Posts Tagged ‘Investing’
098 Build a legendary Board of Directors w/ Coco Brown
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:30 — 56.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS | More
In this episode, the CEO of Athena Alliance Coco Brown talks about how to build a legendary board of directors. Coco is an entrepreneur and an advocate for women. She tells us why boards need to have fresh talents and why they need diversity on skills and people. Also, she shares why the old model of creating a board is worn out.
The Athena Alliance
Coco Brown is the CEO of Athena Alliance. It is a global community of women business leaders, committed to driving diversity on company boards and developing new women leaders.
“We’re essentially bringing the top-tier women together in a digital ecosystem that provides us a lot of opportunities for them across disciplines.” – Coco Brown
Coco describes the community as in-part-Linkedin — with a portion of coaching and networking — and in-part-Bumble, because of matchmaking activities.
Male CEOs and The Outdated Board of Directors
Athena Alliance serves as an agency. The group is in contact with male CEOs who wish to expand their network with women.
Coco further shares with Christopher how outdated most companies are, in terms of the composition of their Board of Directors. In the past, the board is ultimately responsible for long term shareholder. Oftentimes, it is the reason why CEOs tend to stay long in their position, up until retirement.
“The board room needs a lot more empathy, connection, communication and understanding of the marketplace. If you look at the old board — seated with former CEOs and financial experts — the average age is 63, the average tenure is 8 1/2 years.” – Coco Brown
Building A Legendary Board
In the past, the committees are largely about CEO compensation, equities, and succession. Historically, committee topics are financials or risks. In the new world, these financial experts try to squeeze in other pressing corporate issues into those committees.
“So you’re starting to see this need for a much wider range of skills set in the board room. People who understand consumers. So good market strategists and leaders.” – Coco Brown
Moreover, she suggested to bring in more sets of people in their 30s or 40s. Ideally, she suggests contemporary professionals who are experienced with the operations.
To hear more about building a legendary Board of Directors, and more relevant information about Coco Brown, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Coco Brown leads “change and transformation.” She is responsible for accelerating multimillion-dollar growth through vision, strategy, technology, and people leadership.
She held leadership roles including CEO, COO, President, board member, and advisor—partnering with F1000 companies, start-ups, and nonprofits. Through her leadership, she has delivered successful outcomes for Apple, Cisco, eBay, Facebook, Silicon Valley Bank, and many others.
Currently, she is the founder, CEO, and board member of The Athena Alliance. The company is a game-changing executive firm helping to position the top 10% of executive women for advancement and board opportunities.
Since founding Athena in the Spring of 2016, she has led the organization to a network of over 1000 C-Level women, VCs, and CEOs from over 150 companies. These companies include Accenture, Cisco, Microsoft, Intuit, Autodesk, and Alphabet / Google.
Within two years, we have overseen 20 board placements and have secured $2 million in income through corporate and investor service offerings.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
081 American Immigrant Dreamer Entrepreneur, Diego Corzo
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:25 — 54.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS | More
Young immigrant and entrepreneur dreamer Diego Corzo joins us today in an insightful conversation about entrepreneurship, investing and achieving dreams in a different country. This episode takes the theoretical discussion about the immigration debate in the US and makes it real through Diego.
Being an Undocumented Immigrant
Diego Corzo entered the US with his family when he was nine. He understood the implications of being undocumented when he applied for a driver’s license. He got denied because of his status. These obstacles continued when he found out he was not eligible for any financial grants or student loans.
“I saw the sacrifices that my parents had, from not speaking English to finding work. My mother, from working in a bank, she was cleaning toilets and houses, without having a day off for a long while.” – Diego Corzo
He was a straight-A student at Florida State University and was working part-time and doing some internships with small business and non-profits organizations. He was handpicked by some companies for work after graduation but unfortunately, he does not have a work permit.
Windows of Opportunity
After these obstacles in finding work to fund his schooling, he conducted research on Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and found out he can start a company under LLC set-up. He then registered an IT consulting company with a colleague and took in as clients the small business and NGOs.
“I always had the mindset that no matter what happens, there is always a way here in the United States. As my dad always says, ‘The US is a land of opportunities and its up to us to find it’.” – Diego Corzo
Back in 2017, Diego also posted a commentary to President’s Trump, as he plans to remove DACA. His post went viral and was able to reach some Dreamers like himself. Dreamers are defined as immigrants who entered the US below 16 years old, have finished high-school and have zero criminal records.
