Value-Add Nikhil Pajankar

Date recorded: May 22, 2023

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In this episode I interview Swati Chaturvedi, Founder & CEO of Propel[x], a platform that provides accredited investors access to a curated list of Deep Tech startups on the cusp of scientific and technological breakthroughs that could define the next century. They have recently expanded their offering to international startups and hedge funds.

Swati has been a management consultant, an investment professional and is now an entrepreneur. Prior to starting Propel(x), Swati was an investment professional at Exigen Capital, where she worked on IT Telecom, Travel, and BPO deals. Before that, she was a management consultant working across a variety of industries. Swati is the co-founder of the MIT Alumni Angel Investors group. She founded and led the group 2013 – 2015 and continues to be on the screening committee. She has an MBA from the Sloan School of Management, an M.S. from MIT, an M.S. from UC Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.

Enjoy!

What you can expect in today’s episode
- Swati's journey starting Propel[x]
- Overview of Propel[x] (vision, types of deals, due diligence process, expansion plans)
- Swati's views on a future with AI
- Swati's views on portfolio diversification
- Challenges growing Propel[x]
- Swati's advice to young investors and entrepreneurs
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Date recorded: May 5, 2023

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In this episode I interview Nelson Chu, Founder & CEO of Percent, a platform that started off providing accredited investors access to private credit investments, and has since evolved into the modern credit marketplace. Percent’s SaaS solution powers the sourcing, structuring, syndication, surveillance and servicing of private credit transactions. At a high level, Percent allows investors to find and compare private credit deals, which promise both high returns and resilience to recessions and inflation.

Nelson started his career in finance at Merrill Lynch (acquired by Bank of America) and then moved to the buy-side at BlackRock, where he worked in fixed income portfolio management operations. With an entrepreneurial itch, Nelson quit his job and started a consulting company helping founders build companies from ground up. After helping a number of founders for 5+ years, Nelson decided to start Percent, an alternative investment platform focusing on private credit.

Enjoy!

What you can expect in today’s episode
- Nelson’s journey starting Percent
- An introduction to private credit
- The risks associated with private credit investing
- Why private credit has been in the limelight recently
- How Percent has leveraged technology to provide investors with transparency
- How Percent has evolved from a platform focusing on private credit investing to a credit marketplace
- Nelson's unique investment and asset allocation strategy
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Date recorded: March 23, 2023

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In this episode I interview Ioana Surdu-Bob, Co-founder & CEO of Konvi, marketplace that allows anyone in the European Union to invest in exotic assets, such as watches, wines, whiskeys, bags, and cars.

Ioana has always been interested in investing, purchasing her first apartment at the age of 22 with her savings. With a background in computer science and a new found interest in collectibles, she and her co-founder decided to start Konvi.

Realizing the investment potential of luxury assets such as the Hermès Birkin bag, which has consistently outperformed other asset classes in the past years, the question arose: Why are these investment classes not yet available to the broader population.

As entry ticket prices for these items are very high, and production quantities are low, only the wealthy can source and access them. This is why Konvi was born. Konvi constantly connects with industry experts and luxury funds around the world to make these highly lucrative assets accessible to everyone through our Konvi platform.

Enjoy!

What you can expect in today’s episode
- Ioana’s journey starting Konvi
- Benefits of investing in exotic assets
- How Konvi provides access to these investments
- A breakdown of historical returns of asset classes on Konvi
- Ioana's advice for new investors
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Date recorded: March 14, 2023

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In this episode I interview Nick King, Co-founder & CEO of Vint, a platform that is securitizing fine wine and rare spirits allowing investors to efficiently get exposure to the asset class.

With a background in value investing, Nick was looking for uncorrelated assets to diversify his portfolio when he stumbled on the fine wine asset class. After doing some research and running a small portfolio, Nick and his co-founder, Patrick Sanders, found that fine wine had a very low correlation to public markets. Combining that with attractive returns, fine wine looked like the perfect candidate to diversify any portfolio. Thus, Vint.co was born.

