Berkshire 39,000x vs S&P 405x since 1965
From 1965 to 2025, Berkshire Hathaway delivered a 19% compound annual growth rate and a 39,000x return versus the S&P 500's 10% CAGR and 405x return.
Where this was said
Analysis
At 3:18:55 · chapter starts 3:08:23
Berkshire Hathaway: The Vanguard of Private Equity
From 1965 to 2025, Berkshire delivered a 39,000x return versus the S&P 500's 405x — a 19% vs 10% CAGR. Warren Buffett himself is essentially the Jack Bogle of private equity: no fees, no carry, just patient ownership of great businesses. The alignment between the two philosophies is not accidental.
Passive assets overtook active funds
Passive index fund assets in the US recently overtook active fund assets for the first time, with passive growing at roughly 30% per year while active mutual funds remain flat.
Jack Bogle's Second Firing: The ETF Battle That Saved Vanguard
Jack Bogle turned down the creator of ETFs in 1992 because he feared they'd encourage speculation. State Street launched the SPDR instead. By 1999, Vanguard was so far behind that the board enforced its mandatory retirement age — selectively — to remove Bogle. His 'firing' unlocked ETFs for Vanguard and BlackRock's eventual dominance. 99% of Vanguard's AUM came after Bogle stepped down.
Jack Bogle's estate: $80 million
Despite founding the largest mutual fund company in the world, Bogle's estate was reportedly worth roughly $80 million — compared to the Johnson family's $40–50 billion from Fidelity.
Similar snapshots
Zero users on launch day
Despite months of meticulous preparation, Starter Story's initial launch attracted zero users — a humbling reminder that building alone guarantees nothing.
First Reddit post: 100 users
A single Reddit link post quickly drove 100 visitors to the Starter Story website, igniting the founder's belief in social traffic.
Hundreds of upvotes on repackaged post
After reformatting content as a native self-post (no direct link spam), the post exploded with hundreds of upvotes and thousands of readers.
Millions reading his content on Reddit
By posting again and again with the native-content strategy, the founder's posts repeatedly hit Reddit's front page, reaching millions of readers.
Tens of thousands of email subscribers
Before Reddit banned his domain, the founder converted his viral traffic into an email list of tens of thousands — a self-owned audience independent of Reddit.
Reddit petition to ban domain
Redditors eventually organized a petition to ban starterstory.com posts, effectively ending the Reddit growth channel — but the email list was already built.
$1M business built on Reddit hack
The Reddit attention strategy ultimately served as the foundation for a million-dollar business, proving that free distribution channels can replace paid marketing.
Strategy: native content, small footer link
The key tactic was keeping content fully on-platform (no direct link spam), then adding a small link at the post's end for users who wanted more.
Quit 9-to-5 after email list built
With a thriving email list and a self-owned audience, the founder quit his six-figure New York City salary job to go all-in on Starter Story.
