The Journal no. 15 – April 05, ​2018

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Article

Charlie Munger on The Two Types of Knowledge – Shane Parrish

Why Everyone Should Write – Morgan Housel

The Only 10 Debt-Free Companies in the S&P 500 – The Motley Fool

Goodnight. Sleep Clean. – New York Times

The 6 Ways of Influence – Nick Maggiulli

Cool sh*t

This Cozy Microhome Could Be Yours For $28,000 – Co.Design

You’ll Want To Live In This Perfect Ex-Warehouse London Home – Ultralinx

Serralves House – Uncrate

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3XgDHBnQO/?saved-by=bgr20

Video

Steve Jobs MIT Class: manufacturing vs. consulting – 2 min

Dope Tech: Camera Robots! – 8 min

Podcasts

Royce Yudkoff and Rick Ruback – REALLY Private Equity – Invest Like the Best – 82 min

Brian Koppelman – Chasing Curiosity – Invest Like the Best – 61 min

Bonus: The Sword in the Bun – Industry Focus – 24 min

Tweet

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

Featured Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

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The Journal no. 13 – March 29, ​2018

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Article

Brains Sweep Themselves Clean Of Toxins During Sleep – NPR

Lazy Work, Good Work – Morgan Housel

Cool sh*t

This Chair Is Made From Ventilation Pipes – Cool Material

MUJI Hut

World Map: The Literal Translation of Country Names – Credit Card Compare

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3XgDHBnQO/?saved-by=bgr20

Source: CCC

Video

Mohnish Pabrai Lecture at Peking University (Guanghua School of Mgmt) – Dec 22, 2017 – 120 min

 

First Take: The Urwerk AMC, An Atomic Clock-Controlled Take On The Breguet Sympathique – 3 min

Podcasts

Live EP.01 – Peter Attia, M.D. – Invest Like the Best – 59 min

Eric Maddox – The Ace of Spades – Invest Like the Best – 58 min

Serge Faguet – How to biohack your intelligence  with everything from sex to modafinil to MDMA – The Kevin Rose Show – 104 min

Tweet

 

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

Featured Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

The Journal no. 12 – March 22, ​2018

 

 

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Article

Let Me Convince You To Save Money – Morgan Housel

Cool sh*t

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3XgDHBnQO/?saved-by=bgr20

Video

 Elon Musk Answers Your Questions! | SXSW 2018 – 72 min

 

Podcasts

Tweets

 

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

Featured Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

The Journal no. 11 – March 15, ​2018

Before starting The Journal, I have two updates. Firstly, I wrote an article on a company that I admire Zooplus – Growing Moat on my blog. If you have the time, please read it and give me your opinions about my thesis. Secondly, from now on, The Journal will be posted on every Thursday of the week.

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Articles

A Margin of Safety – Nick Maggiulli

The VERY simple bear case for bitcoin – Savneet Singh

The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking – Farnam Street

Cool sh*t

A home Into The Woods by gosplan – Inspirationist

SLIM FIT: a permanent micro dwelling of 50 m2 designed for urban densification – Inspirationist

this geometric yellow house fits into the chilean landscape like a tetris piece – designboom

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3XgDHBnQO/?saved-by=bgr20

Videos

Mebane Faber: “Global Value: How to Spot Bubbles, Avoid Market Crashes, and Earn Big Returns” – 60 min

New Story + ICON : 3D Printed Homes for the Developing World – 2 min

Podcasts

Albert Wenger – World After Capital – Invest Like the Best – 66 min

Brent Beshore – Cultivating a Disaster Resistant, Compound Interest Machine – Invest Like the Best – 96 min

Ryan Holiday Dissects Power and Money in Media – Masters in Business – 61 min

Tweets

 

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

Featured Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

The Journal no. 10 – March 8, ​2018

Before starting The Journal, I have two updates. Firstly, I wrote an article on a company that I admire Zooplus – Growing Moat on my blog. If you have the time, please read it and give me your opinions about my thesis. Secondly, from now on, The Journal will be posted on every Thursday of the week.

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Articles

Best-Paid CEOs Run Some of Worst-Performing Companies – WSJ

Why Software is the Ultimate Business Model (and the data to prove it) – Medium

The WIRED Guide to Artificial Intelligence – Wired

Cool sh*t

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3XgDHBnQO/?saved-by=bgr20

Videos

Making a Case for Books – 7 min

The Apple Ecosystem: Explained! – 8 min

Podcasts

Savneet Singh The Berkshire of Software – Invest Like the Best – 76 min

Yuval Noah Harari: A Brief History of the Future – The James Altucher Show – 55 min

Tweets

Infographic

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist
Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist
Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

 

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

Featured Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

Zooplus – Growing Moat

Summary

  • zooplus will benefit form the shift from offline to online.
  • zooplus will benefit from the premiumization and humanization of pet food.
  • zooplus operates in 30 countries across Europe.
  • zooplus has a 94 percent retention rate among consumer.

