#203 - Daniel Nikic on AI, International Investing & The Future of Entrepreneurship

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My father used to say this back in the day, he's like, Always be grateful that you can pay
tax.

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It's always bad if you can't pay the taxes.

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Then you know you're not making money.

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All right, hey guys, welcome back to what's going to be another awesome conversation on
whatever day this comes out.

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But we have these in studio here on Thursdays, and what a way to kick off the
conversations that we're gonna have today, the three or four of them, with someone from

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overseas again, a guy that's born in Canada, but now is in Croatia, it's where his
heritage and his family comes from.

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So today's guest is a global investment strategist, entrepreneur, and founded founder of
Coraz.

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It's C O H R E S, a boutique investment research firm focused on helping investors,
venture capitalists, and founders make smarter decisions in a world full of noise and

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hype, which we know there's a ton.

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Based in Europe, but with a truly global perspective, he's analyzed over fifteen thousand
companies across sectors like AI, SaaS, and data, and brings lessons from the front lines

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of market research, due diligence, and founder psychology.

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So please welcome Daniel

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Nikic Welcome, man.

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Well, thanks for having me.

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It's a pleasure to be here.

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Yeah, man.

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where do you think we kick off the conversation?

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I mean, I know every day I just got finished listening to one of the largest podcasts in
the world, and their two hour conversation was all about AI and really what's happening

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and the book that she just wrote and is it good for humanity or not?

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So I don't think we have the time to go dupe deep, deep, deep in there.

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However, in your space and your field of investment strategy, is AI a good thing or is it
some of both, good and bad?

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that's a good question.

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I think it AI is forcing individuals to be more efficient in what they do.

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In my opinion, I believe AI is getting rid of the replacing, let's just say, the bot work.

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Because I myself use AI for some stuff, but I know it doesn't have the experience or
expertise.

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Like you have to either train it 'cause still augmented AI.

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So in other words

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It's still AI that needs to be controlled or let's just say mentored by human.

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And I believe AI is gonna take over quite a few jobs, but it's also gonna create jobs.

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But is it gonna tak create more jobs than what's gonna take over?

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Probably not.

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But I think humans have always been resilient throughout history and they'll find a way.

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Just look at the internet.

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How many people lost jobs because of the internet?

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But there's also the question: is it going to be used for good or used for bad?

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It depends what's going to be used for at the end of the day.

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We see what's going on with cybersecurity, deep fakes.

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We see what's going on with the wars on TV.

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You don't know if it's real or fake today.

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You have to like double guess to see what the sources are.

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So, long story short, I think it's good if you know how to use it.

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It's bad.

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If you don't know how to use it and you can't adapt.

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Do you think there will be some byproduct that's bad that we don't have control over,
right?

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This is I think this is the conversation that everyone I think everyone would be okay with
AI as long as we don't believe that it's gonna take over all the thought and all the

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judgment and all the morality of the world.

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Right?

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I think we'd be okay if it's a resource that we use to be more efficient, to improve our
skills.

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To outperform other people.

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Cause right now we do that.

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It's higher education, the company you work for, mentors or leaders that you're around.

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There's ways to compound and level up your experience and your ability beyond other
humans.

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So if we can use it for that way, it just shows up in a faster way.

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But we're concerned that it's going to take over the thought of the world.

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Yeah, it makes you think is it gonna be like the movie the Terminator in some ways.

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But I think AI for business is gonna be quite well, but I think a lot of companies jumped
on the, let's just say, bandwiggin of AI, or in other words, fear of missing out, then

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they just said, we're gonna use AI, we're gonna cut a lot of jobs and they didn't use it
efficiently.

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Because if you know what you wanna use AI for, it's great.

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And is it gonna be used for bad?

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I I can just say for example, defense and military.

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We see what's going on in Russia and Ukraine, we see what's going on with Iran and Middle
East.

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You're not going against a human, you're going with with some drone who doesn't care or
vice versa.

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You can't tell a drone to stop or whatever.

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So the question is, is it going to take over thought in general and just make humans the
byproduct?

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I think if we could answer that question, I think we'd all be okay with it.

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But it seems to be, you know, even Altman and all these guys who started these companies
say there's a 10 to 25% chance there's a really bad outcome for humans.

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And so that's a that's bad.

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Like if that was a percentage of an asteroid hitting us every week, I think we'd do
something about it.

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So the question I have is.

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Are humans even gonna be relevant in the investment space and the strategy phase space in
ten years based on your projections?

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yeah, definitely.

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Because you still use human intuition to invest in a company if we're going to talk about
the investment space.

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And a lot of times, based on my experience working with investors or even those who were
previously entrepreneurs or founders that had an exit, they always say it's important to

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say what the leadership is and who the team is.

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Because my opinion, the best entrepreneurs or founders or successful

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I would say owners are those who can deal with stress and volatility and being able to
deal with humans.

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You're doing business with humans at the end of the day.

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You're not doing it's not an AI dealing with another AI and negotiating.

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It's human with humans.

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So I think humans will always be important in terms of investment space.

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That's my honest opinion.

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Though the need to do some of the work that I had to do before will be decreased.

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Like before

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AI is pretty much doing the basic copy and paste work I see right now.

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You just have to you still have to analyze it.

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Like I have an AI con search thing for my investment research, but I still audit it.

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I still use it, I deal the framework, I make sure that it's all according to what it
should be.

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I don't take it at face value.

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And you always have to audit AI.

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And I think we've heard it from several people, like Sam Altman mentioned auditing AI is
important.

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And so long story short,

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Humans are will always and still are important in investment space.

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What you think?

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You've researched, I believe somewhere in the neighborhood, it's a crazy number of over
15,000 companies in the U.S.

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and Europe.

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What's your big takeaway?

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And we're talking about here on interviews.

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So let's act like you're not sitting here having this conversation with me.

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There's not people listening.

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What's your takeaway in your quiet moment about business, about strategy, about
investments from all the reflection you have over 15,000?

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If you're sitting at a coffee shop,

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Or sitting and just wondering how it all goes together.

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What's your takeaway from evaluating all these companies?

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My opinion is the most successful entrepreneurs can diddle with criticism.

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They're not they're not sensitive to someone saying, Hey, I don't think you're gonna
succeed, or this isn't a good job.

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They're persistent, very persistent, and I wouldn't I don't think passion is the right
word.

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I would say they're disciplined.

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There's discipline to adjust to get that fundraising.

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Cause there's some startups I've seen, they send their Excelsior.

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I could have like their financial, I could have done that in grade eight math.

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So they and they know finance.

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They have to have some basic knowledge of finance.

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Cause you're dealing at the end of the day, you're dealing with business.

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You might have a great idea, but let's be realistic.

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Investors want to return their investments.

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They're not doing charity.

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You have to know finance somewhat.

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And the investors have to somewhat believe in you.

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And somewhat like you.

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You have to make a good impression.

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It's funny, I heard Richard Branson in an interview from, you know, all his virgin
companies.

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not to push back on what you're saying, 'cause I I I process you do have no finance, you
have no cash flow, it's important to know net and gross.

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But what just went through my head, because I was agreeing with you, Richard Branson talks
about this time that he was in one of our board meetings, one of his board meetings, and

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they started talking about gross and net profit.

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And one of the people in the room gathered really quick that he didn't know what they were
talking about.

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So on the next break, he pulled Branson aside.

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He's hey, I'm not doing this attack, I want to help you, but do you know what a net profit
is?

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And he said, No, I don't.

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And to cr the crazy thing to me is he had built these companies without knowing that
because he has dyslexia.

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But maybe that's another example of the elite other characteristics as a human that you
have that will overcome some of it.

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So when I heard that, I went, How do you get that far with truly not understanding net and
gross?

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I think he's a great storyteller though.

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Richard Branson, he knows how to storytell.

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And

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I never met the person personally, but you kinda get a image of the person that he's
solely back.

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He can deal with anything.

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He's not a stressful person.

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He's you don't see that he's anxious.

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He's like the type of person you want to go to have a drink with.

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Like you think you you know you'll have a good time.

