Interesting takeaways/striking quotes from Sanjay Ayer (from WCM)’s podcast

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/san… The sin of this industry is it doesn’t allow talent to discover itself. There is a lot of talent but is sabotaged by pomp and lack of differentiated thinking.

Payments interview from JP Morgan

It simplified the payments facilitator's role in the payments ecosystem. Overall quite useful

h/t @BlueToothDDS

markets.jpmorgan.com/research/email… Software is taking over payments. Consumers want to interact with software and not banks. Historically payments were integrated with banks who would own the relationship. Over time, they started to work with payments companies working with merchants. Banks partnered with these

Structure of 3 write-ups on VIC that turned out well (Amazon in 2011, Trade Desk in 2017 and Carvana in 2018).

The 2011 AMZN one is probably top 5 in write-ups I've ever read, 2018 CVNA also excellent) Amazon 2011: valueinvestorsclub.com/idea/AMAZON.CO…

Executive summary: explain that there is a misunderstanding due to Amazon short-term earnings for long-term FCF & competitive advantage. Also macro: well-positioned to take advantage of global internet growth and migration of retail sales

Thread on the simple & concise piece 'Under the Hood: The Merchant Payment Process'

It explains the payment process step by step, from the moment of payment to end settlement.

linkedin.com/pulse/under-ho… Step 1: payment initiation: when paying for a product, the overall goal of credit cards is needing to prove you’re the cardholder. And then prove you have the funds to carry out that transaction.

Notes on the Stephen Mandel interview. Mandel is the founder & managing partner of Lone Pine Capital, a Tiger cub.

h/t locked account

reddit.com/r/GrowthStocks… Steve went to Darmouth & then HBS. His career started off at Goldman as a retail analyst. He then went to Julian Robertson’s Tiger Global, for 7 years. He left to start Lone Pine. 1$ in the S&P when he started (1997) is worth 6$ today. 1$ in Lone Pine in 1997 is worth 25$ today.

Notes on the @SuperMugatu x @BillBrewsterSCG podcast

good insights here

open.spotify.com/episode/71JQw3… Dan signed a seed deal with Greenlight’s internal Fund of Funds vehicle, talking with them since 2017 - every month or two. Earlier in November, they finally were able to work out a partnership. Took the time to understand what Tyro wanted to build.

Carvana Case Study
by @scuttleblurb x @AndrewRangeley

this was excellent - a thoughtful and balanced thesis, Includes: overview of the problem $CVNA solves, how they delight customers, their competitive advantages, unit economics & the short thesis

The problem: Buying a used car is a subpar experience where there are sharky salesmen whose commission is tied selling us high-priced cars. The lots are small, with limited choice and there’s a lot of paperwork.

Notes on SaaS Unit Economics, by David Skok

forentrepreneurs.com/saas-metrics-2/ SaaS and other recurring revenue businesses are different because the revenue for the service comes over an extended period of time (the customer lifetime). If a customer is happy with the service, they will stay for a while. If unhappy, the customer could leave, causing churn

Notes on the interview between @dennishong17 and @valuedach

good-investing.net/2020/07/27/den…

Really great interview, many thoughtful takes and secrets were revealed here. Dennis is the son of South Korean immigrants and lived in Brampton, Ontario. His parents owned a convenience store and that’s where Dennis learnt about business by helping sell cigarettes. Dennis went to a rough high school where few people went to university. Luckily a good

Notes on the Berenstein Payments Primer

It's a summary of the Consumer to Business (C2B) payment ecosystem.

huge thanks to @CdnHedge for sharing Order:
-value-add of the digital payments sytem
-issuers
-issuer processors
-acquirers
-types of networks (the rails)
-merchant aggregators

A sample transaction:

Thread on $Roku: The Gatekeeper to Modern Television

(the most interesting puzzle I've looked at since Shopify) Roku is the market leader in the streaming TV industry, with 43M accounts. The business has two segments, Player and Platform. The Player segment consists of Roku’s hardware, its streaming devices, while the Platform segments (70% of revenues, up from 45% in 2017)

Notes on the discussion between Jeff Bender, CEO of Harris Systems, one of Constellation’s subsidiaries, and Mark Leonard, founder, president and chairman of CSU.

Mark is a man of discipline and integrity. He also has a British accent.

buzzsprout.com/832150/5135959… CSU founded in 1995, 25 years ago. Invested in over 500 businesses, over 3B$ in revenues and 20k employees worldwide, with 6 operating groups.

Leonard had a bad experience with the press early on in VC and that put him off in being overly public on the companies he invested in.

Case Study

Shopify : Arming the Rebels

Overview:
Shopify’s Solutions for Merchants
Macro trends
Competitive Advantages (Their Offerings)
Shopify’s Elegance and Competition Shopify is a cloud-based commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market and manage a retail business of any size. Shopify builds web and mobile based software and lets merchants easily set up online storefronts rich with functionality.

Case Study
Avalara : Making Taxes Less Taxing $AVLR

Overview:
-complexity of taxes + AVLR's value-add
-competitive advantages
-catalysts for growth
-competition
-conclusion Avalara is a tax compliance software provider. Every business pays taxes and tax rates can vary widely based on geography, location of final sale and the type of good sold. The rise of ecommerce and international trade, along with constantly shifting taxation and reporting