The Canadian Investor - The Best Businesses in the World A to Z (List) - TCI Rewind

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

In this episode of the Canadian Investor, Simon and Braden provide the best businesses in the world for every letter of the Alphabet Symbols of stocks discussed: AAPL, BRK-B, DE, META, HD, JNJ, LMT, MA, PEP, INTU, ROP, SPGI, TSM, UH, UNH, V, WMT, GOOG, ASML, ETSY, DIS, CNR.TO, RACE, GPC, JPM, KR, LULU, NKE, MCD, OXY, UBER, YUM, TXN, SBUX, SPG, QBR-B.TO Check out our portfolio by going to Jointci.com Our Website Canadian Investor Podcast Network Twitter: @cdn_investing Simon’s twitter: @Fiat_Iceberg Braden’s twitter: @BradoCapital Dan’s Twitter: @stocktrades_ca Want to learn more about Real Estate Investing? Check out the Canadian Real Estate Investor Podcast! Apple Podcast - The Canadian Real Estate Investor  Spotify - The Canadian Real Estate Investor  Sign up for Finchat.io for free to get easy access to global stock coverage and powerful AI investing tools. Register for EQ Bank, the seamless digital banking experience with better rates and no nonsense.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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TCI Rewind for the first time or you've listened to it before, we think you'll enjoy this one. or you've listened to it before, we think you'll enjoy this one. We go over what we think are the best businesses in the world for each letter of the alphabet. I'll be back next Monday with a new episode where I interview a special guest. Of course, I don't want to mention who it is just now. I want to leave you guessing, but make sure you tune in to find out who it is on next Monday's release. I hope you enjoy this TCI Rewind. This is the Canadian Investor, where you take control of your own portfolio and gain the confidence you need to succeed in the markets. Hosted by Braden Dennis and Simon Belanger.

Hosted by Brayden Dennis and Simon Bélanger. The Canadian Investor Podcast. Welcome in to the show. My name is Brayden Dennis. As always, joined by the outstanding, astute, distinguished Simon Bélanger. You just got way more than normal. You're welcome. Awesome.

We have, I love it. We have a very fun episode today. It is our best businesses in the world list A through Z. So I was texting Mr. Bélanger and I said, hey, let's go through every letter of the alphabet each and give what we think is the best business in the world. Throw out valuation. You can pick specific businesses with inside of businesses. I did that quite a few times. But throw out valuation, throw out the management team. It's really around the business model and defensibility of it. Yeah, I did it a little differently,

but I knew how you were going to do it. So I basically, I know I just made sure it was public companies. That's it. Okay. Fair enough. So not very different. It was just that I decided to do it just public companies, but I know you had shown me a list you had on Stratosphere. So I knew you were going to pick specific kind of companies within larger companies, but just a little twist and make sure we have different names too. The rules for the list are very fluid as you know. Yeah, exactly. I could be convinced of any kind of subset of rules here. All right. So let's go through of any kind of subset of rules here all right so uh let's go through each letter one by one we'll do you first then then me and uh for the most part we just have like one name each but sometimes

there's just like i really need an honorable mention here and uh so so that was how that happened a couple times do you want to kick us off here? Sure. So letter A, I chose ASML. I had a feeling you'd probably choose Apple. So I wanted to be a bit different. But mostly ASML just because it's a sort of monopoly. Part of their business is a monopoly. Part of it is a duopoly. But what's not to like?

And with the projection or direction we're going especially with ai but as a whole you know everything takes a semiconductor or chip right now so you're gonna see more and more capacity to build these semiconductors and asml will pay a key part in that because they make the machines that uh enables essentially. So deep ultraviolet, DUV and EUV. So it's a company that I think should have some tailwinds for years to come. So that's why I chose them. And mine is a customer of a customer of your business you just mentioned. None other than the largest business on the planet, Apple. And it just felt like I'd be kind of cheating myself by not saying them on this list. I mean, of course, they have built out just probably the most iconic brand,

the most addictive, most successful consumer product ever in the history of the world in many product categories now. They've kind of created this glue of their ecosystem, which generates an absurd amount of cash. And so I felt like I had to go there. But I had some other kind of honorable mention here in A's. There's lots of good A's, especially with publicly traded companies. I wanted to call it AutoCAD. It's just one of the most successful vertical market software products of all time. And of course, Amazon Web Services carving out an entire new era of computing out of nowhere with inside of a business.

And I think that that's always very impressive. Let's move on to B for Braden. Yeah, go for it. You started this one. Oh, that's not even what I meant, but you're right. I should kick it off. For S, you'll have to go first. I went with Berkshire and lots of different ways I could go with this, but Berkshire is just an exemplary type of business, a special kind of business with a special kind of story and management team. And so I just felt right here. Yeah, I went with Bed Bath & Beyond. I went with the now defunct bankrupt. I went with the now defunct bankrupt.

