The Investing City Podcast

Episode 9 - Ryan Krueger, Founder of Krueger & Catalano: Appreciation Over Expectation Associated links: Ryan's Firm Ryan's blog Thank you so much for listening, we really appreciate you. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org If you would like $10 off/month on a Dynasty Membership, just email us with the keyword "Podcaster Elastimer" and we'll hook you up! (it had to be a strange yet memorable keyword right?!) Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! Below you will find our entire conversation transcripted for those with hearing problems or just if you like reading more than listening. Enjoy! Ryan Reeves 0:01 We are super happy to have Ryan Krueger on as a guest. So thank you so much for being here. Ryan. Ryan Krueger 0:09 It is my honor to be here. Thank you. Ryan Reeves 0:12 Great. So let's just get into some of your background. So you were at a Wall Street firm, one of the biggest out there, can you just tell us about how you got there, whether you were interested in money from an early age and kind of your progression just to leading up to that firm. Ryan Krueger 0:35 Okay, first memory of a fascination with the stock market actually turning into a transaction was when I was about 10 years old and begged my dad to take this cigar box full of a couple wadded up those that I had made and a baseball card trading glorious summer into a little computer stock that I thought made a lot of sense had absolutely no idea of course, what I was doing. And I remember fondly because it was a Houston company compact computers. And they had just Ryan and just introduced to their portable PC weighing in and sprightly 28 pounds. And fortunately for me, that first trade work and I was hooked and I don't know really how to explain it. Other than kind of all along during high school and college I was genuinely interested read voraciously and kind of always thought that that would be something I'd be super interested in. And I vividly recall showing up with a brand new suit I probably bought from Sears with my mother's help to try an interview at Smith, Barney. And they told me we don't interview kids your age. And so that that dream was going to be over fast. I thought and I really didn't know what to do. I had no other plans. I had no other believes I had no other interests, frankly. And so I went home and I don't know if it was a day or two. Or we it wasn't much crafted what I finally recall as my Hail Mary letter and said, I want to come back anyways. And you don't have to interview me, but I want to talk to you. And here's what I think. And here's what I believe in. And miraculously, he decided to give me a shot in the mail room and I started Ryan Reeves 3:03 that is incredible. Um, but first, just before we get into some of that. So how did you find compact computers? Like, were you reading the news? or How did you find that at 10 years old? Ryan Krueger 3:18 You know, I I don't remember specifically. I certainly have to give my my dad credit for probably having talked about capitalism a lot. I mean, he grew up dirt on a farm in the middle of Texas. And I just I wasn't blessed with any gifts, DNA wise physically. But I do remember fondly knowing that he he got up and started working for 35 o'clock, and I guess I got that bug. And then how do you make your money work hard for you, and getting to know his dad and how hard he worked, we would probably talk about...

You can learn more about Howard Lindzon at his blog. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org If you would like $10 off/month on a Dynasty Membership, just email us with the keyword "Podcaster Elastimer" and we'll hook you up! (it had to be a strange yet memorable keyword right?!) Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! Below you will find our entire conversation transcripted for those with hearing problems or just if you like reading more than listening. Enjoy! Ryan Reeves 0:13 Okay, so, today on investing, city podcasts were overjoyed to have Howard Lindzon. Howard is a legend in the investments world and we're just so excited to have him on. So, thank you, Howard. Howard Lindzon 0:25 No problem. No problem. Legend. I don't know. Ryan Reeves 0:29 Well, the listeners can decide. But I just want to start to start with a little bit of background cuz I follow you on your daily blog. It feels like I know you and kind of your personal life, but I just want to drill down on some other aspects. So you grew up in Toronto, you grew up in Toronto and went to school in Toronto undergrad, a name winter Arizona state for a master's program and then tell us a little bit about your background from there on. Howard Lindzon 1:03 I was back it was the Gulf War was ending the one I was in Phoenix didn't want to move back to Canada. I had to get a sponsored green card or visa H1 visa, I forget exactly what it was called at the time, probably the same thing and became a stockbroker. You know any job to stay in the country was the goal didn't matter. I had a business degree but no professional. degree and so I was cold calling right out of grad school and fell in love with the stock market which kind of led to everything you know. Had some good mentors early and here I am, today still investing and loving the stock market. So that was 91, 27 years ago. Ryan Reeves 2:06 In those days did somebody kind of show you the ropes? Are you figured out yourself or just tell us a little bit about that? Howard Lindzon 2:18 No, I mean you're supposed to make cold calls, what intrigued me was you know how to put together stories and research from the brokerage that I worked for which was principal group and you know just cold calling try and talk to people with money so wasn't so much a stock market intrigued me it was just a job I didn't love cold call and in love selling securities so in the end I they ended up you know in one of my cold calls I came upon a an entrepreneur ended up getting sidetracked you know working in the startup called pro innovative concepts which became kind of a company we together made a lot of money and circle back to the stock market because we were investing so kind of the stock market passion came later from the other side of the table actually being the one that had money to invest Ryan Reeves 3:37 And so, tell us a little bit about that call. So, you're cold calling. And how did you get this guy's number? And had you kind of hit it off? Howard Lindzon 3:44 Um, well, I mean, you know, you open up local back then there's no internet. So, you open up the Business Journal and you would see who they were writing about. And, and then, you know, call them assuming they were wealthy. When I called mark, the founder, he actually turned out to not have a nickel, but he had a great cool company. And we, you know, we all got involved in that company. So, it really wasn't, he...

