Hi, I’m Guy Spier

Welcome to my personal online home.

I manage the Aquamarine Fund. We have $350 million in assets and around 150 investors – a group that includes friends and family, but also others who have decided to join me in this journey.

A few years ago I authored a book titled “The Education of a Value Investor”.

More broadly, I am on a quest for wealth, wisdom and enlightenment.

I host an annual investment gathering called, VALUEx in Klosters, Switzerland.

I also write, host a podcast, speak occasionally and host an email list.

Getting in touch:

If you:

  • are interested to invest with me, you fill out this form before we can talk to you.
  • want to attend VALUEx, you need to be connected with and known to current members of the community.
  • want to talk about investments, or have investment ideas: I’m certainly interested. A good idea can come from anywhere, and I appreciate your thinking of me. You need to write the idea up. The write-up does not have to be long or extensive. But it needs to be in writing – something that I can read and evaluate.
  • want to be mentored or discuss job and career matters: I love creating opportunities for hard-working, smart people, but there is a limit on my bandwidth. There are only so many inbound messages that I and my staff can respond to. I hope you will understand that we can’t get to all of them.And: whatever your reason for getting in touch, please read this piece by Patrick McKenzie first.

 

My now(s)


Podcast and YouTube Channel

I’ve enjoyed starting a podcast. I have also started a YouTube channel.

The goal is not so much to create a show as it is to use the medium as a way of learning in public.

You can listen to it here:

Investing and Investment Research

I want to learn more about the following industries/areas:

  • Cloud computing
  • SAAS
  • Cybersecurity
  • Luxury Goods
  • Credit Ratings
  • Elevators
  • Stock Exchanges

If you think you can teach me something, send me a message. And feel free to join my (experimental) personal slack channel:

People I’ve been learning from
(in addition to investors I like to learn from)
William Green is the amazing author of Richer, Wiser Happier – and who started a podcast with Preston and Stig. William collaborated with me on my book and also edits my annual letters to investors.
James Currier is my guru on Network Effects
Anne Laure Le Cunff is my guru on the use of Roam Research, and on Digital Gardens.

 

Scuttlebutt

I’m also exploring how to use new social media to do better investment research – especially when it comes to scuttlebutt. And so I’m experimenting with the following media:

  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Email
  • Expert Networks
  • Podcasts

Knowledge Management

Much of the above spills into the area of Personal Knowledge Management and I’ve become a big fan of

I have started using Roam Research as a regular companion. I’m excited to see how things develop as the personal knowledge base gets deeper. I have lifted some excerpts which you can see here

I still use Evernote and have many Moleskine ruled notebooks that are filled with “fleeting notes”. I am working my way through them.

Books

I published a list of useful books in the bibliography of my own book. But that was more than eight years ago. I’m impressed with people like Derek Sivers and Pat Collison who keep visitors updated on what books they have been reading.

In the past, I used to order pretty much every book that I came across that was interesting – and so I have a pretty large anti-library. But reading Soenke Ahrens and others switched me on to the danger of the collector’s trap – in which one simply collects containers of knowledge but does not process them. Today I do it slightly differently – I’ll make notes on the book, and why it might make sense to read it. Then I might order it later.  It’s all part of my goal of becoming a little more directed in my reading.

Once a book makes it into my library, I may just handle it once or I may pick it up and browse or skip through, or I might give it a thorough read and then hold it back before re-reading. In my view, my library is a bit like a cocktail party – and not everyone merits a long and deep friendship.

Rather than try to create some sort of finished list of books, My plan here is simply to post perhaps with comments, some of the books that have been in my hands recently.

This list is not complete or in order. It’s just a conversation starter.

  • Nothing is True and Everything is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev
  • The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
  • The Shortest History of Germany by James Hawes
  • Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed the World by Norman Lebrecht
  • David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  • Capitalism and the Jews by Jerry Z Muller
  • Richer, Wiser, Happier by William Green
  • The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker
  • Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris
  • Swiss Made by James Breiding
  • 12 Rules for Life – Jordan Peterson
  • Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes by Franz de Waal
  • 100 Baggers by Chris Meyer
  • Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s insights into China, the United States and the World
  • Just Hierarchy: Why Social Hierarchies matter in China and the Rest of the World by Bell and Wang
  • Pandemic 1918: The Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History by Catharine Arnold
  • 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy by Hamilton Helmer
  • Essays by George Orwell
  • No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer

I am also experimenting with an app called libib – which allows me to track all the books that I physically own. You can see the library here:
gspier.libib.com

Leisure and Family

When I’m not working or reading, I love spending time with my family and doing sport – mainly cycling, swimming, running and tennis with a little bit of squash. You can follow me on strava here. 

If we are not already connected, probably the best way to be in touch is via Twitter: @gspier is my handle.