Transcript
Introduction
Patrick
My guest this week is Michael Duda, and the topic of our conversation is the role that brands play in business and investing. Michael has worked on and invested in a wide range of brands, including Birchbox, Casper, Harry's, Citibank, DirecTV, Google, TripAdvisor, Under Armour, and Vineyard Vines. His background in advertising made this a unique and interesting conversation. Please enjoy.
Michael
So Bullish is an early stage consumer investment firm who really focuses on the consumer and the power of the brand to create superior returns, and probably the most telling thing, I could say, why we exist is we're a bunch of ad guys for the most part. I spent many years at Deutsch, and most people listening think Deutsch, nope Donny Deutsch and Deutsch Advertising. I just remember seeing a lot of Wall Street people and reading their reports, and you kept getting the sense that marketing is an expense. I was like, "Why is that? That's wrong, that's ridiculous." As I'm huffing and puffing about it, then I look at our business model, it's, "Wait, they're right." Agencies like law firms get paid for the time that it takes to create ads or outputs, but no correlations to the outcomes.