The Business Brew (Bill Brewster)

In this episode of 'The Business Brew,' host Bill Brewster is joined by Larry Holzenthaler, a portfolio manager at First Eagle Alternative Credit (FEAC). The discussion focuses on the complexities and nuances of private credit. Recorded on February 3rd, the episode delves into the differences between traditional equity value investing and private credit, as well as the strategic transitions First Eagle has made in response to market changes. Larry explains First Eagle's cautious approach to investment, emphasizing measured risk, recurring revenue, and sponsor-backed deals. He discusses the evolution and growth of private credit markets, challenges and opportunities, and the impact of banking regulations on credit availability. The conversation includes detailed insights into various investment structures like interval funds and BDCs, and the importance of reading fine print in credit agreements. Throughout, Larry offers a compelling argument for the attractiveness of private credit as an investment, particularly in current economic conditions. 

 

00:00 Welcome to the Business Brew 

00:54 Introducing Larry Hosenthaler and First Eagle 

02:13 The Evolution of Private Credit 

08:34 The Impact of COVID on Private Credit 

12:22 Private Equity and Risk Management 

18:41 The Role of Banks in Private Credit 

31:37 Fee Structures and Market Dynamics 

36:40 Understanding Interval Funds 

37:11 The Redemption Process Explained 

39:55 Comparing Interval Funds and BDCs 

43:17 Risk Management in Private Credit 

44:38 The Role of Recurring Revenue 

45:24 Leverage and Deal Flow 

56:59 Active vs Passive Management in Credit Markets 

01:03:27 Why Invest in Private Credit Now? 

01:08:46 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 

Devin Anderson, CEO and co-founder of Convexitas, stops by The Business Brew to discuss his firm's approach to risk management via options strategies. In short, Convexitas seeks to exploit structural options mispricing resulting from market participant's biases. What does that mean in plain English? Well, there are people that sell financial yield strategies that involve selling puts and selling covered calls. If enough of the market does that there is a chance the front month option pricing is not high enough. In that case, Convexitas might consider purchasing some of those options.

Why is Devin worth listening to? Before Convexitas, he was at Deutsche Bank for 15 years where he most recently was Managing Director and Head of Solutions in the Americas leading the structuring and sales teams which designed and distributed the risk premia, retail structured product, and the fund derivative businesses. His Deutsche Bank experience also includes covering institutional clients for listed options and OTC derivatives. Prior to the financial services industry, Devin had a previous career in technology where he held both engineering and sales roles at two early stage internet service & datacenter hosting providers, and former search engine Lycos. He holds a Bachelor of Finance from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon, where he also guest lectures on options and option market micro-structure.

In short, the guy is smart and you can learn something.

Enjoy the episode. Hope you enjoyed this show note!

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.

Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Thank you to the team at thepodcastconsultant.com for producing the show.

Detailed Show Notes - 

2:00 - Devin's background

6:25 - Convexitas is a very risk focused firm

12:00 - The decision to reduce risk vs. manage risk

15:15 - What Convexitas is very good at

19:40 - Why an options thesis should start with the behavioral biases of the options market

24:50 - An options position should be better than a resized cash position

27:30 - If at any time short options strategies are changing your lifestyle then you should probably do less of it

35:00 - What about options counterparty risk?

37:30 - A discussion of one day options and why they exist (hint: they are a great business for market makers)

41:50 - How was Convexitas started?

45:10 - Does AI help Convexitas and/or is it a risk?

53:00 - It's not actually the risk, but how you manage to the risk

57:40 - The difference between financial products and investment products

1:01:25 - Performance under pressure and mindfulness

Devin Martin, recommended by the one and only Tom Morgan, stops by the show to discuss how he helps high performing individuals hone in on what they truly want out of life. Devin primarily works with successful people who want to achieve something more/different.

In this episode we discuss his methodology. There is some discussion of ayahuasca and psychedelics so be prepared (shout out to one of the best songs in The Lion King).

As always, we hope you enjoy the show! Big shoutout to Daloopa for sponsoring the show.

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations.

Daloopa's data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Craig Moffett has covered the telecommunications industry – first as a management consultant and later as a Wall Street analyst – for more than thirty years. He has been elected to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-American Research Team in the U.S. Telecom and/or Cable & Satellite sectors on seventeen separate occasions, including nine separate appearances as the #1 analyst in America in either U.S. Telecom and/or Cable & Satellite.

Craig returns to The Business Brew to give an update on his analysis of the US telecommunications ecosystem.  Craig is Co-Founder of MoffettNathanson (see https://www.moffettnathanson.com/), a research driven firm that focuses on sound analysis as opposed to the incentives that drive much of Wall Street Sell Side coverage.  Craig’s most divergent view is that cable companies may end up with an cost advantaged wireless business when compared Verzion, AT&T, and T Mobile’s business.  This is in large part because of postalized rates, which you will learn about in this episode.  We hope you enjoy this conversation.

Please see https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/william-brewster1/episodes/Craig-Moffett---A-True-Expert-e1qqks6/a-a8sd2uv for our conversation in November 2022.

For disclaimers - Bill held both Charter and Liberty Broadband shares until recently.  He sold after Charter’s most recent earnings report.  Bill has talked a lot about cable and felt like he needed to sell in order to be rational about the cable thesis.  We hope this conversation is as unbiased as possible. 

 A request from The Business Brew – PLEASE fill out the survey on Spotify (assuming you listen there) to indicate whether you are an institutional or retail investor.  The survey results will help this podcast immensely in sponsorship negotiations. 

 

Sponsor Info: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠

Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. Our data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click. Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Josh Clarkson stops by The Business Brew to discuss alternative credit investments. Josh is a managing director at financial communications firm Prosek Partners, stops by The Business Brew to discuss communications, branding and marketing for alternative asset managers and his passion for working with clients in the private credit space.  Josh has over a decade advising a wide range of financial sector and corporate clients on matters from corporate narrative building, positioning and profile raising to activism, M&A and contentious restructurings. Currently, he focuses on working with credit-oriented alternative asset managers to help them better compete for capital, deals and talent by better utilizing communications, branding and marketing.

 

In addition to taking a deep dive on the current private credit landscape and how managers benefit from developing and effectively communicating a differentiated narrative, we also take a trip down memory lane and discuss some of Josh’s prior work in shareholder activism, which, as with many things in Josh’s life, intersects with his interest in private credit.

 

Josh’s full biography can be found here: https://www.prosek.com/people/joshua-clarkson/ along with more information about Prosek Partners and how they work with leading alternative and traditional asset managers to achieve their business goals.

 

We hope you enjoy this conversation.

Sponsorship Note

This episode is sponsored by ⁠Daloopa⁠. ⁠Daloopa ⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠Daloopa ⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time.

 

⁠Daloopa ⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠Daloopa ⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. Our data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. Daloopa’s Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click. Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠Daloopa ⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date. Visit Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew to create a free account and learn more about how Daloopa can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Peter Mantas of Logos LP, https://www.logoslp.com/, stops by The Business Brew to discuss the state of the life sciences industry.  Life sciences is an industry that has produced many stocks that generated abnormal returns.  We hope to unpack some of the reasons behind those returns in this discussion.  For more information on how Peter invests, please see https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-mantas-logos-lp-portfolio-construction-biotechs/id1492171651?i=1000537962817 on Apple or https://open.spotify.com/episode/6r003LhN4REFSxYxogPWXH?si=7ApTcSdmRzepl5oW44friw on Spotify.  

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to ake the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. Our data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠Daloopa ⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Thank you to all the fans.  Looking forward to being back and putting some good content in your ears. 

Will Thomson stops by The Business Brew to discuss his approach to real asset investing.  Will focuses on companies that happen to produce commodities and/or real assets.  That said, he is looking to exploit company/project specific opportunities rather than making commodity calls.  In this episode, he describes hi s process and explains how an investor could use publicly disclosed information to see a company's business plan (See: a 4301 document in Canada). 

Will is the Founder and Managing Partner of Massif Capital, LLC.

He has experience in private equity and credit/political risk insurance, in addition to having served as a strategic and economic adviser to NATO/ISAF in Afghanistan. Before starting Massif Capital, Will worked in the New York office of Chaucer, a Lloyd’s of London insurance syndicate, serving as the co-portfolio manager for a $750 million portfolio of credit and political risk insurance policies. He is a Graduate of Trinity College and holds a Masters in Government from Harvard University.

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.

Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.

A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.

Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc. Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.

Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Detailed Show Notes:

5:00 - Will's take on oil

8:00 - What is the Lassonde Curve 

11:38 - How a filing can help an investor underwrite mining companies.

14:00 - How Will thinks of comparing his DCF to market prices 

15:00 - Will discusses how he thinks about investing

 

19:50 - How will thinks about placing commodity bets on equities

22:00 - The risk reward of majors vs minors in mining

27:50 - "Are you buying well or are you buying good things?"

31:00 - A discussion about Lithium Americas

36:10 - Don't fall in love with the assets

40:33 - The difference between processed commodities and depleting commodities and what it means for margins

45:14 - Some Inflation Reduction Act discussion

51:00 - Sometimes change creates opportunities in the things that don't change

1:05:00 - Chesterson's fence and then discussion

Henry Reardon, aka @integrity4mkts on Twitter, joins the podcast to discuss his investment philosophy. The conversation starts by discussing his Carvana short thesis then goes into his general investing philosophy. The conversation is a bit shorter than normal but packs a punch.

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.
Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Tim Laehy stops by The Business Brew to discuss his career as a CFO.  Tim, who served as Coinbase's first interim CFO (from 2017 to 2018), is often hired to come in and professionalize emerging companies' finance departments; setting them up to go public. Some examples of Tim's work include: organizing and developing robust accounting controls & capabilities, building & growing an international tax function,  establishing global treasury functions, and developing budgeting and reporting capabilities.

Tim is a technology executive based in San Francisco. His experience spans multiple industries, including crypto currency brokerage & exchange, SaaS, enterprise software, and service. He has extensive experience as a public & private company CFO and has deep capital markets experience. He has managed three successful IPOs, three successful sell-side mergers, raised over $3B of capital at increasing valuations, managed significant revenue growth from pre-revenue to $1B annual revenue. During his career he has helped create more than $20B of value for multiple companies and investors. He has extensive buy-side and sell-side M&A experience serving public, private, domestic, and international companies.

This episode is brought to you by Bastiat Partners, a boutique investment banking firm.  See https://bastiatpartners.com/.  Detailed show notes below.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see www.mikeando.com.

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

This episode is brought to you by Bastiat Partners, a boutique investment banking firm.  See https://bastiatpartners.com/.  Detailed show notes below.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see www.mikeando.com.

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

Matthew Sweeney, CFA, Managing Partner & Portfolio Manager of Laughing Water Capital stops by The Business Brew for a laid back conversation about how he approaching investing. Laughing Water Capital tends to focus on smaller companies in an effort to find overlooked opportunities. In the episode, Matt talks about his idea of "value," how he got started in the business, and why he prefers stocks with smaller ($500mm-$3Bn) market capitalizations.

We hope you enjoy the episode.

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa's⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Bill drops in to give a podcast status update and let the listeners know what is going on.

Come see him at The CFA Society of New York on June 25th.

If you are interested in the golf events please send your information to businessbrewgolf@gmail.com.

Thank you as always for listening!

Louisa Nicola stops by The Business Brew to discuss her time as a triathlete, recovering from a major injury, and how she got curious about the power of the brain during her rehab from injury. Today, Louisa is Director and Head Neuroscientist at Neuro Athletics. Her firm helps athletes and hedge fund managers monitor their sleep, diet, etc. in order to help them achieve their maximum potential. 

You can follow Louia @lousianicola_ on Twitter or read her writing at https://substack.com/profile/32674240-louisa-nicola 

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  StreamRG.com features over 300 expert interviews.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on StreamRG.com.  Visit StreamRG.com today for a 14 day trial.  Tell them The Business Brew sent you!

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Audio/YouTube
~3:00 – Louisa’s history as an elite triathlete

 

~9:45 – Learning by treating the body as a science experiment

 

~13:00 – Facilitating healthy sleep

 

~18:45 – Negative impacts from not enough sleep

 

~23:00 – Neurology 101

 

~28:30 – General dietary discussion (NOT ADVICE)

 

~31:00 – What engaging Louisa’s firm “looks like”

 

~35:00 – Heart Rate Variability and an inconvenient truth about

alcohol (and cannabis)

 

~40:00 – Tracking health

 

~47:50 – Social media is not good for sleep

 

~53:00 – How to contact Louisa

 

Troy Lavinia, founder of Stream by Mosaic, stops by The Business Brew to discuss creating Stream, building teams, and strategic thinking.  Troy is a really interesting thinker, approaches life with an abundance mentality, and is always looking to find the right partners to grow a business.  Interesting tidbits about Troy include his time at Elliott Management and playing football fullback and tight end at University of Pennsylvania.

At one point in the conversation Bill asks Troy how he got comfortable delegating work.  Troy responded by saying something to the effect of “You have to associate joy with creating a meaningful job for someone else.”  That answer struck Bill as a very positive association for delegation. 

We hope you enjoy this conversation.  It is a peek into the financial services industry and an introduction to the person behind our sponsor. 

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

This episode is brought to you Bill. 

Stream by Mosaic is a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit https://streamrg.co/BB for a 14 day trial.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Detailed Show Notes

3:00 – Troy’s background, including time at Elliott Management

 

6:00 – How Stream was incubated within Mosaic and then spun out for growth reasons

 

8:00 – How Troy thought about partnering with AlphaSense

 

11:30 – Why expert transcript libraries are similar to media streaming services

 

16:15 – Did COVID “help” Stream by Mosaic as a business?

 

19:00 – Why does Troy like running startups vs. more mature businesses?

 

21:20  - Team building and the power of delegation

 

33:00 – Listening to the interviews on Stream by Mosaic

 

35:00 – Troy’s association with selling St

Jake Taylor stops by The Business Brew to discuss his new product Journalytic.  Journalytic is a software designed to help investors improve their process and decision making.  Clear thinking and decision making has been a passion of Jake’s for a very long time.  Now, he is releasing the culmination of years of hard work to us, the public, FOR FREE.  You can sign up at https://journalytic.com/.
This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.
Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Detailed Show Notes
4:30 – What is Journalytic
8:40 – What you need to get the most out of Journalytic
17:30 – Getting reps and calibrating
21:00 – How is Journalytic encrypted
26:00 – You can control process
29:00 – Why Jake wants feedback
38:30 – When you write you cannot rewrite what you were thinking
42:00 – Monitoring position sizing and whether it helps
46:30 – The End of The World is Just The Beginning
Chit Chat

Tobias Carlisle is a well known author. He's written extensively about value investing.  In our view, Deep Value is one of the best investment books ever written.

He is also the founder and managing director of Acquirers Funds, LLC. See acquirersfunds.com

We hope this interview answers some of the tougher questions people have for him regarding “value’s” underperformance. And, more importantly, we hope to introduce a really unique individual to the investing community.

We are grateful for his appearance on the pod.”

This isn't a typical episode, but it's an important one.  We hope it leads to some important discussions.

Cullen Roche is the Founder of Discipline Funds. Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory and asset management firm. Prior to establishing his own business, Mr. Roche founded his own investment partnership in 2005 after working at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management where he helped oversee $500MM+ in assets under management. During the the 7 years running the partnership he was able to guide the small business to high risk adjusted returns with no negative full year returns during one of the most turbulent periods in stock market history.

Mr. Roche's primary areas of expertise include global macro portfolio construction, quantitative risk management, behavioral finance and monetary theory.

He is regularly cited in the Wall Street Journal, on CNBC and in the Financial Times. Mr. Roche is a Georgetown University alumnus, growing up in the DC area and now living in San Diego, California with his fiancée Erica and their problem child, Cal, an Australian Shepherd.

You can find Cullen's bio here: https://www.pragcap.com/meet-cullen-roche/

Detailed Show Notes:

1:34 - The fully loaded cost of housing

4:23 - Japanese real estate and what it may mean for real estate in the US

5:54 - Housing as a central component not just to the economy, but to everyone’s balance sheet

8:16 - Housing in other countries whose Central Banks are more aggressive

16:32 - How consumers act in the beginning of economic slowdowns

17:43 - The Fed is worryied about the short term inflation rate

20:41 - The likelihood or more fiscal stimulus in a big downturn

23:08 - How banking operates in panics

32:33 - How Quantitative Easing works

47:36 - The Buffett approach in investing

52:40 - Focusing on investor behavior

54:07 - The inter-temporal (mismatched time horizons) conundrum

1:02:39 - Behavioral problems in a 60/40 portfolio

1:06:17 - Thoughts on diversification

1:15:20 - The biggest benefit of understanding macro finance

Simeon Siegel, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at BMO Captial Markets, stops by The Business Brew to discuss his prescient call to sell Peloton, the oddity that brands peak at $3Bn in sales, the role of “Sell Side” analysts, and a whole lot of retail.  His views on how COVID saved retail were particularly interesting.  Simeon and Bill met at the dinner before Liberty Media’s Investor Day, hit it off, and this conversation is the follow up.  We hope you enjoy!   Simeon’s official bio reads as follows:

Simeon Siegel is a Managing Director and award-winning Senior Analyst specializing in Retail and E-commerce. Simeon began his career at Goldman Sachs and has since worked on the #1 ranked Retail franchise at JPMorgan, Nomura | Instinet and BMO Capital Markets.

 

Dubbed "one of the more intellectual students of retail on Wall Street" by WWD, Simeon has been named a Top Retail Influencer by RETHINK Retail, a Top Stock Picker by StarMine, a Rising Star of Wall Street by Institutional Investor, a Rising Star of Equity Research by Business Insider, and a Top Earnings Estimator by Thomson Reuters and Refinitiv. He has worked on the Institutional Investor #1 ranked All America Research Team for Specialty Retail and the Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" list of top analysts.

 

Simeon is in constant dialogue with investors and C-Level Management across the industry, analyzing and advising on the ever-evolving retail landscape. He has guest lectured at Harvard Business School and NYU Stern School of Business and has been featured in a Harvard Business School case study. Simeon is a regular guest on CNBC and frequently quoted across the media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Women's Wear Daily, The Business of Fashion, Barron's, Bloomberg and others.

 

Simeon received a BA from Columbia University in Economics and Philosophy and is a CFA® charterholder. He serves on the Boards of the Hebrew Free Loan Society and the UJA Entertainment, Tech & Lifestyle Board and is Vice Chair of the UJA Retail, Fashion & Lifestyle Division. He previously served on the Board of Read Ahead.

 

Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosaic sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  Today, https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week. 70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB. Visit

Dylan is a former attorney turned private investor focused on small/microcap stocks and overlooked pockets of the market. He publishes a free newsletter on Substack called Raging Bull Investments, which provides deep-dive investment write-ups and occasional market commentary, and is active on Twitter as raging bull cap/Jake LaMotta.

Arvind Sanger stops by The Business Brew to discuss his views on the world's sustainable energy transition. Mr. Sanger has a ton of experience and is a wealth of knowledge. He is the founder of Geosphere Capital, a global long-short fund manager currently investing in natural resources, new energy and Indian equities. Prior to that, between 2002 and 2007, Mr. Sanger was a Portfolio Manager at SAC Capital (his portfolio grew very quickly), running one of the largest equity portfolios and managing a global team based in New York and Singapore. Prior to his tenure at SAC, Mr. Sanger had a 15-year career as a top-ranked sell-side oil services & equipment analyst at a number of firms, including Deutsche Bank, DLJ and Kidder Peabody among others. Mr. Sanger graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, with a B.Tech in 1984 and received his MBA from Tulane University in 1987. Mr. Sanger is on the board of the Alexander Hamilton Society, Pratham USA and Pratham Educational Foundation in India.

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to ake the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. ⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. Our data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting Daloopa for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

 

Detailed Show Notes forthcoming.

Jordan Noone stops by The Business Brew to discuss his experience founding Embedded Ventures and Relativity Space.  At the age of just 22 years old Jordan co-founded Relativity Space, which 3D prints rockets!  Yes, rockets.  See https://www.relativityspace.com/.

Following his time at Relativity Space, Jordan co-founded Embedded Ventures, a venture capital firm. Embedded has an interesting goal of using "clean capital" to enhance the security of the US while generating investor returns.  See below for the official bios on both of Jordan's companies.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

ABOUT EMBEDDED VENTURES - See https://www.embedded.ventures/ -  Launched in 2020, Embedded Ventures is a next generation venture capital firm investing in dual-use space startups beyond launch. Best described as “the skunkworks of Venture Capital” because of their unique investment approach and backgrounds, Embedded has a first-of-its-kind partnership with the United States Space Force. Co-Founders Jenna Bryant and Jordan Noone both have atypical industry experiences and strong passions for the communities they represent. The firm invests in the pre-seed and seed stage startups focused on space operations, digital engineering, and advanced manufacturing. To date, Embedded Ventures has announced investments in Chromatic 3D Materials, Inversion, KittyCAD, Slingshot Aerospace and Skyryse.

ABOUT JORDAN NOONE Jordan Noone is the Co-Founder, CTO, and General Partner at Embedded Ventures, the skunkworks of deep tech venture capital. Launched with his Co-Founder Jenna Bryant.

Jordan is Relativity’s Co-Founder and founding CTO - as of 2020, Relativity is the world’s second most valuable private space company. As Relativity's CTO, Jordan focused on technical direction and engineering design, including: developing printing technology, launch vehicle design, propulsion design, software development, infrastructure development, and government affairs. Jordan also led many Relativity initiatives including: expansion of Relativity’s Stargate Factory into the rest of aerospace manufacturing, Relativity’s strategy for expanding printing technology off-planet; and the ability of Relativity’s factory flexibly scale to a wide range of rocket sizes.

Jordan has had a lifelong interest in aerospace, including the design and build of spaceflight hardware at the age of 18 while at the University of Southern California, and becoming the first student and youngest individual in the world to get Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly a rocket to space (150 kilometer altitude) while leading USC’s Rocket Propulsion Lab. In 2015 he started Relativity when 22 years old. He has been chosen for “30 Under 30” by Forbes, Business Insider, and Inc. Magazine.

He received a BS in Aerospace Engineering, and dropped out of a BS in Biophysics, both from University of Southern California. Outside of Relativity, Jordan is active in promoting STEM education worldwide with the US Department of State.

This episode is brought to you by Bastiat Partners, a boutique investment banking firm.  See https://bastiatpartners.com/.  Detailed show notes below.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see www.mikeando.com.

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

Detailed Show Notes:

Open – Jordan’s background

7:25 – What down rounds do to everyone

9:20 - What it was like to start Relativity at 22 years old

17:00 - How to prove students can launch rockets without killing anyone

24:00 - The benefits of 3D printing for manufacturing

30:30 - How VCs, specifically Mark Cuban, helped Relativity

33:00 - What Embedded Ventures is doing, and why

Major Topics: Special Situations, Small Cap Investing, Unique Thinking

Thomas Braziel is the Founder and CIO at 507 Capital.  The son of bankruptcy lawyers, Thomas was destined to become an expert in distressed investing.  He loves looking at weird and esoteric trades and investments.

This episode covers behavioral investing, special situations investing, how illiquidity breeds good behavior, and Thomas' big win on his Mt. Gox claims.  Thomas has a unique mind and introduces some ideas that are not en vogue in 2021.  We hope Thomas' thoughts help expand the definition of an investment in some people's minds.

This episode is brought you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

 

Will Thomson of Massif Capital returns for his annual appearance. In this episode he teaches about the lithium and copper markets. The end of the episode is more general and worth hanging around for.

You can find Massif Cap's letters here. The Q4 letter discusses lithium on Page 7. Whole letter is worth a read.

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations.

⁠Daloopa's⁠ data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Shoutout to SpeechDocs (@speechdocs on X) for the show notes below.

🎙️ Welcome to The Business Brew! 🎙️ 

In this special solo episode, host Bill Brewster opens up about life, markets, and the future of The Business Brew. From surviving Hurricane Milton and its aftermath to contemplating a rebrand of the show, Bill shares raw and unfiltered thoughts on resilience, growth, and change. 

📌 What You’ll Learn in This Episode: 

• The surprising truth about ETF tax loopholes 🤔 

• Reflections on Florida real estate and climate challenges 🌴 

• How personal challenges shape perspective and growth 💡 

• A candid take on rebranding The Business Brew for a fresh start 🚀 

• Insights on parenting, relationships, and navigating life’s toughest moments 👨‍👩‍👧 

💭 Key Quote: 
"The Business Brew has to die for me to live." 

Whether you’re here for market insights, personal reflections, or a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast’s evolution, this episode is packed with value. Hit play, and let’s brew up something new together. ☕ 

 

🛠️ Stay Connected: ✅ Subscribe for more unfiltered insights and updates on the show’s rebranding journey. 
✅ Like and share this episode if it resonates with you. 
✅ Drop a comment below—what do you think about the future of The Business Brew? 

