Founder, Conversant Capital. Problem solving with great real estate & related companies across public & private markets. Views are my own; not investment advice
I am excited to share that we are kicking off a search for another analyst (or two) to join our investment team. Check out the job spec below.
If you know great candidates, please send them our way!
Please email: careers
@conversantcap
.com
What are companies that embody the Nick Sleep philosophy of ‘scale economies shared’, whether by giving back to customers, employees or other constituents?
Looking for others beyond the well-known Costco, Amazon, Southwest Airlines, Walmart, GEICO, etc.
I am excited to share that we are kicking off a search for another analyst to join our investment team.
Check out the job spec below!
Please email: careers
@conversantcap
.com
I was listening to
@marketplunger1
podcast with
@BenClaremon
; when asked who his favorite CEOs are, Ben responds with two relatively young ones.
And that got me thinking about CEOs with really long runways.
Who are the best CEOs under the age of 45?
I'm interested in the culture of the All Blacks, New Zealand's men's national rugby team. One of their core principles is to "practice under pressure", which can mean skill development or pressurized game scenarios.
What are ways investors "train" for pressurized game scenarios?
Conversant is thrilled to make a strategic investment in Crossroads Impact Corp alongside funds managed by P10 to drive growth across impact lending verticals as we work together to build the preeminent impact-focused specialty finance platform
$CRSS $PX
I really enjoyed this podcast.
Met
@_ram_
through an event hosted by
@patrick_oshag
&
@GrahamDuncanNYC
this summer. I really enjoyed Ram's thought process, so we did an intro call afterward. Now we talk often to compare notes (though we focus on different sectors). Sharp mind!
My conversation with
@_ram_
, the founder of Octahedron
- scope of the coming internet opportunity
- key levers in 8 internet business models 🤯
- the Carvana playbook
As a friend said “this morning’s pod is NOT a 1.5x listen.”
Ram’s passion is palpable
We’ve closed this strategic transaction with Capital Senior and are excited to partner with management and the refreshed Board of Directors to position the company for growth
$CSU $SNDA
Thank you, Hunter (
@rhunterh
), for publishing such a thoughtful piece on the senior living sector and for highlighting all the positive change that’s resulted from Sonida and Conversant’s partnership.
Lots more to do!
$SNDA
A vicious capital cycle has caught most senior living investors offside. Sonida $SNDA, along with their capital partner Conversant, have leaned against the wind creating a platform for growth just as demand ramps and distress works through the sector.
“As counter-cyclical investors, we are very excited about the Company’s increasingly active pipeline of acquisitions and look forward to partnering with banks and other asset owners as we continue to grow Sonida’s operating platform.”
$SNDA
We are extremely excited to provide strategic capital to Capital Senior Living and partner with its leadership team to enhance the balance sheet and position the company for growth! $CSU
Hi! We are searching for two new hires - one to join our finance & accounting team and one to join our investor relations team. Job specs to follow.
Email us at Careers
@Conversantcap
.com
@FundamentEdge
Thanks, Brett
Seems like it's about having (i) a differentiated view on the direction of travel and the destination and (ii) a strong view on the probability of reaching the destination
Proud of the Quinn & Conversant teams for executing this new financing in the current environment! Looking forward to partnering with JPMorgan and the rest of the bank group as we continue to grow Quinn
Today Fifth Wall Acquisition Corp. I ($FWAA) announced that we have agreed to merge with
@SmartRentdotcom
in a deal with an equity value of $2.2B. The combined company will be publicly traded, bringing smart home tech to the global real estate industry.
This is a really inspiring conversation on self-reflection, happiness and finding your why. Do hard things: the suffering often has a deeper purpose.
One I’ll probably listen to a few times!
NEW podcast episode is up!
"Arthur C. Brooks (
@arthurbrooks
) — How to Be Happy, Reverse Bucket Lists, The Four False Idols, Muscular Philosophies, Practical Inoculation Against the Darkness, and More"
Enjoy! 🙌
Today Quinn Residences announced the final closing of Conversant's investment into the company. We are thrilled to partner with Monarch Alternative Capital and other strategic investors to further accelerate Quinn's growth
Congratulations to Indus Realty ($INDT) on its continued evolution. The company today announced its name/ticker change (from $GRIF) and its REIT conversion
1/ Thread: The Case for Optimism
I started my weekend with this deeply intriguing piece by Kevin Kelly.
