Naropa University is also not a school I have heard of.
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Instead of throwing bombs at Beth Kindig’s background, how about stating facts which show her stock analysis is faulty.
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I am a subscriber to her service. Can’t say that I did a background check on her before hand. I did, however, read a decent amount of here “free” content before subscribing and felt it was informative. From here website it states:
“Beth Kindig has published over 900 articles in the last 8 years exclusively on technology and startups. She has held product marketing and developer evangelist roles at tech companies representing products in data, security, internet of things, connected cars, connected home, mobile, encryption, health care, and finance tech. Her articles have been featured in Venture Beat, MediaPost, AdExchanger, and the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She has written over 30 reports and whitepapers on enterprise technologies. She has been a speaker at Android Developers Conference, GamesBeat, Advertising Week NYC, Tech Week and more.”
I retired at age 54 as a real estate developer. I studied Public Policy in college which provided me with limited or no tools for success in my field. I tend not to judge based on degree or institute of higher learning.
To each their own…I pass no judgement. If you are uncomfortable with her or her background, then I would not rely on her analysis.
David Gardner was an English major BTW…
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Yes, she’s a content marketer. She gets paid to write positive articles for the industry. She’s a paid tout, similar to the guys you find at the racetrack who’ll share their ‘inside info’ with you as long as you pay them for a hot tip on the 4th race at Delta Downs.
Accurately identifying her educational background is not the same as bad-mouthing it. It speaks to her knowledge base.
You may find that irrelevant and enjoy the differing perspective that comes from studying buddhism in college, others are likely to disagree.
David Gardner was an English major BTW…
And his portfolios got incinerated in the 2000-02 downturn. QED.
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Najdorf, what is the “correct” background to have? Is it the same as all those fund managers who trail the S&P 500? The same pedigree that Bear Sterns, Merril Lynch, and Lehman Brothers looked for? Where is this secretive club on Wall Street actually beating the market and how does one buy into it? How is their pedigree better than the founders of LTCM?
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The larger the market, the safer the investment…
you wrote
This is false, the grocery store business is huge and you’re lucky to make 1% margins in that line of work. Nobody thinks of them as safe. Banking and Mortgages was a huge market in 2007 and we know what happened in 2008.
This statement is loosing context I think. If we are to change that statement by adding a grocery operator is able to increase sales by 50+ percent with gross margin about 60% whereas the overall market is growing at 3%. Then you can see that this upstart is taking market share from the existing players. Now its up to you to decide whether competition can quickly add the capability to minimize the impact of whether this new upstart will continue to gain traction for some foreseeable future. If you can surmise that the advantage is not easily surmountable than would it make you more interested?? I think thats what she may be indicating.
Just hoping to provide full context as I understand and not debating anything about her background. Its definitely odd for someone w.o finance background to have such deep insights but that have been done by others so definitely out of realm of possibility.
- Ruhaan
My 3 year old nephew says that the word “Alteryx” sounds stupid and they are stupid. Please analyze his claim and rebut it on its merits. Don’t just reject his point of view because he wears underwear on his head and doesn’t know what stock is.
At any rate, wasn’t the first line or two just pointing out issues with her background, and the rest of the post was devoted to dismantling her points in order? I recall something about market size and earning estimates mentioned.
I think if she had said something this board didn’t like, that people would be shouting “FUD!” and giving her the Citron treatment. Beware confirmation bias, it destroys your money.
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Accurately identifying her educational background is not the same as bad-mouthing it. It speaks to her knowledge base.
Hey Najdorf,
My training was in medicine and psychiatry. I guess that’s why I always trail all those fund managers, because I don’t have an MBA.
Oh wait, I beat all those fund managers for thirty years now! 
…But I have zero MBA type training and zero tech knowledge. Maybe that’s why I do so well. Or maybe there’s a common sense factor.
She gets paid to write positive articles for the industry. She’s a paid tout, similar to the guys you find at the racetrack who’ll share their ‘inside info’ with you as long as you pay them for a hot tip on the 4th race at Delta Downs.
I guess you put all your effort into reading about her college training, and you never got around to reading ANY of her articles. She likes some, and doesn’t like some, and is neutral about some others, just like you, me, and everyone else.
Saul
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Educate, amuse, enrich.
Gartners!!!
Please add “put down in an insulting and condescending fashion.”
David Gardner was an English major BTW…
And his portfolios got incinerated in the 2000-02 downturn. QED.
Hi again, Naz. I suppose with all your sarcasm for David Gardner that your record must be much, much better than his. But he’s been posting his record for years. Yet, on the other hand, you never post your portfolio so we can see how you are doing. Is there a message in there somewhere? QED.
Saul
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i think beth kindig is smart. i don’t need to look at her educational credentials or anyone else’s to determine the quality of one’s ideas.
People who quote experts irritate me when they do that. Make your point and support it any way you want or don’t support it. I’ll assess its quality and usefulness.
i have met many Ivy Leaguers who are dunderheads. Some such souls post on TMF. I don’t hold it against them just because they went to Harvard
i don’t agree with much of what beth offers but i don’t care from where she comes. Nor do i care that Bert is a felon, i still think he is a decent, committed, capable man.
i have associated with a few giants, some of them had traditionally elite credentials, some did not.
i learned something about Saul’s background today. Despite that, he remains the same impressive person to me as yesterday. 
