Mohnish Pabrai Lecture at Boston College

Distinguished Speaker Series | Professor Arvind Navaratnam | October 14, 2021.
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:55 Competition is For Losers, Peter Thiel
00:08:17 Rain Industries
00:12:30 Monopolistic business models, Amazon and Google
00:17:05 Redoing the Spaghetti code, AWS in business
00:19:00 A Whale only gets harpooned only when it surfaces, Warren Buffett
00:19:52 AWS, cloning by Microsoft and Google
00:24:08 Monopolistic characteristics of giant Chinese tech companies
00:28:10 Tencent (under)reporting style
00:30:15 Naspers business model, Koos Bekker
00:40:50 Better capital allocation by Amazon and Tencent
00:43:30 Tencent business model
00:50:15 The bazooka Model of Pony Ma
00:57:25 How I became a value investor
01:02:17 Chinese tech giants and political risk
01:03:17 Dakshana Foundation’s Education Model
01:08:53 Evolution of my investing style
01:12:50 Mohnish’s investing framework on start-ups
01:17:22 Ali Baba
01:23:12 Competence and edge
01:24:45 Change in Investment strategy due to Covid
01:37:44 Application of NLP(Natural Language Processing) in investing
01:45:03 Up and comers in the investment sector
01:47:37 Quality of Management
01:50:25 Book recommendations
The contents of this video are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and do not purport to be, and are not intended to be, financial, legal, accounting, tax or investment advice. Investments or strategies that are discussed may not be suitable for you, do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and are not intended to provide investment advice or recommendations appropriate for you. Before making any investment or trade, consider whether it is suitable for you and consider seeking advice from your own financial or investment adviser.

[@marcb934]

Monish, you are such a wonderful teacher. The time spent listening to you is always well invested. Thank you so much.

[@InvestingwithTom]

Mohnish is back in the house!

[@compound7269]

Add to the checklist: does it have bazooka like qualities?

[@InvestingwithTom]

@@compound7269 haha maybe!

[@imbikramsaha]

Tom in the house. Wow cool 😎

[@hurshvardhansingh953]

Been waiting since months. Much appreciated 🙏

[@karocard]

Thank you for taking the time and adding chapters to this video!

[@mrinalsinghtomar]

I'm feeling good now, waiting for this for a long time.

[@samt9834]

Thank you for your generosity in sharing your insights into Tencent! So eye opening!

[@biswadebbhunya4999]

I love to hear you Mohnish sir, Thank you for sharing.

[@aayushpatel8355]

Thank you Mr. Pabrai for uploading such wonderful videos! These are as fun to watch as the Berkshire Annual Shareholders meeting!

[@Dwiz26]

Appreciate you deeply Monish! Thank you so so much for all of your insight!

[@JC-ed9yi]

Mohnish, you are a beast. Thank you for everything.

[@akhtarmohana2999]

In 57 minutes I just got an executive MBA on speed dial. Thanks 👍

[@dgalaria2828]

I just enjoy listening to him, so casually he could say such important management concept with a live example.

[@letsinvestigateit]

OUt of all the people online hes the only one that makes sense. Everyone else I listened to are complete idiots. Most people in the world ignore common sense for some reason. Maybe cause it seems to dull and boring to think on that kind of a level but it is the basic root to being successful

[@wresting1212]

I really enjoy listening to these talks while on my daily morning walks.

[@harsha123v]

Mohnish is back! My morning is now booked. Happy Diwali Mohnish!

[@alm9368]

A great class, Mr. Pabrai. Thank you for sharing!

[@angelsancheese]

30 minutes in and I already know I'm going to watch till the end. Great video

[@Neil.Denize]

As a man that is trying to grow a Moustache at the moment for Movember, I look up to you both on the investing front and also your Moustache, that is one impressive Mo you are repping, love your work Mohnish. Glad you are back we missed hearing from you the last couple of months.

[@compounding999]

Always a pleasure listening to him and I am always learning something too! Thank you Indian guy in blue somewhere in Southern Cali from a nobody in Singapore

[@varunjain5789]

I can leave anything any day to listen to these lectures..

[@VikrantArora]

Been waiting for ages!! Always a pleasure listening to you. Thanks for the upload!! 😍

[@BradKaellner]

Did you go through Dakshana?

[@VikrantArora]

@@BradKaellner No.

[@yalnaabi]

I've been checking his channel almost daily 😄

[@VikrantArora]

@@yalnaabi I feel you. I also thought KZbin Notifications are broken.

[@jubben331]

What a sales man this guy is

[@JaiiDesaii]

I was so delighted to see your video on the auspicious occasion of Diwali…. I have watched every single video of yours on your channel… which in turn lead me to the path of investing myself…. I always learn something new from your video or some good book recommendations….. Thanks for your efforts to educate people. Best wishes of Diwali to you and your family….🇮🇳🇮🇳🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@fokusinvestor]

What a great Video! Thanks for your work and the Insights on your thinking process. You're really an inspiration.

