Planet Microcap Podcast | Microcap Investing Strategies

My guest on the show today is Erik Conrad, Portfolio Manager at Peapod Lane Capital. I was introduced to Erik by Doug Porter from Acuitas Investments (thank you Doug!) and had the chance to meet him recently in New York. Erik is a self-described extreme value investor and while uncovering what that means to him, we started getting into his generalist strategy investing in Healthcare. We've been covering the bloodbath in Healthcare/Biotech here at the podcast, and so I wanted to learn more about how Erik is approaching looking at a sector that's been beaten down. For more information about Peapod Lane Capital, please visit: https://peapodlane.com/ Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical insights. Start your FREE trial on their website: https://streamrg.co/PMC Planet MicroCap Podcast is on YouTube! All archived episodes and each new e

My guest on the show today is William Crossland, President & CEO of Thermal Energy International, Inc. (TSX-V: TMG) (OTCQB: TMGEF). Thermal Energy International Inc. provides energy efficiency and emissions reduction solutions to Fortune 500 and other large multinational companies. The company's value proposition is to help save their customers money by reducing their fuel use and cutting their carbon emissions. Thermal Energy's proprietary and proven solutions can recover up to 80% of energy lost in typical boiler plant and steam system operations while delivering a high return on investment with a short, compelling payback, according to the company's website. As William jokes in the interview, Thermal Energy is a 20-year overnight success story. When he joined the company and took over as CEO in 2009, William's focus was turning a profit, where, just before the pandemic, was able to accomplish that, 30% compounded annual growth rate and $25 million in revenues. While the pandemic was difficult for all o

My guest on the show today is Mathieu Martin, Portfolio Manager at Rivemont Investments and Editor of the Stocks & Stones Newsletter. Recently, Canadian MicroCap buyouts have been gaining focus - as Mathieu points out in our conversation, there's been 10 non-resource Canadian MicroCap transactions in 2023. While that may not seem that much, the frequency they've been happening of late has us MicroCap warriors taking note. I invited on my friend and colleague, Mathieu Martin, to chat with me about what is going on here and whether we think M&A will continue to move at this fast rate with the fear that sentiment is or may change for the better. "Rebound" article on Stocks & Stones Newsletter: https://stocksandstones.substack.com/p/rebound For more information about Rivemont MicroCap Fund, please visit: https://rivemont.ca/en/rivemont-microcap-fund/the-rivemont-microcap-fund/ Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated cal

My guest on the show today is Chris Satterthwaite, Senior Analyst at Verdad Advisors. The team at Verdad put out a phenomenal weekly newsletter, and they recently published one titled, "The Death of Small Cap Equities?" We've been talking for a while here about all the various issues plaguing the Small/MicroCap space, and invited Chris to share the research the Verdad team have uncovered.  For more information about Chris Satterthwaite and Verdad, please visit: https://verdadcap.com/ Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical insights. Start your FREE trial on their website: https://streamrg.co/PMC Planet MicroCap Podcast is on YouTube! All archived episodes and each new episode will be posted on the SNN Network YouTube channel. I’ve provided the link in the description if you’d like to subscribe. You’ll also get the chance to watch al

My guest on the show today is Todd Wenning, Founder and Editor of the Flyover Stocks Newsletter now available on Substack. Last time we had Todd on the podcast, we talked about his investing philosophy as depicted in his diagram outlining the overlapping synergies between management, moat and price. He has since launched his newsletter, “Flyover Stocks” on Substack, and wanted to have him on to learn more about it, as well as discuss some of his first posts on there.   For more information about Flyover Stocks, please visit: https://www.flyoverstocks.com/  You can Follow Todd Wenning on Twitter/X @ToddWenning: https://twitter.com/ToddWenning    Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical insights. Start your FREE trial on their website: https://streamrg.co/PMC Planet MicroCap Podcast is on YouTube! All archived episodes and each new ep

