Why now?

a letter from our founder:

If you're reading this, you likely know me from one of several chapters: corporate, as a public or private market investor, or while doing sell-side research at Pivotal Research. 

Throughout my career since moving to Wall Street in 2008, I have identified multiple inflection points happening within industries or individual businesses - often before it has become apparent within both the investment community or at operating companies.   

We don’t get them all right (and we are happy to throw our hands up when we are wrong), but we have called a few really important ones that were both very profitable in the public markets, and in many cases, our insights - that we would share with both public and private companies ended up being helpful for their internal strategies.   

We heard the term at a recent conference from a prominent VC about how every company is “AI washing” their earnings calls or marketing materials - something we do believe is true.   

Will this end up having profound positive impacts for how both consumers find information, shop travel and and operate their lives, or how businesses drive efficiencies and capital allocation decisions?

We think the answer is pretty obvious - it already is, and the party is just getting started 

Will this unprecedented capex and investment cycle - in terms of size and scope - end up being another mass incineration of private and public company equity similar to pre-1999/2000 largesse?

We sure think there is a lot of excess in the system, and it likely ends badly for most. 

We might be dating ourselves in terms of remembering what the world looked like pre-2000 bubble bursting. While the majority of those Internet companies no longer exist, we believe that Internet adaptation ended up being much faster than it would have been had there not been massive equity incineration.  

• Examples - Free coupons for your first 2 DVD/CD purchases (yes - that is how people used to listen to music and watch movies) - drove category awareness but was also loss making.

When we make observations, it is because we think we diverge in our thinking. Not about what is going to happen in 2027-2028, but way sooner than people think.  

Having worked in operations for 10 years pre-Wall Street, there are often timing disconnects about when something is going to happen and how it translates in the real world. Investors can move their feet with stocks - for either the right or wrong reasons - but within operating businesses, executive teams just can’t move that fast.  

• Examples - the tipping point of mobile at the expense of desktop. I remember sharing my views that this was going to happen with CFOs and CMOs towards the end of 2012/early 2013. In cases where the majority of a company’s marketing spend/customer acquisition techniques were oriented towards the desktop/laptop and SEM/SEO , they were not prepared for the rapid changes.

Consumer behavior drove the changes - This was out of company’s control, and nothing they could do was going to alter the changes.  Some got with the program fast, and others learned the hard way and never recovered.

True to Corabel’s Modus Operandi which has defined my entire career, everything we do centers on adding value. Here's what that means in practice:

Write selectively and with purpose, expressing thoughts and writing notes that could have implications for stocks, but we won't launch formal coverage on the same companies everyone else covers. 

Our most-read pieces have always been the short ones—2-3 paragraphs maximum. If we don't think something is interesting enough to highlight, we simply won't write it. We respect your time and your inbox.

When we write something longer than three pages, pay attention. I don't do it often, but when I do, it's because we've uncovered something genuinely differentiated.

• For example, in late 2020, we published a piece on Amazon's advertising business that unpacked organizational and profitability nuances that almost nobody on Wall Street had understood correctly at the time but better understands today

We plan to publish 1-2 pieces monthly, organize in-person events and may host webinars to discuss our views. I'm excited to be writing content again—especially content that doesn't require staying up until 2 AM updating spreadsheets after company earning’s reports.

We currently engage in advisory work with both private and public companies. If that is of interest, and you believe we can add value, let us know. Consistent with our stated MO, if we don’t think we are going to add any value, we are not taking your money.  We are confident you will get a few useful insights from a conversation, and if it ends there, you never know if our paths will cross again in the future.  

When we chose a tag line - Add Value with Every Interaction - it is because that is how I have operated across my entire career. Stay tuned for updates in 2026 and beyond!

Welcome to Corabel Capital. Click here to read our inaugural Insight.

Michael Levine
CEO + Managing Director, Corabel Capital