33 Investing lessons from 33 companies we researched | 2024 in review

As 2024 comes to a close, we take a moment to reflect on an incredible year of deep dives and discoveries. In this special finale episode, we share 33 investing lessons from the 33 companies we analyzed this year at The Dutch Investors. From dominant monopolies to high-risk disruptors, we’ve covered businesses across industries and geographies, discovering unique and important lessons along the way.

We’ll discuss lessons learned from standout companies like Visa, ASML, Ryanair, Monster Beverage, Dino Polska, Richemont, Tesla, Amazon, Duolingo, Adyen, Kering, and Airbnb, among others. Each company taught us something. Don’t miss this informative year-end episode. It’s packed with lessons you can carry into the new year. 

Before we dive in, a brief reminder: our founding price ends tomorrow, December 29th. If you’ve been thinking of joining us at www.thedutchinvestors.com, now is your chance to lock in before prices increase.

Enjoy these final days of 2024, and tune in as we celebrate the lessons, insights, and milestones of the year. Here’s to a prosperous 2025!  A heartfelt thank you to our listeners and TDI members for an amazing 2024! We couldn’t have done it without you!

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Nothing in this podcast can be considered financial advice. This is for educational purposes only. We may hold positions in the businesses discussed. Do your own research.

Transcript

Welcome back to The Dutch Investors. 2024 is coming to an end, and this means looking back and reflecting. So in this episode, we’re sharing 33 important lessons from the 33 companies we analyzed this year for our TDI members. Let's begin.

Chapter 1: Introduction

It's December, and you know what that means, reflection time! It's been an amazing year. Not just for us, but for us investors as well. 

Since starting The Dutch Investor just 9 months ago, we have released a deep dive every single Friday over on The Dutch Investors.com. That’s close to 1400 hours spent on finding unique and interesting businesses.

In that short time, we’ve welcomed over 50 curious and like-minded investors on www.thedutchinvestors.com. .

We started The Dutch Investor with just a single goal. To work together and expand our investing universe, turn over as many stones as possible, trying to find the best possible companies to invest in and share our research with like-minded investors. Because the bigger the pool we fish in, the higher our chances of catching something.

Just a heads-up before we begin today's episode, our prices are increasing tomorrow over on thedutchinvestors.com. Our quality and services have heavily outpaced our prices, so if you want to lock-in our original founding price, do so today, December 28th because on Sunday, December 29th prices will increase. 

This year, we analyzed 33 different companies from 10 different countries. And like every company, there are lessons to be learned from every single one. So let's jump in. 33 lessons from 33 companies.

Chapter 2: 33 lessons from 33 companies

And let’s kick things off with our first category called “monopolies and duopolies”. Companies that are so dominant in their respective industries that competitors can only hope to get a piece of the pie. This year, five strong companies really stood out: EssilorLuxottica, Ryanair, Monster Beverage, Visa and ASML."

• The first one being, EssilorLuxottica. I’ve recently made an episode on this if you want to learn more, but they basically control an estimated 70-80% of the global eyewear market. 

Lesson number 1: is that if you're able to become fully integrated like Essilorluxottica, you become nearly impossible to compete with. 

• Next, you might know this little credit card company, Visa. Which has a duopoly with Mastercard. With over 4 billion cards users in over 200 countries, Visa processes over $13 trillion in transactions each year through Visa Net, a network so big Visas fiber-optic cables could circle the Earth 400 times. 

Lesson number 2: is that building a massive, reliable infrastructure is difficult, but if in place, it creates a moat so strong it’s nearly impossible for competitors to break through, which is the case right now with Visa and Mastercard.

• Next up, Ryanair. When it comes to cost efficiency in the airline industry, Ryanair is the very best. They focus on smaller, less crowded. Their focus on keeping costs low ensures that they can consistently offer the cheapest tickets in the industry, making them unqiue in what’s often considered a tough and unsexy industry to succeed in. 

Lesson number 3: is that a relentless focus lowering costs creates a powerful competitive advantage, even in unattractive industries, like the airline industry. And no one does it better than Ryanair.

