Investor Academy — learn how investing actually works
324 free lessons and a 578-term glossary covering risk and return, public markets, funds, bonds, real estate, startups and venture, due diligence, valuation and portfolios. Education, not investment advice.
Educational, not personalised financial advice. Nothing in the Investor Academy is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold anything — what is right for you depends on your own circumstances and the rules where you live.
Subjects
Investor orientation — What investing means, investor versus trader, active versus passive, public versus private, equity versus debt, and whether investing is right for you at all.
Risk, return & compounding — What risk actually means, volatility versus permanent loss of capital, inflation, real versus nominal returns, and why time is the input that matters most.
Investor Mindset — Probability versus certainty, confirmation bias and FOMO, overconfidence and anchoring, survivorship bias, loss aversion, and thinking independently of the crowd.
How People Lose Money — Fraud and its warning signs, leverage, illiquidity, concentration, story-driven buying, and a recurring mistake library worth learning from other people's losses.
Diversification & Asset Allocation — Why diversification works, correlation between assets, when concentration is actually the right call, asset allocation across classes, and rebalancing back to plan.
Portfolio Construction & Position Sizing — Position sizing, keeping reserves and dry powder, spreading across stage, sector and geography, and what a portfolio is actually for.
Reading Financial Statements — The income statement, the balance sheet, the cash flow statement, working capital, and what the three statements say together that none of them says alone.
Valuation Methods — Comparables and multiples, discounted cash flow, yield-based valuation, and what each method is actually for, and where each one breaks down.
Due Diligence Discipline — The habit of verifying instead of assuming, structuring an information request, spotting red flags, recognising deal killers, and knowing when to walk away.
Returns Math — ROI, IRR, MOIC, CAGR, time-weighted return, and the difference between a realised and an unrealised gain.
Taxes, Fees & Liquidity — Fee drag, tax treatment by asset class, lock-ups, and the liquidity premium - what you're actually owed for giving up access to your own money.
The Decision Journal — Writing down your reasoning before the outcome is known, reviewing an old decision honestly, and separating the quality of a decision from the luck of its outcome.
Public Equities — What a public share actually is, how equity returns are made, how the market prices a company, evaluating one specific stock, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Bonds & Fixed Income — What a bond is and how you hold one, how bond returns are made, how bonds are priced, evaluating one specific issue, its risks, costs and taxes, and where fixed income fits in a portfolio.
Funds, ETFs & Mutual Funds — What a fund actually is, how fund returns are made, how funds are priced and traded, evaluating one specific fund, its risks, costs and taxes, and where funds fit in a portfolio.
Real Estate — What real estate ownership actually looks like across direct property, REITs and crowdfunding, how its returns are made, how it's valued, evaluating a specific opportunity, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Startups & Angel Investing — What direct startup ownership actually is, how returns are made in a venture-shaped outcome, how early-stage companies are priced, evaluating one specific opportunity, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Venture Capital Funds — What an LP position in a venture fund actually is, how fund returns are made, how a fund is valued, evaluating one specific fund, its risks, costs and taxes, and where venture exposure fits in a portfolio.
Private Equity — What a private equity stake actually is, how PE returns are made, how a buyout is priced, evaluating one specific fund or deal, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Crypto & Digital Assets — What a digital asset actually is and how you hold it, how returns are made, how it's priced, evaluating a specific token or protocol, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Commodities & Precious Metals — What a commodity investment actually is, how returns are made, how commodities are priced, evaluating a specific exposure, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Derivatives & Options — What a derivative actually is and how it's structured, how returns and losses are made, how options are priced, evaluating a specific position, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits, if anywhere, in a portfolio.
Foreign Exchange (Forex) — What a forex position actually is, how returns are made, how currency pairs are priced, evaluating a specific trade, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits, if anywhere, in a portfolio.
Cash & Savings Instruments — What cash and savings instruments actually are, how their modest returns are made, how they're priced, evaluating a specific account or instrument, its risks, costs and taxes, and where cash fits in a portfolio.
Private Credit & Lending — What a private credit or peer-to-peer lending position actually is, how returns are made, how loans are priced, evaluating a specific opportunity, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Small Business & Franchises — What owning a small business or franchise stake actually is, how returns are made, how such a business is priced, evaluating a specific opportunity, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Alternatives & Collectibles — What an alternative asset actually is and how you hold it, how returns are made, how it's priced, evaluating a specific opportunity, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in a portfolio.
Retirement & Tax-Advantaged Accounts — What a tax-advantaged retirement account actually is, how returns are made inside one, how contribution and withdrawal rules are structured, evaluating whether one is right for you, its risks, costs and taxes, and where it fits in your overall plan.
Investing In Yourself — Why education, skills and health behave like a genuine asset class, how their returns are made, how to evaluate an opportunity to invest in yourself, its real costs and trade-offs, and where it fits alongside every other asset you hold.
Investment Thesis — How to build a real investment thesis - what you believe about a market or opportunity, and why - so you can evaluate deals against a standard instead of a feeling.
Deal Sourcing & Screening — Where real deal flow actually comes from, and how to screen it quickly enough to spend real diligence time only on what deserves it.
Startup Evaluation — How to evaluate a startup opportunity across founding team, market, product and business fundamentals, without mistaking a good pitch for a good business.
Cap Tables & Dilution — How a capitalisation table works, how dilution happens across funding rounds, and how to read what a cap table is really telling you about a deal.
Investment Instruments — The actual instruments private investments are made with - common and preferred equity, SAFEs, convertible notes, warrants and debt - and what each one really means for your position.
Term Sheets & Deal Structuring — How to read a term sheet, what its key clauses actually mean and protect against, and how deal structure shapes an outcome long before an exit.
The Investment Memo & IC — How to write an investment memo that makes a real case, and how an investment committee process pressure-tests a decision before it's made.
Portfolio Monitoring — How to actually track a portfolio of private positions over time, what to ask for, how often, and what a real warning sign looks like versus normal noise.
Working With Founders — How an investor can genuinely help a founder after investing, the difference between support and interference, and what founders actually want from their investors.
Governance & Board — What board membership and observer rights actually mean, the real duties and liabilities involved, and how to be useful in the room without overreaching.
Follow-On Decisions — How to decide whether to participate in a follow-on round, what pro-rata rights actually give you, and when the right answer is to decline.
Exits & Returns — The real paths to an exit - acquisition, IPO, secondary sale, wind-down - and how returns are actually realised and distributed once one happens.
Fund Economics & Syndicates — Management fees, carried interest, syndicate structures, and how a fund's own economics shape the incentives of the people managing your money.
Sector Investing — What actually differs, sector by sector, in how you evaluate an opportunity - SaaS, AI, fintech, healthtech, climate, deep tech, consumer, marketplace, biotech and hardware each reward a different lens.
Types of Investors — Individual, angel, venture, institutional, family office, corporate and fund investors; limited and general partners; and what each type's incentives mean for a company and for you.
Understanding Startups — What makes a startup different, the lifecycle from pre-seed to growth stage, business models, product-market fit, unit economics, moats and network effects.
Startup Valuation Methods — The venture capital method, the scorecard and Berkus methods, risk-factor summation, revenue multiples for early companies, and what each one quietly assumes.
Commercial Due Diligence — Customer interviews, customer concentration, market validation, competitors, pricing, pipeline quality and market growth, verified from sources the company did not choose.
Financial Due Diligence — Revenue quality and concentration, burn and runway, expenses, cash flow, projections, unit economics and accounting quality in a startup's financials.
Product & Technical Due Diligence — Architecture, technical debt, scalability, security, data, AI and machine learning risks, the engineering team, build-versus-buy choices and intellectual property ownership.
Legal Due Diligence — Company structure, founder agreements, IP ownership, contracts, employment, litigation, regulatory exposure and cap table verification - explained for investors, not as legal advice.
Founder Due Diligence — Founder background, relationships between co-founders, references, incentives, previous ventures, commitment, integrity and leadership, checked rather than assumed.
Investment Decision Framework — Deciding whether to invest: thesis fit, risk and reward, valuation, evidence versus unknowns, alternatives, downside and upside, and fit with the portfolio you already hold.
Advanced Venture Math — Power-law returns, ownership and dilution modelling, follow-on scenarios, exit waterfalls with several preference classes, portfolio return modelling and fund-level arithmetic.
Building an Investment Network — Relationships with founders, co-investors, advisers and experts; deal-sharing; reputation; and how an investor becomes someone opportunities are brought to.
Professional VC path — Fund structure and economics, power-law portfolio maths, TVPI and DPI, memos, board duties and building a network.
From first look to a signed investment — One deal, start to finish: screen, check the market and the numbers, check the people and the paperwork, decide, write it up, negotiate.