From Private Lender to Hydrogen Technology: 20 Years of Strategic Pivots in Real Estate and Energy

0:03I started the company when I left college in the past 20 years or so it's developed into a couple different verticals. First of all, the foundation has always been in real estate. I started doing my own deals, heavily financed by private lending. So as a user of private lending, I got to know how it works. And about 15 years ago, intentionally shifted to becoming the lender. So the majority of the deal flow in the past 15 years or so is private lending into real estate, where we deploy our own money and a small group of our investors' money into loans secured by residential-purposed properties, whether it's ground-up construction, stabilization of rent before they refinance.

0:51What that means, it could be quote-unquote commercial, but master-planned communities, multifamily, single-family, et cetera. So we don't finance office buildings, warehouses, self-storage units, et cetera. But on the equity side, we do own all of the above, vacant land, et cetera. On a more opportunistic basis, we look for things not aggressively but good for long-term holding, and we generally do not participate in other syndications or funds as a completely passive investor. So that's the real estate side. Over the past fewer than 10 years or so, we also developed a portfolio of investments in the energy field space, starting with doing project-based financing to energy projects because of its similarity to real estate financing that I was already doing.

1:49is obviously not the same, but similarities. With growing understanding, knowledge, network, resources, we did place strategic bets onto different technology companies. For example, one of the breakthrough companies in our energy portfolio is a hydrogen technology company that has already created a completely new system of breaking down water into hydrogen, turning that into electricity. using entirely new material, chemistry, fuel cell and power bank system that's able to be scaled down to power one single family house or scale up to power a large-scale data center. So a lot of the research and technology that went into this commercialization earned recognition and awards from National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and one of our researchers that we funded on the material earned a Fulbright Scholars Award last year.

2:55So in terms of these technology, that's why a company like this is talking to from the U.S. military, different municipalities, transportation system, public and private companies. So around these investments, what we would do is to look for investments of innovation companies, technology, manufacturing capabilities that would enhance this ecosystem we are already part of. I don't really consider myself an angel investor, even though I live in Silicon Valley. So when we make direct investments, on the periphery, by the way, we also involve ourselves into some of the companies that have to do with real estate.

3:40For example, yesterday I was touring with one of our portfolio companies here who provides parking technology from both hardware and software, and they currently power the largest parking operator here in Manhattan alone, 120 locations and more around the country. So these things we don't take part in lightly, only when our resource experience and those of the invested companies have mutual benefits and enhancements. So that's the scope of what I do. Join the Family Office Club by visiting familyoffices.com. We look forward to seeing you at our next live event.

4:26if you are a founder raising capital developing real estate or you're an investor would love for you to get involved in the family office club i've run this community for 18 years now we've hosted 300 live events we have 17 million social media group members and followers we have the number one youtube channel on family offices we have the number one most popular podcast on family Offices. You can learn more about us and our membership options at familyoffices.com. We have 30 in-person events planned in 2026 and another dozen events this year. Please go to familyoffices.com to learn more.