance in taking the right risks (22:02) – Coming up with innovative strategies for ticketing, selling meals ahead of time, and dynamic pricing (30:08) – Can dynamic pricing be extended to other businesses (31:20) – Origin of Tock (36:17) – Early days of Tock and identifying the right customers/challenges (41:33) – Importance of the first customer (44:22) – The typical restaurant business model (49:23) – Lessons from Tock and the importance of knowing what your selling (53:47) – Lessons from publishing (55:44) – Other aspects of business that people know but do nothing about (1:00:19) – Their response to Covid and lessons learned (1:07:43) – The real impact to the food delivery companies (1:09:24) – How businesses communicate their end processes to their customers (1:14:07) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Niki Scevak, co-founder and partner at Blackbird Ventures. Blackbird is a leading VC firm in Australia and New Zealand and has invested in companies like graphic design platform Canva and autonomous vehicle company Zoox. Our conversation covers the types of wild ideas Blackbird invests in, the landscape of venture and start-ups in Australia and New Zealand, and everything Niki knows about gross margins and customer acquisition. We also introduce a new concept on the show I'm calling Breakdowns, where we dive into a single business, what it does, how it operates, and what makes it tick. I hope you enjoy the conversation.   This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.  Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com   This episode of Invest Like The Best is also sponsored by Assure. Assure is changing the way investors manage private transactions.  With Assure, investors can eliminate nearly all the admin cost of private investment. On top of that, they handle all the backend, legal, taxes, accounting, and compliance. All of it, with a straightforward one-time fee. Learn more and try Assure for yourself at https://www.assure.co/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:39) – (First question) – Defining a wild heart (3:38 – How you identify someone doing their life’s work (4:30) – Defining a wild idea (6:13) – Origin of Blackbird and importance of small teams (7:05) – Investing in companies and not rounds (09:57) – Signs of a good story and storyteller (11:37) – Any places he disagrees with the majority of thinkers in the tech investing space (13:11) – The sleepy firms backing high growth companies (16:02) – The products of an investment firm (18:17) – What he likes to see in a startup after their initial investment and gets him worried (20:21) – Unique characteristics of the New Zealand and Australian markets (23:36) – Trends he’s seeing in companies he’s backed recently (24:46) – Everything he knows about gross margins (25:36) – Range of gross margins in software companies and the quality of the business (27:00) – Lessons on customer acquisition (28:23) – Unique way a company acquired customers early on (29:23) – Customer retention (31:12) – Finding the best product thinkers (32:30) – Question he is trying to answer (34:01) – Lessons from his investing career (35:40) – Business breakdown of Canva (38:36) – How Canva gets to its customers (41:25) – Figuring out the monetization model (44:42) – Canva’s moat (46:08) – Most delightful feature (46:41) – Positive portable lesson from Canva (49:13) – Best way to learn more about the company             (49:24) – How I Built This with Melanie Perkins             (49:27) – This Week in Startups with Melanie Perkins (49:41) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Todd McKinnon, co-founder and CEO of Okta, the leading provider of identity management for enterprises. Todd started Okta in 2009 after realizing that enterprises would need a robust solution for identity management in a world where everything was quickly moving to the cloud and today counts over 7,000 enterprises as customers. Our conversation focuses on how Todd decided to leave Salesforce to start Okta, the painful early years of growing the business, how companies can create and define a new market, the different roles he's had to play as the company grew and went public, and the frameworks he's put in place to continue to innovate and test new things as public business. I hope you enjoy our conversation.  This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.  For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:19) – (First question) – Best slide in his presentation for starting Okta (5:21) – The early days of Okta and what they were trying to do (8:36) – Challenge of building the company from an engineering perspective (10:32) – First version of the Okta product (11:03) – An overview on identify management (13:55) – The major innovation in the early days of the product (16:11) – The early struggles of starting a company (18:49) – Becoming a default mode solution (20:39) – Most interesting ways the company has grown its services (22:10) – Future of platform businesses (24:24) – Expanding into an infrastructure business (25:59) – Important shifts that they are paying attention (28:21) – Future of our digital identity and Okta’s potential role (32:20) – The chapters of Okta’s story so far (35:03) – Challenges they had to overcome in growing the company (37:31) – Recruiting the right talent and fostering it early on (39:12) – Biggest mistakes he’s made with the business (41:06) – Benefits of extreme focus vs having a broader view of the problems (43:35) – Innovating within Okta (46:02) – How software businesses define cost of revenue and cost of goods (48:23) – Lessons they’ve learned about selling the services of a small company into the largest company (49:54) – Lessons from working with bad clients/customers (51:06) – Their inside view into the future of business today             (51:10) – Jeff Lawson podcast Episode (52:36) – Best way to maintain the growth of Okta over the long term (53:30) – Lessons he would give to business students today (54:51) – Being scared as a founder (55:27) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guests today are Jason Karp and Rohan Oza. Jason is the founder and CEO of HumanCo, a holding company focused on building businesses that help people live healthier lives. Jason formerly ran the hedge fund Tourbillon Capital and was an audience favorite when he was on the podcast several years ago. Rohan is the co-founder of CAVU Venture Partners, one of the fastest-growing venture funds in the CPG space. Before Cavu, Rohan focused on supercharging brands like Vitaminwater and Smartwater at Glaceau which was acquired by Coca Cola for over $4b dollars. You may also recognize his name as a recurring Shark on ABC's Shark Tank. Our conversation covers how to think about investing in brands, what makes for a great brand, how partnerships with influencers and celebrities can turbocharger a brand,  how brand ultimately gives you pricing power, and how Rohan and Jason try to add, in their words, sizzle, to the brands they work with. I really enjoyed this conversation with two of the smartest people I know on brands and brand strategy and hope you will too.    This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.  Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com   Ladder Teams is a modern personal training experience with expertly designed workout plans, 1x1 access to some of the best coaches in the world, and the power of community, all delivered to your phone.  If you’re looking to switch up your fitness routine at home or if you are back at the gym and looking to refresh your training plan Ladder Teams has a program for you. Check out https://ladder.fit/ to download the app and get started.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:58) – (First question) – Exploring the early part of Rohan’s career with Mars (4:53) – First time changing a brand’s image (6:40) – Jason’s transition since his last appearance on the podcast (9:47) – What parts of a brand excite Rohan as an investor (11:33) – The marketing machine once you find a brand (13:13) – Options in the retail strategy (19:07) – Biggest errors early in a brands lifecycle (21:04) – The shift where consumers care more about the makeup of a product than just the brand (26:20) – Finding the fanatical few in the early part of a brands lifecycle (31:03) – How the role of celebrity has changed in shaping brands (33:01) – The importance of how a brand makes consumers feel (36:15) – Will distribution drive market changes in the future (38:17) – Driving revenue multiples for products (48:33) – Categories in health and wellness ripe for disruption (52:20) – How scalable health and wellness brands are as public companies (55:00) – Challenges that older brands have in today’s environment (56:46) – Kindest thing anyone has done for Rohan   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest this week is John Chambers. John was the CEO of Cisco from 1995 to 2015 where he helped grow Cisco from $70 million to $40 billion in annual revenue. In this conversation we discuss the best business lesson he learned from long time GE CEO Jack Welch, his key lessons from acquiring over 180 companies with Cisco, pattern recognition and playbooks, capitalizing on market transitions enabled by new technologies, the value of team offsites, and a lot more. I was immediately drawn into John's magnetic personality and it's easy to see how he was so adept at running a 40,000 person company for 2 decades. I hope you enjoy this great conversation with John Chambers. This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.   This episode is also sponsored by Vanta.  Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:04) – (First question) – Why companies need a near death experience (6:37) – The way his leadership changed between 1999 and 2003 (11:34) – His career before and leading to his time joining Cisco (17:51) – What Cisco was like when he joined (21:02) – Role that pattern recognition plays in his management (24:16) – Lessons learned from the spate of acquisitions they took on under his tenure (30:46) – Pricing deals and using Cisco’s scale to be successful (33:09) – Lessons he learned in terms of distribution (35:10) – What he learned from his relationship with Shimon Peres (42:08) – His role in helping young entrepreneurs (46:00) – Transformation on his team building trips to Alaska (50:42) – Transitions in the world he is focused on right now (52:542) – Kindest thing anyone has done for John   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest this week is Anu Hariharan. Anu is a partner at Y-Combinator's Continuity Fund where she focuses on growth investing. Before YC, Anu was an Investment Partner at Andreesen Horowitz where she worked with portfolio companies Airbnb, Instacart, Medium and Udacity. In this conversation, we discuss growth stage businesses and their business models, how her background as an engineer impacts her investing style, the most interesting international markets for tech start-ups, and how much opportunity there still is for investing in tech and e-commerce startups. This conversation left me thinking about how much digital transformation there still is in front us and the exciting opportunities ahead. Enjoy this great conversation with Anu Hariharan.    This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.  Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com    This episode of Invest Like The Best is also sponsored by Assure. Assure is changing the way investors manage private transactions.  With Assure, investors can eliminate nearly all the admin cost of private investment. On top of that, they handle all the backend, legal, taxes, accounting, and compliance. All of it, with a straightforward one-time fee. Learn more and try Assure for yourself at https://www.assure.co/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:45) – (First question) – How she thinks about growth stage businesses through their business models (5:00) – Her views on the winner-take-all business goal (9:53) – How to prioritize the stakeholders when building a network business (12:19) – Priorities in growth stage businesses vs those seeking Series A funding (18:25) – Most interesting international markets (21:44) – Risks in investing in international tech startups (24:54) – Assessing a hardware-based tech company vs software business (30:22) – How her background as an engineer impacts her investing style (36:11) – Lessons from the various growth strategies she’s observed (40:05) – How valuation impacts the company and her decision to invest (45:45) – How far along are we into the global digital transformation and what opportunity is left (48:15) – Sectors that are still primed for more digital transformation (52:50) – How the tech investing landscape has changed during her career (57:45) – Kindest thing anyone has done for her   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Laura Behrens Wu, co-founder and CEO of Shippo. Shippo started in 2014 after Laura realized with her own e-commerce start-up that shipping was an incredibly difficult task for most merchants, so she set out to fix the problem for everyone. Shippo let's merchants small and large use its dashboard or APIs to simplify the shipping and tracking process. Our conversation focuses on Laura's background prior to Shippo, how Shippo's business and business strategy have evolved, the inherent challenges of building a shipping platform, and the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. I hope you enjoy our wide-ranging conversation.   This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.    This episode is also sponsored by Vanta.  Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:57) – (First question) – The story of Popout and how it led to Shippo (7:40) – Challenge of working in a huge and crowded market (10:36) – How Shippo changed shipping for small businesses (12:30) – First big break in their favor (13:39) – Their master account with the major shipping companies (14:39) – Why is the shipping industry so complex (16:25) – Most painful part of building Shippo (18:20) – Advice for people in early company building (19:26) – Pricing software in early days (20:32) – The early days of Shippo and getting it to where it is today (23:17) – Going to market and targeting new customers when they’re mostly small businesses (25:48) – Partnering with a larger company, in their case Shopify (27:52) – How they think about their long-term planning (30:48) – Competing in a world where companies can own their own infrastructure (32:39) – How often they think about other competitive advantages (34:20) – Worst question an investor asked her: what if Amazon tries to copy them (35:17) – Her superpowers as a founder (36:41) – API vs dashboard and the difference in their customer bases (38:52) – What businesses that need shipping today need to know (40:14) – Changes in how businesses are being built today (41:28) – What excites her most about the future of this business (43:28) – Kindest thing anyone has done for her   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guests today are Rich Barton and Brad Gerstner. Brad is the founder of Altimeter Capital and is one of my favorite active investors. Brad and Altimeter were one of the largest investors in Snowflake in its earlier days and continue to invest in iconic modern businesses with an extreme focus. Rich has one of the most impressive resumes in the business world. He founded Expedia, Glassdoor, and Zillow; He’s a longtime Netflix board member, since before they went public; he’s a venture partner at Benchmark Capital; and he give back through the Barton family foundation. Our conversation covers Rich’s “power to the people,” strategy, Brad and Rich’s perspectives on taking companies public through SPACs vs. IPOs, and their perspectives on how to build a great company. This one is so fun, we even discuss how to come up with company names, talk about the importance Wizard of Oz, and explore the importance of big hairy audacious goals. I really enjoyed this conversation with two of the smartest people I know, and I hope you will too.   This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.  Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com   This episode of Invest Like The Best is also sponsored by Assure. Assure is changing the way investors manage private transactions. With Assure, investors can eliminate nearly all the admin cost of private investment. On top of that, they handle all the backend, legal, taxes, accounting, and compliance. All of it, with a straightforward one-time fee. Learn more and try Assure for yourself at https://www.assure.co/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:59) – (First question) – How Brad and Rich met (5:57) – The instant click between them (7:21) – The power to the people perspective             (7:29) – Brad Gerstner Podcast Episode (10:21) – Delivering information to consumers (11:31) – The investing perception of data-delivery businesses (13:54) – How they use SPACs (17:38) – How entrepreneurs view SPACs (20:17) – Lessons from their involvement in Altimeter Growth Corp (23:57) – Defining value add investor in the public and private markets (26:36) – The Wizard of OZ and Pygmalions (30:41) – Leadership mold at businesses and big audacious goals             (30:44) – No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention (36:05) – Frank Slootman’s leadership style             (36:12) – Amp It Up             (46:13) – TAPE SUCKS: Inside Data Domain, A Silicon Valley Growth Story (38:11) – Courage in leadership (41:33) – Physical businesses vs digital only businesses (43:34) – Getting companies fit (45:39) – Lessons around talent density (48:28) – State of the world and markets today since the inception of the pandemic (53:46) – Making up words for companies and fertile ground (56:45) – Go to market model vs business model (58:50) – Early days of product market sales (1:03:03) – Advice to early investors and entrepreneurs for the future of their careers (1:08:10) – The board challenge (1:12:06) – What question are they working hard to answer right now (1:16:09) – Kindest thing anyone has done for Rich   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Jason Citron, founder and CEO of Discord. Discord is one of the largest and fastest growing social networks in the world. It started as a place for gamers to congregate online, but thanks to how easy it makes it to create a community of any type and its offering of text, audio, and video as means of communication, it has expanded far beyond gaming. It has the potential to become the default digital “third place” that we go to find belonging in a variety of online communities. With over 100 million users, it’s also one of the most interesting communications service businesses since the original social networks rose to power. Our conversation focuses on his background prior to Discord, Discord’s founding and growth, its business model and how it has evolved over the past 8 years, and what the future holds for Discord. As we talked, I had this sense that I’d be willing to go work for Jason, and I think you’ll see why. I hope you enjoy our wide ranging conversation.   This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.    This episode is also sponsored by Vanta.  Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (3:17) – (First question) – Lessons from his time as a video game developer (7:58) – Going from game developer to game development platform (12:23) – From his first startup to Discord (16:33) – Expressing the hypothesis of discord (20:10) – How to know what signal to build upon (22:11) – Early adoption of Discord (26:17) – Getting the word out about Discord in the early days (30:43) – Creating more than just a platform, but creating a third place for people to congregate             (32:38) – The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (32:55) – The evolution and expansion of the types of community using their platform (37:27) – Discord’s business model and how it’s evolved (41:32) – Enhancing communication through Nitro (45:05) – Big principles for company building at Discord (51:22) – His thoughts around competitive advantage for the platform (52:55) – Creating a holistic experience for the users (55:45) – What bothers him the most when hiring (57:47) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guests today are Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. Ben and David are investors but also the duo behind the Acquired podcast, which is one of my favorite podcasts that dives deep into business history and famous acquisitions. I recommend you check it out. In this conversation, we review of some of the greatest corporate acquisitions of all time and also discuss investing lessons Ben and David have learned across their careers. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Ben and David.   This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest growing fintech startups. I discovered Koyfin earlier this year when I asked twitter for the best Bloomberg alternative, and the overwhelming winner was an intriguing new product called Koyfin.  Koyfin has tons of high-quality data, powerful functionality, and a nice clean interface. If you’re an individual investor, research analyst, portfolio manager, or financial advisor, you should definitely check them out. Sign up for free at koyfin.com   This episode of Invest Like The Best is also sponsored by Assure. Assure is changing the way investors manage private transactions.  With Assure, investors can eliminate nearly all the admin cost of private investment. On top of that, they handle all the backend, legal, taxes, accounting, and compliance. All of it, with a straightforward one-time fee. Learn more and try Assure for yourself at https://www.assure.co/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:29) – (First question) – What they look for in new founders based on more experienced managers they’ve worked with (5:07) – Difference between emerging vs legacy market (9:17) – Research steps to determine if a market can get big enough to invest in (12:08) – Working with other firms for doing an initial investment round (15:42) – Recent trends in the supply of capital and number of founders in the VC space (18:56) – Lessons they have learned studying corporate transactions (24:13) – How do startups transform once they are acquired to increase their multiples so much (28:10) – What they learned from deliberations that take place within the acquiring company (30:39) – Most interesting deal for them to unpack (32:44) – What are features of a business that is difficult for others to replicate (35:52) – Any company that are intimidated to go up against (37:37) – Who would they follow             (38:52) – Blake Robbins Podcast Episode (39:09) – Missing pieces in their skill set (41:43) – Early green shoots (44:40) – Lessons from Alaska Airlines acquisition and the value of scarcity (47:07) – Kindest thing anyone has done for them   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Leore Avidar. Leore is the co-founder and CEO of Lob, a company which makes it easy to send direct mail programmatically. He’s also the founder of a new company focusing on sports card collectibles, Alt, which is how we originally connected. Our conversation ranges from building Lob, buying a Lebron James rookie card, starting a 2nd business while operating his first and how Leore tries to create and sell superpowers. Like my conversation with Rahul Vohra from Superhuman, I think this conversation will inspire entrepreneurs out there to start building aggressively. Please enjoy.   This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.    This episode is also sponsored by Vanta.  Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:55) – (First question) – Origin of Lob (6:14) – Creating and selling superpowers to other people and its value proposition (7:23) – Defining an API in his words (8:44) – Early breaks for Lob (10:45) – Early lessons in responsible growth (12:19) – Physical infrastructure behind Lob (14:14) – Surprises in mail delivery (15:00) – Progression through their pricing models (18:10) – Leaders in the world of making the world programmable (19:07) – Their interest in the physical world (19:45) – Hardest part of scaling a physical business (21:09) – Building a culture that keeps people around (23:13) – Why he is fascinated by negotiations and what he’s learned from it (25:20) – Scarcity, time, and leverage impact’s on negotiations (26:35) – His interest in collectibles and the formation of Alt (30:18) – Size of the alternative market he focuses on (30:54) – The focus on cards (32:18) – An overview of collectible cards industry (33:19) – What is the API of card collection and trading (35:51) – Competitors in the space (37:19) – Buying a Lebron James card (38:21) – Building a fund around the collectibles and the strategy (39:45) – What it means to be a technology company (40:23) – Collectibles beyond sports (41:30) – Defining a good investor             (43:32) – Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts (43:43) – Qualities he looks for in investors (45:03) – What does the collectible universe look like over the next 5-7 years (45:43) – Cultural value of assets (48:50) – Managing his time while launching two businesses (49:51) – What he’s most excited about over the next 6 months (51:45) – Consolidation of API businesses (52:19) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Jacqueline Novogratz. Jacqueline is the founder and CEO of Acumen, a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of poverty.  Our conversation touches on how Jacqueline left Wall Street and ended up starting a micro finance bank in Rwanda, how she thinks about investing in character, how creating dignity plays such a major role in her investments, and how governments and businesses can work together to solve the world's toughest problems. It is a bit of a departure from my normal investing conversations but contains powerful lessons for many investors and builders. I really enjoyed our conversation and hope you will to.    This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:29) – (First question) – Where the concept of the blue sweater came from for her book.             (2:44) - The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World (4:29) – Every child has a humiliated experience and the impact on their life (6:55) – The origin of Acumen (10:42) – Why character is such an important investing filter for her (11:59) – How the markets have changed through the lens of Acumen (16:59) – The challenges of getting started             (17:04) – Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World (19:46) – Embracing the idea of being uncomfortable and an example for her (21:50) – The space between government action and market action (26:11) – The concept of conformity traps (29:29) – The lens of moral imagination (30:32) – The importance of brining dignity to others (35:09) – Entrepreneurial skills she sees outside of the US that we lack here (39:38) – Biggest problems across the globe she is interested in tackling (42:48) – Impediments to investing in global problems (49:11) – Kindest thing anyone has done for her   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Justin Singer, the founder and CEO of Caliper Foods and Stillwater Brands, two leading companies in the cannabis industry. We start our conversation with a fascinating discussion on how regulation creates or destroys business and investing opportunities, and then go on to discuss the ins and outs of the cannabis industry in detail. You’ll be able to tell quickly how high-quality Justin is as a thinker and operator, and you’ll learn a ton about this nascent business. Please enjoy our conversation.   This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.    This episode is also sponsored by Vanta.  Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  Show Notes (2:51) – (First question) – How changes in regulation create market opportunities (5:38) – Why VC’s need to pay attention to regulatory changes (6:50) – Story of Section 230 of the communication decency act (8:54) – Relationships between rules, laws, and free markets (11:56) – How regulatory changes impacted recent business ventures (13:30) – His initial interest in the cannabis space (17:28) – How the industry participants have changed over time (21:04) – An overview of the cannabis industry and different pieces of the chain (25:51) – What has led to delays in the legalization of the marijuana industry (28:52) – How the dosage of the product impacts the business (31:34) – CBD vs THC industry differences (32:53) – How much of this industry is left to be unlocked and potential timing (35:55) – Business and investing opportunities in the space (38:16) – Competitive frontier in cannabis (40:37) – The timeline and pending changes coming (43:03) – Margins and business factors of his business (45:51) – First big break for the business (49:47) – What he learned working under Tim Wu (50:34) – Why we are in the golden error for fraud (52:11) – Avoiding fraud (55:12) – What he wants to learn more about in the cannabis space (56:50) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Jesse Livermore. I’ve worked with Jesse as part of our research partners program at O’Shaughnessy Asset Management for years now. Whenever there is a huge, important, and complex issue to be studied, I believe he’s among the best minds in the world to tackle it. He did that recently on the topic of what he calls “upside down markets,” which is the topic of this conversation. We seek to answer the simple question: against a horrible economic backdrop, how can the stock market be near all-time highs? Jesse explains in detail the impact that fiscal policy has had on the market and may have in the future. Please enjoy this master class in upside down markets.   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:29) – (First question) – What is Upside Down Markets (5:44) – Overview on monetary easing and the fed’s role in the markets (9:42) – Why fiscal policy is such an important lever and the impact it has on the economy (15:07) – The impact of stimulus on public companies’ fundamentals (19:25) – The mix of assets in the market due to stimulus (22:13) – What made 1929 so different to how we are reacting today (26:14) – Negative concerns: too much money in the system and the risk of inflation (32:43) – Will the pendulum swing back to labor and higher wages (37:23) – How these changes could impact specific companies or sectors differently (41:34) – How he is applying all of this to his personal investment philosophy (44:25) – Biggest risks still out there (49:51) – Most interesting gap in his knowledge putting together this piece   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

Today’s episode represents a new chapter for Invest Like the Best, so requires a longer introduction than normal. Starting today, I’ll be bringing you two episodes per week on the same feed. On Tuesday’s, I’ll focus on investors, and on Thursday’s, I’ll host builders—founders, CEOs, and operators from all different fields. We call this new Thursday series Founder’s Field Guide. There’s nothing more interesting to me than how great businesses get build, and how investors can identify those businesses at the right time. We’ve already recorded with founders build companies in food, technology, infrastructure, shipping, collectibles, and many more categories. The goal each weak will be to have a builder share what they’ve done, how they’ve done it, and what they’ve learned along the way. We view this as a critical next step in furthering our mission: to capture and openly share the world’s best knowledge on business and investing. Onto the kickoff episode with Rahul Vohra. Rahul is the Founder & CEO of Superhuman, an extremely popular product for managing email. Rahul describes himself as a Computer Scientist, Gamer, Entrepreneur, and Designer. You’ll see quickly why it’s the intersection of these areas that sets Superhuman apart. We discuss why emotion matters when building products, and how other entrepreneurs can learn from his experience. Please enjoy the very first episode of Founder’s Field Guide, and stay tuned in future weeks as we host leaders from Nike, Cisco, Twitch, and so many more…listen in as we explore the world of cannabis, baking (not that kind), manufacturing, hardware, software, and more. Let’s dive in.   This episode is brought to you by Microsoft for Startups. Microsoft for Startups is a global program dedicated to helping “enterprise-ready” B2B startups successfully scale their companies. If you’re a founder running a B2B company targeting the enterprise, you should definitely check them out.    This episode is also sponsored by Vanta.  Vanta has built software that makes it easier to both get and maintain your SOC 2 report, at a fraction of the normal cost. Founders Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (3:56) – (First question) – His interest in game design and emotion in software creation (5:15) – Key elements of game design (6:23) – Toys in digital software creation (8:48) – Finding success in boring software solutions (11:19) – Getting confidence while building when there are no real customers (14:08) – How they landed on their final product             (15:40) – The Superhuman Product/Market Fit Engine (20:46) – Determining software price             (21:55) – Positioning Your Startup is Vital — Here’s How to Nail It             (23:09) – Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind             (24:13) – Monetizing Innovation: How Smart Companies Design the Product Around the Price (26:36) – First big break for the business (29:04) – How technology companies actually grow (32:15) – Branding a software (33:57) – How he evaluates a company brand as an investor (36:07) – Questions to ask founders when considering an investment (37:35) – How the distribution of Superhuman worked so well (41:25) – Most common question asked by VC’s about Superhuman (43:00) – Why they do manual onboarding of customers             (43:05) – Daniel Ek Podcast Episode (45:10) – Cost structure of a busines looking to reach the billion-dollar valuation (47:18) – Designing for flow in software business (51:21) – His design philosophy and their joy formula   (58:03) – His superpower (1:00:46) – The power of therapy (1:02:50) – Why he invests in other companies (1:05:05) – Trends in the technology space that have him excited (1:07:28) – The future for Superhuman (1:10:26) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him     Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Today’s most successful investors need to be more comfortable with uncertaintyWhile some investors saw uncertainty in new business models, others had a qualitative insight that allowed them to take the riskIt’s important to be willing to look at investments that look sillyEarly on, few people understood what Airbnb could have becomeIt’s about having the ability to put all your preconceptions aside and ask “why are all these users here?”Step 1 to Building a Big BusinessRemove friction from a process many consumers deal with every dayThe Scarce Asset in the Digital World is Distribution“Acquiring and maintaining an audience is extraordinarily difficult and expensive” Modest ProposalSecond-order effects of COVID-19 on E-CommerceOffline retailers who were not investing heavily in online are forced to do soCost of acquiring customers will increase dramaticallyIf you want to understand heterogeneous marketplaces you have to start with eBayModest is interested in businesses that have high demand, but that are still viewed as silly Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgBefore getting to this week’s guest, an announcement: starting Thursday we will be introducing a new series of interviews. Be sure to check this same podcast feed in two days to learn more. My guest this week goes by the pseudonym Modest Proposal. He’s both a close friend, and one of the most respected thinkers on financial twitter. I field more inbound questions about him than just about anyone, and you’ll see why in this episode. We discuss many of the biggest themes in today’s stock market, from consumer to technology to marketplace and local home services. As always, Modest brings specific insight and general frameworks to the discussion. I talk to him as often as I can because I learn something new every time, and this discussion was no exception. Please enjoy my conversation with Modest Proposal.   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:37) – (First question) – How investing is about underwriting the future (5:42) – Essential tools to underwrite the future             (7:59) – Michael Mauboussin base rate book (9:02) – Increasing returns to scale as the most important tool (11:36) – Example of silly investments (14:00) – Ideas of consumer signal and non-linear beahvior (16:30) – Why he was blown away by ibuyer.com (19:08) – How businesses are targeting facilitating transactions (23:11) – Ecommerce and digital penetration in business             (25:42) – Gavin Baker podcast episode             (26:00) – Modest proposal last podcast appearance (27:56) – His thoughts on the extinction of so many businesses as a result of the pandemic (32:26) – Chart tracking Product to service against homogeneous to heterogenous             (33:41) – The Perfect Store             (33:49) – eBoys (43:51) – Other features of business that fascinate him (46:29) – Ideas that pique his interest right now (51:20) – Case study: IAC/InterActiveCorp (59:36) – Barry Diller’s superpowers (1:01:17) – Why he’s spent so much time exploring IAC/InterActiveCorp (1:02:56) – Related companies to explore Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

Before getting to this week’s guest, an announcement: starting Thursday we will be introducing a new series of interviews. Be sure to check this same podcast feed in two days to learn more. My guest this week goes by the pseudonym Modest Proposal. He’s both a close friend, and one of the most respected thinkers on financial twitter. I field more inbound questions about him than just about anyone, and you’ll see why in this episode. We discuss many of the biggest themes in today’s stock market, from consumer to technology to marketplace and local home services. As always, Modest brings specific insight and general frameworks to the discussion. I talk to him as often as I can because I learn something new every time, and this discussion was no exception. Please enjoy my conversation with Modest Proposal.   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:37) – (First question) – How investing is about underwriting the future (5:42) – Essential tools to underwrite the future             (7:59) – Michael Mauboussin base rate book (9:02) – Increasing returns to scale as the most important tool (11:36) – Example of silly investments (14:00) – Ideas of consumer signal and non-linear beahvior (16:30) – Why he was blown away by ibuyer.com (19:08) – How businesses are targeting facilitating transactions (23:11) – Ecommerce and digital penetration in business             (25:42) – Gavin Baker podcast episode             (26:00) – Modest proposal last podcast appearance (27:56) – His thoughts on the extinction of so many businesses as a result of the pandemic (32:26) – Chart tracking Product to service against homogeneous to heterogenous             (33:41) – The Perfect Store             (33:49) – eBoys (43:51) – Other features of business that fascinate him (46:29) – Ideas that pique his interest right now (51:20) – Case study: IAC/InterActiveCorp (59:36) – Barry Diller’s superpowers (1:01:17) – Why he’s spent so much time exploring IAC/InterActiveCorp (1:02:56) – Related companies to explore Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest this week is Lauren Taylor Wolfe. Lauren is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Impactive Capital. Prior to founding Impactive she spent 10 years at Blue Harbour Group, a $3 billion activist investment firm. Our conversation is on the modernization of the activist investor playbook—how investors engage with companies to make them better and improve long term outcomes. We discuss the entire activist toolkit, focuses on what has changed the most in recent years. I’m also very excited to announce a new initiative. After years of building, operating, and investing in software, we are launching Positive Sum, a new early stage equity investing firm. You can read a bit more at positivesumadvisors.com. Now, please enjoy my conversation with Lauren Taylor Wolfe.   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:31) – (First question) – Her background and how she landed at Impactive Capital (6:25) – Impactive’s strategy vs the stereotype of the activist investor (10:55) – Potential candidates for what they do (13:26) – How they view the small cap tech world as the space is dominated by huge companies (15:24)  - How capital allocation has evolved over her career             (15:30) - The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success (17:38) – Best capital allocation strategies and mistakes that most companies make (18:48) – The levers activists pull: cap structure; capital allocation and operating structure (22:00) – Major lessons from earlier in her career (23:25) – Major changes in Governance as part of the ESG strategy (26:13) – The issue of dual-class in the space (27:35) – Features of a pristine healthy board (28:40) – Board’s role setting incentives and objectives for management (29:55) – How she thinks about the E&S in ESG and how it helps shareholders (32:56) – Applying her strategy in a real-world example (37:40) – What they look for in a business when it comes to sum of the parts (40:29) – Businesses that are misunderstood and what she looks for in that category (41:39) – How she manages relationships with the boards (45:11) – What she has learned transitioning business models (47:08) – The rise of employee activism (50:02) – What she’s seeing in terms of diversity and inclusion in board rooms and C-Suites (53:32) – Best practices and ways to disrupt hiring (57:48) – Something she doesn’t understand well today that she wishes she did (58:59) – Kindest thing anyone has done for her   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest today is Rory Sutherland. Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Group, which is one of the largest and most renowned advertising agencies in the world. He’s also the author of one of my favorite recent books called Alchemy: The surprising power of ideas that don’t make sense. In this conversation, we explore many of his counterintuitive ideas about business. Rory makes you think as much as anyone, so I hope you enjoy this conversation.   