EPISODE #260 In today’s episode, we are joined by Brian Good, the co-founder and CEO of iBorrow. iBorrow is a nationwide real estate lender made by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, with an impressive track record of over $1 billion.

Brian also founded TenantDirect, the first web-based property management software. Brian has moderated and served on a number of panels during his career, including panels for UCLA, YPO, Bisnow, and IMN. Currently, he sits on the Board of Advisors for the Ziman Center for Real Estate as part of the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.

In this episode, we’ll be covering everything from Brian’s backstory and why he moved from equity real estate to debt real estate to how iBorrow underwrites borrowers and how the private lending market has changed going into 2023.

Make sure to listen in!

Key Takeaways:

Intro (00:00)

What brought Brian to debt real estate? (01:39)

Why did he want to make the switch? (05:46)

The difference between iBorrow and other lenders (08:23)

What Are Bad-Boy Carve Outs? (10:12)

How has the market changed over the last year? (13:14)

How should we plan out the year ahead? (29:12)

How leasing activity is looking now (43:07)

Episode wrap-up (55:36)

Additional Resources:

➡️ Learn more about Juniper Square here

➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com

➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris

➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/

➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/

➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube

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The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.

Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

EPISODE #259 After being bailed out of his first company by his dad 15 years ago while in college, Aaron Rubin learned his lesson and founded ShipHero in 2013 as a warehouse management system for e-commerce shippers. 

Since then, ShipHero has gone on to serve around $8 billion per year in orders from e-commerce stores. 

In the last 3 years alone, they have opened up 9 warehouses across the country to manage shipping and fulfillment for medium and large businesses including Shopify, Canadian Tire, Glossier and Universal Music Group.

Aaron is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. 

In today’s episode, Aaron sits down to discuss his backstory, how he almost went bankrupt in 2008, taking inspiration from Amazon, and what lies ahead in 2023 for the logistics world.

Key Takeaways:

Additional Resources:

➡️ Learn more about Juniper Square here

➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com

➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris

➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/

➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/

➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube

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The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.

Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

EPISODE #258 In today’s episode, Chris Powers and Jason Baxter take a look at the last year for Fort Capital and discuss the biggest wins of the year. How our team and technology have progressed, how we are looking at the market in 2023, what makes Fort Capital so special, and much, much more.

At Fort Capital, our mission is to become the best real estate operator in the entire world. We’re always considering how we can operate better, acquire more real estate, improve our credibility and track record, attract top-tier talent, and drive more profit and returns to our investors.

So I’m delighted to say that following off the back of an incredible year in 2021, in which we smashed all of the targets we outlined in last year’s Year in Review, we have stretched even further in 2022 to outperform our initial goals in every metric we set out.

Today, I'm excited to discuss and hope you can take something from what we’ve achieved in the last 12 months and carry it with you in 2023.

Fort Capital's 2022 Annual Report: https://fortcapitallp.com/2022-annual-report/

Key Takeaways:

Additional Resources:

➡️ Learn more about Juniper Square here

➡️ Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com

➡️ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

➡️ Follow Chris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/FortWorthChris

➡️ Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/

➡️ Sign Up for our Newsletter: https://newsletter.thefortpod.com/

➡️ Subscribe to The FORT on YouTube

--

The FORT Podcast with Chris Powers is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about entrepreneurship, real estate, investing, and more.

Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!

Kyle started his fixed-income career on a J.P. Morgan trading desk before joining multi-strategy hedge fund Millennium. In 2018, Kyle left Millennium to manage his own capital, emphasizing real estate debt investing. He has experience investing across the real estate capital structure, including first and second-lien mortgages, tax liens, and equity. He holds a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the University of Maryland.

On this episode Chris & Kyle discuss:

Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com

Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris 

Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ 

Subscribe to The Fort on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuJ32shRt8Od3MxMY-keTSQ

Follow Kyle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/financeguy725

Constitutional Lending: https://constlending.com/invest

Topics:

(2:05) - How did you get into Wall St. and where did that transform into buying crackhouses?

(5:22) - How do you come up with a trade idea?

(9:20) - How often do you need to have an idea?

(11:08) - How accurate is the show Billions?

(13:09) - Why forces people to stay in the Wall St. world?

(15:12) - What code do you write?

(16:36) - How would you describe what you do today?

(19:25) - What are you seeing in lending right now?

(24:34) - How would you predict the lending industry’s future in the short to medium term?

(27:12) - What’s happening in Office right now?

(30:21) - What happens on your end when someone presents a loan for you to buy?

(38:31) - What happens when you take control of an asset?

(45:03) - Wanting to own a bank 

(45:42) - How do you source these non-performing loans?

(50:13) - Is your model scalable?

(51:40 - What is a Prevent Foreclosure Loan?

(54:20 - What’s an Airbnb Loan?

(57:02) - Punting assets vs. Running a business

(1:00:35) - Do you think sometimes your ability to operate hurts you?

(1:03:52) - Will high-yield loans still be 8-12% in ’23?

