Success Story:

About Redwood Empire

Redwood Empire is an IR firm founded in 2020 by Michael Bayes. Michael was born in London, UK, and began working early in life, with business taking him to China, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, and England – allowing him an incredibly varied look at the business world. He then moved to the US and began a successful career as an investment advisor, working for both regional brokerage firms and large wirehouses. Later, life then led him into the world of investor relations where he advanced to the role of president of a premier California-based IR firm.

Redwood currently represents a couple of small-cap companies in the materials and biotech sectors. Being in the IR space for a long time, Michael has used a handful of leading IR platforms. He recently started using Irwin just under a year ago and has found great success in targeting and connecting with investors for his clients. 

Irwin Helps Redwood Discover New Investors 

One of the clients Michael represents falls under a niche sub-sector of materials with a limited number of companies trading in North America. “Most investors in the space probably already know us, so I'm not necessarily looking just at the investors that hold those names, I'm looking for current portfolio managers and analysts that look at other materials as well as generalist small cap managers.” 

Using Irwin, Michael is able to target and connect with portfolio managers he may not be familiar with. “I find it useful to know a little background before making a connection and extremely satisfying to see a subsequent holding in their portfolio when I re-visit.”

Valuable Research and Insights on Investors 

Michael keeps the Irwin tab open on his computer to support his day-to-day tasks “I'm in there all day, researching new potential connections.” 

“When a company is going out to conferences and they're telling me who they're meeting with, I can quickly go in and provide background on the investor. You can see whether he's a potential good fit, I find it very useful for that.”

The investor profiles contain all the valuable information you need, from contact information to relevant background information on the individual. 

“I really like that I can go in there and I can import the data on the portfolio manager, and I can look and see where he’s worked in the past. When you get them on the phone, you can start talking about some things that maybe you have in common.”

Irwin’s platform has also been useful for Michael when meeting with his clients' executive board. He can easily download the data from Irwin into a PDF to present to management – that shows who he’s set up meetings with, and background on those investors.

Analyzing Who Holds His Clients Peers

One of the benefits of using Irwin that Michael outlined, has been the ability to analyze who holds his clients' peers. “I look for a company that owns one of my peers, and I can look and see what they own.” 

This has been an effective targeting technique and has been especially useful with the niche sector clients he represents.

One Central Platform that’s Easy to Use

Michael finds the platform is user-friendly and easy to navigate. 

“I can look at the holdings in a small-cap growth fund and say, ok, this might be a fit. I click through until I can find the potential contact there. From there I can open up and import his profile, and in one click, I can attach him to an email. And I'm doing all of this on just one page -  it sounds like it's a lot but it's all just in one place!”

Helpful and Engaging Customer Support

“My account manager has been very, very helpful in navigating me around the platform, and very patient with me as well.” He referred to his account manager as being his “go to” to answer any questions. 

A Message for IR Consultants Considering Irwin

“I would definitely recommend Irwin because it's easy to use and there's just a lot of information in there. I've only scratched the surface in the short term I've been using Irwin, but I've got great success stories that you can actually see in black and white. When you set up a meeting it's very satisfying to see in their 13 F holdings, people you know hold quite a bit of it, and that's really satisfying to see the fruits of your labor.”