Category: 3. Business

The latest iteration of Elon Musk’s gargantuan Starship space rocket is poised to launch into the skies above Texas on Sunday for the first time in three months, with the billionaire entrepreneur’s ambitious timetable for reaching the moon and conquering Mars hinging on the success of the pivotal mission.

Skywatchers are eager to see which version of the world’s most powerful rocket will be produced for its 10th launch attempt. Of its nine previous uncrewed outings, dating to April 2023, failures have outnumbered the successes. All three test flights this year ended in huge explosions and debris raining down on Caribbean islands from the Bahamas to the Turks and Caicos in January and March, and the Indian Ocean in May.

Sunday night’s test flight, from SpaceX’s sprawling complex in Starbase, Texas, formerly known as Boca Chica, has a launch window opening at 6.30pm CT, and has various mission objectives, including the first successful deployment of Starlink communications satellite simulators.

Starship was moved to its launchpad on Thursday in anticipation of good launch weather for Sunday night’s attempt.

Musk has remained uncharacteristically quiet ahead of the mission. “Getting ready to launch Starship,” he posted on Thursday to the X platform he also owns, alongside images of the rocket assembly moving into position. SpaceX has not achieved a safe return landing of the upper stage of Starship, which Musk is hoping to have certified for human spaceflight as early as next year.

SpaceX engineers have made a number of changes following reviews of the rocket’s previous failures, which include “a catastrophic explosion” that destroyed a Starship rocket during a ground test in June. The company is testing a variety of new heat-resistant tiles designed to stand the stresses of re-entry, and aims to return the upper stage to its landing site for the first time.

The entire Starship stack, at 403ft (123 meters), is considerably larger and more powerful than Nasa’s Apollo-era Saturn V rocket that last took humans to the moon in 1972.

Musk’s vision is a fully reusable space vehicle capable of repeated return trips to Mars beginning in late 2026 without astronauts, then with crews making the six-month space voyage as early as 2029. Ultimately, the SpaceX and Tesla founder aims to build a thriving city for humans on the red planet in the coming two to three decades.

Experts say it is a hugely ambitious undertaking. First, Musk needs to prove SpaceX can launch and recover Starship’s components safely from short hops into the atmosphere, to say nothing of a journey to the moon.

Only four Starship launches have been considered successful, although the company has made progress in recovering the first-stage Super Heavy rocket booster by capturing it in a giant pair of robotic arms nicknamed the chopsticks.

SpaceX said it would not attempt to catch the booster from Sunday’s flight because the component would instead be used for in-flight experiments “to gather real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios”.

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In the eyes of investors, the mission is also a test of Musk’s commitment to focusing on his core businesses – space and electric vehicles – since leaving his controversial government job as head of the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge) in May. When he left the government, Musk said he would return to his businesses. He has since backtracked on the pledge and said he will start a new political party, though he may already be backing off the initiative.

Ethics watchdogs have questioned Musk’s former role for the White House, in which he slashed tens of thousands of government jobs in the name of efficiency while preserving and benefiting from billions of dollars in federal contracts.

Donald Trump said this month he planned to relax regulations that will allow Musk, and fellow billionaires with space ambitions such as the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, to avoid reviews previously required by the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa) before launch permits can be granted.

Authorities and environmentalists have expressed concerns over the environmental impacts of SpaceX operations in Mexico, after the explosion near its border in June, and in Hawaii, where authorities and environmentalists fear the impact on its sensitive marine ecosystem from new rules that will allow Musk to launch 25 Starship flights from Texas instead of just five.

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Key Points

I’m about to suggest some very promising “monster” stocks you might want to hold over the coming decade. They’re not all monster-ish in the same way, as you’ll see, but they each have great potential to deliver a monstrously wonderful performance in the years ahead.

Read on, to see which one(s) seem like they’d be a good fit for you and your long-term portfolio.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Palantir Technologies

Let’s start with Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR), a specialist in artificial intelligence (AI) software. The most monstrous thing about it is its performance in recent years. For example, despite having sunk some 15%-plus in the past week, its average annual gain over the past three years is 165%! Over the past year, its shares have gained an incredible 385%. And year-to-date (it’s only August), they’ve more than doubled.

That’s enough to make anyone want to jump into the stock, but hold on — because its valuation is also monstrous. Yes, if everything goes to plan, it could still serve investors well. But it’s priced for perfection, and things don’t always turn out perfectly. So I can’t recommend buying it now, but if you already own it, you might hold — or, to play it safer, perhaps sell part of your position to lock in those gains.

In your deliberations, know that Palantir, co-founded by Trump ally Peter Thiel, has been favored by the Trump administration and its software may be helping it collect and process data on Americans and immigrants. The U.S. military is a big customer, too.

2. DoorDash

DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) also sports impressive trailing returns, averaging annual gains of 56% over the past three years. It, too, has seen its valuation grow quite high, with a recent price-to-sales ratio of 9.3, well above its five-year average of 4.2.

It’s been growing well and now operates in some 30 countries. Its second-quarter earnings report featured total orders growing by 20% year over year to 761 million, and revenue rising by 25%. Management noted that “…solid execution helped us make our consumer experience more personalized, attract tens of thousands of new merchant partners, and reduce average delivery times. The improvements we made over the last few years continue to compound and helped drive accelerated [year-over-year] growth in monthly active users…”

3. Nvidia

Semiconductor specialist Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is another monster performer, averaging annual gains of 71% over the past five years and 77% over the past decade. Better still, it doesn’t seem wildly overvalued, like some other growth stocks. Its recent forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 39, for example, is on par with its five-year average — though that number is still on the high side.

Nvidia has long been known as a gaming-chip semiconductor company, but it’s gotten a lot more involved in the AI boom and it’s been providing chips for data centers — which are increasingly needed for AI and other technologies. The company has cut some deals with the Trump administration that might serve it and its shareholders well, too.

4. Altria Group

The next monster stock is perhaps an unexpected one: tobacco giant Altria (NYSE: MO). Before you hit the snooze button, know that it’s up some 37% over the past year and it offers a fat dividend, recently yielding 6.1%. It’s been hiking that payout, too. Its total annual payout was recently $4.08 per share, for example, up from $3.00 in 2018 and $2.17 in 2015.

This can be a great stock to buy and/or hold simply for the generous (and growing) income it provides. But it’s not a stock to buy and forget. Know that smoking rates in the U.S. have fallen considerably and that doesn’t bode well for Altria’s future. The company has been investing in smokeless products, though, which may make up for losses in cigarettes. (It has been having success in raising prices for its offerings, too.)

5. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Finally, there’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM). It’s not just a giant semiconductor company — it’s a special one, because while most such companies only design chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing actually manufactures them. It’s the biggest chip maker by far — with a recent market share of 67.6%.

The company’s growth potential is enormous, given that semiconductors are now used in all kinds of things, including cars and refrigerators — and AI, of course. The company expects its AI accelerator revenue to double in this year alone. But some worry that the Trump administration might want to take a bite out of its business.

Give any or all of these stocks some consideration for your long-term portfolio. They might help your money grow like gangbusters.

Should you invest $1,000 in Palantir Technologies right now?

Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $649,657!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,090,993!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,057% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025

Selena Maranjian has positions in Altria Group, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends DoorDash, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Key Points

It will be a long, long time before someone racks up the investing credentials of Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha led Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) for 60 years, and has said he plans to retire at the end of the year, a few months after celebrating his 95th birthday. Buffett’s legendary career led Berkshire to amass a 19.9% compounded annual gain since 1965, compared to the S&P 500‘s 10.4% gain.

In that time Berkshire saw an overall gain of 5,550,000% versus the market’s 39,000% gain. That’s a huge return — and it shows the absolute power of compounded returns.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Buffett’s career is closely followed, and he’s taken positions in some of the biggest and most well-known companies in the world — Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, and others. But he’s also making some quiet, deliberate investments in some under-the-radar companies — five of them in particular — that could be great investment opportunities. Let’s look at all five, plus a high-profile Buffett stock that I think you should avoid at all costs right now.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Buffett’s five hidden gems

In 2019, Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway took out positions in five Japanese-based trading houses: Itochu (OTC: ITOCF), (OTC: ITOCF), Marubeni (OTC: MARUY) (OTC: MARUF), Mitsubishi (OTC: MSBHF), Mitsui (OTC: MITSF) (OTC: MITSY), and Sumitomo (OTC: SSUM.Y) (OTC: SSUM.F). The companies are diverse conglomerates that work in a variety of fields in Japan and China, including industrial metals, energy, real estate, financial services, healthcare, consumer, and automotive.

Each of them have a lot in common with Berkshire Hathaway itself, which got its start as a textile company before Buffett turned it into the conglomerate we know today.

