What a company, a product or a technology actually does, from the inside.
A platform that lets others earn on it grows faster than one that captures every dollar; the forgone revenue is the investment.
Platform strategy, take-rate questions, and any marketplace where the company could raise its share of the transaction.
From Shopify's 2015 IPO letter from Tobi Lütke · Tobi Lütke
Tell investors in advance that you will optimise long-term cash flows over reported earnings, then do it, so the market can price the choice rather than be surprised by it.
Any growth company valuation, any founder letter, and the interview question of how to value a company that reports no profit.
From Amazon's 1997 letter to shareholders · Jeff Bezos
A compute vendor's case is a flywheel from agents to tokens to compute; the buyer's case is the return on that compute, and both have to be read together.
Semiconductor and data-centre coverage, technology investing, and any debate about AI capital spending.
From NVIDIA's fiscal 2026 letter from Jensen Huang · Jensen Huang
Find the narrowest step in a supply chain; that is where the risk, the pricing power and the politics all sit.
Technology coverage, macro and geopolitical questions, and any discussion of moats in hardware.
From Chip War · Chris Miller
In physical commodities the money is in moving, financing and accessing the cargo; the price direction is usually hedged.
Trading house and commodities interviews, and any analysis of a business that moves physical goods.
From The World for Sale · Javier Blas and Jack Farchy
A founder-controlled company should say what control is for and what investors give up; the 2004 letter is the template for saying it plainly.
IPO process questions, governance debates about dual-class shares, and any founder letter that cites this one.
From Google's 2004 IPO founders' letter, "An Owner's Manual" · Larry Page and Sergey Brin
In any industry, ask who holds the data the models need; the shift favours them more than the vendors of the models.
Bank and fintech coverage, the question of who wins from AI in finance, and any moat built on data.
From Capital One's 2024 letter from Rich Fairbank · Rich Fairbank
Institutional AI is scoped, governed and data-limited; expect to work inside those limits and to be able to explain them.
Questions about AI in banking, technology roles inside financial firms, and any claim about what AI is doing to the industry.
From Goldman CIO Marco Argenti on the Warp-Speed Improvements in AI · Bloomberg Odd Lots
Growth is arriving faster and concentrating harder, so a company's trajectory in its first year tells you more than it used to.
Venture and growth diligence, cohort analysis, and any question about base rates for new companies.
From Stripe's 2025 annual letter · Patrick Collison and John Collison