Business Digest Magazine July/Aug 2021 Issue by Best-Business-Digest

July/Aug 2021

INSIDE THIS ISSUE... 03

Alternative Investments

Is Bitcoin the Future of Currency?

Getting Ahead of the Crowd Early

Key Investments for Business Owners to make NOW

Danny Popescu

Kunal Sawhney

Sonny Meraban

Tom Logan

Websites to Woo and Wow

Becoming an Angel and Investing Wisely in Startup Companies

Simon Hall

Jeff Saling

Real Estate Investment

Investment Management

27 31

SME Platform for Trade

Anish Malhotra

Darin Tuttle

Chris Hale

Akin Investments Stephen Akin

EDITOR’S LETTER WELCOME! The best means of building wealth have been traditionally stocks, real estate and small business. From 2014 we saw the emergence of cryptocurrencies especially bitcoin as a formidable wealth booster. However its volatility brought many questions. This month’s edition is about investment and the content shared here is not the view of Business Digest Magazine but it covers some investment fundamentals. The goal of any investment is a profitable return. However with every investment there’s a risk. With cryptocurrencies the problem is knowledge. There are very few books to read and a lot of noise around the subject. However there are articles that are still worth reading; - How Digital Currency Will Change the World by Brian Amstrong (founder of Coin Base) - Bitcoin - The Internet of Money by Naval Ravikant - The Original Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto

Fanele Moyo Editor

July/Aug 2021

Alternative Investments

DANNY POPESCU

In November 2011, Danny and his partners sold their investment firm to a bank owned investment dealer for $333 million CAD. Bored thereafter, he decided to do it again and founded the Harbourfront Group of Companies.

ho is Danny Popescu? I look after a Canadian financial institution called Harbourfront Wealth Management as well as its other business affiliates both in Canada and the US. I oversee Harbourfront’s 22 branches which we continue to grow through rapid recruiting. I believe we’re shaping the industry by architecting pension type investments in such a way that they’re accessible and suitable for retail investors. I’m also involved with Harbourfront’s registered charity known as the Harbourfront Gives Foundation. How did you know you had the right business idea? I started my career as a Client Facing Investment Advisor and have learned that most Canadian investors are more conservative than they might think. Many people can’t stomach the volatility of an allocation which is heavy in publicly traded equities, and fairly so. Meanwhile, I was watching pension plans squeeze out strong returns with low volatility by investing in different asset classes such as private equity, private debt and real estate – so my goal was to bring retail investors the same types of securities institutional investors have accessed for decades. Tell us about alternative investments. This chosen name, “alternative investments” confirms the limitations which currently plague the large majority of retail investors. The term accurately implies that public equities and bonds are the mainstream and anything else is an alternative to the norm. Stock markets and bond markets are very easy to access which is why everyone piles into them but there are many other ways to invest. These include private securities such as private equities and private credit, infrastructure funds, commercial and residential real estate and the list goes on. Given the large allocations pension plans have to such investments, perhaps institutional investors could label the stock market as an alternative investment. My hope is that the label of alternative will one day disappear, and investors will simply know that there are many types of securities they can allocate capital to. While there is more than one route to success,

when everybody is investing in the same thing, it becomes a crowded trade. Current public equity valuations are an example of that. Generally, private securities can be purchased at much more attractive valuations given they’re not as accessible and as liquid as the stock and bond markets. How do you educate your clients? I think it starts with educating our advisors and the advisors who are considering joining us. Many advisors recognize that in order to act on their fiduciary responsibilities, they need to jump ship and move their practices to an institution which specializes in investments beyond stocks and bonds and their proxies. Since we already have a shelf of large private securities pools which are exclusive to our clients, our advisors and their clients are able to hit the ground running. We provide regular educational material, webinars, and market commentaries to our advisors, who are welcome to share them with their clients. What was the impact of covid on alternative investments? The private securities that our firm uses all experienced positive returns every month in 2020 including in march of 2020 when the stock market saw a big sell off. Liquidity – the ability to get in and out of an investment quickly has its share of disadvantages as does illiquidity but they differ. Liquid markets are significantly more susceptible to investor emotion and when covid became real, we saw panic selling as is generally the case when we are in a crisis or perceive a crisis exists. . How can alternatives minimize risk and result in positive returns?

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Through reduced liquidity, private investments offer more stability and can act as a hedge to traditional asset classes. Also, because access to such investments is more limited, we tend not to see significant overvaluation in individual private securities as we see in public markets. Many private securities also pay a regular stream of income without the volatility of bonds or dividend paying stocks. Lastly, what did it mean to be named one of

Canada’s Top 50 Investment Industry Leaders? I felt honored to be named one of Canada’s Top 50 Investment Industry Leaders, but we would not have had the success we had without our head office employees and our advisory teams. We have been investing heavily in technology since we opened doors in 2013 so the shift to remote work was seamless. An organization is only as good as its people, and I think the award speaks more to our culture.

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July/Aug 2021

Is Bitcoin the Future of Currency? Kunal Sawhney

ell us a bit about yourself and your journey so far. My entrepreneurial story goes back to 2014 when I founded Kalkine in Australia to fundamentally transform the delivery of equity research by integrating it with tech-empowered digital platforms. It soon became one of the fastest-growing equity market research firms in the region. Today, Kalkine Subscription and Media Operations have a global footprint and an established presence in diverse geographies, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the US.

Kalkine’s edge comes with the robust digitally powered architecture and data science-based research. What was the driving force behind Kalkine? What is the company about? The journey started with providing opportunities to investors looking for a ‘Do it Yourself ’ style for a stock investment and trading in Australia. This was made possible through stock research reports with the buy, sell, hold recommendations. The group now has a global presence and is popularly identified to be a tech-enabled business with a strong footing in Digitally-powered

architecture and data science-led research. Post setting the footprint in the subscription business across different jurisdictions, the need to educate the audience in general alongside catering the day-to-day requirements of investors and readers in the financial space helped in establishing the foundation of the Kalkine Media platform. This has now evolved as an advertising and publishing firm.

