Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / AI in Investing and Wealth Strategy That Beats the System with Justin Kuyper

Transcript

AI in Investing and Wealth Strategy That Beats the System with Justin Kuyper · King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights

0:00
And then what I realised is that in the in the institutional
0:03
world and then the retail world are two very different, very
0:06
different worlds and the access that you get is very, very
0:10
different. So for example, the top 1% of
0:14
investors get access to specific opportunities that the rest of
0:20
the population does not get access to simply because of
0:23
divergences in net worth differences in opportunity.
0:28
And So what the ultimate goal for this was to basically bridge
0:32
that gap by through technology and giving the solution at a
0:36
much lower cost anyway that that's sort of that was the
0:40
thinking behind this platform. So before.
0:44
We dive back into today's conversation.
0:45
I want to share something important.
0:47
This episode includes a pay partnership with Better Help, a
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platform designed to make starting therapy easier.
0:51
I know from my own journey as a leader and entrepreneur that
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life can sometimes feel overwhelming.
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There are seasons, severe stress, uncertainty, and
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That superior therapy comes in. Therapy isn't only for people
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yourself. Welcome to The Kingdom's
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podcast, where we share the stories of extraordinary people
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and dissect hot, relevant topics that shape our world.
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From visionary leaders to trailblazing creatives, we
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uncover the mindset, strategy, and grit behind greatness.
2:17
Whether it's business, culture or personal growth, we ask the
2:21
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Isn't just conversation, it's transformation.
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The Kingdom's podcast, Your next breakthrough starts here.
2:28
Music. Licencing Reimagined we are live
2:35
you once again a welcome to the King James podcast and diary of
2:40
a CFO. And today I've got with me
2:44
fighting out of California, Justin, the financial hero
2:49
creeper. How are you today, Justin?
2:53
Doing well? Doing well.
2:54
How are you? Right.
2:57
All right. London, England is quite hot
2:59
today. The weather is, you know,
3:02
anyways, the British weather is always a fluctuating yesterday
3:07
it was cold, today sunny. We don't know what tomorrow's
3:11
going to bring, but it is what it is.
3:13
We're glad we we're on fire today.
3:15
And of course, finally we get to make it happen.
3:18
We are giving justice to Justin Day.
3:21
So for those people who may not know you trusting, he's the
3:26
founder and CEO of Openfest. He's a general partner at Clear
3:31
Drop Investment and his purpose is to explore our financial,
3:39
would I say accessibility for the common person.
3:44
So we are going to explore Justin's joining from hedge fund
3:48
outperformance to fintech disruption and unpack how open
3:52
versus democratising elite investing and share strategies
3:58
that inspire entrepreneurs, business leaders and everyday
4:01
investors to rethink wealth and financial growth.
4:04
Ladies and gentlemen, please make welcome.
4:06
Justin, how are you again? Doing well, yeah.
4:11
So let's let's let's dive in where are.
4:14
You ready to rock'n'roll? Absolutely, Absolutely.
4:17
Let's. OK, OK, interesting. 1.
4:20
You know, something that would I say struck my eye when I was
4:24
looking into your profile was the fact that you actually have
4:30
an MBA from Columbia and of course you were top 20% in your
4:36
class and you fluent in 4 languages.
4:39
So briefly tell us what languages are you are Floyd at
4:45
and of course touch on your MBA journey.
4:48
Sure, sure. So the language is just so for
4:52
for everyone's curiosity, so English, French, Spanish,
4:56
Portuguese are the four languages.
4:58
So, yeah, obviously growing up in a very multicultural
5:03
international sort of environment just helps you think
5:08
broader more broadly in terms of different just business in
5:12
general. But in terms of the MB AI think
5:14
what what that really helped with was, you know, obviously
5:19
Columbia is one of the foremost, I mean if not the foremost
5:23
financial school I would say in in the world in terms of MBA
5:27
programmes. That was a very formative part
5:31
of my journey. But the idea for the business
5:33
actually happened before that, but I was actually building it
5:38
parallelly while doing my MBA. And so there was sort of AI
5:42
mean. I don't recommend everybody to
5:44
do something like that because it's very intense, the programme
5:47
very intense on its own. But yeah, just given the
5:51
situation I was in, in life, that's that's ultimately what
5:54
happened. And so, you know, I was building
5:56
it parallelly while pursuing the MBA.
6:00
So, so the advice would be to to pursue a less intense MBE
6:04
because everyone needs that business knowledge, you know?
6:06
Or just our meaning, just if you're pursuing the MBA, focus
6:09
on the MBA and then like do like don't, don't go into the
6:14
situation like I did where you're apparently trying to like
6:18
launch a business and get the degree at the same time is what
6:23
I would say there. But in turn anyway, in terms of
6:26
that though, the I mean, you know, it did ultimately pan out
6:30
for the better. So you know, we did manage to
6:34
build the platform. I was actually in living in
6:39
meaning just during it and then just after the MBA, living in
6:42
India full time working with a core team there.
6:46
So obviously I have a Co founder who's also US based and then we
6:50
have a core team of engineers there.
6:52
So I was living there and working on this seven days a
6:54
week for basically five months. Wow.
6:58
That's quite interesting. Yeah.
7:01
So getting all the regulatory licences, working with the team,
7:05
they're getting the approvals, and then like integrating all of
7:09
the technical aspects of this platform, everything you could
7:12
think of from the APIs to the back end software, the front
7:17
end, and making sure just all the pieces were flung together.
7:22
Wow, interesting stuff. You know, you, you talked about
7:25
living in a multi cultural environment, so I'm quite
7:29
curious, like where did you grow up?
7:32
Yeah. So grew up in California, in Los
7:35
Angeles specifically for the 1st 14 years of my life.
7:39
So I actually went to a International School here.
7:43
So meaning the languages there were both French and English.
7:46
So that's sort of where, you know, half of the lingual
7:50
ability came from. And then Spanish was just by
7:55
virtue of my mother already spoke Spanish and that just sort
7:59
of came about as well and was emphasised from a very early
8:03
age. And then beyond that, a lot of
8:05
time was spent in Brazil specifically.
8:09
So I lived there three or four months at a time for many, many
8:13
years. And so that it's just sort of
8:15
how all those languages came into so you.
8:17
Picked up the Portuguese. Yes, yeah.
8:20
We have Braziliano Obligado. Interesting.
8:24
So for you, I'm quite curious now, your name, your your last
8:28
name, right? What's the correct pronunciation
8:30
of the last name? And of course, it sounds like a
8:33
European name. Like what's the origin?
8:37
So you're correct, it is a European name.
8:39
So Kuiper is the way you pronounce it.
8:41
It's a, it's a Dutch last name. So I guess on my, I guess my
8:46
father's side of the family great grandfather came from
8:50
Holland. And so that's that's where the
8:52
origin of the last name. Wow.
8:54
Speaking of persons with Dutch origin, you know there there are
9:00
quite a number of them in South Africa.
9:02
And of course I'm a very big fan of the UFC.
9:05
And last night it did not go our way.
9:08
We had our boy Trika's du Plessis fighting against Hamza
9:12
Chamayev and it wasn't the result that we expected.
9:15
You by any means follow the UFC or do you know Tricus de Plessy?
9:19
I follow the UFC at a high level but I was not aware of this
9:22
match so I'll. Have to.
9:25
Wow, wow. But of course you know, you,
9:27
you, you should know your boy Tricus de Plessy.
9:29
Wow, Unfortunate now former champion.
9:32
I wish him all the best. I hope he comes back better.
9:35
And of course, you know, we're talking about you here.
9:39
So we've spoken about your early life, you know, and how it
9:44
shaped your global perspective, right?
9:46
Studying at Cornell, Columbia, the Hill School.
9:51
Wow. And of course, you, you studied
9:53
at some French school in Los Angeles.
9:55
And of course, you have that multilingual ability.
9:58
And I think that definitely must have inspired you to see the
10:04
world as your oyster. Let's talk about places you've
10:08
been in and how they have influenced your business.
10:12
Yeah. So I think, yeah, that's a very
10:14
good question. So I think ultimately, when we
10:17
think about this business, we're thinking about it from a global
10:21
perspective, right. So ultimately what we realised
10:24
even before we started building it and then even during the
10:28
build and even after the build, was that the same core problem
10:32
was always in place, which is basically most users or most
10:36
individuals who invest their money don't have the time, the
10:39
expertise or the knowledge to know how to do so.
10:43
And even if they invest in a particular platform or a
10:46
brokerage or whether it's, you know, Barclays in the UK or
10:50
Vanguard or Fidelity or Schwab in the US, just to give a few
10:54
examples. They're usually what these
10:57
institutions are doing is they're extracting very large
11:00
fees from the consumers or the customers for very mediocre
11:04
performance. And so we try, we're basically
11:07
built something that disrupts that entire model by just giving
11:11
a flat low cost subscription, but for the same access that you
11:16
would get in the higher performing hedge funded private
11:20
equity type of investments. And so we're giving you that
11:23
same annualised exposure. So if you think about the
11:27
returns that you would expect to get, it would be something
11:30
closer to 3040% annualised, sometimes even more so if you
11:35
actually download the application.
