Andrew Wilkinson Thirst Post/Book

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

*Beware, this post is only slightly exaggerated and contains sarcasm* 

 

Today, I met a girl in the accounting and finance program on the TTC. We talked about investors we admired when she revealed to me that she is IN LOVE with Andrew Wilkinson after hearing one of his podcasts on My First Million because of how he talks. 

 

What she failed to anticipate is that I AM MORE IN LOVE WITH ANDREW WILKINSON than she is because I had already pre-ordered his book "Never Enough From Barista to Billionaire" for $19.99. Great title, except I think the title should be extended to include "from Barista to Full Time Bakery Owner and part-time Tech Billionaire and back." Maybe he should ask Joel Greenblatt for tips on naming a book. 

 

 

I am a little disappointed that the person at the top of the building is not (when zooming in) a TINY version of Andrew Wilkinson but instead some RANDO. Furthermore, I cannot pre-order the audiobook version. I will start a proxy war/activist campaign if he does not narrate the audiobook himself. 

 

However, this story is not a happy ending. This post is about young heartbreak at TMU (formerly called Ryerson, which he attended briefly).

 

I also told her how "Andrew Wilkinson signed the Giving Pledge alongside his wife." 

 

Her reaction: WAIT, HE IS NOT SINGLE?!?!?! 

 

 

She is a long-suffering shareholder in Tiny, so I hope she does not sell her position just because he is taken. Maybe Chris Sparling is available? 

 

To mourn our loss, we have compiled a list of photos in no particular order showing Andrew's transformation from Barista to Billionaire. 

 

 

P.S. She still thinks he is cute. 

 

 

 

 

 

[ValueArb]

He is cute, goddamnit. There should be a law that no one can become a billionaire until they are an old saggy man like myself.

[Parsad]

She is a long-suffering shareholder in Tiny, so I hope she does not sell her position just because he is taken. Maybe Chris Sparling is available?

 

No, Chris is taken too unfortunately!  As is Tim McElvaine.

 

Although I'm available!    Cheers! 

[Saluki]

I know the media fawns on this guy, and I've never met him so I don't want to throw shade.  Something about the whole thing gives me red flag vibes though.  In every interview they compare him to Warren Buffet - but with tech stocks - and say that he's a billionaire. Although he doesn't call himself that, he doesn't deny it. 

 

Maybe he's legit, but I don't have an opinion either way.  It's just that when people compare themselves to someone like when Elizabeth Holmes compared herself to Steve Jobs or SBF compared himself to JP Morgan or crypto, it seems to me that they are discouraging you from digging deeper.  It's like saying "rather than dig deeper, here's a analogy that you will understand, and you can put it in that box and stop asking follow up questions."  

 

I think it helps that he's Canadian.  There is a thing called "the Canadian Paradox" about how easy it is to commit fraud in Canada because the people are so honest.  In a low trust society, like Lebanon, it's hard to defraud strangers because everyone is on their guard. You would only trust someone with your money if he was a relative of yours or of a good friend.  Consequently, lots of Lebanese were involved in shipping and did business with handshakes instead of contracts because if you burned someone, your whole family would be pariahs so they would either make good on your behalf or keep you out of the business if you were untrustworthy.

 

By contrast, I heard someone jokingly say that if you haven't made your first million by 40, buy yourself a nice suit, go down to Bay Street and sell shares in your new mining company.  Again, I don't know enough about him or his company, but if he were Lebanese or Mexican (both low trust societies), would you take him at face value and ask so few follow up questions?

 

(Funny story about low trust societies. My friend's dad, who is a cardiologist in Mexico, also runs a non-profit in that country.  His son is the CFO.  When an auditor suggested that he should hire an outsider because of the appearance of nepotism, he was shocked.  "A complete stranger?  What would keep him from just stealing all the money?" )

Edited February 2 by Saluki
typos

[Parsad]

Look, there will never be another Buffett...nor a Bezos or Gates...probably not a Musk...a Singleton...and maybe not a Zuckerberg.  These guys are one-offs.