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:12) – (First question) – Why spreadsheets and logic kill magic (5:42) – What a product/service is vs how it’s delivered and makes people feel (regular moonshot vs psychological moonshot) (13:22) – Psychological anomalies - doing things faster, better, cheaper (Red Bull vs Coke) (19:54) – Swiss army knife that companies should avoid (22:50) – Don’t design for average (24:39) – How do people approach improving their business through marketing (27:30) – Case for direct mail (29:22) – Turning your weaknesses into a strength (34:29) – The seven deadly sins and how useful they are as guideposts (37:38) – Most powerful sin for marketing (39:14) – Reaching intelligent answers from dumb questions (43:25) – Why the opposite of a good idea can sometimes be a good idea (47:30) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Founders are more concerned about making a positive impact today than in the pastWhat Michael Seibel looks for in YC applicantsThe team’s ability to build and launch the first version of the productEvidence of forward-motionEvidence of a strong relationship between co-founders“The beautiful thing about founders is their ability to lie to themselves, and the number one thing they lie about is whether they have product-market fit. The great founders, limit the amount they lie” – Michael SeibelYC’s secret sauce is the batch, not the adviceWhen you put a startup founder in a batch of people pushing really hard, he’s going to accomplish more than he ever thoughtIn startups, it’s far more important to focus on customers’ interactions that investors’ relations. Proof that you are solving a real customer’s problem gives you enormous leverage with investorsRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMy guest this week is Michael Seibel. Michael is a Partner at Y Combinator, and the CEO of YC's startup accelerator. He was the cofounder and CEO Justin.tv, which eventually became Twitch, and Socialcam. In this conversation, we discuss all Michael has learned reviewing thousands of applications to YC, interviewing countless new entrepreneurs, and watch young companies begin to grow and, occasionally, find product market fit. Listeners will also enjoy when Michael traps me big time in my thinking about AirBnb and his framework for great problems to solve. Enjoy this great conversation with Michael Seibel   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:22) – (First question) – Emerging trends among founders (6:00) – The long-term impact of Covid on business (7:16) – What an application to YC looks like and what stands out for him (11:46) – What he wants to learn in the interviews (13:54) – Poise in the interviews (15:40) – How the YC experience has evolved and improvements they’ve made (18:38) – How he defines technology             (18:50) – Every Company is Becoming a Software Company (21:12) – His thoughts on non-software companies and how they play into what YC does (23:48) – Why frequency and intensity of the problem matter to him (28:32) – Serving the supplier and building the demand (30:38) – Bravery in founders (36:07) – Partnerships and collaboration in venture capital investing (37:58) – Second time founders focus on distribution (39:23) – Coaching the psychological component of being a founder (44:16) – Learning as a founder vs the education system (46:08) – Customer vs investor focus of founders’ mindset (48:16) – How teams know they are really onto something (52:38) – His being a founder trainable or innate (54:08) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Founders are more concerned about making a positive impact today than in the pastWhat Michael Seibel looks for in YC applicantsThe team’s ability to build and launch the first version of the productEvidence of forward-motionEvidence of a strong relationship between co-founders“The beautiful thing about founders is their ability to lie to themselves, and the number one thing they lie about is whether they have product-market fit. The great founders, limit the amount they lie” – Michael SeibelYC’s secret sauce is the batch, not the adviceWhen you put a startup founder in a batch of people pushing really hard, he’s going to accomplish more than he ever thoughtIn startups, it’s far more important to focus on customers’ interactions that investors’ relations. Proof that you are solving a real customer’s problem gives you enormous leverage with investorsRead the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMy guest this week is Michael Seibel. Michael is a Partner at Y Combinator, and the CEO of YC's startup accelerator. He was the cofounder and CEO Justin.tv, which eventually became Twitch, and Socialcam. In this conversation, we discuss all Michael has learned reviewing thousands of applications to YC, interviewing countless new entrepreneurs, and watch young companies begin to grow and, occasionally, find product market fit. Listeners will also enjoy when Michael traps me big time in my thinking about AirBnb and his framework for great problems to solve. Enjoy this great conversation with Michael Seibel   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:22) – (First question) – Emerging trends among founders (6:00) – The long-term impact of Covid on business (7:16) – What an application to YC looks like and what stands out for him (11:46) – What he wants to learn in the interviews (13:54) – Poise in the interviews (15:40) – How the YC experience has evolved and improvements they’ve made (18:38) – How he defines technology             (18:50) – Every Company is Becoming a Software Company (21:12) – His thoughts on non-software companies and how they play into what YC does (23:48) – Why frequency and intensity of the problem matter to him (28:32) – Serving the supplier and building the demand (30:38) – Bravery in founders (36:07) – Partnerships and collaboration in venture capital investing (37:58) – Second time founders focus on distribution (39:23) – Coaching the psychological component of being a founder (44:16) – Learning as a founder vs the education system (46:08) – Customer vs investor focus of founders’ mindset (48:16) – How teams know they are really onto something (52:38) – His being a founder trainable or innate (54:08) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is Michael Seibel. Michael is a Partner at Y Combinator, and the CEO of YC's startup accelerator. He was the cofounder and CEO Justin.tv, which eventually became Twitch, and Socialcam. In this conversation, we discuss all Michael has learned reviewing thousands of applications to YC, interviewing countless new entrepreneurs, and watch young companies begin to grow and, occasionally, find product market fit. Listeners will also enjoy when Michael traps me big time in my thinking about AirBnb and his framework for great problems to solve. Enjoy this great conversation with Michael Seibel   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:22) – (First question) – Emerging trends among founders (6:00) – The long-term impact of Covid on business (7:16) – What an application to YC looks like and what stands out for him (11:46) – What he wants to learn in the interviews (13:54) – Poise in the interviews (15:40) – How the YC experience has evolved and improvements they’ve made (18:38) – How he defines technology             (18:50) – Every Company is Becoming a Software Company (21:12) – His thoughts on non-software companies and how they play into what YC does (23:48) – Why frequency and intensity of the problem matter to him (28:32) – Serving the supplier and building the demand (30:38) – Bravery in founders (36:07) – Partnerships and collaboration in venture capital investing (37:58) – Second time founders focus on distribution (39:23) – Coaching the psychological component of being a founder (44:16) – Learning as a founder vs the education system (46:08) – Customer vs investor focus of founders’ mindset (48:16) – How teams know they are really onto something (52:38) – His being a founder trainable or innate (54:08) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guests this week are Jeremiah Lowin and Chetan Puttagunta. Jeremiah is the founder of Prefect.io, an open-source software company where my family and I are investors, and Chetan is a partner at Benchmark Capital. Both are past guests and good friends. I asked them on to help the audience understand the open source software business model. I’ve been fascinated with this model in which companies give a huge chunk of their work and value away for free to a community of developers, and then make money by building additional tools, functionality, and services on top of their free and open platform. While this may strike you as a wonky discussion on a niche software topic, I think it is valuable for everyone because the ideas can be applied to more than just code. I view much of my own activity as open-sourcing investment research and knowledge. It is also important because much of the world’s technology is built on top of open source projects. I hope you learn something new about this emerging category. Please enjoy.   This episode of Invest Like The Best is sponsored by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis.  If you’re a professional equity investor and haven’t talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.     For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:40) – (First question) – Originator business in open source software; Redhat (5:51) – Why open source is valuable in building a business (7:40) – Examples of the benefits of open source projects (10:27) – Open source business models that produce the best results (17:04) – Defensibility of open source companies (25:02) – Mentoring younger founders on using open-source (30:54) – The benefits of launching open-source (36:41) – Building a digital community (41:31) – Lessons from Open Source that can be applied to other businesses (50:04) – The opportunity sets available in the open source space (53:33) – Future of open source             (56:31) – Tobi Lutke Podcast Episode   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest today is Katrina Lake, the co-founder and CEO of Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix is a multi-billion-dollar public company which has brought an entirely new model to retail apparel by combining data science, technology, and personal stylists to create a unique shopping experience tailored to the individual consumer. I first met Katrina through past guest Bill Gurley and have been excited to host her since that first meeting. In our conversation, Katrina and I discuss all aspects of Stich Fix—its history, business model, innovations, and its future. Please enjoy this great and thought-provoking conversation with Katrina Lake.   This week’s episode is sponsored by Bottomless. Bottomless is a smart coffee subscription which automatically re-orders coffee for you based on your consumption habits.  Bottomless is offering one month and your second bag of coffee for free at bottomless.com/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:19) – (First question) – Where E-Commerce stands and what the future might hold (4:37) – Why personalization makes Stitch Fix stand out from the others (9:34) – Why data science is foundational to their business (12:15) – What makes for a good augmented human and hiring stylists (14:34) – Stakeholder value and creating a great partnership with suppliers (18:10) – Their emphasis on stakeholder focus and social justice (19:28) – The capital efficiency of their business in the early days (24:46) – Her superpower of recruiting (29:46) – Her strengths in building Stitch Fix (31:56) – Transparency vs authenticity (32:59) – Big break for the business (37:15) – Exclusive brands to Stitch Fix (39:01) – The next act for Stitch Fix (41:43) – Lessons learned in pricing services (44:24) – Future trends in retail apparel (48:02) – Hardest thing to copy about Stitch Fix (49:59) – Lessons for putting data science at the center of your business (53:37) – Moments during her journey she’s felt most alive (55:23) – Kindest thing anyone has done for her Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is Brian Armstrong, the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase. The topic of our conversation is the future of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance. Its been a while since I checked in on the world of crypto and while prices are still below the 2017 highs, there’s been a ton of additional work and infrastructure laid. We discuss the major events of the past decade and what might happen in the 2020s. Perhaps most interesting, we cover the potential benefits of a modernized financial system, which Coinbase hopes to help usher in. As I’m trying to do more in conversation with CEOs, we also discuss the lessons he’s learned building a business. Please enjoy my conversation with Brian Armstrong.   This week’s episode is sponsored by Bottomless. Bottomless is a smart coffee subscription which automatically re-orders coffee for you based on your consumption habits.    Bottomless is offering one month and your second bag of coffee for free at bottomless.com/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:23) – (First question) – Most important developments in cryptocurrencies             (3:00) - What happened in crypto over the last decade (3:01) – What will happen to cryptocurrency in the 2020s (4:01) – Long term vision for Coinbase (6:57) – Why should we be aiming towards an open financial system (11:41) – How crypto improves the movement of money (14:22) – Creating sound money and currencies (16:21) – Why economic freedom is an important variable in what he’s trying to do (19:44)  - How economic freedom can happen with various regulators around the world and in different countries (22:49) – How Coinbase attracted its first users (26:33) – The December 2017 madness of cryptocurrencies (29:50) – How he thinks about recruiting teams and motivating them to be productive (33:40) – Mistakes with people he’s learned from (34:56) – Steering a product roadmap and creating a successful business (37:17) – What do the non-Bitcoin currencies offer that Bitcoin doesn’t (41:19) – Innovation in cryptocurrency that excites him: DeFi (43:40) – Interesting geographic locations and their impact on crypto (45:29) – How his thoughts on company building has changed over the years (46:47) – Battling any loss of confidence as a founder (51:01) – Improving decision making as a leader (53:54) – Aspects of the job that he loves the most today (56:25) – Largest impediments to mass adoption of crypto (58:25) – His curiosity for scientific research and bioengineering (59:19) – Advice that helped him that he would offer others (1:01:38) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest today, Matthew Ball, is a long time coming. He’s the former head of strategy at Amazon Studios, an investor, and probably my favorite business essayist writing today. In fact, I can’t think of another author whose work I read as quickly once a new essay drops. Read his latest on the past and future of Nintendo and you’ll see why. Our conversation is all about the past and future of media. We discuss movies, music, television, video games, and the metaverse. When I re-listened to this episode I couldn’t believe how much information was in Matthew's head and how easily he covered so many topics in depth. Please enjoy this great conversation.   