Mala Gaonkar: Building SurgoCap, Identifying Great Businesses and Learning from Mistakes

What separates truly great businesses from the rest? Mala Gaonkar, founder of hedge fund SurgoCap Partners, joins Nicolai Tangen to discuss identifying companies with durable competitive advantages. They cover how old technologies disrupt in new ways, why she keeps her investment team deliberately small, and how data science helps reduce cognitive biases. Mala shares candid investment lessons including the pitfalls of shorting Nokia and not revisiting NVIDIA after selling. She also reflects on balancing her career with creative writing and philanthropic work in global health. With $6 billion in assets under management, SurgoCap proves that focus and curiosity drive results.

In Good Company is hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management. New full episodes every Wednesday, and don't miss our Highlight episodes every Friday.

The production team for this episode includes Isabelle Karlsson and PLAN-B's Niklas Figenschau Johansen, Sebastian Langvik-Hansen and Pål Huuse. Background research was conducted by David Høysæther.

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Disclaimers: The information contained in this episode is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute, and should not be construed as, an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities or related financial instruments.

The specific investment examples discussed during this podcast are included for illustrative purposes to indicate Mala Gaonkar’s investment process and strategy and the types of companies that Mala believes are representative of a particular theme. It should not be assumed that any investment discussed herein has been or will be profitable, or that recommendations made in the future will be profitable or will equal the investment performance of the specific investment examples discussed herein. There is no guarantee that companies mentioned in this podcast are those in which Surgo invests in or will be included in any Surgo portfolio in the future.

The trends and conclusions presented in this podcast reflect the opinions of Mala, based on her own analysis. As such, the opinions and conclusions expressed should not be viewed as definite or exhaustive, and other interpretations or outcomes are possible based on different perspectives or more comprehensive, or different, data.

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