Top Podcasts of the Week

Below is our “Top Podcast” episode with our curator, Colby Donovan!

Today we have Marc Andreessen on the future of healthcare and biotech, the CEO of Marriott on handling the COVID crisis, investing titan Joel Greenblatt on his new book, and why financial advisors need to utilize checklists when working with clients.

Investing

  • Bio Eats World: It’s Time to Build in Healthcare: COVID 19, Innovation, and What Comes Next. a16z founder Marc Andreessen penned a post earlier this year called IT’S TIME TO BUILD and this episode takes those ideas and applies them to healthcare. Andreessen is joined by an a16z partner Jorge Conde and they discuss the impact COVID-19 has had on the healthcare industry and changes that are happening as a result. They touch on the impact a quick vaccine may have on the industry, the potential for capital to flood in to funding startups, and how biopharma may experience a mindset change resulting in more innovation. [October 26, 2020–26 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman: Rapid Response: When your business disappears overnight, w/ Marriott’s Arne Sorenson. While battling cancer in 2020, Marriott CEO Arne Sorensen faced a 95% decline in revenue as the travel industry was crushed by COVID. He talks about how the entire experience has been, from the difficult but necessary conversations and decisions to furlough employees, empower other to make decisions, and how it is to lead during a time of crisis. [October, 22, 35 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker

It’s only when we’re together that we do the most collaborative and creative things.

  • Talks at GS: Howard Schultz. This is a master class in leadership with Howard Schultz, the founder and former CEO of Starbucks. Schultz talks about leading based on his core principles no matter what crisis he’s handling, and when facing pushback to stop providing employees health care and stock ownership to cut expenses, he remained steadfast in his views and refused. Knowing that, it’s no surprised that he has two empty seats at every board meeting — one for employees and one to represent customers — so they always think of what is best for them and what would make them proud. [October 21, 2020–27 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Meb Faber Show

  • The Meb Faber Show: Episode #260: Joel Greenblatt, Gotham Asset Management, Nine Out Of Ten Families In The Top Fifth Of The Income Chain Have Retirement Savings, Nine In Ten In The Bottom Fifth Have None. Joel Greenblatt is a famed value investor and currently Co-Chief Investment Officer of Gotham Asset Management. He’s also the author of Common Sense: The Investor’s Guide to Equality, Opportunity, and Growth, which covers so many relevant topics the U.S. is facing today regarding retirement savings, financial education, and the education gap in the country. He offers solutions for the lack of retirement savings most of Americans have, why he believes charter schools offer an alternative to traditional schooling (his charter school let four teachers go in its first year… and that was more teachers that were fired in the entire NYCschool system), and why increasing the ability for immigrants to come to the U.S. helps the economy. At 48:03, he talks about the current investing landscape and what he thinks about value’s recent underperformance. [October 28, 2020–1 hour, 2 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • The Meb Faber Show: Episode #261: Mike Lecours, fpPathfinder, We’re Seeing More Advisors Start To Build This Into A Core Part Of Their Business. Lecours is the co-founder of fpPathfinder, a firm developing flowcharts and checklists specifically to help advisors navigate complex financial planning questions to be more diligent in their planning processes. He explains how he came up with the idea to build a business around it, why checklists have been proven to help avoid easy mistakes (referring to the book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande), and how advisors have been utilizing the checklists with clients so far. [October 30, 2020–38 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • The Meb Faber Show: #259 — Shane Heath, MUD/WTR — I Had Everything In My Head Already…I Felt Like I Was Just As Much Of A Customer Of My Own Product As Any Prospective Customer. Shane Heath is the founder and CEO of MUD\WTR, a startup that launched a coffee alternative consisting of organic ingredients lauded by cultures young and old for their health and performance benefits. Shane’s passion for living a healthy lifestyle shows through the entire episode so it’s no surprise he has a healthier way to get energized during the day. He explains what led him to come up with the idea for the company, how he reached over $100,000 in monthly revenue within six months of starting the business and filling orders from his kitchen, and raising money to get to where he is today. [October 26, 2020–59 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link

RECOMMENDATIONS
Books

Michael Melvin (Director of MSF, UC San Diego):

Mike Lecours (Co-Founder, fpPathfinder):

Roleof Botha (Partner, Sequoia Capital):

Good investing,

Meb Fabertheideafarm.com