Welcome to Azar Research Collective. You know me as Gabe Azar. I am the founder of Azar Capital Group, the parent entity of Azar Research Collective. For the past two years, I have been ripping blogs on all sorts of publicly traded companies, mostly the names nobody is talking about. Before this, I worked as a greenskeeper, flipped pizzas, created and edited gaming content for FaZe Clan, and did research for some of the largest technology and business podcasts. I am currently based out of Pittsburgh; if that ever changes, I will keep you updated. Outside of typing words into a keyboard, I enjoy golfing, cycling, watching stand-up comedy, and drinking coffee. 

Despite going to school for marketing, advertising, and finance. I spent the last year of university before dropping out (during the SPAC craze of 2020/1) reading 10-Ks, reviewing investor presentations, and other investor documents, trying to understand what all this nonsense meant. Since then, I have been amped on doing due diligence. Researching more plays than I can count, constantly thinking outside the box, and trying to avoid crowded trades. I have followed the hot trends from crypto to defense to where we are now with AI. This is how I developed my “thesis” and interest within the industrials space.  

Azar Research Collective focuses on what I call ‘The Backbone Economy’ or, in simpler terms, Industrials and Supply Chains; this is my term for the businesses that move things, power things, feed people, and keep the world running. We cover machinery and equipment, transportation and logistics, electrical equipment and grid infrastructure, building products and construction, waste and environmental services, food distribution and restaurants, aerospace, defense, and the professional services they plug into all of them. These aren’t sexy industries; they don’t trend, but they do keep your lights on and you fed. 

Everybody and their moms are currently following the same forty-seven tech names. Almost nobody is doing the dirty work on the company that sells them their raw materials and fuels their supply chain. I am a strong believer in the supply chain, and think that every company in the world is basically a logistics/supply chain company. Yes, even that tech company you’re thinking about right now. This is the gap where I plan to live from. We are here for both David and Goliath; I am a retail investor myself and have never worked within the industry. But I hope that I’m able to build this into a page that is well respected by the industry and its players.

Whenever I see a company getting hot, my first thought is, who are this company's suppliers, and how does their supply chain work? That perspective on the market is what built my investment thesis and overall market outlook. Beyond a company's supply chain, I am intrigued by what the company is doing behind the spreadsheets: is the company actually shipping something new or are they just relying on old business to stay afloat, how does the market define the company, or is management able to give a strong narrative on the company, and what are favorable policy tailwinds? I do not believe one can get a real read on a business by typing imaginary numbers into an Excel spreadsheet.

This shop will be a lot more laid back than any other traditional research firm. I have an unconventional background and path to this game, so I will be showing that with how I write and my perspective within the markets. I use a range of tools to build these reports, from physical notecards to LLMs. The goal isn't to automate my thinking; it's to make the output cleaner, more consistent, and to skip over the boring parts. I still study and work through every company myself, but the financial analysis section is currently drafted by Shadowfax, my AI analyst, before I review, edit, and sign off on it.

Currently, I plan to ship five different sorts of content. First is ‘Episodes’, aka what I am currently shipping: faster and more narrow coverage on a company, sector, or new technology every two weeks. Second will be ‘Montages’, my new flagship product, which will be shipped every six weeks. Each report is built from supplier calls, customer calls, filings, and whatever else it takes to find the gap between the story and the numbers. The third piece is ‘The Bits’, a weekly data pulse, a fast hit of the numbers and indicators worth watching, no narrative attached. Fourth is ‘The Riffs’, a weekly opinionated take, where I say what I actually think instead of just laying out the data. Finally is ‘The Leftovers’, a twice-weekly collection of shorter, more vibe-based observations and things worth flagging that don't need a full piece.

A side note to the content plan: I'll start shipping the Episodes and several newsletters first to get into rhythm before I start releasing the Montages. That's to protect content quality and keep the scope manageable early on. Currently my Episodes have been strictly related to publicly traded companies, but I will begin to branch out to cover sectors, new technologies, market trends, industry landscapes, supply chain investigations, and cross-sector pieces. Then eventually the Montages and maybe even a short report. Highly doubtful on the short report, to be honest, but that would fall under the Montage category.

Every piece of content I ship comes from public filings, transcripts, and other public verifiable intelligence, plus primary research calls conducted under an ethics guide I built for this desk. It bans me and any future analyst from compensating sources or acting on anything that sounds like it's non-public. Every call and every piece of data I collect outside of what's already public, I log. This is where the edge comes from: everyone can read a 10-K, but can you pick up the phone and verify it? The front lines never lie.  

My research doesn’t start with a screener based on revenue growth or margins; I simply have a list of every industrial public company in the world. While our focus is on American names, we will cover names with global presence obviously. I’ll look into European names if I ever go on vacation. The internal Azar Research Collective supply chain runs on intelligence, primary research, and my tech stack plus a ton of coffee and Red Bull. Please sponsor me, Red Bull.

Since I am an honest fellow, I will tell you now that I have several plans to monetize this content. First is obvious: subscriptions. I plan to make nearly all of my content free, but the core report and sections of the weekly posts will be behind a paywall. Second will come from advertising and affiliate placements; nearly every newsletter in the game includes advertising and affiliate links, although I will not place any ads within my flagship product. If any other revenue opportunities present themselves in the future, I will survey my community to see if they are in support of it before making any decision.

The goal of all of this is to turn Azar Research Collective into a research shop that is known for its hot takes, excellent research, and is done well enough to earn the trust of the industry. If I am successful with that, I can start up Azar Capital Group, the investment arm. This is not something that can be done overnight; I have been quietly shipping for the past two years. It’s time to get off the bench and into the game. Twenty years out, I would like to be running a quiet research shop with a few dogs and manage a small to medium amount of capital. 

That's it, that's my pitch. I would love it if you stuck around and joined me for this journey. 

Side note, my favorite type of energy is nuclear.

A note from compliance: no price targets, no buy, sell, or hold calls, ever. I'm not telling you what to do with your money. What I'm building is the research, the diligence, so you can go do your own. Treat anything I publish as one input into a bigger thesis, not the thesis itself. I'm also not chasing winners. I want to cover the good, the bad, and the ugly step-sister companies nobody else is bothering to look at, because that's where the real gaps tend to sit. These views are my own and have not been influenced by friends, family, or enemies of the state. To be clear on who I am: I'm independent and unlicensed, not a registered investment advisor, and I don't manage outside capital. This is educational research, not financial advice.

Thank you, and may the force be with you,

- Gabe L. Azar