Buffett wrote at length about the Japanese sogo shosha in Berkshire’s 2024 letter to investors, saying:

“We simply looked at their financial records and were amazed at the low prices of their stocks. As the years have passed, our admiration for these companies has consistently grown. (Incoming CEO) Greg (Abel) has met many times with them, and I regularly follow their progress. Both of us like their capital deployment, their managements and their attitude in respect to their investors. Each of the five companies increase dividends when appropriate, they repurchase their shares when it is sensible to do so, and their top managers are far less aggressive in their compensation programs than their U.S. counterparts.”

Berkshire’s holdings in these companies is small compared to the full Berkshire portfolio, which has a value of $1.05 trillion. Currently, the companies have a collective market value of $28.6 billion, or only 2.7% of Berkshire’s holdings.

However, that is sure to increase, even after Buffett steps down and Abel takes the helm. Buffett disclosed in his shareholder letter that Berkshire had originally promised to keep his interests in each of the Japanese trading houses below 10%, but now that Berkshire is approaching the limit in each, the sogo shosha are relaxing the ceilings, so Berkshire will likely continue to increase its shares, he says.

Each of these companies have the valued Buffett stamp of approval, providing U.S. investors with an opportunity to diversify their portfolios into Asia while also collecting a consistent dividend.

ITOCF Dividend Yield data by YCharts

A Buffett stock to avoid

Not every stock can be a winner. And right now, Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) is taking it on the figurative chin. The stock is down 21% this year, with much of the drop coming last month after the company’s disastrous second quarter earnings report.

In the report, Charter reported revenue of $13.7 billion, which was up only 0.6% from a year ago. But the market pulled back abruptly as the company’s earnings of $9.18 per share fell far short of analysts’ expectations for $9.58 per share.

This really isn’t a new problem — Charter’s is struggling to grow revenue, with sales expected to increase only 2% in the next two years. The company’s biggest growth driver is its mobile service, which increased 24.9% on a year-over-year basis. But it brought in only $921 million in the quarter, which is only 6.6% of the company’s quarterly revenue. Meanwhile, the company’s cable service dropped 9.9% in revenue to $3.48 billion.

To add insult to injury for income investors, Charter doesn’t even pay a dividend. Dividend stocks are a staple to Buffett’s portfolio, but Charter doesn’t do a good job of rewarding shareholders with a payout.

The bottom line

For investors, the lesson is simple: follow the principles, not the person. Buffett has always looked for undervalued businesses with strong fundamentals and management that believed in rewarding shareholders. The five Japanese trading houses fit the bill, and it’s no wonder that Buffett is excited to add to his positions there. Charter isn’t providing value right now — and I am wondering how long it will take for Buffett to shed its $284 million position.

Should you invest $1,000 in Berkshire Hathaway right now?

Before you buy stock in Berkshire Hathaway, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Berkshire Hathaway wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $649,657!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,090,993!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,057% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025

Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Patrick Sanders has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Key Points

• Palihapitiya’s new SPAC focuses on four core themes: artificial intelligence (AI), energy production, crypto, and defense.

• While there are limitless candidates for the new SPAC, one software startup stands out as a compelling opportunity — sharing some similarities with Palantir in its early days.

• SPACs have been overly risky investments for quite some time, and Palihapitiya’s personal track record is mixed.

• 10 stocks we like better than Palantir Technologies ›

Remember when special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) dominated Wall Street headlines just a few years ago?

At the center of the frenzy was Chamath Palihapitiya — better known on Wall Street as the “SPAC king”. A former executive at AOL and Meta Platforms turned billionaire venture capitalist (VC), Palihapitiya made his name taking bold bets on disruptive companies.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

For a while, SPACs seemed to fade quietly into the background of stock market activity. But just as investors began to write them off, Palihapitiya reignited the conversation with a new prospectus for his latest $250 million “blank check company”: American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp. While details are limited at the moment, Palihapitiya has hinted at the kinds of businesses he’s targeting.

Let’s break down what investors need to know about this SPAC, why Palihapitiya’s recent move matters, and which company I think could be on his radar — a potential candidate to become the next Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR).

What is American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp.?

In the S-1 filing for American Exceptionalism Acquisition Corp., Palihapitiya outlines four core pillars he believes are essential to U.S. competitiveness — artificial intelligence (AI), decentralized finance (DeFi), defense, and energy production.

At first glance, these may look like broad, boilerplate themes. But I see something deeper — a unifying thesis that ties together some of the biggest secular growth opportunities underpinning the American economy.

Right now, the American economy is experiencing something akin to the Industrial Revolution thanks to the booming impacts of AI. But with any megatrend comes significant trade offs.

For AI, the most pressing challenges are not software development or infrastructure manufacturing — it’s the strain on the U.S. power grid. Hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Oracle, and OpenAI are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into data centers, each requiring massive amounts of electricity to operate at scale.

And it’s not just the private sector. The U.S. government is moving aggressively with initiatives like Project Stargate, a $500 billion domestic infrastructure program designed to establish America’s digital transformation.

Against this backdrop, I think Palihapitiya may be eyeing a start-up sitting at the intersection of his four pillars.

Image source: Getty Images.

What company could fit the bill for Chamath?

In my eyes, Houston-based Amperon could be a natural fit for the American Exceptionalism SPAC.

Amperon functions as an operating system for the power grid, offering AI-powered software that delivers real-time intelligence to utilities, energy traders, and large power buyers. Its platform enables decision-makers to forecast demand, renewable output, and wholesale prices with greater precision — addressing some of the most pressing challenges in the energy economy.

In many respects, Amperon can be thought of as the Palantir of climate tech. Just as Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) synthesizes massive volumes of unstructured data and turns them into actionable insights for government agencies and large private enterprises, Amperon applies the same methodology to the grid. It translates fragmented inputs — from weather patterns or anomalies in demand surges — into a unified model for energy stakeholders.

The company has also built strategic collaborations with Microsoft, National Grid, and Acario (part of Tokyo Gas). Much like Palantir’s early contracts, these partnerships have the potential to deepen and expand over time — embedding Amperon’s tools more firmly into data workflows.

Both Amperon and Palantir demonstrate how AI-driven software layers can evolve into indispensable infrastructure. Where Palantir dominates defense and enterprise intelligence, Amperon is carving out a parallel role capturing energy, climate, and grid optimization.

And because energy touches every sector, Amperon’s reach extends even further. Its intelligence platform could support crypto and DeFi protocols, where mining depends on reliable power sources, and strengthen defense applications, where resilient energy sources are critical to national security. This suggests that Amperon’s total addressable market (TAM) is far broader than it might initially appear.

Ultimately, this vision aligns almost perfectly with the ethos of Palihapitiya’s new SPAC: backing companies at the intersection of AI, defense, DeFi, and energy — all rolled up and packaged into a compelling opportunity reshaping conscious capitalism.

Remember to be careful with SPACs

In the disclosure section of the prospectus, Palihapitiya reminds investors that they should only consider this SPAC if they can “embody the adage from President Trump that there can be ‘no crying in the casino.’” Harsh as it sounds, the warning is well placed.

History hasn’t been kind to SPACs. A University of Florida study found that SPACs across nearly every major industry have consistently underperformed the broader market over the past decade.

SPCE data by YCharts

Palihapitiya’s own track record underscores this risk. Aside from MP Materials and SoFi Technologies, most of his SPACs have been financial catastrophes. As an investor, he has also backed other high-profile deals that flamed out — including Desktop Metal and Berkshire Grey (both delisted) and Proterra and Sunlight Financial (both bankrupt).

My take is to approach the new SPAC with measured optimism, while keeping Palihapitiya’s history of stewarding outside capital at the forefront of your thesis.

American Exceptionalism’s converging focus on emerging themes across AI, defense, crypto, and energy might position it as a unique opportunity potentially poised for explosive growth. But smart investors understand that promise and hope are never true substitutes for prudent, disciplined investing.

Should you invest $1,000 in Palantir Technologies right now?

Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $649,657!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,090,993!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,057% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025

Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, and SoFi Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Oracle, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends MP Materials and National Grid Plc and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Frank Bardelli knew right away that his recent job hunt was going to be different.

After the software engineer posted on LinkedIn a couple of months ago that he was looking for a role, he didn’t hear from former colleagues with offers to come work with them again, as he had during past searches.

“It was very different, and definitely drier than I’ve seen it be in many years,” Bardelli told Business Insider.

So, when he heard from a recruiter at Fonzi, which matches engineers with startups and tech companies, Bardelli was intrigued.

He completed a profile and applied to what Fonzi calls Match Day, the process through which employers can meet with candidates. Three of the 14 participating companies offered Bardelli interviews. That allowed him to sidestep a protracted job search and many of the headaches that go along with it, he said.

For many in tech, layoffs and sluggish hiring have translated to job searches marked by seemingly endless rounds of applying. Letting an employer come to you likely offers an appealing alternative.

That’s the hope of Yang Mou, Fonzi’s cofounder and CEO. He told Business Insider that the existing traditional recruiting process is inefficient and “broken for both sides.”

Mou said this results in candidates spending a lot of time trying to determine whether a company is a good fit. When candidates do land interviews, he said, they often repeat themselves in similar conversations with multiple employers.

Employers, for their part, are “getting flooded with applicants,” Mou said. “You put up a job post, you get 1,000 applicants in 24 hours.”

To try to make the whole process more palatable, Mou said, Fonzi takes candidates who know what they want in a new role and connects them with employers that have real jobs and “sane hiring processes.”

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“They’re not going to drag it out for three months,” he said, referring to employers.

Committing to a minimum salary

Companies seeking talent through Fonzi are required to commit to minimum salaries upfront so that candidates don’t have to go through rounds of interviews only to learn that the pay won’t cut it.

Mou said engineers must complete a “very selective” application process before being matched with an employer. Part of that involves a brief exchange with Fonzi’s AI interviewer. The agent can handle complex conversations, including understanding the candidate’s technical work.

Talking to an AI agent, Mou said, can be helpful for busy engineers who might want to wait until after the workday to complete that part of an application.

“It has infinite patience,” he said. “You can ramble for 15 minutes and it won’t cut you off.”

Fonzi combines the AI interview with candidates’ résumés, additional details on their work histories, and personal preferences such as where they want to work and for what type of company. A Fonzi recruiter then talks by phone with those who appear to be a good fit. From there, Fonzi invites top candidates to take part in Match Day and assigns each candidate a recruiter to work with during the job search.

The conversations with the recruiter help to identify important attributes, Mou said.

“Are they a capable communicator?” he said. “Would you want to work with this person?”

The discussions also help reveal more than what’s on someone’s résumé, said Bec Bliss, a recruiter who is Fonzi’s head of talent.

“Getting folks to talk about what they love, what they’re good at, what they want to be doing turns them into the full, 3D candidate instead of a sheet of paper,” she told Business Insider.

Each month, Fonzi AI has Match Day for engineers seeking in-person and hybrid roles in the New York area and for remote roles in the US. The company plans to offer in-person and hybrid roles in San Fransicso in October and other cities after that.

Fonzi is free for job seekers and charges a fee of 18% of the base salary if a company makes a hire. Because the business model is only about three months old, the company hasn’t released stats on how many workers employers have hired.

‘Happy to have any matches’

For Bardelli, the lackluster job market meant that after leaving a prior role, he expected to have to brush up on his interviewing and networking skills instead of relying on the network he’d built up over about 20 years in tech.

“I was hitting the market cold,” Bardelli said.

Networking, many recruiters insist, is still one of the best ways to find a job and get past the screening software that so many job seekers hate. Yet, if there’s not much hiring going on, the search can be tough even when you’re plugged in, as Bardelli is.

“A lot of people were like, ‘Yeah, hiring has kind of dried up at our company,’” he said, referring to comments he heard from industry colleagues.

Ultimately, Bardelli settled on an employer he connected with through Fonzi and started his new role this month.

He said that going into the process with Fonzi, he wondered whether employers would like what he had to offer, though he was optimistic.

“I thought my skills were relevant enough that maybe I’d get a match or two,” Bardelli said. “I was very happy to have any matches at all.”

Do you have a story to share about your job search? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.

Story Continues

On this episode of The Long View, Lawrence Lam, author, investor, and managing director and founder of Lumenary Investment Management, breaks down the differences in founder-led companies, what red flags to look out for, and three key pillars to assess whether founders are motivated to build their companies for the long term from his new book The Founder Effect.

Here are a few highlights from Lam’s conversation with Morningstar’s Dan Lefkovitz.

Why Motivation Matters More Than Vision

Dan Lefkovitz: What do you make of the common criticism of founders that sometimes the visionary, the entrepreneur, isn’t the right person to manage the company or to take the company to the next level?

Lawrence Lam: I’d say it’s not about whether they can make an assumption between them being a visionary and them not being able to take it to the next level. It’s not so much about that. It’s more about motivation. It’s about distinguishing the different types of motivation, the ones who want to truly build a company for a very long period of time, or the ones who are interested in flipping the company. So, I call them flippers or the builders. And for investors, you need to stay vigilant—motivations can change over time because it’s human nature, and to watch very closely what’s happening with companies.

I would argue a good recent example is Elon Musk moving into government. One could look at that as a sign that, “Hey, he’s putting his personal ambitions ahead of the companies that he’s involved in, and that motivation has changed.” No doubt that when he first joined DOGE that he would dedicate a significant effort to that and therefore take away the effort with his existing companies. The best founders can replicate their operating system, but they’re not so much of an app, they’re actually the operating system, and they design it. And that’s how they structure the organization. A lot of them have this flexibility to do things differently. They own a significant share, so they can problem-solve in a unique way.

There, of course, are red flags that you want to look for, and in particular, large equity sell-downs; that’s a red flag. And all those Palantir investors out there, keep your eyes open and stay vigilant. And then looking at that changing person versus company motivation, or one that has an org structure that is bottlenecked by the founder. All these considerations are red flags to look for. But of course, as investors, you can mitigate against that. You can rotate companies; you can trim some profits and move capital to another company. Founders are good at hyping up their business, so you don’t want anything that’s too overhyped, and maintain a deep bench of founder-led companies that you switch between. And then, of course, monitor the portfolio closely, monitor the equity movements closely.

Avoid Getting Caught Up in the Hype of a Company’s Charismatic Founder

Lefkovitz: How do you look through hype? I imagine a lot of these guys are very charismatic. How do you avoid being lured by their charisma?

Lam: They’ve started their business because of their ability to influence the market. And I outline some objective key things that investors can look for. I have a framework that’s based on three pillars that I’ve observed in a lot of successful founder-led companies and their objective. Because the question of things like motivation, cognitive biases, and alignment with investors are very subjective types of topics. But if you have some objective things to look for, you can really solve that in a scientific way.

So, I think that in terms of looking for founders that are genuinely there to build for the long term, you really want to look at not just the hype, but all the underlying facts that even an outsider can see and identify. In the book, I identify three key pillars. One is judgment and decision-making and being able to make bold decisions. The second is being aligned with investors. Their motivations are in line with what investors want over the long term. And the third thing is to be able to influence internally their staff, the organization, and therefore influence externally the media, shareholders, and customers to actually want their product. And the best of the best can do that.

How to Find Founders Who Are Motivated for the Long Term

Lefkovitz: You mentioned some metrics earlier that you look for and how you quantify these things. It would be interesting to hear a little bit more about the types of indicators that you use to assess each of these pillars of the framework.

Lam: The evolution of my process has always started with the quantitative side of things first. I’m always looking for companies that produce those continual growth in earnings, the conservative balance sheet, all those traits that we mentioned that are prevalent with founder-led companies that show up actually in the financial statements. And then once you identify those, and you may have thousands of those companies, you can very quickly see through the share register if they are founder-led quite quickly. And from the couple of thousand that you see, you narrow down quickly. I narrow down to thousands, 2,000 stocks very quickly on a global level out of, say, 40,000 to 50,000 global companies. And then next comes a qualitative analysis that any investor would do and have their own checklist and process for monitoring.

For me, what’s important is that the founder and the management team definitely need to follow the framework that I’ve written about in the book and score very highly in that. I want them to have a strong market position, and a very diversified customer base and supply base. And to really capture that essence of the founder effect to really be involved in new products and services. What I’ve seen in the past happen is some companies that I’ve invested in are fantastic companies growing, but then they’re in some old-generation businesses like producing caliper brakes for cars, producing petrochemical products, and producing fertilizers. And that can be a trap too, because then some of these companies are just content with doing what they’ve always been doing and almost a bit too stagnant. That’s why you want the new products and the new services, and trying to find the companies with that pricing power and that opportunity where they can compound and fully achieve their potential under the founder.

Find Good Businesses ‘Before an Idiot Starts Running Them’

Lefkovitz: I’m reminded of that famous Peter Lynch quote, “You should invest in a company that’s so good, even an idiot could run it because sooner or later, one will.” I think Warren Buffett has quoted it as well. So, the idea is you should look at the structural features of the company and maybe its competitive advantage. We use the economic moat framework here at Morningstar. What do you make of that, that it’s less about the people and more about these structural features of the company?

Lam: I love Peter Lynch’s quotes, especially the one about not watering the weeds and pulling out your flowers. Love that.

Lefkovitz: I don’t know that one.

Lam: For me, it’s about these businesses—get them before an idiot starts running them. Someone started that business. Someone founded that company. Get in at that time while they’re still running it, before the idiot gets in, and invest early when they’re still running it. That is the essence of The Founder Effect, and really spotting when that motivation changes, if it does, then get out and then let the idiots take over.

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