The Business Brew

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.

William Green is the author of RICHER, WISER, HAPPIER: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life (April 20, 2021; Scribner). Green has written for many leading publications in the US and Europe, including The New Yorker, Time, Fortune, Forbes, Barron’s, Fast Company, Money, Worth, Bloomberg Markets, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe Magazine,  The New York Observer, The (London) Spectator, The (London) Independent Magazine, and The Economist. He has reported in places as diverse as China, India, Japan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the US, Mexico, England, France, Monaco, Poland, Italy, and Russia. He has interviewed presidents and prime ministers, inventors, criminals, prize-winning authors, the CEOs of some of the world’s largest companies, and countless billionaires.     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.

Corey Hoffstein, host of Flirting with Models, stopped by The Business Brew to have a wide ranging conversation about markets and his career.  Corey is an amazing thinker.  Rather than summarize his thoughts we would direct listeners to his website: https://blog.thinknewfound.com/author/choffstein/. You can find his podcast links at https://www.thinknewfound.com/podcast.   He's a great guy, incredibly smart, and this is one cool conversation.  We hope you listen and enjoy!   Corey is the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Newfound Research, a quantitative investment manager.  Corey received his BS in Computer Science from Cornell University and his MS in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University. 

In this episode Preston Pysh joins The Business Brew.  Preston needs no introduction in the financial podcast world.  But just in case... Preston Pysh is an authority in business, investing, and leadership. His business podcast is globally ranked #1 on iTunes for stock investing and numerous other categories. On Amazon, Preston is globally ranked as a top 100 business author. His work has been translated into numerous languages and he writes about international finance and central banking. His podcast, We Study Billionaires, has been downloaded millions of times per year. Preston has interviewed billionaire NBA sports team owners, Hedge Fund Managers, and global authorities in finance. His work has been featured on shows like The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, The History Channel, and many others. Preston is the founder of the Pylon Holding Company and he is a graduate of West Point and Johns Hopkins University. He was an AH-64D Attack Helicopter pilot and Company Commander with the 101st Airborne Division During Operation Enduring Freedom and he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal."    Bill used to listen to Preston when Preston co-hosted the Saturday "show" on The Investor's Podcast Network; We Study Billionaires (see https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/we-study-billionaires/).  Bill has a habit of being late to ideas, so he was closed minded to Bitcoin while Preston made the case for Bitcoin.  Fortunately for Bill, he does usually realize when he might be wrong/stupid.  So, he invited Preston on The Business Brew to discuss Preston's transition from a "traditional value" investor to a Bitcoin bull.    Regardless of whether you, as a listener, agree with Preston's thesis, we hope you can learn a little about:   (a) how Preston thinks,  (b) what it took for him to make a macro/currency call, and  (c) the courage it took for him to make a call on something Buffett and Munger dismiss as silly.   We are grateful for him saying yes to coming on The Brew.  Props on the BTC call Preston.  

Bill invited Aaron to stop by The Business Brew to have some fun and do a 4/20 episode.  While the conversation does touch on cannabis, the more important parts of the conversation involve Aaron's philosophy of work life balance.  Aaron is a strong advocate of the 24/6 workweek.  He is a staunch advocate of observing a work sabbath weekly.  We hope there is wisdom and entertainment in this episode.   Aaron's bio is as follows:    Aaron M. Edelheit is the CEO and Founder of Mindset Capital, a private investment firm. Aaron also was the Chief Strategy Officer of FLO Technologies, after being one of the first investors in the company, helping the company grow from a pre-revenue startup to raising $28 million and launching in over 500 Home Depot stores. FLO was acquired in January of 2020 by Fortune Brands. In his previous role as CEO of The American Home, Aaron founded and grew a company from 16 rental homes to one that owned 2,500 single family rental homes and was sold in April 2015 to a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust. Aaron also founded and ran a successful money management firm, Sabre Value Management from 1998 to 2011. In 2018, IdeaPress published Aaron’s first book, The Hard Break: The Case for a 24/6 Lifestyle. The book makes the case for taking one day off from work, email and smartphones for a more productive, healthier and more creative life. Aaron has served on the boards of non-profits such as the Moishe House Foundation and Global Village Project. And he is also a member of Social Venture Partners in Santa Barbara, California. Aaron has also been featured and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, and CNBC among others and has given lectures on business and entrepreneurship in the U.S., Canada and South Africa.

In this episode Heather Brilliant stops by The Business Brew to discuss what it is like to run a valuation focused asset manager in 2021.  Heather has a unique view on asset management and what she is trying to accomplish at Diamond Hill.  She is stakeholder focused and believes constraining asset management capacity helps align client and manager incentives.     She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and President for Diamond Hill Capital Management, an independent active asset management firm providing valuation-driven investment management services across a range of asset classes. Heather joined the firm in 2019 bringing more than 20 years of domestic and international investment industry experience to the role.   Previously, Heather served as Chief Executive Officer, Americas with First State Investments. Prior to that role, she spent nearly 14 years with Morningstar where she served as Global Head of Equity & Credit Research before advancing to Chief Executive Officer, Morningstar Australasia. Earlier in her career, she held several roles analyzing both credit and equity at firms including Bank of America and Driehaus Capital Management.   Heather is a long-standing member of the CFA Institute, a global credentialing organization for the investment industry. She served on the board of the CFA Institute from 2013 to 2020 and was chair of the board from 2018 to 2019. As chair she provided leadership and governance to a board of 15 senior investment management executives. She is also a member of the CFA Society of Columbus.   She is a member of the Columbus Partnership, a non-profit, membership-based organization of more than 70 CEOs from Columbus’ leading businesses and institutions focused on improving the economic vitality of the Columbus Region, and YPO (Young President’s Organization), a global leadership community of chief executives that are committed to lifelong learning and idea exchange.   Heather is on the executive committee of the Ohio chapter of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), an invitation-only membership organization made up of more than 7,000 diverse and accomplished women from 33 nations. IWF’s mission is to support women leaders and build better leadership across careers, continents and cultures by connecting accomplished women both locally and globally.   She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is a volunteer teacher for Rock the Street, Wall Street, a non-profit organization that aims to spark interest in finance among high school girls. Heather was recently named a 2021 Women WELDing the Way® honoree by Women for Economic and Leadership Development (WELD) for supporting the leadership development of other women and women-owned businesses in the community.   Heather earned her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has a degree in economics from Northwestern University.

Please see https://www.fgfinancial.com/corporate-overview/officers-directors/default.aspx for Kyle's official bio.     Kyle "stopped by" The Business Brew to discuss his role as CEO of Fundamental Global.  In that capacity, he is focused on four portfolio companies: Ballantyne Strong Inc, BK Technologies Corp, GreenFirst  Forest Products Inc, and SPAC that reached a definitive agreement to purchase Opportunity Financial.     Kyle has a very interesting background.  He is mentioned in David Einhorn's book, Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, because he crossed paths with David on the Allied Capital trade.  At that time, Kyle was a Financial Services analyst at T. Rowe Price.  Following his stint at T. Rowe Price, Kyle worked at SAC.     Following his time at T Rowe Price, Kyle founded Fundamental Global with his partner Joe Moglia. Together, they take control of companies and look to create long term shareholder value.  In this episode, Kyle discusses why he does what he does, how he thinks about value creation, and what he is trying to accomplish.     Bill and Kyle met when Mike Mitchell was The Business Brew's first guest.  Since that time, Bill has watched Kyle work tirelessly to execute his plans.  Consequently, Bill has grown to respect Kyle very much and wanted to feature Kyle as a guest.     This episode may give a glimpse into a fantasy many investors seem to have: buying controlling interests in companies.  Bill's conclusion is he would rather partner with Kyle and let Kyle do the heavy lifting of execution.     Disclosure:  Bill owns shares in 3 of Kyle's companies.  He won't name which ones because he doesn't want people to read anything into his decisions.  However, he will commit to hold every share for at least a year following this podcast episode.   

Adam Robinson is the Co-Founder of The Princeton Review, a NY Times Best Selling author, and a US Chess Federation life master.  He currently works as a global macro advisor to the heads of some of the world's largest hedge funds through Robinson Global Strategies.     Bill has wanted to interview Adam since he heard Tim Ferris interview Adam at The 92nd St. Y.  You can find one of his episodes with Tim Ferris at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSyMmleisQM.  See also Adam's interview with Shane Parrish at https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/adam-robinson-pt1/.  Finally, Adam recently did a 4-hour interview with Kevin and Fred.  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU_AM9VDgFs.   In this episode, Bill follows up on some of the thoughts Adam gave Bill via various interviews.    They start out talking about the concept of "things that are blatantly obvious and those that make no sense."  This was one of the first concepts that Adam said where Bill said "wow, that's an interesting way to frame investing thoughts."     Following that conversation, Bill follows up on many of the issues that he's wondered about as he's found as he's listened to Adam. This is a wide-ranging conversation that covers a lot of investing and some life.  We hope you enjoy.  

Sanjay Ayer, a portfolio manager and business analyst at WCM, discusses important investment topics including group think, signal vs. noise, and self-improvement. His modesty and self-awareness are emphasized. Chapters cover building relationships, Morning Star experiences, the importance of company culture, networking in emerging markets, the influence of media assets, assessing sustainability, adaptability in fast-moving industries, and the benefits of journaling for self-awareness.

Elliot Turner is a co-founder and Managing Partner, CIO at RGA Investment Advisors, LLC.  RGA Investment Advisors runs a long-term, low turnover, growth at a reasonable price investment strategy seeking out global opportunities.  Elliot focuses on discovering and analyzing long-term, high-quality investment opportunities, and strategic portfolio management.   In this episode Elliot joins The Business Brew to discuss his days as a Phish podcast host, being a business analyst, his thoughts on the COVID 19 policy response, why he gained conviction through March 2020, Twitter, and creativity as an investor. Elliot is incredibly generous giving knowledge to the investment community and sharing his work.  He's one of the investors Bill really admires.   We hope you enjoy the conversation.  Thank you for listening!