Patrick OShaughnessy
@patrick_oshag
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backing leaders doing their life’s work @psumvc 🟣 @joincolossus 🎙️ “do unto others…and do it first”
New York, NY
Joined June 2013
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
If you want to know how to talk about your company—its product launches, in a crisis, or any other time—you call
@lulumeservey
Sadly, her client roster is full. But, she publishes amazing writing on “going direct” that we can all use, and has share lots of her ideas here. Enjoy!
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A plane just flew down South Beach with the message “Buy GameStop stock WSB” trailing behind it.
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Tony Hsieh on similarities between poker and business (from his book)
“Look for opportunities beyond the game you sat down to play. You never know who you’re going to meet, including new friends for life.”
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Have been lucky to meet with or study hundreds of companies in 2021.
Here's an ongoing list of company attributes that I find interesting...
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Every interesting outcome in my life was unpredictable and was the result of good habits, strictly practiced.
This is the opposite of “vision” “big, hairy, audacious goals” and “accomplishments.”
The best kind of success is continuous, every day, not occasional.
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Why don’t universities have venture capital / investment divisions that fund students?
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What’s the most mind blowing presentation / talk you’ve ever seen?
Bonus if there’s a YouTube or recording available
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Most influential essays I've ever read:
1. Walking by Thoreau
2. Self-Reliance by Emerson
3. Katha Upanishad
What are yours?
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We wanted flying cars and all we got was satellite internet blanketing the world, supersonic jets, 2-day vaccine development, a budding genomics revolution, a $1T self organizing internet native currency, and AI advancing at insane rate, doubling compute demand every few months.
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30th employee, 4 years in
Paid 10% profit share, no equity
That amount became crazy, and when they flipped from partnership to corporation, Balmer took 8% equity to cancel the profit share
Most of that came from Gates’s end
Then Balmer just never sold
Now ~ Rich as Gates
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In my early 20s, having been mostly an entitled little shit but facing an existential crisis, I was trying to reform myself.
I made a little list to read each morning. Funny to stumble on that list almost 15 years later:
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Sorry in advance because I hate these lists, but years in, these strategies have really paid off:
- don’t read the news
- don’t discuss politics
- don’t opine without lots of personal investigation
- don’t read a book past 5-10% if not clearly unique
Say no to noise
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My conversation with
@chamath
.
We discuss:
- personal finance
- inequality
- value investing
- health care
- climate change
- lessons from Social Capital
Chamath is a central figure in markets in 2021, and this is different kind of discussion. Enjoy!
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This series is an absolute mind bender.
What if the obesity epidemic (which has accelerated) is entirely caused by human synthesized compounds and has nothing to do with diet, carbs, sugar, fat, calories or anything else we turn to for weight loss?
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Interview principles:
- prepare with context, not questions
- optimize for novelty
- ask for clarification if needed
- set a high energy level
- laugh easily
- search for “secrets”
- help deliver lessons through stories
- minimize pause between an answer and next question
- STFU
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36 today...weird age! One of the only ages where you feel simultaneously very old and very young.
I’m insanely fortunate to do what I love with people I admire. Seems a good opportunity to share some things that have helped me along the way...
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Bezos on experimental vs operational failure. Simple and elegant comparison.
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I’d like to meet a 5, 6, F and hear their entire life story
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There should be a new button on zoom
If one party presses the button nothings happens
If both press it, the zoom simply shuts down immediately
No hard feelings, just tons of saved time
This button could raise GDP
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One of my favorite business stats today is that Tesla has never spent money on advertising.
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Moats are actually loops. Fun exercise—try to draw this for whatever business you work in or a company you love.
From
@maxolson
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A book I wish existed:
A huge collection of 2-3 page summaries of now large company's initial go to market strategies, across as many industries as possible. Ditto for many spectacular failures.
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What’s the best YouTube video you’ve ever seen?
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Today is a special day for me: the 5-year anniversary of the podcast.
No one is luckier than me. It has been such an honor to learn from more than 300 guests and reach 30 million people.
It is also fun to reflect on what the guests and the process itself have taught me...