Brian Barnes is the CEO of M1 Finance, the #2 behind the commission-free trading platform, Robinhood. Listen as Brian takes us through his business, the industry and some fascinating lessons along the way. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org If you would like $10 off/month on a Dynasty Membership, just email us with the keyword "Podcaster Elastimer" and we'll hook you up! (it had to be a strange yet memorable keyword right?!) Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! Below you will find our entire conversation transcripted for those with hearing problems or just if you like reading more than listening. Enjoy! Ryan Reeves 0:02 Let's start with a little bit of your background. So you went to Stanford undergrad and then you work for a consulting firm can you just tell us kind of about Stanford and what you wanted to do kind of what you wanted to be when you grew up? Brian Barnes 0:19 yeah for sure so in all actually just start the story a tad bit earlier that was raised in a family that was financially oriented a you know sort of expose me to the notion of investing in an early age give me access to a brokerage account and you know it was very young at the time sort of 1011 years old and it just immediately LaShawn as you know this is interesting fun engaging sir became a hobby of mine of investigating stocks placing a conviction bet on it and you know sometimes be right and sometimes being wrong sometimes very very wrong so you know, do that middle school high school into college did good. undergrad at Stanford where I majored in econ and math. And so sort of stayed in that financial realm. And, you know, when you're in Stanford for your, sort of, in the heart of Silicon Valley, seeing companies that didn't exist three years ago, there, you know, seemingly IPO and very egreigious sums of money. And so you can see a lot of ideas come to fruition in a pretty quick way, which got me interested in starting them one later down the line. But yeah, I did a stint as a equity researcher at a hedge fund and then worked in management consulting prior to starting at one. Ryan Reeves 1:35 Gotcha, that's awesome. So I wanted to talk about you latching on to investing. So is there a reason that you found investing really interesting or you found that you just had a natural knack for it? Or kind of what was that reason? Brian Barnes 1:50 Yeah, I think it's, you know, I think it's just a general intellectual curiosity and trying to understand what makes things, the way they do and the notion of investing or at least the, you know, I have ascribed to the long term value investing sort of mindset in that area is sort of just taking a company, figuring out, you know, what they do, what's their competitive advantage? How are their position in the marketplace? How do they have pricing, power circle, you know, aspects of how do they operate in this altar, complicated world? How do they navigate it? How do they create their niche, and, you know, to solidify their position in sort of understanding the fundamentals of business to do that, and then ascribing a you know, viewpoint of, Okay, what is that worth? And I think that's a very interesting intellectual problem to try to solve. And then you add the sort of entertainment value of there's money on the line. So if you're right, it pays off and you know so i think it's just a very interesting hobby to undertake that sort of test your intellectual prowess or to text as...