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So he's in some ways he's good at he's a good showman.

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And that he's a good entrepreneur, but he can storytell and you feel like wow, he's he
really

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cares about what he does.

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And I think one thing that is important when you're anal saying, Will AI take over what
humans do?

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AI can't see if someone's very passionate stuff or like the emotions of what a person is
selling.

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And yeah, there's voice AI.

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I looked at voice AI tech since 2018, and there is very interesting voice tech companies.

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When you see someone's impr expression, even the nonverbal, their face and stuff, you're
like, wow, this person's so passionate.

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You're like, if I don't

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have any money, I think I could build something with this person.

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We could start from zero.

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And I think that's what he gives off in terms of that energy.

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And you do make a good point.

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Maybe the finance as some cases are not, but they better have some they usually have
someone who can help them with that aspect.

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'Cause at the end of the day they have to know something in my opinion.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You gotta be able to pay your bills and you have to be able to draw a line between some
some ROI for some investors if that's what you're doing, or at the end of the day, raise

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money, how to scale and grow a company.

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You need money to do these things.

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what give us some insight about investing internationally outside of our continent or our
countries, because I would you know, there's already a limited amount of knowledge around

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investment strategy in general from an average American.

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Let's just say that.

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Well, how should we process investment in Europe or in Australia, these other places?

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Cause we don't even totally conquer it and know it here.

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Can you explain the difference, the positives and negatives?

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because they're completely different markets.

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So what's what's different and what's the same?

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Explain explain this to us.

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Okay.

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No, that's a great question.

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It kind of goes with social cultural factors.

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Americans, and I'm Canadian, so I know quite a bit about Americas and I worked with a lot
of Americans.

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They're not afraid of failure.

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It's always been a country that's taken risks since the founding fathers who came from
England, Wales, present day Wales and etc.

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They came there, it was entrepreneurial, the gold mine, everything.

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I think American companies are very good at marketing.

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Like when look at it all these huge companies from states, you ask a kid in Albania, they
know what McDonald's is.

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Like that's how strong marketing is in America, hence Hollywood.

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So I would say in America, the valuations are the highest, most of the cases.

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And overall, whoever I talk to from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, they're all fond of how
Americans are willing to take a risk and not afraid of failure.

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And that's huge.

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Europeans are a bit different.

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They're more academic, more I think maybe it could be from history too, World War One,
World War Two.

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Cause those all have factors, how someone's raised and stuff.

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It's also like be careful that they're less willing to take risks, but they're very
academic.

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They have one of the best R D, I would say, institutions from Cambridge and also in
Germany.

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Middle East, I think right now, currently

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We see there's an issue with Iran and UA and the Gulf countries.

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But when I was there in Saudi Arabia and stuff, I feel like they're trying to find which
way to go.

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They admire how business is done in America, but also they have their culture.

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You can't jump in and call and be like, Okay, let's talk business right away.

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It takes a while.

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It they like to take their time to know the person.

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They have to build trust with you and stuff.

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And in my opinion, the quickest way to do business is America.

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The closest to America is probably UK.

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And then it's Canada, Australia, the Commonwealth countries and then Europe.

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But a lot of the countries you would see the founders, they take and get a business idea
from either something they grew up with or the main industries that are in that country.

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So overall to do business, the quickest is in America.

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Yeah, so then from an investment standpoint, it seems like there's a longer return horizon
for companies that are out outside the US.

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If they're gonna be slower, if they're not gonna be as risky, it seems like you're either
gonna have smaller retorns short term, and if you want a larger ROI, you're gonna have to

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wait on a longer horizon, which means the compounding effect is reduced.

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I agree with that, but there's also some cases where I say Sweden's an interesting
country.

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Besides having great pop music in the past.

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It's also a country that has developed interesting companies such as if I'm not mistaken,
Skype, you see with Spotify, these are quite innovative companies.

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Like Skype was a first like before Zoom and everything.

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Yeah.

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Like it kinda changed how we communicate and stuff.

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We would be doing these podcasts via Skype fifteen, sixteen years ago, right?

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And I think it's also there are some cases where companies are quite innovative, but the
thing with America is the fear of not failing.

212
00:15:33,724 --> 00:15:39,869
And fear takes away a lot of people from being still, but I see Europe changing.

213
00:15:39,869 --> 00:15:46,234
Like I would say Europe's probably 10 to 15 years behind America when it comes to
investing and stuff in VCs.

214
00:15:46,234 --> 00:15:49,216
And also we have to be realistic.

215
00:15:49,216 --> 00:15:53,530
America has the largest access to capital, the banking system.

216
00:15:53,530 --> 00:15:54,999
the strength of the American dollar.

217
00:15:54,999 --> 00:15:57,664
That takes a factor too, in my opinion.

218
00:15:58,310 --> 00:16:02,623
So what do investors do when they're investing in Europe or the Middle East?

219
00:16:02,623 --> 00:16:03,343
What do you do?

220
00:16:03,343 --> 00:16:04,624
Like how do you process?

221
00:16:04,624 --> 00:16:14,521
You know, because on average, I think you go back 30, 40, 50 years, on average, the SP has
an average return of somewhere between eight and ten percent, I believe.

222
00:16:14,521 --> 00:16:15,652
It's somewhere in there.

223
00:16:15,652 --> 00:16:26,000
And if you just keep your investments and you just keep on rolling the profit over, if you
do that, you can accurately predict over twenty, thirty, and forty years on what that is

224
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:27,201
going to look like.

225
00:16:27,917 --> 00:16:41,495
So if if that's our metric, well, I could just invest invest in a you know, just an
average fund, the S P top 500 companies, whatever it is, I can do that and I can get eight

226
00:16:41,495 --> 00:16:42,286
or ten percent.

227
00:16:42,286 --> 00:16:49,349
Or there's this other investment that it appears the pro forma looks like it's fifteen
percent, it's eighteen percent ROI.

228
00:16:49,349 --> 00:16:52,141
It seems like, am I gonna be in bonds now?

229
00:16:52,141 --> 00:16:53,071
What are rates?

230
00:16:53,071 --> 00:16:56,399
What are the metrics in these other countries that are used?

231
00:16:56,399 --> 00:16:59,351
Is it based on what's the best return?

232
00:16:59,491 --> 00:17:03,494
Or is it more based upon just what you want to invest in because you like something?

233
00:17:03,494 --> 00:17:13,421
Cause it seems like if it's just based upon the ROI, what's an argument we would make to
invest in any of these places if it's not as predictable or is not as high?

234
00:17:14,545 --> 00:17:15,846
No, that's a great question.

235
00:17:15,846 --> 00:17:23,011
I think a lot of times the general public does not understand how many startups and RSH
companies fail.

236
00:17:23,111 --> 00:17:28,575
I believe the rates like only eight percent go from C to C or C.

237
00:17:28,615 --> 00:17:34,379
But a lot of times these companies get acquired and then they're used as widgets for
products.

238
00:17:35,285 --> 00:17:42,895
A lot of factors are taking in to get a return on investment is looking at the
transactions and exits in that industry.

239
00:17:43,837 --> 00:17:53,981
So it's pretty much if we're going to invest in health AI that's dealing with let's just
say diagnostics, what companies have been found funded in this industry, how many

240
00:17:53,981 --> 00:17:55,861
companies have been acquired or gone public?

241
00:17:55,861 --> 00:17:58,423
And you have to look at the rates and it's like, okay, we're gonna invest in this.

242
00:17:58,423 --> 00:18:10,036
And I think it's somewhat of the process and the chase that a lot of these VCs, LPs, and
filming offices like because the returns can be astronomical if you get it.

243
00:18:10,036 --> 00:18:12,357
And that's why a lot of these pension funds.

244
00:18:12,429 --> 00:18:21,966
our limited partners into these VC funds because it gives a bigger rate of return than say
investing in the SP and stuff, looking also in terms of inflation rate.

245
00:18:22,567 --> 00:18:31,893
So in long term sh long story short, ROI is usually the main driver in terms of evaluating
if it's worth investing in these companies.

246
00:18:31,994 --> 00:18:33,375
That's my honest opinion.

