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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How to pick the best long-term investment for your future
It's a photo-finish race to become the new, best long-term investment. What will come out on top? On this week's Financial Freestyle, host Ross Mac speaks with Kid Parchariyanon, founder and managing partner of SeaX Ventures. Kid discusses how SeaX is helping companies develop transformative technologies, and makes his prediction for the best long-term investment between crypto, AI, and biotechnology. For a deep dive on how venture capital is shaping the future of technology, check out this week's episode of Financial Freestyle. Listen and subscribe to Financial Freestyle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac on Yahoo Finance is dedicated to promoting economic prosperity for all. Through expert insights, practical advice, and inspiring success stories, we empower you to build and grow wealth. Join us on this transformative journey toward financial freedom and inclusive economic growth. The crypto is gonna be bigger, only uh only everybody, yeah, using it on a daily basis. If we have, we'll be able to find a way to let everybody using it on a daily basis, so that's gonna be 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times more, kind of like the bigger than not today. Welcome to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance. I'm your host, Ross Mack. And look guys, no matter where you are on your journey to attaining financial freedom, you can never stop learning. And that's why each and every week I'm talking to some of the goats, some of the greatest in their field, and this week is no different, as I'm talking to partner of CX Ventures, and we're going to talk about some stuff. Kid, how you doing, brother? Very good. How are you today? I'm phenomenal, man. And listen, obviously, you know, as a journalist, I do my research, but you had quite the resume, brother. But before we truly dive into it, tell the audience who exactly who's Kit. Yeah, so my name is Kit, partner of partner of CX Venture. We are kind of like the early stage deep tech invest globally, uh, uh 70% we invest in the US world-class startup founders and uh helping them to expand globally. So that's, uh, in short, what I'm doing. When you sayearly deep stage, like, let's break that down for the audience, right? Like, how are you guys differentiated from other venture fund venturefunds? Right, because, uh, like in venture fund, yeah, we have multiple stages, right? Some investing in kind of like late stage, but for us we invest in early stage when the founder had the great idea, they want to do that, right? So we supporting them early on. Yeah, so that's uh so that's how different and when we're talking about the venture capital, it's not about only about um any technology. Our firm focusing on deep tech, which is not marketplace, e-commerce, SAS, but refocusing on for like AI blockchain, biotech, robotics. So something that uh uh founder has an IP, right, intellectual property uh uh backing as well. So that's a difference between general VC fund and deep tech VC fund. I love it. But solet's, before we truly get into it, right, like your background, you've done a lot, right, from, you know, you worked in kind of the medical space, like talk about kind of your upbringing or more importantly, like how you've been trained and what truly led you to starting CX Ventures. Yeah, so I was born and raised in Bangkok, right? And then I always been passionate about technology and have been hooked on since when I was because like, I like Silicon. I love Silicon Valley. There's only a few kind of like the tech company, right, from Southeast Asia to be able to scale, uh, to kind of like Silicon Valley. Yeah, I took that leap of faith, uh, I, uh, when I was in a classroom. Yeah, one of my biggest pain at that time. Yeah, uh, is that I want to trade the stock in the the only way to trade the stock in the classroom at that time is using Nokia black and white screen. I'm sure you guys remember snake game or Nokia, right? My teacher keep, yeah, keep coming to me and said, Kit, you're going to be a doctor. Why you keep getting out of the classroom every 15 minutes? I said, I'm sorry. Yeah, by the time the class finished at 5 p.m., the stock market already closed. I always buy high and sale low every day. So that doesn't work. Yeah, for that's why, yeah, I, me and my friends, we developed the first mobile stock trading apps for Thailand, yeah, which is later kind of like sold to the stock exchange of Thailand, right, and sparked my mission, yeah, to be kind of like the uh how I can uh make the bigger impact to the I went from building these mobile apps to studying medicine, right, and then becoming a doctor and uh like along the way, I pick up many skills called like uh many kind of like decision making, data driven, right, uh, like the, but then after that.I thought, how I'd be able to kind of like bring this kind of like skill that I built along with the many years to not only helping myself, to getting all these like richer alone, right, but how we be able to create a real impact for the local people here in Southeast Asia. So that's why I found a company called Rice, RISE. So, so Rice is a consulting firm, so we uh uh focusing on only one thing, which is how to start the new S curve for the big corporate. So we've been working with around 500 largest corporate across Southeast Asia to helping them developing the new innovation. So I think we can do even more because for us, we also help these big giant corporate spin out around 200 companies, right? But we thought, how we be able to kind of like doing it, uh, doing more so that's why CX was born around 2018, uh, when I was at Stanford, right? How, because we, I, I see a lot developed in the, in Silicon Valley, and how we be able to bring this technology from Silicon Valley to Southeast Asia. Yeah, tap into Southeast Asia and making this flash over there aswell. That's epic, man. That's a phenomenal story and I love what you're doing with Rise as well as CA's the fact that you were able to find some parallels kind of with your upbringing and more importantly, how you were studying healthcare. So I'm curious, right, when you're looking at a lot of these early stages, right, what promising industries are you seeing right now and technologies that you and CX are actually betting on? Right, I think there's a few things, right, because definitely like the well now if we don't talk about AI it's gonna be weird, right, because everything is AI, AI can be kind of like helping, improving, make things even faster, cheaper, and and a lot, a lot better. Yeah, so anything that is related to AI, we love to kind of like look and dive deeper into that, right?But then, apart from AI, I think there's a couple more things that we think is very important because when you think of being thinking about AI, you, you're not only thinking about the ship, and also kind of like the semiconductor, they gonnathe world needs to, need to have that a lot more. But then another thing is also energy, right? Because AI can consume a lot of energy. How will we be able to have sustainable energy? What going to be the next generation energy source, right? Yeah, at CX we invest in the company called Taiwan Energy, yeah, which might be the first, very first company in the world, right, that be able to produce commercialized so that's 24/7 green, right, uh, emits zero carbon or near zero so our, our co-investor is uh like uh Bill Gates breakthroughy winter. That's, uh, yeah, apart from, apart from that, definitely, right, healthcare is something that I really like because now you have AI discovery going to be a lot easier. In the past, it might take a couple of years before the drug, the drug or the molecule be able to get to the clinical trial, right? But now all the pros that you take years to complete, now it's like only one year. So one, we might have to nerd out real quick because I love it. you talk about kind of fusion energy with type one, like compare that to what they're doing at Oclo with nuclear energy, because obviously when when we're talking about power and is the bottleneck. We need a ton of power. So like, can you even compare that or better yet, talk about that really quickly for the audience, also for me. When we're talking about renewable energy, right? So renewable energy, the mature one gonna be like solar energy, wind power, yeah, so, but these solar energy and wind we, uh, the difference is that, uh, we're talking about intermittency, right? Because you cannot have the wind like 24/7, you cannot have like the sun 24/7 as well. Yeah, so now, yeah, but the, the server, the AI, they're gonna consume energy 24/ what, what's going to be the next source of energy, you know, when the sun and the wind is not like 24/7. So the answer is kind like nuclear energy. So when you're talking about nuclear energy, yeah, like one in a spectrum we call fission, right? are a couple of company they're doing fission uh already, and then fission is, uh, we're talking about what we call small modular reactor, right? But these small modular reactor, while the technology is more more and more getting more and more advanced every in the past, yeah, there's some kind of like the emission left, right? There's some uh like kind of like the, sometime they broke down, if you talk, uh, if you heard about Fukushima, uh, like in Japan, that, that got the big glass, right, or should be, right? So those, of like the, the fission technology. Why in the other hand, when we're talking about fusion, the fusion energy is safe, and there's no radioactive uh like uh things left over. So that's and then it be able to continue 24/7. Yeah, so that's another, another nuclear. When we talk about nuclear, uh, we need to be clear whether this is fission energy or fusion energy. What's so amazing is I'm going to rewatch this episode to even take notes on our own conversation. I love that. So earlier, right, you stated that you know from a CX allocation standpoint, it's about 70% to the US and I'm imagining 30% to kind of Southeast Asia. 20% like Europe and then 10% APAC. Yeah. OK. So my question right is across those three nations effectively, uh, or areas or do you actually see kind of innovation ecosystems evolving differently, especially when we're talking about like, who's the leader in AI so to speak, like kind of what are you seeing? Right, yeah, and I think these to thanks to the US, right, because I think UST or the epicenter like the of software, right? We we talking about softwa and AI I think the USD leading the pack because you have great like the like the academic um, yeah, when I, when I went to the US for study, I feel that as well that uh the the level of uh like the academic excellence is there, right? So that you can produce great PhD, kind like great professor, and also