My guest today is Henry Schuck, the founder and CEO of ZoomInfo. I’ve gotten to know Henry over the past year by virtue of him being on the board of Tegus, where I’m a board observer. I meet a lot of people and Henry is one of my favorites. His energy is unmatched and he knows his business down to the tiniest details. He has tenacity and curiosity in spades. ZoomInfo is a go-to-market software and data solution for B2B sales. Henry founded the business as DiscoverOrg in 2007 and bootstrapped it for the first 7 years of its life. Today, it’s an $8.5 billion public company with a database of over 140 million business contacts. We delve into the science of great sales, Henry shares some awesome stories, and we talk about his business philosophy more broadly. Please enjoy my great conversation with Henry Schuck. ZoomInfo Business Breakdown Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren 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 is the modern research platform for leading investors, and provider of Canalyst. Tired of calculating fully-diluted shares outstanding? Access every publicly-reported datapoint and industry-specific KPI through their database of over 4,000 driveable global models handbuilt by a team of sector-focused analysts, 25+ industry comp sheets, and Excel add-ins that let you use their industry-leading data in your own spreadsheets. Tegus’ models automatically update each quarter, including hard to calculate KPIs like stock-based compensation and organic growth rates, empowering investors to bypass the friction of sourcing, building and updating models. Make efficiency your competitive advantage and take back your time today. As a listener, you can trial Canalyst by Tegus for free 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.  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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:03:19) - (First question) - The story of Henry’s famous email about building a championship team (00:07:01) - Dealing with pressure in business (00:09:14) - Applying pressure from the top down as a CEO (00:10:28) - How ZoomInfo’s C-suite was constructed and how it operates (00:13:17) - A high-level picture of their product philosophy (00:19:29) - Rating the effectiveness of the average B2B go-to-market engine (00:21:25) - An anecdote about meeting with the head of commercial banking at one of world’s largest banks (00:23:06) - What separates the good from the great B2B go-to-market strategies (00:27:30) - Specific questions for screening potential salespeople; characteristics to look for (00:31:39) - The story of bootstrapping his startup (00:36:05) - His view on the process of pricing (00:40:54) - The importance of M&A in building the business (00:47:01) - The story of how ZoomInfo was acquired (00:50:06) - The ever-shifting goal posts of mergers and acquisitions (00:53:15) - Anecdotes of hustling in the early days (00:59:34) - Another story from the early days of selling (01:03:40) - Using information to influence a potential lead into a sale (01:04:57) - How companies can prepare for the advent of generative AI (01:12:10) - The stages of what it means to be a CEO (01:13:15) - Learning how to execute M&A (01:16:43) - What it means for a company to work in unison at scale (01:18:26) - His advice on M&A, company core values, and corporate communication (01:26:57) - Tips for going public with a company (01:28:33) - Lessons learned from leading a public company (01:34:47) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Henry Schuck - Building ZoomInfo - [Invest Like the Best, EP.330]

Today’s conversation was recorded during last week’s Sohn Conference. I sat down with Karen Karniol-Tambour, Co-CIO at Bridgewater Associates. I hosted Karen on this show two years ago and if you listened to that, you’ll remember she has a rare skill for distilling and analysing complex macro topics. Today’s environment is strikingly different to the summer of 2021 so this is a timely conversation on the big macro variables that are on investors’ minds today. Please enjoy my conversation with Karen Karniol-Tambour. Sohn 2023 | Kiril Sokoloff in conversation with Stanley Druckenmiller Sohn 2023 | Patrick Collison in conversation Sam Altman Listen to Founders Podcast Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren 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, the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust. At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks, Tegus customers pay only what an expert charges – with zero markups and no confusing call credits – netting an average 70% savings. Don’t want to conduct a full hour call? Tegus offers the ability to schedule 30-minutes, an offer you won’t find anywhere else. And they don’t stop there. With white-glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures, including a dedicated 50+ analyst team that vets every call transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection. As the industry innovator for qualitative insights, Tegus helps you find the right experts you need at a quality and speed that can’t be matched. For a limited time, as a listener, you can trial Tegus for free 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. 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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:03:05) - (First question) - Her take on AI and watching this new technology unfold (00:06:39) - Things she’s watching in the AI space that might lead to taking portfolio action  (00:09:19) - Potentially using AI to inform or make investment decisions  (00:10:17) - Why might it be the case that no one can use AI for investing in macro markets (00:11:14) - What she’d write about regarding the general state of capital markets today (00:13:46) - What pricing is telling us about market sentiment writ large (00:15:47) - Thinking about portfolio positioning in light of the unattractive state of risk assets (00:17:17) - Her perspectives on gold historically and today  (00:20:09) - Big long-term slow-moving macro variables that aren’t quite visible yet  (00:22:09) - The all-weather portfolio and building one in light of so much uncertainty  (00:24:38) - The rise of China, its growing power, and potential conflicts with the US  (00:28:01) - Monitoring for things like the banking crisis beneath the public narrative  (00:31:13) - Non-obvious variables that currently have her attention  (00:33:29) - “Overrated or underrated” rapid-fire questions (00:36:04) - What it’s been like being the CIO of Bridgewater so far  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Karniol-Tambour - Macro Headwinds vs. Tech Tailwinds - [Invest Like the Best, EP.329]

