Here are some good pieces that you should be reading;
1: Tiger Global: How to Win
The VC space is crazy right now. Global VC deal value may hit $500-600 billion this year. Adding to this pile of cash is all the money from the recent spike in IPOs which have mostly been exits for VCs.
What’s different about this venture capital environment is the rush of non-traditional VCs like hedge funds, crossover funds, pensions, private equity firms, etc. These firms never directly invested in venture. Unlike traditional venture firms, these new venture investors haven’t worried too much about valuations. They’re also investing at a rapid pace, days and even hours in some cases. No firm embodies this frenzied dealmaking environment than Tiger global. It’s like Tiger read a rulebook of all traditional VCs and decided to do the exact opposite.
Amidst the frenzy of new dealmaking and finding and finding the next unicorn, one firm stands out which has taken the space by storm by its pace of dealmaking and distinctive approach. Tiger has created over 18 new unicorns in India alone this year. It’s hardly even taking a day to decide on investments and has been investing at a tremendous pace.
Not a day goes by where some new Tiger backed startup becomes an Unicorn. This year alone it has participated in over 300 deals
This Generalist piece breakdowns Tiger’s method to madness brilliantly.
While we’ve heard more is not always better. For Tiger Global, the opposite seems to be the case.
2: Owning the best stocks is hard
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, we all look at historical charts of top-performing stocks and go if I would’ve bought A stock at B price, I would have made Y returns. This bit is easy to do, but what isn’t is picking the right stock. Even if you pick the right stock, it’s very tough to hold on to it when the stock sees big drawdowns and you don’t know if the stock will bounce back.
It doesn’t matter what the stock is quality or junk, every stock will go through these big drawdown periods. This is what makes picking these winners so difficult. It’s a constant tug of war between expectations and possibilities.
Drawdowns are always far easier to deal with in the past than in the present. You know the length and duration of past losses. When stocks are down in the present you never know how bad the losses will get or if/when they will come back from those losses.
Stock market is constantly switching back and forth between making people feel like a genius or an idiot depending on its mood.
Growth stocks do the same thing but even more often.
Picking the winners is hard. Holding onto them might be even harder.
3: How Four NFT Novices Created a Billion-Dollar Ecosystem of Cartoon Apes
NFTs have been talk of the town in 2021. Whether you are an NFT enthusiast or just a casual observer, this is a piece worth reading on the Bored Ape Yacht Club. They became internet rock stars by making NFTs of grungy simians that aren’t just viral images, they’re tickets to a whole new lifestyle.
Related read:
This thread explains NFT’s in detail:
4: Well behaved bubbles often make history
When prices are zooming up and people are getting rich, critiquing a bubble can turn into a kind of weaponized FOMO: the easiest way to tolerate other people getting rich is to assume that it’s because they’re getting temporarily rewarded for stupidity. On the way down, bubbles generate even more commentary; the pessimists were vindicated, and many of the participants have spare time to tell their side of the story. It’s not a coincidence that some of the most detailed business books are about failures rather than successes.
But even though the term “bubble” is usually pejorative, the right kind of bubble, at the right time, can exert a powerful positive effect on the world. A bubble is an objectively irrational shared belief in a better potential future … but that doesn’t just describe someone bidding up asset prices; it also describes anyone who chooses to build that kind of future.
Listen to;