My guest this week is Hunter Walk, the co-founder of Homebrew, a unique venture capital firm. Hunter is a tool builder, having spent his career before venture at companies like Google and YouTube. The topic of our conversation is the intersection of creative expression, technology, human behavior, and problem solving.
We discuss his time at the company behind the video game Second Life, building tools for creators at YouTube, and why a very hands-on style of early stage venture investing represents an interesting use of his skillset at this stage of his career.
Please enjoy my conversation with Hunter Walk.
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Show Notes
1:24 - (First Question) – Background on Second Life and what role Hunter had there
6:10 – The virtual currency system at use in Second Life
9:51 – Measuring how people behaved in this virtual world
12:21 – How closely is the Second Life world mimicking real life
15:13 – The market for platforms that lets people take on creative ventures
17:58 – Investments that interest Homebrew
20:21 – Lessons learned while working at YouTube
28:34 – The idea behind Homebrew
33:44 – How to best describe good problems to solve for
36:10 – The Shadow economy and investing in companies operating there
42:17 – Monetization of attention
47:22 – His interest in fintech companies
54:03 – Major trends of change he’s observed over his first three funds
1:04:13 – What is there take on the state of returns for VC’s
1:09:52 – What is the most common way that founders need help and what advice is more helpful
1:14:35 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Hunter
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag
[REPLAY]
Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy, which explores the platform business model (Uber, Airbnb, Github). Alex is also the founder and CEO of Applico, a company that he started in his dorm room that is since grown into a huge enterprise that helps startups and Fortune 500 innovate with platforms. Alex and I talk about history and future of businesses and different types of business models. There’s a lot in here for investors, entrepreneurs, and historians. Please enjoy!
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag
Books Referenced
Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy
The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Links Referenced
Show Notes
2:39 – (first question) – Exploring the history of business models from linear to platform.
5:46 – A look at the share of overall business platform companies have taken over
7:06 - Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy
7:48 – The potential for platform businesses over the next 20 years
9:18 – Detailing the difference between a linear and a platform business
12:08 – Exploring transaction costs and core transactions across different business models
19:49 – Is the platform business model good for investors and VC’s since so many can get crushed when there’s a sole victor, or is it just for the founders and entrepreneurs.
24:35 – How the self-driving car is going to deliver more opportunity for consumer consumption
27:15 – Untapped supplies as the opportunity for new platforms and where we could see new openings
30:24 – How consolidated will things become across all platforms
33:16 – How do platform companies create a moat to keep others from replicating their business strategy
37:03 – Are there platform strategies that specifically don’t work
37:40 - Failed Color App
38:45 – Why complex systems typically don’t scale up and you should think small and easy to get started
38:47 – The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small
40:02 – How the origin of so many larger companies started out small and localized, and why it makes investors more comfortable
41:37 – How Alibaba had to tweak their business model to accommodate the Chinese market
44:07 – Why are the modern monopolies better for consumers
47:52 – Exploring platforms that are asset heavy
49:00 – What do you look for as a VC to determine
52:05 – Alex’s take on whether a platform based company like Uber should be more asset heavy
54:31 – Exploring some lesser known platform businesses that Alex finds interesting
56:18 – If there is a demand in the secondary markets for a product, why don’t the primary suppliers simply raise their prices
57:03 – What Alex’s portfolio of platform-based businesses would look like
58:48 – A couple of most influential books Alex has read
59:12 – The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
59:38 – Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future and other Peter Thiel books
59:53 – Looking at Applico, how it started and how it become so focused on the platform business model
1:03:56 - Most memorable day for Alex
1:05:13 – Kindest person to Alex in his life
1:06:10 – What platform opportunities could exist in the financial world
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag
My guest this week is Cliff Asness, the managing and founding principal at AQR Capital Management. 20 years after its founding in 1998, AQR manages $226 Billion dollars across a number of quantitatively based investing strategies.
Cliff was an original quant researcher and he has long been one of the financial writers and thinkers that I look to for education and for inspiration.
I distinctly remember reading one paper in particular—value and momentum everywhere—somewhat early in my career and thinking: this is the kind of research I want to do forever.
