You’ve likely landed here because you read BlackBull Research, or because you’re interested in what I write and the Elevation Capital Global Shares Fund. Welcome.
I’ll cut to the chase -- how we invest is common sense (that’s why it’s in our motto). Buy good companies with good managers, hold them for a long time, and don’t pay too much for them. We invest alongside our clients -- really, we see you as partners with us. We eat our own cooking.
If you read BlackBull Research you’re familiar with how I write and what I write about — I don’t use jargon, I speak my mind — no punches pulled. That’s what you’ll get here. An (almost) daily memo with thoughts on the companies we own, the market, and everything else.
How this works is you get access to my memos if you’re an investor in the fund, or you pay $199 per year (I know some of you are institutionals and restricted in where you can invest). You can, of course, sign up here for the free tier — I’ll put out the occasional free post, but you know, for the good stuff, you’ve got to pay the piper. (My opinion is you should invest, of course — and I’m biased. But think of it this way: your capital gets to work and you get to read what I write; it’s not a cost!1)
A quick “mission statement” for those who do wish to invest alongside us.
We only buy what we know. No crypto, no complicated companies, no nonsense.
We invest in “inevitables”. Think about music (UMG, WMG, Spotify), alcohol (Brown-Forman, Pernod Ricard), luxury (LVMH, Brunello Cucinelli, Kering) or payment systems (Visa, Mastercard). We’re always asking the question — what won’t change with the world.
We buy high-quality companies2 (this may seem obvious, but it is amazing how many people forget this when they see a “new shiny thing”!). You can tell a high-quality company from the outset — you should be able to explain it to a five year old. If the CEO is talking gibberish about “adjusted EBITDA”, it’s not for us.
We buy companies that are going to continue to be high quality for a long time. Again, this seems obvious (common sense, even) — there’s some companies that are a bit like a melting ice cube (Kodak investors found this out the hard way…).
We invest in resilience — companies like Brown-Forman survived prohibition! LVMH’s sales barely dipped during the GFC. Resilience is important.
Management is important. A bad manager can do a lot of damage. We look for quality managers who have “skin in the game”. That’s partially why we have a preference for founder or family led companies, because our interests are aligned.
We invest globally. Some of the best companies are found in Europe, the US, and many other places. Why restrict yourself?
We hold onto companies for a long time. Farmers don’t buy their farmland one day and sell it the next, and then buy it again the following day. They’d look crazy. And yet many investors (including professionals) do this regularly! We believe if you own a good company, you hold onto it, and the rest will take care of itself.
When we’re wrong, we say it. Humility is important.
Our research process is holistic. Numbers are important, but so is the actual nature of the business — never underestimate the power of human psychology.
This is not investment advice.
"Only the best or go without."