Rafael Gonçalves 00:00

Everybody, good evening, good afternoon, good morning, depending on what part of the globe you’re listening and watching this from. My name is Rafael Gonçalves. I am from Brazil, I’m the Communications Coordinator for KoreConX. And I’m very happy to be here talking and debating, and learning. Why not? Every day at this job is a learning opportunity. And I’m very happy to be here today with our KorePartner Curtis Spears president and CEO of Andes Capital. I’m very happy to be co-hosting this with you. So tell us a little bit more about you and a little bit about your background. Tell us about your company. And what do you do, please?

 

Curtis Spears 01:31

Well, thank you. Thank you, Rafael. And thank you to KoreConX as well, for all you do in this space. And being a leader in this space and inviting me on the show. I really appreciate this. So there’s a lot to cover. So I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, on the west side. And the part of the west side and folks from what’s called the hood. Grew up there and actually went to a very prominent high school called Lane Tech on the north side of Chicago, not too far from Wrigley Field. Ended up going to Northwestern University in Evanston, Vic 10 school and, you know, I played football there, but football there. And I majored in computer science played a good three and a half years there. And then I ended up having a career-ending injury. And so thank goodness, I had a good major that I could fall back on. So after school, I ended up working for Baxter Healthcare as my first job as a programmer analyst in their operating system group. And I actually interned there when I was in school, and then you, and then I’m going back to work full time, found out that, as a regular employee is not the same experience as an intern, it wasn’t as much fun. So I spent, you know, my days just really, you know, in a queue, writing and testing code all day long. So not the most exciting job for me. So I started looking for something else. So that’s there for about six months. And then I got a call because I was looking from a group called American National Bank, in downtown Chicago. And they were looking for a person that they could who could program or could teach them how to manage money. All right, and they were an index fund shop. So this is back when you could actually charge 10 to 20 basis points for an index fund. So this is going way back. So they brought me in, we had a good chat and ended up working and I was my first entree into, you know, the financial, and the finance, knew nothing about finance, right? But I learned pretty quickly and I was the guy who who wrote the programs that we use to manage the money. So worked at American National for about eight years and was acquired by Northern Trust and 98. So you know, maintain the same role at Northern Trust for a couple of years, that actually moved into the sales and Client Servicing side of the business. And so I’ve worked with primarily institutions, you know, mid to large size, public pension funds across the country, and then worked at that position there for about five years to move on to Fifth Third asset management, where I had kind of a similar role, but I headed up public fund sales for the firm, for some years there, left Fifth Third, and went to work for my first broker-dealer, which was GardnerRich. And you know, most folks don’t know the firm. But you might know the person. If you saw the movie pursuit of happiness. Will Smith protray the guy named Chris Gardner? So I used to write this. Yeah, so I read his book either for a couple of years. And actually, just for a long time. When I was at American National Bank, we were his first brokerage client equity brokerage client. So we had a yeah, he had been chasing me for a while and finally got me. So it’s been a couple of years there. That’s what kind of you know, cut my teeth on the brokerage side, then left that and went to work for it. An investment consulting firm called Grain Company. And we consulted to, you know, public funds, foundation dynamics, and a few family offices. So I was head of sales there as well. That left there, right when I moved to LA from Chicago about 10 years ago. And so left there, and it was trying to figure out what, what can I do next. And a buddy of mine actually was one of the original owners of Andes Capital. And he asked me to come on board and say, hey, you know, we need somebody to come in and kind of right the ship, are you interested? And I said, No. I was like, not, you know, been there, done that, that’s, that’s a hard test to do. They said, they’d offered me some equity in the firm. So one of the partners of the firm, and they let me pretty much do what I wanted to do. So that seemed a little more appealing. And that’s how I ended up in Andes Capital. You know, when I first joined the firm, about 10 years ago, we did primarily public secondary trading, mostly equities, a little bit of fixed income. And that was kind of our bid for the first few years. But, you know, it’s a tough business to be in a tough business to kind of break into unless you’re, you know, largest shopping volume. And we’re doing just domestic trades. We weren’t getting any international. And so I figured, you know, what, let me figure out what’s, what’s the next big wave where’s the space that we could be competitive? And so we have been doing some private placements, you know, selling private funds to our portfolio that’s made a decision to shut down trading securities and focus just on private placements.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 06:41

