Eric Taylor's Profile

Thanks for sharing this crown jewel of capitalism from our neighbors to the north. It is interesting to see how Couche-Tard is able to leverage their ownership of their retail stores into net benefits of the company. During my time at ExxonMobil, I heard my fair-share of horror from colleagues tasked with managing the service station business. Do you have any concern around their ability to fully integrate any of the companies that they acquire? They have had a great track record thus far, which is a testament to their focus, but with a business model so dependent on m&a, one bad egg can ruin their progress.

Excellent post Andy! In my first role at ExxonMobil, I sold motor oil through our retail channels, and Costco was one of my clients. You did a masterful job of highlighting what makes them such a valuable (at at times difficult) customer to have. They have wide reach, and a loyal consumer base, however as a vendor you are required to shift your product offering in order to play ball with them. With such a dependence on revenue coming from membership growth, I am curious to see what Costco does to grow revenue now that this membership growth has begun to slow down.

Thanks for sharing Andrew! I love Etsy. The way that they were able to combine a small offline community of creators into an online marketplace is so impressive. What do you think about the opportunity to scale beyond the small entrepreneurs? As you know, now that the company has gone public, investors will be expecting Etsy to take advantage of potential growth opportunities, including those that may be outside of their core business. Having a passionate, engaged and loyal community means little to investors if that community does not grow. I will be interested in seeing Etsy’s strategy moving forward as they become more accustomed to life as a public company.