great science. Yeah, so in terms of uh like uhThat's the first thing. And then when you already have that, right, so that's gonna attract the capital, right, into the, into the country, into the region as well, because the capital, like, especially venture capital, also like something that is kind of like going to be create something breakthrough, right? So that's, uh, so that's, I think I see that as the US while in Europe, I think Europe is kind of uh very big on another industry, which is climate, right?I joined Davos Worldic Forum earlier this year, right? So and then there's a meeting, uh, and everybody, most of the people coming from European, uh, like leaders, they all said the same thing, right? Uh, no matter what the new administration in the US would be, right? They're still pushing forward with this climate goal, right, net zero goal, it's still the then uh if you uh like building uh climate tech, right, or things that gonna save the world, like emit less carbon, yeah, so whether it's going to be energy or food, right, because our food also produce a lot of methane, right? So then the food chain system, so that's bad for the, the, the that make global warming more and more, right? So if you develop something in this field like climate is something that is very interesting. Wow, if we switch the gear to Asia. So I think uh the definitely like uh in Asia, not every country have a lot of money. We're talking about Southeast Asia, right? So that is still kind of like the many of the countries still developing we don't have, uh, we don't have a lot of capital. We don't have, uh, we do have very good academic uh like already, but not compared to like the US or Europe just yet, right? We are getting a lot better. But then, what we, what we have here, I think is the growth. Yeah, we're talking about Southeast Asia, we're talking about 600 million strong, kind of like um people, right?And the growth rate is still like economic growth rate for the whole region is still kind of like 5% on average, right? So that's it, so that's kind of like huge growth. Yeah, that'd be able to propel the region. So if you're thinking about growth, uh, like Southeast Asia is going to be another region that you should look at in terms of investment. Thank you, thank you. So look guys, we're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we'll have more with Kid of CX right guys, welcome back to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance, and guys, we're getting in deep, right? We're talking to my guy Kid of CX Ventures, and it's only right because you guys got a unicorn in your portfolio and that's you guys have been an early investor in Salana. So one, let's break down one your overall outlook of crypto. So obviously timely right now, but then let's actually help explain what Sallana is. Right. I think the like crypto, I think right uh, I would say it's too big to fail, right? I mean, uh, if you look at looking back like 10 years back or like 15 years back, I mean, wow, they're just kind of like worth a penny, right? But now, yeah, like it's gonna be kind of like the next, uh, uh, goal, right? Uh, so then, uh, it was more than goal already, right? So yeah, so I think that the crypto is here to and uh people gonna treat it as the the another asset class that uh it can, it can grow, uh, it can kind of like disappear if there's no worth for the value for a user, right? So you because in the market, there's like thousands of crypto, right? But then, uh, how many emerge and how many be able to sustain their so today, as we, as we know, like the big call hit Ne high right ever, yeah, so that's uh so that's something that proved that uh this thing not gonnago away. I agree with you. I am a huge crypto advocate. If you could explain what Salana is to an eighth grader, what would you say if it in only like twosentences? Right, actually, like the Solana is a is a platform, right? So at the end, yeah, like uh we need bottleneck of uh money transfer or do some transaction is a throughput, right? Which, which means if you, if you're looking at like the Bitcoin. Yeah, so Bitcoin, if you want to transfer to your friends, right, it might take kind of like a couple of minutes, uh, in order to do the time stamp and everything. But like Solana make it faster. So that's, uh, so then faster means more people can use it, right? And then more people can adopt this can be to go on a global scale. I love it. Well, it's only right we talk about it and I have to put you on the spot. If you have your last million dollars in your fund or less whatever, right, and you can only deploy it in one strategy, and all else is equal. The team is of their, you know, competitive advantage is equal. All you're betting on is the industry. Will that be cryptocurrency, AI or biotech? And making this obviously as a venture, you're talking about what's going to be the biggest in the next 5, 10years. Yeah, so I think uh for me, I mean like uh I cannot uh as the fund, right? So we're not gonna put all egg in one basket. We cannot do that. Yeah, we need to, we need to express the risk, right? Yeah, and then uh the, the risk is let's say if these two industries, even one of them become unicorn, become decacorn, so then uh we got all the return for our everybody happy. Yeah, we don't need to, we need to, they don't need to have 1000 Xs. Yeah, probably 100 X. Every everybody already happy. That is the right answer. You might as well go into politics after this cause you didn't let me bait to the audience then, over the next 5, 10 years without making an investment, are those three areas the the the biggest growth opportunities or is there something else that maybe we or myself, for instance, I didn't mention? Is there anything else that might be pretty big in the next 5, 10 years that I didn't mention? No, I think that that's true thing is very interesting on its own, right? So we're talking about crypto, I think it's, uh, is, is more about adoption. The crypto is gonna be bigger, only, only everybody, yeah, using it on a daily basis. If we have, we be able to find a way to let everybody using it on a daily basis, so that's gonna be 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times more because like the bigger than that today, right? Healthcare, I mean, uh, take a sample of uh like the world's population.I think the world's get aging more and more. Uh, many countries are gonna entering aging society. So now, we're not talking about how to better treat the patient, but how we be able to prevent, how we be able to live long and live happily, right? So without uh without any diseases, right? So then, so healthcare is also gonna be kind of like super uh, and definitely, uh, the, the way that's uh any industry is gonna be super big, we cannot deny AI, right? So AI is gonna be the integral part. Yeah, it's depending on how you be able to integrate AI and then make sure you get return, you get RI, you get things like better for your audience, for your user, for your customer. Yeah, so that's, so that's gonna be, I think like the the way to make these tree industry getting a lot bigger. And what's your view on quantum, quantumcomputer? Yeah, I mean like the many scientists, uh, we also looking at quantum quite a lot, right? Because that's a frontier technology. Yeah, and then I think once we be able to achieve a quantum supremacy, yeah, so that's gonna be another game changer as well, right? So, yeah, so we but we waiting for that, we're waiting for another breakthrough in quantum. Kindof coming back full circle to venture as a whole, right?You know, to the public, right? What would you say, you know, most people are misunderstanding about the overall space? Yeah, most people think about venture capital as just making money. Yeah, but for us, I think we're thinking about it not only make money, but also uh like bridging the gap between innovation and real impact, right? How?Yeah, because the founder, world class founder gonna they had the IP, they kind of want to change the world, right? They have innovation. But then, how that innovation be able to become reality? We need to fund them. We need to support them. So that's why what I like about my role and my jobs here at CX, right, because we be able to meet great people across the world, where these people, they want to change the world to be the better place, right? Uh through technology, through innovation. That's epic. That's epic. It's so curious, what is the that you live by, like, what's one of the best personal finance uh rules that you would want to kind of tell the audience that they themselves should follow? Right, I think uh I, I learned this from my parents, right? So my parents are veterinarians, right? Uh and uh my mom, right, especially my mom also working as a civil servant. So civil servant work uh uh like she's a professor, right?Uh, work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. After 5 p.m. she come back and uh open her own kind of like pet hospital, right? So from that 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. like uh every day. So I saw that kind of like working hard when I was young, right? And I saw inspired because that that's how I uh like when I applying this to the investment, right?So we also working very hard, right? We also do this is really hard because deep tech is not easy. Uh we have many jar on that I told to you at the beginning of the podcast, right? So then, uh, how we be able to understand all of this, right, or find the expert, find our investment committee to help brainstorm and then validate this kind of like idea. So I think still, yeah, most people thought, oh, worldwide balance is for me, yeah, it's all about work life integration. And I, I'll tell my team member, if you come here, you work at CX, there's no work life balance. There's only world life integration. There is one thing, and then that one thing is mean working hard and then you create a real impact for the world. I love it. So one, shout out to your mom because you know what I took from that was having, you know, she wanted to have multiple streams of income, right? Having one stream of income is too close to having zero. Then I love what you said, right? I saw a clip on social that went viral and it was like in an interview if a candidate asked me, OK, so can you tell me about work-life balance?Instantly you're not hired. So what you're saying is, look, man, it's about integrating the work life. It's not necessarily a balance. You got to keep grinding. So I love it, man, and I think you're a remarkable guest. I appreciate you for being here. That's it for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Make sure you like, subscribe, tell a friend to tell a friend, and as always, make sure you tune in each and every week. We're going to give you some gems. It's your boy Ross Mack, and this is Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance. This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How to pick the best long-term investment for your future
