Ho Nam

Co-founder and Managing Director of Altos Ventures

[Ho Nam @honam]

Deep value investing, to me, is not about big discounts. It’s about finally seeing something profound and deep underneath the surface, when others are still only seeing the tip of the iceberg, and still making judgements.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@xxunhuang Congrats! Truly an exciting move for both companies.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@blakeir @BryanOffutt Yes it is.

[Enrique @mindthelongterm]

$RBLX

[Ho Nam @honam]

Great point. It explains the Altos approach to VC, using early stage as a discovery mechanism and betting big on very few occasions.

Buffett did the same thing with Apple nearly 3 decades later.

I read that George Soros lost money on most of his trades (more than two thirds). But due to position sizing he became extraordinarily wealthy.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@mindthelongterm Yup, as @davidsenra observed, time is a filter.

[Ho Nam @honam]

Incredible to see Michael Dell continue to not only remain relevant but personally leading in his fifth decade the tech industry. https://t.co/9u2ensFRM2

[Ho Nam @honam]

@GenAIRoblox Congrats! How many concurrent users? When we invested, I think the entire platform was not much bigger. My partner Han said if they can get to 10K concurrent, we’d have something.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@dkwon98 Not only that but he was the FF partner who led the Investmemt in Deep Mind.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@GenAIRoblox Good call. If buying back shares, the lower the price, the better for long term holders.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@edsuh #2 is a common mistake VCs also make.

“Pursuing growth at all costs by changing management teams and culture can lead to innovation deficit in the long term.”

[Ho Nam @honam]

This sort of thing happens a lot (especially in places like China). One of our companies sued the competitor and won a million or two (they were YC backed). But it’s not worth the trouble. Just go out there and win in the market. We eventually exited. I don’t recall what happened to the copycat competitor (don’t remember the name because they were irrelevant). You can look up public lawsuit records (LevelSet, formerly known as zlien was our company. They won both in the courts and the market but the latter is what matters).

[Ho Nam @honam]

@mavolpi @andrewdfeldman @cerebras @hanabicapital What a great first deal. Congrats!

[Ho Nam @honam]

Another example for the same IPO - Mike invested through his new fund (Index missed out).

[Mike Volpi @mavolpi]

Congrats to @andrewdfeldman and the @cerebras team on today's IPO. A decade ago, wafer-scale computing was a bet most of the industry had decided wasn't possible. Andrew ignored that and built it anyway.

A privilege to have backed this one at @hanabicapital

[Ho Nam @honam]

This IPO illustrates the power of an individual partner over the brand name firm in VC. Pierre Lamond was a partner of both Sequoia and Khosla. But instead of those firms backing Cerebras, it was Eclipse (the firm he joined at the age of 84) that backed this little known chip company, multiple times, in the early years. What a way to wrap up a career (he was born in 1930, same year as Buffett).

[Amir Efrati @amir]

https://t.co/LvJpMXLLXY @coryweinberg @julia_hornstein @Katie_Roof

[Ho Nam @honam]

@gerstenzang I think Bill Coughran has been active in semis. Not many left in the entire industry.

[Ho Nam @honam]

I got tested twice over the past year. Cognitive health is great (also did comprehensive physical tests). But I know it’s different. I used to remember just about everything. Didn’t need to have a calendar early in my career (before mobile era) and would remember all sorts of numbers without even trying. It was just there in working memory whenever I wanted. That is sadly no longer the case. My tests said cognitive heath is excellent for my age cohort but I have no way of comparing to myself from the 20-40s (just turned 60).

[Ho Nam @honam]

Claude is so good that I think it’ll extend my investing career at least a decade. Everything that was effortlessly remembered when I was younger is no longer in working memory as I get older. Now Claude helps me connect the dots better than ever and go down rabbit holes quickly, whenever I want. What’s an extra decade of compounding worth?

[Ho Nam @honam]

I’m losing brain cells. It’s classic example of fluid intelligence declining with age. Have to rely more on crystallized intelligence/wisdom now.

My kids will run circles around me on brain teasers. But I’d trust myself more on capital allocation decisions, but only if consequential and infrequent. I wouldn’t do well as a day trader.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@kseniam0s @CendanaCapital @pivotaldotcom @melindagates @screendoorvc Among endowments, three that have backed smaller emerging managers are MIT, Vanderbilt and UCLA. For any LP, even the ones more open minded, it always helps to get warm intros.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@hkeskiva Yes, but keep moving forward, even if only one step at a time, and the pawn will be Queen someday. And then probably capture the King. Lol.

[Ho Nam @honam]

@JoePompliano I haven’t thought about that stock in so long. I remember when the founder talked about GoPro being a lifestyle brand (trying to justify market cap). The story could be great but hand waving cannot justify the valuation. In the long run, reality wins.