Newsletters
Latest insights from Dhruv
The Speed Rail: Vol. XIII
The hiatus requires a re-introduction. Booze M&A Newsletter ... that's the elevator pitch here. Unsubscribe if you prefer to pass on my above-average writing skills, honed by six years of writing papers to the boss that sat right next to me. Continue reading if you want predictions that are 100% wrong 80% of the time.
October 2024
The Speed Rail: Vol. XII
Six months ago my excuse for not writing more frequently was that I was busy on the advisory side. Now it is difficult to put pen to paper because of an uninspiring pipeline (with a few notable exceptions). The year of shoe leather I had planned is no longer a choice but a necessity.
July 2023
January 2023
The Speed Rail: Vol. XI
It's been almost nine months since Vol. X but I bet no one lost sleep over the (in)frequency of my booze+finance musings. Things were a bit nuts in 2022 (mostly good, with a few misses that I can't seem to let go of) on the advisory side of backbar, against the backdrop of ever higher* multiples. That makes up for all the failed predictions over the years. Like Jacob Rees-Mog, "I was wrong, but for the right reasons".
March 2022
The Speed Rail: Vol. X (!)
Welcome back to my intermittent newsletter on booze + finance. This is a special issue because it covers a few of my favourite subjects outside booze -- economics of streaming media, technology platforms, and calling out B.S. hiding in plain sight.
November 2021
The Speed Rail Vol. IX - Thanksgiving Edition
It's not my M.O. to call out individual brands. But you're fair game if you repeatedly put out press releases highlighting pre-money valuation or actively encourage talk of your Unicorn status (technically, a 1/3 Unicorn but who’s counting).
July 2021
The Speed Rail: Vol. VIII
My take on booze / finance / M&A is back after having been paused in the time warp that is the pandemic. If you are new to this, welcome. Or goodbye, if you want to unsubscribe (link below).
December 2020
Speed Rail - Vol. VII / Year(s) End Review
Since I no longer have to measure myself against an amorphous and ever-changing 'Leadership Standard', I thought I would take a look in the mirror to see how my predictions fared after 18 months (and six newsletters) on the soap box. Unlike sell-side equity analysts, I will avoid gazing into the crystal ball. So if you're looking for predictions on the S&P500, stop reading.
August 2020
Aviation Gin - How could I resist?
Almost three years to the month, the Casamigos playbook is re-deployed: celebrity entrepreneur + existing management / RTM + high multiple. This time around the latter — north of 20x trailing LTM NSV by my estimate — barely warrants a peep from analysts and rightfully so. The playbook has been proven to work and, as one half of Rolls Royce once said, value will be remembered long after the price is forgotten.
May 2020
Speed Rail - Vol. V
Thomas Friedman, the NYTimes columnist, said in March he was asking businesses what their future looked like with customers in masks and two metres away from each other. For the on-trade the answer is clearly bad as we we know now, with only 1 in 5 patrons returning to bars in places that have reopened.
January 2020
The Speed Rail Vol. IV
To borrow from Tolstoy: non-alc drinkers are each consumers in their own way while drinkers are alike. Stripping away the literary guff, the upshot is that the current approach to non-alc, often as an analogue to spirits, is both flawed and limits the category's potential. A more profound takeaway is the existing booze route-to-market will result in a more concentrated set of winners (relative to the market for alc brands).
December 2019
The Speed Rail Vol. III
Like your year-end Christmukkah office party, 2019's final edition of 'The Speed Rail' is a mash-up of themes but, like your party, with booze at its centre.
Fall 2019
The Speed Rail Vol. II
This is a real gin and it is serendipitous that I found their booth at BCB last week. The picture serves as a convenient prop - linking a conversation I had in 2018 about the STZ investment in Canopy with the contemporary focus on sustainable valuations, profit, and founder incentives.
Summer 2019
Inaugural Issue / Summer 2019
Why am I on this list?