My guests today are Bill Gurley and Michael Mauboussin. Bill is a General Partner at Benchmark, and Michael is the Head of Consilient Research for Counterpoint Global. While they are longtime friends with one another, I’d never heard them appear somewhere together so it was a real treat to be able to do this with the two of them. They are two of the leading minds in their fields, and we combined their decades of expertise into one wide-ranging conversation. We discuss the different kinds of increasing returns to scale, the issue of regulatory capture, AI, and hardware. Please enjoy this great ..read more

My guest today is Tim Ferriss. Tim is a writer, podcaster, and investor. He has written five best-selling books, has been an early-stage investor in Facebook, Uber, Shopify, & other household names, and is the host of one of the biggest podcasts in the world. He started The Tim Ferriss Show as an experiment in April 2014 and has deconstructed world-class performers ever since. Last year, his show crossed 1 billion downloads. Together, we deconstruct his podcast and approach to life. We talk about the art of interviewing, the business behind his podcast, and what motivates Tim to keep teach ..read more

My guest today is Ken Langone. Ken is a legendary American businessman best known for his co-founding of Home Depot. He is also a former director of the New York Stock Exchange and a passionate philanthropist. He shares with us a lifetime's worth of wisdom, building Home Depot into a powerhouse and prioritizing his employees above all else. He says he still “bleeds orange” to this day. You’ll hear as he recounts his business endeavors, his strict belief in keeping your word, and his true pride in his country, which he knows to be the land of opportunity. We discuss his work with Ross Perot, th ..read more

My guest today is Robin Dunbar. Robin is a biological anthropologist, evolutionary psychologist, and specialist in primate behavior. He is the man behind Dunbar’s number, a theory about the number of stable relationships we can maintain at once. Robin unravels the thread of research that led him to Dunbar’s number and describes how this plays into every single person’s layers of human connection. It was fascinating to hear how his findings on social circles have implications for optimally structuring businesses and organizations, as well as the idea of homophily, all of which Robin thoughtfull ..read more

My guest today is Sean Feeney. Sean is the co-founder of Grovehouse Hospitality Group and the owner of Lilia and Misi, two of New York City’s most sought-after restaurants. He left his job in Trading to chase down a dream with Michelin star chef Missy Robbins. Sean leveraged his finance background to write his own rulebook for the restaurant industry, crafting several establishments that now boast several thousand people on the waitlist any given night. His story is as entertaining as it is inspiring. As we go step by step through his business endeavors, he points out all of the times he was t ..read more

My guest today is Dave Fontenot, founder of HF0. Born out of Dave’s experiences in monasteries across the world, HF0 is a twelve-week residency for repeat founders to supercharge their next venture. For 12 weeks, 10 teams of engineers relocate to HF0’s house in San Francisco. During the residency, everything is taken care of so their sole focus is coding and building. It’s one of the most interesting incubators I have come across and we discuss the model and its monastic origins in detail. Please enjoy this conversation with Dave Fontenot. Become a Research Analyst at Positive Sum Listen to F ..read more

My guest today is Anne-Marie Peterson. Anne-Marie is an equity portfolio manager at Capital Group, a storied investment firm managing 2.5 trillion dollars and getting ready to celebrate its centennial anniversary. Anne-Marie is a seasoned investor, approaching three decades in the industry, with nearly 20 of those years being with Capital. She has become an expert in retail and restaurants and shares her proven strategies in those sectors over her career. We discuss her people-first approach, simplicity as criteria for investment, and the idea that the best retailers are cults. Please enjoy th ..read more

My guest today is Ali Hamed. Ali was first on Invest Like the Best six years ago. He was 26 at the time and four years into building his investing firm, CoVenture. Both then and now, Ali is an example of what’s possible when you think creatively. Six years later, CoVenture now manages two-and-a-half billion dollars, and Ali continues to find alpha in esoteric places. We talk about YouTube catalogs, creative opportunities in real estate, and how venture investing helps them get better at credit. We also talk about his lessons from building an investment firm and what it’s been like to work with ..read more

My guest today is Cyan Banister. Cyan’s life story is remarkable. She was homeless at a young age, dropped out of high school, and five years ago she suffered an extremely rare stroke. Yet, in spite of everything, she is one of the most optimistic and curious people you can hope to meet. Cyan is also one of the great angel investors of this era, having invested early in SpaceX, Uber, Postmates, and Deepmind to name a few winners. She became the first female investing partner at Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and now invests at Long Journey Ventures. Our conversation is as much about investing as ..read more

Today, we're running a replay of my 2019 conversation with legendary investor Chuck Akre. Chuck founded Akre Capital Management in 1989, which now manages approximately $14B dollars. We discuss his investing style and his “three-legged stool” for evaluating companies. Please enjoy this great conversation. Listen to Founders Podcast For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors, and provider of Canalyst. Tired of calculating fully di ..read more