Hi,
Are there any posts that describe what the companies do in layman’s terms for someone who does not work in software.
The SaaS part is easy, but the rest is not.
Thanks in advance.
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Re: “Are there any posts that describe what the companies do in layman’s terms for someone who does not work in software.”
Not that I’ve seen…
Saul’s monthly summaries (posted right before the end of each month) usually say quite a bit about each company. I’d recommend taking a look at the most recent one.:
https://discussion.fool.com/deferred-revenue-down-is-this-due-to…
Many articles published in each company has details about their business. For example this one on Twillio:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/twilio-stock-long-term-winner…
This board has a lot of collected knowledge on many stocks but it’s not set up to give new viewers profiles of each individual company. For that I’d recommend plugging individual tickers into yahoo, looking over profiles and perhaps follow links to associated websites
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Some you can find in the additional information to the right. Others you can search on the ticker in this board and, in many cases, find a deep dive post about the company. Most, if not all, of the popular companies get fleshed out pretty well in the discussion … but, that is not the requested quick reference, of course. 
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Oops, wrong link for Saul’s recent summary; here’s the right one:
https://discussion.fool.com/my-portfolio-at-the-end-of-mar-2019-…
Just go to the company’s website.
Then tell us.
3 Likes
Whenever I’m struggling to understand what a company does, I increasingly find myself turning to two resources:
1) The company’s 10-K. When I first started investing, I was intimidated by the company’s 10-K, to the point that I didn’t want to go anywhere near it! How stupid that was! A company’s 10-K is a wealth of knowledge, and not just for the company’s financials. Near the beginning of each 10-K there will be a summary and discussion of the company’s business model. Many review their different products and divisions, explaining each in detail. These are usually written in layman’s terms enough, that most will probably understand the gist of what the company does.
2) Youtube. When I don’t want just a higher understanding of what the company does, but a more detailed comprehension of the nuts and bolts of the business’s products and services, I have found Youtube to be an invaluable resource – especially for some of our favored SaaS stocks. On Youtube one can find promo videos, training demos, CEO interviews/presentations, all of which can break down what the company actually does. When writing, I often watch a few Youtube videos of the software being used and described, before writing about what the company’s software does. As someone who doesn’t have much experience at all with enterprise software beyond Microsoft Office, this helps immensely.
I hope this helps.
Matt
Phoenix 1 Contributor
MasterCard (MA), PayPal (PYPL), and Square (SQ) Ticker Guide
See all my holdings at http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFCochrane/info.aspx
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Thank you everyone. Those are good ideas.
Well, I took the easy way out, and it was somewhat successful. I looked at the profile of each company on Yahoo. I now know what each company does, but I can’t say why they do it better than their competitors.
How much knowledge of the companies do most of you have?
I know that you want to avoid wasteful posts, so let me know if this one is wasteful.
Thanks for all your help.
Well, I took the easy way out…
Much of what you want is in prior posts … in many cases, far richer than you will find elsewhere because there are multiple, competing points of view. But, you do have to either search it out or keep following along as new posts occur.
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Dear mark19601962,
Welcome to Saul’s Board!
Since you have posted only a few times, you may not have noticed that this is not a board for general, basic investment questions and helpful, long-time followers of this board should have answered you off-board to avoid cluttering up this board with posts that contribute nothing to the analysis of high-growth stocks, the sole focus of this board.
I gather from the few posts you have contributed to this board, all off-topic, and your asking around on several boards about basic investment questions, that you are not an experienced investor and need more guidance than could or should be given here on Saul’s Board.
The following links will help you understand the purpose of this board and help you avoid posts that are not for Saul’s Board:
-
Saul’s Monday Morning Rules of the board, the short version: https://discussion.fool.com/monday-morning-rules-of-the-board-34…, the long version: https://discussion.fool.com/monday-morning-rules-of-the-board-34…
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For Investing Novices. It will give you all the necessary links to BASIC investment questions: https://discussion.fool.com/strictly-for-investing-novices-34171…
-
The Importance of Board Etiquette: https://discussion.fool.com/the-importance-of-board-etiquette-33…
-
Saul’s Letter to His Daughter, a superb introduction to his development as an investor, his investment style and philosophy: https://discussion.fool.com/an-investing-primer-for-my-daughter-…
If, after reading all of the above you still have questions, please feel free to contact any of the helpful posters off-board by un-clicking “Post this Reply to the Boards” and clicking “E-Mail this Reply to the Author.”
Thank you for your cooperation!
I. M.
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If, after reading all of the above you still have questions, please feel free to contact any of the helpful posters off-board by un-clicking “Post this Reply to the Boards” and clicking “E-Mail this Reply to the Author.”
I hate email clutter as much as Saul hates board clutter so don’t email me any investing questions. At the NPI board you can ask all the questions you want. A lot of Saul Fools are also NPI Fools.
https://discussion.fool.com/Messages.asp?bid=114933
Denny Schlesinger
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I’m perplexed. Why are we advised to go to yahoo for info when we are MF’s?
1 Like
Dear mark19601962,
Welcome to Saul’s Board!
Since you have posted only a few times, you may not have noticed that this is not a board for general, basic investment questions and helpful, long-time followers of this board should have answered you off-board to avoid cluttering up this board with posts that contribute nothing to the analysis of high-growth stocks, the sole focus of this board.
I gather from the few posts you have contributed to this board, all off-topic, and your asking around on several boards about basic investment questions, that you are not an experienced investor and need more guidance than could or should be given here on Saul’s Board.
The following links will help you understand the purpose of this board and help you avoid posts that are not for Saul’s Board:
1. Saul’s Monday Morning Rules of the board, the short version: https://discussion.fool.com/monday-morning-rules-of-the-board-34……, the long version: https://discussion.fool.com/monday-morning-rules-of-the-board-34……
2. For Investing Novices. It will give you all the necessary links to BASIC investment questions: https://discussion.fool.com/strictly-for-investing-novices-34171……
3. The Importance of Board Etiquette: https://discussion.fool.com/the-importance-of-board-etiquette-33……
4. Saul’s Letter to His Daughter, a superb introduction to his development as an investor, his investment style and philosophy: https://discussion.fool.com/an-investing-primer-for-my-daughter-……
If, after reading all of the above you still have questions, please feel free to contact any of the helpful posters off-board by un-clicking “Post this Reply to the Boards” and clicking “E-Mail this Reply to the Author.”
Thank you for your cooperation!
I. M.
Thank you for explaining the board to me. I will of course respect the board, and not ask any basic questions. I actually am an experienced investor, although you could not tell by my questions. I have read more than one book on finance, including Damodaran’s textbook, have valued companies using discounted cash flow analysis, know technical analysis, trend following, and asset allocation techniques, along with many more things. I am not technical, and I don’t know growth investing however. Any further questions I have will be sent to individuals, not the whole board. In the spirit of the board, let this be the final post on this thread.
12 Likes