If you do wrong by your investment clients, who are they going to blame? The name on the door.
Today, Toby Mathis of Anderson Business Advisors talks to Andrew Spaventa of The Spaventa Group about how to invest in the next innovative company via a venture round investment.
Andrew is a high-energy, outgoing, positive person who loves what he does and that’s why he started his own investment firm to create wealth for his clients and workforce.
Highlights/Topics:
- The Spaventa Group: Embodies/represents work culture, leadership, growth, guidance.
- Pre-IPO: Large, private company that exists 5-10 years and within 2-5 years of liquidity.
- Technology: Advancing at a rapid pace and changing the way companies operate.
- Risk Capital: Does not mean investing all in, but the likelihood of losing it all is slim to none.
- No Regrets: Don’t miss opportunities, make decisions quickly because shares sell fast.
- Expectations: Due diligence, limited access, client influx, more rounds or other situation.
- One-Stop Shop: Spaventa Group striving to be a full-service, alternative investment firm.
Resources:
The Spaventa Group on Facebook
The Spaventa Group on LinkedIn
Andrew Spaventa’s Email: dspaventa@thespaventagroup.com
Andrew Spaventa’s Phone: 631-614-2615
Investment Opportunities in the Companies of Tomorrow
Full Episode Transcript:
Toby: Hey guys, it’s Toby Mathis with the Anderson Business Advisors podcast and also for Infinity Investing. We got on Andrew Spaventa from The Spaventa Group. First off, welcome, Andrew, or welcome back, even better.
Andrew: Yeah. I know it’s been some time. I think it’s been just under a year and a half since the last one we did.
Toby: You guys are awesome. We’ve had a lot of success with you guys. The clients’ been working with Andrew. That’s actually how I found him lucky enough to have clients that will share when they have big wins. How would you characterize yourself, Andrew?
Andrew: Well, I mean, it depends. If you ask that question to my fiance, maybe that’s a different answer. But if you’re asking me it’s only going to be rainbows, gumdrops, and unicorns—only good things. Yeah. That’s actually a great question to start with. I think I’m a very high energy outgoing guy, very positive. The thing about it is, I love what I do. I really do.
Ever since I was a kid, I had this vision of starting my own investment firm and creating wealth for not only my clients but my whole entire workforce. It’s really exciting, especially nowadays, where I tell everybody technology is advancing at a rapid pace. Just by nature of what we’re doing, we’re right in the thick of it. We’re getting involved in these private companies that are growing, that are very exciting, into very disruptive industries, whether it’s drones, space, and food technology. I think that’s what’s really exciting.
Just to add it, because I was going to mention this a little bit later, but I think this is the perfect time to say it. As you know, we originally met when I had a previous firm. I explained to you that the older I got, I realized that mindset really is a thing. The business partners that I had been really sharing that mindset.
The leadership team at my firm now is outstanding—Chief Operating Officer, Tony Kwon; Director of our Private Client Group, Joseph Nappi; Director of Client Operations, John Prinzivalli; Fund Manager, Don Torrillo. Then obviously, the marvelous Jennifer Rogers, who runs our admin department. The whole entire leadership team that I have now shares in our vision, executes beautifully, and it’s really the reason why this firm has grown quite successfully.
I just wanted to piggyback off of that and really mention why I named it The Spaventa Group after myself and not something cookie-cutter like American private equity, venture capital, or something like that. Some people might think that it was vanity, and it is. I […] today, it is, but there’s a reason for that. It comes down to, really, the culture of my firm. If you look at any organization, you want to look at the management team and leadership, then you also want to look at the culture. I really wanted to make this firm an embodiment of everything that I represent.
I think I’ve mentioned to you a year and a half ago, growing up with a single mother, my father not there, knowing how it is to be on welfare, and all the horrible things, but being a part of a beautiful country that if you put in the hard work, you can make something of yourself. I just never had that guidance from either my mother or my father. I would soak up all the works of Napoleon Hill, Andrew Carnegie, Earl Nightingale, and all that positivity. I decided to say, you know what, this is going to be the firm that’s an embodiment of that. So that’s number one the reason why I decided I’m going to name it after me.
