Product Description

"The stocks that generate the most spectacular return are small companies that become big companies. My objective is to identify and invest in what I call the stars of tomorrow—the fastest growing, most innovative companies in the world."

Michael Moe was one of the first research analysts to identify Starbucks as a huge opportunity following its IPO in 1992, when its market cap was $220 million. Today, its market cap is $23 billion. Lucky? Maybe a little. Art or science? Both. For more than fifteen years Moe has made great calls on many other stocks, earning a reputation as one of today’s most insightful market experts.

Now, in his first book, Moe shows how winners like Dell, eBay, and Home Depot could have been spotted in their start-up phase and how you can find Wall Street’s future giants. He forecasts the areas with the greatest potential for growth, including peer-to- peer networking, nanotechnology, and alternative energy. And he explains his four Ps of future superstars: great people, leading product, huge potential, and predictability.

Ironically, while the opportunities for outsized returns for investors lie in identifying early-stage growth companies, large investment banks are driven by the economics of trading volume and therefore generally ignore the stars of tomorrow. If you are looking to invest in tomorrow’s winners it’s unlikely you will find them by reading Wall Street research. Mainly, Wall Street is focused on reporting on companies everybody already knows about.

Coincidentally, to identify and invest in tomorrow’s stars, you are unlikely to be battling Wall Street’s finest—they aren’t there.

Throughout the book Moe includes interviews with some of the biggest names in business—from Howard Schultz and Bill Campbell to Vinod Khosla and Michael Milken—who reveal their own insights into how they discover the stars of tomorrow. For Wall Street insiders and individual investors alike, Finding the Next Starbucks is an indispensable guide to spotting growth opportunities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #697802 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Review
A great book. Mike Moe's experience provides you with an insight into what makes companies great. -- Bill Campbell, chairman, Intuit

Great insights into the power of growth stock investing. -- Jack Laporte, senior vice president, T. Rowe Price

I believe that we are at the beginning of a new era of innovation and creativity as a new generation of software-as-a-service companies come of age. Moe’s Finding the Next Starbucks is required reading for people interested in understanding the fundamentals. -- Marc Benioff, CEO, salesforce.com

I have known Mike Moe for many years and I can honestly say that he is one of the best stock pickers in the country. Finding the Next Starbucks is the perfect book not only for individual investors but also for the institutional investors, who are always on the lookout for the next Starbucks or Google…Don’t invest without reading this very helpful book. -- Gene Marcial, senior writer, Business Week

Keen observations and insights from the streets of entrepreneurial America. A must-read for those looking for the next growth industry opportunities. -- Tony Perkins, CEO, AlwaysOn

Michael Moe has combined straight talking finance with the wisdom of the ages in this must-read for any investor. The book identifies market trends and investment strategies that encourage you to get rich slowly. -- Tim Draper, founder and managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Michael Moe knows that great products don’t make great companies without the indispensable component of human capital. In Finding the Next Starbucks, he shows how looking behind financial statements to the quality of management is the best investment strategy. -- Michael Milken, chairman, The Milken Institute

One of the most useful and essential guides about navigating our ever- shrinking and interconnected global marketplace to identify the kind of investment ideas that create wealth. -- Richard Driehaus, chairman, Driehaus Advisors

This is an important book for both growth investors and entrepreneurs. Investing in growth companies can be very rewarding if done correctly, but it requires doing your homework, it’s not gambling or speculating. Finding the Next Starbucks gives a systematic guideline for how to do it better. Michael has also included a collection of insights and interviews with over thirty pros who offer outstanding ideas on investing in very dynamic companies. -- Peter Lynch, vice chairman, Fidelity Investments

Review
This is an important book for both growth investors and entrepreneurs. Investing in growth companies can be very rewarding if done correctly, but it requires doing your homework, it’s not gambling or speculating. Finding the Next Starbucks gives a systematic guideline for how to do it better. Michael has also included a collection of insights and interviews with over thirty pros who offer outstanding ideas on investing in very dynamic companies. (Peter Lynch, vice chairman, Fidelity Investments)

Michael Moe knows that great products don’t make great companies without the indispensable component of human capital. In Finding the Next Starbucks, he shows how looking behind financial statements to the quality of management is the best investment strategy. (Michael Milken, chairman, The Milken Institute)

