E34: BlackRock Managing Director Tony Kim on the Secrets of Durable Companies

Tony Kim, Managing Director at Blackrock, joins CJ this week to touch on the secrets of durable businesses, why TAM is an unreliable measure of potential, competitive moats and 2nd/3rd acts as necessary means for sustainable growth, and more. Supercharge your financial operations with Maxio. Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your first year.---SPONSORS: Maxio | Tropic | ThoropassMaxio is the only billing and financial operations platform that was purpose built for B2B SaaS. They're helping SaaS finance teams automate billing and revenue recognition, manage collections and payments, and put together investor grade reporting packages. 🚀 Request a demo at www.maxio.com/runthenumbers for 10% off your first year.Tropic is the next-generation Procurement Platform that’s helping modern CFOs take control of their budgets and bottom line. By combining approval workflows, supplier management, and pricing benchmarks all in one place, Tropic makes savings opportunities easy to find and act on. 🌴 Visit www.tropicapp.io/metrics to learn how.Thoropass provides complete compliance management, continuous monitoring, and security audits through intuitive software and expert guidance – allowing you to do business with confidence. Learn more: https://bit.ly/Thoropass 🔒---FOLLOW US ON X:@cjgustafson222 (CJ)@TurpentineMedia (Turpentine)---TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00: Introduction00:03:03: Definition and importance of durable revenue00:05:35: Evaluating net dollar retention rate00:09:08: Importance and calculation of TAM00:16:45: Deconstructing and understanding real TAM00:18:51: Thin wrappers and positioning companies00:25:00: Comparing tech quality over different eras00:28:58: Maturity and market attention for public companies00:31:58: Necessity of moats and dominance in business00:36:06: Evaluating companies00:36:42: The importance of the second act in business00:41:11: The value of a strategic narrative00:45:02: What separates good CFOs from great CFOs This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cjgustafson.substack.com