Podcasts about cove street capital

My guest today is Ben Claremon; we connected a while ago and have had many deep conversations about work, life, investing, and more. Not long ago, I was a guest on his wonderful podcast - The Compounders Podcast, where I talked about my career, work, investment style, and my firm - Blue Infinitas Capital — scroll down and look up this episode in the Talking Billions feed or on Ben's channel. I've been eager to turn the tables on Ben, have him on the show, and ask him more about his unique journey, fascinating investment philosophy, and wide-ranging curiosity about the world of money, wealth, and investing. Ben Claremon has worked in both private and public equity, with the majority of his career spent as an analyst and portfolio manager at Cove Street Capital, a long-only, public investing firm in Los Angeles. During his career, Ben has developed an expertise in corporate governance, especially within small and microcap companies. https://devonshirepartners.co/ https://compounders.podbean.com/ In today's discussion, we explore how listening is crucial in investing, providing deeper insights and guiding better decisions. We delve into how early experiences and upbringing can spark curiosity, mold one's relationship with money, and define investment philosophies. Ben reflects on how enduring challenging times, like the financial crisis, can cultivate risk aversion and a strong focus on downside protection. Our conversation highlights that building a thriving investment firm demands a client-centric approach, a commitment to partnerships, and a deep focus on relationships. We uncover how success often lies in tackling what others consider too difficult or unworthy, as Devonshire Investors commit to aligning with like-minded partners. Ben emphasizes his firm's refusal to engage with excessively transactional or extractive companies or partners. We discuss the potential to build a premium brand in the microcap space by offering capital solutions to overlooked businesses. In today's episode, we explore the enduring value of handshake deals and trust in the investment landscape. Stay tuned until the end, when Ben shares his thoughts on quality deals. It's a wonderful conversation, I especially enjoyed Ben's memories of spending time with his grandfather and learning about the ins and outs of business… Without further ado, please help me welcome — Ben Claremon. Podcast Program – Disclosure Statement Blue Infinitas Capital, LLC is a registered investment adviser and the opinions expressed by the Firm's employees and podcast guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of Blue Infinitas Capital, LLC. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies.  Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed.  Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives, and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for any individual. Listeners are encouraged to seek advice from a qualified tax, legal, or investment adviser to determine whether any information presented may be suitable for their specific situation.  Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

Cove Street Capital's Jeffrey Bronchick, Principal and Portfolio Manager, and Andrew Leaf, Principal, Research Analyst, discuss their thesis on Ecovyst Inc. (NASDAQ: ECVT), a leading integrated and innovative global provider of specialty catalysts and services. Also, be sure to stick around for the last ten minutes as well to hear Jeff and Andrew's update on Viasat $VSAT. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ Quick blurb on $VSAT: https://covestreetcapital.com/well-that-wasnt-fun/ Chapters: [0:00] Introduction + Episode sponsor: Stream by Alphasense [1:57] What is Ecovyst and why is $ECVT interesting? [9:16] $ECVT core business [16:36] Understanding the $ECVT risks [26:51] $ECVT valuation [34:29] CCMP and INEOS [38:01] $ECVT Capital allocation strategy - M&A [44:31] $ECVT customer contracts - pricing power on renew? [47:09] Final thoughts on $ECVT - catalyst technologies section [49:49] Recent news on ViaSat $VSAT Today's episode is sponsored by: Stream by Alphasense Are traditional expert calls in the investment world becoming obsolete? According to Stream, they are, and you can access primary research easily and efficiently through their platform. With Stream, you'll have the right insights at your fingertips to make the best investment decisions. They offer a vast library of over 26,000 expert transcripts, powered by AI search technology. Plus, they provide competitive rates on expert call services, and you can even have an experienced buy-side analyst conduct the calls for you. But that's not all. Stream also provides the ability to engage with experts 1-on-1 and get your calls transcribed free-of-charge—all for 40% less than you would pay for 20 calls in a traditional expert network model. So, if you're looking to optimize your research process and increase ROI on investment research spend, Stream has the solution for you. Head over to their website at streamrg.com to learn more. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time. For more information: https://www.streamrg.com/

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 the world. In this wide-ranging interview, Thomas and I discussed: Where the original idea for Daloopa came from; How he views the legacy data providers such as CapitalIQ and Bloomberg; What Daloopa is doing to make the product a must-have versus a nice-to-have; What AI means within the context of Daloopa; and The importance of building a company that naturally generates a lot of cash As a disclaimer, Daloopa is a sponsor of the Compounders podcast. Cove Street nor Ben Claremon are shareholders of Daloopa. Without any further ado, here is my conversation with Daloopa CEO Thomas Li. For more information about Daloopa, please visit: https://daloopa.com/ This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Daloopa. Daloopa was founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity to 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. For more information, please visit: https://daloopa.com/ To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

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 in invoices from truckers every month. In recent years, Aaron has turned his focus to building a payments company that caters to all of the constituents in the trucking industry. In this fascinating discussion, we covered: The benefits of having a bank structure despite Triumph not being a typical community bank; How the company has built the factoring business over time and why it is so profitable; The vision for Triumph Pay and the path to building it into something much larger; and Why the company has been so aggressive in repurchasing its own shares For full disclosure, Cove Street is NOT a Triumph Financial shareholder. And without any further ado, here is my conversation with Triumph's Founder, Vice Chairman and CEO, Aaron Graft. For more information about Triumph Financial, please visit: https://www.tfin.com/ This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Daloopa. Daloopa was founded by a former hedge fund analyst to bring simplicity to 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. For more information, please visit: https://daloopa.com/ To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

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 talking about BDCs in general and why Craig thinks they are an attractive niche within public markets. Additionally, in the discussion with Craig, we covered: What metrics investors should focus on when they are considering investing in a BDC; Owl Rock Capital's investment philosophy and risk management strategies; How Craig would expect the BDC's portfolio to perform in an economic downturn; What kind of investment opportunities Craig and his team are seeing at the moment; and The proper use of leverage within a BDC structure This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

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 Comfort Systems' track record and runway for future growth, it was great to talk with Brian about: The company's acquisition philosophy and what it adds to the companies it acquires; How the company is approaching a potential recessionary period in the US; The process by which Comfort Systems has built up a recurring revenue base; The structure of the industry from a competitive perspective; and How the company is overcoming both inflationary and labor availability challenges. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

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 many people have heard of or even used. In 2020, the COVID outbreak presented all kinds of challenges for schools, especially when it came to figuring out how to use technology to continue the education process in a remote environment. Given how well Instructure is positioned to help schools embrace new technologies, I was excited to hear from Steve about: How the outbreak of COVID impacted the demand for learning management systems in both higher ed and K through 12; Why cloud systems are better than on premise systems and how that leads to very low churn among customers; Penetration rates of learning management systems across end markets and the different strategies Instructure employs to grow; How the company went from being quite unprofitable to generating very attractive margins in a short period of time; and How Thoma Bravo's Orlando Bravo convinced Steve to join the Board of Instructure and eventually become the CEO. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Our guests on the show today are Scott King and Jeff Gorman, the CEO and Executive Chairman of The Gorman-Rupp Company, a 700 million dollar market cap company that designs, manufactures, and sells pumps and pump systems to customers all over the world. 2022 has been quite an eventful for year for the company. Earlier in the year, Jeff Gorman stepped back to Chairman, allowing Scott to become the CEO, despite not having the Gorman last name. The company also completed a very large acquisition of a company called Fill-Rite. Given those events and all of the other challenges in the world today, I was excited to speak with Scott and Jeff about: The timing of the management transition and the expectation that Scott continue the company's long history of dividend increases The rationale for the Fill-Rite deal and why now was the right time to take a big swing—with some leverage; The importance of culture and the family-like values that have persisted over the last 90 years; Where the company is investing in technology and innovation; and How the company approaches tough economics times given all of the different crises the company has weathered during its long history This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable..

