6| Army Airborne Ranger / Angel Investor Dan Kanivas

Dan Kanivas is a true Renaissance man.

As an Army Airborne Ranger, he spent time as an artillery officer near the DMZ on the Korean peninsula and later worked closely with Iraqi officers during the Iraq War, where he trained a 130-soldier Iraqi Army unit while serving as a strategic advisor to senior Iraqi Army officers.

He has since shifted his sights toward both public investing and angel investing with Triple Summit Advisors, all while prepping to summit Mount Rainier.

Show Notes

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Episode remastered by: Pascual Marquez

Audio Transcript

Brian Schoenborn  0:01  

Hello, Hello, everyone. Our guest today is a true Renaissance man. As an Army Airborne Ranger, he spent time as an artillery officer near the DMZ on the Korean peninsula. And he shifted his sights toward both public investing and angel investing while prepping to summit Mount Rainier. Give it up to my friend, Dan Kanivas.

Brian Schoenborn  0:25  

My name is Brian Schoenborn. I’m an explorer of people, places and culture. In my travels, spanning over 20 countries across four continents, I’ve had the pleasure of engaging in authentic conversations with amazingly interesting people. These are their stories, on-location and unfiltered. Presented by 8B Media, this is Half the City.

Brian Schoenborn  0:52  

So what’s up, Dan, thanks for coming out. Appreciate it.

Dan Kanivas  0:55  

Yeah, thanks for having me on the show, Brian. It’s great to be here. 

Brian Schoenborn  0:57  

Awesome. You know I’ve always had a respect for Airborne, Rangers, right? Stuff like that, you know, you’re watching the movies, the 101st Airborne, you know, dropping down from the skies on like D-day or whatever else. You know, Hollywood’s done a really good job, kind of, I don’t wanna say romanticizing, but like maybe, you know, telling your story anyways. Right? 

Dan Kanivas  1:24  

Right.

Brian Schoenborn  1:26  

And when you told me the other day that you’ve done both Airborne School and Ranger School, I was like, wow, this guy is legit. And you never would guess because he is one of the most calm, cool and collected dudes. I think that I know anyways. 

Dan Kanivas  1:40  

I appreciate that.

Brian Schoenborn  1:43  

So, um, so why don’t you tell me a little bit about like, you know how you made that decision to join the Army. How you made the decision to move towards Airborne School, Ranger School. I’d love to hear about you know the challenges of each. 

Dan Kanivas  2:02  

Yeah. Alright, so let’s start. That’s a, that’s a multi part question. So let’s, let’s start with the decision join the military. So I grew up in Scarsdale, New York, which really nice suburban community in the suburbs of New York. I was very lucky, as were other members of the community, to have the resources, whether it’s great school, safe neighborhood, very great public services, etc. Caring community where children were put first, and students were put first. And so as a result, we had every opportunity available to us. And I was very grateful for that. And I felt like a system and a country that could produce something like th