They're selling some of their intellectual or their online assets. But jokes aside, I took Brookfield. But again, I think I put an honorable mention to Berkshire just because of Buffett. And I think Berkshire will definitely rise to another level if in 15, 20 years when I'm assuming both, you know, knock on wood, they'll still be there. But I'm assuming, you know, both Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger will have passed away, let's say in 20, 25 years. There's going to be some time where the new leadership and Todd will be in place. So just to see how well they keep doing after, you know, Buffett and Munger are no longer

there, it'll be really interesting. how well they keep doing after, you know, Buffett and Munger are no longer there. It'll be really interesting. And if they do well, I mean, that's just another level to be able to get, you know, someone new that's not the face of the company running the show. I had a really funny realization about this while I was at the meeting because you had Ajitet and um oh gosh uh oh i'm forgetting the the canadian guy berkshire uh he runs the the rail business uh yeah you were there so oh my god greg greg abel oh my god it took me so long to come. So, so Greg runs, you know, the one side of the business that Jeet runs like the insurance business.

Did I confuse Greg with Todd or there is a Todd? So Ted, the, the, the, the two T's, they run the investment portfolio. Okay. Yeah. Greg Abel runs the TC at Berkshire Energy and the, the railroading business and then ajeet runs the insurance business anyways where i'm going with this is all the you know this roster that they've built up to replace themselves has now been in that position for so long because they're still at work and like they go probably retire before yeah i know that's what i had that realization i was like these aren't young guns anymore you know like as soon as they kind of took the role of

in their late 70s and early 80s which is now 15 20 years ago uh to kind of like be the next up in line they've you know do they want to retire soon like they're all rich as hell so uh i had that that realization uh all right did you do c yet yeah i'll do c so yeah we'll probably need to speed things up because we'll be here an hour and a half so can have buffett tangents every time yeah yeah so me, I think I'll say two names here. So Canadian National Rail or CP. But really, you can put a lot of rail companies here. It could be some of the U.S. ones, whether it's Union Pacific or some of the other ones. But there's just the natural mode around them, their regulatory approvals that would be required as well.

So it's just a wonderful business i went with costco uh for you know kind of obvious reasons i considered of course you know my largest position in consolation software but i can't consider a roll-up like the best business in the world maybe just the best the best execution of it in the world but uh i feel good about costco yeah we can't can't disagree with that yeah all right let's go with e no no d d wow uh just learning the alphabet for the first time here uh i went a little bit off the board here with uh with deer uh john deer i think that my Aggie folks will like this pick because this is some of the most impressive technology, one of the most impressive companies that's just had such a great position in that market for such a long time. It's not some big growth stock, but it is an impressively tremendous company with a pretty wide moat and just amazing tech. Like the tech in those machines now for the farming industry blows my mind. And I thought John Deere was a good pick here.

No, that's a good pick. My pick is Disney. I'm aware the business is probably not, you know, at its peak right now, but Bob Iger is back. And the reason why I really love Disney is just for the intellectual property. Because at the end of the day, that's the foundation of Disney. Whether you're thinking about theme parks or cruises or Disney Plus or content like everything is based on that intellectual property and there's just so many things they can do with that and that's what makes disney such a a great business in my opinion obviously they they do need to you know right size the ship and make

sure that they invest in the right places and definitely reduce some debt as well. But just the intellectual assets are just amazing. There's no substitute for brand value. There really isn't. It's really hard to compete with. It's one of the powers of strong businesses. I went off the board here. So this is a private company. And I wanted to use it as an example to bundle together all the large consulting firms. So E for Ernst & Young, most commonly known as E&Y. You have these management consulting companies, the big four accounting firms, the E&Ys, the Deloittes, the KPMGs, and the PWC, PricewaterhouseCoopers. These are some of the largest businesses in the world by revenue. And they're super fragmented in their own organizational structure by the partner and the management teams. They have really interesting ownerships and they do extremely well. They churn out tons of cash, tons of profit,

no interest in going public or anything like that. And it just deserves some sort of mention as incredible businesses that don't really get talked about because they are privately held. Yeah, no, that's a good one for me. I chose Etsy, funny enough, because I sold my position in Etsy. But I still think the business is really good, just because they've really shown how well they can do despite Amazon trying to get into that market. Over the years, Etsy has still been resilient. There's been a lot of good things happening with the platform. The one thing where I didn't love and one of the main reasons I sold is, one, the valuation was quite high.

