Coburn Ventures Podcast

The thesis statement is our #1 tool: it's the key representation of uncommon, uncorrelated investable insights that only your specific firm with your specific team and your specific investment philosophy can create. It’s also the bridge between investment philosophy and stock level work. Finally, it's how we communicate without getting dragged back to the mean and instead, communicate at the level of uncommon, uncorrelated insights. Let's jump in.

As investors, part of our job is to “hazily see the future” as best we can, and because of this, I often find investors to be a group that is very open to taking in different perspectives and viewpoints as new data becomes available to them. When it comes to the way they do their jobs, however, some elements are stickier than may be useful to us. Today we are offering a few more ways we’ve been using AI, and also reflecting on how one of the greatest investors of the last century, Benjamin Graham, may or may not have adapted through significant changes to process in his day. Let’s jump in.

Dive into a deep discussion on psychological safety and its critical role in team performance. Learn what psychological safety truly means and the misconceptions surrounding it. Discover how to spot a lack of this safety in teams and foster more open conversations. Explore the link between psychological safety and innovation, alongside practical tips for leaders to encourage risk-taking. Understand the importance of accountability and reflective learning from mistakes, and how creating an environment of de-risking can expand opportunities for everyone.

Comparison is rather natural, but rarely productive. Instead of falling into common pitfalls, what's the way out? We have Dr. Morris Pickens here with us. Notably we are approaching review season and we thought this might add some perspective or grounding going into that period. Let’s jump in. 

Last week we went into depth on some design principles for turning rote management meetings into an activity that can generate uncommon insights. What we left out of that meeting was a key piece that we have written about for decades now: the process of generating unlocking questions to gain conviction in your business thesis, and even working with generating questions you may not think you’ll ever get an answer to. We’re interested in stretching those limits as a part of the process to really find the unlocking questions. It doesn’t happen by thinking the way everyone else does. Today, we walk through some different ways we’ve been using AI to further advance on creating unlocking questions for management. Let’s jump in.

Continuing on our assertion that we cannot do common things and expect uncommon results, today we are discussing management meetings. I’ve noticed that the best career stories, those told around the Owl Bar perhaps, usually have to do with breakthrough realizations during time with management, when an insight about the company culture was unlocked, or an understanding came to light, maybe of the troubles ahead, or more likely, of the vast scale of opportunity before that company. We’d like those types of meetings to be less legendary, actually, because we’d like them to be less few and far between. We don’t have to settle for the 30 min slots at conferences as we build relationships with companies and management teams, so let’s take this opportunity to start exploring how to make common management meetings generators of uncommon insight. Let’s jump in. 

As investors and business leaders, even when we are able to get to a deeper level of understanding, it doesn’t mean navigating this world of rogue waves, change and instability is any clearer. Today we go into an 11 step “guide”, of sorts, aimed at navigating the impact of different types of changes and how they might affect our actions and investment theses. Let’s jump in. 

What if, when someone asked you what your operating edge was at work you said, “being really good at being busy.” Sometimes, it feels like that’s how our days go. It doesn’t suggest we are on the path to generating insight, so we’ll see if we can take a look today to see what might be going on. Let’s jump in.

We last spoke with our friend Mike Cahill on his perspective on the markets back in February. Obviously, a lot has happened since then, and we were happy to have the chance to check in with him again. Thank you Mike, for this discussion. Let’s jump in.

It’s so important for investors and business leaders to have a framework for what data and information we take in as inputs, as well as what we make sure to exclude or throw out as garbage data and now, garbage information. This is our classic signal: noise dilemma, but the ratio is careening ever more massively to noise. Today we tackle this issue head on and discuss what has been the key orienting model for us to get through the muck of data, remove ourselves from the swirl in our knowledge seeking and make that climb up the hill to generating uncommon investable insights. Let's jump in.