David’s Articles

Many synonymous words we take for granted, never bothering to contemplate whether or not they are in fact, equivalent. In the last several weeks, I have been struck that there is in fact a difference between being ‘competitive’ and being ‘driven.’ For a long period of...

I can clearly recall the first ‘meta’ thought I encountered. I was sitting in the first day of high school in my first English class, and the professor began with the year with the question of What is a Word? Mind blown. Why? Up to that point, I had been so head down...

Professor Rita Gunther McGrath makes the audacious claim Is Competitive Advantage Actually Dead? in here book (The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business ) published in 2013.  I'm not sold that she proved her point. At...

10 lessons I’ve learned after ~4 years as an entrepreneur It will take twice as long to get where you want to be – no matter how prepared you are, it will take longer than you think The hardest time in the startup is at the “growth plateau” – 7-12 months after you’ve...

Author Philip Delves Broughton followed up his entertaining book about his time at Harvard Business School with his book "The Art of the Sale." (Disclaimer – These are Amazon Affiliate links and pay a small commission to me for the referral). As Broughton notes, sales...

3G’s operating model of extreme cost discipline to drive free cash flow, driving further investment in brands and growth is garnering, rightfully so, a lot of attention in the private equity world. Our view is all managers should look at their lessons and see how they can apply them best to their operating businesses.

I just finished reading “What I learned losing a million dollars” by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan. This book is the excellent story of a young man who was a successful commodities trader who was entirely wiped out in a period of 6 weeks or so. Per our usual format,...

Book Review of The Masters of Private Equity and Venture Capital    (Disclaimer – These are Amazon Affiliate links and pay a small commission to me for the referral) Finkel’s book includes interviews/profiles with PE and VC leaders.  Not as...

Just finished reading the book "There’s always something to do."   This book is a great profile of Canadian value-investor Peter Cundill.   A great read about an investor I knew little about. A few basics of his approach: Very focused on margin of safety.  Loved...