David Awad

DAVID AWAD / INVESTING / 2026

READ THE TAPE.

David Awad on capital, conviction, and the eight ways he allocates it.

THE QUESTIONS.

Asked in every meeting. Their order is intentional.

  1. [01] What do you do? (in one sentence)
  2. [02] How big is the market?
  3. [03] What's your progress?
  4. [04] What's your unique insight?
  5. [05] What's your business model?
  6. [06] Who's on your team?
  7. [07] Would I work for you?
  8. [08] How will your company 10x?
  9. [09] What is the most likely reason you will fail?
  10. [10] What do you want? (size of round, ask)

STOCK ADVICE  ·  “Don't be cool. Just be clear.”

[1/8] VC — illiquid

Venture Capital

The asset class I have publicly written about most. Deep-tech founders find my inbox because of a background in software, self-driving, and operating systems.

Market over product over team. I look for hair-on-fire problems and founders with courage plus brilliance — in that order. I deploy through angel checks and through funds, and I maintain the largest list of Arabic programming resources online.

Publicly disclosed

[2/8] RE — turnkey, leveraged

Real Estate

Long-term wealth creation through leveraged hard assets in growth markets — Texas. Inflation runs hot, so fixed-rate debt on appreciating hard assets is the position.

Strictly turnkey. No rehab, no BRRRR, no value-add. The goal is boring, predictable cash flow with minimal operational complexity. STR exists as a sub-strategy, only where regulators are unambiguous.

[3/8] Public — passive bias

Equities

I hold equities and remain skeptical of stock-picking edge for retail. The bulk is passive; active research is reserved for situations the index can't price.

When I do work a name, I work it like a credit analyst — DCF, unit economics, debt service coverage. I read quarterly letters from operators I respect; I do not read them all.

[4/8] Public — vol seller

Options

Systematic vol-selling. Premium sold around catalysts — earnings, FOMC — when implied vol is rich relative to the realized distribution.

Iron condors and short strangles are the workhorses. I treat options as a separate discipline from stock-picking: different math, different risk, different psychology. The book is sized so a single bad print does not end the program.

[5/8] PE — sub-$1M ARR

Micro-SaaS

Cash-flowing, unsexy software businesses bought at 2-4x ARR from operators who are exhausted, not distressed. Niches with high switching costs and low CAC from word-of-mouth.

The edge is patience and a willingness to buy businesses too small for institutional PE. Operate lean. Compound at 30-50% cash-on-cash by paying fair-but-unexciting prices.

Operating vehicle

[6/8] PE — leveraged growth

Private Equity

PE math: DSCR, debt service coverage, cash flow under leverage scenarios. The job is to stress the capital stack and walk away when it doesn't survive an unfriendly tape.

Through Luminance Capital Partners I perform technical due diligence on PE-backed companies — code audits, fractional CTO work, exit readiness — for sponsors in New York and Dubai.

Diligence shop

[7/8] Fixed income — dry powder

Bonds

Treasuries function as a cash-equivalent reserve — dry powder for opportunistic deployment into the other seven boxes when something repriced overnight.

No yield-chasing in credit. The job of this bucket is to be available, not to be exciting. A bond book that gets exciting is a bond book that failed.

[8/8] Research — Kalshi / Polymarket

Prediction Markets

Active research interest. The question is whether event-implied probabilities diverge from pricing in adjacent options markets — and whether the divergence survives transaction cost.

Treated as a research area, not core capital allocation. Most of the work is the spreadsheet, not the position. The position is what's left after the spreadsheet has eaten everything that didn't pencil.

— CLOSING BELL —

END OF SESSION  ·  2026-06-22