This week’s episode is sponsored by Bottomless. Bottomless is a smart coffee subscription which automatically re-orders coffee for you based on your consumption habits.    Bottomless is offering one month and your second bag of coffee for free at bottomless.com/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:20) – (First question) – Compulsive interest of how people entertain themselves (4:19) – Changes of intellectual property and trademark in media (9:12) – Cross media world building and Netflix’s strategy (11:47) – Competing with the major power players at the top (16:54) – Fate of movies in the new media landscape (20:38) – Fate of music in the new media landscape (25:40) – Age and gaming in this media transition             (26:20) – Gavin Baker Podcast Episode (29:50) – Legacy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (34:48) – How he defines the notion of a metaverse (39:53) – Creating a more interoperable version of our digital world (47:37) – What is not included in the metaverse and investing in one (52:14) – Tim Sweeney’s role in Epic Gaming (58:12) – The unreal engine (1:07:46) – What should investors be thinking about when it comes to gaming worlds (1:12:43) – Opportunities in the gaming space for investors (1:19:59) – Cloud gaming’s impact on the space (1:26:54) – Will other media platforms have to copy the gaming industry (1:30:51) – How interactivity and feedback loops plays into his investment decisions (1:33:07) – Ease of creating a new media business today (1:35:20) – Trends media storytelling (1:38:50) – What makes for good IP in media content (1:42;14) – Why he wants to explore payment platforms and block chain (1:44:56) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Kat Cole, the COO and president of North America for Focus Brands, which owns famous companies like Cinnabon, Carvel, Jamba, and more. Kat’s story and career trajectory are remarkable, as are the lessons she’s picked up along the way which she shares with us all in this conversation. We discuss negotiation, distribution, brand building, brand extension strategies, and leadership. I always enjoy having a true operator on the show, so I was very excited to discover Kat and her thinking. Please enjoy this great conversation.   This week’s episode is sponsored by Bottomless. Bottomless is a smart coffee subscription which automatically re-orders coffee for you based on your consumption habits.  Bottomless is offering one month and your second bag of coffee for free at bottomless.com/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:13) – (First question) – Her call to prayer             (2:16) – Kat Cole on Pomp’s podcast (5:20) – Her positivity lens (7:59) – Applying that positivity lens in business (13:34) – How to show positivity in early interactions with someone (17:37) – Overview of Kat’s career (21:03) – Lessons learned building brands (27:11) – Changing relevance or differentiation within a brand (32:34) – Keeping a brands dominant position in people’s minds (36:00) – The power of franchising and shared commitment (40:50) – How her experience makes her a better investor (42:55) – Lessons around distribution (46:24) – Effectively negotiating and getting your fair share in a partnership (52:49) – Attributes of a brand that get Kat most excited (56:34) – Transferring her brand lessons to software and tech companies (59:09) – Biggest lessons in leadership she’s learned             (1:04:13) – Checking In: the power of intention, reflection, and action to be your best and help others do the same (1:05:18) – Most effective questions in her check-ins (1:06:29) – Personal check-ins vs professional check-ins (1:10:44) – Balancing gratitude and ambition (1:14:37) – The kindest thing anyone has done for Kat   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is Eric Vishria, a general partner at Benchmark Capital. Eric joined Benchmark after spending the first part of his career as an operator and CEO. The topic of our conversation is the past, present, and future of software businesses. We begin by explaining why public software companies trade at such incredibly high multiples today. We then explore the several different generations of these businesses and why the future remains so bright for companies building software as their primary product. I’d go one step further and suggest that the information in this episode is even more valuable for non-software businesses and investors, because its crucial to understand the impact that these products will have on the overall business landscape. COVID has accelerated the long-running transition to digital across the corporate world, and Eric serves as the perfect guide. Let’s dive in.    This week’s episode is sponsored by Bottomless. Bottomless is a smart coffee subscription which automatically re-orders coffee for you based on your consumption habits.  Bottomless is offering one month and your second bag of coffee for free at bottomless.com/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:29) – (First question) – His take on public markets, and specifically as it relates to SaaS businesses (4:04) – Why these companies trade so high             (7:53) – Peter Zeihan Podcast Episode (11:19) – The competitive frontier in the digital markets (14:02) – The API competitive frontier             (14:22) – Chetan Puttagunta Podcast Episode             (18:36) – Every Company is Becoming a Software Company             (20:10) – John Collison Podcast Episode (22:54) – Charging in an API business model (24:09) – Describing the different generations of SaaS, starting with Gen 1 (28:15) – Gen 2 SaaS businesses (31:52) – Being an investor in SaaS (36:55) – Gen 3 and importance of traditional SaaS companies to get into API (38:06) – Other problems software can solve (44:19) – Why more money isn’t going into SaaS (46:48) – Lessons from the investment universe and how it could apply to SaaS             (47:26) – The Hierarchy of Marketplaces — Introduction and Level 1 - Sarah Taval (51:49) – Lessons about scaling (57:51) – Cross customer strategy             (1:00:01) – Energy and Civilization: A History (1:01:28) – Qualities of an interesting investor (1:03:52) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest this week is Turner Novak, a partner at Gelt VC. Many of the largest companies in the world today are consumer social companies, so Turner and I discuss the past, present, and future of those businesses. When executed right, they are often the fastest-growing companies in history, and the rise of TikTok and some other companies we discuss makes it clear that there may always be more room at the top. The network effects that support these companies make them unique beasts to analyze, and Turner’s writing has been among my favorite content on the topic. Please enjoy our detailed conversation on this important are of public and private markets.   This week’s episode is sponsored by Bottomless. Bottomless is a smart coffee subscription which automatically re-orders coffee for you based on your consumption habits.  Bottomless is offering one month and your second bag of coffee for free at bottomless.com/patrick.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:18) – (First question) – History of consumer social companies (3:28 – The importance of quality growth over rate of growth (4:43) – Importance of friends and identity in a social network (6:21) – Major markers he analyzes in new social networks (7:59) – The meteoric rise of TikTok and how it compares to other social networks             (8:08) – The Rise of TikTok and Understanding Its Parent Company, ByteDance (13:38) – How TikTok deals with user friction (17:28) – Why TikTok copies is a waste (21:08) – Advising companies to build a media arm in this environment (24:18) – Business models beyond advertising for social networks (30:44) – His thoughts on Pinduoduo and the opportunity for a similar company in the US (37:36) – What Snapchat is doing (43:51) – How social eCommerce could be a competitor to an Amazon (46:31) – His review of Zynn             (46:36) - Attack of the Clones: TikTok’s Rival Kuaishou Lands in the US (52:22) – The geopolitical battle of social networks (53:36) – Creating social commerce companies (54:27) – Fantasy draft portfolio (59:18) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is Charlie Songhurst, the former head of strategy at Microsoft and a prolific investor, having personally invested in nearly 500 companies throughout his career. I met Charlie at an event hosted in New York and you can tell within one minute of meeting him that his mind is sparkling with ideas and curiosity. Its no wonder he’s been among the most commonly requested guests when I asked several top investors and CEOs who I should have on the show. We discuss the lessons he’s learned about business, investing, and people from such a large sample size of companies. I won’t reveal any more here, I highly recommend you just listen to Charlie and learn. Let’s dive in. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (1:25) – (First question) –  Stack ranking the vices of power, money and fame (2:41) – Memorable response to the stack ranking question (3:13) – Best scenario to explore this stack ranking concept (3:55) – Other ways to rank founders (4:44) – Quick look at this career (5:16) – Time at Microsoft (6:03) – Features he looks for in startups (10:55) – Managing the declining curve of productivity (14:55) – Why founders are often unique people             (14:57) – Jeff Gramm Podcast Episode             (15:04) – Aliens, Jedi & Cults (19;43) – How early entrepreneurs need to make recruitment a serious part of their work (23:06) – How successful founders win the best candidates (25:27) – The East Coast vs. West Coast investment strategies (30:40) – When it’s time to bring in quantitative factors into early stage investing (34:36) – The markers that pop up in companies that hit (37:22) – Boring but successful investments (39:28) – Investor aesthetics (41:29) – Characteristics of investors that he believes are important to success (42:57) – Impacts of Covid and some of the permanent changes that have happened as a result (47:49) – Investing opportunities in the local community (49:13) – His take on cryptocurrencies (53:47) – Most mis valued asset in the world (55:16) – Investing opportunities in Europe (57:34) – Make up of his 483 investments             (57:58) – Matt Clifford Podcast Episode (59:17) – Curation as a skill (1:01:54) – Timing and startup success (1:05:11) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest today is Blake Robbins, a partner at Ludlow Ventures. We talk about all things video games, including the major companies in the industry, how games monetize, how in-game economies work, how e-sports has evolved, and much more. This is a fast-growing segment of consumer attention and interest, I believe we are in the very early days of gaming going mainstream. I also have a favor to ask. My team and I have built a small survey for Invest Like the Best listeners and if you’ve enjoyed the podcast, I’d deeply appreciate it if you took 5 minutes to fill it out at investorfieldguide.com/survey. It will help shape the future direction of the show, which I intend to keep improving in the years to come. Thank you, and now please enjoy my conversation with Blake Robbins. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (1:35) – (First question) –  Overview of the gaming industry and how folks may get involved as an investor (3:46) – Some of the biggest players in the space (5:30) – The monetization methods of these gams (9:22) – How do these games respond to real currencies (14:49) – The landscape of e-sports/e-gaming as a whole (19:57) – His involvement with 100 Thieves (25:52) – The media landscape and the role of influencers (29:05) – When he invests and what the opportunities are out there (33:07) – The engines behind a lot of this; Unity and Unreal (34:58) – Other investors that get this trend (37:43) – Other interesting areas of investment for him, including the creator economy (41:25) – Opportunities to build out and invest in the infrastructure of the creator economy (45:37) – Infrastructure opportunities that need to be built (48:08) – Advice for younger professionals (49:04) – Investment allocation he is most proud of (50:08) – A unique skill he couldn’t teach or train in others (52:27) – Something in gaming he doesn’t understand or wants to learn more about (54:08) – The kindest thing anyone has done for Blake   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag  

