TIP706: The Founder's Mindset w/ Cristiano Souza

We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network

Stig Brodersen

Education, Investing, Business

4.6 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today’s episode, Clay is joined by Cristiano Souza to discuss his three primary criteria in identifying an excellent business. Cristiano Souza is the founder of Zeno Equity Partners, a firm he started in 2022 after spending 28 years at Dynamo. From 1994 through 2015, he was on the team that managed the Dynamo Cougar fund, which invested in high-quality equities in Brazil. During that time, the fund compounded at 24% per year in US dollar terms. IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: 00:00 - Intro 03:33 - The three things that Cristiano looks for in a business. 13:43 - What the Founder’s Mindset is, and why it is so difficult to find. 18:53 - Why Cristiano believes that LVMH has a significant opportunity to continue to grow. 33:53 - The mistakes Cristiano has made in assessing management teams. 39:57 - Why Linde PLC is a core position in Christiano’s portfolio. 51:17 - Why AppFolio is well-positioned to continue growing in the property management space. And so much more! Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences. BOOKS AND RESOURCES Join the exclusive TIP Mastermind Community to engage in meaningful stock investing discussions with Stig, Clay, Kyle, and the other community members. Cristiano’s firm: Zeno Equity Partners. Book mentioned: Mastery by Robert Greene, The Nvidia Way by Tae Kim. Email Shawn at [email protected] to attend our free events in Omaha or visit this page. Follow Cristiano on LinkedIn. Follow Clay on X. Check out all the books mentioned and discussed in our podcast episodes here. Enjoy ad-free episodes when you subscribe to our Premium Feed. NEW TO THE SHOW? Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, The Intrinsic Value Newsletter. Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs. Follow our official social media accounts: X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok. Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here. Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool. Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services. Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts. SPONSORS Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors: Hardblock Found SimpleMining CFI Education Netsuite Unchained The Bitcoin Way Vanta Shopify Fintool Onramp TurboTax Vanta Fundrise HELP US OUT! Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Spotify! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it! Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://theinvestorspodcastnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to TIP.
0:03.0	On today's episode, I'm joined by Cristiano Soza.
0:06.2	Cristiano is the founder of Zeno Equity Partners and spent the majority of his career at a firm
0:10.4	called Dynamo, which is based in Brazil.
0:12.9	From 1994 through 2015, he was on the team that managed the Dynamo Cougar Fund,
0:17.5	which invested in high-quality equities in Brazil.
0:20.5	During that time, the fund compounded
0:22.1	at 24% per year in U.S. dollar terms. In 2022, Cristiano started his own firm, Zeno Equity Partners,
0:29.5	which primarily invests in North America and Europe, and has compounded at 19% per year since the
0:35.0	fund's inception, which is in line with the return of the S&P 500.
0:39.2	Brazil has gone through a number of periods of economic turmoil, which to Cristiano
0:43.4	taught him the importance of a business's resiliency and willingness to be opportunistic
0:48.1	during the difficult times.
0:49.9	Given that Cristiano runs a concentrated investment strategy. He also learned the importance of risk
0:54.7	management and minimizing the chance of permanent capital loss for every investment he makes.
0:59.8	During this conversation, we discussed the three things that Cristiano looks for in a business,
1:04.3	what the founder's mindset is and why it's so difficult to find, why Cristiano believes that
1:08.9	LVMH has this significant opportunity to continue to grow,
1:12.6	the mistakes Cristiano has made in assessing management teams, why Lindy PLC is a core position
1:18.2	in his fund, why Atfolio is well positioned to continue growing in the property management space
1:23.6	and much more. With that, I bring you today's episode with Cristiano Soza.
1:31.3	Since 2014 and through more than 180 million downloads, we've studied the financial markets
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -18 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Stig Brodersen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Stig Brodersen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.