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The Business Brew

Author: Bill Brewster

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Welcome to The Business Brew

This podcast’s mission is to dig deep into the thought patterns and analysis of investors and business people. The podcast stemmed from Bill Brewster consistently feeling like he was listening to prepackaged material while listening to podcasts. Instead, he wanted long form, in depth, discussions about finance, capital allocation, and the psychology of investing/business.

Bill is a private investor. He cohosts the podcast Value: After Hours with Tobias Carlisle and Jake Taylor. Tobias, Jake and Bill met at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting and formed a lasting friendship. And, as it turns out, people really like the podcast.

While Bill tries to replicate Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger’s thought processes, he is heavily influenced by Bill Miller III, Stan Druckenmiller, and others. This podcast is his attempt to dig deeper into other investing/business philosophies and share the knowledge with the world.

We are interested in interviewing portfolio managers, Wall Street sell side analysts, buy side analysts, private investors, owner operators, and anyone that is willing to go in depth about running a company/division. So, if you are interested in participating please email us with the subject “Guest Appearance.”

Disclaimer: Bill manages a portfolio under the name of Sullimar Capital Group. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast or on SullimarCapital.Group is investment advice. All information in this is opinion based, potentially biased, and requires verification.

Bill and his guests make no representation, warranty or undertaking, express or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness or reasonableness of the information contained in these podcasts. Any assumptions, opinions and estimates expressed constitute the participant’s judgment as of the date thereof and are subject to change without notice. Any projections contained in the information are based on a number of assumptions as to market conditions and there can be no guarantee that any projected outcomes will be achieved. This podcast does not accept any liability for any direct, consequential or other loss arising from reliance on the contents of this presentation.

This podcast series DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICIATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY ANY SECURITIES MENTIONED OR DISCUSSED. Seek the your financial, tax, legal, accounting, or other advisor’s advice before making any investment decisions. We are not your fiduciary or advisor.
143 Episodes
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Ben Jenkins, President and Chief Investment Officer at Digital Bridge Group Inc, stops by The Business Brew to have a discussion about professional development, mentorship, and investing in digital infrastructure.  Digital Bridge (NYSE: DBRG) is a leading global alternative asset manager dedicated to investing in digital infrastructure.  The firm has $75Bn of assets under management, 30+ portfolio companies, and over 100 digital infrastructure professionals (see https://ir.digitalbridge.com/static-files/0a038853-b7a3-43c0-93d3-c509ef638005). Ben's official bio reads as follows:Ben Jenkins is President and Chief Investment Officer at DigitalBridge. Mr. Jenkins is also the Co-Founder of Digital Bridge Holdings and the former Chairman of Global Tower Partners. Prior to forming Digital Bridge Holdings, Mr. Jenkins was a Senior Managing Director and head of the Hong Kong office for The Blackstone Group. During his 12 years at Blackstone, Mr. Jenkins led over a dozen private equity investments (including Global Tower Partners) across a range of industries and geographies, including telecommunications deals in developed and emerging markets. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Jenkins was an associate at Saunders, Karp and Megrue (now Apax) and a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Jenkins received a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Stanford University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School. Disclaimer:  Bill is long Digital Bridge and has been since 2020.  This is a long term hold for him. 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.
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=1-1Andrew 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.
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. 
Jeremy Raper Returns

Jeremy Raper Returns

2023-11-1001:51:29

Jeremy Raper returns to The Business Brew to discuss what he has been up to lately.  Jeremy is currently focused on smaller situations and being the catalyst for value realization.  We hope this episode is entertaining and informative.  We also implore you to do your own research and due diligence.His bio can be found at https://rapercapital.com.  He describes himself as follows:Australian born and raised, I majored in History at Harvard University (Class of ’08). I have 12+ years of buy- and sell-side experience in a variety of roles, and currently manage my personal account full-time. I tend to view the equity markets through a credit analyst’s lens (‘thinking like a creditor rather than an owner’); I try to consider the whole capital structure of an enterprise when I invest; and I believe sustainable free cash flow is the primary foundation of business value. I have little interest in purported growth stocks (unless on the short side if there is a balance sheet/restructuring angle).
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: ⁠⁠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 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
Charles Frischer and Asheef Lalani stop by The Business Brew to discuss why they like Fairfax as an investment. Quick reminder to do your own work!!! Asheef Lalani as an independent director to the board of Sailfish Royalty Corp. Mr. Lalani graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Mathematics and Masters of Accounting, earned the CA/CPA designation in 2002 and is a CFA charterholder since 2003. Asheef first started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998 and went on to become a portfolio manager at UBS Securities. Currently, Mr. Lalani is the Chief Investment Officer at Berczy Park Capital – a private family office in Toronto, Canada. Charles Frischer is General Partner of LFF Partners, a family office based in Seattle. Mr. Frischer was a multi-family loan underwriter and originator at Capri Capital for 10 years. As a Principal at Zephyr for 4 years, he was responsible for the asset management of more than 5,000 multi-family units and all related financings of the portfolio. Frischer sits on the Board of Kingsway Financial and Altisource Asset Management. He attended his first Berkshire annual meeting in 1998, his first Market annual meeting in 1999 and his first Fairfax annual meeting in 2010. He holds an B.A. in Government from the College of Arts and Sciences from Cornell University.   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 4:24 - Backgrounds 9:01 - Fairfax gets interesting in Asheef's mind 11:43 - Pushback to the thesis 13:00 - Does Fairfax underwrite well? 17:00 - Why insurance companies shouldn't under reserve 25:00 - How good is Fairfax at investing in equities? 30:00 - The potential upside India brings to Fairfax 34:20 - Fairfax India background 42:55 - What people might not like about Fairfax India 45:40 - Fairfax's advantages 56:40 - What is the catalyst here? 62:00 - Does this pitch even need a catalyst? 64:00 - What does a bad outcome look like?
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.
Derek Pilecki stops by The Business Brew to discuss Financials.  Derek is a Financials specialist with a track record that speaks for itself.  See https://gatorcapital.com/ for more information.  Derek currently manages a long/short financials strategy, long-only financials strategy, and various other individual portfolios. He has managed a private fund for 11 years. He also launched one mutual fund and took over management of another mutual fund. From 2002 through 2008, Derek was a member of the Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) Growth Equity Team (Co-Chair of the Investment Committee for the Growth Team and a Portfolio Manager). Prior to GSAM, Derek was an Analyst at Clover Capital Management in Rochester, NY and Burridge Growth Partners in Chicago, IL. He covered the Financials sector at both firms. Before entering graduate school, Derek worked at Fannie Mae providing interest rate risk analysis for the company’s mortgage investment portfolio. Derek holds an MBA with honors in Finance and Accounting from the University of Chicago and a BA in Economics from Duke University. He is also a CFA® charterholder. 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: 3:38 – Derek’s background 6:54: - How Derek defines Financials 7:12 – Thoughts about Silicon Valley Bank 13:08 – Was it rational for regulators to ignore mark to market losses? 21:03 – What is going on with office and how big of a deal is this going to be? 25:08 – Is there an opportunity in regional banks? 29:45 – Mortgage REIT preferreds 33:15 – How much of a Financials analyst’s job is focusing on the consumer and macro? 36:35 – A discussion about First Republic’s failure 41:45 – Thinking about constructing a long/short portfolio within a sector 44:45 – Why Genworth, why now? 50:55 – Puerto Rican banks and the potential for regional oligopolies 54:10 – How building a business can impact investment outcomes 57:30 – Why does Derek run a mutual fund today? 1:05:10 – How to think about Banking as a Service and have traditional banks given up too much contact with the customer? 1:09:35 – Outlook for alt managers
ValueStockGeek (“VSG”) stops by The Business Brew to discuss his evolution as an investor.  VSG can be found on Twitter at @valuestockgeek, his portfolio can be found at https://portfoliocharts.com/portfolio/weird-portfolio/, and his blog is at https://www.securityanalysis.org/   We hope you enjoy the conversation. The Business Brew will be off for a few weeks after this episode. We shall return. 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 4:40 – VSG’s Background 12:00 – Is value a macro bet? 17:00 – Are computers better suited to exploit the value factor than humans? 24:30 – Thoughts on dividends and whether they mitigate some bad management incentives 30:00 – Are quants bound to win and will computers take over the world? 32:22 – What VSG’s goals are for his substack 40:00 – The realization that “high multiple” doesn’t necessarily mean overpriced 43:45 – A potential blindspot that “value” might create 47:00 – Asset allocation discussion 54:00 – How Bill and VSG got into investing and some thoughts on trading 1:00:00 – The types of companies VSG owns 1:09:00 – Shareholder base characteristics
Ian Bezek - Emerging Value

Ian Bezek - Emerging Value

2023-06-0101:35:06

Ian Bezek stops by The Business Brew to discuss his thesis on why emerging markets, specifically Colombia and Mexico, might be extraordinary value today.  Ian is best known for his investment writing, which supports his day to day life.  His primary focus is Latin America. So much so that he moved from New York to Guatemala. He now resides in Colombia, which gives him unique perspective on the political landscape in that country.   Mentioned in the episode: John Hempton on “averaging down” - http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2017/01/when-do-you-average-down.html Ian’s Twitter account - @irbezek Ian’s Seeking Alpha Page - https://seekingalpha.com/author/ian-bezek 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 4:40 – Ian’s background 5:23 – Why Ian moved to South America (specifically Guatemala) 11:30 – Are emerging markets inherently lower quality than the US? 13:40 – Why Colombia, why now? 25:40 – How Ian is thinking about specific companies in Colombia 30:30 – What is the Colombian banking market structure? 36:50 – Memories of March 2020 40:20 – Why Ian prefers the airports to the rest of aerospace 46:50 – Thoughts about Mexico as a market 51:50 – Home country bias 58:05 – What Ian’s writing enables for his investments 1:05:50 – In many ways Latin America might be what the US was after WW2 1:10:35 – More discussion on Zoom vs. Qurate 1:16:20 – How Ian and Bill have evolved as investors and then chit chat
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
Meb Faber Returns!

Meb Faber Returns!