 

Last month, I read two of my favourite books: Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari, and I have been fascinated by the history of the human race and the world around us;

While reading the books, I was fascinated by the phenomenon of domestication of animals.

As an investor, I am always looking for opportunities to become an owner in companies that can improve customer’s life or bring benefit to the world.

After listening to a fascinating podcast with Connor Leonard and Patrick O’Shaughnessy, I found out about zooplus, an online retailer of pet supplies in Europe.

zooplus logo

zooplus (OCT: ZLPSF) (OTC: ZOPLY) (ETR: ZO1) is the market leader in online pet supplies in Europe with customers across 30 different countries. It has roughly 8 000 different foods and accessories for dogs, cats, small pets, fishes and horses.

Here are the reasons why I believe zooplus is an incredible business:

The shift to online

Although zooplus is the market leader in online pet supplies in Europe, it still has a lot of room for growth. zooplus has achieved 50% market share in the online retail segment which compromises about 7 to 8% of the total market. I believe the online market penetration will continue to grow in the future and zooplus will benefit from this trend. I believe that pet owners will use zooplus and other online pet food suppliers to streamline their purchases of food for their pets. Because pet food is something that doesn’t change, streamlining the process will be an advantage for the owners since it takes less time to order the food online than going to a brick and mortar store.

Internet users who bought or ordered goods or services for private use in the previous 12 months by age group, EU-28

Source: Eurostat

As you can see from the graph, more and more of the European Union population are buying goods and services online. This is wonderful for zooplus that more people are buying online because it helps them increase their market share.

Pet supplies online market penetration

Source: Company Presentation

Not only more purchases are made online for pet supplies in the recent years, but also the market value of pet care has been growing year by year in Europe.

Market value of pet care in Western Europe from 2012 to 2017 (in million euros)

Fulfillment centres

zooplus operates in 30 countries across Europe and has seven fulfillment centres located in the centre of Europe which enables the company to be fast and efficient when delivering products to its customers. zooplus has this fulfillment centre located in four of its biggest market and one located in the United Kingdom which is a big market for pet supplies. I believe it will be hard for the competing companies to compete with zooplus especially brick and mortar, notional operators, and regional operators because opening a fulfillment centre requires a lot of capital investment. Plus, zooplus offers a wider variety of product compared to its competitions. According to the company, large-scale supermarket and discounters usually limit themselves to a product rage of approximately 150 – 200. This is nothing to the roughly 8 000 different foods and accessories offered by zooplus.

Costumer

One of the biggest advantage zooplus has over its competitor is their customers. zooplus, as of November 15th, 2017, has around 6 million active customers and has been adding more customers every year. Repeat customers sales during the first nine months of 2017 have been 94% of their sales. It is incredible that the company can maintain customers at a rate of over 90% since 2014. According to the company, their customers helped to acquire new customers through word-of-mouth recommendations. And, I believe there is nothing more powerful than word-of-mouth advertisement.

Source: Company Presentation

Risk

zooplus has much competition from the mom and pop stores, regional retailers, national retailers, and the Goliath Amazon which also sells pet food and pet accessories. Amazon has recently entered Spain and Italy with full pet supplies assortments. These two markets are very important to zooplus because they are one of the biggest markets in Europe.

My Two Cents

I believe zooplus is an excellent company and has a great future ahead if it continues to grow its market share and if it can maintain the high percentage retention rate among consumer.

I do not currently own shares of zooplus for two simple reasons: I do not know if I should hedge the currency when I am buying shares of the company and if I should buy it over-the-counter in the US market or directly from the German stock exchange.

Disclaimer

All stock recommendations and comments are my opinions.

Investors should be cautious about any and all stock recommendations. All investors are advised to conduct their own independent research into individual stocks before making a purchase decision. In addition, investors are advised that past stock performance is no guarantee of future price appreciation.

The Journal no. 9 – February​ 18, ​2018

 

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Articles

Silicon Valley’s Tax-Avoiding, Job-Killing, Soul-Sucking Machine – Esquire

Why Software is the Ultimate Business Model (and the data to prove it) – Medium

Mohnish Pabrai – Recommends 7 Top Investing Books… And Two Websites To Become A Better Investor – The Acquirer’s Multiple

Cool sh*t

Fern Chacha Touring Bike – blessthisstuff

Steve Harrington Reimagines the Nike Air Force 1 and Air Jordan 1 – freshness

A Roll-out Table Perfect for Small Spaces – Joes Daily

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3XgDHBnQO/?saved-by=bgr20

Videos

Warren Buffett: Advice For Entrepreneurs (2018)

We Asked Bill Gates: Do You Need To Be Rich To Be Healthy?

