Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Latest Episodes:

Albert Wenger - World After Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.80] Mar 13, 2018

Show notes

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

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

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

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

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

World After Capital

Show Notes

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

2:58 – World After Capital

3:56 – Trans-humans vs neo-humans

4:37 – The concept of Qualia

5:25 – Albert’s investment philosophy=

8:27 – How Albert began his exploration into cryptocurrencies

12:59 – Most exciting things blockchains could enable

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

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

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

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

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

29:10 – The idea of universal basic income

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

35:00 – How scarcity has changed over time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Savneet Singh - The Berkshire of Software - [Invest Like the Best, EP.79] Mar 06, 2018

Show notes

My guest this week is another in a recent series of people that makes me want to work harder, learn more, and do more for others. His name is Savneet Singh, and he has already accomplished a remarkable amount in the worlds of business and investing. He’s preferred to keep a bit of a low profile, but I’m hoping, for everyone’s sake, to change that a little bit.

Savneet has invested in unique things like Spanish real estate, famous startups like Uber, cryptocurrencies before they were cool, and even websites. He founded and built a fintech company. And now, he both a partner at the wide-ranging investment firm CoVenture, with my previous guest Ali Hamed, and the co-founder of Tera Holdings, which is trying to become the Berkshire Hathaway of software companies.

To say this conversation is wide-ranging is an understatement. What’s neat is that my favorite parts aren’t even on investing, but are instead on principles for living.

Savneet is one of the best people I’ve met in this journey. I’ve had several other conversations with him with shockingly low overlap with the one you are about to hear—a testament to his active and curious mind. I hope you enjoy learning from him as much as I have.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Ali Hamed podcast episolde

The VERY simple bear case for bitcoin

Owl Mountain

Books Referenced

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist

The Gorilla Game: Picking Winners in High Technology

Show Notes

2:30 – (First Question) – How Savneet started thinking about Spanish real estate.

4:29 – Why Airbnb could be the most impactful and interesting of the companies like this

5:25 – Savneet’s early entrepreneurial ventures

6:42 – His big investing influences

7:02 – Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist

7:40 – What did Savneet learn in his two years on the sell-side of Wall Street

8:50 – How the financial crisis impacted Savneet

10:11 – The entrepreneurial journey and GBI

11:40 – Savneet’s observations on the FinTech space and investing in it

16:22 – His thoughts on venture capital style investing

18:36 – Transition out of GBI into his partnership with Ali Hamed

22:13 – The impactful things that his parents did for him

23:23 – How Savneet thinks about justice in his life

26:19 – Why value investing struck a chord with Savneet

28:14 – Defining the proper long-term mindset when starting a company

31:21 – Knowing what he knows now, what does he think about Berkshire today

33:22 – The strategy behind Terra and how it came together

35:00 – His checklist for deciding to invest in a firm

41:38 – Why does Savneet think this is the space he wants to remain in for the long-term

44:39 – How they are thinking about pricing a company they invest in

47:03 – Lessons learned in sales and marketing that he can and will bring to the software world

52:05 – What Savneet has learned from Constellation

59:08 – What lessons has Savneet learned about taxes in their company structure

1:02:13 – How they think about capital sourcing

1:05:08 – His balanced view on crypto as an asset class

1:05:18 – The VERY simple bear case for bitcoin

1:09:45 – Savneet shares the Sikh philosophy with Patrick

1:13:21 – A look at Owl Mountain

1:15:59 – The Gorilla Game: Picking Winners in High Technology

1:16:42 – Any other areas that people are underestimating

1:17:22 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Savneet

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

Dan Rasmussen - Private Equity Returns in Public Markets - [Invest Like the Best, EP.78] Feb 27, 2018

Show notes

It has been a while since we discussed private equity on the show, so I was excited for this week’s conversation. My guest is Dan Rasmussen, the founder of Verdad advisers. Dan worked in private equity and has spent years studying the entire field.

Dan identified several key drivers of private equity’s outsized returns: size, value, and leverage. His firm uses these factors as a starting point to build a portfolio of public equities that behave like their private brethren.

We cover a ton of ground, discussing the prospective returns for equities, forecasting, and tons of investing strategies.