11:38
Or you can go on the website. Like I said, for the individuals
11:41
who are not currently in one of the 11 U.S. states that we're
11:45
live in, you can go on the website at openvest.co and click
11:51
on Get Access soon. And if you just put your name,
11:54
your e-mail, your phone number, we will let you know the minute
11:56
we are live in your country and location.
11:58
But the ultimate goal was to always look at this from a
12:01
global lens and never from sort of a local or regional point of
12:05
view. Interesting stuff.
12:08
So what 11 countries are as 11 countries rather 11 states?
12:13
Are you currently present in the US?
12:18
Yes. So we're currently available in
12:20
California, New York, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas,
12:26
Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
12:31
So those are the current states we are, we will be expanding
12:35
into others, but meaning we're just going sort of steps at a
12:40
time at this point. So we started with three states,
12:42
now we're in 11, and then we'll go much, much broader very, very
12:47
soon. Hopefully, hopefully so your
12:49
profile says that you've been a general partner at Clear Drop
12:53
Investment since 2020 and of course that you Lord, are
12:58
consistently outperforming benchmarks, right, industry
13:04
average benchmarks. So what principles Dr these
13:09
success? Yeah.
13:11
So I think so prior to launching this platform like I was working
13:16
in New York at a couple different financial shops and
13:21
then proceeded to start basically my own fund in the
13:25
space because there was client interest for doing so.
13:28
And then what I realised is that in the in the institutional
13:32
world and then the retail world are two very different, very
13:35
different worlds and the access that you get is very, very
13:38
different. So for example, the top 1% of
13:43
investors get access to specific opportunities that the rest of
13:49
the population does not get access to simply because of
13:53
divergences in net worth differences in opportunity.
13:57
And So what the ultimate goal for this was to basically bridge
14:01
that gap by through technology and giving the solution at a
14:05
much lower cost anyway that that's sort of that was the
14:09
thinking behind this platform. And so the, the discipline,
14:15
sorry. And to answer the question, I
14:17
guess going back the, I think the IT takes discipline,
14:22
execution and ultimately focus. It's like knowing how to solve a
14:26
puzzle, right? Finance ultimately you have to
14:30
know how to dissect not just information, but what are the
14:33
right pieces of information that allow you to draw the right
14:36
conclusions, right? And so a lot of that is just
14:39
doing different analysis from public filings, from
14:42
macroeconomic data, microeconomic data coming from
14:46
all kinds of different sources. So the Federal Reserve data,
14:49
Treasury data, company specific data and you sort of meld all of
14:53
that together, you can predict with a relatively high level of
14:57
probability what the outcomes will will be.
15:00
And so if you, as long as you can do that effectively
15:03
basically with your own proprietary system, then you can
15:07
really know how to basically outperform and create very
15:12
strong portfolios. Well, you mentioned, you know, a
15:17
mix of what I say, attributes. Yeah, a mix of attributes or
15:25
attitudes and of course, technical competence in terms of
15:33
getting these results. So it reminds me of a quote that
15:42
I like very much that hard work beats talent every time talent
15:52
does not work hard. Hard work beats talent anytime
15:58
talent doesn't work hard. So these podcasts, so the
16:04
Kingdom's Forecast is about growth mindset, leadership, and
16:07
business insights. And it just felt like you
16:11
encapsulated like what The Kingdom's Forecast is about in
16:15
just one nutshell. You spoke to the growth mindset,
16:20
you spoke to the leadership, and of course, using business
16:22
insights. It's quite interesting.
16:24
So I very much appreciate you for that.
16:27
But I'd like for you to touch a bit on what the group mindset
16:30
means to you and what you'd advise, you know, our viewers to
16:34
do or to incorporate into their attitude, you know, in terms of
16:40
a growth mindset perspective. Yeah, that's a very good
16:44
question. So one thing I like to do, and I
16:47
think this could serve for a lot of other viewers out there, is
16:51
always whenever there's a challenge or a tough problem
16:56
that you're trying to conquer or get across, always break it down
17:00
into much smaller steps, right? And so the shift in attitude
17:05
comes from taking small steps and making measurable progress
17:09
on those small steps. So as long as you can break a
17:14
large task down South, for example, building a complicated
17:18
technical platform and giving like you need to tackle one
17:23
piece at a time, right? And sometimes that starts with
17:26
writing the first line of code, right?
17:29
It could be an example or OK, I'm trying to finish this, you
17:34
know, multi hour task. Let me start with the first task
17:37
within that, let me go to the second task.
17:40
Let me go to the third, right? So that that would be one thing
17:44
that I think would shape your attitude because as you're
17:46
building more success or you're accomplishing those smaller
17:49
tasks, you can ultimately get to the bigger goal.
17:52
But if you visualise the bigger goal from the start, it's going
17:56
to seem like you're just climbing Mount Everest.
17:58
And that may not work because eventually you'll just give up
18:02
along the way. Interesting, interesting one.
18:06
I love, I love that contribution.
18:08
You know, they say a journey of 1000 miles begins with a step,
18:11
you know, baby steps and you would see the mountain crumble.
18:17
So brick by brick, basically a lot for you to touch on
18:22
leadership and of course business insights because a lot
18:25
of what I say, over 70% of the population of the audience that
18:32
listen to this broadcast are young professionals and
18:37
entrepreneurs part the data that comes to tours via the back end
18:43
on purchaser phonics, even the Spotify back end, I see that
18:49
more than 50% of our listeners do have higher than a university
18:56
degree or a university degree or higher basically.
18:59
So these are people that are would I say, well educated and
19:05
are passionate about getting education via this platform.
19:11
So in terms of leadership, especially for business and the
19:16
appropriate business insights to use to make well informed
19:20
decisions, what would you advise?
19:24
I think one piece of it is whatever business, regardless of
19:29
what business you're in, always look at the data and the facts
19:34
for what they are. So meaning do not incorporate
19:38
bias in your decisions. And I think that's an important
19:40
part of leadership as well, is just to be as objective as you
19:44
can possibly be. So a lot of times human biases
19:48
come into play, especially with regards to leadership decisions.
19:53
So that can be something as simple as who on my team am I
19:56
going to allocate this specific task to, right?
20:00
Or who's going to manage the back end development of the
20:04
technology? And why would I pick that
20:06
person, right? Sometimes like you need you need
20:10
to look at who who's going to do the job in the best way possible
20:15
and for like in the least sort of.
20:19
Complex manner where where the objective can still be met, but
20:22
the the speed and timing of the process can still work in your
20:27
favour. So I think one leadership
20:29
principle that I've seen at least that separates a lot of
20:34
the the best leaders from from the rest is ultimately being
20:38
objective and calm even under pressure.
20:41
So that that's one piece of advice I would give.
20:46
I guess that's that's the Big Brother advice from a Columbia
20:50
MBA. Guys deal with that information,
20:53
whatever you wish to do with it. But I think you should take that
20:56
piece of information very seriously.
20:59
So let's talk about, you know, clear drop, right?
21:02
So what has been the hardest part of sustaining a top 1%
21:07
performance year on year? Consistency is very difficult,
21:12
but how do you guys achieve it? Yeah.
21:16
So I think part of it is just the sort of processes that we've
21:21
put in place that allow us to adapt to different market
21:27
dynamics, different operational dynamics.
21:31
And so it's ultimately a question of staying on top of
21:35
what you know and then ignoring or or not getting into
21:39
situations where you're outside of your circle of competence.
21:44
So in other words, if you're making specific decisions or
21:49
certain investments and things you are not fully confident in,
21:53
then you're less likely to have a positive outcome from that,
21:57
right. So that's one aspect of it too,
22:00
I think is like the risk management is probably the most
22:03
important part. And what that means is not just
22:06
having a risk framework, but knowing when to pivot, which is
22:10
obviously a lot to like there's, there's the element of like
22:15
upside risk, but I mean downside risk and upside risk, right?
22:20
So sometimes the people misquantify what risk actually
22:24
is. And so like there's, there's
22:26
different, I guess we have a different view on that.
22:29
And that allows us to position ourselves in a more competitive
22:33
way. So like you have to manage the
22:35
downside, but also like if you ignore there, there are a lot of
22:39
funds and a lot of investment managers out there that play to
22:42
simply avoid the downside, but at the expense of the upside.
22:47
And so you have to be able to capture that at every given
22:51
moment, right? Because in some years the market
22:53
works well for you, but in other years, if your returns crumble,
22:57
then you'll lose your reputation and your performance.
23:00
And so it's just a matter of keeping all of that in place.
23:03
And like I said, yeah. So I think, I think operations
23:06
and risk management like having a very, very, very solid
23:10
framework for those is probably probably the two most critical
23:14
component. OK, cool.
23:16
So, so how's your work at our clear drop informed the
23:19
strategies that you're not offering to everyday investors
23:22
through Open Vest? Yeah.
23:25
So that actually played a very critical role because through
23:29
through my initial experience right at Clear Drop, I was able
23:33
to learn the dynamics of the institutional world and
23:38
basically figure out a way to mimic that for a much broader
23:46
audience. So my point is, if I had started
23:51
the Open Vest platform without that experience, I'm not sure
23:55
that the platform would have been as effective because you
23:59
have to have the right experience in order to leverage
24:04
the insights and provide that to the consumer.