Kunal Sawhney is founder & CEO at Kalkine and is a richly experienced and accomplished financial professional with a wealth of knowledge in the Australian Equities Market. Kunal obtained a Master of Business Administration degree from University of Technology, Sydney. He has an extensive expertise in quantitative and qualitative stock selection practices, and he proficiently navigates on equity related matters while enabling them to achieve success in complex market conditions.

What is the future of Bitcoin? Do you believe it will remain the most powerful cryptocurrency in the market? The future is anything but certain. A lot depends on how blockchain tech, which underpins the entire crypto world, plays out in the near future.

Imagine someone borrowing in a bitcoin denomination, which can soon become a reality in El Salvador, which has lately adopted it as legal tender. Loan repayment consists of two key components: principal portion and interest portion. In traditional finance, where values of fiat currencies like the US dollar are relatively stable, the lender and borrower have certainty on repayments. But bitcoin is a bit too volatile. It can lose or gain in double digits in 24-hours, and that too on a single tweet by a multi-billionaire CEO. But as an asset class, where investors look for wealth creation despite underlying risks, bitcoin may not be a bad deal, which could be the reason behind the increased institutional interest in cryptocurrencies. The year 2021 saw the launch of bitcoin ETFs in Canada and S&P Dow Jones indices that track the values of cryptos tied to them. The cryptocurrency was a subject of discussion in the latest edition of JPMorgan’s Macro, Quantitative and Derivatives conference attended by thousands of investors. Although just 10 percent of institutional investment firms surveyed in the conference said they trade cryptos, a whopping

40 percent said they were active in crypto assets in personal capacities. The picture around cryptocurrencies as legal tender may become more evident once El Salvador implements its ambitious plan. Bitcoin may remain the most popular currency in the near to medium-term due to its news-generating capacity and because it has become synonymous with the word cryptocurrencies. But ether, the currency of the Ethereum network, is fast catching up. Many crypto tokens like Tether, USD Coin, and Binance Coin are ERC-20 tokens, meaning they are a smart contract built on Ethereum network.

In terms of its wide usage, do you see bitcoin being extensively used in the next, say 5 years, and why? This depends on the underlying blockchain technology, and not on bitcoin per se. Last year witnessed many critical developments in the bitcoin realm. For example, big banks in the US publicly allowed their rich clientele to trade in cryptocurrencies. The world’s first Bitcoin ETF was approved in Canada a few months back, and it did wonders after debuting on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In the past couple of weeks, the tides turned after China began a sweeping crackdown on crypto trading and mining. Many influential personalities and institutions have expressed concerns over the environmental costs of mining bitcoin, and over a few weeks, bitcoin lost more than 30 percent of its value. The key element here is the lack of regulatory oversight in the world of cryptocurrencies. Currency is not just legal tender used to pay off debt. It helps central banks to increase liquidity in the market during an economic slump. International trade also depends on the values of fiat currencies. For instance, China was criticized for manipulating the yuan’s exchange rate to keep its exports competitive in the international market.

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Bitcoin has limited supply, but there is no regulatory oversight. These concerns are holding it from becoming a currency or asset class with wide usage. El Salvador’s experiment with bitcoin as legal tender will be watched silently by all. In next two years, this can decide bitcoin’s future.

Anyone entering the NFT market must first know what they are. They are a unit of data stored on a distributed ledger, which in most cases is Ethereum. It is a kind of certification for a digital asset. NFTs can be associated with digital photos or any other files and provide proof of ownership registered on the blockchain.

What is Ethereum’s potential in the cryptocurrency market especially after the tweet that saw its price go down?

One can compare them to either store of value or the Tulip Bubble. This latter took place in the 1600s during the Dutch Golden Age. People started trading Tulip bulbs at exorbitantly high prices on an unfounded assumption that the values would increase. The Tulip flower had gained popularity because of its intense color, the flower’s tolerance of harsh weather conditions, and its use as a status symbol. But eventually, the bubble burst, and the flower became like any other.

Although bitcoin grabs the lion’s share of news headlines, it is Ethereum that has silently become the world’s most used blockchain. Ethereum is a software platform underpinned by blockchain. Its digital currency ether can be used to build smart contracts on its blockchain network. Ethereum lets developers build new applications based on a distributed ledger. Distributed finance or DeFi, where people can lend and borrow in cryptocurrencies, also utilizes Ethereum’s blockchain services. Many crypto tokens enter as smart contracts on Ethereum and trade as separate digital currencies on exchanges like Coinbase. If one needs to use Ethereum’s blockchain, payments can be made using ether.

NFTs are thriving on the back of people’s interest in blockchain technology. But any ownership registered on the distributed network doesn’t mean it can have speculative values in tens of millions of dollars. What should an investor look out for in terms of wallet security? A wallet holds the most critical thing – cryptographic keys. These keys determine ownership of any crypto holding. One can have millions in crypto assets; however, if the key is lost, the value of holding is nothing.

The future of ether depends mainly on how the world reacts to the Ethereum network’s distributed ledger services. The currency is a tradable commodity, but its usage is restricted on the Ethereum platform. Advocates of its smart contract services cite its quick, cheap and irreversible nature, thus creating value.

Wallets can be hot or cold. A hot one is connected to the internet, which makes it vulnerable to cyberattacks. The cold one is not connected to the internet and is like a pen drive, and hence a little more secure. But before deciding on which wallet to store crypto holdings, ascertaining the need is essential. For example, do we want to trade holdings regularly or store cryptocurrencies for a longer duration? For regular trades, hot wallets can be preferred.

