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John Larkin

John Larkin

John G. Larkin, CFA, is Senior Investment Partner at Venture 53, a supply-chain-focused venture firm, after 17 years heading Stifel's transportation and logistics equity research.

Oct 21, 2026

DaveHOST
8:37
But what I'd like to know as well before we get on to that is, was there any other ideas in there that you felt, maybe they're quite good too? Or looking back, what else was in your notebook? I'm always fascinated by stuff that you've done years ago that you revisit and go, that was a really good idea.
8:56
Yeah.
8:58
So the business that I sold, right, was an e-commerce business.
9:02
And I ended up buying it online.
9:05
buying a business and transforming it and then ended up just selling the domain right I'm not going to get massively into it but before I bought that what I was doing I was in China researching e-commerce products and I was looking for I wanted to start my own e-commerce business back then right this is like 10 years ago let's say and so and I had this list of like potential ideas like one of them was like aquariums And like there was all sorts of crazy stuff on it.
9:36
I was trying to find like a niche that people were passionate about that was maybe under underserved and maybe a bit challenging.
9:43
So online anyway, there was a whole list.

12 MINS LATER

DaveHOST
22:08
Yeah, so man.
30:43
Does it worry you at all that a lot of the stuff is sitting behind a levee and the wrong stroke of a pen could send us on a downward spiral, knowing that freight volumes hasn't climbed?
30:54
Well, a couple of weeks ago, our new chairman of the Fed, Kevin Warsh, who incidentally went to my high school, said, small world that it is.
31:08
He and his fellow members of the Fed took interest rates up by 25 basis points.
31:16
They indicated that the tendency would be to take it up again, another 25 basis points at the next meeting.
31:25
This economy needs that like a hole in the head.
31:32
The primary driver behind inflation is high energy price.
31:40
And the primary driver of the high energy prices is the war in Iran, which was supposed to be over three or four months ago and sort of lingers with all sorts of issues in the Middle East that are driving up the price of energy, particularly petroleum and petroleum-based fuels, which is why the other day in California, somebody posted $9.99 as the price for a gallon of diesel.

6 MINS LATER

37:59
How much more capacity has to be removed before you as an investor feel secure in trucking company investments at this time?
30:43
Does it worry you at all that a lot of the stuff is sitting behind a levee and the wrong stroke of a pen could send us on a downward spiral, knowing that freight volumes hasn't climbed?
30:54
Well, a couple of weeks ago, our new chairman of the Fed, Kevin Warsh, who incidentally went to my high school, said, small world that it is.
31:08
He and his fellow members of the Fed took interest rates up by 25 basis points.
31:16
They indicated that the tendency would be to take it up again, another 25 basis points at the next meeting.
31:25
This economy needs that like a hole in the head.
31:32
The primary driver behind inflation is high energy price.
31:40
And the primary driver of the high energy prices is the war in Iran, which was supposed to be over three or four months ago and sort of lingers with all sorts of issues in the Middle East that are driving up the price of energy, particularly petroleum and petroleum-based fuels, which is why the other day in California, somebody posted $9.99 as the price for a gallon of diesel.

6 MINS LATER

37:59
How much more capacity has to be removed before you as an investor feel secure in trucking company investments at this time?
30:43
Does it worry you at all that a lot of the stuff is sitting behind a levee and the wrong stroke of a pen could send us on a downward spiral, knowing that freight volumes hasn't climbed?
30:54
Well, a couple of weeks ago, our new chairman of the Fed, Kevin Warsh, who incidentally went to my high school, said, small world that it is.
31:08
He and his fellow members of the Fed took interest rates up by 25 basis points.
31:16
They indicated that the tendency would be to take it up again, another 25 basis points at the next meeting.
31:25
This economy needs that like a hole in the head.
31:32
The primary driver behind inflation is high energy price.
31:40
And the primary driver of the high energy prices is the war in Iran, which was supposed to be over three or four months ago and sort of lingers with all sorts of issues in the Middle East that are driving up the price of energy, particularly petroleum and petroleum-based fuels, which is why the other day in California, somebody posted $9.99 as the price for a gallon of diesel.

6 MINS LATER

37:59
How much more capacity has to be removed before you as an investor feel secure in trucking company investments at this time?

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