Speedwell Weekly Recap
Speedwell Weekly Recap
Edition #10: Sponsored AI, 15th Century Turtle Boats, Prime Air, Solar Flars, Moutain Climbing Tools, Roulette from Riga, iPods, and New Podcast Episodes & Memos
Welcome to Speedwell Research’s Newsletter. We write about business and investing. Our paid research product can be found at SpeedwellResearch.com. You can learn more about us here.
This is a weekly recap, where we summarize recent content you may have missed.
In this weekly recap, we share some Twitter feedback on our business & investing memos, summarize key points in an Evolution Tweetstorm, and touch on a lot of newly released content like our Floor & Decor Podcast and half a dozen memos, as well as share many links!
Also, coming up, a new Dialogue podcast on Google and a new company podcast on Evolution (follow us on Apple, Spotify). We also will be releasing our next research report on Coupang later this month, so stay tuned!
The Synopsis
We recently released a company episode on Floor & Decor.
Floor & Decor: The Costco of Flooring
In this podcast on Floor & Decor, Speedwell Research covers everything from its founding as a single store in Atlanta, Georgia to becoming the leading hard surface flooring specialty chain retailer. We draw on Speedwell Research’s 57-page research report to teach not just about the flooring industry and Floor & Decor’s interlocking business model, but also about competitive dynamics and how to think about store level unit economics. We hope you enjoy!
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get your Podcasts!
Article Podcasts
We’ve also recently released a new podcast format, where we read our weekly memos on the podcast for those who prefer to listen. We are also going to slowly work through the backlog of memos to add more, in addition to the new one released every Friday morning!
Just look for the podcast episodes that are labeled “Article”. We currently have seven!
Recent Memos
As you probably noticed, we have been publishing a lot more recently! Check out all of our recent memos below! The Tweets below are commenting on each respective memo.
Assessing Risks to Google's Business Model and How AI Imapcts the Competitive Landscape
Solar Flares, Aswath Damodaran, 75bps 2022 Fed Funds, The Pentagon Papers, Buffett's Washington Post Investment
Reading into Commentary from Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on Hurdle Rates
Clay Christensen, Ben Thompson, the iPhone, A&P, Bloomberg Terminals, Prime Air and AWS.
New Business Philosophy Concept
Looking at Home Depot's 2003 store goals from an investor's perspective in 1999
All of these memos are available to listen to on our Podcast, The Synopsis (Apple, Spotify)
Evolution
We recently released our Evolution report. The Tweet thread below gives more info on the company. You can buy the full 74-page report here. Our next company episode featured on The Synopsis will be Evolution. (Follow the podcast here: Apple, Spotify)
1/ Everyone says the house always wins. But that’s because they haven’t encountered the world of online gambling.
2/ While in theory players choose to play at a specific online casino, just like they choose to play at a land-based casino, in practice the casino game supplier sways where the players end up.
3/ This creates a rivalry between game supplier and casino operator for the player’s loyalty. So when asking “What happens when you combine one world’s oldest and most profitable businesses with the scale the internet brings?”…
4/ It turns out the answer is the casino operator gets squeezed and increasingly commoditized to the benefit of the biggest game supplier, whose business boasts ~100% free cash flow conversion, 100%+ ROIC, 60%+ margins, and revenues that have grown at a 50% CAGR since 2013.
5/ This game supplier is Evolution. ( $EVO $EVVTY) When they were founded, they didn’t focus on more populated verticals like sports betting or digital slots, but instead created their own category: live casino.
6/ They were the pioneers in the live casino space, which combined real-world dealers who dealt cards in opulent studios with livestreams so players could bet through the internet.
7/ The live casino space isn’t just about gambling, it requires building competencies in multiple domains: streaming high fidelity video, software development, creating innovative games, managing thousands of employees, & producing games as if they were television shows
8/ Evolution has grown an incredibly profitable business and, defying management and investor expectations, margins have expanded every year. But as Jeff Bezos says, “Your margin is my opportunity”, and a 60%+ margin is a lot of opportunity.
9/ Over 40 companies have entered the live casino space with the sole aim of stealing share from Evolution, and they are more than happy to undercut Evolution’s premium pricing. And Casino Operators are just itching for the opportunity to reduce their reliance on Evolution.
10/ After 12 consecutive years of winning the Best Live Casino Supplier award, Evolution lost the past two years. So, will Evolution be able to retain their premium pricing and market share with competitive intensity increasing?
11/ In our 74-page Evolution report, we go into great detail to address this question, in addition to much more! Become a Speedwell Member today to gain access to Evolution, in addition to full reports on CSU, FND, CPRT, RH, META, and more!
Other Evolution Tweets
Other Tweets
2023 Year End Review
In case you missed it, we released a 2023 Year-End Review.
Published 178,100 words
Recorded >11 hours of content
4 Podcast features,
Our Research Report was mentioned on an earnings call.
Interesting Links
These are select links from Kevin G’s A Letter a Day.
Letter #137: Reece Duca and Bob Casey (2023)
Letter #139: Sam Altman (2017)
Letter #140: Satya Nadella (2014)
Letter #142: Philippe Laffont, Bill Gurley, and Jeff Sine (2013)
Letter #143: Charlie Munger and Todd Combs (2022)
Letter #144: Dara Khosrowshahi (2019)
Letter #146: Marc Rowan (2009)
Letter #147: Tim Cook and Dua Lipa (2023)
Letter #150: Stephen Mandel and Garrett Moran (2020)
Compilations
For those that don’t know, you can find one of the most comprehensive and thorough archives of everything many great investors, entrepreneur, and founders have ever said at Kevin G’s Compilations. Some compilations include:
And many more! Full list can be found here.
Thank you for reading this weeks weekly recap! For any questions, comments, or feedback, feel free to reach out to us at info@speedwellresearch.com