• Then we have ASML. If we had a national treasure category, ASML would win it hands down. Their EUV machines are so advanced that no one else in the world has been able to copy it or compete with them.. 

Lesson number 4: is that relentless innovation, focus on attracting talent, can create an unbeatable monopoly, but to maintain the monopoly, they must stay ahead of competition by investing lots into R&D. A difficult task in today's world. Failing to innovate might mean becoming the next Intel. And no one wants that.

• The last one we’d like to add to this category is Monster Beverage, that operates a duopoly together with Red Bull in the energy drinks market. For decades, the beverage world remained largely unchanged with coffee, water, tea, and soft drinks being the most important beverages. But then, out of nowhere, came energy drinks, creating a whole new category.

This brings us to lesson number 5: which is that competiton can be an advantage. Monster and red bull need each other, just like Pespsi and Coke need each other. Researchers did a test with a single pepsi and coke machine, both selling about 50 cans each. Than they placed them together and they sold over 200 cans combined. Instead of choosing to buy Pepsi or nothing, you now get to choose Pepsi or Coke, instead of buying nothing. A very interesting dynamic within this industry. This also applies to Monster and Red Bull.

That were the first 5 companies from our monopolies and duopoloies category. Let’s head over to our next segment, Polish Compounders. 

Dino Polska and Auto Partner aren't the most well-known or exciting companies, but are very interesting to us. These Polish companies showed us that opportunities can be found in  places other than the US.

• Let's begin with Dino Polska. This Polish supermarket chain is quietly building an empire in rural areas within Poland. Instead of focusing on busy towns, they operate a similar strategy of Ryanair. By focusing on cheaper and smaller towns and by combining standardization, vertical integration, and operational efficiency, they are able to have exceptional margins for a retail chain.

Lesson number 6 is that fast growth, combined with an exceptional Outsider founder and focus operational excellence can make a successful business, even within a low - margin industry like retail. 

Next on our list we have the Polish company, Auto Partner, researched by our analyst Mathijs. Think of them as the Polish AutoZone. This auto parts distributor has carved out a strong market position by learning from U.S. companies like AutoZone and O’Reilly. Auto-Partner stands out as a cost leader by maintaining lean operations, optimizing logistics, and leveraging its centralized warehouse model. 

Lesson number 7 is that it's difficult to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the distributor market. Scale is vital, but is of minimal importance due to the existence of purchasing groups.

Both Polish companies seem reasonably priced for their growth and runway ahead, both seem to be the best operations in their respective markets, and both have exceptional management. It might be worth taking a look at.

It’s time for a hint of quality this holiday season, so our next category we called living luxury. 2024 brought us many lessons from the luxury industry, where strong brands can both shine and fall apart. This resulted in a series dedicated to understanding the luxury industry as a whole.

• The first luxury company we analyzed this year was Kering. Known for brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga and it’s safe to say Kering had a tough year, being down almost 60% over the past 5 years. With over 50% of their revenue depending on Gucci, it is no wonder why the stock tumbled. What we learned from 

Lesson number 8 is that revenue diversification often does matter because dependence on a flagship brand that is failing is a recipe for disaster, and that focusing on long-term brand building, like Hérmes and Ferrari are doing well, is much more important than short-term revenue.

• Next up is luxury holding Richemont, filled with luxury jewelry and watch brands like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. While they don’t grow as quickly as some competitors, their brand heritage and specialization on jewelry and watches, staying mostly away from bags and clothing, make them a unique player in the luxury market, operating in its own little niche. This company feels like the turtle, slow and steady wins the race, which is true for luxury brands. 

Lesson number 9 is that starting a luxury company alone is extremely difficult. Economies of scale, supported by a holding company model, enable growth for smaller, money losing brands, by sharing resources and using cash flows of bigger profitable brands.

• Last but not least, Porsche and while one could argue it’s perhaps more premium than luxury, it does fit quite nicely in this category. When it comes to cars, Porsche walks the line between premium and high-end-luxury. 