Saul has had better returns than me over the last few decades, though i have better financial credentials.
The first beth pieces i read were a few months ago when she did brilliant measured articles on ROKU and TTD. If someone here is saying they were shill articles for either company, i just say they were darn good, and not that favorable to TTD.
She also writes hit pieces.
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Najdorf,
My final comment on this topic.
Unless you are a subscriber to Ms. Kindig’s paid service, I am not sure you have enough data or information from which to draw the conclusions and support the accusations you are making in your posts. As an aside, I think it is unfair of you to present your statements as fact, thereby impugning Ms. Kindig’s professional reputation when she does not have the forum here to respond and defend herself.
I will not argue the merits of your points or substantiate your accusations. I have read quite a bit of her fundamental analysis (with technical analysis provided by her associate) on a number of companies that have been discussed in this forum and feel that her paid content is not what I would describe as “content marketing”, written for the sake of “getting paid to write positive articles for the industry”, “paid tout” or being “similar to the guys you find at the racetrack”.
Regardless of her professional pedigree; your character assassination comes across as uninformed, low brow and misogynistic. Quite frankly, it is beneath the quality and mission of this great discussion board. Further comments should be directed to the “Internet Trolling” message board. “BE BEST”!
Something tells me I am going to be your next victim.
Harley
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My chiropractor is a graduate of Naropa. Small school, only 400 undergrads. About half the size of the one I went to. Lots of meditation as part of the learning process.
I can’t say I know of any particular background that guarantees a person will have a good understanding of markets and the companies that comprise them. But I suppose if it were a choice between undergraduate years spent doing drugs vs. doing meditation, I’d probably put more faith in meditation. Not that that’s the choice, but just saying.
-IGU-
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I don’t know, Winston Churchill was such a bad student he basically nearly flunked out of school and his dad, who really had disdain for the boring and uncoordinated buffoon was sent to military academy instead of college as it better suited his “limited” intellect (although he did thrive and showed a talent for rising horses and it continued his love of military strategy (not that he ever was in a position to use strategy during his military service days).
Funny, how this unaccredited man may have become the foremost English linguistic of his age, one of the best selling and best paid authors of his day (yeah, Hitler made tens of millions- helps when your book becomes required reading for a nation - and thus was the best paid by far - author of the time) and may have been THE key person who literally saved the world from the worst tyranny in history (his idea for the tank in WW I - yeah had that little fiasco in the Dardanelles (but turned out to have been a good plan poorly executed) and he fought off his peers who wanted a negotiated peace with Hitler.
Small little accomplishments for such a poor accredited individual (educationally and work experience wise). Best to ignore such people with such little credentialing.
Maybe that English degree and the best growth investor of the past 25 years discredits him as well. Yes, lost it all in the internet bubble…yes, but from the rubble he held to Amazon and found ISRG that little search engine in China and so on.
Churchill was said to have 1 or 2 good ideas every day out of 100 he would come up with. He should be judged on those 98 or 99. Wonder how many wrong tracks Einstein went down before getting it right (but at least he was accredited - albeit mostly a failure thereafter for all the good his degree did him.
Okay extreme examples. The point is there is no success without failure. If you don’t fail along the way you never will have a great success. Knowledge is king, no matter how you get it, accredited or otherwise. Heck, I was counseled out of Duke MBA my first year. I did so poorly it was nearly impossible that I’d graduate. Ended up #1 in year 2 and came out right in the middle. But I suck and I have failed, failed big.
But you know what I’m still here, I learned, and maybe I still have something to contribute.
Anyone who attacks a person on their credentials alone, and focuses only on their failures, and not their ideas, seems rather like (excluding me as I know how boring I am) they are excluding some of the finest people in the world.
Lincoln was a self-taught imbecile lawyer, Grant a drunk, Hitler - okay even evil can show the example - was homeless not more than 15 or so years before he became - you know. If only people had actually believed his ideas that he wrote about for all to see.
Anyway, even with the Hitler example (the most evil of all, but an era that also produced Stalin and Mao - all at the same time in history) I think the point is self evident.
Don’t underestimate or dismiss someone on criteria unrelated to what they can demonstrably do. Also don’t overestimate people simply based on their credentials.
Yes, a top 25% law school graduate is most of the time a superior lawyer (but not always) as an example.
Now my Professor at Duke MBA or Saul, who to best manage your port…I suppose it depends on what your looking for. If it is best returns the answer is obvious.
Btw I don’t even know who this woman is everyone is talking about. I just don’t like the way some people are talking about her or David Gardner for that matter.
Tinker.
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IT’S TIME TO CLOSE THIS THREAD.
There are 55 posts on it already but the last ten or twelve posts are just devoted to refuting one particular ridiculous post (my refutes included). LET’S JUST LET IT DIE.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Saul
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If I could give you 500 recs, I would. Well said Tinker.
Best,
bulwnkl
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Sorry Saul,
I didn’t read your post before I posted. Apologies
bulwnkl