I’ve never had a father or a mentor. I’m not suggesting that will come of this, but I would appreciate any and all guidance any of you wish to provide.

Going to give some context and background, then give the ask.

I’m pushing in to mid-life. Not quite there, but closer than not. I grew up poor in middle of nowhere Arkansas. Single mother, I spent most of my 19th year of life homeless.

I never had a father. Never was taught life lessons I feel others my age had. I have always been 3 - 5 years behind my peers in terms of “stage if life”, and I can only conclude it js because i didn’t have guidance to teach me some core life lessons early on. I had to reinvent the wheel and learn them myself.

Fast forward to now. I have a bachelors, my MBA in Finance and Global Strategy, spent 5 years in the US Army as a combat medic, and 6 years in corporate working as a cog to pay off $130,000 in student loans.

Loans paid off, own a nice performing rental, married, and we will be starting a family soon in a major southern US metro.

I’ve spent the last 10 years filling the gap in my knowledge around finance, personal finance, portfolio theory, and securities analysis. And now that we are financially stable, I’m pursuing my dream of becoming an FA.

I’m starting at a full service firm that everyone here will know. You all know better than me that there are pros and cons to each path into the business and building a practice. Suffice it to say that, after interviewed acquaintances at almost every type of firm, including 2 that have their own RIA, I’ve chosen the correct path for me. I’ll just say it isn’t an insurance firm ([insert name here] mutual) but an actual advising firm.

I want break the cycle my whole life has been in and hit the ground running instead of having to figure out the rules of the game for myself. I don’t mind putting in the hard work and the grind. Can’t be as grueling as a combat medic constantly forcing grunts to keep water in their canteens instead of spike energy drink. The grind here is for my family and I’m incredibly motivated.

Here is the ask: Help an incredibly motivated new entrant get ahead of the game.

Early on I understand this is as much sales as it is advising.

Where have you found the most success in client acquisition while building your book, and what “typical” path to client acquisition have you found isn’t worth the effort even if it is commonly recommended?

What tactics did you find were reliable in getting past the “no” and getting further down the conversation to build the trust?

What type of segmentation did you find appropriate across client types, and how did you structure your prospect sourcing, approach, and close for each?

Did you focus purely on one or two segment of clients? Or did you look to diversify your book across lower, mid, and higher asset clients?

What major pitfalls did you experience that slowed you down that I can learn from?

I’m not sitting here trying to be greedy and spend my entire day looking for a few multi-millionaires to service. I’m sure I need to build some more experience and knowledge before I can adequately service those with more sophisticated needs. And I actually want to build a sustainable practice where I can spend some time helping mid and lower end clients. But the practice has to be profitable without killing myself.

Landing a few higher (if not ultra high) net worth clients accelerates the path to profitability and gives me time to curate my book better.

What guidance can you give to someone from my background to source, approach, close, and service higher end clients with great client satisfaction?

I understand clients have to have enough investable assets to support the work involved, but how have you found ways, if any, to also give back to those from my background who could use some level of guidance even if they can’t afford to pay for it?

What do I not know that I don’t know.

Thank you again to anyone who takes the time to read this admittedly long post and pass along some knowledge to a budding, well-intentioned soon-to-be advisor. I cannot tell you via text how much I appreciate any and all guidance here.

God bless.

A while back I happened upon a trove of over 250 old broadcast tapes and one 16mm roll of film. B-roll of the National Black Arts Festival in 1992 in Atlanta. Just had it digitized and was watching the film for the first time when.... a familiar face jumped out!

30 - 45 seconds of Avery Brooks just hanging out and enjoying the music.

It is hard to have a polite debate via text. Everyone reads your words in their head with their own tone and interpret intention differently. Let me be clear that none of this is directed at anyone with malice of intent, rudeness, or hatred. This is intended to help, to educate, to inform. Please take it as such.

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." - Aristotle

TL/DR: The vast majority of the people on Reddit and involved with investing subreddits are well intentioned. They are here to learn, share, and hopefully grow as investors. But they are also a mix of ignorant (the true definition meaning uninformed) about much of the market, lack experience, and are hyper focused on their specific section of the market and headlines, and they allow that to inform their opinion about the market overall and let that impact their psychological well being...which impacts their investing decisions.

Be honest with yourself. If I just described you. If you have only been investing in the bull market since Covid. If you aren't old enough to have had significant money in the markets during the 2000 crash (meaning most of you under the age of...say... 30). If you can't legitimately say that you understand markets, risk assessment, and macroeconomic forces impacting the markets... please read.

Why This Market is Very Healthy and MOST LIKELY NOT in a Bubble:

Just a sampling of SP500 companies and their performance over the past month:

Lam Research: -34%
Intel: -34%
Applied Materials: -33.35%
Micron: -28.5%
Tesla: -25.36%
Caterpillar: -22.21%
Oracle: -19% (-28% on the quarter)
IBM: -18%
AMD: -16%
GE Vernova: -15.5%

Same companies distance from ATH:

Lam Research: -40%
Intel: -39%
Applied Materials: -37%
Micron: -34.6%
Tesla: -38.37%
Caterpillar: -25%
Oracle: -65.36%
IBM: -31.73%
AMD: -22.5%
GE Vernova: -21.7%

And the same patterns repeat across some pretty much all of the biggest name in the index related to (directly or indirectly) to the AI trade and recent run-up.

