[XPEL] Xpel Inc

I spent several weeks speaking with 70 automotive paint protection film (PPF) installers to better understand the industry and the impact that OEM-direct installations of PPF could have on Xpel. I’d like to share what I learned. But before doing that, let’s bring everyone up to speed. Most of Xpel’s revenue comes from selling a […]

[ROP] Roper Technologies

Hi everyone, I embedded audio of me reading this post. Let me know what you think. If enough people are into this feature, I will include it in future write-ups. These recordings won’t be word-for-word translations (I’ll summarize here and there) but pretty close. You’ll notice that I confuse “Vertafore” and “Vertafone” several times in […]

[AME] AMETEK

AMETEK was birthed out of failure. After its predecessor, Manhattan Electric Supply Company, a supplier of electrical switches, telegraph sets, alarm clocks, flashlights and other novel gizmos of the late 19th/early 20th century, declared bankruptcy in 1930, months after the market crash, shareholders created a new company from the ashes. The newly formed American Machine […]

[TDY] Teledyne

Many investors have come to know of Teledyne through Warren Buffett, who in John Train’s 1980 classic The Money Masters, declared the company’s co-founder, Henry Singleton, as having “the best operating and capital deployment record in American business”. Buffett’s seal of approval spawned a vast collection of fawning articles and books about the unconventional engineer, […]

why Cintas wins

Please check out my annual interview with @LibertyRPF, where I offer some thoughts on investing and provide an update on the business of scuttleblurb. If you’re looking for an eclectic mix of content related to investing, technology, art, and science, I recommend subscribing to Liberty’s newsletter, Liberty’s Highlights. It’s one of my favorites. And if […]

GFL update

(all $ are Canadian unless otherwise specified) I first wrote up GFL nearly 2 years ago. To recap: garbage collection and disposal is one of the few businesses that you can be sure will still be around in 20 years. Its recurring necessity gives rise to predictable and stable cash flows. Residential collections are locked […]

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[MTCH] Match Group

Online dating has easy parallels to other online social experiences that if taken too seriously can lead to dubious outcomes. A dating app is like social media in that there are lots of people broadcasting themselves, making connections, and seeking validation. You might “like” a photo on Instagram as you might right-swipe on a photo […]

Consumer credit bureaus and FICO

Each of the 3 major US consumer credit bureaus (CCBs) – Equifax, Experian, and Transunion – are an agglomeration of regional credit agencies, some dating back to the early 1800s. That a once fragmented industry consolidated into oligopoly is a natural consequence of the benefits that come from pooling data: a lender will go with […]

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