Pods & Recs: No. 133

5 min readSep 27, 2020

Today we have an episode on the housing market, Richard Lawrence on investing in Asian equities, the former Dunkin Donuts CEO on running the company for 35 years, and UVA coach Tony Bennett on overcoming a loss to a 16-seed to win a national championship.

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Business

The Compound Show with Downtown Josh Brown: The Suburban Housing Boom is Only Getting Started (with Logan Mohtashami). Mohtashami is a financial writer for HousingWire and joins to talk about the state of the housing market which is on a tear in 2020. He dispels the idea that the housing boom is solely due to COVID and people fleeing cities and thinks this is more the result of demographics and a country that is lacking inventory. He also explains what homebuilders are thinking and how they are navigating increased demand and soaring lumber prices, the impact real estate technology is having with firms like Opendoor, and what he thinks the potential long-term impact of remote work may have on the housing market. [September 25, 2020–55 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast | Google | Breaker | Website Link

Value Investing with Legends: Richard Lawrence — Investing in Superior Businesses. Richard is the Chairman of the Overlook Investment Group, a firm that invests in publicly listed equities across Asia, currently has over $6 billion in assets under management, and has achieved an astonishing capital-weighted annual compounded return of almost 14% since inception. He explains his background working for a family office and then starting to invest on his own. He provides a framework for the types of companies he looks for: high ROE, ability to self-finance, strong management with high integrity, low valuations, and a P/E that’s half the growth rate and half the ROE. He talks about the investing landscape in Asia including how it’s changed over time, how he’s handled investing during the trade war, and how he has built out his investing team. [September 18, 2020–56 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Meb Faber Show: #250 — Kevin Gibbon, Airhouse — We’re The Operations And Logistics Platform For Direct-To-Consumer, Digital-First Brands. Gibbon is co-founder and CEO of Airhouse, a startup company that helps direct-to-consumer companies get orders from factory to front door by allowing them to outsource and simplify operations and logistics. He starts the episode with the story of his prior startup which he eventually was forced to close. He is incredibly honest about the journey, why it didn’t work out, and what insights he took from that company to help start Airhouse. He explains the pain point DTC companies have with logistics and operations and how his company is trying to fill that need. [September 21, 2020–1 hour] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Twenty Minute VC: 20VC: Lambda School Founder, Austen Allred on How To Assess Your Relationship To Risk and Money, Why San Francisco Is A Case Study For The Greatest Squandering of Wealth In History & Why Complexity Increase Exponentially With Scale. Allred is the the Founder & CEO of Lambda School, a startup that remotely trains people to become a web developer or data scientist via income sharing agreements, and has raised over $129M to date. Allred talks about his move to San Francisco early on and living in his car, where the idea for Lambda School came from and what their long-term goal is, and his attitude towards risk both personally and professionally. He also talks about the future of San Fransisco and why he felt the need to leave and move with his family to Utah, and why he believes the poor management by the SF/California politicians may lead to potentially the biggest squandering of wealth in history. [September 18. 2020–32 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast | Google | Breaker | Website Link

Resolve’s Gestalt University: Resolve Riffs with Jason Buck on Slaying Dragons and Tail Risks. This is a wide-ranging strategy on all things tail risk with Jason Buck, who is the CIO of Mutiny Fund & runs a tail risk strategy for accredited investors and a $100,000 minimum. Some of the topics they touch on are whether bonds, gold, and treasuries can provide a hedge during a downturn, how to get people to stick with a strategy over the long-run so they have it in their portfolio when they need it, and why the S&P 500’s great performance over the last few years has led people to feel comfortable not rebalancing. [September 22, 2020–1 hour, 40 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Meb Faber Show: #251 — Robert Jacobson, Space Advisors “It’s Not Just One Vertical, It’s More Like An Ecosystem With Lots Of Different Dependencies…The High Ground of Space Being The Overarching Theme. If you’re a space-junkie, this is a must listen. Johnson is an entrepreneur, founder of Space Advisors (a strategic consulting firm for space startups), and author of Space Is Open for Business: The Industry That Can Transform Humanity. He talks about the historical timeline of the space industry, explains what he calls ‘New Space,’ what the fundraising landscape is right now, and the global push to formalize the space industry. [September 23, 2020–54 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Rest

Coaching U Podcast with Coach Brendan Suhr: Ep. 190 Tony Bennett, Virginia Cavaliers. Reigning National Champion UVA coach Tony Bennett talks about the journey from being the first #1 seed to lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament to winning the national title the following season. His mindset about how he endured that loss (what he calls a ‘painful gift’) is inspiring. He talks about how hard it was, how he leaned into his faith to get through it, and how he chose to be very intentional about using the UMBC loss as a way to move forward. [September 21, 2020–36 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast | Google