3 days ago

RTBL 02 | The Truth About Capital Raising That Your Attorney Won’t Tell You with Devin Robinson

Title: The Truth About Capital Raising That Your Attorney Won’t Tell You with Devin Robinson

Summary:

In this episode of the “Funds on Fire” podcast, host Devin Robinson interviews Seth Bradley, a seasoned SEC attorney and a friend. Both share insights into the world of capital rasing, investment funds, and legal compliance. Robinson highlights the rapid learning curve and opportunities within the fund management landscape. He discusses his background in raising millions for real estate ventures and transitions into the value of complying with SEC regulations when raising capital. The conversation sheds light on common misconceptions surrounding securities law, stressing the importance of education and understanding regulations related to passive investments. Bradley offers practical advice on starting investment funds, the advantages of teaming up with experienced SEC attorneys, and the evolving trends in alternative investments, particularly in light of recent market changes. He emphasizes the necessity for diversity in investment management and the need for entrepreneurs from all backgrounds to have access to the financial education that empowers them to raise capital and scale their business ventures effectively.

Links to watch and subscribe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-w_w6WAUVw

Bullet Point Highlights:

Capital Raising Insights: Devin Robinson shares his journey in successfully raising millions for investment projects.
Legal Compliance Importance: Seth Bradley emphasizes the significance of understanding SEC regulations to avoid legal troubles in fund management.
Fund Management Strategies: Discussion on navigating funds, from 506(b) to 506© offerings, providing clarity on compliance requirements.
Education Gaps: The necessity for education in the finance and investment space is underscored, highlighting the lack of resources for aspiring fund managers.
Diversity in Investment: Recognition of the disparity in investment opportunities for minorities and the importance of fostering diversity in fund management.
Trends in Capital Raising: A shift towards fund-of-funds structures and other innovative investment vehicles as alternatives to traditional capital raising models.
Confidence Building: Advice encouraging newcomers in investment to be confident and educated, asserting their place in the industry.

Transcript:

raised tens of millions of dollars myself as well as um you know we purchased just in 2022 Alone um I was a GP on over $120 Million worth of commercial assets we don't want to say anything that might get us into trouble you know I'm I'm an entrepreneur first so I'm out there to to educate it started going down you started seeing some people get in trouble but all along the way on that rise up he's suing anybody because they've been getting their returns and they've been everybody's been crushing it and even if

you're a terrible operator you've still been crushing it because the market saved you and nobody's getting sued so it's all good until it's not welcome to funds on fire the podcast that ignites The Passion of investment funds in capital raising here we turn the complexities of fund management into clear actionable steps that drive results I've invested into diverse real estate across the United States and managed thriving funds and I'm committed to transforming lives through the vehicle of investment funds and helping

others to do the same join me as we document the Journey of scaling businesses raising capital and impacting tens of thousands of people around the world my name is Devin Robinson and welcome to funds on fire on this episode of the podcast I actually interview Seth Bradley who is an SEC attorney and has become a really good friend of mine so him and I met a couple years back at raay Fest and which is we're part of a mastermind for Capital raising and fun launching and then both of us as we've become friends

as we did this podcast interview gosh a couple of months ago and then now I've launched the podcast and even since then this is pretty cool him and I have actually started a partnership on um on helping people to launch uh manage scale and raise capital for investment funds and it's something really cool so you'll hear more about that later but it's really cool that it started uh with this podcast we both are very like-minded people we both have very similar goals and desires especially when it comes to

Capital raising and the access to information with when it comes to that and for other people to be able to learn how to um honestly be able to launch and scale an investment fund and there are so many people that have the ability to do it have the um the skills and the knowledge to do it but don't have the opportunity to do it or honestly just think it's too hard to do and so I'm so excited because partnering with somebody like Seth is incredible he's a guy who has helped hundreds of people to launch

and manage their funds or would just really launch their funds he has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and invested into hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate himself and so to be able to partner with him on something like this is really really awesome so I'm excited for that as we talked through his journey talk through all the things as we go through his progression from just being a real estate attorney to then an SEC attorney that goes and helps people to launch and manage funds his involvement

in that some of the things he's doing and honestly it's going to be a really good conversation for you all to hear how to stay compliant how to make sure that you guys are raising Capital appropriately how to make sure that you guys aren't going to get in trouble with the SEC because of how you guys are raising Capital so excited for this really pumped for this episode just thought I'd give you a little preface before we dive in you are going to want to listen to this cuz he is awesome and I'm excited so thank you so much enjoy

the episode all right what's up and welcome to this episode of funds on fire I I love this uh because today we have a friend of mine Seth Seth we go back I don't know like at this point I feel like it's like two years now or a year and a half what we met at Ray's Fest a while ago and I'll tell you I was super impressed by this dude because we met we met at a bar we were like at this event we had guess us that's right that's exactly right we were at this event for Ray Fest and like I'd gone downstairs he was

chilling I was chilling we started talking and I was like I like this dude because one he's not like the typical like white dude that's here he's all tatted up he's really cool and then I realized he's by far the smartest in the room and I was like yo Seth is the man so Seth I would love for people to tell or for you to tell people like who you are and what you do I've enjoyed keeping up with you over the years content you're putting out is incredible and so if you haven't give this man a follow