But the other one is I feared that they were not treating their sellers well enough. And that is still a concern for me in terms of Etsy is just to make sure they don't, you know, they don't piss off. I'll just say that. I was having issues with the word, but they don't piss off their consumer or sorry, their seller base. Their seller base. That's right. That's such an important part of their ecosystem is that seller base. As do-it-yourself investors, we want to keep our fees low. That's why Simone and I have been using Questrade as our online broker for so many years now. Questrade is Canada's number one rated online broker by MoneySense. And with them, you can buy all North American ETFs, not just a few select ones, all commission-free so that you can choose the

ETFs that you want. And they charge no annual RRSP or TFSA account fees. They have an award-winning customer service team with real people that are ready to help if you have questions along the way. As a customer myself, I've been impressed with Questrade's customer service. Whenever I call or email, every support rep is very knowledgeable and they get exactly what I need done quickly. Switch for free today and keep more of your money. Visit questrade.com for details. That is questrade.com. Here on the show, we talk about companies with strong two-sided networks make for the best products. I'm going to spend this coming February and March in an Airbnb in South Florida for a combination of work

and vacation and realized, hey, my place could be a great Airbnb while I'm away. Since it's just going to be sitting empty, it could make some extra income. But there are still so many people who don't even think about hosting on Airbnb or think it's a lot of work to get started. But now it is easier than ever with Airbnb's new co-host network. You can hire a local quality co-host to take care of your home and guests. It's a win-win since you make some extra money hosting on Airbnb, but can still focus on enjoying your time away. Find a co-host at airbnb.ca forward slash host. That is airbnb.ca forward slash host. ca forward slash host. All right, F, I chose Facebook, the actual Facebook blue product, because just as soon as someone says Facebook is dead, you're forgetting about, you know,

the billions of people that use it on a daily and monthly active user type scenario. And yes, Instagram has kind of surpassed it as maybe the most valuable asset in that base. But do not discount the category of 60 plusers, the 50 plus year old Midwestern mom who just crushes it on Facebook and has an ARPU of like 80 to $90 per year. Like do not, do not throw out that category. It is super, super profitable. And so good old Facebook blue is still kicking it and still making an absurd amount of cash. Yeah. And ARPU for those not familiar, it's just the average revenue per user. So just Good old Facebook Blue is still kicking it and still making an absurd amount of cash. Yeah, and our poo for those not familiar is just the average revenue per user. So just the revenue per that, you know, the 60, 50 year old, like you're mentioning. It is a great demographic.

Yeah, they also did well too with the Facebook Messenger. So my wife uses it a lot for groups. She never uses like Facebook. It's basically Marketplace and Messenger. So my wife uses it a lot for groups. She never uses like Facebook. It's basically Marketplace and Messenger. And I think they've done a good, you know, really good job of being able to monetize that as well. I love Facebook Marketplace.

Yeah, no, it used to be Kijiji and now I never go on Kijiji. I use Facebook Marketplace. The power of network effects. Yeah, exactly. So for me, I stole one of yours. So I kind of struggle with letter F, but I ended up taking a Ferrari

just because of the luxury good and just the exclusivity that they create and the power of the brand. It seems to stand the test of time and there's almost kind of this cultish aspect to owning a Ferrari, it seems like. So, and, you know, they're really profitable. So what's not to like? With G, I went with Google search.

Just good old Google search. One of the best businesses ever. It's been tested. It's had an interesting narrative over the last couple of years. Sorry, last couple of months, maybe a year now with the release of ChatGPT. I was quite skeptical of, not skeptical, I was concerned about, you know, what does this do for search? And the data comes out that it hasn't budged search at all. And those tools are extremely useful. And I still believe that AI is going to completely change

the way that people search and surface information and get things done. That opinion has not changed. However, they're able to layer it on pretty well with Google search and monetize the heck out of that asset. It's like $23 billion in operating income. I think that that's pretty good. I have an honorable mention of GitHub, which is a Microsoft asset. I think it is becoming one of the most valuable assets in the world, not in terms of monetary value, but if you think about the actual value of all of the code that sits on GitHub,

it might house the most valuable asset in the entire world. And I think that that's pretty spectacular. Microsoft bought that. That was really smart. Just one of the brilliant Satya Nadella moves. And I think that they're going to reap the benefits of that long term. Yeah. So for me, I chose Genuine Parts Company, so ticker GPC. They're a global distribution company for automotive and industrial replacement parts. And I mean, they're not the only one in

this space, but these kind of companies, they just do really well. They just, uh, is it just distribution? I believe it's mostly distribution. Yeah. I'm not super familiar with the company, but I, I, you know, I looked at the financials quickly as I was, um, you know, creating that they own, I think Napa auto parts too. That's part of that's under their brand and they're not the only one. So there are are other competitors but they all seem to be doing quite well so you know it's a good business model so i needed something for letter g with trying to go as just a whole publicly listed company so that's why i chose them so home depot i don't think i need to explain what Home Depot is. I mean, they really have a strong or I would say almost a duopoly between them and Lowe's. And Home Depot has just executed quite well over the years.

Pays a nice dividend. It's a really stable business. I mean, I feel like they're not going to be dethroned anytime soon. Them and Lowe's. I mean, there is some fragmentation in smaller players, but really, really good business. Not much more to add. I also chose Home Depot, so nothing more to add there than it is.

Then it smells incredibly good, of course. Yeah, of course. I went in there last weekend just to smell the roses. Yeah, yeah. I'm pretty sure I send a photo of Home Depot every time I'm in Home Depot to you. Just because you know I'm just going in there to just go, you know, lumber and appliances. How do you smell so good?

I will go here with I on Instagram. You know, I'm doubling up here on the Facebook assets. That's boring. I want to give a shout out to IKEA, a private company that has kind of redefined retail. And it's just such an iconic household name, no pun intended, and has so much brand value. People love going there. Even to say what you want about the quality of the stuff. There is a perfect product market fit for what they sell. And that is what makes IKEA so special. Yeah.

No, I mean, if you don't like going to IKEA for the furniture, go for the meatballs. They have them vegetarian or vegan and just regular meatballs. For me, I'll go with Intuit. I'm surprised you didn't use that one. But yeah, whether it's TurboTax, QuickBooks, all the assets they own, obviously there could be with TurboTax some headwinds going forward, but it's so sticky if you just think about QuickBooks with small with small businesses once you're in that ecosystem i mean accountants uh are super familiar with that tool they can you can create a profile for them obviously we use it so i'm pretty familiar with it um just a really good company i mean they did

what's the mail company again that mail chimp mail chimp yeah so i was thinking like mail monkey but i'm like yeah you're you're not wrong mail chimp um i think that one is a little bit of we'll have to see you know um how it goes in that part but um for especially when you think about quickbooks uh it's so sticky it's a really good business model there they've been aggressively raising prices on every product. Oh, I know. Yeah. Intuit a little bit too. I mean, QuickBooks. Yeah. QuickBooks a little bit. Well, just wait a bit because that letter's coming up soon. So I didn't completely avoid Intuit because you'll see in a couple of letters here. Okay. I'll go next. So letter J. So I took JP Morgan because if you're going to own a global bank that's too big to fail, it might as well be JP Morgan. So that's where I went for it. Everyone knows I'm not the biggest fan of banks in general. But as a too big to fail bank, if I had to choose one, it would probably be JP Morgan.

And you have the best banker running the best bank. Yeah. Apparently, you know, there's been rumors that he might put his candidacy for the 2024 elections. I don't know. He's been like shutting those down, but I'll be interested. I think he would run as a Democrat. Yeah. Of course, we're talking here, for those unfamiliar with- Yeah, Jamie Dimon. shutting those down but it'll be interesting i think it would run as a democrat yeah yeah of

course we're talking here uh for those unfamiliar yeah jamie diamond with mr jamie diamond uh who i've been calling jp diamond recently because i think it works all right johnson and johnson is my pick for jay uh you know obviously one of these household name conglomerates that just have their hand in everything. Wonderful brand equity, been extremely acquisitive and really well run through the years. Nothing more to add. K, I went with another large private company of Koch Industries. Koch Industries is them and Cargill. If you know Cargill, the agricultural company, they are the number one and two largest private companies by revenue. And Koch Industries has a phenomenal story. I want to do an episode on the podcast about this founding story, this kind of family business that just turned into this huge, mega, giant, billion-dollar conglomerate

that kind of just has their hands in everything industrial. Really impressive founding story. So, yeah, Kay, I chose Kroger. So for American listeners, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. For Canadian listeners, if you're not familiar, they're one of the larger grocer chains in the US. So quite large company, I think around 35 billion market cap when I checked. And I mean, you're looking at very low margins here. So low single digits for their net profit margins. But again, as any good grocer, they do it on volume. And it's a market.

There's a reason why there's not like, you know, hundreds or thousands of grocers, whether it's in Canada or the U.S. It's because it's a low margin business. But that also creates a bit of a barrier of entry. And I think these are great businesses. Obviously, they've been getting a lot of flack, at least in Canada, for their profits. And at least Loblaws has been getting, I know, a lot of flack. Maybe the CEO, what is it, Galen or whatever? Mr. Weston. Galen Weston. Mr. Weston. I think they need to stop the President's Choice commercials with him. Every time, I saw it a month or two ago and I'm like i don't

know who their pr person is but they really need to like remove him from the commercials because this does not go well with the public when you have this ceo that's been grilled and pressure media is putting pressure on it um so if you're listening to this loblaws maybe i don't know why galen wants to be in the limelight so much. I don't know. I really don't know. I mean, I guess he's just kind of, he likes doing it. He likes making money and he likes doing it.

And he's done such a good job. Like, oh my God, it's unbelievable. I think Loblaws is the best grocer by a country mile. And I, and I really do stand by that, but yeah, I mean, come on,

you don't, you don't need to like, I love Galen Weston. Cause like, you know, I just respect, I just respect the game. Yeah.

But like you, you just got to know when you have a punchable face, you know, you just got to know when there's a lot of flag. I mean, maybe they have removed those commercials, but to me, it's just like with all the bad press, you have a punchable face you know yeah you just gotta know when there's a lot of flag i mean maybe they have removed those commercials but to me it's just like with all the bad press they've been getting like you know do some commercials just remove him like just you know you don't see zuck doing the commercials for instagram exactly anyways even though he loves you too much time on grocers. So, Lululemon, I don't think that's a surprise to anyone.

