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Join us on the Disruption Now podcast as we challenge the status quo and advocate for digital equity, ownership, and responsible technology.
after I hung up the cleats, uh, you
know, finance became my sport. So, I'm I
I was the kid that was told I would
never be able to achieve the things that
I did achieve. You know, bounced around,
uh, to a few different multi-billion
dollar firms that you probably well
aware of. So, never a lack of, uh, never
a dull moment, I should say. So, I don't
want your money. Diversification is is
always your friend. When you're the most
liquid, you'll you'll never have like
the best opportunities, but when you're
not liquid, the best opportunities will
come at you. One of the biggest mentors
to me was my college lacrosse coach,
Dave Webster. You'd be very shocked and
very surprised at their lack of
sophistication. You know, they're
looking for 5 to 15% EVO positive. It's
insane the fact that Nvidia, I'm just
looking at the screen here as we're
speaking, Nvidia's down 6% and they just
beat beat raised. Even if you fail at a
at a startup, which most people will the
first time, no matter what, if you have
a if you execute well, you have a
community, it'll be fine. If you have
passion to be to make hot dogs and you
want to be a hot dog stand, like do
that. But before you do anything, um I
think it's it's prudent to, you know,
categorize the pros and cons of of a
decision that you make. Um and that way
when you do do something, you'll never
look back and regret it. Controlling
your emotions is huge, man. You cannot
let your emotions especially within
trading um you know trading um you know
half a billion dollar book hopefully
Sandbox AQ's IPO the beginning man we're
just getting started we have a studio
here in in the Trump building man come
by yeah let's take the podcast there
let's make it happen yes
[Music]
welcome to disruption now I'm your host
and moderator Rob Richardson with me is
Jacob Frankel with Beyond Alpha Ventures.
He's been an entrepreneur. Now he's on
The investing side. So he's seen it on
both sides. And you know, I can tell you
from accidentally overhearing some of
his conversation, he's a man that moves
quickly and is really good at convincing
people and understands how to
create value and proposition. So for all
you founders and people that are
raising, uh, thinking about raising,
this is a conversation you really don't
want to miss because he's literally in
the middle of New York closing deals,
closing some of the biggest deals. Uh,
again, overheard some of the
conversations. I won't tell what the
deals were, but there were some big
deals unless you want something
Jacob.
That's as well. Feel free to call me
Kobi as well. And uh thanks for having
me on here, Rob. And I wasn't sure like
Kobi. You want Okay, I can call you
Kobi. You like that? You go. Look, I'm
I'm white, small, and Jewish and played
professional lacrosse, not basketball.
But I like to think that, you know,
after I hung up the cleats, uh you know,
finance became my sport. So I think if
you apply that kind of mentality to
anything in life, uh you'll be
successful, right? So yeah. So the the
mama mentality, I love it. Exactly. So
let's talk about you. So what is your
story? Who are you? And I tell as I
preface that I I tell people I was I was
the kid I'm I was the kid that was told
I would never be able to achieve the
things that I did achieve. And you know,
I haven't been proving that teacher
wrong. I've been proving and defiding
myself right for all of my life. That's
my story. But who are you? Great
question. And uh no, I like that a lot.
And look, I I um uh you know, I come
from, you know, a family that
traditionally was not in the finance
space. So, for me to kind of venture out
of the family business, so to speak, was
uh a little bit foreign in my parents'
eyes and everything like that. And so,
I've always kind of uh prided myself on
being financially independent. And uh
again, you know, being a former
professional athlete playing lacrosse
for, you know, like likes of the Israel
national team, for example, um you know,
I I always applied myself um you know,
very aggressively into anything I've
done. Um kind of one speed, one speed
only guy. And essentially um you know,
after you know, internship on uh
my junior year of college, uh my parents
wanted me to effectively be a lawyer. Uh
that that life was not for me. I you
made the right decision as a reformed
lawyer. But don't Yeah. Yeah. I mean uh
it was a little bit too mundane. The
office environment was a little bit uh
little bit too tight for me and I uh
ended up having the pleasure of
interning at a firm called Lead Law and
um you know was a sponge and uh they
offered me a job right out of college
and effectively from there got my series
763 yada yada and um you know bounced
around uh to a few different
multi-billion dollar firms. you probably
well aware of. Um ended up getting
recruited to work uh with PayPal uh back
in 2018. Um we started Lone Builder. Uh
went down to Philadelphia. We scaled out
um you know what was uh 16 people when I
got there um to 327
um which is now today Loan Builder if
you probably get those things in the
mail for business loans. Uh but yeah,
and then after that I uh left
once we continue but I liked it. Yeah.