Please enjoy this conversation with Dan Rasmussen.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Subscribe to Dan

The Gospel According to Michael Porter

Tobias Carlisle

Steven Pinker

E.O. Wilson

Books Referenced

What Works on Wall Street, Fourth Edition: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time

Quantitative Value, + Web Site: A Practitioner's Guide to Automating Intelligent Investment and Eliminating Behavioral Errors

Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?

Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

Show Notes

2:03 – (First Question) – The current state of private equity investing

4:09 – The three myths of private equity

6:51 – Taking a deeper dive into the myth of growth through operational improvements

9:29 – What Works on Wall Street, Fourth Edition: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time

11:25 – Valuations for private market investment and where they’re going

14:03 – Private equity companies that have a higher chance of delivering results that exceed expectation

16:39 – Other observations on the private equity space that would be interesting to investors considering the asset class

19:33 – Importance of being very purposeful in picking your reference classes

19:42 – Subscribe to Dan

22:03 – How do the lessons Dan has learned in private equity translate to his investment strategies

25:21 – How do you apply purely technical, systematic thinking into public market investing

29:23 – Analyzing leveraged stocks and the value they could create

30:06 – How Dan thinks about the direction of debt vs just the level

33:11 – Predicting a firms ability to deleverage

35:20 – How Dan’s company whittle down a company and are able to see value beyond their quantitative screens

41:29 – How does Dan think about the global vs US opportunity set

44:22 – What originally drew Dan to the Japan market

47:03 – How do rising rates impact Dan’s strategy in investing in highly leveraged companies

55:03 – Porter’s five forces

55:25 - The Gospel According to Michael Porter

1:00:51 – How Dan thinks about competitive advantage

1:04:41 – Exploring Dan’s personal process in pursuit of his ideal strategy

1:05:19 – Quantitative Value, + Web Site: A Practitioner's Guide to Automating Intelligent Investment and Eliminating Behavioral Errors

1:05:20 – Tobias Carlisle

1:06:27 – Steven Pinker

1:06:28 – E.O. Wilson

1:07:11 – What other markets pique Dan’s interest

1:09:39 – Why there is such a focus on small for Dan

1:11:24 – Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know?

1:11:28– Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction

1:12:54– What was it like writing the book

1:17:19 – If Dan was going to write another book today, what would it be about

1:19:08– Kindest thing anyone has done for Dan

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

Pat Dorsey Returns - The Moat Portfolio - [Invest Like the Best, EP.77] Feb 20, 2018

Show notes

My guest this week, back for a second conversation, is Pat Dorsey. Pat ran equity research at Morningstar before leaving to start his own asset management company: Dorsey Asset Management. His areas of deep interest are competitive advantage and capital allocation. He believes that capital allocation should be in service of competitive advantage and invests in a concentrated portfolio that he and his team feel embody these ideas.

If you have not already, I strongly recommend listening to our first conversation, which is a sort of crash course on moats. In this conversation, we cover different ground. We spend much more time on individual stocks like Facebook, Google, and Chegg, using them as examples to explore Pat’s investment philosophy and strategy.

Across a few conversations with Pat, I can tell he is in love with this stuff, and I always enjoy talking to investors like him who so passionately pursue and edge. Please enjoy round two with Pat Dorsey.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Pat Dorsey's first appearance on the podcast

HQ - Live Trivia Game Show

Books Referenced

World After Capital

Principles: Life and Work

Show Notes

2:15 – (First Question) – Pat’s methods for valuing a business

4:17 – Is this process done after they would first identify potential targets for investment

5:11 – Pat’s take on how the market classifies stocks as growth vs value

6:40 – Qualitative insights and why the market can’t price them very accurately

9:57 – The business model behind zero marginal cost distribution business model

12:00 – Network effects and the potential downside to them down the road

13:54 – Valuing Facebook as a business heavily reliant on network effects

16:45 – What would have to change for Pat’s position on Facebook to radically change

18:58 – Most important lessons that a smaller/private business could learn from Facebook or Google’s business models

19:48 – Where is Amazon in Pat’s portfolio

22:06 – An example of where primary research led to a big surprise about a company

24:05 – The value of travel in this business, starting with recent travel to India

