The Future of Private Investing with Jake Claver

You don't have to eat the whole pie, right? It's much better to have a smaller piece of a really big pie. Most founders, when they get to a public offering, have around 13.5% of the company on average. And when you're, you know, in a multi-billion dollar IPO, you're still doing pretty good if you've got that 13% of the company. So I think a lot of people Maybe are protective of that. I've been pretty generous with equity. I want to make sure that people that work for us are excited to come to work and want to be here and they're working on cool stuff and they're motivated to be able to get a piece of the upside. Microsoft created 3 billionaires and 1,600 millionaires in their evolution. And so, you know, I'd like to be able to do something similar with what we're creating. And that's kind of how I look at it. I don't, I don't want to miser stuff. I feel like the world's abundant. And if you're able to help other people and your vision's so big that they can accomplish their goals and dreams within it, then everybody gets to win.

Jake, welcome to The Book Thinker's Life-Changing Today, we're here to talk about your new book, Wealth in Numbers. So, tell us a little bit about how the book project started. Yeah.

Thank you again for having me on the show here, Nick. So, almost 2 years ago, my business partner and I had started a mastermind group and we wanted to run private deals in the group. And so, we set out on a journey. to figure out how to do that. And at the time, we found some resources, but they were kind of limited out there on like a full scope and understanding of how to run a Reg D deal here in the US. And there's services out there, and we ended up working with one of them and running some deals. And through that, we ended up acquiring that company and really kind of dug our teeth in and figured out all the mechanics behind running a Reg D fund here in the US. And so, you know, after going through that over the last 2 years, you know, 16 times, we put together a software and rebuilt that platform and wrote the book on how to do that with the best practices.

So let's back up a little bit because my audience might not be super familiar with what you're talking about. So when you say deals, we're talking about what kind of deals?

Investments, syndications. So you might want to pool capital together for a number of reasons. Many people do this for real estate. They might do it for private equity deals, which is what we've done in the group primarily for fintech companies. You might also do it for an acquisition. Some people do it famously for horses or planes. There's lots of reasons you might syndicate or pool capital to make an investment.

Yeah, I was telling your co-author, your business partner, during my first call with him that I'm involved in a couple of small multifamily properties and we built these little syndications, I guess you would call them, with a couple of our friends and bought these 5 or 6 years ago. And so what you're talking about is just a much larger version of what we were able to do as a small group, right?

Well, not always. So sometimes, you know, you do just have— maybe it's an angel investment and you and your buddies want to throw $100,000 together to come in on a company that's early stage. Or like you said, you know, maybe it's an RV park that you want a down payment on and you guys all want to split the cash flow. It doesn't have to be something huge, but a Reg D deal is one of the ways the SEC provides to make it really simple for people to raise capital and pool that money and get an investment done.

Why, when you think of all the standard forms of investing, why aren't these deal types typically taught? Alternatives, right? I mean, we think about investing in the stock market. We think sometimes about investing in real estate, but there are so many other ways that we can use our money. Why isn't this more commonplace?

You know, I think a lot of people feel like they have to be accredited because that's what they've been told. And most people, like you mentioned, you know, most schools don't educate anybody on this stuff. I went to school for finance and none of these, you know, Reg A+ or Reg CF or Reg D or Reg S were even discussed in any of the courses that I took. It was all traditional stocks and how to hedge and What that looks like, you know, to be able to manage your personal finances or other people's finances. We're hoping that with the book and a lot of what we're doing, we're able to, you know, get this out to the masses and help educate them so that it does become a bit more widely known and prevalent.

Yeah, I think there's a big interest now in how to use money maybe earned through crypto investments. And then use that money as collateral or use that money directly in an alternative-type deal. So, tell everyone a little bit about how that works because there are plenty of people out there with money sitting in a wallet somewhere and they don't really know how to use it.

Yeah. So, aside from this book and the business that we run there for the syndication, I run a multifamily office that specializes in digital assets. And, you know, there's lots of ways that you could borrow against your digital assets, either through a DeFi protocol or, you know, some of the services that we offer through institutional custody. You could draw down liquidity against that and then take that and diversify some of your risk that might be in, in crypto into other areas like real estate or, you know, private equity, like you mentioned. I think that that's a great way to hedge against the volatility in that space. If people do have large amounts of crypto, and we're happy to help them do that through Digital Ascension Group and Digital Wealth Partners, are our, the companies in the conglomerate over there that do that.

How do you manage all of these different business interests? You know, just personally, I'm always interested in routines and ways to split focus and productivity hacks and all of the good things that we sometimes talk about on this podcast.

