Coburn Ventures Podcast

Last week, Pip told the story of his stock disaster with AT &T. Today we go back again in tech history to a newly minted tech analyst in 1995 named Pip Coburn and his experience with Digital Equipment Corp. Pip will say that the highlight of this episode is that he started to become more mentorable after this experience. Remember, he was very, very new and this was one of his first tech companies he was covering. We also note that his firm didn't lose much money and that the experience getting close to DEC helped unveil how quickly one of the most comprehensive, lucrative, soup to nuts technology shifts was happening: the shift to networking. So, in my mind, this is a stock disaster with a number of silver linings, including that Pip wouldn't have been as convicted about the shift in networking without this experience. With that, I give you our silver lining stock disaster, and hope that in this sixth in this series, you see why we think they're so valuable for our learning. Let's jump in.

We're back with another installment of "Stock Disasters!", our series in which we take learning from our mistakes at its word in the hopes that you all benefit and avoid these missteps in the future. Let's jump in.

What does it mean to be productive or efficient? And how does our conception of these ideas sneak into how effectively we solve problems and ask the right questions at the right times to advance work on an investment thesis? Today we bring Irwin Kula into our conversation on anti-efficiency. Let's jump in.

Today we're introducing a new insight that will flush out with a few guests over the next few weeks. To warm us up, I'm simply going to introduce it in the form of a question: If given the knowledge of what efficiency means and how it plays out in idea generation and the work of investors and leaders, would we ever strive to be anti-efficient? To be "anti" one of the attributes that we believe is crucial to getting things done? C'mon now! What on earth are we talking about? Well, let's jump in!

Today we're talking about collaboration -- one of those at times tricky concepts that I think we all want to do well, yet if asked, probably could not define what it is, why we want to do it, and how we believe it's best to go about it.It's one of the most misunderstood words that we face in conversations with investors, but it's also one of the most underestimated tools. So, it creates a lot of confusion, especially among teams. We start this conversation by jumping into the confusing and misunderstanding part (just to get our grounding!) and by the end of the conversation, we'll offer some concrete tactics to increase the odds we "do" collaboration a little bit better. Let's jump in.

When it comes to goal setting, it's easy to create a structure or plan ... that is unfortunately going to fall by the wayside. Today, we map over Dr. Morris Pickens framework specifically for investors aiming to significantly increase the chances that the goals we're all working toward-- these extremely valid important goals that make a difference to our clients-- get to fruition. Let's jump in.

When it comes to navigating rogue waves, it sure does help to have some grounding in macro. We are fortunate today that Mike Cahill agreed to come on and talk about the top four macro topics that he has been circling as we begin 2025. Let's jump in.

Last week, we discussed the benefit of acknowledging whether we're in a kind learning environment or a wicked learning environment. For both parenting and investing, today we bring in our guest, behavioral scientist Matt Walleart, to further flesh out application of this model. Let's jump in.

Today's conversation is another attempt to further increase the awareness around what we do as investors and, more importantly, what we can do to continually refine our craft. So today we introduce a model given to us by a friend.... and don't be surprised, we'll apply it to both investing and relationships and parenting. Let's jump in.

We love to say that as leaders and investors we look to identify massive innovations, and then invest accordingly... but where does that type of advancement come from? What can we do to identify it better or earlier on? One very key source? It comes from entrepreneurs and leaders who solve a paradox. Today we will discuss the mandorla, a visual framework for this exact situation of solving a paradox-- the ability to harness the tension between seemingly conflicting ideas to drive innovation and growth. Let's jump in.