Joys of Compounding

Our teacher today is Luca Ferrari, co-founder and CEO of Bending Spoons.

Luca spent more than a decade quietly building Bending Spoons in Italy into one of the best operators and acquirers of software businesses in the world, and we talk about why going slow early helped, how they hire people who act like owners, why they would happily buy shrinking companies at high returns, how AI lets small teams run big businesses, and what drives him to keep building.

Please enjoy class with Luca Ferrari.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by https://www.portraitanalytics.ai/ - your centralized resource for AI-powered idea generation, thesis monitoring, and personalized report building.

Built by buy-side investors, for investment professionals. We work in the background, helping surface stock ideas and thesis signposts to help you monetize every insight. In short, we help you understand the story behind the stock chart, and get to "go, or no-go" 10x faster than before.

Sign-up for a free trial today at https://www.portraitresearch.com

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Joys of Compounding is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Joys of Compounding, visit⁠ colossus.com/episodes⁠.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠).

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠@Buhrman_Rick⁠ | ⁠@PaulBuser⁠ | ⁠@colossusmag

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Welcome to Joys of Compounding

(00:00:53) Becoming the Best Operator in the World

(00:03:33) How Bending Spoons Measures Success

(00:05:58) Why Bootstrapping Was an Advantage

(00:10:30) Aiming for Something Massive

(00:13:35) Delayed Gratification

(00:14:53) Hiring for Extreme Ownership

(00:20:08) Scaling Without Centralizing Decisions

(00:25:03) How AI Changes the Work

(00:27:23) Why They Buy Instead of Build

(00:31:08) Why the Market Fixates on Organic Growth

(00:33:31) Ignoring What the Market Likes

(00:37:35) Happy to Buy Shrinking Companies

(00:40:56) Avoiding the Law of Large Numbers

(00:45:09) Reinventing Every Decade

(00:49:42) Keeping Ownership as Teams Shrink

(00:51:40) Finding the Right Shareholders

(00:53:29) Why Going Public Helped

(00:55:20) What Drives Luca

Our teachers today are Frank Cogliano, Brendan McConville, and Patrick Griffin, three of the world's leading historians of the American Revolution and contributors to The American Revolution at 250, a new collection of essays Frank edited for UVA Press.

Frank, Brendan, and Patrick compare the bicentennial they watched as kids in 1976 with the mood of 2026 and explain why almost nobody saw independence coming in 1774. They make the case that the Revolution succeeded because it paired Enlightenment optimism with a hard-eyed view of human nature, never promising a perfect republic, and they trace how committees built for resistance quietly became a government. They unpack what Dunmore's Proclamation did to the system of slavery, debate whether a country can hold together without its founding myths, and close with Frederick Douglass, a naturalization ceremony at Mount Vernon, and what gives each of them hope for America at 250.

Please enjoy class with Frank, Brendan, and Patrick.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠.

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This episode is brought to you by https://www.portraitanalytics.ai/ - your centralized resource for AI-powered idea generation, thesis monitoring, and personalized report building.

Built by buy-side investors, for investment professionals. We work in the background, helping surface stock ideas and thesis signposts to help you monetize every insight. In short, we help you understand the story behind the stock chart, and get to "go, or no-go" 10x faster than before.

Sign-up for a free trial today at https://www.portraitresearch.com

-----

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep — the Pod is a smart mattress cover designed to improve sleep by automatically cooling or heating your bed throughout the night. Built on the science that your body needs to cool down to reach deep sleep, it tracks your sleep and adjusts in real time to help you get better rest, recovery, and overall sleep quality. No wearables required.

Get $500 off when you go to https://www.eightsleep.com/joys and get their biggest discount of the year.

-----

Joys of Compounding is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Joys of Compounding, visit⁠ colossus.com/episodes⁠.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠).

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠@Buhrman_Rick⁠ | ⁠@PaulBuser⁠ | ⁠@colossusmag

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Welcome to Joys of Compounding

(00:00:53) Episode Intro: America at 250

(00:02:06) A rare combination of humility, humor, and intellect

(00:05:06) How the book came together and what 1976 felt like

(00:09:45) Watching the tall ships from the Jersey City waterfront

(00:16:00) A republic that never aimed for perfection

(00:21:19) Jefferson has more faith in us than we have in ourselves

(00:24:35) Bewilderment and living through history without knowing it

(00:26:02) A golden age of understanding the Revolution's global impact

(00:27:13) Was the Revolution inevitable?

