I'm curious to hear about any businesses that people believe in as investment opportunities primarily from first hand experience. Not because of how good they hear that a business is, but because they used it and thought "this is amazing and I would personally be a repeat heavy customer".
For me, GRAB is a good example. A super app that's like Uber for Southeast Asia that I used multiple times a day for months because of its convenience, wild affordability and ease of accessibility across several companies. Nothing like riding on the back of a motorcycle across a couple miles in 100 degree heat instead of walking for $1. I saw not only travelers but locals just doing everything all day through this app. That paired with an exploding middle class in the region just makes me believe regardless of any of the finance chatter. Seeing it first hand makes it seem so unlikely to fail, even if that is just a gut feeling.
And yes bogleheads the majority of my money is in broad based index funds so we can skip that part.
Stocks you believe in from direct customer experience
byu/BumblebeeFamiliar858 instocks
Posted by BumblebeeFamiliar858
20 Comments
Chwy but man the stock is a dog
I like this way of thinking.. sometimes using a product firsthand gives you way more conviction than staring at financials. For me, Costco is one. Every time I shop there, I see packed aisles, people happy to pay for membership, and insane value on bulk goods. Another one is Apple.. switching to iPhone years ago made me realize just how sticky the ecosystem is. And more recently, I’ve been impressed by how seamless Shopify is when running a small online store.. it’s one of those platforms that once you’re in, you don’t want to leave
This year, I was most impressed with the B-Hyve intelligent sprinklers. A bit late to get in on the action (Orbit bought by Platinum Equity who was then bought by Husqvarna Group), but a leap forward in irrigation, for me anyway. You tell the software what you’re watering and where, and the smart sprinkler checks the local weather forecast to automatically adjust watering. First year that my lawn and garden are watered just enough, and using about 30% of the water I’ve used in the past. For me, anyway, it has been a game changer.
Spotify, its UI is nice and I use it to listen to music every day.
RDDT
ZBRA, zebra – use their devices at work and I’ve notice they are practically everywhere.
Amazon, my wife orders a butt load of crap from them seemingly every day.
Amazon and it’s actually a good stock
GSK.
They make my asthma inhaler. I’ve nearly choked pharmacists when I tell them I want VENTOLIN. NOT PROAIR. VENTOLIN. Yes, it’s the same medicine. Yes, it’s the same dosage per puff. But they’re not the fucking same at all. I HAPPILY pay the extra 20-40 for it. If they sold T-shirts I’d dead ass buy one
Costco
HOOD
I freaking hate shopping at Costco. I stayed away the best I could but occasionally would have to go with friends or exes. Parking was impossible, the place was packed like sardines, the lines were long, and I was either running into people with the oversized cart or people running into me. I freaking hate that place.
Then the pandemic hit us and my go-tos were either short on supply, jacked up prices, didn’t trust their cleaniness, or were no longer convenient to get to when I worked from home. I needed one single store with everything I needed, rarely short on supplies, reasonable prices, and a process I could trust. There was only one like that. I took the L and got a membership. Then I thought, if the last holdout is joining them, it’s probably a good stock to own. So, I bought their stocks and held it ever since. I still hate shopping there but my family loves Costco.
Shopify, worked in the webshop space, every customer not on Shopify talked about migrating to Shopify. One or two customers over a couple of years migrated away due to cost. Beyond one lucky medtech bet, this is by far my best performing investment.
I bought MSFT in 2017 because we were adopting Azure at work and I could see the value (to make money off business customers) in their subscription services for business. MSFT has become my top holding without me buying any more of it.
Autozone 100%. Still owned by the founder and it shows.
Costco for sure. Everyone who goes in there minimum spend is $300
Enphase (they make the inverters in my solar panels). They were doing great until California (and later Trump) messed with the residential solar economy.
Nvidia
yes, I know they’ve had an incredible runup, and I only bought in last year. I would have held them ten years ago if I was investing though, they’re just an incredible company
Jensen Huang has been able to put his company at the center of the past like four tech revolutions. some of it was luck, but having a very high quality, high standards for channel partners, high marketability, and CUDA has all been amazing
I have always used Nvidia cards, even when I was running AMD cpus
GOOG. Everyday all the time everywhere
VRT. When I work on a data center, all their stuff is Vertiv. All the infrastructure for modern civilization and a good chunk is from Vertiv.