In previous articles, I have often compared the values of the founders of the two giants in the AI field, OpenAI and Anthropic, and considered this as an important indicator for my investment decisions.

In even earlier articles, I have provided more similar examples.

This viewpoint and habit have largely been shaped by Duan Yongping's book "Investment Q&A".

Since gradually forming this habit, when looking at projects/companies, I often first search for the past words and deeds of the founders of the project/company. Once I discover obvious issues with the values of the founders, I essentially rule out that company, no matter how good its current performance or how brilliant its reputation.

Recently, I came across three interesting cases about company founders in various media.

The first is the former benchmark of the Chinese real estate industry and the past model in the Chinese stock market (hereinafter referred to as Company A).

The founder of Company A was once very interested in the wooden houses produced by a modern lightweight wooden house manufacturer in China (hereinafter referred to as Company B), and was eager to learn from Company B, deploying a sizeable team for in-depth engagement.

After some time of learning, this team reported back to the founder of Company A, pointing out: in constructing wooden houses, Company A must learn from Company B, and the selection of suppliers and raw materials must implement quite strict standards; otherwise, the wooden houses produced will eventually encounter problems.

After listening to this report, the founder said the following (in essence):

I only want you to create the feeling of Company B's houses, and I don't care about their quality. They focus on quality, we focus on planning. Once the planning is good, even dog shit can be sold as red bean paste.

Therefore, Company B decided: never let the current staff of Company A step into Company B even a little bit.

After the tide recedes, we only know who is swimming naked. Now we finally see the tide recede and the naked swimmers.

The second is a domestic private equity fund manager recently pointed out that a certain cross-industry company's business is not focused, only knows how to chase trends, and is not worth investing in.

I have previously shared my views on this company in an article, but it being publicly named and criticized by investors with a negative evaluation seems to be the first time. Hence, this evaluation has been widely disseminated by various media.

I've seen similar comments before, but this time, what differs from the past is: this time I had a special insight into the remark "only knows how to chase trends," as I happened to be looking into Steve Jobs' history.

In comparison, I really couldn't find where Jobs showed a focus on one trend after another in his past career, nor did I see him crossing into various industries time and again.

The third is Duan Yongping's recent comments on Pop Mart.

The most notable is his retraction of previous statements about not investing in Pop Mart.

I looked into the source of his statement and the exchanges he had with netizens on this issue. In the exchanges, aside from appreciating the founder's understanding of business, he talked most about the founder's book "Because Unique," repeatedly recommending everyone read that book.

"Because Unique" discusses the founder's entrepreneurial journey and his understanding of companies and business in the process, which ultimately reflects the founder's values.

Setting aside Pop Mart's business model and moat, I believe from his recommendation of that book, at least he has a good view of the founder's values, especially since Duan Yongping mentioned that he does not believe Pop Mart would engage in false accounting.

All three cases assess a company's investment value through the values of its founders.

Some may retort:

In reality, not to mention the general public companies, even among listed companies, there may not be many founders with solid and trustworthy values. If you select based on this, how many companies are worth investing in?

This retort actually points out another harsh truth: there are not many good companies/projects that are truly worth investing in, so once you find a good company/project and buy in at a suitable price, cherish it, hold on tight, and do not let market emotions interfere or be swayed.

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