been better off, owning more shares of companies like $V $MA $GOOG $META $ASML $LRCX $NVDA $MSFT $CRM $VRTX $TMO $AAPL etc.

This was my Achilles Heel when I first started my investment journey in 2016. I was TOO focused on valuation & lower multiples rather than QUALITY & growth at a reasonable price.

So when you’re building your club of equities, don’t buy a bench player in place of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. You’d just be downgrading your team & winning less.

If you made it this far, hope this helped!

Feel free to share your starting XI 😉

#stocks #investing "- Dimitry Nakhla | Babylon Capital®
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⁠Startup Archive
RT @shrihacker: the unconventional advice here is that your first hires should be 'magnets'

i've rarely come across this.

seems like usually founders end up being the face of their company and you dont know who the first 10 engs are but in this case they would be the celebrities

Vinod Khosla and Sam Altman on how much equity to give your first 10 employees

In the early days of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla recruited some of the best engineers in the world: Andy Bechtolsheim, Bill Joy, and Eric Schmidt.

Sam Altman asks Vinod how he convinced these people to join him when Sun was just a small startup.

Vinod replies:

“I see this as a major problem nowadays. People aren’t allocating equity widely enough. I think among the first three or four founders at Sun, we kept less than half of the common. The total was something like 25-27% for the founders, an equal or slightly larger chunk for everybody else we would hire, and then investors had like 40% after the A round. In retrospect, that was a very good idea.”

When his son Neil founded the AI startup Curai Health, Vinod advised him to keep only 15% of the company rather than 45% and try to hire one or two people at 15%. Then he advised him to leave 30% of the pool for non-founders.

Vinod explains his reasoning:

“Even though they’re coming in later and they didn’t come up with the idea, they will be incredible resources, especially as magnets to attract other people. If you believe a company becomes the people it hires, then your task becomes attracting the best people, and selling depends on magnets.”

This what Vinod did with Bill Joy. Vinod gave Bill half his equity even though Bill joined later:

“Bill Joy was an incredible magnet. People wanted to work with Bill and Andy. And even if Bill didn’t do a day of work, he was more than worth it because he helped attract Eric Schmidt. I don’t think Eric would have come work for me as a 25 year old.”

Sam Altman agrees on Vinod’s philosophy of maximizing the size of the pie rather than your ownership percentage:

“I think this is the most important piece of advice we’ve talked about among many important things today. Being super generous with early employee equity and getting founder-quality people in the first 10 employees—I think all the evidence is on the side of doing this, and yet almost no one does. So there’s a huge edge if you’re willing to do it.”

Vinod argues it’s the “single-most important thing to do in the first six months of a company.” The best people can start their own companies. If you want them to join your company, you have to be generous with equity.

Video source: @ycombinator (2019) - Startup Archive
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⁠Investing visuals
Lately, I’ve been adding to $ASML, which is down nearly 40% from its July peak.

With its dominant market position and growth outlook, the risk/reward is quite compelling in my opinion.

What’s your take on $ASML? https://t.co/fhxWtZJqYo
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⁠Stock Analysis Compilation
Greenhaven Road Capital on Sable Offshore Corporation $SOC US

Thesis: Sable Offshore offers a high-upside play with robust insider alignment, low-cost production, and potential for massive cash flow if oil production restarts

(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/HnUxegB77q
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⁠Stock Analysis Compilation
Wasatch GI on Ensign Group $ENSG US

Thesis: Ensign’s strong operational model and proven track record of turning around underperforming facilities make it a standout performer in the health-care management space

(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/pbmYlW5dLm
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⁠Quiver Quantitative
RT @InsiderRadar: We reported on 5 new significant insider purchases this week.

So far, each stock has beaten the market since our report:

$250K purchase of $TRS by CEO on 11/19. Since our report, the stock is up 5.5%.

$10M purchase of $EL by director on 11/19. Since our report, the stock is up 8.8%.

$100K purchase of $ARRY by CEO on 11/20. Since our report, the stock is up 5.5%.

$300K purchase of $ENPH by CEO on 11/20. Since our report, the stock is up 5.0%.

$450K purchase of $ONEW by CEO on 11/21. Since our report, the stock is up 6.0%.
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⁠Quiver Quantitative
RT @InsiderRadar: 🚨 JUST IN: New Insider Purchase

A director of $PBI has reported the purchase of ~$225k of the company's stock.

This is the first insider buy we have ever seen him make, and the first reported at the company in over 2 years
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⁠Quiver Quantitative
RT @InsiderRadar: 🚨 BREAKING: Kushner has just reported the purchase of ANOTHER $3M in $OSCR shares.

This is his 3rd reported insider purchase in the last 10 days. The stock is up 19% since his first purchase.

$OSCR stock is up another 11% today, now up 31% since our insider purchase report on the 14th. - Insider Radar
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⁠Stock Analysis Compilation
Wasatch GI on Japan Elevator Service $6544 JP

Thesis: Japan Elevator’s cost-effective services and market share gains position it well to capitalize on the growing need for elevator renewals in Japan

(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/mkB4PfcTDU
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⁠Stock Analysis Compilation
Clearbridge on National Grid $NG/ LN

Thesis: National Grid’s strong market position and increasing energy demand, coupled with its attractive valuation, offer significant long-term growth opportunities in a supportive regulatory landscape

(Extract from their Q3 letter) https://t.co/C8LjYBc3Eg
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⁠Investing visuals
Focus on fundamentals, not stock price👇 https://t.co/j8r9BCu76d
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⁠Startup Archive
Dropbox founder Drew Houston’s response to investors who told him online storage is a commodity

When Drew was trying to raise money for his startup Dropbox, he got a lot of pushback from investors.

“Google is going to do this”

“Online storage is a commodity”

To which Drew would respond:

“Yes, all of those things are true, and there are 50 other products in this space, but do you use any of them?”

They’d say “No”, and Drew would reply: “Isn’t that interesting?”

Today, Dropbox’s market cap is almost $9 billion.

Drew argues that if you’re doing something interesting and new, you will always face criticism.

“You simultaneously have to have thick skin and be able to tune negativity like that out. But you also have to have thin skin if your customers or team aren’t happy and respond to it… it’s a weird dynamic that you’re going to have to handle, but I think it starts with getting some perspective that you will always face negativity and criticism from some people.”

Video source: @ycombinator (2017)
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