Pip Coburn
I have been very very fortunate over the past twenty years to have a great mix of superb mentors, wide open spaces to explore, a student mindedness which keeps growing and our clients who have continually encouraged us to pursue the work we do to its fullest and have “sponsored” the passion we have, which very often manifests in atypical thinking either on specific stocks or shifts in market places or processes for investors or corporations that might heighten efficacy. I think our work is to generate what our clients consider to be relevant substantive insights and I don’t know how one would do that without a lack of the typical social constraints that limit the width of thinking inside many organizations. We have wanted to learn and think and share our thinking and we have been so encouraged by smart people to keep at it.
So… one result is that I suspect if there was a scientific way of measuring the enthusiasm an individual has for their work across a long period I might be in the top 1-2% of all people in the world. I am extremely lucky.
I have been fueled by the stellar people most immediately in my every day life as well as the community of people I keep working to nurture every day.
If Coburn Ventures has just four NORTH STAR VALUES I think they might be: Community creation, Pursuit of Excellence, Deep Service, Learning at any moment.
If we have just one subject matter that runs through all of our work it is CHANGE.
We have been deeply engaged in CULTURE and PROCESS for a long long while… I had never really thought that our business would be built on Change, Culture, Process but such is the case it seems.
I LOVE getting to know passionate people almost no matter what they are into.
At each turn I got lucky breaks where I got to learn and work with people who believed in me and thought – perhaps mistakenly — that if they gave me a clean sheet of paper I would do something furthering with it. I was fortunate to have mentors when I started full-time on the buyside when I was placed into “technology” only after one of our tech analysts had been one day, unexpectedly to everyone, fired for cause. They needed someone. That was 1994. I suddenly was doing “CHANGE” in the most volatile sector of the market. At that moment tech was 6% of the S&P and six years later it was over 35% and UBS wanted someone to sit in the middle of its 160 global Tech-Telecom-Internet analysts! And maybe I was the only one who would SO ACTIVELY WANT such a position. One of those brand new titles — I was the FIRST Global Tech Strategist — that is either a great signal or a terrible terrible idea. I was lucky. It was great.
By 2005, though, I really wanted to expand even further than UBS so generously allowed me in terms of expanse of thinking and I really only wanted to work with maybe 40 clients as opposed to the 1600 clients globally that I was supposed to serve at UBS. We wanted greater and greater happiness and less logistics and a smaller number of clients and vastly greater partnership seemed our method. From that start, here we are today having continually adapted to our enthusiasm intersected by our clients interests.
I have tended to spend a BIG chunk of 80-90% of the past 20 years of Saturday mornings being swept away joyously thinking and reading and making notes. Many many people in the world wish that they had the time to just think. I have benefited from knowing I would have THAT time solidly each Saturday. And THAT is THANKS TO MY AMAZING wife Kelly. Initially, this time was somewhat harmless as she slept in late and worked out while I woke at 5:30am and indulged in thinking – reading – writing – learning – questioning – growing… but after we had triplets (who are now 22) she STILL supported this behavior, I think because she could feel my joy. Education I think is cumulative. It builds and builds on top of itself. I am not sure if I would be nearly as satisfied in my growth as a person if it wasn’t for Kelly’s amazing support through and through. She is my best friend. We have been together since 1985 and married since 1990.
We have triplets… that is a life journey for sure but when people say “that must have been so hard” I immediately respond that (1) its all we knew and (2) we had loads of help!
I love the Ohio State Buckeyes having been born and brainwashed in Ohio. What a dream fulfilled it has been to teach as a guest lecturer several times in the past couple years with business school students. My family LOVES Maine. I am a runner looking to overcome a series of nagging injuries to run a marathon again this fall. I love golf and I am convinced that I don’t have to be abjectly mediocre at it for a lifetime so I am picking up the frequency. Our kids have changed our lives like they have for all parents. Or as my former high school basketball coach calls kids: the memory makers.
Mission Statement:
To inspire a community filled with learning, growth, service, the pursuit of excellence.
To pursue the development of uncommon insights that lead to high conviction decisions.
To be of deep service.
To strive to be a worthy beacon for the good that business can create in the presence of collective consciousness and a company without borders.