(00:31:50) How institutions built for resistance became a government

(00:36:35) Dunmore's Proclamation and the disruption of slavery

(00:44:43) Are founding myths necessary or dangerous?

(00:49:37) Anyone can become an American

(00:53:23) Holding the tension between ideals and failures

(00:58:37) A Case for Redemption and Frederick Douglass

(01:02:06) What gives you hope about America right now?

(01:09:35) Closing thoughts

Our teacher today is A.J. Rohde, senior partner at Thoma Bravo, one of the largest software-focused private equity funds in the world.

A.J. shares stories and lessons learned from his time investing in private equity - including why Thoma Bravo hires tennis players like him, and how playing in a band when he was younger helps make deals happen today. He talks through the fundamental disconnect between software company fundamentals and valuations in the market, and why he expects investors to reallocate toward SaaS when the AI trade cools off. Plus, why Thoma Bravo hires tennis players.

Please enjoy class with A.J. Rohde.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Portrait Analytics - your centralized resource for AI-powered idea generation, thesis monitoring, and personalized report building.

Built by buy-side investors, for investment professionals. We work in the background, helping surface stock ideas and thesis signposts to help you monetize every insight. In short, we help you understand the story behind the stock chart, and get to "go, or no-go" 10x faster than before.

Sign-up for a free trial today at https://www.portraitresearch.com

-----

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep — the Pod is a smart mattress cover designed to improve sleep by automatically cooling or heating your bed throughout the night. Built on the science that your body needs to cool down to reach deep sleep, it tracks your sleep and adjusts in real time to help you get better rest, recovery, and overall sleep quality. No wearables required.
Use the code JOYS at for up to $350 off the Pod 5.

-----

Joys of Compounding is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Joys of Compounding, visit⁠ colossus.com/episodes⁠.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠).

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠@Buhrman_Rick⁠ | ⁠@PaulBuser⁠ | ⁠@colossusmag

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Welcome to Joys of Compounding

(00:03:24) Why Thoma Bravo Recruits Tennis Players

(00:13:45) A Detroit Kid Finding His Sport

(00:18:01) Drumming as an Outlet

(00:26:08) The Spirit of Philadelphia

(00:31:26) Complimenting a Blind Spot

(00:35:32) Buying Licenses for Air

(00:45:04) Constants Across Five Decades of Software

(00:51:00) Underwriting a Ten-Year Hold

(00:59:24) The Death of Playbooks

(01:05:34) Data That Survives Hype Cycles

(01:13:50) Proof of Resilience

(01:22:01) How Range Makes a Better Investor

Our teacher today is Nilam Ganenthiran, founder and CEO of Beacon, a centrally managed technology holding company that acquires the vertical software businesses serving the real economy.

Nilam shares the immigrant story that shaped him and why trust becomes the scarce resource as AI turns competence into a commodity. He revisits the hard lessons of his eight years building Instacart, from leading in wartime to the morning Amazon bought Whole Foods. And he lays out the thesis behind Beacon, the bet that distribution and trust hold their value even as the cost of building technology falls, and why he sees a holding company as the right vessel to serve the parts of the economy that technology too often forgets.

Please enjoy class with Nilam Ganenthiran.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠.

-----

This episode is brought to you by https://www.portraitanalytics.ai/ - your centralized resource for AI-powered idea generation, thesis monitoring, and personalized report building.

Built by buy-side investors, for investment professionals. We work in the background, helping surface stock ideas and thesis signposts to help you monetize every insight. In short, we help you understand the story behind the stock chart, and get to "go, or no-go" 10x faster than before.

Sign-up for a free trial today at https://www.portraitresearch.com

-----

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep — the Pod is a smart mattress cover designed to improve sleep by automatically cooling or heating your bed throughout the night. Built on the science that your body needs to cool down to reach deep sleep, it tracks your sleep and adjusts in real time to help you get better rest, recovery, and overall sleep quality. No wearables required.

 Now through July 12th, get $500 off when you go to https://www.eightsleep.com/joys with Eight Sleep's Fourth of July sale and get their biggest discount of the year. 

-----

Joys of Compounding is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Joys of Compounding, visit⁠ colossus.com/episodes⁠. 

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠).

