Coburn Ventures Podcast

Hi everyone. Today we're continuing on the topic of uncommon processes to yield uncommon results. And we're continuing with the specific topic of developing and advancing unlocking questions for management. Today we have Bob Gilbreth with us. And among other things, Bob has invested in, built and sold many businesses and has a long career in marketing, including working on some really fun and iconic brands at P &G. We're so happy to have his perspective on unlocking questions for management through the lens of identifying great builders of business. Let's jump in.

We're continuing on the topic of uncommon processes to yield uncommon results, and we are doing that through the topic of developing and advancing unlocking questions. Today we're happy to have Rob Rose with us. Among other things, Rob works with CEOs and CMOs as a strategic marketing consultant, so we'll be exploring his perspective on unlocking questions for management (and he has many gems!) through this lens of marketing. Let's jump in.

Hi everyone. Today we're going to continue on the topic of uncommon processes to yield uncommon results. We are here with Dr. Morris Pickens this morning to pinpoint one high impact routine that we often overlook: how we wake up in the morning. Let's jump in.

In the last podcast, we discussed sell disciplines. Today, we're continuing on that thread, but amping it up a little: we're discussing sell disciplines in the context of periods of crisis. We'll break down about six portions of a sell discipline so that these might inspire a modularized, customized, just right for you sell discipline for your specific philosophy and process. Let's jump in.

Today we're discussing the less popular twin to buying or taking a position: selling that position! When and why do we sell? Are we as disciplined with selling as much as we are with buying or taking a position? How might these disciplines be related or very, very different for us? Well, let's jump in.

We've been talking about clean time as one of the most powerful, uncommon tools we have in our investor toolkit. To help us actually achieve more clean time, today we have Irwin Kula on, who's going to help us unearth some of the very human barriers that keep us from guarding, using, and benefiting from clean time. Let's jump in.

As investors and business leaders, if we can't take in bad news and adjust, we might make ourselves vulnerable to even higher error rates and risk damage to performance. Investing is already a high failure rate activity-- what can we do about this? Today, we present implications and follow up with practical ideas for turning these threats on their head, embracing and practicing swift, clear feedback loops in our process. Let's jump in.

At Coburn Ventures we love the work required to develop and then ask advancing and unlocking questions, whether to interrogate an investment thesis, to develop a research path around burning questions, or very importantly, to guide time with management. Today, we're happy to have Lisa Baird with us. Among other things, Lisa spent a large portion of her career in constant communication with management teams, Boards, and candidates for executive positions as an executive recruiter and coach. We're so happy to have her perspective on unlocking questions for management. Let's jump in.

Last week, we spoke about finding uncommon arbitrage in common sense aspects of investment process. Today, we'll walk through practical ideas to implement and even personalize these aspects, taking common practices and making them your own. Let's jump in.

Today, we're discussing making the common uncommon in philosophy and practices, understanding that these common investment practices that we can turn into uncommon arbitrages maybe right under our nose... if we could only see them. Let's jump in.

Last week, Pip told the story of his stock disaster with AT &T. Today we go back again in tech history to a newly minted tech analyst in 1995 named Pip Coburn and his experience with Digital Equipment Corp.

Pip will say that the highlight of this episode is that he started to become more mentorable after this experience. Remember, he was very, very new and this was one of his first tech companies he was covering.

We also note that his firm didn't lose much money and that the experience getting close to DEC helped unveil how quickly one of the most comprehensive, lucrative, soup to nuts technology shifts was happening: the shift to networking. So, in my mind, this is a stock disaster with a number of silver linings, including that Pip wouldn't have been as convicted about the shift in networking without this experience.

With that, I give you our silver lining stock disaster, and hope that in this sixth in this series, you see why we think they're so valuable for our learning. Let's jump in.

We're back with another installment of "Stock Disasters!", our series in which we take learning from our mistakes at its word in the hopes that you all benefit and avoid these missteps in the future. Let's jump in.

What does it mean to be productive or efficient? And how does our conception of these ideas sneak into how effectively we solve problems and ask the right questions at the right times to advance work on an investment thesis? Today we bring Irwin Kula into our conversation on anti-efficiency. Let's jump in.

Today we're introducing a new insight that will flush out with a few guests over the next few weeks. To warm us up, I'm simply going to introduce it in the form of a question: If given the knowledge of what efficiency means and how it plays out in idea generation and the work of investors and leaders, would we ever strive to be anti-efficient? To be "anti" one of the attributes that we believe is crucial to getting things done? C'mon now! What on earth are we talking about? Well, let's jump in!

Today we're talking about collaboration -- one of those at times tricky concepts that I think we all want to do well, yet if asked, probably could not define what it is, why we want to do it, and how we believe it's best to go about it.

It's one of the most misunderstood words that we face in conversations with investors, but it's also one of the most underestimated tools. So, it creates a lot of confusion, especially among teams. We start this conversation by jumping into the confusing and misunderstanding part (just to get our grounding!) and by the end of the conversation, we'll offer some concrete tactics to increase the odds we "do" collaboration a little bit better. Let's jump in.

When it comes to goal setting, it's easy to create a structure or plan ... that is unfortunately going to fall by the wayside. Today, we map over Dr. Morris Pickens framework specifically for investors aiming to significantly increase the chances that the goals we're all working toward-- these extremely valid important goals that make a difference to our clients-- get to fruition. Let's jump in.

When it comes to navigating rogue waves, it sure does help to have some grounding in macro. We are fortunate today that Mike Cahill agreed to come on and talk about the top four macro topics that he has been circling as we begin 2025. Let's jump in.

Last week, we discussed the benefit of acknowledging whether we're in a kind learning environment or a wicked learning environment. For both parenting and investing, today we bring in our guest, behavioral scientist Matt Walleart, to further flesh out application of this model. Let's jump in.

Today's conversation is another attempt to further increase the awareness around what we do as investors and, more importantly, what we can do to continually refine our craft. So today we introduce a model given to us by a friend.... and don't be surprised, we'll apply it to both investing and relationships and parenting. Let's jump in.

We love to say that as leaders and investors we look to identify massive innovations, and then invest accordingly... but where does that type of advancement come from? What can we do to identify it better or earlier on?

One very key source? It comes from entrepreneurs and leaders who solve a paradox. Today we will discuss the mandorla, a visual framework for this exact situation of solving a paradox-- the ability to harness the tension between seemingly conflicting ideas to drive innovation and growth. Let's jump in.

Pull out a notepad and pen, this is an action-oriented conversation just in time for year end. Please enjoy our conversation with Dr. Morris Pickens on his framework for setting goals and achieving results.

Today we're pulling up a conversation we had on engineering uncommon inputs via questions and questions for management. This conversation is all about designing and actively engineering uncommon inputs through question asking, breaking out of what can be a rote, habituated, normalized, but professional going through the motions. Instead, let's focus in on generating uncommon understanding that is going to then move into the portfolio and impact clients. Let's jump in.

Hi everyone and welcome back. Today we're going below the surface on our topic of clean time to fill in why we think this particular methodology has risen to the top as a resonant and deeply effective tool right now. We call it noise cancellation. Let's jump in.

The third annual celebration of gratitude, friends, and thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Today we are working on the theme of identifying change, and to do that we're returning to the subject of complex systems. It turns out, understanding the system we are in is pretty crucial to whether or not our actions will have any significance at all. In addition, a misunderstanding of the complex system, whether regulatory dynamics, or power structures, can throw off our assumptions on the pace of change in an industry. Our own study of complex systems includes a multi-disciplinary approach: we love to learn from others outside the typical investor mindset, and we especially love to learn from people and organizations that have success at solving insanely hard problems. So, we are inviting you right into a conversation we had with our friend Richard Uniacke, the Executive Director at Bridges Outreach, a non-profit that serves those experiencing homelessness or on the brink of homelessness in Newark, New Jersey and surrounding areas. Bridges has had tremendous success, and in large part because leadership fully realized it didn't exist in a vacuum, but had to work to understand the extremely complex system they operated in. Whether you are listening as a leader wondering how you can better unlock change, or as an investor always wanting to understand the pace of change, this conversation is for you. Let's jump in.

One concept we espouse here at Coburn Ventures is that our processes are the controllable actions that help us yield better and better results. Importantly, if we as investors want uncommon results, then we sometimes have to work backwards. We do well to start at the beginning and take a look at whether or not we have uncommon investment processes or an uncommon investment philosophy at all! Today we'll discuss a favorite uncommon process, and you might be the rare person who decides to explore it. It's called clean time. Like many insightful processes or inputs, it arose out of some healthy tension. Let's jump in.

In the last few decades, we've experienced multiple meaningful technological shifts: the internet, cloud computing, mobility, AI. Every time we're faced with one of these new and vast shifts, I find it useful to come back to one of our core 100-year changes, data. So today we're discussing data-driven cultures to help us navigate how management teams are positioned when it comes to AI or any other technological shift. We include a few questions for management to guide us on our way. Let's jump in.

Today, we have a fascinating capstone conversation in these series on investment decision making biases. In the last few weeks we have worked to provide different lenses through which we can "escape" decision making prisons, so today we will shine a light on something equally powerful at play: our emotions. Not just the simple upside/downside happy/sad spectrum we're all familiar with in business, but the complex web of emotional pairs that do silently guide our decision-making process. Today let's dive deep with Irwin, who breaks down four critical emotional dualities that can either imprison or empower our choices. We'll cover the delicate balance between pride and guilt, to the constant push-pull between excitement and fear (and especially, in business, adrenaline-fueled decision making)- we'll explore how these emotional pairs shape everything from investment decisions to organizational leadership. Let's jump in.

Today is our third podcast on the topic of decision-making prisons. For today, we are bringing up part of a podcast we did in 2020 with Rudy Karsen. Now, in the other two conversations in the past few weeks, we covered some of the organizational or the team elements or considerations that lead to decision-making prisons. In today's conversation, you'll hear more about how this applies at the individual level, and what we can do to consider our "gut" in decision making. Let's jump in.

Over the years many of our clients have transitioned from analyst to Portfolio Manager or consider working toward that goal. This entire podcast is dedicated to that transition: today we bring you a few of the "greatest hits" that come up that we hope might help you on that journey. Let's jump in.

Last week, we discussed Decision Making Prisons with Dr. Morris Pickens, and today, we continue the discussion with Greg Parsons. Greg has held many positions inside corporations as Creative Director, CMO and as a Design and Strategy consultant at Stone Yamashita Partners. This background has given him a view into many stages of the creative and strategic process inside corporations. Greg will discuss common prisons he has seen teams get into and importantly, offers us some key questions to help us work our way out. Let's jump in.

One of the more under-the-surface questions we get from clients is: Can we help them understand why their decision-making processes do not exactly seem to be serving them and their team? They know they can do better but can't quite identify what's in the way. Today we have Dr. Morris Pickens to discuss what he calls decision making prisons, and how to get out of them. Let's jump in.

What's one way to become the world's greatest investor? Break investing down into its component parts, understand very specifically our roles and responsibilities, and then puruse the elements to great really, really good at. Today we bring you our working definition of the component parts of investing: the four jobs of stock picking. For the 200th (!) time, let's jump in!

Today, we are talking problem solving for investment teams by way of a conversation with our friend Matthias Hollwich, architect and founder at HWKN. We'll start with highlights from one of our most recommended books: Roger Martin's The Opposable Mind, and then Matthias will offer practical exercises that can put any of us on a more expanded path toward the problem-solving investors are looking for: seeing the uncommon investable insights amidst the noise. Let's jump in.

Why are we talking about turnarounds today? We have been examining some periods in which money is made or lost very, very quickly and therefore we are sharpening our tools to more accurately, helpfully gauge where companies and then stocks may go. Turnarounds certainly fit this bill: they are typically very high degree of difficulty, the timing of the investment is important, and the hero's journey they present is so tempting. We are fortunate to have our friend Dan Papes with us today to tell us more about decisions he made to help steer a massive turnaround at Digital Realty. Let's jump in.

We have been having conversations about "stock disasters" over the last few months, so now let's balance the scales a bit by discussing some of the elements that can lead to stock successes. As usual, we're going to start below the ground level, at that point when you're first asking yourself that very important question: "I think I'm onto something here, but could the market really be so wrong?". Let's jump in.

Last week we discussed forming and building up great investment teams. Today we're discussing a few tactics and strategies that we have seen activate and advance those teams and their investment work really powerfully, and that's in the design of investment meetings. Let’s jump in.

What can we do to build great investment teams? Today, we walk through six questions that we ask ourselves and work on with others when aiming to build a team from scratch or more likely, make enhancements as we go. There's something in here for everyone, and this conversation may be one of the most "worth it" we've explored: a great team is so much more than the sum of its parts by far-- it brings people alive, and produces uncommon value, and that's the kind of leverage we really like. Let’s jump in.

Investing is a practice of constant adaptation… adaptation to changes in our world, society, the economy, the market, and our own industry. Today we are looking closer at just how the game has changed in the last decade or so, and some potential pathways for constructive, ongoing adaptation. Let’s jump in.

Today we’re returning with one of our favorite topics, and one of yours based on feedback, and that is: mentoring the next great investment analysts. We get to do this with Steve Salopek, our great friend who retired from a successful investing career and now has become a tenured professor at The Ohio State University in business and investing. Our twist today is that Steve is reflecting on some potential key lessons he’d like to incorporate in his teaching, and those inputs actually came from many of you, especially if you were at Sundance this year, so let’s see how Steve heard our thoughts…. Let’s jump in.

Today we’re back with a fourth stock disaster. We will sprinkle these in sporadically throughout the year for you in the hopes you can learn from our mistakes and our responses to those mistakes. Interestingly enough, we all might acknowledge that stock disasters are not commonly shared internally even though we are in an industry with a high failure rate: we are not engineers building bridges who need the failure rate approaching zero, we are more like baseball players at bat: 1 in 3 will get the job done and be considered high performing! Beating the market can be done while also striking out repeatedly! Perhaps ignoring the strike outs just isn't a complete way to look at the work we do! In that vein, lets jump into today's beast offered up by Pip: General Instruments. 

Today is our second episode on the topic of building brand loyalty. As investors, we care about brand loyalty because we care very much about visibility of revenue and any optionality that a great brand can bring to the business. But it can be squishy, trying to fully understand the core strength of a brand and how well its being stewarded by the management team and Board from the outside. Darren Herman is with us today, and he has the catbird seat, with a background in marketing, brand development and entrepreneurship of all sorts that he brings to his role now as an operating partner for a private equity firm. Let’s jump in.

Today we are doing something fun: we're bringing forward a model we developed in 2011 to illustrate the different elements of building brand loyalty, and where companies can fit along the spectrum. This week and next, we are joined by special guests who live and breathe brand development, who will offer their perspective on building brand loyalty in today's world with today's tools. We are happy to be joined by Veta Bates today, so let's jump in.

Our first conversation on market psychology addressed the weak spots of our valuation tools head on. But today, we’ll explore how much of the market is a vast open space of tracking error and mystery, that if we could understand it just one percentage point more, we might unlock a whole lot more conviction. Irwin brings three ideas for handling these phenomena just a little bit more practically. Let’s jump in.

In beginning our discussion on market psychology, we must first address the valuation methods that underpin it. In the second half of the conversation, we highlight practices that have helped us break through some of the limitations of valuation. Let’s jump in.

For investors, we usually circle around decision-making as one of our potential “athletic moments”, in Dr. Morris Pickens vernacular: it's what we have to do well consistently and excellently over time to get into the so-called Hall of Fame for our respective professions. In our day-to-day work life, what is it that leads up to those decisions? Its business analysis, yes....and, it's also communication. Today, we are asking Mo a lot about how communication comes into being as an athletic moment for his work so that we can learn and apply some of these lessons to ours. Let's jump in.

We seem to be in a time in which the pressure is on. In high pressure times, "practical" solutions that no one can argue with often rise to the top. This is useful to an extent, but it can also result in becoming tight, and small, and this is out of step with our job descriptions, which presume some ability to generate uncommon investable insights.

Today we’re pulling up a piece from our library with Dr. Morris Pickens, who describes determining what your “athletic moment” may be, in order to build a routine that is consistent and supportive, in any and all environments. Let’s jump in.

In the past two weeks, I think we’ve made some great progress here on a concept that seems immovable: time. With Irwin, we spoke not of time management but understanding ourselves IN time. With Rudy, we began to see time as variable, not fixed.

Given that these are deep-rooted understandings and experiences of time AND given that our ultimate goal here is to bridge these neat insights to the investors' day to day effectiveness, we’ve invited Matt Wallaert, a behavioral scientist, to help us move into some ways of being that just might work better for us. Let’s jump in.

In our recent conversation with Rudy, I think we arrived on at least five important reframings of how we conceptualize time and therefore what we are really talking about when we want to handle “time management”. The topics range from the abstract exploration of the nature of time itself, to deploying higher quality questions and developing an allergy to low impact conversations and relationships. There are no life hacks here, and testing these ideas will take self-knowledge and observation. Let’s jump in.