Quality Investing

Today's episode, produced in partnership with Stream by Alphasense, looks at graph databases. I am delighted to be joined by Gaurav Deshpande, Chief Marketing Officer at HyperTrack, and former VP of Marketing at TigerGraph, one of the companies discussed in today's episode.Rather than focus on one single company today, I felt it important to examine one of the megatrends that is occurring within databases that is affecting the ways in which companies perform data analysis and improve their real world business outcomes. From reduction in fraud, to the easement of managing complex supply chains. Graph databases are a fundamental technology, which even generative AI is entirely dependent upon. Please enjoy today's episode.

00:00 - Stream by Alphasense Promotion00:45 -- Disclosure01:29 -- API Basics04:34 -- Agora Basics07:22 -- Agora Competitive Advantages11:12 -- Market Size13:04 -- Recent Events15:56 -- Interview Begins / Tony's Background20:44 -- How has RTC Technology Evolved27:04 -- Agora the tool vs Zoom the product32:03 -- Agora vs. WebRTC37:38 -- Use Cases41:09 -- Market Size43:21 -- Competitive Advantages50:04 -- Developer Evangelism52:22 -- Infrastructure55:00 -- Market Growth Trajectory59:06 -- Recent Events01:08:28 -- Geopolitical Risks01:12:17 -- Fundamental Changes In The Last Few Years01:14:24 -- Final Question

In today's episode of the Quality Investing Podcast we will be profiling Acast and I will be joined by Acast's CEO Ross Adams.Today's sponsor is Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative datapoints that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time. If you have conducted expert calls in the past and are looking for ways to better allocate your time and energy then Stream might be a helpful addition to your toolkit.2:00 - Acast Basics6:05 - Ross Adams Interview Begins8:55 - Making the jump from Spotify to Acast9:49 - Acast's Evolution11:44 - How is Podcast Content Unique?13:56 - Podcasting and Influencer Marketing15:55 - Podcasting is Undermonetized; Why?19:32 - Acast's Core Value Proposition23:26 - Return on Investment for Advertisers26:14 - Open vs. Closed Podcast Ecosystem29:19 - Spotify vs. Acast: Commercialization Rights31:17 - Acast Competitive Advantages33:03 - US vs International Markets37:13 - New Developments39:07 - Competitive Threats41:15 - Short and Intermediate-Term Goals42:29 - Acast's Culture43:51 - Misunderstandings

In today's episode of the Quality Investing Podcast we will be profiling Raksul, and I will be joined by Raksul's CEO Yasukane Matsumoto.Today's sponsor is Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative datapoints that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time. If you have conducted expert calls in the past and are looking for ways to better allocate your time and energy then Stream might be a helpful addition to your toolkit.2:00 - General Overview2:52 - Printing Segment Overview6:06 - Better Systems, Better World6:45 - TV Commercial Segment8:12 - Financial Profile8:49 - Growth Opportunities12:09 - Conversation with Yasukane Matsumoto Begins15:13 - Reasons for Optimism and Pessimism in Japan17:26 - Founding Story of Raksul20:20 - Raksul Evolution24:35 - Better Systems, Better World28:33 - CEO Role Evolution32:42 - Internal Systems34:00 - Corporate Culture37:00 - Attention Allocation40:23 - Avoiding Dilution of Returns46:52 - Competitive Advantages for Printing Segment53:34 - Novasel58:10 - Novasel Competitive Advantages59:34 - Josys1:02:51 - Japanese Corporate Startup Differences1:05:16 - Group Leadership Style1:08:19 - What Matters Most Going Forward

In this episode I examine the infrastructure software company, HashiCorp. In Part One I lay out HashiCorp's value proposition, business model, and potential for competitive advantages. In Part Two [26:20] Kelsey Hightower joins me to test all of this research and try to determine what factors really matter to HashiCorp over the long-term.Today's episode is sponsored by Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative data points that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me, or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well-qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for most of the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because of there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time.------------------------------------Part 1: HashiCorp Analysis01:48 - HashiCorp Overview04:30 - Terraform06:25 - Vault08:32 - Consul10:13 - Adoption Process13:38 - Monetization17:44 - Unit Economics/Operating Leverage19:58 - Market Opportunity------------------------------------Part 2: Kelsey Hightower Q&A26:20 - Open-Source Business Model Evolution30:52 - HashiCorp's Evolution41:47 - HashiCorp's Ecosystem45:14 – Terraform vs. Pulumi56:07 – Vault 01:08:33 – Competition01:13:24 – HashiCorp’s Primary Advantage01:17:10 – Multi-Cloud Inevitability1:22:04 - HashiCorp vs. Cloud Providers01:23:59 – HashiCorp’s Dilemma01:30:06 – Cloud Platform01:33:43 – Switch Costs01:37:02 – New Functions/Product Maturity01:39:39 – De Facto Standard (yes or no?)01:44:46 – Consul01:53:20 – Biggest Opportunities/Risks for HashiCorp

This is a trailer for the Quality investing Podcast, coming soon in 2023!