Today’s episode is a little different. Rather than share a new conversation, I have put together a few of my favourites from the past six and a half years of doing this show. I often listen back to these for inspiration, energy, and their timeless ideas on life and investing. Each of these is a significantly shortened version of the original episode. The first conversation you’ll hear is with Sam Hinkie, the second discussion is with Boyd Varty, and the last conversation you’ll hear is with Charlie Songhurst. Sam, Boyd, and Charlie are all exceptional in their own way and I hope you enjoy these condensed versions of our conversations.Sam Hinkie - Find Your PeopleBoyd Varty - The Art of TrackingCharlie Songhurst - Lessons from Investing in 483 CompaniesFor the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.-----This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick.-----Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossusShow Notes(00:04:40) - (Sam Hinkie) (00:05:55) - The most amazing thing he’s seen from someone he has worked with(00:09:51) - His interest in finding “digital breadcrumbs” on his pursuit of knowing a person(00:13:18) - The impactful story of meeting the assistant GM of the Houston Rockets(00:17:22) - Strategies he has developed to avoid transactional people(00:19:22) - How he shapes his career and optimizes from an investment perspective(00:24:06) - The strangest things he has come across in early-stage investing(00:29:47) - (Boyd Varty) (00:33:04) - His early experiences with tracking wildlife and how it applies to investing(00:44:46) - What can be learned about life goals and paths from the experience of tracking(00:47:59) - The influence of culture on decision-making and goal-setting(00:50:39) - His concept of “the ordering of chaos on behalf of others”(00:54:41) - The importance of moving towards the unknown to start approaching goals(00:57:15) - His most memorable tracking experience(01:12:40) - (Charlie Songhurst) (01:15:10) - His diverse career highlights(01:16:29) - His analysis of why startups succeed or fail(01:21:21) - What founders can learn to enable and maintain productivity in their company(01:25:21) - Nature versus nurture as it applies to adept founders, and the controversial “alien founder” concept(01:30:10) - The importance of good recruiting from an early stage(01:33:32) - How founders can make their companies attractive to prospective talent(01:35:53) - Why he is interested in investing in highly boring and highly complex ideas

My guest today is Sam Hinkie. Sam worked for more than a decade in the NBA with the Houston Rockets and then as the President and GM of the Philadelphia 76ers. And now, after years of personal investing, he has launched his own venture capital firm, Eighty-Seven Capital. Every conversation I have with Sam is alive with insight, and this one is no different. We explore the idea of studying the "breadcrumbs" that someone leaves behind as a way to track their progress and trajectory, finding and attracting the right people into one’s orbit, and the lessons from the NBA that most shape his investing career. Sam has taught me the most about the topic of building trust, which we cover here as well. I am excited to share my conversation with Sam with all of you. Please enjoy! For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag Show Notes(3:48) – (First question) – Conducting a good interview(5:58) – Drilling into topics to learn more about people(7:49 – What percentage of people are actually worth spending time with for Sam(9:29) – People who think in a strange way that intrigues him(10:36) – Interest in digital breadcrumbs and how to follow them(14:02) – Building context around founders vs analyzing their pitch decks(17:20) – A real world example of the bread crumb strategy, Houston Rockets GM(21:25) – How successful people evolve with the erosion of their pre-established edge(23:07) – Shifting to a people-first focus(24:50) – Creating an atmosphere that attracts the best talent(26:50) – Tailoring things to someone else’s incentive structure(28:24) – Most amazing thing someone did in early days of working with Sam(30:18) – Lessons from sports that he carries with him(32:31) – Exceptions to relationships being a key to success(33:03) – Have people gone soft?(34:58) – Knowing whether founders are on the right path(36:07) – Avoiding transactional type people(37:04) – Most effective lessons he brought to sports from the investing world(40:01) – Ideas from the sports world he is bringing to the investing world(44:11) – How the size of the team can impact the success of the team(45:48) – Designing the game for himself(50:33) – Lessons learned from watching them build trust(52:26) – Market areas that have his attention(54:13) – Fascination into API’s(58:05) – Keeping your focus on your expertise(59:45) – Strangest things he’s seen in early stage investing(1:01:26) – Playing the long game(1:04:29) – Calling it Eighty-Seven Capital.           (1:04:42) – Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson)(1:05:49) – Increasing his chance at a GM job(1:06:52) – What can Caro teach us about the long game(1:08:26) – Lessons of power(1:10:39) – Quality in leaders he respects most           (1:11:17) – The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson(1:12:58) – The power of breadcrumbs and how people can start to lay them out Learn MoreFor more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.Sign up for the book club and new email newsletter called “Inside the Episode” at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag 

I came across this week’s guest thanks to the overlap of three passions of mine: data informed investing, value creation, and basketball. Sam Hinkie worked for more than a decade in the NBA with the Houston Rockets, and then most recently as the President and GM of the Philadelphia 76ers. He helped launch basketball's analytics movement when he joined the Houston Rockets in 2005, and is known for unique trade structuring and a keen focus on acquiring undervalued players. Today, he is also an investor and advisor to a limited number of young companies in which he feels his experience can improve outcomes. Please enjoy this unique episode with Sam Hinkie.  Show Notes3:24 – (First Question) Advantages of having a long view and how to structurally harness one6:08 – Using technology to foster an innovative culture           6:18– Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History10:16 – Favorite example of applied innovation from Sam’s career11:34 - Most fun aspect of doing data analytics early on the Houston Rockets13:38 - Is there anything more important than courage in asymmetric outcomes14:29 – How does Sam know when to let the art of decision making finish where the data started16:29 - Pros and cons of a contrarian mindset17:26 – Where he wanted to apply his knowledge in sports when first getting out of school and how his thinking is best applied in the current sports landscape21:39 – How does he think about trying to find the equivalent of mispriced assets in the NBA23:12 – Where tradition can be an impediment to innovation25:07 – What did the team and workflow of the team look like in the front office27:03 - The measure of truth in a sports complex29:10 – What were the early factors coming out of the data that helped to shape NBA teams30:42 – Best tactics for hiring33:59 – Process of recruiting spectacular people35:39 – Thoughts on fostering a good marriage37:57 – Picking your kids traits in your spouse           38:02 – Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think40:45 – What kind of markers does he look for when evaluating long term investment ideas42:44 – His interest in machine learning45:55 – What’s more exciting, the actual advances in machine learning or the applications that can be imagined as a result           47:15– International Justice Mission48:11 – How he got started teaching negotiations and some of the points he makes in that class49:16 – Effective techniques for negotiating50:03 – Is negotiating contentious, do you need empathy50:41 – A Rorschach test of Sam based on his reading of Lessons of History (book)53:01 – Biggest risk Sam took in his career54:37 – Biggest risks Sam took while with the 76ers58:09 – Do people undervalue asymmetric outcomes in the NBA 1:00:11 – The players Sam has enjoyed watching over the years1:02:45 – Why Robert Caro is a favorite author of his1:04:30 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Sam