The Only Thing that Matters
In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.
I like the idea of starting these out with a quote. Setting tone upfront is helpful given the importance of context.
Furthermore, I'd like to share where we've been, what we're doing right now, and where we're going.
Where We've Been
A year after founding the firm, we couldn't be happier at how far things have come. A quick overview:
- Heads down has been our de facto form of operation, and has lead to a tremendous level of development on the platform.
- Our admiration and respect for value investing has only continued to compound given the perceived flights to safety happening in equity markets around the globe vis-à-vis the short interim of rate "increases" we've experienced in the United States.
- Countercyclical is still a hard company name for many to remember, spell, and say. We like it that way.
What We're Doing Right Now
Building. Lots of building.
Threading the needle between building scalable software systems and upholding the fundamental teachings of Graham, Buffett, Munger, Klarman, Marks, and other value-oriented practitioners demands a marriage between abstract philosophy and day-to-day operations that we've found both immensely rewarding, but also challenging at times.
Rechecking our work over and over again so that we're properly clothing the belief system of value investing with a robust software interface ensures the core drivers of any given business are kept at the forefront of the user experience. This, we believe, is a central component to our own value proposition.
All that to say; In a world obsessed with quarterly results that fragments long-term value, we took a step back and looked at what really matters.
For value to be realized in its fullest capacity, we believe you have to spend large swaths of time on a seemingly small set of (yet undeniably the most important) variables of any given system. Only then is one capable of discovering where the most meaningful forces at play live.
This ideal we set for ourselves has generated some extraordinary results in the momentary time that has passed since our founding, and we couldn't be happier to work on the problems we have in front of us.
We have some really exciting news to share with everyone very soon, and we're looking forward to telling everyone when the time is right.
Where We're Going
The prudent value investor is the focal point that has dictated, and will continue to determine, all of our downstream actions on what the platform caters towards.
Any and all input we've gotten along the way has allowed us to incorporate world-class investment heuristics into the very technology our customers use on a (potentially) daily basis.
Whether it's been from the knowledge about retail and institutional clientele we've absorbed, or more internally with the collegues I have had the unlimited pleasure of working with, a strong foundation allows us to build something truly meaningful without our attention deviating from what really matters. The grass isn't greener on the other side, but rather where one chooses to water it.
We're not in any rush to prove anything, either. If we were, we wouldn't have lasted a year (let alone a day).
Yes, it's only been a year, but there's still a long path in front of us. Thankfully, The capital structure remains (and will continue to be) matched one-to-one with our management.
At Countercyclical, we care deeply about being directionally correct over a long period of time, but remaining flexible in the path we chart in our day-to-day activities.
The more boring value investing gets, the more you will find us doubling down on it.
How The Story Continues
Line by line, pixel by pixel, and customer by customer, I couldn't be more excited about where things have gone and where they'll be going.
At the end of the day, companies are made up of people.
Those people come together on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis to build towards some vision of a better tomorrow.
Whether the value those people create comes immediately (let's hope not) or many moons from now, we know that as long as we're empowering our clients will the tools to go in the right direction, bring the right people with them, and ask the right questions along the way, everything will take care of itself.
Thank you for allocating your attention with us.
We'll see you next year.
William Leiby
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Countercyclical