Okay, wow, that’s, that’s quite a career for somebody who says, Oh, I didn’t know anything about finance. That’s quite a career. It’s quite impressive. And

 

Curtis Spears 06:53

it’s one of my parents. I’ve been around the block in finance. So

 

Rafael Gonçalves 06:57

Yeah, that’s, that’s amazing. That’s amazing. I worked myself for the Volkswagen Bank in Brazil. And when I joined it, I said, Wow, I didn’t even know that automakers had banks. And I spent 10 years there. So that’s, that’s amazing. Our career sometimes throws us into some things that, right, you have the technology degree, and then you ended up in finance. And that’s, that’s just life, right? Like, that’s, yeah, you had your career-ending injury, that’s, that’s bad. Football, but then you, you found a way in finance. That’s, that’s nice. That’s life. And that’s life. That’s good. So first of all, Curti,s I would like to open talking about you, being a black man, head of a financial services company. I mean, it would be wonderful if you could talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion in this area, in which we normally have mostly white men, would you see yourself as kind of a role model for the sector?

 

Curtis Spears 08:03

What you know, I never set out to be a role model. But I guess, I am, in some sense of the word, you know, as I did come from, you know, the west of Chicago, and was able to make it, you know, out of the air into a very, you know, prominent role. You know, and I don’t know if I mentioned, but, you know, throughout my career, I either really did focus on either helping other minorities in this space, so that Northern Trust that emerging manager program, and so I help other managers, you know, get assets, just, you know, to run their business. When I was at GardnerRich, it’s, you know, it’s money knowing your own broker-dealer. So, you know, being a minority from itself, and also helping other minority firms get started and help them raise assets. Then, while that Grant Company, once again, that was a minority-owned firm, and we had a, you know, a keen focus on trying to help other many firms get going. So, you know, I guess running the firm myself, you know, it’s not running Goldman Sachs, but still in a primary position. I think there could be more people like me, you know, in this role, right, we need to see more folks with greater access to it. Because one of the things is when you have diverse folks like me, we add innovation and creativity. That’s the process, right? And we filled those holes that, you know, as you said, white men can’t really feel they don’t have the same experiences that we have. That way.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 09:30

Yeah, and being a role model is not something we think about right, I think it’s more or more like something that just comes up. And in your case, it’s it really did come up, right? You’ve made your way through it. And you found an opportunity to do so. And do you see that? In this industry, you started as a computer programmer of some sort. So do you believe that especially nowadays, where we can reach You can reach further places in the globe, and you don’t have to be in Los Angeles or New York or Miami to be inside a great center? They believe that technology is the best way for the diversity and inclusion programs that we have nowadays.

 

Curtis Spears 10:18

So yeah, I mean, technology is definitely, you know, kind of a game changer. And allowing access for folks, you know, into this space, no matter where you’re at. It’s very important, and it makes things a lot easier. It gives you more or a lot less, I would say. So that’s definitely it’s definitely important, for sure. But also I think, when you’re talking about, you know, increasing diversity, it’s still starting from the top, you still need the people to embrace it as well. So technology helps, right? But surely the folks you know, who actually run the show, or folks who have the money, right to embrace, you know, folks, women, people who’ve gone.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 11:06

Yeah, totally. And that’s, that’s most of what we do at KoreConX. And you and I just capital as well as democratizing access to capital, right? Because that’s all about democratically democratizing things, access to capital, access to technology, and access to information. And that’s why we’re here because we love to educate markets, we love to educate entrepreneurs. And that’s what we’re here for. Right? Yeah. But yeah, that said, in our last KoreSummit, which we held in October 2022, we were together, we had a session with you, and you were there with us talking about the cannabis business, which is a very promising business. But you consider yourself and this capital as a whole as industry agnostic. I mean, you do believe in something, but it did not follow a religion. Right. So as a broker-dealer, what is the good part of being an industry agnostic like that what do they consider to be your strengths?