But really get an idea of a concept of
like when you knew
you would that you wanted to spend your
life this way that you wanted to spend
your life in finance and deals. When did
you know that? How did you come how did
you come to that revelation? Honestly,
at an early age, I always knew that, you
know, I wanted to, you know, make money.
And, um, one of the things that, um, I
guess when I left, I guess I should say,
well, one of the moral conflicts that I
had in life, uh, you know, and kind of
was a teaching lesson for me was, and,
don't get me wrong, there's a lot of
money to be made in business, debt
financing. Um, and you know, med and
private credit right now is a massive
topic. You probably see all over the
news. Um, but for me it's I'd rather be
generating, you know, and creating
generational wealth for individuals,
family offices, institutions, and and
just angel investors and regular average
retail investors. Um, I get more pride
and passion in doing that when you're
getting a a call from a client telling
them that, you know, the investment that
they just made, you know, paid for their
daughter's wedding. Um, is is much more
u, you know, satisfying for me than than
speaking to an institution which we gave
Square at two billion or Facebook a 13
and uh, you know, next deal they're just
like, "All right, we'll take a look at
it." you know. So, it's uh for me it's
it's uh it's it's about the passion that
I have um about, you know, really
impacting people's lives and and making
a difference there, too. Yeah. Kobi, you
mentioned something that about the
family business, and I don't know if
that was just a side or a reference, but
like what what what did your parents
want you to be when you grew when you
grew up? Yeah. So, I mean, my uh my
mother really wanted me to be a lawyer.
Um but you know I come from a family
where you know my my father's and my uh
my aunt is uh you know kind of bonified
the number one celebrity hair stylist in
the world and my father owned um New
York beauty supply LLC and my uncle
owned um the largest commercial HVAC
company in tri-state area you know
putting every tri-state area right
that's
I'm located yeah I'm located here on 40
Wall Street right in the heart of the
financial district and the Trump
building so never a lack of Never a dull
moment, I should say. Uh here here on
Wall Street, you walk out of the office
and it's a scene from a movie. So, how
was that conversation when you told your
parents that you didn't want to be in
the family business? Uh you know, they
um said, "Go and do it, but we're not
paying for it." So, I said, "I don't
want your money." So, you know, uh so,
you know, that's kind of how it went. Um
since I was 13 years old, so kind of
paved my own way. Um, that's how you
have to have that
mindset, right? So, you've always had
the Kobi mindset. So, Kobi, you know,
because you know, you go by Kobi, but
Kobi failed a lot. I would love to hear
a time when you failed and how that
informed you or helped you become a
better entrepreneur or investor. Great
question. Great question. Um, so 2019, I
wouldn't say technically it's a fail. I
mean technically we were up 300% but um
this investment we had deployed 62.5
million dollars into I won't name the
company just due to compliance purposes
but um it was a digital remote patient
care monitoring company during COVID I'm
sure you probably familiar a lot of hot
um you know like sock dock type
companies were coming out right uh
because no one could leave their homes
right and uh you know I was involved
with a hedge fund that uh essentially
was taking advantage of that as well as
a Puerto Rico bank license to utilize,
you know, the 4% corporate tax there and
compounded investments in a much more
tax efficient and tax friendly manner.
Um, so you, you know, shave off, you
know, 16 to, you know, 19 basis points
on on your investments as well as just
the the ROI that you're getting. But,
um, one of the things that I I learned
and um had kind of the the hard way to
learn, I should say, is um
diversification is is always your
friend. You can never you can never have
enough cash on the sideline. Um because
there's always you were up 300 but was
so something must have happened in
between there. So well yeah what I'll
say is you know in life opportunities
will come at you and when you're the
most liquid you'll you'll never have
like the best opportunities but when
you're not liquid the best opportunities
will come at you and you don't have the
money to put into that if that makes
sense. That's actually powerful, right?