ESP if you want to stay compliant with funds and the legal aspect of it cuz he's doing some really awesome stuff and I love how just like fit you and your Wi-Fi that's pretty cool too so I respect that too so Seth like tell people who you are where you're from what do you do cuz I think it's going to be important for people to know you all right man Deon I appreciate that intro brother yeah it was it was great meeting you back in the day now we've kind of followed each other on social media and

kept in contact and loved it love it man love it but I'm I'm a Securities attorney so anytime you're raising capital from passive investors you can get me involved I've got I've got the pedigree I worked in big law for seven years before starting my own Boutique Law Firm I think what people like the most about working with me is that I actually come from the business side as well so I'm a syndicator and a fund manager myself so um you know I've raised tens of millions of dollars myself as well as um you know we

purchased just in 2022 Alone um I was a GP on over $120 Million worth of commercial assets so you know I come from not just the legal side but also the business side and I look at every single deal like you know whether I'm you know actually an equity holder or I am just the vendor as the Securities attorney I look at the deal like hey how are we going to get this thing done right a lot of attorneys kind of get in the way um I don't want to get in the way I I will tell you what the risks are what your liabilities are what you might

be opening yourself up to what the gray areas are but at the end of the day you're the business person and you're the entrepreneur so you make the decisions based on the information that I give you so I'm I'm there to help you you get the deal done that's cool man cuz like I know man there's a lot of misconceptions about funds and so one I can tell you I really appreciate I really appreciate you because I have had some not so great SEC attorneys that I was not a big fan of then I've had some good ones and so I'm thankful for it and

so when it comes to that uh we're going to we're going to talk about compliance because that's super important but we'll also talk about uh because I I I guess so I'm in another Mastermind I think I was going to bring this up a little bit later but I'll bring it up now and I want to talk about the importance of finding a good attorney because like I I'm in a different Mastermind and it's more of an operators based Mastermind like how to a lot of single family things and I I talk to people and I'm like and because I'm

going to set the groundwork for this podcast but I talk to people and they're like oh yeah I've got some friends they've let me borrow some of their money and I'm just using that money and I'm like oh hold on uh what do you mean and so I talked to like I mean I can't tell you the last po I was there two months ago three people told me this said three people and so they were like they were like yeah so I have an LLC and they wire the money into my LLC account it's like three or four friends they

wire this money into my LLC account and then I use it and I give them a return and I'm like you need to call an attorney right now because you are literally violating Securities Law like you you you are and they're like wait wait wait okay but but what if what if they they say we we sign up you know a promisory note they put it in here and I'm like security and then they're like okay but what if that the the the people hold it an escrow our attorney is holding an escrow I'm like security and so like just to even like set the

groundwork what is like what what is a security and and and what do you see most often when people come to you and they're looking for an attorney and they're like hey I'm doing this is this legal and you're like no that's not legal but what do you see like what is the security and what is the misconception or the mistake that you see a lot of people make when they come to you yeah I mean you just said it so the number one problem or the the biggest problem I see every single day is just the lack of knowledge like

people just don't know and there's there's maybe a fine line there between not knowing and not caring enough to know right exactly you're like I know I'm doing something here and I don't care to look into it a little bit further to figure it out but that's but that's really what it comes down to is just not having the knowledge because you think like you know I'm just going to you know me and this guy are going to partner he's going to give me all this money and they're not going to do anything and they're going to they're

going to expect a return on their investment and all that kind of stuff and it's all good but it's not you're getting yourself into into issues you know to define a security in a in layman's terms I like to just say look if you've got a passive investor involved in your deal and they're expecting a return on their money and on the actions that you're taking as the active participant then that's a security and that that's it like if if you have a passive investor meaning they're not you know making decisions

they're not managing they're not helping you out on the active side that's a passive investor and you're probably dealing with the security right and this is what I think separates like syndication from the fund right so like if you have a syndication and then you have somebody who is brings the capital typically they're making some of the decisions which makes them a little bit more active so then it's not in that sense of violating that Securities laws if it's just either like one person or even a couple a group that's actually

