44. Ben Balbale, Growth Investor & Operator

Will Bachman and Ben Balbale discuss Balbale's journey since graduating from Harvard. Balbale talks about how he has applied technology to the world in various different guises. He also talks about how he worked during the summer to help pay for college. He discusses his background in computer science and how it has helped them in his career. The Changing World of Computer Science They mention how the world of computer science has changed dramatically since they graduated college. They talk about how they started their career in management consulting and then went to business school. They mention how a third of their business school class moved to the Bay Area during the peak of the dot com bubble. Ben started out his career in sales, working for a software company in San Francisco. He then moved to New York to work for another software company. In 2005, he started looking at buying software companies that were trading below cash. This led to him joining a long-short equity fund in Boston. He then decided to go to business school. A Career in the Software Industry Ben Balbale reflects on his career in the software industry, and how it has changed over time. He discusses his decision to shut down his public software investment fund, and how he is now taking a pause to think about where he sees market opportunities and what he wants to do with the next 15,000 days of his working life. The Future of Investing Ben Balbale realized that he had effectively jumped over the next hurdle and that it was time for him to do something for himself. The second step was to realize that the software industry was not about the software itself, but rather about what you could do with that software. He discusses the importance of computer science, especially in relation to software development. They mention the chat GPT algorithm and how it can be used for various purposes. Ben then talks about how they have been thinking about markets where the concept of automation can be easily implemented.  Timestamps 4:23: How Ben's career history began 9:49: The first step is realizing what is it that would be fun 15:47: Gold standard resume box-checking 20:44: What do you look at the world today? 24:52: Looking for a monster market with evangelical customer resonance 32:54: How people are learning about investing 41:34: Top books to read about investing. Links: https://www.amazon.com/Noise-Human-Judgment-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0316451401 https://www.amazon.ca/Masters-Scale-Surprising-Successful-Entrepreneurs/dp/0593239083 https://www.amazon.ca/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403 https://www.amazon.ca/Benjamin-Graham/e/B000APZXBQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 https://www.amazon.ca/Philip-A-Fisher/e/B000AR9D8I/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1 https://a16z.com/ CONTACT INFO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbalbale/ https://twitter.com/bbalbale