What is The Gorilla Game?
My Personal Investment Journal
The Gorilla Game is my personal investment journal inspired by the book of the same name.
My investment philosophy is to hunt Gorillas. Gorillas are dominant. They have tremendous strength and can make their competitors crouch down in fear. Gorillas stand on platforms that can make everyone in their ecosystem submit to their will. Gorillas are aggressive and can often lead their troops in union towards a common goal, usually world domination. Gorillas are rare. If you are fortunate enough to catch one, clutch on to it for dear life and never let go because Gorillas only get stronger and stronger.
Contact me at hunter@thegorillagame.com or find me on twitter @the_gorillagame
In this journal, I post deep dives on companies I believe can either become Gorillas or are already Gorillas. Writing deep dives helps me think through ideas and identify blind spots or weaknesses in my thesis. My goal is to ultimately create a diverse community of subscribers who ideally push back on my analysis and offer alternative points of view. In an ideal world, this blog will become a source of new ideas for me to research and invest-in.
What can you expect?
- 10 deep dives a year, centred around a few mental models
- Regular updates on major events on covered companies
- Regular refreshes of go-forward returns and estimated intrinsic values
Who am I?
I am an independent investor. I sit in a room and read and do my own analysis and come to my own conclusions. However, I think it’s important to codify my thoughts and get feedback which is a major motivation for this journal.
I am flexible. I started off as a Buffett and Munger disciple but I’ve been influenced by everything from deep value to high-growth. While I tend to focus on “core” companies, ultimately, I am just trying to identify Gorillas wherever I can.
I am long-term. I invest with a view to owning a business for over 10 years, which is why I focus on Gorillas rather than Chimps. For my temperament, having long-term equity ownership in high quality businesses is the best way to build wealth.
I am qualitative. I focus on moat, culture, and management. It’s important to me that a Gorilla and its troop intend on conquering the world when they come to work. Having a growth and winning mindset is everything in The Gorilla Game.
Mental models are important. I’m a generalist, but I narrow my focus on specific Gorilla species to gain an edge. Some species (i.e. natural monopolies, serial acquirers, scaled economies shared) span multiple industries whereas others are industry specific.
Numbers should be simple. Most of my investments boil down to paying a good price for long term growth in FCF/share. At the end of the day, is the Gorilla strong and fit or weak and sick. I build models and rip apart financials but when it comes to making the final decision, I keep things simple.
High quality = lower risk. I’ve experienced time-and-time again risk increasing exponentially rather than linearly as you move down the quality curve.
Risk is a permanent impairment of capital, with a major caveat. The S&P500 can reliable compound MSD or better in real terms, so permanent impairment means materially underperforming MSD real-growth. Over 5 years, if you gain 5% but the stock market gains 50%, you have permanently impaired capital.
I fish where the fish are. I am unconstrained. I look globally. I’m open to any market cap. I’m open to non-equity instruments and in the future, I’d be open to private companies. The fundamental principles are the same for any asset.
Disclaimer: Everything on this website is provided for general informational and educational purposes only. Nothing should be construed as investment advice, recommendation, or as a guarantee of any specific investment outcome or profit. Please always do your own research. The author may hold positions in the stocks discussed.