 

But there will definitely be other successful people and they will do things their own way, while maybe stealing some ideas from others and modelling themselves in a similar manner.  Prem is a good example.  He's not Buffett, but he's a very good facsimile...not unlike Kobe Bryant compared to Michael Jordan.

 

I know Andrew well.  He's not the next Buffett, nor any of the guys mentioned above.  But he may be another one to succeed beyond imagination.  Or he may stumble like many before him and do pretty damn good or just ok.  Only time will tell.

 

Either way, take what you like from these people...be it Andrew, Mohnish, Gregmal, Viking...whoever...me included.  And ignore the rest of it if you don't like it.  Cheers!

[Whensthepaintdry?]

I’m a fan of his aeropress investment. I wish I knew more about the it the others. 

[BG2008]

Something weird about the photo. In some, he looks legit CHADish from the front. But from the side with his whole neck on display, he looks like a skinny guy with a pencil neck. 

 

And yes, anyone who compares themselves to Buffett raises red flag for me. There are very competent CEOs like Rick Hermann of $HQI that continues to build value but doesn't ever gets mentioned or compared to as Buffett @wabuffo

[CorpRaider]

I agree.  Never trust a Canadian.

[Spekulatius]

He always seems to be selling something. Not sure about Tiny either, saw it peddled on Twitter and in a podcasts.

 

Anything that is peddled on Twitter (or  X now ) should be approached with extreme caution.

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

On 2/2/2024 at 1:11 PM, Parsad said:

Look, there will never be another Buffett...nor a Bezos or Gates...probably not a Musk...a Singleton...and maybe not a Zuckerberg.  These guys are one-offs.

 

But there will definitely be other successful people, and they will do things their own way, while maybe stealing some ideas from others and modelling themselves in a similar manner.  Prem is a good example.  He's not Buffett, but he's a very good facsimile...not unlike Kobe Bryant compared to Michael Jordan.

 

I know Andrew well.  He's not the next Buffett, nor any of the guys mentioned above.  But he may be another one to succeed beyond imagination.  Or he may stumble like many before him and do pretty damn good or just ok.  Only time will tell.

 

Either way, take what you like from these people...be it Andrew, Mohnish, Gregmal, Viking...whoever...me included.  And ignore the rest of it if you don't like it.  Cheers!

 

Update: I am in the process of creating/designing a custom Andrew Wilkinson t-shirt for my own personal use at university. I am finally going to be cool. 

 

I am with Parsad on this. That's the right way to think of this. Andrew Wilkinson is the next Andrew Wilkinson. I really look forward to reading his book and learning more about his approach. 

 

Also, for the skeptics, there are many ex-employees you can sleuth on LinkedIn, and they all speak very, VERY highly of him. 

 

Otherwise, this is a really interesting podcast by an ex-employee. 

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/invest-like-the-best-with-patrick-oshaughnessy/id1154105909?i=1000620745533

 

On 2/1/2024 at 4:43 PM, Parsad said:

She is a long-suffering shareholder in Tiny, so I hope she does not sell her position just because he is taken. Maybe Chris Sparling is available?

 

No, Chris is taken too unfortunately!  As is Tim McElvaine.

 

Although I'm available!    Cheers! 

 

Tim being taken is a shame and a loss for an entire gender.

 

Also, Parsad, I was finally able to show her a photo of you (the only one I could find is the one of you next to Wayne Gretzky), and she says she would date you over "some dumb hockey player any day." You are a contender! All you need next is to take your Premier Diversified Holding public (PDH), so she can buy shares. Don't tell Wayne, though; he might short it and make baseless accusations regarding the company's accounting in a hundred-page PowerPoint, and Trevor Scott would need to go on BNN again. Luckily, I think she would be a loyal shareholder and would ignore the shorts or buy more.  

 

Again, everyone, I am not saying you should invest in Tiny. The extent of my analysis is that I vote Andrew the best-looking value investor of 2024.

 

If more females learn about value investing as a philosophy and career because of Andrew's physique, I view that as a positive. Whenever I mention value investing on a date, it is like I am speaking an alien language. 

