Taxes, Visa, Competitive Swimming, Dubai and Germany

Welcome to another Founder Wisdom podcast. We have Chris Gursky with us today. Chris has empowered 150 global entrepreneurs with US LLCs, banking, and credit. We're talking about LLCs with the last guest. I recommend Stripe Atlas, but let's see if I can recommend Chris here. He is the founder and CEO of Credit Genius. He's also about E-2 visa investor, and, well, he is an E-2 visa investor and founder. Uh, in Miami, Florida, right, Chris?

Yes, I'm now in Miami.

A bit more about yourself and yeah, why you flew here.

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity to come on your show, uh, Charles. Much appreciated. Uh, yeah, I'm originally from Germany, and my story in a nutshell is I, I was a swimmer in Germany and reached a certain competitive level, but I didn't want to give up my swimming career because when I finished my high school, I was basically at at the peak, but the unfortunate situation, um, I think you also have a European background. I think you're in Montreal.

Um, yeah, Montreal, Canada. I'm in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Okay, but the thing is, in Europe we don't really have college and sport teams, um, combined, so we don't— you can't really compete professionally at the universities and it's not really supported. So I looked around and obviously The United States has great offerings with university teams and scholarships. And then I was able to score a scholarship in Indiana and, yeah, studied business there for 4 years. And first thing when I touched down in America, I was always very interested in the whole aviation space and also finance space. And I originally wanted to be a pilot, but I had to give up my pilot dream to get that scholarship. In the US. So with all these points and miles opportunities, the credit cards, the banking, I really found a way to really live my passion through that. After Indiana, I went back and then lived and worked for 4 years in Düsseldorf, Germany, in the western part, in the management consulting firm. And then in 2022, I left Germany and started my own business, The Credit Genius, Firstly, I was mainly a full-time traveler for 3 years. I could call Dubai my home, but I never really felt or was feeling fully, fully right there. I always knew, okay, at some point down the line, like, my heart is definitely in the US, especially with the business that I'm doing in US banking and credit. Like, it was just a matter of time until I hopefully got the chance to be back. And yeah, last year I went all in and invested in my company and scored the E-2 investor visa, which we hopefully can dive down a little bit more in the next part here. But yeah, that's a little bit about what we do. We help international founders, mainly from Europe, but also America, to really get the best business structure in place, to develop their personal credit profiles in a matter where they're— when they are getting lendable to to banks and obviously also to bigger business loans. So we also optimize on the business credit part of it and then, yeah, help them to enter the US market and do something big in America. That's what we're all about.

It's first time I hear someone say from outside the US that your heart is in the US, right? I mean, my brain is in the US and all my best friends are in the US, all my clients are in the US, but that's because I'm a capitalist, right? So, sure. And a good part of Charles right now at this phase of life, before we crack AGI, super intelligence, uh, and UBI is, uh, capitalistic, right? So like San Francisco, Silicon Valley specifically is where most of me and my identity is at. Um, I'm curious why you say that. That's one, because my heart could be here in Oaxaca, right? Like, um, from a figurative standpoint but also from a realistic standpoint, like my wife's from here, right? My baby's living here. I love the people here, the culture. It's warm. Um, so tell me a bit more about that, and also tell me why Dubai didn't fully fit you, because, uh, there's 0% taxation, but I never fucking live in Dubai, you know, like, it's, it's way too fucking phony, and, you know, like, all the Lambos, and I don't relate to the Arabic culture at all, like, maybe like a 5%. Um, it's just too much, right? It's like artificial, even if it's quote unquote safe and you have 0% taxation. So lots, lots of data points said. What is your answers on this point?