24:08
It takes financial knowledge, which was sort of that key
24:13
piece, but then there's also technical knowledge and legal
24:18
knowledge to know how to do these things.
24:20
And I think from running the operations of an actual fund
24:24
like it, it can help you especially in those other
24:28
regards as well. OK.
24:31
So in terms of our founding open vest, right, you have had some
24:38
sort of Wall Street accessibility.
24:41
So in like simple terms, what is open Vest and how is it
24:45
different from robot advices, you know, or wealth managers or
24:50
just AI inspired or AI LED platforms?
24:57
Yeah. So Openvest is the only actively
25:01
managed platform for users. So meaning robo advisors and
25:05
every other example that you just mentioned do some form of
25:10
the exact same thing, which is they're giving you an index,
25:14
whether it's the FTSE, the S&P, what have you, and then they're
25:21
giving that to you, to the consumer and then charging a fee
25:25
for it. So what what does that mean?
25:27
Implicitly, it means that you're guaranteeing underperformance
25:31
because if you're mimicking the index and then they're taking a
25:34
fee and then you're getting your cut after that, then you're
25:37
guaranteeing that the user underperforms.
25:40
Here what we're doing is we have proprietary insights and
25:44
knowledge that has consistent like beaten the market over
25:48
many, many periods that have been tested, right?
25:51
And So what we're giving to the user is basically that better
25:56
performance at no more than a $3 a month maximum subscription.
26:02
So that is essentially cutting out the fees in the process and
26:06
giving you the higher returns that the user ultimately
26:10
deserves. OK, so in simple terms, how did
26:14
you feel compelled right to leave the traditional Wall
26:19
Street and build a fintech startup from scratch?
26:26
Yeah. So I think ultimately, I mean,
26:31
there are a few different elements to that, but but one
26:35
thing was I saw a much bigger opportunity here and it could
26:42
have much more of an impact with the meaning user adoption and
26:49
building something that could actually serve a much broader
26:53
base. So that was one part of it too
26:56
was I think, you know, ultimately being raised in
27:01
California initially and coming from a sort of tech background,
27:05
you know, I think my parents are both electrical engineers and
27:10
come from the legal realm. So that was always sort of where
27:14
my influence was based, right. And so I think the combination
27:18
of those things just made me realise that this was an
27:21
opportunity where something could be built and it could be
27:25
become very, very powerful. And as we've noticed in the
27:28
early days of of launching this, we've seen, you know, natural
27:32
network effects and natural growth just from, you know,
27:36
already starting in these 11 states so far.
27:40
OK. So you've actually called assets
27:43
under management fees broken. Can you explain why and how the
27:47
$3 per month flat model is better for investors?
27:53
Correct. So if you think about the AUM
27:57
model, right, the more money you have, the larger the cost it is
28:03
to you, right? So let's take a simple example,
28:06
100,000 pounds for the sake you know a 1% fee takes out 1000 lbs
28:13
right? But if you have £10,000,000 a 1%
28:18
fee or £100 million, a 10% fee takes you know 1,000,000 lbs out
28:24
right? So basically the bigger the
28:26
numbers, the fee is taking a larger cut out.
28:31
So it's almost a disincentivizing tool.
28:35
Whereas if you're charging a flat fee, essentially what
28:38
you're saying is we're giving the user more of the upside,
28:43
right? Because it's implicitly embedded
28:46
in that. So if you're going from, you
28:48
know, 100,000 to 1,000,000 to 10 million, the cost is the same.
28:55
Whereas in the AUM model, if you're going from 1000 to 10,000
29:00
to 100,000 to 1,000,000, the cost is increasing.
29:05
Well, so you're basically incentivizing them to to make
29:09
more money, correct? While keeping the cost constant
29:14
Exactly. But but some people would argue
29:16
that that is less favourable to the investors on the lower end
29:21
of the continuum. Yes, but well, maybe but at the
29:28
same time it is effective so that that's one piece of it,
29:31
right. Effectively it's cheaper, but
29:33
even I think it ultimately benefits people on the lower end
29:37
and the higher end. It just may be a higher marginal
29:40
utility on the lower end, but but ultimately there is benefit
29:44
across meaning from low to high. But the other element again of
29:48
the platform is, so that's on the cost side, on the
29:52
performance side, the fact that you're giving more than just the
29:55
robo advisor indexes, meaning like that the difference in
30:00
compounded annual growth on even just like an additional, let's
30:04
say 5 or 10% per year, that that really adds up and makes up a
30:09
big, big, big difference. Interesting stuff.
30:12
So you've actually balanced being a fund manager and being a
30:16
founder. So how?