26:05 – Why are they targeting India and Japan

27:24 – How does he think about the risk of investing in foreign markets

29:52 – His thinking on relative vs absolute market share

31:26 – Exploring the SaaS business model

34:35 – The application of moats and pricing power with SaaS businesses

34:36 – Pat Dorsey's first appearance on the podcast

40:07 – Other models that Pat explores and how to screen for them

41:37 – How does he parse the difference between attention and demand

43:19 – How would Pat monetize something like HQ - Live Trivia Game Show that has aggregated massive amount of attention

45:19 – How does Pat react to the idea that attention is scarce and human capital is so crucial

45:14 – World After Capital

47:04 – How does Pat evaluate human capital in a business

48:09 – Experience in starting an asset management business

50:20 – What are the levers that are biggest value drivers in the asset management business

53:57 – Pat’s view on the strength of the relationship between risk and return

57:06 – The most risk Pat has taken in the face of uncertainty

59:23 – Favorite recent learning resource

59:43 – Principles: Life and Work

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

Josh Wolfe - This is Who You Are Up Against - [Invest Like the Best, EP.76] Feb 13, 2018

Show notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Investing in Biofuels or Biofools?

Ali Hamed podcast

Alex Moazed podcast

Andy Rachleff podcast

Popplet

@wolfejosh

Books Referenced

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

World After Capital

Show Notes

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

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

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

10:40 – How Josh manages his time and attention

12:53 – Investing in Biofuels or Biofools?

13:29 – Obsession with nuclear

18:28 – Focus on autonomous vehicles

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

22:56 – Tattoo technology

24:20 – Ali Hamed podcast

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

24:45 – Alex Moazed podcast

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

29:50 – Memorable experience investing in a founder

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

30:56 – Andy Rachleff podcast

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

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

38:34 – Popplet

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

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

49:03 – @wolfejosh

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

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

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

54:15 – World After Capital

55:16 – How does Josh evaluate competitive advantage

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

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

1:02:48 – Thoughts on cryptocurrency

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

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

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

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

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Harvey Sawikin - Emerging Market Opportunities - [Invest Like the Best, EP.75] Feb 06, 2018

Show notes

My guest this week is Harvey Sawikin, a co-founder and lead portfolio manager at Firebird Management, which manages funds dedicated to investing in emerging market equities. Emerging markets are often a blind spot for investors of all types: most of us have never traveled to the far east or eastern Europe, where many of the thousands of emerging market public equities operate.

I’ve been very lucky to travel quite a bit in Asia and the Middle East, but never to eastern Europe, which where Firebird focuses its investments. Harvey and I discuss his 24 years of experience evaluating emerging and frontier market countries, industries, and individual stocks. We discuss his experience buying privatization vouchers in Russia, banks in the Baltics, and how today’s emerging market opportunity set compares to the past.

Like so many of these conversations with investors who have earned significant excess returns, its clear investing opportunities in emerging markets are often disguised. Finding them requires risk, hard work, discipline, and a dose of luck and timing. Please enjoy my conversation with Harvey on Emerging Market Opportunities.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Via

Books Referenced

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel

Education of Rick Green, Esquire

Show Notes

2:26 – (First Question) – Most memorable travel experience since the beginning of Firebird

5:41 - How Harvey got interested in emerging markets investing, specifically, Eastern Europe and Russia

10:00 – How does the landscape for emerging markets today compare to when he first started

12:30 – What are the factors of an emerging market to look at and why do some not pan out

15:04 – Do countries have to meet minimum criteria before Harvey and his team will even start to do work on an emerging market

17:33 – How does Harvey distinguish between frontier and emerging markets

18:37 – Thoughts on the access points that regular investors have into emerging markets, such as ETF’s and Mutual Funds

23:48 – How does Harvey think about risk exposure when constructing a portfolio

25:56 – Looking at the bottom up part of the equation, what factors within a company or sector are considered as part of the investing decision

31:05 – Dividends in emerging markets

33:09 – How do US equities stack up as an investment against fixed income

34:53 - The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel

36:52 - How do US equities stack up as an investment against emerging markets

39:38 – What type of investor allocate funds to emerging markets

42:37 – The value of travel in understanding emerging markets

50:19 – Biggest mistakes that emerging market investors make

54:49 – What in today’s markets has the smell of opportunity

55:53 – Harvey’s interest in Via

56:58 – Interest in buying gold coins

1:00:05 – If Harvey could only choose one country to visit, business or pleasure, where would he go

1:01:09 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Harvey

1:01:38 – Education of Rick Green, Esquire

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

Anthony Pompliano - Full Tilt Investing- [Invest Like the Best, EP.74] Jan 30, 2018

Show notes

My guest this week is Anthony Pompliano. Pomp began his career in the military, and has since been a successful entrepreneur, worked as a head of growth at Facebook, and started Full Tilt Capital, an early stage investing firm in North Carolina.

