Industry Background of People on This Forum

[BG2008]

I want to see if I can aggregating the industry background of people on this forum.  I feel like I can't look at as many ideas due to the lack of industry contacts/experts.  My hope is that if enough people volunteer their information on this website, we maybe able to create a directory of industry contacts. 

 

I'll start with myself - Real Estate (with specialty in the NYC area), finance (investment banking) and the restaurant business.  Through contacts, insurance brokerage and life settlements.  For example, it would be great if people can volunteer that they've worked in the freight forwarding business for 30 years. 

 

For example, I'm looking at a company called Columbia Laboratories and it would be great if someone knows about Crinone 8%, a progesterone gel to help treat infertility. 

 

Thanks in advance.  Also, did anyone save any of the sellside primers?  There was a link that was taken down.  Sometimes, it's a pretty good starting point for industries that we don't understand. 

[racemize]

IP law - 8 years. focus on wireless as of late.

[beerbaron]

LED Lighting, manufacturing side of the business.

 

BeerBaron

[nestorius]

Also, did anyone save any of the sellside primers?  There was a link that was taken down.  Sometimes, it's a pretty good starting point for industries that we don't understand.

 

I have no particularly deep personal industry background of note as I am also a former investment banker, but a package of primers (likely the one you refer to) is available here: kickass.to/investment-banking-industry-primers-99-pdfs-t7369045.html‎

[leftcoast]

Video-game development for the past 10 years. Before that, commercial and military flight simulation.

[jeffmori7]

Fluid dynamics, hydraulic turbines, numerical simulation.

[BG2008]

I want to see if I can aggregating the industry background of people on this forum.  I feel like I can't look at as many ideas due to the lack of industry contacts/experts.  My hope is that if enough people volunteer their information on this website, we maybe able to create a directory of industry contacts. 

 

I'll start with myself - Real Estate (with specialty in the NYC area), finance (investment banking) and the restaurant business.  Through contacts, insurance brokerage and life settlements.  For example, it would be great if people can volunteer that they've worked in the freight forwarding business for 30 years. 

 

For example, I'm looking at a company called Columbia Laboratories and it would be great if someone knows about Crinone 8%, a progesterone gel to help treat infertility. 

 

Thanks in advance.  Also, did anyone save any of the sellside primers?  There was a link that was taken down.  Sometimes, it's a pretty good starting point for industries that we don't understand.

 

Forgot to add HVAC Engineering

[compoundinglife]

18 years of tech. Fortune 500 and startups. Software development and systems/network engineering. Also spent some time on commercial fishing boats in Bering Sea but that was a long time ago:)

[thepupil]

Sellside fixed Income trading (1.75yrs)--> asset manager (0.5yr)

 

 

[Palantir]

Do let us know what you decide on CBRX. I own a call, but stock hasnt moved...... :-[

[Myth465]

Accountant by training, currently a Finance Manager for a big private company in the automotive space. Prior was an Auditor in Oil Field Services.

[dpetrescu]

Architecture for me.

 

PS...In the design and engineering field, Autodesk is a monopoly, and has always been. Their moat is an ocean. They have complete pricing power, there are no alternates for us. This has been the case for decades. Adobe as well but not to that extent.

[one-foot-hurdles]

Trading operations for a systematic CTA fund, prior to that was a trader (FX and commodities) in both investment and retail banks.

[writser]

HFT

[Mikenhe]

London market insurance and reinsurance >>>>  Reinsurance run off operations in the usa for a Canadian company and currently reinsurance security and operations for a large life company.

[matts]

Large Canadian Bank on the dealer side. Global prime brokerage/securities lending risk management.

 

I'm young so I don't have much relevant experience before that.

 

 

[Dustin T]

Manufacturing

 

10 years high volume HVAC components

5 years low volume heavy industry agricultural/construction/forestry

[BG2008]

Architecture for me.

 

PS...In the design and engineering field, Autodesk is a monopoly, and has always been. Their moat is an ocean. They have complete pricing power, there are no alternates for us. This has been the case for decades. Adobe as well but not to that extent.

 

Yeah, I recall that Autodesk is the goto software for the drawings.  Is there a price point where people say I'll try something different?  Kind of like what's happened with Gillette's razors?  What do you think is separating them from the #2 and #3 guy in the space?  Is it kind of like Excel for investment bankers?  You're not going to send your clients a file in google docs Excel. 

[BG2008]

IP law - 8 years. focus on wireless as of late.

 

Ever look at Straight Path Communication?  It is a spinoff from IDT Corp.  They are litigating against some of the biggest names in the tech space based on their patents related to communication over the internet.  I've spoken with the CFO and it is obvious that the patent litigation has near term catalysts.  I like the way how they structured the spinoff and outsourcing their litigation expenses on a contingent basis.  Their philosophy is to minimize cash burn.  Over $100mm of NOL will shield any patent litigation rewards and spectrum licensing revenue. 

[Otsog]

5 years public practice accounting (non- Big 4)

2 years property management

.5 years public housing in a remote Arctic village

[oddballstocks]

.5 years public housing in a remote Arctic village

 

Now you have my interest piqued!  What sort of public housing is up in the Arctic?  Is this something where you own a property and the government subsidizes the rent for the inhabitant?  What types of challenges do you have up there?

 

Maybe to the Canadians the Arctic isn't anything special, for me at least I think of it as probably one of the most forbidding places on Earth.

[crastogi]

I have graduate degrees in engineering. 

 

15 years in Auto OEM engineering.  Also real estate and business development

[racemize]

IP law - 8 years. focus on wireless as of late.

 

Ever look at Straight Path Communication?  It is a spinoff from IDT Corp.  They are litigating against some of the biggest names in the tech space based on their patents related to communication over the internet.  I've spoken with the CFO and it is obvious that the patent litigation has near term catalysts.  I like the way how they structured the spinoff and outsourcing their litigation expenses on a contingent basis.  Their philosophy is to minimize cash burn.  Over $100mm of NOL will shield any patent litigation rewards and spectrum licensing revenue.

 

I haven't--the issue I have with the patent field is that it takes an extraordinary long time to figure out if a patent is valid, much less an entire portfolio.  Then you have to understand the competitor's product and what arguments will hold in court (takes a very long time).  Then the actual court or licensing results are very hard to predict.  If there are a few key patents that have survived litigation already, and gotten high licensing or verdicts, then it starts to get easier.  Overall though, I view the other stuff on the forum easier to understand and invest in than anything in my own field.

[rkbabang]

Digital ASIC designer (18 years).

 

[Guest valueInv]

IP law - 8 years. focus on wireless as of late.

 

Ever look at Straight Path Communication?  It is a spinoff from IDT Corp.  They are litigating against some of the biggest names in the tech space based on their patents related to communication over the internet.  I've spoken with the CFO and it is obvious that the patent litigation has near term catalysts.  I like the way how they structured the spinoff and outsourcing their litigation expenses on a contingent basis.  Their philosophy is to minimize cash burn.  Over $100mm of NOL will shield any patent litigation rewards and spectrum licensing revenue.

 

I haven't--the issue I have with the patent field is that it takes an extraordinary long time to figure out if a patent is valid, much less an entire portfolio.  Then you have to understand the competitor's product and what arguments will hold in court (takes a very long time).  Then the actual court or licensing results are very hard to predict.  If there are a few key patents that have survived litigation already, and gotten high licensing or verdicts, then it starts to get easier.  Overall though, I view the other stuff on the forum easier to understand and invest in than anything in my own field.

 

What do you think of the valuations that value investors attach to patents?