Iyassu: So now we're going to get to my favorite part of the program. Nasheet, what are you looking forward to next week? Hi everybody. Welcome to Inside the Flows, episode 12. I'm your host Iyassu Essayas and I'm with special guest, Inflows Contributor Nasheet Patel. Welcome Nasheet.
Nisheet: Yeah, it's a question. ⁓ So we always talk about conferences and how great they are for advisor engagement, ⁓ learning and hearing from speakers. We talk about future proof a lot. Another one I go to all the time is Envestnet Their Elevate conference this year is coming up just later May. ⁓ next week, it's out in Phoenix. It's downtown Phoenix. It is dry heat for those of you who have not been there. Like I'm coming from New York and... Hey, Asu, happy Friday.
Iyassu: Happy Friday. It's been a little while. We took a little break. It's past couple of weeks, so I haven't seen you.
Nisheet: Yeah, what have you been doing these last couple of weeks? the summers in New York are more humid than Phoenix. So I do enjoy my time in Phoenix. It's a great conference to hear from leadership at InvestNet and see what they're working on technology-wise, operations-wise, but also a good place just to meet advisors and then also pretty much the entire asset management community. So I'm looking forward to that and reconnecting with industry friends and learning something new, hopefully.
Iyassu: yeah, been busy over here. We have been working on developing new features for the app. And I put out a quick, I don't know, was like a minute and a half, maybe two minute update on the podcast last week, just telling folks, hey, we haven't disappeared. just taking advantage of a situation. Well, we got some AI credits and there was a deal that gave us a whole lot of AI credits. And so we took advantage of that and we've been using artificial intelligence to help us build out these new features, which the way you want to think about it is back in the day, the bottleneck to developing features was getting people to write software code as fast as possible. But with AI coding agents, That no longer is the problem. They write faster than humanly possible. So writing code isn't the bottleneck. It's now designing and refining and that takes a lot of compute. And so we found these deals that we just couldn't pass up. And that bled into the shooting and preparing for Inside the Flows and we had to make that choice, but we're back. And we released several new features on the app. The first is tagging. So now users can tag each other. It was one of the requested features from our users. And I know it sounds kind of silly. And maybe for the folks here who are plus 30 years old, or sorry, plus 40 years old, tagging is like, what? That's like such a social thing. But for the younger generation, yeah, they really like to be able to tag.
Nisheet: I think it helps in networking too, right? I I use tags on LinkedIn. You want to be able to have conversation with this app. What I love about the app is the engagement and the conversation. So this is just another reason we're posting links and trying to start topics. But if we're able to tag certain folks and draw a conversation and questions to those people, I think that's great.
Iyassu: Yeah, Nisheet the ⁓ tagging features is something that it's fun to use. think you're the one that told or showed Josh Brown's comment on LinkedIn about tagging and hashtagging and kind of their of understanding the mechanics of it and where to waste time and where not to waste time in. So I'm glad we implemented this feature. So now users can tag their followers. So we got to get our users a high follow count so they can tag as many folks as they like. There's going to be some things that you might want to share and make sure a couple of people know that you're sharing that post or comment or whatnot. So that's where the tagging feature comes in. And then there was a direct messaging. We released direct messaging. was another feature that was highly that we implement ASAP. So ⁓ problem that we were trying to solve for is in ⁓ app, you could ⁓ you can see ⁓ a feed what people are thinking and commenting on. But if you ever wanted to reach out to that individual, ⁓ had to leave the app, ⁓ to something else like ⁓ Facebook, Twitter, ⁓ ⁓ connect with that person there, then send the message. And if you're lucky, you could see their email and then directly send it. So rather than put in like four or five steps for folks to connect with each other, we added direct messaging. So you can instantly message each other on the app and stay on the app and stay connected and whatnot. So hopefully, maybe after this show, you and I can share some DMs.
Nisheet: Yeah, again, I think all these ⁓ modifications and enhancements you're making to the app are promoting what it is at the core, which is this engagement between independent advisors. And I'm excited to see that activity on the app.
Iyassu: Yeah, so a sneak peek of the next feature that's coming out or the next two features is we're going to have a marketplace. And for folks that don't know what a marketplace is, it's the ability to create a platform for vendors or service providers to put forth their product and solutions. on inflows without having to join inflows. So we have an RAA only rule. So you have to work for a registered investment advisor or the equivalent in order ⁓ join the platform. ⁓ there's a lot of service providers out there that are not RAs and ⁓ wouldn't be able to join, but our advisors and asset managers would find their products and solutions useful if they knew they existed. And so ⁓ we're trying to solve that by creating a marketplace that the providers can their products and solutions ⁓ having to be members. So ⁓ really excited about that marketplace, Nisheet ⁓
Nisheet: Yeah, I think it's a great idea. In my day job, that's a lot of what I do. ⁓ ⁓ opening doors and conversations between advisors and solutions providers, not just asset managers, but even vendors of tech stack for wealth management, ⁓ I think that that's key ⁓ independent advisors, especially to learn and to grow their ⁓
Iyassu: Yeah. And there's so many other services out there other than, or actually solution sets out there other than just asset management and, you know, coming into the space is, you know, outsourced COOs, outsourced, you know, legal and CFOs, AI solutions, like note takers and, and whatnot. I mean, there's so many out there that, you know, it'd be good to bring them into the fold so that the inflows platform becomes more than just a, you know, hey, check people are talking about. Let's also look to see what's out there that could help my practice. So I'm really excited about that.
Nisheet: I think that right there is the key. I may have shared this story with you before, but for the rest of the audience here, there was a past conference version of feature proof where I sat in on a leadership breakfast panel and there were lot of independent advisors there and they were asking the questions like, who do I turn to for what financial planning software I should use or what chief compliance officer in a box solution I should use? And ⁓ think for advisors that are part of a bigger shop, ⁓ You know, that, that they have that luxury of a home office and a platform team and a development team. But if you're going independent, if the two of us are going to hang a shingle and go independent, our priority is our clients, their investments. ⁓ we're not really thinking about infrastructure. So I think, ⁓ what you're doing is a great service for those folks that don't have the luxury of a Merrill Lynch home office. ⁓ They need this too and for them to be able to talk to their peers and then talk to the solutions providers themselves. I think that's great.
Iyassu: I got a question. That's amazing that you said that because I have a question for you, Nishin, about it. So on the marketplace, I'm going to allow the advisors to write reviews and rate the service providers. And that'll be, you viewable to the inflows audience, but also the service provider too. They can see what their ratings are and who's reviewing and then also like reply to those reviews. What do you think about this adding the review process to the marketplace?
