YouSaid · the spoken record

Adam Seessel

lines on the record: 57
first: 2022-07-22
most recent: 2022-07-22
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“To call India now it's free. So all these things tamp down pricing because they, you know, tech builds better mousetraps, better, faster, cheaper mousetraps. And that's a big, big, big disinflationary force on the economy that although I'm no expert, I feel pretty sure it's not being measured.”
2022-07-22 · We Study Billionaires · TIP465: Value Investing in the Digital Age w/ Adam Seessel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're not measuring important economic developments in our economy, and it's precisely because they're very hard to measure. Every time tech makes something better, faster, cheaper. It doesn't necessarily get recorded in the stats. And you just have to understand that these measures like GDP and generally accepted accounting principles, which I talk about in the book, they were built for the industrial age. They were built for a time when GM and U.S. steel ruled the landscape. The economists, the econometrics people, the accounting people need to update these systems to account for tech. I mean, even things like inflation, I think inflation has been benign for 40 years. I think a lot of it has to do with tech. Tech is so disinflationary. Before Google, we needed Google Maps, before WhatsApp you needed to spend a”
2022-07-22 · We Study Billionaires · TIP465: Value Investing in the Digital Age w/ Adam Seessel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Most of their products are free, but as you say, they enable your life and make your life so much better, faster, cheaper, as I say in the book. That's the mantra of tech, better, faster, cheaper. And I quote this study done by an economist, I think he was at MIT at the time, where he went and asked consumers, how much would you forego of your income in order to keep a service? So I think Facebook was $400 and WhatsApp was $700.”
2022-07-22 · We Study Billionaires · TIP465: Value Investing in the Digital Age w/ Adam Seessel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But then there are a few sub 5% that do have competitive advantages and they're also getting slaughtered. And those are the ones I'm buying.”
2022-07-22 · We Study Billionaires · TIP465: Value Investing in the Digital Age w/ Adam Seessel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's funny when inflation reared its ugly head early this year. I went back and read Buffett's writings on inflation because like many value investors, he's my guru. And it was in the early 80s when inflation was at its apogee. And he said, you know, the two things you need are pricing power. Like you said, and capitalite business models. So you don't have to invest a lot of money in plant as the prices are going up. Getting more and more expensive to build property and plant and equipment. Which businesses have pricing power and are capital A? Tech. So, you know, it's a great period to stop and reflect. And if your listeners have time, I do recommend they pick up the book because it does take this secular trend of technological change and it applies to how we can make money in the market. And, you know, right now, a lot of companies are getting slaughtered in tech and they deserve to be slaughtered because they have no competitive advantage.”
2022-07-22 · We Study Billionaires · TIP465: Value Investing in the Digital Age w/ Adam Seessel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Look, Trey, there's a reason they call economics the dismal science, you know? I mean, because it's a thicket of weeds. And, you know, I think that's the reason that investors like Bill Ackman and Joel Greenback like the book is because it's very commonsensical, very down to earth. On the one hand, it takes a big macro trend, which is the rise of technology and the digital age, which is a macro trend. I mean, that's definitely a macro trend. We're in a time of technological change that we haven't seen in at least 100 years since Henry Ford and a Model T. On the other hand, it's very micro in the sense it's, okay, in that context of technological change, how can we profit from it? And the way to profit from it is to focus on individual digital businesses that have competitive advantages.”
2022-07-22 · We Study Billionaires · TIP465: Value Investing in the Digital Age w/ Adam Seessel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not really, Trey, to put a fine point on it. I'm a bottoms-up stockpicker, and I really believe what Peter Lynch wrote 30 years ago. He wrote these books when I was getting ready to go on the Wall Street, and they really inspired me. And when I was going to write my book, I went back and reread them. And the thing that stuck with me the most what he said was that superior businesses in the end win in the real world. And that victory is over time reflected in the stock market. And it's the same with mediocre businesses. They will fail or languish, and that performance will be reflected in the stock market. So the economic cycle is going to do what it's going to do. Macro is going to do what it's going to do. Interest rates are going to do what they're going to do. There's going to be wars. There's going to be plagues. There's going to be pandemics. There's going to be recession. But if you have a strong business with a strong customer value proposition and a moat,”
2022-07-22 · We Study Billionaires · TIP465: Value Investing in the Digital Age w/ Adam Seessel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT