What sits above the common
Preferreds, converts, warrants, indenture covenants, second-step conversions. Who gets paid before you, what triggers the dilution, and what the terms actually say when you read them.
Forensic equity research · US micro & small cap
We read the whole filing history.
Maya Analytics is an outside research desk for small funds. One company at a time, we read the entire filing history: the 10-Ks, the proxies, the 8-Ks, and the exhibits most people skip. Then we write up what the record shows about the debt, the insiders, and the accounting.We read until the record either backs the thesis or breaks it.
30+Published analyses, long and short
0Sell-side analysts covering a typical name we work
B.A. LL.B.NALSAR University of Law (Hons.)
1:1Every report written by the founder. No junior desk.
The approach
The answer is usually in a document nobody opened.
Everything below the income statement is public. It just runs to two hundred pages and mostly goes unread. The conversion feature that triples the share count at $2. The head office leased from a director's family trust. The revenue-recognition language that changed between the Q2 and the Q3. That is the part we read.
Illustrative excerptRelated party
“The Company leases its principal branch premises from an entity in which a member of the Board holds a controlling interest. The Compensation Committee reviewed the arrangement and determined the terms to be no less favorable than those obtainable from an unaffiliated third party.”
Sample language, not a specific issuer.
- Who actually reviewed it?A related-party lease was signed off by the Compensation Committee. Under most charters that sits with Audit. The first thing to check is whether this company's charter says otherwise.
- “No less favorable” against what?No comparable leases cited. No third-party appraisal named. An assertion written as though it were a finding.
- Does it move numbers?Above-market rent on premises the company could own is a permanent transfer from shareholders to an insider. It also reads very differently in a complaint than it does in a 10-K.
Selected work
Recently published calls.
The rating and the date are as published. Read the original before deciding whether this is worth paying for. See every published call →
Price moves are measured from the publication date against the S&P 500 over the same period. Ratings are as published on Seeking Alpha. Past results are not a guide to future performance.
View all published work →On Substack
New write-ups, as they're published.
The three above are the highlight reel. For the full run — names still in progress, framework notes, shorter takes that don't make the cut here — the latest is here, straight from the Substack.
What we cover
Four things, on every name.
Capital structure
Capital allocation
Where the money went
Buybacks running alongside fresh issuance. Acquisitions and how they were accounted for. Comp plans that pay out on metrics management controls. What was promised, against what was done.
Governance
Who benefits, and who signed off
Directors who clear the independence test on paper. Related-party dealings, committee charters, insider transactions, control blocks.
What changed
Where the story stops matching the file
The press release, the MD&A and the footnotes disagreeing with each other. Restatements, material weaknesses, and risk-factor language that quietly moved between one year and the next.
Who this is for
You probably run the book yourself.
Small funds and single-manager books
You hold something that doesn't sit right.
The numbers look fine, the story is coherent, and you can't put your finger on it. That's when to send it over.
You run the book yourself, and your best ideas are in names with no sell-side coverage and nobody to call about them. A full-time analyst is not justified at your size, and a research subscription written for everybody is not worth reading. What you need is someone to spend three days inside one company's filing history and hand back a memo. That is the job.
And, separately: securities and shareholder litigation
Financial reading for a legal record
A disclosure case turns on what was said, when, and how the language moved between filings. We build that timeline from the record and explain the accounting and capital-structure mechanics in terms that hold up under questioning. We work behind counsel as a research consultant. We do not testify.
This probably is not for you if
- You want a price target or a buy/sell rating. We do not issue them.
- The names you hold already have fifteen analysts covering them.
- You need real-time data. Everything here comes from public filings.
- You need it tomorrow. Reading a filing history properly takes days.
Pricing
What it costs.
Every engagement is scoped in writing before any work begins. The fee is agreed in that document and does not move once it is signed.
One-off
Single-name deep dive
$800Per name · two to three weeks
One position, tested against its own filings. You tell us the thesis; we tell you what in the record contradicts it.
- Every filing read, back to the IPO or the last change of control
- Capital structure map: who is senior, and what triggers dilution
- Related-party and governance review drawn from the proxies
- A timeline of how the disclosure language changed
- A written memo with the thesis and what would prove it wrong
Ongoing
Research retainer
$1,500Per month · two names
A standing research seat. Two names a month, plus monitoring on what you already hold.
- Two names a month, chosen by you
- Monitoring of held positions for new filings and governance changes
- Same-week turnaround on 8-Ks, proxies and amendments as they land
- Direct access. You speak to the person writing it
- Additional names at $1,000 each
For counsel
Litigation and disclosure support
$80Per hour · ten-hour minimum
Research support for securities and shareholder matters. Or scoped per matter.
- Disclosure timelines built from the filing record
- Comparison of language across periods and documents
- Capital structure and transaction mechanics, explained plainly
- Background research supporting counsel's own analysis
- Conflicts checked before any matter is accepted
Fees are fixed for the duration of an engagement. Anything outside the scope agreed in writing is quoted before it is started, not after.
How we start
The first one is free. Three slots a quarter.
You cannot judge research from a description of it. So the first memo is complete work on a name you already hold, and it costs nothing.
01
You pick the name
Preferably a small or micro-cap position you hold and cannot get anyone to cover. The messier the filing history, the more use this is to you.
02
You get the whole memo
The same document a paying client receives. No summary version, no gated section, no follow-up sequence. Read it, disagree with it, or ignore it.
03
If it was worth reading, we scope the next one
$800 for a single name, or $1,500 a month if you want the capacity standing. If it was not worth reading, that is the end of it and there is no invoice.
About
Maya Gupta
Founder
Maya Gupta read law at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad (B.A. LL.B. Hons.), and interned in corporate M&A and capital markets at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co, Trilegal and JSA. What that training was, in practice, was five years of reading documents closely: what a clause does, what it leaves out, and what changed since the last version.
She now applies it to US micro- and small-cap filings, publishing long and short work under her own name. The current focus is banks and thrifts, second-step conversions, and preferred stock: corners of the market where the structure of a security decides the outcome more often than the earnings estimate does.
Every memo is written by her. There is no junior desk, no offshore team, and no template.
Coverage focus
Banks and thrifts
Preferred stock and converts
Second-step conversions and demutualisations
Investment style
Event-driven
Professional experience
- Corporate M&A and capital markets Internships at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co, Trilegal and JSA. Work spanning private equity, capital markets and cross-border M&A.
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Published research
30+ analyses on US micro- and small-cap equities, long and short.
Read the published work →
Education
- NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)
Maya Gupta is the professional name of Mahira Gupta.
Get in touch
Send us a name you're uneasy about. We'll send back the analysis.
One email is enough to work out whether this is useful to you. Send a position you are unsure about, or one nobody else covers, and we will tell you whether there is anything in the filings worth your time.
No mandate required · First analysis is free · Three slots a quarter