My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

Odilon Costa is a Sr. Emerging Market Research Analyst with the emphasis in commercial real estate and fixed income. He started his career working at large investment banks, such as ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, and HSBC, in Brazil and France. His activities are currently focused on providing strategic services for some research platforms, such as REDD Intelligence and Eleven Financial, and asset managers, covering high yield and distressed debt. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from FGV at Sao Paulo School of Business and was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge. He has published several papers in the field of real estate finance and investments.  In this episode, Odilon talks about the pros and cons of distressed debts investing, how lucrative and promising this investing is, the complexities of restructuring that are involved in this type of investment, and the challenges involved in getting accurate information about it which limits the number of investors who can adequately invest in them. Listen and learn from this expert as he will tell you more about the highs and lows of purchasing distressed debt.   "Regardless of how much you study a deal, you can't just underestimate the risks." -Odilon Costa What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com Topics Covered: 0:38 – Odilon Costa’s background as an investment professional 2:41 – Recounting one of the investments he acquired  and how it turns out  bad and the backstory of how he was convinced to venture into the investment 4:00 – Sighting the conflicts that made his investment fall short 6:26 – Strategies that he carried out to improve the returns of the investment as well as the risks management that they did 8:34 – A rundown of the lessons he gained from his experience 9:13 – A sensible closing advice from Odilon Costa: “Regardless of how much you study a deal, you can't just underestimate the risks." Main Takeaways: Lesson 1: "You really can't underestimate income risks. So, if you're going to close a deal, if it's a distressed deal, you need to understand how incomes are going to come out of that deal. – Odilon Costa Lesson 2: “You can't let confidence affect you. You have to be cold and manage risks in a way that they do not affect the way you'll see the deal.” –  Odilon Costa Lesson 3: "Finance adds no value. It’s the entrepreneurial aspect that adds value"  – Andrew Stotz Lesson 4: "The income risk is really about how we want to stay focused on our business, products, and services. Finance oftentimes manipulates the liability side of the balance sheet." –  Andrew Stotz Lesson 6: "The job of finance ultimately is to support the entrepreneur to do their business better, faster, stronger, cheaper. What we're doing is supporting the allocation of capital to the people that are making the products and services that people want.” – Andrew Stotz You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points   Connect with Odilon Costa: LinkedIn Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com Linkedin Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

Rajeev Gupta has an immense 20-years experience investing and building technology companies.  He worked for almost a decade at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York focusing on listed and unlisted technology companies.  He then moved at Tribeca & Merricks Capital where he ran global technology funds and eventually built his own 25-person technology start-up company, Geckolife.  He is also currently a Partner at an investment company, Alium Capital.  Rajeev graduated from the University of Sydney with an Honours degree in Finance & Econometrics. On the other hand, Rajeev spends his personal time with his four kids and is fond of traveling, watching tv and skiing. In this episode, get to know Rajeev as he recounts why he considers meeting Jack Ma in 1998 his worst investment ever and his valuable realizations in it.  Listen and learn from this expert as he will tell you more why you should be investing in technology now. Hear this and more in this another great story of loss to keep you winning. “As an investor, you must be able to detect tenacity.” – Rajeev Gupta     What do you want to hear from the My Worst Investment Ever Podcast? Tell us here! Resources:  My Worst Investment Ever Book myworstinvestmentever.com   Topics Covered: 02:55 – Rajeev explains why he loves to meet 8-10 companies every day and what excites him to do that 03:49 – He shares how he ended up with his worst investment and the story behind it 05:04 – Telling what the key differentiator is in investing 05:55 – He reveals his 3 worst investments and his realizations on it 07:31 – Defining what efficient frontier is 08:21 – Why not having conviction is a very weak way of investing 10:14 – One important actionable advice in investing 11:43 – Andrew sums up his opinions on the topic 13:42 – Andrew narrates his personal story about tenacity and what he learned on it 17:02 – Wise parting words from Rajeev – “If you come across anything in technology that sounds dumb today, it can be almost guaranteed. You look back in 10 years and say, why did I not support it? So, if you think something's done, don't be dumb.”   Main Takeaways:  Lesson 1: “As an investor, you must be able to detect tenacity.”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 2: “So my worst investment has been a) not having conviction, b) not putting my balls on the line and c) not writing themes that you hear about, but do nothing about through that journey.”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 3: “Conviction to me is the most important part of investing both positively and negatively.  My worst investment is not putting more money to work in what was looking at me in the face.”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 4: “I think the best way to invest is have a big chunk of what you do and I'd say 50 percent or maybe slightly more in super risky stuff which will give you at exorbitantly high return.”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 5: “If you focus on the risky stuff, the risky investments, yes, they can go to zero. But if you do your work, you have your conviction. You know that the magic you're talking to companies will make an enormous return.” – Rajeev Gupta Lesson 6: “If you've done the work and you believe in the thematic, I think you go hard and supersize positions as early as you can. ”– Rajeev Gupta Lesson 7: “The first is warning, warning, warning to the listeners.  Remember what he said was you've got to have your thematic right, and you've got to do your homework. Rajeev is not saying, just have a conviction.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 8: “Build your story, build your theme, do your homework.  But also, never be afraid to try to find someone that disagrees with your conviction and get their input.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 9: “If you can spot tenacity in a good, you know, and find a good person with a good idea, then you've probably got something you should back for long, long time.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 10: “There are only two times that you'll have to worry about conflicts in partnerships - when you're losing money and when you're making money. Otherwise you don't have to worry.”– Andrew Stotz Lesson 11: “Numbers can sometimes be very deceptive. I think numbers should be seen as something that's supportive. You cannot ever trade person, individual, thematic and tenacity.”– Rajeev Gupta You can also check out Andrew’s books How to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock Market My Worst Investment Ever 9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Transform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 Points Connect with Rajeev Gupta: aliumcap.com LinkedIn Connect with Andrew Stotz: astotz.com Linkedin Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

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