Investing Case Studies | Real-World Examples & Lessons

How Warren Buffett Evaluates Companies: A Simple Investing Framework

Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time. But his approach is surprisingly simple. He doesn’t chase trends.He doesn’t try to predict the market. Instead, he focuses on understanding businesses. At the Fundamental Investing Institute, we teach a similar approach—evaluating companies based on fundamentals, not speculation. In this guide, you’ll learn: […]

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Warren Buffett partnership years graphic

Reflection on Warren Buffett’s Career: The Partnership Years

Case Studies

This post is part of an ongoing series reflecting on Warren Buffett’s career and investment philosophy. Buffett on Scale and Structural Advantage In 1999, at the height of the dotcom bubble, Warren Buffett gave an interview for BusinessWeek. Buffett was discussing how the combination of an over-heated stock market and Berkshire Hathaway’s large size made

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Desk with notebook and pen representing Warren Buffett’s early education and formative years studying business and investing fundamentals

Reflections on Warren Buffett’s Career: Early Influences

Case Studies

Early Life and Family Influences In the first post in this series, I wrote a bit about how I encountered Warren Buffett’s investment philosophy as an undergraduate student (read it here). In this post, I discuss Warren Buffett’s early years and some of the influences that shaped his early career. Warren Buffett was born on

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Bookcases filled with books in a library. Signifying Warren Buffett early learning.

Reflections on Warren Buffett’s Career

Case Studies

Part One: Early Influences, Long-Term Discipline, and Learning to Think About Business Why Reflect on Warren Buffett Now On January 1st, 2026, Warren Buffett officially stepped down as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., the sprawling conglomerate and investment holding company that Buffett, alongside his late partner Charlie Munger, built up over five decades. As

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Woman and Man small business owners in front of their store with an open sign.

Small Business Acquisition – The Management Factor

Case Studies

In a previous blog post, The Risks of Financial Leverage in Small Business Acquisitions, I discussed the increased number of online influencers. They are promoting small business acquisitions as a path to creating wealth. While there are plenty of entrepreneurs who have become very wealthy acquiring small businesses, these deals are not without risk. Influencers

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mans hand holding a pen with a clipboard of papers with financial information

The Risks of Financial Leverage in Small Business Acquisitions

Case Studies

Why Small Business Acquisitions Look So Attractive Many business influencer’s have been touting the benefits of acquiring a small business and installing an operator. As someone who has invested in a handful of small businesses and has consulted for many more, I thought it would be remiss of me not to highlight some of the

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Introduction to Commercial Real Estate Part 5: Financing the Deal

Case Studies

Introduction Real estate is an “other people’s money” (OPM) business, and commercial real estate investors often spend a significant amount of time raising capital for individual deals. This capital comes in two forms: debt and equity. In this post, we will look at how commercial real estate investors raise both equity and debt capital. Equity

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Introduction to Commercial Real Estate Part 4: Due Diligence

Case Studies

Introduction Due diligence is one of, if not the, most important periods in the real estate investment process. It is during the due diligence phase that the investor looks for any factors which can change the financial merits of the purchase. These factors may prompt the investor to either renegotiate terms with the seller or

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Review of Codie Sanchez’s Main Street Millionaire

Case Studies

I don’t frequently do book reviews, but occasionally a book is published that is so closely aligned with the Fundamental Investing Institute’s mission of educating and empowering entrepreneurs and individual investors that I would be remiss not to comment on it. Codie Sanchez’s book, Main Street Millionaire: How to Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying Ordinary Businesses

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Introduction to Commercial Real Estate Investing Part 3: Valuing Commercial Property

Case Studies

Introduction What most distinguishes an investment asset from a speculative asset is the comparison of price vs. appraised value. To an investor, the comparison of price and value is the most important consideration. It is only fitting, then, that I devote a post in this series to the valuation of commercial property. Before I go

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