Hey Guys! This week is a clash of podcast hosts: Me vs Ben Claremon. Ben is Partner and Portfolio Manger at Cove Street Capital and the Podcast Host of The Compounders Podcast. Ben conducts great interviews with founders/CEO of public companies. Today he shares his findings, favorite CEOs, his Management Assessment Framework, what makes for great capital allocation, and Ben's greatest business of all time. If you like what you heard, check out Ben on Twitter here and Cove Street's Management Presentation. [0:00] Who is the most impressive CEO? [2:00] Element Solutions ($ESI) [4:00] Joey Levin ($IAC) [7:00] Upsides from Knowing the CEO [12:00] The Compounders Podcast Lessons [18:00] Charismatic CEOs [25:20] Proprietary Management Assessment Framework [40:00] Insider Transactions [50:00] Capital Allocation is the Golden Goose. [1:00:00] Profitability vs Growth [1:10:00] Ben's Ultimate Team [1:27:00] More from Ben Claremon and Closing Questions Finally, a big thanks to the following sponsors for making the podcast a reality. Mitimco This episode is brought to you by MITIMCo, the investment office of MIT. Each year, MITIMCo invests in a handful of new emerging managers who it believes can earn exceptional long-term returns in support of MIT's mission. To help the emerging manager community more broadly, they created emergingmanagers.org, a website for emerging manager stockpickers. For those looking to start a stock-picking fund or just looking to learn about how others have done it, I highly recommend the site. You'll find essays and interviews by successful emerging managers, service providers used by MIT's own managers, essays MITIMCo has written for emerging managers and more! Quartr Quartr is revolutionizing the way investors interact with IR departments, listen to conference calls, and engage in investment research. The best way to think of Quartr is like Spotify for investor conference calls. Quartr is 100% free and includes markets from 12+ countries (with plans to expand in the future!). Investors can easily request new companies, and Quartr is quick to add them. You can learn more about Quartr by visiting their site, Quartr.se If you're interested in changing the way you research companies, download the app today and give it a try on Apple and Android. Tegus Tegus has the world's largest collection of instantly available interviews on all the public and private companies you care about. Tegus actually makes primary research fun and effortless, too. Instead of weeks and months, you can learn a new industry or company in hours, and all from those that know it best. I spend nearly all my time reading Tegus calls on existing holdings and new ideas. And I know you will too. So if you're interested, head on over to tegus.co/valuehive for a free trial to see for yourself. TIKR TIKR is THE BEST resource for all stock market data, I use TIKR every day in my process, and I know you will too. Make sure to check them out at TIKR.com/hive. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/valuehive/support

My guest on the show today is Chris Mayer, the Portfolio Manager of the Woodlock House Family Capital fund and the co-founder of the firm. He is also the author of 100 Baggers: Stocks That Return 100-to-1 and How To Find Them. You will notice that we are doing something a little different with this episode. Chris is our first guest who is not an executive at a public company. But, since this podcast is called Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger, we thought it would be great to have on the guy who literally wrote the book on finding 100-baggers. In this wide-ranging interview, Chris and I discussed: The common attributes of 100-baggers Chris found in his study of compounders; The biases that make it hard for investors to realize a 100-bagger; Why individual investors might be more likely than are institutional investors to get the full benefit of decades of compounding; Where serial acquirers fit within the 100-bagger paradigm; and Why high incremental returns on capital are so important to long-term success This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Our guests on the show today are Malcolm Wilson and Mark Manduca, the respective CEO and CIO of GXO Logistics. GXO is a 7-billion dollar market cap company that provides logistics services to companies around the world. The company was recently spun off from XPO Logistics and now has the freedom to invest aggressively to helps its customers with supply chain and warehouse automation. COVID, supply chain disruptions and rising labor rates around the world have made many companies start to think deeply about their supply chains and to consider outsourcing and automation. As such, given how well GXO would appear to be positioned for the future, I was really looking forward to talking to Malcolm and Mark about: The rationale for the spin and what having more autonomy will allow GXO to do; The structural tailwinds that are behind the company as it relates to e-commerce, outsourcing and warehouse automation; Why GXO is definitely not a commoditized warehouse company; Why the company is a buying Clipper; and The importance of return on capital when it comes to capital allocation This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Casey Hoyt, the CEO of Viemed. Viemed is a 196 million dollar market cap company that provides in-home durable medical equipment (DME) and post-acute respiratory healthcare services to patients in the United States. The company has developed a specialty in providing non-invasive ventilation to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. Casey took over as CEO in 2017 and has helped the company grow its revenue meaningfully over that time, even accounting for the COVID headwinds the company has seen over the last few years. Given Viemed's impressive recent track record and the amount of white space it has to continue to serve even more at-risk patients, I was looking forward to talking to Casesy about: The elements that have led to such rapid revenue growth; The attractiveness of in-home care relative to acute and outpatient case; The size of the COPD population in the U.S. and how Viemed can increases the penetration of non-invasive ventilation; How the company is attracting and retaining talented people in a very tight labor market for healthcare workers; and How the company thinks about adding new products and services to its current offerings. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Our guest on the show today is Tom Logan, the CEO of Mirion Technologies. Mirion was founded in 2005 and Tom has been the company's only CEO over that period of time. Mirion is a global leader in radiation measurement, serving end markets such as nuclear, life sciences, healthcare and industrial. Mirion recently became publicly traded via a SPAC, but unlike many other de-SPACed companies, Mirion has a long operating history and generates positive EBITDA. The company has had to weather a number of headwinds over Tom's tenure, including the Great Financial Crisis, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, and of course COVID. Despite that, the company has grown consistently through organic and inorganic means and expanded its margins meaningfully. With all of that as a backdrop, I was excited to talk to Tom about: The current state of the base of nuclear power plants around the world and how the Russia-Ukraine conflict is impacting nuclear policy; How the company is positioning itself to grow within the medical end market; What he has learned from Mirion Chairman Larry Kingsley, who achieved tremendous success as CEO of IDEX and Pall Corp.; The elements of the business model that lead to sticky, recurring revenue; and How the company hopes to achieve its mid-single digit growth algorithm This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Welcome to what I will call an update episode of Compounders. We are done with our executive interviews for Season 2. However, we are in the process of putting together a Season 2 recap show—similar to what we did for Season 1. Overall, we had a very eclectic mix of guest with some larger company CEOs and some smaller company CEOs. But the quality of the interview was really good in my humble opinion. The Joey Levin episode got the most engagement we have received for an interview. I think a lot of people discovered Compounders through that episode. Thanks for listening to this Season and we hope you will stick around for what we have in store.  Going forward, the structure is going to change a little bit. During the first 2 seasons, we tried to put out an episode each week for 12 weeks. Given the busy schedules of public company execs and the demands associated with quarterly earnings, this has created unnecessary pressure and scheduling complexity. So, instead of doing 12 episodes and taking a month off, we are going to book and release episodes on a consistent but not necessarily weekly basis. Our focus right now is on getting great guests who run interesting companies.  We ran a Twitter poll and over 90% of people said they don't care about seasons—they just want us to find great guests. We hope you will continue to follow Compounders and check your podcast feed regularly for new episodes. Bobby and I have a list of about 50 companies we are going to be reaching out to over the next few weeks. There are a number of true compounders on that list. A lot of these companies came from suggestions from listeners. Thanks to everyone who has reached out with some recommendations. However, we are always looking for new guests. So, please feel free to reach out. As always, warm introductions are much appreciated. I am pleased to say that our brand has grown to the degree that cold outreach has started to pay dividends. However, we have found companies to be very receptive when we are introduced by shareholders.   We are excited about the momentum we have built since August and I personally am looking forward to bringing you interviews with compelling guests in a variety of industries and hopefully from a number of countries. Thanks again for listening and feel free to reach me at podcast@covestreetcapital.com or follow me on Twitter @benclaremon. Please stay tuned for the next interview of Compounders, to be released in the next several weeks.   This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Our guest on the show today is Eric Ellenbogen, the CEO and Vice Chairman of WildBrain. WildBrain is a 500 million Canadian dollar market cap entertainment company listed on the TSX in Canada. The company operates through two segments, Content Business and Canadian Television Broadcasting, and through those develops, produces, and distributes films and television programs worldwide. WildBrain's intellectual property includes well known characters such as Snoopy, Strawberry Shortcake and Inspector Gadget. Eric became CEO during the summer of 2019, after being the Co-President of Classic Media at DreamWorks and having served as the CEO of Marvel before it was acquired by Disney. Given Eric's vast experience in the media content production industry, I was very much looking forward to talking to Eric about: WildBrain's preferred business model, especially as it relates to holding onto IP versus simply selling shows to third parties; The opportunities for growth in the company's Peanuts franchise; What he has learned by watching Disney expand the Marvel franchise that he can replicate at WildBrain; The strategy behind taking a hit show or popular character and turning those into consumer products revenue; and His thoughts on the high valuations studios have been receiving in recent deals. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Our returning guest on the show today is Mark Dankberg, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Viasat. Viasat is a 3.1 billion dollar market cap company that provides broadband and communication products and services worldwide. Viasat started off a defense-oriented company but has since layered on consumer and business-facing offerings by developing the world's leading high throughput geostationary satellites. Subsequent to our first interview with Mark, Viasat announced its intent to merge with Inmarsat, a UK-based company that provides mobile satellite communications services on land, at sea, and in the air worldwide. Without question, the size and the timing of the deal was a surprise to many of the people in the industry, especially because Viasat was in the middle of preparing to launch 3 new satellites over a short period of time. Given all of that, I was very curious to hear from Mark: Why Viasat decided to acquire Inmarsat versus other potential targets; Why Viasat is the right owner of Inmarsat versus other potential buyers; Why do the deal now versus waiting until the 3 new satellites had been launched; How Inmarsat fits into Viasat's hybrid network philosophy; and How Viasat plans to integrate Inmarsat employees culturally. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

