Today’s episode is the finale of our season on Asurion, the world’s leading tech care company with more than 300 million customers. In an interview with legendary long-time director, Irv Grousbeck , we discuss Irv’s path to investing in Asurion, his stewardship across several cohorts of PE ownership, and compare Asurion to Irv’s previous power law experience at Continental Cable. Learn more and dive into our research at 50xpodcast.com For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the be...
May 21, 2025•58 min•Ep. 3
Today’s episode is the second in a series of three on Asurion, the world’s leading tech care company with more than 300 million customers. In an interview with Co-Founder and Chairman Kevin Taweel , we dive deep into Asurion’s divinely discontent culture, hyper-rational approach to talent management, growth over $1 billion in sales, and transformational acquisition of Lock/line. Learn more and dive into our research at 50xpodcast.com For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best c...
May 14, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 2
Today’s episode is the first in a series of three on Asurion, the world’s leading tech care company with more than 300 million customers. In an interview with Co-Founder and Chairman Kevin Taweel , we explore Asurion’s scrappy origins in roadside assistance, acquisitive entry into handset insurance, contentious capital allocation decisions, and much more. 50X is a podcast that dissects the anatomy of extraordinary long-term investments. The show is hosted by Will Thorndike and the team at Compou...
May 07, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 1
50X is back for Season 2! This season centers on Asurion, the world’s leading tech care company with over 300 million customers. Hosted by Will Thorndike, author of The Outsiders and a co-founder at Compounding Labs, 50X aims to dissect the anatomy of investments that have appreciated at least 50-fold. We track the often circuitous route to exceptional long-term returns, exploring the foundations of value creation and how that rarest of investment commodities—conviction—is created, maintained, t...
Apr 30, 2025•3 min
This is our final episode in a series of four on TransDigm. In this discussion, we contrast TransDigm with traditional private equity portfolio companies, examine the company’s approach to capital allocation, and dissect Berkshire’s and Stockbridge’s position management over time. Our guest is Rob Small, a Managing Director at Berkshire Partners and Stockbridge, as well as a Director at TransDigm. Under Rob’s direction, Stockbridge has maintained a concentrated position in TransDigm and demonstr...
Aug 04, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 4
This is our third episode in a series of four on TransDigm. In this discussion, we study TransDigm’s evolution while under public ownership. Since 2006, the company has outperformed the S&P by 15-fold and its peer group by 9-fold. We unpack its approach to special dividends and leverage, examine meaningful acquisitions alongside disruptive crises, reflect on the prior three decades, and consider TransDigm’s future beyond $50 billion of Enterprise Value. Our guest is Nick Howley, the Founder ...
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 3
This is our second episode in a series of four on TransDigm, an aerospace components manufacturer that has returned over 1,750X since its inception nearly three decades earlier. If you haven’t listened to the first episode with TransDigm’s founder Nick Howley, we recommend starting there. Today, we are joined by Rob Small. Rob is a Managing Director at Berkshire Partners and has led Stockbridge, Berkshire’s public equities business, since its inception in 2007. Rob conducted diligence on TransDi...
Jul 21, 2022•48 min•Ep. 2
Today's episode is the first in a series of four on TransDigm, an aerospace components manufacturer that has appreciated over 1,750X since its inception nearly three decades earlier. In today’s episode we are joined by Nick Howley, TransDigm’s founder, long-time CEO and Executive Chairman. We explore TransDigm’s foundations under private ownership, digging into its core value drivers, decentralized culture, differentiated compensation program, and early M&A motion. For the full show notes, t...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 1
Welcome to 50X. Hosted by Will Thorndike, author of The Outsiders and a co-founder at Compounding Labs, 50X aims to dissect the anatomy of investments that have appreciated at least 50-fold. We track the often circuitous route to exceptional long-term returns, exploring the foundations of value creation and how that rarest of investment commodities—conviction—is created, maintained, threatened, and sometimes lost. Learn more at 50Xpodcast.com.
Jul 07, 2022•3 min
