This week’s update centers around the theme of turnarounds, including our refreshed Restructure/Turnaround Screen spotlighting three companies. We also published a Geoinvesting subscriber’s bullish write-up on Mistras Group Inc (NYSE:MG) and its shift toward data-centric asset monitoring. Finally, we recapped momentum from Asp Isotopes Inc. (NASDAQ:ASPI) following new supply agreements, and growing traction in Cca Industries, Inc. (OOTC:CAWW) turnaround story. Some of the most compelling opportunities start out overlooked, even dismissed. These “ugly ducklings” are exactly the kinds of companies where quality often forms beneath the surface before it shows up in the numbers.

We started the forum with something that’s been on my mind a lot lately: being thankful for all the great ideas from the Geoinvesting community. Lately, we’ve seen a string of big wins from our contributors:

This week’s update features a skull session with the CTO of Qualstar Corp. (OOTC:QBAK), the addition of Mistras Group Inc (NYSE:MG) to our Data Center Screen, and updates on Kingstone Companies, Inc (NASDAQ:KINS) guidance and a look into a messy form 8K filed by Konatel, Inc. (OTCQB:KTEL).

Jeff Sengpiehl, the newly appointed CTO of Qualstar Corp. (OOTC:QBAK), walked us through the company’s turnaround plan and why tape storage (yes, tape) is back in the spotlight. With deep experience from Disney/ABC and involvement in major media productions like Game of Thrones and American Idol, Jeff offered a unique lens into how data storage needs are evolving in the AI era, no just in technology land. More on this later. By the way, I will be having an update skull session with both the CEO, Steve Bronson, and Jeff in a few weeks. Put your name on this list if you are not a premium subscriber to Geoinvesting and want to be notified.

We also added Mistras Group Inc (NYSE:MG), a company that provides asset-protection, inspection & integrity services, to our Data Center Screen after comments surfaced through the NEW InfoArb Tearsheets platform. MG has traditionally been known for its inspection services across sectors like oil and gas and aerospace, but it’s now beginning to talk more openly about opportunities in less cyclical markets like the data center and AI infrastructure space.

We’re excited to announce our next Skull Session Event! This Monday 2PM Eastern Time, we’ll be hosting a Fireside Chat with the new CTO of Qualstar Corp. (OOTC:QBAK). I am extremely excited about this one. The company is sitting in the center of a growth trend that we haven’t covered in the data center and AI world yet: off cloud storage solutions.

Speaking of events, last week, we hosted a Skull Session with Adrian Courtenay (@ACourtenEye, LinkedIn) of GA-Courtenay Special Situations Fund, who shared his framework for identifying special situations and catalyst-driven opportunities, especially when it comes to merger arbitrage. By the way, Adrian has just published a book titled The Super Organisation Secret on the subject, which you can check out here. 

You know that we are big on information arbitrage, so this chat really resonated with me. I came across Adrian while perusing interviews at Sunday’s Idea Brunch Substack. 

This week we had a skull session event with the CEO of Aluula Composites Inc (OOTC:AUUAF) (TSXV:AUUA), earnings coverage on PPIH and CSBR and an addition of a stock to one of our model portfolios, partly motivated by how Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s surging demand in it’s cloud revenue is telegraphing good things for this company.

The Skull Session highlight of the week was our “You Make The Call” chat with Sage Berryman, CEO of Aluula Composites Inc (OOTC:AUUAF) (TSXV:AUUA). The company manufactures and sells composite materials that are used in sectors like wind sports, outdoor gear, sailing, and other commercial applications. By the way, the company will be attending the Planet MicroCap conference in Toronto, Canada on October 22, 2025.

This was our second “You Make The Call” event. Our first was the result of Brett Mass of Hayden IR, suggesting that we should interview AZ, even though AZ didn’t meet the criteria of factors we normally look for when inviting companies to present on our Skull Sessions platform. However, we were attracted to AZ smart shopping cart product category, so that’s how we came up with the “You Make The Call” event. Let’s see if they can convince us to at least track the company.

The standout this week was our fireside chat with Nik Raman, CEO of $PXHI (used phone reseller/platform). Nik walked us through the company’s journey, from scrappy early iterations of a consumer-facing phone recycling platform to what it is today: a B2B software play quietly building mission-critical infrastructure behind the global used phone supply chain. On the day of the chat, the company announced a special dividend of $1.15, which temporarily sent the stock up 30%.

This week’s update recaps highlights from our September Open Forum, including August performance stats across our coverage universe, biggest movers, and new highs. And a last-second move, I also added a new name to our Focus Model Portfolio, an idea that emerged from real-time discussion and conviction that I was talking out loud about, and then it just hit me, why haven’t I added this to the Model Portfolio?🤯 

Even though we record and archive all of our video events, it’s situations like this that motivate me to remind you that attending our live events can be incredibly beneficial… it makes our Open Forums valuable beyond prepared slides.