30:18
How do you juggle both worlds? The short answer is I, I don't
30:22
sleep very much. That's that's the short answer.
30:25
Yeah. You know, I have small teams,
30:28
but I've just, I've just been managing both.
30:31
Yeah, just with, with all these things going on.
30:34
Yeah, You know, it's, it's highly relatable.
30:37
I can very much relate. It's it's never easy at the
30:41
beginning, but hopefully, you know, things get easier as we as
30:46
we expand, you know, and of course as you grow over time,
30:50
people don't see the pains behind the gains.
30:52
They only see the gains. Never.
30:54
That's fine. If anybody ever told you the
30:56
pathway was easy, just know the light.
30:58
So why did you prioritise the bootstrapping and user first
31:03
growth instead of chasing VC money?
31:06
Yeah. So I think one element that's
31:09
very important is control, right?
31:12
Meaning that if you take the VC money early, you're effectively
31:16
giving up control. And you, I mean, show me one
31:20
example of a company that took VC money early and ultimately
31:25
succeeded in when I say succeeded, meaning got to later
31:29
and later rounds and managed to expand and actually grow their
31:32
business empire and did that without any sort of conflict or
31:37
getting kicked out by the VCs themselves or something of the
31:40
sort. Like I have yet to see an
31:42
example of that for that works. And that's not just today,
31:45
that's across a spectrum of, you know, 50-60 years, right?
31:50
So I think the important piece here is that if you can build
31:55
something on your own without taking the VC money or at least
32:00
where you can preserve majority control, that is probably the
32:04
more important thing, especially if you are on some level of
32:09
growth trajectory. And so we've already seen some
32:11
level of growth even without taking a dollar of outside
32:15
money. And so that I think is pretty
32:19
foundational and is like providing the right framework
32:23
to, especially as we're growing now to then expand in the ways
32:28
that we can actually drive the company forward.
32:32
Interesting. So Speaking of frameworks, if
32:34
you had to give entrepreneurs a three-step framework for
32:38
disruption, what would that be? Yeah, find a problem, a problem
32:43
that nobody else is solving. Meaning.
32:46
And when I say that meaning in a clever in a clever way that
32:48
nobody else has approached it, always provide a prototype.
32:53
So don't just talk about ideas, but actually show the prototype.
32:57
And 3rd would be always get a paying customer first before you
33:02
do anything else. Interesting stuff.
33:04
Yeah, that's actually very, very important.
33:07
So let's talk about the future of finance and technology.
33:10
So where do you see fintech, alternative assets and wealth
33:14
platforms heading in the next 5 to 10 years?
33:19
Yeah. So I think ultimately these
33:22
platforms will continue to become more and more
33:25
sophisticated, especially with AI coming into play, more
33:29
information will be available and at a much faster pace.
33:32
But I do see the democratisation of different wealth strategies
33:37
that that will continue to push forward.
33:41
I see that continuing meaning even it started to get some
33:45
ground today, but meaning the broader access to different
33:48
opportunities I think is a really important trend that will
33:52
sort of continue on. Amazing stuff how GZ tech trends
33:59
like AI and blockchain and you know, other global trends are
34:03
reshaping the accessibility of investing.
34:08
Yeah. So I think ultimately the AI,
34:12
it's I don't think it's reached a point yet where it has gotten
34:17
there, but but ultimately the the speed of information is what
34:21
will I think be one of the differentiating points in this
34:25
space. So crypto is quite
34:28
controversial. So what's what's your take on
34:31
crypto and regular investors investing in crypto?
34:35
So I think there are a few different elements to this.
34:38
One is obviously there's the argument that, you know, Bitcoin
34:45
is essentially digital gold. That's one argument.
34:51
I think crypto is now becoming a different form of a financial
34:56
instrument. So especially with the,
34:59
especially the Genius Act in the US and all of these different
35:03
stable coin propositions that are coming about, other cryptos
35:07
as an investment are probably more speculative than anything
35:10
else. So your doge coins or you know,
35:13
any other coins that are just sort of meme coins and whatnot,
35:17
can't really comment too much about those because that's not
35:20
our area of meme. Coins.
35:21
Old coins. Yeah, those are all.
35:24
That's a whole different ball game, but I would think of it as
35:28
broken down into yeah, so exactly the meme coin altcoin
35:31
sort of thing. The Bitcoin is digital gold and
35:35
then the Ethereum sort of as a new layer of stable coin and
35:41
financial adoption would be sort of a high level framework for.
35:45
I mean, again, it's not a bad investment.
35:48
So if you in the sense that especially for Bitcoin or
35:53
Ethereum, if you want to diversify your portfolio and
35:56
have one or 2% of your asset base in there, I see nothing
36:00
wrong with that. But I cannot yeah, I mean at
36:03
least on a on a high level, but I cannot comment on the the
36:08
specific nature of different coins meaning different meme
36:11
coins of the sword. But so some of them are viable
36:14
investments, the more meaning the more well known coins.
36:18
But other other than that, I wouldn't venture too deeply and
36:22
say, oh, this is something that is, you know, a long term viable
36:27
investment other than the Bitcoin or the Ethereum.
36:31
But those you could probably hold and just sort of take those
36:34
as a diversification. Play interesting stuff.
36:39
So what would be your advice to the audience today for them to,
36:47
would I say, take as a first step towards protecting their
36:51
wealth, making their wealth? Would I say future proof and
36:57
recession proof? What strategy would you advise
37:01
them to implement today? Yeah.
37:04
So one thing I can say is that through through our proprietary
37:08
insights were essentially that's essentially what we're giving
37:11
users and that's the whole reason why we sort of created
37:14
this platform. So I would say for any
37:17
individual who is interested in that sort of thing to go in on
37:22
the website openvest.co and click on get access soon.
37:27
And then if you enter your name, your number and your e-mail,
37:31
we'll let you know the minute we're live in your particular
37:34
region. And we're essentially providing
37:37
you those proprietary insights and and those specific
37:40
investments that protect you during down markets.
37:43
And we'll give you more of the upside, especially in up markets
37:47
while that's happening. So as somebody that is fluent in
37:52
multiple languages and cultures, how does these global mindset
37:57
influence how you think about mind and leadership?
38:02
Leadership, I can say it's yeah. So you always want to think from
38:06
different perspectives, right? So especially when you're
38:10
working with groups of individuals, not only in your
38:13
home based country, but in other countries, you have to learn how
38:15
to culturally adapt. And so that means not just
38:18
adapting to like the one is the customs of the country, but 2 is
38:23
like the different work schedules and sort of how they
38:26
work with each other. So cooperation is a big part of
38:29
that. How it's changed my view on
38:31
money. That's very interesting.
38:33
I just think money is the ultimate tool for creation in
38:39
the world, meaning if you have it, you can use it to do very
38:43
innovative things. And so I think that's ultimately
38:45
what, at least from my point of view with money serves as.
38:50
So, you know, they're like, I'm not even talking about, you
38:54
know, ambition or greed or anything of that sort.
38:57
I'm just saying that it can be an enabler of creations and
39:01
ideas. And so that that's something
39:03
that I think only would come from a global having a global
39:06
lens in the first place. Absolutely.
39:09
So what are the key daily habits or philosophies that you
39:15
practise that you think helps to keep your heat performance?
39:21
I think 1 is to always stick to a sort of always having A to do
39:27
list, right? So meaning if you have things
39:29
that you have to get done in a particular day, write them down
39:33
and check them off. That's like, it's a very simple
39:36
thing, but I've, I've been surprised that how many people
39:39
do not do that. And then suddenly one or two or
39:42
three tasks slip at the end of the day and then it ultimately
39:45
carries the next day. And the problem with that is
39:47
there's a compounding effect to that because then the next day
39:50
they'll maybe solve one or two or three of those, but then
39:53
there are three of the two other items that jump on their list.
39:57
And so it's just like a so basically just write things
40:00
down, check them off would be 1 critical part of that too, I
40:04
think is obviously maintaining discipline.
40:07
And So what that means is, you know, if you're until a task is
40:11
complete, like just make sure you're staying focused on it,
40:15
whether that takes one week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, whatever that
40:19
task is. And if it's a longer task, break
40:22
it down into smaller tasks so you can keep track of your
40:25
progress while doing that. OK, interesting.
40:30
So what's 1 financial mistake you learned from personality and
40:36
how did he shape your current approach?
40:40
Financial mistake, I don't know if it's a direct mistake, but I
40:45
would say like there are like errors of Commission, which
40:51
means like you committing an investment and you've made a
40:53
mistake and there are errors of omission which are like the
40:57
investments you didn't make, but you had some inclination about
41:02
you ultimately didn't act on. And so I would say the bigger
41:06
mistakes are probably more on the omission side, meaning like
41:10
what you didn't invest in. So for, for example, you know,
41:15
if you had some inclination about NVIDIA, for example in
41:20
20-19, that would have been a very beneficial thing as opposed
41:24
to, I mean, so that would have been an example of something
41:28
that we caught on to relatively early, but maybe not as early as
41:32
we would have liked, But that the difference in that gap makes
41:37
up a very large percentage of returns.