Because that's something that's that's a
mic drop moment people to think about,
right? Because people always think,
"What if I miss this moment?" But if you
don't, if you're not ready for the
moment, you're going to miss it.
Exactly. So, I I know my thing is be
very disciplined. Um I think you need to
be very disciplined. Um you know, always
it's all about look, you can never know
enough. Um if someone, you know, thinks
they know everything, they don't. Uh at
the end of the day, what makes a
marketplace is perspective, right? Um
even on the stock market and the public
trading side um you know at the end of
the day if you can forecast and predict
how the market is thinking how the
sentiment of the market will think on
future events that will take place if
you look at the calendar um and play the
calendar um you know that's how you
become successful and effectively become
a predictive analytical machine right um
but you know it's it's about kind of uh
being able to sense uh you know how the
other side of the table is thinking and
when you can put yourself in the views
of others and uh whether you're doing
business or even in your personal life I
think you'll be much more successful in
whatever you're trying to achieve
because you're effectively uh allowing
yourself to see their perspective right
and perspective is what makes a market
right on the other side of a trade
there's always someone selling there's
always someone buying so
it's so uh but the harder part of that
is though people are also irrational so
don't expect uh that's the reason for
the diversification and and the liquid
conversation she mentioned earlier. So,
uh I'm curious about your value system,
like what mentor or person in your life
shaped your value system?
Yeah. You know, I'd say one of the
biggest mentors to me was my college
lacrosse coach, Dave Webster. Um he he
was uh he's a Hall of Fame coach. Uh
he's someone that kind of installed in
me at a young age uh you know what the
term grit was and kind of just you can
never be too big and never be have too
much money to essentially get your hands
dirty type if that excuse my
language if that makes sense. And it's
disruption. We don't care. Yeah. Yeah.
And uh you know that's really kind of uh
one of the things that you know has
always stuck with me since since I
played uh lacrosse in college was you
know having to wake up when I was in
college and run a mile and a half in
under nine minutes just to be able to
play on on practice you know just every
day for four years of your life uh you
know kind of creates a little bit of
character that that alone but uh but
yeah I mean uh the he was a very
instrumental figure in installing uh you
know what I would call grit um and and
kind of determination, right? And when
you set an objective in life and you set
out a mission statement to do something,
you either do it or you don't. And uh
that's, you know, something that stuck
with me. Um because otherwise you're
just leading false narrative or you're,
you know, you're not being real with
yourself or being real with the people
around you that you're telling uh
someone you're going to do, right? So
that's another thing that especially
within finance where your reputation
really if you can't call me really
quick, I'd like to Yeah. Go ahead.
sports means a lot to you clearly that
you you reference a lot in your life and
you know obviously wanting to go by Kobi
and your middle name there it means a
lot right to you for just you want to
that that that that that shaped you. Can
you think of that moment though? Can you
think of any moment in sports in terms
of defining moment when something was
really didn't turn out the way you
expected and that really kind of formed
and shaped who you are? Yeah. Yeah, man.