This brings us to lesson number 10, which is, determining the level of luxury matters. Porsche is, unlike Ferrari, way more dependent on economic cycles. To keep production at normal levels, Porsche had to lower its prices, giving pressure on margins. This is not the case for Ferrari or even Rolls-Royce. So there is definitely a big difference between Porsche- and Ferrari buyers and the level of luxury.

If you’re intrigued by the luxury topic, I recommend listening to our luxury episodes.

Our next segment is for the thrill seekers. The high risk, high reward category. Some of the most exciting opportunities we analyzed this year come from this category. 

• The first being educational app, Duolingo. This language-learning app has built an incredibly sticky platform with a loyal user base, using all kinds of psychological tricks and gamification to make users want to come back. Its growth potential is undeniable, but the current valuation leaves little room for error, making it a tempting but risky play. 

Lesson number 11 is that leveraging data is a more powerful moat than most of us realize. With strong network effects, where more users enhance the quality of lessons through data-driven AI like Birdbrain, Duolingo creates a self-reinforcing competitive advantage. We cal also find this data-network effect in companies like Netflix, Google and Tesla. Make sure to keep an eye out on this specific moat, because data might be the next gold.

• Another fast-growing tech company is software company Atlassian with flagship products like Jira, Confluence, and Trello. With a strong focus on R&D and a developer-friendly ecosystem, Atlassian has built a reputation for creating high-quality tools that are widely adopted across industries. 

Lesson number 12, stock-based-compensation matters. Now, if stock-based-compensation is a problem for Airbnb, which made up of 14% of its revenue, it’s definitely a problem for Atlassian, which is 27% of revenue. While it helps attract and retain top talent, it costs cannot be ignored. It can create a very distorted picture of free cash flow. SBC matters, and should be looked at when analyzing a business. It’s an often forgotten and hidden cost that can eat away at your returns.

• Feeling tired already? Time for some energy, we’re talking Celsius. This energy drink maker is riding a wave of popularity, particularly as it pushes into international markets. If they execute well, the upside is huge, but the path forward is jam-packed with challenges. 

Lesson number 13 is that if you want to compete with a monopoly or duopoly, counter-positioning is one way to do so.. By counter-positioning themselves as a health-conscious energy drink company against competitors like Monster Beverage and Red Bull, they carved out a successful niche in a competitive market, dominated by a duopoly. 

• The last company in our high-risk, high-reward segment is Canadian convenience store giant Couche-Tard. Yeah, sounds strange to have a gas station operator in the high-risk, high-reward category, but hear me out. Couche-Tard is known for operating over close to 17.000 locations globally and has an impressive track record of growth driven by smart acquisitions. And while there might not me immense risk going bankrupt the next 5 years, there is a transition to sustainable clean energy going on and Couche-Tard appears to be hesitant to go that route, because this obviously hurts their current businesses.

This brings us to lesson 14 which is that you want management that’s willing to change or even pull the plug on an old business model when it’s nearing the end of its lifecycle. They do almost everything right, but change is needed. Think of Netflix as a prime example.

Talking about Netflix, let’s dive into the next segment: Big Tech. Companies that dominate the economy with their business models, economies of scale and often incredible founders.

• Let’s start with Netflix. I don’t think I need to explain what they do, because if you haven’t used Netflix atleast once in your life, I mean, really? Back in 2011, founder Reed Hastings made a risky move by leaving its business model of DVD rentals and going all-in on streaming. This hurt short-term profits a lot, and no one knew if this was going to work, but this early move set Netflix up for what they are today. 

Lesson 15 is that visionary leadership and willingness to disrupt your own business in the short term can lead to exceptional growth, even if it means facing criticism along the way. Reminds you of something? It reminds me a bit of what Couche-Tard is facing today.

• Another big tech company we did was Amazon. A company all four of us own. And it’s strange to think that a company that’s close to $2.5 trillion is still such a interesting growth opportunity. From Amazon Prime, to advertising, cloud computing, e-commerce and everything else. Amazon is like a centipede, having arms and legs in almost everything you can think of. 

Lesson 16 is, focus on the customer. What we learned most from Amazon is that customer obsession is essential. Better customer experiences bring more traffic, attract more sellers, and lower prices, creating a cycle that feeds itself. Amazons culture plays an important role here.