#TheBusinessBrew #PodcastRebrand #MarketInsights #PersonalGrowth #HurricaneMilton #Resilience 

Craig Moffett has covered the telecommunications industry – first as a management consultant and later as a Wall Street analyst – for more than thirty years. He has been elected to Institutional Investor Magazine’s All-American Research Team in the U.S. Telecom and/or Cable & Satellite sectors on seventeen separate occasions, including nine separate appearances as the #1 analyst in America in either U.S. Telecom and/or Cable & Satellite.

Prior to founding MoffettNathanson, Mr. Moffett spent more than ten years at Sanford Bernstein & Co., LLC as a senior research analyst. He was previously the President and founder of the e-commerce business at Sotheby’s Holdings, the venerable auction house, where, in 1999, he led Sothebys.com to what was then the highest first year sales of any consumer website ever launched. Mr. Moffett spent more than eleven years at The Boston Consulting Group, where he was a Partner and Vice President specializing in telecommunications. He was the leader of BCG’s global Telecommunications practice from 1996 to 1999. While at BCG, he led client initiatives in the U.S. local, long distance, and wireless sectors, in both consumer and commercial services, and advised companies outside the U.S. in Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

Mr. Moffett graduated from Harvard Business School with Honors in 1989. He received a BA from Brown University, where he was magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in 1984.

Detailed Show Notes -

5:41 - Why Silicon Valley Bank is a good fit for MoffettNathanson

6:50 - Why telecom is a hard business

7:40 - The history of US telecom

10:10 - How cable incubated an industry under AT&T/telecom's business

15:52 - How does cable compete with fiber going forward?

17:47 - High splits, node splits, who gives a split?

22:50 - Cable strategy and why high splits are the current strategy

29:09 - Wireless vs. broadband going forward

35:00 - The physics of wireless

46:00 - Verizon's big strategic decision was correct but implementation left something lacking

51:10 - Cable's wireless offering and how it fits into the competitive set

58:44 - What does broadband's growth runway look like?

1:03:45 - How do fiber overbuilders factor into the future?

1:08:00 - The fiber bubble will burst.  Then some Altice discussion.

Corey Hoffstein, Founder and CEO of Returned Stacked Portfolio Solutions, stops by to discuss how he uses ETFs to leverage his investing assets. Corey and Bill discuss a concept that is not novel to institutional investors, but may benefit individuals today because of ETF innovations. Bill wanted to discuss how Corey came up with his idea, how he executes his idea, and what risks his strategy might have.

You can find more information at Return Stacked Portfolio Solutions.

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations.

⁠⁠Daloopa's⁠⁠ data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Bill Chen, Managing Director at Rhizome Partners, stops by The Business Brew to share his thoughts on why publicly traded REITs are an attractive opportunity. Rhizome Partners is a private partnership targeting deep-value investments with a large margin of safety. In this episode Bill lays out his argument for why publicly traded REITs qualify for consideration now.

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family. Hopefully this provides some less controversial dinner table discussion!

As always, nothing in this show is investment advice. This show is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Please consult your financial advisor before making investment decisions. And do your own due diligence!!

Andrew Freedman stops by The Business Brew for a discussion about the ever changing media landscape.  In this discussion, Andrew articulates how he views valuation, what makes stocks good “long” and “short” candidates, and how his process has evolved over time.  There’s a lot of company specific discussion here.  We hope it is beneficial, educational, and entertaining.

 

Andrew’s official bio reads as follows:

 

Andrew Freedman, CFA, is a Managing Director and Communications Sector Head at Hedgeye. In addition, he holds Senior Analyst responsibilities on the Health Care Team where he specializes in Information Technology. Before joining Hedgeye in 2014, Andrew worked for an institutional consulting firm where he was responsible for client asset allocation and investment manager due-diligence. Andrew is a CFA® charterholder and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Marquette University in Finance and Business Economics.

 

Hedgeye is an independent investment research firm covering 10 fundamental/industry sectors, macro and policy. We provide actionable long/short ideas to institutions (hedge funds, mutual funds, and family offices) and RIAs/Individuals. Institutional research includes access to deep dive fundamental reports (black books) on individual stocks, thematic/industry analysis, proprietary and third party datasets, industry thought leader calls, company models, one-on-one analyst access and more. We do not have a broker dealer and don't do banking. Please contact sales@hedgeye.com if you are interested in learning more about Hedgeye's research offerings.

 

Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

 

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

 

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit

Tom Gayner stops by The Business Brew to discuss a number of things. You can see the detailed show notes for specifics, below the stratosphere.io sponsor copy. In summation, Bill has wanted to interview Tom for a long time but didn’t know how to make the interview unique. We think this interview covers some topics Tom has not discussed elsewhere.

Please consider attending Markel’s annual meeting. On Wednesday, May 17th, from 9-10:30 the good folks at Robotti and Co. are hosting an investor panel. There will be 8-12 “best ideas” presented. The Markel annual meeting will follow that event. Food, music, and beer will follow the Markel annual meeting.

We hope you enjoy this podcast episode.

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.

Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Thank you to the team at thepodcastconsultant.com for producing the show.

Detailed Show Notes -

5:00 – The goal of the Markel annual event

7:30 – Tom’s background

9:35 – Blue capital and orange capital

17:05 – Creating dealflow and how long that takes

20:10 – Learning how to delegate

24:55 – What happened with the ILS transactions

33:20 – Searching New Highs and New Lows

38:40 – How investing at Markel does or does not impact Tom’s investing style

34:20 – The intertwining of Berkshire, Markel, and The Davis Funds

43:50 – The importance of relationships

48:40 – The Big Lebowski

49:10 – What traveling to India has taught Tom

56:25 – Decisions in March 2020 and how being at Markel impacted Tom

1:02:20 – How was the transition from Co-CEO to CEO

1:05:40 – How to be a deserving spouse

Book Mention:

The Way We Live Now

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Live-Now-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140433929/ref=asc_df_0140433929/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475771750252&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16689022937612321338&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011844&hvtargid=pla-469518675534&psc=1

Jillian Jaccard Murrish stops by The Business Brew to discuss co-founding and running Pier Asset Management; an alternative credit firm.  Pier delivers fixed income yield by investing in alternative credit, which they define as all nonbank lending.  Typical loan sizes in Pier’s portfolio are loans less than $250,000.

This was a fun conversation and touches on an asset class that hasn’t been discussed much on this program.  As always, nothing is investment advice and do your own due diligence!  Jillian’s credentials are as follows:

Mrs. Murrish is a co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pier Asset Management. Prior to founding Pier, she was Executive Vice President of Capital Markets at Patch of Land where she built one of the first institutional whole loan sale programs in the real estate marketplace lending industry, secured $750M in loan purchase commitments, managed the firm’s warehouse funding, and lead equity capitalization efforts. Prior to her time in marketplace lending, Mrs. Murrish worked with technology clients in the Capital Markets group at a leading middle market investment bank, Houlihan Lokey. She has completed the Series 7, Series 63, Series 65, and Series 79 examinations. She is a graduate of the Loyola Marymount University Honors Program and has a B.S. in Accounting and a B.B.A. in Finance.

We hope you enjoy the discussion. 

 

“The investment strategy discussed in this podcast is only suitable for eligible investors and there is no guarantee that the investment strategy will be successful or meet its goals.  Any discussion of targeted returns reflects the intended interest rates paid by borrowers and is not reflective of returns to investors. Also, nothing in this discussion should be regarded as a representation, warranty or prediction that any specific transaction will reflect any particular performance or that it will achieve or is likely to achieve any particular result or that investors will be able to avoid losses, including total loss of their investment. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This podcast discussion is solely for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation or an offer to buy any security or instrument or to participate in any trading strategy.”

 

Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on

J Mintzmyer (@mintzmyer) is a renowned maritime shipping analyst who directs the Value Investor's Edge ("VIE") research platform on Seeking Alpha. He stopped by The Business Brew to discuss the shipping industry.  J is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, is regularly quoted in trade journals, and hosts a popular podcast featuring shipping industry executives. Mr. Mintzmyer also hosts regular "Virtual Investor Forums," which are a must-attend for anyone interested in the shipping and infrastructure industries. As Head of Research at Value Investor's Edge, his trades and model portfolios have outperformed the shipping sector average for 6 consecutive years and have beaten the Russell 2000 for 5 of the past 6 years. J has earned a BS in Economics from the Air Force Academy, an MA in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, and is a PhD Candidate at Harvard University, where he researches global trade flows and security policy.

This episode is brought you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

Just a quick message to let you know Bill is on vacation with his family, but episodes of the Business Brew will return in a few weeks.

This is a brief message from Bill. Sent in the spirit of communication with the fans. After listening to it, it's about 85-90% accurate with some incomplete thoughts and some things that could have been said differently. But, the overall message and general feeling is accurate-ish.

Looking forward to dropping an episode next week.

Like, subscribe and rate. Please and thank you!

Hunter Hopcroft, Managing Director, Portfolio Solutions at Armada ETF Advisors, stops by The Business Brew to primarily discuss REITs. Hunter is quite a thinker and the conversation veers into other parts of markets such as AI, how the economy is changing and more. You can find Hunter's writing here: https://www.lewisenterprises.blog/

Bill pinged Hunter after someone (on the Twitter machine, so you know it's factual) made a comment that REITs are inherently bad investment vehicles. We hope this episode is informative and realistic about the investment vehicles. You may learn:

• The vast difference between market cap weighted public REIT allocations and private sector real estate allocations
• Why public market REITs have less leverage than their private peers
• A theory about why Blackstone bought $AIRC and what the true cap rate was
• Whether dividends are better than academia believes

As always, we hope you enjoy the show. Thank you for your time!

PS. Reach out if you are interested in sponsoring the show. You can contact Bill at bill@thebusinessbrew.com.

Detailed Show Notes:

3:00 - Hunter transitioned his career around an interest in REITs

7:00 - Private and public markets own basically the same assets

10:00 - How private markets create a lock in for RIAs that may help the RIAs' multiple when they sell the business

11:00 - Negative features of REITs

17:00 - The downside scenarios for multifamily housing

20:30 - What can dividend growth do for a portfolio?

27:30 - How Hunter thinks about the different REIT asset classes.

30:00 - The difference between private real estate allocations and public market market cap weighted allocations

41:00 - The different valuation methodologies to analyze $AIRC

48:00 - Why are private market cap rates still healthy relative to public markets?

52:00 - Hunter's view on markets and where they are right now

56:00 - Some riffing on AI

1:04:00 - In defense of Marty Whitman!

Mike Alkin of Sachem Cove Partners stops by The Business Brew to share his journey in uncovering the uranium investment thesis. Bill found out about Mike when he began listening to Mike's podcast in 2018/19. At that time, Mike was telling everyone that would listen about how asymmetric the opportunity was. Mike interviewed industry insiders, other investors, and laid out his thesis in public. Bill found it inspiring.

This conversation dives deep into the complexities of the uranium market. The discussion includes a detailed analysis of nuclear power, supply-demand dynamics, and the industry’s challenges. Mike also provides valuable advice for young analysts and highlights the significance of contrarian investing. Additionally, they explore recent advancements in nuclear energy and the evolving markets of EVs, wind, and solar energy.

As always, this episode is for educational and entertainment purposes only, not financial advice. 

  Michael (Mike) Alkin is a principal of Sachem Cove Partners, LLC, the general partner of Sachem Cove Special Opportunities Fund, LP. He is also the Chief Investment Officer of Public Equities of Lloyd Harbor Capital Management, LLC, the investment manager of the Fund, and in that role is responsible for the Fund’s investment process. He has nearly 30 years of hedge fund experience with extensive investing experience across many cyclical industries. Prior to Sachem Cove and Lloyd Harbor, he was an analyst and partner for 7 years at Knott Partners. Prior to Knott, amongst the firms where held similar roles were Walker Smith Capital, Zweig-DiMenna, and Windsor Partners. Detailed Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to the Business Brew 

00:08 Introducing Mike Alkin and the Uranium Thesis 

00:48 The Inspiration Behind the Podcast 

01:21 Disclaimer and Acknowledgements 

02:32 Deep Dive into the Uranium Market 

05:26 Challenges and Insights in the Uranium Industry 

09:13 Understanding Market Dynamics and Investor Behavior 

12:50 The Journey to Conviction in Uranium Investment 

17:40 The Role of Nuclear Power in the Energy Market 

42:39 The Impact of Geopolitical Risks on Uranium Supply 

44:32 The Fuel Cycle and U.S. Fuel Buyers 

45:23 Challenges with Industry Forecasts 

46:11 Presenting at the NEI Conference 

47:09 Confrontations and Convictions 

48:56 Expert Networks and Market Misconceptions 

52:10 Global Nuclear Power Dynamics 

01:01:24 Kazakhstan's Uranium Production 

01:10:42 The Future of Nuclear and Renewables 

01:18:01 Investment Strategies and Advice 

01:22:26 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 

Arnaud Cosserat, CEO of Comgest, and Rick Mercado, PM at Comgest stop by The Business Brew to discuss quality growth investing.  Comgest is an independent, international asset management group, which since its creation in 1985, has pursued a long-term ‘Quality Growth’ and responsible investment style.