Number two, it forces me not to fail. It was pretty nerve-racking because anybody (and most people do) could just say, listen, we’re going to start a firm. We’re going to call it something cookie-cutter, like I said, American venture capital, ABC venture capital because if it goes up in smoke, we just start something else.
But having something tied to your last name, not only does everybody know that my name is tied to the firm. That if it does not work out the way I’m on, so bad luck on me. But number two, it really forces us to really stay in tune with the fact that our competitive advantage is our culture, our leadership team, our reputation, and the superior level of service that we provide to our clients.
If anybody has anything negative to say and we do wrong by our clients, it might be one of our investment consultants messing up, but guess whose name is attached to that? It’s mine. It really just makes me realize, hey, listen, if we’re preaching that we’re the best, which I always do. I don’t think anybody’s going to get any better than my firm. We better back it up. That’s just a little bit of explaining myself the reason why I call it The Spaventa Group and all that good stuff.
Toby: Yeah. I know your name is on the door. But even more importantly, it’s like somebody who’s just walking in it doesn’t know you. A lot of our clients know exactly who you are, who your firm is, and what you guys do that’s different from other companies is you are getting into pre-IPO companies during the venture stage, right? Not necessarily round A or B, but probably would you say the C, D, E, or F rounds you’re getting at.
Andrew: Right
Toby: What Andrew’s group has done, I’ll speak personally to this, is get into these companies and get you shares before it can go into an IPO. Could you give some of the companies that you’ve done this with our clients, for example, being specific? You don’t have to name the clients. But some of the companies that we’ve invested in and other companies have invested in.
Andrew: Sure. Before I name some companies that we have been investing in, I just want to clarify pre-IPO because it’s a name that’s just being thrown around now. Just to say, companies when you’re investing in the private market, and honestly, I despise it because not every company is a pre-IPO. We speak to some clients, not even just clients of yours, but just clients that solicit, speak to, and that is referred to us.
Yeah, I got invested in a pre-IPO company. It’s a marijuana company. It was during Series A. And our response is well, listen, that’s not really pre-IPO. The true definition of a true pre-IPO company is a large private company that’s been around 5, 10, 15 years. Like you just said, it’s typically in the series C, D, E fundraising rounds, and should be within two to five years of a liquidity event, most commonly IPO. I always like to make it clear, just because we’re saying pre-IPO, we’re just using the term that’s […].
Toby: It might be better to use a step closer to an exit. You have the exit that might be what they’re going to be purchased, that they’ve brought a product to the market and the money starts coming in or IPO.
Andrew: Correct, but pre-IPO is a lot easier and sexier to say than closer to an exit company.
Toby: Well, let’s call it what it is. It’s a venture round.
Andrew: It is.
Toby: We don’t know what the future is going to hold. There are lots of companies that said they were going to go public and never did. Lots of companies that were public then got taken private again. You look at it and you say, hey, we don’t know what the future is but really good companies, really great products, and innovation.
What I’m seeing consistently through the things that I see that I’ve invested in is innovation in technologies that are changing things, ideas that are changing things. When I say technology doesn’t mean just tech, Impossible Foods is a good example. That’s something that’s changing the way we’re used to operating. Give folks an idea of some of the companies that you’ve purchased and made available to your clients during the venture phase.
Andrew: Yeah. During the venture phase, we’ve invested in SpaceX, Airbnb, which we just got liquidated with recently, Palantir Technologies was a nice winner for us, Eat Just, which is technically a competitor to Impossible Foods and other food tech companies or an alternative meat company. You just said Impossible Foods, the alternative meat company. Zipline, a drone company, Rubrik, a cloud software, Scopely, a mobile video game provider, over the summer, one of my favorites, Plaid, a financial technology company, and as of right now we’re working with Kraken.
I didn’t mention a few other names that we’re looking to get involved in over the coming weeks. Obviously, when we do, this is not the podcast for that. We’re going to have this typical Zoom welcome investment. But yeah, we’ve been involved in about 8–10 companies over the last two to three years. Prior to that, I was working with other firms. We got involved in Spotify, Uber, and Lyft.
Once again, I just want to reiterate to everybody, just because you’re getting involved before a company does IPO or has a liquidity event, doesn’t mean that you’re going to make money. I will say this is risk capital. You’re not investing all of your retirement into this. If you come to us and say hey, listen, my retirement is worth X. I want to put the whole thing behind one idea. We’re going to say listen, we don’t really recommend that. That’s not really a good idea. But I will couple it to that the likelihood of you losing all your principal is really slim to none because these are mature companies. Worst case scenario, it doesn’t perform the way we want.