Uh, look, I probably shouldn't say this,
but um, yeah, I mean, look, uh, in high
school, I'm be very honest. Um, I was
like a prodigy lacrosse player. I had,
um, my freshman year, I had full ride
scholarships from every single Ivy
League school except for Harvard. For
some reason, Harvard aided me. I don't
know why. Um, I had every Ivy school,
Yale, Brown, Dartmouth. Brown and
Dartmouth were my top two, which I had
verbals on. And um I had gotten pulled
over for having some marijuana in my car
uh driving to school one day and uh my
full rides got dropped. Um I ended up
going D3 to Dickinson. Uh did compete
for a national championship, but at the
end of the day, you know, I look back on
that and tell myself, look, you know,
maybe had I gone to Dartmouth Brown, I'd
be sitting in a Goldman Sachs $300,000
cushy salary cookie cutter job and that
would be my day-to-day nineto-ive basic
ass life. But um that's not what I
wanted in life. Um you know I wanted
that uncapped kind of structure that you
can kind of create your own what you put
in is what you get out model. And um
that's one of the reasons I started
Beyond Alpha was because after um you
know about over a decade working in the
industry on the street here and kind of
just seeing the ins and outs of what
people see on TV of Wolf of Wall Street,
right? uh for example it's some of it's
reality some of it's not but um most it
is but uh
a lot more a lot more they don't seem uh
but no but at the end of the day when it
comes to the actual business side of
things what didn't resonate with me and
I don't know if it was whether maybe
because I came from background I did but
um I just didn't like the fact that the
commission model was 1 to 5% into a
trade 1 to 5% out of a trade meaning
that the the PMs or you have PMs like um
you know CEOs of huge private equity
firms. They employ their stock brokers
or bankers and their bankers and brokers
are going out to their clients, right?
So the clients are either winning or
losing on whatever the trade is. The
brokers are living paycheck to paycheck
making a commission off of that deal and
the PMs are sitting up there every
single time win or lose they're making
their money because off of the volume,
right? And so that that whole model in
my opinion was just completely
because at the end of the day their
interests aren't aligned, right? So how
can you be in business together if your
interests aren't aligned? So I what I
decided to do was create a financial
engineering model that essentially has a
venture capital kind of structure where
in venture capital um you know the
reason that people are most likely uh
most of the time successful in venture
capital is because they have their
interest aligned um you know with the
private companies that they're working
on because they don't have to report to
regulators and do whatever they have to
do. so they can get crafty and get very
creative. And um so I created a a 2
and20 structure with a 25% watermark
saying that look if we don't break 25% a
year, we don't get paid. So that way our
interests are directly aligned and we're
not just whacking you with fee in and
out of a trade, you know, so you know,
so you know that we're either going to
make you money and if we don't, we don't
make money and if we do, we make money.
So now, now Kobi, why was it you that
created Beyond Alpha Ventures? Why? Why
was it you? Um I just felt like someone
had to do it, man. Um at the end of the
day, I I had gotten um you know, pretty
look, it wasn't that uh the money wasn't
good. The money was very good on the
street. Um, but I just, you know,
wearing that suit and tie every day and
seeing the people that were actually and
really getting to know the people that
were behind these multi-billion dollar
institutions, you'd be very shocked and
very surprised at their lack of
sophistication and and lack of uh
intelligence in terms of as I go back to
the most important thing,
diversification. one of the biggest life
lessons I've learned. And you know, at
the end of the day, um, I say that
because, you know, all they care about
is is volume, right? They just care
about eating off of their guys on the
floor who are salesmen, not really
investment adviserss and financial
professionals as as we quote unquote
think them to be. And that's one of the
problems with the stigma or the reality
of what Wall Street has become is that a
lot of shops out there have that culture
that um isn't practicing the right um
principles, right? And so that's why I
thought there needed to be um the case
by the way. Go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. I remember uh I think it's
President Obama that said this, but I
resonated with me that you know when you
when you get a seat at a table and you
sit next to people, you you you also
helps uh with your confidence because
you're like, "Oh, oh, these people
aren't that smart. These people aren't
like magical uh people with magical
powers. These are a lot of them are
normal people that have good networks or
I figured out one thing very well but or
just inherited something right but it's
but but it's but like it's not that
these people are beyond you or me right
it is it it is it is achievable but like
being in those circles kind of really
helps you see that right because I I
tell that to my guys on the floor all
all the time I'm like look at the end of
the day it's just another guy on the
phone stop getting so nervous man look
yes they may have a lot of money but
they still have the same problems in
their day-to-day, their daughter's doing
this or their wife's cheating on them.
They say, you know, they still have
problems in their life, you know, they
they they still, you know, get, you
know, an itch out of their armpit just
like you do. Like, you know, they're
they are just human beings. So, you
know, at the end of the day, um, you
have to resonate with people, connect
with people on a personal level in
business, I feel, as well. And if you
can't do that, you won't be successful.
