WTR Small-Cap Spotlight

Hosted by Water Tower Research

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Episodes

319

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

WTR Small-Cap Spotlight is Water Tower Research's weekly podcast covering small-cap and micro-cap equities. Each episode features exclusive CEO interviews, analyst deep-dives, and actionable stock ideas across sectors including biotech, energy, technology, and industrials. Hosted by Tim Gerdeman, WTR Vice Chair & Co-Founder, the show gives investors direct access to the management teams and analysts behind under-the-radar opportunities. New episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms.

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60 recent

October 22, 202626 min

Xali Gold (XGC): Reviving Pico Machay and Unlocking a New Gold Development Opportunity

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Joanne Freeze, President and CEO of Xali Gold Corp. (TSXV: XGC, OTC: XGDF), joins WTR Analyst Dmitry Silversteyn and host Tim Gerdeman, Co-Founder of Water Tower Research, to discuss the company’s flagship Pico Machay gold project in Peru, its historical resource of more than 700,000 ounces, and the opportunity to revisit a project previously considered economic at US$700/oz gold. The conversation explores plans to validate and expand the resource, update project economics, advance permitting and community engagement, and pursue alternative financing strategies. Freeze also outlines upcoming drilling and development milestones and what could differentiate Xali Gold from other junior gold developers. Joanne Freeze also addresses permitting and community engagement in Peru, financing strategies beyond equity including debt, streaming, and offtake agreements, and the drilling and development milestones ahead over the next 12 to 18 months. For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com .

October 21, 202611 min

FatPipe (FATN): One Call, That’s Al"l: How a Small SD-WAN Vendor Beats the "Big Boys"

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Dr. Ragula Bhaskar, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of FatPipe, Inc. (Nasdaq: FATN), joins WTR Analyst James Kisner and host Tim Gerdeman, Co-Founder of Water Tower Research. FatPipe sells routers, firewalls, SD-WAN, cybersecurity, and network visibility as a single software stack, with a co-managed service aimed at SMB customers that cannot afford a large IT staff. Dr. Ragula Bhaskar explains how the company wins against Cisco, HPE, and Arista on product and first-party support, summed up as “one call, that’s all,” what new channel partners Carahsoft and Howard Technology Solutions expect from a vendor, and why the $7 million education contract is pulling partners toward larger deals as the sales team grows. He also covers the shift to monthly recurring billings, where Total Security 360 stands as customers’ existing security contracts come up for renewal, early demand for SATBoost as satellite becomes a cheaper backup link, and the first sales of Constellation, including a data center version and a dedicated data center team planned for the first quarter. The conversation closes with the targets Dr. Ragula Bhaskar uses to run the business: 18% growth and 18% adjusted EBITDA margins. For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com .

October 16, 20269 min

eXoZymes (EXOZ): Can Cell-Free Biomanufacturing Deliver at Commercial Scale?

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Robert Sassoon, Managing Director and healthcare analyst at Water Tower Research, joins host Tim Gerdeman to discuss his newly published initiation of coverage on eXoZymes (Nasdaq: EXOZ) and its cell-free biomanufacturing platform. Robert Sassoon explains how the technology works, the significance of the reported 10-fold productivity improvement in NCT manufacturing, and the next steps toward validating commercial-scale production with CDMO partner Curia Global. The conversation also covers NCT’s potential in the nutraceutical market, the competitive landscape, and the longer-term opportunity to develop novel molecules for pharmaceutical applications through the BioClick platform. With an NCT product launch targeted for the first half of 2027, Robert Sassoon lays out the commercial, manufacturing, and regulatory milestones investors should watch as eXoZymes moves from pilot-scale validation to commercial execution. For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com and for access to the Fireside Chat: https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/event.jsp?ei=1779409&tp_key=f8a1f046f8

October 14, 202619 min

ClearSign Technologies (CLIR): The CTO and VP of Burners - Inside the Engineering Platform Built to Scale

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Matt Martin, Chief Technology Officer, and Jeff Lewallen, Vice President of Burners at ClearSign Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: CLIR), join WTR’s Peter Gastreich, Managing Director of Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing, and host Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Water Tower Research. Matt Martin and Jeff Lewallen take investors under the hood of the engineering platform driving ClearSign’s growth. The conversation covers how predictive CFD modeling keeps the company asset light, how reusable technology shortens the path from design to market for new products, and why larger reforming and ethylene projects, which can run to several hundred burners each, could make the company’s growth geometric. For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com .

October 8, 202631 min

Quantum Cyber (QUCY): Helping AI-Powered Drones Phone Home Without GPS

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Nadab Akhtar, President and CEO of Project LightShift, the quantum antenna technology partner of Quantum Cyber N.V. (Nasdaq: QUCY), joins WTR Analyst James Kisner and host Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Water Tower Research. Quantum Cyber is developing an autonomous defense platform for battlefields where GPS and communications are jammed or denied. Nadab Akhtar explains why a drone is most exposed when it signals home, then covers how the quantum photomagnetic antenna is designed to use quantum-scale photonics to read the Earth’s magnetic field as a navigation reference. The antenna was invented by Project LightShift co-founder and Chief Scientist Dr. Wolf Kohn and is exclusively licensed to Quantum Cyber for drone and defense applications. Nadab Akhtar also walks through MAHCA (Multiple Agent Hybrid Control Architecture), a rules-based AI framework intended to let drone swarms make decisions on board rather than calling home, and describes the search for a fabrication partner to take the pre-commercial antenna from simulation to a first prototype. The conversation closes with the milestones he expects over the next 12 to 18 months, led by a defined prototype program and a demonstration of MAHCA for swarming. For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com .