41:41
So I would say errors of omission are usually the bigger
41:43
ones. Wow, absolutely.
41:47
That reminds me of even crypto Bitcoin.
41:51
That's crazy. I think about the volume I had
41:54
some years ago. If only I had just kept the
41:56
coins, it's should have been a different story.
42:00
So yeah, we all have those, our mission and stories to tell.
42:04
So we have come to the Creek Fire round.
42:09
I'll give you a couple of questions and you give me your
42:13
quickest answers to these questions.
42:16
Are you ready to rumble? Yes.
42:20
OK. So what is the best investment
42:23
you've ever made, financial or personal?
42:28
So there was this one company called Transdime TDG is the
42:33
ticker. It's a midcap aerospace company
42:36
that was probably 1 of, if not the absolute best investment
42:40
only because of the price we paid for it.
42:43
It happened to be selling at a very, very, very steep discount
42:47
at the time we purchased it and has subsequently made multiples
42:53
on the money. So that would be the one that
42:56
comes to mind, right place to place, right time and already
43:01
having some knowledge of knowing when that if that opportunity
43:05
arise, you act. So it's sort of like luck is 1
43:08
preparation meets opportunity. And that was.
43:10
Absolutely, absolutely. I'm happy for you for that one.
43:14
So what's 1 leader or mentor that shaped your thinking the
43:18
most? I would say Jeff Bezos.
43:23
Ultimately there was one, I mean he said many things over the
43:27
years, but but in terms of like being how to create a customer
43:35
centric approach to to to a business, I think that that's
43:39
probably one of the most important things.
43:41
OK, so what's one book or resource that has had the
43:47
biggest influence on your financial and leadership
43:51
journey? There's a book called The
43:54
Everything Store by Brad Stone. I would say that's probably been
43:58
the best read that I've had at least relative within the last
44:02
few years. I would recommend that book to
44:04
anybody, actually. That's at the very top of
44:06
months, yeah. OK, we'll try to have that the
44:10
link to the book in the description section.
44:13
So if Open Vest and Clear Drop achieve their vision fully, what
44:17
does wealth accessibility look like in 2035?
44:24
So I can comment on this more for Open Vest, but I think what
44:27
it will look like is I think customer adoption of a cheaper
44:33
but better tool can really I think drive global change.
44:37
And so I think by 2035, hopefully we're, you know at
44:40
that point operating and many, many countries internationally
44:44
and you know, ultimately providing a value of service
44:49
that you know gets wide customer adoption.
44:53
OK, interesting stuff. So we have come to the end of
44:57
the broadcast today. There's something I always say
44:59
that an attitude of gratitude is good attitude.
45:03
And of course, if somebody shares their time with you, they
45:05
share their life with you. So from me to you, it's love and
45:08
respect and of course, wishing you the very, very best in all
45:12
of your endeavours. Do you want to leave a shout out
45:15
for anyone? And of course, please, let's
45:18
advise the audience to explore the fantastic tools that you
45:22
have at Open Vest. It's Open vest.co.
45:25
Is that correct? Yes, that's all.
45:28
Right, OK, OK, so the floor is yours.
45:32
Who do you want to leave a shout out for?
45:34
And maybe any last words? Yeah, just a shout out to I
45:40
guess my team, the people I've worked with to, to create this
45:43
platform and ultimately to everyone who's listening to
45:47
just, you know, go to the website, give it a try or, and
45:51
if it's if we're not available in your location just and you're
45:55
interested, just click on get access and put in your name or
46:00
e-mail your phone number and just sign up.
46:02
And then we'll, we'll let you know when we're ready to
46:05
rock'n'roll in your, in your specific location.
46:08
That's that's really it from from my side.
46:12
OK, thank you very much. Once again, of course, shout out
46:15
to the audience. We've been experiencing really,
46:19
really impressive growth. I see us on the chat in multiple
46:25
different countries. Iceland, I think we're #4 in
46:28
Iceland, I'm attending Morocco. Shout out.
46:31
I've been to Morocco before, by the way, so shout out guys in
46:34
Morocco, I think we're on the charts in Saudi Arabia,
46:38
Colombia, Peru, where else? Top of my head, yes, Saudi
46:43
Arabia, Nigeria, my people stand up.
46:45
South Africa are Chinese. I'm grateful.
46:49
So please let's, you know, keep spreading the word and keep
46:53
expanding the global region, of course, the global impact and of
46:56
course, like calm your way. Next, stay out of trouble and of
46:59
course, always go for something. Always try to achieve something
47:02
in your life. Remember, conceive beliefs, try
47:06
to thrive and achieve. God bless you guys.
47:09
For me, it's goodbye, and of course from Justin it's goodbye
47:12
as well.