(1:05:06) - What needs to happen for money to start moving again?

(1:10:05) - What do you think about in terms of existential risks to your business?

(1:12:58) - Ranting about insurance

(1:23:07) - Wrapping up

Ryan Eisenman is the co-founder and CEO of Arch, a digital solution utilized by over 180 private investment firms to automate the administration and management of tens of $Bs of alternative investments.

Ryan is a Houston native, graduated from Vanderbilt University, and now lives in New York City where Arch is headquartered.

On this episode Chris and Ryan discuss:

Support our Sponsors:

Frank Kent Cadillac

CRE Daily Newsletter 

Fort Capital 

Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com

Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris 

Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ 

Subscribe to The Fort on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuJ32shRt8Od3MxMY-keTSQ

Links:

Ryan on Twitter

Arch

Topics:

(2:27) - Ryan’s background and career

(3:49) - The Israeli Entrepreneurship scene

(6:41) - Ryan’s journey to founding Arch

(12:16) - What are you solving with Arch?

(14:15) - Who are the customers for Arch?

(15:13) - What was your experience raising capital in 2021?

(17:14) - What do you lean on VC’s for?

(19:20) - How do you break into the VC world and start setting meetings?

(20:30) - How long did it take to convince your first major investor?

(23:09) - How often do you talk to your investors?

(23:25) - What’s “the next stage” of the business?

(24:53) - Why was $1mm in revenue the point where you brought in more sales staff?

(26:37) - How has your role changed as the company grows?

Ryan Interviews Chris

(28:17) - Chris’ thoughts on what’s broken in this industry

(33:11) - What is and what should your first step be after a major liquidity event?

(35:16) - What separates a great advisor from the rest of the pack?

(38:27) - Chris’ role as an asset Manager and the purpose of Fort Capital

(40:54) - How did you raise your first deals?

(42:13) - Where do you see FC in 5 years? 15 years?

(43:29) - How is the current market affecting your strategy?

(48:43) - Being fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful

(52:10)- What would you be building if you had to work somewhere else?

Welcome to the Fort Podcast. It's my privilege to share with you the stories, ideas, knowledge, and strategies of our era's greatest business leaders. What started as a podcast focused on only real estate has grown to cover all types of businesses, industry breakdowns, leadership and market insights.

Since I was a kid, listening to and exploring the stories, wisdom, and unique perspectives of others has been one of my passions. The Fort is the podcast I always wish I'd had. I can't thank you enough for listening, and my hope is you'll find value that you can go out and share with the rest of the world.

Enjoy the show.

Greg Gordon has a rich history in construction as a third-generation builder with over 25 years of industry experience. He started his career in shell construction and eventually transitioned to commercial interiors before founding Gordon Highlander in 2007.

Under Greg’s leadership Gordon Highlander has experienced tremendous growth and received numerous awards as a result. But Greg’s true passion is for people and the relationships developed with both his team and clients. With a servant leadership approach to business, he has built a team of leaders who take ownership and pride in their work. It’s a reflect the organization’s mission of “building a legacy of helping others reach their God-given potential”. Greg attributes Gordon Highlander’s success to this culture model.

On this episode Chris and Greg Discuss:

Support our Sponsors:

Frank Kent Cadillac

CRE Daily Newsletter 

Fort Capital 

Juniper Square

Links:

Gordon Highlander

Greg on LinkedIn

Topics:

(3:22) - Gordo’s experience as 3rd generation in the Construction industry

(5:12) - What does Gordon Highlander do?

(7:57) - What is a “Gordon Highlander”?

(10:03) - How has Industrial Finish-out evolved since ’07?

(15:10) - At what point in development does GH get involved?

(18:18) - What does a perfect project look like to you?

(19:44) - How do you budget a project in this market?

(23:45) - Are there any permanent changes to the industry since 2020?

(28:00) - What do people need to unlearn?

(31:42) - What are you seeing in Industrial innovation?

(36:47) - Developing the GH/Amazon relationship

(46:25) - How do you think about the final days of a project?

(47:15) - What are you seeing in the market?

(51:40) - What’s different in building office within industrial and office in a place like Old-Parkland?

(54:52) - How do you think about change orders?

(56:35) - The headlines vs. reality pertaining to Amazon slowing down development

(58:24) - How do you think about legacy, servant leadership and culture?

(1:06:51) - Teaching culture at Gordon Highlander

(1:11:36) - Advice for young people

(1:12:49) - Friendship, business

(1:18:00) - Pain distorts your memory

(1:19:51) - Treating your employees like people

Sarah has 20 years of experience in office brokerage in the DFW region. Prior to founding Thirty-Four Commercial, she was previously a Principal at Peloton Commercial Real Estate (acquired by JLL in 2019) and an Associate at Transwestern. Sarah graduated from Miami University before relocating to Dallas, Texas in 2003.

Sarah focuses her life on wellness and balance. In 2018, she obtained a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Certification. Sarah enjoys spending time with her husband and children, as well as traveling whenever their schedule allows.