Our fundamental analysis of Amazon is free for anyone that’s interested and can be found on our website. Thedutchinvestors.com.

• Last, but not least for big tech is Tesla. I mean, who doesn’t know Telsa and Musk at this point. What’s interesting is that Tesla ties its CEO compensation to stock performance. Just think of the insane 80 billion dollar bonus package Musk has been trying to get for months now. 

Lesson 17. What we learned from Tesla is that we usually don’t like bonuses based solely on the stock price, unless a company needs to focus on exceptional innovation, like Tesla and Amazon. No matter how strong a company is, it’s not immune to the challenges of the automotive industry—think capital intensity and cyclicality—which makes innovation especially critical for businesses like these.

Alright, next up are is what we cal the "boring" category. These companies don’t make headlines, but their strength lies in consistent operations, smart capital allocation and just keep doing what they’re good at.

• The first one on this list is Greggs. This UK bakery chain is famous for its sausage rolls and affordable prices, having more locations in the UK than Starbucks and McDonald's combined. But while it’s a cultural icon, its growth seems to be limited to the UK. I mean, just think about it, I don’t think Asian countries would particularly like Greggs food, but perhaps some European countries? Difficult to say right now.

This brings us to lesson 18 and what we took away from the Greggs analysis is that finding companies with enough room to grow is vital for long-term success of the business. So look for companies with a long enough runway and have room to expand, whether domestic, international or into new segments.

• Then we have HAL Trust, a Dutch investment fund heavily focused on maritime businesses like Boskalis and Vopak. While we believe its significantly undervalued, they lack a clear strategy. This makes it a tricky investment. Besides, as our TDI members have learned so far is that the holding discount rarely goes away. Just look at Prosus, Dior or HAL Trust. 

Lesson 19. Holding discounts rarely run out. Holdings can offer a great discount to intrinsic value, but unless the company sells all its majority and minority interests, that value is unlikely to be maximized.

• Finally in the boring category, KONE. As an elevator manufacturer, KONE doesn’t just sell the elevators and excavators, they mostly profit benefits from maintenance contracts. These provide a steady stream of revenue at higher margins, compared to just selling products themselves. 

Lesson 20, recurring revenue is not always as stable as many think. What we learned from KONE is that while recurring revenue models are attractive, they’re still sensitive to external factors like economic fluctuations. What’s happening in China is a prime example. They’re slowing down on building malls and apartments, so they don’t sell a lot of new elevators and maintenance contracts.

In the spirit of the holiday season, now it’s time to feast, with our restaurant compounders category. These companies grow by scaling a single, winning formula.

• First up, Texas Roadhouse. Known for its affordable steaks and unique atmosphere, Texas Roadhouse focuses entirely on one concept: providing high-quality, value-driven dining experiences, for an affordable price, or what they call, ‘blue-collar’ consumers.

Lesson 21: keep it simple. What we learned from Texas Roadhouse is that sticking to a simple, proven, unique, scalable concept, building a successful restaurant chain is possible. It can really be as simple as selling good steaks, good service and affordable prices. Ow yeah, a crazy founder and free peanuts and bread also helps. Of course.

• Next on our restaurant list is Chipotle Mexican Grill. This fast-casual chain has built its success on serving customizable, high-quality meals with a focus on healthier ingredients. Like Texas Roadhouse, Chipotle has a single-brand strategy that has allowed for significant scalability and consistent growth. Both companies own their restaurants and don’t like to use the franchise model. I believe this to be a big part of their success.

Lesson 22: building a moat in the restaurant industry is very difficult, with low barriers to entry. Consumers are price sensitive, want good quality and taste and a nice, yet quick service. A difficult combination to manage.

We’re just over half way there, but we have a few more lessons and categories to go. Next up is our fallen angels category. Awhh, sounds sad right? Companies that haven’t been doing too well this year, and while Kering could also be added to this list, we have 2 others.

• The first being Diageo, known for brands like Smirnoff and Guinness, which saw its stock drop 37% from its peak. And while our analyst Mathijs has been drinking a lot of Guiness to hopefully increase Diageo sales, it hasn’t been enough. And there is a lot to like about this company.