My guest today is Brad Gerstner, the founder and CIO of Altimeter Capital, a multi-billion dollar technology-focused investment firm. Brad and his team are known for a deep expertise in internet-enabled businesses, including Expedia, Facebook, Uber, and many more. We discuss the evolution of opportunity in this style of investing, including the important shift to private investing, where so much of the value creation now happens. I won’t soon forget our discussion of consumer intent on the internet and how it has shifted, the role that essentialism plays in Brad’s business and life, and the rise of the Chinese internet giants like Bytedance. Please enjoy this great conversation with Brad Gerstner.   This episode is brought to you by the MIT investment management company (MITIMCO) Reach out or learn more:  Email: partner@mitimco.org Website: https://mitimco.org/partner/ MITIMCo 10 year Letter: https://mitimco.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MITIMCo-Alumni-Letter.pdf MITIMCo brochure: https://mitimco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MITIMCo-Brochure_web_2018-12-05.pdf   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:32) – (First question) – Overall investment philosophy at Altimeter (5:12) – Most interesting thing in the landscape today (11:16) – Disrupting the tech giants moving forward (13:56) – The investing opportunity in the backend of the internet (16:42) – His take on old line businesses and how technology could shift his view on them (18:56) – Lessons from company founders whose platforms rely on consumer discovery (21:32) – Running his business on essentialism             (21:40) – Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (26:11) – Tactical applications of essentialism (29:46) – Applying essentialism outside of business (31:16) – What travel has taught him about business (33:43) – What we should know about the Chinese internet market (37:11) – The emergence of bite sized transactions across the web (39:22) – Bite sized work (42:43) – How early on can you figure out what company would win a vertical (45:36) – What problem space would he tackle today (48:49) – Collaborating in the private markets (57:27) – Pricing businesses as a key component of his investment choices (1:02:47) – Fascination with life sciences and software (1:04:12) – What about the future excites him (1:06:48) – Kindest thing anyone has done for Brad   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

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways  People in Silicon Valley sometimes forget that there are many massively successful non-tech companies experiencing wonderful growth “There are tons of really spectacularly successful companies that have grown as high rates for years and years and years outside of technology” – John CollisonDomino’s pizza has actually grown more impressively than most tech companiesThe payments business is all about scale“Payments is a business where you make literally pennies on a per transaction basis. And you have to have an enormous number of them to actually be able to operate with any modicum of profitability.” – John CollisonStripe is starting to go more remote and hire people outside of San Francisco“Most people at Stripe are actually not based in the San Francisco Bay area. Last year, we actually tripled the number of remote engineers in the company.” – John CollisionA good writing tip: Have someone read your writing and ask them to tell you everything they remember. Then delete everything they can’t remember.“If you are operating a technology business, you would be mad not to study all the companies that have come before you” – John CollisionGoogle learned about OKRs from IntelFacebook learned about advertising engines from GoogleIt’s easier to get work done quickly in a small team than a big one. Stripe tries to keep their teams to 5-10 people“When launching new things, you really need to start them small and make them earn their way. Make them respond to customer feedback and see if they actually work.” – John Collisioneval(ez_write_tag([[728,90],'podcastnotes_org-medrectangle-3','ezslot_0',122,'0','0']));Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMy guest today is John Collison, the Co-Founder of the digital payments company Stripe. Stripe’s mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, a lofty and deeply interesting pursuit. John is clearly a voracious learner across business and investing, which you’ll hear instantly. He started Stripe with his brother Patrick when he was just 19 years old, and has grown it to, at last valuation, a $36B business. In our conversation, we discuss conglomerates, the internet economy, the power of writing, and why board members are like Pokémon characters, each with different powers. It’s a lively and wide-ranging conversation with one of the entrepreneurs I’ve most enjoyed speaking with. 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 (1:30) – (First question) – Interest in industrial conglomerates (9:10) – Their thinking on acquisitions vs starting new companies (11:42) – How the payment landscape looked when Stripe was started (15:55) – View on the internet economy (20:09) – Exciting possibilities for the future of the internet economy (22:11) – The forces of size vs speed among startups (26:53) – Driving reasons why employees choose Stripe starting with clear communication (28:55) – Tips for better internal communications (30:09) – The importance of rigor in Stripe’s corporate culture (32:15) – Investors and investing styles that are most intriguing to him (36:02) – Teaching vs experiencing business lessons (37:56) – Lessons from going to market with new ideas (50:58) – Allowing teams to explore new ideas at Stripe (44:11) – Best startup companies to study to understand the history of this space             (44:52) – Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle             (48:18) – Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business (48:43) – Infrastructures of internet businesses that are missing (52:03) – Does general accounting practices need to change to capture the true value of a company like Stripe (1:01:53) – Shared playbooks in Silicon Valley (1:02:02) – The transition to the no code movement (1:08:22) – Other businesses that pique his interest outside of software (1:10:21) – Future trends that excite him (1:11:10) – First memory when he felt like he was participating in the tech economy (1:12:46 – The role of board members (1:15:48) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him (1:18:49) – Advice for young people 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 John Collison, the Co-Founder of the digital payments company Stripe. Stripe’s mission is to increase the GDP of the internet, a lofty and deeply interesting pursuit. John is clearly a voracious learner across business and investing, which you’ll hear instantly. He started Stripe with his brother Patrick when he was just 19 years old, and has grown it to, at last valuation, a $36B business. In our conversation, we discuss conglomerates, the internet economy, the power of writing, and why board members are like Pokémon characters, each with different powers. It’s a lively and wide-ranging conversation with one of the entrepreneurs I’ve most enjoyed speaking with. 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 (1:30) – (First question) – Interest in industrial conglomerates (9:10) – Their thinking on acquisitions vs starting new companies (11:42) – How the payment landscape looked when Stripe was started (15:55) – View on the internet economy (20:09) – Exciting possibilities for the future of the internet economy (22:11) – The forces of size vs speed among startups (26:53) – Driving reasons why employees choose Stripe starting with clear communication (28:55) – Tips for better internal communications (30:09) – The importance of rigor in Stripe’s corporate culture (32:15) – Investors and investing styles that are most intriguing to him (36:02) – Teaching vs experiencing business lessons (37:56) – Lessons from going to market with new ideas (50:58) – Allowing teams to explore new ideas at Stripe (44:11) – Best startup companies to study to understand the history of this space             (44:52) – Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle             (48:18) – Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business (48:43) – Infrastructures of internet businesses that are missing (52:03) – Does general accounting practices need to change to capture the true value of a company like Stripe (1:01:53) – Shared playbooks in Silicon Valley (1:02:02) – The transition to the no code movement (1:08:22) – Other businesses that pique his interest outside of software (1:10:21) – Future trends that excite him (1:11:10) – First memory when he felt like he was participating in the tech economy (1:12:46 – The role of board members (1:15:48) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him (1:18:49) – Advice for young people 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 Jeremy Grantham. Jeremy is the co-founder and chief investment strategist of Grantham, Mayo, & van Otterloo (aka GMO). GMO, which manages more than $60B for clients, was a firm that helped educate me early in my investing career. They’ve long published thought-provoking research, most of which came from Grantham himself. He is regarded as a highly knowledgeable investor in various stock, bond, and commodity markets, but is particularly noted for his prediction of various bubbles. In this conversation we discuss the current crisis, which he calls the fourth major event of his long and storied career as an investor. As he says, this one is the most uncertain. We also discuss unique topics like commodity-based companies, and how opportunity often lies between fields of expertise. 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 (1:37) – (First question) – What keeps him going in investing (2:54) – Changing approaches to managing money over the decades (7:27) – Their investment forecast for major allocations and how that has evolved (10:06) – How to markets compete with FAANG stocks (16:06) – More opportunity for active investors and where (30:55) – How he talks to clients about major stock market events (34:09) – His interest in natural resources/commodities (47:07) – Long term argument for the three natural resources: oil, metals, and food             (47:10) – An Investment Only A Mother Could Love: The Tactical Case (52:01) – Specific case for particular metals (56:46) – Areas in the future that excite him or that he wants to learn more about (1:03:42) – Advice for people interested in investing (1:05:15) – Kindest thing anyone has done for Jeremy   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

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways The smartphone is the true personal computer:“You have this device with you that has a large enough screen to do work done is small enough to be pocketable” – Ben ThompsonExpect to see more  specialized devices like AR glasses and smartwatch in the future, but the smartphone will still be the main device people useWhat makes a company an aggregator:Has relationships with usersZero marginal cost of serving usersDecreasing acquisition costs over timeSpotify’s master plan to take over the podcast space:“They’ll say, look, we have all these customers, we monetize better because we understand these customers better. You need to come onto our platform and use our superior, we will monetize you better. And then suddenly they become the center of this where they have a critical mass of users who they understand better and they pull podcasters on and start getting this sort of a virtuous cycle and becomes sort of the center of podcasting.” – Ben ThompsonApple had the opportunity to do this but they passed on it: “ iTunes doesn’t host podcasts. A lot of people don’t realize this, but it’s sort of the directory where everything is and the more important thing is the Apple podcast player is the biggest podcast player. Had Apple chosen to leverage that particularly a couple of years ago, they could have built this whole thing, built an ad network, but…it’s just not what Apple sort of does and so they sort of just let it be” – Ben ThompsonDisney is able to charge a lower subscription fee for their service than Netflix because Disney can monetize their customers in more ways than Netflix (ex: cruise lines, amusement parks, etc.)Ben is bullish on local journalism but only if they report on important local events instead of constantly posting non-essential articles“I don’t need more content. What I’m looking is to feel informed and you deliver the experience of feeling informed oftentimes by telling someone nothing here, go spend your time somewhere else and you’ve actually checked that.”– Ben Thompsoneval(ez_write_tag([[728,90],'podcastnotes_org-medrectangle-3','ezslot_0',122,'0','0']));Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMy guest today is Ben Thompson. Ben is the author of my favorite business strategy newsletter called Stratechery. He’s also the host of the exponent podcast, and now the Dithering, a podcast he recently launched with John Gruber. I think Ben is among the most interesting business analysts in the world, and I’ve learned from and directly applied many of his ideas. We cover many of the major concepts he’s introduced over the years, including his well know aggregation theory. I think that to understand how the internet has changed the business world for good, you must read Ben and follow his thinking. I’m excited to finally have him as a guest on the show. Please enjoy our conversation. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (01:26) – (First question) – Companies that are built for the next disruption             (1:32) – The End of the Beginning (9:58) – Aggregation Theory and the Smiling Curve (13:18) – Steps to creating an aggregator (19:46) – Pattern of successful aggregators or luck? (24:34) – How aggregators interact with suppliers and consumers (30:49) – Taking on other aggregators (34:09) – Platform vs aggregator in the scope of Shopify vs Amazon/Walmart (40:55) – The Moat Map (46:16) – Value chain thinking and profitable business models (51:58) – Future of media and independent content creator’s vs bundles (56:07) – Bundling independent creators (1:00:37) – The infrastructure layer of technology and software companies (1:02:35) – His thoughts on gaming platforms (1:06:13) – The atoms vs the bits in the tech world (1:12:18) – What he’s learned from covering Netflix (1:13:46) – Kindest thing anyone has done for Ben             (1:15:56) – Stratechery Podcast   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 Ben Thompson. Ben is the author of my favorite business strategy newsletter called Stratechery. He’s also the host of the exponent podcast, and now the Dithering, a podcast he recently launched with John Gruber. I think Ben is among the most interesting business analysts in the world, and I’ve learned from and directly applied many of his ideas. We cover many of the major concepts he’s introduced over the years, including his well know aggregation theory. I think that to understand how the internet has changed the business world for good, you must read Ben and follow his thinking. I’m excited to finally have him as a guest on the show. Please enjoy our conversation. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (01:26) – (First question) – Companies that are built for the next disruption             (1:32) – The End of the Beginning (9:58) – Aggregation Theory and the Smiling Curve (13:18) – Steps to creating an aggregator (19:46) – Pattern of successful aggregators or luck? (24:34) – How aggregators interact with suppliers and consumers (30:49) – Taking on other aggregators (34:09) – Platform vs aggregator in the scope of Shopify vs Amazon/Walmart (40:55) – The Moat Map (46:16) – Value chain thinking and profitable business models (51:58) – Future of media and independent content creator’s vs bundles (56:07) – Bundling independent creators (1:00:37) – The infrastructure layer of technology and software companies (1:02:35) – His thoughts on gaming platforms (1:06:13) – The atoms vs the bits in the tech world (1:12:18) – What he’s learned from covering Netflix (1:13:46) – Kindest thing anyone has done for Ben             (1:15:56) – Stratechery Podcast   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