Quinn Taber is the CEO at Immerse. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org If you would like $10 off/month on a Dynasty Membership, just email us with the keyword "Podcaster Elastimer" and we'll hook you up! (it had to be a strange yet memorable keyword right?!) Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! Below you will find our entire conversation transcripted for those with hearing problems or just if you like reading more than listening. Enjoy! Ryan Reeves 0:06 Pleased to have to have Immerse software CEO Quinn Taber, thank you so much for being here Quinn. Quinn Taber 0:12 Absolutely. I've been looking forward to it. Thanks, man. Ryan Reeves 0:16 So just kind of to start it off, tell us a little bit about your background and how it led to starting a tech startup. Quinn Taber 0:23 I've got like the 30 second, and like the 30 minute and I'll try to do the 30 second. It'll probably be like 90. My name is Quinn Taber. I actually grew up overseas, so parents or it's in places like the Middle East and Europe and Africa. So I had like a pretty unique international upbringing. I moved back to Southern California for grade school, but always had this like fascination with business and philanthropy, particularly in the Middle East, which is real strange for like an eight year old that like to serve lives in Southern California. So in high school started a nonprofit that did micro enterprise loans to small businesses in the Middle East college, studied economics and finance. And then after college actually shipped out to the Middle East, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, places like that all Syria and Iraq and worked in the philanthropy field, which is, frankly, it's investments but in nonprofit. So instead of a financial return, there's like an altruistic social benefit return. I did that for two and a half years, loved it, like really, really loved it. And then all of those experiences ultimately led to starting a tech company, which is another kind of confusing, like, Okay, how do you connect those dots? Ryan Reeves 1:47 For sure. I want to back up really quick. Yeah, you glossed over in high school. You started what? Quinn Taber 2:00 Yeah, a nonprofit that did micro finance or micro enterprise loans to small companies. And the So loans have anywhere from like, one to $5,000 to kick start businesses in places like Tunisia and Egypt, and Morocco, and Lebanon. Ryan Reeves 2:22 So as a high schooler hat, how did you even know about micro financing? Quinn Taber 2:35 Yeah, as you kind of dig into my story, the theme of just kind of going for it, which is probably one of my main life principles, and like, led to the fun and the success I've experienced is like, All right, I'm 1415 Super under qualified, but I'm like, really intrigued by how small loans to ambitious young people and like poor parts of the globe can really like change society's it started from reading a book called dead aid. And then that launched other books, like one helping her and then, like, studied the folks at Grameen Bank we're doing for folks in the micro enterprise, like, Oh, yeah, that's like the beginner's guide. And frankly, I never really even got to the intermediate level I just started and then learn by doing, which is exactly what I've been doing. And every avenue of license, so we raised like 65 or 70 K, as a high schooler, and then took like, trips out to the Middle East and North Africa, and...

Here is the link to the article mentioned in the podcast: How to Buy a Business And here is the link to Brent's book: The Messy Marketplace Thank you so much for listening, we really appreciate you. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! Below you will find our entire conversation transcripted for those with hearing problems or just if you like reading more than listening. Enjoy! Ryan Reeves 0:10 Okay today on the Investing City podcast we are overjoyed and just so excited to have Brent the sole owner of "Adventures" here on the podcast-thank you so much Brent Brent Beshore 0:23 Hey thanks for having me on -way to set expectations low Ryan Reeves 0:28 Okay so yeah, I don't want to set expectations low because that is very undeserved! Brent, I don't know how I originally found you. Honestly, I just found you through some blog, maybe. But I've been reading your stuff for years. And yeah, just super excited for this interview. So, I've noticed you've actually been doing a lot of podcasts lately, and you probably get a lot of questions. But I was wondering, what is one of your most memorable questions that you've gotten so far? Brent Beshore 1:07 It has to be on a podcast? I think Patrick's question about what's the kindest thing someone's ever done for you is a pretty darn good one. I think it gets at things that we maybe don't often think about. And yeah, reflect on those things. So I think that's a pretty interesting one. Ryan Reeves 1:25 Totally. And what was your answer for that? Brent Beshore 1:28 Well, my answer was, there's a gentleman, his name is Craig, who used to work with me. And he really picked me up when things were dark. I think it's easy to look at anyone's life. And in general, things get better and it's easy to say, Oh, it was a straight line between when they started and the success they've had, and I certainly know for my life, that's just not the case. There's been lots of ups and downs and lots of periods where things didn't work out the way I wanted them to-lots of times where things were looking pretty dire. And during one of those periods, early on, Craig was really an anchor, a rock for me, and just was incredibly kind and generous and helpful. And really, just everything I could possibly ask for. Ryan Reeves 2:18 Wow, are you still in touch with Craig today? Brent Beshore 2:21 Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I texted with him a couple days ago. We are good friends. We live about 45 minutes away from each other now. Yeah, really great guy. Ryan Reeves 2:32 That's awesome. So I want to backtrack just a little bit. I was doing some research and you were doing your JD MBA at Missouri, and you got the opportunity to help a friend out with a company. Can you take us through that a little bit? Brent Beshore 3:17 Well, if I'm being honest, it wasn't so much a process as something that I stumbled on that eventually led to something more. I was getting my law degree, my MBA, and I realized that I didn't want to be a lawyer. And someone kindly said to me, hey, if you don't want to be a lawyer, it's probably not best to get your law degree- things you don't think about. And it was an opportunity to get into business. , I felt like I was kind of sitting on the sidelines, watching other people in business. But until you experience something,...

Bert Hochfeld will help you become a better tech investor. He's been in the game 50 years and he really knows technology inside and out. Thank you so much for listening, we really appreciate you. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! Below you will find our entire conversation transcripted for those with hearing problems or just if you like reading more than listening. Enjoy! Ryan Reeves We are live and just so excited to have Bert Hochfeld on the podcast. Bert is a legend in the equity research space. And we're just so honored to have you on. Bert Hochfeld Well, that's very nice. I don't know if I'm a legend- if I'm a legend, I hope It's a good one. Ryan Reeves Okay, so let's just hop right into it. Bert, can you give us a little bit of your background and how you got interested in the stock market and maybe just kind of your progression to where you are now? Bert Hochfeld Sure. Well, that's a bit of a long story. But I've been interested in the stock market for, believe it or not, 60 years or something like that. My parents encouraged my interest. And my father tried to teach me a little bit about the stock market. I've always been fascinated by how the financial markets work. And I was fortunate enough to go to the University of Pennsylvania where the practice of econometrics was being developed in the early 1960s. And then I went to HBS, and then I went to work for IBM (IBM). And so I had a good background in this area. And I after I worked at IBM, I worked at several other tech companies, Raytheon Data Systems, BMC software, etc. And then finally, I decided I wanted to come back to the northeast after I was in Houston. And so I came back up here 25 years ago and got into working for a variety of companies. I set up my own independent research company, when that became the way of doing this business. I set up a hedge fund as well that invested in the tech area. And over time I decided that I would set up a website subscription service for people that are interested in investing in tech investing. And that's called Ticker Target. And I welcome listeners to subscribe. That's where I am today. Ryan Reeves So your first job out of HBS was at IBM. Was that kind of a turning point in you becoming really interested in technology or had you been interested before that? Bert Hochfeld I've been interested in technology for a long, long time and had been interested in working at IBM for a long, long time. And I had that opportunity back in 1969, IBM was kind enough to hire me after my military service. And so I went to work there as a financial analyst doing pricing and planning. And I got to understand how the computer industry worked at that time. From the perspective of the dominant player. I mean, it's hard to believe today, it's a sad story. But IBM as you may or may not be aware, basically was the number one company in the space and it had the opportunity to remain a dominant player for many years. Sadly, it didn't choose to grasp the nettle so to speak- it was always an issue with IBM, the level of money they might leave on the table, if they innovated too rapidly. Ryan Reeves From your perspective do you think there's something that they, obviously, should have seen -- some paradigm shift in tech, because you read all Clayton Christensen's kind of literature on these big companies being disrupted. And how...

Today we are happy to be talking with Morgan Housel, partner at the Collaborative Fund, a vc firm out of New York. Morgan is one heck of a writer. He is a two-time winner of the Best in Business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. He is also a world-renowned speaker, having done 30 talks in 2018 alone. Prior to the collaborative fund, he worked for nearly 10 years for the Motley Fool, an online investment firm located in Washington DC. This is where I first discovered Morgan. His clear writing and down-to-earth nature really caught my eye. Since then, I think I've read almost everything he's written. It is our great pleasure to introduce THE Morgan Housel. More Stuff Thank you so much for listening, we really appreciate you. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org If you would like $10 off/month on a Dynasty Membership, just email us with the keyword "Podcaster Elastimer" and we'll hook you up! (it had to be a strange yet memorable keyword right?!) Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! Below you will find our entire conversation transcripted for those with hearing problems or just if you like reading more than listening. Enjoy! Transcript: Ryan Reeves Okay thank you so much for joining us at the investing city podcast this week, we are overjoyed to have our guest Morgan Housel on who was kind enough to agree. And we're just so excited to have him on. So, thank you, Morgan. Morgan Housel Thanks for having me. Looking forward to it. Ryan Reeves So, the first question I have has a little bit of a backstory. So Morgan, why are you so nice? Morgan Housel That's a great question. I like that question, and I should say thank you. But I think there are not enough nice people around these days. And I would frame it a little bit differently. I would say there aren't enough empathetic people around these days-there aren't enough people that try to go out of their way to put themselves in other's shoes, and even if they have differences from me, or if they think in a different way, what have they experienced in life that I have not, I think that's a really important skill to try to force yourself to think about and a lot of people don't. I think a lot of people just kind of increasingly live in their own worlds. And now that we have the kind of social media technology that we have, we didn't even five years ago, people are more aware of other people's views on the world. And there's a great quote as Gavin Turner said, "the more aware that people become of other people's views, the more upset they get that other views exist." And so I think it's something that I've always tried to push back on intentionally- of course, I don't always do it. There are many people out there, people who would say I'm not a nice person, but I always try to put myself in someone else's shoes. And I don't think it's any different than the classic golden rule that we all learn when we are five years old. You know, people just want to be treated with dignity and respect, and most of the indignities and disrespect that people put forth I think, by and large, are caused by just not being able to empathize with what that other person has experienced in life that has brought them to the view that they might have Ryan Reeves I love that and it's interesting, because I would guess that like 99% of people know the golden rule. But why do...