But this brings us to lesson 23: stay focused on capital allocation. What we learned is that questionable capital allocation by management is a reason to avoid it. The company has increased debt to fund dividends, a red flag for us, instead of paying down debt or repurchasing shares. The keyword here is opportunity cost. A very important lesson for all of us.

• The next fallen angel is Nike, being down over 56% from its peak. Perhaps one of the strongest apparel brands in the world, but even the strongest premium apparel brand is not immune to bad decisions or mistakes. The fashion industry is incredibly competitive with low barriers to entry. Everyone can start a clothing or apparel brand and go head-to-head. 

Lesson 24: stay away from the clothing industry. What we learned most from Nike is that we don’t like the apparel industry. Margins are too slim, competition is too fierce, and creating a sustainable moat is too difficult. It’s probably better to avoid it and look somewhere else.

Oké, our next category are platform companies we have analyzed, which are quite a few. Let’s start with a platform close to home; Wix.

• Wix is a platform we know well, as it powers our own site. We have a love-hate relationship with Wix. They offers a user-friendly interface, strong recurring revenue, and high switching costs, making it appealing to individuals and small businesses looking to build simple websites. However, Wix’s focus on price-sensitive customers and heavy reliance on stock-based compensation raises some concerns. The platform is growing pretty quick, but operates in a highly competitive and fragmented market, with rivals like WordPress and Shopify constantly lurking. 

Lesson 25 is about ecosystems. What we learned most from Wix is that the integrated closed ecosystem can both be a huge advantage as it can be a disadvantage. If we think of Apple’s iOS, it’s an extremely strong moat, but it can also be extremely disadvantageous if it doesn’t work out, or if they fail to meet users' needs. WordPress, for example, powers hundreds of millions of sites because of their open ecosystem, but Wix is trying to build the iOS of website builders. Time will tell if this was the right decision.

• Another important platform we analyzed is the Amazon copycat; Coupang. Coupang is often called the "Amazon of South Korea," with a close to 30% market share in the country's e-commerce sector, they’re a huge player. Its strengths lie in rapid delivery, customer satisfaction, and building an integrated platform that makes it a go-to platform for everything from groceries to streaming. Sounds familiar? It should, because they basically copied everything that worked from companies like Alibaba, Tencent and Amazon. 

This brings us to lesson 26. What we learned most from Coupang is that you don’t have to be first in order to be a winner. It’s a very viable strategy to copy what works from successful companies and avoid costly mistakes this way.

• Another strong tech platform is Adyen. When recording this episode, our fundamental analysis of Adyen hasn’t come online yet, but it will be online this afternoon for our TDI members. And after doing hours of research, he was struck by one key insight: the PSP market, which stands for payment service provider, remains dominated by legacy players. And what surprised us most was the growing and ongoing demand for traditional providers like Worldline and Chase Paymentech. We thought Stripe and Adyen would only become more popular with legacy players losing market share and while market consolidation seems inevitable, competition with these legacy PSPs is likely to remain intense for the foreseeable future.

Lesson 27: dig into the industry itself. Without knowing your competition, you’re only guessing and gambling on specific players. So know the competition, their strengths and weaknesses, and overcome your own biases.

• The last platform in this category is Evolution AB. Evolution isn’t just another player in the online gambling world—it’s the infrastructure many casinos rely on. By providing the games, studios, and dealers, Evolution positions itself as indispensable to its clients, making the business model highly scalable and durable. 

Lesson 28: Look for pick-and-shovel companies. What we took away from our Evolution analysis is to focus on the "pick-and-shovel" sellers of an industry rather than the headline players chasing the gold rush. Companies that provide essential tools, infrastructure, or services to support growing trends often enjoy steadier, scalable growth and lower risk.

Let’s head over to a smaller category of companies we’ve analyzed, the small-caps. And there are a few interesting ones here.

• Let’s start with Swedish small-cap Teqnion. This company could also easily be placed in the high risk, high reward category. They are a serial acquirer focused on industrial companies in niche businesses.

