This week’s coverage focused on our Skull Session with Buda Juice, Inc. (NYSE:BUDA) following its recent IPO. The CEO/co-founder shared insights on scaling fresh juice brands nationally, expanding distribution, and maintaining profitability while managing supply chain and operational challenges. The discussion highlighted early revenue traction, customer expansion, and capital spend decisions that the company hopes will drive long-term growth.

We usually don’t look at IPO’s in microcap land. So many tend to be too aggressively priced or are losing money. We generally would like to wait to see how things play out after the company goes public. However, BUDA caught our attention because it’s actually making money, and beverage companies, in general, are known to post mountains of losses as they chase revenue and market share.

This week’s coverage primarily included earnings highlights from $LRGR & $FSI, $ZDPY going private news, and a new addition to our Run To $1.00 Model Portfolio that has also quietly signaled, but it might be a takeover candidate. I also recorded two Skull Sessions that heavily focused on trend investing.

Looking ahead, another Skull Session will feature $BUDA following its recent public listing. On January 29, we’ll meet with Horatio Lonsdale-Hands, CEO and co-founder of BUDA. The company recently went public on the NYSE with a $20M IPO. It has already achieved profitability, with $9.71M in revenue and $2.86M in net income for the first nine months of 2025, and we’ll explore plans to scale nationally while maintaining margins.

This week’s coverage was anchored by a live “You Make the Call” session with Kidoz Inc. (OTCQB:KDOZF) (TSXV:KDOZ), where management walked through the company’s mobile advertising platform funded with $23 million over the past 5 years and its strategy to finally scale growth. The discussion added useful context around demand and regulatory trends, improving customer mix, and how the team is thinking about profitability under its tweaked business model.

This is the fourth installment of the “You Make the Call” interview series. It is a Skull Sessions subseries where investors hear company pitches and decide which ideas have potential.

Outside of the KDOZF session, companies across our coverage universe posted a series of updates through earnings results, contract wins, research collaborations, and shareholder actions. A recurring theme this week was the continued shift toward more predictable revenue models, particularly among smaller companies working to reduce volatility and improve visibility after several uneven years.

This year, we want to step up our goal of hosting timely live Skull Sessions with management teams of companies from our coverage universe that just had significant news, so we can gain more color. Our January Open Forum kicked this off with surprise appearances from Qhslab Inc (OTCQB:USAQ) and Acorn Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACFN), followed up with a chat with the CEO of Tecogen Inc. (NYSE:TGEN) the next day, and a roundtable discussion with Nicholas Cortellucci (@NickCortellucci) and Rivemont Microcap Fund’s Mathieu Martin (@Stocks_Stones), on Rubicon Organics Inc. (OTC:ROMJF) (TSXV:ROMJ), to cap off the week.

Aside from the Open Forum and Skull Sessions, several companies across our coverage universe and model portfolios posted meaningful updates through earnings results, key partnerships, and shareholder-friendly capital raises that support the progress we’ve been tracking over the past few quarters.

With it being a slow week in the market last week, I had a chance to reflect on how GeoInvesting has evolved over the past 16 years. Furthermore, being laid up in bed after throwing my back out by just waking up also put me in a reflective moment. Welcome to life after 50! I guess I need to start paying closer attention to all those “get ripped after you turn 50” pitches on my X feed. 
We reached a record number of subscribers in 2025, so I think it’s important to put some things in context as we wrap-up the year and look ahead to 2026 and why our evolution matters now, more than ever. It should help you understand how to get the most out of our microcap research platform.

This week included two research-driven updates tied to defense exposure and emerging industry trends we’re watching in the drone space. Velo3d, Inc. (NASDAQ:VELO) announced a sizable government contract but also disclosed a private placement, while Optex Systems Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPXS) gave us early indications of exposure to drone-related defense trends. 

Also, the MS Microcaps Press Release research tool received a big update. You can now create watchlists for stocks you own or are tracking, as well as set up filters to bring in new ideas. I can tell you that I’ve started using these features, and they are helping me tremendously to catch and respond to new information more quickly, compared to manually searching through press releases. To close out the week, we’ll highlight an article focused on how sprinkling small starter position bets can become some of your biggest winners, over time.

If you’re a microcap investor, you understand the edge and first-mover advantage you can get from exploiting negative stereotypes. One of my favorite Geoinvesting model portfolios is the Run to One Model Portfolio (R21). The common narrative is that penny stocks are too risky and complete trash. However, Xpel, Inc. (NASDAQ:XPEL) used to trade around $0.20 in 2012 and reached $100 by 2021. Koru Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:KRMD) began its multi-bagger journey as a penny stock, climbing from $0.40 in 2016 to $12 in 2020. Both of these stocks were added to our R21 portfolio in January 2013 and October 2016, respectively. Both companies also generate substantial revenue.

That’s why I was excited that we hosted a skull session event on Thursday with Luminar Media Group, Inc. (OOTC:LRGR). The company trades around $0.40 and has put together six consecutive quarters of revenue growth and profitability. LRGR operates in revenue-based financing and reported Q3 sales of $2.2 million.

Sure, penny stocks can be a little risky, but the potential upside can be significant if you can find a few before some of the issues that put the company in pennyland are about to abate or improve.

A lot went down this week, mostly good stuff, but of course we had that unexpected disappointment that sneaks up on you, an unavoidable part of being a microcap investor. My personal highlight of the week was a timely Skull Session Chat with Qualstar Corp. (OOTC:QBAK) just one day before the company dropped news of a 3:1 stock split and corporate move to Nevada. These are signs that the story may be accelerating and gearing up for an up-list to the NASDAQ. GeoInvesting Model Portfolio and Research Screen standouts included PPIH, ASYS, FEIM, and VELO.