How They Invest: Tactics and Tools of the World's Best Investors

“When we're looking at single founders, there probably is one variable that rises a little bit and that we spent a great deal of time thinking about which is, are they an attractor? Can they attract the things they need to be successful?” – Ben Savage Explore the episode notes. Search and down a transcript and find links to related books, interviews, lectures, and more: outlieracademy.com/33. Chap...

“The most important thing is that technology evolves, but people don't. That's the biggest lesson of history—humans don't change.” – Simon Mikhailovich Explore the episode notes. Search and down a transcript and find links to related books, interviews, lectures, and more: outlieracademy.com/25. Chapters (00:00:00) – Introduction (00:01:32 – Simon’s thoughts on gold’s role in the current financial...

“What are you spending your nights and weekends on and is there a way for you to make that your job? Because that's the stuff that you're really into.” – Ben Blumenrose We’re joined by Ben Blumenrose, Designer Fund’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner. We cover the Designer Fund algorithm, the core qualities of great startups, and how designers can add value as investors. Explore the episode notes. S...

“What are you spending your nights and weekends on and is there a way for you to make that your job? Because that's the stuff that you're really into.” – Ben Blumenrose We’re joined by Ben Blumenrose, Designer Fund’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner. We cover the Designer Fund algorithm, the core qualities of great startups, and how designers can add value as investors. Explore the episode notes. S...

“Every company is its own work of art, and the founder is the artist.” – James Currier We explore network effects and investing in network effect businesses. We’re joined by James Currier, co-founder and general partner of NfX. We cover virality vs. network effects, tweaking rules and systems to take advantage of network effects, and network effects as a business strategy. Explore the episode note...

“Great founders never stop recruiting.” — Dave Eisenberg We explore investing in the future of retail and real estate technology. We’re joined by Dave Eisenberg, Founding Partner of Zigg Capital. We cover considerations when creating the cap table, investing in talent, and the future of physical retail. Chapters (00:00:00) – Introduction (00:01:35) – Dave’s background and founding Zigg Capital (00...

On the latest episode of Outlier Investors, we decode how Contrary is building an entirely new type of VC firm — one that invests in people before they even start their first company. Learn how Contrary finds the world’s best talent and gets the conviction to invest before they even start a company. To date, Contrary has raised more than $100M and has invested in Ramp, Anduril, DoorDash, and Repli...

On the latest episode of Outlier Investors, we decode how Susa Ventures is building the next great seed-stage venture capital firm. Learn about Susa’s playbook for finding the best seed-stage companies, discovering their focus areas and industries, creating their investing algorithm, approaching due diligence, thinking about pro rata follow-on investments, and more. To date, Susa Ventures has rais...

In Episode #129, Robert Cantwell, Founder & Portfolio Manager of Compound Kings joins us as part of our Outlier Investors series. We discuss the biggest lessons that Robert has learned as an investor and portfolio manager, the top positions in the fund today, and the future of active management. “The investment management business actually looks a lot more like every other business, where there's...

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring Compound Kings with Robert Cantwell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #120, we explore reinventing a well-established venture capital firm. We’re joined by Steve Vassallo, General Partner at Foundation Capital. We cover Minimum Awesome Product, the prepared mind vs. open mind, and learnings from tearing down and rebuilding an investment firm. “The best product matters, but it is not what defines a generationally important company.” – Steve Vassallo EPISOD...

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring Foundation Capital with Steve Vassallo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #104, we explore emerging markets and the great pendulum shift. We’re joined by Howie Schwab, Lead Portfolio Manager for Emerging Markets Growth at Driehaus. We cover the lure of emerging markets, a behavioral focus on investing, and the impact of shifting voting demographics. “I think it's true everywhere, but data shows it's particularly true in emerging markets, which is that the per...

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring Driehaus Capital with Howie Schwa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode #102, we explore the super angel on speed, small teams, product management, and the S.P.A.D.E. decision framework. We’re joined by prolific angel investor Gokul Rajaram. We cover the product analyst role, and focusing on controllable inputs, and editing vs. managing a product.  “The best product leaders coach people across the company, not just in their team, and help develop them into...

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring Gokul Rajaram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We explore inflation, retail investors, precious metals, and Bitcoin. We’re joined by Luke Gromen, Founder of The Forest for the Trees. We cover Luke’s perspectives on inflation, investing in alternative assets, and interpreting investment data. “My sense of where we are is... we're basically in the first bursting global sovereign debt bubble in 100 years.” – Luke Gromen EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOT...

We explore why and how to invest in gold. We’re joined by Simon Mikhailovich, Co-Founder of The Bullion Reserve. We cover cycles of financial euphoria, the three ways to get out of debt, and whether people should invest in gold ETFs. “The most important thing is that technology evolves, but people don't. That's the biggest lesson of history—humans don't change.” – Simon Mikhailovich EPISODE GUIDE...

We explore investing in buy-and-build compounders in public markets. We’re joined by Dan Roller, Founder and CIO of Maran Capital. We cover how building investment knowledge is like training for the Ironman, the value vs. growth debate, and investing in SPACs. “What you need to do, I think, is constantly update your thesis as you go, which can allow for longer holding periods, because things do ch...

We explore managing $1.8 billion in wealth, investment philosophy, and teaching kids about money. We’re joined by Brandon Johnson, CEO of JFG Wealth. We cover keys to successful family wealth management, the spectrum of risk and returns, and diversification and recency bias. “Once we have a starting point and a target, we can start to evaluate, do we turn left, do we turn right? How do we measure...

We explore emerging markets and the great pendulum shift. We’re joined by Howie Schwab, Lead Portfolio Manager for Emerging Markets Growth at Driehaus Capital. We cover the lure of emerging markets, a behavioral focus on investing, and the impact of shifting voting demographics. “I think it's true everywhere, but data shows it's particularly true in emerging markets, which is that the persistence...

Listen to one of our favorite moments from tomorrow’s Spotlight episode featuring Driehaus Capital with Howie Schwab. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We explore network effects and investing in network effect businesses. We’re joined by James Currier, co-founder and general partner of NfX. We cover virality vs. network effects, tweaking rules and systems to take advantage of network effects, and network effects as a business strategy. “Every company is its own work of art, and the founder is the artist.” – James Currier EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QU...

Welcome to another edition of Cheat Sheet by Outlier Academy. Where each week we compress 6+ hours of research and interviews into 3 big ideas that you can read in 5 minutes. This week we profiled Worm Capital, who call themselves “value investors focused on the future.” They’re one of our favorite technology and disruption investors in the public markets. Since Worm’s inception in 2012, they’ve o...

We’re joined by Eric Markowitz, Head of Research at Worm Capital, to explore Worm Theory, the Worm Algorithm, and investing in disruptive technology. We go deep on being an optimistic and open-minded investor, time horizons, thinking in decades, and constructing a survivable portfolio. “I think we're just optimists. I think that we believe that technology and the culture that we live in will actua...