What's going on in the Oddball world?

I wanted to put together a quick update post of what's been going on for me (Nate) in the Oddball Stocks world.

As you've noticed my posting frequency has slowed to a crawl.  This has coincided with the acceleration of my software business, CompleteBankData.  As that's taken off I just haven't had as much time to write and muse on investment topics.

Our company was accepted early in 2019 into the AlphaLab start-up accelerator here in Pittsburgh and that's taken up even more time.  But I'm not lamenting the loss of time, the benefits far outweigh how crammed things are.  Here's an article about the current cohort of companies, ours included.

While being a part of an accelerator I've had the opportunity to greatly widen my network and meet a ton of entrepreneurs and successful executives.  As readers know I'm a value investor through and through.  Which is sort of a paradox in that I'm running a growth company, and the maxim of our company is that we help banks grow.  So how is it that I'm a value and growth person?  I think it all breaks down to the level of involvement.

A lot of investors and activists struggle to push a stagnant company to grow.  That's because growth isn't in their DNA, and for a lot of people growth means change, and it's hard to change.  When someone else is buying the dollar for $.30 and liquidating it I'm happy to take a ride.  But I'm not sure I'd want to be doing that liquidating myself.

On the other hand I really enjoy running a company.  I love talking to clients, love networking with prospects, and getting involved in client operations and helping them accelerate their growth.  But you can't do this if a company doesn't want to grow.

In the meantime my partner in crime at the Oddball Stocks Newsletter (and you really should subscribe if you haven't already) will be starting to post from time on this blog.

The posts I author have my name attached at the bottom, whereas the posts Colin authors have "Oddball Stocks Newsletter" attached.

I want to take a quick turn and talk about the newsletter for a minute.  Over the past year I brought Colin on board and he's taken the letter to a place that I didn't have the ability to take it.  We've dramatically increased our coverage universe of oddball stocks, while at the same time expanding the depth of coverage on each name.  If you're in the oddball investment space I'd highly recommend you take a look and consider a subscription.  There is a lot of content we put together that is simply not available anywhere else.

A parting word.  Lest you think I've lost the value gene, I'm still out hunting for bargains, although not always stocks.  I've been out in the real world finding bargains on hard goods and reselling them on eBay.  It helps me scratch the itch until the market is littered with similar bargains.

-Nate