#5 Weekly update
CEO of the year, Four Myths of Bundling, Poor Charlie Almanack and more
Articles
CEO of the year: Sam Altman By Time
If anyone missed the OpenAI boardroom saga, this piece of article summaries it well and it also includes a pretty good history of Sam Altman. Sam, like most visionary founders is fiercely competitive and it shows up early in his life. A comment by one of his partners:
“YC’s co-founder Paul Graham spotted a rare blend of strategic talent, ambition, and tenacity. “You could parachute him into an island full of cannibals and come back in five years and he’d be the king,” Graham wrote of Altman when he was just 23.”
The exact reason for firing him by the board member is still unknown but learning about him is still pretty fascinating in my view.
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
Four Myths of Bundling by Shishir Mehrotra
The title seems to be contradicting to my usual post of high quality investment articles. However, there is a reason to share that because as a pure fundamental analyst myself, I would like to think like a business owner. As a business owner, there is a need to not only be proficient in quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis is actually far more important in my opinion.
This is because quantitative is about the past, there is no guarantee that the history will repeat itself but qualitative reasoning is about the future. Therefore, it is a crucial skills for me to acquired so that I can be a better analyst. That is why you will always see my analysis put more emphasis on the business model, competitive advantage, unit economics, etc.
As a result, I think it is important for me to share his work as I think he did very well explaining his thoughts on why Bundling isn’t a bad thing if done right. Speaking of bundling, it is not something new and many businesses actually used bundling as a technique to create more values such as McDonald using Value Meal by bundling drinks, fries and burger, or Amazon bundling free shipping, music, movie, etc.
Below is an extract by him on debunking the myth:
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
Podcast
A Conversation with Charlie Munger & John Collison by Join Colossus
This will likely to be the last Charlie Munger podcast and it is packs with wisdom as usual. John Collison, one of the founder of Stripe has been a big fan for Charlie Munger and there is no doubt that he will choose Charlie as the mentor for him. They discussed a wide range of topic ranging from investment to architecture as well as what makes Berkshire special. Make sure you didn’t miss this one. You can also read the transcript from here as well.
Lastly, as a bonus point, Poor Charlie’s Almanack is out. You can read and listen to the new edition online, for free, at here. This is the best way that i can think off top of my head that is to share his generosity with more people. Oh ya, don’t forget to checkout the Berkshire mode!!!
Estimated listening time: 1hour 38 minutes
Disclosure: I am not affiliated to any of the authors or writers and didn’t receive any monetary compensation. It is merely for education purpose and my passion to investing. Cheers!!!