 

Curtis Spears 12:09

Yeah, so being open to all industries gives us access to a lot more deals, you know, because the deal flow is definitely important. Access to a lot more information. All right. And then also too, you know, me personally, because I do a lot of due diligence on the deals. It helps me to learn more about the industry out there. I mean, just over the last couple of years, because we do both, you know, funds and direct deals. You know, through COVID, I worked on a couple of deals, getting labs set up, and we worked with the city of Chicago on their mobile vaccination effort. And so then also to get to meet other interesting people. We have fun out in Southern California than Zach, actually, Aaron Rogers the football player is a GPF. And so they rent them an influencer fund. So we get in touch with folks like that had a call the day with, I can’t say his name, but a very prominent NBA player and his family office. So just having access to all types of, you know, interesting people, interesting deals and stuff that you know, I think is very much a pro for us. And also to, you know, Andes, we’re kind of twofold, right? We have folks who kind of wave the Andes flag and do direct deals for Andes. And we also have people who kind of use it as a concierge BD, right? So they come to us with their own deals and their own investors. And they use us it’s kind of like the compliance for those deals. And so it just once again, just given you know, access to all types of deals and deal flow. It’s been, you know, for us very helpful.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 14:01

Yeah, that’s nice. Aaron Rogers quite a player?

 

Curtis Spears 14:05

Yeah, he’s okay. He’s done right over the years. Yeah.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 14:09

Yeah, he, the Green Bay Packers haven’t been very good for him lately, but he’s a great player. He’s a great quarterback.

 

Curtis Spears14:17

Yeah, injury issues and struggles. But I think it’d be fun to just beat Dallas over the weekend and in the big game, so I think it’d be okay.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 14:26

Yeah, I mean, I remember Green Bay Packers fan or no?

 

Curtis Spears 14:30

No. I’m from Chicago, Chicago Bears fan, and since I moved to LA, LA Rams, who always hears me for sure.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 14:41

Yeah, the kicker from Chicago Bears is from Brazil. Kaido Santos, he’s from Brazil as well. Is a good kicker. He’s a good. I am a Miami Dolphins fan. I started watching when Dan Marino was on so I’m a Dolphins fan. That’s nice. It’s very So it’s good because you have all this background in many industries, and you have access to all this different. Sorry, to these different industries. But when you’re specialized, you’re not industry agnostic. Exactly. You have the chance to build stronger relationships with partners don’t use. So how would you see that difference between being specialized? Or being industry agnostic? I mean, it’s all about building relationships, right?

 

Curtis Spears 15:34

Yeah, it’s a relationship business, that’s for sure. I would just say when you’re, if you’re specializing, you know, you can be seen as an expert in the space. And so, you know, that could definitely add value. And then when it comes to getting deals, you see the best deals, right? Because they folks know to come to you, and especially in the space, you know, within Andes, we do have a lot of real estate deals. And so we have two people who, who focus just on real estate, and so anything that comes up, least in the US, that’s real estate related, they usually, you know, kind of have their pulse on it. So that’s where at least being specialized definitely does have some sort of advantage. So yeah, just to really, you know, focus on, you know, two aspects, right, that the deal flow, that you see the best deal flow, and also to you get access to some of the, you know, the best investors as well, who come to you as a, you know, as a thought leader in the space, when it comes to, you know, what they’re working on what they’re doing, and also the deals they’re looking for.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 16:41

Yeah, the real, the real estate business is changing a lot with technology, right with tokenization. And there’s a lot going on in this in this vertical, right?

 

Curtis Spears 16:53

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It’s ever-changing, you know, and technology is making it even easier for folks to get access to real estate investments.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 17:02

Yeah, as we had our previous episode actually was with a height zero, Laura Pamatian, they work exclusively with real estate. And I was amazed by the huge ecosystem, there’s behind real estate, because when you think about real estate, oh, I got a house to live in or sell a house or buy a condo, but it’s huge. Oscar, our CEO, actually said, saying that he worked with real estate is just like saying, I work with the internet. It’s huge. Right? 

 

Curtis Spears 17:35

Right, right.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 17:38

Yeah, this is this is what all we’ve been talking about right access because we’re democratizing and creating new opportunities. That’s, and that’s good. So being industry, agnostic, allows you to learn a lot, and to see a lot of changes going on. Right?

 

Curtis Spears  17:54

Yeah. And also to just you know, with that basic knowledge, you can also kind of predict what changes we’ll be right. And one of the things we’re trying to figure out now is, you know, you mentioned cannabis as being, you know, a hot sector, although I’m not really hot on cannabis right now, but also trying to figure out, you know, based on the folks, we talked to the folks we see what’s going to be the next cannabis deal. Right, you know, what can we get in Brooklyn find out and be early on, is what we’re looking for. And it gives us access to that as well.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 18:24

Yeah, I don’t know if that’s the million-dollar question. But that surely is the billion-dollar answer. Right, right. Absolutely. Yeah. Especially cannabis because Joe Biden apparently he’s been struggling to make it legal. He has already dropped the charges right on people who were charged with possession alone. I’m not quite sure if I’m wrong was correct me. But America seems to be walking towards legalization free so yeah.

 

Curtis Spears  18:59

That’s the hope and that’s gonna be the big driver on whether or not it’s really a good investment or not, right? I know a lot of folks who get in early and made a lot of money right? Right now it’s a little bit tough because really, it’s best if you invest in cannabis now, one you should know what you’re doing right? Because it’s, it’s still kind of in that shady landscape. But it’s just a matter of the real bet is when it’ll go legal. And that’s the folks who really make a return on capital.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 19:30

Yeah, I see a see cannabis as it’s not legal here in Brazil. At least we have some medicines and some very specific cases where it is allowed to use CBD. But the way I see it, I see it as technology. That’s basically it. We need to research chemical compounds and natural chemical compound that has potential. I mean, it’s technology, right? Yeah, it’s just like the Big Four pharma companies spent years working the past two years working on, on COVID vaccines. I mean, it’s something that’s got to be studied. I see it as technology. That’s, that’s how I see it.

 

Curtis Spears  20:13

Yeah, yeah. How can you how can you grow more faster? Basically? And good. Right.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 20:21

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it’s just just like alcohol, just like anything cars, you can use cars for bad purposes. Right. Right. Right. I definitely see it as technology. And of course, there’s risk involved. But, which industry doesn’t have risks? I’m not quite sure there is one.

 

Curtis Spears  20:43

Very true. Very true. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 20:45

So we talked a little bit about cannabis about our KoreSummit, which we were together with, you just mentioned real estate. Are there any other sectors that you believe can be good opportunities for investors? Or maybe even for entrepreneurs? I don’t know.

 

Curtis Spears  21:05

So yeah, going back real estate definitely is one that, you know, that we are always in a position because it’s, you know, it’s a finite resource, right. So I’d say it’s a resource that we’re losing because of global warming. And then, you know, within real estate, you know, there’s always something for anybody’s risk appetite, right. So if you want just to buy some property and collect some rents, you know, you get that it’s a very low-risk environment. Or if you want to go into, you know, construction, new construction, right, that’s not the space to be in a big thing now, in real estate, is trying to find ways to build more workforce housing, especially here in the US. And another big one is, is building built-to-rent-type homes, because of COVID, a lot of folks are looking for more privacy, and want to be further away from the city, but don’t really have the money for a down payment. So that’s another space. But then real estate which I think is very popular. Anything that ends in tech, is it is always always a good bet, right? That’s a lot of stuff that we see, mainly in the med-tech space, we see a lot of those deals come through our desk, I think the most recent one that we’re looking at now is a group that is a leader and detecting lung cancer. And so they have, they’re recreating CRT type software to detect, you know, the smallest of nodules in someone’s lungs to detect that. And so, so you have tons of companies like that who are coming out, right? And you’re always saying, because a lot of times these companies, they’re usually a one product firm, right? So they always need some sort of capital VC capital or series, a tech capital, to you know, to continue their research as well. We see a lot of, at least recently, a lot of cybersecurity deals across our desks as well. Because that’s a, you know, big, big concern right now. And also to, which is, you know, it’s been big in Europe for a long time. It’s gotten big hair, you know, somewhat recently, is that anything that involves ESG is always a good, a good type of investment to consider. And I’ve actually seen a lot of carbon credit deals, or projects that have come up that we see it’s not something that we necessarily do quite a bit of, but we’ve been seeing a lot of folks approached us with it.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 23:36

Yeah, two things that really caught my attention. The cybersecurity issues. I read an article a couple of weeks ago, saying that cybersecurity is the new bank security right? Back 30 years ago, we had those guys in front of the banks with guns and making protection. That’s cybersecurity now is all about that, because we don’t have money anymore. We have data, we have banks and block chain, and whatever it is just for me, yeah, you have this amount of money, you can use this amount of cash, but I don’t have the cash itself. I don’t have the paper or right. Prove that I have that money’s data. So cybersecurity is basically the new bank security bank guards. 