It's a photo-finish race to become the new, best long-term investment. What will come out on top? On this week's Financial Freestyle, host Ross Mac speaks with Kid Parchariyanon, founder and managing partner of SeaX Ventures. Kid discusses how SeaX is helping companies develop transformative technologies, and makes his prediction for the best long-term investment between crypto, AI, and biotechnology. For a deep dive on how venture capital is shaping the future of technology, check out this week's episode of Financial Freestyle. Listen and subscribe to Financial Freestyle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac on Yahoo Finance is dedicated to promoting economic prosperity for all. Through expert insights, practical advice, and inspiring success stories, we empower you to build and grow wealth. Join us on this transformative journey toward financial freedom and inclusive economic growth. Related videos Mortgage broker reveals $112,000 home loan mistake: 'Costing you a bomb' ATO $2,548 tax refund cash boost for 2.6 million Aussies Work from home shift for millions of Aussies as 'clear link' with salaries revealed: '$300,000 or more' ATO superannuation warning for 200,000 Aussies ahead of looming deadline: 'On the hook for penalties' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How life insurance builds generational Black wealth
What if the secret to generational wealth only costs you one date night a month? In this episode of Financial Freestyle, Ryan Smith, vice president of Atlanta Life Insurance, reveals how life insurance isn't just for when you die - it's a powerful financial tool while you're still alive. Ross Mac and Ryan Smith break down the myths and spotlights why life insurance might be the most overlooked $70B side hustle in America. Listen and subscribe to Financial Freestyle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac on Yahoo Finance is dedicated to promoting economic prosperity for all. Through expert insights, practical advice, and inspiring success stories, we empower you to build and grow wealth. Join us on this transformative journey toward financial freedom and inclusive economic growth. If you have the opportunity to give your family tax-free, um,Seven figure sums and even many of demise. Like that seems like that would be sort of life-changing across generations, right? And you can often do that um for the cost of one date night per month, right? Or sort of one pair of shoes. Welcome to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance, and I'm your host, Ross Mack. Now look guys, no matter where you are on your journey of building wealth, you can never stop learning, and that's why each and every week I'm giving you guys gems on gems and today's no different because we're talking to one of my really, really good friends, Mr. Ryan Smith, vice president of Atlanta Life Insurance. My guy Ryan, how are you living, baby? I'm good, but it's good to see you. How are you? Man, it's, it's remarkable to have you on here, to the people, to the, listen, let me let y'all in on the secret. I was a young intern at Morgan Stanley. It was very rough around the edges. I was probably like 19 years old, and Ryan was like, Yo, who's this kid and how they let him even get an internship? He pulled me and said like, look young fella, you got to tighten up. And for that, I'm gonna always be grateful, man, it was uh a pleasure to look out for you, man. I saw sort of the potential, just had to get the rules of the game too. I appreciate you, but look, man, obviously I know you and I look at you as one of the big homies and you've done a lot, but to the world, who was Ryan Smith? Who is Ryan Smith? Ryan Smith is a kid from the South side of Chicago. Um, grew up, my parents are still there, um, have 4 siblings, one of my sisters is still there. Um, but the reality is sort of good, the bad and the ugly are growing up in the South Side, it made me who I but also, um, started thinking through how to sort of maximize the good in that community, how to minimize the, the bad and the ugly, and also understanding sort of the common trends that exist in communities like the one.I grew up in, right? And so whether that's in Chicago, whether that's in DC, whether that's in Atlanta, whether that's in Los Angeles, sort of name your city, you often find it sort of these similar neighborhoods that are deprived of opportunity, um, but full of talent. And so I wanted to think through, um, how to unlock that talent, how to create more opportunity, and ultimately decided that my path would be building and investing in large scale minority owned with the belief that they would employ um from those communities and invest in those communities, um, and love on those communities in the way they deserve. And so that's the journey I've been on, um, and it's, it's been fun and it's been rewarding. I love to hear it, man. I love obviously what you're doing. Um, but the reason we're here right is because after you went into private equity with right alongside uh one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Isaac Johnson, you ended up buying the oldest black owned life insurance company. Walk me through that, help me understand one, why was that a great target company to buy, and then, you know, let's actually talk about what you're doingnow. Yeah, so like you said, right, I backed my way into sort of this insurance industry, um, which is huge, it's multi-trillion dollars, um, but had not paid that much attention to it been what now, 2014, um, had the opportunity to evaluate an acquisition opportunity which was an insurance company actually based in Chicago called Equirust, um, which is an annuities provider that began sort of the full on immersion into insurance. Um, frankly, that company is a weed oil machine run by a gentleman Eric Holloman and so discovered the that insurance products can be, right? So if you think about annuities, you think about sort of solving what's called longevity risks. People outliving their money. There's a lot sort of discussed about sort of the retirement crisis and people not having enough saved and annuities sort of help that all I have to say, um, looked for another opportunity to sort of, uh, do it again, became aware of Atlanta Life Insurance Company. And so for context, 120 years of existence, 120 years of service, founded by a man born into slavery who went on to become the first black millionaire in Atlanta, and he did that by serving and to serve. He served his community, providing them with life insurance at a time, um, that other corporations and other entities wouldn' sort of fast forward 120 years later, we shorten the next 100 years, and the mission remains the same. It is ensuring that people have financial protection and also an opportunity to grow their wealth. Um, and so we do that through an insurance perspective, but also with a belief and commitment to we do best when our policyholders do best, and for that reason, uh, we promote holistic wellness. So not only financial but and mental, and so often sort of in the community sort of engaging, uh, the communities where the policyholders or not, um, and ensuring that they're living sort of their best and their longest lives. And so it's uh, it's been sort of emerging of all my different passions into uh this current role, and it's uh it's been fun, it's been an honor, so enjoying the journey. That's awesome, man. Look, when I holistically about right building true generational wealth, a huge component of it is life insurance, right? And I think about the easiest way to build generational wealth is one, you just gotta be selfless by actually having life insurance, which you could then pass on to the next. So let's start really digging into it because I'm learning a lot more obviously through you and your company, but like first off, like what's the biggest misconception when it comes to lifeinsurance? It's a number of things. Oftentimes people overestimate the cost of it, right? And so to your point about sort of building generational wealth, if you have the opportunity to give your family tax-free, um,7 figure sums and the many a demise. Like that seems like that would be sort of life changing across generations, right? And you can often do that um for the cost of one date night per month, right? Or sort of one pair of shoes. Uh, and so people often overestimate sort of the value that you can get from a life insurance and then too there's often sort of this question, uh, about sort of how much somebody needs, right? Um, butWe actually have a calculator where you can actually input sort of all these sort of key variables throughout your life on wealth and and it can actually suggest the amount to you and sort of show you where you rank relative to others. Uh, but another piece that people miss is life insurance doesn't only sort of provide uh, when you've passed away. And I think that's sort of a significant difficulty of the conversation about life insurance. People don't want to think about their mortality, um, and think about passing along, but the reality is life insurance can do a whole lot for you while you're here. So, when it comes to the living benefits of life insurance, can you pleaseEducate the on that. Yeah, so, in the most basic sense, so if we talk about sort of permanent life policies, we've heard them referred to as whole life policies, universal life policies, um, and sort of index universal life policies, right? And so if you think about sort of theComposition of those entities. One, it is sort of ensuring that you have life insurance and a death benefit need any a demise, but the other piece of it is what's called cash value, right? And so every time you're paying premium, you're creating value um that can earn an interest rate, right? And there areof ways this interest rate can sort of be calculated, right? If it's whole life, um, it's typically sort of one rate if it is indexed to an index, um, it can often be sort of market driven, right? And so you get some elements of market returns with some downside protection and then there are other sort of variations of that sort of variable universal life, and that is sort of the asset component that people refer to, right? And so as you sort of accumulate that cash value over time, um, that is now sort of your asset to, uh, do things with, right? And so you can pull from that and sort of repurpose those dollars for other things, um, is, is really sort of what people are talking about in terms of utilizing that asset and so you getSomething that is giving you a variety of different purposes. Everything from your death benefit to what I'll call a savings vehicle that's earnings with a meaningful rate of return that also has safety and grows in a tax divert and sometimes tax-free manner. And so they call it the and asset sometimes, right? Because it