Um, you know, that's another thing. You
could be the smartest, you could be the
smartest person in the world. I've seen
very smart people who've had phenomenal
ideas and phenomenal products and stuff
like that, but they just haven't had the
ability to convey them and connect with
people and that's why they're their
business or whatever it is is successful
is because uh they don't allow
themselves the opportunity to connect
with the people that they need to ensure
the success of whatever they're trying
to do, right? So that's huge. So you do
invest in in startups, right? So the
Beyond Alpha Vision does that. So let's
talk about startups in the in the
current climate right now. Um what do
you see as some of the biggest kind of
differences in the climate now versus
five years ago? You know five years ago
it was you come up with any type of
concept or idea that people found and
you to be uh scalable and you were fit
the right profile in the right area you
pretty much get funded. feel like that's
changed a bit like what do you think is
the difference now and how should
founders be thinking about the landscape
now? Yeah. Um, you know, I think now a
lot of people are looking for more um, I
guess fundamental plays, right? Um, you
know, a lot of the family offices and
and funds that I work for and and hedge
funds that we work with, I should say,
um, you know, they're looking for five
to 15% EBID positive, right? uh you know
right industry AI uh cyber um quantum um
they're looking for uh companies that
have you know uh a good balance sheet
not a lot of debt uh some decent cash
and obviously the most importantly a
good business model that has a
fundamental trajectory showing that the
company is going to sustain that that
business growth right like even I think
it's insane the fact that Nvidia I'm
just looking at the screen here as we're
speaking Nvidia's down 6% % and they
just beat beat raised, right? Like in a
in back in the day, if you beat your
guidance, beat um you know, you beat
your EPS and you beat your numbers and
you raise your guidance, your stocks
usually go through the roof. Now they're
down 6%. So, it just kind of goes to
show that we're in a market environment
right now where, look, let's face it,
geopolitically, some could call this
World War II, right? um what's going on
on Ukraine, Israel, and um you know,
Russia and and uh Syria and Lebanon.
It's uh it's real stuff that's going on
there and that's why we're actually
investing with a lot of companies that
are uh you know, doing some serious
stuff over there. So, no. No, it makes
sense. So if you're advising u startups
like what what what's the common thing
that what's the most common thing I'll
say that startups get uh wrong when they
come to approaching when they come to
approaching like getting the venture
capital funding.
So I I mean uh it's not that they get it
wrong. I think that they kind of jump
the gun sometimes. Uh, you know, one
thing that, you know, startups, you
know, could do is kind of take a take a
a flip in the page book or take a page
from, you know, kind of the public
company perspective, right? Like look at
a public company and and tell yourself,
you know, if you run your startup like a
public company from day one and you get
automated financials, you have a clean
backend accounting system, right? You
have, you know, a very clean
infrastructure. It's all about
infrastructure, right? If you create an
infrastructure that's scalable um and
you have a flywheel distribution model
and that's what I believe in. I was
mentored by um a gentleman named Richard
Dehon. He's an MIT professor and uh you
know he taught me the Pareto capacitor
model which is you know the 8020 right.
So you could have at Google 80% of your
employees are getting 80% of the salary
but 20% are really doing 100% of the
work. Right. Right. So essentially um
it's similar to VC where in VC you know
you can have 30 investments you know 20
of them could be duds or maybe 28 of
them are duds and two of them are are
wins and those two literally make the
entire portfolio's return right so um
it's again it's it's about uh being very
disciplined in my opinion I'm of the
approach I'd rather not throw out 30
bets and you know hope that two win
that's not my approach I I'm more
selective I think that if you are more
disciplined and you poke holes and um
maybe sometimes you miss maybe sometimes
you don't you know uh you know get a 17x
in a year which I missed out last year
but look at the end of the day um
sometimes you know uh it's worth it
because it could have been the opposite.
it could have been, you know, uh 100%
loss, right? So, um at the end of the
day, you have to be uh very selective in
what you do, very disciplined, and I
think it'll, you know, come back to
reward you. Slow and steady wins the
race, man. Agreed. So, what is a common
piece of advice that you hear in the
startup community or the investment
community that you just completely
disagree with?