Lesson 29. Our takeaway from the Teqnion analysis is that operating in ‘unsexy’ industries can be very attractive if done right. Another important takeaway is that for serial acquirers, it's important to keep the acquired business operating independently most of the time. This sense of ownership fosters commitment and agility.

• Another small-cap closer to home is EVS. A Belgian small-cap, unknown to many, but without them, you wouldn’t be able to watch the Champions League or Olympic Games. EVS technology combines footage from dozens of cameras to create seamless broadcasts with replays, close-ups, and highlights. 

Lesson 30 Skin in the game matters. What we learned most from the EVS analysis is that skin in the game matters. The prior management team had close to no skin in the game, and this is reflected in poor decisions, short-term focus and a poor stock performance. New management has more skin in the game, is incentivized better, which has been notable in the stock performance.

• Then our last small-cap company, Hilton Food Group. Hilton Food Group (HFG) specializes in processing and packaging meat, fish, ready meals, and vegetarian products for large retail customers like Tesco, Albert Heijn, and Walmart Canada. It's likely that Hilton Food Group was responsible for the chicken breasts you bought within a plastic container. 

Lesson 31: low margin industries can become a moat if done right. Hilton Food Group operates on such a low margin, around 1-2%, that this actually creates a very strong moat because who wants to try and compete with a business that requires a lot of upfront capital for the potential of 1 to 2% margins. Probably no-one. Quite fascinating if you think about it.

Let’s fly over to our final next category; tourism.

In this category, we have 3 of the biggest names within the tourism industry, Booking Holdings, Airbnb and Marriott International.

• Let’s start with the largest of the 3, Booking Holdings, the world’s largest online travel agency (OTA), with flagship brands like Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, and KAYAK under its umbrella. 

Lesson 32: network effects can be strong, very strong. Booking Holdings has a double-sided global network effect that is incredibly difficult to beat. More accommodations listed, means more choice for travelers, which means more revenue, more marketing budget and the cycle continues. It’s very hard for hotels to not be listed on Booking, because of missing out on all that traffic and so the network effect keeps going.

• Then their counter-part, Airbnb. This company changed the travel and accommodation industry by turning homes into vacation destinations. A concept never heard of before Airbnb came around. With arguably a stronger brand than Booking, they are doing well financially yet the stock price has been performing poorly… Or is it just a matter of valuation?

Lesson 33: valuations matter in the long-run. When Airbnb IPO’ed, they were already one of the largest IPO’s ever based on market cap value. And while they’ve been growing pretty fast, most of the value was already priced in I believe. And many early investors perhaps underestimated Airbnb’s uniqueness and Booking Holdings strength. At the end of the day, in the long-run fundamentals determine the stock price. I think Airbnb is moving to its fair value instead.

• Finally, Marriot International. This hotel chain is the largest in the world, with close to 9000 properties across 133 countries. It operates a franchise model, making it capital-light, with franchisees owning and managing most of the hotels while paying Marriott for its brand, loyalty program, and operational expertise. 

Okay, let’s make it 34 lessons. Just a little extra in spirit of the holiday season. Lesson 34 is about debt. What we learned from Marriot is that debt can be a double-edged sword. Marriott consistently takes on debt to fund growth, dividends, and share buybacks. While manageable in strong economic conditions, this high  leverage poses risks during downturns or Black Swan events like pandemics. Keep an eye out on debt levels, not just for Marriott, but for all companies.

If there’s one key takeaway from all of these reports combined, it’s that great opportunities exist across all sectors and geographies, even during crazy bull markets, but finding them requires discipline, curiosity, and a willingness to dig deep. Which is exactly what we do over on thedutchinvestors.com for our members.

Just a quick reminder, our service and quality have outgrown our original founding price, so we are increasing the price tomorrow. So you have just a single day left to lock-in the founding price before it increases.

If you’ve enjoyed our insights this year, make sure to follow along next year as we continue to uncover and share the stories behind the world’s most intriguing companies.

That’s it for now! We would like to thank our listeners and TDI members for an amazing year, and we’re only just getting started! Enjoy these final days of 2024—cherish time with your family, loved ones, and the holiday season. See you in the next one.