The Stock Podcast is an investing podcast that gives everyone the opportunity to hear public company CEOs and CFOs discuss their business, industry, and outlook. Professional investors call this corporate access. This program is intended to provide listeners with investment primers for a company or an industry. The fundamental motivation behind each episode is to provide an overview of the investment story and content that gives listeners a headstart to their investment research process. By doing so, The Stock Podcast aspires to level the playing field for all investors.
For professional investors, corporate access essentially means meeting with senior management – typically the CEOs and CFOs of publicly traded companies. These meetings usually happen in the offices of institutional investors, a company’s headquarters, sell-side conferences, or even over the phone. In the introductory podcast, I summarize what corporate access is, and why I think it’s important to democratize the process. But just to summarize, corporate access is a common way for asset managers to learn about new investment ideas and gain insight into a company’s earnings and growth potential.
Corporate access is almost exclusively available to professional investors. That’s because CEOs and CFOs have to spend their time wisely. Speaking to every investor who owns a handful of shares would be massively inefficient! Another big reason for the exclusivity is that asset managers pay big bucks to have access to management. In a recent WSJ article, it was noted that corporate access was worth $900M to investment banks in 2018. With The Stock Podcast, you have access to management, and you get it for free!
I’ve always been passionate about research, which is one of the reasons I love equity analysis. Before starting the podcast, I was an equity researcher for a large institutional money manager based in Denver, CO. I’m a value investor and I really enjoy researching complicated and misunderstood companies and industries. Check out my LinkedIn profile to learn about my professional background. If you’d like to know the reasons and motivations behind The Stock Podcast you can check out this article on IR Magazine.
The final episode of The Stock Podcast was posted in February 2020. Nate made the decision to return to the investing world. It was a difficult decision to give up the podcast, but the opportunity to work with his former mentor Kris Kelley at Legacy Ridge Capital was one Nate couldn’t pass on. I still believe in the mission and I hope someone can and will pick up where I’ve left off, either with a new podcast or with this one! So reach out if you’re interested in the platform.
We do not follow the common practice of talking one-on-one with large institutional investors or analysts, treating them instead as we do all other shareholders. There is no one more important to us than the shareholder of limited means who trusts us with a substantial portion of his or her savings.Warren Buffett, 2017 BRK Shareholder Letter