Yeah, great questions, love to, uh, take a closer look at them. Um, first of all, to the, uh, why I say my heart is in America— obviously my heart is also still in Germany. I still have great friends and also my family, um, there. But the one thing that kind of annoyed me back when I was a swimmer, you know, you're at the top of your career in athletics, but you don't really get rewarded for it. In Germany, it's like, okay, we have soccer on top, and then after that, nothing comes close. So like, side sports like swimming don't really get any attention and also no money. So it's almost impossible to really make a financial future out of your swimming career. And that's why I tried the chance in the USA and went all in, didn't take a single look at German universities, had this one plan, hey, I want to make something good out of my athletic performance. And yeah, the thing about America is, for me, in a nutshell, hate it or love it, obviously it fits different type of people, but the one thing is you get rewarded for your performance. So if you're good, if you're ambitious, you get rewarded. You can get a scholarship. On the business side, you have many opportunities. If you really lock in and go all in on your business, you get rewarded exponentially. And if you do that in Europe, you know, you're at the top of your career.

Or in Canada.

Or in Canada, you're at the top of your sports career. It doesn't get supported. There are no college teams, no sport teams where you can play or do your sport in. And also if you try to be an entrepreneur in Germany, for example, or in Europe, you have the high taxes, high regulations, banking.

Yeah, ridiculous.

Banking is horrible. It's tough to get loans or startup capital for banks. And it's just a whole nother game in America. So I always loved this freedom and these ambitions that people have down here. And it's really got ingrained into my head. Also in my business studies in Indiana, I would say about 50% were about self-employment or becoming a business owner. If I ask my German friends about it, they say we rarely touch base on any entrepreneurial things, maybe 10%. So that's a big, big difference between Europe and America that I found out and still love today. Obviously, it also has many disadvantages. It's not a perfect system, but at least it fits my purpose and what I'm building.

I agree with pretty much everything you said. Good, uh, good case on point, except that folks like you and I, we can't depend, uh, on any countries, right? And yes, um, US, I love US, like, pretty much like more than every— if you compare it on a percentage basis, but Uncle Sam tends to be a bit greedy. There's the SEC, there's the FDA, um US as well. Being in the US, right, in US cities, there's a lot of shit going. You don't feel safe at all times, you know. It's like, oh, shit's about to pop off here. And I never felt that way in, uh, in Mexico. Uh, lots of inequality, sure, but different types of inequality. So lots of things to fix. But yeah, certainly one of the systems that works the best. And I think optimism, right, American optimism is like a gigantic part of the equation. People are still optimistic, at least in the founder side of things, right? Like, not in the American workers, like most of the US, but in the entrepreneurial class— CEO, founders, VCs— there's still this optimism, which is essential. We cannot do anything without optimism, without vision, right? So we're seeing, uh, companies go back into space again, uh, companies into AI. But like the last guy that I was discussing with on the podcast, there, there is some major pitfalls, right? Like in AI, the AI race might turn against the US or its citizens, right? Or the world, right? So we got to be careful. The warmongering stuff, right? So it's profitable to wage wars for the US, for Andrew Hill, for Palantir, and Ukraine and Iran and Venezuela, right? Like the strikes. So got to be careful at that level. The US still needs its allies, Germany, Canada, Europe. to balance itself out, right? You and I, we dislike socialism for sure, but we still need a little bit of, of, uh, spices. And, and my point to guys like you and I, we can't rely too much on countries, right? We always need to be independent. So for example, for sports, I have this good friend of mine that specializes in financing athletes, right, with a good following on Instagram and so forth, and so that they can keep running their ultras or swimming while having the capital, right? So just financing a person like that, if they were a class of investment. What do you think about that one?

Investing in people, in, in athletes, right?

So let's say this athlete has 100K followers on Insta, I'm gonna invest in them and I'm gonna expect a return as a, as an investor in some time, as an asset class.

Yeah, um, the first feeling that I have is actually not, not the best. Um, I think it's kind of like if you're like an investment vehicle for an investor through your sport performance, um, it kind of like looks to me that you're getting materialized, um, as an investment. Obviously it's a huge chance, chance probably for many people, um, to get that funding and to get that support through that investor, but it's obviously also very risky, you know, when you main the sport, the main source of your income, you're always at risk of getting an injury depending on how difficult or, or how you can still make content even if you're injured. Yeah, true.

You're like, I'm injured, this is how I feel, this is where I'm at from a mindspace perspective, and as an investor I can get a return on some content that you're doing or some enterprises that you're starting, right?