My guest this week is Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart. Fidji grew up in a small town in the South of France and was the first person in her family to graduate from high school. Since then, she has had a dazzling career with stops at France’s leading university, eBay, and Facebook. Fidji spent the better part of a decade at Facebook where she led the Facebook App before joining the online grocery platform, Instacart, in mid 2021. We talk about Fidji’s consumer product experiences, Instacart’s role within the grocery ecosystem, and delve into her personal philosophy on leadership. Please enjoy this wide-ranging discussion with Fidji Simo. Apply for the Investigative Research Analyst position at Positive Sum. Listen to Founders Podcast Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren 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, the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust. At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks, Tegus customers pay only what an expert charges – with zero markups and no confusing call credits – netting an average 70% savings. Don’t want to conduct a full hour call? Tegus offers the ability to schedule 30-minutes, an offer you won’t find anywhere else. And they don’t stop there. With white-glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures, including a dedicated 50+ analyst team that vets every call transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection. As the industry innovator for qualitative insights, Tegus helps you find the right experts you need at a quality and speed that can’t be matched. For a limited time, as a listener, you can trial Tegus for free 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.  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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:03:51) - (First question) - Comparing her experiences with Facebook and Instacart (00:06:22) - The dimensionality of creating great consumer products online (00:07:50) - How Instacart uses AI now and her advice to other companies who are ready to incorporate AI into their business (00:15:41) - What being a pragmatic technologist means to her (00:18:02) - Influences in younger years that led to her career path in technology (00:21:00) - The landscape Instacart seeks to build and how major key players within the industry are involved (00:27:09) - Data algorithms and their role in helping consumers (00:29:24) - Scale around the original core business (00:32:12) - The functional difference between Instacart shoppers and delivery drivers  (00:34:59) - Issues with fully automated grocery store facilities (00:37:32) - Insight into working with brands and consumer brand loyalty  (00:43:16) - Her vision for the future of Instacart (00:49:34) - Her principles for capital allocation (00:52:34) - Common misperceptions about Instacart from prospective investors (00:54:21) - Her philosophy of seeing the magic in team members (00:56:46) - Expanding knowledge while managing a complex business environment   (01:01:01) - When she felt the most helpless in her career (01:03:46) - Insight into generative AI and how it could shape the online grocery experience (01:08:00) - The role of content and its importance for businesses like Instacart (01:12:35) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fidji Simo - Creating Delightful Consumer Experiences - [Invest Like the Best, EP.328]

My guests this week are Jeremy Levine, Kent Bennett, and Brian Feinstein. They are partners at one of the oldest and most storied venture firms in the world, Bessemer Venture Partners. Our conversation is split into two parts. First, we explore Bessemer itself. It’s over 100 years old and has a unique operating model with lessons for every investment firm in the market. We then discuss Jeremy, Kent, and Brian’s investing styles and outlook. What they look for in businesses, their thoughts on various sectors like vertical market software, and we close with a discussion about AI and defensibility. Please enjoy this great conversation.  Listen to Founders Podcast Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren 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, the modern research platform for leading investors. Tired of running your own expert calls to get up to speed on a company? Tegus lets you ramp faster and find answers to critical questions more efficiently than any alternative method. The gold standard for research, the Tegus platform delivers unmatched access to timely, qualitative insights through the largest and most differentiated expert call transcript database. With over 55,000 transcripts spanning 22,000 public and private companies, investors can accelerate their fundamental research process by discovering highly-differentiated and reliable insights that can’t be found anywhere else in the market. As a listener, drive your next investment thesis forward with Tegus for free at 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. 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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:03:14) - (First question) - The unique history of Bessemer and how the firm stays current (00:08:55) - The role of heritage and cooperative partnership in Bessemer’s model (00:14:36) - How giving each partner autonomy and commissions can lead to better personal and company outcomes (00:17:18) - The extent of freedom a partner has in terms of the style of investments made (00:20:38) - Retro-analyzing the effectiveness of their investment roadmaps and core insights (00:25:10) - What conflict typically looks like in partners’ conversations and how they resolve it (00:27:06) - How they enable their junior staff using apprenticeship and open dialogue (00:31:31) - Their different taste in investment targets  (00:35:11) - How they each evaluate companies based on their unique interests (00:42:32) - Their thoughts on valuations and how they have dealt with with run-ups in the tech market (00:45:46) - What they anticipate in the future of early-stage investing (00:49:43) - The significance of Centaur companies that have hit $100-million in revenue (00:52:38) - The success of Bessemer’s writing and online content (00:55:13) - Where the vertical market software industry is in its life cycle (00:59:12) - How the next wave of innovation may revolutionize software or even depart from it (01:02:33) - Advice they give to companies looking to prepare for future shifts in tech and AI (01:04:46) - What excites them and what scares them within the development of LLMs (01:08:18) - Defensibility of an LLM-based company, given the high level of competition  (01:10:39) - How their firm deals with terminating partners if and when they aren’t a good fit (01:14:53) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for each of them Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bessemer Venture Partners - Building a VC Firm that Lasts Centuries - [Invest Like the Best, EP.327]

My guest this week is Alexis Rivas. Alexis is the co-founder and CEO of Cover, which is pioneering a new way of building homes. It’s no surprise to anyone that aspects of our housing market is broken. The market is undersupplied and littered with regulatory issues. The homebuilding process has also not changed for the better part of a century. Alexis is attacking the problem and has taken a leaf out of the car industry’s learnings to create a similar production process for home building. In our discussion, we talk about his idea of lego pieces for homes, how they’re refining production with backyard homes first, and how this may change the way people buy and sell homes in future. Please enjoy my conversation with Alexis Rivas. Listen to Founders Podcast Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren 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 is the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust. At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks, Tegus customers pay only what an expert charges – with zero markups and no confusing call credits – netting an average 70% savings. Don’t want to conduct a full hour call? Tegus offers the ability to schedule 30-minutes, an offer you won’t find anywhere else. And they don’t stop there. With white-glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures, including a dedicated 50+ analyst team that vets every call transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection. For a limited time, you can trial Tegus for free 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.  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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:03:39) - (First question) - Supply and demand situation writ large for housing in the United States (00:06:34) - Lack of workforce growth to meet housing development needs (00:10:23) - Insight into “lego piece” style construction (00:11:41) - The comparison to automotive manufacturing (00:16:15) - Strategic description of a good “lego piece” from Cover (00:20:08) - Utility continuity comparison between panels versus tradition construction (00:21:05) - Potential criticism from skeptical contractors (00:22:53) - The marginal cost for a typical home buyer (00:25:59) - The role of software in the business (00:28:47) - Insight into support model and “The Last Mile” theory in construction and possible solutions to combat errors during assembly (00:30:46) - Support system integration for inevitable repairs (00:32:17) - The changing reality of initial ideas as projects are completed (00:34:27) - Building factories and streamlining production logistics (00:37:28) - Focusing on constraints and an example relatable to real life scenarios (00:38:37) - The value of moving slow to perfect processes early on versus an all in head first approach (00:40:09) - The scope of ambition over the next several decades (00:41:18) - The evolution of homes and how they could change based of consumer wants (00:43:37) - Vertical capabilities of cover panels (00:43:21) - Types of panels that could be introduced moving forward (00:45:14) - Timeline for Cover expansion into new states (00:46:06) - Advice for upcoming entrepreneurs when building similar business models (00:47:58) - The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for Alexis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexis Rivas - A New Blueprint for Homebuilding - [Invest Like the Best, EP.326]

