Just another article illuminating the slow-moving train wreck that is the Retirement Crisis in the U.S.: Two-Thirds of Americans Aren’t Putting Money in Their 401(k) (Putting this at the top of the reading list to call attention to the crisis. The U.S. 401K savings scheme is a classic example of good policy intentions meet a complex system – financial and societal – that changes over time and cause unintended consequences years down the road. Many FinTech start-ups are working on the savings and retirement problems from different angles, but we need both industrial and policy solutions to succeed)

2016 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Letter is finally here (Again Warren tore into the hedge fund industry for its collective under-performance and fee structure, and praised Jack Bogle as his business hero for bringing ultra-low-cost index fund products to the average Americans and in the process amassed only a tiny fraction of wealth vs. a typical money manager. In the end, Warren did offer an olive branch to Wall Street, Berkshire loves to pay fees as long as it is commensurate with the value it gets)

Continue reading “Select Readings (Week 7/2017)” →

Becoming Warren Buffet HBO Documentary (Focus, principle, persistence. Simple but not easy)

Charlie Munger  – Full Notes from Daily Journal Co. Annual Meeting and Full Video here (As always many quotables and nuggets of wisdom)

Charlie Munger said during the DJCO meeting that “India has taken the worst aspects of democracy.” Popular narrative likes saying India is the next China, here is a factual argument for Why India is not the Next China. (As an honorary brown person, I love my Indian friends will certainly re-visit the country)

John Hempton at Bronte Capital admits that He does not Understand the Indian Outsourcing Company Syntel (Saying I don’t know is a virtue, saying why I don’t know, and here is how unsure I am requires thinking)

While India was grappling with its rupee bill debacle, here is a fast and furious tour to The Lastest Tech Trends and Fads in China (Went back to China from Nov – Dec last year, met many start-up and VC friends. China is truly a parallel universe and counter-factual to the U.S.)

Y Combinator’s 2017 Annual Letter (Since 2005, has funded 1,470 companies with total valuation of $100B, less than half of Apple’s cash balance if that puts it into perspective. Letter touched upon the era of hyper-scale tech companies powered by network-effect like the FANG, where their advantages are still underappreciated by founders and investors alike, and they will get more powerful without antitrust actions, I will be a happy shareholder for now)

Speaking of FANG, rumor has it that Amazon is looking to buy Capital One, and how have they fared in financial services? (I think the author’s analysis need to be more rigorous. Using Tencent and Alibaba’s success in China to speculate or extrapolate U.S. Tech firm’s ambition and achievable scale in finance to me is naive. No, it’s unlikely they will play an important role in the financial ecosystem anytime soon in the same way that Alibaba has done in China. The fundamental market structures, regulations, and consumer behaviors are miles apart.) 

Micah Rosenbloom of Founder Collective chats with Harry Stebbings of Atomico about why $100 million is a good exit and why capital efficiency is key to returns and investment success in “20 VC: Micah Rosenbloom”

Last mention of Snap before its IPO: Mark Suster on Why He did not Invest in Snap and How He Feels Now, Professor Damodaran Valuing Snap before its IPO, Evan Benedict at A16Z and Ben Thompson at Stratechery each trying to frame Snap’s strategy (Mark did it with good grace and showed how hard it is to get out of your own narrative. While not a fan of DCF, it did provide a quick-and-dirty yardstick to judge value against. No, I am not buying Snap on the IPO, though funds in my 401K may)

Growth Hacker Andrew Chen on The Bad Product Fallacy

Baupost’s 2016 Year-End Letter – (Disclaimer: linking and may be unavailable soon)

Sequoia Fund’s 2016 Year-End Letter – (The famed fund fathered by Warren Buffett leaving the Valeant Saga behind, swapped Walmart with Amazon in the fall)

Bronte Capital’s 2016 Year-End Letter  – (John Hempton is long Bayer, so is David Einhorn, and thinks U.S. stock market is expensive but not so pricey to imply imminent permanent capital loss)

The must-read semi-annual Graham & Doddsville Newsletter Winter 2017 from students at Columbia Business School

A good introduction to the NYC FinTech Community, with suggested newsletters to stay abreast of the continuously evolving landscape

Cliff Asness’s thoughts on the DOL Fiduciary Rule and unintended consequences – (The Trump administration now wants to roll it back, many robo-advisor and robo-401K start-ups predicated their businesses on the fiduciary model and will make a stand, hear both sides. 40 years from now, we may see the robo-movement in the same light as the one John Bogle at Vanguard started 40 years ago )

An excellent overview of the Ocean Freight Shipping Industry from a VC perspective by Brian Laung Aoaeh at KCE Ventures, with great additional reference readings – (Publicly traded shipping stocks have been crushed in the past two years, time to look for contrarian bets?)

Start-ups, Wall Street wants your data! As always, a well-articulated post on alternative data business by Matt Turck at First Mark Capital

Helpful guide to SaaS entrepreneurs thinking of raising money in today’s environment SaaS Funding Napkin, the 2017 edition by Christoph Janz at Point Nine Capital

Snapchat IPO: Too Soon? – (Future Facebook or Twitter? Let the market be the judge)