Framework
Read the owner's real estate to spot a profitable private company
Sam's heuristic for sniffing out hidden profitability: check the founder's real estate. He knew Fashion Nova's Richard Saghian was crushing it when, while the company was still small, TMZ reported he bought Avicii's $20M LA mansion.
“And here's how I knew he was crushing it. He owns 100% of the business. And about 3 years ago, when they still were small, I read in TMZ that he bought a $20 million mansion in LA. Avicii.”
Steal thisTo gauge whether a private company is wildly profitable, look at the owner's real estate purchases.
Billy
Fashion Nova's Richard backed Cardi B before anyone knew her
Harley marvels at Fashion Nova founder Richard Saghian, who discovered Cardi B and planted small investments in her before she was famous. Because he was part of her story when no one else would back her, Cardi gives Fashion Nova attention and loyalty no money from Pepsi can buy.
“But Richard, the genius of Richard is that he discovered Cardi B before anyone even talked about it. And he planted these seeds, these small investments with people that he thought had the potential to be the next biggest pop star in the world. And because of that, what you end up with is a relationship between Fashion Nova and Cardi B that is unlike any other relationship from any other brand because Richard was part of Cardi's story.”