Nisheet: Yeah, I think that's helpful. mean, it's a way for, it's what happens at conferences, right? And I think it's one of the things I've told you little about this app is essentially it's bringing the conference to your phone and accessible 24 hours a day. So at conferences, at breakouts, at vendor booths, people are walking around, they're getting demos, but they're also asking each other like, Hey, what, what tool do you use to solve for XYZ? And if I'm hearing from my peers that, this works. This is the type of client I use it for. This is the type of investment solution that it's ideal for. That makes sense to me, right? That's a use case that I can relate to. If you're telling me like, hey, it's not the best for the ultra high net worth client segment, but it's good for your C segment of your book, then that's knowledge I'm going to take back. And it's going to be helpful, especially again, if I'm in an independent smaller shop where I have less people to like bounce ideas off of, I think that's super helpful. ⁓ And it also provides an avenue for the vendors to have conversations and engagement with the advisor and say, hey, maybe you like this feature, you should look at this other feature, or maybe you didn't use the feature properly and that's why you gave us a poor review. Let's see what you're using it for. So I think all that is good.
Iyassu: Yeah, that's very well said. And yeah, just to let the audience members know, what's kind of in it for the providers? Like why should they sign up and have their products and solutions on the inflows marketplace? It's because it gives them warm leads. So an advisor who looks at like the card of the service provider, there's a big blue button at the top right that says connect and it pops up in a window and. You can put in a message to the provider saying like, Hey, I'm interested in this solution. Like let's get connected and the window and you can hit submit. And what it does is it sends a, it sends an email to the provider saying, you know, this advisor here wants to talk about, you know, X, Y, and Z here's their contact info, info, reach out to them. And that's really, really, really valuable to the providers getting a, getting a warm lead like that. So, you know, I think everybody wins in this. ⁓ on ⁓ this new feature. hopefully the users and the providers enjoy it.
Nisheet: No, I'm they will. I'm excited to see it.
Iyassu: And it looks cool too. I'll show you what it looks like later. The other update that we were working on is what's called referrals. I have this theory, or sorry, it's not a theory, it's a hypothesis. The theory is when we actually release it and we test it out to see if it works. I have this hypothesis that the... investment advisory industry has an untapped market called referrals. And when you think about who, when you think about the, the advisor's business, essentially it's like managing money, like, you know, how much, how many households can you put into your book and how much assets can you manage of the, of those households? There's so money ⁓ in the States that I hypothesize that these advisors are not really competing with each other. So if they are not competing with each other, ⁓ they are, in my opinion, kind of islands on their own, like they're just basically small business owners trying to figure things out and get by. ⁓ you're not competing with each other, then why not leverage each other to ⁓ your practice, to ⁓ ⁓ better, do some knowledge sharing to like provide better services to your clients. And one way you can do that is by creating a, almost like an exchange ⁓ advisor to advisor can ask questions like, hey, does anybody have a good attorney for this situation for my client? ⁓ Or does anybody have like a center of influence that they use that they would recommend to me? ⁓ Or, hey, I have a client that doesn't really meet my standards, but they may meet yours and you might want to take them on. That referral market, I feel, is untapped. ⁓ we, as part of the whole development ⁓ crush that I've been in, ⁓ created one. we call it referrals. ⁓ so we developed that. That's also coming out pretty soon. It's a feed that allows for ⁓ advisors to put up referrals or ask for referrals in a pretty cool way. It's very aesthetic and easy to use and whatnot. And it ties into the DMs and it's pretty useful. so we've been developing that and we're going to release that one pretty soon as well. So, yeah, that's why if you're on YouTube and you're looking at ⁓ face, I've got the ⁓ goatee. It's just been like long nights. ⁓
Nisheet: Nice. Is what they call it out in California?
Iyassu: I guess, I think I just made that one up. there's been some long nights and we're building really cool features for our users and hopefully they'll be useful to them.
Nisheet: No, that's exciting. know, you know, I'm glad we're able to talk about it on the podcast, because these are all great features to increase engagement of the app. And I would tell you just on that last one, you're right. Referrals are huge and untapped. And I think from a practice perspective, I think of like the different firms that I've worked at. meet advisors who, you they, in a thoughtful way, have carved out a niche in their own way, right? And then maybe they've hit some kind of a threshold where like, can, if I'm providing the best client service, I'm not going to take on any new clients. And they're just pushed there. They're essentially like showing them away. if they have a place to send them, or I've met advisors who specialize in a certain geographic region or a certain profession, right? Like I've met advisors, my sister's a doctor and her advisor only deals with doctors and all of her friends are now with, this guy. ⁓ I might want to use that same advisor and he's like, no, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm saving this spot, but I'll send you to someone else. Like those types of things I think are out there that people, you're right. They don't actually really talk about it much. And it's not. It's also not promoted by practice management services in the home offices of some of the bigger shops. So I think it's again, another wrinkle of engagement in the app and another benefit for people to, join and have conversations. So I think that's great. You're creating value inside the app.
Iyassu: You I think I remember you and I having this conversation about ⁓ Future Proof, last year's Future Proof, where I think you were at breakfast ⁓ there was another kind of owner operator of an RIA that were talking with and he told you he's like, hey man, I had go to this ⁓ breakfast and down and ⁓ listen to asset managers talk and. but I was able to sit at a table of other owner operators and I asked them a question about how they structured ⁓ their equity plan for succession planning. And he said that the guy that he asked was the other owner operator, gave him an answer. He said, that was the most useful conversation I've had in like the 20 years of going to conferences. And that's what I'm trying to tap into with referrals is that usefulness that I think is just is so powerful in this space, know, trusted person, another individual that's gone through the ropes as you have, like, how did you figure this out? We're not competing against each other. We'll probably never compete against each other. So why not leverage each other? That's what I'm tapping into. And that's something that always stuck with me since last year.
Nisheet: No, it's a great way for ⁓ owner operators of any kind of business to refer clients, customers, and especially in our space. There are areas of specialization where this makes sense. ⁓ I think instead of someone, like, hey, I can't take on your family member or friend, just send them to a random advisor at my shop. Now you can actually have someone that you're engaging with on the app. and refer them, so think that's great.
Iyassu: really excited about the new features that are coming out. ⁓ Thanks everybody for your your patience on the show. ⁓ back ⁓ we're not disappearing. just taking advantage of some compute because AI is definitely driving a lot of development these days. But, you ⁓ we're here. ⁓ going to be having a good show today. ⁓ then for the next couple of couple of weeks, we'll also have some good guests ⁓ lined up that I think you're going to enjoy. Yeah, so thinking about compute and our ⁓ weekly Nisheet, ⁓ we had a semiconductor update. ⁓ think it Wall Journal. It might have been It's one of the two that I it was just ⁓ semiconductors are on fire right now. I mean, you just. ⁓ pick one and it's gone. mean, even Intel stock has gone up, which was the laughing stock a year and a half ago. Yeah. And so, you know, with the whole like theme of like semiconductors, AI and hardware, I think it's one of the bright spots in S &P 500 right now. ⁓ know, ⁓ are you feeling today or how are you feeling this week about, you know, semiconductors and, you know, the VanEck and ETF index and ⁓ the good performance is coming out.