[@cryptogoth]

One of the best talks yet, and very intelligent questions from students as well.

[@achillemonnet3972]

Mohnish this is an incredible gift. Thank you for all you do and for sharing such wisdom openly

[@pirexengaer]

Huge Pabrai! Both as an investor and also as a mentor to younger value investors. Great video

[@sureshnishtala2887]

Thought of listening for just 10 min and then listen other part later on ..but eventually watched completely.....cant skip the learnings and the wisdom that mohnish gives....Mohnish is then ,now forever my guru.... thank you mohnish ...expecially the model of tencent is simply awesome....

[@ghalibkhan80]

Yessss, finallly. i needed some wisdom, after my recent blunders in the stock market

[@subodhbhide7742]

Thank you Mohnishji for sharing such incredible insights, you will have an audience if you talk all day! Love the fact that you talk about something new and profound in each and every video! Long live Pabrai University!

[@veerasingamtevathus4918]

Always inspiring to listen Monish’s speech

[@Boernstar84]

Mohnish Thank you for the wonderful lesson. This not only describes how to find wonderful businesses this for me describes a lot of human behavior. One of my favourite videos of all time!!

[@eugenemoh2956]

Happy Diwali sir, really blessed to listen to you speak, the questions from the class were great too

[@BudgetHolics]

Great analysis! Thank you for making it public!

[@MrPenguin779]

Simply Amazing!!

[@sergeykonov8859]

amazing lecture, many thanks Mohnish

[@pramodthebe2028]

Thanks, Monish This is what i was trying to identify about tencent for around 2 months, reading 5 annual report and all presentation. I was always suprised about tencent number and even doubted to be fake because they dont say anything.

[@ATSInvest]

Nice a 2h Version! Thanks Monish

[@shashanktiwari2972]

Wow... Guru ji you are Great

[@j.m0ney133]

Phil Town and Mohnish Pabrai uploaded new videos today. I know what I am watching the rest of today 👍

[@Michael_NV]

And I know whose video I'll watch next. :-)

[@LearningWithAnishSrinivas]

Thank you Mohnish

[@IkechiGriffith]

Great lecture. I very much appreciate your ability Mohnish to openly share your passion, your diligence in your research and your ability to simplify complex things. I want those things for myself and hope to be able to share my perspective like you do and help others.

[@prahaladsingh9643]

Great ! Thanks for sharing your wisdom

[@CFC-is2vw]

Great questions. Loved the first one especially

[@rohandongre07]

learned so much from you and its fun at the same time. Investing has been really a great journey that I started in my life.

[@sheanathan3566]

Wonderful wisdom and insights as always, Mohnish. Regarding Starbucks, they actually did have some strong competition easily in from Tullies and Seattle’s Best but Starbucks had such a head start and consumer following that they couldn’t maintain. Pete’s coffee chain was actually a big influence on Howard creating Starbucks so he was part innovator and part cloner. I remember my parents taking me to the first Starbucks when visiting Seattle. My mom had read about it somewhere and Howard was making and selling the coffee himself still at that point

[@lawrenceg7341]

Thank you Sir for sharing such educational insights !

[@davorsostaric]

I think I rewatched almost all of your videoy 2-3times

[@TheeFatPanda]

Thank you very much for sharing this content!

[@compound7269]

Wow, just wow.

[@user-ri4ix8kx7o]

great speech. thank you.

[@Sternburger27]

ANOTHER AMAZING VIDEO WANT MORE

[@marcoaraujo4771]

Yeah you are back Sir

[@Unknown-ii7iw]

Man. I am in heaven since morning..🙌🙌❤️

[@stockthesis8411]

Mohnish always brings the goods. Plenty to think about and look into. Also Qais Zakaria is an enigma.

[@ShivShankar-on1ll]

What a talk so many insights..

[@nabeelrizvi3451]

This Legend comes after a couple of months and just drops an absolute banger of Information!!! How can you not love this guy!!!

[@Motivation2Invest]

Very Insightful as always 👍📈

[@Drganguli]

These videos teach you a lot which you wound not get from a finance degree

[@QuangNguyen-pq6oh]

Thank you!!

[@blitzspirit]

A diwali gift from #DhandoDevil Thanks Mohnish

[@KapilLadha]

A good interview … good content 👍🏻

[@WillChousThoughts]

Very informative!!! Thanks mohnish

[@TobsORE-D]

Thank you so much Monish you’re awesome, and that girl that asked about Alibaba has something special for sure

[@khizarqureshi8840]

Thankyou Mohnish

[@bimalpatel280]

happy Dhanteras Mohnish, I am half way through the video and can't hold myself commenting that you made my Dhanteras. Thank you so much for putting all your work in front of us, I hope you wouldn't clone the Pony Ma model of burying deep.