making decisions on that and I guess that's not the main differentiator between a syndication and and a fund but I think that's where people get confused is the passive part of things that's right that's right it's the passive part of it right like you have people that come in whether it's a syndication or a fund if if they have um some sort of managerial rights or meaningful voting rights because you'll see if you if you invest passively in a deal and you read through the PPM and the operating

agreement you'll see that you really don't have any rights to make any sort of decisions there might be some convoluted way that you might be able to get the manager out if a b c d and f happens but probably not so you'll see that you're really passive right and if you're passive then that's a security that you're dealing with you're investing into security cool that's cool and I appreciate us understanding that groundwork because I want people to listen to this I want people in my Mastermind to listen to this I want

people to just hear and understand that more often times like more than you think there are people clearly violating SEC like security law and so I just want to make sure that people are compliant and this is like you mentioned it earlier and I think that's really important is just the lack of Education side of things and you and I talk about that we talked about this before this of like really there's only like two main Educators in this space that are doing this and unless you know those two you

run the risk of not really being honestly educated enough to run a fund unless you have the self-education side of these and so I love like what you're doing and the content you're putting out especially from a Securities attorney aspect to be able to help that what what have you seen has been like the main sources of Education because even just like outside of what I do outside of what you do uh are there other sources of Education since you've been in this space longer than me that people can go to to gain more

information about what it looks like to raise a fund or uh or even start looking in that direction yeah dude it's tough out there right like you just you just said it and I I'll just name him I mean Hunter Thompson has some really good content that he puts out love Hunter super intelligent guy great stuff it's about raising Capital 4 real estate specifically which is great for the for your audience um and then Bridger Pennington of course um his is a little bit not necessarily real estate related

more in the private Equity space but also real estate sometimes and those are really the only two guys that are putting out content um typically before them you're really getting your education from your securities attorney that you engage with you know that can you know they're going to give you legal advice they're not going to give you kind of like you know they they'll review your marketing materials and things like that to tell you hey this is compliant this is not maybe this is what you should do this is what you shouldn't

do but there's not really anything comprehensive out there where you put the whole package together when you're really trying to start a capital raising business other than those two guys right now so you know there's a lot of room in that space for people to to step in and do it and and also you know Securities attorneys if you look I mean there's only a few of us putting out any kind of content cuz you know as an attorney most most of us are pretty conservative we don't want to put ourselves out there we

don't want to say anything that might get us into trouble you know I'm I'm an entrepreneur first so I'm out there to to educate and that's what I was going to ask so for you man just like a little bit about your journey because like it's not every day that you meet a a Securities attorney now granted we are at a fund event so then like of course you're going to run into a Securities attorney but like honestly you you I feel like and this is kind of cool I feel like me and you don't fit the molds

of our role like for like we're tatted like you know like you know I'm saying we're tatted we're a little bit more laid-back I got I think I posted this the other day I graduated college with a 2.3 GPA like I I just am not very qualified of what you would put the normal qual qualifications of a fund manager would be but for you like for you how did you get started and like what Drew you to Securities Law cuz it's a very specific Niche to be in for sure yeah and I really got started in real estate law so I was always drawn to real

estate I just knew it was a great investment I've just like intrinsically loved real estate I don't know what it was like even when I was in undergrad I was like man it would be so great to own these tow houses that I'm living in like things like that I've just always been attracted to it and investing in it so I started investing in it myself I started out doing real estate transactional law oh cool from that from that perspective and then I realized that you know raising Capital was a little bit more

sophisticated I I like that aspect better and I started gravitating towards that and got into Securities Law and and again at the same time as I was doing that I was also starting to Syndicate my own deal so um pretty interesting that I got kind of the legal side got the business side going at the same time so it gave me really good perspective that's cool so you talked about your journey a little bit I love like diving into that Journey because you you said that you you were in on some of your own

deals so you started as real estate attorney chop that like started doing that were you like a closing attorney yeah yeah okay so like a closing attorney uh and then started did you get to a point where you're like yo I see all this money that people are making I kind of want to do that is that how it like switched into you becoming an active investor into real estate uh yeah somewhat man I mean I took kind of the traditional route of real estate investing I read Rich Dad Poor Dad I started listening to Big Pockets the

purple Bible you know it man what it is um yeah did all that and house hacked into a duplex I mean that was my first property started fixing and flipping a few few property still own some single family those sorts of things um and then you're San Diego right I'm in San Diego yeah but I'm originally from West Virginia West Virginia West by God Virginia that's right all right I mean like I feel like if you I feel like if you're from there you would say something like that that does make sense that does make that's the say that's