This conversation has three memorable sections. Early on, we discuss the four traits Pomp looks for in founders, which we cover in detail. These double as traits that are important when hiring anyone. Next, we discuss his unique take on cryptocurrencies, where he is excited about the prospects for tokenized securities. Finally, we explore a unique media company, Bar Stool Sports, and what makes it such a powerful brand.

Please enjoy our somewhat abbreviated discussion and know we will continue the conversation soon.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports’ Secret Billion Dollar Plan

Books Referenced

Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter

Show Notes

2:06 - (First Question) – Recap of Anthony’s military career

4:07 – Most memorable experience while deployed

5:27 – Transition out of the military and how it shaped his investing philosophy

11:19 – investing philosophy of Full Tilt, starting with deal economics

10:00 – Attributes of an ideal founder

13:50 - Where you actual learn the attributes that make you a good founder

14:40 – Time that Anthony has taken the biggest risk in life

16:45 – What is the viewpoint that Full Tilt has today that gives it Alpha in the market

18:47 – Why tokenized securities could be advantageous for investors in a company

19:51 – Anthony’s explanation of a tokenized security and what needs to happen for this idea to be fully realized in the market

22:22 – What could be the impact on the markets of making liquidity in venture so readily available

24:39 – What are tokenized securities actually invested in in the real world

27:42 – What does Anthony think about the commodity risk

29:04 – Describing Standard American Mining, a company they incubated

29:58 – Exploring the shift from a CPU world to a GPU world

31:49 – Getting involved in places where we haven’t caught up with the rest of the world

33:05 – Anthony’s interest in Barstool Sports

33:11 – Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports’ Secret Billion Dollar Plan

37:09 – Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter

39:02 – What lessons from Full Tilt world would Anthony share with others in the more traditional business world

40:35 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Anthony

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

Dr. Ben Hunt - The Three-Body Portfolio - [Invest Like the Best, EP.73] Jan 23, 2018

Show notes

My guest this week is Dr. Ben Hunt, the chief investment strategist at Salient and the author of the extremely popular epsilon theory. I’ve always enjoyed Ben’s writing style, particularly his use of farm and animal based analogies to describe market phenomenon. In this conversation, we discuss his recent post the three body problem, why growth has been beating value, and why a strategy that he calls profound agnosticism—a take on risk parity—may be the most appropriate investing strategy in what he views as a very uncertain world. We also discuss some of his favorite lessons from the farm. 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

Links Referenced

The Three-Body Problem

Show Notes

1:54 - (First Question) – Applying the three-body problem to investing

7:24 – Fundamental view of investing, Profound Agnosticism

8:24 – Why has value done so poorly relative to growth in this framework

11:01 - Ben’s thoughts on why value has been underperforming for so long

13:52 – Investors should be able to adapt

17:49 – Thoughts on the risk parity approach

23:23 – Ben’s strategy for working with several teams

26:48 – What’s the best way to gain an edge, top down factors vs company/bond individual analysis

28:29 – How do you measure risk amid the large amount of uncertainty that exists in markets

32:40 – How does Ben personally think about investing

34:41 – Ben’s farm and the investing lessons learned by some of the animals

39:55 – How bees can plan out their entire work structure by the angle of the sun

42:58 – Defining basis risk

44:59 – Personal risk vs portfolio risk

49:30 – The concept of fingernail clean and our perception of what eggs are

53:57 – How ETFs are like mass produced eggs

54:56 – Exploring the idea of quality vs scaling

58:39 – What is the current challenge/puzzle that Ben is focused on right now

1:01:59 – What is Ben looking for when looking into game theory and applying it to the words that are published and spoken about investing

1:03:57 – Most memorable day on Ben’s farm

1:05:04 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Ben

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

Preston Byrne - Crypto-pocalypse - [Invest Like the Best, EP.72] Jan 16, 2018

Show notes

My guest this week is Preston Byrne. Preston is vocal critic of crazy prices and projects in the world cryptocurrencies. His background is in the legal world and also as a founder and former COO of Monax, which made the first open-source permissioned blockchain client.

As Preston says, he is a “blockchain without bitcoin” guy, who believes that this crypto mania will end in some sort of apocalypse for token holders and ICO issuers .

We tackle several issues, from his broad skepticism of crypto assets, to the potential regulatory reaction from major governments, to types of coins like stable coins, which Preston views as analogous to perpetual motion machines.

Please enjoy our conversation and for any crypto investors out there, let me know if this conversation affects your opinion of the investing prospects for cryptocurrencies.

Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Links Referenced

Bitcoin white paper

The Bear Case for Crypto

Hash Power series

Zero Hedge

Preston tweet on Reverse network effect

Show Notes

2:12 - (First Question) –Ponzi scheme vs pyramid scheme vs Nakimoto scheme

5:29 – Why there are regulatory challenges to cryptocurrency

5:33 – The Bear Case for Crypto

9:59 – Who are the most influential people supporting this and how are they swaying the regulatory minefield on this issue

10:28 – Hash Power series

13:23 – Looking into the idea of a digital asset and the difference between blockchain and the token itself

16:09 – What about the idea that cryptocurrency’s only feature is that it’s censorship resistant

18:39 – Why cryptocurrencies become less usable the more successful they are

18:59 – Zero Hedge

21:04 – Why can’t we rely on offchain solutions to solve the scaling issue

22:29 – The idea of bubbles and what happens next in this one

25:41 – What are the incentives to build technology to support cryptocurrencies

29:23 – Explaining Ripple

31:21 – What would precipitate a massive reversal in the inflated valuations of cryptocurrencies

34:52 – Understanding reverse network effects

34:36 – Preston tweet on Reverse network effect

37:45 – The principles behind Stablecoin

42:20 – What has been the greatest lesson that Preston has learned about blockchain he wish he knew when he first got started

44:05 – How embedded will blockchain be by 2024/2025

45:12 – ICO’s, why Preston is not a fan and if there are any positives to them

50:20 – What are the conditions under which these things will be viewed legally.

54:00 – Preston’s history owning cryptocurrencies

55:35 – What has Preston most excited in the space

59:02 – Utility settlement coin

1:00:36 – Why the fascination with marmots

1:02:10 – What to reference before getting started with cryptocurrencies

1:04:03 – Understanding supply chains in block chain

1:07:14 – Some smart people on block chain to follow

1:08:24 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Preston

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

Ali Hamed – Creative Investing - [Invest Like the Best, EP.71] Jan 09, 2018

Show notes

I have a special request this week: share this episode with every curious person in your life.

The conversation, with a 26-year old investor named Ali Hamed, serves as an example of what’s possible when you think creatively.

Ali views the world with a fresh set of eyes, and has already become an expert at identifying new investment opportunities where others have not. As the second prodigy 26 year old in as many weeks on the podcast, these young guns are making me feel like an ancient 32 year old.

We talk a lot about “alpha” in our world, earning returns better than the market. But the key word in that last sentence isn’t alpha, it’s earning. Hopefully you, like me, will use this conversation as a reminder of what it takes to earn differentiated returns. It’s not just the hard work, but also the mindset. We explore many examples of how to create new investment opportunities, from rolling up Instagram accounts, to financing perishable fruit like watermelons, to heavy machinery software.

Please enjoy this special conversation with Ali Hamed. Follow him and his partners. And then go figure out how to earn success yourself in whatever it is you do by helping other people solve problems with empathy.

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

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

Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Books Referenced

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Links Referenced

Sheel Tyle Podcast

Seed Investing is a B2C Business, While Growth Stage investing is a B2B Business

Ira Judelson podcast

Free Content and Digital Media Are Increasing Socio-Economic Disparity

Show Notes

2:24 - (First Question) Ali’s investment philosophy