Welcome! If you’re reading this, you’re probably new to this publication. I want to give you a quick rundown of what to expect and why I’m writing this. Then you can be back to the interesting content!

Who is this for?

Anyone who wants to own wonderful businesses and grow their investment portfolio over the long term.

Why is investing important? True wealth creation happens by making money when you’re sleeping. You can do that by starting a business, developing passive income streams, owning real estate, or… investing. To me, investing is the most fun because you can have ownership in businesses and don’t have to bear the burden of running it day to day. You get to spread your bets out over a number of companies, instead of having all your eggs in one basket. Investing is much much easier than building a business from scratch.

Nothing in life is free, though. In order to invest successfully, the key is to own wonderful businesses. Identifying which businesses fit that criteria is the hard part.

That’s where this newsletter comes in.

What is the newsletter about?

I do deep dives into a company to understand everything about it. I’m a firm believer in having deep knowledge of a business before deciding to invest in it. I want to know everything - the industry, the product, the financials, the valuation - before I invest a penny.

I truly enjoy doing the research. I love reading and I love numbers, so the research is fun for me. I typically do around 60+ hours of research into a single company.

I understand that not everyone has the time or interest to do that many hours of research. So I’m trying to provide the shortcut to my readers. I take the research and distill it down into the key insights. You can spend ~30 minutes reading my article to get over 60 hours worth of insights.

And I’m not going to overwhelm you with technical or financial jargon. My goal is to explain everything as simply as possible. Even if you’ve never heard of a company before, you should be able to walk away with an understanding of what it does and where its value comes from. I want my readers to be able to make common sense judgements using the information in my articles.

What are my credentials as the author?

I’m an engineer and investor with over a decade of experience in the tech industry. I’ve built enterprise products, researched them, and audited them. I have deep understanding of how technology works, and I’m able to pair that with thorough investigations into the finances of a company.

I often find that potential investors fall into 3 groups:

1. Highly technical folks with little to no interest in the finance side

2. Financial gurus with little to no understanding of the underlying tech / product

3. Folks with neither the technical nor financial knowledge

And there’s nothing wrong with being in any of these groups! There are a ton of obstacles out there that can deter people from reaching the level of knowledge they desire.

I’m trying to remove those obstacles and make it easier for you to invest successfully. I believe my experience and skillset make me uniquely suited to talk about the intersection of tech, product and finance.

I’ve also been known throughout my career as someone who placed a lot of emphasis on writing and communication. I take pride in my ability to take complex concepts and communicate it in a simple, easy-to-digest way. I find that writing helps crystallize my thoughts on a given topic.

What made me start this newsletter?

I had been doing this research for my own investments. I would talk to friends and family about my findings, and got feedback that they’d find value in consistently having access to my research. I figured it was only one step further to turn my notes into a formal article.

Plus, I figured it would be a fun experience.

Why am I sharing my investment strategies?

My investment strategy is not a zero-sum game. It frankly won’t affect my decisions at all whether my readers join in my investment positions or not. I play a long-term game, where I’m looking to hold positions in a company for 5-10 years (or until something fundamental changes). I’m not concerned what the market is doing or saying; I’m only concerned with whether that business is still a wonderful business.

I also find that a lot of people online claim to be experts, but provide nothing substantial to back up their opinions. On the other hand, this newsletter is my way of “showing my work”. You can read through and decide whether you reach the same conclusion as me. If you disagree, great! Let’s have a discussion. Hearing and considering competing viewpoints make everyone better, in investing and in life.

A few last reminders

• I’m not giving investment advice. I’m going to talk through how I interpret different pieces of information, but at the end of the day, you should make your own decisions to buy, hold or sell. This newsletter is meant to be one of many tools in your toolbox.

• This newsletter isn’t about trading, or options, or making a quick buck. It’s all about long-term horizons, letting compound interest do its thing, and being very patient.

• For almost everyone, the best advice is to buy an index fund that tracks the S&P500. That’s the easiest thing to do and will get you the best return-to-effort ratio. But if you like reading, and you want to use a reasonable portion of your portfolio to pick individual stocks, then this should be helpful to you.

That’s all!

You know everything there is to know about this publication. Time to dive into one of my articles!

PS - as always, I welcome feedback about how I can improve my articles so my readers get more value out of them.