2023-05-1901:25:31

Meb Faber, CIO and CEO of Cambira Investments returns to The Business Brew.   Bill wanted to chat with Meb about the global diversified portfolio and Meb agreed to come on.  The conversation also discusses drawdown emotions, the merits of ETS vs mutual funs, Meb's thoughts on marketing, and much more. Meb is a great thinker, entrepreneur, and podcast host. He's also one cool dude. You can find Meb's writing here. You can find his podcast on Apple here and on Spotify here. Other links mentioned: Ray Dalio Book: Principles for Dealing with a Changing World Order Bridgewater All Weather Paper. A Tweet of Meb's about Global stocks ex-US Recent Jesse Livermore tweet RE: P/Es CAPE, etc 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  Conversation starts with Berkshire weekend and Buffett discussion 4:55 – Meb’s take on global diversification 7:50 – The best compliment you can give someone 10:05 – Drawdowns are like a Ricther Scale 14:00 – The single biggest investing myth right now 39:30 – Meb’s thoughts on marketing 45:00 - Sell criteria 47:50 - What you need to launch an ETF 52:00 - Mutual Fund to ETF conversions 55:00 - Tax minimization 58:00 - More cases for foreign stocks 1:03:00 - The merits of private/angel investing 1:07:50 - Why Russia might not be "a zero"
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 market10:30 – When Dave found P10 Holdings15:30 – Why your threshold for buying needs to be higher in microcap21:15 – Rebuttable presumptions against microcap companies and the need for cheapness23:00 – How Dave got interested in Garrett Motion35:30 – Assessing incentives41:50 – Community Development Financial Institutions43:40 – What got Dave interested in investing54:00 – Are microcaps destined to underperform?59:30 – Potential risks and rewards around international investing1:08:00 – Using subsidies to your benefit1:10:40 – SPV banter1:19:00 – Where Dave sees himself in 10 years
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.
Kritof Gleich, President and CIO of Harbor Capital Advisors, stops by The Business Brew to discuss his views on picking managers.  Kristof has over 20 years of investment experience with stints at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and BlueCove Asset Management (which Ares purchased a stake in).  Harbor Capital Advisors spcializes in partnering with boutique investment managers in an effort to create superior investment outcomes. Kristof has spent a lot of time developing a “factor framework” for evaluating a managers’ skill. You’ll hear Kristof say that our starting premise/hypothesis is to assume all managers’ historical excess return is due to luck and then look to reject that hypothesis (or not) by using deep analytical rigor. This stems from his physicist background to continue to understand subjects more deeply. Recently Kristof has been overseeing Harbor’s expansion from a factor framework to introducing “behavioral analytics”. 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. Detailed Show Notes 5:52 – Kritof’s background 11:55 – Picking managers that can handle scale 18:55 – What Kristof is doing to transform Harbor 30:10 – A discussion about banks 42:52 – Passive vs ETF and why they might be different 47:40 – Will the 60/40 portfolio do well going forward? 52:40 – A case study about providing an inflation “solution” and some of the complications investors can run into with commodities 1:07:10 – Picking good managers 1:22:05 – Behavioral finance based investing  
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
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
Ian Cassel stops back by The Business Brew to check in.  As you may remember, Ian is a full-time microcap investor and founder of MicroCapClub. Ian started investing as a teenager and learned from losing his money over and over again. Today he is a full-time private investor that supports himself and his family by investing in microcaps.  He is also the author of two books: Intelligent Fanatics Project: How Great Leaders Build https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Fanatics-Project-Sustainable-Businesses/dp/0997576502/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=7vP7f&content-id=amzn1.sym.22f5776b-4878-4918-9222-7bb79ff649f4&pf_rd_p=22f5776b-4878-4918-9222-7bb79ff649f4&pf_rd_r=140-2211477-9010244&pd_rd_wg=oufjI&pd_rd_r=438a9be9-ba2c-44c0-a800-30367bc020a7&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk Intelligent Fanatics: Standing On The Shoulders of Giants https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Fanatics-Standing-Shoulders-Giants/dp/0997576537/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=7vP7f&content-id=amzn1.sym.22f5776b-4878-4918-9222-7bb79ff649f4&pf_rd_p=22f5776b-4878-4918-9222-7bb79ff649f4&pf_rd_r=140-2211477-9010244&pd_rd_wg=oufjI&pd_rd_r=438a9be9-ba2c-44c0-a800-30367bc020a7&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk Ian and Bill chatted because there was some noise about small and microcaps being cheap.  Then Bill said “Come on the show.”  And Ian said “Sure.”  And then they had this conversation.  And now you are listening.  We hope you enjoy!   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 -  2:50 - Staying patient in illiquid ideas 6:28 - The MicrocapClub conference 10:20 - Findings a micro cap worthy of holding 12:03 - Fallen angels vs rising stars 18:50 - Quality vs value 25:50 - What is Ian looking for in investments 28:20 - Look global for microcaps 30:20 - Why it is easier to raise money internationally than in the US 35:50 - SPAC talk 47:50 - Cogstate 1:00:30 - How microcap changed over the past year 1:05:50 - Training LPs, and yourself, to handle volatility 1:06:50 - Why the first discovery is powerful 1:11:30 - How Ian started MicroCapClub 1:13:05 - Some briefy therapy 1:15:30 - Concluding conversation
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
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
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Comments (3)

Jaime Humsafar

booooo

Oct 28th
Reply

Cameron MacDonald

This is a real shame. Not investing in any company that supports planned parenthood is fucked up man. You and your guest should be ashamed of yourselves. You should have either ended the show there and kicked him off the podcast, or cut that part out so you don't look like a far right psychopath. Such a shame man. I really liked your podcast. I just can't support someone like that.

Jul 28th
Reply

Anthony Roach

New listener to your podcast here. I started with your quality discussion with Chris Cerrone. Superb content that I can digest, stew over and then potentially integrate concepts or ideas into my life. I don't know if free will exists or not but I will be choosing to listen to more of your pod!

Feb 23rd
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