Podcast #47 – Integral Ad Science deep dive
An early pioneer in advertising, John Wanamaker once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” In today’s world of digital and programmatic advertising, content is created at a rapid and growing pace, driven in large part by the exponential growth of social media and video, adding new dimensions to trust in the marketing world. Advertisers are increasingly focused on brand reputation and they want to ensure that their ads appear in contexts that match their values, and also that they’re seen by eyeballs and not algorithms!
On this week’s pod, we deep-dive another potential hypergrowth stock, Integral Ad Science (IAS), one of the emerging leaders in ad viewability, ad fraud, and ad safety and suitability.
Podcast #46 – Model portfolio Q2 review
It’s time for the half-year review of our model portfolio, a collection of 15 stocks that we selected in January as our core investments for 2021. The sell-off in growth stocks earlier this year made for grim reading at the end of Q1, but many of these stocks have rebounded – ten of the stocks in the model portfolio are now up from our start date, with nine of them beating the market (S&P 500).
Unfortunately, a couple of big losers are dragging down the overall return. While it’s probably too early to declare that “growth is back!”, our portfolio performance at the end of Q2 is much closer to the benchmark of the S&P 500 index. In this episode, we dig into some of the key stories and updates from the portfolio.
Podcast #45 – DocuSign deep dive
The world is moving to the “anywhere economy” where workers have the option to do anything from anywhere, and a key capability enabling this megatrend is the use of digital agreements and e-signatures. This week, we deep dive into DocuSign. Already the global leader in e-signatures, DocuSign are expanding their capabilities to support the entire life cycle of a digital agreement with their ‘Agreement Cloud’ suite of services.
Podcast #44 – Live long and prosper
On this week’s pod, we discuss the megatrend of an ageing population and some of the investing opportunities (and risks) this trend creates in society
Podcast #43 – Dear diary
Just over a year ago, when the coronavirus pandemic was beginning, we both started investing journals, to capture our thoughts about life, and the investment opportunities presented by the rapidly changing environment.
In this week’s pod, we revisit some of our journal entries from that period of wild volatility and uncertainty. We saw early signs of the types of businesses that would benefit from stay-at-home orders, and we make some predictions and some investments based on our forecasts of how the business landscape would be impacted. It’s now one year later, so how did we do?
Podcast #42 – Trupanion deep dive
On this week’s pod, Luke & Albert take a look at another hypergrowth investment opportunity, the US pet insurance company, Trupanion.
Trupanion is North America’s largest publicly traded provider of pet insurance. It has focused exclusively on pets during its two-decade operating history, and currently insures over 940,000 cats and dogs in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Puerto Rico.
Podcast #41 – The power of compounding
It’s an unwritten rule that at some point every finance podcast needs to release an episode on the power of compound interest. Well this week, it’s Telescope Investing’s turn!
Successful investing really just boils down to just two things – picking good quality companies and holding them for a long-time. Time is the operative word in that statement, it takes decades for the exponential growth of compound interest to show its true power.
We’re nearly twenty years into our own investing careers. If you haven’t begun your own journey yet, the most important takeaway from today’s pod is to just get started. The best time to start investing might have been twenty years ago, but the second-best time is today!
Podcast #40 – Square deep dive
Square was founded in 2009, when glass-blower Jim McKelvey found he was unable to complete a sale because he couldn’t accept credit cards. He discussed the problem with his friend Jack Dorsey, and they co-founded Square, initially selling a cost-effective mobile phone accessory that allowed small businesses to accept credit card payments. This has since expanded to over 30 products and services for both sellers and consumers.
Square is one of the Telescope Investing model portfolio stocks, and in this week’s pod Luke & Albert deep dive into the company and discuss recent developments for this fast-growing player in the e-payments space.
Podcast #39 – Stock therapy
Have you become numb from seeing wave after wave of red days in your portfolio? Are you unsure whether it’s the right time to buy or to sell as you’re buffeted by the market? Then maybe it’s time for some stock therapy!
Podcast #38 – Unity deep dive
In this week’s pod, we take a deep dive into Unity, and have a fantastic discussion with Karle Kane, the founder of Rainfall Games.
Unity Software is best known for its game engine, which was used for over 50% of all video games in 2020. But Unity is also used to create over 60% of all VR/AR applications, and is starting to expand into other industries such as automotive, architecture, manufacturing, film, and retail. It’s not just about Pokemon Go!