 

Curtis Spears 24:21

Yeah, yeah. The thing that was is online, or you say through data, you know, it’s so it’s extremely important for us right now. And you hear about the ransomware issues that we have, and it’s just, you know, payment security is huge, as well, too. So, it’s really important. And, you know, as I say, Yeah, I’ve been, you know, I’m not as much into it now, but you know, being a computer guy, and they say, you know, no one no one is necessarily, you know, hack-proof, right? If they want to get you they can get you but you want to at least set out where you’re going to last you know, throw it off the the you know, have the common hacker per se.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 25:04

Yeah, people always think about hackers as that. Mr. Robot image, right? But that’s not exactly how it happens, right? I mean, it does happen, but that’s one kind of hacker. This stereotype is not always true. I mean, you’re gonna have a hacker, plug something into the ATM to grab your credit card or your bank accounts. I mean, you don’t have to be that Mr. Robot thing to be hacked or you don’t have to be a big company out why are people going to hack me? Yes, they are probably because they’re more vulnerable.

 

Curtis Spears 25:40

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Now, so too, because we’re working on one deal right now where they’re focused on online security for children who use the web as well. You know, so it’s not just for us adults is also for the kids too.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 25:55

Yeah. Especially, especially after the pandemic, a lot of online schooling and kids are having more access to technology and to online spaces, and online virtual rooms. Yes. So that’s, that is definitely an issue. Yeah, you also mentioned ESG and the carbon credit. I don’t think I just mentioned that there are no risk-free industries. But I think that yeah, I believe that the ESG, the ESG topic is going to keep increasing for the next decades. Because I really don’t see how we can we can walk away from this kind of environmental and sustainability issues.

 

Curtis Spears 26:46

Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s probably a definitely a whole other webcast series. But totally. It’s, we’re, for most folks, right? So most folks believe some folks don’t believe right. But you know, we’re, I think we’re fighting for our lives on the earth here. Right? If nothing is done, if you believe in global warming, all right, and just you know, we’re looking for being able to maintain our certain quality of life and maintain life in general. So, you know, especially, part of it is definitely important. And then also just making sure that companies are governed in a certain way. That’s, that’s important to just mix it just for sensibility. So.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 27:33

Yeah, you just mentioned Will Smith from the movie. And I’m going to quote him again, when he punched his rock and the Oscars weren’t working progress, right? Working progress. We are all works in progress. I mean, companies, if you said that this was going to be a big deal, 50 years ago, sit up, come on. It’s no way. Yeah, but yeah, we are. We’re working in progress. Everybody’s in progress. All the companies are in progress. I mean, I just said I spent the last decade at Volkswagen, the company was one thing when I joined, and it became a completely different one. When I left. It’s no longer than 10 years, the company has changed completely. Yeah. So the only constant is change. The only constant is change. And that’s why I do believe that. Sorry, I do believe that democratizing access to capital is the best opportunity we have to save lives and empower people. That’s what are we doing? Right? Reg D, Reg S, right, as I mean, there’s room, there’s room for everyone to grow and to have access to their to the money and to the capital they need. So they can produce and create more jobs and products and save lives.

 

Curtis Spears 28:55

Yeah, yeah, it gives everyone a chance to participate. Right? That’s big, so issuers are looking to start up, you know, their own company, that doesn’t have to rely on you know, having relationships with, you know, the big, you know, VC or PE investors anymore, or they can go straight to the crowd. And then the crowd itself, who you know, who’ve been looking for ways to, you know, invest and the things they care about. And also, you know, having a chance to be allowed to get those outsized returns to the early investors in certain deals. That’s there for them as well. So, definitely a game changer.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 29:35

Yeah, yes. Sorry, I almost muted my microphone here. So we talked a little bit about being industry agnostic about being specialized about being in just two different company ways of working. But endless capital has relationships that span every type of investor right? You have The most prominent institutions, you have small retail individuals. What are the differences? We already talked a little bit about democratization.. But what are the differences from a broker-dealer perspective between working in these two different scenarios?

 

Curtis Spears 30:18

Fees, charges, what big difference. That’s, that’s important for from a BD perspective, you know, really what you can show them what they’re looking for. And, you know, and the size and how they invest in who, who protects the money is are all big differences. You know, with large institutions, you know, they’re usually not doing direct deals and looking to invest in funds, right, because they have a lot of money that they have to put to work. So we’re looking, you know, some folks, when it comes to the private markets, they can’t write a check less than, say $100 million. Right. So we’re looking for these, you know, the big billion dollar funds, you know, typically on funds that are offered by like, your Blackstone’s or Black Rocks, or your Apollo’s, you know, to invest in, and as you’re approached them as a, you know, as a, you know, salesperson, you know, us as like a placement agent, you know, the sales cycle can be long, right? It could be one or two years, per se, right? And the folks you have to get through to get access or to get, you know, an allocation. It’s, it’s, it’s a process, right? So usually, I call it a three-prong approach, we usually have, you know, at the fund itself, you have the investment staff, that you have to, you know, they have to know you and feel good about you, they all have a board of trustees who you know, kind of set the policy and make decisions, and also picked managers as well. And they all usually have a, you know, an outside consultant that you have to run your products through, right? And usually, the way it is done is like you hit the consultant, first, they review your product, and then they approve it right, then whenever this large institution has a search, you know, you hope to include as one of the finalists that presented a board, then the board and staff kind of make that decision. And so that’s kind of how that works on the larger institution side, then there’s that kind of middle space, especially with family offices, that are some that are large, and operate like an institution, there are others that are, you know, a little bit smaller, maybe in like that 10 to, you know, $100 range. And those folks, you know, they it’s usually one or two people that you have to approach to get to the money, you can, you know, unlike a large institution, sometimes you can walk in. And if you do a decent pitch, you could walk out with a check, right? And a lot of times too, you can build such a great relationship with them, they may turn to you, when you’re talking about being specialized, they can actually turn to you and say, hey, you know, we’re looking for this type of investment, you know, is that something you have? Or is that something you can find for us? Right. And also for large institutions and most MLMs, you can easily find them, you can, you know, pay for a database, find who they are not on the retail side, it’s a little bit different. Because, you know, those folks are a little harder, to identify. And you got to find a way to kind of create a following, right? Especially when it comes to if you’re doing a crowdfunding deal. And you want to try to source some capital that way, you gotta really, you know, come at it from usually one of two ways. And this is something we’re still kind of learning because we’re still new to this, this part of the, of the spectrum. But, you know, what we found that has worked so far is that if you are a person who is an influencer and has some sort of following in a certain space, and then you decide that say, if you’re someone who, you know, is maybe who knows real estate well, right, and you have some sort of podcasts on real estate, and you decide that you want to do raise your own fund in real estate, right? You already have a following of, say, half a million people that follow you and have listened to your podcast or your YouTube channel, what have you? That’s one way that you can you already have a bet you can turn to if you decide to do some sort of raise, to raise money to do some sort of real estate deal. And another way is just to hire, there are third-party companies that actually help folks with their marketing connection, you have a few marketing partners that work with folks who have their own set database of investors that they can turn to and kind of, you know, pinpoint who folks would be, you know, attract or express interest in that type of deal. So a little bit different in retail and institutional. But, you know, still, all can be approached if done the right way.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 34:48

Yeah, well, in a nutshell, that was a great explanation. Yeah, no, but

 

Curtis Spears 34:57

Yeah.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 34:58

I know. I know that I I have, of course, a prominent institution like a nation, they have totally different needs when we talk about capital, but it still can be done. It doesn’t matter if you’re in our garage. Right?

 

Curtis Spears 35:15

Right. Right. Right. Right. They typically know what they want. They said events and policies, they say that that’s allocation. So they say we, they’re the buckets that we want to fill, right? And so is this something that you have, or you can create, this is what we want to see, if you don’t have this, you know, don’t waste our time, basically. But we look at the, you know, accredited investors and retail, a little bit different, right, they can be open to, you know, something of a different investor, and also to family offices, the smaller ones to who like, you know, direct deals, when suddenly they feel that, you know, can make them some money. They’ll take a look. And you know, it’s attractive, though, the retro check.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 35:55

Yeah, they write your check. That’s the magic moment rate, which we are all waiting for. That’s, that’s, that’s the magic moment. That’s, that’s good. That’s been great. Curtis.. Are there any other aspects you’d like to mention? It may be it’s something about crowdfunding, because sometimes when you mentioned crowdfunding, a lot of people think about Kickstarter, and about losing money. And that’s not it. Right? That’s something totally different, from the Jobs Act.

 

Curtis Spears 36:27

Right? Yeah. And I don’t say crowdfunding is something where you lose your money, right? It’s a place where when idea where, you know, you have the chance to vet investments that you didn’t have access to before, right, have a chance to get in early on certain investments too, especially when it’s a user Reg CF are firms that are just starting out. And, you know, definitely, when you invest, you know, money’s at risk, but you do have the confidence and the BDS that scrubbed the deals, and also your own intelligence to, to, to see what deals you know, make sense to you. And, you know, not telling investors, you know, if it’s something that you’re interested in, it would help if it’s something that you know, a little bit about, right? Or something you have a passion about, which may help in your investment decision-making.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 37:17

Yeah, you don’t have to be a specialist. As a nonaccredited investor, you don’t have to be a specialist, you just have to, believe and have some idea of the market you’re about to enter. are about to start.

 

Curtis Spears 37:30

Yeah, and the market is moving more towards, you know, private investments anyway, because less and less companies are going public. Now. As I mentioned before, you know, I was an index fund manager, you know, back in the day, and you had this index called the Wilshire 5000, which was supposed to be represent the entire US equity market. And back then it had over 7000 securities in it right? Now, we look at it you’re looking at about it has about half over 3000 securities. And then which was most of the firm even these big unicorns are staying there staying private because they can be more nimble, they have more control than after ejecting it to, you know, the government disclosing the regulations. And so you have a lot of places where you can actually make some money. Referring to the stay in private.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 38:20

Yes, yes. That’s that’s the beauty of it. Right. You maintain control as you are able to to do your stuff.

 

Curtis Spears 38:25

Right, right. Yeah, exactly. So I believe

 

Rafael Gonçalves 38:29

That said Curtis as I believe he mentioned we covered everything we wanted to we are reaching almost 40 minutes. Wow. We’re about that. Yeah, if we started talking about the ESG thing, we would go on for two, or three hours, maybe. And we would have, we would have things to talk about, especially about the private capital markets. So I believe here, we could wrap it up with their final thoughts on the private capital market, say our goodbyes, and invite everyone over for your follow your page and all your LinkedIn.

 

Curtis Spears 39:01

Yeah. Well, thank you again, Rafael. I appreciate it. For the for the time. You know, I think, though, it’s been around for a long time. I think this is like the new way of private investing. And so if you’re someone who has not done it yet, definitely investigate it and see if you never need to do it now or at least be abreast of what’s going on and how it’s done. And because you might see something you like, just want to put money into it because this is definitely gonna be a way. And once there’s not a big market, that secondary to establishing it, but that’s coming. I think, once that gets established, I think this will be you know, for a lot of folks to primary with investor their assets.

 

Rafael Gonçalves 39:48

That’s, that’s good. Yeah, we probably going to have more opportunities to talk and to and talk about the secondary market and there’s a lot to go on about that. So let’s wrap it up for today. So lot Curtis once again, if you’re listening to or watching us on LinkedIn on Spotify, follow this capital on LinkedIn and please follow subscribe to follow our Spotify channel. You can also catch us on Amazon music on YouTube live on Apple podcasts. I mean we are in several podcast players. So it was a pleasure having you here Curtis and please follow up on KoreConX on our social media. And see you next time guys. Thank you. Bye bye