Andrew Marks: Buffett avoided tech moats because they were outside his comfort zone
Andrew Marks · Howard Marks & Andrew Marks: Something of Value · Acquired · Aug 30, 2022 · at 57:09
Venture capitalist Andrew Marks discusses why traditional value investors, specifically Warren Buffett, historically avoided technology companies despite shared economic principles.
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“I mean, one critique you could make of Buffett is he just totally ignored technology, and technology not only became much more pervasive, but I also think that, I mean, he's an incredibly smart guy, and he understands lots of different elements of business, and when he talked about technology, I think he was referring to science projects, you know, where your technical advantage is what will Allow your business to succeed over time, but there are lots and lots of technology companies where what they do is not so incredibly cutting edge, and really what powers their business is moats that are very similar to other sorts of things. You also had Hamilton Helmer on here, and a lot of those sort of moats traverse both technology and non-technology businesses, so I have no doubt that Buffett could have totally nailed it, but it was just not in his comfort zone.”
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