Nisheet: Yeah, which we thought was like left for dead. Exactly. Yeah, I guess it's not surprising. know they had their moment, you you can point to last year, the year before when things really started cooking. I think that article pointed to that ETF and or the general, the semiconductor index was up like over 50 % compared to like other things that are trailing. But it's definitely hot right now. think people are buying it and it's true. People need chips for this. compute that you were just talking about and all this development you're doing for your app. ⁓ So it makes sense. We've heard this story before. think in the past, maybe people got tired of it and slowed down, but AMD crushed it. Nvidia continues to hit new highs. just, think, and like you said, Intel has now like, know, quite group old or whatever since last year. think maybe people are looking for that next wave of chip makers that can help with the supply, right? Nvidia and AMD can't supply every single chip. So I'm wondering if they're just, if folks are looking to spread out more, ⁓ always everything. Think about what your daily life and what has a computer or chip in it. Everything does, right? Like ⁓ it used be like a joke with the Jetsons, but now everything ⁓ there's my probably has a chip in it. And like someone needs to make them ⁓ and. I think more importantly, we talk about this, not to get too political, but we talk about this from a national security perspective and things like we want to have chip makers in America. We need our companies to do well. So it's actually good to see Intel doing well. Nvidia and AMD, like we want those companies to provide chips for the whole entire planet. ⁓ think people are paying more attention again. It's definitely, ⁓ momentum play right now. don't know that anything is fundamentally changed. We know that we need chips and everything. ⁓ stocks have had a great run recently.
Iyassu: Yeah, I think the article cited that $3 trillion in enterprise and government spending is going to happen in the next three years. That's a trillion dollars a year. That's a lot of money to be made, right? And that's lot of, hopefully a lot of chips that can be made. I think Apple ⁓ more recently, it might've been just yesterday, announced that they're partnering with Intel. Apple partnering with Intel again, that's...
Nisheet: Right.
Iyassu: I don't know if folks in the audience remember, but Apple had a, it wasn't a blow up, but they, at one point they were like, we're never using Intel chips again. And look, look at them now.
Nisheet: Yeah, right. I think that's when they started making their own, started making their own chip. yeah, I they realized like, we need specialized chip makers for the quantity and quality of chips we need going forward.
Iyassu: Yeah, yeah, it's so funny. yeah, Apple had to, they went down the Silicon route. And I think it was at one point Apple wanted to get away from being dependent on, it was Intel and Qualcomm. Those are the two that were like, basically when you look at the line item cost on the expense sheet for Apple, like they were really big line items. you know, it was a breakup. Apple's like, yeah, we'll just make it ourselves. Yeah.
Nisheet: Yeah.
Iyassu: now look at them going back to each other. yeah, but semiconductors are on fire right now. I don't know, what do you call this? Like a cycle? I don't.
Nisheet: The cycle, or if you listen to the earnings reports that come out of Nvidia and AMD, they're exciting. there is saying, hey, ⁓ seeing trends, like this is real. And so that's why I think sometimes, I actually don't think it's a bubble. It could be the cycle, like the beginning of a cycle, ⁓ but ⁓ need is real. And when you hear from ⁓ of these companies and the customers, like you mentioned, government or other big industries, like You do the math, like we're gonna need these chips.
Iyassu: for sure, we're gonna need them. AI is definitely gonna be a big driver of that. yeah, speaking of AI, there was a deal that was dropped a little while ago, probably like three or four weeks ago between OpenAI and Disney. yeah, ⁓ was I think it was called Sora. Sora just didn't work out, it wasn't profitable enough for OpenAI to continue it. And so that was like the Disney partnership, but. ⁓
Nisheet: That's right.
Iyassu: The reason why I bring that up is because Disney's CEO wrote his annual shareholder letter and he's a new CEO, Josh DiMario. So he planted his vision for the company as the company is doing decently. And I think shares are up actually, probably up over 7 % when the article came out. And I wanted to remind folks that It's a good idea to read the annual shareholder letters from some of these mega large companies. And they will give you a good insight as to what's going on in that section of the economy and why they're doing well or why they're having challenges. so the CEO of Disney gave his view on what's going on in the future for Disney. I ⁓ think it's really important. especially if you're a Disney fan and you like going to the parks, they're really investing in the parks. And then they really do think that there's a lot of value creation in there, which means that they're going to bring value to their customers, their Disney customers. And next time you go to Disney World or Disneyland, after reading the Sheralded letter, you can probably get a little deeper appreciation of what the teams at Disney are trying to do or trying to bring to the customers. Again, I recommend these pretty large companies. should definitely read their annual shareholder letters.
Nisheet: Yeah, for sure, that letter speaks volumes for strategy and going forward. I think bringing it back to AI and what Disney's route is going to be, I do think they've got the greatest content library and they're pivoting into leveraging that content into new technologies and how AI can, if we now have a partnership with OpenAI, people can create their own Mickey Mouse video or their own Star Wars video. That's going to be huge, especially for younger fans today that are growing up with technology and AI. I think they're going to have a lot of fun creating videos and stories and things like that. So think it's a new chapter in how we engage with and participate with content creation and leveraging some of these classic characters that are not going to go anywhere and that we all love. It's just new way to play with them, essentially.
Iyassu: Going to some more, a little bit dire news. Whirlpool announced this week that they're not doing too well ⁓ and that had reverberations outside of its own So basically Whirlpool announced that customers aren't buying their kind high margin products or not buying their products all. And ⁓ that sparked recession. fears across the markets. And the stock was down, I think it was down like over 10%. I think it like 12 % when they announced. But I'm looking right now at the stock chart this morning, the one week and it's like down 17.5%. So that's not good. the other... other thing that's sparking the conversation about Whirlpool is just inflation. So, ⁓ Whirlpool is definitely increasing its listing costs for its products ⁓ that didn't bode well with its customers. ⁓ inflation is going to be our special topic that we talk about next, but it's real. And starting to see it in certain companies that have ⁓ nothing do with AI. I I don't know about you, Nisheet I just bought new washing machine. ⁓ last month and it wasn't cheap.
Nisheet: Yeah, so I've not bought a washing machine recently, but it's interesting kind of gauge for consumer spending because you look at, we all know costs for everything, the costs are going up, whether it's at the grocery store, at the restaurant, or most recently, like we're seeing these crazy scary numbers about cars and think car financing debt has hit an all time high. The average car is way more expensive than it used to be. people are still gonna buy cars, washing machines and dryers are not, know, appliances are not sexy enough that you're gonna overspend on that. So the fact that something like that is becoming expensive and there's less demand, ⁓ I think people are gonna hold off on those types of things and that's gonna be a problem.
Iyassu: Well, I why don't we just jump into our special topic, which is inflation, right? I think, you know, in retrospect to Whirlpool, like I'll give you a real world example. went to, so I have a Tesla and I go to a charging station. Most of the charging stations are next to like shopping centers and food centers and whatnot. And I went to my local, you know, taqueria that's next to the charger. I go in for like a regular burrito and you know, like no sour cream, no nothing special, right? And with tip, it cost me $20. I mean like $20 for like a regular, I back, I remember when it used to cost like $7.85 or $7.95, you know? And so like the real world, like inflation is really kicking in, you know, across all categories.
Nisheet: Mm-hmm. You
Iyassu: meat, poultry. see what else is there. ⁓ related.
Nisheet: I'll give you my, know, our New York equivalent to that. I went to the bodega the other day and went, gotten bacon, egg and cheese. Those things used to be four or $5 and this one was $11. Nothing special. Nothing special in there. Yeah, the bodegas are getting hit. So, and I know it's Manhattan, so maybe, you know, there's premium there, but again, that's egg, you know, pork, bread, like the prices of these...
Iyassu: Dude, not the bodegas. The bodegas are getting hit.
Nisheet: commodities are going up so much that ⁓ we're going to feel it. We're feeling it in the grocery stores and we're feeling it now in regular retail.
Iyassu: I think one thing that audience members should appreciate is when the implications of prices going up. let's just say you and I have a competing business. If I jack my prices up $10, you're going to notice that. And if you notice that, Nisheet, you're going to also be tempted to increase your prices too. Maybe not $10 because you want to stay competitive. but definitely not $0. And so you have this cascading effect of pricing pressure upwards from all competitors because of it. And then that leads to inflation. And that's something that's gonna be really, really, really hard to get under control, particularly at the federal reserve level, because that's their job, right, is to get inflation down to a certain percentage. make sure that employment is at a certain percentage. But like, how do you compete with market forces that are forcing you to raise your prices across the board? I don't know. That's a very, very tricky thing to figure out.
Nisheet: Yeah, and think that ends up being, you end up having, think, a more divergent consumer and consumer economy and related. We're talking about food. I think we're hungry. It's almost lunchtime on the East Coast, but McDonald's had came out with earnings yesterday that were good. And it was funny. heard a comment on CNBC was really good point. It's like, if McDonald's does well, does that mean the economy in general? It's almost lunchtime on the East Coast, but McDonald's had came out with earnings yesterday that were good. And it funny. heard a comment on CNBC was really good point. It's like, if McDonald's does well, does that mean the economy in general? is struggling because now instead of getting a burrito or a bacon, egg and cheese, we're getting like a $2 cheeseburger. Or does it mean the economy is doing well because people are eating out more? So are you like down shifting to McDonald's because everything else is too expensive? Or are you spending more at McDonald's because you're flush with cash and you don't have to make a ham and cheese sandwich at home? It's an interesting like dynamic where the consumers are going in like two different directions. struggling because now instead of getting a burrito or a bacon, egg and cheese, we're getting like a $2 cheeseburger. Or it mean the economy is doing well because people are eating out more? So are you like down shifting to McDonald's because everything else is too expensive? Or are you spending more at McDonald's because you're flush with cash and you don't have to make a ham and cheese sandwich at home?
Iyassu: really interesting. Yeah, I'm wondering like, is it how much money do you have in your pocket or is it how much do you feel like spending money?
Nisheet: Right, where are you finding value? Especially for food, because it's immediate. What are you craving? What do you want to get right now and continue with your day? Are you going to make something? you going to go out and get something? then that's where you go to get something is the question of the cost of things and that immediate impact. How elastic is that consumer demand?
Iyassu: Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because a lot of my guy friends don't know how to cook. So they're kind of they're kind of cooked. They go out to eat a lot. Right. So does that mean they cut their meals down to one meal a day? I don't know. When they call it.
Nisheet: Great. Yeah, or get a cheaper meal or spread it out over two meals. Like, yeah, we all have to make those decisions.
Iyassu: Yeah, that's funny. You go down to one meal and just call it intermittent fasting. Okay, guys, I'm fasting. Yeah, how do you get inflation under control? I don't know. But the new federal reserve chair is gonna be it's gonna be tricky for him because you don't want to crash the economy, especially your first year on the job. And the number it's not just food. It's it's it's everything. All right. It's it's pricing pressure on You go down to one meal and just call it intermittent fasting. Okay, guys, I'm fasting. Yeah, how do you get inflation under control? I don't know. But the new federal reserve chair is gonna be it's gonna be tricky for him because you don't want to crash the economy, especially your first year on the job.
Nisheet: Exactly right. Exactly right.
Iyassu: anything touching oil. So the cost of making goods, the cost of transporting goods, and all of that's just being, the costs are just being pushed onto the customers. It'd be interesting to see at the end of the year, what the end of the year results are gonna be for a lot of these companies in the stock market. I mean, they'll report in Q1 of next year. And we'll see how much of the pricing pressure was pushed off to the customer, how much was it absorbed, and then how did that impact people's expected returns of these companies. I think that's going to be really interesting. We're getting to the half of the year pretty soon, next month. some companies who are really, really sensitive to pricing pressure are going to talk about it, but a lot of the other companies aren't until probably the end of the year. kind of mask the pain and manage it. For some, they're going to kick the can down the road on notifying ⁓ about how bad it was or how good it was. ⁓ Who knows?
Nisheet: Yeah, companies have done that in the past. That's a good point. I wouldn't be shocked to see that happen again in 2026.
Iyassu: Yeah, so, yeah, that's it for our show today. Audience members, I want to welcome you all back. And sorry for the hiatus, but we were building and we're building some really cool features and we're to be releasing them pretty soon. I want to thank Nashiit for coming back because being our special guest, Inflows contributor. If you want to continue the conversation and you are a part of an RIA broker dealer, you're an asset manager, FAFP, please join inflows. It's free to join and free to use. We've got some really cool features on there for you to tap into and ⁓ a of other RIAs We'd love to have you on there. Shoot us a ⁓ message, tag in a post. We'd love to hear what you're working. I don't know if you've seen lately, Nasheet, but the activity has picked up. ⁓ on the feed. that's pretty cool. And you've been driving some conversations in investor So thank you for that. come join us on inflows. Sign up on inflows.com or download the app. Please hit a and subscribe on this show and ⁓ the various platforms you listening to or watching. ⁓ And we will you all next week.