I'm not big in investing in fashion companies, but I have two that are on this list. I will not spoil the next one, but people can probably figure out which one it is. And there is, you know, Lululemon is one of the few companies that's in fashion and has stood the test of time. So I don't think I need to say more. Wonderful margins, great company. And when you think they should be stopping and the growth should stop, it just keeps on going. Yeah, category defining. Lots for L, no pun intended there. But I went with Lockheed Martin. And yes, you can have some opinions about the business and the industrial war complex and the business of war and the machines that they make.

The machines that they make and the kind of will the U.S. puts on the rest of the world with these fancy machines that Lockheed Martin makes. But it is undeniably an incredibly good business. The U.S. government has never, ever once had a president that spent less on the military than the previous president. I don't suspect that changes globally. I don't suspect that changes globally. You know, you got to have the best machinery. And Lockheed Martin makes the most advanced planes, the most advanced machinery. And, you know, despite what they do, you got to think that an F-35 is a pretty cool machine. All right.

Next up, M for MasterCard. This kind of goes without saying, you know, Visa, MasterCard, two of the best businesses of all time. 57% free cash flow margins. Do I have to say anything else? No, no. I'm going to go with McDonald's, the golden arch. I mean, say what you want about McDonald's. I know it's a very polarizing business for a lot of people. But reality is, it stood the test of time and they do well in any economic environment. Even when people have less money to spend, they actually will probably go the healthiest as a whole, but I mean, you can't argue with McDonald's. They've just grown. I think I have a graph here. Again, free cash flow per share. It's

not the only metric, but I think it's always a good indicator. They've grown at close to a bit more than 7% annually, compounded annually over the last close to 10 years, which is really impressive over such a long period of time. It's just one of those businesses, right? Like Mickey D's, it's got that brand value, it's got that distribution. And the value proposition remains extremely strong. You get some good tasting greasy muck for less than the price of groceries. So that value proposition has remained strong for a long, long time. And you know what?

I care a lot about my health. I work out quite a bit. I try to be relatively aware of what I eat. Not perfect. But oh boy, I can smash some Mickey D's. You bet, you bet, you bet I could smash some Mickey D's just about any time. Yeah. And one last thing about McDonald's is I've traveled quite a bit. And if there's one thing that's consistent, at least pretty consistent, maybe not identical,

one thing that's consistent at least pretty consistent maybe not identical but really close where i can't tell the difference is mcnuggets in canada the u.s or europe they all taste the same and they all taste amazing yeah exactly now the next name so i alluded to that earlier so for me it's nike letter n uh like i said not usually a fan of fashion investments. But I mean, it's hard to argue with Nike not being a wonderful business because they have stood the test of time. Yes, they've had some short term issues over the years, but they're that they're short term issues over long periods of time nike just you know they just crush it yeah i i agree i mean again with the little lemon thing it's like i i run from frashin but there's a couple of category defining businesses i went with the nfl uh and the reason i went with the nfl is it is in a league of its own. Yes, it's a league, but it is in a league of its own in terms of value and the franchise value of each of the teams that exist within it. Every single team is in the top 50 most valuable sports franchises in the world. And that competes with,

of course, gigantic franchises all across the world for every major sports league, and namely soccer. So the NFL has a extremely unique position. It's actually a fascinating way that the business is run, the dynamic between the league and the broadcast rights and the teams. It's really kind of fascinating how it all connects together. And there's only one NFL. They have come out with multiple new American football leagues, and they have all failed time and time again. There's no replacement for the great NFL. I was just going to say the one that's most intriguing from the big sports, I think it's probably the NBA because it has a broader appeal globally. But I agree with you in the US,

it's still the NFL's number one. But the NBA probably has more growth ahead in terms of globally because let's be honest, the you know american football and i'll include canadian football into that it's very you know it's concentrate in terms of fan base in north america yeah there are fans around the world but the vast majority is in north america that's right and the nba has lost a significant amount of viewership since 2013. I believe the stat is about 40% of viewership lost in the NBA. And most sports leagues have suffered a familiar fate, even though the broadcast deals keep getting more expensive.

The NFL has increased viewership by double digits every year during that time frame. So it is a bit of a true outlier uh from that perspective oh was really hard why are there not better old businesses yeah i had a hard time too so it doesn't seem like there is and then i'm like i'm really after this i'm going to think of an amazing one and and really rack my brain after this because there's got to be some and people are listening at home well I have one while you're, did you pick one? Yeah, go.

I did. I picked, I picked open AI just because, uh, you know, they're, they're carving out just such an important developer ecosystem with the GPT API.

Of course, chat GPT was a, you know, a worldwide success, but that the underlying technology and the underlying models that they're, they're building a developer ecosystem on top of, my company included, is what's really, really valuable here. Yeah, no, that's a good point. It'll be interesting to see how good of an actual business is.

It is, though, like five years down the line. I think you can make a case for both, right? Probably. But that'll be interesting for me. I went Buffett style. So I took Occidental Petroleum. So again, there wasn't that much available under oath. So jokes aside, though, they generate free cash flow like there is no tomorrow. They return lots of capital to shareholder via buybacks and dividends. There are diversified oil and gas play with production pipelines and chemical revenues. So I looked a little bit at the metrics and I can see why Warren Buffett likes this company.

