Beyond Wall Street

Private equity is permeating a growing swath of the economy, including profitable smaller businesses. In this interview, Juan Alva explains his firm’s strategy of providing debt capital to these businesses alongside the private equity firms who invest equity capital. Operating as an SBIC fund, the firm combines capital from private investors with leverage from the U.S. Small Business Administration as part of the total loan, and coupled with creative debt facility structuring, are able to generate higher returns than would otherwise be possible as a senior lender. This interview is yet another example of the increasing breadth and creativity of credit investors and non-bank lenders who are stepping into the gap created as banks pulled back from many types of loans during the Great Financial Crisis.

In recent decades, alternative investing has become so popular that hundreds of successful investment management businesses have emerged, each with its own niche. This interview series provides a window into the variety of strategies and funds that are thriving. As the industry has grown and matured, specialized managers have emerged to provide liquidity to these investment managers by buying minority interests in their businesses. In this interview, Todd Owens explains his company’s strategy to do just that, and how he expects to generate strong returns in the process.

American's pay for convenience. In this interview, we explore how investing in ATM machines generates cash flow from the fees paid by the users of those ATMs. Jeremy Roll has invested for many years with operators who place ATMs in public places such as airports and convenience stores, and he explains the types of returns he has generated in the past, as well as how our move to using less cash has affected these investments, while still leaving room for them to be successful.

Hollywood normally conjures up images of high-risk investments with volatile outcomes but in this interview, we discover a much more conservative approach to making money from movies. Our guest’s company makes loans where project has been awarded a state tax credit, secured by that tax credit. The result has been attractive and consistent returns over more than 200 investments in the past five years. This interview demonstrates the breadth and creativity of alternative credit providers, leading to an increasing number of options to generate returns in various niches within the private markets.

Ron Codd contributed to a series of “home run” Silicon Valley success stories, including being the CFO during the IPO of PeopleSoft, among his many accomplishments. Since moving to Northern Nevada, Ron has focused on addressing the homelessness crisis in that region. In this interview, Ron explains what he has learned and how he thinks we can better address homelessness. While not about investing in the traditional sense, this interview is part of our “table stakes” series, namely, problems we must address for any investment program to succeed in the long term.

If you're asking questions like: "should I invest in real estate in cities like Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas or Denver”, you'll learn a lot from this interview with Neville Rhone, Jr. of Arc Capital Partners. He explains his firm’s approach to buying urban infill properties from Los Angeles to Austin, Dallas and Denver. Since cities continue to drive the American economy, it's important to hear how savvy pros like Neville aim to create value from substantial assets in mixed-use neighborhoods that need to be reimagined and repositioned.

Your morning joe comes from coffee beans that were probably grown in South America. Did you know that investors are earning solid returns by financing coffee and other commodities? In this interview, Nancy Obler explains how her career in trade finance led her to co-found AMERRA Capital Management, which provides this critical financing. She explains the opportunities and challenges presented by this niche investment strategy.

After the Great Financial Crisis, banks became much more restrictive about making loans to real estate investors. In this episode, Paul Slider explains how Calmwater Capital has filled that gap, making bridge loans secured by all types of commercial real estate throughout the U.S. In the process, Calmwater has grown while their borrower clients have access to capital when and where they need it most.

Elective cosmetic healthcare such as orthodontics are a big business, but not everyone can afford to pay cash. In this episode, Scott Griest explains how his business lets doctors and dentists offer a quick approval for loans to consumers who want to pursue these types of procedures. These loans serve a need for patients wanting to go ahead with a procedure and also provide an attractive return to the investors who fund the loans.

Jill Forster Elia has worked as a real estate investment and asset management professional at some of the world’s best known investment management companies. More recently, she started her own company to develop apartment buildings in the City of Los Angeles. In this episode of BWS, Jill discusses her investment strategy and why she found it so compelling. She also touches on her experience developing properties in Opportunity Zones, including the very attractive tax benefits of this program.

Bethany McLean worked on Wall Street in the early 1990s (where host Jan Brzeski was a colleague) and went on to write a series of gripping stories and books about some of the biggest business & finance stories in the past 30 years, including “The Smartest Guys in the Room” about the Enron scandal. In this interview, Bethany discusses her upcoming book about Covid, and what it has revealed about the state of the U.S. economy. Astute listeners will find her insights very relevant to investing!

When you see a freight train, did you know that you can invest and participate in owning some of the rail cars for income and attractive returns? In this episode, Tod Trabocco explains his firm's strategy of buying and leasing out transportation equipment including rail cars, airplanes and shipping containers. Tod describes how they play the role of a landlord, only with their investment being this equipment instead of buildings.

In this episode we explore buying commercial real estate for income and appreciation. We discuss which markets and property types our guest considers most attractive for investment.

Owning apartment buildings generates income and can provide appreciation over time. In this episode with Eric Sussman, Founding Partner of Clear Capital, we discuss value added apartment investing which means buying apartments that can benefit from renovations to the common areas and units.

Local governments need to borrow money to pay for everything from new buildings to infrastructure such as water treatment facilities and equipment like fire trucks. For the largest cities and counties, borrowing takes the form of issuing bonds. Smaller local governments don’t have the same access to capital markets, creating interesting lending opportunities for investors. In this episode, Lance Holman explains his business of arranging loans for these smaller government bodies, and how these loans can deliver steady returns for investors.

Innovative, fast-growing companies are driving much of the growth in today’s economy. Many of these companies are private and backed by venture capital firms. In this episode, Glenn Solomon explains how his firm identifies the right management teams and opportunities to back, around the globe, from seed to late-stage and in some cases all the way to an initial public offering.

In this episode, Jan interviews Dani Evanson from Align Finance Partners. Align provides construction loans that also act as permanent debt financing on affordable housing, which means apartment buildings where rents are well below market rents. These loans generate income that is exempt from Federal income tax and in some cases state income taxes. By selling off a portion of these loans to Wall Street investors, Align aims to generate strong quarterly distributions on its portfolio of real estate loans.

In today’s economy, many businesses need access to credit but banks only lend to companies that meet their restrictive criteria. In this episode CrowdOut Capital founder Alexander Schoenbaum explains how lending to small businesses has become a profitable niche strategy for his business and investors who participate in this market.

In this interview, Jerry Ducot explains the types of investments Lone Oak makes and what drew him to this strategy. He talks about adjustments the fund has made during COVID and what he likes about Lone Oak’s investment program.

This episode features Greg Hebner, Managing Director of Arixa Capital with Jan Brzeski, Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer of Arixa. Together they discuss lending on single-family homes for income along with the residential housing cycle, the differences between active versus passive real estate investing, private lending opportunities, and achieving a margin of safety.

In our discussion with Don Plotsky, he explains why he decided to start his own business managing money for himself and others in the private markets, with a focus on generating income and preserving principal. Don explains the business of providing financing secured by legal settlements, which has become a specialty for his firm.

In this episode, Alan Snyder explains why he launched his own company focusing on private income-oriented investments. Alan outlines his view of the investment landscape today, including what he perceives as high risk and low return from traditional fixed income investments. Alan provides detail about fine art lending, which has generated attractive returns. His strategy focuses on lending money to art galleries secured by statues and paintings. He discusses how he performs due diligence and mitigates the risk in this special credit investment niche.