The Arbitrage Hunter: how to find non-obvious opportunities to make millions

My First Million

Summary

Entrepreneur Nick Kokonas shares his journey of success across diverse industries, from the high-stakes world of floor trading to founding the iconic restaurant Alinea and building the software company Tock. He explains that success is not about having a magic formula, but rather about identifying mispriced opportunities and arbitrage across time scales. By applying principles of curiosity, intense work ethic, and studying fields adjacent to his own, he demonstrates how to build businesses that challenge conventions. The conversation highlights his focus on human connection, the importance of being uncomfortable in order to grow, and his current mission to create a groundbreaking, purpose-built immersive theater experience called Strange House.

Chapters

  1. 0:00Embracing calculated discomfort
  2. 0:12Mastering the Arbitrage System
  3. 0:16Time scale as a competitive advantage
  4. 0:26The Mindset of a Serial Entrepreneur
  5. 0:36Founding the Best Restaurant in the World
  6. 0:41Reverse engineering customer experience
  7. 21:34Avoiding the expert trap
  8. 26:34Exploiting inefficient market windows
  9. 27:28The necessity of reading the rules
  10. 35:26The discipline of the daily grind
  11. 58:13Building in public to create demand
  12. 1:04:48The theater of service
  13. 1:12:13Studying magicians for human psychology
  14. 1:13:04Structuring engagement through attention control
  15. 1:48:14Deconstructing performance to innovate business
  16. 1:52:15The power of immersive storytelling
  17. 1:52:33Learning from Magic and Adjacencies
  18. 1:56:58The necessity of purpose-built real estate
  19. 1:59:03Creating connection in a digital world
  20. 2:01:33The Future: Strange House

Topics covered

  • The Art of Arbitrage
  • Managing Risk and Fear

+4 more topics (full content when you follow the channel)

Transcript excerpt

If you wake up every day feeling great, you're not taking enough risk. If you wake up every day throwing up, you're taking too much risk. You need to feel a tingle of uncomfortableness. >> I started with 60 grand. I can't express to you how under capitalized that is on the trading floor. >> Essentially, you were looking for arbitrages. You're looking for some sort of mispricing. >> I'm now convinced that every arb is just about time scale. >> How much money were you making doing this? >> Well, I drove to my dad's house and I showed it to him and he was kind of like, "Oh, shit." He's like, "Is what you're doing legal?" >> I genuinely believe that geofence, meaning localized, dynamic and variable pricing for time slotted businesses is something that someone's going to make hundreds of billions of dollars with. >> How does a guy who goes from trading and no restaurant experience create the…