Podcasts

This is probably the two of the best podcasts I listened so far.

Josh Wolfe – This is Who You Are Up Against – Invest Like the Best

Our Inevitable Future: Interview with Kevin Kelly – Rule Breaker Investing

Tweets

 

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

 

Featured Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash

 

The Journal no. 8 – February 11, ​2018

 

 

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Falcon Heavy

This week was an incredible week for SpaceX. On February 6, 2018, at 3:45 p.m. EST,  they launched their most powerful rocket. Watching the live stream of the rocket was incredible and I was very lucky to watch it in real time. This was like the moon landing for me, an absolute historical movement. As a Tesla Shareholder, for me, the cherry on top of the cake was that the dummy payload on the flight was Elon Musk’s midnight cherry Tesla Roadster.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Pictures are from SpaceX Flicker

Articles

Learning from Superinvestors: The Wisdom of Tom Russo – Latticework

Thomas Russo: the world’s greatest investors – MoneyWeek

Why the Stock Market Falls (Sometimes) – Pragmatic Capitalism

List of cognitive biases – Wikipedia

Robotic Chefs Are Getting Better—If You Like Fast Food – MIT Technology Review

The Most Successful Investment in the History of Mankind – Intelligent Fanatics

Cool sh*t

frank minnaërt turns an old barn into a modern country house in lormes – designboom

PLUS HUS – uncrate

https://www.instagram.com/p/BexXP_0Bt4z/?saved-by=bgr20

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3XgDHBnQO/?saved-by=bgr20

Videos

The Incredible Sounds of the Falcon Heavy Launch (BINAURAL AUDIO IMMERSION) – Smarter Every Day 189 – 9 min

Seth Klarman: Value Investing, Investment Strategies and Advice for Success – 71 min

Podcasts

Planet Monet – Planet Money

Andrew Tobias – “There Are Just A Few Things You Really Need to Know About Investing, and They Don’t Ever Change” – The Meb Faber Show

Harvey Sawikin – Emerging Market Opportunities – Invest Like the Best

Steven Pinker – The Joe Rogan Experience

Tweets

The Power of Dividend Investing

This is one of the best infographics about investing I have seen this year. I knew that, if you invested in a company paying a dividend, you would have a better return than a company that doesn’t pay dividends. This infographic opened my eyes about the power of investing.

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

 

The Journal no. 7 – February 4, 2018

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

This week I didn’t have a not of time reading articles and funding cool stuff since I am working on a new article that I am writing for Seeking Alpha.

Articles

To advance artificial intelligence reverse engineer the brain By James J. Dicarlo – Wired

Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People? By Charles C. Mann – The Atlantic 

Cool sh*t

Flfort road house from dark and cluttered to light and spacious – inspirationist.net

Tweet

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

The Journal no. 6 – January 28, ​2018

 

Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:

Articles

Inside Amazon Go, a Store of the Future By  – The New York Times

How Warren Buffett’s billionaire deputy became an “expert-generalist” By Michael Simmons  – Quartz

How to invest like… Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right-hand man By 

Will millennials kill Costco?   – The Washington Post

Cool sh*t

917 Top Poster – INK Plainbody Car Prints

Remember House – ELA

Impatia Ping Pong Table – Uncarte

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3XgDHBnQO/?saved-by=bgr20

Videos

The Rig That Transforms Into ANY Car: The Mill BLACKBIRD – Top Gear Magazine – 4 min

Bill Gates & Steven Pinker Discuss Enlightenment Now – 3 min

Burger King | Whopper Neutrality – 3 min

Podcast

TIP175: Shane Parrish – On Buffett, Dalio, and Reading (Business Podcast) – 47 min

033 Christina Sass – Educate Yourself – 34 min
The Big Five – TED Radio Hour – 51 min

Tweet

 

Dirty Money

I watched this week Netflix new series Dirty Money. It’s a Netflix Original Documentary Series exposing the greed, corruption, and crime spreading through our global economy. I found the series fascinating especially the episode about Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Donald Trump and HSBC. It’s probably one of the best documentaries I watched in the past few years.

The Warren Buffet series

I am a big fan of Warren Buffet and a big fan of Infographic, and this is the best of both worlds.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist
Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

 

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Balal Rasool

Disclaimer I own shares of Netflix and Restaurant Brands International Inc (Burger King parent organization).