Dealmaker Diaries Podcast

Ray Klein is an entrepreneur, mentor, crisis manager, and project leader. Ray Klein co-founded American Life Inc., a Seattle, WA real estate investment company, in 1996. During his tenure, from 1996 to 2012, he grew total funds under management to approximately USD 1 billion, primarily from Asian investors. 

During 2012–2014, he led Rainbow Clean Energy GK, a developer of mega-solar power generation projects in Japan. In 2015–2016, he restructured and then sold a USD 1.5 million retail and gift store business that was previously acquired as part of the Okabe purchase. In 2009, he led a local private investor group in the acquisition of the Okabe Hotel Group, a 500-room resort chain in Japan, and served as its president until the company was sold in late 2010. 

In 1996, Ray also founded Tekinvest KK, a strategic consulting firm that focused on localizing numerous U.S. technology companies to the Japanese market. Most notable was NetRatings Japan, Inc. (a joint venture with Nielsen Media Research and Transcosmos Inc.). Ray has previously served on the board of HOPE International Development Agency, Japan, which extends help to Asia's neglected poor. He holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science.

Ray is bilingual in English and Japanese, and has lived in Tokyo since 1990.

As a serial entrepreneur, Jim has founded and has angel invested in a number of startups in Japan. The start-ups Jim focuses on are in digital transformation in Japan. On a personal level, Jim has been running Internet and cloud and SaaS related businesses in Japan since 1996. He started his first company in 2000, second in 2003 and third in 2006, PBXL. In 2020, Jim founded SignTime K.K. a Japanese company focused on electronic contracts, e-hankoes and digital transformation in a global environment.

Previously, Jim founded PBXL , a SaaS based company focused on cloud calling, which was acquired by BroadSoft in November, 2015,. Through the time Cisco acquired BroadSoft, he led both the SaaS sales and factory operations for the team in Japan until August, 2018, when he moved into a dedicated sales role.

Jim has substantial SaaS experience in Unified Communications and Collaboration, hosted PBX services, integrated VOIP offerings, team collaboration and instant messaging/Chat. Outside of collaboration, he also has experience with Call Center/Contact Center as Services (CCaaS) as well, in both indirect and direct sales roles. In his previous role at Cisco, he built teams to work with the big 3 large telecommunications service providers (KDDI, NTT and Softbank) and the major Japanese SI companies like Fujitsu, Hitachi, CTC and Mitsubishi.

People are Dan Smith’s business—specifically, entertainment people. As creator and producer of Fox Backstage Pass, his goal isn’t just to get the biggest celebrities onto his weekly entertainment program: it’s to get those stars to look at what he can offer and definitively say, “Yeah, let’s do that.”

It was Smith who leveraged his experience as a former U.S. Air Force public relations superintendent to get Will Smith (no relation) on a Blackhawk helicopter ride from Nishi Azabu to Yokota Air Base and back to promote I Am Legend in 2007. At the time Smith was producing entertainment segments for Japanese networks with his independent Access Television LLC, and the stunt caught the attention of Fox.

Smith subsequently got the principal cast of 2012’s Battleship onto an actual U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, and when Tom Cruise came to promote Edge of Tomorrow, the Japanese distributor naturally approached him to find out what he could do to help promote the film.

The feather in his cap was when the promoter for Michael Jackson himself sought Smith out to cover what would have been the King of Pop’s final Japanese tour. “That’s when I started thinking, oh, maybe I’m kind of successful at this,” Smith says.

It’s that variety that keeps Smith going. “I get up every day excited that I am never going to have the same day—never,” he says. “It’s never going to repeat itself. That in itself just gets me charged up to go out there and kick some ass. I love that aspect about my job, and I love that aspect about my programs.”

Tune in to hear Dan's prospective on business and what keeps him motivated on his day to day.

Greg is a serial entrepreneur, real estate developer, coach and mentor. He has bought, developed and sold over $250 million in real estate, built and renovated hundreds of custom homes and commercial buildings, developed residential and mixed use subdivisions and started 12 different companies from the ground up.

Greg currently coaches and mentors some of the top entrepreneurs and real estate investors around the world helping them start, grow and scale their business, raise more capital and do bigger deals. Greg's current clients have over $2 billion in AUM and deals in process.

