Rockwood Notes
@RockwoodNotes
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Turning every page on the Pritzkers
Joined January 2025
In my ongoing research into the Pritzker family and their history, I’m always looking for more documents, stories, contacts or leads. If you have any information you’re willing to share, you can reach me on @signalapp All communication is confidential unless otherwise agreed.
Rockwood Notes is a kickstarter-style project to fund the research & publication of the most comprehensive account of the Pritzker family—one of the greatest stories of American business & wealth. For the official pitch, visit the About Page (linked on page). Here’s an overview
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Jay Pritzker, Sam Zell, and the equity investment with bond-like characteristics https://t.co/Nz0qcTHuhn
rockwoodnotes.com
Warren Buffett once equated equities to bonds, only with equities you have to fill in what the coupons will be. In the 1990s, Jay Pritzker structured an equity investment with Sam Zell that was so...
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Despite going to the post office more than I ever wanted to, it’s been fun seeing the places this book goes. I’ve shipped to 15 countries. Only trouble was Denmark. Not sure what’s going on in Denmark, but sending books there is prohibited (and puzzles😂). Hope you all enjoy.
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You can read about Rockwood & Co here. Very possible (likely) Jay only put up something like $20k out of the $400k, which then 5x+ in a few _months_. $240k to $24 million in 2025 dollars. https://t.co/3aprPMjxup
rockwoodnotes.com
If you’ve studied Warren Buffett, you’ve likely come across the cocoa arbitrage story involving Rockwood & Company. Maybe it’s where you first heard of Jay Pritzker. While it’s a great story, and one...
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If you want to know what truly started the family fortune you need to go back further to Nicholas J. Pritzker. https://t.co/YDciKqrHSL
rockwoodnotes.com
A Profile
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Cory was a fantastic deal but disagree with the assertion that it seeded Hyatt or Marmon or the start of the family fortune. Jay himself said cash from Rockwood & Co. seeded the first Hyatt deal. And Jay borrowed almost all the cash to buy Colson which was the beginning of
Every empire starts with a small deal. A.N. Pritzker bought a failing coffee-pot maker for $25K Sold it for $23 MILLION! That tiny deal became the seed of a $30 Billion dynasty. If you buy below book value and wait long enough, America does the rest The Pritzker Formula⬇️
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60 years of Warren Buffett’s letters. Final edition. The story of how the greatest capital allocator in history built Berkshire Hathaway from a $25M textile company to a $1 TRILLION compounding machine. In his own words, as it happened. Pre-order now, available October 14.
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Great profile on Peterffy. Loved this part $IBKR
Thomas Peterffy is the 23rd richest person in the world, a chief architect of modern finance, and has one of the most remarkable stories in business. Yet he remains virtually unknown. Born in a Budapest basement during a Soviet bombing raid in September 1944, his father left
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Rockwood Notes got a shoutout from the goat himself — @davidsenra @FoundersPodcast I have some awesome supporters so far. But it’s hard to express how motivating it is to have someone like David backing you.
NEW podcast episode is up! David Senra — How Extreme Winners Think and Win: Lessons from 400+ of History’s Greatest Founders and Investors (Including Buffett, Munger, Rockefeller, Jobs, Ovitz, Zell, and Names You Don’t Know But Should) Please enjoy! 🙌 cc: @davidsenra
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NEW podcast episode is up! David Senra — How Extreme Winners Think and Win: Lessons from 400+ of History’s Greatest Founders and Investors (Including Buffett, Munger, Rockefeller, Jobs, Ovitz, Zell, and Names You Don’t Know But Should) Please enjoy! 🙌 cc: @davidsenra
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If you are inside the US, I got your book mailed out yesterday. All expected delivery dates are between Thursday, Sept. 25th and Saturday, Sept. 27th. If you haven’t gotten it by then, reach out and I’ll check the tracking numbers. I’ll get int’l shipments out next week.
Selling more copies of Autopsy of a Merger Author-autographed $75 + shipping Link below is for _inside_ the US If you’re _outside_ the US, DM me for a custom invoice/shipping est I’ll randomly select 1 person who retweets this to receive a comped Rockwood Notes subscription
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I’m going to try a little six degrees of separation experiment. I’ve been trying to find a way to get in contact with William J. Devers. He stepped down from the BoD of Ryan Specialty $RYAN in January 2024. Way back, he started Trans Union Credit Information Co. (TUCIC) —
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Selling more copies of Autopsy of a Merger Author-autographed $75 + shipping Link below is for _inside_ the US If you’re _outside_ the US, DM me for a custom invoice/shipping est I’ll randomly select 1 person who retweets this to receive a comped Rockwood Notes subscription
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Published a Chicago tale of two families: the Pritzkers and the Goldblatts (paywalled) https://t.co/amN3a2tNjH
rockwoodnotes.com
Only some see through the disguises of opportunity. The disguise might appear as a problem, even a misfortune. But within every dark cloud, the creative mind can find opportunity. Find it and feed it...
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Great tribute to a great guy.
ethanolproducer.com
Robert Lundeen impacted his family, business associates and the ethanol industry in a way that lives on today.
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One of the Greatest LBOs in History The most important thing you read today Pritzker turned $20M into $3.6B! 260× MOIC. 49% IRR over two decades:
The Best Deal Charlie Munger Ever Saw Conwood Case Study Slide deck version: https://t.co/RZyroTSFId
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Also, next Pritzker article coming out in the next week(ish). Covers an important early client to the Pritzker family during their transition from law firm to merchant bank, particularly for A.N. Pritzker. Article will be paywalled (sorry 😢). Find it on
rockwoodnotes.com
Turning every page on the Pritzkers
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To balance out the study of a successful family, started a podcast to look at failure—a subject severely lacking content. (There’ll be a number of Pritzker stories too) Lmk if you prefer written or audio format more. Longer or shorter episodes/articles. All feedback helps.
Success is a lousy teacher. Introducing the Investing Is Hard podcast to look at what goes wrong in investing—frauds, bankruptcies, fads, bad luck etc. Short 20-30 min episodes. Ep. 1 is on the collapse of $DUB.AX Thanks to @atelicinvest for the idea https://t.co/RUxXMnCOkc
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