Uh where
that's a tough question. Um I mean, give
me like an example. Give me an example.
Give me an example of like uh something
like you're hearing. Um uh so one thing
I hear is uh so for early startups, I'll
tell you my my perspective. Uh early
startups pre people tell you you got to
go out, quit your job and quit
everything and do that. I think that's
horrible advice from my perspective. I
think yeah, I I think you do go all in.
You either all in or not. But I don't
think you go out and quit your job
unless you got a spouse that's got
benefits and other stuff. you have some
decent plan for just able to prov
because provide I think I I get what
you're saying now. I think what it is
that you got to have I think anything
that you do you can't you can't look at
a job as well the one thing I used to
tell myself look if you're working a job
right now as you speak and you're
listening to this and you literally have
to legitimately look at the clock every
like hour to know when you're getting
out of work like just literally quit
right now like quit right now like
literally walk out the door I guess what
I'm trying to say is this like and this
is a different this is why it's
something that I I phrase this question
sometimes this what's what's a truth you
have that very few people agree with you
on, right? It was it's actually from
Peter Chills bug zero to1. But um but
but like that position is like I I hold
that position because if you have a job
that's flexible enough to do some stuff
or you get some type of job that's
flexible enough or you have some type of
other support system just because I've
learned that people some people can
operate from a system of like okay they
have nothing and go out there and figure
it out. Almost almost all of these
really successful founders though large
scale had good support systems like real
talk right Mark Zuckerberg had it Jeff
Bezos had it like so they tell people
this advice that they didn't have that
they didn't go through they weren't that
yes were they in college and and out of
their basement yeah that's different
than going out having to figure out how
to pay the rent to just being in college
where you you know you can go back to
your parents I think it's very different
so I still think people should I think
people should always be entre
entrepreneurial in their mindset. I
think it should never be tied to a job.
I think you got to figure out a plan to
have some financial independence. So,
and then does come a time that you need
to leave. But people say like, "Oh, I
get this idea. I have a great concept."
Uh, it's starting to have a little bit
of traction with everything. I think
never leave every Never leave something
until you have something else planned.
I'd say, you know, yes, you got to have
a plan. You know, at the end of the day,
you got to have a plan. And it's also
more about uh execution, right? You you
can have the best player in the world,
but if you're not ready to execute it,
you don't have the resources to execute
it, then don't quit that job yet,
right? So, like let's give the example
of Jeff Bezos. Yeah. Like Amazon almost
went out of business. Okay. Like people
don't go to it almost went out of
business. It just had enough capital to
survive these slumps. So everything So
what I want what I tell people is I
believe in being an entrepreneur being
out there. However, your story is you
can't compare your story to anybody's
story. One. Number two, a lot of these
people that tell their story aren't
telling the full story, right? And their
stories from a narrative that sounds
good, but in reality, they didn't come
from the bottom, right? And it's I
didn't come from the bottom, by the way.
So, it's not a bad thing. It's just
something or like these people usually
come from a different there's some you
have to have a community and a tribe and
a plan. bottom line like even if you
fail at a at a startup which most people
will the first time no matter what if
you have a if you execute well you have
a community it'll be fine right but like
I don't want people to go out here and
just do this stuff without and think
that okay I'm going to be successful at
21 building a business una because the
because the average like they see that
story of Mark Zuckerberg instead of
saying that's the rule that's the
anomaly most successful uh uh CEOs are
like in their 40s like but but we tell
this narrative ative and story that
people get caught up. So anyway, that's
mine. You don't have to ask that
question, but I like I have like uh like
these are questions that people think is
common advice or common things, but
that's just I think I I think I think my
thing is you got to have passion behind
whatever you do, right? Like you know,
regardless of whether you want to if you
have passion to be to make hot dogs and
you want to be a hot dog stand, like do
that. You will end up having you know a
100 hot dog stands in New York, 100 in
Texas, you know, making millions a year,
right? Um, but it may start with one,
right? Um, but at the end of the day,
it's it's about having passion in what
you do. So, you know, my grandpa, you
know, rest in peace, um, he was, you
know, the first Jew to go to Harvard
Business School and, um, his father was
the secretary of treasury of Jerusalem.
So, he's a very wise man, has some books
written on him. And, uh, you know, the
one thing that he taught me at a very
young age was the sooner that you know
what you want to be, um, the sooner
you'll be successful. That's what he
said. Yeah. Um, and so he said just pick
what you want to do and stick to it and
run with it. I kind of asked this
question, but I don't know if I fully
got my answer. When did you know what
you wanted to do with your life? Yeah.
Yeah, I mean I think for me it was right
when I uh got that internship on Wall
Street and um you know I kind of got in
inside that that boardroom and and kind
of saw the the characters that were in
there and the lifestyles they were
living and um at the time I was you know
idolizing them kind of like that Jordan
Belelfford almost but not really though.
Um, and you know, now I look at it and,
um, I look at them very differently now.
But, um, I don't know. Uh, you know, at
a younger point in my life, I guess
there was things that mattered to me
that don't matter to me as much now.
But, um, you know, I think, you know, if
you're out there to make money and
generate wealth for yourself, um, you
know, you have to pick and choose your
battles. But uh for me it was it was
about um just being financially
independent and having um you know
uncapped commission structure and I
didn't want to be you know the guy
sitting next to someone else doing all
the work and getting the same pay they
were out of salary, right? I wanted to
be able to create my own destiny. So
yeah. So you talked about being younger.
So I want to go to our lightning round
questions. It's one of my one of my
questions I love to ask. So, uh, what
advice would you give your younger self?
And what advice would you tell your
younger self to ignore?
I would tell myself to slow down. Slow
down sometimes. Uh, if you take your
advice, yeah, probably wouldn't. No. uh
but uh slow down and and probably no uh
the other thing is uh before you do
anything uh I think it's it's prudent to
you know categorize the pros and cons of
of a decision that you make. Um, and
that way when you do do something,
you'll never look back and regret it
because you've always calculated the
risk and reward and you told yourself, I
knew what I was doing before I did it
and you know that was the decision I
made. And then if an unexpected outcome
happens, that's uncontrollable, right?
But only you can, someone once told me
you can only control the controllables,
right? So you can only control the
things that are around you and things
that you can control other things you
cannot. So and most things you can't
control actually this is something this
you always have options. That's why I
derive options. It's optionality, man.
Exactly. You can't control most things.
You can control a few things and that's
all that matters. Like you can control
how you respond, how you feel, um your
actions, you almost can't control
anything else. Like that's almost it.
Yeah. Controlling your emotions is huge,
man. If you can control your emotions,
um I think you'll be very successful.
Controlling your emotions is huge. you
cannot let your emotions especially
within trading um you know trading um
you know half a billion dollar book um
you know if you let your emotions get to
you and you know the market crashes one
day and you know essentially you're
selling off your entire portfolio and
and next thing you know you're chasing
it up it's you know you cannot let your
emotions get to you so stick to the
thesis stick to the fundamentals stick
to the reason why you're buying
something and um I think that you know
yeah you have to be very disciplined in
that. All right. So, if we uh if we meet
a year from now, what are we going to be
celebrating? Uh hopefully Sandbox AQ's
IPO.
Yeah.
All right. Final question. Uh if the
last five years of your life was a
chapter of a book, what would that
chapter be about?
The beginning, man.
The beginning. Yep. The beginning of
what? We're just getting started. Uh,
Beyond Alpha Adventures. Um, you know, I
think Beyond Alpha Adventures um, you
know, it's kind of my baby. It's uh,
uh, you know, something that I think
ultimately um, uh, you say what we'll be
celebrating a year from now. You know,
we have a lot of things confidentially
that we're working on behind the scenes.
Um, and uh, potentially, you know, maybe
one day we'll be a public company. Maybe
one day you can you have that. We'll
have the podcast in your building.
That happens a year from now. I'll go
there. Well, let's take the podcast
there. Let's make it happen. Yes, you
can. You can come here anyway. We still
We have a studio here in in the Trump
building. Yeah, man. So much. Now, I
hope you do that. I better be your
hobie. Was such a pleasure. Thank you,
Disruptor. Keep disrupting with us.
You're the man.
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