Greg is an expert on the topics of entrepreneurship, leadership and real estate and is regularly interviewed on some of the top real estate investing and business podcasts today.

Greg served in the United States Navy right out of high school and has always been a leader in the community as well as supporting, advising and serving on the boards of several churches, ministries and non-profit organizations.

Bob is the Chief Medical Office of Green Room Technologies. He and his colleagues help early stage companies and others to turn good ideas into good business. They specialize in business viability working with health tech firms who have software and medical device products or services.

Their entire focus is either startup to Series A or more mature companies who want to enter the healthcare market. They focus on market and technology readiness and bring value with interoperability solutions, market growth acceleration and enhanced investment potential.

When Robert graduated from college, entrepreneurial business was about the furthest thing from his mind. He did not come from that background as a kid, and he was going to medical school. When you get on the medicine train, you go where the train goes until you are ready to get off. It is a highly structured path, like a train track.

Robert landed in Houston, TX at Baylor College of Medicine in the ever-impressive Texas Medical Center for post-graduate training in internal medicine and pulmonary medicine in which he is Board certified. He stayed in academic medicine for the next ten years practicing academic pulmonary and critical care and doing academic things.

But it was in this time that he first began to understand the technology of the day and to see where it was headed. It was about the time that the personal computer was making its first splash in the market. He merely followed the electrons.

Tracy is a real estate investor and syndicator, professional Forex trader, and serial entrepreneur- having owned and operated 6 companies across various industries.

Email: [email protected]

Keeley comes from a diverse background and has gained a unique perspective on both the financial and real estate markets. At 14 years old she began watching her father trade the commodities and foreign currency markets using nothing but paper charts and a call-in broker before the days of electronic trading. Keeley’s passion for the financial markets continued throughout her college years when worked for a large bond trader in Dallas. Following her TCU graduation, she spent 7 years in the financial education industry as an Executive for an international company where she drove unprecedented growth.

Email: [email protected]

Tune in as this amazing Father-Daughter duo share their experiences, wisdom, and outlook on life, skills, and multi-family real estate investing, from a macro/micro perspective.

Terrie Lloyd is a 62-year dual-national of Australia and New Zealand, who has lived in Japan for 37 years. He formed his first company on a working holiday visa at the age of 25, in Japan, and has established more than 17 companies in Japan (others internationally) since then. He has had 8 successful earn-outs: LINC Computer and HK-based TechMan sold to EDS in 1995, LINC Media Web division sold to Chinadotcom of HK in 2000, Layer-8 Technologies spun out to ThetaMusic in Japan in 2003, DaiJob Software KK sold to a Nikko Principal in 2004, DaiJob Inc. sold to Human Holdings of Japan in 2005, Esphion NZ sold to Allot Corporation of Israel in 2008, and BiOS KK, an IT company, sold to co-investors then on to TMJ KK of Japan in 2013.

Of the above companies, DaiJob.com was particularly notable, as it was Japan’s first mid-career recruiting portal, and within 24 months of starting had 160,000 registered users interacting in both English and Japanese.

Currently Lloyd is Founder and CEO of the following companies:

1. Japan Travel KK– Japan’s largest (by content volume) and second largest (by traffic) inbound travel site. Lloyd invented a unique “structured” crowdsourcing software platform to create massive amounts of user generated content at low cost for Japantravel.com. As a result, the website now has 18,600 writers, photographers, and videographers, is producing 30-50 articles and videos a day, and is available in 13 languages. Other teams in the company include a luxury/business Type 2 licenced travel agency, and a systems integration operation that pulls in data from large Japanese firms, for re-organization and resale to foreign tourists (rental bikes, bag handling, etc.). www.japantravel.com.

2. MetroWorks KK – an innovative software development company, which built the www.japantravel.comcommunity engine. www.metroworks.co.jp.

3. Japan Inc. Holdings – a consulting, investment, and Japanese-language marketing company. www.japaninc.com.

Other positions Lloyd holds include:

1. Director of Keating Media Pty. Ltd., a news organization based in Canberra, Australia, and which has a press licence to operate inside the Australian Parliament House. Keating Media includes among its clients China’s Xinghua News Agency.

2. Director of Instinct Entertainment, a start-up mobile games and cloud software company, based in Wellington, New Zealand.

