THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
The One Asset I’d Never Sell: Seven Choices
Seven writers compare enduring investments and the reasoning behind holding them.
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General articles.
Essays on capitalism, IPO investing, and the wider world of markets.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
In Defense of the Bad Guy.
An argument for distinguishing corporate misconduct from the incentives behind innovation.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
What Google's $10 Billion VC Arm Can Teach You About Investing
What Google’s investments reveal about private businesses—and what they do not prove.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERAI
OpenAI
ChatGPT’s reach, the economics of AI, and the challenge of turning adoption into durable profits.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
The Numbers Don’t Show a Substack Collapse
A response to the claim that Substack is collapsing, focused on aggregate evidence.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERDefense
Saronic
Autonomous vessels, a costly shipbuilding expansion, and the challenge of scaling defense contracts.
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Gravity Always Wins
A conversation about IPO excitement, gold, and the psychology of holding on.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
How To Play an IPO
Who benefits from an IPO, how allocations work, and why incentives matter.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
The Private Ledger is Going Paid: Secure Permanent Access to Private Market Research.
Why the publication introduced paid membership and how it supports the research.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERFintech
Stripe
The payments infrastructure behind online commerce—and the next bet on stablecoins.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
How I grew to 1000+ Subscribers in 40 days.
Lessons from the publication’s first 1,000 subscribers: niche, consistency, and relationships.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
Executive Summary; June Recap
June’s research on AI drug discovery, ByteDance, and Substack in one reading list.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERConsumer
Substack
Creator ownership, subscription economics, and the tension between growth and retention.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERConsumer
ByteDance
A vast consumer platform business whose valuation cannot be separated from geopolitics.
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Discussing SpaceX, future IPOs, Crypto, Polymarket, the World Cup takes and more.
A recording from The Private Ledger's live video
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERHealthcare
Isomorphic Labs
From protein prediction to drug discovery: the promise and the clinical proof still needed.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERGeneral articles
Executive Summary; May Recap
A compact review of Anthropic, SpaceX, Anduril, and Polymarket.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERPrediction markets
Polymarket
Prediction markets’ growing reach, thin take rates, and unresolved ethical and regulatory questions.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERDefense
Anduril
Defense hardware and software growing quickly—with manufacturing costs and execution risks to match.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERSpace
SpaceX
Starlink, launch, and AI ambitions—and the expectations built into an enormous valuation.
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THE PRIVATE LEDGERAI
Anthropic
Claude’s enterprise momentum, compute economics, and the race to build a lasting AI business.
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The Private Ledger examines private companies and the trends surrounding IPOs. Financials, valuations, and competitive advantages — with the depth to see beyond the headlines.