10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

Bullish:

• $BRK.B - Berkshire Hathaway was seen as a valuable investment during the 2008 financial crisis due to Buffett's ability to deploy capital when credit was desperately needed

  • “I bought it right in the middle of the financial crisis... I thought, well, his money is going be so valuable here. What is needed is credit.”

    Michael·20:33
• $PODCAST - Podcasting has massive growth potential due to larger-than-expected internet niches and structural tailwinds from AirPods making it socially acceptable to consume audio content while multitasking

  • “The Internet niches are way bigger than you think they are... there's millions of people online.”

    Ben·1:09:14

  • “A year after we started the podcast, AirPods came out. And it became socially acceptable to just listen to stuff while you're moving about the world... Everyone now focuses on two things at a time.”

    Ben·2:00:46
• $COST - Costco's low SKU count strategy creates powerful economies of scale by making them a meaningful buyer to every supplier, driving competitive advantages

  • “Low SKU count drives everything... If you only sell 4,000 things, it doesn't take a lot of volume before very quickly you are a meaningful seller to every single one of those products.”

    Ben·1:51:54
• $TSM - TSMC's strategic focus on integrated circuits positions them as the best in a business that will remain critical for the long-term future

  • “Morris Chang told us that one of the ways that they erred was trying to exit the integrated circuit market... the key insight was you're already in the best business. Integrated circuits are the future and will be for a long time, and you're already the best at them.”

    Ben·1:55:16
• $B2BSAAS - High-value B2B software companies with multimillion dollar annual deals represent strong business models with very high lifetime value

  • “B to B companies with high very high LTV products... we want companies that are doing a significant number of multimillion dollar annual deals”

    David·1:21:15
• $PE - Private companies tend to be better run than public companies across industries due to operational advantages

  • “There's an argument to be made that in any industry where they're both private and public companies, the private companies end up being much better run.”

    Michael·1:31:36

Bearish:

• $NKE - Nike made a strategic error by closing retail stores and betting entirely on online sales, allowing competitors like On and HOKA to gain significant market share

  • “Nike basically blew it, right? Let these one hundred percent. They got rid of their stores. They thought it's all going to be online and On and HOKA roll in.”

    Michael·2:38:30
• $TRADMEDIA - Traditional media's separation of commercial and editorial activities is an inefficient business model that doesn't need to exist

  • “The media business model of splitting the commercial activity from the editorial... everyone doesn't need to.”

    Ben·1:23:42