My guest on the show today is Cromwell Coulson, President and CEO of OTC Markets Group (OTCQX: OTCM). As part of my trip to New York City, I had the opportunity to meet with Cromwell at OTC Markets' downtown offices, where we chatted for about 75 minutes. Our last interview on Planet MicroCap Podcast was in December 2019, safe to say a lot has happened in the last 4 years. We covered a lot of topics, including as many of your questions as possible: Micro/SmallCap capital markets, uplistings, de-listings, cross-listings, stock promotion, dark stocks and much more! We conclude by discussing the capital market trends we're likely to see in 2024 and the trends Cromwell would like to see in 2024. For more information about OTC Markets Group, please visit: https://www.otcmarkets.com/ Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical insights. Start

My guest on the show today is Charles Payne, Host of "Making Money with Charles Payne." While I was in New York last week, Charles was kind enough to take some time while prepping for his next show to answer a few of my questions and some that came in from social media. We covered more than I thought we would during our 20 minute conversation, including: starting to reflect on 2023, better understanding investor sentiment, what could happen to cause that to change, his thoughts on the Small/MicroCap bloodbath of the last couple years. We close out looking ahead to 2024 and if there are any new investing themes or trends on the horizon that folks should really focus on. Charles also just released his new book, "Unbreakable Prosperity", which is now available wherever books are sold. For more information about Charles Payne and "Making Money with Charles Payne", please visit: https://www.wstreet.com/ You can Follow Charles Payne on Twitter/X @cvpayne: https://twitter.com/cvpayne Today's episode is sponsored by:

My guest on the show today is Filip Erhardt, Founder and CEO of ESGFIRE. I was introduced to Filip by Paul Andreola from Small Cap Discoveries (thank you, Paul) a few months ago, and we had a phenomenal conversation about his ESG strategy and his approach to investing in environmentally-friendly companies. In the Summer 2023 issue of the Planet MicroCap Review, Filip contributed an article titled, "ESG Investing 101," documenting his investing process, and invited him on the podcast to dive deeper into ESG, Cleantech, Agrotech and why ESG is still a megatrend that investors shouldn't ignore. For more information about ESGFIRE, please visit: https://esgfire.com/en/ Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical insights. Start your FREE trial on their website: https://streamrg.co/PMC Planet MicroCap Podcast is on YouTube! All archived episo

My guest on the show today is Wolfgang Kirsch, Co-CEO of Shelly Group (SLYG.F). Shelly Group is an asset-light European smart home device designer, manufacturer, and distributor that has developed a smart home platform under the Shelly brand. The company specializes in the design, production, and distribution of smart, innovative, open-architecture, high-quality IoT home products (Smart Home). Its main business is a growing line of products under the brand “Shelly." I was introduced to the Shelly Group by a good friend and colleague, Adi Soglowek, thank you Adi, and had the pleasure of seeing Co-CEO, Wolfgang Kirsch, present the company at Ian Cassel's MicroCapClub Leadership Summit. At the time, I thought to myself, interesting presentation, but didn't quite understand how the "Shelly", Shelly Group's smart home product, was unique and different amongst the swath of smart home products we have here in the states. This is the reason I love this show because Wolfgang cleared up my confusion real quick, and we

My guest on the show today is Ryan Telford, Private Investor and better known as @Rtelford_invest on Twitter/X. We've been following each other for a while, and after having the chance to meet Ryan, during lunch at SmallCap Discoveries event in Vancouver, and learning a little bit about MicroCap quant strategy, I invited him on to share his strategy. The format for this interview is a little different - Ryan put together a great presentation called, "Quantitative MicroCap Investing with 'GUTS'", and I wanted him to run with it. Also, the video version of today's pod, which is up on the Planet MicroCap YouTube Channel, has a visual of the presentation. It's very informative, and in my opinion, Ryan does a phenomenal job showcasing a strategy that, who knows, could work for you when developing your MicroCap investing philosophy. You can Follow Ryan Telford on Twitter/X @Rtelford_invest: https://twitter.com/RTelford_invest Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript libr

My guest on the show today is Kyle Floyd, Chairman and CEO of Vox Royalty Corp. (TSX: VOXR) (NASDAQ: VOXR). Vox is a returns focused mining royalty company with a portfolio of over 60 royalties and streams spanning eight jurisdictions. The Company was established in 2014 and has since built unique intellectual property, a technically focused transactional team and a global sourcing network which has allowed Vox to target the highest returns on royalty acquisitions in the mining royalty sector. Since the beginning of 2020, Vox has announced over 25 separate transactions to acquire over 50 royalties. Investing is difficult, investing in junior mining companies, in my opinion, like biotech, is extremely hard. Picking the right companies comes down to understanding a multitude of factors that requires some expertise in geology (or biology). For the mining industry, the royalty and streaming provides a different vehicle for exposure to the space, and that's why I invited Kyle on to better understand the royalty an

My guest on the show today is David Bastian, Chief Investment Officer of Kingdom Capital Advisors. I met David at Ian Cassel's MicroCap Leadership Summit a couple weeks ago, where he brought the house down with is comical (albeit serious) pitch on The Children's Place $PLCE. Safe to say, David was tailor made to be a great guest on my podcast, and he does not disappoint. In our conversation, we talk about quirky / off the beaten path investing, what that means, understanding when to make your move when assessing these quirky stocks and quick pitches on The Children's Place and National CineMedia. For more information about Kingdom Capital Advisors, please visit: https://www.kingdomcapitaladvisors.com/ You can Follow David Bastian on Twitter/X @kingdomcapadv: https://twitter.com/kingdomcapadv Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical i

My guest on the show today is David Baeckelandt, Head of Client Relations SuMi TRUST - the U.S. arm for Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management, Inc. Dave reached out to me about a month ago to see if I had an interest in doing an episode about Japanese MicroCaps. I got this email as I was getting geared up for our conference in Vancouver, our first event outside the U.S., which is some fun irony considering our audience is continuing to look globally for quality opportunities. I said yes to Dave, he sent me some great materials making the case for Japanese MicroCaps, and I'm excited to share our conversation all about it. For more information about Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management, Inc., please visit: https://www.sumitrust-am.com/  Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical insights. Start your FREE trial on their website: https:

My guest on the show today is Nick Blitterswyk, CEO of UGE International Ltd. (TSXV: UGE) (OTCQB: UGEIF). UGE develops, owns, and operates commercial and community solar and battery storage projects. Their distributed energy solutions deliver cheaper, cleaner energy to businesses and consumers with no upfront cost, and with over 500MW of global experience, they are working daily to power a more sustainable world, according to the company's website. UGE recently presented at the MicroCapClub Leadership Summit, a phenomenal event by the way, where CEO, Nick Blitterswyk, did a presentation and Q&A with an investor friend of mine, Jeff Kowal. It was a packed room with some of the best MicroCap investors in the game, and Nick did a great job, which by my definition means clearly describing what the company does, prospects for future growth, addressing potential risks that could impede that growth, and vision for the company. I first interviewed Nick in November 2016 (that's about 7 years ago now), and have don

On the quick trip to Beaver Creek, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel titled, "Tools for the Modern Junior Mining Investor." Thank you again to the Levental family, Misha and Jessica, for hosting me and for the chance to speak with Tavi, Emily and Steven for a great conversation about the State of the Junior Mining Market, as well as the tools for the modern junior mining investor. We cover everything here at Planet MicroCap and I was grateful to be in-person to get first hand accounts and sentiment in the space. Tavi Costa, Crescat Capital: https://www.crescat.net/ Emily King, Prospector Portal: https://www.prospectorportal.com/ Steven De Jong: https://vrify.com/ Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical insights. Start your FREE trial on their website: https://streamrg.co/PMC Planet MicroCap Podcast is on YouTube! All archive