Just a sampling of SP500 names that have begun making new ATH or made significant moves over the past ~month:

Apple: +20.5%
RTX Corp (Defense): +17.4%
Exxon: +15.17%
Thermo Fisher: +14%
CVX: +13.8%
Mastercard: +5.35%

Total SP500 constituents (including the ones with multiple tickers as yes they do get included to make is SP503 in reality... Alphabet, Fox, and News Corp all have dual tickers. We could exclude them and the math would be almost exactly the same.) that are up vs down past month:

UP: 324 (64.4%)
Down:179 (35.6%)

SPY Distance from ATH: 2.6%

SPY Performance on the Year (YTD): 8.6%

Russell 2000 (IWM) Distance from ATH: 3.3%

Russell 2000 (IWM) Performance on the Year (YTD): 18.9%

Yes this list of tickers with double-digit up moves is much smaller than list with double digit down moves. But that is exactly the point.

The RATIO of stocks with up moves vs the past month is double the stocks with moves down. Even the ones significantly off their all-time highs. And the down stocks are generally the LARGEST constituents on a percentage basis to the weighting of the SP500

When MOST people talk about a "bubble", they are talking about an event that will burst and cause the broader market to pull back. But that is not necessarily true. And it is not true here.

What we are seeing is a broadening out of market performers. This is a rotation. This is profit taking. This is the market doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing: deciding who are the winners and losers, both in short run and long run.

The fact that the giant AI trades are coming back down to earth.... with none of the macro-economic market fundamentals having changed at all... and in fact for MOST of the AI names their individual fundamentals haven't really changed at all... means what we are seeing is NOT irrational exuberance.

It is profit taking mixed with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Does this mean the market CAN'T or WON'T turn down through the end of the year? No. Does this mean there will be ZERO macro-economic shocks that causes a broader correction? No. Does this mean the specific AI names will not pull back even further? No.

But all of this fear mongering, doom and gloom, and blind acceptance that this is a bubble and everything will come crashing down is not supported by the market action, the fundamentals, or the sentiment in the market.

Take a step back, take a breath, and do yourself a favor: Assume for a moment that perhaps you are being over confident in your knowledge and skills... recognize that the talking heads on CNBC and the rest of the "big money" in the game have their own agendas and reasons for saying what they do. And enjoy the ride and the learning.

*Stepping off of soap box hoping everyone takes some small tidbit away from this....while accepting some of you will undoubtedly find nothing but fault in my message*

Have a great day.

Good day everyone. I’m hoping you can help a desperate man looking to make wife happy and do something with my find.

Last year I won a storage unit auction for some antique furniture. After getting in I discovered that behind it all was anywhere between 200 - 300 magnetic tapes of all varieties. Many of them 3/4” U-Matic. 20 or so Type A / B C reels. And then some beta cam and some audio reels (a couple of which are NPR reels for broadcast from the 70s from some early All Things Considered shows).

There are some relatively historic items. A master recording of Nelson Mandela speaking at the Bethel AME church in Atlanta in the 90s. Video reel of Nina Simone performing in a bar in London. Some others. At least that is what the labels say.

Even some older EIAJ reels.

I purchased various machines, along with what was in the unit. Currently perhaps 15 audio reel to reel decks (some functional some not), 2 - 3 U-Matic decks (1 for sure working), 3 Sony helical scan decks one for sure working.

Plan was to clean and digitize them myself over time. But as you know better than I, some of these very likely need to be baked, cleaned, and professionally done so I have held off.

I’ve been fortunate to find almost all of my machines for next to nothing. That being said I am not swimming in cash to have all of these converted for tens of thousands.

I do need to get some sort of return on my investment here. My wife entertains my hobby as long as I love what I win and don’t cost us additional cash.

My question here is: Anyone in this community know if any professional or extremely skilled hobbyists that would likely make a deal? I can provide all of these machines I have accumulated and use that as credit towards the cost of the conversions?

Not opposed to laying out more cash. Not trying devalue the expertise required to do this. I’m just looking for a better option than mortgaging my house to digitize and do something with them.

Any and all help is appreciated.

I’m in Atlanta if that makes a difference.

TL/DR: EVgo represents a leveraged play in the EV / autonomous driving markets. The insanely high switching costs gives this company a moat that rivals that of enterprise SaaS in the 2000s and 2010s. In my opinion, their partnership and buildout strategy is the best in the business. With the new EV market having digested the federal tax rebate cut, states instituting their own incentives to replace it, new affordable EVs coming to market driving primary purchase market, and multiple catalysts driving adoption in the secondary market, the path to robust profitability is likely to occur faster than the market is predicting.

(At the end I write up what I feel each of these value investors would say about the company)

EVGO is an electric vehicle charging infrastructure company.

Everything you need to know:

Operating footprint and hardware:

1. ~1,200 fast charging stations across 47 states. ~40% of US population lives within 10 miles of an EVGO fast charging station
2. 60% of stations are ultra-fast 350kW chargers which can add 150 miles of charge in 10-12 minutes, depending on vehicle capability.
3. Aggressively onboarding Tesla-compatible NACS hardware through 2036 and 2027.

Partnerships:

1. Major ongoing rollout at high-traffic Kroger locations
2. Meijer Stores: Major Midwest expansion rolling out ~480 fast-charging stations
3. Long-standing partnerships with WaWa, Whole Foods, and Simon Property Group
4. GM: Crown jewel, multi-year partnership to roll out 400 ultra-high-power stalls at premium locations in key states (California, Georgia, Florida, New York, Texas)
5. 3-way partnership with Pilot / Flying J, and GM to roll out stations throughout critical interstate corridors…infrastructure that is sorely lacking across most of the US, and is a critical factor in EV adoption. More interstate capacity means more people willing to adopt EV as primary vehicle.
6. Toyota partnership to build out fast charging network, as well as provide 1 year free charging for new bZ4X buyers.
7. Uber & Lyft: integrated into apps to provide discounted charging for drivers
8. Spinning up partnerships with autonomous fleet operators (like Waymo) for dedicated charging facilities in dense test-bed markets

Company Facts:

1. Top line has grown 45% YOY
2. 17 consecutive quarters of double-digit top line growth
3. Gross margin expansion from 14% - 39% from 2021 - 2026
4. On the cusp of EBITDA profitability and positive FCF (likely to be rerated when this happens)
5. 1,400 - 1,600 stall expansion essentially already fund through government credit facility and commercial credit facility. De-risks dilution risk. Still likely for more dilution, but not for stall buildout.
6. As the depreciation for these stalls roll off the financials and capex decreases, we will see the cash flow leverage this business will generate.

Catalysts:

1. ~1.5 million leased EVs roll of leases from 2026 - 2028, with these vehicles likely to sell into the secondary market.
2. Secondary market has a significant share of consumers in multi-family housing and / or street parking where home-based charging is not possible
3. Infrastructure buildout has double impact: more units for charging throughput and also increasing adoptions as consumers trust they can have reliable, fast charging whenever and wherever they need it.
4. Fleet / Autonomous / B2B customers / partners: High-mileage (meaning significant charging needs) increases stall utility, increasing operating leverage and directly increasing gross margin
5. In regards to fleet operations, EVGO is capturing significant market share early on.
6. EXTREMELY HIGH switching costs. Once installed this represents significant moat. I would argue that although this is not an asset-light operation…in the age of AI this is exactly like the rise of high switching costs, asset light, reliable ARR model that drove software to be significant compounders throughout 2000s and 2010s
7. EV market has bottomed, with cut to federal EV credits having been digested. EV sales have stabilized and begun to up-tic. Factoring in the used EV sales numbers (that just hit the highest quarterly level on record) it is clearly beginning to rise again.
8. Since the drop of the federal tax credit, many states have implemented their own credit or incentive in one form or another, supporting adoption.
9. Lower-cost EVs will (in combination with reader infrastructure driving charging trust with customers) will decrease barriers to adoption…along with the growth of the secondary market. Rivian R2, Volvo EX30 hitting the ~$40k market for middle-class / upper-middle class consumers. Chevy Bolt has been brought back, with some models hitting below <$30k. Redesigned Nissan Leaf is in $30k - $35k range and is..for lack of a better term…actually a little sexy.

Other entry level or middle class models:

Kia EV3
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Hyundai Kona Electric
Chevy Equinox EV

There are likely more my research didn’t turn up.

Point is…the more entry level models / used models purchased….the more likely is that person lives in housing that doesn’t afford the luxury of installing fast-charging at home…which means EVgo’s high-density strategy, along with key partnerships, will provide high utilization and high operating leverage.

Path to Profitability:

While the company is constantly innovating stall manufacturing process to lower COGS, the key here is kWh/day:

(Throughout per stall) * (margin per kWh) = (stall gross profit)

Q4 2025 showed average daily throughput per stall stood at 292 kWh / day

Projections and operational leverage models show that average daily throughput of roughly ~330 - 350 kWh / day would move EVgo easily into profitability, with any efficiencies in manufacturing cost reduction / labor cost reduction directly hitting gross margin expansion. With throughput for installed units increasing drastically, and operational efficiencies growing, I feel this path will happen sooner than market predicts.

Peter Lynch: Fast-Grower with more than sufficient capitalization in an overlooked / misunderstood industry where the hype has died and scaled unit economics provides clear operational leverage.

Weschler (Berkshire): Trailing earnings are irrelevant. EVgo is locking in premium real estate in key local markets that would take competitors double the CapEx and 5 years to try and replicate. i.e. clear moat.

Einhorn: Market is shorting this stock / undervaluing this stock because it is pricing in a permanent decline in new, luxury EV sales. Structural reality is a boom and growing boom in used EV sales, with a significant portion of those sales going to customers in large metros with limited or no ability to charge at home.

Miller: Value isn't "low P/E". It is a massive disconnect between a company's present enterprise value and its future discounted cashflows.~$600 million dollar market cap is mispricing a company with a CLEAR path to $500 million in EBITDA by 2030 and significant operating leverage for an asset-heavy company.

Munger: It is an intelligent speculation if buying it for the infrastructure and the cost it would take to rebuild it today, but it isn't a high-flying tech stock. Used EV sales growth + urban renters + fleet drivers / autonomous buildout = clear, structural "lollapalooza" effect... less psychologically and more structurally, with multiple trends and catalysts all moving in the same direction to a logical conclusion: more throughput. This also represents clear characteristics of a "tollbooth" effect. The state of US energy infrastructure means utilities and municipalities only have so many multi-megawatt pipelines they can allow to come out of the ground. EVgo locking in these pipelines in very dense metropolitan areas creates a moat that is very difficult for a Johnny-come-lately to replicate.

TL/DR: EVgo represents a leveraged play in the EV / autonomous driving markets. The insanely high switching costs gives this company a moat that rivals that of enterprise SaaS in the 2000s and 2010s. In my opinion, their partnership and buildout strategy is the best in the business. With the new EV market having digested the federal tax rebate cut, states instituting their own incentives to replace it, new affordable EVs coming to market driving primary purchase market, and multiple catalysts driving adoption in the secondary market, the path to robust profitability is likely to occur faster than the market is predicting.

(At the end I write up what I feel each of these value investors would say about the company)

EVGO is an electric vehicle charging infrastructure company.

Everything you need to know:

Operating footprint and hardware:

1. ~1,200 fast charging stations across 47 states. ~40% of US population lives within 10 miles of an EVGO fast charging station
2. 60% of stations are ultra-fast 350kW chargers which can add 150 miles of charge in 10-12 minutes, depending on vehicle capability.
3. Aggressively onboarding Tesla-compatible NACS hardware through 2036 and 2027.

