Phoenix Investing Membership

Service Summary for Pythia's Phoenix Investing 

We use our complex systems investing principles to make investment suggestions in micro-to-md capitalization public companies.

We find the diamonds in the rough, misunderstood, oversold, contrarian or off-the-radar global investment opportunities, looking for moonshot or outsized returns. We work actively with management teams to help them unlock value in ways that are in coherence with our living system investment principles.

Many private companies were funded at very high valuations over a long period of time. Many stock prices of recent IPOs are under pressure. Inflation is climbing significantly, so the Federal Reserve raised interest rates at a time where there are numerous interconnected global crises that are also pressuring companies such as figuring out the “new normal” after the pandemic, war in Ukraine, an energy crisis, global geopolitical instability, concern about climate change, intense polarization in global societies, supply chain shortages, food shortages, increased violence, and corruption in many business, scientific, and geopolitical areas. Valuations in both private companies and smaller capitalization public companies are under pressure (and/or underperforming relative to large capitalization companies).

We recognize these are times of exponential change. We have strong skills analyzing and investing in risky and volatile areas with significant potential, but also higher than average risk. We have advantages over analysts that are not skilled in areas of high complexity, chaos and volatility. It is more challenging during these uncertain times to find boring and safe equity investments. Also, predominant investment analysts are very siloed across industries and that is a big advantage for us. We use our complex systems lenses to connect the dots in creative and differentiated ways. We may see new trends or special situations before others in micro-to-mid capitalization.  

There are large bubbles in many companies across industries that received too much funding during the boom years. After so many years of investors throwing money at popular trends and companies without concern of business model viability, valuation, or execution ability, we are in the beginning stages of a wash out in some areas, but not all bubble areas quite yet. Some companies will make it, and many will not. Valuations will eventually come down in many overvalued areas across industries and the capital structure.

Companies are looking for new ways to raise money and some of them are exploring the public markets, mainly through reverse mergers or merging with SPACs (which was also an area of overfunding, and that money needs to go to work within a certain time frame). Most of these are value traps. Also, there is not the institutional know how or support for many micro and small cap companies that there used to be.

This space can be highly illiquid and predatory, with many algorithms or internet rumors knocking prices around. The deal terms are often toxic as well which makes it hard to invest in this area.

Nonetheless, Lynn Marie DePippo, our Founder and CEO, has considerable experience in rapidly changing industries, investing in science and technology, and maneuvering through the general ups and downs of the small capitalization public markets over many years and cycles. These skills are rare and translate well to these times of exponential change.

Some of the companies are early stage but are very interesting. If they find supportive, high-quality investors, they can eventually grow out of difficult situations. The valuations are quickly becoming much more reasonable in the public markets than they are in the private markets which is really just beginning to deal with the reality of this new environment. Certain areas like artificial intelligence are still in full fledged manias. We rarely feel the need to chase bubbles. There are always off the beaten path opportunities more consistent with our complex systems investing principles, even in bubble areas like artificial intelligence.

This is not for investors that are afraid of risks, as the aforementioned multiple crises are very real, but the opportunities are also large.

There is the potential of earning venture capital type returns but over much shorter time frames.

We use our natural intelligence principles to screen for investment opportunities and to risk manage our ideas. However, finding investment opportunities in public equities that are fully coherent with our principles is quite difficult, since our principles reflect a world that does not exist yet. Investors do need to understand this is a journey and not a destination, but we can still bob and weave in creative ways to find systemic value using our principles and have a great new tool to manage risks unavailable to investors using other methodologies. In general, there is far less greenwashing using these principles as applying real natural intelligence tends to be brutally honest. If you use the principles correctly, you can figure out where the corruption is occurring and why.

Where companies are weak in certain areas, we will highlight it and discuss the issues openly. We are investors that tend to stand at the edge of chaos to look for new opportunities and new phoenixes to rise from the ashes. Normally, we would say our focus areas are higher than normal risk, but these days the world is risky in general. We aspire to help our members earn strong returns in areas that have transformative potential.

Strangely enough, some of the companies in our focus areas have less risk, as they are emergent and do not have as much baggage as larger companies that have significant governance issues and have misplaced the trust of global investors. Some companies are just coming out of a turnaround and others just went public a bit early.

Many newly IPO'd companies that were over-funded in herd-like ways by venture capitalists are still value traps, as many do not have a sustainable business model or value proposition. The competition is also fierce as companies were often funded in theme based ways.

For some of the companies that pass our screens, it is harder for them to find high quality investors and that is an opportunity for investors with risk tolerance and integrity.

Terms of Service

Yearly subscription fee.

Along with our research, we interview experts, including company management teams when possible.

There are no set number of companies and projects we discuss, but members can expect anywhere from 20 to 30 company investment ideas per year.

Members have an area to discuss their own investment ideas using our complex system principles.

We have a dedicated general forum and separate discussion areas for each investment idea. We also have a second general dedicated forum for members to discuss member directed investment ideas.

We have regular live unrecorded calls with members to discuss ideas.

Keep in mind, we are in the early period and it will take time to get fully ramped up.

Our foundational trends service called The Pythia System is highly synergistic, but is a separate service. Please see link below for more information. We sometimes briefly summarize companies and projects as part of our trends research in The Pythia System, but the detail is higher in this service. You will also sometimes get the opportunity to speak to the management teams on Q&A calls as part of this service. Keep in mind, if you share ideas with us in Phoenix Investing, all members are free to use that information including us. Sometimes, that will act as an important catalyst for new information in our trends research in The Pythia System.

We are very grateful you are here and are supporting our early launch. We have been working on our complex systems investing principles for a long time. Your support means a great deal.

We seek members of high integrity. No bucket shop, front running, or any other unethical behavior. Our intention with the management teams of the companies we follow is one of collaboration, support, and helping to unlock value using Nature's complex systems principles as a guide.

You are on your own with your investment decisions. We are not financial advisors. Please read carefully our privacy policy and terms of service before subscribing. 

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