My guest on the show today is Jim Falbe, Managing Principal, Portfolio Manager at Saguaro Capital Management. After spending almost 8 years at Vulcan Value Partners, in 2021 Jim left to start Saguaro. The most unique thing about the Saguaro strategy is that it employs an internally-built AI system that helps with screening for stocks as well as with investment decision making. In this in-depth interview, we covered: How Jim’s experiences at Vulcan have shaped his approach to starting...

My guest on the show today is Evan Curtis, the Executive Director of Investments at Vanamor Investments, a private real estate investment firm. Given the ongoing turmoil in the real estate market first caused by COVID and then exacerbated by the sharp rise in interest rates, I was excited to have Evan on as our first real estate-focused, private investor. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discussed: - The history of Vanamor, including the real estate verticals it has chosen to focus...

My guest on the show today is Josh Collinsworth, the Portfolio Manager at Nomadic Value Partners. Josh started Nomadic in 2019 after spending a number of years as an allocator. Josh is one of the most eclectic investors I know, and his understanding of the byzantine US healthcare system makes him my go-to investor when trying to navigate investments in that industry. In this enlightening conversation, we discussed: Josh’s path from being an allocator to starting his own investment firm; How...

My guest on the show today is Drew Estes, the Portfolio Manager at Banyan Capital, a firm that has been around since the late-1980s. Drew joined Banyan in 2016 and then took control of the business in 2019. Drew has brought his own brand of long-term focus to build permanent wealth for the firm’s clients. In this engaging conversation, we covered: - The history of Banyan and how Drew came to control the firm; - Portfolio construction, including concentration and the ideal type of company; -...

My guest on the show today is Matt Reustle, the CEO of Colossus. For anyone who is not familiar with the platform, Colossus is the home for a number of excellent podcasts, including Invest Like the Best, Founders, The Art of Investing and Business Breakdowns. Given my person experience with podcasts, I was really looking forward to learning from Matt about: - The economics of podcasting as a business; - Where the idea for Colossus came from; - How Matt and his partners decide which new...

My guest on the show today is Jimmy Schwartz, the Co-Founder and CIO of Harvey Partners. Jimmy founded the firm in 2006 with his partner, Jeff Moskowitz. Over the last 17 years, the firm has put up an enviable track record by focusing on stocks that other people neglect, as well as companies that are at an inflection point. In this enjoyable conversation, we covered: The types of company-specific situations that get Jimmy excited; How the firm sources companies that are at an inflection...

My guest on the show today is Aofinn Devitt, the CIO of Moneta, a wealth management firm with about 30 billion dollars of assets under management. Moneta has been around for over 150 years and has been an RIA since the late-1980s. The firm is 100% partner-owned and has grown to have over 400 employees. In this in-depth conversation, we discussed: - The general trends that having been driving clients towards RIAs and multi-family offices; - How Moneta approaches asset allocation for...

My guest on the show today is Brandon Halcott, a true entrepreneur. Brandon founded a company called Tru Family Dental, which was a roll up of dental practices that was sold to a private equity owned dental company a few years ago. Now, Brandon is at it again but this time is focused on building both a dental practice platform and one dedicated to engineering and architectural firms. In this fast moving conversation, we discussed: - The journey that led to the founding of Tru Family...

My guest on the show today is Adam Michaels, the Chairman and CEO of Mama’s Creations, a $140 million market cap company that provides products to the deli aisle of large food retailers. Adam became CEO in 2022, after spending about 9 years at the large consumer packaging company, Mondelez. I met Adam at a recent investment conference and wanted to have him on the podcast to discuss: - Why he decided to take the role as CEO; - The playbook he has brought from Mondelez and its applicability...

My guest on the show today is Bo Knudsen, the Managing Director of Global Equities at C Worldwide Asset Management. Many listeners may not be familiar with C Worldwide, but the Denmark-based firm manages over 20 billion dollars. Bo has been a portfolio manager since 1989 and has had his hand in some strategies that have generated incredible outperformance versus their benchmarks over long periods of time. In this insightful conversation, we discussed: - The characteristics of a typical C...

My guest on the show today needs no introduction. Tobias Carlisle, Founder and Managing Director of Acquirers Funds and Co-Host, Value After Hours. He manages two ETFs, a larger-cap deep value ETF with the ticker ZIG—and a smaller cap one with the ticker DEEP. He is the author of several books on value investing and is the co-host of the popular podcast: Value After Hours. You also may know him by his Twitter handle, Greenbackd. In this conversation, which started at a lunch table and...

My guest on the show today is Jeremy Kokemor, the Founder of Right Tail Capital. After several buyside stints, including at T. Rowe Price, Jeremy founded Right Tail in 2022. Jeremy runs a concentrated portfolio of high-quality companies that just happen to be trading at large discounts to intrinsic value. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discussed: - Why he decided on the name Right Tail; - His definition of a quality company; - What concentration means to Jeremy and how that translates...

My guest on the show today is Tyler Hardt, the Senior Portfolio Manager at Seagate Capital Management. After spending about 9 years at Artisan Partners, Tyler decided to go out on his own and start his own firm in 2018. Tyler is an unabashed value investor who even wrote a book called, Value Investing: A Disciplined Framework. In this insightful conversation, we discussed: - The founding story of Seagate Capital and why Tyler felt like he was ready to be an entrepreneur; - How Tyler finds...

My guest on the show today is Heather Brilliant, the CEO of publicly traded company, Diamond Hill Investment Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: DHIL). Heather became CEO in 2019 after putting together an enviable resume of experiences at other investment firms. As of the most recent quarter, Diamond Hill had about $26 billion of assets under management, but still considers itself a boutique firm. In this holistic conversation, we discussed: Heather’s experience becoming CEO right before the world shut...

My guest on the show today is Jake Wood, the founder and CEO of Groundswell. Jake is a former Marine who founded a non-profit organization called Team Rubicon, which has over 100,000 volunteers located around the world. Jake stepped back from being Team Rubicon’s CEO in 2021 to start Groundswell, a company that is attempting to transform employee giving through the use of technology. My guess is that most people haven’t thought deeply about the nuances of employee giving or are familiar with...

My guest on the show today is Joseph Shaposhnik, the portfolio manager of the TCW New Americas Premier Equities Fund. Joseph began managing the fund in 2015 and since then has assembled a concentrated portfolio of mostly US mid-to-large-cap stocks. Morningstar currently has a 4-star rating on the fund, which consists of a collection of high quality, recurring revenue businesses. In this conversation, we covered: Why predictability of cash flows is so important to Joseph; The rationale for...

Today’s episode is another in our series of interviews with emerging investment managers where we discuss how to build an investment firm that can compound. My guest on this show is Aaron Wasserman, a partner at Third Period Capital. After a long and successful tenure at Baron Capital, in 2019 Aaron started Third Period, a long-only, global growth firm based in Los Angeles. Aaron believes he has cultivated an edge in identifying and owning companies with exceptional cultures—and he has...

My guest on the show today is Sean Stannard-Stockton, the President and CIO of Ensemble Capital, an investment and wealth management firm that has built up quite a following on social media as a result of its consistent output of thoughtful content. Sean and his team of analysts manage over a billion dollars in equities, consisting of a concentrated portfolio of super high-quality businesses. The team has developed a rigorous competitive advantage assessment process that is designed to...

Today’s episode is the next in our series of profiles of emerging investment firms. In these interviews, we dive deep into the various components of building an investment firm that can compound. Our guest on the show today is Greg Dean, the Founder and Lead of Investor at Toronto-based Langdon Equity Partners. Greg founded Langdon in 2021 after successful stints at Fidelity and Cambridge Global Asset Management. Langdon describes itself as an “active and engaged owner of world class smaller...

My guests on the show to today are Heather Beatty and Robin Kollannur, the respective founder and Portfolio Manager of ScopeFour Capital. After a number of years working in business development at large investment firms, Heather started ScopeFour, a climate impact-focused firm, to take advantage of the investment opportunities associated with companies that are building impactful climate solutions. Robin has 30 years of experience in money management and has recently joined the firm to...

My guest on the show today is Thomas Li, the co-founder and CEO of financial data company Daloopa. Daloopa is a private company that was founded by a group of former buy-side investment analysts who saw the opportunity to use technology to upgrade the research process at just about any type of investment firm; but with a specific focus on saving analysts and portfolio managers time. Just a few years into its journey, the company already has over 200 employees and has multiple offices around...

Our guest on the show this week was Aaron Graft, the Founder, Vice Chairman and CEO of Triumph Financial. Just as the impacts of the Great Financial Crisis were waning, Aaron led a team of people who took over a failed bank to create Triumph. Aaron has been CEO since the beginning and has been instrumental in transforming the bank into a transportation-focused industry leader. Specifically, Aaron has helped turn what was a small factoring business into a high margin one that buys $1 billion...

Our guest on the show today is Craig Packer, the CEO of Owl Rock Capital Corp, a 5.4 billion dollar market cap business development company that invests in middle market companies in the US. Craig is also the Chief Investment Officer of Owl Rock Capital, a New York-based direct lending platform with over 50 billion dollars of assets under management. This is the first business development company—or BDC for short—we have had on the podcast, so we wanted to make sure that we spent some time...

My guest on the show today is Brian Lane, the President and CEO of Comfort Systems, a 3.6 billion dollar market cap company that provides mechanical and electrical services, including installation, repair and maintenance, to customers in the US. Brian became CEO in 2011 and over the last 11 years, has overseen very impressive revenue growth and stock performance. The company has consistently made acquisitions over the last decade but still has a ton of white space left domestically. Given...

Our guest on the show today is Steve Daly, the CEO of Instructure Holdings, a 3.6 billion dollar educational software company. After serving on the Board of the company, Steve became the CEO in late 2020, right in the middle of pivotal time for the company. Instructure’s core products consist of cloud-based learning management systems used by higher education and K through 12 schools all around the world. Listeners may not be familiar with Instructure, but the Canvas brand is likely something...