what we say West by God Virginia no I don't know anything about V West Virginia but now but now I do so now do you own some of your properties in in very two very different markets West Virginia or San Diego is that like where you own them or are you in other markets they're all over the place so like we invested I lived in Charlotte for a little bit like you know so own a couple properties there own a property in West Virginia that duplex that I was telling you about cuz I moved there for a job really you know California is

tough like to make anything cash flow there's some Adu opportunities right now for that but really just own the house that I live in then I have a condo that I rent out up in Orange County and that's about it but the other ones are all kind of all over the place like we invested in Cleveland for a little bit as well oh yeah some multi family stuff in Cleveland that that was kind of in the single family phase but as far as like the multif family the retail a lot of that was like in the midwest um in

the in the um in the sun sun Bel area so all over the place and we did like industrial we did retail we did multif family um all all sorts of stuff man on the commercial side and it's good to know that background for you like not that background but like you had the ability to understand and how to structure some of those deals um and so I'd love to I'd love to talk about the structure of funds a little bit because this is sure I'm going to as the question that I think like everybody wants to ask an SEC attorney about the

difference between a 506b and a 506c and then what constitutes like having that pre-existing relationship right because like if you have a 506b or a 506c there's certain stipulations but those are the two most common right like 90% of funds are 506 BS or 506 C's and so and if I'm wrong just just let me know but I believe that's like the statistic and and with those what constitutes the differences and then the pre-existing relationship part is one that a lot of people have questions about for sure man

yeah you're spot on so far I mean 506b I like to Remember by buddy so it's typically going to be a buddy right like yeah you have to have so the rule isn't that you have to have a pre-existing substantive relationship the rule is you're not allowed to solicit or advertise that's the rule and the way that you show that is by having a pre-existing substantive relationship with those investors so that that's a little bit of a Nuance there the rule is really you can't or advertised you can't go on Facebook and talk about it you

can't take out Google ads and and put it out there you can't even talk about it really to strangers and invite them into your deals you have to have that pre-existing substantive relationship because otherwise think about it well how would they know about your deal if you didn't right like that's that's kind of the the mindset there so yeah be but the the advantage there of course is that you're allowed to bring in 35 non-accredited investors so that's why people go with the 506b route number one

you can bring in a limited number of non-accredited investors uh number two there's there's less requirements for you as the uh fund manager or the syndicator the capital raiser on proving if they're accredited or not because they just self-certify so those are really the two big reasons you would choose a 506b versus a 506c which you can remember that by community so it's a bigger pool of people all right it's 506c for Community those folks when you have that exemption then you can go out there to your community you can solicit

you can advertise you can put it on Facebook you can put it out there in your m mind you go speak on stage and say hey guys come invest in my deal you can do whatever you want really it gives you the freedom to operate and not feel like oh am I doing something wrong but obviously the big thing there is accredited investors only so if you choose that 6C exemption you're only allowed to bring in accredited investors and they're all you're also going to have to take reasonable steps to verify that and that's typically through uh a

third party vendor or through that Investor's attorney or uh CPA that's going to write them a letter that says that they're qualified yeah which typically and you and not typically but like this is why you see even older more established funds go with a B because it's easier to just bring them in so they don't have to do all that stuff yeah what you see is they'll do a 506b but they won't allow uh non accredited investors in so it'll be 506b but only allow accredited investors so that they don't have to they don't they can

self-certify yeah which is makes it just a whole lot easier of paperwork standpoint so then uh that's which is really really interesting so for for me and I'm actually I'm going to just dive in a little bit deeper because there's so much gray here and like you can it's fine if you don't bring any like Clarity to the situation but there's so much gray here because I hear people that are like all right now when you meet that person add it to your calendar that you met that person and then you could talk

to them three weeks later and then like then you could pitch your fun to them and then like then now you're showing the SEC that it's a a pre-existing relationship and then it's like well where the heck is the line if there isn't even a line and then it's like then then what do they what is the expect me to do you know like if somebody introduces me to somebody how the heck do I make sure that I'm compliant in that in that relationship that we have if I know that they even come into the relationship interested in

what I'm doing I want to take a quick second to talk to you guys about something that could completely change the game for you if you're serious about launching and scaling an investment fund if you've ever wanted to start a real estate fund private Equity Fund or syndication but didn't know where to start this is for you fund Founders is giving you free access to foundations 101 a step-by-step course designed to help you to structure your fund the right way so you stay SEC compliant raise Capital like a pro even if you

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start again that's funds onf fire.com Founders or click the link in the notes now let's get back to the show yeah uh pre-existing uh actually just means pre-existing the offering so pre-existing your syndication pre-existing your fund so that makes it a little bit difficult when you've got let's say an evergreen fund right it's like well you got that offering open forever right so you can't even bring anybody in after you've opened it um that you don't already know but there is a there is a kind of a loophole I'll

call it it's not really a loophole it's it's actually a regulation but you can actually convert um a 506b to a 506c now you didn't used to be able to do that but I think that pass um maybe like two or three years ago where you can convert the 506b to the 506c now you can't go back after that but once you make that conversion you know get all your 506b investors in if you want to fill that 35 non accredited pool and then convert it to a see you can do that and then you can go out you can solc it you can

advertise you can talk about it you can bring in strangers yeah now that's really interesting too well and I do know that I think you just have to close subscription for like 24 hours right or something like that and then you can open back up you really just have yeah there's not really a Time requirement you'll hear something you you'll hear where there's like a cooling off period and they'll say 30 days 60 days but it really just comes down to closing that first offering because it's separate

that 506 B exemption offering and then opening that new C offering and just to be safe because again we're dealing with Securities it's always gray maybe give it that 30 days to cool off and then open up that 506c and then you're good to go and you have to refile like a form D and everything like that you do okay you do okay cool I wonder if you're your blue skies you can use the same documents but You' need a new form D yeah okay cool all right very interesting so that's cool to know too so I use a platform and I think we've

talked about it briefly called aester and I'm a big fan because it's a customizable fund they actually don't I think because of the nature of the customizable fund they actually said that I can't close down my be and open back up as a c just by nature of that type of fund and I thought that was really interesting and I know you and I have talked about potentially chopping up like what the heck is the I I think I sent you the stuff for it I can't remember but uh yeah I think so yeah talking about that customizable fund

because it sounds like um you know there's different fund models there's um there are the reg d506 B and C's there's reg CF reg A's and then you also run into like syndications and then you have fun of funds right and so it sounds like and for you you've kind of done all of them I think oh yeah but right now you're really focused on one major one right is that what you like so the fund that you currently operate and you're running uh I'd love to hear a little bit more about that yeah for sure so just to

comment on the the aester fund you know it's it's a kind of a new product right the customizable fund it's pretty new it hasn't really been tested on the legal side quite yet it's pretty complicated right like complicated from well what it spits out is simple right they say Hey you create this Evergreen fund and then you get you know each investor only gets 1 K1 even though they might be invested across a bunch of deals things like that which is great um but you lose that flexibility so I don't know the the

intricacies of it but you know you can imagine you've got this this customizable fund that's invested in let's say 10 different other deals or whatever and some of them it's acting as a fun of fund some of them it's acting as u a lead sponsor or all these different things so trying to convert that to a 506b from a or 506b to a 506c I can see where you can run into some complications there it might not be possible yeah and I think so because the structure sorry the structure of it they tell me what makes it customizable is

the fact that like our investors can log in and I don't actually like I have an overarching PPM they log in and they choose the their investment that they want to I'm not telling them the investment that they have to like invest into they read the deal disclosures and decide decide that that's what they want where they want to allocate their money to which allows for for the customizability of this type of model so I think like that's where converting it to a c would be yeah what you're saying for sure y that's that's kind of the

defining I guess piece of that customizable fund is that investor actually gets to pick and choose within your fund that you created where they invest um and that actually I can see where that why they do that I mean it's a it's a great concept but also that keeps you from actually making any decisions as the fund manager so that keeps you out of some certain regulations I'm like hey this is what we offer yep you can look at the deal disclosures and decide on where you want but like they could and this is like one

of the things that they like is I can say oh you could you could essentially diversify your portfolio within one fund because you could choose this one this one this one this one but you choose how much you want to go into there so that's that is a very interesting model and so that's really cool um or like yeah the investor chooses it yep the investor chooses it and yeah and and I'll you know that contrast to what you're alluding to which is an SPV fund of fund so that's what we do over at tribe vest

in full disclosure I'm Chief legal officer and a and a shareholder of tribe vest um so I'm a little bit biased and aester is you know we don't like to call him a competitor honestly they do fund of funds and we do fund of funds is like the overarching product but it's completely different you know one situation which why I brought it up it's the only reason why I brought it up because I'm excited to dive into tribe vest and what you guys offer um because this is not a pitch for tribe vest and like I didn't even know about I did know

