Jay Vas
@jayvas
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Investor @ Atlasview Equity Partners. Here to learn & share my learnings. DMs open.
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Went to an event yesterday where Mark Leonard (founder/ceo of Constellation Software $csu) was the keynote speaker. The discussion was around general business/career advice.
Sharing some of my notes:
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If you invested $10,000 in Berkshire in 1965, it would be worth $109m by 2017.
However, if Buffett charged a 2/20 fee structure, that $10,000 would be worth $8.9m.
This is why fees matter over the long run, they muzzle the effects of compounding.
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This might be the greatest Twitter bio of all time.
Icahn based af
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You won’t learn this in your MBA class, but…
90% of “business” is really just constantly following up with people.
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Last week
@theSamParr
shared Gymshark's financials. They're very impressive, but what stood out the most to me was the £53m cash pile.
How could a bootstrapped eComm company w/ rapid growth have this much cash?
Answer: a negative cash conversion cycle.
Here's how it works 👇
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If credit cards get disrupted, the entire airline industry would vanish (or be forced to pivot).
Many airline points programs EXCEED the value of the actual airline. Operating flights have become a loss leader for their points program.
Merchant fees drive the airline industry.
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Ken Griffin avoided raising VC money for his tech startup (Citadel) for 32 years so he could raise at a $22bn valuation.
Lesson: bootstrap your startup for as long as possible.
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Sam Zell on assessing deals.
Too many of y’all gettin lost in spreadsheets.
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@BenBankas
@vonbrauckmann
Because Sir John A was not a Hindu god? Wtf kinda question is that lmao.
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Never read any of James Clear’s work, but at dinner w/ my friend last night & he told me this excerpt:
The results you’ve achieved to date is a lagging indicator of things you did in the past.
How you spend your time today is a leading indicator of what your future looks like.
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The irony of Ontario Teachers Pension Plan investing in FTX, which is actually banned in Ontario (cuz our regulators deem it too risky)...
...and then proceeding to lose the entire investment.
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Anytime I see private equity and real estate returns compared alongside stock market indexes...
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Charlie Munger is right, haul ass for your first $100k.
I can only prove how true this quote is by sharing my own experiences.
Here's how I hauled ass for that first $100k and how it materially changed my life/wealth 👇
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Plaid's value prop in 1 image.
(you can re-use this image for any API-first company really)
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Wealth Roadmap in 2 phases.
Phase 1:
a. Start a straight-forward, less risky, cash flow business (consulting, services, agency)
b. Reinvest profits into cash flowing assets (real estate, dividend stocks, bonds)
Once passive income covers living expenses, go to Phase 2.
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RIP to brown kids everywhere.
On top of doctor, lawyer, engineer now they gonna add prime minister to it too.
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Service businesses can be wildly profitable.
I ran a PPC agency for 5 yrs & it generated nearly $1m in net owner earning (43% net margin, P&L link below). This cash helped me seed/grow my personal investment portfolio.
Here's how you maximize profits for a service business 👇
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Hands down my favourite investment analyst <> CEO interaction of all time.
There are so many lessons in this single interaction.
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A hill I'm willing to die on:
If you're starting your first business and have ~$0, you should start a service business.
(that is... if your goal is to build wealth through entrepreneurship)
Here's why service businesses make such a great foundation for building wealth 👇
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I recently re-read Sons of Wichita - a fascinating story of how the Koch family built a $110bn/yr oil refining behemoth.
Here are my 7 key takeaways on how to build a multi-generational business 👇
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Joel Greenblatt’s description of a stock option blew my mind:
A stock option is like receiving a loan to buy stock at a specific price, but you pay the entire interest upfront (the option premium).
However, you only need to pay the principal back if stock is above that price.
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This Toronto hedge fund never lost money in a single year since 1997. I know I rag on hedge funds a lot but a well executed L/S strategy is a thing of beauty.
$100k —> $5m with no drawdowns, impressive. h/t to a locked anon acct.
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I don't think many people realize that Bing is a low-key rising star.
Bing Ads generates around $7bn/year now.
That's 3x the amount of ad revenue that Twitter generates, making Bing the 4th largest in US online advertising revenue.
$MSFT
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Does anyone see the irony in Employment and Social Development Canada being one of the largest employers in Canada?
It employs 45,000 (!!) people. To put that in context, that's almost 2x the amount of people Rogers Communications employs.
