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Panic with Friends - My Anti-Portfolio...Honoring The Companies I Missed

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Howard Lindzon
March 09, 2023

Panic with Friends – Investing for Profit and Joy

In this episode, I’m back in the hot seat again while my producer Knut grills me on what I’m calling my 'anti-portfolio'. Bessemer Ventures created the 'anti-portfolio' in an educational and humorous way to 'honor the companies they missed (their list includes Ebay, Facebook and Fedex). Previously I've discussed details on Wallstrip and Stocktwits. Both of those episodes answered a lot of the questions I've been asked over the years.

One of the questions I’m asked most often as an investor and entrepreneur is, “Howard, what’s your biggest mistake, your biggest miss?” I’ve been investing in startups for a while now – so it’s a splendid idea to finally share them in a format where everyone can learn from my mistakes.

You can listen to the podcast here on Spotify or Apple podcast and now all the episodes are on my YouTube channel as well. You can click subscribe on any of these channels and get the podcast alert each week.

You can also listen right here on the blog:

Howard Lindzon - Errors of Omission and other I... by Panic with Friends - Howard Lindzon

In this episode, I’m back in the hot seat again while my producer Knut grills me on what I’m calling my ‘errors of omission’. It’s part of my plan this year to cover various points in my career. Previously I've discussed details on Wallstrip and Stocktwits. Both of those episodes answered a lot of the questions I've been asked over the years. But one of the questions I’m asked most often as an investor and entrepreneur is, “Howard, what’s your biggest mistake, your biggest miss?” I’ve been in this game for a while now – so it’s a splendid idea to finally share them in a format where everyone can learn from my mistakes. I lay out my biggest errors, or what I would call errors of omission versus errors of commission, in the spirit of Bessemer Ventures “anti-portfolio” – that is some of the biggest ones they missed, like AirBnb, Coinbase, and eBay to name a few. I cover three of my biggest whiffs. It's part of the joy of investing, the irreverence, having the cojones to create a whole anti-portfolio and share it. You may have even heard of one or two of mine.

https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/STKT8917579627

For more details on today’s conversation read on below…

What's Howard Panicked About? That I may never see a good deal again.

Related:

Show Notes:

  • Introduction. (00:33)

  • Knut’s biggest mistake (01:39)

  • The anti-portfolio (02:10)

  • Getting asked to dance (03:57)

  • Setting the stage (05:01)

  • First miss (06:26)

  • Network Effects (10:20)

  • Lesson on valuation (12:51)

  • The next big miss (14:21)

  • Making the same mistake (16;00)

  • Another big miss (17:51)

  • The lesson learned (24:58)

  • Wrapping it up. (26:38)

  • Closing thoughts. (28:18)

© Panic with Friends, 2022. All rights reserved.

Host: Howard Lindzon | Producer: Knut Jensen | Researcher: Pete Weishaupt Disclaimer: All information provided is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. For full disclosures: https://howardlindzon.com/disclaimer/

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