Yeah, fair enough. Um, I, I I like the angle from, from like a supporting standpoint. I think it can be a solution, solution for many, but I just feel like it has to be drafted in the right way and also that it protects both directions, you know. If the performance isn't there, like, that the athlete doesn't have to pay money back or, or anything. So I would take a close look at the, at the agreement so it's a fair standpoint, because in sports things can happen overnight. You know, if you have a football player, basketball player can get injured overnight, then the whole dream and the whole financial backbone can be erased. So it's obviously always a risky and tough business to be an athlete. It's ideal for me, I think, this angle of combining it with your college or your education. I think that's like kind of like the, the sweet spot on how to get, uh, the most out of your athleticism in your younger years.

But what's cool is that you can calculate the risks, right? So first I could choose a sport with less risk. Swimming tends to have way less injury than football, for example, right? I can make an asset class decision, and then I could see your Whoop data, see your Oura Ring data, and then I could measure your stress level, for example. Oh, prone to injury. I could have data on you and make my bet off that. And you can make that data. Yeah. In the deal room, right? Like, not public, but like, after I've signed something, share me your data and then I could make an investment decision off that. I think that could be pretty cool. And sports is competition. Investment is competition. So it's like same or similar-ish process. I would invest also based on the popularity of a sport, right? And where the market is going. I'd probably invest in novel sports, like, uh, what do you call, um, uh, I mean, there's a paddle, right? But there's all kinds of new sports, like, uh, uh, whatever the fuck you call these sports. The racket with like the, the pickleball stuff, um, or the lacrosse. Yeah, lacrosse is a good one, right? Um, I don't know, even ping pong, right? Or esports is also an interesting class of investment. A question for you: why did you choose swimming? Do you still swim nowadays? How do you integrate that with your founder life?

That's a very good question. Um, I have to say, I kind of like lost the love for the swimming sport.

Um, pro swimmer that I interviewed that tells me that.

Yeah, it's— I think it's a pretty common, um, thing because I don't— if you compare it also to other sports in, in terms of training volume, you know, like If I remember our college times, we had 9 to 10 swim practices every week. You have to get up in the morning, 5 AM, jump in the cold college pool water. Sometimes even our heater didn't work, you know, so it's kind of getting kind of tough. And then you have to balance your, your homework, your, your studies, and you still want to have a social life and of course party a little bit. Of course, more in the offseason than in the in-season, ideally. But yeah, you're after these 4 years of college, you definitely have a strong resistance against many things. I still feel it in my entrepreneurship these days that nothing really stresses me or tears me down because I've been like through a much higher physical burden and activity through the sport that this business and thinking and mindset thing is, uh, is easier for me than, uh, compared to my swimming.

Front-loaded, I call it. Yeah, or your parents had you front-loaded because it's not a sport that you adopt necessarily by yourself, right? It's like your parents throwing you at this sort of— it's a hard fucking sport. It's not like playing basketball with your buddies, right?

You're pretty much right.

My mom was a, was a sumo as well, and she gifted you greatness, you know. So like, I agree. She had— she front-loaded your life, and right now you're just having an easy time. And as a swimmer myself, I can 100% relate, right? Like, I'm a multiple Ironman, I did 10K swims. These things are fucking hard, uh, you, you suffer a lot, and— but there's no feeling once you finish. You're on cloud nine once you fin— you finish. There's no greater, like, dopamine rush. Also, you get into this meditative state, but it's never something I got to truly enjoy, you know. It's like drowning. Yeah, that's how I would describe it. You're fucking— it's controlled drowning.

Yeah. One thing I really, uh, I really appreciate now of having is this whole concept of delayed gratification. I think that's pretty extreme in swimming because sometimes you'll be practicing for 1 or 2 years and then the result is, okay, you're 0.5 seconds better than, than last year. And you ask yourself, okay, I trained this whole year, thousands or hundreds, hundreds of hours just to be 0.5 seconds faster in 100 free. And this is what actually happened in, in my college career. Like, it didn't went as, as good as expected, I have to admit. Like, I had a stronger trajectory, um, in, in Germany, um, but I didn't know, like, I actually think, you know, that the training philosophy was just much, much more different in the US. I was more like a technique guy, and the Americans tend to overload with volume in, in many sports, so many, many meters. But yes, they had a great college time, and we had a good success as a team. Also, I was able to, to be the team captain in my, uh, in my junior and senior year, so it was a beautiful experience and also got to touch base in some first leadership activities. Which I then was able to apply in my consulting career in Germany.

