Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Latest Episodes:

Jeff Green - Modernizing Advertising - [Invest Like the Best, EP.315] Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Jeff Green, the CEO and co-founder of advertising platform, The Trade Desk. The Trade Desk is the second advertising exchange Jeff has built, having sold his first venue to Microsoft in 2007. He started The Trade Desk in 2009 and has built it into a $30 billion public business. In our discussion, we talk about the parallels between The Trade Desk and an equity exchange, why Jeff chose to align with ad buyers not sellers, and how he shapes the culture of his firm. Please enjoy my conversation with Jeff Green.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

Listen to Founders podcast

Founders Episode #136 A Success Story: Estee Lauder

Founders Episode #288 Ralph Lauren

Invest Like the Best with David Senra: Passion & Pain

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Show Notes

[00:03:09] - [First question] - What he’s learned about human behavior and how it’s impacted his business

[00:05:45] - Big differences in generational and perennial behavior

[00:06:56] - The strong link between vulnerability and creativity

[00:07:42] - The necessary preconditions that allowed him to build Trade Desk the way he did

[00:10:53] - What it would have felt like as an early stage employee at Trade Desk

[00:12:43] - The hardest parts about maintaining his type of company culture

[00:14:05] - How much of his company culture is interwoven systemically or whether it arises naturally based on talent choices

[00:15:59] - Defining what talent means to him and the dimensions of it that matter

[00:22:03] - What he’s learned about delivering messages effectively

[00:23:49] - The founding story and history of Trade Desk

[00:28:33] - How he thinks about the key stakeholder groups around Trade Desk’s platform

[00:30:50] - Figuring out who Trade Desk’s key customers were and identifying them writ large

[00:34:55] - The composition of the universe and market of those who buy advertising

[00:36:11] - Practical product implications based on their choice of service

[00:40:16] - Building inventory legibility and its dimensions and importance

[00:47:55] - The time between the first line of code to a multi million dollar revenue stream

[00:50:29] - Markers for technology companies he’d look for that could achieve a similar scale

[00:53:35] - How not being able to simulate poverty or hunger translates into his parenting

[00:57:10] - Describing the margin differences between Trade Desk and Google

[00:59:00] - What stands out as the defining moment in his firm’s history

[01:01:50] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Carl Kawaja - Dealing with Regime Change - [Invest Like the Best, EP.314] Jan 31, 2023

Show notes

My guest this week is Carl Kawaja. It’s the second time I’ve had Carl on the show and my first conversation with him is one I go back to often. Carl is a portfolio manager at Capital Group, where he’s quietly overseen a huge portfolio for decades. He is one of the top investors operating today as well as one of my favorite people. The investing world has changed quite a bit since Carl and I first spoke in mid-2021 so this was a great chance to use Carl’s curious mind and wide range of experiences to discuss the regime change taking place across capital markets. In true Kawaja fashion, we go all over the map and discuss Apple, the Amazonian rainforest, baseball, the oil & gas industry, Muhammad Ali, and more. Please enjoy my great discussion with Carl Kawaja.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it's quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Show Notes

[00:02:44] - [First question] - What the market feels like to him today

[00:06:00] - The pros and cons of the cost of capital and experimentation

[00:09:09] - Things we can learn from Oil & Gas stocks and resource commodities in general

[00:14:38] - Pulling apart the key lessons from Berkshire’s purchases of IBM and Apple

[00:20:37] - The practical implications of wanting to land more soft-wins in investing that aren’t apparent out of the gate

[00:25:52] - How he approaches and considers products and product cycles writ large

[00:31:10] - The Systems Bible

[00:33:15] - Thoughts about making money from value based strategies

[00:38:31] - His methodology to go about finding the next diamond in the rough

[00:42:48] - A New Innings

[00:45:13] - The Arc of Boxing; Lessons from Muhammad Ali fighting Cleveland Williams

[00:48:54] - Someone he thinks is an exemplar in both business and the world

[00:54:37] - Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes

[00:59:41] - The role fossil fuels play in the energy transition and the current regime change

[01:07:35] - What we can learn from uncontroversial transitions in the past

Daryl Morey - Systems Thinking in Sports - [Invest Like the Best, EP.313] Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

My guest this week is Daryl Morey, who is President of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers. Daryl is a computer science graduate but has become one of the NBA’s most successful General Managers during his time with the Houston Rockets and the 76ers. Together with my friend and past guest of the show, Sam Hinkie, Daryl pioneered the analytics movement in basketball. He’s been so influential his style has its own name, “Moreyball”, a nod to Michael Lewis’s book about baseball, Moneyball. Daryl is also the co-founder of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which has become the gold standard forum for leaders in sports analytics. I had a blast talking to him about negotiation tactics, systems thinking, hiring, and a ton more. Please enjoy this great conversation with Daryl Morey.

Listen to Founders podcast

Founders Episode #136 A Success Story: Estee Lauder

Invest Like the Best with David Senra: Passion & Pain

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern SaaS platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Show Notes

[00:03:15] - [First question] - The basic principles of sports and what makes for a great sport

[00:09:54] - How resource concentration influences outcomes in various sports

[00:13:13] - The degree of certainty in predicting sports outcomes based on existing data

[00:16:32] - Using the concept of KPIs to optimize for certain characteristics to win games

[00:18:45] - Training teams on specific systems and plays versus leveraging individual talent

[00:21:07] - Why superstar athletes are key to success in basketball

[00:24:02] - Dealing with constant expected value calculations to appease stakeholders

[00:25:30] - Building the organization’s back office to find talented athletes

[00:28:32] - How he and other GMs make organization-level decisions

[00:34:12] - Why he’s involved with basketball as opposed to other sports

[00:36:17] - How he uses his frameworks to figure out systems outside of mainstream sports

[00:37:41] - Problems with the rules and economic factors of professional soccer

[00:42:54] - Trends he’s observed in the worlds of music, movies, and books

[00:45:33] - His perspective on developing one’s own career path

[00:48:22] - How challenges in his youth benefited him in the long run

[00:49:28] - The person he would call for advice if he was stuck in a foreign prison

[00:51:01] - His emphasis on first principles and why he supports free speech

[00:52:31] - Takeaways from a Harvard negotiation class he took

[00:57:07] - The power of refining the terms and definitions of a deal post-negotiation

[00:58:51] - The four people in the world that intrigue him most

[01:01:40] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Miles Grimshaw - The DNA of Software Companies - [Invest Like the Best, EP.312] Jan 17, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Miles Grimshaw. Miles is in his early thirties and is a General Partner at Benchmark. His experience and success belie his age. He was an early investor in Segment, Benchling, and Airtable, all before they had 30 employees. I have learned a ton from Miles about software investing and that’s why I was excited to have him on the show. We discuss his biological approach to investing, whether pure API companies can be good businesses, and what most has his attention right now. Please enjoy this conversation with Miles Grimshaw.

Listen to Founders podcast

Founders Episode #136 A Success Story: Estee Lauder

Invest Like the Best with David Senra: Passion & Pain

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern Saas platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. I’ve been so impressed by the platform that my firm, Positive Sum, recently made an investment in Tegus. We did so because we feel that Tegus will be the gold standard platform for investing research for decades to come. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Show Notes

[00:02:57] - [First question] - His notion of the investor as a biologist or a physicist

[00:05:24] - Why he seeks out new companies with unique business models

[00:07:53] - How his investments are based on present and future needs in the market

[00:11:55] - Evaluating the genetics of a nascent or small company

[00:13:38] - The half-life of information as it flows through a company or platform

[00:17:26] - Unpacking how software companies can survive re-evaluation periods

[00:21:03] - The power of environment creation and facilitation

[00:25:10] - The importance of user conferences

[00:25:45] - A company’s potential for a differentiated second act as a sign of good genes

[00:30:21] - Product quality, timing, and reinvention in tech startups

[00:33:10] - Why it’s crucial for companies to avoid copying their heroes

[00:37:41] - Breaking down market perspective on pure API companies

[00:41:29] - His views on software targeted to vertical versus horizontal markets

[00:44:29] - Carefully leveraging relationships with core customers

[00:48:06] - Operational lessons from his experience with the companies he’s invested in

[00:50:26] - His maxim that software development is as much an art as a science

[00:51:12] - His idea of a product magician in the software industry

[00:52:19] - Effects of new products and categories at the forefront of the space

[00:58:21] - How software founders should prepare for 2023

[01:01:41] - How both market structure and product shape the genetics of a business

[01:04:32] - The challenge of pricing and packaging for SaaS companies

[01:06:42] - Cardinal sins in software investing

[01:07:42] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

John Fio - Creating Magic for Consumers - [Invest Like the Best, EP.311] Jan 10, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is John Fiorentino. John is a product inventor and entrepreneur who, in the space of a few years, has bootstrapped four products; Gravity Blanket, Moon Pod, Moon Pals, and Birthdate Candles which have collectively sold hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. Our conversation is quite different than normal. Alongside his successful brands, John has had a range of life experiences – from starting as a Jazz musician to working for Justin Bieber - that give him an original worldview. I was especially interested in his points around product positioning, creating magic for consumers, not letting yourself become the product, and how to build enduring brands. Please enjoy this great conversation with John Fiorentino.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern SaaS platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. I’ve been so impressed by the platform that my firm, Positive Sum, recently made an investment in Tegus. We did so because we feel that Tegus will be the gold standard platform for investing research for decades to come. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Show Notes

[00:02:25] - [First question] - The amazing story behind Gravity Blanket

[00:08:51] - What he’s learned about positioning relative to product

[00:13:17] - How fundamental truths drive creativity in commerce

[00:16:17] - Real-world examples of magic as he defines it

[00:19:50] - The investability of consumer businesses from his perspective

[00:25:25] - His contrarian thoughts on venture-backed startups

[00:28:00] - How unique personalities create compelling IP and monetize it

[00:38:28] - The fine line between creative power and self-destruction for brand founders

[00:45:13] - The importance of consumer business goals being larger than oneself

[00:48:45] - The story of the Moon Pals weighted stuffed animals

[00:53:15] - How investors undervalue IP and mythology

[00:57:20] - Leveraging uniqueness as a founder to boost your brand power

[01:00:53] - His eye-opening experience working on Justin Bieber’s team

[01:05:20] - How he identifies potential magic-makers and enables them

[01:09:16] - An odd commonality between high-level successful people

[01:12:14] - Whether or not one could map out their own archetype framework

[01:15:23] - The dangers of focusing on one’s own persona and image as the product

[01:18:19] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Amjad Masad - The Future of Software Creation - [Invest Like the Best, EP.310] Jan 03, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Amjad Masad. Amjad is the founder and CEO of Replit, whose mission is to bring the next billion software creators online. Replit has built a browser-based coding environment that makes coding more fun, collaborative, and approachable. We discuss how that is possible and why the way most of us interact with computers today is suboptimal. We then go into the effects of AI on software creation and its broader impacts on technology. Please enjoy my conversation with Amjad Masad.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern SaaS platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. I’ve been so impressed by the platform that my firm, Positive Sum, recently made an investment in Tegus. We did so because we feel that Tegus will be the gold standard platform for investing research for decades to come. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Show Notes[00:02:18] - [First question] - The Steve Jobs black-pill

[00:06:02] - Speculation on the near future of programming

[00:09:38] - Potential convergence of simple software and coding tools

[00:11:23] - What an IDE is and how it works

[00:12:44] - The definition of REPL and the role of Replit in the space

[00:14:21] - Decreasing friction in a programming environment using primitives

[00:19:47] - Real-world effects of Replit’s low-friction design

[00:23:27] - His perspective on new coding and AI technologies

[00:30:29] - Promises and limitations of the user-friendly programming movement

[00:33:16] - The dynamic nature of IDE technology and its challenges

[00:39:53] - How he’s priming his team to react to new technologies like the upcoming GPT-4

[00:43:58] - Recommended skills and training for the AI world of the future

[00:47:21] - The impact of IDE and AI tech innovations on existing tech giants

[00:51:56] - His mixed but optimistic views on the trajectory of AI

[00:54:40] - Recommendations for the curious listener without a programming background

[00:56:50] - The role of smartphones in the IDE movement

[00:58:28] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Rebecca Lynn - Finding Your Customers - [Invest Like the Best, EP.309] Dec 27, 2022

Show notes

My guest this week is Rebecca Lynn. Rebecca co-founded early-stage investor Canvas Ventures in 2013 and is regularly featured as one of the best VCs in the market. She has deep positioning and go-to-market experience, which she honed during her time at Procter & Gamble, and that's the focus of our discussion. We cover the details of great marketing, why you should say no to customers, and how she has built Canvas. Please enjoy my discussion with Rebecca Lynn.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern Saas platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. I’ve been so impressed by the platform that my firm, Positive Sum, recently made an investment in Tegus. We did so because we feel that Tegus will be the gold standard platform for investing research for decades to come. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

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Today's episode is brought to you by Brex. Brex is the integrated financial platform trusted by the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and fastest-growing companies. With Brex, you can move money fast for instant impact with high-limit corporate cards, payments, venture debt, and spend management software all in one place. Ready to accelerate your business? Learn more at brex.com/best.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Show Notes

[00:02:37] - [First question] - What she’d do a great job teaching if she could teach a singular 401 level course

[00:05:20] - Defining what the umbrella concept is

[00:06:10] - What about her career at P&G applies most to the kinds of companies she spends her time with now

[00:12:06] - What types of questions she asks to help someone building a product understand their marketing angle

[00:15:34] - The top three things people do wrong when running a survey in tactics or strategy

[00:19:33] - Categories of questions where surveys are always helpful and effective

[00:21:06] - What the Go-To-Market Council is and what it does

[00:28:21] - The ways that most funnels are commonly broken

[00:31:17] - Defining great positioning and what it accomplishes

[00:33:36] - How her knowledge and ideas most impacted the way she built Canvas

[00:35:04] - Lessons learned about the world of digital health and the quantified self

[00:39:15] - The base level attributes that most indicate investment potential when she’s investing in a company

[00:42:32] - The shifts in the world that most have her attention today

[00:46:10] - What has her worried systemically about venture investing

[00:49:37] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her

Michael Mauboussin - Sharpening Investor & Executive Toolkits - [Invest Like the Best, EP.308] Dec 20, 2022

Show notes

My guest this week is Michael Mauboussin. Many of you will know Michael and his work well. He’s Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global, one of the sharpest investment minds I know, and a frequent guest on this show. In this discussion, we go deep into his recent work on market share, returns on capital, and capital allocation - all of which are coming under increasing scrutiny for different reasons. Please enjoy this great conversation with my friend Michael Mauboussin.

Listen to Founders podcast

Founders Episode #136 A Success Story: Estee Lauder

Invest Like the Best with David Senra: Passion & Pain

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern SaaS platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. I’ve been so impressed by the platform that my firm, Positive Sum, recently made an investment in Tegus. We did so because we feel that Tegus will be the gold standard platform for investing research for decades to come. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Show Notes

[00:03:46] - [First question] - Overview of Michael’s recent research on market share

[00:05:48] - Market share dynamics in modern history

[00:08:43] - How market share data is useful for investors

[00:12:30] - Investing in early breakout companies from low-concentration markets

[00:14:34] - Surprises from his recent research project

[00:15:29] - Using the value stick for stakeholder satisfaction

[00:19:12] - Examples of value creation using the value stick

[00:23:33] - Market power in relation to markups and willingness to pay

[00:32:00] - Identifying a company’s real ROIC numbers

[00:44:00] - How important absolute ROIC is when picking investments

[00:47:07] - Research on capital generation and allocation trends

[00:54:25] - Characteristics of great capital allocation strategies

[00:59:26] - Surprises in the market since his deep-dive research

[01:02:54] - Artificial intelligence and other sources of disruptive innovation

Jeremiah Lowin: Explaining the New AI Paradigm - [Invest Like the Best, EP.307] Dec 13, 2022

Show notes

My guest this week is Jeremiah Lowin. Jeremiah has been on the podcast a number of times over the years. He’s one of my oldest friends who has been a sounding board for me throughout my career. Today he is the founder and CEO of Prefect, which helps companies automate and orchestrate their dataflows. In full disclosure, Positive Sum is an investor in Prefect. We didn’t plan this conversation, but when OpenAI released ChatGPT, I called Jeremiah for a primer on what’s happening under the hood and how best to contextualize this product amidst the growing AI movement. We have these conversations often, but this time I decided to record it so we can all learn from someone I consider to be a leading mind in the fields of data science and machine learning. We start off in the weeds and zoom out as the discussion unfolds. Please enjoy this conversation with my friend, Jeremiah Lowin.

