The Harshest Reality in Fundraising

0:03So the first question is a rather provocative question about harsh realities. and the question really is what do you think the average investor or the person raising capital would what very surprising perspective that you would share with with the audience so yes we have a lot of sponsors and they're pitching private deals and we also have investors what's the harshest reality you can think of that people find surprising and valuable Go ahead, don't kiss ass. I knew, Dan, we should really have just the panel because Dan, he's really cool. But yeah, there you go. Well, you heard it. Okay, we'll start with Mark.

0:47So the harshest reality is what I said before. The vast number of companies, no matter how excited the entrepreneur is, will fail. When I say fail, that doesn't mean the company will fail. It means the investment will fail. And so we have to find entrepreneurs that know how to change, know how to pivot before they run out of money, not after they run out of money. And that's probably the harshest reality, is they have to understand our perspective and portfolio. I'll get to the sale in a minute, but can you elaborate, Dan, on the don't kiss ass? Investors want to make money and they're greedy generally, and that's what you should probably appeal to but when you're, as an investor, when there's a way you approach them and just believe in yourself and fight for yourself.

1:36Don't let people belittle you and you're over there begging. If you have a good business and you can run it, it'll come through. Okay, very good. Second? It's so difficult but it's also one of the greatest skills to really master is to say no to yourself because especially if i mean like i'm a lego kid right i'm a builder um my i constantly find myself in a position where uh my vision far my vision and ambition far exceeds my own operational capacity and i'm constantly having to restrict myself from going down paths that you know i would love to go down and um you know actually do have proper value but maybe you know two or three years down the line where there are certain pieces of infrastructure that I can build in the meantime.

2:32It's very, very, very difficult to find an opportunity that you really find valuable and then to say, okay, I'm the person that's going to miss problems with this the most. Can I get someone else to kind of check me on that? Just kind of admitting that to yourself. I mean, they say that on the 12 steps, right, the first step is to admit that you have a problem. Just admitting you have the problem could sometimes be the biggest step.

3:05I'll second that. I mean, it really takes a village. And there have been a lot of comments in other panels about mentorship, about developing relationships, about having a deep bench of people that you trust, that you can rely on. And I think also just be a risk taker and think outside the box. Be a critical thinker with it. It's a measured risk always, but you're de-risking it by applying your mental models, your critical thinking, and then running it past people that you trust. You're de-risking it. So most people, firstly, they don't even show up, so they're not in rooms like this. and then those that do show up, unfortunately, there will be some even in this room who just kind of go about their day and it's like, oh, conference is fun, yeah, yeah.

3:54But those of you who are really engaged and you're working it and you're thinking about everything and the content and the connections, you can't help but have something come out of it. I've been involved in this group for many years and there hasn't been an event that I've come to that didn't result in something, whether it was a connection, it was a deal, but just be a go-getter. I love this energy from Alexandria. Every time I see her, it's like, I want to hear what she has to say. It's always a positive but also very realistic. Jeff? Yeah, so I think the reality is that most of the deals that we look at as a family office are great.

4:36They all look spectacular. So how do you differentiate yourself from every single deal that looks so great? and I think the key is to understand your audience understand what they're looking for and not every investor is the same so for instance impact is huge for us right so not only do we want obviously the highest return in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of risk but what exactly is the greatest impact that we're gonna have globally right and so know your audience and speak to your audience and it's also the harsh reality is that you have it's about relationships, right? So we invest with whom we trust and who we respect and who we know are going to have the greatest positive impact globally, right?

5:22But who are also going to be able to deliver and have a track record of delivery. So I think those are some of the key points. Hi, I'm Richard C. Wilson. Our community has closed over$1 billion of transactions. We have over 16 million registered members across 100 plus LinkedIn groups. And I own billionaires.com and run Family Office Club. Over 19 years, we've hosted 300 live events. I've built 50 of our own AI tools. And between the billionaires I've interviewed, there's some millionaires who've spoken on stage and over a thousand decamillionaires who have presented, we've found there's three things that really can build your wealth.

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