I've heard of trivest but didn't even know you were a part of it before this podcast but I love hearing what you're a part of and that's why I want to dive into that a little bit because I think it's cool yeah and I like it it it might be a good to kind of lay it out right you've got these customizable fun of funds out there avor is really the only one offering them there's a couple other uh groups out there that are going to be offering them soon you can actually go to a Securities attorney and they can

put it together for you as well um and yeah and then you've got the SPV fun of fund again you can go through triest or you can SPV just for clarity special right special purpose vehicle or single purpose vehicle kind of either either one really applies then you've got your typical discretionary fund which you would go directly to a Securities attorney and that's where you're actually making some decisions you're saying okay I'm going to raise 10 million bucks and I'm going to invest in Deal one two three four five six seven

eight um and you're kind of making those decisions and there's a lot of rules and regulations that you've got to abide by to be able to do that without a license but anyways back to the SPV the single-purpose vehicle instead of a customizable fund where you know the investor is making the decision and you as the fund manager in you know you make all these different things Avail all these different Investments available the SPV is designed as a single purpose vehicle to invest in one single deal so

if there's a Target deal let's say a 200 unit multif family property in San Antonio um we're going to spin up an SPV for you to invest as a passive investor into that Target deal and that's it it's super simple it's super contained it's not complicated it it just keeps everything compartmentalized both from an asset protection standpoint and from visibility right you're going to know as the fund manager and as the investor exactly what you're investing in what you're how you're going to get paid what

your projective returns are and it doesn't really get mudded by other Investments and this is what I CU I've talked to other SEC attorneys and they've talked about it's funny they've talked about how rare what I've done so I've like maxed out my 506b on a my first fund being a blind fund and they were like that's super rare because you're saying hey just trust me but what you guys are saying what you're doing is saying hey this is the specific and that makes it a lot easier to raise Capital because like you said ton more

transparency they know what they're investing into and so for people starting out that's probably the route that they want to start with is something where they can bring transparency and then the investors that they're coming in know exactly what they're investing into that's right de yeah what you did Devon was incredible like it's really difficult to do most people don't start there they can't start there they don't have the ability to um to be able to build that up that level of trust and track record prior to

you launching the fund that's why you're able to do it but most people can't do it most people have to get their first few in the door by showing the investors hey this is the exact deal that you're going to invest in and you're getting you're going to be a part of and they can do their own due diligence and underwriting and those sorts of things and they're say oh yes I believe in that property or that deal and I also believe in you as the the fund manager or the syndicator and it's easier to raise

Capital that way as opposed to a blind pool fund where it's like hey just give me your money and we're going to invest in something that looks like this and yeah exactly exactly so I actually I want to dive into more into tribe vests cuz like so where does the benefit come in because like somebody can just go and get with an SEC attorney and create their own SPV and and kind of go that route but where's the benefit of somebody coming in and working with tribe vest like why I mean honestly like I please I like tell me like why have

you invested into it why do you believe in it so much and then yeah tell me a little bit more about it man yeah because it it just makes everything super simple and super contained and we handle everything so if you go to an SEC attorney like myself I'm going to come in and I'm going to I'm going to draft your offering documents I'm going to file your exemptions do your blue sky filings and that's it and I I'm going to wipe my hands of it and I'll say you know good luck you know more than that I'll help you out of yeah exactly I'm

going to charge you a lot of money I'm going to charge you at least 25k right Tri vest includes everything that you could possibly imagine so all these different parts that you would have to put together as a capital aggregator TR vest handles so that includes not just the offering documents the legal stuff the filing of the exemptions and the blue sky filings but we're going to file for your entity we're going to get your EIN we're going to be your registered agent we are going to uh onboard your

investors so we're going to act like an like an investor relations person on your team so all you do is send us your list of investors and we start reaching out we send them the docs we walk them through how to sign and get them through the signing ceremony we hound them or we call it hurting the cats to get them to actually fund the deal cuz sometimes people get cold feet so bug the hell out of them yep bug the hell out of them until they make that wire we do all that we do the uh the accounting in your k1s

we configure your cap table very cool we do your distributions we open your business banking account we do uh everything on the back end uh we've got the investor dashboard or investor portal that you can use which alone is you know you're going to pay $500 a month at minimum for that by itself so it it's incredible and we do it at an incredible price and I mean we're not we're very transparent about that it's $5,000 upfront and then $2,000 a year annually and that comes with docs and everything that comes with docks and

everything there's just you can't be beat I mean it literally can't be beat and the other thing is the speed so as soon as you sign the greenl docks which is basically just like hey you agree to the services that we're going to provide we will have you raising capital in five business days no way man that's really cool that's fantastic if you come to to me if you come to me as a security attorney I've got that hat on you know we're not doing in 5 days I'll tell you that now how much education do you help

with because I tell people all the time like here's the questions you should have beforehand because your SEC like your attorney will be the most expensive education you have ever paid for if you don't have that information beforehand so like what what type of because they'll charge you like if you don't know if you want a 506b or 506 C you don't know if you if you want your waterfall this way if you want this and you're just asking questions they're going to charge you by the hour to ask those questions and so for you like how