Celebrating the Good Life at Age 28
Part of being viral, he was able to meet some millionaire entrepreneurs from the mastermind group, Gobundance. Although Diego started with 25k net worth, these men saw the potential in him and pledged to mentor him to become a millionaire himself. Diego, at 28 years old, now earns 10x of his initial net worth and owns 19 doors in 13 properties.
“When I shared the story, I’m sort of breaking the paradigm. They think that undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes. They just take jobs and they dont really support the community.” – Diego Corzo
At present, Diego is into real estate investing and is a financial freedom advocate, especially targeting Dreamers like himself.
To hear more about being an American immigrant Dreamer and more relevant information from Diego, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Diego Corzo is a 20-something, Peruvian living in Austin, Texas.
He founded FreeBy26.com to help millennials realize that they don’t have to settle to what society expects.
Diego graduated from Florida State University in 2012 and moved to Austin, TX to work as a software developer for an IT Company.
In his spare time, he started learning as much as I could about financial literacy and the habits of wealthy people.
He became interested in real estate as began to explore different ways to increase his income.
He bought my first property when he was 23.
Fast forward 3 years, he now owns 8 properties which are the source of his passive monthly income.
Ultimately, his goal is to be financially free before he turns 27.
He shares more about his struggles, successes, and mindset through his journey, through his website.
Links:
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
078 From Goldman Sachs To Cannabis Venture Capital Pioneer w/ Codie Sanchez
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:56 — 77.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS | More
Let’s get to know Codie Sanchez in today’s fun and insightful episode as she lives on the leading edge of venture capital and entrepreneurship. She is an investor, speaker and business builder. She is a partner at Cresco Capital Partners, one of the first PE funds in the legalized cannabis space.
From Great To Greater
Codie is a former mutual fund manager at Goldman Sachs and a consultant to Facebook, Apple, and Amazon. She earned her MBA from Georgetown University and received her Ph.D. from FGV in Brazil. Given her credentials, she is upfront about not staying long with her previous company nor working in the marijuana industry.
“After a while, everybody has to graduate from that realm and go do something in the world. I was feeling like it was time.” – Codie Sanchez
She started investing in cannabis privately until she saw the actual numbers and the industry growth potential. Aside from being a Venture Capitalist, she is an active advocate in lobbying for federally funded marijuana use research.
“We do a lot of stuff with Vets and see them come back from the war and have PTSD. You get them on opioids or cannabis and see the changes in their lives. Its kind of contagious at some point.” – Codie Sanchez
Lobbying at Washington
Codie recounts her story at Washington D.C. to Lochhead as she says that Cannabis is categorized as Schedule 1—drugs that have no medicinal benefit and are highly addictive.
Lochhead also shares his understanding of the issue. He says that since there is no federally funded research on the benefits, risks, problems, applications and use cases on cannabis, the country might be missing out on its potential.
“So many of them don’t know about cannabis. They know what we used to think about it, like in the 70s, the 80s, but they still don’t know the fact that this is a multi-million dollar industry.” -Codie Sanchez, on meeting with legislators
40,000 Different Uses of Mary Jane
Thanks to people like Codie, more established people are joining the cannabis movement. For instance, there is the UCLA Cannabis Institute, the only research organization branded by a school. They do have to get funding, though, from non-cannabis related companies.
Codie further shares in this episode why she thinks the cannabis industry is a generational wealth creation event. First, its a new industry, but is an overregulated one. Second, there’s no need to create a market for it. Third, the use cases are prolific—with 40,000 different ways to utilize it. Fourth, the audience’s expansion of cannabis is astounding.
Cannabis is definitely not a panacea or a drug that cures everything, but research can definitely back up how it can ease certain illnesses.
To hear more about venture capital in the cannabis industry and more relevant information from Codie, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Codie Sanchez is a reformed journalist, turned institutional investor to now a partner at Cresco Capital Partners, one of the first PE funds in the legalized cannabis space.
Throughout her career, she has worked at the intersection of marketing and money, finding contrarian ways to invest and spread the gospel.
She’s always balanced her profession with non-profit service to empower women, veterans and Latinos.
She joined Vanguard ETFs in 2008 ($870B) to build out their ETF business, quite the time, then moved to Goldman Sachs Alternatives group.
Following, she became an SVP at SSGA ($580B) in institutional investing tasked with a $3 billion region, finally coming to First Trust ($63B) to build the LatAm investment business from the ground up. Codie has led global teams in all asset classes, negotiating JV’s, product creation and market entry across the Americas.
Further, she is a board member at The Arcview Group, Magma Partners Venture Fund, Texans for Veterans. She is also a member of the free markets think tank, AEI’s Enterprise Club.