I love that. You didn't touch on Dubai though.

Yes.

Why did you leave Dubai?

Good, good, good question. Overall, like my trends that I'm seeing also with the people that live on the ground there and people who did a similar setup than me, it always felt like they were attracting this huge mass of investors and entrepreneurs. To come to Dubai, you know, very easy, very easy structure, very business friendly. And year after year, they're starting to introduce more things. So in 2024, we have now corporate tax in Dubai. You pay 9% on your income above a certain threshold, which is usually $150K per year. Then you have audited bookkeeping now. So you have to submit audited bookkeeping statements, even for your free zone company. And it's getting even worse now. We have the next thing on the radar. They're starting to introduce e-invoicing in January 2027. So you see, in all areas, they kind of like get off the gray and black list from certain countries, but the entrepreneurs that they attracted originally, where they promised other things like the whole The whole benefits and advantages of the UAE, in my opinion, is declining at the moment, unfortunately. Then we have the uncertainty, obviously, with the physical or geographical location of it. I was looking at it last year when the first things happened with the US and then Iran, and I was like, damn, it's pretty damn close to everything of that. So this pushed me even more in going all in into my E2 Miami LLC setup these days. And I'm very happy that I got out of it pretty, pretty much early.

Yeah, it's just the class of people it attracted as well, like shady crypto young dudes that are in a lot of— not scams, but like in the phase of life which is higher in testosterone and lower on brains. I've been there also, by the way. And that doesn't scale as a community, as an ecosystem. I think there's something to be said also about about cities like San Francisco. A bunch of people love shitting on San Francisco. If we say that, if we agree that US is the best place, yes, I do agree. Right now I think the main debates, like, um, San Francisco or Austin, right, are two good contenders of where to spend your time and potentially incorporate. I think there's like very strong communities is the keyword here, before taxes. And why I'm saying that is that there's more money to be made on working with these people, partnering with these people, rather than paying, uh, the, the offset paying the government, just the price of doing business there, of the extra you would make from the being with these communities. And most importantly, also having access to technology, right? For example, if I go on Stripe Atlas and get my account there, I can have access to Brex, to Mercury. That means I can potentially get even financing and just like bigger and better fintech, right? And just that in itself is hundreds of thousands of dollars in value. That I would not pay in taxes elsewhere, but I would, I would progress like way slower. Plus VCs wouldn't invest in me because they wouldn't invest in something that's not Delaware or Texas LLC, right? So what do you think about these points?

Yeah, very interesting points. Overall, what I'm feeling is that most of the movement, both on people and also capital in the US, are mainly coming from California Illinois and New York, and then mainly heading down south, either to Texas, Austin, and also Miami. I think when you come here down to Miami, you feel like this optimism, this excitement, and also this momentum very strongly with business opportunities opening up, you know, many new real estate projects going. Citadel just moved down here with their headquarters. So yeah, great opportunity in terms of the business structure. That's exactly what we're focusing on at the Credit Genius, especially for foreign people, like also you from Canada or Mexico, but mainly on the European market as well. I also have some experiences with Stripe Atlas. We're like a little bit on the other side of that spectrum, because Stripe Atlas is more like a mass market LLC funding or founding system. Overall, when you look at the brick-and-mortar banking, there are even other and even better opportunities compared to like fintech solutions like Mercury or Brex because they have this huge backbone of the lending eligibility that you can develop through personal credit profile and then also through your business credit profile. Doesn't happen overnight, but in the mid and long term, this is a huge opportunity. To get capital to invest in your business and also to be very attractive for investors. And also the downsides of like service like Stripe Atlas, I would say you just get a PO box LLC. And in these days, banking regulations are continuously increasing. Mercury, Wise, they're all cracking down on these LLCs who don't really have a, have a strong substance or fundament. So we're also helping the founders with that. They have great office locations that work for banking, that are non-CMRA, so just have a smoother and easier time in building up their banking profile. Also through the right introductions to senior relationship managers, and then obviously developing the whole business profile to generate more revenue, but also to be more lendable just on certain factors and having the right amount of personal credit established and the right trade lines and also business credit factors included on their reports.

