So who am I?
I’ve always hated the question “what do you do”. I think it’s incredibly hard to really know someone from their resume. I think you need context, feel and a body of history. BUT….i’m going to give it a shot
Who am i? I’m Savneet Singh, a successful fintech founder (GBI), active early investor, married and father to 1 really cute kid, proud Sikh. GBI was/is the first electronic platform that allows investors to buy/trade/store physical precious metals. While it was focused on a niche area, the company has traded billions of dollars of assets AND importantly taught me an immense amount about the distribution of financial products and assets AND how to acquire retail individuals for fintech products
In addition to have started GBI, I’ve been an investor in a number of exciting technology companies as an advisor, angel, via an spv (or other creative means :)). These companies include LendingClub, Sofi, ZocDoc, RealtyShares, Uber, Alibaba, Palantir and about a dozen others.
How did i get here? I grew up in upstate New York, was a super competitive tennis player, went to Cornell, dreamed of being Warren Buffet, worked on Wall Street (banking and hedge funding) and then left to become a startup founder.
First Business Experience? eBay. My brother and I use to buy and sell a LOT of baseball/football/bball cards on eBay in high school (read: enough to buy our own first cars).
Who are your favorite investors? I’m a passionate value investor and have great admiration for Seth Klarman’s patience and discipline, Howard Marks’ clairvoyance, the depth of Bill Ackman’s research, the gumption of Druckenmiller and of course the clarity of thought of Buffet.
Thinkers who make me think? I enjoy reading Peter Thiel’s longer articles or speeches. He always touches on something that i’ll think about for days. I also enjoy reading about and listening to Buffet/Munger, Elon Musk, Jesse Pujji, Carlos Brito and many other business thinkers as well as Osho and Rumi for spirituality.
Non-consensus life view? I think a large part of one’s success is based off circumstance. There are many hard working, motivated and smart individuals, but few are given the right circumstance to become outliers.
Management sayings you hate? “You learn a lot from failure” — while true, I can’t stress how much more you learn from winning. “Hire the best people” — of course! the question is how do you find and hire them.
Greatest societal fear? I worry that as a society we might forget to have real meaningful experiences, where our feeling in a particular moment is outweighed by the joy of taking a picture to get “lots of likes”. While I like looking at pictures too, I worry that our culture is so focused on capturing moments, that we forget to live them.
Favorite Book? Outliers taught me how time/circumstance are huge parts of success, the zafarnama taught me compassion and the sri guru granth sahib taught me humility and love.
Greatest life lesson/admiration? My father has gone through more hardship than almost anyone I’ve known yet has showed me how to be relentless, positive and hopeful.
Guilty pleasure? I LOVE food. I will go through incredible lengths to try the worlds best food. Think — 3 hour long hikes in the jungle to try a kabob, overnight flights for a single meal, ordering everything on a menu…