just does a bunch of things. And then if we think about sort of one product, um, if you sort of take some of those funds out depending on the way you do a sort of dollar earnings perspective, you can still earn interest on that while also repurposing sort of those dollars into whether it be paying for school, paying for a wedding, funding a business and things of that sort and insurance can almost be like a Swiss Army knife um that can aid you throughout life and multiple capacities, right? And if we think about this relative to like a 529 education plan, right? So oftentimes you have children, uh people recommend you get your 529, which I'm perfectly fine with. I have one for my daughter, um, but you can alsoGet your child a permanent life policy, take the benefit of them being young and thus premiums being cheaper, and then just put the power of compounding on their side from the very beginning, right? And so if you think about this sort of illustratively, for $100 a month, when your child turns 18, they could have cash value of call at $300,000 right?And that $300,000 can be used to fund education. It could be to fund their business idea. It can do a variety of things. Uh, and all while still having that death benefit in place, so you're ensuring sort of, um, a generational sort of wealth transfer, um, and sort of the continuity of wealth, um, through sort of the, the future generations to come. That's heavy. We gonna, we gonna, we definitely got to get more into that. Look guys, we're gonna take a real quick break, but when we come back, we're gonna let you know even more about the different types of life insurance policies you can get, especially at Atlanta back to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance. I'm your boy Ross Mack and look guys, much like many other people, right, your favorite personal finance guy is either gonna be me, Ross Mack or Dave Ramsey. And as a result, right, a lot of people might listen to Dave Ramsey and one of the things he says is like, at the end of the day, all you need is insurance. And so, Ryan, I really wanna get your opinion on it. Theeasiest way to think about it is term life policies versus permanent policies, right? And literally, term life insurance products are called term because they are in place for a certain term, right? Sometimes that's 10 years, sometimes that's 20 years, sometimes it's 30 years, sometimes it's more, um, but it sort of depending on the features of this you are still alive, if you have a 30 year term policy and you are still alive at sort of year 30 and day one, then that policy can turn out. And so when you think about your question, if you think about Dave Ramsey, his perspective is often sort of just get a term policy and invest the I don't take issue with that on its face, right? It's just the completion of the, the, the mission, right? And so, yes, get a term policy. We sell term policies, but then what typically doesn't happen is people don't invest the rest. They spend the rest or they just don't right? And so, rather than with a permanent life policy, you get the sort of investment component as a part of your product. With a term policy, there is a secondary action that you then need to take to generate the investment return that you would get, um, and a sort of permanent policy, right? And so,It's a preference thing, right? I am a believer andPermanent policies sort of providing the best value, but I also understand the value of term policies and personally I have both. Um, and sort of, yeah, and so when we talked about sort of giving your family a seven figure sum upon your demise and that being the cost of one night out, that is probably a term policy. Uh, and if we think about sort of meeting everybody where they are and sort of with their variety of term policies are appropriate for many people. And so when we talk about sort of the life insurance protection gap.A key way to sort of ensure that we start getting people life insurance policies and the appropriate amount will often include term. And so again, I don't take issue with Dave Ramsey's perspective. Um, I do take issue when he attacks, uh, other forms of life insurance cause they all have their value, they all have their sort of method and approach, uh, and so two things can be true at once. You know, the one thing that is not often talked about, right? So say I, you know, I get married at 30.I get a 30 year term policy, right? So, I got, you know, million dollar term policy, $2 million.03 million dollars, whatever it is, but that's only for 30 years till I get to 60. At the end of the day, right? Actuaries, the people that are, you know, coming up with how much I should pay and you know, the people that are crunching the numbers for the goal is one for them to make money, right? And my understanding is less than 2% of term policies actually pay out. And so when I do,Get married at 30, have kids, and I turned 60, I then have no life insurance. And so if I want to get life insurance, now at the age of 60, that premium is considerably different than when I was at 30 because well now I'm closer to, you know, when I do pass away. And so another thing that, you know, I, I didn't take into account when I got my first term policy was, oh, it's cheaper, let me just do this, but the idea is thatWhen I turn 60, I now gotta take a brand new, you know, uh, gotta, gotta do a new physical and got to screen all my health, etc. And so now, as you can get older, right, and so like obviously I'm understanding now I'm doing more research, there's a lot of creative ways where you canYou know, maybe bump up the premium as you start to make more money or something, but like the idea of having a permanent policy does seem more attractive, especially as you can kind of customize it. So, talk about some of those customizable things that the average person doesn't even know about. Yeah, so again, right, like this isn't a mutually exclusive thing. You can have more than one life insurance policy. You can have more than one type of life insurance policy. Um, but as a general matter to the point you just younger you are when you get life insurance, the better, right? And the presumption is that sort of you are healthier at call it 20 or 30, then you will be at 60. And so when you think about sort of pricing a life insurance policy at 60, like that is when some elements of age uh sort of start to reflect themselves and and people find themselves having some health issues or just frankly you probably have more life behind you than you do in front of you, right? And so those are all considerations when it comes to pricing. Um, but one way people think about term is sort of matching it to a liability, right? And so to your point about 30 year term, getting it at 30.A lot of times it's because you have a 30 year mortgage, right? Or you have a child that was just born and you're trying to ensure um that you can support them until they are able to sort of financially support themselves on their own, um, but then there are a number of ways to sort ofAnd shortest you have coverage, the one of the easiest and and sort of why I advocate for permanent life policies because they're permanent, right? And so we don't have this issue. And so you go through your underwriting when you buy the policy, the policy, uh, assuming all goes well is issued, and now you don't have to worry about that so long as you sort of pay your but if we want to sort of think about this from a term perspective too, there's a weird, there's a way to sort of layer different term policies to cover different sort of amounts, different stages of life, different liabilities, different cash flows, uh, and some sometimes people do that. And so like there are myriad ways that you can can utilize life insurance and have it sort of address your needs, your life and then something that we take pride in here is, is sort of building a product that grows with you, right? And so if you think about sort of the normal expectation in someone's life, it's that sort of over the course of time, you earn more and more money, right?And so what that could mean for 21 year old Ross is that I can only afford sort of X amount of premium per month. But then 25 things start going better for me and sort of that same percentage say that was 1% of sort of my earnings, that equals a different number andSo that allows me to sort of have more premium, have sort of more cash value accumulation, etc. and so on and forth. And so at 30, at 35, at 40, so you have this permanent policy, you're paying your premiums, you can raise your premiums and thus accelerate sort of the growth of your cash what you now have is a product that literally grows with you, uh, and adjusts to the stage of life you're in, um, and becomes this asset for you, uh, that you can always have. I love it,man. Look, for the interest of time, I got one more question, but we could go all day, um, not even gonna lie, cause this is uh super for me, butWhere can people find out more information about just general, you know, life insurance questions? Yeah, so we understand that uh there are tons of sort of misconceptions, tons of unknowns, and so for that reason, we launched a financial literacy and insurance literacy called wealth and equity, and it can be found at wealth and And so on there you can learn about financial literacy, you can learn about life insurance, you can literally see video testimonies of the impact and the ways um that life insurance has impacted different people's lives, um, and so and and also to the point of people being unsure how much they need. You can literally go there, sort of put in the details of your unique circ like or situation, uh, and actually get an estimate of sort of how much life insurance you should have based on your unique circumstances. And we think that's sort of a huge equalizer and sort of bridge builder um for those who have concerns about it and furthermore we, you can get a quote and so you can understand sort of one, how much you need and how much that can cost, and then it's your choice on whether or not you and then one other thing I want to talk about, right, isI alluded to this earlier. So Limra, which is sort of the research body for life insurance, um, does a study every year. It's called the Barome study. Their most recent study said that 102 million American adults life insurance or need more life insurance. So relative to sort of what they have, like, for example, they may have a group benefits policy that covers one or two extra salary, that's drastically different when we talked about the figures of sort of needing 10X or 20X. Um, but if we think about sort of what that means from a dollar perspective, they say the gap is call it like.$25 trillion. Um, and if we think about what that means from a premium opportunity, that's $70 billion. If you think about, and that's on an annual basis, so $70 billion of premium on an annual basis. If you think about how life insurance is often sold, it's sold through so every sort of life insurance policy that you sell, um, you're able to generate commission and sort of you just heard the size of the opportunity, $70 billion a year in that's a significant sort of economic opportunity, and I'm all supportive but people sort of getting their real estate licenses and having side hustles, like there needs to be more consideration to this life insurance opportunity cause you're doing good, so you're getting people a product they need. You're protecting them, you're protecting their family, you're giving them something depending on the product that can be an asset. uh, and it can be a significant sort of income generation opportunity for and so, uh, I, I try and sort of tell more, more and more folks about this opportunity because it is vast, it can be lucrative, and you're literally, um, doing a good service by people by ensuring they have these things, and so, uh, go, go tell a friend. Well, that's a million dollars worth of game. People, let's give a roll welcome and thank you to my dog, Ryan Smith of Atlanta Life. And that's it for this episode. People make sure you tune in each and every week. Tell your mama, your auntie, and your cousins to tune in, subscribe, leave a comment, and share with somebody they love. Appreciate you, content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. 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Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How improving your wellness can boost your career