247
00:18:33,375 --> 00:18:39,759
People could say economics and stuff, but you can have a successful company out of
Armenia.

248
00:18:39,985 --> 00:18:46,262
And they could just move to Delaware and be an American company all of sudden and then you
get a return of ten X.

249
00:18:46,823 --> 00:18:50,767
So I wouldn't say too much in terms of economics and stuff, to be honest.

250
00:18:51,579 --> 00:18:51,920
Yeah.

251
00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:56,071
So it's the same metric that you're making an investment worldwide, pretty much.

252
00:18:56,173 --> 00:19:00,003
What's the return gonna be based on my investment based upon the time horizon?

253
00:19:00,401 --> 00:19:13,436
Yes, and I think I think most people who are in investment states know this, but a lot of
companies move to the states cause they're looking to get an exit or acquisition or tax

254
00:19:13,436 --> 00:19:16,119
purposes, hence the great state of Delaware.

255
00:19:16,119 --> 00:19:18,620
And that's usually the case.

256
00:19:18,620 --> 00:19:26,503
And I've seen Israeli companies dealing with their accountants just an opening just to
have a chance to get funded.

257
00:19:26,583 --> 00:19:28,554
Just to get funded, no guaranteed.

258
00:19:28,716 --> 00:19:34,076
So that's the power that America has in terms of the access of cap.

259
00:19:35,986 --> 00:19:37,387
Is you touched on tax.

260
00:19:37,387 --> 00:19:48,224
We're not accountants and CPAs so we're not going to give advice on it, but does it
complicate a cross border and a cross ocean economics of investments?

261
00:19:49,068 --> 00:19:58,075
I think so, but this one person, they were head of a bank's in Australia and Oceana and I
had a meeting with them in Dubai, and he stated a great comment.

262
00:19:58,075 --> 00:19:59,476
It was kind of common sense.

263
00:19:59,476 --> 00:20:02,978
Why would someone talk about taxes if they haven't made any money yet?

264
00:20:03,979 --> 00:20:04,700
And it's kind of true.

265
00:20:04,700 --> 00:20:14,507
First generate the wealth, and they say you should generate the wealth where your domestic
country of your company and stuff or the market that you're trying to target, then look

266
00:20:14,507 --> 00:20:15,667
into taxes and stuff.

267
00:20:15,667 --> 00:20:16,578
Take it step by step.

268
00:20:16,578 --> 00:20:18,375
You can't jump onto taxes.

269
00:20:18,375 --> 00:20:19,925
And not generate wealth.

270
00:20:20,246 --> 00:20:25,532
And I think sometimes people founders jump that too quickly.

271
00:20:25,532 --> 00:20:27,813
First build a company, bring value.

272
00:20:27,974 --> 00:20:32,037
Then think about taxes and how to reduce costs.

273
00:20:32,458 --> 00:20:38,455
There's also a saying, my father used to say this back in the day, he's like, always be
grateful that you can pay tax.

274
00:20:38,455 --> 00:20:41,117
It's always bad if you can't pay the taxes.

275
00:20:41,418 --> 00:20:43,529
Then you know you're not making money.

276
00:20:45,391 --> 00:20:48,395
So you mentioned Dubai that you've been there and talking.

277
00:20:48,395 --> 00:20:49,587
tell us about Dubai.

278
00:20:49,587 --> 00:20:51,991
It's fascinating to people who haven't been there.

279
00:20:51,991 --> 00:21:05,283
and as you tell us about it, tell me why I should or shouldn't go to Dubai and do business
and look for business and networking if I've never been there or don't have connections.

280
00:21:05,627 --> 00:21:07,650
No, that's a great question.

281
00:21:07,650 --> 00:21:10,313
So when I first went to Dubai, I didn't have connections.

282
00:21:10,313 --> 00:21:12,055
I went old school cold.

283
00:21:12,055 --> 00:21:16,421
Contact, see if you're meeting, this is who I am, this is what I do.

284
00:21:16,421 --> 00:21:23,429
And obviously I'm talking about Dubai prior to what's going on right now in the Gulf War.

285
00:21:23,429 --> 00:21:24,645
We don't know what's gonna happen after.

286
00:21:24,645 --> 00:21:26,499
It'll be back, but at some point it'll be back.

287
00:21:26,499 --> 00:21:29,133
I you know, every war comes to an end.

288
00:21:29,615 --> 00:21:30,296
I think so.

289
00:21:30,296 --> 00:21:35,039
I just don't know what the tax benefits in terms of financial situation was gonna happen.

290
00:21:35,039 --> 00:21:39,103
But Dubai had a huge influx of high net worth individuals.

291
00:21:39,103 --> 00:21:43,487
I think the one of the largest in the past in 2025.

292
00:21:43,487 --> 00:21:51,192
And when I was there, being that I'm I'm born in Canada near I felt like it was like
Toronto on a beach.

293
00:21:51,533 --> 00:21:52,794
Very multicultural.

294
00:21:52,794 --> 00:21:55,396
You could speak English, no problem.

295
00:21:55,396 --> 00:21:57,198
Everyone speaks English and stuff.

296
00:21:57,198 --> 00:21:59,035
And it's very easy to get

297
00:21:59,035 --> 00:22:00,196
stuff that you need.

298
00:22:00,196 --> 00:22:05,595
There's so many family offices, VCs, if they want to get funding, they usually have to
open an office there.

299
00:22:05,595 --> 00:22:07,832
So because now they're like, we have a lot of capital.

300
00:22:07,832 --> 00:22:09,163
We can make it attractive.

301
00:22:09,163 --> 00:22:15,948
You guys come here if you guys are interested and try to invest in try to hire people that
are locally and try to invest in the local economy too.

302
00:22:15,948 --> 00:22:24,074
And a lot of the limited partners of a lot of these VC funds and et cetera are from the
Gulf states who have oil money and et cetera.

303
00:22:24,074 --> 00:22:25,785
And the thing with Dubai

304
00:22:27,687 --> 00:22:29,458
It there's a lot of businesses there.

305
00:22:29,458 --> 00:22:40,010
There's a lot of international business people, but a lot of them say if you want to make
business here, it's about relationships.

306
00:22:40,010 --> 00:22:41,661
It takes time, trust and everything.

307
00:22:41,661 --> 00:22:43,571
And that's kind of the social cultural factors.

308
00:22:43,571 --> 00:22:47,562
Yeah, it's multicultural, but still has that obviously the Arabic social culture.

309
00:22:47,562 --> 00:22:51,287
They have to trust you a bit to get to know you and to see it and they're very hospitable.

310
00:22:51,287 --> 00:22:53,575
I have to be very open and very hospitable.

311
00:22:53,575 --> 00:22:54,820
And it they're f

312
00:22:54,820 --> 00:23:00,542
investing a lot into AI and stuff, but it is an area that's driven a lot by foreign
capital.

313
00:23:01,203 --> 00:23:05,004
But as we see a lot of foreign capital, like because of tax incentives and et cetera.

314
00:23:05,425 --> 00:23:10,308
And I think they had a very good plan in terms of trying to attract wealth there.

315
00:23:10,308 --> 00:23:13,145
And there's so many family offices that have there.

316
00:23:13,145 --> 00:23:14,591
They have so many events.

317
00:23:14,591 --> 00:23:17,932
They have like these free trade zones.

318
00:23:18,472 --> 00:23:20,413
They did it very smart.

319
00:23:20,877 --> 00:23:29,507
to be an efficient country that's small, I think the population is o only eleven million
and only ten percent of the population, give or take, are actually Emirati.

320
00:23:29,507 --> 00:23:31,389
So that's a huge statistic.

321
00:23:33,857 --> 00:23:35,354
So if you're looking for

322
00:23:35,354 --> 00:23:36,759
Yeah, who should go?

323
00:23:37,091 --> 00:23:44,633
If you're looking for capital and you need capital, you have a product and you have
something to stand by your word to be like, hey, I've done something.

324
00:23:44,633 --> 00:23:51,335
You can go there, and you're most likely will to open a subsidiary there or something if
you want to attract capital there.