Arnaud is a long-standing Analyst and Portfolio Manager specialising in European equities. He started his career in 1989 as an Analyst at Banque Paribas, before joining Société de Bourse Oddo and then Generali as a Portfolio Manager.

He holds a Master of Science degree from the ESSEC business school (France) and is a member of the French Society of Financial Analysts (SFAF, Société Française des Analystes Financiers).

Before joining Comgest, Rick worked in London as a Portfolio Manager responsible for a North American equities fund with USS Investment Management and prior to that, as a Global Equities Portfolio Manager with F&C Investments. From 2001-2008 he worked in Australia, with Capital Partners as an Investment Analyst and with AMP Capital Investors as an Investment Strategist.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from the University of New South Wales. He is also a CFA® charterholder.

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.

Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Big shoutout to @mathewpassy and the team at The Podcast Consultant.

Detailed Show Notes:

4:10 - Comgest's philosophy and focus on culture

8:10 - Fighting the ABCs (arrogance, bureaucracy, and complacency) of decay

12:05 - How to appraise culture

• Paper cited https://hbr.org/1996/11/what-holds-the-modern-company-together

18:48 - Handicapping quality among high quality companies

24:05 - How does Comgest consider valuation risk of the portfolio?

33:35 - Comgest's 80/20 rule and how they hold companies with higher valuations

39:20 - Why recessions are great from an investment perspective

46:20 - What inflation might do to quality companies

53:30 - When to exit an investment (and how to stay in)

1:00:00 - How macro events impact Comgest's analysis

Will Thomson stops by The Business Brew to discuss his approach to real asset investing.   Will is the Founder and Managing Partner of Massif Capital, LLC.  He has experience in private equity and credit/political risk insurance, in addition to having served as a strategic and economic adviser to NATO/ISAF in Afghanistan.

Before starting Massif Capital, Will worked in the New York office of Chaucer, a Lloyd’s of London insurance syndicate, serving as the co-portfolio manager for a $750 million portfolio of credit and political risk insurance policies. He is a Graduate of Trinity College and holds a Masters in Government from Harvard University.

Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit https://streamrg.co/BB and use promo code BREW for a 14 day trial.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Detailed Show Notes

Will Thomson –

 

4:05 – Being able to present at Grant’s

 

5:05 – Will’s background and his experience watching government intervention change an industry

 

8:30 – What Massif focuses its time on

 

10:30 – Everyon

Wes Gray, the Alpha Architect himself, stops by the Business Brew to discuss how he (a) created the ETF $BOXX, (b) helps people start their own ETFs, (c) why value and momentum work as factors, and much more.

This episode is a quick release after Corey Hoffstein's. It may or may not be the only episode we release for the next 13 days or so.

The release cadence is influenced by the amount of press BOXX has been getting. We hope to add to your understanding. As always, do your due diligence!

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations.

⁠⁠⁠Daloopa's⁠⁠⁠ data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

The one and only David Gardner stops by The Business Brew for an interview Bill has been looking forward to for over a year.  David is a Co-Founder of The Motley Fool.  He is best known for his Rule Breaker investing strategy but Bill knows him as a person that forced Bill to contemplate how he looks at investing.   

You can find David’s Rule Breaker podcast at https://www.fool.com/podcasts/rule-breaker-investing/, follow him on Twitter at @DavidGFool, and sign up for The Motley Fool at https://www.fool.com/.   See also his podcasts with Invest Like The Best https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/david-gardner-finding-companies-that-break-the-rules/id1154105909?i=1000392148108 or https://open.spotify.com/episode/4bwyONARX4WeVcsPYosiuR?si=H8lR4qlwTgS92N5u6IQ2mA and Wealth Track https://wealthtrack.com/category/guests/david-gardner/

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit https://streamrg.co/BB today for a 14 day trial.  

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Audio/YouTube

5:24  – David’s minimum investment time horizon 

8:30 - What running a business did for David’s investments

14:30 - Rule Breaking for the long term

19:30 – David’s thoughts on investing vs. tradi

New photo courtesy of Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to all the fans, guests, and especially to Mathew Passy.  If you like the intro music you'll love this episode.

We will be back soon.  Until then, thank you and take care!

-Bill

Chris Cerrone, a Partner at Akre Capital Management, stops by The Business Brew for a discussion about his investment philosophy, simplicity, the definition of quality, and much more.  Chris’ paper, The Art of (Not) Selling, really made an impression on Bill.  This discussion follows up on that paper, among other topics.

 

Prior to joining Akre Capital Management in 2012, Chris served as an equity research analyst for Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York from 2010 to 2012. In that position, he covered restaurant and retail companies. He began his investment management career in 2007 as a junior equity research analyst with Century Capital Management in Boston. Chris graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in economics from Tufts University.

 

Bill really enjoyed listening to Chris talk about how Mr. Akre would push Chris to find the essence of a business.  That enables an analyst to then focus on THE most important question.

 

Books mentioned include:

https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469

https://www.amazon.com/Lila-Inquiry-Robert-M-Pirsig/dp/0553299611/ref=pd_lpo_2?pd_rd_i=0553299611&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/The-Art-of-Learning-Josh-Waitzkin-audiobook/dp/B00JE2WEEK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3DQ5DXHBNOWB7&keywords=the+art+of+learning&qid=1643803876&s=books&sprefix=the+art+of+learning%2Cstripbooks%2C83&sr=1-1

 

Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

 

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

 

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit

Dan Katz and Stephen Miran Ph.D. stop by The Business Brew to discuss JSG Investing.  JSG investing is investing that focuses on Jobs, Security, and Growth.  Their firm, Amberwave partners (see https://www.amberwavepartners.com/) helps investors align their portfolios and values, putting their savings to work for the good of American communities.

Dan and Stephen have very interesting bios.  They read as follows:

Steve Miran is a co-founder and lead portfolio manager at Amberwave. Steve has ten years of successful investing experience including as a hedge fund portfolio manager and head of macro strategy, and before that as an analyst at Fidelity Investments. He has invested in major asset classes in both developed and emerging economies.

Before Amberwave, Steve was senior advisor for economic policy at the United States Department of the Treasury, which he entered in April 2020 to assist with fiscal support to the economy. He contributed to the implementation and evaluation of several CARES Act programs, in particular the Paycheck Protection Program, which provided over $800 billion of job-preserving investments in American small businesses and supported over 50 million workers.

Steve holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. He received a B.A. summa cum laude from Boston University, where he studied economics, philosophy and mathematics. His academic work has focused on fiscal policy, and his writing has been published in the American Economic Journal, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and RealClearMarkets.

Dan Katz is a co-founder and portfolio manager at Amberwave. Dan served as a senior advisor at the United States Department of the Treasury from September 2019 to January 2021, where he helped lead the Treasury’s efforts to rescue the U.S. aviation industry during the COVID-19 recession. Dan served as the Chairman of the National Security Loan Program Credit Committee and a member of the Airline Loan Program Credit Committee, which collectively oversaw more than $20 billion of emergency loan transactions. Dan also oversaw the implementation of the Payroll Support Program, which supported hundreds of thousands of jobs in the aviation industry.

Earlier in Dan’s career, he worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He also served as a policy advisor at Treasury, where he focused on financial threats to U.S. national security, and as an advisor to the commander of U.S. forces in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dan holds a B.A. from Yale College and a J.D. magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from New York University School of Law.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Detailed Show Notes

2:48 - What is JSG Investing?

9:05 - Sanctions & their mechanisms

16:33 - Commodities

21:03 - Knowing your supply chain exposure

25:48 - How is JSG measured?

31:14 - The impact of ESG

37:55 - What is “green washing”?

42:58 - Quantitative vs. qualitative

45:03 - Creating growth in the US

48:03 - Shale & energy

49:28 - Working at the US Treasury

56:18 - The cost of time deploying stimulus

57:38 - Moral hazard & airlines

1:07:03 - The “American Recovery Plan” act

1:10:33 - Inflation

1:17:08 - Supply chains

1:20:38 - Asia & semiconductors

1:23:20 - Innovation

1:28:08 - Investing in rural communities

Ryan O'Connor of Crossroads Capital stops by The Business Brew to discuss Nintendo, inflection investing, and much more.

You can find his piece on Google's potential antitrust risk here:  https://assets.website-files.com/5fdcb736a43f592037fbd4b4/64f927a7f3a8d64b1a40ac64_21st%20Century%20Trust%20Busting%20and%20Tail%20Risks.pdf

Check this out as well!  https://twitter.com/aboveavgodds/status/1701620751210607072?s=46

Sponsor Info:
⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to ake the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. Our data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.
Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠Daloopa ⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.
Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Major Topics: 80s Culture and Film Directing

Seth Porges stops by The Business Brew to discuss directing Class Action Park, a beautiful piece of art.  The New Jersey and New York fans may appreciate this episode *a bit* more than the rest, but rest assured this is a fun conversation.  Check out Class Action Park on HBO Max before listening if you are concerned with spoilers.

Why does this episode work on The Brew?  Well, for one, because it's dope.  But also, Seth bootstrapped production for the documentary.  Furthermore, Action Park is one of the most fascinating businesses ever.  A combo of freedom, negligence, and a darker side that led to some people dying.  

We hope you enjoy the episode.  You can follow Seth at @sethporges on Twitter.  Bill can be reached at @BillBrewsterTBB on Twitter.

This episode is brought you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

 

Scott Reardon, Portfolio Manager at Dakota Value Funds, Author of The Dark Continent series and Bonfire of the Beasts, stops by The Business Brew to chat about what he learned by studying the greatest investors of all time.  Scott's work led him to focus on very favorable risk/reward scenarios.  While that might sound trite, it's hard in practice. You can read Scott's work at: Greatest investors: https://www.dakotavalue.com/stewart-s-bridge-paper Cyclicality of markets and life: https://www.dakotavalue.com/draper-s-carousel We hope you enjoy the conversation! Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see www.mikeando.com. Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production. Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player! Detailed Show Notes: 6:45 - Scott’s background 9:00 – Scott’s strategy 11:45 – How Scott developed his strategy by studying the greats 15:30 – Could we have stuck with Charlie Munger as a young investor? 18:20 – Within value investors there tends to be two camps 19:45 – Scott’s favorite investors 25:45 – Does value need a catalyst? 28:00 – Microcaps vs Mid Caps 34:00 – Scale advantages and scale economics 44:00 – Scott and Bill discuss learning they may not know anything General Discussion 1:03:00 – Thoughts on where to fish for investment ideas 1:08:00 – A nonacademic conversation on dividends vs buybacks 1:13:30 – Incentives matter 1:20:00 – Analyzing a wide distribution of outcomes

Jeremy Raper stopped by The Business Brew to discuss his unique way of viewing equity markets.

Jeremy is a global investor that looks for value in obscure places. He views the world through a credit lens, which is fun for Bill since that’s Bill’s background.

This episode covers position sizing, illiquid microcap positioning, global investing, and more. Thank you to Jeremy for joining!

Todd Schwartz, Founder, CEO and Executive Chairman of OppFi, stops by The Business Brew to discuss how he expands credit access. OppFi was featured on this program when it was going public via SPAC. The company did not perform to expectations once it was public and Todd reengaged in order to right the ship.

This episode is about OppFi and Todd, but it is also about usury laws and policy. It is a company that has made Bill think a lot. We hope you find the conversation interesting.

Disclaimers: Bill owns an immaterial amount of warrants in the company. But, better to err on the side of disclosure.

Sponsor Info: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. Our data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click. Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Kyle Mowery, Founder and Portfolio Manager at Grizzly Rock Captial, LLC, stops by the Business Brew to teach the audience about sustainable air fuel. Bill deviates the conversation *a bit* to renewable diesel at times, but SAF is the primary topic.

