The Ledger
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Robles: People who separate emotions from business partnerships are mostly narcissists
“I've met very few people that can separate that out. You know, I do believe that there are some, and most of them are narcissists.”
Robles: Building a worthwhile company almost always requires raising capital
“Because, you know, in the life cycle of a company, you know, if you're doing anything worthwhile, you're going to need to raise money unless you're just one out of a million that bootstraps it and hits, you know, the big time from the start, that's very few an…”
Robles: Making money is easy, but managing money is difficult
“I don't think making money is that difficult. I think it's actually an easy thing to do. But what I do think is difficult is managing that money and then having a plan for what that money is going to do. And that's a very difficult thing for most people to han…”
Robles: Venture capital forces founders to surrender excessive equity and control
“When you fundraise through venture capital there's generally a lot of caveats tied to you getting that money. And as a founder, you can give up a significant amount of control of your company. You generally have to give away board seats. You will likely have t…”
Robles: Most company problems stem from internal personnel rather than external forces
“When you're looking at, you know, in your own company problems, a lot of problems arise from, you know, people in the company. It's not like external forces most of the time. It's mainly the people that you're interacting with on a daily basis”
Robles: Reg A eases fundraising but brings high costs and reporting
“Well, we'll say it's less of a headache from the standpoint of raising the dollars. It's not necessarily less of a headache from the standpoint of what you have to do to get there, the cost factor, as well as the reporting factor, the reporting requirements af…”
Robles: Regulation A offers a more cost-effective pathway to public listing
“If that's the direction that the company desires to go, or it's the right fit for that, it gives them a direct pathway to a public listing. That's much more cost effective and not necessarily easy to do, but it is more cost effective. And it allows them to go …”
Robles: Most companies should test with Reg CF before Reg A
“Well, I think that for most companies, they should probably test the waters with a reg CF, which is a regulation crowdfund.”
Robles: Holding patents does not make SEC Reg A qualification easier
“No, that doesn't matter. I mean, it really is in your business plan. It really is in how good the attorney at the law firm is that's doing this. And it's in how, you know, good you present the package essentially.”
Robles: Foreign Startups Struggle Raising US Capital Due to Exit Friction
“It's difficult for foreign companies to come into the U S and raise money from U S investors because U S investors want to know that they have some kind of a liquidity event. Is this pump company going to go public in the US? I mean, am I going to have to figu…”
Robles: Firm owns identity resolution tech and 4 billion data records
“We actually have that technology. We own the technology and we own about four billion data points and records. We also have all the PII data on it, all the hashed email data.”
Cecil Robles's portfolio of businesses generates over $10M in gross annual revenue
“I would say as far as gross income per year as a whole, our businesses are over ten million dollars.”
Cecil Robles lost over eight figures misstructuring his first business sale
“I had built up a company. It was, you know, doing close to eight figures. And it was you know, a nice revenue for my family and I, it was a nice income. Plus, you know yeah, I mean, it was just a great, it was a great business. And I decided to sell it because…”
Robles: M&A earn-outs require strictly defined operational controls to avoid buyer interference
“Structuring a deal like that has to be again, very, very defined. And I didn't define it properly. I didn't have the right counsel on it.”
Cecil Robles targets equity in 100 companies valued over nine figures
“My five year plan is I want to own a piece of a hundred companies. And, you know, I I'm not going to put it, I'm not going to throw a number out on what that number looks like for me, but you know, it's north of nine figures. I'll tell you that.”
Robles: Founders should bootstrap their first venture, then prioritize capitalization
“I would say you probably should bootstrap, you know, your first deal just to, you know, just to get your feet wet and, you know, see how it really feels. But then after that, you probably need to have a plan to be well capitalized in anything that you're gonna…”
Robles: Reg CF caps raises at $1.07M without audits, $5M with audits
“So the regulation crowdfund, you are either only able to raise one point oh seven million if you don't have audited financials or five million if you do have audited financials.”
Robles: Reg CF is exempt and not qualified by the SEC
“Now a Reg A to get it actually, so another difference between Reg CF and Reg A is that a Reg CF does not get qualified by the SEC. It's what, it's what's called a an exempt offering.”
Robles: Financial audits for Reg A cost $25K to $100K
“You know, companies can spend anywhere from 25 all the way up to a 100,000 dollars I've seen to get an audit, depending on how complex their books and their financials are.”
Robles: Filing Form 1-A for Reg A costs $50K to $100K
“Number two, you have to file what's called a form one A and a form one A is basically what the that the filing document that the SEC will review. And you know, that can cost again, depending on how complex the business is and how complex the offering is, you k…”
Robles: EI.Ventures took a full year to achieve SEC Reg A qualification
“I mean, with EI ventures, it took a year to get qualified.”
Robles: Roughly 87% to 91% of SEC Reg A filings get qualified
“I think there's somewhere around an 87 and 91% of reg A's that actually get to the point where they're filing with the SEC that get qualified. Don't hold me to that exact number. It might be different from the last time I checked, but I think it's somewhere ar…”
Robles: Reg A and Reg CF Require US-Incorporated Operating Entities
“You can't have that with a Reg A or even a Reg CF. The company has to be incorporated inside of the US for you to use any either one of these types of offerings. The team can be outside of the US but as far as the actual company has to be in the operating comp…”
Robles: Transfer agents are already digitizing securities on blockchain
“There are transfer agents that are out there that are already digitizing securities on the blockchain, which I think is something that, again, from a record standpoint, from a record keeping standpoint is great.”
Robles reached 100,000 subscribers with his post-non-compete crypto business
“So I basically formed another business and you know, sold a 100,000 paying subscribers to that business and there was nothing they could do about it.”
Robles: Unchecked ego from success drives entrepreneurs to their lowest points
“Ego can drive you and it can also drive you to you know probably to probably some of the lowest points in your life. And so I think for me, it's been a lesson of, you know learning how to check the ego that I think you can get if you have any kind of level of …”