With a rise in the use of Ethereum’s services, the usage and demand of its native currency can increase, which can boost its prices. Ether prices can rise depending on the success of the apps and other software built on Ethereum’s blockchain. Tweets, as such, have a very short-term effect on values. The effect can be knee-jerking, but it quickly subsides on the back of any favorable tweet from some other influencer.

While picking one, it is always better to rely on relatively trusted players like Coinbase. Coinbase provides wallet services to users where not just crypto holdings but also NFTs can be stored.

Tell us about the boom in NFTs and what’s driving it and what is your advice to one entering the NFT market? NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are an interesting watch. Not because they have gained traction in the past few months, but because they seem to be overvalued. In March this year, an NFT on the Ethereum network sold for nearly $70 million in an auction by Christie’s.

Lastly, people give little importance to the bequest of crypto assets. Any unfortunate incident can make the legal heirs lose the entire crypto holding of the deceased due to the inaccessibility of private keys. Therefore, one must ensure a way to give access to their legal inheritors.

Auctions can be very speculative. The NFT sold was associated with nothing but a digital work of art.

Getting Ahead of The Crowd Early with Sonny Meraban

SONNY MERABAN, CEO and Founder of Bitcoin of America, purchased Bitcoin ATM No. 109 in the world in 2017 and turned a big profit with that one machine in Chicago. Over the past five years, Meraban now has 1,100 Bitcoin ATMs and tablets in 31 U.S. states and DC. He believed in the power of Bitcoin when few did and he’s stuck with it through the highs and lows.

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Sonny and Alice Gorodetsky (Director of Business Development) are with City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, following a discussion about Bitcoin of America’s expansion into Miami and South Florida; where they hope to have 200 locations by 2022.

itcoin has had a volatile trading history. The price fluctuations of the past were increased by a lack of knowledge on the part of retail investors and traders: an expectation of prices ever increasing. The price of Bitcoin in 2013 was trading at US$13.40 then shot up to US$220 and ended the year at US$1156. A sideways trend prevailed, a nightmare for traders. After years of failed projects and losing millions of dollars, in 2014 Sonny Meraban entered Bitcoin trading in a rather fortuitous manner, ‘I had a Supplement company that I was trying to strike off the ground and at the same time, once in a while I played online poker as well. I noticed that sites were starting to use Bitcoin. This simple observation spurred Sonny’s inquisitive mind to research further, ‘I thought would it not be cool if my website accepted Bitcoin and then I can sell it on Coin Base. I then began looking into Bitcoin deeper. I started buying coins and selling them and within a month, I was making money. The processing was difficult but in the late 2014 early 2015, I stumbled upon the first Bitcoin ATM in Chicago that I had never seen

in a Welsh/Irish pub. The company at the time was called Red Leaf. It so happened that the owner was there and I started chatting to him. He pulled out a bag full of cash out of the ATM. I was like man; I want to buy coins from you and I want to help you out in your field.’ Sonny went on to buy his first Bitcoin ATM and today they have over 1200 Bitcoin ATMs in the US. At the beginning of 2017, Bitcoin was trading a whooping US$1000 attracting the development of other digital currencies. He is successful. He believes in Bitcoin and he is breathing passion and enthusiasm. With the value of Bitcoin having fallen over the past month does not faze him. In fact, they are making more money as investors continue to buy cryptocurrencies. He doesn’t see Ethereum surpassing Bitcoin. Bitcoin of America is regarded as a money exchanger or money business provider in a lot of American States. They are compliant with federal policies and procedures. Currently Bitcoin is used in major Fortune 500

companies and its usage is growing worldwide. It has become the major currency for countries like El Salvador. The world’s top 10 crypto countries that are using cryptocurrency the most according to the Statista Data are: • Nigeria: 32% • Vietnam: 21% • Philippines: 20% • Turkey: 16% • Peru: 16% • Switzerland:11% • India:9% China and Russia, on the other hand, oppose the use of Bitcoin. Proponents of Bitcoin and indeed cryptocurrencies highlight the fact that cryptocurrencies distribute power to many members unlike fiat currencies which are centralised by governments, there by giving them too much power. They also highlight that the advent of cryptocur-

rencies reduces the need to print money. Central Banks have a tendency to respond to crisis by printing more money which eventually leads to a devaluation of that currency and an increase in inflation. Cryptocurrencies give people charge of their own money. There are no middlemen. There are people like Sonny who got on the Bitcoin gravy train early and they are growing in leaps and bounds. As long as nations utilise and recognise cryptocurrencies, they remain a reality for the future. Printing money is not an option. The reality is that there are organisations who thrive on control and they will emerge sooner rather than later. However, there are also risks associated with the cryptocurrencies in trading and investing in them for the future. The risk is in volatility and regulations.

Bitcoin Of America was represented at the Bitcoin 2021 Conference in Miami by four female employees; three of them executives - Alice Gorodetsky (Director of Business Development, far left), Jenna Polinsky (Director of Marketing and Lead of Tablet Sales, middle left) and Samantha Miller (Chief Operating Officer, middle right) and Kelly Sisk (Tablet Sales, far right).

July/Aug 2021

Key Investments Owners to m

hile business sector and size ultimately change the relationship and value of investments, there are a few key investments that reign supreme across the board – meaning, you can’t go wrong putting time, money and effort into them. As a business owner, you may not see significant ROI from them – at least as far as financials go – but they will pay dividends in other ways (e.g., from a culture or reputation standpoint). A few of these investments include: A DE&I strategy worth having. A solid DE&I strategy that includes benchmarks and goals authentic to the organization is an important corporate investment to make, and not just because of the current political and cultural climates. Beyond just being the right thing to do, a good DE&I program works towards enabling employees to work in an inclusive environment where they can bring their full selves to work. It’s important for both team retention and recruiting as well; if it’s important to employees, then it should be important to leadership. Equally as important, a diverse workforce encourages creativity; platforms and products created from multiple perspectives and end users in mind are always significantly superior when in field. Customer-centric tools. Anything that brings the entire company closer to the customer is, for the most part, worth the investment. The product team, the marketing team, the developers – it’s even more important that the non-client-facing team thoroughly understands the customers challenges and goals. Call recording and transcription software like Gong and Chorus are great tools for making the “voice of the customer” a core part of a company’s joint understanding and decision-making.