[@hamadbinmahfooz3736]

Monish you are such a beautiful story teller. Always learn something new by watching your videos. Been slowly going on each of them for a while. thank you for posting. Monish can you like do a live interaction with your YouToube followers.

[@dubeya01]

Amazing guy!!

[@brijeshsinghbhartiya3125]

Charan sparsh sir

[@azaadgamerbeingapro4659]

brilliant.

[@darshanjain8458]

Happy Diwali Sir

[@shankarrajgopal5165]

Enjoyed it Mohnish

[@havrenne]

As a Tencent shareholder, the middle of this video got me more excited than an adult movie :D

[@gauravthadanii]

exactly. tho i am not a tencent shareholder, mohnish did a great job convincing me by explaining the business model. i mean 65 percent and 35 percent annualised returns whoaaa

[@adityakrothapalli]

Finally 😅

[@arcticyamm2232]

"[Pony Ma] just wants to be buried deep somewhere, executing his model." Dark.

[@stefenwidokho9592]

finally

[@atangbingana283]

Thank you Monish. Lets check back in 10 years I hope to be the African Version of you.

[@MooreMoney]

Happy that we are both BABA bulls. :)

[@jackb616]

He actually seemed less bullish on Alibaba than in the past (I.e business model isn’t that strong compared to Tencent, better off looking for the “next” Alibaba as it cannot 10x quickly..)

[@MooreMoney]

@@jackb616 I agree, less bullish than Tencent, but still an investor.

[@sebfox2194]

@@jackb616 Even if Tencent has a better business model, BABA has been knocked down more, and is a lot cheaper. So as long as the government allows them to do business, BABA could do a 3x in the space of a couple of years without doing anything special.

[@pratikmhatre5392]

Arvind you should clone pabrai by now,Its great watching pabrai and you together

[@rocking1313]

"You cannot harpoon a whale that does not surface " Buffett on Ajit Jain Who you are does not change much beyond age 5! Edge is not from quick access to lots of data but from connecting the dots from the data

[@MrSifaperdire]

Daje Monish arcamadana!

[@punjacksond]

I can not stop laughing when he said Digital warren buffett! hahaa

[@feihan9938]

Tencent is Chinese Berkshire, low key management, great business culture.

[@Milziade490ac]

The GOAT is back

[@rohanagarwal656]

❤❤

[@KS-it2qc]

Blessings to hear the game.. the question is Tencent Hong Kong Stock or Prosus Stock

[@khizarqureshi8840]

Mohnish is pumped up . Blue Kurta blue annual reports

[@jcwillems]

My favourite part is what he says at 38:20 haha...and I said WOAH!

[@cigeoday]

The girl talking about ali baba at 1.21 minutes is spot on ( she predicted what happened with the stock today!!)

[@MyPowChannel]

Nice

[@saudsaad518]

Couldn’t catch the names of the 3 books mentioned at the end? Anyone did?

[@ajinkyawavhal6906]

Thankyou Sir.... I am exactly cloning your path😄

[@AjitJoshi686]

1.20 Alibaba observation by the student is very interesting

[@ManOfSteel1]

what is this value investors club he's talking about? is that a forum?

[@oni1992]

Anyone knows the next guest list about the Boston College Lectures?

[@MrSomeonelikehim]

Is this 5 percent topline and bottom line video game revenue from China number correct? Can't find this anywhere on the internet

[@nabeelrizvi3451]

what took you so long !! i was having withdrawals XD

[@michaelchow8023]

Domestic game revenue represents more than 20%, not less than 5% according to Monish, of Tencent's total revenue.

[@BradKaellner]

Big takeaway: Great businesses don't want the rest of the world to know how great they are, so you won't get the big insights from management. What great investors own it? What have they been able to uncover?

[@tonicaldererelias8757]

Cannot wait for your video.

[@thewarrenbuffettspreadsheet]

Any chance that you or the punchcard team could get an interview with Mohnish?

[@BradKaellner]

@@thewarrenbuffettspreadsheet there is a chance, but I’m not the odds-maker

[@jbrunogds]

Love your content, Brad !

[@-SammedVardhaman]

Few days before i completed zero to one book 😃

[@thewarrenbuffettspreadsheet]

Kind of got the feeling that Mohnish has bought Tencent also

[@mangalpal8921]

Seems

[@KidFreshie]

Thoughts on Pony Ma's "leaked" statement regarding Tencent’s role as an "assistant and connector" and being replaceable etc? Monish Pabrai's comments here about how monopolies like to downplay their companies and business models to avoid competition and regulation have me thinking that Pony's statement is just a strategic way to avoid regulation and scrutiny and the monopoly remains very much intact. Thoughts?