John Pfeffer - Adapt and Evolve - [Invest Like the Best, EP. 262]

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

My guest today is entrepreneur and investor, John Pfeffer. John was a partner at private equity firm KKR in the 2000s, Chairman of leading French IT company Groupe Allium in the 90s, and now invests his own money through his private family office, Pfeffer Capital.

John is one of the smartest investors I know, and our conversation spans all of John’s experience and investment ideas. We discuss the difference between value creation and wealth creation, why John has made such a big bet on one asset, and why adaptation is more important than ever. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.

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Show Notes

[00:03:08] - [First question] - John’s background and the experiences that shaped his worldview and sparked his curiosity

[00:07:34] - Aspiring to grow with a lack of inertia

[00:10:31] - Why he invests primarily in technology and technology dependant businesses [00:15:22] - What it’s felt like being a tech investor from 2011 leading up to today

[00:19:26] - How he defines good and bad business

[00:21:24] - Why good businesses don’t often have technology disruption risks

[00:22:26] - An (Institutional) Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets; key points from his paper

[00:35:28] - What else is interesting in the crypto space and potentially strong business models that exist outside of Bitcoin

[00:48:46] - How capital has changed over time and what makes capital efficiency or formation superior

[00:51:51] - Value creation and why a shift in value can affect your returns

[01:01:12] - Whether or not crypto and the founding protocols will fade out of the public eye

[01:11:52] - A consensus on store of value in crypto and how it could change

[01:18:03] - Why he is so heavily allocated to Bitcoin compared to other tokens

[01:25:19] - General take on the nature of buying and selling capital and European markets

[01:35:28] - The interconnectedness of the globe and the future of globalism

[01:39:46] - Why he doesn’t ask people where they’re from and how he prefers to get to know people that can sometimes be unorthodox

[01:41:59] - Market index investing and why it may not be the best strategy going forward

[01:47:36] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for him