by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts · English · Business
This 'podclass' is a series of discussions with the world's best investors, company builders, academics, athletes, artists and human beings devoted to exploring the joys of compounding in all its forms.
Our teacher today is Luca Ferrari, co-founder and CEO of Bending Spoons. Luca spent more than a decade quietly building Bending Spoons in Italy into one of the best operators and acquirers of software businesses in the world, and we talk about why going slow early helped, how they hire people who act like owners, why they would happily buy shrinking companies at high returns, how AI lets small teams run big businesses, and what drives him to keep building. Please enjoy class with Luca Ferrari. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page…
Our teachers today are Frank Cogliano, Brendan McConville, and Patrick Griffin, three of the world's leading historians of the American Revolution and contributors to The American Revolution at 250, a new collection of essays Frank edited for UVA Press. Frank, Brendan, and Patrick compare the bicentennial they watched as kids in 1976 with the mood of 2026 and explain why almost nobody saw independence coming in 1774. They make the case that the Revolution succeeded because it paired Enlightenment optimism with a hard-eyed view of human nature, never promising a perfect republic, and they…
Our teacher today is A.J. Rohde, senior partner at Thoma Bravo, one of the largest software-focused private equity funds in the world. A.J. shares stories and lessons learned from his time investing in private equity - including why Thoma Bravo hires tennis players like him, and how playing in a band when he was younger helps make deals happen today. He talks through the fundamental disconnect between software company fundamentals and valuations in the market, and why he expects investors to reallocate toward SaaS when the AI trade cools off. Plus, why Thoma Bravo hires tennis players.…
Our teacher today is Nilam Ganenthiran, founder and CEO of Beacon, a centrally managed technology holding company that acquires the vertical software businesses serving the real economy. Nilam shares the immigrant story that shaped him and why trust becomes the scarce resource as AI turns competence into a commodity. He revisits the hard lessons of his eight years building Instacart, from leading in wartime to the morning Amazon bought Whole Foods. And he lays out the thesis behind Beacon, the bet that distribution and trust hold their value even as the cost of building technology falls, and…
Our teachers today are Annalise Dragic and Zoe Zhao, co-founders of Azlin Software, a next-generation serial acquirer of B2B vertical software companies focused on the providers of essential services and care for families. Annalise and Zoe share how their friendship evolved into a co-founding partnership, the 150 conversations with founders and investors that shaped Azlin from a blank page, and the four values they distilled into the acronym CARE. They explain why they chose family services as their first vertical, what culture-led and technology-led growth look like inside a company of…
Our teacher today is Justin Yoshimura, founder and CEO of CSC Generation, a profitable commerce platform doing over a billion dollars in annual revenue across brands including Sur La Table, Backcountry, and One Kings Lane. As we explore what it takes to build an enduring company in a sector most investors have written off, we turn to Justin's unconventional path, one that challenges familiar assumptions about credentials, capital structure, and the future of retail. Justin shares how he stopped attending school around the age of sixteen and built his own curriculum through entrepreneurship,…
Our teacher today is Brent Beshore, founder and CEO of Permanent Equity, a firm that backs family-owned businesses across North America with no intention of ever selling. As we explore what it means to build enduring companies and live a meaningful life, we turn to Brent’s unconventional path – one that challenges the core assumptions of modern private equity and the incentives that shape it. Brent shares how his background in liberal arts and early experiences with success led him to question the traditional models of achievement, wealth, and performance. He describes why he rejected the…
Our teacher today is Julian Flannery, co-founder and CEO of Summus, a company democratizing access to the world's leading doctors to drive better health outcomes and cost savings for employers and health plans. As we explore the future of human health, we turn to specialty care, where U.S. healthcare's spiraling costs, inadequate speed, and care disparities are most acute. Yet our system's greatest strength remains the expertise of our leading doctors—a national treasure that Summus was designed to connect with patients through an ecosystem of over 5,000 of the world's best physicians. This…
Our teacher today is Matteo Franceschetti, co-founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, whose Pod technology ranks among the top five products that have meaningfully improved my quality of life. This conversation launches our series on founders and investors revolutionizing human health, covering everything from diagnostics to longevity science to biotechnology. Matteo's story is fascinating—he's an unlikely health tech founder who grew up in Italy pursuing law with little scientific or medical background, yet he's combined the discipline of an elite multi-sport athlete with the resilience of a serial…
Our teacher today is Jan Mohr, CEO of Chapters Group, a publicly traded serial acquisition holding company with ambitions of becoming one of Europe's technology champions. Chapters' origins date back to a small software startup founded near Frankfurt in 1998. Twenty years later, the core business was sold to a strategic buyer, consolidating the market with the proceeds of the sale in 2018. With Jan's influence, the company embarked on a new chapter, pivoting to build the preferred home for mission-critical businesses across the old continent. Over the last five years, they have been on an…
Today's teacher is David Senra. David is an absolute force of nature who is taking the world by storm with his podcast "Founders." In class today, we enjoy access to the full spectrum of learnings from his decade-long study of history's greatest entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and leaders. The library David built reflects a range of study that is boundless. From Alexander the Great to Catherine Graham to Alexander Graham Bell, from Warren to Jimmy Buffett, and from J. Gould all the way to Jay Z. He helps us gain an understanding of why virtually all of the greats in history devote…
Our teacher today is Steve Mandel, founder of Lone Pine Capital, one of the defining investment firms of our time. For starters, Steve is, without question, among the most important leaders in the investment management industry. Consider that Seth Klarman once called him, “the best industry analyst I've ever met, who became the best long short hedge fund manager of his generation.” In our opinion, the magic of Lone Pine resides in the principles that form its foundation and the people that animate its culture. But to understand the organization, you really need to first understand its master…
We've got just the class to help you get back into that learning machine mode. We're stoked to be joined by our good friend Chris Begg, founder of East Coast Asset Management and adjunct Associate Professor at the Helibrunn Center for Graham and Dodd investing at Columbia Business School. He teaches security analysis, perhaps the most legendary investing course in higher education. In today's class, we offer some historical context on the legacy of the adjunct investing professor, addressing why the practitioner teacher has played such a formative role for so many of the world's greatest…
Our teacher today is Will Thorndike, co-founder of Compounding Labs and author of the acclaimed book, “The Outsiders.” In our opinion, Will has emerged as one of the most influential and innovative investor minds of the past few decades. And if you care about long-term value creation and the art of capital allocation, chances are you've also benefited from some of his ideas. In 1994, he founded Housatonic Partners, a pioneering private equity firm known for its unusually long holding periods and its leadership in the search fund space alongside his mentor and Stanford professor Irv…
Our teacher today is Katie Koch. Katie is the President and CEO of the TCW Group, a storied firm with over 200 billion in assets under management and a fascinating 50-year legacy as a pioneer in the investment industry. Katie just took the TCW reins in 2023 after more than 20 years at Goldman Sachs. She joined Goldman right after college as the self-proclaimed least capable person in the firm and rose to become chief investment officer of their 300-billion-dollar public equity business. Please enjoy our class with the wonderful force multiplier, Katie Koch. For the full show notes,…
Our teacher today is Sebastian Mejia. He combines intellectual range with emotional depth and is the co-founder of Rappi, the on-demand delivery platform that has become one of Latin America's most influential tech companies. In this episode, we discuss resilience, identity, intuition, and building companies with a sense of urgency and wonder. We will go from Sebastian’s immigrant hustle in New York to billion-user ambitions in India, from early-stage chaos to the challenge of scaling a tech company across hundreds of Latin American cities. Now, Sebastian is entering a new chapter, one that…
Our teacher today is Chad Cascarilla, co founder and CEO of Paxos, the leading regulated blockchain infrastructure company that is reimagining a complete technological replatforming of our global financial markets. Paxos aims to democratize finance by enabling instant global asset movement, partnering with industry leaders like PayPal, Stripe, MasterCard, and others. For those confused by crypto speculation, Chad offers a grounded perspective on blockchain's potential to solve fundamental financial system problems—informed by his experience as an early Bitcoin adopter who started buying at…
Today’s teacher is Jacqueline Morby. She may well be the greatest investor you've probably never heard of. For anyone who invests in software or participates in the now nearly trillion dollar global growth equity industry, chances are Jackie helped to shape and give rise to the professional world you inhabit. In 1978 at the age of 40, and with her only professional experience to date being a few years of substitute teaching, Jackie joined TA Associates, the largest venture capital firm in the world at that time. Within just a few years, she would revolutionize her industry, effectively…
This is Rick. Today's teacher is Rich Wells, managing director of Insight Partners, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this month. I've known Rich for 20 years since our time as section mates in business school, where he was consistently recognized as the smartest person in the room. Rich is universally regarded as one of the preeminent private market software investors of the last 20 years, helping drive Insight's success through agility and excellence. While achieving the highest heights in his career, Rich has also faced profound personal challenges, including the tragic loss of his…
Before we turn the page on 2024, we wanted to shine one more light on the man behind our most popular class of the last year. And that's Mitch Rales, co-founder of Danaher, one of the most impressive businesses to have been built anywhere in the world this past century. Having co-founded Danaher 40 years ago alongside his brother and best friend Steve, the Rales boys have strung together a track record of compounding that might even make Buffett blush. Consider that Danaher has annualized at over 21% for four decades, resulting in an 1800-times multiple on invested capital! You’ll learn from…
In honor of Notre Dame clinching a playoff spot, we're replaying our conversation from earlier this year with head coach Marcus Freeman. We discuss the power of relationships and how he talks with his players about the concepts of hard work & love. Marcus delves into what it takes to focus on inputs rather than outputs, especially as the college sports world is changing in unprecedented ways. And for you football fans out there, we even get into a little bit of what's ahead for Notre Dame’s program in Marcus’s third year as head coach. As alums and lifelong fans of the Irish, it was a real…
Today’s teacher is renowned historian Patrick Griffin. Patrick is the former chair of the Department of History at the University of Notre Dame. In 2021, he was named the Harold Vivian Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford, perhaps the highest honor an American historian can receive. He joined us to explore “The Lessons of History” by Will and Ariel Durant, a book that has been repeatedly recommended to us over the years by some of the world's most compelling investors, leaders, thinkers, and builders. To quote the late great Charlie Munger, who was…
Today's teacher is Rich Wong, general partner at renowned venture firm Accel. Rich is a very special investor and leader, and he spent many years as an operator prior to his time in VC. What was going to be a short stint as a venture operating partner nearly 20 years ago turned into a defining pivot for Rich. He not only quickly reached the top of the venture profession but also became the go-to investor for many luminary companies, such as Atlassian, UiPath, AdMob, Checkr, Rovio, Service Channel, and many many more. His range of interests spans beyond venture, and he's very involved in many…
Today's teacher is Ravi Gupta, a partner at renowned venture firm Sequoia Capital. Ravi has had a fascinating and meandering career on his way to becoming a VC, from consulting at McKinsey to private equity at KKR to operations at Instacart as both CFO and COO. All along the way, Ravi was gathering and cultivating a unique set of skills that's equipped him to now identify and support some of the most daring founders striving to build legendary companies. Ravi's life and career are teeming with trials, successes, and applicable lessons for all of us. He's such a thoughtful and deep thinker,…
We are back with a summer special and to celebrate, we have a cast of teachers joining us. In this episode, you’ll hear from the Mount Rushmore of business podcasters–Patrick O’Shaughnessy, David Senra, and Acquired’s David and Ben–as well as two of our favorite entrepreneurs. We’ll also reflect on what we’ve learned from our guests, from hosting the show, and discuss what’s next for this podclass of ours. Wherever you’re spending the summer, we hope you enjoy this episode! For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- Art of…
Today we are replaying our classroom session with Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, founders of Acquired, the podcasting sensation telling the stories and strategies of the world's great companies. In this episode, we turn the tables on Ben and David in order to discover their own stories and the fairy dust behind acquired success. We'll cover the history of the formation of one of the most successful podcasts in the world, why having a co-founder & friend is vital to building an enduring company throughout the highs and lows, and their most valuable lessons learned from dissecting the…
Today, we are replaying our conversation with Ho Nam, co-founder of Altos Ventures. As the numbers go, Altos is one of the greatest venture capital firms of the last quarter century. We unpack Ho's origin story and the values that shaped him most as a person and investor, and then we then turn to Altos itself. Altos has emerged as one of the most elite venture investors by breaking traditional VC rules, by backing hedgehogs rather than foxes, by focusing relentlessly on capital efficiency, by investing at all stages of a company, and by displaying an unusual dose of kindness and patience…
Today, we are revisiting our class with David Senra in honor of our upcoming event together. David is an absolute force of nature who is taking the world by storm with his podcast "Founders." In this class, we enjoy access to the full spectrum of learnings from his decade-long study of history's greatest entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, and leaders. The library David's built reflects a range of study that is completely boundless. From Alexander the Great, to Catherine Graham, to Alexander Graham Bell, from Warren to Jimmy Buffet, and from J. Gold all the way to Jay Z. He helps us gain an…
Today’s teacher is Marcus Freeman, Head Football Coach at the University of Notre Dame. We discuss the power of relationships and how he talks with his players about the concepts of hard work and love, and we delve into what it takes to focus on inputs rather than outputs, especially as the college sports world is changing in unprecedented ways. For you football fans out there, we even get into a little bit of what's ahead for Notre Dame’s program in Marcus’s third year as head coach. As alums and lifelong fans of the Irish, it was a real treat to host Coach Freeman at our studios. Please…
Today’s teacher is Mitch Rales, one of the most iconic business builders and philanthropists of our time. Consider that Danaher has annualized at over 21% for four decades, resulting in an 1800-times multiple on invested capital! You’ll learn from Mitch about the key inputs to his outlier success: why greatness is a journey that takes an unusual time horizon, the role benchmarking plays in standing up any winning organization, why it is essential to cultivate learning agility and embrace transformational pivots over time, and also the qualities Mitch looks for both in the leaders and…
About Joys of Compounding
This 'podclass' is a series of discussions with the world's best investors, company builders, academics, athletes, artists and human beings devoted to exploring the joys of compounding in all its forms.
Joys of Compounding is a English business podcast from Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.
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