Partnerships:

1. Major ongoing rollout at high-traffic Kroger locations
2. Meijer Stores: Major Midwest expansion rolling out ~480 fast-charging stations
3. Long-standing partnerships with WaWa, Whole Foods, and Simon Property Group
4. GM: Crown jewel, multi-year partnership to roll out 400 ultra-high-power stalls at premium locations in key states (California, Georgia, Florida, New York, Texas)
5. 3-way partnership with Pilot / Flying J, and GM to roll out stations throughout critical interstate corridors…infrastructure that is sorely lacking across most of the US, and is a critical factor in EV adoption. More interstate capacity means more people willing to adopt EV as primary vehicle.
6. Toyota partnership to build out fast charging network, as well as provide 1 year free charging for new bZ4X buyers.
7. Uber & Lyft: integrated into apps to provide discounted charging for drivers
8. Spinning up partnerships with autonomous fleet operators (like Waymo) for dedicated charging facilities in dense test-bed markets

Company Facts:

1. Top line has grown 45% YOY
2. 17 consecutive quarters of double-digit top line growth
3. Gross margin expansion from 14% - 39% from 2021 - 2026
4. On the cusp of EBITDA profitability and positive FCF (likely to be rerated when this happens)
5. 1,400 - 1,600 stall expansion essentially already fund through government credit facility and commercial credit facility. De-risks dilution risk. Still likely for more dilution, but not for stall buildout.
6. As the depreciation for these stalls roll off the financials and capex decreases, we will see the cash flow leverage this business will generate.

Catalysts:

1. ~1.5 million leased EVs roll of leases from 2026 - 2028, with these vehicles likely to sell into the secondary market.
2. Secondary market has a significant share of consumers in multi-family housing and / or street parking where home-based charging is not possible
3. Infrastructure buildout has double impact: more units for charging throughput and also increasing adoptions as consumers trust they can have reliable, fast charging whenever and wherever they need it.
4. Fleet / Autonomous / B2B customers / partners: High-mileage (meaning significant charging needs) increases stall utility, increasing operating leverage and directly increasing gross margin
5. In regards to fleet operations, EVGO is capturing significant market share early on.
6. EXTREMELY HIGH switching costs. Once installed this represents significant moat. I would argue that although this is not an asset-light operation…in the age of AI this is exactly like the rise of high switching costs, asset light, reliable ARR model that drove software to be significant compounders throughout 2000s and 2010s
7. EV market has bottomed, with cut to federal EV credits having been digested. EV sales have stabilized and begun to up-tic. Factoring in the used EV sales numbers (that just hit the highest quarterly level on record) it is clearly beginning to rise again.
8. Since the drop of the federal tax credit, many states have implemented their own credit or incentive in one form or another, supporting adoption.
9. Lower-cost EVs will (in combination with reader infrastructure driving charging trust with customers) will decrease barriers to adoption…along with the growth of the secondary market. Rivian R2, Volvo EX30 hitting the ~$40k market for middle-class / upper-middle class consumers. Chevy Bolt has been brought back, with some models hitting below <$30k. Redesigned Nissan Leaf is in $30k - $35k range and is..for lack of a better term…actually a little sexy.

Other entry level or middle class models:

Kia EV3
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Hyundai Kona Electric
Chevy Equinox EV

There are likely more my research didn’t turn up.

Point is…the more entry level models / used models purchased….the more likely is that person lives in housing that doesn’t afford the luxury of installing fast-charging at home…which means EVgo’s high-density strategy, along with key partnerships, will provide high utilization and high operating leverage.

Path to Profitability:

While the company is constantly innovating stall manufacturing process to lower COGS, the key here is kWh/day:

(Throughout per stall) * (margin per kWh) = (stall gross profit)

Q4 2025 showed average daily throughput per stall stood at 292 kWh / day

Projections and operational leverage models show that average daily throughput of roughly ~330 - 350 kWh / day would move EVgo easily into profitability, with any efficiencies in manufacturing cost reduction / labor cost reduction directly hitting gross margin expansion. With throughput for installed units increasing drastically, and operational efficiencies growing, I feel this path will happen sooner than market predicts.

Peter Lynch: Fast-Grower with more than sufficient capitalization in an overlooked / misunderstood industry where the hype has died and scaled unit economics provides clear operational leverage.

Weschler (Berkshire): Trailing earnings are irrelevant. EVgo is locking in premium real estate in key local markets that would take competitors double the CapEx and 5 years to try and replicate. i.e. clear moat.

Einhorn: Market is shorting this stock / undervaluing this stock because it is pricing in a permanent decline in new, luxury EV sales. Structural reality is a boom and growing boom in used EV sales, with a significant portion of those sales going to customers in large metros with limited or no ability to charge at home.

Miller: Value isn't "low P/E". It is a massive disconnect between a company's present enterprise value and its future discounted cashflows.~$600 million dollar market cap is mispricing a company with a CLEAR path to $500 million in EBITDA by 2030 and significant operating leverage for an asset-heavy company.

Munger: It is an intelligent speculation if buying it for the infrastructure and the cost it would take to rebuild it today, but it isn't a high-flying tech stock. Used EV sales growth + urban renters + fleet drivers / autonomous buildout = clear, structural "lollapalooza" effect... less psychologically and more structurally, with multiple trends and catalysts all moving in the same direction to a logical conclusion: more throughput. This also represents clear characteristics of a "tollbooth" effect. The state of US energy infrastructure means utilities and municipalities only have so many multi-megawatt pipelines they can allow to come out of the ground. EVgo locking in these pipelines in very dense metropolitan areas creates a moat that is very difficult for a Johnny-come-lately to replicate.