My guest this week is Dr. Peter Attia. I’ve had Peter on the show twice before but it’s been over 5 years since his last appearance. In that period, his work has exploded and today he’s one of the clear leaders on the topic and practice of longevity and health span. He has a new book out called Outlive, which I heartily recommend. You’ll hear us refer to the last chapter of his book early in our conversation but we chose not to reveal the whole story live so you can read and enjoy it. We highlight the big picture in our conversation, including the transition from Medicine 2.0 to Medicine 3.0. I always leave these conversations with Peter full of ideas, and in this case, highly motivated to go outside and move my body in nature. I can think of no better actionable advice. Please enjoy my conversation with Peter Attia. Listen to Founders Podcast Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren 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 is the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with Tegus Expert Calls. Tegus delivers expert calls at a fraction of the cost of legacy vendors, with white-glove custom sourcing for every project at the speed you need to keep your research moving. And we don’t stop there. With rigorous compliance processes baked into everything we do, you can rest assured we’ve vetted every expert to ensure your privacy and protection. Start your next project today with Tegus Expert Calls. As an Invest Like the Best listener, you can trial Tegus for free 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. 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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes Peter on The Tim Ferriss Show Podcast (00:04:15) - (First question) - How Patrick influenced Peter’s decision to launch his podcast (00:05:45) - How Peter has changed in the process of writing this book (00:08:11) - Process of writing the last chapter of this book (00:11:12) - How he stopped dealing with imposter syndrome (00:15:58) - Slow vs. fast death and medicine 2.0 vs. medicine 3.0 (00:22:55) - Doing more early detection screening to avoid slow death (00:27:00) - Impacts of compounding risks (00:31:24) - How do we shift thinking to better lifestyle changes vs. pill popping (00:35:32) - The outsized impact of exercise on health (00:46:18) - Peter’s exercise portfolio (The Comfort Crisis book)  (00:50:55) - Why habitual workouts create euphoria for exercise (00:54:45) - How Peter’s views on nutrition have evolved  (00:59:30) - Measuring metabolic health (01:01:55) - Where Peter hopes the future of healthcare is heading (01:05:40) - Benefits of mindfulness to health (01:12:55) - Defining your purpose in life (01:16:46) - An index card summation of this book (01:19:45) - Lessons learned being a better interviewer (01:21:46) - Frontier of Peter’s curiosity

Dr. Peter Attia - The Portfolio to Live Longer - [Invest Like the Best, EP.325]

My guests today are Scott Davis and Rob Wertheimer. Scott and Rob head up Melius Research and are the authors of a great book called Lessons from the Titans. The book explains what the industrial giants of old can teach the new generation of high-growth businesses about how to survive and deliver shareholder value over multiple decades. Drawing on their experience as industrial analysts, they present case studies on businesses like Danaher, Roper, Honeywell, Boeing and GE to reveal both what does and doesn’t work when it comes to capital allocation and business strategy as a company enters a more mature phase in its lifecycle. Please enjoy my conversation with Scott and Rob. Read Lessons from the Titans Listen to Founders Podcast Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren 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 is 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. ----- 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. 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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:03:20) - (First question) - The intersection between the current tech sector drawdown and the historical track record of industrial titans  (00:07:10) - The most common ways they see companies start to fail and the types of errors they commit  (00:11:01) - The best historical examples of companies that have gone from non-operational excellence to operational excellence  (00:15:04) - Teaching the value of a business system and installing one for longevity  (00:24:06) - Questions they’d ask and points of evaluation to uncover the health of a business (00:31:19) - Thinking about sustainable value creation in a lower growth environment  (00:37:04) - Lessons from operating leverage and the rental industry  (00:39:11) - Ways industrial companies have handled growth CapEx well and badly  (00:43:52) - The line between discovering the future in a lab versus major pivots in reality while trying to solve today’s problems  (00:49:37) - How the best managers nurture a great shareholder base  (00:55:35) - Lessons to learn about business model transitions    (01:00:13) - Further important messages from their book that businesses would benefit from (01:04:30) - The kindest things anyone has ever done for them

Scott Davis & Rob Wertheimer - Lessons from the Industrial Titans - [Invest Like the Best, EP.324]

Today’s episode is a little different. Rather than share a new conversation, I have put together a few of my favourites from the past six and a half years of doing this show. I often listen back to these for inspiration, energy, and their timeless ideas on life and investing. Each of these is a significantly shortened version of the original episode. The first conversation you’ll hear is with Sam Hinkie, the second discussion is with Boyd Varty, and the last conversation you’ll hear is with Charlie Songhurst. Sam, Boyd, and Charlie are all exceptional in their own way and I hope you enjoy these condensed versions of our conversations. Sam Hinkie - Find Your People Boyd Varty - The Art of Tracking Charlie Songhurst - Lessons from Investing in 483 Companies 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 is 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. ----- 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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:04:40) - (Sam Hinkie) (00:05:55) - The most amazing thing he’s seen from someone he has worked with (00:09:51) - His interest in finding “digital breadcrumbs” on his pursuit of knowing a person (00:13:18) - The impactful story of meeting the assistant GM of the Houston Rockets (00:17:22) - Strategies he has developed to avoid transactional people (00:19:22) - How he shapes his career and optimizes from an investment perspective (00:24:06) - The strangest things he has come across in early-stage investing (00:29:47) - (Boyd Varty) (00:33:04) - His early experiences with tracking wildlife and how it applies to investing (00:44:46) - What can be learned about life goals and paths from the experience of tracking (00:47:59) - The influence of culture on decision-making and goal-setting (00:50:39) - His concept of “the ordering of chaos on behalf of others” (00:54:41) - The importance of moving towards the unknown to start approaching goals (00:57:15) - His most memorable tracking experience (01:12:40) - (Charlie Songhurst) (01:15:10) - His diverse career highlights (01:16:29) - His analysis of why startups succeed or fail (01:21:21) - What founders can learn to enable and maintain productivity in their company (01:25:21) - Nature versus nurture as it applies to adept founders, and the controversial “alien founder” concept (01:30:10) - The importance of good recruiting from an early stage (01:33:32) - How founders can make their companies attractive to prospective talent (01:35:53) - Why he is interested in investing in highly boring and highly complex ideas

Sam Hinkie, Boyd Varty, Charlie Songhurst - Trail Magic - [Invest Like the Best, EP.323]

Hello everyone. A few days ago, we discussed what we call forever episodes, which are the few episodes of our show that we think will be as popular a decade from now as they are today. When I re-listened to this episode with David Senra, I left wildly energized and wanting to share that feeling. So we are re-releasing it today for anyone who missed it the first time or hadn't yet discovered Invest Like the Best. Please share with your friends and loved ones as I think anyone will benefit from David's perspective and enthusiasm. Have a great weekend and we'll be back with more next week. David Senra has studied history’s great founders and entrepreneurs in more depth than anyone I’ve ever met, and I’d wager more than anyone else alive. In this conversation, we cover many of the most common themes he’s discovered studying hundreds of entrepreneurs like Estée Lauder, John Rockefeller, Enzo Ferrari, and Edwin Land. Please enjoy this great conversation with David Senra.   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, the modern research platform for leading investors. 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.   -----   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.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:01] - [First question] - When he first fell in love with reading [00:07:01] - What’s rooted in his own history that’s made him obsessive about studying history’s great entrepreneurs and founders - Founders Podcast [00:10:34] - The first time he connected with someone as a positive role model that he was reading about  [00:13:45] - How often obsession is apparent in the founders he’s studied across hundreds of biographies  [00:18:08] - What is often behind obsession and how people listening can apply the lessons to their own lives [00:22:45] - The dynamic and relationship between inspiration and perspiration  [00:27:11] - Commonalities between the layers of leadership and support underneath founders [00:31:52] - Where else he’s seen ego rear its head in good and bad ways  [00:38:34] - How often do great founders break the law or enter gray areas of it  [00:41:22] - The role constant learning and listening plays in success [00:45:12] - Talking about how anything worth doing is worth doing to excess  [00:52:18] - Describing the soul of founders and businesses [00:58:39] - What he’s learned about all of these founders as it relates to marketing  [01:04:38] - A common story that process is often art  [01:08:10] - Who his idols are in podcasting specifically  [01:14:55] - Major aspects of people he’s studied that haven’t been discussed yet [01:19:55] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

David Senra - Passion & Pain - [Invest Like the Best, Forever Episode]

My guest today is David Einhorn. David is the President of Greenlight Capital, a long-short hedge fund that he co-founded in 1996. He is a prominent value investor with a reputation for rigorous security analysis. In 2002, he revealed a short position in Allied Capital, which was ultimately proven correct and similarly in early 2008, he told the Sohn Conference he was short Lehman Brothers. Over his near three decades managing money at Greenlight, he has delivered impressive returns but it has not been without challenge. Our conversation covers both the highs and lows, his views on the current banking issues, and how he has evolved as an investor. Please enjoy my great conversation with David Einhorn. The Sohn Conference 2023 Listen to Founders Podcast 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, 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. ----- 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. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:03:50) - (First question) - Why he is glad he started his fund in 1996 rather than today (00:05:58) - His view of how companies’ personnel and goals have changed since the 90’s (00:07:01) - His counter-momentum approach to markets and how he views current trends (00:11:17) - The jelly-donut theory of monetary policy (00:14:46) - His outlook on inflation and the Fed from a fiscal perspective (00:16:48) - The evolution of Greenlight’s portfolio and philosophy through history (00:20:11) - Periods in his career that stand out as the most challenging (00:25:58) - How tech advances have influenced his core concept of figuring out worth (00:28:17) - His three-step process to picking investment targets (00:29:10) - The companies he has learned the most from studying (00:30:52) - His experience with investing in Apple (00:33:33) - How he considers the notion of quality in a business (00:35:05) - His views on shorting, concentration, and holding periods (00:38:37) - What he learned from a deep dive on airline businesses (00:40:31) - His perspective on sports franchises as an asset (00:42:12) - His new interest in poker and how he got so good at it (00:45:22) - Applying traditional valuation styles to the modern market (00:47:13) - Cultivating relationships with his limited partner investors and his team (00:54:26) - His perspectives on the insurance space (00:57:33) - The health of the economy and financial infrastructure as he understands it (01:01:51) - How he thinks about housing and the construction industry (01:03:54) - How AI and other high-tech are affecting his investment decisions (01:05:28) - Other topics on his mind, from national politics to social psychology (01:08:22) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

David Einhorn - The Long and Short of Investing - [Invest Like the Best, EP.322]

My guest today is Avi Goldfarb. Avi is a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the Rotman Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare, as well as the co-author of two bestselling books on AI and its economic impact. His most recent book, Power and Prediction, is probably the best piece of content I have read in explaining how AI may reshape business models, systems, and products. We recorded this before GPT-4’s release last week which, if anything, makes Avi’s ideas on AI’s impact all the more poignant. Please enjoy my conversation with Avi Goldfarb.   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 is 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.   -----   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.   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.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes (00:03:15) - [First question] - His initial reaction to chat GPT when it first launched  (00:07:08) - Prediction Machines; The impact price has on how much something is used by humans (00:11:07) - The shift from steam powered factories to electric ones and the transition between the two in regards to systems and application solutions; Power and Prediction (00:17:06) - Midpoints between a point solution and a systems solution and applications that are being built in the middle of them (00:19:10) - What application, system, and point solutions feel like today in the world of AI (00:27:03) - The transition from a world governed by rules to one by decisions   (00:30:58) - How the power of prediction moves us from a binary to a decimal framework (00:34:48) - Ways power disruption will occur as we navigate the emerging AI frontier (00:44:33) - Other functions like personalization that entrepreneurs should think about putting into their products and features (00:47:18) - How we should be thinking about the generation of information and data  (00:51:32) - A future where technology either desimates or empowers specific industries (00:54:16) - What he’s most excited and worried about given the emerging frontier of AI  (00:55:41) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him 

Avi Goldfarb - The Economic Impact of AI - [Invest Like the Best, EP.321]

My guest this week is Auren Hoffman. Auren is the CEO of Safegraph, which curates data on physical locations. He also founded LiveRamp, a public data connectivity business. Auren knows more about data businesses than almost anyone I know and that is the topic of today’s discussion. We look at the business of data from every angle and finish with a fun masterclass on how to host a dinner party. Please enjoy my conversation with Auren Hoffman.   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, the modern research platform for leading investors. 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.   -----   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.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:16] - [First question] - His 2x2 matrix for categorizing different types of data businesses [00:04:59] - An example of what he calls a religion company in his matrix [00:07:03] - His notion of data currency [00:08:23] - His definition of a great business [00:09:46] - An example of a so-called application religion company in his proverbial matrix [00:11:24] - Co-op and non-profit business models within and outside of the data sphere [00:13:35] - The truth application quadrant of his matrix [00:16:18] - How data has exploded in prevalence for the business world as a whole [00:18:57] - How to think about the end market for data and its demand [00:21:09] - Characteristics of a good data set and how to identify it [00:23:14] - Other factors that impact the usability of a data set [00:24:30] - Optimizing data collection itself [00:26:30] - The slow growth that’s typical of early-stage data companies [00:27:27] - Market share considerations for data businesses [00:30:03] - Common struggles for data entrepreneurs [00:34:01] - The genesis of his business; SafeGraph [00:37:08] - The power of self-maintained and user-maintained databases [00:40:16] - Typical customers and use cases for SafeGraph’s data [00:41:08] - How SafeGraph and other companies protect against data theft [00:42:12] - Frequency of change as a proxy for the value of a given data set [00:45:32] - Categorizing inbound data based on the most important criteria [00:47:07] - The founder personalities he finds in the data industry [00:49:53] - Why he feels the data truth quadrant of his matrix is underdeveloped [00:50:30] - Bloomberg as an important data company to study [00:51:42] - The importance of transparency in business and in data distribution [00:53:07] - Failure modes that he sees most commonly in data-based startups [00:53:53] - Data businesses becoming application businesses and vice-versa [00:57:35] - The great dinner parties he’s known for [00:59:50] - How he makes the dinner parties appeal to introverts [01:03:11] - Dead people he would most like to have as dinner guests [01:04:09] - Questions he would ask the most influential religious figures [01:06:20] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Auren Hoffman - A Deep Dive on Data - [Invest Like the Best, EP.320]

My guest this week is Trae Stephens. Trae is a partner at Founders Fund and co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril. Trae’s philosophy can be boiled down to finding good quests, which has led him to investing in businesses that work closely with the government on societally important issues. Clearly, that extends to co-founding Anduril and I would highly recommend listening to my Business Breakdowns episode on Anduril if you haven’t already. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of lobbyists, why the high-tech defense firms of the past became stale, and how he hunts for disagreeableness in founders. Please enjoy my conversation with Trae Stephens.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   Listen to Founders Podcast Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren   -----   This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. 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.   -----   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.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:17] - [First question] - Why Trae thinks most high-margin businesses are bad for society [00:04:28] - What would he change to impact energy technology most if he were in charge [00:06:18] - His investing focus on dynamism and mission-driven tech companies [00:09:42] - Analyzing why relatively few people strive to make society-level advancements [00:11:35] - What he’s done as a parent to enable his kids to develop passions [00:12:41] - The most noteworthy adventures in his career [00:14:41] - Founding Anduril and what it taught him about the tech industry [00:18:40] - The cutting-edge of defense technologies today [00:21:29] - What Shyam Sankar of Palantir taught him about defense tech [00:23:34] - Why some of the biggest defense tech companies have stopped innovating [00:28:29] - What he and Anduril have learned about sales and scaling in the public sector [00:35:22] - His take on Peter Thiel’s notion that competition should be avoided [00:38:24] - The importance of being psychologically disagreeable when building a start-up [00:39:54] - The origin story that stands out the most from companies he has interviewed [00:41:12] - How he developed an investor mindset on his unorthodox path to the venture world [00:43:57] - What he has learned from playing supporting roles and aligning with great leaders [00:46:11] - Important but uncommon lessons about entrepreneurship [00:48:21] - Venture investing lessons he’s learned from Lauren Gross [00:50:00] - His first VR project and aspirations for the future of VR [00:54:50] - The role of religion and spirituality in his business philosophies [00:59:13] - Why he tries to capitalize on morality as opposed to sin [01:03:57] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Trae Stephens - Find Good Quests - [Invest Like the Best, EP.319]