So I ended up just adding it because like you, I had trouble finding an O name. As do-it-yourself investors, we want to keep our fees low. That's why Simone and I have been using Questrade as our online broker for so many years now. Questrade is Canada's number one rated online broker by MoneySense. And with them, you can buy all North American ETFs, not just a few select ones, all commission-free so that you can choose the ETFs that you want. And they charge no annual RRSP or TFSA account fees. They have an award-winning customer service team with real people that are ready to help if you have questions along the way. As a customer myself, I've been impressed with Questrade's customer service. Whenever I call

or email, every support rep is very knowledgeable and they get exactly what I need done quickly. Switch for free today and keep more of your money. Visit questrade.com for details. That is questrade.com. Here on the show, we talk about companies with strong two-sided networks make for the best products. I'm going to spend this coming February and March in an Airbnb in South Florida for a combination of work and vacation and realized, hey, my place could be a great Airbnb while I'm away. Since it's just going to be sitting empty, it could make some extra income. But there are still so many people who don't even think about hosting on Airbnb

or think it's a lot of work to get started. But now it is easier than ever with Airbnb's new co-host network. You can hire a local quality co-host to take care of your home and guests. It's a win-win since you make some extra money hosting on Airbnb, but can still focus on enjoying your time away. Find a co-host at airbnb.ca forward slash host. That is airbnb.ca forward slash host. Now the next one, Pepsi. I think Pepsipsi i mean they're literally in a duopoly with coca-cola so um there's not too much ad there i actually prefer pepsi over coca-cola mainly because they have the frito-lays uh segment which has been quite resilient and uh you mean you can't really go wrong with either of them, but

Pepsi just felt like the perfect name for pee. You took the words right out of my mouth. I will drink Coca-Cola over Pepsi probably, but as an investor, my capital, I think is better served with Pepsi. I mean, they trade basically at identical market caps, but the Frito-Lay business, man, you just called it out. My God, it is a good business. And Pepsi was my pick as well. I hinted at this before for Q, I am picking QuickBooks, which is that intuitive asset or sort of, yeah, that intuit asset, intuitive. And it is an intuitive asset in the fact that, oh boy, it is extremely sticky, dominates a certain segment of the market. It has perfect product market fit for basically every small and medium-ish company. And they've really built an important kind of professional ecosystem of accountants using it and knowing how to use it for their clients.

And that's really kind of hard to displace. No, that's good. So I actually came up with one on the spot. So it's actually a Canadian company. So Quebec Hall made the Quebec Quebec Hall Incorporated. So for those not familiar with this name, so they own, it's a tele, well, I guess, media conglomerate, I guess, telecom. They own Vidéotran, which is predominantly in Quebec. So, they have, you know, cell phones,

internet, I think, you know, other properties as well. I think they own some newspapers too. So, yeah, I couldn't find a name. And then I'm like, oh, Quebec All Mades, yeah, is one that I'll probably, I'll just add in. So, I did it on the spot. I didn't really look at the metrics because I left Q blank. And then I'm like, oh, there's actually one in my backyard. This is like correlated to Scrabble.

Isn't Q worth 10 points on a Scrabble board? This is very correlated. All the ones that are easy to do also have big businesses aside with them. Yeah. The next one I chose, the letter R, so Rio Tinto. So for those not familiar, they're a massive mining company that produces aluminum. And massive is not an understatement. I believe they have $100 billion in market cap.

They're the largest non-China slash Russia-based aluminum producer in the world. I think that's important with the current geopolitical climate that we're seeing, especially with China and Russia. But they also mine iron ore, copper, and minerals. Clearly, this is a company that will be impacted by the price of commodities. But nonetheless, I thought it was a really good name for R. Maybe they will mine the constituents required for LK99, the superconductors. Yeah, like you talked about in the previous episode. That's right. My pick was rolex here uh i think it is just such an iconic brand wonderful margins there's like no

replacement for just like how valuable this brand is and there's lots of luxury watches but there's not a person on the planet who doesn't know what a Rolex is. And that's really kind of hard to replicate. For a public company one, I did talk about Roper here. Roper is a roughly $50 billion industrial and software conglomerate roll up, grow by acquisition strategy. I have personally owned a Roper stock for at least five plus years and a very happy shareholder. Yeah, I was just going to comment on Rolex. So I read and I haven't listened to the conference call or anything, but apparently LVMH, which is obviously in the same kind of luxury market, they've seen some pressure now in their sales

because they have kind of two target customers. One is the affluent, so the very rich, that can't afford the products pretty much regardless of the economic climate. And then there's the aspirational consumers that can't really afford it. I knew you were going with that. Oh, yeah. But you know it's true, huh? You have these consumers that, you know, maybe got stimulus checks or, you know, in the era

of easy money, they were wanting to buy these luxury goods. And now that, you know, there's pressure on them, inflation is higher, less disposable income, they've actually, you know, said that they're seeing those consumers impacted and less able to buy some of their goods. So I don't know whether, you know, well, it's something to keep on because, you know, I think we're both similar on the same pages. Typically, luxury goods tend to do well regardless of the economic environment because the richest people tend to still be rich. But it'll be interesting whether that has a meaningful impact in their business for not just a couple of quarters, but the next

few years to come and maybe even beyond. Yes. And I love the way you put that because let's use Rolex for an example or any LVMH asset, right? There is the consumer who can buy 20 Rolexes and not even blink. It doesn't even move a single decimal point on their bank account. They don't even notice because they have hyper wealth. And then there's the person who's buying the Rolex who should not be buying the Rolex. who's buying the Rolex who should not be buying the Rolex. And those people are hard to distinguish in a world where you have flashiness on Instagram and everyone never doubt people's willingness to spend money they don't have to impress people they don't know. And that's exactly where these kinds of products sit. But it sits in an exclusive category of true luxury.

There's aspirational luxury and there's true luxury and Rolex is true luxury. All right, I'll go with S&P Global. I've talked about the stock many, many times here on the podcast. on the podcast. Of course, one of the premier credit rating agencies, analytics business software company, they have their hands in everything with the equity and financial markets. And I am a shareholder myself. Yeah. So I chose Simon Property Group. No, I'm just kidding. It just felt too easy. But for those interested in mall REITs that are high quality malls in the US, For those interested in mall REITs that are high quality malls in the US, I encourage you to look into this name. There is a lot of things to like about this company. But for real, I chose Starbucks just because, you know, I think they've done a really good job over the years to, you know, grow the revenues, grow the amount of stores that they have.

Obviously, the China rollout has hit some bumps here and there. But for the most part, I think they have a good pulse on the consumer and how much they are able to push prices. I've seen some price increase like we do like to go to Starbucks once in a while, but they've been manageable, I would say. so they're not you know i think they know the limit where if they do it too much they'll kind of get rid of part of their consumer base so i i i mean the brand name is there it's i think it's a great business if you're looking at a coffee kind of coffee chain starbucks is one of those brands, where they just demand pricing power. And that's why it deserves to be on this list.

Any company that just without a doubt demands pricing power, typically it's a pretty good business. Yeah. So the next one is T. So I chose, I'll give an honorable mention. So TSMC, if you forget about the geopolitical concerns here, I think it's in a league of its own when it comes to, you know, making these semiconductors, whether it's from Nvidia or Apple or, you know, pick your consumer that deals with TSMC. They have such a stranglehold on their market. I mean, they produce 90% of the world's most advanced chips, so I don't think you need to know more there. And as an honorable mention, and the T in the

semiconductor space as well, is Texas Instruments that kind of, you know, doesn't focus on the high tech stuff as much, but they really have that analog kind of semiconductor market really covered. I know there are some competitors, but they've stood the test of time. So I would not doubt them to keep going and being in a market that seems to be forgotten by some of the other semiconductor players. Ditto. I have the exact same two names here as well. So nothing more to add. I will go here with UnitedHealth for you.

UnitedHealth is one of the largest businesses on the entire planet. They have such a strong position in the healthcare business in the US and has just been one of the most premier compounders of free cash flow per share and compound annual growth rate of the stock for the last 20 years that it deserves a mention here for you. Yeah, no, that's a good one. For me, it'll be Uber. I wouldn't have said that a few years ago, but they've really turned the profitability around. Lyft is kind of an

afterthought in my opinion now. So they're really becoming the player. Clearly, profitability and the economics around it could be a bit better but with autonomous driving at some point arriving who knows i think your guess is as good as mine but i'm assuming ai and the advancement there will probably help towards that um i think the business models should improve but uh i mean if you live in a major city um i don't know anyone who doesn't use uber at least in one way, one form or another in there, you know, in a month, for example. I like how you opened that up with, I don't know if I would have said this a few years ago, because neither would I have. And I'd be shocked that, you know, either of us would even consider it on this list back then because the unit economics seemed horrendous. It just seemed like a business that was alive because of venture capital and low interest rates. And now I can't say that anymore. I do think that they have just carved out this global global business with actual profitability really no competition in

the drivers anymore and you know a decent ish high highly competitive uh food business there as well yeah well i i think one of the things that helped them is the fact that easy money was done with because a lot of their competitors especially in the delivery space got sold or simply went out of business and uber was one of you know was able to sustain that and i think it was good for them because when interest rates were so low and you know money was being thrown at all these different competitors uh was much harder for uber to be profitable because they had so much competition. And if you're charging way more than a competitor, at some point, people will switch. So I think it was actually good for them.

Yeah, I agree. You're right. It's like, it was a low interest rate VC fueled phenomenon that is not going to maybe come ever again or for a long time. And that really gives it a kind of unique competitive advantage to exist here for the long term. Because in what world would that business have been able to keep burning cash for so long as they got scale? Yeah. Right? Like it's pretty tough.

All right. Right? Like it's pretty tough. All right. I will go with Visa for V, for mentions that are exact same as M for MasterCard. I'll leave it at that. Yeah. Same for me. So I chose Visa. So I'll go for my next one, W, Walmart. I think there was a couple of good names here. Walmart, I mean, I think what is there, you I think what is there to say in terms of Walmart? I mean, it's just a global company and they're so massive. Yes, it's low margins, but I think they've stood the test of time. They have a big online presence right now, so it's hard not to like them. so it's hard not to like them. The big W. I mean, the distribution, the scale is so hard to compete with. Just an incredible business. I also said the big W there. I gave some honorables to some of the waste management businesses. Waste management, of course, the name waste management in US, and Waste Connections,

which is now a North American business, but a TSX listed stock as well. And even WSP Global, because WSP Global is a Canadian listed engineering firm that has been kind of under the radar, or one because it only trades on the TSX, doesn't get talked about that much in the circles I'm part of. And they have been a phenomenal performer. I've owned it for many, many years. And so I think it deserves an honorable mention here. Yeah. So I don't know what to write here, but it seems like I just wrote dot, dot, dot for maybe X for Elon's X.com. I don't know any other businesses that start with an X and this one is X. Yeah, that's what I wrote too.

I'm not sure it's a great business, but I just wrote X. So let's leave it at that. It's a business. It's a business, yeah. So for why I chose Yum! Brands, for those not familiar, they own KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. There's also Yum Brands China, but this one, I'm thinking about the main one here. They have some really solid brands, and they've grown their free cash flow per share at close to 10% compounded annually over the last five years. So they've done something right yeah no it's

it's one of those you know food conglomerates that you're like people eat there and then you see the numbers you're like oh people are certainly eating there uh i'm not but i'm glad some people are. Good for you. For why I went with YouTube, I mean, for very obvious reasons, it's just such a dominant business. It owns the category. It is gigantic in itself now. And I think that it's gaining and gaining and gaining market share right now. In a world where there's so many streaming competitors, YouTube is dominating. They're taking market share on the music side with their YouTube music, their YouTube premium subscription to not have the ads. So they've monetized it that way. And then of course, the largest piece of the business, the actual ads is incredible. I also want to give a shout out to Y Combinator,

which is a Silicon Valley based accelerator that's very well known in the startup ecosystem. They were the early backers of Airbnb, Stripe. What else? Y Combinator. You know, Paul Graham, he's the one that started this. What are the big winners? you know paul graham he's the one that started this where are the big winners y combinator winners stripe instacart open c uh airbnb gosh there's so many you know these more than i do so deal gusto flexport all of those zapier which i actually is my Z. You can see there on my list, Z. So they backed my Z pick here. Retool. Dude, all of these businesses are approaching, if not already, billion-dollar valuations. Many of them have gone public. Many of them are household names like Airbnb. They are the premier startup accelerator in Silicon Valley. And they deserve an honorable mention because they take a piece of those businesses. I think they invest like 500K and they take a five or 10% position. I forget what it is.

And they own, they make some pretty good returns. That's for sure. So to round that out, my Z pick is Zapier, which is a business I just mentioned, funded by Y Combinator, but Zapier helps you connect all your different business apps together. And they are huge. I don't know if you've ever used it. No, I haven't.

And I forgot to do Z or Zed, should I say? Zed, yeah, that's right. Yeah, Zed And I forgot to do Z or Zed, should I say? Zed. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Zed. I forgot to do it. Maybe I'll put honorable mention for Zillow, ticker Zed. I think it's the most visited real estate site in the US for people looking to buy and sell homes. I'm not super familiar, so I was just scrambling for a zed name but uh that's one that i'll put i'm not sure if it's the best business so i take this one with a grain of salt were they doing the eye buying or was that just uh because open door and and red fin were doing that and they got yeah i think so they kind of got caught with their pants down yeah i think

they were and i think they may have done some like buying and renovating and reselling as well. But I think they got out of that business. But, you know, looking for a Zed and that's what I came up with. Yeah. Yeah. The stock's been getting crushed,

but I know that their website is super, super popular. Thanks for listening to the A to Z list, folks. That was a grind. We got all of them done here. Just a little bit of rambling, not too much. Just a little bit of rambling in between. Of course, there's many, many businesses

that could be picked, as Honorable mentions. If you want to see the full list, this list, we will post it to our website at thecanadianinvestorpodcast.com. At the top there's on the navigation, there's a button called show notes. The last post there on July 25th is Braden's sell framework. The newest one will be called best businesses in the world list A to Z. So you can see the entire list that we have broken out there. I encourage you to go check that out at thecanadianinvestorpodcast.com. Thank you for listening.

We'll see you in a few days. Take care. Bye-bye. The Canadian Investor Podcast should not be taken as investment or financial advice. Brayden and Simone may own securities or assets mentioned on this podcast. Always make sure to do your own research and due diligence before making investment or financial decisions.