Wall Street Wildlife Investing Podcast

Marqeta's mission is to be the global standard for modern card issuing. They enable other companies to develop, launch and operate card products, by providing the underlying technology that powers many of the new innovations in the payment space, including digital payments, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), digital wallets, and just-in-time (JIT) funding (automatically funding an account in real-time during the transaction process). Their platform gives their customers full control to build a card that’s right for them and their end-users, allowing them to offer card products in a fraction of the time compared to legacy solutions. Marqeta was the first company to create an open API for issuing physical prepaid, debit and credit cards as well as digital cards, but competition is on the horizon from larger players such as Stripe and Adyen. Global money movement is estimated to total $74 trillion in 2021 consisting of 4 trillion individual payment transactions. In 2020, Marqeta processed $60B, <1% of the estimated card transaction volume in the US, and <0.2% of the global card transaction volume - they have an enormous total addressable market that they have barely penetrated. Marqeta have many well-known customers including Square, DoorDash, Instacart, Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, Coinbase and Google. Marqeta has a usage-based pricing model where they take a cut of 20 basis points from each transaction, which means as their customers grow, Marqeta grows with them. Marqeta has achieved a dollar-based net retention rate of >200% for the past 2 years running. Square currently account for >70% of revenues, creating significant customer concentration risk. This relationship will be up for renewal in 2024. The company are on track to achieving a total processing volume of over $100B this year, representing a CAGR of >250% over six years. Higher net losses of $69M in 2021 were driven by share-based compensation resulting from the IPO and are non-recurring. The company has $1.5B cash and very low debt, and will be able to sustain the business for many years while revenues grow. Companies mentioned in the discussion include Marqeta, Square, DoorDash, PayPal, Stripe, MasterCard, Visa, Google. ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

On this week's pod, we deep dive Digital Turbine, a mobile ad-tech innovator specialising in targeted app installation and programmatic advertising to mobile devices. Digital Turbine invented the market for app installation and have a patent on 'single-tap' app installation to Android devices, but the business model is controversial, and the company have been accused of pushing 'bloatware'. Revenues are multiplying at triple-digit rates year over year as the company rides the wave of the 5G rollout cycle and continually increasing usage of mobile devices, but do they have what it takes to be an ad-tech winner in the long-term? Albert and Luke arrive at different conclusions by the end of this in-depth discussion. Companies mentioned in the discussion include Magnite, The Trade Desk, Integral Ad Science, and DoubleVerify. ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

It’s not something that's usually covered in quarterly earnings reports, but company culture can have a big impact on employees, customers, business performance, and the company’s stock price. This week on the pod, we're joined by Renee Conklin, founder of RCHR Consulting, to talk about company culture - how to assess it, its impacts on business results, and what companies can do to attract and retain talent. Also, we chat about famous CEOs, the Great Resignation and driving tractors! Websites such as Glassdoor can give prospective employees and investors a view on the workplace culture but there are issues over the validity of the reviews and potential manipulation of ratings. Glassdoor is a starting point, but the information should be checked against other review sites and information sources. Workplace culture can have a significant impact on the stock performance of a company. The stock performance of the Fortune 100 best companies to work (Aug 2021) outperformed the broader index of the Russell 3000 by 16.5% in 2020 and had a cumulative return of 1,709% since 1998 compared to 526% for the index. Following the upheaval of the pandemic, we are in the midst of the Great Resignation, where employees are quitting in record numbers. It's currently a workers’ market and there are many different reasons contributing to this trend. Renee Conklin is the founder of RCHR Consulting based in Hong Kong, which works with small-to-medium businesses to optimise their HR practices, and also with individuals to help them achieve their career goals. Renee can also be found on LinkedIn. Companies mentioned in the discussion include Netflix. ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

This week we were delighted to connect with Simon Erickson, founder and CEO of 7investing, to chat about a topic that underpins both the 7investing and Telescope Investing strategy - investing in disruptive innovation. Simon shares his thoughts on finding and evaluating disruptive companies, why larger companies find disruptive innovation difficult, playing offence and defence in your portfolio, plus we chat about hype vs fundamentals, craft beer, and being neighbours with Morgan Housel! If you’re a growth investor, this episode is pure gold - highly recommended listening for all Telescope subscribers! The following companies are mentioned in this episode: TSLA GH U DDD SSYS ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

At Telescope Investing we focus on publicly-listed stocks, but investing in private companies is another option for investors seeking higher returns, and this is becoming increasingly accessible to retail investors through crowdfunding services. On this week’s pod, we're joined by award-winning entrepreneur and founder Prantik Mazumdar, to get his insights on private equity and venture capital investing. Prantik brings his extensive experience working with local enterprises in Singapore and as a business owner to the world of angel investing and venture capital. In a wide-ranging discussion, we talk about the key trends in the SE Asian startup scene, the qualities he looks for in private equity investments, and the personal and financial rewards of investing in sustainability. For companies at such an early stage of their life, there is a heightened emphasis on leadership. One of the key principles is founder-problem fit - the key question of whether founders are not just good founders, but have suitable skills and experience for the problem they are trying address? What are the dynamics within the founding team, do they have complementary skills and aligned values? Does the underlying equity structure give all the partners the right incentives, and are they able to attract key personnel to achieve their vision for the company? How large is the problem set the company is trying to solve and what is the total addressable space they are targeting? Is there a strong product-market fit to drive revenue and customer growth? Do they fulfil the "3Rs" to scale quickly - the ability to Raise capital, Race for growth and Remove competition? Less than 10% of private companies have a good exit, and it is important to understand the risks and diversify your investments accordingly. Give yourself time to understand the businesses and to build conviction. With climate change becoming an increasing focus for many governments, investing in sustainability can be a force for good and a force for growth as new companies emerge in areas such as ed-tech, alternative meat and clean energy. These nascent industries are not just good for the planet but may offer high investment returns and are seeing huge interest from venture capital. Some of the companies mentioned in the discussion are Byju’s, Float Foods, Eat Just, Stripe, UiPath, Apeel, and of course SpaceX. ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

It’s time for the Q3 review of our model portfolio, a collection of 15 stocks that we selected in January as our core investments for 2021. Following a nice recovery in Q2, the model portfolio was steadily making gains during the third quarter, but on the 22nd Sep the market started trending downwards and growth stocks were hit harder than the general market, and the model portfolio lost 15.1% in value by the end of the quarter while the S&P lost only 6.1%. Only eight out of the 15 stocks are showing positive returns from the inception of the portfolio in Jan, with just six of those beating the S&P. However in most cases, this underperformance is not a result of the company failing to execute, and was driven by macro-economic factors impacting the value of future cash flows, which growth stocks are far more dependent on than more mature companies. In today’s episode, we dig into some of the key stories and updates for each stock in the portfolio. The following companies are mentioned in this episode: CRWD CURI DIS DOCU EDIT FVRR FUBO GH IAS ISRG MELI MGNI MTTR NET NNOX ROKU SE SHOP SQ TDOC TWLO UPWK ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

The Telescope Investing strategy is to ‘buy & hold’ - we seek to buy good companies and hold them for the long-term - but that doesn’t mean we never sell. This week on the pod we revisit our thoughts on when it might be the right time to sell a stock. You might want to sell for a personal reason: You need to raise cash It’s become too big a position in your portfolio The company’s mission no longer aligns with your personal values You’ve found a better investment opportunity You’re no longer interested in tracking the company Or there might simply be a fundamental reason why a company is no longer right for your portfolio: Broken investment thesis or worsening financials Increasing competition or commoditisation of the product Change in the business model Fraud! Mis-management We also consider this framework for our own portfolios and do a shallow-dive on Beyond Meat (BYND), a plant-based meat producer that we’re both considering exiting, to see whether it’s time to moo’ve our money to another stock. The following companies are mentioned in this episode: BYND ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

We focus on stock investing at Telescope Investing, and a big part of that is psychology - having the right investing mindset and managing your emotions, as the markets, as they tend to do, take unexpected turns. Personal finance is as much personal as it is financial, and how we feel about money is influenced by the experiences we've lived and the stories we tell ourselves. These stories can have both positive and negative impacts on our financial decisions, but we can rewrite those stories and change our attitudes towards wealth. In this week’s pod, we talk to Ronald Wong about the importance of financial wellbeing and how our true net worth is more than our bank balances. Ronald is an executive coach and founder of theLibrary&, based in Hong Kong. He works with executives on being better leaders, navigating change, and developing their teams. He is especially interested in mindset, decision-making, teams and systems and the ‘dark arts’ of behavioural finance and investing. He draws inspiration from his family, yoga, architecture, and design, and in the Stoic principles of leading a purposeful life. ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

In this week’s pod, we dip into the mailbag to answer some listener questions on high valuation companies and diversification across asset classes. We also goggle at the madness of NFTs, and talk about when it’s the right vs wrong time to sell. The following companies are mentioned in this episode: TSLA, SFIX, BYND, NLFX, SHOP ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

Matterport ($MTTR) is the world’s leading spatial data company specializing in digitizing physical spaces. They make it easy to create digital models of the real world and to share those spaces anywhere. Virtual tours of homes are common on sites such as Zillow and Airbnb, but Matterport are also seeing increased take-up for use cases such as remote insurance assessments, warehouse and factory monitoring and optimization, virtual tourism, and construction Founded in 2011, and SPAC’d in July 2021, currently trades at a market cap of $4.3B. Has over $600M cash. Not currently profitable and made a loss of $11.6M in 2020 52% of $29M Q2 revenues were from subscriptions - a SaaS-like high-margin business that is the main growth driver The company estimates a TAM of $240B. The justification for this is flimsy, but there is significant optionality, with many yet to be identified use cases as the ‘metaverse’ becomes more established. If Matterport become the standard for spatial data capture, this estimate may in fact prove to be conservative Working with over 50 platform partners to build solutions on top of Matterport spatial data, expanding their use cases beyond real estate into automation, construction, retail and other industries The following companies are mentioned in this episode: MTTR, ZG, ABNB, FB ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope