Josh Maher's Blog » Entries tagged with "Investing"
Seattle Angel Conference III
Tweet You may have noticed the slight increase in posts related to early stage investments and investing lessons from angels & VCs. This year, I am participating in the Seattle Angel Conference as an investor and have been learning a lot as I spend a few hours each week with 20+ other brilliant investors vetting companies. The experience is forcing me to put my thoughts about investment forward and explain to people how I view the world of investment opportunity vs. what others may see. It is highly stimulating and is most certainly making me a better investor of all types of assets. I have slowly been collecting my thoughts on the process itself and want to share those as well. The premise of the group is simple – a bunch of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Startups, Technology
Investing in lotteries
Tweet Investing is often difficult to discern from gambling, in fact many day trading strategies are based on the same principles of successful gambling. By successful gambling, I am referring to those gambling strategies that leverage the statistical odds built into the wager system to strategically pull out a profit and not the casual betting you and I may do at the school auction. I was recently at an angel investing conference here in Seattle. The conference was put on by the great TechStars Azure team and was focused on explaining the angel investing process. There were a variety of angel investors speaking from professionals like Geoff Entress, Chris Devore, and Andy Sack to angels who also have a day job like T.A. McCann and Christina Storm. During the talk, one comment struck me as … Read entire article »
startup moats
Tweet Figuring out the business strategy for most startups is a hard problem, should there be a focus on users, conversion, margins, licensing, etc? These are all operational aspects that can be changed and adjusted over time and unfortunately these are the primary areas of concern for most startups. What is missing is figuring out where the startup fits in the overall picture, what is their strategic advantage relative to other businesses (young and old)? I came across this tweet by Brad Burnham from Union Square Ventures, they clearly get the question about strategy and have formed an investment thesis around this understanding. USV in 140 characters: invest in large networks of engaged users, differentiated by user experience, and defensible though network effects — Brad Burnham (@BradUSV) June 8, 2011 Looking at USV’s track record, they … Read entire article »
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investing, Startups
The importance of context
Tweet Great thoughts by Brian Crouch on the importance of context. As a writer, this resonated with me as there is an incredible difference in consuming content that has no framework as to why it is relevant. The story of the violinist here is an interesting one as the only reason anyone recognizes that he is one of the best is because there are experts that deem him to be one of the best. Listening to him on a subway though may or may not be a great experience for the listener. The difference is that once the listener knows that experts agree his skills are superb, the listener is willing to appreciate the sounds more than if their ears were delighted on the subway. For investors, finding and paying for the song on the subway … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging, Investing, RealEstate
Tools to research value stocks
Tweet If you are the Ben Graham type and are looking for stocks that are incredibly undervalued… so much so that they may not even be traded, I have found these tools to be handy on some occasions… Conference Call Transcripts Unlisted Stocks … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing, stocks, Technology
The amazing Mr. Graham
Tweet I have been a student of value investing for some time now and like most value investors that includes studying the quotes and teachings of Benjamin Graham. This has mostly been through books and through the analysis provided by other value investors. Like most other value investors I don’t focus on just Mr. Graham and I read most great value investors such as this post from Tren Griffin on Charlie Munger’s the psychology of human misjudgment. When I came across this video on Benjamin Graham, I was pleasantly surprised to find a great review of Ben Graham including interviews with Warren Buffett, Edwin Schloss, and others. At risk of repeating the same thing you’ve already read five times last week I include the video here. … Read entire article »
Berkowitz on investing in funds
Tweet With Bruce Berkowitz closing his mutual funds (FAIRX, FOCIX, FAAFX) to new investors, there looms a question on the ability of mutual funds to perform well under the regulatory constraints. The question also arises for individual investors about what they should be investing in. Should they rush into one of the Fairholme funds before the doors close for good or should they look at the stocks that Bruce would rather be more exposed to and simply invest in those directly? Bruce covers this topic in more depth in an interview on Bloomberg… … Read entire article »
