


Every investor wants to find the next Amazon. Books are written about it. Videos are made about it. FinTwit debates it, dreaming about finding and investing in companies that will be the next “100 bagger.”






http://Amazon.com (e-commerce)
AWS
Cloudfront
Alexa/Echo
Amazon Prime
Ring
AmazonFresh

CreateSpace
IMDBPro
KindleDirect Publishing
Twitch
Amazon Robotics
Whole Foods
Amazon Studios (movie production)
Audible
Amazon Fire
Amazon Music
...and many more

And very possible what Bezos accomplished is not repeatable.
Also, most wouldn’t be able to hold through the 2001-03 dot com bust and $AMZN 90% crash


1. A truly visionary founder CEO that will take necessary risks, execute, and adapt.
Examples: Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Reed Hastings, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk.
(Cont.)

Ask yourself - does Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Facebook have the ability to monetize in some way each person on their platform?
Answer is yes







Businesses that cannot MONETIZE customers, or have a limited market (such as B2B only), cannot be the next Amazon.
The TAM must be massive and constantly growing

First, eliminate some great companies I hold (or previously held) that currently don’t fit the criteria:
$CRWD $FSLY $MDB $AYX $DDOG $VEEV $SNOW

$ZM $SE $SHOP $ROKU $PINS $TDOC $SPOT $JMIA $U
My thoughts on each


Zoom has the platform and ability to serve every person on the planet. But, will they be able to monetize all users?
With CEO Eric Yuan, who knows what type of additional businesses will be entered in the future?
Buy price was earlier in 2020, ~$85 and a $24B market cap

Sea Limited has multiple platforms with Shopee/Garena/Shopee Pay.
Forrest Li is a visionary CEO, and I believe will continue to execute and expand into new businesses.
At $100B market cap currently. The right time to buy was ~$20/share early 2019.

Shopify clearly has a killer platform and a visionary CEO in Tobi Lutke. What new businesses that we haven’t even considered will Tobi expand into?
With a massive $138B market cap, best buying opportunity is gone. Buying right was ~$45/share in early 2017.

Roku has a great platform, and is able to monetize its users through advertisers. Establishing the platform, how will founder CEO Anthony Wood expand?
Does Wood have the vision and desire to grow like Amazon?
IPO in 2017, best buying was in May 2019 ~$60/share.

Like Roku, Pinterest has a market cap of $41B. A visionary CEO, lots of data, a killer platform and partners, and the ability to monetize users.
Who knows whether Pinterest can enter into new businesses, but the foundation is there.
Best buy was in 2020 ~$25/share.

It may be hard to envision Teladoc as an Amazon-type juggernaut, but they are building out a platform in healthcare and have the advantage of being the first mover.
What expansion opportunities will present over next 5-10 years?
$29B market cap, buy was in 2018 ~$40.

Spotify has a killer platform with mobile/desktop app. They monetize all users with either subscription or ad revenue.
Will the CEO execute and expand into multiple Amazon-type businesses? Time will tell.
$SPOT with $60B market cap; buy was in 2020 ~$150 & then $200.

Clearly Jumia is still in its infancy, but is one of those “could be” platforms in African continent that must expand and leverage its current platform into yet unknown businesses.
$3.6B market cap, so potential for massive gains. Buy was ~$20 and again ~$45.

Unity Software has big ambitions to became the developer tool in multiple industries, not just gaming. Also, to build out “The Metaverse,” and future AR/VR applications.
With their killer platform, the key will be to monetize freemium users and expand into new businesses.

$MELI $TWLO $DOCU $LMND
Others? Looking forward to your feedback!