Vested's investment model gains an edge from proprietary data on employee sentiment and behavior. Signals like unsolicited negative comments, willingness to counter on price, or selling more shares than necessary provide unique insights into a company's health that traditional financial analysis lacks, forming a data moat.

Camillo's 'social arbitrage' strategy focuses on identifying meaningful, off-radar changes in the world (e.g., consumer trends, cultural shifts). The goal is to invest at the point of information asymmetry and exit when the information becomes widely known, ignoring traditional financial metrics.

Retail buyers are actively monitoring TikTok for viral brands. Achieving virality can bypass traditional, costly slotting fees, as retailers like Target will dedicate shelf space to trending products, confident that the online buzz will drive high in-store sell-through.

Ridge Wallet's CEO explains a key mechanic of TikTok Shop's success: affiliates are incentivized to make bold and sometimes outrageous claims that the brand itself would not. This creates a regulatory gray area where creators can promise things like "anxiety-reducing hoodies" or "testosterone gummies," driving impulse buys without direct brand liability.

The "candy salad," a consumer-driven trend on TikTok to combat candy inflation, was quickly adopted and productized by Ferrara (owner of Nutella) with a dedicated kit. This shows how major CPG brands now monitor social platforms to rapidly identify and capitalize on organic consumer behavior.

Early platforms like TikTok are 'beachfront property' because user attention (demand) vastly outstrips the amount of content and ads (supply). This creates a huge opportunity for organic reach. Mature platforms like Instagram are saturated, making it exponentially harder to gain attention.

The algorithmic shift on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook towards short-form video has leveled the playing field. New creators can gain massive reach with a single viral video, an opportunity not seen in over a decade, akin to the early days of Facebook.

Institutional investors prefer quantifiable data with historical correlations. They struggle to build teams and models around qualitative, evolving 'conversational data' from social media. This structural inability to act on non-quantifiable signals creates a lasting advantage for observant retail investors.

The majority of Wall Street analysts fit a specific demographic, creating blind spots around trends popular with women and youth. By observing these under-the-radar cultural shifts, such as beauty influencer recommendations, investors can find mispriced opportunities.