much help do you guys help for people who are like I've never started a fund I'm really looking forward to starting this but I don't know where to go what does that look like for you guys yeah I mean for tribe vest we're putting together some modules actually right now we're going to roll them out literally before the end of the year which will be fantastic because we're going to share that with with the world you're going to be able to self-educate on what is a fun to fund how does that look like in the

fundraising ecosystem like you know what is a preferred return what is the profits what kind of fees can you charge all kind of the nuts and bolts that you need to know we're going to have that out there so soon enough that'll be available to the public and that'll be a huge value ad and huge help for us as well because we don't have to educate one-on-one anymore as a Securities attorney I I will advise on people I mean I'm I'm happy I'm I'm more of a mentor and a coach when it comes to that sort of stuff and I'll I'll be like look

attorney hat off right now I'm going to tell you this and here's kind of your gray area and that sort of thing so you know I I I think I get into those sorts of things a little bit more than most attorneys will um but if you go to like a a large Law Firm or even a regional Law Firm they're they're going to charge you per hour and that's going to be anywhere between you know $400 to $1,500 an hour yeah there's no doubt there's there's no doubt so and this is really interesting because one of the questions

that I had just going into this um and not even knowing about uh the not even knowing about tribe vest and and all of that is what have you seen as far as like trends that you're seeing in the industry right now because Trends seem to be changing one just even I I'm a disruptor you're it seems like you're a disruptor of Industries and we're trying to disrupt this huge investment fund industry um but it seems like there's being like there's different type of offerings there different structures there's different

things that people are doing what are some of the trends that you're seeing that people are kind of pressing against or starting in as far as funds as a whole you seeing that being the case of being become more common yeah I mean so like biggest picture right is trying to get these types of alternative Investments to the masses because most wealthy people even rich people whatever you want to call them that have some Expendable income that want to invest the only thing they know are 401ks stock market mutual funds

and those sorts of things and they we just need to get that out there and I think you're seeing a trend towards that I think bringing in more people that want to raise capital and start a capital raising business is how you do it right because they've already got their built-in networks and then those networks know other people and and it kind of spiderwebs out from there so that's that's kind of the biggest picture trend is just trying to see well we're seeing you know alternative investments just become more available

to the masses second you're seeing the industry go away from the CP model which I like to say the cgp model is dead and you're seeing people turn to the fun of funds route yeah because the cgp model has just been abused if you do it the right way if you're actually an active partner and you're actually participating in the meetings and and decid on Asset Management typee decisions then all good that's how it's supposed to be but when you're just raising capital and not doing anything else that's when the CP model gets

abused and it's not just oh well you shouldn't do that it's illegal it's plain and simple illegal so that was like the conversation I'm telling you when um I was having the conversation with that guy at my at my Mastermind and he was like we're doing this and I go like stop and he's like haa and I go no no it's illegal and he's like oh haha and I'm like no no like prison illegal and they I feel like just people don't understand the severity because they feel like what's wrong with it it's not that bad and it's like no no it's

illegal yeah and you know that this is just what happens right like you just kind of everybody just pushes boundaries pushes boundaries and you know fortunately or unfortunately however you want to look at it the industry's been fantastic for a long time right the real estate industry's went up since the the crash in 2009 2008 all the way until really covid and that was just a blip and then it took off again and then B basically up until last year 2023 is when you started seeing it kind of take

a nose dive a little bit because of interest rates and not because of the actual state of the market but the interest rates but either way it started going down you started seeing some people get in trouble but all along the way on that rise up all the investors have been happy he's suing anybody because they've been getting their returns and they've been everybody's been crushing it and even if you're a terrible operator you've still been crushing it because the market saved you and nobody's getting sued so it's all

good until it's not and then you've seen in yeah and then you see in 2023 you see you know potential foreclosures and workouts and you know Capital calls things like that investors aren't happy and we're in America and people are like yo how can I get my money back well you try to sue somebody and that's when you start seeing some of these things where the cgp model was abused or people weren't raising Capital the right way or they didn't f exemptions all those sorts of legal things that nobody really

worried about because everything was great start coming up and you're you're seeing that now so you're seeing that shift away from the CP model to the fund of funds model because the fund of funds model is compliant obviously if you do it the right way but it's more compliant and it's always been the answer but at the end of the day it's expensive it's more complicated you've got more attorneys you've got a whole separate offering all these different things that you have to take into account and people

were like I'm not doing that but now we're kind of forced into having to do that and that's where you know tribe vest and aester and some other folks are coming in and having coming up with solutions for that yeah that's really cool um because one one more thing I'm really curious on that you've seen because I feel like there is a fairly irreg irregulate asset you know coming into a very regulated um like structure right so one the things I'm talking about is like the rise of crypto in these crypto funds and these blockchains

