No. of Recommendations: 0
Did I make that distinction?
I gave him a complement. He had an investment philosophy that performed well and hit a particularly fantastic stretch when ARR and NDR were in peak vogue and SaaS was in its golden age, that is when he put up the truly gaudy numbers. He's clearly a successful investor just based on what he's publicly posted.
When the SaaS gravy train ended, he struggled. BILL, ENPH, UPST were notable duds and his timing into a number of other positions was not great. If you tried to question a position, you were run out of the board. The dynamic led to his followers frequently taking losses on this even after he sold a stock. It was sad to watch the various ephemeral board luminaries cargo-cult his style, post the characteristic monthly portfolio updates, but be unable to emulate Saul's ability to sell losing positions. He was supremely confident in a stock until he wasn't.
He never posted audited results, and for my part I didn't entirely trust his full track record. He gave better ex-post facto rationales for his decisions than merited.
Back to the original point, Saul's board grew so fast because he put up a few years of ~100% returns by completely nailing the SaaS trend around 2015. He posted freely about this and a lot of people newer to investing piggy-backed his picks and did really well for a time. It created a durable community, if not a particularly healthy one. To the point about about bots, when it got very popular for (business) momentum picks, I got the distinct impression the board was being astroturfed and sock-puppeted but I have no proof.
