My guest today is Anne-Marie Peterson. Anne-Marie is an equity portfolio manager at Capital Group, a storied investment firm managing 2.5 trillion dollars and getting ready to celebrate its centennial anniversary. Anne-Marie is a seasoned investor, approaching three decades in the industry, with nearly 20 of those years being with Capital. She has become an expert in retail and restaurants and shares her proven strategies in those sectors over her career. We discuss her people-first approach, simplicity as criteria for investment, and the idea that the best retailers are cults. Please enjoy this great discussion with Anne-Marie Peterson.

Listen to Founders Podcast

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

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the go-to destination for bold investing. The investment research platform trusted by 95% of the top 20 global private equity firms just got even better. Building on their solid reputation for expert insights, Tegus has expanded to become the first true all-in-one research platform. The new Tegus makes diligence faster, easier, and more convenient than ever before. Your Tegus license gives you access to over 70,000 expert transcripts, more than 4,000 fully drivable financial models, and exclusive datasets like company management checks, industry KPIs, hard-to-find non-GAAP data, and more. Tegus is the fastest way to learn about a public or private company and the most cost-effective way to conduct investment research — now all under one roof. Learn more and get your free trial at tegus.com/patrick.

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

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

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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:04:06) First Question - Understanding Capital Group's Investment Approach

(00:05:43) The Importance of Teamwork and Culture in Investment Firms

(00:07:38) The Role of Analysts in Investment Decisions

(00:12:24) The Art of Running Effective Meetings with Company Management

(00:18:12) Exploring the Dominance of Big Tech Companies

(00:19:13) The Common Thread Amongst Great Retailing Companies

(00:30:49) Comparing The Growth in The Tech Market to That of Healthcare

(00:34:14) The Rise of Pharma and its Potential Opportunities

(00:36:56) Power Dynamics in the Tech Industry

(00:38:11) The Idea of Power in Investing

(00:46:21) Unique Challenges and Opportunities in the Restaurant Industry

(00:48:35) The Positive Signal of Enduring Companies

(00:54:54) The Importance of Gratitude and Kindness in Professional Growth

(00:58:40) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done for Anne-Marie

My guest today is Aravind Srinivas. He is the founder and CEO of Perplexity, a startup that he describes as an “answer engine” built from scratch with AI. Aravind has set out for perplexity to become the most powerful answer engine backed by up-to-date sources. He helps me pick the technology apart, describing the behind the scenes of what it takes to build Perplexity to reach its potential and compete alongside the likes of Google and OpenAI. Our conversation goes deep into programming this type of infrastructure, the competition around latency, and constructing a business model around deep learning. There is so much on this horizon, so please enjoy my conversation with Aravind Srinivas. 

Listen to Founders Podcast

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

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the only investment research platform built for fundamental investors. How hard do you work to get the insights you need to make a great investment decision? How many hours do you spend digging through public records and expert transcripts, or manually updating complex models? Investors should compete on their ability to analyze investments, not how well they aggregate data. That’s why Tegus offers a unified, end-to-end research platform that combines robust qualitative content sets, up-to-date financial data, management and culture checks, and more — all in the same easy-to-use, streamlined user experience. 95% of the top 20 global private equity firms use Tegus. Shouldn’t you? Learn more and get your free trial at tegus.com/patrick.

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

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

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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best 

(00:04:08) First Question - Redefining 'Great' in Search

(00:07:16) The Mechanics of Perplexity

(00:10:59) The Evolution of Perplexity From Wrapper to Robust Infrastructure

(00:13:19) The Future of Large Language Models (LLMs)

(00:22:39) Aravind's Strategy For Constructing The Business Model

(00:28:16) The Process of Building an Index for a Search Engine

(00:35:55) The Impact of Scaling and Data Quality on AI Models

(00:40:00) Bottlenecks in AI Development

(00:47:06) The Talent Landscape in AI

(00:57:59) The Vision for the Future of Search

(01:00:19) Importance of Execution in AI Startups

My guest today is Ali Hamed. Ali was first on Invest Like the Best six years ago. He was 26 at the time and four years into building his investing firm, CoVenture. Both then and now, Ali is an example of what’s possible when you think creatively. Six years later, CoVenture now manages two-and-a-half billion dollars, and Ali continues to find alpha in esoteric places.

We talk about YouTube catalogs, creative opportunities in real estate, and how venture investing helps them get better at credit. We also talk about his lessons from building an investment firm and what it’s been like to work with Michael Ovitz. Please enjoy this great conversation with Ali Hamed.

Listen to Ali host a Business Breakdowns on Spotter

Listen to Founders Podcast

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

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the only investment research platform built for fundamental investors. Whether you’re trying to get up to speed on a new market or keep tabs on a portfolio company, Tegus is the end-to-end investment research platform you need. With Tegus, you can quickly understand a company's business model, drivers, benchmarks, and management quality. To monitor an entire market, download our pre-built financial models — or update your own with the latest data using Tegus’ new Excel Add-In. Tegus gives you all of this and more, all bundled into a single software license. Find out why 95% of the top 20 global private equity firms are Tegus customers. Learn more and get your free trial at tegus.com/patrick.

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

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

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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:03:11) First Question - The Journey of Building an Investment Firm

(00:15:08) The Influence of Time and Scale on Asset Classes

(00:22:39) The Power and Potential of YouTube's Asset Class

(00:27:33) The Future of Real Estate and Housing Supply

(00:30:15) The Challenges of Investing in Platform Economies

(00:36:44) The Pitfalls of Capital Formation in Asset Management

(00:45:17) The Evolution of Venture Portfolio

(00:51:14) The Approach to AI and Other Emerging Technologies

(00:54:42) The Mispricing in Private Credit

(00:58:46) Building the People Side of the Business

(01:04:21) The Challenges and Opportunities in Valuation

(01:19:40) The Impact of Michael Ovitz on CoVenture

(01:23:11) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done For Him

My guest today is Cyan Banister. Cyan’s life story is remarkable. She was homeless at a young age, dropped out of high school, and five years ago she suffered an extremely rare stroke. Yet, in spite of everything, she is one of the most optimistic and curious people you can hope to meet. Cyan is also one of the great angel investors of this era, having invested early in SpaceX, Uber, Postmates, and Deepmind to name a few winners. She became the first female investing partner at Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and now invests at Long Journey Ventures.

Our conversation is as much about investing as it is about the essence of life and how connecting with that will help us in our professional pursuits. It is also full of awesome stories about people and companies like SpaceX and Bill Murray. Please enjoy this great conversation with Cyan Banister.

Listen to Founders Podcast

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

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the only investment research platform built for the investor. With traditional research vendors, the diligence process is slow, fragmented, and expensive. That leaves investors competing on how well they can aggregate data — not on their unique ability to analyze insights and make great investment decisions. Tegus offers an end-to-end platform with all the data you need to get up to speed on a company or market: up-to-the-minute financials, customizable models, management and culture checks, and, of course, our vast and growing library of expert call transcripts. Tegus is changing the world of expert research. Learn more and get your free trial at tegus.com/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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:04:03) First question - Spirituality as an Investable Category

(00:06:51) Journey to Founders Fund

(00:12:13) Overcoming Adversity and Embracing Optimism

(00:14:28) The Power of Authenticity and Curiosity

(00:25:28) The Skill of Feeling in Business

(00:30:26) Investing in Uber

(00:36:18) The Changing Dynamics of Early-Stage Investment

(00:39:07) The Philosophy of 'Set it and Forget It'

(00:42:24) The SpaceX Story: A Leap of Faith

(00:48:02) Cyan’s Spiritual Awakening

(00:61:34) Her Story of the Violin Kid

(01:05:36) The Art of Trusting Your Gut in Business

(01:07:47) The Spirit of Founders Fund and the Future of Venture Firms

(01:15:16) What She Would Do With 1 Trillion Dollars

(01:24:05) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done For Cyan

Today, we're replaying my conversation with Danny Meyer. He is the founder and CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, which comprises some of the most acclaimed restaurants in New York, like Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Café. Danny is also the founder and chairman of Shake Shack, which began in NYC but is now a publicly traded company with hundreds of locations worldwide.

Our conversation focuses on how great hospitality leads to a great business, regardless of what sector it's in. We discuss why hospitality is the starting point for Danny’s business philosophy, why first impressions matter, Danny’s concept of ABCD - always be connecting dots, how to scale hospitality, and how to build a business with essentialism and soul. Please enjoy this conversation with Danny Meyer.

Listen to Founders Podcast

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

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is 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 60,000 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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(03:41) First question – Danny’s experience as a tour guide in Italy

(08:17) Why hospitality is the center of business focus

(08:19) Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

(11:50) Early lessons at creating an environment of hospitality 

(15:17) His strategy ABCD and learning from a trout fisherman relate and relate to hospitality

(20:45) Scaling hospitality 

(24:56) What kind of people make a hospitality business work

(29:34) How to be an effective leader

(33:00) Handling mistakes well in the role of hospitality 

(36:28) Creating the spark in the early part of entrepreneurial ventures

(40:32) When its time to start something new vs expand something you are already doing

(45:52) The excellence reflex and an example of this in his career

(50:25) Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Today, we're running a replay of my 2019 conversation with legendary investor Chuck Akre. Chuck founded Akre Capital Management in 1989, which now manages approximately $14B dollars. We discuss his investing style and his “three-legged stool” for evaluating companies. Please enjoy this great conversation.

Listen to Founders Podcast

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

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This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors, and provider of Canalyst. Tired of calculating fully diluted shares outstanding? Access every publicly-reported data point and industry-specific KPI through their database of over 4,000 drivable global models hand-built by a team of sector-focused analysts, 35+ 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. 

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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

[00:00:00] Welcome to Invest Like the Best

[00:01:06] First Question – Advantage of being in Middleburg, Virginia

[00:02:11] What a day looks like for Chuck

[00:03:06] Why imagination is more important than knowledge

[00:03:38] Difference between curiosity and imagination

[00:04:38] The origins of the Nirvana Three-Legged Stool concept

[00:10:14] First leg of the stool, extraordinary business and ROE’s with a focus on Bandag

[00:14:36] How his evaluations of value have changed over the last 10-15 years

[00:16:10] A look at recent businesses that he’s bought and why they are interesting

[00:19:56] Why they keep things simple

[00:21:35] Second leg of the stool, the people involved and characteristics of managers he has invested in

[00:23:20] Role of capital allocation in the people he focuses on

[00:29:34] Third leg of the stool, reinvestment

[00:21:09] How does he think about diversifying across an investment area

[00:33:32] Great businesses wrapped in a bad balance sheet

[00:37:35] What would cause him to sell

[00:38:52] What does he look for in people

[00:43:27] How curiosity has impacted his interest in land conservation

[00:43:51] Advice for investors, especially younger ones

[00:46:14] Kindest thing anyone has done for him

My guest today is Alex Telford. Alex is the founder of Convoke, a software platform to help streamline drug development and commercialization. He also has been writing frequent blog posts on the biotech industry since 2019, keeping a pulse on the direction of innovation. He joined me today to talk about the history of the pharmaceutical industry and what’s becoming possible in medicine in the coming years. Alex helped break down the complexities of investing in new drug development, breakthroughs in gene therapy on the horizon, and the dance between timely progress and restrictive regulation. This industry has a lot to unpack, and he thoughtfully lays out the landscape. Please enjoy my conversation with Alex Telford.

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, 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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:04:01) First question - Exploring public perceptions of Big Pharma

(00:04:56) Providing an overview of the drug discovery process

(00:07:22) Assessing the efficiency of the pharmaceutical industry

(00:12:13) Anticipating the future direction of drug development

(00:16:46) Categorizing different types of pharmaceutical drugs

(00:21:19) Strategies to reduce the time from discovery to implementation

(00:25:55) Gaining insights from cross-disciplinary research

(00:31:13) The emerging role of AI in pharmaceuticals

(00:34:32) Analyzing potential regulatory shifts in the industry

(00:39:13) Discussing the importance of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)

(00:43:29) Examining the impact of blockbuster drugs

(00:47:47) Deliberating on the complexities of drug pricing

(00:54:09) Highlighting exciting developments and concerns in pharma

(00:59:55) The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

My guest today is Madhavan Ramanujam. Madhavan quite literally wrote the book on how to price products. It’s called “Monetizing Innovations” and his concepts have been used by companies across the world like Porsche, Uber, LinkedIn, and SuperHuman. Our conversation is a masterclass on pricing. We discuss common mistakes when pricing products, why you need to focus on benefits rather than features, and how to pick the right monetization model. Please enjoy my conversation with Madhavan Ramanujam.

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 is the modern research platform for leading investors, and provider of Canalyst. Tired of calculating fully diluted shares outstanding? Access every publicly-reported data point and industry-specific KPI through their database of over 4,000 drivable global models hand-built by a team of sector-focused analysts, 35+ 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. 

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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes

[00:00:00] Welcome to Invest Like the Best

[00:02:48] First question - How he arrived at a radically different way of building products

[00:05:07] An example of coming up with a price before the product

[00:08:35] Distinctions between a willingness to pay and positive feedback 

[00:10:29] How to make sure you’re talking to the right potential customer in the first place

[00:13:32] Productizing for different customer segments 

[00:16:16] Questions companies should be asking to get accurate feedback

[00:21:18] What he’s learned about the motivations of potential buyers

[00:22:43] What leaders, killers, and fillers are

[00:24:37] Some of the biggest mistakes companies make while following his formula

[00:25:35] A rule of thumb for what is a benefit versus a feature

[00:27:35] Five distinct pricing models for charging a customer

[00:30:46] Whether or not the value piece of all of this revolves around time and money

[00:33:27] What he tells entrepreneurs about pricing their products that most surprises them 

[00:35:16] Defining the first four categories of failure 

[00:40:13] Reasons why so many innovations fail to monetize and pricing being a CEO topic

[00:41:51] Good rules that leaders can use to have a general sense for effective pricing 

[00:47:38] Behavioral changes and observations as the absolute price move up and down 

[00:50:36] Is there a pricing genius we should take note of?

[00:53:18] The single question every leader should ask themselves

[00:53:46] The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

This week, we are running a replay of my conversation with Daryl Morey from last year. Daryl is the President of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers. Together with my friend and past guest of the show, Sam Hinkie, Daryl pioneered the analytics movement in basketball. He’s been so influential his style has its own name, “Moreyball”, a nod to Michael Lewis’s book about baseball, Moneyball. I had a blast talking to him about negotiation tactics, systems thinking, hiring, and a ton more. Please enjoy this great conversation with Daryl Morey.

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. 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 60,000 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. 

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

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:03:15) The basic principles of sports and what makes for a great sport

(00:09:54) How resource concentration influences outcomes in various sports

(00:13:13) The degree of certainty in predicting sports outcomes based on existing data

(00:16:32) Using the concept of KPIs to optimize for certain characteristics to win games

(00:18:45) Training teams on specific systems and plays versus leveraging individual talent

(00:21:07) Why superstar athletes are key to success in basketball

(00:24:02) Dealing with constant expected value calculations to appease stakeholders

(00:25:30) Building the organization’s back office to find talented athletes

(00:28:32) How he and other GMs make organization-level decisions

(00:34:12) Why he’s involved with basketball as opposed to other sports

(00:36:17) How he uses his frameworks to figure out systems outside of mainstream sports

(00:37:41) Problems with the rules and economic factors of professional soccer

(00:41:53) Suggestions to mitigate huge point spreads that make viewers disinterested

(00:42:54) Trends he’s observed in the worlds of music, movies, and books

(00:45:33) His perspective on developing one’s own career path

(00:48:22) How challenges in his youth benefited him in the long run

(00:49:28) The person he would call for advice if he was stuck in a foreign prison

(00:51:01) His emphasis on first principles and why he supports free speech

(00:52:31) Takeaways from a Harvard negotiation class he took

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

(00:58:51) The four people in the world that intrigue him most

(01:01:40) The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him 

My guest today is Michael Ovitz. Michael is the legendary talent agent and co-founder of CAA, or Creative Artists Agency. Michael started CAA in 1975 and over the next twenty years, he built it into the world’s most formidable talent agency, changing Hollywood forever. The list of stars he’s worked with is endless, from Meryl Streep to Steven Spielberg and David Letterman. 

Since leaving CAA, he has become an investor and adviser to many prominent firms, most notably Andreessen Horowitz, and Michael’s work ethic is unmatched. Please enjoy this great discussion with Michael Ovitz.

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, 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.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Show Introduction 

(00:03:25) First Question, Michael Crichton's Impact

(00:04:14) The Art of Storytelling and Creativity

(00:07:20) Michael Crighton’s Writer's Block

(00:09:53) The Birth of Jurassic Park

(00:12:42) The Importance of Pacing in Storytelling

(00:17:43) Positional Power and Influence

(00:20:04) Knowledge is Power

(00:22:10) The Role of Agents in the Business World

(00:36:18) The Importance of Momentum in Business

(00:42:35) Branding and Image

(00:45:44) The Art of Spotting Talent

(00:46:20) The Role of Persistence

(00:51:25) Investing in People

(01:00:30) Building Mystique

(01:06:30) The Importance of Relationships

(01:10:39) The Role of Art in the Entertainment Industry

(01:17:04) Telling the Truth to Clients

(01:25:28) Winning the Coca-Cola account

(01:42:18) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Done for Michael