Quality Investing

Jake Barfield
  • 5.0 (3)
  • INVESTING
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Each episode will profile a business and attempt to examine the quality of that business in terms of value proposition, commercialization efficiency, competitive advantage, and reinvestment opportunities. RSSVERIFY

Episodes

  1. 12/30/2025

    Timee // Ryo Ogawa

    In today's episode, we will be profiling Timee, and we will be joined by Ryo Ogawa, the founder and CEO of Timee. Please enjoy today's episode.

    36 min

  2. 01/06/2025

    Hikari Tsushin // Hideaki Wada (Japanese Verson)

    この「クオリティ・インベスティング・ポッドキャスト」では、光通信のCEOである和田英明氏にインタビューを行いました。今回は特別な日本語版のインタビューです。このエピソードでは、私の質問が通訳を通じて伝えられ、和田氏がご自身の声でお答えになる様子をお聞きいただけます。英語版のエピソードについては、ポッドキャストのエピソード一覧をご参照ください。

    26 min

  3. 01/06/2025

    Hikari Tsushin // Hideaki Wada (English Version)

    In this episode of the Quality Investing Podcast I interview Hideaki Wada, the CEO of Hikari Tsushin.

    35 min

  4. 11/25/2024

    Genda // Taiju Watanabe

    Interview with Taiju Watanabe, CFO of Genda Inc.

    1h 29m

  5. 06/03/2024

    SHIFT // Taichi Hattori

    In today's episode we interview CFO and Board Member of SHIFT Inc, Taichi Hattori. SHIFT is a software quality assurance company based out of Japan.

    44 min

  6. 05/14/2024

    InPost // Rafał Brzoska

    Today's episode includes an interview with Rafał Brzoska, Founder and CEO of InPost.

    39 min

  7. 07/06/2023

    Graph Databases // Gaurav Deshpande

    Today's episode, produced in partnership with Stream by Alphasense, looks at graph databases. I am delighted to be joined by Gaurav Deshpande, Chief Marketing Officer at HyperTrack, and former VP of Marketing at TigerGraph, one of the companies discussed in today's episode. Rather than focus on one single company today, I felt it important to examine one of the megatrends that is occurring within databases that is affecting the ways in which companies perform data analysis and improve their real world business outcomes. From reduction in fraud, to the easement of managing complex supply chains. Graph databases are a fundamental technology, which even generative AI is entirely dependent upon. Please enjoy today's episode.

    1h 9m

  8. 05/01/2023

    Agora // Tony Zhao

    00:00 - Stream by Alphasense Promotion 00:45 -- Disclosure 01:29 -- API Basics 04:34 -- Agora Basics 07:22 -- Agora Competitive Advantages 11:12 -- Market Size 13:04 -- Recent Events 15:56 -- Interview Begins / Tony's Background 20:44 -- How has RTC Technology Evolved 27:04 -- Agora the tool vs Zoom the product 32:03 -- Agora vs. WebRTC 37:38 -- Use Cases 41:09 -- Market Size 43:21 -- Competitive Advantages 50:04 -- Developer Evangelism 52:22 -- Infrastructure 55:00 -- Market Growth Trajectory 59:06 -- Recent Events 01:08:28 -- Geopolitical Risks 01:12:17 -- Fundamental Changes In The Last Few Years 01:14:24 -- Final Question

    1h 16m

  9. 04/01/2023

    Acast // Ross Adams

    In today's episode of the Quality Investing Podcast we will be profiling Acast and I will be joined by Acast's CEO Ross Adams. Today's sponsor is Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative datapoints that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time. If you have conducted expert calls in the past and are looking for ways to better allocate your time and energy then Stream might be a helpful addition to your toolkit. 2:00 - Acast Basics 6:05 - Ross Adams Interview Begins 8:55 - Making the jump from Spotify to Acast 9:49 - Acast's Evolution 11:44 - How is Podcast Content Unique? 13:56 - Podcasting and Influencer Marketing 15:55 - Podcasting is Undermonetized; Why? 19:32 - Acast's Core Value Proposition 23:26 - Return on Investment for Advertisers 26:14 - Open vs. Closed Podcast Ecosystem 29:19 - Spotify vs. Acast: Commercialization Rights 31:17 - Acast Competitive Advantages 33:03 - US vs International Markets 37:13 - New Developments 39:07 - Competitive Threats 41:15 - Short and Intermediate-Term Goals 42:29 - Acast's Culture 43:51 - Misunderstandings

    46 min

  10. 03/01/2023

    Raksul // Yasukane Matsumoto

    In today's episode of the Quality Investing Podcast we will be profiling Raksul, and I will be joined by Raksul's CEO Yasukane Matsumoto. Today's sponsor is Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative datapoints that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time. If you have conducted expert calls in the past and are looking for ways to better allocate your time and energy then Stream might be a helpful addition to your toolkit. 2:00 - General Overview 2:52 - Printing Segment Overview 6:06 - Better Systems, Better World 6:45 - TV Commercial Segment 8:12 - Financial Profile 8:49 - Growth Opportunities 12:09 - Conversation with Yasukane Matsumoto Begins 15:13 - Reasons for Optimism and Pessimism in Japan 17:26 - Founding Story of Raksul 20:20 - Raksul Evolution 24:35 - Better Systems, Better World 28:33 - CEO Role Evolution 32:42 - Internal Systems 34:00 - Corporate Culture 37:00 - Attention Allocation 40:23 - Avoiding Dilution of Returns 46:52 - Competitive Advantages for Printing Segment 53:34 - Novasel 58:10 - Novasel Competitive Advantages 59:34 - Josys 1:02:51 - Japanese Corporate Startup Differences 1:05:16 - Group Leadership Style 1:08:19 - What Matters Most Going Forward

    1h 12m

  11. 01/01/2023

    HashiCorp // Kelsey Hightower

    In this episode I examine the infrastructure software company, HashiCorp. In Part One I lay out HashiCorp's value proposition, business model, and potential for competitive advantages. In Part Two [26:20] Kelsey Hightower joins me to test all of this research and try to determine what factors really matter to HashiCorp over the long-term. Today's episode is sponsored by Stream by AlphaSense. Stream is an on-demand library of over 25,000 expert interview transcripts. Stream eliminates the time, money and hassle that comes with conducting expert calls and interviews. My research strategy that I employ at Asheville Capital is focused on finding key qualitative data points that point to a business being competitively advantaged or not. Stream helps me execute this strategy in a practical way because they either already have dozens of calls on the company that interests me, or they are able to quickly source numerous experts for me that are well-qualified to answer my questions. In the six months that I have been using Stream, it has often served as a substitute for most of the podcasts that I used to listen to. The reason is because of there seem to be more nuggets of helpful information in each of these calls that help me to better understand the topic or company that I am interested in at that time. ------------------------------------ Part 1: HashiCorp Analysis 01:48 - HashiCorp Overview 04:30 - Terraform 06:25 - Vault 08:32 - Consul 10:13 - Adoption Process 13:38 - Monetization 17:44 - Unit Economics/Operating Leverage 19:58 - Market Opportunity ------------------------------------ Part 2: Kelsey Hightower Q&A 26:20 - Open-Source Business Model Evolution 30:52 - HashiCorp's Evolution 41:47 - HashiCorp's Ecosystem 45:14 – Terraform vs. Pulumi 56:07 – Vault 01:08:33 – Competition 01:13:24 – HashiCorp’s Primary Advantage 01:17:10 – Multi-Cloud Inevitability 1:22:04 - HashiCorp vs. Cloud Providers 01:23:59 – HashiCorp’s Dilemma 01:30:06 – Cloud Platform 01:33:43 – Switch Costs 01:37:02 – New Functions/Product Maturity 01:39:39 – De Facto Standard (yes or no?) 01:44:46 – Consul 01:53:20 – Biggest Opportunities/Risks for HashiCorp

    2 hr
  • 11 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Each episode will profile a business and attempt to examine the quality of that business in terms of value proposition, commercialization efficiency, competitive advantage, and reinvestment opportunities. RSSVERIFY

Information

  • Creator
    Jake Barfield
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    11
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Jake Barfield
  • Show Website
    Quality Investing