Editor's note: As the coronavirus spreads, investors worry about the economic fallout...

But as American Moonshots editor Austin Root explained in yesterday's Masters Series – the first part of an exclusive interview – it should hurt larger companies with big international businesses more than small U.S. businesses. As a result, he believes it's a great time for investors to focus on these small-cap companies...

Today, in the conclusion of our interview, Austin explains how we can recommend these small-cap, illiquid stocks... why this product is unlike anything we've created in the past... and how a tiny stake in certain businesses can turn into six- or seven-figure returns...

'It Isn't a One-Man Show': The Key Ingredient in American Moonshots

An interview with Austin Root, editor, American Moonshots

Stansberry Research: Most of the stocks we recommend at Stansberry Research have $1 billion, $5 billion, $10 billion market caps, if not more.

In other words, they're big enough that we can recommend them to tens of thousands of subscribers because we know we won't necessarily move the stock on our recommendation alone. Is that a concern with the smaller names in the American Moonshots portfolio?

Austin Root: That's a great question, and that's why we're offering this as an exclusive, higher-end product.

One of the reasons we're charging more for American Moonshots is that we want to limit the number of subscribers.

Whereas Stansberry's Investment Advisory goes out to more than 100,000 subscribers every month, it's not an appropriate forum for small-cap and microcap stocks. But this product is perfect for sharing off-the-beaten-path, little-known names with a select number of subscribers.

That's also why we've been extremely careful to assign strict allocation advice to all of these positions. We don't want everyone to go and buy the same dollar amount of each position in the portfolio and chase these stocks higher.

SR: Yesterday, you mentioned that the American Moonshots portfolio touches several areas of the market – from tech and health care to gold and even cannabis.

But we haven't asked yet... How did you go about finding these names? Did you just set off on this project to look at every single stock in the microcap universe and then narrow it down from there?

Austin: I'm glad you asked that, because it's one thing that makes American Moonshots unlike any of our other products.

At Stansberry Research, we have more than 30 investment analysts and research professionals. American Moonshots is the only product where we got to reach out to all of them.

You see, almost every month, the entire analyst team here gets together to brainstorm about investment ideas and share thoughts on the market. And occasionally, our publisher Brett Aitken and I will ask all the analysts to focus the meeting on their best small-cap and microcap ideas.

Our first idea-generation meeting like that produced dozens of names, many of which our analysts had identified months before but hadn't been able to recommend in their respective newsletters. And ultimately, a good chunk of the original American Moonshots portfolio came from that list of companies. We've continued that formula to this day.

So to answer your question... no, it isn't a one-man show.

While I've included some of my favorite small-cap ideas in this portfolio, for most of the ideas, we've leveraged the expertise of the entire research staff. Then, I conducted deeper research on each of the companies to find a "best of the best" list for American Moonshots subscribers.

SR: It sounds like the best way to gather the ideas in this portfolio was to ask the staff biotech expert Dave Lashmet for his favorite tiny biotech stock... and ask our in-house value investor Dan Ferris for his favorite tiny microcap value stock... and so on and so forth.

Austin: That's exactly right. Our sharpest gurus heavily influenced this portfolio.

SR: Are you going to be issuing more recommendations throughout the year? You established a 12-stock portfolio up front, but do you anticipate moving in and out of positions over the next year?

Austin: The idea behind American Moonshots is that it's a complete portfolio. We wanted to provide subscribers with ideas that are actionable right up front, rather than turning this into a standard monthly newsletter with one or two new ideas per issue.

We'll be providing quarterly updates on how the portfolio is performing. If we see any major news about these companies, we'll update subscribers. And of course, if our investment thesis changes on one of these names – or if we identify a better world-class moonshot opportunity between now and then – we'll provide guidance as to what we want folks to do.

SR: One last question for you... Many of the names of the best-performing stocks from 1980 to 2017 are now household names. And even a modest $1,000 stake in these companies back in the 1980s would have turned into a fortune over nearly 40 years. Can you give us an example or two?

Austin: Sure. You know, millions of Americans shop at Lowe's (LOW) for tools or paint, or to get stuff to renovate a bathroom. And if you've ever spent time in a hospital, chances are great you've used a product from medical-device maker Stryker (SYK).

Now, it's hard to imagine, but if you had put $1,000 into Lowe's and Stryker back in 1980 and held on to your investments, they would have been worth more than $621,000 and $1.7 million, respectively, by 2017. That's what I mean when I say these stocks can lead to generational wealth for your children and their children.

SR: It's incredible to see how much a low-risk stake of just $1,000 can turn into over the years. That's the kind of return you use to send your kids to college and buy a beach house. Of course, it's worth noting that these gains didn't happen overnight.

Austin: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that, because it's an important point.

We're excited about these companies' long-term potentials. These are high-quality, fast-growing companies. In fact, the average revenue growth over the last 12 months for the companies in the American Moonshots portfolio is more than 25%.

Still, as I mentioned yesterday, we haven't filled this portfolio with lottery tickets. These are companies that fit within the Stansberry Research investing tenets. They have solid business models, thick profit margins, and strong cash flows. Plus, they have safe, sturdy balance sheets... and businesses that are growing like weeds.

SR: Great. Well, thank you so much for sitting down with us this weekend. We really appreciate it, and we're looking forward to what the future holds for American Moonshots.

Austin: We are, too. Thanks for giving me some time to talk about this exciting product.

Editor's note: Austin is particularly bullish about one American Moonshots company right now... He believes a big announcement on March 4 could send this tiny $5 stock soaring 70% – or more – almost overnight. Even better, the recent pullback lets you get in at a great price. Austin just put together a special presentation with all the details. Get started right here.