Right. I want to talk about flying, right? Because we're almost on time here. You fly a lot commercial. I try to not fly because it's more energy efficient and I hate airports, even if it's a fancy lounge. Yeah. Tell me about your commercial flying habits. Airports or airplanes? Because I get to hate them, uh, probably until I get my private jet. Like, why, why do you fly so much?

Um, I think circling back to, to the start of our podcast interview here, um, like, this aviation passion and also this pilot dream is still alive in me. I had to give it up for my U.S., uh, swimming scholarship. So I try to fulfill that passion also through the banking and credit opportunities with the points and miles. Why did I fly so much? It also already decreased a lot since I now have a real base where I'm really living long-term. So my flying is definitely decreasing by a lot right now. But the past 3 years I've been on the road full-time. I'm always trying out different airlines, but also doing it with purpose. Like, I wasn't flying just just around to have some content. Like, I always try to combine it with some business activities, you know, like going to South America, which is interesting in different fields because also, for example, the Brazilian credit card market is the second largest in the world after the US. It's huge, and they even have similar point multipliers than in the US. And also, these countries tend to have a territorial tax system, so it works very well. Also, if you have a US LLC structure as a non-American to get the residency there, there, or a second passport, and I definitely want to explore that on-site. I'm always a big believer in recommending things that you've seen with your own eyes, so only recommending people that you really saw in person. So I always tend to make opportunities happen even in this online era that we're living in, to really focus on in-person relationships. That's usually why I fly so much.

What are your best travel hacks? And not just like lounges and traveling commercial, maybe the Nexus is great, right? Like, what are your best travel hacks to make this experience less painful for me as a guy that also traveled the world for 6 years full-time?

Totally. If you're talking about less painful, obviously, it's a good thing to aim for the business and first class redemption. Overall—

It's a long flight.

Sorry?

Especially if it's a long flight.

Especially if it's a long flight, totally. Everything above 5 hours or 6 hours, always good to have a bed where you can rest and work properly. Overall, I think get a US credit card. Even as a non-American, you can use an alternative called the ITIN. If you can get a Social Security number. And with that, you can build up your personal credit profile. Because the US credit cards, if you compare them to the rest of the world, especially in terms of rewards and multipliers, they're just a far lot better than everything we see in, in Europe or Canada. And my major advice is to collect flexible points instead of fixed airline miles. So for example, if we have American Express or Chase, Chase with a Sapphire lineup, with a Preferred, Reserve, Amex with the Green, Gold, and Platinum, these cards, they collect flexible points. So you can transfer them out to multiple different airline partners. For example, we have Chase, they have 13 airline transfer partners. Amex in the US has almost 20. And really through this transfer of points to miles, This is where the huge value is. I would never redeem my points and miles in the travel portal of these banks because you usually just get 0.5 or 1 cent out of it. If you transfer them out, I really like a program, Aeroplan Air Canada. I book 60-70% of my flights through it. It's a great program, very attractive. But with that transfer, you can really unlock really good redemptions and yeah, just fly business and first for a fraction of the cost. Also, because what's important to keep in mind, if I redeem points and miles, I always go for business and first. If I fly economy, that also happens, I don't mind it too much, especially domestically. Then use your cash, because the difference between a cash ticket between economy and business, if we have an intercontinental flight, economy is $500, business, let's say it's not 1,000, it's 3K, 4K, 5K. If you use it by points, the factor is just 2x. So if you have an economy flight for 30,000 miles, the business is usually 60 or 70. So just because of the ratio, it just makes more sense to get more out of your miles when you're redeeming for business and first.

How is Chris and Charles Cormier for another