I find really good people to help me. You know, I wouldn't be able to do it without the team that we have. We've got, we've got 25 employees at this point across everything that we're doing. And I'm pretty good at big vision, you know, run ahead of everybody, find the puzzle pieces and put them on the board. And I have really good operators that we've been able to get recommendations from other people that have brought on board. And we've been able to put it together in a way where I'm able to kind of focus on the long term. And like I said, cultivating those relationships in the BD and our teams and the systems that we've built have allowed us to scale. And so, you know, I don't know if it's a productivity hack, but I've learned over the last 3 or 4 years here that I don't have to be great at everything. I can just really kind of double down on my strengths and try to find And partner with people that fill all the gaps in the spots that I'm not so good at.

I think there are a lot of visionaries that find it tough to get off the ground when they're first starting different business types because you have to play that role of a tactician for a while until you can eventually afford to delegate. So, what was that process like for you? I mean, was it easy to let go and allow people to do their thing and to know that you weren't best positioned to execute, but they were? Or was that a little bit of a struggle at first?

So my wife and many other people in my circle have a hard time letting go and delegating things. I think that 70% done right is 100% awesome. So I just kind of expect that there's still going to be pieces that people miss and I'm gonna have to come back and pick and clean those up. You know, 2 of those probably aren't that bad and every once in a while they're gonna make a bigger mistake. And that's okay. As long as we learn from that and we put a new system in place and we kind of backfill and make sure that's not going to happen again, you have to be okay with that iterative process. And I don't know if you know, have you ever had Dan Martell on?

I've met Dan and I've read Buy Back Your Time. So I knew that was the quote that you were referencing. But what a magnificent book.

Yeah, I love that book. First hire I made was an assistant, right? And obviously we, I partnered up with Max who you met and had the conversation with. You don't have to eat the whole pie, right? It's much better to have a smaller piece of a really big pie. Most founders when they get to a public offering have around 13.5% of the company on average. And when you're, you know, in a multi-billion dollar IPO, you're still doing pretty good if you've got that 13% of the company. So I think a lot of people maybe are protective of that. I've been pretty generous with equity. I want to make sure that people that work for us are excited to come to work and want to be here and they're working on cool stuff and they're motivated. to be able to get a piece of the upside. Microsoft created 3 billionaires and 1,600 millionaires in their evolution. And so, you know, I'd like to be able to do something similar with what we're creating. And that's kind of how I look at it. I don't, I don't want to miser stuff. I feel like the world's abundant. And if you're able to help other people and your vision's so big that they can accomplish their goals and dreams within it, then Everybody gets to win.

Was young Jake able to articulate that so well, or has this been a mindset that you have cultivated through reading and implementing personal development type mindsets, business mindsets, and studying other people?

The latter for sure.

Yeah. Who have been some of your big influences? I mean, somebody like Dan Martell who could teach you that 70 or 80% done by somebody else is 100% freaking awesome. That's a great mindset. That's a great book. I also hired an assistant. I try to delegate anything that doesn't bring me energy or that's not within what I'd call my unique ability. But I didn't grow up thinking that way, right? I took those things from books and implemented them. So who are some of your greatest mentors or inspirations?

You know, Earl Nightingale, Jim Rohn. There's a lot of motivational speakers that I listen to. I was a bodybuilder for 10 years. And so a lot of early mornings on the stair stepper, you know, trying to dig for motivation on things. A lot of deep personal work on time alone when you don't have anybody else. Being an entrepreneur, you get a lot of time alone and you get to reflect on things. And most of the time it is just you. You look around and are hoping that there's going to be somebody to help you and there's not. And you figure it out, right? Or you don't. And that's, that's really the name of the game. Alex Hormozi has been another big one. I found Alex on YouTube when he had like 3,000 followers, you know, 3, 4 years ago. And it just, it's been awesome to watch him blow up and, and the 2 books that he's written. Have you had him on here as well or no?

Yeah. Yeah, he's been on.

Yeah, he Both both of his books have been fantastic. Him and Layla are doing awesome work, and and their content that they put out. So you know, just cultivating that mindset and trying to surround yourself, even if you aren't physically around the people that have that type of mindset. If you're able to read books or or listen to podcasts or other things where people are successful and you can embody those traits, I think it. Makes a world of difference in your ability to achieve, you know, whatever success means for you.

