The 7investing Podcast

Decades ago, scientists grew excited about the possibility of engineering biology with standardized parts, similar to the foundational changes that enabled the semiconductor industry to blossom into one of the most important in the global economy. Or for the less technical crowd, like Legos. What should this new way of working with biology be called? The term “intentional biology” was originally proposed, but too many academics scoffed at the proposal, as it implied what they had been doing to that point was “unintentional biology.” Eventually, the field settled on the term “synthetic biology” that remains in use to this day. There’s just one problem facing investors: What the heck does “synthetic biology” mean? Synthetic biology isn’t an industry. It’s a way of thinking. It’s about applying engineering principles to biology to create living products and services with predictable functions. Reproducibility may not sound like a significant problem, but a 2016 Nature review found that 60% of scientists couldn’t reproduce their own results. Results from peer-reviewed publications – the gold standard of science – couldn’t be replicated 70% of the time. As our understanding of biology grows and our ability to more precisely engineer it deepens, living technology will enter and disrupt many economic sectors. This includes health care and agriculture, but also those not commonly associated with biology, such as mining, digital data storage, energy storage, and more. In an appearance on the 7investing podcast, Dr. Drew Endy, one of the founding fathers of synthetic biology, provided a framework for understanding how biotechnology and synthetic biology differ. Biotechnology was enabled by three core technologies including recombinant DNA (the ability to clone genes), polymerase chain reaction (PCR, or the ability to amplify genes), and DNA sequencing (the ability to read genes). Synthetic biology is being enabled by three core technologies including the coordination of labor (the ability to standardize biology and generate reproducible results), abstraction layers (the ability to make engineering more accessible through user interfaces), and DNA synthesis (the ability to write genes). Although the field of synthetic biology has reached a critical mass and is advancing quickly, investors are reminded that it’s still early. Perhaps the best analogy is to tech stocks. In the late 1990s, if you thought that the information superhighway would fundamentally reshape the economy, then you would’ve been 100% correct. But you also might have invested in Pets.com. Many of the most valuable “net stocks” either hadn’t been founded (Google was founded in 1998, Facebook in 2004) or hadn’t launched their transformational services (the cloud computing division of Amazon Web Services launched in 2006) or products (the first iPhone launched in 2007). Today, if you think synthetic biology will fundamentally reshape the economy, then I think you’ll be proven 100% correct. But there sure are a lot of Pets.coms out there right now. Many business models are still being tinkered, while many grand visions still remain beyond the technical capabilities of scientists in 2022. Therefore, it’s not unreasonable to think that some of the most valuable synthetic biology companies of our lifetimes haven’t been founded yet. In this episode of 7inFocus, 7investing Lead Advisor Maxx Chatsko introduces investors to synthetic biology and provides his thoughts on the attractiveness of Amyris (NASDAQ: AMRS), Codexis (NASDAQ: CDXS), Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ: TWST), and Zymergen (NASDAQ: ZY).

Not too long ago, software was sold with perpetual licenses. Often, software was bundled with hardware. In some cases, an annual maintenance contract was added to the perpetual license, which provided the buyer with software updates and patches. This sales motion meant significant upfront costs for the purchaser. Every few years, a new major upgrade landed, and the whole process repeated itself. Subscription software changed all this with the arrival of the Software as a Service (SaaS) sales model. Customers now pay for the software they use, on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. They always had access to the latest version of the software. And with cloud delivery, there are no upfront hardware costs. In a nutshell, companies went from spending on Capex to just budgeting software use under operating expenditure. However, in the SaaS model, clients can terminate a software contract if they don’t get the value they expected. And that would mean a loss of revenue (unlike perpetual licensing, where almost all of the payment is upfront). The implication means that the software should solve the customers’ problems; it needs to deliver on the promises of the salespeople. And that’s where Customer Success came into play. Today, Customer Success plays a critical role in software adoption. It plays a vital role in the SaaS land-and-expand model. In this interview, 7investing Lead Advisor Anirban Mahanti chats with Customer Success Manager Kyle Holden. Kyle is a senior customer success manager at Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA), where he works with enterprise customers ranging from 5000 to 25,000 employees. In this chat, we cover various topics, including: The origin of customer success How customer success has evolved How customer success works with sales & marketing and product development teams The importance of Dollar-based net retention (DBNR) and how investors should think about DBNR for large vs. smaller enterprise software businesses This is a fascinating conversation that enterprise software investors shouldn’t miss. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education:  https://www.7investing.com Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

Investment in robotics is picking up, as companies are finding opportunities to deploy AI-powered robots into new applications. In this exclusive interview, Brian Gahsman -- the Chief Investment Officer of the Contego Capital Groups and the Portfolio Manager of the AlphaCentric Robotics and Automation Fund (GNXIX) -- and his colleague Jin Kwon describe how robots are being used to improve global supply chain bottlenecks, to improve the efficiency of e-commerce logistics, and to improve the patient outcomes of surgeries. Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this interview include Fanuc, GXO Logistics, XPO Logistics, Apple, Procept Biorobotics, Vicarious Surgical, Medtronic, and Stereotaxis. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education: https://www.7investing.com Join the 7investing Community Forum: https://discord.gg/6YvazDf9sw Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

Businesses around the world spend nearly $800 billion on advertising every year, and two thirds of that is taking place digitally. There are three players who dominate the ads we see when we're glued to the screen, as Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL), Meta Platforms (Nasdaq: FB), and Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) together capture 74% of the digital advertising market opportunity. Yet there are big changes underway that might cause a shift in the balance of power. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) recently announced in its IOS 14.5 update enhanced privacy controls, which now allow iPhone users to opt-out of seeing personalized advertisements. Specifically, this move shields the mobile device's IDFA identifier from websites and apps, who might want to use it to place targeted advertisements for users. It was a crushing blow for companies who rely on those targeted ads. Facebook/Meta Platforms CFO Dave Wehner has mentioned the move will likely cost their company $10 billion in lost revenue in 2022. As expected, this restricted led to a mass-migration of mobile ad budgets away from Apple iPhones and toward Android devices instead. But now even Google is disrupting its own cash cow in the interest of protecting user privacy. Big G has announced it will be curtailing cross-app ad tracking within the next two years. These are important changes! The business world needs to advertise to drive sales conversions, and it needs direction from the tech giants on how they'll do personalized advertising while still respecting data privacy. Is this the beginning of the the walled gardens of Google and Facebook toppling, and being replaced instead by a new "Open Internet"? Are there new advertising media -- perhaps Connected TV -- that are becoming the battlegrounds that tech companies know they absolutely must win? How should investors decipher these technology changes? And are there specific stock market opportunities they should be considering? To answer these questions, we've brought in an expert. Dhaval Kotecha is an individual investor with years of experience in the digital advertising space. He has worked for programmatic advertising platforms and has accurately read the tea leaves to invest in many of the industry's top-performers. In this exclusive interview, Dhaval chats with 7investing founder Simon Erickson about the higher-level impact of Apple and Google's recent changes. The two discuss Roku's (Nasdaq: ROKU) recent earnings release and what might have caused the stock's significant selloff. Dhaval then describes several programmatic ad platforms, including The Trade Desk (Nasdaq: TTD), PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM), and Magnite (Nasdaq: MGNI). And as a fun way to wrap things up, he explains his recent interest in non-fungible token ("NFT") marketplaces and how investors might think about their rising popularity. Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this interview include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Magnite, Meta Platforms, PubMatic, ROKU, and The Trade Desk. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned.

In this week’s podcast, 7investing lead advisor Luke Hallard catches up with health tech expert investor Adu Subramanian to chat about Semler Scientific (NASDAQ: SMLR) -- an exciting $300M heath care technology business that’s rapidly becoming the standard of care for diagnosing peripheral arterial disease (PAD). PAD is a condition that affects nearly 20 million Americans, yet it’s estimated that only 25% of cases are diagnosed, resulting in costly interventions, and impacting the quality of life for patients.The company received FDA approval for its innovative product, QuantaFlo, in 2015, and today revenues are growing via a unique distribution model of selling directly into insurance companies. In this fun and lively interview, Adu shares his investing thesis for Semler Scientific, breaking down the business model, the incentives for doctors, insurers and patients, and the key financials and investment risks. Adu Subramanian can be found on Twitter @AduSubramanian, or you can read his full investment thesis at his substack, Medtech and Microcaps. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education: https://www.7investing.com Join the 7investing Community Forum: https://discord.gg/6YvazDf9sw Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