TL/DR: EVgo represents a leveraged play in the EV / autonomous driving markets. The insanely high switching costs gives this company a moat that rivals that of enterprise SaaS in the 2000s and 2010s. In my opinion, their partnership and buildout strategy is the best in the business. With the new EV market having digested the federal tax rebate cut, states instituting their own incentives to replace it, new affordable EVs coming to market driving primary purchase market, and multiple catalysts driving adoption in the secondary market, the path to robust profitability is likely to occur faster than the market is predicting.

(At the end I write up what I feel each of these value investors would say about the company)

EVGO is an electric vehicle charging infrastructure company.

Everything you need to know:

Operating footprint and hardware:

1. ~1,200 fast charging stations across 47 states. ~40% of US population lives within 10 miles of an EVGO fast charging station
2. 60% of stations are ultra-fast 350kW chargers which can add 150 miles of charge in 10-12 minutes, depending on vehicle capability.
3. Aggressively onboarding Tesla-compatible NACS hardware through 2036 and 2027.

Partnerships:

1. Major ongoing rollout at high-traffic Kroger locations
2. Meijer Stores: Major Midwest expansion rolling out ~480 fast-charging stations
3. Long-standing partnerships with WaWa, Whole Foods, and Simon Property Group
4. GM: Crown jewel, multi-year partnership to roll out 400 ultra-high-power stalls at premium locations in key states (California, Georgia, Florida, New York, Texas)
5. 3-way partnership with Pilot / Flying J, and GM to roll out stations throughout critical interstate corridors…infrastructure that is sorely lacking across most of the US, and is a critical factor in EV adoption. More interstate capacity means more people willing to adopt EV as primary vehicle.
6. Toyota partnership to build out fast charging network, as well as provide 1 year free charging for new bZ4X buyers.
7. Uber & Lyft: integrated into apps to provide discounted charging for drivers
8. Spinning up partnerships with autonomous fleet operators (like Waymo) for dedicated charging facilities in dense test-bed markets

Company Facts:

1. Top line has grown 45% YOY
2. 17 consecutive quarters of double-digit top line growth
3. Gross margin expansion from 14% - 39% from 2021 - 2026
4. On the cusp of EBITDA profitability and positive FCF (likely to be rerated when this happens)
5. 1,400 - 1,600 stall expansion essentially already fund through government credit facility and commercial credit facility. De-risks dilution risk. Still likely for more dilution, but not for stall buildout.
6. As the depreciation for these stalls roll off the financials and capex decreases, we will see the cash flow leverage this business will generate.

Catalysts:

1. ~1.5 million leased EVs roll of leases from 2026 - 2028, with these vehicles likely to sell into the secondary market.
2. Secondary market has a significant share of consumers in multi-family housing and / or street parking where home-based charging is not possible
3. Infrastructure buildout has double impact: more units for charging throughput and also increasing adoptions as consumers trust they can have reliable, fast charging whenever and wherever they need it.
4. Fleet / Autonomous / B2B customers / partners: High-mileage (meaning significant charging needs) increases stall utility, increasing operating leverage and directly increasing gross margin
5. In regards to fleet operations, EVGO is capturing significant market share early on.
6. EXTREMELY HIGH switching costs. Once installed this represents significant moat. I would argue that although this is not an asset-light operation…in the age of AI this is exactly like the rise of high switching costs, asset light, reliable ARR model that drove software to be significant compounders throughout 2000s and 2010s
7. EV market has bottomed, with cut to federal EV credits having been digested. EV sales have stabilized and begun to up-tic. Factoring in the used EV sales numbers (that just hit the highest quarterly level on record) it is clearly beginning to rise again.
8. Since the drop of the federal tax credit, many states have implemented their own credit or incentive in one form or another, supporting adoption.
9. Lower-cost EVs will (in combination with reader infrastructure driving charging trust with customers) will decrease barriers to adoption…along with the growth of the secondary market. Rivian R2, Volvo EX30 hitting the ~$40k market for middle-class / upper-middle class consumers. Chevy Bolt has been brought back, with some models hitting below <$30k. Redesigned Nissan Leaf is in $30k - $35k range and is..for lack of a better term…actually a little sexy.

Other entry level or middle class models:

Kia EV3
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Hyundai Kona Electric
Chevy Equinox EV

There are likely more my research didn’t turn up.

Point is…the more entry level models / used models purchased….the more likely is that person lives in housing that doesn’t afford the luxury of installing fast-charging at home…which means EVgo’s high-density strategy, along with key partnerships, will provide high utilization and high operating leverage.

Path to Profitability:

While the company is constantly innovating stall manufacturing process to lower COGS, the key here is kWh/day:

(Throughout per stall) * (margin per kWh) = (stall gross profit)

Q4 2025 showed average daily throughput per stall stood at 292 kWh / day

Projections and operational leverage models show that average daily throughput of roughly ~330 - 350 kWh / day would move EVgo easily into profitability, with any efficiencies in manufacturing cost reduction / labor cost reduction directly hitting gross margin expansion. With throughput for installed units increasing drastically, and operational efficiencies growing, I feel this path will happen sooner than market predicts.

Peter Lynch: Fast-Grower with more than sufficient capitalization in an overlooked / misunderstood industry where the hype has died and scaled unit economics provides clear operational leverage.

Weschler (Berkshire): Trailing earnings are irrelevant. EVgo is locking in premium real estate in key local markets that would take competitors double the CapEx and 5 years to try and replicate. i.e. clear moat.

Einhorn: Market is shorting this stock / undervaluing this stock because it is pricing in a permanent decline in new, luxury EV sales. Structural reality is a boom and growing boom in used EV sales, with a significant portion of those sales going to customers in large metros with limited or no ability to charge at home.