Supportive software/new hires, etc. that fill the gaps. In short, anything that helps fortify the founding team’s shortcomings. Particularly in the earlier stages, founders need to be ruthlessly honest with each other around knowledge gaps that they have. It’s very rare that a founding team has real expertise in every facet of a startup. An example for us was within finance and accounting, and as a result, we brought on a highly competent outsourced CFO to help turn this weakness into a strength. There’s just not enough time for the founding team to teach themselves every necessary skill and despite what a number of founders seem to think, there’s no extra credit for doing something yourself. While this certainly isn’t the full list of investments worth making, they are a few worth considering for the long haul; they teach employees additional information about the consumer, fill holes in expertise and ensure that every person at the company has a voice – all of which are necessary for businesses both big and small.

s for Business make NOW

By Tom Logan, co-founder and CEO of Cohley

Tom Logan is the Co-Founder and CEO of NYC-based Cohley — the tech company that’s changing the way brands generate and test content. Tom leads with a “people first” mentality, continuously moving Cohley up the ranks of “Best Places to Work in NYC.” Tom entered the tech world back in 2011 in Silicon Valley with Wildfire Interactive then spent a few years at Google before joining UGC-focused Piqora where he met his Co-Founder, Erik Graber. In his free time, Tom likes to play golf, drink wine from his native Santa Barbara County and relive his 15 minutes of fame: winning a car on The Price is Right in Bob Barker’s final season. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/ in/tdlogan

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We b s i tes to Wo o and Wow by Simon Hall Creative Warehouse

o one doubts the importance of websites in these online dominated days. But they very much do worry about how to make theirs work well, particularly if they’re on a limited budget. We’ve produced several lovely websites lately. So here’s a quick rundown of the super seven points worth remembering to create a website with a real wow factor. Website Core Messages Firstly, make it crystal clear what you do in an instant. Never forget people are busy and impatient. They’ll only spend a few seconds scanning your site before deciding if they’re in the right place for what they want. Which means you have to get your key message in big and early, and in just a handful of words.

generally click there first, and videos are powerful for showing off your company.Testimonials are a critical feature so remember to collect them as you work with customers, as we do. Website Images Pictures can often say much more than mere words. You smiling with a group of happy customers as a project is completed… That’s website gold in showcasing success and encouraging others to want to work with you. Modern websites tend to be light on text and heavy on images.

For example, for my company, Creative Warehouse, as in the main picture: - All your communication problems solved with style Make it obvious, appealing, and intriguing to encourage visitors to hang around and find out more.

So, as with videos, take plenty of photos as you go about your work. De-jargon Your Website Every trade has it, from deep tech to broadcasting, with our talk of 2-ways (interviewing a reporter), packages (a report) etc. But a website is for everyone, so you need to check for jargon and technical talk and translate it

You can see more on creating core messages in another article I wrote for Business Digest here. Video on Websites Try to get a video onto your homepage. Visitors will

Author - Simon Hall Director at Creative Warehouse About the Author; Simon Hall runs his own business communications agency, Creative Warehouse, and is a journalist, author, business coach and university tutor.

into plain English. Brilliant science goes into the work of Cambond, but see how simple, straightforward and striking it all looks in the website we produced for them. Take a tip from journalists to help your website work well. Put the most important information in early, near the top. Most people won’t read the whole of a page, so give them the best bits first. Readability on Websites While you’re writing your site, watch its readability. You don’t want windy and waffly sentences like this, which go on and on, and then on some more, and then on even more for good measure, and then digress to finding something else to say, and then back to something else etc. Keep your sentences short, sharp and simple. Like this. Most people will probably be reading on a phone. The screens are small. So the sentences should be as well. That’s how it works best on the web. Ok?! Website Keywords These are the words which help Google understand what you do, so giving you a chance of appearing prominently in search results. To help, think about what your customers would type into Google to find you. For Creative Warehouse, notice how our site talks about start ups, media, websites, core messages, strategic communications, design, pitching for investment, and video production. We also repeatedly mention Cambridge, because most people will look for a company from their area. Headings and titles are particularly important in search engine optimisation, so try to get your key words in those. Website Layout Don’t forget to make your website elegant, easy to read, and navigate.

He teaches communications, media and business skills at the University of Cambridge, for government departments and agencies, and private business. Simon has eight novels published, all in the thriller genre, and a nonfiction book on business communication, with follow ups on public speaking and presentations, writing blogs, appearing in the media, and business storytelling due out in 2021 and 22. Previously, Simon was a broadcaster for twenty years, mostly as a BBC Television, Radio and Online News Correspondent, specialising in business and economics, home affairs, and the environment. He has also contributed articles and short stories to a range of newspapers and magazines, written plays, screenplays, radio comedy, and even a pantomime.

For more on Simon and Creative Warehouse see www.thetvdetective.com

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A quick couple of final points. Make it easy to contact you. A floating email icon is my favourite for this. Also, ensure your website it optimised for mobile viewing. More and more people are looking on their phones, a trend that’s only likely to continue.

If you hit us with a barrage of information, that’s an invitation for a visitor to click away. Use lots of white space, headings, pretty pictures, a kind typeface and gentle colours. Here’s an example from a site we’ve just finished for the University of Cambridge.

Simon Hall

Becoming an Angel and Investing Wisely in Startup Companies By: Jeff Saling

Jeff Saling is a start-up founder as well as an angel investor and early-stage public company executive with more than 30 years’ experience. He has been part of 4 successful exits from enterprise B2B SaaS companies between 1998 and 2016. Currently, Jeff serves as the executive director of StartUpNV, a non-profit incubator and accelerator for startups in Nevada that he cofounded in 2017.

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tartUpNV is business incubator and accelerator for scalable Nevada startups and those companies considering locating in Nevada to grow. It provides expert mentorship and access to a network of capital partners. Its ecosystem of founders, mentors, university connections, investors, and business partners work together to support member companies. In total, StartUpNV runs six programs in the Nevada startup community, three for startup entrepreneurs and three for investors, including AngelNV, which fosters an angel investment network for Nevada-based startups and advises potential investors on wise investments. The AngelNV angel boot camp helps participants, including first-time investors, learn how to become a highly successful early-stage investor. Too many angel investors learn through trial and error, which can be costly, but at AngelNV, they learn from experienced trainers in a safe group environment and minimize the risk as a new investor. So, the first tactic to investing wisely would be to research if similar programs exist in your community and sign up to learn from experienced angel investors. Wise investors typically consider four things when evaluating a startup for investment: 1. The founder; 2. Their product; 3. The market for the product; and

market traction because it means that the business has a viable product, has figured out how to sell it, has operational processes to deliver it, and most importantly, is beyond the idea phase and executing with some initial positive results. A company with market traction will more likely use an investment to scale and grow the business, rather than support earlier stage feasibility or viability of a product. If a company doesn’t have market traction yet, then investors should seek to identify other indications that a startup is well beyond an idea and is solving a demonstrably painful problem in a demonstrably large market. Timing is critical and more difficult to judge. There are many famous examples of companies that benefited from strong “tailwinds” of good timing, such as DropBox, Rent the Runway, Uber / Lyft, and Zoom. Some of our most successful startups work for several years in obscurity evolving their product before they break out. Then, when they launch on a wide-scale basis they enjoy strong tailwinds due to market conditions or customer preferences that propel their success. Wise investors also tend to invest in what they know, because they are better equipped to evaluate associated risks for the business and industry. Otherwise, investors should seek out partners and operate as a team when outside of their personal expertise to help mitigate risk and invest more wisely in a broader array of company types. Learning these strategies through the AngelNV workshops has proven helpful to new angel investors in

4. Timing. The founder(s) are the biggest factor because a grade “A” founding team can succeed with an average product, but a “B” team can fail with a great product. Investors can try to mitigate early investing risk by finding a founder or founding team with prior startup experience. Even if they were not the original founder(s) of the company, people who have raised capital at another early-stage high growth startup and had a successful exit have demonstrated experience on the startup journey with an ability to rapidly scale up a company and return capital for investors through an acquisition or IPO. It’s no guarantee, but if they’ve done it before, they’re more likely to be able to do it again than someone who never has. The founders should also have done their homework, identified a large addressable market, and a portion of that market where they can test and learn the messaging that sells their products. Wise investors place a high value on market traction, which is the demonstration that a startup is appealing enough that customers are paying for it. Investors should look for companies with

Nevada, like Myisha Boyce. “The opportunity AngelNV is presenting to investors is very much welcomed. By strengthening our knowledge of how to invest wisely, investors, especially those in minority communities, can help build longer term wealth for themselves and their families,” said Boyce.

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Real Estate Investment

Anish Malhotra has led cutting-edge innovation over 20 years across real estate, hospitality, technology and capital markets. Today, he is the CEO and Founder of Plotify, a data and algorithm driven end-to-end technology real estate asset manager. This new app is digitizing singlefamily home investing. Plotify allows sophisticated investors and family offices from anywhere in the world to instantaneously build and optimize a customized portfolio of directly and wholly owned, income-generating real estate assets with speed, precision and economies of scale, starting with Single Family Rentals in the USA and UK. They’ve taken a process that would normally take months and optimized it to take mere minutes.

an you share with us the “backstory” to how you got started in your career? From a young age, I travelled extensively across continents, broadening my view of the world and establishing a sense of global inclusiveness. And I believe the way I think about business has ultimately been shaped by these early global experiences. Since I started my career more than 20 years ago, I’ve also had an affinity for products that break down barriers and democratize access to platforms that promote broader participation. I’ve been able to translate my perspective into the creation of several innovative businesses, many of which I’ve built from the ground up.

of-sale financing Property management, insurances, taxes (both domestic and foreign) Accounting and full-service asset management wrapped into the transaction itself We’ve taken a process that would normally take months and optimized it to take mere minutes.

Now, I’m primarily focused in the technology space. And because one of my greatest passions is real estate, I’m enjoying turning my idea of a global real estate platform into reality. Where did you get the idea for Plotify and when was it founded? For me, the best ideas are usually those that are born out of frustration, which is exactly how Plotify came to life. A few years ago, my team and I were investing in real estate, including SFRs, part-time, aside from our professional real estate pursuits. We were constantly frustrated by the fact that there weren’t any consolidated tools in the marketplace that could help us efficiently build and manage our real estate portfolios. Our side hustle began taking up way too much of our time, which added fuel to the frustration we were already feeling. So, we decided to fill the gap ourselves. Many of us, myself included, had worked in the business in some capacity for the last several years, so it seemed like the natural course to take. We knew the market needed a single, unified platform — an end-to-end solution that could be made available to investors throughout the world. And we knew that we had the expertise to build it, so we did. We conceived Plotify in 2018 and spent two years building and seasoning the platform. The first single platform existed that allows people anywhere in the world the ability to instantly acquire an underwritten, cash-flow positive rental property. Plotify also offers: Optional and immediate point-

We’ve also allowed our customers to onboard their existing assets to their Plotify accounts, allowing them to see their entire SFR portfolios in one place for the very first time. And since everything is housed within a mobile app, our customers can view and manage their portfolios from anywhere in the world. What’s your advice for a first time real estate investor? Understand your motivation to invest in real estate. For example, are you investing for diversification, long term wealth creation, cashflow, to hedge against inflation, for partial self use / partial rental.

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Understand your investment horizon - are you a long term investor or a short and medium term investor? Is optimizing returns over the long term more important than liquidity, for example. Do your homework - there are many ways to get exposure to real estate investing, such as direct, fractional shares, REITs, funds and many resources available to help you. They all have pros and cons, and it’s important to understand them before investing. Make a plan - how much do you want to allocate or invest over what period of time and how do you want to invest it? Learning from others and taking advice can be helpful. Use tech tools to help you stay on top of your portfolio and investments.

“Rule No. 1: Never Plotify will lose money. soon release data Rule No. 2: Never for- aproduct for its members, get rule No.1” which will allow a focused Warren Buffett

and hygienic view of data to help understand the USA and UK markets.

What makes a successful real estate investor? Follow the data - ultimately, it never lies. Detachment - generally, you’ll do better if you are not emotionally attached to a property (that doesn’t mean you can’t be an ethical investor to your tenants, for example). Timing - there are better times to invest than others through the cycles. Your timing should be a function of your motivation and investment horizon. If you are a short term investor then timing against market cycles may have more weight in your strategy, though if you are a long term investor then dollar-cost averaging is a good way to approach your strategy without worrying too much about short term peaks and toughs. What tax liabilities should one be aware of when investing in property? There are several layers of tax to consider: At the property level in the USA we look closely

at how annual property taxes affect current yield and are likely to affect future yield. For example, an investment may stack up on all other factors though high property taxes erode cash returns so significantly that it makes it hard to invest in that neighbourhood for cashflows. On the other hand, high property taxes can result in better infrastructure in that neighbourhood, which may lead to better rental and purchase demand, driving home price appreciation. Oftentimes, local municipalities can overcharge property tax. Though time consuming, there are ways to get credits for property tax overcharges. In the UK, there is a tax at purchase known as SDLT (Stamp Duty and Land Tax). Currently, the SDLT rate varies based on the value of the property, and whether you are purchasing as an individual or a company. Factoring this into your return calculations is important. At the entity level if you are investing through a company structure, one must consider formation and annual compliance costs which includes taxes, and whether the entity is taxed or the income and expenses flow through to your personal returns. There are several factors to consider in this process. At the personal level whether you purchase in your own name or through a pass through structure such as an LLC, understanding the nuances of your effective tax rate is important. For example, in the USA, it is permitted to use depreciation as an expense against income from a rental property, which decreases the effective tax rate, and provides a benefit to real estate investors. However, using depreciation as an expense isn’t permitted in the UK. At an international level it’s important to understand withholding tax. For example, the USA has incredibly penal withholding taxes on rental income and capital gains for foreign buyers of USA real estate. However, there are ways to mitigate these withholding taxes by making the correct elections early on in the process, and understanding how to efficiently navigate the process of refunds. Plotify manages all of these tax aspects for its members. Readers can find Anish on LinkedIn and Plotify on the social channels below: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/plotifyfinancial Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ PlotifyFinancial/

The Way of the Intelligent Rebel Succeed Outside the System, Teach Yourself Anything, And Achieve Ultimate Freedom Olivier Roland Do you dream of a life less stressful? Do you crave a world where you can break out of the system, take control of your purpose and fashion your own path to success and fulfilment?

If these questions resonate with you, sparking interest and intrigue, then this book is a mustread for you. The daily grind of commute, work, sleep, repeat can be relentless and suffocating, but it doesn’t have to be like that. The world is there for the taking and if your dream is to escape Groundhog Day, thwarting the monotony, then Olivier Roland can show you how. The Way of the Intelligent Rebel steers you through the stages of building a successful business with minimum risk; a business which suits your lifestyle and cements your ‘'raison d'être'. His writing is inspirational, encouraging us to think above and beyond; it empowers us to believe in ourselves and our true potential. His teachings enable us to discover how to: • • • • •

create a successful business which enhances life turn perceived 'weaknesses' into strengths, embracing individuality understand why and how the modern education system is potentially flawed live a rewarding life while adding value to society transform life into an adventure via a unique, personal journey

Olivier’s passionate approach is a joy and motivates us to believe in our very being, our purpose. He instils an excitement and desire to shape our own journey, embrace and utilise our strengths, strive for success like never before. Drawn from personal experience, research into thousands of entrepreneurs and over 400 scientific studies, The Way of the Intelligent Rebel will help you achieve your goals and realise your full business potential. What are you waiting for? For publicity requests please contact katherineobrien@hayhouse.co.uk

July/Aug 2021

Investment Management

With over a decade of experience in capital markets and portfolio management Darin Tuttle left Goldman Sachs to manage multimillion dollar portfolios in his early 20’s. As a millennial money manager, Darin has been featured in: Yahoo! Finance, The Epoch Times, The Institutional Investor and Streetinsider. com for his expert insights. Darin is the key person for investment research, portfolio construction, strategy implementation, monitoring, performance evaluation and communication of investment strategy.

here did your journey in capital markets and portfolio management start? My junior year of college I joined the student leadership society and they put me in charge of the career student events with potential recruiters. I was in charge of getting companies set up in the booth, making sure they had all the IT equipment they needed. It also allowed me to work directly with recruiters and put my face in front of a lot of people. I used that as an opportunity to get my first big break into Wall Street and landed a summer internship posi-

tion as an analyst with Goldman Sachs. What accelerated my career was being willing to go and do the work that nobody else wanted to do. In everything that I did I wanted to do it in such a way that it would make it the the best place to work. I took an interest in electronic trading platforms and I was really good at it. So they started having me help onboard prime brokerage clients and new prop traders to the firms trading systems. This got me access to portfolio

managers and traders from a variety of firms, backgrounds, and products. I would set the limits for them in the system and show traders and portfolio managers how to implement their strategies. At night I would read operational manuals and study the products I didn’t know about. I was always curious. Even though I mostly worked with on-boarding, I ended up doing a lot of customer service because when something in the system broke I was knew their problems better than others I was usually their first call to fix it.

events have shown that more pronounced crashes can effect everything especially any type of concentrated investment. When people head for the exits, the speed of trading, at zero cost, great as it is, doesn’t give investors time to think. Diversified investment has become more and more difficult as correlations increase. This trend is not reversing, with bonds likely becoming the next asset class to start moving lockstep with equities.