Is good health truly the path to happiness? For companies around the world, fostering good wellness habits among their employees is becoming increasingly important. On this episode of Financial Freestyle, host Ross Mac speaks with the CEO and co-founder of Wellhub Cesar Carvalho about his company's goal to democratize wellness in the workplace. Cesar discusses how the Covid pandemic shifted his business model, how AI can help improve wellness, and lifestyle tips that will make an impact on your life and career. Listen and subscribe to Financial Freestyle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac on Yahoo Finance is dedicated to promoting economic prosperity for all. Through expert insights, practical advice, and inspiring success stories, we empower you to build and grow wealth. Join us on this transformative journey toward financial freedom and inclusive economic growth. The way you exercise influences how you sleep, how, you know, your mental health is, and how you're gonna eat better as well. And the same way, if you're eating better, you're gonna sleep better and have more energy to exercise and to perform better at work. So, several of our clients had this realization thatWellness is holistic, and they pushed us to go into that direction. Welcome to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance, and I'm your host, Ross Mack. Now look guys, no matter where you are in your financial journey, you could always learn more and that's why I'm talking to some of the most influential people in uncovering their own pathway to becoming financially successful. And today is no different as I'm interviewing the CEO and co-founder of Whale Hub, Cesar Carvalho. Cesar, my man, my man, my man. Thanks so much for joining us. How are you doing today, brother? I'm doing great, Ross. Thank you for having me. I'm loving the color you got on the microphone, you know, great minds think a it's it's it's a sign that it's starting to get a little warmer outside. But listen, right? Obviously I did a lot of digging into understanding and uncovering who you are, but to our audience, right?Who is Cesar Cavallo? Very good. Hello everyone. I'm a Brazilian living in New York. I've been here for 6 years, and maybe to share a little bit on me, I have always been an active person, an active kid, and when I transitioned into my professional life, I kind of ignored a few important steps uh of a great life. Like II was working so hard, wrestling so hard that I lost connection with my friends, you know, with some of my family members. I lost the connection with my own well-being, and that's what inspired me 13 years ago, to take a break from my MBA and start a company that would help many other people solve the issues I had when I was a the mission is democratizing access to health and wellness to everyone and every company. That's how well Wellhub came to exist, and this is why like I'm so excited 13 years after to talk about the the company, talk about myself and about what I like to do. Well, one, big kudos to you, right? Obviously, you and I share a few similarities and passions, right? I'm trying to democratize access to financial information. Obviously you're democratizing access to financial well-being. And obviously, right, you started out maybe more so just kind of in the the workout phase, but then you kind of expanded it more so holistically. What was the driving factor behind that? Well, the it started with our corporate clients, like, we mostly go to market via partnerships with companies offering well help to their employees, right? And those clients were pushing for a more complete in their minds was the right assumption that like wellness is holistic, you know, and how you work out the way you exercise influences how you sleep, how, you know, your mental health is, and how you're gonna eat better as well. And the same way, if you're eating better, you're gonna sleep better and have more energy to exercise and to perform better at work. So several of our clients had this realization thatWellness is holistic, and they pushed us to go into that direction. Once we took the first steps, signed the first pilots, what we saw was a virtual cycle, and users that engaged with more than one type of, you know, vertical of wellness, you know, like, they became way more engaged and got way better results, and they ended up staying with the platform for then it became a natural extension for what we did, and eventually it led to changing the name of the company to EHubb, which stands for being the hub for everything related to Wellness for every single employee. I love it. Well, listen, clearly you're an expert in this field, so we got to dispel a few myths, right? Cause every time you're an entrepreneur, everybody's like, ah, I sleep when I'm dead, right? How many hours of sleep should a person get? Let's just start there. Well, it, it varies from one from from person to person, you know, I normally say that people's wellness journey is like their fingerprint. Everyone has their own, but you know like anyone should target sleeping at least 7 hours every night, you know, and as much as the amount of hours, it's actually important to make sure that that sleep is of a good quality, you there are very few tips that are very impactful to helping people sleep better, and we see that across all our partners on this type of vertical, um, and I'm happy to share with you if it's, you know, if it if it would be helpful here for, for the audience. Well, one, I, I want you to share this with my 4 year old who seems to never want to sleep and always come and wake me up, so I might need to borrow you after this. But no, no, no, we, we could keep going because I am curious, right? Like didn't just drop out of an NBA program, you dropped out of one of the best, right? That being Harvard. Let's actually talk about that, like, what was the turning point to make you say?Now's the time. Now is the time for me to go full time in my business, as opposed to, you know, let me just stand here, probably stick it out for another year and a half or whatever, right? Like, what was the turning point to make you say, let's go. Now is the time. Yeah, it started when, you know, I needed to decide what was gonna invest my summer, uh, uh, in between the first and the 2nd year. And my career prior to the NBA was quite a stable one, you know, like I worked at McKinsey before for 2 years. I did well. McKinsey sponsored my MBA and I had an offer to go back and work for at least 2 more years, doing a similar role as I was doing before. So,That allowed me to like really push for that summer internship to beOne that I would go for defenses, you know, like I would try for a home run. I would try something very different than I was used to. And, you know, I did a workshop during the NBA uh in which I kind of mentalized what was the ideal work environment for me, the one in which I would thrive, the one in which I wouldn't see the time passing by and etc. andThat environment meant I would be working with people I liked, friends that were close to me, and tackling on a challenge that was a difficult one, you know, like and hard to get, andI wanted that summer internship to be something that was exactly, exactly that, you know, so two other friends of mine, uh, got together with me. We all traveled back to Brazil to start our business that I was doing HBS my co-founder, one of my co-founders was working at uh doing his MBA at MIT, and we went all in, uh, with Waldhub. But in the 1st 2 or 3 months, you know, like, it was still the early days, there were no clear signs of I was having so much fun. I was enjoying so much what I was doing, and I was so deeply connected to the mission of getting people to exercise, getting people to be healthy, active, that I said there's no other thing I should be doing for my life. Like, and, uh, Harvard was gracious enough to give me up to 5 years to come back if I wanted to still be working on my business. And, you know, eventually the 5 years passed, I never got back because, you know, like, I'm having the time of my life still. I love it. Well, maybe we'll get them to let you do the, um, you know, the, the commencement speech and then you can get like an honorary or whatever. Not that you need it, right? But let's actually kind of go back into those early stages because I think, you know,The audience that are listening to this, I think they could truly, you know, understand how to take an idea from a concept to actually executing because I, I look at good companies as like, you know, 10% good idea, 90% execution. And so when you, let's talk about those early stages and how you started to convince those gyms, those studios, and those corporations to actually partner with you. For sure. It, it started with gym, studios and wellness apps, right? How to get them to sign to an idea to a vision, and we didn't have much at the beginning. We just had this dream that every single employee should have access to this, you know. Uh, so there was actually a lot of work put on the design of the value proposition for those, uh, wellness partners to join in the first place, you know, one of them was that it needed to be free for they needed to share our success if we were successful, and they couldn't be penalized if we were not, right? So we designed the incentive schemes to make it a no brainer for them to join the