Buying fine wine, however, comes with a lot of challenges. Vint's goal is to streamline the process for their investors by making it very easy to invest in the asset class through their platform. Vint performs their own due diligence leveraging fundamental analysis and data to drive decisions on which fine wines and spirits make it to the platform. They aim to financialize the asset class, which is why they have been working with the SEC from the get-go.

On the Vint platform you can get access to rare fine wine and spirit collections ranging from $25,000 to $500,000 at as little as $50 to $100. Investments are open to both accredited and non-accredited investors.

During the interview we dive into Nick's journey starting Vint and the benefits of the fine wine and spirits asset class.

Enjoy!

What you can expect in today’s episode
- Nick’s journey starting Vint
- Benefits of investing in fine wine & spirits
- How Vint provides access to fine wine & spirits
- Overview of Vint's platform and process
- Outlook on the wine industry
- Nick's advice for new investors
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Date recorded: March 14, 2023

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In this episode, I interview Andrew Luong, CEO of Doorvest, a company making it extremely simple for people to buy an investment property or even their first home.

Buying a home can be intimidating. The process involves a lot of steps with different players at each of those steps. Doorvest takes care of it all, end-to-end, including managing the property after close, for a fee.

Andrew didn't just stumble on this idea. After a taste of the benefits of owning a rental home, Andrew quickly scaled his personal portfolio to 10+ properties. As he grew his portfolio, friends asked for help to replicate his process. However, when it came down to it, none of them acted on his advice. Kick-starting the process ended up being too big or intimidating a task. After a number of episodes, Andrew saw a gap in the market and jumped on filling it. Doorvest was born in 2019.

During our interview, we dive deep into the benefits of owning rental properties and how Doorvest can help.

What really stood out to me about our conversation, however, was Andrew's insight on earned versus learned wisdom. If you're short on time, fast-forward to the end for that nugget.

Enjoy!

What you can expect in today’s episode
- Andrew’s journey starting Doorvest
- The benefits of owning rental properties (cash flow, appreciation, tax benefits)
- Overview of Doorvest’s platform and process
- How Doorvest de-risks customers
- Andrew's outlook on real estate in our changing economy
- Andrew’s investing tips
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Date recorded: April 8, 2023

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In this episode, I talk to Kendrick Nguyen, the Co-Founder and CEO of Republic, about how they are making private market investing accessible to everyone at as little as $10. Republic curates private investing opportunities with high-growth potential across startups, gaming, real estate, crypto and more.


Kendrick Nguyen is no stranger to the startup world. Though he started his career as a lawyer, followed by a stint in academia at Stanford Law, he eventually found his way into Tech as General Counsel at AngelList, where he found purpose in building the future. After working on AngelList's syndication product and seeing the benefits of building infrastructure to help founders and VCs raise capital easily, he saw its applicability to the general, non-accredited population. With the passage of the Jobs Act, he was able to make this a reality by spinning-off Republic from AngelList.


During our interview, we dive deep into what it means to be an investor and an owner in a company, and the benefits of allowing customers to participate in the upside of companies they love.

What you can expect in today’s episode
Kendrick's journey from lawyer to the Co-founder & CEO of RepublicThe importance of iterating in life and in businessRepublic's platform (vision, business model, due diligence, diversification, Republic Autopilot, Republic Note, and what success looks like)How cycles in the financial system lead to growth (2008 financial crisis, FTX, SVB, growing pains in crypto, and more)Investing, ownership, understanding risk and lessons learnedAccreditation hurdles and enabling everyone to investThe secrets to successWhether you're an experienced investor or just starting out, you won't want to miss this interview with Kendrick Nguyen.
Republic Overview:
Republic curates private investing opportunities with high-growth potential across startups, gaming, real estate, crypto, and more.Open to both accredited and non-accredited investors $500,000,000+ invested by 1M+ people in over 500 completed dealsMinimum investments range from $10 to $50,000 depending on the offeringLiquidity: Investments are typically illiquid, with no secondary market for trading shares or tokensReturn on Investment: Varies depending on the investment opportunity and is high-riskPlatform Users: 2.5 MillionInvestments made: $2.5 BillionFunded projects: 2,000+Offered in over 150 countriesYou can subscribe to new episodes of this show in the following places:
➡️ the Value-Add newsletter

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