325
00:23:51,655 --> 00:23:53,817
But it's still probably better than not gaining capital.

326
00:23:53,817 --> 00:23:58,078
And you will have a probably a good chance of getting some investment.

327
00:23:58,759 --> 00:24:01,739
Obviously, if the product's viable and et cetera.

328
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:03,970
But if you're coming with nothing,

329
00:24:04,592 --> 00:24:09,814
And don't have experience, you don't have the knowledge, I wouldn't recommend it because
you have to bring some knowledge.

330
00:24:09,814 --> 00:24:12,415
It's kind of like it's a transactional relationship.

331
00:24:12,415 --> 00:24:13,796
No one's gonna give you charity.

332
00:24:13,796 --> 00:24:20,100
And I think that's something that a lot of founders do not realize.

333
00:24:20,100 --> 00:24:22,377
You're getting money because they see value in it.

334
00:24:22,377 --> 00:24:24,742
They're getting it's a transactional relationship.

335
00:24:24,962 --> 00:24:26,423
And it's not for free.

336
00:24:26,423 --> 00:24:27,783
It's like getting a bank loan.

337
00:24:27,783 --> 00:24:32,875
The bank gives you a loan because they see some value, they have some guaranteed to give
you this money.

338
00:24:35,419 --> 00:24:37,643
How are people internationally protected?

339
00:24:37,643 --> 00:24:43,382
When where we grow up and where we're from, we understand the walls and court systems and
how to operate.

340
00:24:43,382 --> 00:24:47,979
How can people feel confident making an investment into a culture they know nothing about?

341
00:24:48,763 --> 00:24:51,414
You have to have a local partner, you gotta do your research.

342
00:24:51,635 --> 00:24:52,705
You have to do your research.

343
00:24:52,705 --> 00:24:53,746
You can't go blind side.

344
00:24:53,746 --> 00:24:56,107
Would you buy a car without doing some research?

345
00:24:56,107 --> 00:24:59,600
Would you look into a buy a house making it like that?

346
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:01,601
You have to somewhat do your research.

347
00:25:01,601 --> 00:25:04,424
And I think a lot of individuals jump that gun.

348
00:25:04,424 --> 00:25:07,786
And I've opened a company in UK.

349
00:25:07,786 --> 00:25:11,679
I worked with a comp co founding company in States and also in Croatia.

350
00:25:11,679 --> 00:25:13,610
I did my research before opening.

351
00:25:13,610 --> 00:25:14,372
Okay.

352
00:25:14,372 --> 00:25:15,813
How is the process and et cetera.

353
00:25:15,813 --> 00:25:18,664
You talk to experts, you could talk to accounts, you could talk to lawyers.

354
00:25:18,664 --> 00:25:20,906
They're gonna give you some advice because they want your business.

355
00:25:20,906 --> 00:25:23,068
If you're gonna open it, it's common sense to them.

356
00:25:23,068 --> 00:25:30,122
And if you're gonna invest in a a foreign country, they usually say get a local partner.

357
00:25:30,122 --> 00:25:31,078
Like look at India.

358
00:25:31,078 --> 00:25:32,814
There's over 1.4 billion.

359
00:25:32,814 --> 00:25:41,038
But I've heard from a lot of people who are Indians or expats from India, they all say to
me, if you're gonna do business in the country, get a local partner who understands the

360
00:25:41,038 --> 00:25:42,897
social culture factors, who knows.

361
00:25:42,897 --> 00:25:45,130
who to talk to if there's a problem.

362
00:25:45,532 --> 00:25:47,214
You have to have some way of a contingency plan.

363
00:25:47,214 --> 00:25:57,131
It might be difficult, but it could be working with an international consulting firm or
international legal firm if it makes it easier for the individual or team.

364
00:25:59,363 --> 00:26:07,981
So when we're talking about making investments in these companies, whether it be a stock
or making a seed investment in a in a startup, we touched on a little bit, but let's go a

365
00:26:07,981 --> 00:26:09,112
little deeper.

366
00:26:09,453 --> 00:26:16,219
What signals as an investor and as a researcher really matter versus which ones are noise
and irrelevant?

367
00:26:16,219 --> 00:26:25,017
Because I think that's one of the toughest things to cut through in the world now is
whoever controls the narrative seems to be telling the truth, whether it is or not.

368
00:26:27,109 --> 00:26:28,040
That's a great question.

369
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:33,122
So I think when someone's gonna invest in a company, they always look at the market.

370
00:26:33,402 --> 00:26:36,214
Is it gonna be a market still in the next five to ten years?

371
00:26:36,214 --> 00:26:44,286
Because the way technology's changing and pretty much revolutionizing industries, you have
to be realistic.

372
00:26:44,286 --> 00:26:52,608
Like if you said to someone right now, Hey, I have a company that does postal mail, you
probably won't invest in them right now.

373
00:26:52,608 --> 00:26:54,489
But like this is an old company.

374
00:26:54,489 --> 00:26:55,879
It's not relevant.

375
00:26:56,049 --> 00:26:57,910
So you have to look at the market.

376
00:26:58,210 --> 00:27:00,751
You have to look at the company itself.

377
00:27:00,751 --> 00:27:03,242
Cause you hear a lot of companies, they say they're AI, da da da.

378
00:27:03,242 --> 00:27:05,323
Get someone who knows tech to check their tech.

379
00:27:05,323 --> 00:27:06,514
Do your due diligence.

380
00:27:06,514 --> 00:27:09,558
Don't skip that part and be like, they got a great branding.

381
00:27:09,558 --> 00:27:10,319
it's gonna go with that.

382
00:27:10,319 --> 00:27:12,180
We saw what happened with crypto companies.

383
00:27:12,180 --> 00:27:14,701
We saw what happened with a lot of startups of those cases.

384
00:27:14,701 --> 00:27:15,622
They just jumped a gun.

385
00:27:15,622 --> 00:27:17,812
They didn't do their due diligence.

386
00:27:18,573 --> 00:27:21,164
And it's just making sure you do your research.

387
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:23,050
And look at the finances.

388
00:27:23,050 --> 00:27:26,471
I remember I've looked at companies with investors.

389
00:27:26,571 --> 00:27:28,682
Great company, great tech, everything.

390
00:27:28,682 --> 00:27:34,874
We look at their finds, I'm like, this one company, they had immigration legal papers as R
and D.

391
00:27:34,874 --> 00:27:37,250
I'm like, that's not R and D.

392
00:27:37,413 --> 00:27:38,710
That's your personal stuff.

393
00:27:38,710 --> 00:27:40,045
And person says, Yeah, it is.

394
00:27:40,045 --> 00:27:41,516
I'm like, Well, I'm an immigrant.

395
00:27:41,516 --> 00:27:43,356
I know it's not R and D for a fact.

396
00:27:43,356 --> 00:27:44,963
Like, you have to look in the details.

397
00:27:44,963 --> 00:27:50,468
I know it might be long and might be boring.

398
00:27:50,468 --> 00:27:54,040
But sometimes boring can save you a lot of misery in the future.

399
00:27:54,040 --> 00:28:02,905
And at the end of the day, if it's a VC fund, they have to answer to their limited
partners, which are high net worth individuals, could be family and friends, and it could

400
00:28:02,905 --> 00:28:05,907
be pension funds and et cetera.

401
00:28:05,907 --> 00:28:17,404
So I would say do your research and get expert advice if you need to, because I've seen
investor venture capital funds, they outsource some of the stuff to the legal teams that

402
00:28:17,404 --> 00:28:18,899
they think can help them.

403
00:28:18,899 --> 00:28:20,624
'Cause they want to make a huge risk.

404
00:28:22,835 --> 00:28:27,420
So you've said that investors should pay attention to how a founder handles stress.

405
00:28:27,601 --> 00:28:28,501
Right.

406
00:28:29,142 --> 00:28:40,645
So how does the founder behavior based on the how they handle that stress, how does that
behavior impact long term success beyond just product or growth numbers?

407
00:28:42,887 --> 00:28:47,520
I would say today startups are a lot different than it was five or ten years ago.