Podcast Notes Intro There are 3 types of audiences:Superfan: They pay retail price for a product and will look for your productCasual fan: They only have one of the criteria listed aboveNon-fans: Have zero of the traits listed aboveThe 4 Myths of Bundling:1) Bundling is bad for consumers and providersTruth: By bundling, you produce value in 2 ways: providers get access to casual fans and consumers get access to products they may become a fan of2) Revenue from bundles should be allocated based on usageTruth: When dividing up revenue, you have to look at the Marginal Churn Contribution or how many customers would leave the bundle if a single service was removed3) Bundles will always feel like a rip-off to consumers since they represent a lack of choiceTruth: Because there is a lack of transparency about the price of each component in a bundle, people sometimes feel they’re being rip-offed when they’re actually getting a good deal4) The best bundles are narrow and have very similar products so they make sense to consumersTruth: The best bundles maximize casual fan overlap and minimize superfan overlap When you have a bundle, there are two main ways of increasing revenue:Getting more subscribersRaising the subscription priceAs an investor, don’t look for subscription companies that try to leverage their price, look for companies that maintain price but find ways to add more users “When you start seeing a subscription service increase prices, people look at it as a willingness to pay indicator, I look at it as a, I saturated my ability to continue growing my base and I now have to monetize my existing base more” – Shishir Mehrotraeval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'podcastnotes_org-medrectangle-3','ezslot_0',122,'0','0']));Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMy guest today is Shishir Mehrotra and the topic of our conversation is the bundle: offering access to multiple products, services, or providers for a single bundled price. This topic is full of incorrect pre-conceived notions, and as it turns out, the bundle is one of the most powerful ideas in business. Properly harnessed it is good for everyone involved. Shishir explains the ins and outs of bundles in this conversation. Shishir ran product at YouTube for years and sits on the Spotify board of directors. He founded and now leads Coda (which is “A Doc” spelled backwards) in 2014, to bundle together productivity apps like docs, spreadsheets, databases, and applications. I love this wonky, detailed conversation which has me thinking differently about many businesses and business strategy. Please enjoy.   This episode is brought to by Koyfin.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 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 (2:08) – (First question) – The arc of his career (3:32) – Why he has an interest in bundling (7:45) – The concepts of superfan, casualfan, and nonfan businesses (11:05) – Using Spotify as an example of bundles (13:24) – The first myth of bundling: Bundling is bad for consumers (17:53) – The second myth of bundling: 1st vs 3rd party providers and the bundlers (23:03) – Low usage but high Marginal Churn Contribution (MCC) business (24:26) – How insurance fits into these models   (26:37) – Myth 3 of bundling: How this impacts consumers (32:12) – How marginal costs play into the thinking of bundling (34:54) – Myth 4: Bundling things that have nothing to do with each other (39:51) – How bundling companies can apply this into their product development (43:21) – Strategic advice to companies building bundles (49:01) – How price and pricing power play into advantages for certain bundlers (54:16) – How does bundling play into his investing thesis (56:47) – Most interesting bundles he’s observed             (58:44) – Eigenquestions: The Art of Framing Problems (59:14) – What the future of this trend is (1:02:24) – What is an eigenquestion (1:06:29) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More 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 Shishir Mehrotra and the topic of our conversation is the bundle: offering access to multiple products, services, or providers for a single bundled price. This topic is full of incorrect pre-conceived notions, and as it turns out, the bundle is one of the most powerful ideas in business. Properly harnessed it is good for everyone involved. Shishir explains the ins and outs of bundles in this conversation. Shishir ran product at YouTube for years and sits on the Spotify board of directors. He founded and now leads Coda (which is “A Doc” spelled backwards) in 2014, to bundle together productivity apps like docs, spreadsheets, databases, and applications. I love this wonky, detailed conversation which has me thinking differently about many businesses and business strategy. Please enjoy.   This episode is brought to by Koyfin.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 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 (2:08) – (First question) – The arc of his career (3:32) – Why he has an interest in bundling (7:45) – The concepts of superfan, casualfan, and nonfan businesses (11:05) – Using Spotify as an example of bundles (13:24) – The first myth of bundling: Bundling is bad for consumers (17:53) – The second myth of bundling: 1st vs 3rd party providers and the bundlers (23:03) – Low usage but high Marginal Churn Contribution (MCC) business (24:26) – How insurance fits into these models   (26:37) – Myth 3 of bundling: How this impacts consumers (32:12) – How marginal costs play into the thinking of bundling (34:54) – Myth 4: Bundling things that have nothing to do with each other (39:51) – How bundling companies can apply this into their product development (43:21) – Strategic advice to companies building bundles (49:01) – How price and pricing power play into advantages for certain bundlers (54:16) – How does bundling play into his investing thesis (56:47) – Most interesting bundles he’s observed             (58:44) – Eigenquestions: The Art of Framing Problems (59:14) – What the future of this trend is (1:02:24) – What is an eigenquestion (1:06:29) – Kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More 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 Hamilton Helmer, the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Strategy Capital and the author of one of the best business books in history called 7 Powers, which is the topic of much of our conversation. He has spent his career as a practicing business strategist: advising companies, investing based on strategic insights and teaching strategy.  In the last three decades, he has also utilized his strategy concepts as a public equity investor. In this conversation we cover all seven business powers, from counter-positioning to scale economies, and how companies earn and keep those powers. Any investor or businessperson should understand these concepts, and 7 Powers is the best work I’ve seen that explains them in depth. Please enjoy our conversation.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 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 (1:31) – (First question)  - What power means to him (5:05) – Benefits being more common than barriers in the power equation (6:28) – How early-stage companies develop their barriers (11:23) – The power of counter positioning and how he’s seen it applied (14:47) – The product side of counter positioning             (16:39) – Daniel Ek Podcast episode (17:27) – Applying the idea of counter positioning to yourself (20:40) – A cornered resource (23:49) – A look at google as a cornered resource (27:12) – Unique power of network economies (31:18) – What subtleties disqualify network effects (32:54) – Nuances of scale economies (35:56) – Learning economies and who can scale it better (37:07) – Building a switching cost and barrier into your business (40:10) – Branding as power (44:27) – Defining process power and how it differs from scale economies (46:40) – The notion of the time lag and cash flow (50:42) – Why is so much power concentrated in technology businesses (52:07) – What does power mean for customers (53:43) – Developing power as an art vs science, and the best power artists (55:08) – The kindest thing anyone has done for him   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  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

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways “A retail store is really a participant in the global world of commerce” – Tobi LutkeThe pandemic has closed most physical stores, but virtual stores are still alive and thrivingOne important skill people learn from video games is decision making, strategy, and resource allocationThe most important lesson Tobi’s learned from video games is managing his attention“You’re tested at how good are you at paying attention to what’s going on. How well are you investing your attention?” – Tobi LutkeThe most important realization from personality tests is that people are different and see the world from different perspectives“Just having a working understanding of this and actually having an appreciation for other people’s perspective is just hugely valuable and I think personality tests are a way to get there” – Tobi LutkeA key takeaway from stoicism: Only focus on influencing the things you can control, such as yourselfFor example, you can’t be insulted by what someone says unless you accept the insult “My brain has assigned the power to this other person to make me feel insulted and I chose to go along with that” – Tobi Lutke2030 came a decade early because of COVID: Everyone is on web conferences, more people are working from home, and online learning has skyrocketedPeople are also getting a glimpse of living in a business world that is almost completely digitaleval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'podcastnotes_org-medrectangle-3','ezslot_6',122,'0','0']));Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMy guest today is Tobi Lutke, the co-founder, and CEO of Shopify.  This is both a timely and evergreen conversation.  Timely, as the world as moved aggressively digital in the past two months, and Shopify powers so much of digital commerce.  Evergreen, because while we touch on Covid and the Shopify business, this is much more a conversation on business and personal principles, learning, design, and growth. Tobi is one of the CEO’s I look up to most for the type of company he is building and for the way he conducts himself.  We discuss business focus, why video games help you learn the power of attention, what design means for products and organizations, and much more. Please enjoy my conversation with Tobi Lutke.   This episode is brought to you by the MIT investment management company (MITIMCO) Reach out or learn more:  Email: partner@mitimco.org Website: https://mitimco.org/partner/ MITIMCo 10 year Letter: https://mitimco.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MITIMCo-Alumni-Letter.pdf MITIMCo brochure: https://mitimco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MITIMCo-Brochure_web_2018-12-05.pdf For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:35) – (First question) – The launch of the new Shopify shop app             (2:44) – Deniel Ek Podcast Episode             (2:45) – Jeff Lawson Podcast Episode (4:56) – Having the right focus and growing a good business (9:06) – Marketplace business model vs the merchant driven business model             9:16 – Bill Gurley Podcast Appearances - 162 | 144 | 137 (11:47) – His role as a decisionmaker as CEO of the company (14:07) – What does he mean when he talks about quality (18:28) – His thinking on design and quality             (18:32) – Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance             (19:59) – The Design of Everyday Things (21:06) – Friction as a force in business and manufacturing (26:04) – His thoughts on systems and being free of process            (26:08) – The Systems Bible  (30:01) – The game of Factoria and how it relates to systems             (32:16) – Transfer Learning (34:33) – What Real-Time Strategy games have taught Tobi (38:30) – Building context inside of a company and making it scale (41:17) – Personality typing (46:22) – The Tobi Blueprint (46:04) – Why he likes The Guide to the Good Life and stoicism (55:38) – Raising kids and the impact of Covid (1:03:16) – The kindest thing anyone has done for Tobi   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  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 Tobi Lutke, the co-founder, and CEO of Shopify.  This is both a timely and evergreen conversation.  Timely, as the world as moved aggressively digital in the past two months, and Shopify powers so much of digital commerce.  