Exponential ETFs Founder and CEO, Phil Bak

Good morning listeners, Today is a very special episode with Phil Bak, the founder and CEO of Exponential ETFs. Exponential ETFs manages the American Customer Satisfaction ETF and the Reverse Cap Weighted ETF. Before this, he was the managing director at the New York Stock Exchange where he grew the NYSE listing business to 90% market share by AUM and over 2 trillion in total assets for NYSE listed ETFs. He is a graduate of Yeshiva University and is a chartered alternative investment analyst. I want to welcome Phil to the show and all our listeners to a very special episode. 1:20 – Tell me about your background and what led you to the finance industry? 2:01 – What led you to the ETFs? 4:10 – When you first started, how would you define an ETF and has it changed now? 7:20 – How has the industry progressed since you got started? 10:15 – When you try to find those strategies, how do you go about it? 11:38 – Where do you find inspiration for thinking outside the box? 15:40 – Can you describe more about the research behind your 2 ETFs? 18:25 – Is it specific to US? 19:30 – Can the customer satisfaction be seen in the R&D portion of the company? 22:00 – For the reverse cap, did you find any interesting findings? 24:10 – Can you project the CSAT into the future? 25:10 – How would you define risk? 27:15 – In terms of your ETF, how do you manage risk? 29:05 – What are your views on active investing? 30:15 – Do you view active management as your competition? 31:15 – What are your favorite books? Enjoy and thanks for the listen!