October 2, 202618 min

WTR Insights Conference Takeaways: Critical Minerals and Advanced Materials: From Concept to Execution

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Dmitry Silversteyn, Managing Director for Chemicals and Materials Technology, joins Tim Gerdeman to recap the critical minerals and advanced materials companies he hosted at the WTR Insights Conference on September 22 and 23. The conversation covers the two overarching themes that emerged across six very different companies: the shift from resource definition and proof of concept toward project financing, permitting, and commercial validation, and the accelerating role of government support as Western nations move from rhetoric to capital deployment in decoupling from China. Dmitry walks through what changed for each company, including Brazil Potash's advancing permitting and government-backed tax relief, First Phosphate's growing investment stack and export credit agency support, 5E Advanced Materials' transformative Searles Valley Minerals acquisition, Home Run Resources' early silica sales and high-purity validation progress, U.S. Elemental's pending NASDAQ listing and updated feasibility economics, and The Metals Company's NOAA permitting progress and pivot toward integrated U.S. onshore refining. The episode closes with the milestones investors should watch across all six names over the next 12 months. All six conference presentations are available on demand at https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/portal.jsp?ei=1770861&tp_key=bfed48f4a8 For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com .

October 1, 202610 min

WTR Insights Conference Takeaways: Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Small Cap Spotlight, Peter Gastreich, Managing Director of Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing at Water Tower Research, joins host Tim Gerdeman to recap the eight companies he hosted at the WTR Insights Conference, spanning renewable fuels and carbon management, waste to value, clean tech, environmental solutions, and metallurgical coal. Peter Gastreich breaks down five themes that emerged across the sessions: compliance rather than carbon as the demand engine, security of supply, tight markets that reward proven capacity, the shift from promise to proof, and capital-light models for customers and shareholders alike. He also explains why customer problems rather than macro themes drive demand across a notably diverse set of end markets, and shares the management lines that stood out on regulatory compliance, strategic importance, technology differentiation, and execution. All eight sessions are available on demand at https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/portal.jsp?ei=1770861&tp_key=bfed48f4a8 For Additional content: https://www.watertowerresearch.com/sector/2

October 1, 202624 min

WTR Insights Conference Takeaways: Building Long-Term Value in a Turbulent Oil Market

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight, Jeff Robertson, Managing Director of Natural Resources at Water Tower Research, joins Tim Gerdeman to recap the nine energy companies he hosted at the WTR Insights Conference on September 22 and 23, including seven E&P names and two oil field service companies. Jeff Robertson breaks down what management teams said about capital discipline against a volatile commodity backdrop, why producers are not adding rigs at current prices, and how balance sheet repair, royalty and mineral strategies, capital structure simplification, and the conventional Permian are shaping individual stories. The discussion also covers the shift toward collars over swaps in hedging, the risk and reward profile of West African portfolios, and how dividends and buybacks function differently within shareholder return frameworks. The conversation closes on the oil field services side with deepwater positioning, specialized manufacturing exposure, and why these businesses may be valued on a near-term cycle rather than a longer-term capital spending one. Jeff Robertson wraps with the milestones he is watching over the next six to 12 months. All nine presentations are available on demand at https://event.webcasts.com/viewer/portal.jsp?ei=1770861&tp_key=bfed48f4a8 Additional content available https://www.watertowerresearch.com/sector/5

September 29, 202635 min

WTR Insights Conference Featured Speaker: Joseph Lucosky of Lucosky Brookman on Getting Listed and Staying Listed in 2026

Send us Fan Mail Recorded as a featured session at the WTR Virtual Insights Conference, Joseph Lucosky, Managing Partner of Lucosky Brookman, joins Shawn Severson, CEO and Founding Partner of Water Tower Research, to break down what has changed for emerging growth companies coming to market in 2026. Joseph Lucosky explains how NASDAQ's December 2025 discretionary listing rules reset the market, including a 78-day stretch with no microcap IPOs and the first year on record in which direct listings and uplistings outpaced traditional IPOs. Through August 31, the Lucosky Brookman data desk tracked 51 microcap transactions, split evenly across IPOs, direct listings, and uplistings. The conversation covers why the question has shifted from whether a company qualifies to list to whether the exchange wants it, how a company's lifecycle stage largely determines its listing path, and what separates well-prepared candidates from those that struggle post-listing. Joseph Lucosky also addresses continued listing compliance, including shareholders' equity and minimum bid price thresholds, firm data on curing bid price deficiencies without a reverse split, and the case for the OTC as a legitimate stepping stone. To Watch On Demand: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1772701&tp_key=36ad943bc3 For additional content, visit www.watertowerresearch.com.

September 24, 202644 min

Natural MedTech: Why the Psychedelic Opportunity Starts With Manufacturing

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Natural MedTech CEO and Co-Founder Luke McFarlane joins WTR healthcare analyst Robert Sassoon and Shawn Severson to discuss the company's biosynthetic psilocybin manufacturing platform and its position within Australia's evolving psychedelic medicine landscape. The conversation covers the authorized prescriber pathway, including adoption trends, treatment costs, regulatory developments, and early insurer engagement. McFarlane walks through NMT's proprietary biosynthesis platform, its competitive advantages in cost and purity, the ongoing Series A raise, and the case for local manufacturing. The episode also explores AI's role in drug development, the importance of wet-lab data, NMT's views on drugs-for-data models, and the company's long-term ambitions within the pharmaceutical value chain. For additional content visit: www.watertowerresearch.com

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