My guest this week is Doug Leone. Doug led one of the world’s most successful venture firms, Sequoia, for over 25 years after he was given responsibility for the firm by its founder, Don Valentine, in 1996. Alongside Mike Moritz, the pair managed its expansion from a single $150m early-stage fund into an $85 billion global powerhouse. It was a privilege to sit down with Doug and learn from him. We talk about his tough start at Sequoia, get into the technicalities of great go-to-market motions, and survey his advice for other investors in the industry. A key theme that will stick with me from this conversation is Doug’s insistence on keeping things simple and clear. Please enjoy my great conversation with Doug Leone.   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, the modern research platform for leading investors. 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.   -----   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.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:21] - [First question] - What Don Valentine’s heart was like [00:06:30] - The most productive and unproductive parts of Don’s toughness  [00:09:01] - Being the opposite of insufferable and how it was different when he was younger [00:10:55] - Why it’s so important to understand someone’s core motivations [00:14:18] - Questions or topics he returns to when getting to know people  [00:15:31] - How much time he believes it can take to really get to know someone   [00:20:37] - What venture looks like to him today relative to his prior career [00:23:51] - His style of approaching emerging technology markets like AI as an investor   [00:26:37] - Whether or not he’d go into venture today if he was in his late 20s  [00:28:30] - Commonalities between the very best at going to market effectively  [00:31:11] - The key components of great product positioning   [00:32:10] - Helping companies circumnavigate mediocre positioning  [00:33:25] - Generating demand and leads and doing it well  [00:37:15] - How interacting with companies early on has changed over the ears [00:46:14] - Sussing out the killer gene in somebody  [00:47:25] - What high school was like for him when he first came to the US  [00:49:04] - How successful people can instill the lessons learned from hardship into their children  [00:50:45] - The most common failure modes he’s seen for investors  [00:55:21] - The early 2000s clawback at Sequoia and what navigating that period was like  [00:59:06] - What he’s learned about picking the right LPs and partnering with them [01:00:40] - The most interesting question an LP has ever asked him  [01:02:18] - Making sure that performance is on everyone’s minds all the time  [01:04:04] - What the components of a fantastic investment memo are [01:05:00] - Which dinner companions he’d pick to educate a newly successful founder [01:05:29] - What first popped out at him as black magic when he started investing [01:07:59] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him 

Doug Leone - Lessons from a Titan - [Invest Like the Best, EP.318]

I’m excited to share this conversation with Tim Urban. Tim is, in my opinion, one of the best and most engaging writers of our era. He’s tackled many of the most interesting topics in the world from AI to procrastination. I interviewed him in 2017 in an episode we called “Grand Theft Life”, and it remains one of my favorite episodes ever.   In the 6 years since that episode, he hasn’t published almost anything. That’s because he’s been writing the book we discuss in this episode. The book is called “What’s Our Problem”, in which Tim investigates the big issues facing society.   The reason I love Tim’s writing so much is its density of ideas and ridiculously clear explanations: a rare combo that makes reading a joy. I hope you enjoy this great round two with Tim Urban, and go buy and enjoy his great new book.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   Listen to Founders podcast.   -----   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.   -----   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.   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.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:50] - [First question] - What it’s been like spending seven years thinking about a single topic: Tim's book, What’s Our Problem? [00:05:05] - How he’s come to articulate the big question he’s trying to answer in his book [00:07:58] - A dinner experience where a single question showed just how much of a problem there was to solve [00:09:47] - Group ideology and the different ladder rungs of human thinking  [00:17:28] - The concept of a social golems and genies and their implications for society  [00:23:02] - His favorite genies and golems throughout history and their impact   [00:29:07] - Examples of canonical high functioning genies across history    [00:34:20] - The key ingredients within liberal democracies that allow for and correct golems [00:40:44] - Media’s role in shaping ideas and society and what’s changed about it in today’s media landscape  [00:46:46] - What else is going on that has him worried about modern institutions that are failing as social immune systems [01:01:15] - The gap between what we say publicly versus what we feel privately and the growing pile of unsaid things  [01:07:18] - What’s to be done in order to help society repair itself  [01:14:09] - Whether or not the direction we’re most afraid to run is where we should  [01:17:37] - Thoughts on AI having written extensively on it and the new wave of emerging tools [01:22:13] - The role and impact of leadership in regards to golems and genies 

Tim Urban - Idea Labs and High-Rung Thinking - [Invest Like the Best, EP.317]

Conversations with the best investors and business leaders in the world. We explore their ideas, methods, and stories to help you better invest your time and money. Hear stock market and boardroom insights you can't find anywhere else. If you're a professional investor, CEO, entrepreneur, or business strategist, this is for you. Explore all our episodes and learn more at https://www.joincolossus.com

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Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

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