SAF is a potentially interesting investment topic because it is the only known way to decarbonize air travel. Importantly, there appears to be a shortage in the near term.

Companies discussed include Darling (DAR), Calumet (CLMT), LanzaJet (LNZA) and more. Here is a link to one of Darling's early investor presentations about Diamond Green Diesel: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/916540/000119312511081529/dex991.htm

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. Our data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠Daloopa ⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

Join host Bill Brewster as he converses with the intriguing and often humorous anonymous guest, Le Shrub, in this episode of 'The Business Brew'. Le Shrub's writings can be found at https://www.shrubstack.com/ He can also be followed on Twitter/X at https://x.com/agnostoxxx

With a unique approach to investing, Le Shrub shares his thoughts on market trends, stock picks, and the rationale behind them. From discussing the importance of avoiding investment stupidity, analyzing specific stocks like Archer Aviation and Alibaba, to speculating on the economic impacts of a potential Ukraine ceasefire, this episode is packed with insightful observations and strategic thinking. Be prepared for an engaging mix of entertainment, education, and parody, underlined with Le Shrub's distinct charm.

Disclaimer: This is all for entertainment purposes and not financial advice.  Recorded 2/14/25

 

00:00 Introduction to the Business Brew 

00:54 Meet Les Shrub: The Anonymous Guest 

01:24 Investment Philosophy: Don't Be Stupid 

03:35 The Spinny Ponzi: A Deep Dive into Archer 

17:15 Biotech Investments: Blood in the Tweets 

21:00 The Future of Cancer Vaccines 

22:55 ClearPoint and Gene Therapy 

30:02 The Power of Community in Investing 

33:19 Navigating the Risks of Small Cap Stocks 

34:07 Options Trading Strategies 

35:36 The Risks of Investing in Alibaba 

36:13 Reasons for Investing in Alibaba 

36:38 China's Economic Strategies and Stimulus 

37:27 Alibaba's AI and Cloud Ventures 

39:00 Apple's Partnership with Alibaba 

40:31 The Impact of U.S. CapEx on AI 

41:19 Investing in Energy and Natural Gas 

44:38 The Barbell Portfolio Strategy 

45:17 Emerging Markets and Currency Devaluation 

52:53 The Potential Ceasefire in Ukraine 

59:15 Valuation and Investment Strategies 

01:04:19 Avoiding Shorts on Meme Stocks 

01:06:50 Recommended Reading: Capital Returns 

01:07:50 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 

Dave Waters of Alluvial Capital Management, LLC stops by The Business Brew to discuss how he approaches investing.  You can find all his letters, partnership info, etc., at https://alluvialcapital.com/
Dave primarily focuses on investments that you probably haven't heard of.  He invests in illiquid securities, foreign securities, companies coming out of bankruptcy, and more.  His portfolio is as unique as his path to investing.
We hope you enjoy the conversation.
Sponsor Info:
Daloopa is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. Daloopa offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time.
Daloopa scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. Daloopa captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations. Our data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. Daloopa’s Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click. Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting Daloopa for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew to create a free account and learn more about how Daloopa can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.
Detailed Show Notes:
6:45 – Why Dave likes to look at obscure areas of the market
10:30 – When Dave found P10 Holdings
15:30 – Why your threshold for buying needs to be higher in microcap
21:15 – Rebuttable presumptions against microcap companies and the need for cheapness
23:00 – How Dave got interested in Garrett Motion
35:30 – Assessing incentives
41:50 – Community Development Financial Institutions
43:40 – What got Dave interested in investing
54:00 – Are microcaps destined to underperform?
59:30 – Potential risks and rewards around international investing
1:08:00 – Using subsidies to your benefit
1:10:40 – SPV banter
1:19:00 – Where Dave sees himself in 10 years

Thomas Ricketts, CFA, joins the pod to discuss his investment philosophy.  This episode focuses on an investment style that, according to Bill's perception, seeks to identify change and innovation before the market identifies it.  Bill was initially a little skeptical of doing an "innovation episode" given how the term has been used in the financial community.  However, after diligencing Tom, Bill felt comfortable having Tom on the pod.  This conversation adds value to The Business Brew library.  Thank you to Tom for joining the show!

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.
Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Tom's Bio
Thomas Ricketts, CFA, founder of Evolutionary Tree Capital Management (see https://evolutionarytree.com), serves as Chief Investment Officer, Portfolio Manager, and Research Analyst. Over his 27-year investment career, he developed significant expertise in portfolio management, investment research, and executive management. Prior to founding Evolutionary Tree, Mr. Ricketts was a Sr. Portfolio Manager on Sands Capital’s flagship Select Growth strategy, a $20+ billion concentrated strategy of high-quality, sustainable growth businesses. Mr. Ricketts was one of the longest-tenured investment professionals at Sands Capital. Over the years, he contributed to building and leading the research team and attracting and retaining a broad client base of institutional and high-net-worth clients.
Mr. Ricketts joined Sands Capital in 1994 as the Assistant to the President. He worked closely with founder Frank Sands, Sr. during the startup phase and early years of the firm, helping to grow the firm from less than $100 million in assets under management to approximately $40 billion in assets 22 years later. In 2008, Mr. Ricketts assumed the role of Sr. Portfolio Manager on the Sands US Large-Cap Growth strategy, working as a Co-PM to oversee the $20 billion strategy, and was a decision maker on that strategy for eight years. 

Detailed Show Notes

The paper Tom mentions can be found here.

5:00 - Background

13:00 - Valuation as part of the process

18:00 - 2022's biotech opportunity

20:50 - Maintenance vs. growth spend

29:20 - nCino as an example

34:00 - Why Salesforce has an incentive not to push too hard with Force.com

39:00 - Ingredients of a successful investment

52:20 - Avoiding hype

59:30 - Risk Reducers

1:13:50 - Why to exit before maturity

1:18:52 - Lessons from Frank Sands (bet best ideas, quality will out itself eventually, invest in solutions, think long term, look for long term growth in earnings power)

Mike and Eli, hosts of Chasing Scratch: A Golf Podcast, join The Business Brew to discuss their podcast, how they monetize podcasts, what they were trying to accomplish when they started podcasting, and, yes, golf.
Bill is a huge fan of the podcast they have put together.  Check it out on your favorite podcast player!
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chasing-scratch-a-golf-podcast/id1281285953
Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/2W77oe7Nw7G8RzKkhsMi5E

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.
Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Josh Horowitz and Liz Gulliver stop by The Business Brew to discuss employer-employee relationships. Josh and Liz co-founded Kunik to help employers build sustainable, scalable cultures that work for everyone, everywhere they are working.

How and where we work has permanently changed. Kunik helps organizations build thriving cultures by fueling the workplace with community and conversation. Kunik Conversations are facilitated, expert-led discussions that deliver intentional moments of connection, learning, and growth inside a company. Whether it’s DEI, hybrid work, leadership, new managers, burnout, or another challenge, Kunik helps its clients, ranging from nonprofits to large multinationals, build better relationships with and among their employees.

Josh and Liz, met at Columbia Business School. Both came from, and returned to, careers in finance before starting Kunik. Josh spent 10+ years on the buyside (Perry Capital, Citi, & Mackenzie Cundill) and graduated from Columbia’s Value Investing Program. Liz worked in corporate finance and consulting. They built Kunik to help companies build the workplace culture they always wanted but could never find.

We hope you enjoy this discussion

This episode is brought to you by Bastiat Partners, a boutique investment banking firm.  See https://bastiatpartners.com/.  Detailed show notes below.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

Detailed Show Notes

2:15 - Liz’s background

2:55 - Josh’s background

6:00 - What does Kunik do?

8:35 - Culture and retaining talent

15:27 - The new employer/employee relationship

18:25 - How to change culture in a big company

28:03 - Customers factoring in culture

37:02 - Facilitating conversations to connect people

42:44 - Retention and the ROI on people

55:47 - T-mobile’s culture

58:28 - Being a founder

1:04:39 - Diversity + Psychological safety

1:09:39 - How to get employees interested

1:24:09 - Managing burnout

1:29:00 - Resilience

1:31:54 - Being vulnerable

Dave Girouard stops by The Business Brew to discuss how Upstart is attempting to change the way credit is underwritten.  Upstart uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to expand loan underwriting beyond FICO scores.  The company’s goal is to make the underwriting process more efficient; creating a win-win for consumers and lenders.

 

Dave also talks about Upstart’s early struggles, what artificial intelligence actually does, how First Round Capital stepped up when Upstart really needed them to, and much more. We hope you enjoy the conversation.

 

Thank you for joining the show Dave!

 

We will be on break for 1-2 months following this show.  “See” you in April/May.

 

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

 

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

 

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

 

Detailed Show Notes

 

2:15 – Intro to Dave

 

7:40 – The problem Upstart is looking to solve

 

12:45 – What will machine learning do for the world?

 

16:35 – Dave’s history at Google

 

19:33 – Upstart’s history as a company

 

22:21 – Upstart’s financing problem as a young company – Shoutout to First Round Capital!

 

27:15 – Who held the credit risk when Upstart’s loans were first funded

 

30:45 – Upstart’s relationship with Cross River Bank

 

37:15 – How Dave thinks about operating for growth vs. profits

 

40:42 – The right team is necessary

 

47:53 – Running Upstart through COVID and remotely

 

55:45 – How does Dave thinks about Share Based Comp

 

58:46 – What it’s like to manage when a stock is super volatile

 

1:02:00 – Will Upstart begin to hold credit risk?  Hint: No.

David Fauchier stops by The Business Brew to discuss crypto and market neutral strategies in crypto assets.  David works at Nickel Digital Asset Management, an investment manager connecting traditional finance with the digital assets market. The firm deploys highly sophisticated low-latency algorithmic trading, pursuing a range of arbitrage strategies in both spot and derivative markets, as well as a range of directional buy-and-hold products. All funds are designed with institutional clients in mind, but we hope the discussion is broadly applicable.

You can reach David at @dfauchier on Twitter.

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit https://streamrg.co/BB today for a 14 day trial.  

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Youtube:

4:19 - What David does - market neutral strategies in crypto

 

6:04 - How to look at market neutral strategies when there is not "value" in a coin

 

8:48 - David's take on crypto and monetary regimes

 

14:39 - H

Oren Falkowitz is the founder of Area 1 Security. He was Chief Executive Officer of Area 1 2013-2020 and currently serves on the Board of Directors. Mr. Falkowitz holds numerous patents and is an avid wearer of bow ties on Thursday. Previously, he was the founder of sqrrl (acquired by Amazon) and held positions at the National Security Agency (NSA) and United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM).

He joined the Business Brew to discuss his career and the cyber security landscape. We hope you enjoy.

Blake Haxton, analyst at Brandywine Global Asset Management's High Yield and Corporate Strategies Group, joins the Business Brew. This discussion focuses on the companies Blake covers as well as his views on markets generally. Blake tends to focus on "old economy" industries so prepare yourself for plenty of energy discussion. Bill and Blake also discuss industrials and homebuilders. The conversation also touches on the merits of high yield as an asset class.

Blake was recently featured in Barron's. You can find the article here: https://www.barrons.com/articles/paralympian-blake-haxton-high-yield-brandywine-global-6305e6e5

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

Detailed Show Notes:

4:00 - What Blake covers

5:10 - commodities are fairly tight from a supply demand perspective

8:00 - airline discussion

13:00 - energy as an example of how Brandywine looks to take advantage of capital cycles

16:00 - the prospective outlook for high yield

19:00 - how the high yield benchmark is different from the equity benchmark

24:00 - how the improvement in counterparty risk changed the risk/reward of lending to pipeline companies

28:25 - how to think about decline curves in the US vs. Canadian oil companies

30:25 - how differentials impact Canadian energy economics

38:30 - does it make sense to have an allocation to energy?

42:10 - a discussion about how assets generally are priced

52:00 - the pitch for debt vs. equities

54:45 - where is the US housing market in the cycle?

1:06:00 - trading down in credit quality for yield

1:13:00 - how ETFs can provide opportunities when they sell

1:21:00 - how was covering energy in COVID?

1:29:00 - what’s different today with shale as a key producer

Note - This podcast has some advice that may be able to help you think about marketing your firm and/or yourself. Should you need a host, reach out to Bill. Should you need an editor, reach out to Mathew.