Lloyd is married to a Japanese national, Kumiko, and has 4 daughters and 1 son, ranging from 34 years to 17. His hobbies are starting businesses, cycling and swimming, and hanging out with the kids.

Anil Raj is a serial International entrepreneur. With just over a decade into entrepreneurship, today his businesses range from Indian chain of restaurants, International kindergarten school, Travel and leisure, Imports and Exports, and more.

An ex-techie with 17 years of experience working in International investment banks like Credit Suisse, Dresdner, Japanese Shinsei Bank and Citi Bank. He holds an M.S. in Information Technology from Australia.

After his MS in 1997, he moved to Indonesia to work for an Indonesian bank as an IT specialist.

In 1998, he shifted to Japan for Credit Suisse, and has worked for other well known Banks after that.

A n d i n 2 0 0 5 , A n i l t o o k a p l u n g e i n t o entrepreneurship, and has cracked its code multiple times since.

His company, RAJGROUP, founded in 2005, is based in Tokyo, Japan.

He recalls that he always wanted to be an Entrepreneur, right from his college days. It seems like the drive to better things, and questioning the status quo, had always been in his DNA.

Anil attributes his business success to two simple Mantras - Create a Need or Address one.

In one such instance, Anil Raj found that Indian restaurants in Japan never served authentic Sourth Indian food. Hence was born NIRVANAM, a south Indian speciality Restaurant. Today, NIRVANAM, is the most awarded Indian chain of Restaurants in Japan.

Anil Raj is well known amongst the business and political circles in Japan. Anil is consulted for, when Indian Head of States and dignitaries travel to Japan on business visits. He says there are many things to learn from Japan and vice versa, and it is time both countries collaborate deeply to improve the quality of living in both these countries.

Rajgroup is the first company to bring in construction workers from India to Japan. Anil Raj was also selected as a special invitee for the Loka Kerala Sabha 2020.

Anil is well rooted back home as well. He has addressed various forums in the country to encourage Indian students and entrepreneurs. He believes India’s growth story can be realised this century, with the upcoming talent in country.

RAJGROUP businesses today:

• Award winning restaurant brand ‘NIRVANAM’, which has 6 branches, 4 of it in central Tokyo, 1 in Yokohama, 1 in Saitama. Awarded “THE BEST RESTAURANT IN JAPAN” consecutively for 6 years now.

• NEHAN TECH is a IT Consulting and services company headquartered in Tokyo.

• Co-  Founded ‘ STARKIDS INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN SCHOOL’ in Central Tokyo.

• Import & Distribute Indian products in Japan.

• Connect and bridge people and businesses between India and Japan, to enable business tie-ups, selling products or even cultural exchange.

• MAXROOT - Exporting Japanese Patented Cosmetic product and distribute in India.

• BIZCOOT.COM - A Talent Network Company, based out of Bangalore.

• VIFL - Director, Vivekananda Institute of Foreign Languages (VIFL.IN)

• VERYCOM - Branding. Design. Digital marketing.

Mark and Tamiel Kenney are seasoned real estate investors and the founders of Think Multifamily, a leading Multifamily Acquisition and Education Company that prides itself on a family-oriented approach to business. Mark and Tamiel are invested in over 4,000 units with a strategy focused on acquiring, owning and operating apartments, and providing clients with otherwise unobtainable real estate investments at reduced risk. Think Multifamily provides innovative technology simplifying the investment process, facilitates avenues for investment, increases returns through capital campaigns and perhaps most importantly, provides people with better places to live.

Despite Mark and Tamiel’s family-oriented approach, things weren’t always so rosy. Indeed, the genesis of their philosophy came about when Tamiel nearly walked out on Mark after plunging himself into 80+ hour work weeks.

With that rude awakening fresh in their minds, Mark and Tamiel redoubled their efforts and went into business with each other. Now, they are focused on giving back to their community, with a large portion of Think Multifamily’s profits going to support various charities. Tamiel herself is a registered nurse, and has gone on a number of medical mission trips. As business partners, they are also passionate about apartment investing and offer a holistic approach to educating others on how to become successful in this business, as well as in other areas of their lives. In their very first year of coaching others, they helped close on 2,500 units in excess of $180M.

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