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠@Buhrman_Rick⁠  | ⁠@PaulBuser⁠ | ⁠@colossusmag

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Welcome to Joys of Compounding

(00:04:38) Episode Intro: Nilam Ganenthiran 

(00:05:46) Why trust outlasts competence in the age of AI

(00:07:48) From Kuala Lumpur to Canada

(00:11:08) Why Canada

(00:14:16) From grocery cashier to P&G to HBS

(00:24:09) Parenting, serendipity, and the loss of free play

(00:27:11) Joining Instacart and selling a vision

(00:30:02) The hard lessons of eight years at Instacart

(00:35:24) Leading in wartime

(00:39:15) The day Amazon bought Whole Foods

(00:45:08) Becoming the unlikely ambassador for an industry

(00:47:05) Leaving Instacart and learning to invest at D1

(00:51:29) Building Beacon

(01:00:15) Permanent capital 

(01:03:36) Building a founder-led team

(01:10:02) Is software dead

(01:14:03) The M&A machine and the operating system

(01:19:50) The right tail and the blurring of software and services

(01:24:22) Innovating with Main Street customers

(01:29:33) Advice for the young and ambitious

Our teachers today are Annalise Dragic and Zoe Zhao, co-founders of Azlin Software, a next-generation serial acquirer of B2B vertical software companies focused on the providers of essential services and care for families.

Annalise and Zoe share how their friendship evolved into a co-founding partnership, the 150 conversations with founders and investors that shaped Azlin from a blank page, and the four values they distilled into the acronym CARE. They explain why they chose family services as their first vertical, what culture-led and technology-led growth look like inside a company of companies, and the role of their AI agent Lumos in keeping the team intentionally lean.

The conversation also covers their first acquisition of Fusemetrix, a UK software business serving leisure and attraction operators, the shareholder base they have assembled including Nic Humphries of HG Capital, Mitch Rales, and Will Thorndike, and the equity-efficient permanent capital structure they have designed to align every party for the long term.

Please enjoy class with Annalise Dragic and Zoe Zhao.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print magazine and private audio experience, including exclusive profiles and early access to select episodes. Subscribe at ⁠colossus.com/subscribe⁠.

-----

This episode is brought to you by https://www.portraitanalytics.ai/ - your centralized resource for AI-powered idea generation, thesis monitoring, and personalized report building.

Built by buy-side investors, for investment professionals. We work in the background, helping surface stock ideas and thesis signposts to help you monetize every insight. In short, we help you understand the story behind the stock chart, and get to "go, or no-go" 10x faster than before.

Sign-up for a free trial today at https://www.portraitresearch.com

-----

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep — the Pod is a smart mattress cover designed to improve sleep by automatically cooling or heating your bed throughout the night. Built on the science that your body needs to cool down to reach deep sleep, it tracks your sleep and adjusts in real time to help you get better rest, recovery, and overall sleep quality. No wearables required.

Use the code JOYS at https://www.eightsleep.com/joys for up to $350 off the Pod 5.

-----

Joys of Compounding is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Joys of Compounding, visit⁠ colossus.com/episodes⁠. 

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠).

Follow us on Twitter: ⁠@Buhrman_Rick⁠  | ⁠@PaulBuser⁠ | ⁠@colossusmag

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Welcome to Joys of Compounding

(00:04:38) Episode Intro: Annalise and Zoe

(00:06:00) Friends First, Co-Founders Second

(00:07:45) How Annalise and Zoe Met

(00:08:53) Should Co-Founders Be Similar or Complementary?

(00:10:06) Tech & Investing Backgrounds

(00:12:57) Annalise's Journey From LinkedIn to Investing

(00:14:08) When Entrepreneurship Took Hold

(00:16:29) Building With a Close Friend

(00:18:33) Defining & Managing Burnout

(00:20:46) Beyond the Resume

(00:24:25) The Mentors Behind the Founders

(00:27:34) The Nic Humphries Effect

(00:29:34) Lessons From Visma

(00:31:48) The Co-Founder Questionnaire

(00:34:36) Why Choose B2B Software?

(00:35:51) The 150-Person Benchmarking Exercise

(00:37:14) Pioneering as Female Founders

(00:39:25) The Name Behind Azlin

(00:40:58) Azlin's Vision in Two Words

(00:42:10) Why Acquire, Not Just Invest

(00:45:40) What Makes a Great Target

(00:46:16) The CARE Values

(00:47:44) Investing in Family Services

(00:51:28) Culture as a Multiplier

(00:53:21) Building AI-Native From Day One

(00:58:15) The Case for Equity Efficiency

(01:02:49) When AI Isn't the Answer

(01:04:58) Surprises From the AI Wave

(01:06:52) Aligning Incentives for the Long-Term

(01:11:35) Acquiring FuseMetrix

(01:12:32) Life After the First Deal

(01:14:27) The Levers of Compounding

(01:17:24) A Compounder of Compounders