|#530 MWAVC| — Lessons from Great Businesses.
Hi,
Welcome to MWAVC, a newsletter about finance, investing, venture capital and all that jazz. My name is Ato (more about me here and here) and I try to write every single day. Most of it is stuff I find interesting that I’d like to share and hear your thoughts on. If you’d like to sign up, you can do so here. Or just read on.
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Just got around to reading this 10 Lessons from Great Businesses by Mario of The Generalist, and as usual, Tiger’s came up as my favourite out of all of them. They're grrreat! (Let me know if you caught the slight plug. There’s a prize for whoever gets it.)
Intensify your advantages (Tiger)
Great businesses often don’t try to do everything. Rather than splitting their energies, they focus on how they can intensify their most pronounced advantage.
Mega-fund Tiger Global is an example. Traditionally, venture funds conduct research and due diligence in-house by relying on a team of analysts and associates. This process often makes it difficult to make quick decisions or gain familiarity with a new market or geography. Recognizing the flaws of this approach and the trickiness of building a competitive advantage in this area, Tiger follows an axially different method. The firm outsources its diligence to consulting firm Bain. Tiger can focus on its greatest strengths by taking this tact: moving quickly and relying on an encyclopedic knowledge of successful business models to pick winners.
Red Bull does something similar. The company outsources the production of its beverages to focus entirely on marketing. The implicit message here is that the Austrian business does not believe it can differentiate on the formulation but understands it is genuinely brilliant at telling a story and advancing a lifestyle linked to its drinks. To win, find ways to deepen your advantages, even at the cost of outsourcing commoditized operations.
Sign up to my cousin Yasbo’s newsletter, ChopLife Express btw AND listen to her podcast, Savings or Current. She’s already been dropping some serious gems, including this one on time management and this one on how the economy works.
Also, Afrobility Podcast is exactly what you need to be listening to for the deep-dives into Africa’s most note-worthy companies.
Recommended Substacks: Afridigest by Emeka; African Entrepreneurship Series by Jeph; Getthebrief by Loye and Fola.
📱📱Quote of the day
“What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing.”
Remember: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”
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