For most of the last ten years, GameStop (NYSE:GME) was nothing more than a legacy retailer in a rapidly changing industry. The once-popular video game merchant experienced lagging sales as gamers shifted to digitally downloading games from buying physical games in stores. Yet as consumer preferences slowly changed, Gamestop's stock was left for dead. Early 2021 is when most of the financial world – me included! – took notice of this story, as Gamestop became the first of the "meme stocks," with Reddit channels and popular social media accounts posting daily memes about hodling and taking down greedy hedge funds. Yet a small group of investors saw a compelling deep value investment opportunity long before the WallStreetBets crowd piled into the trade. Rod Alzmann is one such investor. As highlighted in the new film, GameStop: Rise of the Players, as early as 2017, Alzmann saw that Gamestop's stock price was fundamentally disconnected from its intrinsic value and took a position. Over the next two years, the stock drew down 80%, yet Alzmann kept adding, convinced he was right about its fundamentals. Where the market was pricing in bankruptcy, Alzmann saw a profitable company selling for less than the cash on its balance sheet with a high potential for a short squeeze. In this interview, Alzmann recounts his Gamestop investment, detailing the fundamental case he had for it and dealing with the incredible ups and downs along the way before selling his position into the meme craziness in 2021. Alzmann is now the managing director of Wook Capital, a private investment fund that believes crowdsourcing research from retail investors can offer a pathway to consistent outperformance. During our talk, Alzmann highlighted the influential role of sharing research across social media channels in his Gamestop investment. Finally, near the end of the episode, Alzmann shares his latest value investment: PLBY Group (NASDAQ:PLBY), a legacy media player Wall Street has likewise written off. Alzmann notes that PLBY Group is finding young consumers by licensing its lifestyle brand and focusing on digital initiatives like NFTs. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education: https://www.7investing.com Join the 7investing Community Forum: https://discord.gg/6YvazDf9sw Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

China has mesmerized investors for several decades. Its 1.4 billion population, its intense focus on scientific research, and the rise of its tech-powered sectors like e-commerce, banking, and social media have captured the intrigue and imagination of growth-style investors. The collective market capitalization of all companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange now exceeds $8 trillion, and several Chinese companies are individually worth hundreds of billions. Yet it's possible that Western investors are wearing rose-tinted glasses, and that investing in China isn't in fact that simple. The country's government has very different priorities than Western democracies, its consumers have a very different purchasing behavior, and its tech companies are regulated quite heavily. Americans are perhaps a bit too eager to extrapolate Silicon Valley's success overseas. Finding "the Amazon or China" or "the Facebook of China" isn't quite as easy as it initially may seem. Still, it's undeniable that China is growing quickly and is making a name for itself on the global stage. Are there important things that investors should consider before jumping in? Are there sustainable opportunities that don't involve hidden risks? To help us answer these questions, we've brought in an expert. James Early is the CEO of Stansberry China. He has traveled extensively to the country during the past decade, to help investors better understand China's consumers, its business culture, and its broader investment landscape. In this exclusive interview, James chats candidly with 7investing CEO Simon Erickson about the Middle Kingdom. He explains the higher-level goals that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to achieve and how it thinks about Western capital and investors. He describes the aspirations of the typical Chinese consumer and how the country is attempting to simultaneously balance entrepreneurship and stability. James also points out several risks related to China, such as its tense trade relationships with the United States, its sometimes erratic regulations, and its goal of ultimately annexing Taiwan. He also walks investors through the "variable interest entity" structure that's used by many of its publicly-traded companies and wraps things up by describing how he would recommend approaching China as an investor. Side note from Simon: James and I are former colleagues, who worked together for several years. It was a pleasure to host him for our podcast, and I'm thankful for him sharing his thoughts and opinions. Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this interview include Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, and Tencent. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education: https://www.7investing.com Join the 7investing Community Forum: https://discord.gg/6YvazDf9sw Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

The commercial space economy is taking off, and it's capturing the imagination of entrepreneurs everywhere. This trillion dollar new horizon is unlocking opportunities that span across the globe and will fundamentally change many industries. But while the potential is certainly there, actually setting up shop in outer space remains very challenging. Companies today need to draw up a business plan, design and build their satellites and infrastructure, launch them into outer space, and then keep everything monitored and operational. Even considered individually, each of those is a monumental task! Yet a company named Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) is uniquely rising to this challenge. Self-described as an "end-to-end space company", Rocket Lab looks to simplify the entire process and democratize outer space for business purposes. They design and manufacture custom satellites and rockets, they launch payloads into space, and they manage the infrastructure required for continual support. You can think of them as the one-stop-shop space vendor of preference. And Rocket Lab has even bigger ambitions arising. It initially focused on launching smaller satellites of up to 300 kilograms, yet its newly-unveiled Neutron rocket can carry payloads of up to 8,000 kgs. That means instead of placing individual satellites, it will soon be placing entire satellite constellations. That will give larger customers an opportunity to scale up their commercial operations. The commercial space economy is a higher-altitude movement that absolutely needs to be on your investing radar right now. In an exclusive interview, Rocket Lab's CEO and co-founder Peter Beck and CFO Adam Spice recently spoke with 7investing CEO Simon Erickson and lead advisor Steve Symington. Peter explained why now is the golden era for the space industry and why several customers are asking for dedicated launches as an alternative to ridesharing. Adam described the opportunities that Neutron will enable and the important impact it will have on Rocket Lab as a business. The two also describe upcoming industry consolidation and the opportunity for "Space as a Service". And in the final segment, Peter -- who has been a rocket scientist since his childhood -- describes the things he is most excited about achieving in the coming years. Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this interview include Rocket Lab. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned.  This episode was originally published on September 7th, 2021.

It's been a volatile few months for the stock markets. But long-term investing will endure. The ups and the downs have some investors feeling queasy. Whether it be rising inflation, the Fed considering interest rate hikes, or geopolitical instability, there is no shortage of headlines that might make you believe now is the time to sell everything and head for the hills. But the stock market is also incredibly resilient, and broader-market selloffs can be incredible opportunities to start building long-term positions. When stocks go on sale, it's great to have a watchlist ready. One of our very own 7investing principles is that time is on your side and is the ally of the long-term investor. One of our affiliate partners, Nathan Worden, is similarly interested in empowering others to be long-term investors. He hosts a monthly "Market Game", where contestants pitch ideas to one another with a long-term investing perspective. We've had a lot of fun attending his March Madness inspired presentations before. And we even recently found ourselves competing in one of them! In this episode of our podcast, Nathan chats with 7investing CEO Simon Erickson about his investing style and how he would like to use his Market Game to empower and inspire others. He then runs through four of its most memorable pitches -- including Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ), Moody's (NYSE: MCO), Vonage (Nasdaq: VG), and Ethereum -- and explains why these might be great long-term investments. Publicly-traded companies and cryptocurrencies mentioned in this podcast include Constellation Brands, Moody's, Vonage, and Ethereum. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education: https://www.7investing.com Join the 7investing Community Forum: https://discord.gg/6YvazDf9sw Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing

For decades now, investors have gotten used to companies raising money through the traditional IPO. As an opportunity to access the public markets, they would hire underwriters to purchase their shares at a specific price, who would then release and distribute them to the public markets. Yet critics of the traditional IPO have pointed to the all-too-frequent "IPO Pop" phenomenon. Shares would typically get sold to the underwriters at a price below their true market value. And on the first day of trading, the company's market cap would expand to better fit that actual investor potential. It wouldn't be uncommon to see a company's share price double on its first day of trading. We're living in a more efficient world now, where there are new options available for companies to raise money. Direct Listings and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are alternatives where companies can raise funds without giving away a massive cut to the underwriters. By using digital marketing, they can further appeal directly to their most loyal fans -- and then convert them into part-owners of the business. This is exactly the future that Toronto-based DealMaker envisions. Its cloud-based platform is allowing for companies to raise money as efficiently and transparently as possible. Imagine doing a campaign where you want to raise $1 million for your business. But rather than using Kickstarter or Indiegogo, you can connect directly with your audience and not have to pay them the platform fees. Additionally, you can continually see who's interested -- and get access to more information that could inform the valuation of your future capital raises as well. An example of this was last year's capital raise by the Green Bay Packers. The NFL football team used DealMaker to self-raise $30 million in 48 hours. The Packers are a publicly-owned team and have been for the past 80 years. This was a much more efficient option for them to raise money. In this exclusive interview with 7investing founder Simon Erickson, DealMaker's co-founders Rebecca Kacaba and Mat Goldstein share the pain-points they saw in the financial services industry that led them to create their company. They describe why "self-hosted funding" is becoming an intriguing opportunity, and why establishing a direct connection with investors is important. The two also offer their thoughts about IPOs, Direct Listings, SPACs, blockchains, and NFTs. Publicly-traded companies and teams mentioned in this podcast include The Green Bay Packers. 7investing's advisors or its guests may have positions in the companies mentioned. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education: https://www.7investing.com Join the 7investing Community Forum: https://discord.gg/6YvazDf9sw Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing