Top Podcasts of the Week

September 14, 2020

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

Today we have a must-listen on fundamental investing, the Chief Investment Strategist of TechStars on running one of the largest global accelerators, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on why he built a company with no rules, and Guy Raz on the biggest lessons from hosting ‘How I Built This.’

Business

  • ***Must Listen*** Masters in Business: Will Danoff on Innovation and Investments. This is a great episode on fundamental investing with Will Danoff, the Contrafund portfolio manager at Fidelity with $139 billion in assets under management. It’s fascinating to hear him recall buying Home Depot stock years ago when they had only 40 locations and attending the Starbucks IPO road show and the level of details he remembers about the companies during that time. He also talks about the importance of being inquisitive in life and how being so led him to ask questions when meeting with the Ask Jeeves management team which gave him the insight to buy Google stock, what his biggest takeaways are from meeting with thousands of management teams during his career, how he makes the teams more comfortable with him (he projected his own Facebook friends growth with Zuckerberg once), and what his broad thoughts about technology stocks are now (his largest three holdings are Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook). [September 11, 2020–1 hour, 21 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

One of the great lessons over 30 years is if a stock has doubled or even tripled, you have not missed it.

  • Lindzanity with Howard Lindzon: Nicole Glaros of Techstars on amazing bootcamp for entrepreneurs. Glaros is the Chief Investment Strategy officer of TechStars, a seed accelerator with ~50 programs in 16 countries and 300 employees. She talks about her career path and what her biggest takeaways have been from building a massive technology accelerator and brand. She explains why she was drawn to Colorado, what she thinks about remote work and other changes that are being accentuated due to COVID, and insights from her career about the types of companies that succeed, including how the two times she thought a founder she was investing in would either go to jail or make it huge resulted in the creation of a unicorn. [September 7, 2020–43 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • The Meb Faber Show: #248 — JC Parets, All Star Charts — The Sooner We Can Find Out We’re Wrong The Better… Then We Can Go Move On To Something Else. Parets is the founder and Chief Strategist of All Star Charts, which provides insights based on technical analysis. He explains that he was originally drawn into technical analysis for its ability to help manage risk, the importance of using multiple timeframes when conducting analysis, and how he values taking time to sit and look at charts to see patterns and trends. He finishes the episode with an overview of what he’s seeing in the market now with currencies, rates, and energy stocks. [September 9, 2020–1 hour, 1 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

As technicians, we analyze the behavior of the market as opposed to the goods and services that a particular market deals with. I don’t care how many shoes Nike’s selling, I care about what the shareholders of Nike are doing, and what they’re doing relative to shareholders of other stocks.

  • Top Traders Unplugged: 104 The Systematic Investor Series ft Roberto Osorio. Osorio is the VP of Trading Systems at DUNN Capital and joins the episode to discuss all things trend following. He explains it’s more important to have sector diversification than market diversification, why he thinks your choice to use volatility targeting should be based on your risk objective (using it helps limit drawdowns but also can be a drag on returns/limit your upside), and how he thinks about model decay and tail strategies. [September 7, 2020–59 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

  • Michael Covel’s Trend Following: Ep. 900: Larry Hite Interview. Hite was the founding principal and Managing Director of Mint Investment Management Company, which achieved over 30% annual returns before fees during his 13 years. He also pioneered the use of the “guaranteed fund” concept, which helped Mint be the first to raise over $1 billion. He provides a great way to frame problems in your life and how to handle emotions under pressure. He also talks about his trading philosophy, the importance of always using a stop for risk management purposes, and why the ability to think about probabilities is the key to handling losing money on the majority of your trades even if you make money in the aggregate. [September 6, 2020–1 hour, 1 minute] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

When you go in a buy a new high, you put your stop in. You know exactly what you’re going to lose, but you don’t know how much you’re going to make. It was an asymmetrical bet.

  • The Meb Faber Show: #247 — David Oates, Curtsy — Our Number One Best Selling Item To-Date Is Active Wear…Lululemon Leggings, Lululemon Shorts, and Nike Shorts. Oates is the CEO of Curtsy, an app that allows you to buy and sell clothing. Oates originally started the company to allow girls in southern sororities to rent dresses for football game days and other events. He later was admitted to Y Combinator (an experience he discusses on the episode) and decided afterwards to pivot to what Curtsy is today. He explains what that process was like, where the company is today and how they’re impacted by COVID, and what their fundraising plans are going forward. [September 7, 2020–45 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

The Rest

  • ***Must Listen*** Freakonomics Radio: What if Your Company Had No Rules? This is the second part of the Freakonomics Radio Book Club, which I’ve really enjoyed listening to so far. This episode is guest hosted by Maria Konnikova and she talks to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings about his new book, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. Hastings has no rules and actually views them as a hindrance on the company’s ability to continually adapt to changing times. He explains what led him to believe that’s the best way to run his business, how it allows for Netflix to be more creative and nimble, and why he has a policy of not hiring ‘brilliant jerks.’ [September 12, 2020–56 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

         You have to watch out as a leader that you become so good at one thing  that you’re not good at the skills necessary to continue to thrive. This is where it really helps to have a model where a company is organized                   around flexibility rather than exploiting the last bit efficiency of some current model.

  • The Tim Ferriss Show: #462: Guy Raz on Building ‘How I Built This,’ Managing Depression, Podcast Ecosystem Predictions. Raz is the host of the top ranked podcast, How I Built This, which dives into the stories of some of the most well-known businesses. He is releasing a book under the same name that distills the insights he’s learned over the years. In this episode, he talks about the growth of the podcast and how he’s able to get guests to be so open and honest, the ups and downs he’s experienced professionally before the launch of the podcast, and his battle with depression earlier in life and how he navigated that time. [September 10, 2020–1 hour, 48 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast |Google | Breaker | Website Link

RECOMMENDATIONS
Books

Will Danoff (Contrafund Portfolio Manager, Fidelity):

Alex Tew (Founder, Calm):

Angela Strange (Partner, a16z):

Alain de Botton (Founder and Chairman, The School of Life):

Good investing,

Meb Fabertheideafarm.com