Evergreen, because while we touch on Covid and the Shopify business, this is much more a conversation on business and personal principles, learning, design, and growth. Tobi is one of the CEO’s I look up to most for the type of company he is building and for the way he conducts himself.  We discuss business focus, why video games help you learn the power of attention, what design means for products and organizations, and much more. Please enjoy my conversation with Tobi Lutke.   This episode is brought to you by the MIT investment management company (MITIMCO) Reach out or learn more:  Email: partner@mitimco.org Website: https://mitimco.org/partner/ MITIMCo 10 year Letter: https://mitimco.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MITIMCo-Alumni-Letter.pdf MITIMCo brochure: https://mitimco.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/MITIMCo-Brochure_web_2018-12-05.pdf For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:35) – (First question) – The launch of the new Shopify shop app             (2:44) – Deniel Ek Podcast Episode             (2:45) – Jeff Lawson Podcast Episode (4:56) – Having the right focus and growing a good business (9:06) – Marketplace business model vs the merchant driven business model             9:16 – Bill Gurley Podcast Appearances - 162 | 144 | 137 (11:47) – His role as a decisionmaker as CEO of the company (14:07) – What does he mean when he talks about quality (18:28) – His thinking on design and quality             (18:32) – Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance             (19:59) – The Design of Everyday Things (21:06) – Friction as a force in business and manufacturing (26:04) – His thoughts on systems and being free of process            (26:08) – The Systems Bible  (30:01) – The game of Factoria and how it relates to systems             (32:16) – Transfer Learning (34:33) – What Real-Time Strategy games have taught Tobi (38:30) – Building context inside of a company and making it scale (41:17) – Personality typing (46:22) – The Tobi Blueprint (46:04) – Why he likes The Guide to the Good Life and stoicism (55:38) – Raising kids and the impact of Covid (1:03:16) – The kindest thing anyone has done for Tobi   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  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 popular past guest Ali Hamed, who joins us for an update on private credit. We discuss what has happened so far, what parts of the market are frozen, and where opportunities may lie. We also talk about how the world has shifted digitally since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Please enjoy my conversation with my friend Ali Hamed. This episode is brought to by Koyfin. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 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 (1:41) – (First question) – World of private credit in the pandemic age (4:50) – Bag of uncertainty (6:27) – Important levers in private credit (9:15) – Scary scenarios and systemic risks in this world (13:21) – General trends in the credit data (15:30) – Are investors factoring government response properly (17:02) – Defining advanced rates (20:18) – Focus on quality vs rate of return now (22:26) – Pockets of opportunity as uncertainty declines (26:06) – Online ecommerce platforms, like the YouTube economy (29:40) – Non advertising driven ecommerce platforms (31:54) – How venture capital is responding (38:19) – How junior debt could be am opportunity (40:17) – Trends he’s thinking about; redefining small businesses (43:07) – Ali Hamed Podcast Episode   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  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 for a flash update is Chris Bloomstran, the founder and CIO of Semper Augustus and a popular past guest on the show. We talk about his view on the state of the public equity market, why it will be hard for the market to deliver great returns for the next decade relative to the last, and where opportunities may lie. Please enjoy. This episode is brought to by Koyfin. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (1:42) – (First question) – Adjustments to his portfolio in the age of a pandemic             (6:41) – Chris Bloomstran Podcast Episode             (9:36) – The Federal Reserve Act (12:32) – Surprising action in the markets during the crisis             (13:08) – 2020 Investment Letter (15:02) – Why we won’t see the same performance in tech over the future as we’ve seen the last decade (21:00) – The carnage in energy sector and return potential (30:06) – Berkshires activity since the crisis started (35:48) – Where sectors are valued in the current market (41:12) – Expectation for deflation over inflation  (48:54) – Characteristics to look for in businesses to own over the next 10 years (52:05) – Economic factors they are focusing on   Learn More 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 Josh Kopelman, the founder of famed venture capital firm First Round Capital. Prior to starting First Round, which has invested at the earliest stages in companies like Square, Uber, and Roblox, Josh was a three-time entrepreneur, so our conversation spans early-stage investing, business building, and entrepreneurship. I’ll not sure forget his analogy distinguishing between navigators and cartographers, nor the rest of the interesting ideas he shared after seeing and investing in so many great businesses. We also discuss how First Round has bucked the trend to build what I’d call a platform adjacent to the core investing business which does a lot for their entrepreneurs and is a model for other professional investing firms, both in venture and elsewhere. Please enjoy my conversation with Josh Kopelman.  This episode is brought to by Koyfin. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (2:05) – (First question) – How pandemic has impacted their investing strategies (3:54) – How this stressful environment impacts founders (6:23) – His early career as a founder and how startup culture has changed (10:15) – Most important lessons from his entrepreneurial career and building from just an idea (11:50) – How to analyze a founder (14:05) – Common disagreements when it comes to deciding on an investment (15:33) – How many opportunities they evaluate in a meeting (16:16) – The curvy road to their investment in Roadblox (17:52) – Whether the concept for a platform is overused (19:36) – Founders asking what google search they should build on (20:46) – Solving existing or forecasted problems (25:39) – How the startup scene is impacted by the huge legacy tech companies (30:28) – What makes a great early stage investor (32:19) – Do they focus on founders or themes (33:19) – Where will valuations and returns come back to after the pandemic (36:30) – How are business models evolving in technology entrepreneurship             (36:31) – Matt Clifford Podcast Episode (39:40) – The Dorm Room Fund (43:02) – Whether investment funds should have their own platform (47:31) – Product mistakes in software building (51:52) – What he’s most excited about for the future (54:05) – The kindest thing anyone has done for him  Learn More 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 Manny Stotz, the founder of Kingsway Capital. Manny is one of the leading investors in Frontier Markets, investing in equities in countries like Egypt, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. We discuss the opportunity in these markets from all angles: demographics, valuations, sectors and beyond. It is important to note that we recorded this conversation before COVID, and these markets have fallen 30% without a similar rebound in prices that we’ve seen in the U.S. As you listen you’ll hear why this may be relevant for the companies Manny focuses on and may accentuate the opportunity in Frontier Markets even relative to the numbers quoted in this conversation. Listeners will know my interest in Frontier Markets runs deep, so I was excited to have one of the categories leading investors join me. Please enjoy my conversation with Manny Stotz. This episode is brought to by Koyfin. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes 2:07 – (First question) – How Kingsway was conceived, their focus on frontier emerging markets, and his career path 11:57 – What are the best company builders good at when it comes to fostering a brand 18:30 – How country-specific factors impact the tailwind 25:43 – How markets are faring in these special circumstances 32:09 – Building a book in many of the markets they trade-in 37:10 – Understanding your edge in frontier markets, showing up 39:59 – Importance of solid distribution for the companies he invests in 42:12 – Concentration in various markets 44:10 – Moving beyond consumer brands in these markets 47:14 – Some of the most interesting countries they are looking into and the country business model             47:42 – Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies             47:44 – Civilization: The West and the Rest             47:46 – Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty 53:21 – New topics he’s excited to learn about that will impact his business over the next 10-20 years 55:37 – Best way for people to get involved and invest in these markets 58:17 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest this week is Sarah Tavel, a general partner at Benchmark, working alongside past guests Bill Gurley and Chetan Puttagunta. Sarah has a long history as both an investor and as an operator.  She was an early product leader at Pinterest before joining Benchmark. Sarah has become one of my go-to resources for topics like networks, consumer technology, and marketplaces among many other topics. I’ve used her framework for how to think about client engagement, company data, and marketplace liquidity and quality over and over again in my business life. I’m so excited to finally have her on the show.  Please enjoy our conversation. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes 1:24 – (First question) - Lessons learned from watching the food delivery space 5:44 – Hip camp and how they are thinking about the space rental sector             5:45 - The a16z Marketplace 100 7:47 – Valuing private companies vs public companies 9:37 – Building marketplaces 14:24 – Tipping a market             14:30 – Bill Gurley Podcast Episode 18:09 – How to incorporate reputation scores into a network 19:55 – Search ranking as a tool for marketplaces 21:00 – Size of marketplaces vs their competitors 22:15 – Niching of marketplaces             22:21 - Chetan Puttagunta Podcast Episode 23:26 – State of the consumer social sector 27:50 – The LinkedIn problem and how she would build a social platform 30:42 – Things that are piquing her interest in the consumer space 32:20 – Lessons learned about scaling while working at Pinterest 38:42 – Pricing and the marketplace 41:25 – Identifying and optimizing a Core Action in a digital business 44:18 – Accruing benefits and mounting losses as part of the product design 47:48 – Her investment in Reci 52:18 – How should companies gather the best data from their business 56:03 – Lessons to SaaS investing 56:29 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Sarah 57:45 – Most interesting philosophy lesson             58:09 – Creating a Kingdom of Ends   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

In the midst of the worldwide quarantine, my friend Boyd Varty decided to begin an adventure he has been considering for a long time: a 40 day and 40 night stay in the African wilderness. I’m releasing this short conversation with Boyd to pique your interest in his daily dispatches. He will be taking short audio journal-like recordings and sharing them with the world as he goes. As of today they are several that you can listen to by subscribing to the Track Your Life podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please enjoy this short chat with my good friend Boyd Varty. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 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 (0:31) – The start of his 40-day trip (1:42) – Origin of the word quarantine and how it led to this journey (3:07) – History of this idea (6:14) – The logistics of this 40-day venture (9:59) – His experience doing this before and how it changed his psyche (12:07) – What is he most fearful of (13:22) – How he feels about sharing this experience when he returns (15:47) – The mental preparation to this journey             (15:48) – Priya Parker Podcast Episode             (15:49) – The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (17:33) – How can outsiders make a connection to Boyd while he’s in this isolation (19:55) – How can people actually follow him on this journey             (20:23) – Track Your Life with Boyd Varty Podcast – Apple Podcasts | Spotify             (20:33) – Instagram - @boyd_varty             (20:36) – boydvarty.com             (20:43) – 40daysand40nights.com (21:05) – The story of the 17 lions Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

My guest today is with past guest Gavin Baker, the founder and CIO of Atreides Management, LP. We discuss investing during a bear market and the major ways in which the COVID19 outbreak has dramatically altered the investment landscape. Please enjoy my second conversation with Gavin Baker. This episode is brought to by Koyfin. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes (1:40) – How he sees the markets right now (3:06) – How he handles information uncertainty and the value spreads (5:53) – Trading in today’s market and the volatility (9:45) – How the economic activity squares with the amount of stimulus being pumped into the market             (13:11) – Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders (13:56) – Asset tests for individual companies in this environment             (19:09) – This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (20:45) – His take on software companies during the crisis (28:57) – Fast pace of change during extreme times of duress (35:14) – Space as a service (39:52) – Attention and time inside digital universes and how investors can take advantage (46:17) – Why chaos is a ladder             (50:42) – It Was a Very Good Year: Extraordinary Moments in Stock Market History   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag