Pods & Recs: No. 177
Today we have Shaquille O’Neal on building his business empire, an episode on the importance of managing risk with the market at all-time highs, and an episode on venture investing in fintech companies.
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Investing
Flirting with Models: Andrew Lapthorne — Thematic Baskets and Strong Balance Sheets. Lapthorne is the Head of Quantitative Equity Research at SocGen and joins Hoffstein for a wide ranging conversation around the rise of thematic investing, the recent rise of inflation risk and how that manifests in inflation-focused funds, and why you don’t want to be short value in a recovery. Then he turns to how he incorporates the influence of monetary and fiscal policy into his research and what takeaways he has from research around ESG. [July 26, 2021–60 hours] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
“Value investing is holding a portfolio of problems with a call option on good news.”
Earn Your Leisure: EYL #141 Shaq on Building a $400 Million Dollar Business Empire. Shaq shares the lessons he’s learned around building wealth since his college days. He starts by sharing he thought ‘FICA’ was stealing money out of his paychecks because he was so uneducated about finances early in his career. Then he dives into his philosophy around brand building and owning businesses to serve others, and shares examples around his investments in franchise businesses like Papa Johns and other investments. Finally, he shares the mindset that has helped him with his business interests and how he’s trying to instill that in his children today. [July 6, 2021–52 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker
“It’s alright to be famous but at some point you want to start owning things.”
Superinvestors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom: #48: Jim Stack On Charting A Course Through Stock Market Rapids. Stack is the founder of InvesTech Research, one of the most successful investment newsletters in the industry, and Stack Financial Management, an SEC-registered advisory firm with billions under management. The episode focuses on Jim’s framework for the market and why managing risk is key, especially at all-time highs. Jim shares lessons he’s learned investing through multiple crises in his career, particularly how to spot and navigate major market turning points. He also discusses the major indicators he tracks and how they both influence his approach to investing and deciding to take some chips off the table. [July 28, 2021–74 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
The Money Maze Podcast: Global Investing, Public and Private Markets: A rare interview with Peter Davies of Lansdowne Partners. Davies is a fund manager at Lansdowne Partners and has been listed as one of the 30 Most Influential People in the City of London. In this episode, Peter shares his approach to investing in both public and private companies, why he’s excited about the IP being developed in the UK, and why he joined Lansdowne in 2001 to exploit the long/short opportunity set. The episode itself is worth listening to for the story they share about shorting Northern Rock before the Great Financial Crisis, which netted him ~$500 million. He winds down with why he doesn’t think this market is set up to allow you to short stocks, and why the productivity changes in the medical sphere as a result of COVID will accelerate that field. [July 26, 2021–70 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
The Meb Faber Show
#333 — Startup Series — Rob Forster, Wonderbird Spirits — Making Gin Is Truly An Art. Rob Forster is the co-founder of Wonderbird Spirits, Mississippi’s first grain-to-glass gin distillery. In this episode, we hear how Rob stopped practicing law and decided to open up a distillery to create two gold-medal winning gins. Rob shares what it was like to get the company off the ground and then dives into the process of distilling the alcohol from start to finish. He talks about the regulatory differences when selling directly to restaurants and selling DTC in 37 states, and why the little things like choosing what bottle to use makes a huge difference. [July 26, 2021–74 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
#334 — Peter Johnson, Jump Capital — What I Think About Most Of The Time Is What Crypto Is Going To Mean To The World. Peter Johnson is a partner at Jump Capital, where he leads Jump’s investments in the FinTech, crypto, and blockchain sectors. Meb & Peter begin by discussing a bunch of Peter’s investments, including his first ever investment in Personal Capital, which was acquired in a billion dollar deal. They also talk about the fractionalization of assets and Peter’s investment in Carter Malloy and AcreTrader. Towards the end of the episode, they get into Peter’s entrance in the crypto space and discuss both the potential for the Bitcoin ETF and Jump Capital’s Y Combinator for DeFi. [July 28, 2021–68 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
#335 — Thomas Eiden, Atomic Alchemy — There Is A Vast Shortage Of Man Made Radioactive Materials. Thomas Eiden is the founder of Atomic Alchemy, a company dedicated to producing radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine. Thomas is undertaking the audacious goal of building a nuclear reactor, which takes almost a decade to complete and costs roughly $100 million. The episode starts with what sparked his interest in nuclear energy and what gave him the nudge to apply to Y Combinator and raise seed capital with just a business plan. He dispels some myths around why nuclear energy is dangerous and then pivots to talk about the uses in the medical field, whether it’s with MRI’s or trying to fight cancer. [July 30, 2021–61 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
