Are you paying for yourself?

Oct 20, 2025

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Musings

International expansion

I was talking to a consumer brand that is considering expanding internationally as they believe that they are reaching marketing CAC/LTV saturation in the UK. I have also been down this a number of times in businesses I have been involved in. It’s a classic case of expansion seeming easier… Read More ⇢
Tesla Model Y

I have owned a Model Y since around 2022 and before that had a model S since around 2015. I think the negatives of electric vehicles are heavily overblown by other car manufacturers. I have thought about buying another Model Y but like my Apple phone I cant get excited… Read More ⇢
Pet surcharge

I have been staying in various hotels over the last few weeks while travelling. We have typically been taking our dog Bertie with us. Pretty much all hotels now have a per surcharge or supplement, ranging from £15 to £30 per night and don’t really provide much (if anything) for… Read More ⇢
The Resident, Edinburgh

I have been staying in various hotels in Edinburgh over the last few months and thought I would write about a new hotel that has recently opened. It used to be one of the offices of the HMRC in Edinburgh. The Resident is handily located at the west end of… Read More ⇢
Impact of GLP-1s: Weight Loss and Beyond

I used to be a paid up member of the Terry Smith fan club, and I was an investor in the Fundsmith fund. I have read with interest that Fundsmith have now dumped their investment in Diageo. They did this partly because of some missteps, but also because of the… Read More ⇢
Navigating the Tech Bubble: A 2024 Perspective

The Sunday Times had an article around tracking other people investments and specifically the Nancy Pelosi tracker on Autopilot. It actually isn’t following Nancy’s investment it’s actually following her husband’s Paul investments. It had some interesting references to being US centric in the portfolio. It also talked a lot about… Read More ⇢
FanDuel “duel” begins

The Times covered the court case by early investors, founders and employees (Link here) against KKR and Shamrock Capital. There is probably a great movie in this once the dust settle but comments here just give some background of my early involvement. I met the founders in a coffee shop… Read More ⇢
My Stock Market Journey

“The way to become rich is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket” Andrew Carnegie Since around 2015 I have been passively investing in the US stock market. Taking any gains from other activity and rolling it into the equity markets. I haven’t been… Read More ⇢
Driving to London

Since I bought a Tesla in 2015 I have quite often driven rather than taken the train or flown. At first this was quite hard as the charging network was pretty poor but now it’s pretty easy. We can easily drive half way from Edinburgh or Pitlochry and now we… Read More ⇢