Episode 10: Australian property, selling Class and buying Webjet

The live Melbourne event was a lot of fun, giving us the chance to connect with over 50 of our members and share some interesting investment ideas. It was also great to put a face to a few familiar Strawman usernames. For those that couldn’t make it, you can check out a couple of the presentations on Youtube. Owen from […]

There are really only three levers a business can pull to juice its profits: price, cost, or volume. That’s it. As an investor, your job is to figure out which of these levers matters most for any given company — and how management plans to yank it. Because if you don’t know what’s driving growth, you’re essentially investing on hope. […]

We’ve been a bit distracted at Strawman HQ this week due to an office relocation. More accurately, I got evicted and have been moving house. So apologies for the radio silence on Strawman. Having now relocated 7 times in nearly 11 years I’m pretty much a black belt in the art of the move. And believe you me, it really […]

“To invest successfully does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information,” said Buffett in a foreword to Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor. “What’s needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding the framework.” According to uncle Warren, factors like habits, character and temperament are what matter most. “What […]

At a recent value investing conference, money manager Mohnish Pabrai, a self-described “shameless cloner” of Buffett and Munger, sat down for a fireside chat. In it, he shared wisdom that, while far from original, bears repeating. Indeed, the fact that Pabrai’s wisdom is essentially repackaged lessons from Berkshire’s dynamic duo is precisely one of his key messages. In investing, while […]

Last week, I highlighted a curious reality: despite incredible advances in tech and productivity, most people are still working as much as ever just to cover the basics. Real wages have gone flat, while the costs of essentials like housing, healthcare, and energy keep climbing. Once you see it, it’s tough to ignore. It cries out for an explanation. It’s […]

There is precisely one way for an entrepreneur to know if there is actual demand for their product or service: put it out there. They must run the experiment to see if the open market validates their hypothesis. Focus groups and market research are fine, but true validation only happens when customers willingly and repeatedly part with their hard-earned cash. […]

Is there more pain to come?