The Business Brew

Tren Griffin stops by The Business Brew for a fun conversation about his career, investing, and life.  Tren is an author of 7 books, had a front row seat to Bill Gates’ career, sold ½ of his business in the .com bubble, deeply studied Charlie Munger, and now works at Microsoft.  This conversation spans Tren’s career, his advice regarding giving to get, the importance of being brave, and much more.

Tren, thank you for joining The Brew.  It was a pleasure speaking with you.  We hope you enjoy the discussion.  You can find Tren on Twitter @trengriffin and read his work at https://25iq.com/

Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit StreamRG.comhttps://streamrg.co/BB today for a 14 day trial.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Audio

~6:20 – Scaling luck

~9:15 – Age creating humility

~11:30 – Coming up with a startup idea when the internet was nascent

~15:21 – Interesting Seattle connecti

Louisa Nicola stops by The Business Brew to discuss her time as a triathlete, recovering from a major injury, and how she got curious about the power of the brain during her rehab from injury. Today, Louisa is Director and Head Neuroscientist at Neuro Athletics. Her firm helps athletes and hedge fund managers monitor their sleep, diet, etc. in order to help them achieve their maximum potential. 

You can follow Louia @lousianicola_ on Twitter or read her writing at https://substack.com/profile/32674240-louisa-nicola 

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  StreamRG.com features over 300 expert interviews.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on StreamRG.com.  Visit StreamRG.com today for a 14 day trial.  Tell them The Business Brew sent you!

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Audio/YouTube
~3:00 – Louisa’s history as an elite triathlete

~9:45 – Learning by treating the body as a science experiment

~13:00 – Facilitating healthy sleep

~18:45 – Negative impacts from not enough sleep

~23:00 – Neurology 101

~28:30 – General dietary discussion (NOT ADVICE)

~31:00 – What engaging Louisa’s firm “looks like”

~35:00 – Heart Rate Variability and an inconvenient truth about

alcohol (and cannabis)

~40:00 – Tracking health

~47:50 – Social media is not good for sleep

~53:00 – How to contact Louisa

The one and only David Gardner stops by The Business Brew for an interview Bill has been looking forward to for over a year.  David is a Co-Founder of The Motley Fool.  He is best known for his Rule Breaker investing strategy but Bill knows him as a person that forced Bill to contemplate how he looks at investing.   

You can find David’s Rule Breaker podcast at https://www.fool.com/podcasts/rule-breaker-investing/, follow him on Twitter at @DavidGFool, and sign up for The Motley Fool at https://www.fool.com/.   See also his podcasts with Invest Like The Best https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/david-gardner-finding-companies-that-break-the-rules/id1154105909?i=1000392148108 or https://open.spotify.com/episode/4bwyONARX4WeVcsPYosiuR?si=H8lR4qlwTgS92N5u6IQ2mA and Wealth Track https://wealthtrack.com/category/guests/david-gardner/

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit https://streamrg.co/BB today for a 14 day trial.  

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Audio/YouTube

5:24  – David’s minimum investment time horizon 

8:30 - What running a business did for David’s investments

14:30 - Rule Breaking for the long term

19:30 – David’s thoughts on investing vs. tradi

Jonathan Boyar stops by The Business Brew to discuss his investing philosophy.  Jonathan is the President of Boyar's Intrinsic Value Research LLC., an independent research boutique established in 1975 that counts some of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, mutual funds and family offices as subscribers. He is also a Principal of Boyar Asset Management, which has been managing money utilizing a value oriented strategy since 1983.

He has been interviewed by Barron’s, Welling on Wall Street and GuruFocus. He spoke at the 2017 London Value Investor Conference, the 2017 GuruFocus Value Conference and the 2017 International Value Investing Conference. He is also a contributor to the latest edition of Harriman’s Book of Investing Rules: The Do’s & Don’ts of the World’s Best Investors. He is a senior contributor to Forbes as well as the host of The World According to Boyar podcast.

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit https://streamrg.co/BB today for a 14 day trial.  

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Youtube:

05:00 - What makes The Berkshire Weekend so great

10:00 -

David Fauchier stops by The Business Brew to discuss crypto and market neutral strategies in crypto assets.  David works at Nickel Digital Asset Management, an investment manager connecting traditional finance with the digital assets market. The firm deploys highly sophisticated low-latency algorithmic trading, pursuing a range of arbitrage strategies in both spot and derivative markets, as well as a range of directional buy-and-hold products. All funds are designed with institutional clients in mind, but we hope the discussion is broadly applicable.

You can reach David at @dfauchier on Twitter.

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit https://streamrg.co/BB today for a 14 day trial.  

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Youtube:

4:19 - What David does - market neutral strategies in crypto

6:04 - How to look at market neutral strategies when there is not "value" in a coin

8:48 - David's take on crypto and monetary regimes

14:39 - H

Alexandra Blumenfeld stops by The Business Brew to discuss her business, Red Rover.  Alex is a Junior at Vanderbuilt University and founded Red Rover, an expert network.  Bill, Josh Tarasoff, Trey Kuppin, and Elliot Turner have all used Alex's service and all recommend the service.  This conversation will highlight the value Alex provides.  See show notes below for details of the conversation.

Red Rover Website: redrovernetwork.com

Red Rover Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/RedRoverNetwork

If you'd like to order a poll please see the website and click on "order polls" or contact Alex at [email protected]. 

NOTE:  The timestamps should be accurate for those listening to the podcast on a dedicated podcast player.  YouTube's timing is different because of how we edit the podcast audio.  

In this show you will hear about:

3:33 - 15:33 - Alex's path to entreprenuership

16:25 - The type of data Alex's business provides

18:21 - Whether there is geographical bias in Red Rover sampling

21:50 - How Alex is thinking about expanding Red Rover's capabilities

22:50 - Examples of surveys Red Rover has run

23:45 - Alcohol consumption among college students

25:45 - Video streaming services

30:00 - Insights on Spotify vs. audio streaming

35:20 - Discussion about podcasts

35:15 - How Gen Z ranks social media

37:15 - Gen Z is comfortable with a lack of privacy

39:50 - What Red Rover is doing to monitor levels of engagement

43:10 - Cultivating an Instagram account to make sure people don't say no to friendship

45:30 - How much time does video get with Gen Z?

48:10 - Body image and Instagram

50:30 - Metaverse (note: this was recorded before Facebook's announcement)

52:40 - Growing up with the internet and whether that is tough on the mind

58:50 - Subscription billing practices

60:00 - How Alex thinks about building a culture that will last.

Kyler Hasson ([email protected]) stops by The Business Brew to discuss how he has morphed as an investor and as a Registered Investment Advisor.  Kyler is one of Bill's good friends and they've chatted about investments for a number of years now.  Kyler is an investor that has gravitated to high quality businesses.  He has also gravitated towards a less concentrated portfolio in order to fulfill client objectives.  We hope you enjoy listening to the two of them sharing lessons they've learned.

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Koyfin sponsor and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to Mathew Passy for the podcast production.  You can find Mathew at @MathewPassy on Twitter or at thepodcastconsultant.com

In this episode you will learn how Kyler and Bill think about:

1:35 - How Kyler started his investing career

4:22 - How Kyler views being an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor)

7:17 - Tax drag and how that can hurt investment performance

11:04 - Why finding a great business that can compound returns over time may be a better strategy

15:00 - Mean reversion and risk

18:49 - Moving towards a more diversified portfolio and avoiding overconfidence bias

24:49 - Whether investors *really* want to be like Charlie Munger.

26:02 - A very cool class Kyler took in college

30:32 - Why certain tribe of investors talk past each other

34:12 - Being aware of behavioral biases

36:00 - Lessons from an energy investment

40:36 - Lessons from Altice and why demanding execution might have been a better idea

42:19 - Looking for high quality companies that sell off for non core reasons

48:00 - Culture compounding as a competitive advantage

52:54 - The individual investor's greatest advantage

56:40 - Buying a new position or adding to an existing position

58:00 - Whether buying "cheap" is harder than owning fairly priced quality companies

This week Chris Bloomstran stops by The Business Brew to catch up.  Part of this conversation are a bit scary.  Parts you may disagree with.  Regardless, it's very apparent that Chris thinks A LOT about what he is investing in.

Chris is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group. He is best known for his annual letters; most of which have an incredibly detailed analysis of Berkshire Hathaway. See https://www.semperaugustus.com/clientletter

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Koyfin sponsor and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to Mathew Passy for the podcast production.  You can find Mathew at @MathewPassy on Twitter or at thepodcastconsultant.com

In this episode Chris and Bill discuss:

0:34 - Chris' wine hobby

7:34 - Chris setting weight lifting records in high school

11:33 - Playing football against Barry Sanders

17:04 - Pivot to investing

17:47 - What about today rhymes with the late 90s

25:00 - Chris' warning about Twitter, Shopify, and Tesla

28:00 - What rhymes between ARK and Janus

30:54 - How Chris thinks about today's multiples

38:25 - Why Chris has positions in energy companies

43:00 - Chris' use of Twitter and his Twitter threads

50:31 - Chris' love for teaching

53:03 - Bill and Chris discuss Berkshire

60:45 - Berkshire Hathaway Energy and how it fits within the renewable energy landscape

1:04:45 - Discussion about opportunity cost and value traps

1:08:45 - Why Chris is lukewarm on Big Tech

1:10:00 - Chris' take on the idea of never selling a great business

1:16:10 - Chris discusses Costco vs. Amazon and concludes the opportunity cost discussion at 1:18:52

1:22:00 - More energy (in the context of opportunity cost)

Margot Edelman stops by The Business Brew to discuss corporate communications as well as the Edelman Trust Barometer (see https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2021-01/2021-edelman-trust-barometer.pdf).   Edelman is an award-winning global public relations consultancy firm.  Key findings from the 2021 Trust Barometer are as follows:

- Trust in business increased in 17 of 27 countries
- Trust is technology declined a substantial amount
- People turned to their employer for facts/trust
- There was a fairly substantial reduction in trust in China
- Social leaders are not trusted to do what is "right"

We hope you find this conversation educational and entertaining.

Margot Edelman is the General Manger of Edelman’s Bay Area Hub, where she leads a team of skilled practitioners and innovators in Edelman’s San Francisco and Sacramento offices as they deliver industry-leading communications strategies that build brand trust and visibility. Her clients range from private equity and venture capital firms to technology companies and well-known individuals.
Before becoming General Manager, Margot led the Bay Area Tech team, advising executives and business leaders in Silicon Valley. Prior to moving to California, Margot led the firm’s Research and Insights group in New York. Margot is a regular contributor to Edelman’s Annual Trust Barometer and host of the monthly “Meet the Press” series for Edelman, which features speakers from the FT, Bloomberg, NYT, and other top-tier media outlets.
Margot is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Harvard University.

This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to Mathew Passy for the podcast production.  You can find Mathew at @MathewPassy on Twitter or at thepodcastconsultant.com

Stinson Dean (@lumbertrading on Twitter), owner of Deacon Lumber, stops by The Business Brew to discuss the current lumber market, what happened to lumber in 2020, and how the market got to where it is.  This is a long conversation, but deserves the length.  Stinson goes deep into what it means to trade physical lumber, how he manages risk, why he is hedged, and much, much more.

The goal of this conversation was to have a calmer conversation about lumber than what may have occurred just a year ago.  Lumber is an extremely volatile market and Stinson is a fantastic person to discuss the market with.  We hope you enjoy this conversation.

Please rate the show in your favorite app!

This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/