For this episode, I compiled all the investor keynotes into one extra long audio episode for you to consume (each individual keynote is on the Planet MicroCap YouTube Channel). Quick note on audio, this was all recorded live at the event with live Q&A, so please excuse any time lapses in between questions during the Q&A portion and keep in mind for quality purposes. Each speaker provided incredible insights, and the order for each segment goes: 1. Paul Andreola (SmallCap Discoveries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-K1i4hTwVY 2. Dave Barr (PenderFund): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oVfaLurCVI 3. Harold Leishman (Canaccord Genuity): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkFD3gDwYk 4. Fireside Q&A with Hamed Shahbazi (WELL Health Technologies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6ZESXEySohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ6ZESXEySo 5. Brent Todd (Canaccord Genuity): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zUggFndKe4 6. Ryan Irvine (Keystone Financial): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_JjbZTJ6kI Links to eac

My guest on the show today is Rene Goehrum, President, CEO and Chairman of BioSyent (TSX-V: RX). BioSyent is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on commercializing products that the company says provides a distinguishable benefit to patients and their healthcare providers and, according to their website, is known for their ability to effectively and efficiently introduce new products to the Canadian market. BioSyent is, as the company states on their website, actively sought out as the Canadian market partner of choice by brand innovators with niche or specialty products looking for a trusted partner. The first time we interviewed Rene was back in June 2013. At the beginning of June 2013, the stock was trading around $1.30, and as of recording of this introduction, the morning of September 15, 2023, the stock closed at $7.85. Furthermore, as of Q2 2023, the company has reported 52 consecutive profitable quarters, according to their Q2 2023 results presentation. Many of you listening know the BioSyent s

My guest on the show today is Tobias Carlisle, Founder and Managing Director of Acquirers Funds and Co-Host, Value After Hours. It's been well over a year since we've had Toby on the show, and I invited him back for his annual appearance. I feel like a broken record on the pod recently - we've talked a lot about how MicroCaps are in the doldrums (that's putting it nicely), redemptions + no inflows, Small/Micro strategies can't raise new capital, etc... We haven't really talked about the quantitative reason (looking at the data) for why the confluence of all the events are happening. Toby is data king, and he does not disappoint in providing his perspective on what the data is telling us, including one semi-bold prediction about the big "R"-word (recession). For more information about the Acquirers Funds, please visit: https://acquirersfunds.com/ You can Follow Tobias Carlisle on Twitter/X @Greenbakd: https://twitter.com/Greenbackd You can Watch the Value After Hours Podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtub

My guest on the show today is John Suzuki, CEO of BK Technologies Corporation (NYSE American: BKTI).  BK Technologies Corporation, through its operating subsidiaries, manufactures high-specification, American-made communications equipment of unsurpassed reliability and value for use by public safety professionals and government agencies. BK Technologies' SaaS business focuses on new, innovative public safety smartphone services that will make the first responders safer or more productive. BK Technologies participated at our event in Las Vegas in April 2023 and as host, I was running around and didn't get a chance to hear their Q&A with Scott Weis from Semco Capital live, but did have a chance to listen to it on our YouTube Channel. After watching that, I invited CEO John Suzuki on to better understand: What the Land, Mobile, Radio competitive landscape looks like Who BK Technologies competes with Focus on providing radio communications for the wildland fires market, and how they are looking to expand to m

My guest on the show today is Donald Porter, Portfolio Manager and most recently an Equity Research Analyst at Wellington Management. I am extremely grateful that I've had the opportunity to host this podcast for the last 8 years - I say this because, this sounds crazy to say, I last hosted Donald on the show in July 2016, when he was at DGHM to discuss his first white paper "MicroCaps Value Uncovered." We were reconnected by Doug Porter from Acuitas Investments (no relation by the way - thank you Doug), and it just so happens that Donald had updated his white paper on why MicroCap stocks still present a compelling investment opportunity in 2023. We chat about the current MicroCap environment, international MicroCaps, his quick takes on various sectors and more! Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by AlphaSense, an expert interview transcript library that integrates AI-generated call summaries and NLP search technology so their clients can quickly pinpoint the most critical insights. Start your FREE trial