Way back in 2017 I met Josh Luber the founder of StockX and become fascinated with the stock market for shoes.

I wrote a couple of posts and they are worth revisiting as well as watching Josh’s Ted Talk.

StockX has since exploded with growth and Josh has moved on to his next thing after bringing in a CEO at StockX.

I had a Zoom call with Josh that talked about his new passion which is collecting rare cards – specifically basketball cards.

Have a watch/listen over on YouTube. It is fascinating

Have a great Friday.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square seemed confused yesterday about the Holocaust and whether it happened.

Jack…The Holocaust happened.

I patiently waited for Chamath to clear his schedule to chat about investing, SPACs and community. It was a lot of fun and though we did not cover all the questions I had to ask, we left it open to future conversations.

Chamath (follow him here on Twitter) is a fellow Canadian that snuck over the ice wall along the Northern Border and has not looked back.

He is 11 years younger than me, and if you peruse his Wikipedia page you will discover he is a classic underachiever!

Today he runs Social Capital, not to be confused with my firm Social Leverage (named earlier).

Alex Danco has a few great stories about Chamath, his time at Social Capital and SPAC’s in his ‘Panic With Friends’ episode we did a few months back.

To the episode….

Chamath has a great sense of humor which I checked in on early and loves to talk about investing, stocks, trends, SPAC’s, technology, biotech and social community.

We covered it all in this interview including:

Being in the top of the first for SPACs as the governing logic for how to go public is broken

Community as a possible winner take all feature of investing platforms

His Stocktwits stalking

How AWS iOS and Android drove the tech innovation of the last 10 years

The coming wave of Biotech in their own AWS,iOS, Android moment

How banks are f*@ked

Thoughts on Robinhood, Etoro and retail investors.

Here is the show on YouTube. I hope you enjoy.

PS – I do apologize for my poor Zoom editing in the first 15 minutes as I forgot to click the side by side button. You do not need to watch it to get the full Chamath brain drop. It is an easy listen… so just play it in the background on your smartphone or computer.

I learned so much from my ‘Panic’ with Josh Elman. Like most of my friends in the investing business, I don’t know the full backstories. When did they first geek out? What was their first job? Is there a big miss that haunts them? Josh answered all these for me.

Josh has seen so much over his 20 years in Seattle and the Valley woking at technology startups and I really enjoyed hearing the stories. Josh’s experience and lessons learned at early internet darling ‘Real Networks’ are just classics.

You can listen to today’s podcast here on Spotify or Apple.

Some more details of today’s episode are below…

Guest: Josh Elman

Profile: Board Partner at Greylock Partners, Product Builder

Where to Find Him: LinkedIn, Twitter

Fun Fact: Not only is Josh a board member of the online publishing site Medium, he also does some writing there himself. If you want more from Josh after finishing this episode, I would recommend checking out his Medium page.

What’s the Panic About:

It was great to have my long-time friend, fellow Twitter fanatic and product builder extraordinaire Josh Elman on Panic with Friends and get some insights from the man who has a lot of experience at basically every social company imaginable. It is always fun to talk to really smart people who are doing really amazing things. Josh is someone who is ahead of his time – he’s philosophical, creative and has seen growth on the ground floor of some amazing companies (in another time he was even an intern at Microsoft). Josh is a product leader who has been involved in the early stages of platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Robinhood.

In his many years as General Partner at Greylock Partners, he has served on the boards of some of the most innovative social companies, including Discord, Musical.ly (currently TikTok), Medium, Mammoth Media and more. The Real Networks lessons and the almost investment at Snapshot were so educational. I wish Josh and I could have touched on even more topics during our conversation this episode. But, it was fun getting his unique perspective on everything from his time working at some of the biggest social product companies, what tech company he thinks is the most evil, his most fun job, TikTok, rocket ships and more. Hope you all enjoy this episode!

The Takeaway:

I would equate Josh’s professional experience to that of a surfer. When you ride a wave and you do it right, it’s a magical experience. You’re going to want to ride waves like that the rest of your life. Josh even said during the podcast that ever since he interned at Microsoft back in the 90s, he has been chasing that feeling he had while working there – and it clearly has served him well over 20 years later.

Favorite Quotes:

“[Robinhood is] democratizing investing”

“[Your work] only matters when you actually get it done.”

“We’re all humans, and if someone wants to argue on the internet – I’m in.”