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The power of owning demand:
Google paid Apple $9B to continue to be default search on iOS.
Microsoft's Bing, by contrast, generated $1.7B in revenue.
So Apple's "search business" 5x Microsft's...without having a search engine.
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Every year, I respect marketing, messaging, sales, and communications more
Best books:
- Pitch Anything (Klaff)
- Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t (Pressfield)
- Positioning (Ries, Trout)
- Influence (Cialdini)
- Scientific Advertising (Hopkins)
- Priceless (Poundstone)
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Very excited to announce that OSAM, together with the Canvas platform, is being acquired by Franklin Templeton
This has been an incredible journey thus far, and we couldn’t be happier to be joining FT to take Canvas and our strategies to the next level
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This was one of the books that may permanently change my behavior. Don’t find those often.
Reminded me of Born to Run. After reading Born to Run, I never ran the same again.
After Breath, I’ll breath less and mostly though my nose
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Starter kit for learning about strategy:
1)
@benthompson
2) Modern Monopolies 📖
3)
@AnnieDuke
4) 7 Powers 📖
5)
@BrentBeshore
6) Let My People Go Surfing 📖
7)
@mjmauboussin
8) Bird by Bird 📖
9)
@ganeumann
10)
@paulg
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“According to Chick-fil-A, 60k people apply to be operators every year — and only ~80 are selected.
With a 0.13% acceptance rate, it’s harder to become a Chick-fil-A franchisee than it is to get into Stanford University (4.8%) or get a job at Google (0.23%).”
Fascinating piece of reporting from
@TheHustle
on fast-food franchise economics.
@ChickfilA
upended the model with single store “owner” employees making $4.2m (!) per store v McDonald’s $2.8m; franchise royalty fees must be 10x McD incl the 50% profit cut
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This is the standard of communication that we need. Wish we could clone this general and have the clone army handle all messaging.
- fast
- clear
- SIMPLE
- high energy
- numbers, examples, and purpose
- clear step one, step two
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I’m often asked how I read so much and how I choose books. So, my I’ll try my first tweet storm...
@patrick_oshag
love the book club. would be interested to hear how u chose the 82 books, how you take notes/retain lessons, any that you...
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Bitcoin getting crushed at the halving would be a very appropriate 2020 thing.
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Today’s young people with some money to invest are interested in so many more things than I was in my 20s.
- crypto
- collectibles
- art
- angel investing
- active stock picking
- real estate
Advisors who just focus on these, and software to track and manage, may do very well
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What’s the best article on business that you’ve read this year (or ever)?
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Some books I wish everyone read and internalized:
Lessons of history (will and Ariel Durant)
Upanishads (Easewaran translation)
Path of least resistance (Fritz)
Emerson’s collected essays
Labyrinths (Borges)
Bird by Bird (Lamott)
Tao te Ching
Titan (Chernow)
Sidhartha (Hesse)
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The most powerful thing I am aware of is to spend your time doing what you want to do.
I've been on a multi-year mission to make as much of my calendar filled with things I actually want to do as possible. This has been SHOCKINGLY hard.
I've learned there's actually only one
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What is a stock/company that you know well that you can’t believe is down as much as it is?
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If we take one investing lesson away from this period, it’s that we should completely disregard ANY investor’s short term market views, no matter their track record or net worth.
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What’s the single best podcast episode you’ve listened to in 2020?
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Two strategies I've heard for teaching kids about money.
1. Allowance, then 1/3 gets saved/invest, 1/3 get spent, 1/3 given away
2. Allowance, then 20% interest paid on money not spent
Send other ideas if you have them
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Just before he stepped down as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos wrote his final shareholder letter. He closed it out with a section he titled, “Differentiation is Survival and the Universe Wants You to be Typical.”
He prefaced his own thoughts with a quote from The Blind Watchmaker,
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Hoping now for an American Renaissance, where America:
- welcomes top global talent with open arms
- leads the world’s research in biology, AI, energy, and transportation
- renews leadership in semiconductor fabrication
- fights for every American’s dignity and opportunity
🇺🇸🚀
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Fun exercise: review every book you’ve read and ask “did this permanently change me?”