Mathew Passy (@mathewpassy on Twitter), founder/owner of The Podcast Consultant stops by The Business Brew to discuss his career, how he started his business and became the person behind your favorite finance podcasts, the podcast industry generally, tips for appearing on podcasts, the business of podcasting, and much more. As you should know by now, Mathew produces this show. The Business Brew, and the listening base, owes him a big thank you for how this podcast sounds.

This episode is sponsored by ⁠Stratosphere.io⁠.  ⁠Stratosphere.io⁠ is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is ⁠Stratosphere.io⁠’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.

Head over to ⁠Stratosphere.io⁠ for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Detailed Show Notes - 

3:52 - How Mathew became The Podcast Consultant

13:30 - Why did the Wall Street Journal kill its first podcast network

22:00 - Starting a business

27:50 - What was the podcast business like in 2019

31:45 - How is the podcasting ecosystem evolving?

39:50 - Different monetization strategies of podcasting

48:15 - How have Mathew's thoughts about podcasting changed?

50:30 - What makes successful podcasters?

54:30 - Some advice Bill thinks is worth thinking about

1:00:00 - Meta dicussion

1:05:00 - Some advice on how to start a podcast

1:11:00 - Podcasts as internal communication

1:13:00 - What do the different hosting services offer?

1:18:30 - Onboarding with The Podcast Consultant

Hedda Nadler, co-founder of Mount & Nadler, stops by The Business Brew to discuss her career as one of the leading marketing practitioners serving professional money managers. Mount & Nadler represents a broad range of clientele in the financial and investment spheres, with an emphasis on investment companies and money managers.  This conversation gives the perspective of one of the people behind the scenes of finance.

Under Hedda's direction, Mount & Nadler is known among mutual funds, money managers and the media as a firm that provides excellent and responsive services whether the news is positive or negative. During her 40+ year career, Hedda also has ably handled PR for shareholder activists and lift-outs, as well as crisis counseling. Throughout, she has advised clients sensibly and effectively when dealing with the media.

Sponsor Info:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠is founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity into the investment process. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠offers an AI driven single source for all company reported data, and allows for investment teams to make the most informed decisions in the shortest amount of time. 

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠scales the velocity of an investment team’s idea gen. Analysts spend less time locating and manually inputting meaningful disclosures into Excel and more time synthesizing in the minutes after the print. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠captures data from all company reported sources, including from footnotes, MD&As, and investor presentations.

⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa's⁠⁠⁠⁠ data sheets include GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments, guidance, and all company specific KPIs. Each datapoint is auditable to the source for easy verification and accuracy. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa’s ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Excel plugin can also update your existing models for the latest quarter in just a single click.

Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa.com/BusinessBrew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to create a free account and learn more about how ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daloopa ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠can help increase your team’s speed to differentiated insight.

John Maxfield from "Maxfield on Banks" stops by the show. John is a wealth of knowledge and has an entertaining personality. Bill and John cover a lot of ground. John discusses the history and dynamics of banking, including the unique supply and demand of credit, traits of successful bankers, and the impact of historical tragedies on banker psychology. The episode also covers stories of notable bankers and failures, the free banking era, liquidity surges, and banking crises. John also delves into modern banking dynamics, including the rise of private credit, and shares insights from his extensive research and personal experiences with top bankers.

Additionally, John talks about his elite banking symposium and unique forms of networking and learning in the banking sector.    You can find John's past symposiums here: ⁠https://www.thebankingsymposium.com/⁠ And his archive on ⁠https://www.maxfieldonbanks.com/⁠ Show Notes: 00:00 Welcome to the Business Brew 

01:23 Introducing John Maxfield 

01:54 The Art of Banking 

02:28 The Common Traits of Great Bankers 

16:22 Historical Perspectives on Banking 

20:16 The Free Banking Era 

25:03 Modern Banking Challenges and Innovations 

41:04 The Beale Model and Banking Risks 

41:45 Factoring Company Acquisition

  43:14 Blockchain in Trucking Industry 

44:03 Building a Competitive Network 

50:51 Banking Failures and Historical Insights 

56:08 The Role of AI in Banking Research 

01:00:48 Personal Stories and Networking 

01:05:45 Citigroup's Complexities and Global Role 

01:10:55 Elite Banking Symposium 

01:15:51 Final Thoughts and Farewell 

Dan Zwirn, CEO and CIO of Arena Investors, stops by The Business Brew to discuss his investing strategy.  Arena Investors, LP is a registered investment advisor that originates investments (generally below $50 million) with borrowers and other counterparties who need access to financing and are otherwise not able to access conventional sources.  They have complete mandate flexibility across industry, product, and geography.   

In Dan's words, "The real beauty of our approach, to me, is that there’s no ceiling on the creativity we can use to shape alignment for our clients, our partners and ourselves. If someone needs capital and there’s any way to do it that makes sense for all parties, we will find that way."

Bill enjoyed this conversation very much and hopes you will as well.   

Arena's Website: https://www.arenaco.com

Dan's Investor Letter: https://www.arenaco.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Arena_Investors_Letter_YE_2022.pdf   

Dan's Official Bio: https://www.arenaco.com/team/daniel-zwirn/

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.
Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Detailed Show Notes  

What Arena does - 3:30 

How big money invests at times - 6:30 

Process oriented vs. security selection - 9:30 

Financial Products vs. Investment Products - 13:10 

Why Arena has invested in servicing - 19:30 

The incentives to not see what is going on - 22:10 

Where are we in a credit/business/fiscal cycle - 25:00 

How Arena thinks about opportunity - 32:30 

How Arena thinks about LTVs - 39:05 

"We are at a casino and there has never been more gamblers" - 44:00 

Are defaults bad? - 48:00 

Does diversification solve all problems? 52:30 

A CLO discussion - 56:50 

What is going on with the job market - 1:03:30

First and foremost, Bill owns stock in OppFi.  This episode is not an invitation or solicitation to buy or sell shares in FGNA, the entity that OppFi is merging with in a SPAC transaction.  Second, The Business Brew and Bill encourage listeners to do their own due diligence and talk to their financial advisor before purchasing or selling shares in any security.

With that said, Bill wanted to interview Jared because OppFi sits at the intersection of many Business Brew episodes.  To begin, FGNA is taking the company public via SPAC (See Andrew Walker's episode for a discussion on SPACs).  Next, Mike Mitchell, our first guest, introduced Bill to Kyle Cerminara, a recent guest, who is part of the group taking OppFi public.  Finally, OppFi would have never passed Bill's "smell test" if it wasn't for Tyrone V. Ross' episode where Tyrone talked about the need for serving the underbanked.

In the interest of complete transparency, Bill does not have a significant portion of his net worth allocated to OppFi.  Instead, OppFi is part of a "basket bet" Bill made on Kyle Cerminara.  Within that bet, Bill finds the incentives of all the people involved compelling.  That said, Bill has not done enough work, nor is he convinced enough on OppFi's prospects, to make OppFi a significant weighting in the portfolio.

For the avoidance of doubt, this podcast interview is biased and is part of an open source due diligence project.  Bill may change his mind at any time and does not commit to letting people know when he does so.

We hope you enjoy the episode.

Tren Griffin stops by The Business Brew for a fun conversation about his career, investing, and life.  Tren is an author of 7 books, had a front row seat to Bill Gates’ career, sold ½ of his business in the .com bubble, deeply studied Charlie Munger, and now works at Microsoft.  This conversation spans Tren’s career, his advice regarding giving to get, the importance of being brave, and much more.

Tren, thank you for joining The Brew.  It was a pleasure speaking with you.  We hope you enjoy the discussion.  You can find Tren on Twitter @trengriffin and read his work at https://25iq.com/

Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  https://streamrg.co/BB features over 300 expert interviews per week.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on https://streamrg.co/BB.  Visit StreamRG.comhttps://streamrg.co/BB today for a 14 day trial.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Audio

~6:20 – Scaling luck

~9:15 – Age creating humility

~11:30 – Coming up with a startup idea when the internet was nascent

~15:21 – Interesting Seattle connecti

Keith Smith stops by The Business Brew to discuss BDCs, auto dealers, and other ideas he has been looking at. Keith has been looking in areas that are less well covered.  Keith has over 20 years of business valuation experience as well as being trained as an engineer. In addition to managing the Bonhoeffer Fund’s portfolio, Keith serves as an advisor to Willow Oak Asset Management. He is a CFA charterholder and received his MBA from UCLA. He has held positions with Empire Valuation Consultants, PwC, Management Consulting & Research, and served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force. We hope the episode expands your thinking a bit.

Michael Batnick, author of The Irrelevant Investor blog (https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/) and Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments (https://www.amazon.com/Big-Mistakes-Investors-Investments-Bloomberg/dp/1119366550) and Co Host of The Compound and Friends (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-compound-and-friends/id1456467014 for Apple and https://open.spotify.com/show/5VKsKPZUtwVylxslLie36k on Spotify) stops by The Business Brew for a quick chat.

In this episode Bill and Michael discuss Michael's book, his early days breaking into finance, his early investing style, and how he looks at the world now. They also touch on some personal chit chat at the end. Please note this episode was recorded before Bill's episode with Tom Gayner. Bill talks about Tom searching for ideas on the 52 Week High list. That part of the conversation is somewhat inaccurate and you should listen to Tom's episode for clarification.

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.
Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off. Detailed Show Notes

4:50 - Mark Twain as an investor

7:00 Mike's background and building an online presence

13:00 - How Mike got through a bad first job

18:00 - Dealing with emotions while investing

19:00 - How Future Proof started

21:00 - How Mike approaches The Compound and Friends

24:30 - Helping Clients

28:00 - Why people should consider buying stocks that have gone up

35:00 - Stock chit chat

37:00 - Writing Big Mistakes

Mario Cibelli stops by the Business Brew to discuss his views of the world as it exists today. Mr. Cibelli is the CIO and Managing Partner at Marathon Partners Equity Management, LLC. This conversation covers why SMID caps might be an interesting opportunity at the moment, when companies should and should not be public, how Mario does his research, being involved and adding value to management teams, and much more.

Shout out to Stratosphere.io for sponsoring the show. It was a pleasure to pitch your product. Keep up the good work!

Thank you to @mathewpassy and the team at The Podcast Consultant for producing the show.

Detailed Show Notes 3:45 - Mario's background

10:45 - Why is today exciting in SMID caps

22:00 - What types of companies "should not be public?"

38:30 - How Mario cracked the code on Netflix vs. Blockbuster back in the day

42:20 - Adding value to management teams

50:30 - Did Zuck start a trend in Silicon Valley?

53:37 - What might be a tough place to invest in over the next 3 years.

57:30 - How Mario thinks about investing in Uber

1:09:10 - How low share prices may end up driving business improvement

1:12:20 - "Your normal is someone else's nightmare"

1:16:40 - Is there opportunity to invest alongside Mario Gabelli?

1:25:10 - Large companies have really big marketcaps. Can they justify those going forward?

1:33:40 - Bechle and tequila

In this episode of The Business Brew, host Bill Brewster engages in a comprehensive discussion with George Livadas about the complexities and current state of the market. Livadas, known for his candid tweets and insightful views, covers topics ranging from market fluctuations in 2024, reminiscent of the 2021 SPAC bubble, to challenges and opportunities in European stocks and the S&P 500's relentless performance. They delve into George’s investment philosophy, focusing on both large and small cap stocks, the impact of global flows on stock valuations, and the nuanced approach required in shorting and hedging. Additionally, they discuss the operational aspects of running a fund, including transitioning from separate accounts to a unified fund structure, and reflect on the broader implications of AI in investment research. 

 

00:00 Welcome to the Business Brew 

00:03 Introducing George Livadas 

01:06 Market Reflections and SPAC Bubble 

06:56 European Market Insights 

18:20 Shorting Strategies and Market Sentiment 

21:42 Challenges in the Staples Sector 

24:57 Running the Firm: Changes and Challenges 

27:14 Navigating Market Ups and Downs 

27:40 Client Expectations and Realities 

28:39 Challenges in Fundraising and Fee Structures 

29:44 The Fund of Funds Debate 

31:51 AI in Financial Research 

35:15 Investment Strategies and Market Trends 

39:48 Reflections on COVID and Market Resilience 

43:38 Portfolio Management Insights 

46:05 Closing Thoughts and Personal Reflections 

Darren Fisk, Founder and CEO of Forum Investment Group, LLC, stops by The Business Brew to discuss his real estate investment firm, strategy, and thoughts. Darren focuses on multifamily real estate. His background is in lending and he added an equity focus during the GFC. This conversation covers lending, insurance, how to think about development, and more.