Nisheet: Yeah, I've seen it.
Nisheet: Yeah, it's a question. ⁓ So we always talk about conferences and how great they are for advisor engagement, ⁓ learning and hearing from speakers. We talk about future proof a lot. Another one I go to all the time is Envestnet Their Elevate conference this year is coming up just later May. ⁓ next week, it's out in Phoenix. It's downtown Phoenix. It is dry heat for those of you who have not been there. Like I'm coming from New York and... Hey, Asu, happy Friday.
Iyassu: Happy Friday. It's been a little while. We took a little break. It's past couple of weeks, so I haven't seen you.
Nisheet: Yeah, what have you been doing these last couple of weeks? the summers in New York are more humid than Phoenix. So I do enjoy my time in Phoenix. It's a great conference to hear from leadership at InvestNet and see what they're working on technology-wise, operations-wise, but also a good place just to meet advisors and then also pretty much the entire asset management community. So I'm looking forward to that and reconnecting with industry friends and learning something new, hopefully.
Iyassu: yeah, been busy over here. We have been working on developing new features for the app. And I put out a quick, I don't know, was like a minute and a half, maybe two minute update on the podcast last week, just telling folks, hey, we haven't disappeared. just taking advantage of a situation. Well, we got some AI credits and there was a deal that gave us a whole lot of AI credits. And so we took advantage of that and we've been using artificial intelligence to help us build out these new features, which the way you want to think about it is back in the day, the bottleneck to developing features was getting people to write software code as fast as possible. But with AI coding agents, That no longer is the problem. They write faster than humanly possible. So writing code isn't the bottleneck. It's now designing and refining and that takes a lot of compute. And so we found these deals that we just couldn't pass up. And that bled into the shooting and preparing for Inside the Flows and we had to make that choice, but we're back. And we released several new features on the app. The first is tagging. So now users can tag each other. It was one of the requested features from our users. And I know it sounds kind of silly. And maybe for the folks here who are plus 30 years old, or sorry, plus 40 years old, tagging is like, what? That's like such a social thing. But for the younger generation, yeah, they really like to be able to tag.
Nisheet: I think it helps in networking too, right? I I use tags on LinkedIn. You want to be able to have conversation with this app. What I love about the app is the engagement and the conversation. So this is just another reason we're posting links and trying to start topics. But if we're able to tag certain folks and draw a conversation and questions to those people, I think that's great.
Iyassu: Yeah, Nisheet the ⁓ tagging features is something that it's fun to use. think you're the one that told or showed Josh Brown's comment on LinkedIn about tagging and hashtagging and kind of their of understanding the mechanics of it and where to waste time and where not to waste time in. So I'm glad we implemented this feature. So now users can tag their followers. So we got to get our users a high follow count so they can tag as many folks as they like. There's going to be some things that you might want to share and make sure a couple of people know that you're sharing that post or comment or whatnot. So that's where the tagging feature comes in. And then there was a direct messaging. We released direct messaging. was another feature that was highly that we implement ASAP. So ⁓ problem that we were trying to solve for is in ⁓ app, you could ⁓ you can see ⁓ a feed what people are thinking and commenting on. But if you ever wanted to reach out to that individual, ⁓ had to leave the app, ⁓ to something else like ⁓ Facebook, Twitter, ⁓ ⁓ connect with that person there, then send the message. And if you're lucky, you could see their email and then directly send it. So rather than put in like four or five steps for folks to connect with each other, we added direct messaging. So you can instantly message each other on the app and stay on the app and stay connected and whatnot. So hopefully, maybe after this show, you and I can share some DMs.
Nisheet: Yeah, again, I think all these ⁓ modifications and enhancements you're making to the app are promoting what it is at the core, which is this engagement between independent advisors. And I'm excited to see that activity on the app.
Iyassu: Yeah, so a sneak peek of the next feature that's coming out or the next two features is we're going to have a marketplace. And for folks that don't know what a marketplace is, it's the ability to create a platform for vendors or service providers to put forth their product and solutions. on inflows without having to join inflows. So we have an RAA only rule. So you have to work for a registered investment advisor or the equivalent in order ⁓ join the platform. ⁓ there's a lot of service providers out there that are not RAs and ⁓ wouldn't be able to join, but our advisors and asset managers would find their products and solutions useful if they knew they existed. And so ⁓ we're trying to solve that by creating a marketplace that the providers can their products and solutions ⁓ having to be members. So ⁓ really excited about that marketplace, Nisheet ⁓
Nisheet: Yeah, I think it's a great idea. In my day job, that's a lot of what I do. ⁓ ⁓ opening doors and conversations between advisors and solutions providers, not just asset managers, but even vendors of tech stack for wealth management, ⁓ I think that that's key ⁓ independent advisors, especially to learn and to grow their ⁓
Iyassu: Yeah. And there's so many other services out there other than, or actually solution sets out there other than just asset management and, you know, coming into the space is, you know, outsourced COOs, outsourced, you know, legal and CFOs, AI solutions, like note takers and, and whatnot. I mean, there's so many out there that, you know, it'd be good to bring them into the fold so that the inflows platform becomes more than just a, you know, hey, check people are talking about. Let's also look to see what's out there that could help my practice. So I'm really excited about that.
Nisheet: I think that right there is the key. I may have shared this story with you before, but for the rest of the audience here, there was a past conference version of feature proof where I sat in on a leadership breakfast panel and there were lot of independent advisors there and they were asking the questions like, who do I turn to for what financial planning software I should use or what chief compliance officer in a box solution I should use? And ⁓ think for advisors that are part of a bigger shop, ⁓ You know, that, that they have that luxury of a home office and a platform team and a development team. But if you're going independent, if the two of us are going to hang a shingle and go independent, our priority is our clients, their investments. ⁓ we're not really thinking about infrastructure. So I think, ⁓ what you're doing is a great service for those folks that don't have the luxury of a Merrill Lynch home office. ⁓ They need this too and for them to be able to talk to their peers and then talk to the solutions providers themselves. I think that's great.
Iyassu: I got a question. That's amazing that you said that because I have a question for you, Nishin, about it. So on the marketplace, I'm going to allow the advisors to write reviews and rate the service providers. And that'll be, you viewable to the inflows audience, but also the service provider too. They can see what their ratings are and who's reviewing and then also like reply to those reviews. What do you think about this adding the review process to the marketplace?
Nisheet: Yeah, I think that's helpful. mean, it's a way for, it's what happens at conferences, right? And I think it's one of the things I've told you little about this app is essentially it's bringing the conference to your phone and accessible 24 hours a day. So at conferences, at breakouts, at vendor booths, people are walking around, they're getting demos, but they're also asking each other like, Hey, what, what tool do you use to solve for XYZ? And if I'm hearing from my peers that, this works. This is the type of client I use it for. This is the type of investment solution that it's ideal for. That makes sense to me, right? That's a use case that I can relate to. If you're telling me like, hey, it's not the best for the ultra high net worth client segment, but it's good for your C segment of your book, then that's knowledge I'm going to take back. And it's going to be helpful, especially again, if I'm in an independent smaller shop where I have less people to like bounce ideas off of, I think that's super helpful. ⁓ And it also provides an avenue for the vendors to have conversations and engagement with the advisor and say, hey, maybe you like this feature, you should look at this other feature, or maybe you didn't use the feature properly and that's why you gave us a poor review. Let's see what you're using it for. So I think all that is good.
Iyassu: Yeah, that's very well said. And yeah, just to let the audience members know, what's kind of in it for the providers? Like why should they sign up and have their products and solutions on the inflows marketplace? It's because it gives them warm leads. So an advisor who looks at like the card of the service provider, there's a big blue button at the top right that says connect and it pops up in a window and. You can put in a message to the provider saying like, Hey, I'm interested in this solution. Like let's get connected and the window and you can hit submit. And what it does is it sends a, it sends an email to the provider saying, you know, this advisor here wants to talk about, you know, X, Y, and Z here's their contact info, info, reach out to them. And that's really, really, really valuable to the providers getting a, getting a warm lead like that. So, you know, I think everybody wins in this. ⁓ on ⁓ this new feature. hopefully the users and the providers enjoy it.
Nisheet: No, I'm they will. I'm excited to see it.
Iyassu: And it looks cool too. I'll show you what it looks like later. The other update that we were working on is what's called referrals. I have this theory, or sorry, it's not a theory, it's a hypothesis. The theory is when we actually release it and we test it out to see if it works. I have this hypothesis that the... investment advisory industry has an untapped market called referrals. And when you think about who, when you think about the, the advisor's business, essentially it's like managing money, like, you know, how much, how many households can you put into your book and how much assets can you manage of the, of those households? There's so money ⁓ in the States that I hypothesize that these advisors are not really competing with each other. So if they are not competing with each other, ⁓ they are, in my opinion, kind of islands on their own, like they're just basically small business owners trying to figure things out and get by. ⁓ you're not competing with each other, then why not leverage each other to ⁓ your practice, to ⁓ ⁓ better, do some knowledge sharing to like provide better services to your clients. And one way you can do that is by creating a, almost like an exchange ⁓ advisor to advisor can ask questions like, hey, does anybody have a good attorney for this situation for my client? ⁓ Or does anybody have like a center of influence that they use that they would recommend to me? ⁓ Or, hey, I have a client that doesn't really meet my standards, but they may meet yours and you might want to take them on. That referral market, I feel, is untapped. ⁓ we, as part of the whole development ⁓ crush that I've been in, ⁓ created one. we call it referrals. ⁓ so we developed that. That's also coming out pretty soon. It's a feed that allows for ⁓ advisors to put up referrals or ask for referrals in a pretty cool way. It's very aesthetic and easy to use and whatnot. And it ties into the DMs and it's pretty useful. so we've been developing that and we're going to release that one pretty soon as well. So, yeah, that's why if you're on YouTube and you're looking at ⁓ face, I've got the ⁓ goatee. It's just been like long nights. ⁓
Nisheet: Nice. Is what they call it out in California?
Iyassu: I guess, I think I just made that one up. there's been some long nights and we're building really cool features for our users and hopefully they'll be useful to them.
Nisheet: No, that's exciting. know, you know, I'm glad we're able to talk about it on the podcast, because these are all great features to increase engagement of the app. And I would tell you just on that last one, you're right. Referrals are huge and untapped. And I think from a practice perspective, I think of like the different firms that I've worked at. meet advisors who, you they, in a thoughtful way, have carved out a niche in their own way, right? And then maybe they've hit some kind of a threshold where like, can, if I'm providing the best client service, I'm not going to take on any new clients. And they're just pushed there. They're essentially like showing them away. if they have a place to send them, or I've met advisors who specialize in a certain geographic region or a certain profession, right? Like I've met advisors, my sister's a doctor and her advisor only deals with doctors and all of her friends are now with, this guy. ⁓ I might want to use that same advisor and he's like, no, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm saving this spot, but I'll send you to someone else. Like those types of things I think are out there that people, you're right. They don't actually really talk about it much. And it's not. It's also not promoted by practice management services in the home offices of some of the bigger shops. So I think it's again, another wrinkle of engagement in the app and another benefit for people to, join and have conversations. So I think that's great. You're creating value inside the app.
Iyassu: You I think I remember you and I having this conversation about ⁓ Future Proof, last year's Future Proof, where I think you were at breakfast ⁓ there was another kind of owner operator of an RIA that were talking with and he told you he's like, hey man, I had go to this ⁓ breakfast and down and ⁓ listen to asset managers talk and. but I was able to sit at a table of other owner operators and I asked them a question about how they structured ⁓ their equity plan for succession planning. And he said that the guy that he asked was the other owner operator, gave him an answer. He said, that was the most useful conversation I've had in like the 20 years of going to conferences. And that's what I'm trying to tap into with referrals is that usefulness that I think is just is so powerful in this space, know, trusted person, another individual that's gone through the ropes as you have, like, how did you figure this out? We're not competing against each other. We'll probably never compete against each other. So why not leverage each other? That's what I'm tapping into. And that's something that always stuck with me since last year.
Nisheet: No, it's a great way for ⁓ owner operators of any kind of business to refer clients, customers, and especially in our space. There are areas of specialization where this makes sense. ⁓ I think instead of someone, like, hey, I can't take on your family member or friend, just send them to a random advisor at my shop. Now you can actually have someone that you're engaging with on the app. and refer them, so think that's great.
Iyassu: really excited about the new features that are coming out. ⁓ Thanks everybody for your your patience on the show. ⁓ back ⁓ we're not disappearing. just taking advantage of some compute because AI is definitely driving a lot of development these days. But, you ⁓ we're here. ⁓ going to be having a good show today. ⁓ then for the next couple of couple of weeks, we'll also have some good guests ⁓ lined up that I think you're going to enjoy. Yeah, so thinking about compute and our ⁓ weekly Nisheet, ⁓ we had a semiconductor update. ⁓ think it Wall Journal. It might have been It's one of the two that I it was just ⁓ semiconductors are on fire right now. I mean, you just. ⁓ pick one and it's gone. mean, even Intel stock has gone up, which was the laughing stock a year and a half ago. Yeah. And so, you know, with the whole like theme of like semiconductors, AI and hardware, I think it's one of the bright spots in S &P 500 right now. ⁓ know, ⁓ are you feeling today or how are you feeling this week about, you know, semiconductors and, you know, the VanEck and ETF index and ⁓ the good performance is coming out.