I think so too. There's a video that I watched early in my personal development journey. It was actually by Tai Lopez, of all people. Love him or hate him, he ran the internet for a couple of years. And so, Tai's up on stage and he says to the audience something like, how much would you pay to fly to my house next week and have a private mastermind If Arnold Schwarzenegger is there talking about bodybuilding and Steve Jobs is there talking about innovation and Mother Teresa is there talking about altruism and Gandhi is there talking about peace and whatever, he throws out a bunch of names and people start throwing out all these crazy numbers. And he says, spoiler, spoiler alert, obviously most of them aren't alive. Like, I'm not having them over next week, but I do have their books or books written about them. And I'd argue a lot of times the book is a better version of that mentor because that's the best information that they have available and it's refined and you can access it at your own pace, not just over a dinner. And so I'm so happy that you brought up that subject of learning, not in person, but through books or videos and digital mentorship, because they are mentors like Even if you haven't directly interacted with Alex, he's a mentor of yours. Of course you can highlight him, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Elon talks about all the autobiographies that he's read, and that's really kind of what he's focused on is autobiographies of people that he finds uber successful and what they've— you know, like, to your point, those are distilled, refined versions of the best knowledge set that those individuals could put together and it's at your fingertips. I think, you know, almost every self-development individual that's ever spoken on the topic talks about reading books as your best way to be able to, you know, accelerate your learning and be able to pull forward your time horizon because you get to skip all those potholes and cultivate the mindset that you need to be able to step into the person you want to become.

And if you're looking to build an SPV or do syndications or private investments, and instead of learning through your own failures, you just read and implement a book like this and ultimately a tool like the one that you provide, and then you don't have to make the mistakes yourself. You learn from the mistakes of other people. who have then consolidated all of their greatest lessons into a book that you can buy for $20 and read, you know, in a handful of hours of your time and save yourself all the trouble.

Absolutely. Yeah. I appreciate you having me on and highlighting the book.

Yeah. So going back, going back to the book a little bit, tell everybody, because I don't think we've necessarily said it, like, what is an SPV?

So an SPV is a special purpose vehicle, and that really didn't really come into vogue until maybe 5, 6 years ago. So it's really just a corporation or an LLC that you set up specifically for pooling money together to make an investment. And there was revision in 2020 by the SEC and some of the rules around Reg D that really kind of fostered the use of this tool in ways that it wasn't before. You know, Reg CF kind of became a little bit bigger crowdfunding. I'm sure most people are familiar with some websites where you're able to get on and like raise some capital and, you know, that you get, you know, the first version of this or there's a couple different ways that you can put it together. And then other people might be familiar with, you know, Grant Cardone runs a Reg A fund, right? For the real estate where Normal retail investors can get involved in that. Depending on which type of Reg D deal you run, you can involve retail investors, which is really part of my passion. I think that, you know, a lot of non-accredited people are shut off from their ability to get access to really good stuff they may even understand. You know, there's, there's private companies that you may have $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $50,000 that you want to throw at, but just because you're accredited, you, you can't participate and you miss out. Like Coinbase as an example, before they went public, you know, you could get their shares on the open market for $35 to $40 a share. And within, you know, 3, 4 months, they went public at the top of the bull run there in '21, and they went public for $350 a share. So that's a pretty big return for people that were able to put in. I mean, even if you put in $10,000, that's $100,000 in a very short period of time. And there's a lot of people that I'm sure would've wanted to do that, that were not accredited, that are in crypto, that understood it, but they just didn't have the opportunity. So with the Reg D fund, And if you run it as a 506, you can involve up to 35 non-accredited investors on the cap table. There's some, some stipulations around that, and that's why we have a private group that we've run our deals through, because it meets those qualifications. They, they become a sophisticated investor through the education we provide, and we also have a preexisting business relationship with them to be able to do that. But I think it's a really effective tool for people That, you know, if you are part of a community or a group or a newsletter, there's a bunch of different means that allow you to have a preexisting business relationship, or you could use this tool and you guys could all come together and, you know, invest in stuff that you think is going to be lucrative.

Yeah, you mentioned Cardone. He's been on the show a couple of times. He's in a little bit of hot water right now, but I think he's a great example of leveraging the power of social media and books to build a large audience, and then that audience can invest with him. And so he's created a lot of, a lot of very legitimate opportunity for a lot of people. And, uh, that's one of the powers of working in this way.

Exactly. Yeah, I, I think that there's going to be a group, and this really hasn't come into vogue yet, but I think social media influencers There's a big opportunity for them to start syndicating deals because I know, like myself, I get lots of emails on a regular basis from people that have deal flow or opportunities. And sometimes I pass on them because I don't have enough capital to put to work. But sometimes I will syndicate a deal. I will put it out to my network and say, hey, you know, I think this is a good opportunity. I'm going to throw in this much. Do you guys want to come in with me? And it'd be really cool to be able to do that for your audience. Again, you know, with the regulation the way that it sits, I think that's going to have to be done through Patreon groups or, you know, in, in some more private settings, just because if you are marketing publicly, it has to be a 506, and the participants do have to be accredited unless you're running the Reg A, right, like I mentioned. But I think that there's a, you know, an opportunity here that people really just haven't tapped yet.

Well, listen, as we're getting towards the end of the interview here, I just want to thank you for your time today. What else would you like to share as it relates to this book, Wealth in Numbers?