Miller: Value isn't "low P/E". It is a massive disconnect between a company's present enterprise value and its future discounted cashflows.~$600 million dollar market cap is mispricing a company with a CLEAR path to $500 million in EBITDA by 2030 and significant operating leverage for an asset-heavy company.

Munger: It is an intelligent speculation if buying it for the infrastructure and the cost it would take to rebuild it today, but it isn't a high-flying tech stock. Used EV sales growth + urban renters + fleet drivers / autonomous buildout = clear, structural "lollapalooza" effect... less psychologically and more structurally, with multiple trends and catalysts all moving in the same direction to a logical conclusion: more throughput. This also represents clear characteristics of a "tollbooth" effect. The state of US energy infrastructure means utilities and municipalities only have so many multi-megawatt pipelines they can allow to come out of the ground. EVgo locking in these pipelines in very dense metropolitan areas creates a moat that is very difficult for a Johnny-come-lately to replicate.

TL/DR: EVgo represents a leveraged play in the EV / autonomous driving markets. The insanely high switching costs gives this company a moat that rivals that of enterprise SaaS in the 2000s and 2010s. In my opinion, their partnership and buildout strategy is the best in the business. With the new EV market having digested the federal tax rebate cut, states instituting their own incentives to replace it, new affordable EVs coming to market driving primary purchase market, and multiple catalysts driving adoption in the secondary market, the path to robust profitability is likely to occur faster than the market is predicting.

(At the end I write up what I feel each of these value investors would say about the company)

EVGO is an electric vehicle charging infrastructure company.

Everything you need to know:

Operating footprint and hardware:

1. ~1,200 fast charging stations across 47 states. ~40% of US population lives within 10 miles of an EVGO fast charging station
2. 60% of stations are ultra-fast 350kW chargers which can add 150 miles of charge in 10-12 minutes, depending on vehicle capability.
3. Aggressively onboarding Tesla-compatible NACS hardware through 2036 and 2027.

Partnerships:

1. Major ongoing rollout at high-traffic Kroger locations
2. Meijer Stores: Major Midwest expansion rolling out ~480 fast-charging stations
3. Long-standing partnerships with WaWa, Whole Foods, and Simon Property Group
4. GM: Crown jewel, multi-year partnership to roll out 400 ultra-high-power stalls at premium locations in key states (California, Georgia, Florida, New York, Texas)
5. 3-way partnership with Pilot / Flying J, and GM to roll out stations throughout critical interstate corridors…infrastructure that is sorely lacking across most of the US, and is a critical factor in EV adoption. More interstate capacity means more people willing to adopt EV as primary vehicle.
6. Toyota partnership to build out fast charging network, as well as provide 1 year free charging for new bZ4X buyers.
7. Uber & Lyft: integrated into apps to provide discounted charging for drivers
8. Spinning up partnerships with autonomous fleet operators (like Waymo) for dedicated charging facilities in dense test-bed markets

Company Facts:

1. Top line has grown 45% YOY
2. 17 consecutive quarters of double-digit top line growth
3. Gross margin expansion from 14% - 39% from 2021 - 2026
4. On the cusp of EBITDA profitability and positive FCF (likely to be rerated when this happens)
5. 1,400 - 1,600 stall expansion essentially already fund through government credit facility and commercial credit facility. De-risks dilution risk. Still likely for more dilution, but not for stall buildout.
6. As the depreciation for these stalls roll off the financials and capex decreases, we will see the cash flow leverage this business will generate.

Catalysts:

1. ~1.5 million leased EVs roll of leases from 2026 - 2028, with these vehicles likely to sell into the secondary market.
2. Secondary market has a significant share of consumers in multi-family housing and / or street parking where home-based charging is not possible
3. Infrastructure buildout has double impact: more units for charging throughput and also increasing adoptions as consumers trust they can have reliable, fast charging whenever and wherever they need it.
4. Fleet / Autonomous / B2B customers / partners: High-mileage (meaning significant charging needs) increases stall utility, increasing operating leverage and directly increasing gross margin
5. In regards to fleet operations, EVGO is capturing significant market share early on.
6. EXTREMELY HIGH switching costs. Once installed this represents significant moat. I would argue that although this is not an asset-light operation…in the age of AI this is exactly like the rise of high switching costs, asset light, reliable ARR model that drove software to be significant compounders throughout 2000s and 2010s
7. EV market has bottomed, with cut to federal EV credits having been digested. EV sales have stabilized and begun to up-tic. Factoring in the used EV sales numbers (that just hit the highest quarterly level on record) it is clearly beginning to rise again.
8. Since the drop of the federal tax credit, many states have implemented their own credit or incentive in one form or another, supporting adoption.
9. Lower-cost EVs will (in combination with reader infrastructure driving charging trust with customers) will decrease barriers to adoption…along with the growth of the secondary market. Rivian R2, Volvo EX30 hitting the ~$40k market for middle-class / upper-middle class consumers. Chevy Bolt has been brought back, with some models hitting below <$30k. Redesigned Nissan Leaf is in $30k - $35k range and is..for lack of a better term…actually a little sexy.

Other entry level or middle class models:

Kia EV3
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Hyundai Kona Electric
Chevy Equinox EV

There are likely more my research didn’t turn up.

Point is…the more entry level models / used models purchased….the more likely is that person lives in housing that doesn’t afford the luxury of installing fast-charging at home…which means EVgo’s high-density strategy, along with key partnerships, will provide high utilization and high operating leverage.

Path to Profitability:

While the company is constantly innovating stall manufacturing process to lower COGS, the key here is kWh/day:

(Throughout per stall) * (margin per kWh) = (stall gross profit)

Q4 2025 showed average daily throughput per stall stood at 292 kWh / day

Projections and operational leverage models show that average daily throughput of roughly ~330 - 350 kWh / day would move EVgo easily into profitability, with any efficiencies in manufacturing cost reduction / labor cost reduction directly hitting gross margin expansion. With throughput for installed units increasing drastically, and operational efficiencies growing, I feel this path will happen sooner than market predicts.

Peter Lynch: Fast-Grower with more than sufficient capitalization in an overlooked / misunderstood industry where the hype has died and scaled unit economics provides clear operational leverage.

Weschler (Berkshire): Trailing earnings are irrelevant. EVgo is locking in premium real estate in key local markets that would take competitors double the CapEx and 5 years to try and replicate. i.e. clear moat.

Einhorn: Market is shorting this stock / undervaluing this stock because it is pricing in a permanent decline in new, luxury EV sales. Structural reality is a boom and growing boom in used EV sales, with a significant portion of those sales going to customers in large metros with limited or no ability to charge at home.

Miller: Value isn't "low P/E". It is a massive disconnect between a company's present enterprise value and its future discounted cashflows.~$600 million dollar market cap is mispricing a company with a CLEAR path to $500 million in EBITDA by 2030 and significant operating leverage for an asset-heavy company.

Munger: It is an intelligent speculation if buying it for the infrastructure and the cost it would take to rebuild it today, but it isn't a high-flying tech stock. Used EV sales growth + urban renters + fleet drivers / autonomous buildout = clear, structural "lollapalooza" effect... less psychologically and more structurally, with multiple trends and catalysts all moving in the same direction to a logical conclusion: more throughput. This also represents clear characteristics of a "tollbooth" effect. The state of US energy infrastructure means utilities and municipalities only have so many multi-megawatt pipelines they can allow to come out of the ground. EVgo locking in these pipelines in very dense metropolitan areas creates a moat that is very difficult for a Johnny-come-lately to replicate.

EVGO is an electric vehicle charging infrastructure company.

TL/DR: EVgo represents a leveraged play in the EV / autonomous driving markets. The insanely high switching costs gives this company a moat that rivals that of enterprise SaaS in the 2000s and 2010s. In my opinion, their partnership and buildout strategy is the best in the business. With the new EV market having digested the federal tax rebate cut, states instituting their own incentives to replace it, new affordable EVs coming to market driving primary purchase market, and multiple catalysts driving adoption in the secondary market, the path to robust profitability is likely to occur faster than the market is predicting.

Everything you need to know:

Operating footprint and hardware:

1. ~1,200 fast charging stations across 47 states. ~40% of US population lives within 10 miles of an EVGO fast charging station

2. >60% of stations are ultra-fast 350kW chargers which can add 150 miles of charge in 10-12 minutes, depending on vehicle capability.

3. Aggressively onboarding Tesla-compatible NACS hardware through 2036 and 2027.

Partnerships:

1. Major ongoing rollout at high-traffic Kroger locations

2. Meijer Stores: Major Midwest expansion rolling out ~480 fast-charging stations

3. Long-standing partnerships with WaWa, Whole Foods, and Simon Property Group

4. GM: Crown jewel, multi-year partnership to roll out 400 ultra-high-power stalls at premium locations in key states (California, Georgia, Florida, New York, Texas)

5. 3-way partnership with Pilot / Flying J, and GM to roll out stations throughout critical interstate corridors…infrastructure that is sorely lacking across most of the US, and is a critical factor in EV adoption. More interstate capacity means more people willing to adopt EV as primary vehicle.

6. Toyota partnership to build out fast charging network, as well as provide 1 year free charging for new bZ4X buyers.

7. Uber & Lyft: integrated into apps to provide discounted charging for drivers

8. Spinning up partnerships with autonomous fleet operators (like Waymo) for dedicated charging facilities in dense test-bed markets

Company Facts:

1. Top line has grown 45% YOY
2. 17 consecutive quarters of double-digit top line growth
3. Gross margin expansion from 14% - 39% from 2021 - 2026
4. On the cusp of EBITDA profitability and positive FCF (likely to be rerated when this happens)
5. 1,400 - 1,600 stall expansion essentially already fund through government credit facility and commercial credit facility. De-risks dilution risk. Still likely for more dilution, but not for stall buildout.
6. As the depreciation for these stalls roll off the financials and capex decreases, we will see the cash flow leverage this business will generate.

Catalysts:

1. ~1.5 million leased EVs roll of leases from 2026 - 2028, with these vehicles likely to sell into the secondary market.

2. Secondary market has a significant share of consumers in multi-family housing and / or street parking where home-based charging is not possible

3. Infrastructure buildout has double impact: more units for charging throughput and also increasing adoptions as consumers trust they can have reliable, fast charging whenever and wherever they need it.

4. Fleet / Autonomous / B2B customers / partners: High-mileage (meaning significant charging needs) increases stall utility, increasing operating leverage and directly increasing gross margin

5. In regards to fleet operations, EVGO is capturing significant market share early on.

6. EXTREMELY HIGH switching costs. Once installed this represents significant moat. I would argue that although this is not an asset-light operation…in the age of AI this is exactly like the rise of high switching costs, asset light, reliable ARR model that drove software to be significant compounders throughout 2000s and 2010s

7. EV market has bottomed, with cut to federal EV credits having been digested. EV sales have stabilized and begun to up-tic. Factoring in the used EV sales numbers (that just hit the highest quarterly level on record) it is clearly beginning to rise again.

8. Since the drop of the federal tax credit, many states have implemented their own credit or incentive in one form or another, supporting adoption.

9. Lower-cost EVs will (in combination with reader infrastructure driving charging trust with customers) will decrease barriers to adoption…along with the growth of the secondary market. Rivian R2, Volvo EX30 hitting the ~$40k market for middle-class / upper-middle class consumers. Chevy Bolt has been brought back, with some models hitting below <$30k. Redesigned Nissan Leaf is in $30k - $35k range and is..for lack of a better term…actually a little sexy.