 

The second place for best looking is Mohnish, but only ex-moustache and in pyjamas.

 

Third is Dr. Michael Burry because he is ripped, played football and is a musician. 

 

To conclude, I think about the image below often and, going forward, will strategically add naps to my research process. I genuinely think napping played a role in Mohnish's success as an investor...

 

...however, counterfactual thinking leads me to be somewhat sad that Mohnish left a nascent pyjama modelling career to be a legendary hedge fund manager and philanthropist. 

 

 

Happy Bargain Hunting, and remember, sleep comes before beauty and great investment results! 

 

 

Edited February 17 by TorontoChaosTheatre

[schin]

4 hours ago, TorontoChaosTheatre said:

Otherwise, this is a really interesting podcast by an ex-employee. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/invest-like-the-best-with-patrick-oshaughnessy/id1154105909?i=1000620745533

 

I listened to this podcast. It's weird how through some crazy association with Patrick O'Shaughnessy -> Colossus -> that has exposure to Founder's Podcast and others, they have a meeting with Charlie Munger.  Somehow, they got to have a dinner with Charlie with their larger crew.  Would Charlie associate with anyone that disreputable? Or waste his time?

 

So, I looked at Tiny and don't get how he can be a billionaire if Tiny only has a 322M market cap. In Annie Duke's Quit book, Andrew has a reference where he had a Asana competitor product, but Asana out-marketed, out-developed, out-spent him... and he lost 11M in cash.... So, I don't know where he gets his alpha?

[K2SO]

Think I asked this same question back in the day, in either the WeCommerce or Tiny thread. Seems like a nice guy. Very well connected. A few people I respect say positive things about him so I'm curious, but I see no evidence of any special investment acumen.

[Parsad]

1 hour ago, K2SO said:

Think I asked this same question back in the day, in either the WeCommerce or Tiny thread. Seems like a nice guy. Very well connected. A few people I respect say positive things about him so I'm curious, but I see no evidence of any special investment acumen.

 

I'm not sure Andrew adds any value as an investor.  But certainly as someone who understands the tech space and tries to find every advantage that will improve his abilities as an entrepreneur or investor...there may be something there!  

 

This is the same with Mohnish.  And in fact with most people.

 

They aren't by any means the next Buffett or whoever...but there are certainly bits and pieces of valuable knowledge they do provide...simply from their eager desire to learn more and understand more.  It's not always useful information, but often there may be a valuable nugget or two.

 

And the listener or reader has the choice to accept or use what they may find useful.  No different than posters on here.  Almost everyone at one time or another will make some insightful post.  The reader decides if they find that helpful.

 

Cheers! 

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

On 2/20/2024 at 6:08 PM, Parsad said:

 

I'm not sure Andrew adds any value as an investor.  But certainly as someone who understands the tech space and tries to find every advantage that will improve his abilities as an entrepreneur or investor...there may be something there!  

 

This is the same with Mohnish.  And in fact with most people.

 

They aren't by any means the next Buffett or whoever...but there are certainly bits and pieces of valuable knowledge they do provide...simply from their eager desire to learn more and understand more.  It's not always useful information, but often there may be a valuable nugget or two.

 

And the listener or reader has the choice to accept or use what they may find useful.  No different than posters on here.  Almost everyone at one time or another will make some insightful post.  The reader decides if they find that helpful.

 

Cheers! 

 

That's right and I agree with this. Thank you (also, we are lucky to have you as admin). 

[Xerxes]

On 2/2/2024 at 3:10 PM, CorpRaider said:

I agree.  Never trust a Canadian.

 
 

Do trust a Canadian, but verify 

[TorontoChaosTheatre]

https://opmwire.com/andrew-wilkinson-tiny-chris-sparling/

Big oofster article, they are even more sarcastic than me. 

 

https://betakit.com/tiny-appoints-wecommerce-head-jordan-taub-as-its-new-ceo/

Go Jordan!!!!!!!!

Edited August 29 by TorontoChaosTheatre