A great book. Mike Moe's experience provides you with an insight into what makes companies great. (Bill Campbell, chairman, Intuit)

One of the most useful and essential guides about navigating our ever- shrinking and interconnected global marketplace to identify the kind of investment ideas that create wealth. (Richard Driehaus, chairman, Driehaus Advisors)

Great insights into the power of growth stock investing. (Jack Laporte, senior vice president, T. Rowe Price)

Michael Moe has combined straight talking finance with the wisdom of the ages in this must-read for any investor. The book identifies market trends and investment strategies that encourage you to get rich slowly. (Tim Draper, founder and managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson)

I have known Mike Moe for many years and I can honestly say that he is one of the best stock pickers in the country. Finding the Next Starbucks is the perfect book not only for individual investors but also for the institutional investors, who are always on the lookout for the next Starbucks or Google…Don’t invest without reading this very helpful book. (Gene Marcial, senior writer, Business Week)

I believe that we are at the beginning of a new era of innovation and creativity as a new generation of software-as-a-service companies come of age. Moe’s Finding the Next Starbucks is required reading for people interested in understanding the fundamentals. (Marc Benioff, CEO, salesforce.com)

Keen observations and insights from the streets of entrepreneurial America. A must-read for those looking for the next growth industry opportunities. (Tony Perkins, CEO, AlwaysOn)

About the Author
Michael Moe , CFA, is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of ThinkEquity Partners LLC, and was formerly director of global growth stock research at Merrill Lynch. He has been named to Institutional Investor’s All American research team and has been awarded "Best on the Street" by the Wall Street Journal. Quoted regularly by national publications, he is a frequent guest on CNBC and CNN.

Customer Reviews

Informative Perspectives
Thankfully, this is not a "get rich quick scheme", and more importantly, the author doesnt indulge in self promotion or promote his partners/products. In an engaging discussion, the author tries to explain his underlying philosophy of investing - "earnings growth drives stock prices" - simple (to an extent, cliched, perhaps) premise. As simple as the premise is, the discussion behind that premise discovers some interesting aspects in the form of emerging trends and its impacts on investing. Trends like globalization and outsourcing have been mentioned by a million other authors, but Moe looks at those issues (and a few other megatrends) to identify potential developments in the investment landscape. Later, he discusses his 4P approach of evaluating a company (products, people, potential and predictability) - not dramatically unique, but discussed in an novel way. There is a pithy discussion on emerging Internet-business models and how it will impact consolidation, convergence, branding and other related issues. Towards the end of the book, Moe identifies some potential sector trend plays for investment - an excellent source of investment ideas. The discussion is interspersed with interesting interviews from a wide variety of people - academics to football coaches to fund managers. The companion website and the list of interesting blogs worth watching are an excellent resource as well. An informative, easy-to-read, and engaging book. A must have.

Invest for the Future!
Every amateur investor's dream is to find the "next big thing," but actually accomplishing this is harder than it sounds. Thankfully, Michael Moe's book has specifically laid out the industries that are likely to experience explosive growth in the future; and so that we can pick the right companies in those industries Moe has plenty of historical analysis about what other great companies did as they grew into present-day beasts. I especially like the comparative analysis at the end of the book that compares a successful stock pick (like Best Buy) to a bad stock pick (like Circuit City). Even though both companies look seemingly identical within the electronics retail industry the small but important differences are what this book teaches you to pick out.

A guide to find the next megawinners
Who doesn't want to find the next Starbucks or Microsoft? These companies are not easy to find, but they can definitely generate incredible returns. The author says that $1 invested in Wal-Mart when it went public would be worth $5,809 at the end of 2005.

The author provides a recipe for finding these megawinners through ten commandments. He describes the process as a top-down approach versus the bottom-up approach used by value investors such as Warren Buffett. In the top-down approach, investors start with megatrends and industry drivers that are influencing the industry. Then a list of companies is generated. Based on the rankings he provides, the best ones are separated from the worst. Finally, the companies of choice are valued based on earnings growth and price to earnings to determine near-term and long-term attractiveness.

Some of the megatrends listed in the book include the knowledge economy, globalization, consolidation, brands, and outsourcing. I enjoyed reading this book.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market