Other entry level or middle class models:

Kia EV3
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Hyundai Kona Electric
Chevy Equinox EV

There are likely more my research didn’t turn up.

Point is…the more entry level models / used models purchased….the more likely is that person lives in housing that doesn’t afford the luxury of installing fast-charging at home…which means EVgo’s high-density strategy, along with key partnerships, will provide high utilization and high operating leverage.

Path to Profitability:

While the company is constantly innovating stall manufacturing process to lower COGS, the key here is kWh/day:

(Throughout per stall) * (margin per kWh) = (stall gross profit)

Q4 2025 showed average daily throughput per stall stood at 292 kWh / day

Projections and operational leverage models show that average daily throughput of roughly ~330 - 350 kWh / day would move EVgo easily into profitability, with any efficiencies in manufacturing cost reduction / labor cost reduction directly hitting gross margin expansion. With throughput for installed units increasing drastically, and operational efficiencies growing, I feel this path will happen sooner than market predicts.

This isn’t a full analysis, because I’m busy today. If people want a full analysis that I typically do, let me know.

If you read any of my posts, you know I don’t spam posts. I try to only post here when I find true value.

You also would know that I take a somewhat different definition of “value investing”, and I truly believe that “vie is in the high of the beholder.”

When I was in the US Army, I spent time in Ukraine helping train the Ukrainian military.

For about a year now I’ve been invested in Kyivstar (KYIV).

Currently listening to the earnings call.

This isn’t a true analysis. Like I said I can post more detail later if you really want.

Just putting it out there that I personally feel this is an excellent ex-US value play that could be a true multi-bagger in the next 2 - 5 years.

Not advice.

I love this sub. I get a lot of value out of reading other’s thoughts, and from time to time I have made my own posts. I try to make my comments to others be direct while helpful, and although tone can not be conveyed through text, I believe I should clearly state that never and I mean never do my comments care any tone or meaning except that of spirited discussion (well…we are all human so occasionally it may get heated. But that is the exception…and it happens to all of us)

That being said:

The title of this post says it all: Value is in the eye of the beholder. What do I mean by that?

Everyone one of us humans view the world through our own lenses, which are sculpted and polished by our genetic traits (parts of our personalities passed on by our parents), and our experiences (what we personally have lived through and what we have learned from those experiences).

Some may quote Buffett, some may quote Munger, some may cite Benjamin Graham. Browne, Greenblatt, Pabrai, Miller, Marks, Klarman… all of them are generally labeled as “value investors” by most of us (with Miller somewhat debated).

But what about Lynch or Ackman?

Ignoring performance and focusing on philosophies:

Lynch was the inventor of PEG (or at least popularized it). Labeled as the “Growth at a reasonable price” investor. Does the fact that he includes growth in his determination detract from the worm he does in his fundamental analysis?

Ackman is extremely “value” focused on his analysis, but is much more activist in his style, which Buffett was not. Does that take away from his “value” approach?

We need to stop being so STUCK in what we think of as “value investing”.

Value is in the eye of the beholder!

What do all of these investors have in common? They utilized frameworks, philosophies, and mental models to structure their investing processes in such a way that they determined gave them an edge. That’s it. All of them had the exact same over-arching goals.

“Value” = discount to intrinsic value
“Growth” = an input intrinsic value

“Value” ≠ Low P/E
“Growth” ≠ High P/E

The Graham / Buffett / Munger cohort found an edge based on asymmetric data access and understanding. Before computers, instant stock quotes, and broad dissemination of financial results, they could do the work to identify companies trading at a discount (or on par) to intrinsic value (or tangible book value) and profit.

In an age with instant access to almost any financial data / ratio / analysis of any public company you could think of… this information arbitrage can not simply be based on ratios and growth rates. Market dynamics have changed. Players have changed. Rules of the game have changed. Information access has changed.

This doesn’t mean you can’t adopt a more purist “net-net” style Graham investing strategy…. It just means the opportunities are fewer and further between, and often much farther down the market cap ladder where fewer eyes are looking, and where more stocks are not yet profitable.

Your investing style must match your temperament, your time horizon, your goals, and your portfolio size.

To that end, let’s discuss what is actually meant by “value”:

ALL investing, in my humble opinion, is value investing. You are paying a price today for a stream of future cash flows.

To that end, YOU must make a personal determination, based on your analysis and experience, if the current price is a fair price for future cash flows, too expensive, or even a discount to future cash flows.

Hence I would argue a good definition of “Value Investing” would be:

“Investing in companies where the market is mispricing the future.”

(This is where I would argue Peter Lynch is the father of modern value investing: Retaining the fundamental and strategic analysis, but also focusing on his circle of competency so that he can more accurately estimate future cash flows).

So, in closing, I’d like to say that I appreciate this group…. But we all have to get out of our habit of criticizing a post or idea because it doesn’t meet OUR OWN PERSONAL definition of “value”. If someone knows more about the semiconductor industry than you, they could EASILY make an argument for Nvidia being a “value” play….while you wouldn’t touch it with someone else’s brokerage account.

But that also means that our analyses must address the diverse concerns of the broader community, recognizing that different people take different approaches to identifying value, or else stop being surprised when your Palantir post gets a lot of blowback.

Later today I will be posting my analysis of a company that the vast majority of this group will not view as traditional value. That’s fine. I will make the case that a combination of quantifiable and non-quantifiable factors make it a clear value play in hopes to persuade some of you purists to see the bigger picture.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope have not offended anyone, and I am always open to feedback and criticism. (Except criticism about this being a long post… I am who I am)