This week, we are replaying another one of our favorite episodes from Season 1. The reason is that we are about have the same guest on again to discuss a transformational merger the company announced after we released our interview. So, over the next two weeks we will have back-to-back episodes with Viasat's Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Mark Dankberg. In the episode from last Season, Mark and I discussed the nuances of the very dynamic satellite broadband industry, including why satellite broadband is not likely to be a winner-take-all market as well as the value of having a hybrid network of satellites at different orbits. In our second interview, Mark and I will talk about the rationale for the merger with Inmarsat and how the deal changes Viasat's long-term trajectory. So, please stay tuned for a multi-episode deep dive into the future of space communications. EPISODE:  My guest on the show today is Mark Dankberg, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Viasat. Viasat is a 3.8 billion dollar market cap company that provides broadband and communication products and services worldwide. Viasat started off a defense-oriented company but has since layered on consumer and business-facing offerings by developing the world's leading high throughput geostationary satellites. Over the next 2 years, Viasat will be launching 3 new satellites that will give the company the ability to offer global coverage to its military and in-flight WIFI customers. Additionally, Viasat is rolling out community WIFI initiatives to help people in emerging and frontier markets connect to the internet for the first time. All of this is happening while the company is facing a growing threat from low earth orbit satellite providers such as Elon Musk's Starlink. Given how much is going on and the fact that Mark recently went from being the CEO to assume the Executive Chairman role, I thought it would be a perfect time to talk to him about the following topics: - The future of the global satellite broadband industry, including competition with Starlink; - What the US military needs now from Viasat and how that may evolve over time; - The cultural differences between the defense and commercial sides of the company; - How Viasat can benefit from all the space-related activity going on right now; and - Why this was the right time to shift his focus This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Key takeaways:  - Deeply understanding your customers' wants and needs is a prerequisite for success in both D2C and B2B business. But, the more intermediaries you have, the less you can really understand your end customers. Also, working with distribution partners can be difficult if the goals of the organizations are not aligned. - Not every industry is a winner-take-all market. Network effects and multisided marketplaces can create virtuous cycles and winner-take-all markets. In industries with supply constraints, negative network effects drive competition and ensure a diverse set of offerings. - Bandwidth demand is heavily affected by geography and low-earth-orbit (LEO) networks are geographically limited. Despite offering low latency, every incremental satellite will only spend a fraction of its time over the areas with the most demand, and far more over oceans and other low demand areas. This is why a hybrid network that includes geostationary and LEO satellites is likely the best solution for customers. - When a company is entering new markets or introducing new products, it is imperative to be a voracious reader of business history and theory, as well as to be well-grounded in the basic math that governs the industry. - Modern warfare requires real-time information and instant communication. Accordingly, the U.S. military will need an up-to-date network of satellites with ground stations placed in safe locations in order to process and anticipate the moves of its adversaries. Timestamps:  1:18 - Introduction 2:56 - Diversifying into direct-to-consumer (D2C) with the 2009 WildBlue acquisition 5:06 - The organizational restructuring required when shifting towards D2C 7:06 - Building a D2C sales organization within a legacy B2B company 11:51 - Making stair-step improvements with every new satellite launch 18:50 - The process of deciding to build Viasat's own satellite 27:30 - Satellite broadband is not a winner-take-all market 31:32 - LEOs, GEOs, hybrid networks and why there is no “best” satellite design 45:27 - Building a cohesive culture with two distinctly different business segments 51:23 - Why Viasat 3 will play a key role in the future of warfare 58:25 - How Viasat benefits from all of the excitement around space 62:40 - What Mark has learned from Baupost Group's founder Seth Klarman 65:53 -  Being confident in putting out guidance even before the Viasat 3 satellites launch 70:55 - The least understood aspects of Viasat To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Our guest on the show today is Ramesh Srinivasan, the CEO of Agilysys. Agilysys is a 900 million dollar market cap company that provides software and hardware products and services to the hospitality industry. Ramesh became CEO back in 2017, after a somewhat rocky turnaround attempt by a prior management team. Agilysys was starting to generate higher gross margins and revenue growth before the COVID outbreak impacted its trajectory, starting in the company's fiscal year 2021. Given the recent challenges and with everything going on in the hospitality industry, I was eager to talk with Ramesh about: The organic growth path he sees for the company in upcoming years; How the company manages the desire to grow with the need to generate operate profits; The ways in which Agilysys helped its customers respond to COVID-related issues; His thoughts on M&A and expanding the company's presence outside the US, and The benefits and challenges associated with rolling out cloud native software-as-a-service products This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

This week, we are replaying one of favorite episodes from Season 1. Due to the complexities that come with the upcoming Q4 earning reporting season, we needed to take a week off between new episodes. However, we will return the week after with a new interview with the CEO of an $800 million dollar market cap software company. Tom Gayner is the Co-CEO of Markel Corporation and the wisdom he shares on life and on investing is always eye opening and valuable. We interviewed Tom in August of last year for Episode 2 of Season 1. The Compounders audience has built since August and many of our newer listeners may not even be aware of the Gayner interview. So, whether you have had a chance to listen to the interview or not, we hope you enjoy it.  EPISODE: My guest on the show today is Tom Gayner, the co-CEO of Markel Corporation. Markel is a Fortune 500, $16.7 billion market cap financial holding company that primarily operates in the insurance and re-insurance industry. Though Tom has only been in the co-CEO seat since 2016, he has been with Markel for close to 30 years and he has been an investor longer than that. Markel has been compared to Berkshire Hathaway in both structure and performance and Tom has been a key architect of the company's diversification away from insurance through the acquisition of operating businesses. In fact, Markel Ventures has gone from $1.2 billion in revenue in 2016 to about $2.8 billion today. Tom is well-known in the value investing community for his charm and intellect. Also, many people who have made the trek to Omaha for the Berkshire Shareholder Meeting have also attended the Markel Breakfast event. I had the opportunity to listen Tom speak a number of times in Omaha and that is why I thought he would be a great guest on the podcast. In this conversation, we will cover: - His thoughts on what makes a compounder - How to invest more like a grandmother than a Wall Street trader - And why he is a better investor because he is a CEO—and vice versa Click the timestamp to jump to each answer: 1:38 - Introduction 3:07 - The 2008-09 financial crisis and Markel's response 7:55 - The benefits of a legacy of family ownership 11:39 - Comparing today's market to that of 1998-99 15:53 - The benefits of investing like a grandmother 18:18 - How being a Co-CEO has made Tom a better investor 24:09 - How to tell if a person is a good cultural fit 28:35 - Building culture by articulating what your company stands for 32:15 - Bottom up and top down approaches to compounding 35:39 - Applying the Colfax Business System at Markel 38:08 - Some challenges of working within a family-controlled business 42:03 - Markel's willingness to invest today for future benefit 48:45 - How Markel Ventures helps diversify the company 51:53 - Why culture is a big part of the moat around Markel's insurance operations 55:14 - The emergence of ESG and embedding Quaker values 62:30 - Tom's ideal legacy within Markel 63:50 - Learning from your mistakes to become more adaptable 66:14 - Starting with principals and then learning by doing 69:15 - The most under appreciated aspects of Markel To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire.  iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Joey Levin, CEO if IAC/Interactivecorp. IAC is a $12.4 billion market cap holding company that has a long history of investing in disruptive digital businesses, helping them grow, and then spinning them off to shareholders. In fact, the company's Chairman, Barry Diller, has been influential in the success of a number of well-known public companies, including Expedia, TripAdvisor and LiveNation. In more recent times, the company has separated from Match Group and spun off Vimeo. Joey Levin has been CEO since 2015 and is tasked with creating value with the remaining group of businesses that IAC either controls or has minority stakes in. With that as the backdrop, I was excited to talk to Joey about: Spinning off Match, which now has a $35 billion market cap, during the tumultuous summer of 2020; What needs to go right with ANGI for the stock to be a good investment from here; The investment process and how IAC decides which opportunities to pursue; The merit of the DotDash acquisition of Meredith; How Joey decides on which companies to spend his time This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Jennifer Twiner McCarron, the CEO of Thunderbird Entertainment Group (TSX-V: TBRD) (OTCQX: THBRF). Thunderbird is a 220 million Canadian dollar market cap company listed on the TSXV in Canada. The company develops, produces and distributes film and TV programs for customers such as Hulu, Disney and Netflix. Jennifer started off as the Head of Production of Atomic Cartoons, Thunderbird's animation division, and became CEO in 2018. Since Jennifer joined the company in 2011, the content world has changed dramatically, mainly due to the proliferation of streaming services. Given the dynamic nature of the content production industry, I was curious to hear from Jennifer about:  How the company is positioned to continue to provide content to the large streaming companies; Her thoughts on the high valuations other smaller studios have been selling for recently; What the company plans to do with the cash it generates; The distinct elements of the Thunderbird culture; and The factors that have allowed for the stock to perform so well over the last few years This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on today's show is Daniel Harari, the Chairman and CEO of Lectra. Lectra is a 1.5 billion Euro market cap company based in Paris, France. Lectra provides software, automated cutting equipment, and other services that enable customers to automate and optimize the design, development, and manufacturing of many different products. Specifically, the company has built a leading position in the automotive, fashion and furniture categories. Daniel has been the CEO of Lectra since 2002 and has overseen a significant amount of revenue and EBITDA growth during his tenure. Given the company's track record, I was very interested to hear from Daniel about: His background and how he got involved with Lectra; The company's move to more of a Software-as-a-Service or SaaS business model; The rationale for recently making Lectra's largest acquisition ever; Business model elements that allow for high gross margins and customer retention; How the company's culture has evolved over time This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Stan Bergman, the Chairman and CEO of Henry Schein. Henry Schein is a Fortune 500, 10.6 billion dollar market cap, global distributor of medical and dental supplies and equipment. Stan has been CEO since 1989 and actually took the company public in 1995 for a split adjusted price of $6. From a revenue base of around 1 billion dollars in 1995, the company has grown to over $12 billion today and the stock price has appreciated to over $75. And, these numbers don't even include the animal health business that was spun off in 2018. That company, Covetrus, currently has a 2.4 billion market cap on its own. Given Stan's long track record of success, I was looking forward to talking to Stan about: The importance of dental health as a component of overall health; The company's long-term track record of compounding earnings per share; Why the medical division has seen such rapid growth; The company's international growth strategy and associated opportunities; Henry Schein's unique culture This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Bruce Young, the CEO or Concrete Pumping. The company has a 485 million dollar market cap and is the largest domestic player in a niche of construction-related services that is called concrete pumping. Bruce became CEO of the company back in 2008 but started his career in this industry way back in the 1980s. Concrete Pumping provides a high margin, mission critical service to its construction partners and has the ability to deploy capital at attractive multiples as it helps the industry consolidate further. Given that Concrete Pumping is rather new to public markets, I was very curious to hear from Bruce about: How the company generates such high margins and recognizes very high returns on incremental investments; The ongoing roll-up opportunity the company has—as well as avenues for organic growth; The capital allocation process the company employs when deciding between M&A and adding new equipment This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Robert Bryant, the CEO of Axalta Coating Systems. Axalta is a 7.6 billion dollar market cap company that manufactures and distributes high performance coatings that go into the industrial, automotive and refinish end markets. The company was originally a division of DuPont that was founded in 1866 but was carved out by private equity firm Carlyle—and then taken public in 2014. Axalta is the global leader in providing coatings to auto body repair shops and is a top 3 supplier to auto OEMs. The COVID-induced lockdowns and the subsequent supply chain issues—not to mention the ongoing semiconductor shortage that is plaguing the car companies—have presented a number of challenges to the company. Given the dynamic backdrop and the recovery the company is seeing in certain markets, I thought it would be an opportune time to catch up with Robert about: The evolution of the company since going public in 2014; The long-term growth opportunities within the global refinish market; What it was like to have Berkshire Hathaway as the company's top shareholder; How the company is navigating rapid raw material inflation and shortages This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Peter Holt, the CEO of The Joint Corp. The Joint is a 1.4 billion dollar market cap company that operates and franchises a chain of chiropractic offices. The company currently has over 600 total locations in about 35 states. Peter took the reins as CEO of The Joint in 2016 and has overseen a stock that has appreciate from under $3 in 2016 to over $90 today. In fact, the company was distinctly unprofitable when Peter became CEO but has since started generating very healthy margins with limited capital expenditures. Given all of the recent success, I was excited to talk with Peter about: The demand drivers that have been propelling the company over the last five years; The elements that have allowed the stock to appreciate so rapidly in recent times; How the company tries to distinguish itself from competitors and build a moat; How he goes about making sure the company doesn't grow too fast; and How Peter thinks about creating win-win relationships with franchisees. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Ben Gliklich, the CEO of Element Solutions (Ticker: ESI), a 5.5 billion dollar market cap specialty chemicals company. Element Solutions was formerly known as Platform Specialty Chemicals and was founded by Martin Franklin of Jarden fame—with the help of Bill Ackman from Pershing Square. The company was designed to be a roll-up but, after some initial success, it was derailed by an over-levered balance sheet. Ben became CEO in 2019 and since then has overseen a process by which Element has reduced business complexity, fixed its balance sheet, and has proven out its claims regarding its resilient margin structure. Given that the company provides products that facilitate the fabrication of semiconductors, Element has a front row seat when it comes to all of the issues regarding the global chip shortage. Accordingly, I thought it would be a great time to talk to Ben about: His path to becoming CEO and what he has learned about leadership along the way; How the company is navigating all of the customer disruption tied to chip shortage; The megatrends that are poised to propel the business over the next decade; How the company is approaching M&A and leverage after the initial stumbles at Platform Specialty; and From where Element Solutions derives it moat and pricing power This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Ben Claremon is a Principal and Portfolio Manager at Cove Street Capital, a value-oriented investment advisor based in Los Angeles. In this episode, we learn Ben's background from growing up in real estate to catching the Value Bug. We also talk about his in-depth research process that focuses on business, fundamentals and people. In addition, we do a deep dive on Lionsgate and reveal Ben's Super Power.   To learn more about Ben please visit www.covestreetcapital.com or follow him on Twitter @BenClaremon. To learn more about Richard or to request a transcript of the podcast please visit www.thinkaen.com.   “Warren Buffett once wrote that value investing is like an inoculation--it either takes or it doesn't--and when you explain to somebody what it is and how it works and why it works and show them the returns, either they get it or they don't.” -Seth Klarman of the Baupost Group   Show Notes: (01:12) Ben provides introduction. From Arizona to New York City to California. First job at a hedge fund right before the financial crisis. Attending Berkshire Annual Meetings and posting notes on his blog appropriately titled the Inoculate Investor. (06:15) Going into more detail about the Berkshire Meetings. Handwriting versus on a computer. (06:56) Early equity investments. (08:02) First big investment working at the New York Hedge Fund was actually a large short trade on many regional banks before the financial crisis. One of the last great short opportunities. (11:25) Ben talks about Cove Street Capital and its research and idea generation process. Running screens and Monday Morning Meetings. The importance of taking management meetings. Speaking to company executives as well as former and current employees is a huge part of the investment process. (16:00) Three Pillars of the Cove Street Capital Investment Process include the analysis of the Business, Fundamentals and People. (18:24) Deep dive into interviews with former employees. Leverage multiple sources including social media and Tegus, which it uses for investor-led interviews of industry experts including past employees and executives. (22:25) Culture is a very important aspect for Ben. He doesn't want to invest in a company with bad culture even in a turnaround situation. He believes a turnaround is hard if you have a poor culture. This can take years to fix, if ever. (27:12) ESG versus Culture.   (31:38) Ben discusses one of his top ideas, Lionsgate. He recently presented it on the Market Champions podcast (see link here). He thinks there is a gross misunderstanding of the people involved at the company. He also thinks it is trading at a large discount to intrinsic value. (35:10) Streaming wars, MGM and Amazon deal. Ben doesn't think Lionsgate will remain a public company, but is serious about selling to larger player. (39:24) Lionsgate is one of the only media companies where insiders don't have total control of the company. You aren't going to force Viacom or Brian Roberts to sell their companies or do anything for that matter. (43:21) Ben goes into his intrinsic value estimates of a base case of $18 and an upside case in the high $20's. He also talks about one of the Lionsgate Board members, Gordon Crawford, jumping on a JP Morgan call and detailing a sum of the parts valuation for the company which assigned a base case value of $33. (48:12) What distinguishes a great investor? Through the understanding of people and what their motivations or incentives are. “Read the Proxy Statements”. (51:22) Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multi-bagger Podcast. Ben talks about the genesis of the program and why he believes it's one of the few shows that interviews management teams the way an institutional investor would, for the long term. (56:15) Wrap up and contact information. Don't forget to follow Ben's Podcast at the Compounders Podcast.

During Season 1 of Compounders, we interviewed 12 public company executives from a variety of industries. The companies profiled ranged from two Fortune 500 insurance companies to a sub-$500 million market cap supplier to the medical device industry. In this episode, we discuss some of the key lessons and learnings from Season 1 by selecting our favorite vignettes from each episode. We also give a sneak preview of what is lining up to be an even better Season 2 of Compounders. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Jeff Bailly, the Chairman and CEO of UFP Technologies. UFP is a 480 million dollar market cap company that specializes in designing foams, films, and plastics materials for the medical, automotive, consumer, and aerospace markets in the United States. Jeff joined the company in 1988 and became CEO in 1995. Jeff has been instrumental in helping turn UFP into the company it is today. After years of somewhat limited growth, UFP made its largest acquisition ever in 2018—of a company called Dielectrics--and that deal has transformed the company's margin profile and growth trajectory. And the big changes that have occurred since the deal have not gone unnoticed by the stock market. Accordingly, I thought it would be really instructive to hear from Jeff about the process that led to UFP's recent success. In this enlightening discussion, we will cover: - The genesis of the Dieletrics deal and the strategy surrounding moving into medical end markets - Jeff's thoughts on the key elements that have allowed the stock to appreciate to a level 20 times its value when Jeff became CEO - The benefit of being patient and having a willingness to suffer as CEO - Areas in which UFP still has a long runway to get better This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Ben Claremon is a Principal and Lead PM at Cove Street Capital, a value-based asset management firm managing roughly $700m. Here he shares the bullish case for Lionsgate, a media company! Here you can find the presentation deck he made for the podcast. Otherwise, paste the following URL into your browser: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rVjw8l6Q0-KdLNbfmVf4oT2fY1c5Ib4A/view?usp=sharing

My guest on the show today is Adam Symson, the CEO of E.W. Scripps. Scripps is a 1.45 billion dollar market cap company that owns and operates local and national television stations. The company was founded in 1878 and over the years has operated within a number of different media businesses. The company spun off its cable TV business, Scripps Networks Interactive, in 2008 and then exited the newspaper business in 2015. These transactions served to focus the company more on its local TV business. However, since becoming CEO in 2017, Adam has led an aggressive acquisition campaign that has created a large and differentiated National Media segment whose stations mainly operate over-the-air. The Scripps management team anticipated that cable TV subscribers would continue to cut the cord and through these acquisitions has positioned the company to benefit as more people choose to watch TV via an antenna. Given all of the M&A activity and the dynamic nature of the pay-TV environment, I was excited to talk to Adam about: - How competition from digital ad platforms like Facebook are impacting local TV advertising; - The value of having a background in investigative journalism; - The rationale for the pace of acquisitions that have occurred during his tenure; - What it is like to work for a 100+ year old, family-controlled company; and - How Scripps develops win-win relationships with its various stakeholders This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  Time stamps: - 1:18 Introduction - 2:54 The rise of social media advertising and its effects on paid TV media - 5:20 The state of the local broadcast TV industry in 2021 - 7:10 Building a resilient culture in a volatile industry - 9:39 The company ethos that comes from developing a $15 billion asset - 11:29 Suffering short-term pain for a long-term gain in the podcast space - 15:29 Capital allocation strategy in the media industry - 18:55 How Scripps employs value investing as a media company - 22:28 The logic behind acquiring the Katz network - 26:13 Taking a big M&A swing during a global pandemic - 33:15 Investing with Berkshire Hathaway as a partner - 35:45 Creating win-win partnerships with various industry constituents - 38:48 Navigating the unbundling movement as a media company - 44:13 Balancing OTA and cable viewing within the same company - 47:34 Investor concerns regarding the traditional media industry - 49:49 The sports rights battlefield and the future of sports on broadcast TV - 53:54 Why regulation in media needs to evolve - 57:38 From investigative journalist to public company CEO - 60:09 Assessing employee fit in a competitive job market - 61:22 How Scripps wins over the next 5 years - 62:51 Mistakes made over the first 4 years as CEO - 64:34 ATSC 3.0 and the technological evolution of broadcast TV - 66:38 Preparing for the future of broadcast TV - 67:11 The most misunderstood aspects of Scripps To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Brian Recatto. Brian is the CEO of Heritage-Crystal Clean, a 670 million dollar market cap company that provides cleaning and waste removal services to customers in the US. HCCI is one of the key competitors to Clean Harbors, a company whose CEO we also interviewed on this show. Specifically, Heritage operates in 2 segments: an Environmental Service division that offers parts cleaning and containerized waste management services; and an Oil Business segment that collects, re-refines and then re-sells used motor oil. Brian took over the CEO role in 2017 and, aside from a brief COVID-related speed bump in 2020, he has overseen consistently improving results and a higher stock price. COVID presented—and continues to present—a number of challenges for Heritage but the company's strong balance sheet and consistent Environmental Services businesses have allowed it to weather the storm. With that as a backdrop, Brian and I had a great discussion about: - How the company has navigated the challenging customer disruptions over the last 18 months; - The ups and downs associated with owning and operating an oil re-refinery; - The future of hazardous waste regulation and why HCCI is one of the good guys when it comes to environmental matters; - The benefits of operating dense route networks and how Heritage defends its market position; and - How the company approaches M&A and the prospect of adding a third leg to the company's stool This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/  Time stamps:  - 1:18 Introduction - 3:00 Navigating COVID-19 as a waste services company - 8:52 Why Heritage highlights individual employees on its investor relations website - 10:45 Creating lines of communication between senior management and field employees - 11:56 How the rise of electric vehicles will impact HCCI - 16:19 Evolving a waste services business as customers become more ESG-focused - 18:13 How to tell what is a great ESG story - 21:37 Growing an underappreciated parts washing business - 23:34 Approaching win-win relationships with regulators - 27:25 The logic behind creating a more vertically integrated business model - 31:27 IMO 2020 and its significant impacts on Heritage - 34:10 Balancing competition in new and foothold markets - 36:57 The route density network effect - 38:43 Additional monetization opportunities at Heritage - 40:39 Helping frontline employees become effective salespeople - 43:06 The challenges of hiring and retaining people within a tight labor market - 45:50 Assessing the potential of automation in a services business - 47:06 Managing the volatility of the re-refinery business - 51:35 Setting fair goals for employees who work in volatile business lines - 52:56 Family influence at Heritage: appealing or concerning? - 55:59 Balancing short-term pain for long-term gain - 57:39 Looking back at that last 4 years as CEO of Heritage - 58:50 Bolt-on and tuck-in acquisition opportunities - 1:01:17 Filling in the West Coast coverage gaps at Heritage - 1:03:18 The benefits of scale in the waste services industry - 1:05:17 The biggest changes experienced over the last 15 years - 1:06:45 The most misunderstood aspects of Heritage-Crystal Clean To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Jorge Gonzalez, the CEO of The St. Joe Company. St. Joe is a 2.53 billion dollar market cap company whose main asset is a huge landholding in Northwest Florida. A lot of investors may remember that the company has been the subject of a number of short reports over the last decade but since Jorge became CEO in 2015, St Joe has consistently grown its revenue and EBITDA—and has diversified its revenue base. Also, after a period of time in which the stock was unable to break out, over the last year it has risen to levels that had not been seen since the mid-2000s. Given the company's recent success, I was excited to talk to Jorge about his vision of the future of the company and what people may not be appreciating its asset base. Specifically, we discussed: - What it means to operate as an owner-oriented company; - The demographic trends that are fueling growth in Northwest Florida; - What the shorts have gotten wrong over the years; - How the company approaches the risk of hurricanes in the region; and - What Jorge has learned from the company's Chairman, Bruce Berkowitz of Fairholme Capital This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Timestamps: - 1:18 Introduction - 2:36 Being named the next CEO of St. Joe - 3:19 Shifting St. Joe's strategy, culture, and process of execution - 4:08 Adjusting corporate strategy to expand the total market size - 5:18 St. Joe's vast land holdings and unique moat - 6:38 Florida's demographic shifts and how that might affect St. Joe - 8:18 How COVID has affected the trends driving St. Joe's business - 9:52 Handling cyclicality at a macro and geographic level - 11:46 Building a recurring revenue stream in a traditionally cyclical business - 15:28 Further enhancing an already improving business model - 18:05 Balancing an expansion beyond Florida with internal investment opportunities - 19:10 Choosing between internal development, partnerships and the sale of land assets - 20:58 The synergies that exist between residential, commercial, and other infrastructure - 24:04 Ensuring expertise exists within a small core team - 25:45 What does a good partner look like for St. Joe? - 27:36 What does St. Joe mean by “owner-oriented?” - 29:19 Why St. Joe invests so heavily in growth over buying back shares - 30:52 Lessons learned from Bruce Berkowitz - 31:51 How decisions get made at St. Joe - 34:40 How to decide which people should be on the bus - 37:17 What factors did David Einhorn get right in his 2015 short analysis? - 38:42 St. Joe's remaining developable acreage - 40:14 How St. Joe benefits from a 50-year master development plan - 41:58 What attractions are missing from St. Joe's core counties - 42:58 Building win-win relationships with government stakeholders within the community - 45:27 How St. Joe avoids being seen as “too powerful” within the community - 46:37 Building storm resiliency in an area directly affected by environmental challenges - 49:49 The benefits of building modern infrastructure from scratch - 50:57 How modern community design has improved over the years - 52:35 Futureproofing a home or community as a real estate developer - 55:14 How an investor should approach St. Joe - 58:31 St. Joe's key performance indicators and measures of success - 59:47 Why St. Joe is still a “cheap” investment - 62:07 Looking at book value per share as an assessment of St. Joe's progress - 62:50 Instilling a long-term mentality within a corporate culture - 64:14 Why mistakes are sometimes more valuable than are successes - 65:42 The most misunderstood aspect of St. Joe  To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Mark Dankberg, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Viasat. Viasat is a 3.8 billion dollar market cap company that provides broadband and communication products and services worldwide. Viasat started off a defense-oriented company but has since layered on consumer and business-facing offerings by developing the world's leading high throughput geostationary satellites. Over the next 2 years, Viasat will be launching 3 new satellites that will give the company the ability to offer global coverage to its military and in-flight WIFI customers. Additionally, Viasat is rolling out community WIFI initiatives to help people in emerging and frontier markets connect to the internet for the first time. All of this is happening while the company is facing a growing threat from low earth orbit satellite providers such as Elon Musk's Starlink. Given how much is going on and the fact that Mark recently went from being the CEO to assume the Executive Chairman role, I thought it would be a perfect time to talk to him about the following topics: - The future of the global satellite broadband industry, including competition with Starlink; - What the US military needs now from Viasat and how that may evolve over time; - The cultural differences between the defense and commercial sides of the company; - How Viasat can benefit from all the space-related activity going on right now; and - Why this was the right time to shift his focus This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Key takeaways:  - Deeply understanding your customers' wants and needs is a prerequisite for success in both D2C and B2B business. But, the more intermediaries you have, the less you can really understand your end customers. Also, working with distribution partners can be difficult if the goals of the organizations are not aligned. - Not every industry is a winner-take-all market. Network effects and multisided marketplaces can create virtuous cycles and winner-take-all markets. In industries with supply constraints, negative network effects drive competition and ensure a diverse set of offerings. - Bandwidth demand is heavily affected by geography and low-earth-orbit (LEO) networks are geographically limited. Despite offering low latency, every incremental satellite will only spend a fraction of its time over the areas with the most demand, and far more over oceans and other low demand areas. This is why a hybrid network that includes geostationary and LEO satellites is likely the best solution for customers. - When a company is entering new markets or introducing new products, it is imperative to be a voracious reader of business history and theory, as well as to be well-grounded in the basic math that governs the industry. - Modern warfare requires real-time information and instant communication. Accordingly, the U.S. military will need an up-to-date network of satellites with ground stations placed in safe locations in order to process and anticipate the moves of its adversaries. Timestamps:  1:18 - Introduction 2:56 - Diversifying into direct-to-consumer (D2C) with the 2009 WildBlue acquisition 5:06 - The organizational restructuring required when shifting towards D2C 7:06 - Building a D2C sales organization within a legacy B2B company 11:51 - Making stair-step improvements with every new satellite launch 18:50 - The process of deciding to build Viasat's own satellite 27:30 - Satellite broadband is not a winner-take-all market 31:32 - LEOs, GEOs, hybrid networks and why there is no “best” satellite design 45:27 - Building a cohesive culture with two distinctly different business segments 51:23 - Why Viasat 3 will play a key role in the future of warfare 58:25 - How Viasat benefits from all of the excitement around space 62:40 - What Mark has learned from Baupost Group's founder Seth Klarman 65:53 -  Being confident in putting out guidance even before the Viasat 3 satellites launch 70:55 - The least understood aspects of Viasat To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Ben Claremon, Partner at Cove Street Capital, discusses his thesis on Lumen. Lumen is a complicated story and a bit of a battleground stock, but Ben think the company is trading at a large discount to their asset value and is making moves to unlock that value.Ben's first YAVP appearance on Viasat (VSAT): https://youtu.be/Otw0oWvuhdUBen's Compounders podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Qbcrw84MDaJ3CZUNuqOxu?si=vD-uIjqVR4G_SFwH_ALVEg&dl_branch=1Chapters0:00 Intro1:35 Lumen Overview5:55 Why didn't Lumens' old management team believe in Fiber?13:30 Discussing the proxy statement and management incentives19:15 How can telecom investors get over their Lumen baggage?25:15 Looking at Lumen as a special situation35:00 What would Lumen look like if they sold all of their consumer business?37:05 Lumen's valuation and sum of the parts39:15 Lumen's looming dividend cut?47:00 Government subsidies (CAF going away; RDOF replacing it?)54:40 Why invest in Lumen vs. a cleaner story like Frontier (FYBR)1:03:25 Closing thoughts

My guest on the show today is Alan McKim, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Clean Harbors (NYSE: CLH). Clean Harbors is a 5.6 billion dollar market cap company that provides environmental and industrial services within North America. The company has two segments: Environmental Services and Safety-Kleen Sustainable Solutions. In the Environmental segment, Clean Harbors collects, treats and disposes of waste within its company-owned landfills and incinerators. In addition, the Safety-Kleen division provides cleaning and waste disposal services to customers such automotive repair shops. In fact, Clean Harbors is the largest recycler of used motor oil in North America. Alan McKim founded the company in 1980 and took it public at $9 in 1987. Over that period of time, Clean Harbors has made a number of large acquisitions, including the transformational merger with Safety-Kleen in 2012. The company now produces over 3 billion dollars in revenue and its stock has risen to over $100 per share. It is not often that I have a chance to talk to someone who has run a company for 40 years. So, I really enjoyed peaking with Alan about the following topics: - The uniqueness of the Clean Harbors asset base and how that creates a moat; - How the company decides to take big swings when it comes to M&A; - Educating people about how Clean Harbors is a good actor in a world increasingly focused on ESG; - The impact of further environmental regulation on the company; and - Building a cohesive culture over 40 years This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Key Takeaways: - Moats that are developed in highly regulated industries can be quite durable - Large acquisitions often take some time to get right but you have to be willing to periodically take big swings - Regulators can be your allies: every inspection is an opportunity to learn new best practices and build a safer environment - Even companies that don't start with a focus on return on invested capital (ROIC) can develop that metric as a North Star—and shareholders can help with that process - Creating a culture of safety is essential at company with thousands of field employees Time stamps: 1:19 - Introduction 3:03 – Rationale for making the biggest acquisition in CLH's history 5:23 – How familiarity with a business improves post-merger integration 7:12 – How environmental sustainability played a part in the acquisition of Safety-Kleen 9:10 – Are people actually putting used motor oil down the drain? 10:07 – Strategy behind keeping acquired brands alive 11:29 – Why take another $1 billion-plus swing at HydroChem now 14:05 – Integration learnings from 65 acquisitions 16:53 – Acquisition strategy learnings over a long career of acquisitions 18:54 – The virtual impossibility of green-fielding brand new incinerators in the US 20:30 – Why now is the time to expand incinerator capacity through brownfield development 23:07 – Building a culture and company that will accept short-term pain for long-term gain 24:45 – How CLH has suffered from acquiring assets outside of its core 26:23 – The advantage of having recently added a new incinerator to a facility 28:04 – Creating win-win relationships with diverse regulators 29:49 – Using regulatory fines as a learning moment 31:43 – How to position a company to benefit from future regulation 33:41 – The moat that comes from having a dense route network 34:55 – The impact of the electric vehicle revolution on used motor oil demand 36:52 – Challenges facing the re-refined oil business 38:36 – What's being missed at Clean Harbors 41:21 – Building a sustainable and consistent culture through organic growth and acquisitions 43:40 – Career learnings around compensation 45:17 – Succession planning as a founder and CEO 46:57 – Empowering a board to give real feedback to the founder 48:58 – Building an adaptable organization in an ever-changing industry 51:04 – Improving internal ESG planning and participation 52:44 – How shareholder feedback has been helpful in the past 54:32 – Why insider selling of shares isn't always a bad thing 55:48 – International M&A as a potential avenue 58:47 – Alan's ideal legacy 60:38 – Focus as a tool for growth 62:12 – The origins of ROIC as an internal north star 63:54 – The least understood aspects of Clean Harbors To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/ iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on this episode is Jeff Rosica, the CEO of Avid Technology, a 1.2 billion dollar market cap company that sells software and hardware for digital media production and management. For decades, Avid's products have been considered the gold standard in the entertainment industry. In fact, its Media Composer and Pro Tools products are used to make many of the movies you see and to create the songs you listen to. Jeff Rosica was Avid's Chief Sales Office and became the CEO in 2018. Since then he has overseen the company's transition to a SaaS, or software-as-a-Service business model. After a few fits and starts, the company has started to deliver on its margin and cash flow targets as the benefits of the business model transition are flowing through the financial statement. Given the company's recent success and my desire to better understand Avid's journey, I thought it would be a great time to catch up with Jeff and discuss: - What moving from perpetual licenses to a subscription software business really looks like internally - How the company is approaching a world where people can create great content on their iPhones - Whether or not having activist shareholders involved in the company can be helpful - And how to balance the different cultures within engineering and sales teams This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Key Takeaways: - You can't fix a business without first fixing the culture. Without the right people, you have nothing - Fear the innovators more than you fear the incumbents. If you aren't willing to cannibalize your own business to innovate, you'll never win against the ankle biters. - Listening to alternative perspectives is incredibly important and often activist investors can be those voices. - With the right underpinning of a solid company, you can change a company incredibly quickly—and probably even faster than you would think. You might regret certain things you do if you move fast, but you'll always really regret the things you didn't change and improve. Time stamps: 1:20 – Introduction 2:50 – Being named interim CEO with no forewarning 4:55 – Communicating your strategy as a new CEO 6:02 - Was being CEO always part of the plan? 8:10 – What it took to fix a broken culture 9:49 – Building a media creation tool in the age of iPhones and accessible software 12:55 – Competing with innovative ankle biters as the incumbent 15:55 – Balancing the dreams of engineers with the realities of the business 18:34 – How COVID has changed consumer needs for media creation 21:07 – Moving from a perpetual license business to a modern SaaS structure 23:27 – Fixing a company first and then thinking about M&A 26:50 – Capital allocation strategy now that M&A is on the table 29:23 – How activist shareholders have helped AVID 35:13 – Maintaining bargaining power even against the largest customers 37:17 – Remaining focused in a world with geographically diverse opportunities 39:18 – Managing rising stakeholder expectations during a period of rapid growth 41:00 – Incentivizing an organization to achieve stretch goals 43:48 – COVID's long term effects on a tradeshow-focused industry 47:49 – Mistakes made and lessons learned as a brand new CEO 51:07 – Expanding an organization's focus from the short run to the long term 53:05 – Jeff's ideal legacy 54:37 – Knowing when a company is ready to take on new initiatives 56:29 – Getting better at communicating with stakeholders regarding ESG 59:05 – Lessons learned in trying to get the right people on the bus 1:01:45 – Why industry consolidation has always been 1 year away To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/  iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Mauricio Ramos, the CEO of Millicom. Millicom is a 3.75 billion dollar market cap mobile and broadband company that primarily operates in Latin and South America. What is most interesting about Millicom is its leading positions in its largest markets and how rapidly the company is transforming itself into a broadband leader in the region. Mauricio has been CEO since 2015 but has been involved with the industry since the late 1990s. Over his tenure, he has overseen the company's ongoing exit from its African operations as well as its expansion through M&A into new markets such as Panama. Mauricio spent a number of years working for Liberty Global and has brought the John Malone cable playbook to Millicom. COVID has presented the company with some unique challenges and I thought it would be a great time to catch up with Mauricio about his outlook for Millicom and the markets the company operates within. In this conversation, we had the opportunity to cover: - The rationale for spending aggressively to become a more broadband-focused company - What he learned about cable industry while working for Liberty Global - The process of working to become better known by US investors - The benefits of owning cable and wireless assets in their markets - How to establish a cohesive culture across borders Key Takeaways: - The biggest learnings from Liberty Media's John Malone: business focus and clarity are what drive success so you must eliminate distractions. - How to create moat in cable and broadband: benefit from a first mover advantage where possible, build a committed customer base that is driven by great customer service, offer multiple products that allow you to sell a low priced bundle and consistently reinvest in your brand - Developing cultural traditions within an organization can build incredible employee buy-in across all levels of an organization. - Turning your employees into long-term investors through compensation drives organizational buy-in for long-term strategic decisions. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Timestamps for this episode: 1:19 - Introduction 2:55 - What happens when your largest investor exits its position 6:52 - The flexibility and autonomy afforded when a controlling shareholder departs 9:12 - Millicom's unique structure that comes from trading on two exchanges 10:32 - How an investor can get comfortable investing in Latin America 16:07 - What Mauricio learned from John Malone and Liberty Global 21:16 - Fixed mobile conversion as a value generator 24:39 - What is Millicom's moat? 29:04 - Customer service culture as a moat 31:52 - Creating a consistent culture across varied geographies 37:24 - The benefits of Millicom's scale in Latin American 41:04 - How Millicom creates win-win relationships with governments and regulators throughout Latin America 46:18 - The perception of cable and mobile businesses and the disparate multiples they trade at 51:00 - Millicom's capital allocation strategy 53:45 - How strategy can vary depending on market position within a country 56:55 - How to align the organization behind long-term goals even if there are short-term challenges 59:22 - Mauricio's biggest learnings from his years as CEO 1:01:50 - What is the most misunderstood part of Millicom? To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/  iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Jim Hallett, the former CEO and now Executive Chairman of KAR Auction Services. KAR is a $2.25B market cap company that operates within the wholesale auto remarketing industry. Jim is very well known in the used car auction industry and has built up a wealth of knowledge over his close to 30 years at KAR. He joined the company back in 1993, then became CEO in 2009 and just this past April stepped back to Executive Chairman. During his tenure, Jim has overseen the company's spin-off of IAA, which is now a $7.3B market cap company on its own. He also has helped spearhead the company's aggressive initiatives to extend its digital offerings and add scale beyond KAR's physical car auction facilities. In this wide-ranging discussion, we covered: - Jim's thoughts on KAR's very important pivot to digital that occurred in 2020 - What has changed about the car auction industry over the last three decades - Why he thought it was the right time to pass the torch - Maintaining the company's culture within a rapidly changing industry - Why KAR believes that the model of the future is hybrid: digital and physical If you are at all interested in how incumbent companies defend their turf against digital upstarts, this was a great discussion. This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Timestamps for this episode: 1:50 - Introduction 3:42 - KAR's rapid digital transformation 6:12 - Putting customer safety over market share 9:30 - Managing stakeholders during a transformational change 11:50 - Layering a digital strategy on top of a historically brick and mortar business 13:42 - Balancing KAR's rapid digital transformation with the needs of customers 16:37 - Digitizing their dealer-to-dealer business through M&A 20:43 - Key lessons learned competing against digital upstarts 23:14 - M&A: to build or to buy? 25:30 - Successful leaders have to embrace change 28:56 - How do you know when to pass the CEO torch? 31:31 - Digitization of the used car auction industry 33:42 - Imparting a culture of optimism 36:42 - Growth opportunities via expanding into Europe 40:02 - Limiting management distraction while expanding outside the US 41:12 - Competing for digital talent from Indiana 44:40 - Pushing old school customers to digitize their business 48:42 - Maintaining a moat within an increasingly digital world 51:35 - Jim Hallett's ideal legacy 54:45 - Biggest changes in the car auction industry over 3 decades 57:57 - Most underappreciated aspect of KAR's hybrid model 1:00:25 - Why the industry may never be fully digital To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/  iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Sean O'Connor, the CEO of StoneX Group (NASDAQ: SNEX), a $1.2 billion dollar market cap financial services company that generated over $50 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2020. Sean became the CEO of International Assets Holding Company in 2002 and was a key architect of the 2009 transformational merger with FCStone that serves as the foundation of what StoneX is today. During his tenure, the company has been quite acquisitive and has added several new product lines and geographies. Currently, StoneX is involved in a number of businesses, including: - Risk management and hedging services - Commodities trading - Equity securities trading - International payments; and - Foreign exchange services Sean has been a steward of a stock that is now 3.5 times higher than it was when the FCStone merger closed, a period of time in which book value per share is up over 4 times. In this wide-ranging discussion, we cover: - Sean's philosophy on M&A and integrating companies - How StoneX approaches risk management and what the company has learned from prior mistakes - The process of incubating and funding an international payments business; and - How financial services companies can distinguish themselves from competitors This episode of Compounders: The Anatomy of a Multibagger is sponsored by Tegus, an innovative and disruptive company that is changing the way professional investors work. For more information, please visit: https://www.tegus.co/ Timestamps for this episode: 1:50 - Introduction to SNEX CEO Sean O'Connor 3:35 - Why even attempt a transformational merger during the Global Financial Crisis 12:04 - The challenges associated with deals where the minnow swallows the whale 19:30 - Deep integration vs. a hands-off approach post-acquisition 23:00 - Building a differentiated risk management culture at StoneX 31:01 - Important lessons from significant loss events 37:11 - Starting an international payments business from scratch 44:04 - How StoneX looks at cryptocurrency as an opportunity 47:37 - Creating a moat around StoneX despite the competition 59:13 - StoneX's relationship with regulators and becoming good at regulation 1:03:19 - Key elements that have propelled StoneX's valuation 1:06:27 - The most underappreciated aspect of StoneX: long term-compounding To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire. For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: https://covestreetcapital.com/  iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Tom Gayner, the co-CEO of Markel Corporation. Markel is a Fortune 500, $16.7 billion market cap financial holding company that primarily operates in the insurance and re-insurance industry. Though Tom has only been in the co-CEO seat since 2016, he has been with Markel for close to 30 years and he has been an investor longer than that. Markel has been compared to Berkshire Hathaway in both structure and performance and Tom has been a key architect of the company's diversification away from insurance through the acquisition of operating businesses. In fact, Markel Ventures has gone from $1.2 billion in revenue in 2016 to about $2.8 billion today. Tom is well-known in the value investing community for his charm and intellect. Also, many people who have made the trek to Omaha for the Berkshire Shareholder Meeting have also attended the Markel Breakfast event. I had the opportunity to listen Tom speak a number of times in Omaha and that is why I thought he would be a great guest on the podcast. In this conversation, we will cover: - His thoughts on what makes a compounder - How to invest more like a grandmother than a Wall Street trader - And why he is a better investor because he is a CEO—and vice versa Click the timestamp to jump to each answer: 1:38 - Introduction 3:07 - The 2008-09 financial crisis and Markel's response 7:55 - The benefits of a legacy of family ownership 11:39 - Comparing today's market to that of 1998-99 15:53 - The benefits of investing like a grandmother 18:18 - How being a Co-CEO has made Tom a better investor 24:09 - How to tell if a person is a good cultural fit 28:35 - Building culture by articulating what your company stands for 32:15 - Bottom up and top down approaches to compounding 35:39 - Applying the Colfax Business System at Markel 38:08 - Some challenges of working within a family-controlled business 42:03 - Markel's willingness to invest today for future benefit 48:45 - How Markel Ventures helps diversify the company 51:53 - Why culture is a big part of the moat around Markel's insurance operations 55:14 - The emergence of ESG and embedding Quaker values 62:30 - Tom's ideal legacy within Markel 63:50 - Learning from your mistakes to become more adaptable 66:14 - Starting with principals and then learning by doing 69:15 - The most under appreciated aspects of Markel To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @BenClaremon and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire.  iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

My guest on the show today is Weston Hicks, the CEO of Alleghany Corporation. Alleghany is a Fortune 500, $9.3B market cap company that focuses primarily on the insurance and re-insurance industry. Weston became CEO all the way back in late 2004 and since then, the company has grown its book value significantly and, like a mini-Berkshire Hathaway, has built up an interesting portfolio of non-insurance businesses that includes everything from a machine tool company to a toy company. And the Berkshire parallels don't end there. Weston is a value investor at heart and is well known for his eclectic shareholder letters where he dives deep into the insurance industry and the capital markets as a whole. Weston was a key driver of the company's 2011 transformational merger with TransRe, a deal that established Alleghany as a global insurance powerhouse. After close to 20 years with the company, Weston will be retiring at the end of this year. So, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk to Weston before he officially leaves the CEO seat and get his insights and perspectives, on a variety of topics, including: - His thoughts on what makes a compounder - The benefits and the setbacks associated with the merger with TransRe - How to compensate people and establish a competitive advantage within the insurance industry - The emergence of ESG and how that impacts a company that underwrites catastrophe risks Click the timestamp to jump to each answer: 3:40 – Introduction and the transformational merger with TransRe 7:50 – Weston's plan as CEO (why the diversification into reinsurance) 9:50 – What made TransRe such a compelling opportunity 11:30 – The difficulties of M&A and why Alleghany is unique as a company 13:30 – The big surprises from the TransRe deal 14:55 – Looking back on the TransRe transaction 10 years later 17:50 – The impact of new competition moving into reinsurance 20:24 – What makes insurance companies such effective compounders 23:19 – Compensation as a lever for performance 25:40 – The history of Alleghany's investment strategy 28:11 – How involved the board is in capital allocation 32:00 – Alleghany's capital allocation strategy, investing North Star, and inevitable missteps 36:20 – Alleghany Capital and family run businesses 40:47 – Growing Alleghany Capital & the insurance business 43:17 – Weston's approach to growing shareholder wealth 48:30 – Hiring, compensation, and employee retention 52:08 – The emergence of ESG 57:20 – Why Alleghany utilizes special dividends 61:20 – Alleghany's exceptional stock growth 64:40 – What about Alleghany makes Weston so comfortable stepping away 67:50 – Areas where Alleghany has had to adapt 70:25 – What is the most misunderstood aspect of Alleghany? To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on twitter at @InoculatedInves and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire.  iTunes: https://apple.co/3xlUvPY Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jxkxLl Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms. All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

Welcome to the Compounders Podcast, where we explore the anatomy of public company wealth creation stories. On this show, we invite you to be a fly on the wall for the actual conversations professional investors have with public company CEOs. Through a series of interviews, we will learn about how to create a compounder—a sustainable company whose success builds upon itself—by hearing about the real-life experiences of leaders who run smaller-cap public companies. I'm your host, Ben Claremon, a partner and portfolio manager at Cove Street Capital. In these conversations, I interview public company senior executives by posing the exact type of questions I ask as part of Cove Street's diligence process. By talking to people who operate within a wide variety of industries, we will dig into the holistic aspects of company building that you are not going to hear anywhere else. Whether you are a professional investor, founder or someone who is simply interested in business, we think this podcast has something for you. To get all the latest updates about the podcast, see who we'll have on next, as well as watch the video version of the pod, please follow us on Twitter at @InoculatedInves and subscribe to the SNN Network YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/snnwire.  Each new episode will be available every Tuesday morning on Apple, Spotify and all podcast streaming platforms.  All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Cove Street Capital or any affiliates. This podcast is for informational purposes only, it is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending the purchase or sale of any securities. The hosts and guests may be beneficial owners of the securities discussed. You should not assume that the securities discussed are or will be profitable.

In today's episode, Trey Lockerbie welcomes back Ben Claremon and Eugene Robin from Cove Street Capital. They quickly touch on the performance of Lumen Technologies, a stock they pitched on our show back in December 2020, whose price subsequently has risen 50% in Q1. But for this episode, Claremon and Robin mainly discuss the Race to Space and their position in Viasat. If you only follow the headlines, you would think Elon Musk is on an unencumbered path to space domination, especially with his satellite business under SpaceX called Starlink.IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:(24:49) How Viasat might currently be wildly underappreciated by the market(06:15) How Starlink compares to Viasat in the future of satellite broadband(01:02:49) Their intrinsic value of Viasat and much much more*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.BOOKS AND RESOURCES:Preston, Trey & Stig's tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) hereSupport our free podcast by supporting our sponsorsHELP US OUT!Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For this episode of the Planet MicroCap Podcast, I spoke with Ben Claremon and Eugene Robin, Principal Portfolio Manager and Principal Research Analyst at Cove Street Capital. When I chatted with Ben last year for Episode 135, he told me about his colleague, Eugene, who has some great MicroCap stories to tell. So, I thought it would be fun to have them both on to chat about all things MicroCap. Please enjoy! For more information about Cove Street Capital, please visit: http://covestreetcapital.com/ You can Follow Ben Claremon on Twitter @InoculatedInves: https://twitter.com/InoculatedInves 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 all our Video Interviews with management teams, educational panels from the conference, as well as expert commentary from some familiar guests on the podcast. Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1Q5Yfym Click here to rate and review the Planet MicroCap Podcast The Planet MicroCap Podcast is brought to you by SNN Incorporated, publishers of StockNewsNow.com, The Official MicroCap News Source, and the MicroCap Review Magazine, the leading magazine in the MicroCap market. You can Follow the Planet MicroCap Podcast on Twitter @BobbyKKraft

Eugene Robin and Andrew Leaf from Cove Street discuss their investment in Viemed. Viemed targets organic growth rates over 30%, yet the company only trades for ~15x free cash flow. Andrew and Eugene lay out their case for why the market is wrong on this one, including why VMD's business model is advantaged versus their competitors and why they aren't scare of a Medicare cut in the near to medium term.Cove Street's first podcast appearance on Viasat (VSAT): https://youtu.be/Otw0oWvuhdU​Chapters0:00​ Intro1:10​ Viemed overview4:30​ Typical use case for VMD's ventilators7:35​ Discussion of COPD market12:35​ How VMD's business model is different than peers24:20​ Why is the market valuing a 30% organic growth business at 15x free cash flow?33:20​ Medicare cut risks and what happened in 201639:10​ VMD's acquisition potential42:00​ VMD's moat with hiring therapists47:00​ Discussing VMD's bad debt expense50:00​ COVID's impact on VMD53:30​ Cove Street's price target59:40​ Parting thoughts

Joining us for this episode was Ben Claremon from Cove Street Capital. Cove Street Capital offers concentrated, small cap value investment strategies that capitalize on inefficiencies in public markets.In this episode Ben gives a breakdown the his investment process, and the thesis for investing in two tech stocks he thinks have great upside potential.Hosted by Jon Kingston--->Get emailed FREE exclusive bonus episodes -https://capitalemployed.fm/exclusive/--->website: capitalemployed.fmtwitter: @capitalemployed--->Please note this podcast is for education and information only. Stocks, or investment themes, covered in the show are not recommendations. Please do you own research before investing in any stock, fund, product, or service.#investing #stocks #finance #business #microcaps

Ben Claremon is a portfolio manager at Cove Street Capital. In this conversation we cover: - Cove Street Capital's investment process - what the Buffett List is - how to read a proxy statement - a deep dive on a company in Cove Street's portfolio. - and a whole lot more! Thank you so much for listening, we really appreciate you. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a review as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content by going to these places: Premium Research Website: https://www.investingcity.org YouTube: Investing City Twitter: investing_city Or feel free to email us at service@investingcity.org Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions!

Cove Street Capital's Ben Claremon joins Kieran Poole to discuss his investment philosophy, how he feels about the moniker "suggestivist", and how a stock market panic affects value investors.  View all of our products available by visiting our website.