I’m a British investor currently working in the healthcare sector and still in the early stages of my career. After becoming increasingly frustrated with the dire state of bank account savings rates (back in 2018, before they briefly became even worse), I started looking into investing as an alternative. After initially making small investments in publicly-traded U.K. businesses, over time I was exposed to the depth of the U.S. stock market via the Motley Fool, eventually deciding to turn my focus to investing in U.S. software companies (for entirely the wrong reasons) in late 2019.

There are a few, largely selfish, reasons for writing this blog:

  • I want a (public) historical record of my investment thinking. I want to understand the reasons behind my past decisions, good or (more likely) bad, in order to better inform those I make in the future. It’ll also just be plain interesting to see what I was thinking in moments of extreme market volatility. The public aspect of it is to hold myself accountable both for the decisions themselves (e.g. minimise emotional investments) and the cadence of updates.

  • I’d like to grow a network of readers with whom I can discuss investments. I stumbled into the investing world with few expectations but a lot of curiosity. Unfortunately there’s still a certain stigma surrounding investing in the U.K., well covered in this Investment Talk piece, that’s made it hard to share that. It’s my hope that this blog will help in that regard. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter for a mix of stock commentary and lighter-hearted takes (my DM’s are open):

  • I want to get better at writing. One of my favourite Paul Graham essays is ‘Putting Ideas into Words’, in which he makes the case for the medium of writing as a way of critically examining your own thinking. By posting, my aim is to more deeply understand topics that I may otherwise convince myself I have understood, whereupon questioning my explanation turns out to be a babbling mess. By writing about my findings I hope to either educate or, more likely, highlight a blind spot.

And now for some caveats. Do not read this newsletter if you:

  • Are looking for deep technical dives on software businesses. There are many better corners of the internet that are far more capable of doing this. The writers behind hhhypergrowth and SSI (Software Stack Investing) both have deep personal expertise in the sector and have produced an incredible number of excellent free-to-access articles.
  • Are looking for investment advice. Everyone’s financial circumstances are unique - my coverage of any particular business is not a recommendation to buy shares.
  • Hate the idea of investing. That’s sort of a core topic.

I think that’s everything covered. I hope I manage to bring some small amount of value to the vast world of investment content. If there’s anything you think I’ve got horribly wrong or if you just want to say ‘hi’, please do get in touch!