Nisheet: Yeah, which we thought was like left for dead. Exactly. Yeah, I guess it's not surprising. know they had their moment, you you can point to last year, the year before when things really started cooking. I think that article pointed to that ETF and or the general, the semiconductor index was up like over 50 % compared to like other things that are trailing. But it's definitely hot right now. think people are buying it and it's true. People need chips for this. compute that you were just talking about and all this development you're doing for your app. ⁓ So it makes sense. We've heard this story before. think in the past, maybe people got tired of it and slowed down, but AMD crushed it. Nvidia continues to hit new highs. just, think, and like you said, Intel has now like, know, quite group old or whatever since last year. think maybe people are looking for that next wave of chip makers that can help with the supply, right? Nvidia and AMD can't supply every single chip. So I'm wondering if they're just, if folks are looking to spread out more, ⁓ always everything. Think about what your daily life and what has a computer or chip in it. Everything does, right? Like ⁓ it used be like a joke with the Jetsons, but now everything ⁓ there's my probably has a chip in it. And like someone needs to make them ⁓ and. I think more importantly, we talk about this, not to get too political, but we talk about this from a national security perspective and things like we want to have chip makers in America. We need our companies to do well. So it's actually good to see Intel doing well. Nvidia and AMD, like we want those companies to provide chips for the whole entire planet. ⁓ think people are paying more attention again. It's definitely, ⁓ momentum play right now. don't know that anything is fundamentally changed. We know that we need chips and everything. ⁓ stocks have had a great run recently.
Iyassu: Yeah, I think the article cited that $3 trillion in enterprise and government spending is going to happen in the next three years. That's a trillion dollars a year. That's a lot of money to be made, right? And that's lot of, hopefully a lot of chips that can be made. I think Apple ⁓ more recently, it might've been just yesterday, announced that they're partnering with Intel. Apple partnering with Intel again, that's...
Nisheet: Right.
Iyassu: I don't know if folks in the audience remember, but Apple had a, it wasn't a blow up, but they, at one point they were like, we're never using Intel chips again. And look, look at them now.
Nisheet: Yeah, right. I think that's when they started making their own, started making their own chip. yeah, I they realized like, we need specialized chip makers for the quantity and quality of chips we need going forward.
Iyassu: Yeah, yeah, it's so funny. yeah, Apple had to, they went down the Silicon route. And I think it was at one point Apple wanted to get away from being dependent on, it was Intel and Qualcomm. Those are the two that were like, basically when you look at the line item cost on the expense sheet for Apple, like they were really big line items. you know, it was a breakup. Apple's like, yeah, we'll just make it ourselves. Yeah.
Nisheet: Yeah.
Iyassu: now look at them going back to each other. yeah, but semiconductors are on fire right now. I don't know, what do you call this? Like a cycle? I don't.
Nisheet: The cycle, or if you listen to the earnings reports that come out of Nvidia and AMD, they're exciting. there is saying, hey, ⁓ seeing trends, like this is real. And so that's why I think sometimes, I actually don't think it's a bubble. It could be the cycle, like the beginning of a cycle, ⁓ but ⁓ need is real. And when you hear from ⁓ of these companies and the customers, like you mentioned, government or other big industries, like You do the math, like we're gonna need these chips.
Iyassu: for sure, we're gonna need them. AI is definitely gonna be a big driver of that. yeah, speaking of AI, there was a deal that was dropped a little while ago, probably like three or four weeks ago between OpenAI and Disney. yeah, ⁓ was I think it was called Sora. Sora just didn't work out, it wasn't profitable enough for OpenAI to continue it. And so that was like the Disney partnership, but. ⁓
Nisheet: That's right.
Iyassu: The reason why I bring that up is because Disney's CEO wrote his annual shareholder letter and he's a new CEO, Josh DiMario. So he planted his vision for the company as the company is doing decently. And I think shares are up actually, probably up over 7 % when the article came out. And I wanted to remind folks that It's a good idea to read the annual shareholder letters from some of these mega large companies. And they will give you a good insight as to what's going on in that section of the economy and why they're doing well or why they're having challenges. so the CEO of Disney gave his view on what's going on in the future for Disney. I ⁓ think it's really important. especially if you're a Disney fan and you like going to the parks, they're really investing in the parks. And then they really do think that there's a lot of value creation in there, which means that they're going to bring value to their customers, their Disney customers. And next time you go to Disney World or Disneyland, after reading the Sheralded letter, you can probably get a little deeper appreciation of what the teams at Disney are trying to do or trying to bring to the customers. Again, I recommend these pretty large companies. should definitely read their annual shareholder letters.
Nisheet: Yeah, for sure, that letter speaks volumes for strategy and going forward. I think bringing it back to AI and what Disney's route is going to be, I do think they've got the greatest content library and they're pivoting into leveraging that content into new technologies and how AI can, if we now have a partnership with OpenAI, people can create their own Mickey Mouse video or their own Star Wars video. That's going to be huge, especially for younger fans today that are growing up with technology and AI. I think they're going to have a lot of fun creating videos and stories and things like that. So think it's a new chapter in how we engage with and participate with content creation and leveraging some of these classic characters that are not going to go anywhere and that we all love. It's just new way to play with them, essentially.
Iyassu: Going to some more, a little bit dire news. Whirlpool announced this week that they're not doing too well ⁓ and that had reverberations outside of its own So basically Whirlpool announced that customers aren't buying their kind high margin products or not buying their products all. And ⁓ that sparked recession. fears across the markets. And the stock was down, I think it was down like over 10%. I think it like 12 % when they announced. But I'm looking right now at the stock chart this morning, the one week and it's like down 17.5%. So that's not good. the other... other thing that's sparking the conversation about Whirlpool is just inflation. So, ⁓ Whirlpool is definitely increasing its listing costs for its products ⁓ that didn't bode well with its customers. ⁓ inflation is going to be our special topic that we talk about next, but it's real. And starting to see it in certain companies that have ⁓ nothing do with AI. I I don't know about you, Nisheet I just bought new washing machine. ⁓ last month and it wasn't cheap.
Nisheet: Yeah, so I've not bought a washing machine recently, but it's interesting kind of gauge for consumer spending because you look at, we all know costs for everything, the costs are going up, whether it's at the grocery store, at the restaurant, or most recently, like we're seeing these crazy scary numbers about cars and think car financing debt has hit an all time high. The average car is way more expensive than it used to be. people are still gonna buy cars, washing machines and dryers are not, know, appliances are not sexy enough that you're gonna overspend on that. So the fact that something like that is becoming expensive and there's less demand, ⁓ I think people are gonna hold off on those types of things and that's gonna be a problem.
