Episode summary
The Baddest Hedge Fund in the World | TCAF 229
Ask The Compound
· · Hosts: Michael Batnick, Josh Brown · Guests: Nathaniel Horwitz, Sam Koppelman
Summary
The episode argues that the current market is pricing uncertainty faster than fundamentals, with AI-driven fears hammering public companies even when the disruptive winners are still private. The hosts and Hunterbrook guests say that in this environment, investigative journalism becomes more valuable, not less, because real-world intelligence about what is actually happening can create an edge in both media and investing. They contrast commoditized “intelligence” with scarce “intel,” and describe Hunterbrook as a newsroom that publishes rigorously reported stories while also disclosing positions through its fund.
A major part of the conversation is how Hunterbrook was built: the guests say they wanted to revive old-school reporting in a model where the reporting itself can move markets, support legal action, and attract better journalists. They describe how a fake acquisition rumor around Papa John’s illustrated the danger of unverified headlines, and how transparency plus repeat accuracy is their answer to skepticism about conflicts of interest.
The discussion then turns to examples. On Evolve, they say a company that looked sketchy because of SEC issues and management problems turned out to have strong product-market fit and eventually recovered. They also preview Sable Offshore, a controversial California pipeline restart tied to Phil Mickelson, as another case where digging into the facts matters more than the initial narrative.
Key takeaways
- The guests argue that AI is making “intelligence” cheaper, but making hard-to-find real-world information more valuable.
- Hunterbrook says it is a media company first, with investing and litigation as monetization layers built on accurate reporting.
- They cite Evolve as a case where a suspicious-looking company was actually a strong business once the facts were investigated.
- The guests say fake or premature headlines can move stocks, so scrutiny of source quality matters as much as the headline itself.
- They frame Sable Offshore as a classic example of a controversial story where reporting can separate real operational risk from market rumor.
Notable quotes
“in a world where the value of intelligence is in a way being commoditized for the first time”
“the value of actual intel information about what's actually happening in the world that's increasing exponentially”
“We're a media company and our goal is to publish stories that matter to people and readers”
“We think this is the time in recent history where if you're a bad actor, you did something really bad”
“the market was mispricing this by 200%”
How the episode opens
So, you guys have Bethany Mlan writing for you? — Yeah, she wrote a great investigation. — Amazing. She's like an OG. She is an OG. — Love Bethany Mlan. She's cooking on all sorts of new stories, too. We're fired up. — She's been on Barry's uh We've never had her on She's been on Barry's podcast on Bloomberg uh probably at least once, maybe more.
You should have her on here after our next story with her. She's amazing. — She's great. — She's great. But yeah, that newspaper was printed on the news sheets from the paper Nathaniel worked at in high school in his local paper and they uh they turned on the printers for us. It was awesome.
That's cool. — Very cool. — So, were you a you were a journalist as well? — First kid out of high school. — Yeah. — Yeah. I went to Martha's Vineyard Regional High and this is uh my my hometown yearrounder and both my parents had been war journalists for the Wall Street Journal, Middle East, North Africa and uh I thought I was going to follow the the same path. So that was my my first gig.
That's wild. — Yeah. — And then this guy goes and has a very successful career in biotech and I convince him that go back to journalism. That's the real industry where there's uh promise. — That's where the real money is being made.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why invest in companies that keep getting up rounds from Nvidia when you could write news stories? — Um, so just now, uh, Anthropic announced that they're raising 30 at 38 billion dollars. Check this out, boys. — Look at this chart. You think this has ever happened before?
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- investigative journalism
- hedge funds
- offshore investing
- media entertainment
- market moves
Companies and tickers mentioned
- IVZ
- Hunterbrook
- Sphere
- Invesco
Watch the episode
Watch “The Baddest Hedge Fund in the World | TCAF 229” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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