408
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:51,352
Cause startup teams are probably a lot smarter to get that certain valuation, right?

409
00:28:51,352 --> 00:28:54,565
With AI, but you're dealing with different people.

410
00:28:54,565 --> 00:28:56,666
You're gonna have times that they're not going well.

411
00:28:56,666 --> 00:29:01,888
Look at every successful company, Tesla in the late two thousands.

412
00:29:02,809 --> 00:29:07,692
No one you've heard stories about I had to take loans, we had like two weeks to survive.

413
00:29:07,692 --> 00:29:11,802
It could have been in Facebook when they had to acquire another company.

414
00:29:11,802 --> 00:29:13,383
Are they willing to pivot?

415
00:29:13,383 --> 00:29:16,384
Are they willing to see how they can survive and grow continually?

416
00:29:16,384 --> 00:29:20,306
Because a lot of these companies, they constantly have to innovate.

417
00:29:20,406 --> 00:29:23,328
And it's stressful also to be like, hey, we got to change our plan.

418
00:29:23,328 --> 00:29:25,208
Or a competitor's coming in.

419
00:29:25,208 --> 00:29:26,289
Or copyrights.

420
00:29:26,289 --> 00:29:29,150
How can I deal with criticism?

421
00:29:29,470 --> 00:29:33,252
And to be honest, you're going to deal with bad press.

422
00:29:33,252 --> 00:29:35,287
You like it or not, someone's going to hate on you.

423
00:29:35,287 --> 00:29:38,334
They're going to write a pardon me, a negative

424
00:29:38,814 --> 00:29:39,635
article about you.

425
00:29:39,635 --> 00:29:42,556
It could be, this person does, they did this, they did this.

426
00:29:43,217 --> 00:29:49,883
And in today's world, we see also with social media, you post something you got at least
10 people or we can't wait to criticize you.

427
00:29:50,223 --> 00:29:59,771
And I would say stress dealing with people, dealing with failure, not in dealing with
times where you're gonna you're gonna feel like the company's not going to succeed.

428
00:29:59,771 --> 00:30:02,443
Cause I think anyone who's been an entrepreneur has dealt with that.

429
00:30:02,443 --> 00:30:04,624
And my honest opinion

430
00:30:04,998 --> 00:30:06,888
I've been screwed over by someone not paying me.

431
00:30:06,888 --> 00:30:13,947
I've never met a someone who's successful, who's an entrepreneur that has not been screwed
over, part of my language, with a payment or something.

432
00:30:14,108 --> 00:30:22,136
I would love to meet someone who hasn't, and I'll be like, wow, you're you should be a
template for how to be a hundred because everyone who's gone through that, worked hard,

433
00:30:22,136 --> 00:30:24,539
completed a service of product, and they don't get paid.

434
00:30:24,539 --> 00:30:25,959
That's brutal.

435
00:30:26,521 --> 00:30:28,332
Cause you can't get back time.

436
00:30:28,476 --> 00:30:41,564
Yeah, there's a lot of investors that I talk to that unless someone has a story of failure
and having to push through significant stress, downside, unease, they won't invest in

437
00:30:41,564 --> 00:30:42,304
them.

438
00:30:42,384 --> 00:30:51,720
So even though there might be those unicorns that you talk about that never dealt with
that, they won't invest in those people because they know inevitably, to your point, tough

439
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:56,292
times are gonna come and they want an example of the people that are gonna push through.

440
00:30:56,292 --> 00:30:58,187
And set a wilt and go home.

441
00:30:59,662 --> 00:31:01,140
No, I agree with that.

442
00:31:01,370 --> 00:31:01,640
Yeah.

443
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:02,641
Yeah, it's essential.

444
00:31:02,641 --> 00:31:08,006
so you emphasize network and credibility of people and do our research, people and
companies.

445
00:31:08,147 --> 00:31:12,591
What are practical ways founders can build trust with investors before a pitch?

446
00:31:12,591 --> 00:31:15,604
So we talked about going to Dubai, you need to have something.

447
00:31:15,604 --> 00:31:18,056
And you said, Hey, it's about building a relationship.

448
00:31:18,056 --> 00:31:19,170
It's not just there.

449
00:31:19,170 --> 00:31:26,243
I think all this spectrum that we're speaking to is about, you know, we said you said
Branson, Richard Branson tells a good story.

450
00:31:26,243 --> 00:31:28,234
That just means he's a good salesman.

451
00:31:28,388 --> 00:31:28,758
Right.

452
00:31:28,758 --> 00:31:34,843
And he he's able to sell his idea to employees, to investors, when things are tough, keep
going, we're gonna find a way.

453
00:31:34,843 --> 00:31:38,125
So but what are people everybody wants to raise money.

454
00:31:38,206 --> 00:31:43,520
So what are practical ways the founders can build trust with these investors before the
pitch?

455
00:31:45,154 --> 00:31:46,014
That's a great question.

456
00:31:46,014 --> 00:31:52,618
I would say have obviously a demo if they don't have a full product out so they can show
what they're doing.

457
00:31:52,738 --> 00:32:00,083
And a lot of times I always hear I remember there was a very successful individual that I
worked with and they were an investor.

458
00:32:00,083 --> 00:32:05,196
They said, I want to know the problem and how they came to the idea of this solution.

459
00:32:05,196 --> 00:32:08,808
If it's just copyright, they're not gonna be I'm not too interested.

460
00:32:08,808 --> 00:32:11,920
They're like, I'm willing to to forget about it.

461
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:13,340
I can sleep at night.

462
00:32:13,674 --> 00:32:19,105
Because if they have if they came with the idea through experience, then they know the
solution that's needed.

463
00:32:19,526 --> 00:32:23,524
So they have to have a problem solution, what the idea is.

464
00:32:24,627 --> 00:32:37,271
I would say also what's very important is do they have some, if possible, already users
that can back it up.

465
00:32:37,271 --> 00:32:43,020
To be like, Hey, I've used this, it's quite interesting, da da da and do they have a plan
to pivot if things go wrong?

466
00:32:43,020 --> 00:32:45,703
'Cause I've seen some entrepreneurs, they got drilled.

467
00:32:45,703 --> 00:32:51,009
I was part of a startup that didn't succeed and we got drilled and stuff to like, why
should we go with you?

468
00:32:51,009 --> 00:32:51,805
What if this happens?

469
00:32:51,805 --> 00:32:52,661
How are you gonna pivot?

470
00:32:52,661 --> 00:32:53,332
What this?

471
00:32:53,332 --> 00:32:55,234
And you have to have an exit strategy.

472
00:32:55,234 --> 00:32:56,055
What's the goal?

473
00:32:56,055 --> 00:32:57,196
Do you wanna be a company?

474
00:32:57,196 --> 00:33:04,734
Okay, then we invest in you guys, we sell to a secondary fund because these investors
wanna know what your exit plan is too.

475
00:33:06,666 --> 00:33:16,881
What what's interesting in this conversation, all the research you've done, researching
these fifteen thousand plus companies, what makes you passionate about this area and

476
00:33:16,881 --> 00:33:17,732
space?

477
00:33:18,449 --> 00:33:19,993
terms of investment research.

478
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:20,640
Yeah.

479
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:20,880
Yeah.

480
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,256
And what you're doing on a daily basis and sitting here and talking about it.

481
00:33:25,201 --> 00:33:27,012
I think it's always since I was a kid.

482
00:33:27,012 --> 00:33:28,593
Like I was really into sports.

483
00:33:28,593 --> 00:33:32,834
If you ask me about hockey, basketball, I would look at which college they went to, where
they played.

484
00:33:32,834 --> 00:33:37,436
I've always liked numbers and I always liked, okay, how does someone get to this point?

485
00:33:38,077 --> 00:33:42,799
And I'm the type of person who can watch the news, not politics, but like what's going on
and stuff.

486
00:33:42,799 --> 00:33:46,440
And I was always curious about how does someone do something.

487
00:33:46,500 --> 00:33:52,403
Not in terms of how much I maybe this isn't right to say, I really don't care what someone
spends on their daily.