Palantir, we made 150%. Airbnb, we made 150%. We’re still waiting for the liquidity events for a lot of these other companies. Let’s go over some duds. Uber, we broke even. Lyft, I think we made 10% not even after holding for two years. WeWork was something we did not get involved in and I think—
Toby: Oh boy.
Andrew: Yeah, totally. I had a conversation regarding WeWork a year and a half ago when we first started talking. I remember that being offered to me at a $40–$50 billion valuation. I just didn’t like the fact that their CEO wanted to sell shares to free up liquidity so he can buy real estate to rent out to his company, which just doesn’t show me that his interests are aligned. So I said, no, I’m good. Here we are now, not at a $40–$50 billion valuation, but a company valued at like $8 billion. So imagine if you would have gotten into that.
That’s why it’s imperative for us to do research. When we do get you on the phone with something, hey, listen, if it’s one of those situations that there’s something available and we want to just take a shot at it, we’ll let you know. If there’s something that we really believe in more so than others, we’ll let you know as well.
Toby: Yeah, and these investments aren’t for regular investors, right? You cannot invest unless you’re an accredited investor. I like to introduce the topic, but then I want to be very specific. This is to folks who qualify as an accredited investors, have the experience and the ability to withstand waiting. For example, SpaceX, how many years ago did you get SpaceX?
Andrew: Last summer.
Toby: Last summer, so people that have been in SpaceX, they’re sitting around. So it might be three years before you actually have a liquidity event. You’re going to end up with the shares, right? The investor is going to end up with the shares after that investment.
Andrew: Correct. The way it’s structured is, we have a fund. We either purchase directly from a selling shareholder, which could be a company insider, it could be an early investor looking to sell shares directly, or purchase interest in another venture fund that has no shares. Either way, when you first come in, you don’t technically own the shares, you’re owning interest in our fund. We send you a confirmation letter once the deal is closed and all that good stuff.
Then once there’s a liquidity event, not just going public because sometimes, typically, traditionally, when a company goes public, you’re locked in for a further six months. So at that point, freeing up that lockup, that’s when we get the shares, and that’s when you distribute it to clients. As of right now, for the purposes of your investment, you own interest in our fund that owns interest in the underlying shares either directly or via another entity. Then upon us getting access to those shares, at that point, we distribute them to our clients.
Toby: Eventually, you’ll end up with the shares. Initially, you’re investing in a fund, just like any other private placement, but an investor’s only. You don’t know what a credit investor is, you can google it. It just means that you’re more than a million dollars net worth without your house or you’re making over I think it’s $200,000 or $300,000 a year.
Andrew: $100,000 for individuals and $300,000 for couples.
Toby: Yeah. You could afford to wait. Let’s just put it that way. You’re not going to be hurt if you put an investment in. I just want to be clear too because in Infinity Investment, we’re always about cash flow. This is the speculative money that sits in that first category. It also could sit in managed monies. We have diversification built into our portfolios where we’re talking about 30-30-30-10. This could fit in either one of those managed or in your number one.
I would say that if somebody with a net worth that’s high enough, you have pretty good chunks in all three categories. You’re never going to have all your eggs in one basket, not if you’re doing what we’re doing.
All right, so this is fun. Now we have some pretty cool companies that we’ve heard of. We’re getting into them fairly early. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you get a big win. I know that our investment, for example, in SpaceX, I mean, it’s skyrocketing. No pun intended, but it’s been going up considerably just since the time that you acquired it. We initially invested as well, right?
Andrew: Yeah. SpaceX is one of (if not) the most in-demand companies in the private market. Believe it or not, one of the most polarizing. We had access to it last year. We started speaking to clients who were either clients that were all for it or clients who couldn’t stand Elon Musk. Go figure. But the main thing with them is we are hearing some rumors that there could possibly be a split. That’s even public too, by the way. You could actually look it up.
Toby: We knew that was going to come at some point. You’re going to take Starlink and move it out. You’re just going to end up with both.
Andrew: We don’t know the actual details and we won’t know until that announcement is finalized. If it actually does come to fruition, but obviously, we’ll be keeping everybody abreast.
Toby: That’s pretty cool. SpaceX is just fun to watch. Just ferrying people up to the space station. Starlink, how many satellites are up there now?
Andrew: Well, they have 90,000 subscribers. They’re launching every single week, but they do have 90,000 subscribers. I think Musk wanted to get to like 40,000. They wound up having 8000 or 9000. But they continuously keep on launching these satellites out there. Starlink does have 90,000 subscribers now internationally. They’re actually going to be completing the beta test for Starlink by the end of this month, so we only have two more weeks. We should have a bigger view of where they stand by next month as well.
Toby: It’s just fun to look at that. Usually, you don’t get to. Usually, you’re watching it on the stock market. It’s going up and down and sideways. In this thing, you’re actually getting into companies that are innovative and game-changers. Kraken is another one. I’m not saying that these are available right now, by the way. How long does it usually take you to sell out when you have a company that comes in that you purchase?
Andrew: It depends. I mean, typically the first week or two where we’re kind of done because that’s just the nature of the beast. It’s all situational, but typically between a week or two, but I’m constantly going out there seeing if there are more shares. But sometimes within a matter of two weeks, just like the public market, the price might move up to us. That’s why we always have to be transparent with the client and say, listen, if we say your interest will cost $10. Then you sit and then three weeks later I say, well, listen, your interest is now $12. Well, there’s a lot that happened in the private market.
Toby: Just to be clear. In our traditional Anderson Portal, we don’t make these things available. If you’re a part of the 360, the Infinity, and you’re credited, then we make it available. As soon as these guys let us know, we let you know that they’re available. Usually, you’re popping on. You’re doing a podcast or a live stream, webinar, or whatever we want to call it. You’re explaining what the offering is and they’re gone so quick. We have clients all the time. Sometimes they’ll get mad. They’ll be like, hey, I wanted to buy some shares. I had to think about it. I’m sorry, but it’s one of those if you don’t act quickly…
Andrew: The only thing that we do recommend and what we actually appreciate from the clients is that when they are speaking because it’s not just some Anderson clients, but just clients in general. Hey, listen, I have to sit on it. Give me two, three weeks, which I get, but at the same point, we’re moving pretty fast. We never want to reserve shares to somebody that’s going to say, hey, listen, this isn’t for me when it can go to somebody else. Typically there’s a line out the door waiting to get access to these shares.
It’s always up to me. Now, we always have access to something. Whether it’s not the company that you were all giddy about is debatable. Typically, we will go in there and see if we’re over-allocated, if we want to switch gears into something else, if the price moves, which has happened in the past. The price, all of a sudden, if I go in there to buy more shares and the price substantially moves in the private market, I might turn around and say, listen, I don’t feel that I’m comfortable getting in at this particular price when I still want meat on the bone for my clients to actually make money here.
Those are decisions that myself and my management team, Tony Bond. We have a director of research that we’re hiring now that starts in January. Those are the types of decisions that we make.
Toby: Let’s do this. Let’s talk about one that’s close. Kraken is the most recent, right? Was that most recent?
Andrew: Yes.
Toby: And then some that may be coming up. I know that you’re looking. Are you even allowed to talk about the ones that may be happening or that you’re looking at?
Andrew: I prefer not to and here’s the reason why. Because the first podcast I did, we were talking about SpaceX. I explicitly said, listen, we’re not working on SpaceX now, and everybody I was speaking to, the first thing they said, well, what about SpaceX? I get it, but there are some companies that I am looking at. If anybody is curious, obviously, Andrew Ball handles a lot of these clients that you refer to us. He’ll be free to answer any questions that you do have.
Typically, whenever we do have something, we’ll give you a heads up. We offer our own research reports that we put together. That’s a mistake I made a year and a half or back in the day, I should say, where I said, hey, here’s a company that we’re looking at. People say, well, I want this. I want this. I’d rather get something guaranteed that I know I have and then present to somebody when the time comes.
Toby: Let’s talk about the one that you recently brought in because I believe Kraken was the last one. Kraken came out, how did you decide on Kraken?
Andrew: Well, there are a few things that we do. Number one, we have to make sure that there’s the availability of a company out there because obviously, we’re purchasing secondary shares. We’re not directly investing in the company. What that means is when we’re coming in, the company is not receiving our funds. We’re merging shares from existing shareholders, whether they’re either a direct seller or they’re an early investor. Once we figure out that we have those shares, then we have to see what the valuation is.
I actually do have access to level 2 quotes and the private market. I’m not going to go into detail though. There are a couple of firms that I work with that I could actually see pricing action. I utilize that for our investment thesis. I see what the valuation is. Then we kind of match that to when do we think the company is going to go public? How much more can the valuation grow in the private market? What’s the demand going to be once it does go public?
I never like to really go in too depth of detail of our investment analysis. It does incorporate, like I said, looking at those level 2s, seeing price action in the secondary private market, seeing where the valuation is, anticipating what the valuation can get to once it goes public, which is a hard thing to do being that really it is all it is demand and supply. We do use a certain level of sentiment analysis to get the sentiment, not only for the product/service, but the brand itself as well just to see how powerful of a product/service it could be.
In addition to any investors out there, going into Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, investor forums. That’s what sentiment analysis is. Then we dig into some of the fundamentals, which sometimes are limited, sometimes it’s a little bit more robust. If I purchase from a direct shareholder, sometimes I have a little bit more quality information than I would. Then after that, we just take a step back and really look at the broad level view of what this company is doing.
Then at the end of the day, it’s all right, when this company does have a liquidity event, what kind of demand is going to be there—retail demand, institutions? What’s the power of the underwriters? Those are all scenarios that are not a given because at this point, at the stage that we invest in these companies, we have no idea if it’s even going to be a traditional IPO. I’m sure that SPAC craziness of 2021, which I’m not really a fan of SPAC. I’m not really a fan of direct listings.
I prefer a traditional IPO. Yes, you’re locked in for six months. But I want to see major underwriters that have solid reputations get involved, that know that they want to make clients for their money, that want to increase that brand coverage. I want the media exposure of that IPO to be as significant as possible because I want to see retail investors clamoring for the stock and more. I want to see the institutions coming in saying this is an idea that we really like because that’s what’s really going to get you a return on your investment.
Toby: Yep, absolutely. Again, dovetailing back to Kraken, and specifically the Kraken offering. That’s a competitor to Coinbase, right? Actually, it seems like it’s one of the most, I would say, superior to Coinbase, but that’s just my opinion. I have both accounts, but having dealt with them.
From the time that you received it to the time that you were done, being able to offer it. I’m just trying to give people the idea of if they’re working with your group, what they should be expecting? How much due diligence they need to be doing ahead of time so that they’re comfortable? If they’re going to talk to Andrew and get a good idea, how long from the time that you offered it to your clients to the time that you’d sold out of its shares? How long a period of time was that?
Andrew: Well, we buy in tranches. The first tranche, I think it was like a week and a half. Then I switched it, we’re already on the fifth tranche. We still have shares available, but now we’re already on the fifth tranche. By the end of the month, or it depends, one day when I walk in and have an influx of clients coming in. Some other days are a little bit slower. But typically by the end of the month, or at least once we’re done with this tranche, I’m paying close attention. I’m going to decide if we’re going to go in for a sixth tranche, or we’re going to go into another situation. I mentioned a few of them to you earlier in the podcast.
Toby: I won’t repeat that. I know what you’re talking about. You’re always looking at big names, innovation, and big change. Just some of the names that you brought up make sense. Now getting down to dollars and cents. Somebody invest with your group, are they being charged a management fee every year? Is that something where they got to pay you guys on a monthly basis? What’s the arrangement? How do you get paid? Because I’m sure you’re not doing this for your health. How does it work with you guys?
Andrew: What we’ve decided to do, well, direct answer is there’s a front load and there’s a back end. Typically, in the front load, I’ll explain what we do and what we do differently from others. We front-load it just like everybody else, everybody follows it. You got to look at the PPM because there are some firms out there that say they don’t front load that I spoke to when I first started pretending to be somebody else. Without them knowing that I know my stuff, I start asking questions and digging, and all of a sudden they start talking in smaller circles. Well, guess what? I got you, I guess, right?