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The largest growing government departments are:
Canada Revenue Agency: grew by 34% since 2019
Employment and Social Development Canada: grew by 56% since 2019
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Why does the ESDC need 45,000 people?
They are a top 20 employer in Canada, and their mandate is to... help Canadians with employment (I guess in a sense they are achieving that mandate, lol).
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Fine dining is so overrated.
After a certain point, it’s more about status than the quality and taste of the actual food.
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so this Tate guy has nearly 200k members in this paid chat group , each member is paying $50/mo…
If this is true… ~$100m+ profit/yr on what could probably be a 1-man show 🤯
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A few yrs ago, I learned how to count cards in blackjack, thanks to Ed Thorp’s book.
Though I was 20yrs too late (casinos now have protocols to prevent card counting), I learned a lesson around edge & bet size.
Heres how this lesson applies to investing:
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Our government should rebrand the Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) to the Tax Free Investing Account (TFIA) so ppl use it correctly.
Maxing out TFSA since 2009 (inception), and investing in an S&P500 index would mean a $200k+ value today. Accessible instantly, all tax-free.
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@ChrisJBakke
I’m here for the conspiracy theory that Masayoshi Son is really a CIA operative, and SoftBank is really a economic destabilization ploy.
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Many people see Gymshark as a company with amazing marketing and great leadership. But after seeing their financials, it’s obvious that they’re also a company with incredible financial management.
More on CCC here (including formulas/calculators):
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Accenture (and other IT consultancies) are a great example of Buffett's "royalty on sales" businesses.
They are basically a royalty on technology. Other companies spend all the capex (R&D), and Accenture takes a royalty on their sales.
Kind of wild that one of the companies with the most revenue from generative AI is a consultancy: Accenture
Over $600M booked this quarter, on track for up to $2.4B annualized 🤯
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All these gov employees and we don't even have a dedicated federal department for small business and entrepreneurship.
The US Small Business Administration has 4,000 employees and they effectively administer critical programs to support small businesses and entrepreneurs.
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I put an offer in on a multifamily last week...
Broker: “there’s another offer, and it’s strange because that person has the same last name as you”
Competing against my dad for this deal. Didn’t need to ask anything else, like who else has my last name lol.
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The entire points system is a pretty genius financial instrument that's been propping the industry up.
Highly recommend watching this video (that's where I got the images from):
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Great read. Most people outside of Canada have probably never heard of Seymour Schulich. But he’s an impressive entrepreneur & capital allocator.
If you invested $1k in his company, Franco Nevada, when it went public in 1983 it was worth $1.25m when it was acquired in 2004.
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Jim Pattison.
Made his first investment of $40k in 1961 (auto dealership). Never raised any outside equity, instead, he reinvested internal cash flow into a series of acquisitions to build a ~$10bn+ diversified empire.
~22% CAGR for 63 years. Still active @ 95 years of age.
Who are the best active investors who don’t manage outside money?
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I love coming across businesses that are super profitable and run by an ultra lean team.
20 yr old legacy software company with ~100% retention, growing ~10% YoY. $1.1m ARR, $850k owner earnings.
Ran by a husband/wife combo with a couple contractors.
What a dream business.
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Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has now grown to $1.35 trillion in assets for 5.3m Norwegians...
That’s $255k USD for every single Norwegian!
Norwegians (through the fund) own 1.4% of all publicly listed companies in the world.
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Coke was basically dead money for 22 years. This is why Buffett wished he sold it all during the peak.
This won’t stop dividendbros from constantly taking about Buffett’s Coke dividends though!
Great find, sent to me by a reader on my mailing list:
In the 2004 BRK shareholder letter, Buffett admits he regrets holding his “Big Four” stocks and wished he would’ve sold them during the bubble, when he knew they were overvalued. This included Coke, which was down 50%+ from…
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"The first $100k is a bitch, but you gotta do it. I don’t care what you have to do - if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000. After that, you can ease off the gas a little bit."
- Munger
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90% of “business” is really just constantly following up with people.
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The funny thing about the entire investor community convinced that SaaS companies are “investing through the P&L” is…
No one can tell what’s considered growth capex and what’s maint capex.
😉
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@ShreeParadkar
Yeah... I don't think so. If you have to use made up terms like "anti anti-racist", I am afraid you have already lost.
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Excited to share that I've launched a new investment firm -
@AtlasviewEquity
.
Our focus is on acquiring cash-flowing software & asset-light/tech-enabled businesses. We've completed 2 platform acquisitions so far.
