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Thursday, September 3, 2026

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@HaydenCapital

Fred Liu on X

Loved this interview with Adam at Applovin $APP. Insight into his strategic thinking + the story of building a $100BN firm with almost 0 funding (just $4M total). And his decision of buying back ~25% of shares at rock-bottom prices, contributing to their massive stock performance since 2023. https://t.co/2We2q8sG8n ** My favorite quotes: "We went public in April 21. And if I remember right, by December lockups free from January 22 to December 22, I think our stock went down like 92%. Um, it was red every day. And so that it ends up setting you up for failure. Now we were really fortunate because of how we started. We were always cashflow positive. So I controlled our own destiny. We were generating, I think it was a billion dollars of EBITDA. And at the low point, I think we got to a market cap of $4 billion. And so if you think about like cash yield return, it's over 20%. It's really cheap. You could manage and buy out a company at that level with just debt. And so what we did at the low point was we buckled down, said, we've all been here a long time. Let's build really great products. That's how we're going to recover. no one's going to buy our stock at this point. There's no narrative to sell. Everyone's gone. So let's buy our own shares. And we ended up issuing a lot of stock to the team, putting in a performance equity plan, and then becoming the biggest buyer of our own shares over the next year. And so we went from bottom $9 to peak $522 years later. A large part of that, I would say, probably 20-25% of that appreciation was because we bought back 20-25% of the cap table at very low prices because we could." ** And he refuses to speak to the Pods: "And then you realize I also want to recruit investors who believe in what I'm building over time, not who are betting on the stock for a quarter. And so I ended up changing investor relations and I don't take meetings with anyone who's who's focused on what's happening next quarter in a business as robust as ours. What's happening next quarter is defined by things we did a year ago. What's happening in three to five years is what I'm focused on. And so I only spend time with people who want to align with my vision long term. And that creates a much more engaging perspective on the world and got me to start thinking about the business exactly the same way as I did when we were private. And I still operate it today that way."
@HaydenCapital

Fred Liu on X

More 3PL Datapoints. $1519.HK $SE 1) External funding raised by 3PLs 2) Lower volumes are leading to negative spiral for delivery workers (who are paid per package). Fewer deliveries per worker = less $ per day = workers leaving for growing 3PLs (Shopee Express & J&T) = more supply / competition of delivery workers = cheaper per parcel costs for SPX & J&T (widening moat). And further erosion of network density for sub-scale 3PLs. https://t.co/n35vONTb7Y

Investor Letters

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Microsoft ($MSFT) - Deep Dive

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MSFT $3.8T
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QXO Inc.

QXO is building a North American construction-products distributor through Beacon, Kodiak and TopBuild, targeting $18.1 billion of combined…

QXO $14B
SixSigmaCapital: Navigating the Financial Markets 1 click

Late August 2026 Random Ramblings

Higher rates could compress equity multiples and raise AI data center lease costs, while UWMC and Cogent raise questions about CEO-driven…

UWMC $2.2B
Yet Another Value Podcast 26 clicks

UK Primer: The Equity Revival

UK equities trade at decades-wide discounts to developed-market peers as improving sentiment, capital reform and foreign M&A support a…

ARM $269B
Aurelion Research 1 click

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