Yeah, so, you know, you read the book, hopefully you enjoy it. I think it's well put together and you'll learn a lot from it if you are looking to You know, run a private deal and syndicate a deal and invest in whether it's a multifamily property or private equity or an M&A transaction. But if you do, you know, decide that you don't want to have to deal with all the fun stuff that that entails, you can use our software that we've launched, which is Syndicate.ly. We're in beta right now. We've got 5 funds moving across the platform, but we will be live here in Q2 and at scale to be able to provide basically a really streamlined way so you don't have to do all the fund administration and regulatory compliance involved with this. And you just, you know, get to focus as the GP on the relationships, raising the capital, and closing the deal.

Does make it sound easy.

That's the plan.

Couple of rapid-fire questions for you, and then we'll get you out of here. So first is this: For those that do want to get a copy of the book or learn more about you or these businesses, where should they go?

You can just go to jakeklaver.com. There's a full Linktree there of basically everything that we, that I'm involved with. So Digital Family Office, which is Digital Ascension Group and all the services that we provide there for high net worth individuals that have a lot of digital assets or made a lot, a bunch of money in crypto. Digital Wealth Partners is the SEC registered RIA. That has the full breadth of products for financial services for digital assets. And then syndicate.ly if you're interested in syndicating a deal but don't want to have to deal with all the admin.

Awesome. So we'll make sure that all of those are in the show notes. Next, if your book was deleted, gone, zip, doesn't exist anymore, or any of the podcast interviews you're doing about it, but you could leave the world with just Maybe one message from the book, what would that be?

Well, it's wealth in numbers, right? So, you know, a lot of people talk about your network is your net worth, and that sounds cliché, but it really is. There's so many people that I know that have gone bankrupt or been in misfortune and fought their way back, and it's because of the good group of people that they've surrounded themselves With the knowledge and information that they have and then their network of people. So I have paid more money than I've been comfortable with multiple times to be in rooms that I didn't belong in, or at least didn't feel like I belonged in at the time. And if there's somebody out there that is looking to do that and you're scared to make the leap, on something like that, I would just encourage people to take the leap because it's always worth it. You're always gonna meet that person or somebody in that room that you paid to be in that's gonna open doors for you that you didn't even see for yourself.

Yeah, paying for proximity, I think, is such a great business hack that most people don't talk about. And there's also something funny, which is oftentimes you'll find small business owners or salespeople asking for $20,000 sales every day, but they're not willing to invest $20,000 in a program. And I think the minute that you do, you become a lot more comfortable with the ask in return because now you're somebody who's spent something similar.

I, I would agree with that. And I think, you know, it's that abundance mindset, right? Uh, which— what you put out will come back to you tenfold. And it's not always in the way that you expected or thought it would, but it does come back around.

You mentioned a couple of mentors like Jim Rohn, Earl Nightingale, and a couple others. What's a book that you've read recently that's had a big impact on you?

Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell. You know, I've been watching him for a while on YouTube and that's, that one I read 2 weeks ago on a flight. It's probably the most recent book that I read. So I'm an audiobook kind of guy. I like my Audible. If, if people don't have that as a resource, I would highly recommend, you know, paying the $16 or whatever it is and just being able to download audiobooks on a regular basis and listen to those on drives or flights. That's the easiest way for me to consume content.

I consume a lot of audiobooks as well. And by the way, just a fun, a fun note for everybody. Dan told me, and this was probably about like 6 months ago, but I saw him at a Brand Builders Group event and he said something like he spends $1.5 to $2 million a year on his social media. So for anybody that's, that's mad they're not growing as fast as he is, or they feel like they see his face too much on their page, it's because he's investing a lot of money into it.

Alex, Alex is the same way. I think him and Layla are paying Like $60,000 or $80,000 a month for their media team to shoot the content. So that's, you know, he talked to Grant Cardone and Grant said, you know, you need to be putting out something like 70 pieces of content per day, you know, and he was like, okay, that makes sense. No wonder I'm not growing at the pace that, you know, you're growing because you're doing 10 times the work that we're doing, you know.

Yeah. And it's not that it creates 10 times the impact, but it creates 100 times the impact, right? It's, yeah, the compound switch that you get on that is significant.

I wouldn't, you know, we've done a lot with our media over the last year and we're continuing to compound there. And yeah, we get 5 to 10 qualified leads per day that reach out to us. Which is the weirdest thing ever. We, I've always worked in sales and so to do, you know, cold outreach and knock doors and cold calls and, you know, warm intros, but to have the amount of inbound that we have is just blown away. So if people aren't, you know, putting money toward social media or actively cultivating that, I would highly recommend, you know, just relooking At that as an option.

100%. Well, listen, man, it's been a great conversation. I'm so happy we had a chance to get to know each other today. I found some value in this book for sure. And, uh, yeah, until next time.

Absolutely. Appreciate you having me, Nick.