Listen to Founders podcast

Founders Episode #136 A Success Story: Estee Lauder

Invest Like the Best with David Senra: Passion & Pain

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Show Notes

[00:03:38] - [First question] - What a pre-trained transformer is

[00:06:12] - What latent representation means in the context of AI models

[00:09:57] - Models using math to interpret input data and generate images accurately

[00:11:43] - Whether or not understanding AI complexity in light of the results they arrive at will become a black box scenario

[00:14:13] - A high level history of the companies involved in generative AI

[00:17:51] - The precursory technology that makes generative AI art possible

[00:21:01] - What people are doing to improve AI models in between versions

[00:26:39] - Things that are literally happening during AI training

[00:33:38] - Whether or not AI models might one day function as a utility like electricity

[00:36:01] - Coding using GitHub Copilot and what it’s felt like to use it

[00:40:30] - How he’d approach starting an AI company from scratch

[00:44:40] - Developing this technology beyond general and into specific use cases

[00:49:44] - The secret sauce for defensibility in the AI model space

[00:53:02] - What he’s watching more closely as the story unfolds

[00:56:32] - Whether or not he thinks that these toolkits will eventually learn how to use other systems like Unreal Engine on our behalf

Bill Lenehan: Investing in Commercial Real Estate - [Invest Like the Best, EP.306] Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

My guest today is Bill Lenehan. Bill is the CEO of Four Corners Property Trust, a listed REIT and one of the leading owners of restaurant real estate in the US. Their portfolio is made up of 982 properties across 47 states. Real estate is something most of us own, whether as an investment or a home, and Bill’s insight into the asset class at this particular moment in time is fascinating to hear. Please enjoy my conversation with Bill Lenehan.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus streamlines the investment research process so you can get up to speed and find answers to critical questions on companies faster and more efficiently. The Tegus platform surfaces the hard-to-get qualitative insights, gives instant access to critical public financial data through BamSEC, and helps you set up customized expert calls. It’s all done on a single, modern SaaS platform that offers 360-degree insight into any public or private company. I’ve been so impressed by the platform that my firm, Positive Sum, recently made an investment in Tegus. We did so because we feel that Tegus will be the gold standard platform for investing research for decades to come. As a listener, you can take Tegus for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

Show Notes

[00:03:19] - [First question] - Recent increases in mortgage rates and a frozen housing market

[00:08:55] - Projected real estate trends over the next decade

[00:13:38] - How a company’s ROI can be more consistent with backing from a real estate firm

[00:16:41] - Risk-return rate and risk exposure in real estate compared to other asset classes

[00:20:09] - The skills, traits, and circumstances that make a top-level real estate investor

[00:22:38] - Stand-out learnings from his time at Farallon Capital Management

[00:33:20] - The value of shopping malls and offices in a post-COVID, e-commerce US

[00:39:27] - Pros and cons of different types of real estate investments, including REITs

[00:43:22] - The impact of climate change on the real estate market

[00:45:39] - The role of modern technology in investing and in real estate infrastructure

[00:51:10] - Hard costs of building and renovating for the future

[00:54:20] - How hard costs and supply levels impact rates of return and housing costs

[00:57:17] - How the retail industry is adapting to consumer trends

[01:01:23] - Why retailers need to adapt to a changing economy and how they’ll do it

[01:04:03] - The relative magnitude of change in today’s real estate market

[01:06:51] - The role health and wellness plays in real estate and finance

[01:09:28] - What it feels like to be investing in 2022

[01:12:23] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

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Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy

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