For me, roughly 1 in 100 did
Of the “99,” I hardly finished any
Reading strategy—keep reading if good, then:
-Start as many books as possible
-Finish as few as possible
-Re-read the “1s”
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“Positioning” is one of the most important books I’ve read.
“The basic idea is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what’s already in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist.”
E.g. this is how we came up with the term “Custom Indexing”
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This might be the best slide deck advice that I’ve seen.
The creators of South Park share their favorite storytelling advice.
Drive your story with words like “but” and “therefore” instead of “and then.”
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My favorite western philosopher is Arthur Schopenhauer. His most approachable collection is “The Wisdom of Life.”
His key idea: health and curiosity drive happiness.
“Riches are like sea water; the more you drink the thirstier you become; and the same is true for fame”
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Two things I learned today
1. “Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins”
2. “Basic survival goods are cheap, whereas narcissistic self-stimulation and social-display products are expensive. Living doesn’t cost much, but showing off does.”
Two things I learned today
1. 🇺🇸 , 🇬🇧 , 🇫🇮 and 🇸🇪 all invest more in intangible assets than tangible. 🇪🇸 and 🇮🇹 the opposite
2. Intangibles are more scaleable, more likely to be sunk costs, & add more synergies
~20% of R1000G’s assets are intangible. 7% for R1000V.
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The team at Stripe Press showing us how to make something beautiful (out Tuesday!)
As had been planned for a while, we will also be releasing a podcast with Charlie on Tuesday, a long interview that he did recently with
@collision
We checked with those closest to him who,
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Ethereum is so much more interesting than Bitcoin*
*not a price or investing opinion, about which I have no clue!
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If you were building a school which only taught investing, what courses would you include?
101 through graduate level ideas welcome.
(we may build this someday so your ideas may come to life!)
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1/x
A week ago, I had a thoroughly bizarre experience that not many people do: For 20 minutes, I thought I was going to die. As evidence: I wrote my wife Lauren a goodbye note. Here’s what I was thinking about in that space of time.
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This is so f-ing great. Watch until the end.
Behind the scenes of Cuba Gooding Jr. winning an Oscar, 1996
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Robin Dunbar (of Dunbars number fame) has new work on friendship
Takes ~200 hours to move someone from stranger to close friend
7 factors for friendship compatibility are: language, place of origin, education, hobbies, worldview (religious, political), music taste, and humor
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What is the best explainer video that you’ve ever seen?
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My definition of “Life’s Work:”
“A lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are”
3 parts to the definition, all important…
“A LIFELONG QUEST” reflects the reality that work isn’t about a series of accomplishments, which ultimately ring hollow.
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My son (just turned 8) has expressed some interest in programming and engineering. What are the best ways for young kids to mess around with core concepts, or even more formal kid-focused classes or products in this area?
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Today,
@jposhaughnessy
turns 60
There’s nobody who smiles and laughs more
He remains the most generous person I’ve met. He gives time, money, energy, love...and GIFs...freely, without any expectation of a return
If you try to faze his spirit, you will fail
Happy birthday dad!
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These two books should be required reading in high school
There is so much about the world that needs fixing, and those issues get their due attention
But there are so many REMARKABLE improvements in the quality of human life, too
The optimist framing is invaluable
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Looking for people with these qualities:
- doing their life’s work
- working on one thing for a long time
- hard to stump (domain knowledge)
- have been beaten up and continued on
- adaptive
- high energy & integrity
- doing something unique
Who do you know that hits these?
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When hiring, what qualities do you think are most interesting to look for regardless of the role?
I have 2
1) evidence of some sort of mastery (describe something excellent you’ve done)
2) evidence of deep + insatiable curiosity (how many layers deep they can go on something)
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What would be on your Mt. Rushmore of businesses to study in depth to replace an MBA?
Mine:
1. Berkshire
2. Amazon
3. Costco
4. IBM
Honorable mentions: Nike, Intel, Visa, Tencent, Disney, Exxon, LVMH
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My conversation with
@samhinkie
on
-the long view
-applied innovation
-data science, machine learning
-his time at the Rockets, remaking the 76ers
-the importance of hiring and recruiting
-the limits of being contrarian
This one was very fun
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"Stop crying. I have to get these people out safely. If something should happen to me, I want you to know I've never been happier. You made my life."
(thanks
@BrianNorgard
)
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The best class at Notre Dame, in my humble opinion, is the Art of Investing
I first met its professors, Rick Buhrman and Paul Buser, during their decade+ long tenure helping manage Notre Dame’s storied endowment, where they met and learned from just about every great investor
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All work calls now taken in the woods.
A large % of people on the other end of the line are also walking, with birds chirping.
Calls somehow go better knowing the other person is outside.
How did it take so long to figure this out?
Never going back.
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If Tolkien’s estate minted one ring (to rule them all) as an NFT, what would it sell for?
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What is the best book you read in 2019?
For me: The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz
What person (who everyone else can follow on twitter) has given you the best or highest impact advice? Bonus points for sharing the advice.
For me in the past year it has been
@chetanp
(will explore some of that advice on podcast soon). Follow him, and share yours!
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🚨 🚨 🚨
Very excited to announce a new initiative.
After years of building, operating, and investing in software, we are launching Positive Sum, an early stage equity investing firm.
For founders and investors out there, here's a sneak peak:
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Enough educational content for the next year below
@ScarrottKalani
built compilations based on everyone’s answer to:
Best essay:
Best business essay:
Best explainer video:
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Woods thread to be added to the rest of the year.
Hopefully these will cause a few people go to the woods that wouldn’t have otherwise.
Found a tree down over the river. Great spot to sit and not think.
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What is the most interesting business essay you’ve read in 2020?
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The west loop in Chicago with good weather is one of the best vibes in the US.
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There are very few things I read where I think “this will impact my thinking forever.”
This three part series is one of them.
Barriers to entry, and to exit
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What are the best low cost/free Bloomberg software alternatives?
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A conversation with Charlie Munger &
@collision
Charlie said “the best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.”
On the count, there aren’t many more successful than him.
So much wisdom from Charlie and John
Please enjoy!
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What is the most clever customer acquisition strategy you’ve ever seen?
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A good criteria for hiring would be whether or not someone smiles knowingly at this
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My conversation with
@AswathDamodaran
We cover almost every major topic in markets including
- why it’s unexpected inflation we should fear
- valuing FANGAM stocks over time
- alpha / edge
- why ESG is bullsh*t
Aswath is a breath of fresh air
Enjoy!
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Can you imagine if every high school in the US had a year long project during senior year that was just "build a business"?
Just got off the phone with a 20-year old who went that route at 18 and now knows more about business than I did at 30.
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Revisiting my personal philosophy that I call "growth without goals." Happy with it years later. Key points:
- achievements are traps
- success is built on habits
- regret, fear, and ego die when you focus on present instead of past and future
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An idea that the Benchmark partners taught me: in social networks, you want the celebrities to join at the end, not the beginning
New networks should mint new celebrities, not get built by existing ones
My interest in chain runners was low since it was (investor) celebrity led
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The best book note taker I’ve ever encountered is
@BlasMoros
Today I shared his summary of the book “the path of least resistance.”
Here it is:
is filled with more summaries. Follow him to find and learn from great books.
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5 jobs of a CEO:
1. Set strategy
2. Deliver capital to pursue that strategy
3. Build team to execute
4. Communicate the hell out of the strategy internally and externally
5. Hold people accountable
My second conversation, covering all new ground, with
@wolfejosh
- 5 jobs of a CEO
- liquidity issues
- military technology
- collapsing gap between sci-fi and reality
- building tribes
- major (& inevitable) arrows of progress
What a blast
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Dream company:
- relationship with actual customer (no intermediary)
- recurring revenue earned from delivering a habitual or critical product
- outstanding digital experience
- self- or customer- financed
- supply or demand side scale advantage
- created a category
What else?
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