platform. Like, they would get paid every time someone used them, and they would never invest a dime in being part of the then once we had enough critical mass, a network of partners that was decent for a given city, several neighborhoods, we had a business case of pitching to small and medium companies who they had employees in those areas, you that was when we started making those connections, and we started spinning the flywheel that led to the business growth. And the flywheel is getting partners to be on the network, having an amazing offering, an amazing plan for employees of companies, then getting the company to invest on a program like this for the employees, getting people to sign up and to use the then the more partners we have, the easier it was to get more companies to sign up, and the more companies we had, the easier it got to get more employees to sign up and therefore more volume, more payments to our very early in the journey, we saw that, you know, once we sign a given company of a given industry, let's say we signed a bank in that specific city, it was 10 times easier to sign the other bank of the same industry than to sign a new company in a completely different industry. The reason being that they normally one another to compare, like, what, what, what are the benefits that are offered to the employees? What are things the employees are liking and, you know, there, it was often that employees would shift from one company to the other, and then they would push to get that benefit also in the next company. And that has fueled our growth. First, in the same city, then in all cities in a given country, and now we're in 12 countries still signing new clients in every single one of them. That's remarkable.I think, I mean, when you look at this, like in order to get to critical mass, I love how you say you started out giving it for free. It's only upside at this point and there's an opportunity also to make money and as the network did, um, you know, more people got on, more partners got on, more clients got on. So that's remarkable. Question, right? How would you say the pandemicshifted kind of your overall business, right? Like, obviously, you know, from a mental health standpoint, the world was kind of going crazy, right? Shut down, work from home. But then on top of that, right, there was an emergence of people saying, All right, I'm working from home, let me work out more, right? You saw people with Pelotons, etc. But just in all, like kind of what was that during the pandemic as well as post pandemic shift when it comes to overall wellness. Yeah, in, in general, the pandemic accelerated a lot of secular trends that we were already seeing in the workplace, in consumer habits, and etc. you know, and um a lot of that got maybe accelerated 2 or 3 years. And even though gyms and studios were closed for most of the time there, the need for a wellness service was higher than companies. They were all sending their employees home. Everyone was disengaged, everyone struggling for mental health and etc. and they couldn't be close to people they loved and etc. So that made our mission even more important to our clients and our corporate clients challenged us a lot to evolve the, the, the product and to make sure we are being close to every single one of their employees. So a few things happened, you know. One,In terms of our network of gyms, studios, etc. there was a push to expand beyond the large metropolitan areas. So we needed to expand to all the suburban areas, rural areas, and that led to a lot of new partners joining our network and a lot of people using those partners. It was not only about the business areas, Manhattan, Midtown, etc. the loop in Chicago anymore. It was about all the other areas. Our product became way more then it was about also getting into nutrition, sleep, mindfulness, therapy, all verticals that were really important at that time, and we made sure to include to the uh to the clients as well. That's remarkable. Guys, we're gonna take a quick, quick break, but when we come back, we're gonna talk to Cesar Carvalho and actually help you understand how he built a unicorn right, welcome back to Financial Freestyle. And listen, guys, we have more with Cesar Carvalho, CEO and co-founder of Whale Hub. Killing the wellness space. And so I actually got to ask you, right, Cesar, what's the secret sauce, right? Because obviously you have other people that are trying to do what you're doing. Some people do it OK, some people don't do it good at all. But what's your secret sauce in keeping you guys obviously successful and growing? No, for sure, you know, like the secret sauce here is helping people change behavior at scale, because if you're a company with more than 1000 employees, you know, a solution that works for one employee will never be the perfect one for the other, etc. you know, and while most benefits in our space have 34, 5% of the employees using it every single month, we get to rates on average close to 20%.And in the most engaged clients, close to 40%. And to me, it is about having the right product for every single employee, you know, and in wellness.I, I, I normally say it's like the movies industry. Every 1 or 2 years there's a blockbuster, and everyone goes after it. When I started the company, Pilates was the thing, then CrossFit became the thing, Cycling, Peloton was the thing, and now Pico Pico Ball and racket sports are on the rise. A year from today, another 2 years, you know, like, it's gonna be a different uh benefit is we as a platform have all of them available for our employees, you know, and it costs less, you know, they have flexibility to try a number of things and they can navigate all these trends without having to cancel nor commit to long term memberships, which eventually leads to them, employees losing money uh across the board. having the right product for everyone, for less and more options is what gets people engaged and what in turn helps companies dramatically change the behaviors of their employees at I'mprobably the only person that didn't get the memo when it comes to the shift, and my wife is still mad at me because, you know, a few times a week I'm still playing basketball and it's to the point where it's like if I get injured, it's like I can't even tell my wife because it's literally a, I told you so. Stop doing that. You're too old to be playing basketball, but it's, I don't know. I I I got to figure it out. But listen, Cesar, I'm talk about how AI, right, is shifting one, the overall personalized wellness right, how are you guys utilizing it and kind of what do you think in the next coming years how AI will, you know, evenGet even bigger inthis space. Yeah, and I think we will be very, very big in this space. And the main reason for me is that if you look at what's luxury in wellness today, luxury is having a wellness coach, you know, to like draft workout schedule, you know, like a nutrition plan and etc. Luxury is having a personal trainer to exercise with you, to specifically customize and those one on one services are super expensive, you know, like people can get access to that, but that's a small fraction of the population. And AI will play a key role in democratizing access to all those services, to all that personalization, to every for a very low cost. And like that's where we're investing time and attention, and like we're now uh using AI to simulate what is the work that all these different people, a nutritionist, a wellness coach, a personal trainer, would have, and they're currently doing that work, and we're using our trainers and etc. to, toTo train the AI, but we're making that available to every single employee. We're now finishing our pilot on that. We have a few users and all of our employees, but it's something we're looking forward to rolling out soon to every single member and every single subscriber. And I think that's just the beginning of the will be many more things that are gonna be developed by AI and with uh products with AI that will dramatically lower the cost of everything related to wellness, especially if it's digitally delivered via, you know, calls or via video conferences and etc. What would you say, right, as a CEO of a fast growing company, what are some of your non-negotiable health regimens, right?You know, like, how do you maintain and stay healthy? Look, I'll share in what's right for me, and then I'll comment on like a perspective. I wish everyone could take on this on this matter, but the, you know, what works really well for me is putting physical activity first, because once I start my day,And I get into all the meetings, all the responsibilities that will be left behind. So I try to put that first. So every time I wake up, when I'm at home, you know, I have an hour to exercise, I would use one of our partner apps or I go to a gym or studio nearby, and I get my workout done, you know. Once that is checked, I consider the second most important thing to be close to myFamily, when I'm at home, I prepare breakfast to my kids. I take them to school, and it's my time with them, and they can count on me being there for those two things, no matter what, right? So no negotiable for me. I have no meetings between 7:30 a.m. and 8:15 a.m., which are the 45 minutes I need to get them ready to go to school, to talk to them and be ready to start my work. Once that's done,Work and then I'm, I focused completely on on my work and I tend to have a pause midday, normally 30 to have lunch or after I already had lunch, to meditate, and I stop, it's the time to reground myself and prepare for the second half, you know, the rest of the matter what I'm doing when I'm traveling. At 7:30 p.m. I always put a pause on my calendar to reconnect with my wife and kids. I call them every time, 7:30 p.m. Eastern. It doesn't matter where I am. I might be on the west coast, in Europe or in Asia. I will wake up and give them a call and they expect it. They have that predictable commitment from me as well. Uh, the last part is making sure I connect with my dad at least 4 times a to see how he's doing, etc. We live in different countries, uh, but I think I'm closer to him now than I was when we were in like in the, in the same state, and just living in two different the comment I have, you know, like for everyone is that, you know,To get most of it right, you don't need to be waking up at 3 a.m., 40 a.m., 5 a.m. You don't need to be doing infrared saunas, cold plunges, and going to all the different locations. I think the basics are what you need to get right for an 80% for receiving 80% of the value or the benefit. And the basics to me are, you know, 120 minutes of physical activity a week, twice a week, you sleeping well, 7 hours, trying to eat know, andTaking some time to reflect and nurture good relationships and healthy relationships with your loved ones, you know. If people get those things right and they're so basic, so simple, you know, you already cover 80% of the wellness need, and then you can invest time on everything else that's gonna make your life more productive and yourself happier. That's powerful. This was a remarkable, remarkable episode. I just want to give a big special thanks to Cesar Cavallio, who just really helped open my eyes when it comes to this whole wellness journey. A few things that I didn't know and probably things that I need to incorporate in my own kind of daily routine. But look guys, that's it for this episode. Make sure you like, subscribe, comment, share it with a relative, a neighbor, somebody who used to bully you in kindergarten. I don't care, but just share it with once again, we're coming out every Friday. Make sure you like, subscribe, and until next week, have a good one. This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. Related Videos What United's New Profit Forecast Signals for Airlines Waller Explains Why Fed Should Cut Rates Now MikMak sees Potential for Advertising Clients on Netflix Retail sales rebound, jobless claims: Consumer health check-in Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can a new stock exchange revolutionize investing?