488
00:33:52,403 --> 00:33:54,244
I could care less if someone has a Ferrari.

489
00:33:54,244 --> 00:33:55,234
Good for them.

490
00:33:55,590 --> 00:33:58,471
I care about, if they have a business, okay, how did they come to with that idea?

491
00:33:58,471 --> 00:33:59,331
How do you deal with this?

492
00:33:59,331 --> 00:34:00,681
How do they deal with this?

493
00:34:00,681 --> 00:34:03,963
And with investment research, it's never boring.

494
00:34:03,963 --> 00:34:05,063
Every day is different.

495
00:34:05,063 --> 00:34:07,754
I'd never had one day similar to another day.

496
00:34:07,754 --> 00:34:09,644
And I started off in accounting.

497
00:34:09,764 --> 00:34:13,165
So those who know what accounting is, debit equals credit.

498
00:34:13,645 --> 00:34:17,986
It's and plus you have to ask someone to give invoices and you'll know if they're lying
and stuff.

499
00:34:17,986 --> 00:34:19,207
That's stressful to me.

500
00:34:19,207 --> 00:34:20,567
I would never deal with that.

501
00:34:20,567 --> 00:34:23,748
And I think it's kind of I think it's

502
00:34:23,748 --> 00:34:24,808
The process.

503
00:34:24,808 --> 00:34:25,679
You see what's going on.

504
00:34:25,679 --> 00:34:27,929
You see what's the changes that's happening.

505
00:34:27,929 --> 00:34:31,370
I remember I first looked at AI in 2018.

506
00:34:31,390 --> 00:34:32,811
There wasn't that much information.

507
00:34:32,811 --> 00:34:35,321
Yeah, I've seen some quantum, some Spark words.

508
00:34:35,321 --> 00:34:37,432
It's still SaaS very popular.

509
00:34:37,432 --> 00:34:41,653
And then once ChatGPT came out, boom, everyone's talking about AI.

510
00:34:41,653 --> 00:34:43,033
Da da da da.

511
00:34:43,134 --> 00:34:47,255
And it's interesting to see trends and interest to see how the world is connected.

512
00:34:47,255 --> 00:34:48,535
We like it or not.

513
00:34:48,535 --> 00:34:51,183
This is what's going on in the

514
00:34:51,183 --> 00:34:52,854
With Iran, it's impacting the whole world.

515
00:34:52,854 --> 00:34:55,596
What happened with Russia and Ukraine, it's impacting the whole world.

516
00:34:55,596 --> 00:34:56,596
What's happening?

517
00:34:56,596 --> 00:35:05,222
People could say, for example, what happened in Louisiana when there was the oil leak with
British Patrum, that affected the world.

518
00:35:05,222 --> 00:35:08,784
People don't realize it, but these events have impact.

519
00:35:09,164 --> 00:35:12,786
And it's interesting how stuff can impact and

520
00:35:14,504 --> 00:35:22,987
Long story short, I think for entrepreneurs and even those who have success stories, I
don't think we should criticize if they did it the right way.

521
00:35:22,987 --> 00:35:25,057
We should be like, wow, they had a great idea.

522
00:35:25,057 --> 00:35:26,177
Kudos.

523
00:35:26,218 --> 00:35:31,139
They're willing to take the risk because it's easy to criticize unless you've been in that
position.

524
00:35:31,139 --> 00:35:41,012
And I think sometimes people have to somewhat look, self assess themselves to be like,
this person did this job, or even if they failed, they took the chance, they took the

525
00:35:41,012 --> 00:35:41,802
risk.

526
00:35:41,854 --> 00:35:45,713
They did the hard work and I don't think that's respected that much today's world.

527
00:35:46,044 --> 00:35:46,575
Yeah.

528
00:35:46,575 --> 00:35:56,749
in business, one of the most difficult things, the reason the reason why I've identified
most businesses fail is because they don't do enough business development, business

529
00:35:56,749 --> 00:35:57,720
prospecting.

530
00:35:57,720 --> 00:36:01,081
They're not out searching for clients and selling on a daily basis.

531
00:36:01,081 --> 00:36:07,884
Because if you're willing to do that, it really is a top of funnel numbers game, running
CRMs, creating relationships.

532
00:36:07,884 --> 00:36:11,792
There's a lot of people who have won with products that I feel like it's a mediocre
product.

533
00:36:11,792 --> 00:36:15,586
But they built a network of customers, relationships, networking.

534
00:36:15,586 --> 00:36:17,518
What do you do that on a daily basis?

535
00:36:17,518 --> 00:36:19,140
We're sitting here having this conversation.

536
00:36:19,140 --> 00:36:26,377
This is one form, but what do you do on a daily basis as you, the entrepreneur, to build
your business?

537
00:36:26,377 --> 00:36:28,259
What have you found most important?

538
00:36:28,259 --> 00:36:31,252
And what are the daily activities and hacks that you're working on?

539
00:36:31,668 --> 00:36:32,589
that's a great question.

540
00:36:32,589 --> 00:36:37,303
So when I first started my company, I had to get used to rejection.

541
00:36:37,303 --> 00:36:38,774
So this is back to 2014.

542
00:36:38,774 --> 00:36:41,487
I'm calling, emailing, getting rejected.

543
00:36:41,487 --> 00:36:44,250
I think I got rejected by over 10,000 people.

544
00:36:44,250 --> 00:36:46,101
And you have to be able to deal with rejection.

545
00:36:46,101 --> 00:36:49,081
When you get rejected, you don't you're used to it.

546
00:36:49,081 --> 00:36:50,105
You're like, no, okay, thank you.

547
00:36:50,105 --> 00:36:50,696
Have a great day.

548
00:36:50,696 --> 00:36:51,477
They could be you're an A.

549
00:36:51,477 --> 00:36:52,127
Okay, thank you.

550
00:36:52,127 --> 00:36:52,768
Have a great day.

551
00:36:52,768 --> 00:36:53,428
All the best.

552
00:36:53,428 --> 00:36:57,102
You don't take you don't take it as personal criticism because they don't know you.

553
00:36:57,123 --> 00:36:57,953
But

554
00:36:58,169 --> 00:37:01,766
What I learned too, you have to be able to market yourself, especially as an entrepreneur.

555
00:37:01,766 --> 00:37:03,139
And it took me a while to get used to it.

556
00:37:03,139 --> 00:37:05,233
I'm like, how can I market myself?

557
00:37:05,233 --> 00:37:08,569
Okay, I'll write about what's going on in the markets, I'll do research.

558
00:37:08,569 --> 00:37:11,043
And you have to be able to give free samples.

559
00:37:13,110 --> 00:37:15,092
You've heard of Gary Vaynerchuk, right?

560
00:37:15,995 --> 00:37:19,208
I had d I had dinner with him about two months ago in New York City.

561
00:37:19,469 --> 00:37:22,283
Well, you could tell him his story if you ever

562
00:37:22,283 --> 00:37:23,825
not a it was through another connection.

563
00:37:23,825 --> 00:37:27,419
There was twelve of us, so he didn't know me beforehand, but but yeah, it's funny.

564
00:37:27,419 --> 00:37:32,785
We put out some social media yesterday where he's sitting here talking to me and I'm
staring at him like it's funny.

565
00:37:32,785 --> 00:37:33,695
So yeah.

566
00:37:34,211 --> 00:37:36,223
So this is back in twenty fifteen.

567
00:37:36,223 --> 00:37:41,067
He mentioned some people have to give their head have to be realistic.

568
00:37:41,067 --> 00:37:44,309
Why will someone want to work with you if they don't know you?

569
00:37:44,310 --> 00:37:45,380
Offer them something free.

570
00:37:45,380 --> 00:37:46,221
And then I did that.

571
00:37:46,221 --> 00:37:47,692
Give free samples.

572
00:37:47,692 --> 00:37:51,285
Hey, here's a you want to see sample work that I'm doing that could be of interest.

573
00:37:51,285 --> 00:37:51,645
Here you go.

574
00:37:51,645 --> 00:37:52,326
Here's a free sample.

