The Wall Street Bets due diligence on Wendy’s is gold.

The catalysts are:
◻️ The release of a new summer salad
◻️ The @Wendys Twitter account, which has mastered “meta pragmatic roasting” (which is effective with younger people)
◻️ The fact it literally sells chicken tendies

1/ Marcus Bullock went to prison in the mid-90s at the age of 15.

Today, he's the CEO of Flikshop -- the "Instagram for the Incarcerated", an alternative to the outrageously expensive phone call system.

This is a truly inspirational founder story 👇👇

2/ In 1996, Bullock was living in Maryland. One night, he and a friend carried out an armed carjacking on a man sitting idle in a shopping mall parking lot.

It was the biggest mistake of this life.

3/ Several years prior to hit actions, there was the famed 1989 Central Park "Jogger Case", in which 5 minority youths were (falsely) accused of raping a jogger.

In the aftermath, nearly every state passed new laws that made it easier for courts to try youth as adults.

4/ For the carjacking, Bullock was charged as an adult and served 8 years in prison.

With onerous prison phone charges ($18 / 15 mins), Bullock's mother kept in touch with him by sending a photo or letter every day.

"She saved me," he says of his mom's efforts.

5/ The $1.2B+ prison phone system is dominated by 2 PE-backed firms (Global Tel Link, Securus Tech).

For the right to operate these phones lines, prisons effectively pay kickbacks to state and local government. The highest kickbacks win bids, which drive up costs.

A Netflix user will browse the app for 90 seconds and leave if they find nothing.

Thumbnail artwork is actually NFLX's most effective lever to influence a viewer's choice. A user will look at one for only 1.8 seconds, so NFLX spends huge to optimize them.

Here's a breakdown🧵

1/ Spoiler alert: humans are visual animals.

Our eyes move 3-4x per second to process information and we can analyze an image in as little as 13 milliseconds.

2/ In 2014, Netflix consumer research showed that thumbnail artwork:

◻️ is "the biggest influencer...to watch content"
◻️ is the focus of 82% of browsing time

A user looks at one for only 1.8 seconds. If they can't find Netflix content in 90 seconds, they'll leave the app.

3/ Consequently, Netflix uses an elaborate thumbnail selection process for each of its 200m+ users.

The process is called aestethic visual analysis (AVA), which starts by pulling all the frames from a video.

For reference: a 1hr episode of "Stranger Things" has 86k frames.

4/ In a process known as "Frame Annotation", each frame is tagged with metadata identifying key variables:

◻️ Saliency
◻️ Frame #
◻️ Brightness / Contrast
◻️ Nudity probability
◻️ Face / skin tone

1/ Amazon is famous for its writing culture:

• "Mock press releases / FAQs" for new product pitches
• "6-page memos" instead of Powerpoint

Two former Amazon execs wrote a book called "Working Backwards" detailing the philosophy.

Here are some insights 🧵

2/ The "Working Backwards" playbook

Instead of creating a product then finding customers, Amazon asks "What does the customer need?" and works toward the product.

✅Customer need --> Create product
❌Create product --> Find customer

3/ Write a mock press release

To determine if the customer need makes biz sense, employees write a press release:

• What problem is the new product solving
• Why it's better than existing options

To persuade a customer, the document has to be jargon-free and tell a story.

4/ Press release forces big thinking

You don't write a press release for an incremental improvements.

Creating a product worthy of a press release means really solving a customer problem and going after markets with large TAMs.

5/ Include an FAQ in press release

Addressing every potential customer question can help identify hurdles to getting something to market...and also uncover opportunities.

“I spend too much at Starbucks” is a legendary meme.

It's also not an accident: the coffee retailer -- worth $120B -- uses many psychological hacks in its store and menu designs to get you to drop more cash.

Here are 11 of them 🧵

1/ Starbucks is all about positioning

The chain has higher prices vs competitors. But that's the point.

People typically assign higher value/quality to higher prices. Known as "irrational value assessment", this makes Starbucks an everyday luxury that people will pay for.

2/ Premium brand = premium customer base

By setting its prices higher, Starbucks attracts clientele that are relatively price insensitive.

Starbucks frequently raises its prices with little negative effect to its bottom line.

3/ "More than coffee"

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz created the premium feel by emphasizing experience:

◻️Positioned SBUX as a "third place" (b/t home, work)
◻️Brought bean grinding in-store (for aroma)
◻️Banned auto espresso machines (it took away from the barista craft)

4/ Lighting and visual cues

The Starbucks operations is about "flow", efficiently moving people around the store+ getting them to spend.

To form lines, it directs people to well-lit areas (usually the merchandise, which provides the added benefit of nudging products for sale).

The most memorable interview I did this year was w/ Stanley Druckenmiller, who famously made $1B shorting the British Pound.

The trading legend's track record includes a 30-year stretch returning 30%+ a year (without a single down year).

Here are 8 investing lessons🧵

1/ Make concentrated bets in high conviction plays

2/ Concentrated bets can sometimes *reduce* risk

3/ Use a multi-disciplinary approach to investing

4/ Know when to sell (he never uses a stop loss)

@itsTarH Get 3 such mails daily. Even know the youtubers who have been doing this. Personally avoid their channels like plague

P.s. we will rather close the channel than do this. Stupidity of the highest order for sending these mails or WhatsApps. Unethical.

Videocon is in Upper Circuit today. This makes sense because the max amount you can lose is only 7.6 rupees.

Anatomy of pump

Read below thread & articles

https://t.co/Zw9TDgFH8M

https://t.co/oeNhoq9fnz

https://t.co/DDRo4pP8O3

All identical. Many more links on net

Clearly co PR or cartel planting this misleading narrative on massive scale thru media/twitterati

Beware

#ccd

How did the debt come down :

1) sale of stake held by co in Mindtree to LnT for ~ 2700 cr. This was actually done when VGS was still alive. just months b4 his unfortunate death

2) sale of real estate asset global village tech park to blackstone for approx EV 2000 - 2500 cr

3) CDE lost controlling stake in its subsidiary Sical Logistics as lenders invoked collateral shares. SCL had debt of 1500 cr which used 2 add 2 CDE consolidated debt

But no control = SL no longer subsidiary = it's debt can't show in consol debt of CDE. Just an accounting thing

So as you can see, most debt reduction has come from selliing prime non core assets. Not operating cash flows!

And another 1500 cr debt disappeared from book because they lost control of a subsidiary due to defauls

Malavika Hegde is in a tough spot and may be fighting hard to save CDE. There still are some other non core assets which can b sold to pay dues. But overall the CCD biz is struggling - unlike what the current narratives being planted by someone are saying

When a consumer company advertises only on biz channels and not on GEC and mainstream channels, you should be alert about the management's intentions.

#investing