I’ve written about JG Boswell (BWEL) a couple of times here on MicroCapClub, but I finally finished reading the only book that gives a detailed history of the company and man behind it. JG Boswell is known as the country’s largest farm (150,000 acres), which is located in California. The intrigue with the company isn’t in the size of the farm, but how it got so large in the first place. Read More …
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Book Review: The King of California – JG Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire
Posted April 9, 2013 By Ian Cassel in Blog, Book Reviews With | 1 Comment
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Book Review: The Perfect Corporate Board by Adam Epstein
Posted February 16, 2013 By Ian Cassel in Blog, Book Reviews With | No Comments
In a previous interview I did with the late David Thomson I asked him what he thought was the biggest deterrent to an emerging growth company’s success. To my surprise he said, “the corporate board”. His response really got me thinking about why this is and why no one is really talking about it. Fortunately only a few months later, Adam Epstein wrote a great book talking about this topic as it relates to micro-smallcap companies. Read More …
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Book Review: Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital
Posted December 22, 2012 By Ian Cassel in Blog, Book Reviews With | No Comments
Before I had read this book, if someone were to ask me when was the first venture capital firm formed, I would have probably guessed at the turn of the 20th century or maybe even before that. I would have guessed wrong. Up until after World War II, financiers around the world were not risk takers and the idea of providing seed capital to entrepreneurs was basically non-existent at least in a structured sense. In 1946, Georges Doriot launched the first structured venture capital firm called American Research and Development Corporation (ARD) which was also publicly traded. Read More …
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Book Review: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King
Posted November 21, 2012 By Ian Cassel in Blog, Book Reviews With | 1 Comment
This book is about the life of Samuel Zemurray, the Banana King. You know the phrase, “Banana Republic”, well Sam invented it. Let me first say that I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of the man before reading the book, and yet his business accomplishments rank right up there with the greats. When you look back at the turn of the 19th century, these were the years of the business titans. Rockefeller with Oil, Carnegie with Steel, JP Morgan with Electricity, Ford with Automobiles, Vanderbilt with Railroads, and Sam Zemurray with Bananas. Read More …
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Book Review: The Last Sultan By Robert Greenfield
Posted August 24, 2012 By Ian Cassel in Blog, Book Reviews With | No Comments
First of all this book has nothing to do with investing, but I’ve always been drawn to businessmen that have come from rather humble beginnings to being the best of the best. How did they get there? What was the tipping point in their careers? The Last Sultan, his real name Ahmet Ertegun, grew up the son of a high-ranking Turkish diplomat, would end up changing the record business forever through his record label Atlantic Records. Read More …
