The Exchanges

Q Got it. And what is the walk me through the process? Obviously, it's called the 10% Entrepreneur. It's a collection of these stories, people you've had lunch with. A lot of people listening are thinking about writing their own books. So why did you decide to publish it with a publisher versus self-publish it?

A Yeah, my number one, so there were a couple things I wanted to achieve. The number one thing was I was not a well-known sort of media figure, and I felt that it would be valuable to have a big publisher behind me in order to give me that credibility. And I also, as I got into it, found that the editorial process and having a great editor, you know, so many people write terrible books because they don't have great editors. A great editor can take reasonably good content and make it really terrific. That was A. B, I wanted to be global, and so having Penguin now, the book's out in Spanish and Korean and Japanese and Chinese.

AI assessment note: “have a big publisher behind me in order to give me that credibility”

Q We, we, uh, I, a lot of my listeners are exited entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, people with disposable income looking to make investments. So what was the actual, like, what did, what did he come to you and actually offer? I mean, was it, Hey Patrick here, buy 10% of the company for 200 grand. I mean, what was it specifically?

A He was raising around, he was raising around, um, he had put together a bunch of people and he had a couple of VCs in there, but it was mostly angels, people who were at Facebook and maybe had an exit. And he said basically like, um, You know, we are, we, I was, I don't think he disclosed how much they raised. I mean, it's been out in the press a bit, but you know, it was in the, it was in the single millions because, you know, he didn't need a lot of cash to do what he wanted. And he said, you know, here's the docs. If you're interested, you can invest as much as you want. Um, and I, you know, that was it.

AI assessment note: “here's the docs. If you're interested, you can invest as much as you want.”

Q Got it. Got it. Got it. Very good. And how did you meet her? Did you meet her at AIG or I mean, how'd you guys connect?

A Actually one of the people, again, it goes back. This is what my whole ethos has been for the book. Somebody asked me to lunch to figure out how they could do this themselves. I talked to him. He had been a trader at Deutsche Bank. Guy went to Harvard math major. Got blown out in the crisis, wanted to figure out what to do with his life. I told him this idea. He said, my best friend from Harvard is a literary agent. You should talk to her. That's how I met her. So like, you know, you out there, you, if you're generous, this is a little bit like hokey, but if you're generous to the world, and I think you, you are Nathan, you create tons of content that's out there for people to listen to. It comes back to you in so many different ways, right?

AI assessment note: “He said, my best friend from Harvard is a literary agent. That's how I met her.”

Q So how do you know? Like, if you don't know how many you've sold, how do you know if they're paying you the royalties they should be paying you or not?

A You get reports every six months. So your agency works with them. It's like, you get it. It just in delay. And so the last one I got was two days after the book came out or something like that. But what I see from basically some of the reading the tea leaves and talking to the local publishers is that it's done really well. Um, like we're, you know, a bestseller in South Korea. I was in Saudi Arabia last month and people started coming up to me and that we're South Korean and they, my pictures on the front in South Korea. So they recognize me and I asked them about it and they said, yeah, it's actually really taken off. That's the kind of stuff.

AI assessment note: “You get reports every six months. So your agency works with them.”

Q Just because you said it appreciated, or what?

A It was, it appreciated, we had a really great tenant, and then the market, we got it at a really great valuation. And so, it was, it was totally timing. The company really needed the cash. He's an amazing, this guy had worked in some big funds in New York, and so he knows how to structure, uh, Deals in a really smart way. Um, so that's like, that's a great example. I don't know a ton about real estate. I can find deals, but I partner with the best so that we could do, do deals and make really great returns. If I did it on my own, that would be, I'd probably, you know, not be telling you that story because I would have lost all my money.

AI assessment note: “It was, it appreciated, we had a really great tenant, and then the market”

Q How do you, I mean, I'm sure you've had bosses, right? I mean, how do you balance it or how many deals do you have to do before you can be sure there there's a, you know, a big exit in the, in the portfolio?

A Yes. Well, we know what happens a lot of times. So when I, when I started doing this, I really thought about what the mistakes I'd seen in my career as an investor. Cause I had invested in over 20 businesses all over the world. My, I always did private equity in emerging markets in the hardest places in the world. So Pakistan and Turkey and Argentina and Columbia. So I'd seen basically anything that could ever go wrong with a business and lost plenty of money as, as an investor working in a fund. And when it came to my own money, I was not willing to make those mistakes again if I could avoid it. And what I see with people that are angel investors, it happens all the time. And I had a call the other day that tells you exactly the problem with a guy who was a major hedge fund. You know, he runs his family office. Now it's hundreds of millions of dollars, if not a billion dollars. And he was telling me about the investments he had made and invested in friends companies. And he always cut his friends, the sweetest deals ever. And they always end up in trouble and he didn't know what to do. So as an investor, there's a couple of things that I, that I think are really critical. Number one is you have to invest in your areas of expertise. So you have to stay close to home in terms of your knowledge base. Number two, you have to make sure that you, you, these may be your friends, but …

AI assessment note: “So as an investor, there's a couple of things that I, that I think are really critical.”