In today's episode we interview CFO and Board Member of SHIFT Inc, Taichi Hattori. SHIFT is a software quality assurance company based out of Japan.

Today's episode includes an interview with Rafał Brzoska, Founder and CEO of InPost.

Today's episode, produced in partnership with Stream by Alphasense, looks at graph databases. I am delighted to be joined by Gaurav Deshpande, Chief Marketing Officer at HyperTrack, and former VP of Marketing at TigerGraph, one of the companies discussed in today's episode.

Rather than focus on one single company today, I felt it important to examine one of the megatrends that is occurring within databases that is affecting the ways in which companies perform data analysis and improve their real world business outcomes. From reduction in fraud, to the easement of managing complex supply chains. Graph databases are a fundamental technology, which even generative AI is entirely dependent upon.

Please enjoy today's episode.

00:00 - Stream by Alphasense Promotion

00:45 -- Disclosure

01:29 -- API Basics

04:34 -- Agora Basics

07:22 -- Agora Competitive Advantages

11:12 -- Market Size

13:04 -- Recent Events

15:56 -- Interview Begins / Tony's Background

20:44 -- How has RTC Technology Evolved

27:04 -- Agora the tool vs Zoom the product

32:03 -- Agora vs. WebRTC

37:38 -- Use Cases

41:09 -- Market Size

43:21 -- Competitive Advantages

50:04 -- Developer Evangelism

52:22 -- Infrastructure

55:00 -- Market Growth Trajectory

59:06 -- Recent Events

01:08:28 -- Geopolitical Risks

01:12:17 -- Fundamental Changes In The Last Few Years

01:14:24 -- Final Question

In today's episode of the Quality Investing Podcast we will be profiling Acast and I will be joined by Acast's CEO Ross Adams.

Today's sponsor is Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative datapoints that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time. If you have conducted expert calls in the past and are looking for ways to better allocate your time and energy then Stream might be a helpful addition to your toolkit.

2:00 - Acast Basics

6:05 - Ross Adams Interview Begins

8:55 - Making the jump from Spotify to Acast

9:49 - Acast's Evolution

11:44 - How is Podcast Content Unique?

13:56 - Podcasting and Influencer Marketing

15:55 - Podcasting is Undermonetized; Why?

19:32 - Acast's Core Value Proposition

23:26 - Return on Investment for Advertisers

26:14 - Open vs. Closed Podcast Ecosystem

29:19 - Spotify vs. Acast: Commercialization Rights

31:17 - Acast Competitive Advantages

33:03 - US vs International Markets

37:13 - New Developments

39:07 - Competitive Threats

41:15 - Short and Intermediate-Term Goals

42:29 - Acast's Culture

43:51 - Misunderstandings

In today's episode of the Quality Investing Podcast we will be profiling Raksul, and I will be joined by Raksul's CEO Yasukane Matsumoto.

Today's sponsor is Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative datapoints that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time. If you have conducted expert calls in the past and are looking for ways to better allocate your time and energy then Stream might be a helpful addition to your toolkit.

2:00 - General Overview

2:52 - Printing Segment Overview

6:06 - Better Systems, Better World

6:45 - TV Commercial Segment

8:12 - Financial Profile

8:49 - Growth Opportunities

12:09 - Conversation with Yasukane Matsumoto Begins

15:13 - Reasons for Optimism and Pessimism in Japan

17:26 - Founding Story of Raksul

20:20 - Raksul Evolution

24:35 - Better Systems, Better World

28:33 - CEO Role Evolution

32:42 - Internal Systems

34:00 - Corporate Culture

37:00 - Attention Allocation

40:23 - Avoiding Dilution of Returns

46:52 - Competitive Advantages for Printing Segment

53:34 - Novasel

58:10 - Novasel Competitive Advantages

59:34 - Josys

1:02:51 - Japanese Corporate Startup Differences

1:05:16 - Group Leadership Style

1:08:19 - What Matters Most Going Forward

In this episode I examine the infrastructure software company, HashiCorp. In Part One I lay out HashiCorp's value proposition, business model, and potential for competitive advantages. In Part Two [26:20] Kelsey Hightower joins me to test all of this research and try to determine what factors really matter to HashiCorp over the long-term.

Today's episode is sponsored by Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative data points that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me, or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well-qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for most of the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because of there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time.

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Part 1: HashiCorp Analysis

01:48 - HashiCorp Overview

04:30 - Terraform

06:25 - Vault

08:32 - Consul

10:13 - Adoption Process

13:38 - Monetization

17:44 - Unit Economics/Operating Leverage

19:58 - Market Opportunity

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Part 2: Kelsey Hightower Q&A

26:20 - Open-Source Business Model Evolution

30:52 - HashiCorp's Evolution

41:47 - HashiCorp's Ecosystem

45:14 – Terraform vs. Pulumi

56:07 – Vault

01:08:33 – Competition

01:13:24 – HashiCorp’s Primary Advantage

01:17:10 – Multi-Cloud Inevitability

1:22:04 - HashiCorp vs. Cloud Providers

01:23:59 – HashiCorp’s Dilemma

01:30:06 – Cloud Platform

01:33:43 – Switch Costs

01:37:02 – New Functions/Product Maturity

01:39:39 – De Facto Standard (yes or no?)

01:44:46 – Consul

01:53:20 – Biggest Opportunities/Risks for HashiCorp