Check out our strategy & thesis here:
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90% of “business” is really just constantly following up with people.
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If you’re considering selling your business to a PE firm and they allow you to rollover equity...
$$$$$
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Day 1 of my 30s.
I had an absolute blast during my 20s, I have no idea how I’ll ever top it.
But here’s to trying...
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Also, consider that airline points are the OG "cryptocurrency", but better because:
-they actually have utility (can be used for travel)
-they are NOT taxed
-they can be swapped between various programs
-they are already being used to compensate employees (the ones that travel)
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For people that think high margins in eCommerce is all you need...
I’ve met a couple of brothers in Toronto that run a wildly successful eCom business that seeks out, copies and undercuts high-margin/popular eCom brands.
It’s a 9-figure/year, profitable business.
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Wework, but for warehousing...who's building this at scale?
(think eCommerce fulfillment, flexible leases, shared resources like shelving, ladders, forklifts etc)
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@frantzfries
If a site looks like it’s from 1995 and ugly as hell, they’re either at 0 users or they’re a $685bn insurance-backed diversified investment holdco looking to add more wonderful businesses at fair prices.
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Customer acquisition has become so costly that starting/buying your own media company is now an economically viable growth strategy.
Thanks $goog $fb.
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17 factors that improve/reduce the odds of M&A success:
This chart was put together after studying ~3000 M&A transactions. Though most of the transactions studied involved larger businesses, I think these lessons are relevant for business buyers of all sizes. Many of these…
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Change my mind:
Google's search business is the greatest business model in the history of capitalism.
Here's a qualitative look at Google's search business, along with some common misunderstandings 👇
$GOOG $GOOGL
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"Middlemen business models are an eventual race to the bottom."
False. See: $POOL $CPRT $SITE $MCK
As long as both suppliers and customers stay highly fragmented, the margins stay protected. Middlemen business model can be fantastic if you understand this.
“Multiple compression is a bitch.” -Ben Spero
The most important takeaway for me from Adyen’s earnings is the following:
Middlemen business models are an eventual race to the bottom.
Why?
Because they have two default paths:
Path1: compete for the big contracts. This forces…
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Incredible read.
If you run a business, or are in charge of allocating capital for a business, I highly recommend this book.
Well done
@McD_Investments
and h/t to
@ramseysahyoun
&
@flynn_bob
for recommending this.
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It’s interesting that Blackstone LPs would have been better off buying $BX than the majority of Blackstone’s funds.
$BX has delivered 26%+ IRR and 10x+ MOIC (not including dividends) over the past decade.
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This was a beautifully written book, vivid imagery. Now I really want to visit the Mongolian steppes.
It also gave me a new perspective of Genghis Khan. Highly recommend it.
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✅ twitter achievement unlocked: reply from the memelord
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The secret life of a man who built a multi-billion dollar empire from nothing.
Here are my 6 key takeaways from Kirk Kerkorian, the greatest deal-maker in the history of capitalism 👇
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The biggest trick the devil ever pulled:
Convincing the entire business world that depreciation is not a real operating expense.
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We’re seeing more of these zombie VC-backed startups. The typical profile is:
• 15-20 enterprise customers
• $3-5m ARR
• growth stalled (so can’t raise more $)
• founders and VCs want out
• cash flow break even (or slight burn)
• competitive niche
• raised $3-10m VC money…
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Software investors focus on the high gross margins but completely overlook the high maintenance capex many of these businesses have.
"Software companies are investing through the P&L" might be one of the biggest lies ever told.
Here's why:
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Free cash flow. Maximize this. For as long as possible.
Everything else is just noise.
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Thought I was going to finish 2020 empty handed, tough real estate market out here.
Managed to snag a great deal at the last minute and wanted to share the details.
Here’s how I analyze multifamily real estate investment opportunities 👇
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Welcome to Toronto where:
- we prefer to keep our rental buildings dilapidated
- 20% income increase is reserved only for government officials (1.2% increase cap on rent increase in 2021)
- we don’t understand basic economics, prefer to push idiotic policies
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General business advice for a newcomer:
Read a lot, especially business history and business biographies. Mark thinks they should teach way more biz history in schools.
Experiment frequently in business. The scientific method is the best method for any business.
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“The US Dollar is backed by nothing”
The US Dollar:
In 1988, The U.S. Navy destroyed half of Iran's Navy in under 8 hours.
A Soviet vessel was nearby. When asked its intentions, the Soviet captain replied, "I want to take pictures for history."
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