Ok kicking it off, our first guest on the podcast is someone special. Someone who has been named to the Forbes Most Powerful People four out of the last five years, coming in at #23 in 2018. This week I am interviewing Doug McMillon, the current CEO of the Fortune 1 company in the world, Walmart. Doug is honestly one of the most humble, gracious people out there. If you randomly met him, you would just walk away thinking, "I like that guy" not, "wow, that was the 23rd most powerful person in the world." McMillon began his first job with Walmart as a summer associate in high school unloading trucks. He got his undergrad degree at Arkansas and then his MBA at Tulsa is 1991. Soon after he joined the buyer-training program. Worked him way up to President of Sam's club where he was from 2005-2009. Then spent 4 years as President of Walmart International. Finally, in 2014, he became the fifth CEO of Walmart, Inc. where he has been since. Doug's tenure has seen some big decisions. He has done a lot to change the stigma of Walmarts brand including raise its minimum pay, fostering innovation and focusing on a more integrated e-commerce opportunity. Changing the course of a big battleship like Walmart isn't easy but if anyone has the ability to do it, it's Doug. I'm overjoyed to present to you: Doug McMillon. More stuff Thank you so much for listening, we really appreciate you. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org 

This episode is an intro to The Investing City Podcast. In it, we go through 10 reasons why everyone should invest. Here's the link to the original blog post: https://www.investingcity.org/blog/a-vision-for-investing Thank you so much for listening, we really appreciate you. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Instagram: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! For the hearing impaired or those that like to read here is the full episode transcripted (we'll try to do this as often as we can!). Enjoy! Episode 1: Intro Episode (Transcripted) Okay, here's the first episode. And then we're a little bit late to the podcasting game. We're still excited. Nonetheless, just to get this thing rolling, and the purpose of this first episode, and really just be an introduction to who I am, what investing city is, and why you should listen to this podcast. So I just want to give you a little bit of context on who I am. Typically, the format for this podcast will be interview style with me interviewing interesting people. But I do just want to give a little bit of background on myself, just so you know who's talking. So my name is Ryan Reeves. And I'm 21 years old. I'm from Southern California. And I love investing. I've been investing since I was 12 years old, I bought my first shares in a stock cold Corning glassware because I typed in "best stocks to buy" on Google. And that was one of the first ones to pop up. But since then, I've learned a thing or two about investing. And I hope to share those things. Because I really have a passion for investing and teaching investing. And so that's why I started investing city you can find it at www.investingcity.org. And the goal is really just to create a community where people can learn about investing, and just take back a little bit of financial freedom. So that's a little bit about me and investing city. But I really just want to elaborate on what we hope to accomplish by doing this podcast and why you should listen. So the goal of this podcast is, like it said in the intro to get better at investing business and life. And we'll do that by talking to interesting people about just those topics. We especially want this to be interesting and relevant to your life. Because, you know, life's too short to be bored and not learn. So that's really the goal. But for this first episode, we'll do something a little different. So to really hammer home, those points will go through one of my original blog posts called a vision for investing. And it goes through 10 reasons why I believe everybody should be interested in investing, and why it is a fascinating topic. So without further ado, let's just hop right into it. So Reason number one is the stock market is a game, it's a game because there's so many moving pieces. And you can use critical thinking and strategy to really get the upper hand for instance, when I was younger, I wanted to be the general manager of an NBA team, just like I'm sure was the case with a lot of other little boys. But I really view the stock market and investing in kind of a similar fashion. So if you're a general manager, your job is to get a lot of pieces together, you have to get players that play well together, you have to make sure that the chemistry is good, you have to look out for the strengths and weaknesses of other players. And your goal is to really have the best team possible so that you can win a...