Podcast #70 – Year-end fun
Happy holiday wishes to all of our listeners and subscribers! This week, we’re kicking back from the serious stock analysis and just having a bit of Christmas fun as we look back at some of the highs and lows of 2021. We reflect on our favourite moments on the pod, some of the smartest (and daftest!) things we’ve said, and chat about our favourite episodes and guest interviews. We also hazard making a couple of wild predictions for 2022!
It’s been a great year for Telescope Investing, in no small part due to the listener support and questions we’ve had along the way. Thanks so much for being part of the journey!!
Podcast #69 – Airbnb deep dive
This week we’re taking a look at Airbnb, a well-known travel company that’s strongly positioned to benefit from the potential surge in international travel as the pandemic begins to ease and the world reopens.
Podcast #68 – Structuring the 2022 model portfolio
This week we give consideration to the structure of our model portfolio for next year. These are the companies we believe will achieve market-beating returns in 2022 and beyond. In this portfolio structure episode, we consider the megatrends that are likely to shape the world around us for the years ahead and decide what proportion of the portfolio to devote to each of them.
Podcast #67 – Disney deep dive
This week on the Pod, we take a deeper look at Disney, a powerhouse in the entertainment industry, known the world over.
The coronavirus pandemic has proven to be a difficult time for the company, with most theme parks and cruise lines shut down or running at reduced capacity, and theatrical releases hobbled by national lockdowns. The silver lining has been the success of their Disney+ streaming service, driven by the increased demand for home entertainment, however recent subscriber growth numbers have been muted.
With no indication of when Covid restrictions will fully lift, the big question is can Disney navigate the storm and continue to grow?
Podcast #66 – Healthtech with Richard Chu
We all want to live longer and healthier lives, so it’s no surprise that healthcare technology is a major area of research and innovation. Medtech and biotech are key investment themes in the Telescope Investing model portfolio, and in our own personal portfolios.
This week we had the pleasure of connecting with healthtech expert investor Richard Chu. Richard shares his thoughts on the healthtech sector, his key investments in this area including GoodRx, Doximity, and OptimizeRx, and also how he saw the writing on the wall for Teladoc Health and exited early, avoiding the share price slump that has hurt our own returns this year!
Podcast #64 – Marqeta deep dive
In this week’s Pod, we deep dive Marqeta. Their mission is to be the global standard for modern card issuing. They enable other companies to develop, launch and operate card products, by providing the underlying technology that powers many of the new innovations in the payment space, including digital payments, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), digital wallets, and just-in-time (JIT) funding (automatically funding an account in real-time during the transaction process). Their platform gives their customers full control to build a card that’s right for them and their end-users, allowing them to offer card products in a fraction of the time compared to legacy solutions.
Podcast #63 – Digital Turbine deep dive
On this week’s pod, we deep dive Digital Turbine, a mobile ad-tech innovator specialising in targeted app installation and programmatic advertising to mobile devices. Digital Turbine invented the market for app installation and have a patent on ‘single-tap’ app installation to Android devices, but the business model is controversial, and the company have been accused of pushing ‘bloatware’.
Podcast #61 – Investing in disruptive innovation with Simon Erickson
This week we were delighted to connect with Simon Erickson, founder and CEO of 7investing.com, to chat about a topic that underpins both the 7investing and Telescope Investing strategy – investing in disruptive innovation.
Simon shares his thoughts on finding and evaluating disruptive companies, why larger companies find disruptive innovation difficult, playing offence and defence in your portfolio, plus we chat about hype vs fundamentals, craft beer, and being neighbours with Morgan Housel!
If you’re a growth investor, this episode is pure gold – highly recommended listening for all Telescope subscribers.
Podcast #60 – Venture capital with Prantik Mazumdar
At Telescope Investing we focus on publicly-listed stocks, but investing in private companies is another option for investors seeking higher returns, and this is becoming increasingly accessible to retail investors through crowdfunding services. On this week’s pod, we’re joined by award-winning entrepreneur and founder Prantik Mazumdar, to get his insights on private equity and venture capital investing.
Prantik brings his extensive experience working with local enterprises in Singapore and as a business owner to the world of angel investing and venture capital. In a wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the key trends in the SE Asian startup scene, the qualities he looks for in private equity investments, and the personal and financial rewards of investing in sustainability.
Podcast #59 – Model portfolio Q3 review
It’s time for the Q3 review of our model portfolio, a collection of 15 stocks that we selected in January as our core investments for 2021.
Following a nice recovery in Q2, the model portfolio was steadily making gains during the third quarter, but on the 22nd Sep the market started trending downwards and growth stocks were hit harder than the general market, and the model portfolio lost 15.1% in value by the end of the quarter while the S&P lost only 6.1%.
Only eight out of the 15 stocks are showing positive returns from the inception of the portfolio in Jan, with just six of those beating the S&P. However in most cases, this underperformance is not a result of the company failing to execute, and was driven by macro-economic factors impacting the value of future cash flows, which growth stocks are far more dependent on than more mature companies.
In today’s episode, we dig into some of the key stories and updates for each stock in the portfolio.