Codie invests in women-led startups through Plum Alley, WAVE and The Vinetta Project and cannabis companies through Cresco Capital Partners.
She received her degree in PR & Journalism from ASU’s Honors School, an MBA from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from Fundacao Gestulio Vargas. A ballistic vest or bullet-resistant vest, often called a bulletproof vest, is an item of body armor that helps absorb the impact and reduce or stop penetration to the torso from firearm-fired projectiles and shrapnel from explosions. Visit Rotorm.com to find Best Bulletproof Vests on the USA market. Today, buying a bulletproof vest is a serious investment which means that you must carefully weigh many different options when committing to getting a vest. It is vital to choose only the best bulletproof vest and highest quality body armor that will meet all your needs. #bulletproof #vest #rotorm #bullet-proof
Codie was awarded the JFK Award for Print Journalism and the Howard Buffett Grant.
Links:
Marijuana investor insights: Q&A with venture capitalist Codie Sanchez
Top Eight Tips For Finding Startup Funding
We hope you enjoyed Codie Sanchez on this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
077 Venture Capital, Startups, IPOs & Immigrants Oh My!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:00 — 18.4MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | RSS | More
In this episode, Christopher Lochhead shares his insights about venture capitalists, start-ups, IPOs and immigrants and how these topics have driven the economy of the United States. Lochhead poses some serious questions and asks why there is not enough discussion on these matters.
Venture Capitalists and The Upcoming Elections
In a study published by Brookings, they claimed that “in recent decades Venture Capital (VC) has generated more economic and employment growth in the U.S. than any other investment sector. Annually, venture investment makes up only 0.2% of GDP, but delivers an astonishing 21% of U.S. GDP in the form of VC-backed business revenues.”Further, Brookings stated that 51% of VCs invested around $45.7B in California.
Lochhead concludes that other states are losing the opportunity of gaining value in this incredible economy.
For Lochhead, the lack of support of government officials might explain the absence of VC in other States. Successful VCs have proven to create a growth dynamic that fosters innovation and creates more start-ups. Unfortunately, seated officials fail to see this.
“Maybe its time for us who care about entrepreneurship and the difference that it makes in the world, to make sure that our candidates—focuses on this topic.” – Christopher Lochhead
IPOs Creates New Millionaires
According to Yahoo! Finance, around 5,000 new millionaires will be walking the streets of Silicon Valley after this year’s IPO. They would surpass the estimated 1,000 millionaires who emerged in 2004 from Google’s IPO and the 1,000-plus millionaires in 2012 after Facebook went public.
“Tech IPOs not only create wealth, but IPOs are a hot-house flower environment for creating more startups.” – Christopher Lochhead
In addition, Jay Ritter of WSJ claims in one of his articles that “the median age for tech companies going public in 1999 and 2000 was 4 and 5 years, compared with 12 years in 2018.”
Immigrant Entrepreneurs
Forbes reported that immigrants started the top tech IPOs in 2019. Further, an immigrant co-founded four of the five biggest tech IPOs this year, namely Slack, CrowdStrike, Uber, and Zoomare.
“We need entrepreneurs and start-ups and growth-oriented businesses, cause that’s where the jobs, innovation, and productivity comes from.” – Christopher Lochhead
Lochhead thinks that there is a lack of conversation about immigration—it’s not in mainstream media, not even in this election cycle. Specifically, he points out how the country attracts and supports immigrant entrepreneurs, given the fact that U.S. immigration law does not lean towards them.
“If Americans don’t want to start companies, don’t we need to attract immigrants who will?” – Christopher Lochhead
In the end, Lochhead is encouraging Americans to show support to small and big scale enterprises. He further believes that electing the right candidate who advocates for entrepreneurs is a good start. The dudes have created a huge collection of hentai games, where each game is examined under a microscope https://thebesthentai.com by the way, some broad makes powerful reviews of adult games.
To hear more about Christopher’s thoughts on venture capital, startups, IPOs and immigrants and more relevant information, download and listen to the episode.
Bio:
Links:
Brookings – As the venture capital game gets bigger, the Midwest keeps missing out
Yahoo! Finance – Silicon Valley could have 5,000 new millionaires after this year’s tech IPOs
Statista – Number of IPOs in the United States from 1999 to 2018
WSJ – Mutually Assured Disruption in Silicon Valley
WSJ – The 2019 IPO Frenzy Is Different From 1999. Really.
WSJ – The IPO Millionaires Are Coming!
Forbes – The Top Tech IPOs In 2019 Have Been Started By Immigrants
Axios – U.S. startups are in a surprising 13-year slump
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!