Iyassu: Well, I why don't we just jump into our special topic, which is inflation, right? I think, you know, in retrospect to Whirlpool, like I'll give you a real world example. went to, so I have a Tesla and I go to a charging station. Most of the charging stations are next to like shopping centers and food centers and whatnot. And I went to my local, you know, taqueria that's next to the charger. I go in for like a regular burrito and you know, like no sour cream, no nothing special, right? And with tip, it cost me $20. I mean like $20 for like a regular, I back, I remember when it used to cost like $7.85 or $7.95, you know? And so like the real world, like inflation is really kicking in, you know, across all categories.
Nisheet: Mm-hmm. You
Iyassu: meat, poultry. see what else is there. ⁓ related.
Nisheet: I'll give you my, know, our New York equivalent to that. I went to the bodega the other day and went, gotten bacon, egg and cheese. Those things used to be four or $5 and this one was $11. Nothing special. Nothing special in there. Yeah, the bodegas are getting hit. So, and I know it's Manhattan, so maybe, you know, there's premium there, but again, that's egg, you know, pork, bread, like the prices of these...
Iyassu: Dude, not the bodegas. The bodegas are getting hit.
Nisheet: commodities are going up so much that ⁓ we're going to feel it. We're feeling it in the grocery stores and we're feeling it now in regular retail.
Iyassu: I think one thing that audience members should appreciate is when the implications of prices going up. let's just say you and I have a competing business. If I jack my prices up $10, you're going to notice that. And if you notice that, Nisheet, you're going to also be tempted to increase your prices too. Maybe not $10 because you want to stay competitive. but definitely not $0. And so you have this cascading effect of pricing pressure upwards from all competitors because of it. And then that leads to inflation. And that's something that's gonna be really, really, really hard to get under control, particularly at the federal reserve level, because that's their job, right, is to get inflation down to a certain percentage. make sure that employment is at a certain percentage. But like, how do you compete with market forces that are forcing you to raise your prices across the board? I don't know. That's a very, very tricky thing to figure out.
Nisheet: Yeah, and think that ends up being, you end up having, think, a more divergent consumer and consumer economy and related. We're talking about food. I think we're hungry. It's almost lunchtime on the East Coast, but McDonald's had came out with earnings yesterday that were good. And it was funny. heard a comment on CNBC was really good point. It's like, if McDonald's does well, does that mean the economy in general? It's almost lunchtime on the East Coast, but McDonald's had came out with earnings yesterday that were good. And it funny. heard a comment on CNBC was really good point. It's like, if McDonald's does well, does that mean the economy in general? is struggling because now instead of getting a burrito or a bacon, egg and cheese, we're getting like a $2 cheeseburger. Or does it mean the economy is doing well because people are eating out more? So are you like down shifting to McDonald's because everything else is too expensive? Or are you spending more at McDonald's because you're flush with cash and you don't have to make a ham and cheese sandwich at home? It's an interesting like dynamic where the consumers are going in like two different directions. struggling because now instead of getting a burrito or a bacon, egg and cheese, we're getting like a $2 cheeseburger. Or it mean the economy is doing well because people are eating out more? So are you like down shifting to McDonald's because everything else is too expensive? Or are you spending more at McDonald's because you're flush with cash and you don't have to make a ham and cheese sandwich at home?
Iyassu: really interesting. Yeah, I'm wondering like, is it how much money do you have in your pocket or is it how much do you feel like spending money?
Nisheet: Right, where are you finding value? Especially for food, because it's immediate. What are you craving? What do you want to get right now and continue with your day? Are you going to make something? you going to go out and get something? then that's where you go to get something is the question of the cost of things and that immediate impact. How elastic is that consumer demand?
Iyassu: Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because a lot of my guy friends don't know how to cook. So they're kind of they're kind of cooked. They go out to eat a lot. Right. So does that mean they cut their meals down to one meal a day? I don't know. When they call it.
Nisheet: Great. Yeah, or get a cheaper meal or spread it out over two meals. Like, yeah, we all have to make those decisions.
Iyassu: Yeah, that's funny. You go down to one meal and just call it intermittent fasting. Okay, guys, I'm fasting. Yeah, how do you get inflation under control? I don't know. But the new federal reserve chair is gonna be it's gonna be tricky for him because you don't want to crash the economy, especially your first year on the job. And the number it's not just food. It's it's it's everything. All right. It's it's pricing pressure on You go down to one meal and just call it intermittent fasting. Okay, guys, I'm fasting. Yeah, how do you get inflation under control? I don't know. But the new federal reserve chair is gonna be it's gonna be tricky for him because you don't want to crash the economy, especially your first year on the job.
Nisheet: Exactly right. Exactly right.
Iyassu: anything touching oil. So the cost of making goods, the cost of transporting goods, and all of that's just being, the costs are just being pushed onto the customers. It'd be interesting to see at the end of the year, what the end of the year results are gonna be for a lot of these companies in the stock market. I mean, they'll report in Q1 of next year. And we'll see how much of the pricing pressure was pushed off to the customer, how much was it absorbed, and then how did that impact people's expected returns of these companies. I think that's going to be really interesting. We're getting to the half of the year pretty soon, next month. some companies who are really, really sensitive to pricing pressure are going to talk about it, but a lot of the other companies aren't until probably the end of the year. kind of mask the pain and manage it. For some, they're going to kick the can down the road on notifying ⁓ about how bad it was or how good it was. ⁓ Who knows?
Nisheet: Yeah, companies have done that in the past. That's a good point. I wouldn't be shocked to see that happen again in 2026.
Iyassu: Yeah, so, yeah, that's it for our show today. Audience members, I want to welcome you all back. And sorry for the hiatus, but we were building and we're building some really cool features and we're to be releasing them pretty soon. I want to thank Nashiit for coming back because being our special guest, Inflows contributor. If you want to continue the conversation and you are a part of an RIA broker dealer, you're an asset manager, FAFP, please join inflows. It's free to join and free to use. We've got some really cool features on there for you to tap into and ⁓ a of other RIAs We'd love to have you on there. Shoot us a ⁓ message, tag in a post. We'd love to hear what you're working. I don't know if you've seen lately, Nasheet, but the activity has picked up. ⁓ on the feed. that's pretty cool. And you've been driving some conversations in investor So thank you for that. come join us on inflows. Sign up on inflows.com or download the app. Please hit a and subscribe on this show and ⁓ the various platforms you listening to or watching. ⁓ And we will you all next week.
Nisheet: Yeah, I've seen it.