Food for Thought:

Josh and I started talking about what industries he anticipates future growth in before Knut informed me I sadly had to wrap it up. I think it would be fun and helpful to my listeners to bring Josh back on for another episode. After listening to his episode, what would you be interested in me asking him? Send me your questions!

PS – I am now doing two ‘Panic With Friends’ podcasts per week. Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe over on Spotify or Apple.

As a reminder, Marketsmith (by Investor’s Business Daily) is now a sponsor of the weekly show. All the charts you have been seeing in the videos and will continue to see are from Marketsmith. They are offering my readers a three week trial for $19.95. Click this link if you would like to try it out.

It is Monday which means Ivanhoff and I put together our weekly show talking about the momentum in the markets.

I also shared a few new ideas today.

You can watch or listen here.

Remember that this is a wild week of earnings…basically every big technology company reports this week.

Some charts I found interesting that did not make the weekly video…

The market breadth is slowly improving.

A reminder to turn off your TV because nobody sharing ideas has to follow up on their ‘big calls’. Early this spring, the big hedge fund managers were all talking about their shorts and how the markets were historically overvalued over 20 percent ago…

Bitcoin continues to climb…

China is rising while they get blamed.

The social networks have had a fantastic year relative to the SD&P…have a look. Snapchat and Pinterest are doing most of the heavy lifting.

Finally…your dream office awaits in San Francisco…this chart really blows my mind:

Have a great week everyone.

Disclaimer: All information provided is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. For full disclosures, click here.

Happy Sunday everyone.

It has been a while since I had a long technology conversation with my friend Michael Porat. The last time was in 2017…I was actually at Chamath’s Social Capital Office for a meeting and met Michael for lunch (Chamath and I finally taped a conversation this week and I will post it here this week). Michael was still at Cisco on the corporate development team (focused on data centers) and was reminding us to buy and hold Amazon.

Last week I caught up with Michael, now an executive at fast growing Cohesity (which he had invested in for Cisco while at Cisco), on the podcast and went deep and wide on technology trends. Michael makes understanding the big trends easy so have a listen to the episode on your next work out.

You can catch it on Apple or Spotify.

Read on for the show description before listening.

Guest: Michael Porat

Profile: VP of Strategy and Business Development at Cohesity

Where to Find Him: LinkedIn, Twitter

Fun Fact: Before Michael was crushing it in the tech scene, he was crushing it as a member of Yale’s national leading NCAA Rowing team.

What’s the Panic About:

There wasn’t any panic this episode, but more so a restrained enthusiasm from our guest Michael Porat. Michael is the VP of Strategy and Business Development at Cohesity, an innovative and modern data management company. Like a lot of my guests, I met Michael on/through Twitter, and he has now become a good friend. Michael has been in the tech and data game for awhile, spending over six years at Cisco before moving to Cohesity. What’s great about having someone like Michael on is that he brings this extensive knowledge of tech and data, but explains it in a way that can be understood by everyone. I had a great conversation with Michael about his career path, his love of sports and gambling (shout out to DraftKings), the power of data, cybersecurity, the cloud, QQQ, the investor ecosystem and the future of data.

The Takeaway:

Data is going to continue to grow more and more powerful in the tech industry and beyond. Technology continues to be an area where you have to keep spending in order to innovate and become more efficient.

Favorite Quotes:

“Data is the new oil, and now it is about what we make of it and with it.”

“That’s the nature of investing — you don’t have to get them all right, you just got to get a couple right.”

“One of the key things for entrepreneurs is to be daring, to not accept reality for what it is.”

“Human capital is the secret sauce.”

Food for Thought:

One thing Michael and I talked about was the value of human capital. Michael argued that “there’s value to human contact that you cannot achieve through Zoom.”

PS – I am now doing two ‘Panic With Friends’ podcasts per week. Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe over on Spotify or Apple.

I like to keep things simple, including my portfolio. Over the years I have gravitated to owning companies and sectors whose products are needed, used, loved and trusted across the globe by people in every age group: from 8 to 80.

No list or portfolio is perfect. I am constantly tinkering with my list and therefore my holdings to make sure I own the companies that don’t just have the most demanded products and services, but also financials that make sense.

As the world has moved digital, so too has my 8 to 80 list, but the digital world still needs the physical world and many of the companies on the list will continue to thrive doing business in the physical world.

I’m excited to announce that with my partner Charlie Bilello at Compound, we are now offering a way for investors to track my 8-to-80 portfolio at TD Ameritrade as part of their overall investment plan. Charlie wrote a post on it below. If of interest, feel free to reach out to learn more.

Here is a link to Charlie’s post explaining the 8-80 portfolio and the most frequently asked questions.

Have a great Saturday.

Disclaimer: All information provided is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. For our full disclosures, click here.

There are so many new people getting my daily email and saying hello. It is nice to see and good to hear from you.

Lately I have been getting the ‘How To Get Started Investing’ question.

Here are a couple good posts I keep updated on the subject…

How to get started on Stocktwits and who I follow – I also explain how to use mobile notifications to keep up with the markets in a simple and effective way.

What I read, Who I follow and, What I pay for and how to get started investing.

Have a great Friday.

Fred Wilson has a good post titled ‘Setting Off On Your Own‘ which I did in 1997 to start my hedge fund and pivoted to my start up Wallstrip and angel investing in 2006.

The pivot to Wallstrip and angel investing was inspired by YouTube and Vanguard.

By 2005 I knew charging 2 and 20 was silly (at least for my skills) and I knew the consumer internet was finally something I wanted to be a part of when YouTube became a thing.

The reason I started my blog in 2005 was to journal, but blogging has become so popular today (that includes Tik Tok etc) that I could make a living off my blog if I had to.

Even though I was TEN years later than Fred to the internet, I knew the it was going to be so big that I dropped everything.

With 100 plus podcasts under my belt starting March of this year, I would speculate that the same thing could be said today about ‘the cloud’ that I said about the internet back in 2006. I think the same thing for e-commerce, financial services and crypto.

There is a much better chance that we are early than late.

I am excited to have the opportunity to continue to back people ‘setting off on their own’.

Every single one of us knows/believes something so strongly about a trend or a product or a company at least once or twice in their lifetime. I hope more people have the opportunity to and choose to ‘Set Off On Their Own’ as well.

Learning in public….that is what my friend Patrick tells me is the joy of his podcast. He sure does seem excited, motivated and content.

I hope you take the time to listen to our conversation on all things podcasting and investing. You can listen here on Spotify or Apple and an outline of the show is below.

Guest: Patrick O’Shaughnessy

Profile: Host of Invest Like the Best, Chief Executive Officer of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management

Where to Find Him: LinkedIn, Twitter

Fun Fact: Besides his podcast, I’m a big fan of Patrick’s widely read weekly newsletter “The Investor’s Field Guide.” It’s a quick recap of the best from his podcasts and his favorite reads from the week. In his own words, “it’s the best 5 minutes you’ll spend on a Sunday afternoon.”

What’s the Panic About:

I was so appreciative of Patrick O’Shaughnessy for taking the time to join me on this episode of Panic. It’s always fun to have a fellow podcast host join me and turn the tables on them, especially when that host has one of the most popular investing podcasts out there. I’ve had the great pleasure of being a guest on Patrick’s podcast Invest Like the Best, and he’s joined me as a guest on my show before as well. I guess you could call us podcast experts; although Patrick has been doing his since 2016 so he’s got a couple years on me. He had an unusual route that led him to finance, a success he attributes to his competitiveness and curiousity. As someone who has talked to a lot of people in the investing and fintech world, it was great to pick Patrick’s brain on a number of topics, including: what led him to start his podcast, the gaming market, advice for new investors and founders, the world of software and fintech and more. And of course, I had to end by asking the question he asks all his guests: “What is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?” You’ll have to listen to the episode to hear his answer!

The Takeaway:

With so many topics covered, it’s hard to pick just one takeaway from this episode. But I think that itself may be the takeaway. The fact that Patrick never wants to stop learning and has amassed such vast knowledge in so many different subject areas. No matter how many guests he has on or companies he learns about or topics he researches online — he’ll never stop asking questions and fostering his sense of intellectual curiosity. That’s a great quality that will take you far in life.

Favorite Quotes:

● “I would define my world as the intersection between investing, finance, tech and software.”

● “To me, business and investing is like a bigger, more interesting game than those ones I played in high school. But the driving competitive reasons for playing them are the same.”

● “The skill that ultimately separates a lot of great investors and businesspeople is the ability to convince other people to do things. Practice that muscle.”

Food for Thought:

Patrick named some of his favorite guests from his over 190 episode run, including: Bill Gurley, John Collison, Kat Cole and Charlie Songhurst. If you have some time, I would encourage you to check them out and listen to Patrick in action.

PS – I am now doing two ‘Panic with Friends’ podcasts per week. Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe over on Spotify or Apple.