You can always tell when talking to Cliff or hearing him speak that he just loves researching markets. There is a deep intellectual honesty in his work, and a respect for thinkers at different ends of the market spectrum, from Gene Fama and Ken French, to Jack Bogle, to Dick Thaler and Robert Shiller.
Our conversation is about all things quant—past, present, and future. Cliff touches on many of the big issues facing quant investing and tells some great strong along the way. I hope you enjoy our discussion. Let’s dive in.
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Show Notes
1:47 - (First Question) – Favorite superhero
2:43 – Why ‘Ka nama kaa lajerama’ is part of his twitter profile.
3:38 – How portfolios have shifted the way they use factors in a portfolio
10:15 – What are good questions clients are asking right now
13:24 – Contrarian Factor Timing Is Deceptively Difficult
15:40 – Does technology impact investing strategy
22:14 – When to share information vs keep it proprietary for clients sake
26:40 – How their research process is governed
31:14 – How they will incorporate machine learning into their process
34:21 – What they will do when red flags show up
37:01 – Wackiest question from a client
41:47 – The Three Sharpe Ratio Strategy
41:53 – Liquid Alt Ragnarök
48:10 – Does his thinking change when it comes to asset allocation vs portfolio building
50:17 – Parallels Between the Cross-Sectional Predictability of Stock and Country Returns
53:01 – Sin a Little
57:14 – Trends in fees and pricing
1:02:43 – Thoughts on private equity markets
1:11:03 – Common attributes of really good researchers
1:13:21 – What is he most curious about right now
1:15:43 – What excites him outside of finance
1:17:00 – How much he discusses his work with his kids
1:18:35 – The Devil in HML’s details
1:19:36 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag
[REPLAY]
My guest this week is Peter Attia, M.D., whose mission is to understand and improve human lifespan and healthspan (or quality of life). Reading Peter’s research, you find that there are many similarities between health and investing—ideas like compounding—which we explore in detail.
We spend a lot of time on mind, body, spirit and performance as it relates to living a better life. Of particular interest is the strategic problem that we face when studying longevity. As Peter puts it in our conversation: we are the species of interest, but we can’t conduct the kinds of experiments on humans—randomized trials, with control groups—that we apply to solve other big problems. So we have to back our way into a better understanding of longevity and quality of life.
To that end, we discuss what we can learn from studying centenarians, the problem of progress in science, a drug called Rapamycin (which Peter believes could be revolutionary), eating, the importance of muscle mass, and the idea of distressed tolerance. We emerge with a framework for thinking about health and well-being which can hopefully help us all live longer, better lives. Please enjoy!
For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/attia
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag
Posts From Peter Attia That You Should Read
How You Move Defines How You Live
Long List of Questions Answered: Part 1 and Part 2
Links Referenced
The Scientific Method-Richard Feynman
Knowing Versus Understanding-Feynman again
Books Referenced
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
Show Notes
2:31 – (first question) – Getting Peter to define the concept of wealth and how it might have changed in his life
5:01 – How do you increase the number of really good people in your life.
6:50 – Looking at the relationship between healthspan and lifespan and a chart that Peter created on this specific topic.
11:11 – Drilling down into the different dimensions and aspects of this chart that could be most important for people, especially how compounding plays into our health.
16:57 – The difference between strategies and tactics that will help you extend lifespan
17:54 – The Scientific Method-Richard Feynman
21:41 – Different types of intermittent fasting
28:59 – What role does repair play in health
34:17 – Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
36:01 – Looking back, what health trends today will look absurd
36:19 – Diffusion of Innovations
39:24 – What are the primary benefits of weight lifting
40:21 – The importance of glucose disposal
45:07 – Good Calories, Bad Calories
46:31 – What is the state of progress in the scientific community
52:14 – Peter is asked about how he guards against getting too attached to old beliefs
1:01:51 – A look at how performance relates to healthspan
1:03:34 –Peter’s first great auto-racing experience
1:09:17 – Looking into Peter’s medical practice and understanding his thinking that goes into helping people
1:18:11 – The most memorable day in Peter’s career
1:22:31 – The kindest thing anyone has done for Peter
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag