Evolveus

I tried to look up this testimony as well but no luck. From the excerpt in the book it seemed like it might have some interesting insights into Munger’s approach to initial biz evaluation.

I used "pass perfect" years ago. Their method really worked with my learning style. Topics were broken down in the chapters, then each chapter had sections. Then there were quizzes on all the topics, and you could not move forward until you had a passing grade on each section quiz. It basically forced me to thoroughly learn each section before I could advance to more material. Hold my feet to the fire in that regard was helpful to me. Best of luck whatever you choose! Evolveus THE Podcast Editors

River Road Asset Management flips back to 13D status: http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/830122/000090901216000510/t307946.txt

Stanley Druckenmiller at Sohn 2016 transcript & deck The_End_Game_Charts.pdf The_Endgame_Sohn.pdf

6.5x EV/EBIT, 10.5x NTM Cashflow, 0 debt, ROE 19.6% 11.3% net margin, 13.9 PE NTM (numbers from Factset) Does the company (or product) deliver a better quality of care than other providers? I have not personally compared FITBIT side by side versus other smart watches or health wearables. What I can say is that fitbit has 85% of market share (according to CEO) and very recognizable brand. FIT focuses on the lower end of the market from a price point perspective making it more accessible to the masses as opposed to Apple Watch. Apple watch can do so many things and is not immediately synonymous with 'health and fitness' unlike the targeted niche fitbit brand. Does the company (or product) provide a net savings to the health care system? The above question is something that Fitbit is striving for. Many of their corporate clients use Fitbit as a way of incentivizing exercise among their employees. The health benefits of exercise is not debatable, and healthier employees mean lower health care costs for employers and insurers. So yes, in that regard, Fitbit can potentially provide a net savings to the system. The current devices are relatively simple when compared to other more feature rich smart watches. As new competition enters, margins and ROE could regress a bit. However, the potential addressable market should continue grow nicely. Right now int'l revs are a tiny piece of revenue, but the yoy numbers are nice in that space. On the CC, FIT said they are making a concerted effort to expand in Euro and China. On the call they also mentioned that their latest releases have done very well even while being released mid-to-late in the quarter, so a full Q of new product revs is not showing up yet. One of my favorite elements of the fitbit story is the data that they collect. This simple data is loaded into their interface and arranged in a useable and actionable way for fitbit users. If one were to work hard for 6 months pumping data into the fitbit database and then suddenly lose their fitbit, what incentive would there be to go by a different brand device and have to start re-building your personal data set from scratch. I think that self generated data ecosystem will spur many repeat users and upgraders moving forward. I think there is a reasonable case for network effects here based on the personal data that people accumulate thru the device and the related GUIs (mobile & desktop) Anecdotal: For example I heard the BBerg news host say "I went for a jog this morning, but I forgot my Fitbit, so it's like it doesn't count."

On the conference call, management made the case that they made a long term strategic decision to retain some loans instead of securitizing because they weren't seeing the pricing they liked in the securitized space. Over the life of the retained loan, they would make more than selling it for a one time pop. The expenses and reserve provisions for retaining those loans are booked now while income from them will be booked over the life of the loan. It's pretty obvious that that hurts near term numbers. As markets got volatile in Feb/March of this year, pricing in the capital markets tightened. OnDeck wasn’t willing to sell their loans at the reduced pricing, and so instead decided to hold more of their loans on balance sheet. Management touted this as a benefit of their hybrid funding model, where they can go to marketplace, or retain, or both depending on conditions. So choosing to sell less loans immediately causes a big change in 2016 GAAP performance, even though it does not decrease OnDeck’s economics. The CEO also emphasized that they are more concerned with loan quality and long term positioning rather than being anchored to hitting near term guidance at all costs. To me, it seemed that folks were associating bringing loans on to their books as akin to Lehman and BS having to that when the markets were locking up on them before the crisis. I can't pretend to know if management was being honest and truly viewing this development as a good thing, or are they spinning it to try and stop the bleeding. I do think the partnership with Chase must be a big vote of confidence for them as well as the recent $250m securitization they recently closed at a blended 4.8% disclosure: long / tracking position

+1 Looking forward to reading the 2015 annual if it surfaces.

Cool - I'd be leaning toward Green Street...looks like a pretty good happy hour cocktail menu. But if someone is adamant about El Cholo, I'm game for that too.

Hi Picasso, For Green Street, are you referring to 'Green Street Tavern' at 69 Green Street, or 'Green Street Restaurant' at 146 Shoppers Lane? I was looking for Green Street Café specifically, but could not find it in Yelp or Google. Possible operator error over here...

What irks me about his is when there's a bad year letters are impossible to obtain, but when he does well they're blasted everywhere. Why not just be honest? No one expects people to be perfect. I don't like when guys try to hide bad performance. +1

That should work as long as its sometime around/after 5pm. I work in long beach and typically leave the office around 3:30 or 4pm. You thinking Old Town area?

What about Kevin Byun at Denali Investors. Seemed to be doing really well in the spin-off space, but it seems like the website hasn't been updated in quite a long time.

I live in South Pasadena and would be interested in joining.

Here is the link to the transcript from the recent conference call: http://www.fairholmefundsinc.com/Documents/Call2016.pdf

Baupost ups stake in LNG http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1061768/000114036116047276/0001140361-16-047276-index.htm