Gaining access to capital markets isn't easy for small and minority-owned businesses, but one man is working to change that. On this episode of Financial Freestyle, host Ross Mac speaks with Joe Cecala, founder of The Dream Exchange, about his mission to open up access to capital for all. Joe discusses why small-cap IPOs have dwindled in recent years, how proposed legislation could make it easier to start a venture exchange, and the process of building an entire stock exchange from scratch. For business owners and investors alike, you won't want to miss this fascinating episode of Financial Freestyle Listen and subscribe to Financial Freestyle on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac on Yahoo Finance is dedicated to promoting economic prosperity for all. Through expert insights, practical advice, and inspiring success stories, we empower you to build and grow wealth. Join us on this transformative journey toward financial freedom and inclusive economic growth. Small companies that actually have really innovative, great generally don't go to the public markets until very late stage. By the time they're going to the public markets today, all the wealth creation, all the opportunity to quote unquote, get in early and build wealth by making an investment in a in a company that's emerging, it's gone. Welcome to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance, and I'm your host, Ross Mack. Now look guys, no matter where you are on your financial journey, there's always the first step you got to take and look no further guys, because I'm talking to some of the most influential people in the world of finance and uncovering their truths. And today's no different as I'm talking to Joe Sekela, founder and CEO of the Dream Exchange. Joe, my man, my Chicago native. How you doing, baby? I'm doing great and I really appreciate you having me on, on the show. The feeling is mutual, because one, you're doing some amazing things, right? And so even before we get into that, right, just a kid from the west side, right? Obviously I did my due diligence, but to the world, to the people, to the audience, who is Joe Sekela? You know, oh wow, nice question and thank you for catching me by surprise. Um, you know, I'll tell you, uh, I'm an entrepreneur at heart. I've been an entrepreneur my whole life, um, but, you know, I have the credentials, the career, uh, you know, CPA lawyer, I was an army officer. I've done a, uh, like Forrest Gump my way through my life, but really what I found who I am, I really wanted to use everything that I gained in knowledge in my life to help I'm fundamentally someone who wants to help others, and we've built an organization that culturally is really designed to bring people together and to help people flourish and prosper. I try to live up to that. That's who I am. I try to live up to helping other people flourish and prosper in whatever they're doing every day. Um, that's, that's kind of my basic personality, and I, I, I'm trying. I, I always get there but I'm trying. So, then we have to get into what exactly you're trying. And this is obviously the dream exchange. So what is the dream exchange? Let's actually break it down and also let's talk about what was your inspiration behind it. OK, I mean, the dream, the dream exchange is, it will be uh very, very soon, uh, likely this year, the 8th stock exchange in the country. So, um, I, I'm saying that kind of rolls off my tongue, but to become a national market system stock exchange is a very heavy lifting entrepreneurial task. Um, so we are a fully electronic, um, competitor to the New York Stock Exchange or the you know, that's, that's part A, but perhaps leading into your next question, which is what kind of inspired me and our group to do what we're doing, is, uh, we really are dedicated to the small and medium sized business. Um, and we have other phases after we're licensed this year as an exchange that are gonna really small business, the entrepreneur, the emerging company, people who really struggle to find access to capital. And we're gonna use the stock exchange environment that we have to facilitate more companies being able to reach the American investing public with their ideas and with their great entrepreneurial uh get the American people to vote with their dollars, to invest in those companies, see them grow and flourish and expand. That's the inspiration for that is I, I was a lawyer. I did many, many venture capital and private equity deals, and I really discovered thatThere's not uh an equal playing field, and it's the playing field. This is about the equality of, of the opportunity access, um, where if you have great relationships and you've gone to an Ivy League school, perhaps, and all of your, you know, friends and colleagues and associates have a lot of money, you can be an entrepreneur and raise a lot of if you don't have that environment, it's increasingly more difficult because it's a relationship driven private capital the public capital market is very different. So what inspired me was to really help the people that were my clients, and I had a tough time. Like, if I was actually a success at some of the, at some of the things, uh, that I did in the past, helping the people I wanted to help, I don't know that we'd be here. Uh, but the, the failure of the opportunity is really what I focused on. And I wanted to bringThat's everybody. Um, I, I, you said, I come from the west side, my friends, my colleagues, the people that I've associated with my whole life. I think they deserve the same opportunity to succeed. And that's not just the West Side, it's throughout the whole country. We want people with great imaginations and great get the capital that they need to make their idea become something we can all use and help help everybody with the best ideas. That's what, that's the inspiration was born out of my career, trying to help people, and this is just the best and most optimal way I think to that I could do it. I love it, right? Like at the end of the day, right? Having a mission and a goal to create more equitable access, more equitable access to capital is very remarkable, right? I think that when you look at the stock market to the average person, they don't really know the difference, right? Oh, New York Stock Exchange, or Nasdaq, they have no true idea of what it takes to get there. And then there's a why Delta when you're looking at kind of names that the New York Stock Exchange versus kind of those pink slip, penny stocks, etc. And so effectively you're kind of in that middle market realm. Like let's kind of break that down and like truly help us understand like one, that that void that the dreaming change is going to be filling and then like kind of what are thequalifications of a company that has the ability to list and raise capital, you know, publicly on the dream exchange. right, there is, there's a void. Um, we're filling a void that actually at one time was the majority, and when I say the majority, 70, 80%, 90% of all companies that went public, were only raising $50 million. Now that might sound like a lot of money Computer is a $1 trillion company. These, this is not, these are not big companies, OK? So 1020 $30.50 million dollars, uh, that's the lifeblood of the economy and, and small business. So at one time, we would have 7 or 8 or 900 IPOs every year and 90% of them raised $50 million or that's gone. It's been gone for 25 years. So we're restoring that as a target market, because the, the need for it, um, the need is the what I described before, where there's nothing wrong with the stock exchanges work. They work. They work just question is, it's like playing a football game, and you're just not allowed to get into the stadium. Football is a fine game, but if you can't get on the team, you can't get in the stadium, you don't have access, no one will ever discover how good a player you are. And that goes to the second part of your question, which is, well, what are the types of companies? What are we looking for?And we have a very different viewpoint. Clearly, there's some financial constraints where, you know, you have to have a real company, it has to be not just a concept in a, in a drawer. It's a real company, it's producing a product, and those financial characteristics we're gonna publish later because we have to file them with the SEC first. But I can tell you we've discovered, and this is 17 years of that the small companies that actually have really innovative, great generally don't go to the public markets until a very late the time they're going to the public markets today, all the wealth creation, all the opportunity to quote unquote, get in early and build wealth by making an investment in a, in a company that's emerging, it's gone. So we're restoring that for investors to make good investment choices in a company that'll grow. We're trying to restore the wealth creation to the founders and employees of earlier stage companies because they benefit as and really, job creation. So, when you have an innovative idea, a great idea, and you're the only one who has it,That makes you uh insatiable to the investing marketplace. So, you could even take a big company like Tesla as an example. They weren't profitable until 18 months they were already the largest auto manufacturer in the world. Why?The idea, they were able to manufacture in quantity, an electronic car that was affordable at a retail you have that idea and you have that capability, you have the best idea in the market. So their stock price and their capital was easy to get and they had a huge value. We want those companies, we want Tesla before it's Tesla. We want Apple before, we want Apple when it's right out of the garage. We're looking for