Darren's father in law taught him that "Cash may be king, but cash flow is queen." Thus, in the beginning of Forum they were focused on cash flow. Today they are willing to develop real estate as well.

Forum's investment structures are through LLCs as opposed to an LP/GP structure, which is interesting. We hope you find this conversation enjoyable.

Vitaliy Katsenelson stops by The Business Brew to discuss investing and his new book; Soul In The Game (see https://soulinthegame.net/).  Vitaliy is an amazing writer who discusses investing and life.  You can find his writings at https://contrarianedge.com/.  We hope you enjoy this discussion.  

No detailed show notes on this one. 

This episode is brought to you by Bastiat Partners, a a new breed of investment and merchant bank that specializes primaries, secondaries, and co-investment opportunities in the private markets.  Bastiat caters to a unique coverage universe of 250+ family offices, VCs, and crossover hedge funds. While sector generalists, the Firm specializes in fast-growing technology and technology-enabled businesses, advising companies on primary capital raises and creating liquidity events for founders and early investors via secondary transactions. The Firm also advises fundless sponsors and GPs on co-investment opportunities. Bastiat Partners was founded nearly a decade ago by Nader Afshar, a former senior investment banker at J.P. Morgan, and is headquartered in Los Angeles.

See https://bastiatpartners.com/.

Securities offered by Hollister Associates, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC.  Bastiat Partners and Hollister Associates, LLC are not affiliated companies.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see https://www.mikeando.com.

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Andrew McAfee (@amcafee) stops by The Business Brew to discuss his new book The Geek Wayhttps://www.amazon.com/Geek-Way-Radical-Mindset-Extraordinary/dp/B0C1DQW5FC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Andrew+McAfee&qid=1700075448&s=audible&sr=1-1
Andrew is a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-founder and co-director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, and the inaugural Visiting Fellow at the Technology and Society organization at Google. He studies how technological progress changes the world. His previous books includeMore from Less and, with Erik Brynjolfsson, The Second Machine Age.
McAfee has written for publications including Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He's talked about his work on CNN and 60 Minutes, at the World Economic Forum, TED, and the Aspen Ideas Festival, with Tom Friedman and Fareed Zakaria, and in front of many international and domestic audiences. He’s also advised many of the world’s largest corporations and organizations ranging from the IMF to the Boston Red Sox to the US Intelligence Community.
McAfee and his frequent coauthor Erik Brynjolfsson are only people named to both the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top management thinkers and the Politico 50 group of people transforming American politics.

Randy Baron, lead Portfolio Manager for Pinnacle Associates Ltd's various international products, joins The Business Brew to discuss his investing philosophy.  Randy is best known for international value investing and for publicly discussing Amyris.  Amyris is an unprofitable company with a CEO that has a controversial reputation.  But, it is a very interesting company backed by some very real investors.

Bill and Randy have spoken a few times over the past 2 years and Bill likes how Randy looks at the world.  Bill was also curious about Amyris and how Randy's public support of the company has or has not influenced Randy's analysis.  Randy is open and transparent on this podcast and it is a very entertaining, and informative, listen.  We hope you enjoy.

Randy's official bio can be found at https://www.pinnacle-associates.com/team/randolph-baron

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc.  A key differentiator is Stratosphere.io’s segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy.  Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.
Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial.  Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

Detailed Show Notes:
4:15 - Intro

10:15 - Long term investing and international valuations

15:10 - Why US companies are listing in the UK

19:25 - What is Wandisco

22:25 - Randy’s idea of where returns will come from

23:50 - A discussion on Amyris

36:23 - A socially responsible investing tangent

38:23 - Back to Amyris

43:43 - Why every CEO should promote their stock

45:23 - When the price of a stock price matters

49:33 - Why explaining why you own something is important to investors

57:23 - How to act

1:05:20 - Renalytix; potentially solving a big problem

1:09:20 - Sizing early stage bets

1:11:30 - Looking to EM for cheap, good ideas

NOTE: For 20% off of KOYFIN please use the following link: https://www.koyfin.com/?utm_campaign=BusinessBrew20off&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rewardful&via=business

The discount will be applied at checkout. 

Rob Koyfman stops by The Business Brew to discuss his background, starting a Fintech business, building teams, and much more. Rob’s experience includes stints and Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and macro roles at Luxor Asset Management and Tekne Capital Management.  This was a fun conversation for Bill. We hope you enjoy meeting the person behind our first sponsor.


Audio time stamps (note - YouTube will not sync to these).

0:00 - Rob’s career at Goldman

~2:00 - How Goldman staffs and why that’s smart

~4:40 - Building culture at Koyfin

~6:00 - Living in London

~10:50 - Starting Koyfin

~14:30 - Rob the investor and how it influenced Koyfin’s homepage


~19:00 - Walk through Koyfin homepage

~ 23:00 - Some technical talk

~32:00 - Technicals signaled a reversal in 2009

~35:00 - Rate & yield curve discussion

~38:00 - Rob’s data visualization beginning

~40:16 - Koyfin has transcripts too!

~44:30 - Getting the word out about Koyfin

~47:40 - The importance of having a team to accomplish bigger things

~50:30 - Moving to a paid model and what that’s like for Koyfin’s business

~56:30 - The breadth of Koyfin’s offering

In this unconventional episode of 'The Business Brew,' host Bill Brewster sits down with Tom Morgan for a deep dive into topics that blur the line between science and spirituality. From exploring the existence of non-human intelligence and its implications, to discussing personal transformative experiences facilitated by psychedelics, this episode is a fascinating journey through the unknown. Tom shares insights from his years of research and personal struggles, including a near-psychotic breakdown and a mystical experience that reshaped his life. Whether you're interested in the metaphysical implications of alien encounters or the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, this conversation offers a thought-provoking look at the complexities of human consciousness. Tune in for a compelling discussion that challenges conventional thinking and invites you to ponder the nature of reality. 

 

 

 

While living in London, Green edited the European, Middle Eastern, and African editions of Time. Before that, he lived in Hong Kong, where he edited the Asian edition of Time during a period in which it won many awards.

 

Green has collaborated on several books as a ghostwriter, co-author, or editor. One of them became a #1 New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller in 2017. He also worked closely with a renowned hedge fund manager, Guy Spier, helping him to write his much-praised memoir, The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom, and Enlightenment. Green also wrote and edited The Great Minds of Investing, which features short profiles of 33 renowned investors, along with stunning portraits created by Michael O’Brien, one of America’s preeminent photographers.

 

Born and raised in London, Green was educated at Eton, studied English literature at Oxford, and received a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in New York with his wife, Lauren, and their children, Henry and Madeleine.

William Green, best-selling author and podcast host extraordinaire, comes back to The Business Brew to have a very real conversation about life.  William's first appearance was part of the launch of Richer, Wiser, Happier, which you can find at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=richer+wiser+happier+william+green&i=audible&sprefix=richer%2Caudible%2C84&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_6.  This conversation is more focused on William's career and lessons he has learned.

This was a conversation that really put a smile on Bill's face and it is one The Business Brew is very proud to feature.  Hopefully this conversation shows a unique side to William Green; the side Bill got to see when they first met.

We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as Bill enjoyed recording it.

This episode is brought to you by Bastiat Partners, a boutique investment banking firm.  See https://bastiatpartners.com/.  Detailed show notes below.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando. Please see www.mikeando.com.

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

Detailed Show Notes:

Beginning – Where William and Bill “are” right now

9:30 – Structuring a portfolio to support your personality and advice from Peter Lynch

13:40 – What can come from the sense of being lost

17:40 – The difference between how investing is covered and reality for most people

22:10 – Bill and William talking about identity

24:20 – William’s career background

32:10 – The gifts from hard times

34:10 – Try to flood the body with good emotions

40:25 – Dealing with the feeling of unworthiness

48:10 – Accepting your beautiful monsters

53:40 – Munger’s insight about Richer, Wiser, Happier

1:03:40 – The power of looking to help others

1:09:40 – One of William’s takeaways from the Berkshire meeting

1:15:40 – Going strong vs. going weak

1:20:40 – Internal vs. external scorecards

1:22:30 – William’s experience with audio interviews

1:26:10 – Picking up on body language

1:30:40 – How Richer, Wiser, Happier is doing

Books mentioned:

Richer, Wiser, Happier (BUY IT!) https://www.amazon.com/s?k=richer+wiser+happier+william+green&i=audible&sprefix=richer%2Caudible%2C84&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_6

Power vs. Force https://www.amazon.com/Power-vs-Force-Dr-David-R-Hawkins-audiobook/dp/B000KZRMCO/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=CjwKCAjw-8qVBhANEiwAfjXLrrQaA5rWgk4cxmKB0DXcwEZ7Pzzm2qwPAXcEfK93MJdhuzhebTDEtxoCxzsQAvD_BwE&hvadid=548152874877&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=90

Welcome to the first episode of The Business Brew.  Our first guest is Michael Mitchell. Michael is a former partner at Locust Wood Capital Advisors.  He describes himself as 80% Greenblatt and 20% Buffett.  Alternatively, he can be described as fundamental and opportunistic.  Labels aside, he's a great thinker and a cool guy.  So enjoy the episode and please subscribe to our feed.   

 

 

Stinson Dean (@lumbertrading on Twitter), owner of Deacon Lumber, stops by The Business Brew to discuss the current lumber market, what happened to lumber in 2020, and how the market got to where it is.  This is a long conversation, but deserves the length.  Stinson goes deep into what it means to trade physical lumber, how he manages risk, why he is hedged, and much, much more.

The goal of this conversation was to have a calmer conversation about lumber than what may have occurred just a year ago.  Lumber is an extremely volatile market and Stinson is a fantastic person to discuss the market with.  We hope you enjoy this conversation.

Please rate the show in your favorite app!

This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Andrew Walker, author of Yet Another Value Blog, host of Yet Another Value Podcast, stops by The Business Brew to chat. Andrew hosts one of the best financial podcasts out there, and is a great writer. We both hope you enjoy this conversation!

Sponsor Info:

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Bulge-bracket banks and major multi-managers are trusting Daloopa for use in initiating coverage, building and maintaining industry dashboards, and keeping their models up to date.

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Detailed Show Notes 6:00 - Microsoft Thought Exercise

14:00 - Quality vs. Price

22:00 - Delek

31:00 - Getting ideas from others

34:30 - What does the telco lead situation potentially mean for cable

39:00 - The potential for any investment to be a zero

43:00 - The bank thesis of May-ish

46:30 - Position sizing

49:30 - What's your edge?

52:00 - Activision and Microsoft

1:01:00 - Media overview

1:10:00 - Holdcos as an investment

1:18:00 - $RIDEQ

Kyle Mowery, Founder & Portfolio Manager at GrizzlyRock Capital stops by The Business Brew to discuss his investment philosophy.  Kyle is a traditional value investor that tends to focus on smaller, cyclical companies.  In this episode he talks about why he fishes in that pond, where he has found his biggest winners, how he thinks about investing, and much more.  GrizzlyRock does very deep due diligence and Bill thinks highly of their work.
We hope you enjoy the conversation!
You can find Kyle’s Orion Engineered Carbons conversation with Andrew Walker at https://open.spotify.com/episode/7xmapUv85wtAoHpGlcMxmP?si=3wZXGogJT5-zbU5aJxv1NA
or https://yetanothervalueblog.com/podcast
Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.
Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!
Detailed Show Notes:
4:30 – Kyle’s view on the macro environment
7:00 – What Kyle learned in 2008
8:00 – What working in mezzanine debt did for Kyle’s career
10:50 – A case against microcaps
12:00 – Due diligence
14:50 – What was interesting about Darling International?
19:50 – What GrizzlyRock sees in OEC
26:05 – The merits of running a long/short strategy
29:15 – Chicago chit chat
35:15 – Back to investment discussion
36:30 – Why Kyle prefers more of a deep value philosophy
40:57 – What got Kyle interested in Orion Engineered Carbons?
51:14 – What is CoVest Select
1:01:10 – Thoughts on starting a fund

Braden Dennis, founder of Stratosphere.io, stops by The Business Brew to discuss how he developed the product, running a startup, sales, investing, and much more.  The Business Brew is grateful for Stratosphere.io's sponsorship and can unequivocally state that this episode would run regardless of the sponsorship.  Bill has enjoyed getting to know Braden and the team and wishes them the best.
Detailed Show Notes:

• 5:20 - Braden's background

• 8:50 - Your product is useless if you wouldnt actually use it if you weren't the founder

• 12:20 - How Braden is using AI in finance

• 19:00 - Building FinChat.io

• 25:20 - Working through entrepreneurial issues

• 33:20 - How Braden invests

• 38:30 - Have we learned the wrong lessons over the past 12 lessons?