On this episode, Chris and Sarah discuss:

Links:

Thirty-Four Commercial

The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren

Topics:

(3:21) - Sarah’s career & background

(30:11) - What did you learn selling gym memberships that translate to any sales position?

(33:01) - What does good training look like for people early in their RE career?

(37:53) - How do you build trust with owners?

(47:50) - How would you describe the office market today?

(59:40) - What’s your process of working in development?

(1:01:40) - Where do people waste money in office development?

(1:07:53) - How do you approach marketing?

(1:11:22) - When are you able to start leasing a building?

(1:16:36) - Is there a point where you realize a deal isn’t going to get done?

(1:18:43) - What’s your role once a new building is fully leased?

(1:20:08) - What needs to happen for a lease to turnover?

(1:23:05) - How do you balance building a family and a business?

Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano is an entrepreneur and technology investor. He has built and sold numerous companies, ran Product & Growth teams at Facebook, and manages a portfolio valued at more than $500 million in early-stage tech companies. He currently runs his family office, which makes private investments and owns majority stakes in several operating businesses.

Anthony also hosts popular conversations on “The Pomp Podcast,” which has been downloaded over 50 million times. Pomp also writes a letter that more than 225,000 investors read each morning. Lastly, Pomp’s interests lie at the intersection of finance, technology, entrepreneurship, and economics, which he tweets about extensively to his more than 1.6 million followers.

On this episode, Chris & Pomp discuss:

Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com

Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris 

Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ 

Subscribe to The Fort on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuJ32shRt8Od3MxMY-keTSQ

Support our Sponsors:

Frank Kent Cadillac

CRE Daily Newsletter 

Fort Capital 

Links:

Pomp on Twitter

PompLetter.com

The Pomp Podcast

(3:40) - Pomp’s time in the Army and lessons learned

(9:18) - Experiences working at Facebook

(12:31) - Tech company bloat

(15:49) - Elon vs. Apple and if there’s a “they” out there

(23:53) - How did you build your online presence?

(28:19) - Have you self-censored since growing this massive audience?

(32:39) - Pomp on shutting down The Best Business Show

(35:47) - Is there a pathway that gets us to an internet that doesn’t incentivize ridiculousness?

(37:49) - How did crypto enter your life?

(41:02) - What is Bitcoin?

(47:43) - Is there any version of the “promise” of Bitcoin that is playing out right now?

(49:30) - Is there a point where the volatility of Bitcoin stops?

(54:32) - Cryptocurrencies and Governments

(1:00:13) - How would you pitch Bitcoin to governments?

(1:08:05) - Breaking down the FTX fiasco

(1:16:59) - Pomp’s experience at a LIV Golf Event

Jon Altschuler is the founder of Altschuler and Company and has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since its founding in 2009. He started his career with Trammell Crow Company and was the president of Stream Realty Partners. Jon is the chairman of the SMU Dedman College executive board.

Jon is a graduate of Southern Methodist University where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. Jon earned his MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

On this episode, Chris and John discuss:

Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com

Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/

Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris 

Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ 

Subscribe to The Fort on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuJ32shRt8Od3MxMY-keTSQ

Support our Sponsors:

Frank Kent Cadillac

CRE Daily Newsletter 

Fort Capital 

Links:

Jon on LinkedIn

Altschuler + Co.

Topics:

(3:18) - Introducing Jon

(4:50) - What is it about Trammel Crowe that creates so many all-start caliber RE people?

(6:36) - Jon’s career in RE

(8:25) - What was your perspective on the GFC?

(10:41) - What does Altschuler + Co. do?

(11:20) - What was the narrative back in ’07 vs. ’09 from the building-owner perspective?

(14:09) - How would you describe the current market for Office?

(18:37) - Tech-Giant Sub-leases

(20:39) - Stranded Buildings

(22:26) - Do you have any insight on the mounting developer debt?

(23:33) - What do you predict for development?

(24:23) - What are we experiencing in DFW?

(26:21) - What does a great future for Office look like?

(27:11) - Are you seeing any clustering of businesses similar to Old Parkland?

(28:05) - Thoughts on co-working

(30:02) - What’s the difference between a great leasing agent and a terrible one?

(32:47) - What should tenants with 2 years on their lease left be thinking about?

(34:46) - Are there any new amenities that are making buildings more competitive?

(36:08) - What markets pique your interest?

(37:10) - How does your job change as the tenant gets larger?

(38:57) - How are tenants thinking about risk of leasing spaces that aren’t ready?

(41:05) - What are you seeing in capital markets for Office?

(41:45) - What’s the narrative for Dallas?

(42:49) - What would you tell new people in the industry as we stare at a potential downturn?

(44:02) - Who developed your marketing strategy?

(45:14) - How are you preparing your team for the next 2-3 years?

(45:52) - How did you develop your knack to outwork everyone?

(48:28) - Becoming a Global Citizen

(55:11) - What can Fort Worth do better to attract businesses?