Modern MBA

Through 2014 to 2018, Casper was everywhere on the Internet, flooding advertisements into every trendy podcast, website, and YouTube video. Need a mattress? Want a mattress? Buy Casper. Not comfortable buying a mattress you’ve never seen or touched before? No problem! Sleep on it for three months and return it anytime for a full refund within those 100 days, no questions asked. With a radically generous return policy and aggressive multi-million advertising budgets, Casper quickly rose to fame as the flashiest and fast growing online consumer brand. Silicon Valley fueled Casper’s meteoric rise, eager to showcase the company as a shining example of technological innovation and business transformation. Casper, Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club were all pioneers of a new revolutionary type of business called Direct-To-Consumer.

Buffet’s focus on value investing and consequent aversion to investing in software companies or more broadly, newer modern day technology companies has led Berkshire Hathway to serious misses in recent years. Losing billions over Kraft Heinz, another $5B loss on airlines, $3B loss on Wells Fargo. Warren Bufffeft had not invested in a tech IPO in over 50 years, famously avoiding IPOs and dismissing recent tech IPOs as ridiculous. So when Buffett invested over half a million dollars into a surging tech cloud data company called Snowflake in 2020, it caught Wall Street by surprise. Snowflake since then has surged to become one of Buffet’s best investments with paper profits of over 2B dollars on a $735M investment. And while the company stock has cooled down significantly, Snowflake has remained one of Berkshire Hathaway's best investments to date. So what is Snowflake and what exactly does this unprofitable data company do that has successfully convinced Buffet to go against his lif

In 2015, McDonald’s had just discontinued the fan favorite snack wraps, removed hot mustard from the sauce lineup, and axed the Bacon Habanero Ranch, Bacon & Cheese, Deluxe Quarter Pounder with Cheese. To freshen up the menu, they rolled out a series of new items that same year in a desperate effort to freshen their old-school cheap burger image, appeal to the modern health-conscious consumers, and better compete with the upscale burger joints. Since 2015, the company has enjoyed a major turnaround. When you think of McDonald’s today, the company is really finding its form with hit celebrity partnerships from Travis Scott to BTS and Mariah Carey. There’s no more salads, gourmet sandwiches, or fancy sandwiches. And investors have noticed this turnaround with the stock up 110% over 5 years. Many companies in multiple industries, not just McDonald’s and fast foods, find themselves in this identity crisis of being caught between their iconic legacy reputation and the newer millenni

Palantir is one of the newer sweethearts of WSB, Reddit, and retail investors worldwide and with good reason - a polarizing, highly secretive, niche business whose majority of market share comes from selling software to the governments, defense, and intelligence sector. But beyond these memes, let’s take a look at how Palantir operates as a business. Along the way, we can also learn just how much money there is to be made selling to the CIA and the greater American military complex. Palantir is riding on the big data trend just like Snowflake, but what’s unique to Palantir is that the company rides on bigger winds based on macro geopolitical trends. Despite intense public scrutiny, Western governments have continued to actively promote and invest in tech-driven governance with items such as preventative policing, public surveillance, and facial recognition.