So always look at the PPM and our PPM is in there. We do front-load it. Typically it’d be anywhere between 20%–30%. What that means is we get stuck at $10, you’re going to want it at $13. Sometimes if the demand is there, or we get a good deal, maybe a little bit higher, maybe a little bit lower. We do front-load it just like everybody else.
Toby: So you’re buying at a price per share. So you just know, it is price per share. Andrew’s group, your group, you purchased it. It’s just like wholesaling a house, you may have bought it or selling a house. You may have bought it at $10 and you’re selling it at $13. Great, so you’re making a little bit there. That’s to be expected. Anybody’s going to do that.
Is there another cost that they have to worry about before a liquidating event? Is there anything that they’re going to be coming out of pocket? If it’s waiting three years, is there anything that they’re going to have to pay during that period of time?
Andrew: No. Once you go into the PPM and look at our fees, we don’t charge the negotiation fee, the due diligence fee, or the management fee. It’s amazing how many fees.
Toby: It’s baked into the cake, right? It’s baked into the, hey, I made a lot of money, bought it at $10, sold it at $13. Great. So you get a little bit there, it’s covering some of those costs. But then the big one is, let’s say it goes up. Let’s say that somebody bought in at $10,000 and it goes up to $20,000. What would that be? What would that person be looking at as far as costs because I’m sure there’s a success fee now or something along the line.
Andrew: Correct. So it’s called the carry fee. Industry-standard is 20% but it’s only profit. I’ll use the example that I used earlier. Let’s just say that you invest 10,000 shares of ABC Company at $10. That’s a principal investment of $100,000. If by the end of the liquidity event, it’s still at $10, there’s no carry fee because there was no profit. Now, let’s say it doubles to $20. That means your principal investment of $100,000 is now worth $200,000. That’s $100,000 profit being the carry fee is 20%, it’s $20,000.
Now, what we do is we don’t sell your shares. We distribute your shares. We keep that $20,000 in shares ourselves. What that means is being that your stock is now worth $20. We’re transferring 9000 shares to you and my firm receives 1000 shares.
Toby: That makes sense. So you’re not actually paying a dollar, you’re not writing a check, you’re just getting shares. Basically, you’re getting 20% of the profits going to you guys. You need it to grow, you need it to be a big winner. Then you guys, everybody participates together. 100% sense.
Andrew: What we started doing, and this is the idea that I wanted to start working on last year but I had other things that I wanted to work on. I want to make sure I have the right management team. I have an individual who’s a Certified Financial Planner that’s going to be the president of our wealth management arm called Alternative Investment Wealth Management Arm. What I’ve decided to do too is we have this model for new clients where you have the front load, you have the carry fee, but we will be launching an RIA registered investment advisor, which is an alternative investment wealth management arm.
It’ll be up and running by, worst-case scenario January, probably sooner though. For clients who don’t want to partake in that, they’re going to have an extra incentive, where once the company does go public. Right now, we don’t really hold your hand. That’s not our job, right? We did our job. However, with the wealth management arm, we’re going to be providing extensive research for all your positions. We’re going to be providing discounts on both the front load and the carry fee.
The caveat is through that firm, we will be charging anywhere between 1%–2% per year, but it’s going to be worth it because you’re going to be saving money on the carry fee and the front end as well. The reason for that is because I really want to grow our investment advisory firm as much as possible and our assets under management. Honestly, I want to be able to reward our long-term clients. Just like anything, clients might like me, clients might like my firm, clients might like my investment consultants, but they obviously like that money better.
We’ve had clients that we’ve done the right thing, just disappear after we charge them no carry fee with my previous firm. We want to make sure that everybody’s interests are aligned. Relationships are a two-way street. We do the right thing by you. You stick with us for the long term. You want to become a member of our wealth management arm, well now, things are going to be cheaper for you. The carry fee is not going to be as exuberant, I guess. You’ll be able to keep more of what you make. You’ll be able to get added incentives with us providing research reports.
Like I explained to you, Toby, that’s only just stage one of my firms within the next two years. Right now we’re focused on late-stage venture capital. We’re going to start getting involved in early-stage venture capital within the next 12–18 months. Within that time frame, we’re really growing into a full-service alternative investment firm where we’re also going to be offering partnerships. We’re going to be offering real estate products. I have an engineering division that I’m looking to launch so we create vertically integrated products. We’re looking to be the one-stop-shop for any client interested in alternative investments.
Toby: I love the fact that people had to get their heads around what an alternative investment is. It means you’re not buying it from Schwab.
Andrew: Yeah, it just means anything other than stocks, bonds, and cash really, art collectibles, crypto, real estate, private equity, venture capital.
Toby: This is allowing people to get together. This is exactly what money managers do when we put together our 30-30-30-10 portfolio diversification. This goes in that third category of managed money. This is where you’re letting somebody else and they’re bringing buy opportunities for you and saying yes or no.
Again, what my experience is, you hit a lot of homerun sometimes, you hit some singles, sometimes you get an out. But you’re playing at a different time frame than the retail investor. The retail investor is always going to be paying more when it comes out. Whether it’s successful after that is the odds seem to be in the favor of the types of companies you guys are picking on. It just gives people an idea of where this thing fits.
If you’re an Infinity 360 member, you’re going to be seeing Andrew and his team all the time. His venture group comes out. I want to say that every time you guys have something come out, I get you guys on right away. You’re bringing that opportunity to those folks. Everybody else, if you want to reach out to Andrew, I’ll make sure that I put Andrew Baugh, Andrew Spaventa’s sales guy, so I’ll say Andrew 1 and Andrew 2. I’ll make sure I put Andrew 2’s information.
Andrew: There are three Andrews, technically, we got Andrew Baugh, myself, and you.
Toby: My first name is Andrew too, but I just go by Toby. I could really make this a mess. We’ll make sure that we get you with somebody that can help you if you’re looking for those types of opportunities.
Again, I met you through a client who’s done well with you all. At the time, I was really digging in on SpaceX and I really wanted to get in. He was like, here are the guys to talk to, and fortuitously everything aligned. We ended up being able to get in. We’re really happy about our position, it’s gone up considerably. We’re really happy. We’ve invested a bunch of other opportunities that you brought in as well. We love the ability to do that.
For our clients out there, I’d recommend that you start looking at this type of thing. If you’re an accredited investor and not just doing the PPM that is out there. I’m seeing multifamily every other day literally. We were nailing those back two, three, four, five, six years ago, and it’s getting really, really competitive. You got to be looking at diversifying yourself out, look at some other things. Andrew, you guys bring a great opportunity to folks. Any closing words?
Andrew: Thank you, sir. It’s always a pleasure. I would say that there’s really a lot of exciting stuff that we’re doing with our firm. We’re going to be launching a monthly magazine by November, December at the latest. We’re thinking of all these really new creative ways to reach out to clients to make sure that level of service is exceptional. Nothing like anybody’s ever seen. We have a director of our Private Client Group now. We do have certain clients that are worth over $10 million or at least have seven figures with us that get an extra voice to speak to. That will be Mr. Joseph Nappi.
We’re going to start reaching out to clients regarding that. Then in addition to that, if you haven’t invested with us as of yet but you’re interested, I don’t know what you’re waiting for because you’re not going to get better than us. Obviously, I’m biased, but from what we’re hearing from our inner network, the individuals that we work with, and a lot of our clients, the level of service that we provided has been exceptional and there haven’t been really many complaints as of yet. That’s the way I want to keep it. Our clients are second to none.
Our leadership team, our culture, and at the bare minimum, have a […] to talk with one of our Senior Investment Consultants, Mr. Andrew Baugh. Then eventually hopefully, I could see some of you guys in Hawaii in late March, early April because I, along with Andrew Baugh, and our Chief Operating Officer, Tony Kwon, will definitely 100% be there.
Toby: Yes, that’s the executive retreat if you’re 360 with Infinity Investing. You get to come out there at no cost other than the food and the excursions. You got to get yourself there, the plane ticket, the hotel, but there’s no cost for the actual event, the executive retreat if you’re 360. You get to apply for it. We were all sold out pretty much for October. We had to push it just because now we went into kind of a lockdown, but we’re putting it out to March.
If you’re listening to this after March, contact us. You can check it out later because we do this with Andrew about once a year. Otherwise, absolutely come on out, join us, and you get to meet Mr. Spaventa and Andrew Baugh, who I invest in. Andrew is my guy and they’ve been crackerjack. They’ve done a great job for our clients. We really appreciate it.
Andrew: Thank you, sir.
Toby: All right, until next time.
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