575
00:37:52,326 --> 00:37:54,438
Tell me what you about you like, okay, let's talk.

576
00:37:54,438 --> 00:37:57,520
You kind of have to get people to give something free to want.

577
00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,061
It's kind of like freemium.

578
00:37:59,082 --> 00:38:02,695
And we see it with a lot of products on the internet.

579
00:38:02,695 --> 00:38:03,445
And

580
00:38:03,843 --> 00:38:11,418
First you have to be able to give samples, you have to be able to contact, you have to
deal with rejection, and you have to market yourself.

581
00:38:11,558 --> 00:38:16,842
And I always say this, stay away from politics and religion unless you're not making money
off of it.

582
00:38:16,842 --> 00:38:18,303
Cause you know who you're gonna offend.

583
00:38:18,303 --> 00:38:20,965
Now at the end of the day, if it doesn't pay your bills, it doesn't matter.

584
00:38:20,965 --> 00:38:28,210
Cause in my honest opinion, at the end of the day, people care about being able to f feed
themselves and their loved ones.

585
00:38:29,591 --> 00:38:33,043
Cause if you can't do that, then you're dealing with real stress, in my opinion.

586
00:38:34,745 --> 00:38:35,465
Hm.

587
00:38:35,606 --> 00:38:39,300
So to market and brand and you had to learn that and it wasn't comfortable, right?

588
00:38:39,300 --> 00:38:41,843
You had to really step outside of your comfort zone.

589
00:38:42,794 --> 00:38:43,956
I it was brutal.

590
00:38:43,956 --> 00:38:45,137
It was brutal.

591
00:38:45,137 --> 00:38:51,200
Like there are some days, like I talk to a month, there's some days you feel like the
biggest loser.

592
00:38:51,441 --> 00:38:53,062
You're like, I am a loser.

593
00:38:53,062 --> 00:38:53,792
I can't do this.

594
00:38:53,792 --> 00:38:56,326
But some days you're like, I am Rocky Bobo.

595
00:38:56,326 --> 00:38:57,747
I could take on anyway.

596
00:38:57,747 --> 00:39:05,052
And I don't know how you feel, but the first client you get, it is the bet it's like you
win the Stanley Cup, the Super Bowl.

597
00:39:05,052 --> 00:39:06,713
It's amazing.

598
00:39:06,713 --> 00:39:09,545
In my opinion, the first client, it could be like for two bucks.

599
00:39:09,545 --> 00:39:10,467
Who cares?

600
00:39:10,467 --> 00:39:12,828
It's amazing because you did it.

601
00:39:12,828 --> 00:39:14,409
It's no one helped you.

602
00:39:14,409 --> 00:39:17,811
Well, it could be from reference stuff, but they wanted what you offer.

603
00:39:17,811 --> 00:39:19,542
You can't buy knowledge.

604
00:39:19,542 --> 00:39:22,533
You can't buy intelligence.

605
00:39:22,533 --> 00:39:23,973
You have to earn it.

606
00:39:24,094 --> 00:39:25,775
And that's the great thing about it.

607
00:39:25,775 --> 00:39:28,896
When you're an entrepreneur, you build something and someone gets it, you're like, wow.

608
00:39:28,896 --> 00:39:29,936
And it could be a team.

609
00:39:29,936 --> 00:39:30,817
It's the best feeling.

610
00:39:30,817 --> 00:39:35,769
Whoever I talk to is an entrepreneur, they say that they all remember their first sale.

611
00:39:36,029 --> 00:39:37,668
Why do you think that was special?

612
00:39:37,757 --> 00:39:45,163
Because it was kind of like you maybe it's kind of I think all entrepreneurs are like this
'cause they love their job.

613
00:39:45,163 --> 00:39:49,755
It's kind of like a child to them, but it's kind of like it's a validation thing.

614
00:39:49,755 --> 00:39:52,836
It's like someone in the world values what I'm offering.

615
00:39:53,376 --> 00:39:56,199
And they like it and it's a respect thing too.

616
00:39:56,199 --> 00:40:00,441
If you ask anyone, I think they respect is so important.

617
00:40:00,441 --> 00:40:03,412
And being an entrepreneur is someone willing.

618
00:40:03,414 --> 00:40:07,918
take their money to buy what you're offering is a big like, wow.

619
00:40:07,918 --> 00:40:13,382
And I think it's also a good sign of all the hard work you did is paying off.

620
00:40:16,424 --> 00:40:27,344
What do we need to do to maintain that same level of excitement and satisfaction as we get
into the mundane, everyday, cyclical production of our businesses?

621
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:28,490
No, that's great.

622
00:40:28,490 --> 00:40:31,451
I think it goes back to what I said before, being able to manage stress.

623
00:40:31,451 --> 00:40:34,093
Cause what I went through, it was stressful.

624
00:40:34,093 --> 00:40:35,293
Getting rejected and stuff.

625
00:40:35,293 --> 00:40:46,788
And you have to go in with the Monday with a clear head, be like, I I I know it seems I
don't want to sound negative, but expect bad things, but make sure what's your priorities.

626
00:40:46,788 --> 00:40:47,588
It could be health.

627
00:40:47,588 --> 00:40:51,219
It could be that person that you love or healthy.

628
00:40:51,219 --> 00:40:57,554
It could be like, I got my seven hours sleep, whatever is it the most most important, and
everything else will be

629
00:40:57,554 --> 00:41:08,423
Done well because I worked with great entrepreneurs and the way they've been able to deal
with stress, I was like, you can call me 247 because you taught me how to deal with stress

630
00:41:08,423 --> 00:41:11,185
that goes in my personal and business life.

631
00:41:11,185 --> 00:41:12,607
That's so valuable.

632
00:41:12,607 --> 00:41:18,631
So being able to go on a money be like, hey, I can expect it to be a stressful day, but
you know what?

633
00:41:18,812 --> 00:41:20,373
I can find a solution.

634
00:41:20,373 --> 00:41:21,964
That's very important.

635
00:41:23,762 --> 00:41:26,997
Who's who's Daniel's ideal client?

636
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:38,084
Well, family office or a venture capital fund that values research, that they use research
to make investment decisions.

637
00:41:38,084 --> 00:41:40,546
That's my ideal client.

638
00:41:42,712 --> 00:41:48,879
Did you design that or did that evolve that that was necessary to focus on that being the
ideal client?

639
00:41:48,879 --> 00:41:51,616
Did you set out that was it or did that evolve?

640
00:41:51,714 --> 00:41:58,171
That evolved, I pivoted because I did a research on family offices for a company for a
publisher in 2016.

641
00:41:58,171 --> 00:42:04,128
Before it was just finan it was actually financial management initially and some research.

642
00:42:04,128 --> 00:42:11,506
But I got more clients doing research and I did a research for a company that dealt with
family offices, just analyzing them, and then that opened my eyes.

643
00:42:11,506 --> 00:42:12,836
I'm like, wow.

644
00:42:12,937 --> 00:42:13,634
Then you see

645
00:42:13,634 --> 00:42:16,159
What a t tell us what a family office is.

646
00:42:16,352 --> 00:42:17,322
Okay.

647
00:42:17,363 --> 00:42:20,264
Family office is usually a case.

648
00:42:20,264 --> 00:42:21,655
It's a high net worth individual.

649
00:42:21,655 --> 00:42:27,068
Let's just say they invented this pencil and they sold hundreds of millions.

650
00:42:27,068 --> 00:42:28,229
And they're like, you know what?

651
00:42:28,229 --> 00:42:29,690
I got all this money.

652
00:42:30,250 --> 00:42:34,212
I have children, but I don't know how they're gonna deal with the money.

653
00:42:34,212 --> 00:42:37,995
I wanna make sure it's the money's generational wealth.

654
00:42:38,016 --> 00:42:43,680
And usually they need if I'm not mistaken, over fifty million in assets or in cat
liquidity.

655
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:55,645
And then they build the office a family office and invest in companies, or sometimes
they're part they own shares in like legal companies, accounting firms, philanthropy, and

656
00:42:55,645 --> 00:42:56,225
et cetera.

657
00:42:56,225 --> 00:43:05,009
And what I've noticed, a lot of these family offices, they have one company that does
investment, then the accounting company that they own does accounting for this investment

658
00:43:05,009 --> 00:43:05,359
office.

659
00:43:05,359 --> 00:43:06,580
It's like a domino effect.

660
00:43:06,580 --> 00:43:08,452
It's all connected, it's all circling.

661
00:43:08,452 --> 00:43:09,543
And it

662
00:43:10,297 --> 00:43:14,300
Is where you see where a lot of money goes into the world.

663
00:43:15,381 --> 00:43:19,965
Bill Gates and his former wife, they had the Bill Gates and Melinda Foundation.

664
00:43:19,965 --> 00:43:21,126
That's a philanthropy.

665
00:43:21,126 --> 00:43:30,365
There's so many I would say most of the successful business people that we see today most
likely have family offices.

666
00:43:31,645 --> 00:43:35,258
It's just a way that they're making investments and allocating capital, right?

667
00:43:35,635 --> 00:43:35,985
Definitely.

668
00:43:35,985 --> 00:43:38,465
And it's so they can secure their generational wealth.

669
00:43:38,465 --> 00:43:41,029
It minimizes tax liability too.

670
00:43:41,770 --> 00:43:43,601
And they have real estate companies and stuff.

671
00:43:43,601 --> 00:43:50,657
I think you see in the UK, you see UAE, there's a l a lot of family offices that went
there, Singapore.

672
00:43:52,891 --> 00:43:55,986
The what about this part of this coming into the conversation?

673
00:43:55,986 --> 00:43:57,828
What what what didn't we talk about?

674
00:43:57,828 --> 00:44:01,462
Like 'cause I got this picture of Daniel here in the black suit.

675
00:44:01,462 --> 00:44:04,816
He looks like James Bond coming from Croatia.

676
00:44:04,816 --> 00:44:09,601
what what's on your mind right now in March of twenty sixth that we didn't talk about?

677
00:44:10,791 --> 00:44:13,062
How the future of the workplace is gonna be.

678
00:44:13,323 --> 00:44:16,805
I think we see what I see with investing in a lot of companies.

679
00:44:18,066 --> 00:44:22,149
I look at, for example, someone's talking to me about real estate.

680
00:44:22,570 --> 00:44:27,514
Why is it important that some companies still have offices and stuff?

681
00:44:27,514 --> 00:44:28,785
I'm like, it's a domino fact.

682
00:44:28,785 --> 00:44:38,622
These banks are backing up, and like these real estate developers, and hence JP Morgan has
that new headquarters in New York City, Manhattan, and

683
00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:47,942
How much is the workspace going to change and how much are companies are are we going to
see a thousand people, companies that are in a service industry or product, or is there

684
00:44:47,942 --> 00:44:49,743
going to be maximum maybe a hundred?

685
00:44:49,743 --> 00:44:53,779
I think that's going to change rapidly because it was interesting.

686
00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:55,640
I'm a big fan of history.

687
00:44:55,640 --> 00:45:00,462
And I believe in the late fifties, Detroit was the richest city in the world.

688
00:45:01,863 --> 00:45:06,214
And you see how much the workplace has changed with the auto industry and stuff like that.

689
00:45:07,388 --> 00:45:12,232
What will the f will there be more entrepreneurs and less big corporations?

690
00:45:12,232 --> 00:45:17,785
And I s think that's probably gonna be the path, especially what we see with AI agents.

691
00:45:17,785 --> 00:45:21,939
You could build the app in like a few dates if you want to.

692
00:45:22,340 --> 00:45:25,201
So I think the workplace is gonna change rapidly.

693
00:45:25,882 --> 00:45:28,284
For the better or or worse, we'll see.

694
00:45:28,284 --> 00:45:30,255
But I think it's definitely gonna change.

695
00:45:30,725 --> 00:45:31,386
Yeah.

696
00:45:31,386 --> 00:45:37,034
Do you think that these things are how tough is it to predict these outcomes?

697
00:45:38,256 --> 00:45:47,369
it's difficult at times because a lot of times I looked at companies and I'm like, you
know what, I think they're gonna be successful.

698
00:45:47,369 --> 00:45:48,910
Boom, they get hit.

699
00:45:49,031 --> 00:45:52,265
By it could be a competitor coming up because

700
00:45:54,451 --> 00:45:58,284
When you said looking into companies to invest in, it's good to have traction.

701
00:45:58,284 --> 00:46:08,761
So that means have some customers or have letter of intents of potential customers that
want to work with you when you release a certain product because it's so difficult to get

702
00:46:08,761 --> 00:46:09,342
that.

703
00:46:09,342 --> 00:46:14,326
And I really do respect anyone who's building something 'cause it's extremely stressful.

704
00:46:14,326 --> 00:46:16,807
'Cause you're thinking big work twenty four seven, but

705
00:46:18,407 --> 00:46:22,113
It is extremely important to have that.

706
00:46:24,681 --> 00:46:26,736
The this is a good conversation.

707
00:46:26,736 --> 00:46:31,663
Family offices, philanthropic organizations that are looking to make investments.

708
00:46:31,663 --> 00:46:35,848
It sounds like Daniel Nikic in Croatia is your dude.

709
00:46:36,710 --> 00:46:38,192
How wait, when did you leave?

710
00:46:38,192 --> 00:46:41,396
We're wrapping this up, but when did you leave Canada and go to Croatia?

711
00:46:41,508 --> 00:46:43,989
So I finished university in two thousand nine.

712
00:46:44,189 --> 00:46:47,151
I went to Brock and I was twenty one years old.

713
00:46:47,151 --> 00:46:49,091
So I'm like, see how Europe is.

714
00:46:49,091 --> 00:46:49,832
Why not?

715
00:46:49,832 --> 00:46:50,493
Twenty one.

716
00:46:50,493 --> 00:46:52,173
And then I ended up staying.

717
00:46:52,173 --> 00:46:54,334
But I did not think I was gonna stay.

718
00:46:54,574 --> 00:47:03,188
I was again I ended up staying due to personal reasons and I don't regret it because who
knows how my life would be and I think you can't live w life with a regret if you're doing

719
00:47:03,188 --> 00:47:04,589
the right thing at the end of the day.

720
00:47:04,589 --> 00:47:07,640
And I probably wouldn't be an entrepreneur today if I didn't do that.

721
00:47:08,488 --> 00:47:10,753
If you're doing the right things, you don't have to live with regret.

722
00:47:10,753 --> 00:47:12,588
That's a great way to end the conversation.

723
00:47:12,588 --> 00:47:15,303
hey, what's the one place that people should come and engage with you?

724
00:47:15,303 --> 00:47:19,782
LinkedIn, a website, a social media, what's the one that you want to direct them to?

725
00:47:20,288 --> 00:47:30,728
they can check out my website where they can see 'cause I post blogs and podcasts I've
been on and they can see my background work, which is DanielNekich dot com, or they can go

726
00:47:30,728 --> 00:47:31,499
on my LinkedIn.

727
00:47:31,499 --> 00:47:38,736
They I usually post some research that I've noticed like about recent news that's
interesting, give takeaways, what's going on.

728
00:47:38,736 --> 00:47:40,988
So they can also reach out to me there too.

729
00:47:41,404 --> 00:47:42,155
Awesome.

730
00:47:42,155 --> 00:47:50,968
Hey Daniel, thanks for giving us this time and giving us a little bit of an exposure to
what's happening internationally with investment and if we should go to Dubai or not,

731
00:47:50,968 --> 00:47:55,486
about entrepreneurs dealing with stress and just act the right way, do the right thing.

732
00:47:55,486 --> 00:47:56,657
You're not gonna have to worry about regrets.

733
00:47:56,657 --> 00:47:57,859
That's an awesome way to leave this man.

734
00:47:57,859 --> 00:47:59,150
Thank you for joining us.

735
00:47:59,280 --> 00:47:59,942
Thanks for having me.

736
00:47:59,942 --> 00:48:01,611
It's been a pleasure to talk to you.