based funds have you seen that start to affect like the legal landscape of funds and the formation that people have of that and the way that people are thinking through that and even how the SEC is starting to figure that out and uh and stuff like that have you seen like an emergence of more of those blockchainbased funds I have yeah and not just like strictly you know blockchain and and crypto but also just spin-offs of that right like you saw tokenized real estate was a big thing for a little while it's kind of turned

down a little bit but that was huge that was like I was crazy that you could be like I'm tokenizing my my bathroom and when I sell it you get like that much of the footage and the appreciation it's like what that's crazy yeah so it's kind of cooled out a little bit you know I don't I honestly don't follow that that closely just because I know that it just changes so fast and especially now that we've got the new Administration in here you're probably going to see a lot more loosening of that which would be good

for us but yeah I mean you know you're going to see that right like CU we are just on the the precipice of just crazy technological advancements from tokenized Real Estate to you know crypto to AI like all this stuff is going to like this landscape 5 years from now is is going to be unrecognizable yeah that's it's it really will just because of the way that contract law is going to go from the from the from um from I guess blockchain based like because like you'll see that where the blockchain will take a lot of

those uh a lot of that aspect and change it and flip it on its head so it's going to be super interesting to see how that goes man I want to respect honor your time I appreciate you being on I guess one thing I guess one more question that I have before we kind of go into the exit if there's somebody that's thinking about starting a fund because what you were saying earlier really there's only two main people if I'm fully transparent I want to be able to be uh the voice of funds for minorities and women in this

country because like all those other they all the white dudes they could have all the other white dudes that's fine with me but there's a lot there's a there's a huge disparity I heard uh don peees once say and this has changed my my my thought my process like my mindset ever since he says in the history of America there has been $94 trillion to come in through private equity and real estate in the history of American and history of America 8.3% of that had no sorry 1.7% of that have gone to minorities and women that means 98.3% of

that has gone to white men and so there's this massive disparity between access to education like you're saying access to Capital Access to I think there there's this quote that says the world equally distributes talent but doesn't equally distribute opportunity and so there's this huge disparity of opportunity of people that look like me and look like you and look like women around this country that I would love to make sure we're the voice for and so for people who don't have a lot of that education one what's a big piece of

advice that you would give them and when they're starting to think about starting a fund because I think like if I'm full of transparency most of the people I talked to and I told you I saved from prison there were black dudes they're just trying to do the right thing but don't have the education to do the right thing and so for for that like what what's a big piece of advice you would give people that are thinking like I think I want to start a fund um what should I look out for how expensive does

it matter because we've talked about a better solution for how expensive it can be but what's the thing that they should be looking out for yeah I mean you know right off the bat like be confident and don't be intimidated because I think some people yep in those groups that you described might feel a little discouraged because of that because you walk into a room that is maybe all fund managers or all capital risers or you know those types of people and you're like who I don't look like everybody

else so maybe I don't belong here or maybe your confidence goes from here to to hear and you're like and then and then you come off that way right like you've got to you got to step into that room with confidence and a lot of a lot of that comes down to self-education right like it comes from education and it's out there now I mean we mentioned that there's only a few really good sources but you can still piece it together I mean you can find anything on YouTube University just to at least get the you know being able to talk to talk

and walk the walk and and feel confident doing that so just get educated to start get that Baseline and then get out there and just be be confident like I said don't be intimidated don't feel like you don't belong because we got to get folks out there that are that are doing it from from those groups yep that's right man well I appreciate it Seth where can people find you where can people hire you where can people join what you're doing um because I think that they should I'm a big believer in you and

what you're doing and I'm excited for for all those things appreciate it man I usually update all my Links at Seth Paul bradley.com so you can find everything there I'm all over social media so all my handles are Seth Bradley Esq cool man I appreciate you thankful for your time thankful for your friendship I really look forward to uh to Growing growing together man it's fun to see other people that like we're about the same age I don't know you look like you're in your 20s but you're you're not I know

that but like uh but like like for us to just rise together on this man and so I'm thankful for this journey that we're on together and I appreciate you being here today love it brother appreciate you yes sir talk to you later man wow I hope you enjoyed that I have a quick favor if you've been enjoying the show there's one simple way you can support us and it's by hitting that follow button or that subscribe button on the app app you're listening to I want to level this podcast up in every single

way possible bringing you more value incredible content and guests and new strategies Following the show and leaving a quick review goes a really long way in helping us to grow and continue to deliver top tier content it's the only free thing I'll ever ask you to do and it makes a bigger impact than I can possibly put into words so thank you for being a part of this journey and I'll definitely catch you on the next episode to great success and greater impact peace

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