• 45:10 - Some lessons from Bill's losses

• 51:10 - The costs of discussing ideas publicly

• 53:20 - Some chit chat about Bill

Mark started his professional work life as a consultant with Accenture, where he helped clients for 14 years. He founded his advisory business in 2005, and in 2022 joined Journey Strategic wealth through a merger of his firm with Journey. Prior to graduating from university, he was an auto mechanic, was in the auto parts industry, and spent time as a retail store manager. Mark’s focus has always been either providing advice or fixing things. What drives Mark is helping others reach their goals.
Mark believes both financial freedom and fun can occur concurrently. You will find that he has an active (sometimes too active!) sense of humor. He’s quite proud that his teammates Angela and Melissa have been with him for 14 and 12 years and will do everything possible to make sure Danielle stays “forever”, as well. He’s a little nutty about college basketball, golf, and several other sports. In addition, he loves taking beach and golf trips with his family and is an avid reader.
Mark holds an Accounting degree from Virginia Commonwealth University as well as the CFP® and RICP® designations.

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.
Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!
Show Notes:
6:00 - Mark's background
17:30 - Embrace your strengths and weaknesses
22:30 - Good moments coming from scary times
27:30 - Starting a business from a passion
29:00 - Building teams
34:00 - Mark's approach to advising
37:24 - Where Mark thinks we are relative to history
46:50 - The power of checks and balances
50:45 - Finding and retaining employees
58:30 - Thinking about planning for aging
1:10:00 - Why you need to get your Power of Attorney documents done!
1:13:00 - Talking to the older member of your family about the aging process

Alexandra Blumenfeld stops by The Business Brew to discuss her business, Red Rover.  Alex is a Junior at Vanderbuilt University and founded Red Rover, an expert network.  Bill, Josh Tarasoff, Trey Kuppin, and Elliot Turner have all used Alex's service and all recommend the service.  This conversation will highlight the value Alex provides.  See show notes below for details of the conversation.

Red Rover Website: redrovernetwork.com

Red Rover Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/RedRoverNetwork

 

If you'd like to order a poll please see the website and click on "order polls" or contact Alex at alex@redrovernetwork.com. 

 

NOTE:  The timestamps should be accurate for those listening to the podcast on a dedicated podcast player.  YouTube's timing is different because of how we edit the podcast audio.  

In this show you will hear about:

3:33 - 15:33 - Alex's path to entreprenuership

16:25 - The type of data Alex's business provides

18:21 - Whether there is geographical bias in Red Rover sampling

21:50 - How Alex is thinking about expanding Red Rover's capabilities

22:50 - Examples of surveys Red Rover has run

23:45 - Alcohol consumption among college students

25:45 - Video streaming services

30:00 - Insights on Spotify vs. audio streaming

35:20 - Discussion about podcasts

35:15 - How Gen Z ranks social media

37:15 - Gen Z is comfortable with a lack of privacy

39:50 - What Red Rover is doing to monitor levels of engagement

43:10 - Cultivating an Instagram account to make sure people don't say no to friendship

45:30 - How much time does video get with Gen Z?

48:10 - Body image and Instagram

50:30 - Metaverse (note: this was recorded before Facebook's announcement)

52:40 - Growing up with the internet and whether that is tough on the mind

58:50 - Subscription billing practices

60:00 - How Alex thinks about building a culture that will last.

John McClain, CFA stops by The Business Brew for a discussion about credit. John serves as a portfolio manager for the Brandywine Global’s High Yield and Corporate Credit Strategies. In this episode John makes the case for why high yield credit is a good bet after a bad year, discusses how corporate finance departments are more professional now (vs pre GFC), talks about companies adding value by buying back debt, and much more.  

Before joining Brandywine Global, John was a Senior Vice President - Credit at Standard Life Investments from 2010 to 2014. From 2007 to 2010, he was with Nationwide Mutual Insurance as a Management Associate in the Financial Leadership Rotation Program and then an Investment Analyst in Distressed Debt. John is a CFA charterholder and earned a Master of Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University and has a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from University of Kentucky (magna cum laude).

BrandywineGlobal’s High Yield Fund has earned a 5 star rating from Morningstar. Morningstar gives the fund above average ratings for Process and People. In the words of Morningstar, “the strategy’s distinctive, value-oriented approach exploits price inefficiencies that often materialize across smaller high-yield issuers. It earns an Above Average Process rating…Comanagers Bill Zox and John McClain execute a disciplined value approach: They buy issues when their market prices are lower than the team's estimate of intrinsic business value and sell them when their initial thesis has played out or when there are better opportunities in the market.”

This episode is sponsored by Stratosphere.io.  Stratosphere.io is a web based terminal that has financial data, KPIs, links to filings, hedge fund letters, etc. Stratosphere.io provides clean data for segment data and KPIs, which are triple checked for accuracy. Stratosphere saves users time, enables easy comparisons between companies, and offers company specific metrics such as subscriber counts, numbers of locations, etc.

Head over to Stratosphere.io for a free trial. Should you want to sign up for a paid offering please use the promo code BREW for 15% off.

NOTE: Investing carries the risk of loss. Brandywine Global’s past performance is not indicative of future results.

Detailed Show Notes

5:32 – How to think about credit generally

7:18 – What is a bond shell?

8:13 – The case for active management with credit

11:55 – How liquidity creates a cost of capital advantage for some companies

13:00 – Why high yield is no longer “junk”

15:45 – Company finance departments are better run than they were pre GFC

20:00 - Borrowing against assets and how professional it has gotten

22:35 - What The Fed cares about

27:30 - How retiring debt can help EV

30:00 - Some of the best capital allocators are in high yield

33:55 - How companies can manage our deleveraging cycle

34:50 - Why high yield hasn’t had back to back down years

38:00 - How the improvement in energy has benefitted high yield

41:45 - How Brandywine manages the quality of portfolio companies.

45:00 - How 2020/2021’s tech darlings can take advantage of today’s debt markets

46:30 - John’s take on private credit

49:30 - How tech could hurt private credit returns

54:30 - Long CEOs/short politicians

58:30 - How Brandywine manages their liquidity while running a open end fund

1:01:17 - How ETF transparency can create opportunities

1:03:00 - What type of investor is right for high yield

1:11:00 - How transparency can hurt liquidity

1:15:00 - Illiquidity and what it’s doing to the market

Kristi Ross stops by The Business Brew to discuss her career, leading companies through M&A, and two notable exits exceeding $1.7Bn (the most recent of which was valued at $1Bn https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/inno/stories/news/2021/01/21/chicagos-tastytrade-acquired-in-1b-deal.html).  Kristi is the co-CEO of tastytrade, which launched in 2011. She also co-founded dough, a visual front-end trading technology platform that launched in 2014 and ultimately merged with and rebranded as tastytrade when the team launched their own online brokerage firm, tastyworks, in 2017.

 

Kristi is an award-winning entrepreneur who believes in empowering the do-it-yourself investor to engage more with their finances. She also uses her time to interview innovative entrepreneurs on her show, Bootstrapping in America. She also walks through the ins and outs of taxes for traders in Kristi’s Tax Bursts.

 

Kristi started her career in public accounting, specializing in financial services industry clientele including individual traders, proprietary firms, market makers, and advisory firms. After her run as a public accountant, Kristi acted as CFO of Automated Trading Desk Specialists, a stock specialist on the Chicago Stock Exchange. She then partnered up with Tom Sosnoff to serve as CFO of thinkorswim Group where she led numerous mergers, acquisitions and integration. thinkorswim sold to TD-Ameritrade for $750M in 2009.

 

You can find her information here: LinkedIn, Twitter, and  tastytrade. 

 

We hope you enjoy the discussion.
 Detailed show notes below the Stream by Mosiac sponsor copy and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite podcast player!

This episode is brought to you by Stream by Mosaic, a product that is integral to any fundamental research process.  Stream has developed an extensive library of expert interviews that cover a variety of industries.  StreamRG.com features over 300 expert interviews.  70% of Stream's experts are found exclusively on StreamRG.com.  Visit StreamRG.com and use promo code BREW for a 14 day trial.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to @mathewpassy (on Twitter) for the show production.

Detailed Show Notes

3:30 - Kristi’s background

 

5:05 - How Kristi growing up formed her views on entre

Kyler Hasson (Kyler@hassoninvestments.com) stops by The Business Brew to discuss how he has morphed as an investor and as a Registered Investment Advisor.  Kyler is one of Bill's good friends and they've chatted about investments for a number of years now.  Kyler is an investor that has gravitated to high quality businesses.  He has also gravitated towards a less concentrated portfolio in order to fulfill client objectives.  We hope you enjoy listening to the two of them sharing lessons they've learned.

We hope you enjoy the discussion.  Detailed show notes below the Koyfin sponsor and thank yous.

Please leave us a rating in your favorite app store.

This episode is brought to you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.

Album art photo taken by Mike Ando.  Please see https://www.mikeando.com/

Thank you to Mathew Passy for the podcast production.  You can find Mathew at @MathewPassy on Twitter or at thepodcastconsultant.com

In this episode you will learn how Kyler and Bill think about:

1:35 - How Kyler started his investing career

4:22 - How Kyler views being an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor)

7:17 - Tax drag and how that can hurt investment performance

11:04 - Why finding a great business that can compound returns over time may be a better strategy

15:00 - Mean reversion and risk

 

18:49 - Moving towards a more diversified portfolio and avoiding overconfidence bias

24:49 - Whether investors *really* want to be like Charlie Munger.

 

26:02 - A very cool class Kyler took in college

 

30:32 - Why certain tribe of investors talk past each other

 

34:12 - Being aware of behavioral biases

 

36:00 - Lessons from an energy investment

 

40:36 - Lessons from Altice and why demanding execution might have been a better idea

 

42:19 - Looking for high quality companies that sell off for non core reasons

48:00 - Culture compounding as a competitive advantage

52:54 - The individual investor's greatest advantage

56:40 - Buying a new position or adding to an existing position

58:00 - Whether buying "cheap" is harder than owning fairly priced quality companies

Marc Cohodes' (@AlderLaneEggs on Twitter) LinkedIn profile describes him as the "Head Bull Fighter at Alder Lane Farm."  He is a well known short seller, but in this episode he discusses how he thinks about his long positions more than he discusses short selling.  Marc is highly entertaining, informed by deep due diligence, and is not afraid to say what is on his mind.

We hope you enjoy this episode.

Detailed Show Notes:
2:00 – Marc discusses scuttlebutt

7:00 – The importance of getting it right and why Marc runs a concentrated portfolio

8:50 – How Marc deals with emotions with concentrated bets

13:20 – Dealing with talking publicly about ideas

18:05 – What was Marc doing with the AMC “apes”

29:00 – Marc’s thoughts on how the market currently works (or doesn’t work)

38:20 – What Marc sees in TZero

43:50 – Thoughts on position sizing and “having a seat at the table”

50:00 – Discussion about Camping World

58:20 – Enovix conversation

1:09:30 – Does Marc worry about being wrong?

Rui Ma, co host of Tech Buzz China, stops by The Business Brew to discuss what is going on with China's current regulations.  This conversation is nuanced, offers perspective on some of China's goals, and touches on a variety of subjects.  The goal of the conversation is not to offer answers, per se.  Rather, we are trying to help provide a framework of how to think about what the CCP might be attempting to achieve and help listeners think about how to analyze different Chinese competitive dynamics.

Rui has sixteen years of experience in technology and finance, spanning seed stage to pre-IPO investing, with a decade focused on China. She founded Tech Buzz China in 2018 to educate and consult investors, funds and entrepreneurs on Chinese tech companies products, strategies and trends. She previously worked at 500 Startups as an investment partner, and spent a decade in private equity and mergers & acquisitions roles at the Raine Group, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch in both Silicon Valley and China. Rui holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley, and additional degrees from Tsinghua, INSEAD, UIUC and Harvard University.

We hope you enjoy this conversation with Rui.  She has a great personality and is a fantastic resource.  Please follow her on Twitter at @ruima and join her community at https://www.techbuzzchina.com/insider.

This episode is brought you by Koyfin, one of the fastest-growing platforms for financial data and analytics to research stocks and understand market trends. Check out Koyfin.com to see what a Bloomberg-lite, with tons of high-quality fundamental data and a powerful graph engine looks like.