What matters in Investing -Think like an owner
Investing is being a part-owner in a business
Talked with SumZero on opportunities we are seeing in Ujjivan Financial and CSB Bank
2017 - Annual Letter
Self-evaluation and key learnings of 2017
Pilgrimage to Omaha
Why? What are my goals?
1. Partnership
My approach towards my investors is that of a partnership. In the current setup, I am the General Partner while my investors are Limited Partners. However, my key consideration is always to ensure that structure (fees, communication) would be acceptable by me if our roles were to be reversed. This principle borrows heavily from what Warren Buffett has laid out in his Owners Manual – “Though our form is corporate our approach is a partnership.”
A partnership only works if it is fair and partners feel that they are getting appropriately rewarded. Our focus at DoorDarshi is to make money with our investors rather than from them. Hence, our fees are driven based on the performance of the fund with a hurdle. The more money our partners make, the more money we make.
2. Long-Term Orientation
In a world where everyone has all the information, we have to stake out our competitive advantage. The key one that we have is a long-term orientation. We primarily invest in companies where the thesis may play out over many years. This reduces the competition and allows us to enjoy our returns over the long-term.
We carry the same approach when we work with our investors/partners. We would rather have one investor for ten years rather than twenty investors for one year. This allows us to take a long-term view of our relationship with our investors. Hence, all our focus is on maximizing the duration of our relationship with our investors by behaving well.
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3. Work with good people, discourage others
We are lucky to do what we love. We are also lucky to do it with people who are experts in their field and for whom we have a lot of admiration and respect. We find that welcoming good partners provides us new insights, helps raise our game and gives us that extra boost of energy. We can also lean on them when we need suggestions or a kind word. Warren Buffett has a famous saying, “It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction.”
We apply this approach even in our investing. We invest more money in our best ideas. These ideas are chosen based on their attractiveness from a future return perspective. The key advantage of this approach is that it allows us to know our top positions better and take advantage of the decent returns that will come from those positions.
4. Be Different
In the investing world, many fund managers are closet benchmark funds. They want to mirror the benchmarks to avoid looking inferior to them. Through this behavior, they end up with bad results because of the costs associated with running the fund.
Our approach couldn't be more different. We don't look at what is in the benchmark or index. We ignore highly promoted stock and that by definition includes IPO and the stock which is the latest fad. We only look at companies with the following characteristics:
a. Business which we can understand.
b. Management who is competent and whose incentives are similar to that of minority shareholders.
c. With a long runway for growth
d. Compelling valuation
Alternatively, it could be a special situation.
By training ourselves to stand apart from the crowd, we are able to better see how the crowd is behaving. It also reduces the "Institutional imperative" which forces most institutions to follow what others are doing.
5. Continuous Learning
Jeff Bezos of Amazon says, "It's always day one at Amazon." This mindset is even more important in Investing where things are changing continuously - the price of the stock is changing, the company's business is changing and the business environment is changing. To be able to succeed in such an endeavor one needs to be humble and learn continuously.
We love learning and it is one of the attributes that pulled us towards investing. We learn, not just to succeed in investing but also to succeed in life. We subscribe to Charlie Munger's quote, “I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than when they got up. And boy does that help — particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.”
Our investment partners come to us for our track record and our values. However, they will stay with us for our future returns and our behavior. Hence, our willingness to learn and adapt will be a critical factor that will determine our success.
What matters in Investing - Having patience
Patience is critical for success
VALUES
2020 Q1 Letter
INTERVIEWS
Interview with Finology on Case for Indian Equities
2020 ANNUAL LETTER
Self-evaluation and key learnings of 2020
2019 Q2 Letter
2018 - Annual Letter
Self-evaluation and key learnings of 2018
INSIGHTS on INDIA, MAY 2021
PRESENTATION to IIM AHMEDABAD, IIM BANGALORE AND IIM CALCUTTA
Presentation at Asian Summit 2017 ON Chaman Lal SETIA
TALK AT ISB - INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 2021
UJJIVAN FINANCIAL SERVICES presented at sumzero, 2021
What matters in Investing
Factors that drive success
RANKED #1 on SUMZERO out of 15,000+ analysts in May 2023:
- #1 in South and East Asia
- #1 in Financials
- #1 in Special Situations
- #1 in Micro Cap
IDFC presented at Sumzero, 2020
presentation at Asian Summit 2021 on KAVERI SEEDS
interview with Accidental Investor on Navigating uncertainties and Seizing Opportunities
top ranked analysts on sumzero
JM Financial presented at Sumzero, 2019
Presentation at the 20-20 accelerator summit 2022 on Ujjivan SFB
Value Investing Lecture to IIM Lucknow MBA class, 2016
interview with Accidental Investor on Value Beyond Boundaries
Our Research Performance on sumzero since 2017 is given above
- Our ideas have generated on average 85% total return
- Our ideas on average have beaten the benchmark by 67%
- The median annualized return of our research ideas has been 38%
Happy New Year - 2017
1-pager on the key learning from 2016
Warren Buffett's 2019 Letter and Berkshire Valuation
What matters in Investing - Filtering out noise
Inversion as a tool is under-appreciated
Value Investing Lecture at IIM Lucknow - 2018
DoorDarshi Advisors
"Put Money to Work"
presentation at Asian investing Summit 2022 on ujjivan financial
SATIN pesented at Sumzero, 2020
Infinite Computer Solutions presented at Sumzero, 2017
Write-ups
Presentation at the Indian Investing Conclave
Recognition
presentation at Asian Summit 2020 ON krbl
Einstein has said, "Compounding is the eighth wonder of the world." We are here to help you experience the 8th wonder by taking advantage of the opportunities in Indian equities.
DoorDarshi Advisors is the General Partner of DoorDarshi India Fund - a US-based hedge fund that focuses on investing in Indian equities. We seek to deliver superior returns by investing in compelling opportunities in Indian equities over the long term. If you would like to learn more about the fund please feel free to write to us at