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The Business Brew — Business
The Business Brew

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.

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: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast 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.

Copyright: © Bill Brewster

Latest Episodes:

Andrew Walker - Yet Another Value Discussion! Jul 27, 2023

Show notes

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 - Fairfax Is A "Fat Pitch" Jul 20, 2023

Show notes

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 - The Sustainable Energy Transition Jul 14, 2023

Show notes

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 - A Financials Specialist Jul 06, 2023

Show notes

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

Value Stock Geek - Geeking on Value Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

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 Jun 01, 2023

Show notes

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 - Building ⁠Stratosphere.io May 25, 2023

Show notes

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! May 19, 2023

Show notes

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 - Searching Nooks and Crannies May 11, 2023

Show notes

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

Josh Clarkson - Alternative Credit May 04, 2023

Show notes

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.

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