I would like to leave my notes here because I know I want to remember and often remind myself many of the following quotes.
@plaffont
@GavinSBaker
Approximately zero.
These “high yielders”, at least in RE (aimed at the retail crowd), tend to run the Red Queen’s race. Self-selecting poor houses in the worst neighborhoods just to meet their promised dividend yield. Dividend yield ought to be the output, not the input!
@ReustleMatt
@InvestLikeBest
Thank you for the kind words, Matt! I really enjoyed chatting with Patrick about some of our investment frameworks and the real estate landscape today
@patrick_oshag
In the
@nickkokonas
episode (excellent by the way), he discusses knowing what you’re selling and knowing the customer. This seems lost to most in the investment management business. Given all the investors you’ve interviewed, who is the best at articulating what they’re selling?
Investors expecting management to get capital allocation exactly right is like LPs expecting investors to outperform all the time. Instead, investors should want management to have a capital allocation framework, just like LPs should want investors to have an investment process.
1/17 Too many investors chase concepts instead of real companies. Too many people think the stock market is only for Big Money. Too many investors focus on trading rather than holding really good businesses.
A good friend of mine, quoting his PM, once said that there are three types of businesses:
- Bad businesses
- Good businesses
- Great businesses
True alpha is generated when you're able to spot a business transitioning between those buckets
I think about that constantly
I was re-reading this
@JamesClear
article. Of the many great takeaways, one is “read the great books twice”.
Which books do you think are worth reading for a second or third time?
@Post_Market
Awesome!
This reminds me
@dhmeyer
’s 5 tenants of enlightened hospitality (take care of each other —> guests —> community —> suppliers —> investors)
And
Issy Sharp’s (four seasons founder) view of empowering employees first
A thread on things I’ve read over the years that have resonated with me, influenced my investing & made me rethink things. Will add to it over time
(Didn’t include the names of authors, so you can judge the passages based on their own merits)
Some of the topics include...
@MadsenSouth
@DennisHong17
After seeing these tweets + listening to Brian’s presentation & Seides podcast, I reached out. We spoke for an hour today. What a good guy, and very grateful for his time and his insights about building a world-class firm. Looking forward to speaking with him again soon
“Emerging Compounders”
Deep dive into qualitative aspects of the business as the answer is not yet evident in the historical financials
Studying comparables with similar business characteristics is instructive to illustrate a prospective path
Looking for inflection points
@MylesDanielsen
That’s our point of view!
Our Partners are our key and sustainable competitive advantage.
Here are 3 excerpts on this most important topic from our Founder’s Letter.
@patrick_oshag
Giving credit where credit is due:
@LennyIce
originally shared it with me!
I also enjoyed his framing of mental toughness: “the ability to focus on the next most important thing”.
The best playbooks for 20 baggers are:
A) deeply destroyed sector, with 10yrs + time spent in the wilderness
B) the cycle implosive was so severe that research coverage is pretty much zero near the cycle bottom
C) reversion to mean a certainty as demand achieves new highs
1/2
@PinkPoloShorts
@plaffont
@GavinSBaker
I don't view these as high yield to "protect the stock" and view that as more as the output vs input dynamic (positive spread investing means growing dividend over time) I mentioned above
@breadcrumbsre
I found this video which highlights the 'unlearning process' and shows how our brains can be re-wired. The video shows unlearning how to ride a bike and learning how to ride a ‘backwards bike’.
"History has shown that investors’ perception of
future rent growth is a bigger driver of the direction
of yields than interest rates.
In other words, if investors believe rents will continue
to grow at recent robust levels, they will keep buying at low yields"
-Yardi Matrix
@MrMojoRisinX
No doubt the biggest lesson for me over last several years.
So many out here talking about value vs growth, instead of direction of the numbers. Here’s Bruce Lee on the topic: