Inspiration & perspiration

If genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, as the great inventor Thomas Edison suggested, sharemarket research requires the same effort

- GREG HOFFMAN

Several years ago I met a friend in Sydney’s historic Rocks area at the door of Ansarada. I hadn’t heard of the company at the time but, as he emerged, I was intrigued by the quick glimpse I got inside. The offices were beautifully designed, which is not unusual at the big end of a glittering city like Sydney, but this really stood out and made an impression on me.

My friend mentioned that his company was doing some work with Ansarada and that it was an impressive company. He said it ran “virtual data rooms”, which are typically used during corporate transactions.

When I was part of the sale of Intelligent Investor in 2014, our advisers set up a virtual data room to store key documents. These included financial statements, employment contracts, supplier contracts, documents showing ownership of key intellectual property, leases and the like. Potential buyers were able to access this sensitive information in a controlled manner.

More recently, I was having lunch with Leah Fricke, a professional director who I’ve worked with for many years across two boards. I asked her what her boards of choice would be and she mentioned Ansarada, highlighting the quality of its product and its global growth potential. I made the connection to my visit from a few years earlier, but nothing more.

Idea generation

A few days after that conversation, I was going through the share tables in the newspaper from A to Z. It’s something I do a couple of times a year (and more often in bear markets). To my surprise, I noticed that Ansarada was listed. I hadn’t realised that when Leah Fricke mentioned it. A little light of inspiration went on inside me. I then set to work putting some perspiration into preliminary research.