those people that have the most imaginative and innovative ideas, because first of all, they're the ones who need the second of all, we have a philosophy that when we give our money to those ingenious people, we all end up surviving better. Because where would we be without wireless communication and now we have electronic cars and, you know, innovations in building, and we have a for pretty much every person today. It's all been born from the innovators, and we have to really nourish people who are imaginative and have good ideas, get them the most capital they can to create, and then we're all gonna be better off for it. That's the, the, you know, fundamentally, we didn't put the dream exchange here as a quick and dirty, let's hurry up and do this for a couple of years and be entrepreneurs.I expect the Dream exchange to be a household name and to be here for many, many decades to come, uh, long after I'm gone, and continue to really help all the communities in our country. We, we call calling ourselves the People's Exchange because you just don't know where the next great idea is gonna come we're going into the unlikely corners of our society and searching out people who really deserve help, and they deserve to see their idea come to fruition and will build wealth and jobs, and it really is the whole country when we succeed. We, I, I know we're going to, we're, we're already past the most major barriers this year. So, when we succeed, we're gonna help a lot of people who deserve to be helped. Get them into the football game, if you will. I love it. Well, listen, guys, we're gonna take a quick, quick break here and when we come back, we'll have more about the dream exchange with back to Financial Freestyle here on Yahoo Finance. And guys, we're talking to Joe of the Dream Exchange, which is going to be the 8th exchange here in the US and I'm curious, right, because you've actually spoken about the importance of legislation, right? Like the Main Street Growth Act. And I'm curious, right, how is that critical to the overall mission of your company? Yeah, it's vital. So, you know, we started touching on this earlier about what types of companies, what are the sizes of the companies that we could bring into the public market. So the Main Street Growth Act actually allows, it takes legislation to create a new type of stock exchange. That'll be under the umbrella of the DRAM exchange. And what we're able to do with that legislation.I take very small companies where the financial mechanics are less important. Not that they're irrelevant, but, you know, a company that has had no profits, maybe had very little revenue, uh, is 3 years old, but maybe they have the cure for cancer. Maybe they're in a laboratory in a university and they're in phase two of getting their FDA approval for a miracle companies, because they don't have the exact financial mechanics, need a special protected stock exchange environment. So we can bring them to the public market, and everyone in America can invest in them in their earlier stages before they're being bought up by, you know, Procter and Gamble or before they're bought up by Merrick, you know, they're at a stage where believing in the idea is something really important. So with the legislation,And the new type of 1, the retail investors are allowed to come. #2, the application process for the company is very extensive. So we actually get to look at the veracity of the idea and actually make sure that what is being represented in the company is in fact the, the, the holy grail or the, the real McCoy, if you once we have those companies, retail investors are allowed to support them and usually they don't need a billion dollars. In fact, if some of them got a billion dollars, they wouldn't know what to do with it. They need $10 million.20 dollars, $30.50 million dollars, as little as $5 million. And with those smaller amounts of capital, you can have a high enough stock price with a small enough audience of investors that protects the value of the here's the most important part about not private investing, it's public capital, which means when you make your the investment does reasonably well, you can sell what they call secondary today, if you invest it and you're an angel investor or a seed investor, or even venture capitalists, private equity, once you make the investment, the investment, your shares can't be resold unless everybody agrees, unless the whole company is being bought up by another company, or unless you go in and personally negotiate to sell your shares. Well, in the public markets, you can sell your shares for any reason or no reason at you decide that you've made a bit of money and it's good enough for you, uh, there's a liquid public market that's always available, that gives you the value of your shares. It gives opportunity to other people who might want to take the next step and the next step in the next proverbial round. So that secondary market for liquidity for company stock today doesn't bringing secondary liquidity to small cap companies is a brand new industry. We are the inventors of it, and that industry, I think, really saves uh the uh broad American investing public because they get to invest. And today, if you don't have a relationship with a VC or somebody and you don't know, how, how would you even find the company on the menu? You can't even, can't even find the we'll have a vetted menu of really good companies for which individual investors, you know, Robin Hood, you wanna go, you'll be, it'll be right to a stock exchange, just like you're buying the real innovation of the legislation, and I think it's uh it's the the legislation is really an idea whose time has come. It's working its way through Congress. Uh, hopefully it'll pass before the end of this Congress, but the Main Street Growth Act is vital to us reaching into the markets that we really want to help. And obviously you have a few things you're working on from legislation to uh filing with the SEC, etc. So like, what have been some of the biggest challenges, both operationally, financially, etc. to actually take this idea and turn it into a reality. I mean, I would say that one of the biggest challenges we've had to overcome, um, and we've done this with our team, isUh, making sure that we communicate the confidence that the team itself is on par with the the teams at NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange and, and our team is fantastic. We have, uh, you know, our lawyer, our chief of operations, our architect, they were all chief operations, lawyers, architects of other I started out in this business by helping to create what was the first equity trading um exchange called Archipelago. Archipelago merged with the New York Stock Exchange in 2005. So the New York Stock Exchange is actually called we have to explain, look, you should have confidence in us for one have not uh taken an investor pool of our customers. So all the other stock exchanges in the country are owned and controlled by the brokerage I say we're the people's exchange, it's not just because we're helping individual companies and individual investors, it's because we're the only stock exchange to be owned by individual investors ourselves. So Joe, what's it look like, right? Like I've, I've visited the New York Stock Exchange. In fact, I used to have a show from the Florida New York Stock Exchange. For the Dream Exchange, are there traders? What's it look like here? So, you know, we, we are literally um electronically nearly identical to every other exchange. So,We're in the same data center in Secaucus, New Jersey electronically. Our customers are the same customers. When a buy sell order comes to our exchange and it's the quotes are listed out into the market, they're side by side with every other exchange, and when the buyer seller match, they match just like any other exchange. So we're exactly the NASDAQ, uh NYSE, CBOE were the same exact product with one smaller, we're leaner, we can charge a different rate sheet. We're, we're much more customer service service. So if you call here, you're gonna get a human being, not an AI but and so our customers are really gonna get a lot of service from us, and then the main differentiating factor is target marketplace to bring new companies to list on our stock exchange is very different than any other stock exchange. We're talking to people that they're, they're just not talking to, they're not interested in. And a lot of it actually is what we call the rust have Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, there's a lot of ingenious companies. There's a, I, I'll talk about this without disclosing who it is, but there's a technology company in Detroit in the um electronic vehicle uh service, it's a, it's a, it's a woman, she's a Princeton engineer who invented something, um, no one else is really talking to them right those are our constituents, OK? Those are the people we want to see come to the public markets, and, you know, we'd like to create thousands of small cap listings that have real credibility, not a pink sheet company, not somebody whoYou know, kind of doesn't always comply with the securities laws. We want, you know, quality listings and quality, uh, investors, and, and the investor market really comes through our customers. So, you know, if you have an account at uh Fidelity or at Schwab or at, uh, you know, Robin Hood, when you buy,You're actually, you don't know what stock exchange your trade matched on. That customer does. So, our customer is just there like everyone else, with one generating the new the only place you'll be able to go to get at our listings is our stock exchange. So that's where our our customers get an advantage, and that's where their retail customer who's at Fidelity and wants to invest in the new thing, he's gonna do the same thing he does today. He goes into his Fidelity account, he finds the listing symbol, he knows that that's the company he wants to buy or sell, and he puts in his order in his Fidelity account. Well, Fidelity does the trade on the difference is today, the listing symbols we intend to attract, they don't exist. So when we put those companies into the marketplace through cultivating our our marketing and advertising from our exchange, there's an entire new marketplace for small caps that is gonna come through dream exchange. That's, that's really the main differentiating factor. Well, Joe, that's it for our time and I cannot say thanks enough for joining us. And most importantly, we're wishing you on behalf of all of the financial freestyle community, the best of luck. But guys, that's it for this episode. Make sure you guys like, subscribe, share this with a friend or relative, whomever. And remember, these episodes are coming out each and every Friday. So then guys, take care. This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. Errore nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