I didn’t like only getting attention when something went wrong, so I transitioned to portfolio management at Keats Connelly a cross border wealth management firm which managed $500m in assets between the US and Canada. They took a chance on me, being only 27, but they liked me because I could add a lot of value by navigating the operational complexities of assets on both sides of the border and working with multiple custodians.

A thoughtful, proactive approach to investing, combined with prudent hedging, will combat the impulsive reaction to the markets that can lead to failure. At Tuttle Ventures we take a unique approach to gain real diversification in extreme events. Financial contagion has increased over time so understanding volatility as an asset class and being able to take advantage of trading volatility products both long and short has increased in its importance to regain diversification.

I made the move to Pacific Capital to manage $200m in assets so I could manage portfolios as the key person, with more autonomy to pursue new investment opportunities. What inspired you to start your own business? I started Tuttle Ventures in order to help people find lasting financial security. My dad was a good example, starting 2 businesses of his own at a young age.

We created our core investment drivers by combining a complementary strategy of: - Buying good companies at fair prices, - Trading volatility as an asset class to improve returns throughout all market cycles.

When life turns as volatile and confusing as it has over the past year, even the most patient investors may come to question the wisdom of the plan they’ve been following and that happened to me too.

What is the mindset of winning as an investor? To quote Benjamin Graham, “Successful investing professionals are disciplined and consistent and they think a great deal about what they do and how they do it”. - Benjamin Graham

I guess the biggest catalyst was, after reviewing portfolios and financial plans for high net worth clients. I realized a high percentage started their own businesses. I was inspired by the chance that I could obtain financial security for my family by starting my own business too.

Where to from here for you? Tuttle Ventures has the vision, capital and people to make a difference. What does this mean? Tuttle Ventures will seek investment in companies & leaders who prioritize value creation early and are aligned to that mission. Why? People’s ability to withstand market fluctuations and remain committed to long term goals is dependent upon what they value most. This does not just apply to my business, but it can also apply to YOU and how you invest. Focus on what matters most and the rest will take care of itself. We invest so you can do the rest.

What are your top 3 investment advices? Vision to see what the future holds rather than what it is now. Believing in something before others understand it. Courage to act in a meaningful way. Patience to stay disciplined and not fall victim to human nature. We are told that diversity is key in investment. What advice would you give terms of the best investment portfolio? Diversification is not what it used to be. Accelerated events to the downside are not unique but current

To get in touch with Darin: Website: www.tuttleventures.com Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/tuttledarin Twitter: @Darin_T80

July/Aug 2021

SME PLATFORM FOR TRADE

ell us about the early days of your working life and how you founded Kountable. What brought you to where you are today? I was working in the asset management industry with high net-worth and ultra-high net-worth investors and had founded and grown a few businesses with a specific focus on technology and operations and was intrigued by two macro trends I saw colliding: The first was the constriction of capital after the financial crisis due to a breakdown in trust in international banking, specifically in Global North to Global South trade flows. Second was the proliferation of cloud, mobile, and machine to machine communication via APIs. Money was drying up amidst a flood of data. I saw an opportunity there.

Twitter @kountable What drew you to this industry? Chris - I never thought I’d end up this deep in the trade world. It really happened by listening to our platform users. We were amazed by the critical role they play in global distribution in critical sectors like healthcare, IT and infrastructure and the value they bring to those verticals, and in learning about their businesses and the needs they had, we built Kountable.

Chris Hale is the Founder and CEO of Kountable, a secure, cloud-based technology platform connecting the best SMEs in trade to the best global suppliers to deliver successful projects. Chris brings prior experience and knowledge to the industry.

Tell me how you are changing the trade industry. First, trade across the board has a long way to go on the digital transformation journey and we’re pushing on that front. Second, SMEs (small and medium enterprises) are key players in global distribution and are left out by a lot of traditional finance players.

Our unique model, combining cloud technology and a commercial trading relationship, aligns us with our platform members in a way traditional finance can’t do. It’s partly regulatory but it’s really because our job is to solve the world’s distribution problem.

or learning about how to preserve cold chain integrity for vaccines here in the US, it’s a new adventure all the time. What advice would you give other entrepreneurs? I’m going to be blunt: Don’t die. Markets are changing so fast and new technologies are so impactful that the best advice I can give you is figure out how to keep your core team intact, maintain an innovative mindset and surround yourself with investors who believe in the mission enough to provide the runway you need to figure it out.

Tell us how COVID has affected the trade industry and supply chains and what it has changed. Like the financial crisis, COVID is another crisis that has tested the resiliency and integrity of our systems. Lots of supply chains are clearly not built for resilience and there are ways to make them more malleable, resilient and inclusive, and stronger as a result. The second major impact is that COVID has shown us how critical demand chains are. In sectors like healthcare, we need to know who needs what, where, and when. Supply chains were built from the inside out to the customer. Demand chains are built from the customer outside-in.

You started providing this service to emerging markets in Africa and now you are expanding to the US- how has this growth been? We’ve been surprised at some of the similarities between our members in both places and the challenges that they face in both markets. We like to say that underserved communities have been “training with weights” because of all of the additional obstacles they face. When they plug into a platform like ours, the entrepreneurs and their companies really take off in a similar way.

Who can use the Kountable platform? The Kountable platform is a trust network. We’re built for all of the critical actors in a trade. The SMEs are the center of gravity and all other players orbit around them. We have capital providers and investors, insurers, freight forwarders, large suppliers and global buyers each consuming the most relevant data for them respectively in the way they need to consume it. Some of them log in directly and review, some receive periodic reports, and the most active members run large portions of their business using our technology. What draws companies to use a service like Kountable? Most of our best members describe us as a partner. We had so much to learn in the early days we just ended up building what we saw was missing from their workflows and delivering the resources they needed to scale. In the past year, we’ve added some real trade and supply chain professionals to the team, but in our early days it was that learni ng approach and the partnership model that attracted our first core members. As an entrepreneur and business owner, what has been a highlight in your journey? I love to learn new things and Kountable continuously delivers on that opportunity while doing really important and impactful work. That combination is addictive. Whether it’s figuring out how currency exchanges really work in Rwanda

Can you talk about the importance of transparency and preventing money laundering? The impacts of bad acts like fraud, trade-based money laundering and asset diversion are a massive tax on all of the good actors in a system. This was true in asset management and it’s true in trade. Our Head of Product, Danielle Russell, often reminds me that corruption is a strategy to overcome certain obstacles, and if we can deliver tools to help our members overcome those obstacles without cutting corners, they will. We also invest a lot in tools and talent to keep the network safe and secure, so we attract the best partners. We’re curating a trust network and we help everyone understand the behaviors needed to build and maintain trust. It’s baked right into our products. What has been the most surprising thing you have found regarding this service to businesses? It was really surprising to see how many gaps there were in critical distribution channels in healthcare, IT and industrials. Really critical and valuable equipment moves around the planet with little to no data transparency or financial liquidity. That friction increases costs and slows down development timelines and impairs patient outcomes. I’m

July/Aug 2021

continuously amazed by how big the opportunity still is. What is next for Kountable? Global health is mission critical for Kountable in the coming years. We’re working on projects to pair diagnostics and digital identity, helping with diabetes care distribution, COVID response, maternal and women’s health and a number of telco partnerships in digital health. Financial liquidity, supply chains and digital health used to be different verticals and sectors. COVID and the global response have collapsed them together and I think they’ll continue to converge as technology plays an increasingly bigger role.

What is next for you? I’m focused on a few major partnerships that we’ll be announcing in the coming months. Our data has unlocked access to a powerful population of doers. Kountable runs a global execution network and, with all that we have to get done in global health, financial inclusion, energy transformation and IT infrastructure, we’re working on leveraging our platform and our data to plug a few global MNCs into this turbo charged execution network and tackle some big problems. That’s consuming all of my time and the stakes are high, so I love it. What is the best way for people to contact you directly? You can find me on LinkedIn or follow Kountable on LinkedIn orTwitter @kountable

Sheena Yap Chan

Follow Me On Social Media

Toronto, Canada +1 416 820 0239 info@sheenayapchan.com

Website: https://sheenayapchan.com

Sheena Yap Chan is a Keynote Speaker,

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July/Aug 2021

Akin Investments

FINRA Series 65 Registered Investment Advisor, Stephen Akin is an independent, fiduciary advisor with over 35 years of investing experience

hat inspired you to an investment career? I was a sea captain prior to becoming an investment advisor. I held a US Merchant Marine Masters Certificate. In my early thirties (early 1980s) I realized that going to sea was not the greatest for children and family life ashore. I began trading the markets, had a friend with a firm in Galveston and spent lots of time trading when I wasn’t offshore. I decided to get my FINRA Registration and worked with two major Wall Street Firms. What’s your motivation in helping others with their investment goals? I really enjoy helping people learn about the many ways that they can approach their lifestyle and create wealth for the future. Financial literacy is an area where I think our schools could greatly improve. Where did you get the idea for Akin Investments? I turned 65 and within a few months I decided to proceed with establishing my own firm. It is something I had thought about during my career but never moved forward on it until 2015.

finally done the trick. Fed chairman Powell says that it may be a “transitory bout if inflation”. Time will tell. What is your business model and what differentiates it from others? When I created my firm I wanted to eliminate any inherent conflicts of interest that are found in many investment firms. We don’t take custody of securities or funds of clients therefore there is no pressure on clients to make hi cost investments that are often not the best thing for the client and may also be illiquid. As a true fiduciary we help clients create the individual portfolio of investments that best suits their needs. Each account is managed separately. Often we are involved in giving second options for clients who are considering a financial move that may incur higher costs or illiquid items like partnerships, private investments or the sale of an insurance product or structured settlement. Akin can be contacted on: https://www.linkedin. com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenakin-904164120/

In January of 2016 my registration was granted in South Carolina. We moved to Mississippi in June of 2019 and registered with the Secretary of States office who regulates the securities business in the state of Mississippi. Today we are based here in Jackson and continue to serve clients in South Carolina as well. You said investment opportunities abound from stocks and bonds, crypto, precious metals and alternative. Tell us more. The virus dealt the world a blow for sure! Now it seems that almost everyone I talk with is optimistic about moving forward even though it may not be quite the same as it used to be. By that I mean more flexible office hours seem to be the way of the future however there may be some consequences to not being in a professional environment. Stocks that facilitate this change in working styles have done well and should continue to do so. Another asset in portfolios should be some type of inflation hedge such as precious metals and or commodities. There is a lot of velocity of money as reopening continues. For many of you, you may remember after the financial crisis 2008 the Federal reserve was there with plenty liquidity but they could not jump start demand. It appears the stimulus money and the reopening may have

Business Digest Magazine July/Aug 2021 Issue

Articles inside

Is Bitcoin the Future of Currency?