June 21, 2024 • 37 mins
Unlock the secrets of private equity real estate and tech innovation with Arunabh Dastidar, the CEO and Co-Founder at RealSage, a data intelligence platform that enables multi-family asset owners and operators to make better decisions using AI. As an ex-asset owner and manager of projects worth over $5B, Arunabh has first-hand experienced the flaws that hinder growth in the real estate industry.
Want to understand how to revolutionize decision-making in real estate using technology? This episode is a goldmine of knowledge as Arunabh demystifies equity syndication, GP/LP structures, and waterfall mechanisms while introducing RealSage, his innovative decision support system that’s set to replace outdated spreadsheet-based systems.
We also explore the vibrant world of tech startup ecosystems and what it takes to transition from a side hustle to a full-time venture. Arunabh offers invaluable advice on leveraging community resources, the critical differences between painkiller and vitamin solutions, and navigating the distinct investment attitudes across regions. Whether you're an aspiring founder or a seasoned entrepreneur, this episode is packed with insights and actionable advice to help you succeed in the intersecting worlds of tech and real estate. Join us for an enlightening conversation that will leave you inspired and informed!
As you're inspired to embark on your side hustle journey after listening to this episode, you might wonder where to start or how to make your vision a reality. With a team of experienced marketing professionals and a track record of helping clients achieve their dreams, we are ready to assist you in reaching your goals. To find out more, visit www.reversedout.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Side Hustle City and thanks for
joining us.
Our goal is to help you connectto real people who found
success turning their sidehustle into a main hustle, and
we hope you can too.
I'm Adam Kaler.
I'm joined by Kyle Stevie, myco-host.
Let's get started.
All right, welcome back to theSide Hustle City podcast.
(00:27):
Guys, today we're talking alittle real estate, arunabh
Dastadhar.
How are you doing, sir?
Very good, adam.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Super excited for this one.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Can you explain to our guests what is a syndication
?
What is, what is, what arethese apartment deals and how
are they structured normally?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
yeah, happy to do that.
I personally come from a largescale uh private equity
background on on the real estateside of things.
So we have, like I handle,close to a billion dollars of
real estate assets in northamerica with private equity.
But general, a lot of people inmy circle, like you mentioned,
do syndications and mostly it'sbasically you know you have
(01:11):
equity in that structure.
The equity is being syndicatedfor most of these projects.
You do need to look at the samenumbers, same kind of basics,
like you know what is your IR?
Irr looks like, what is yourreturn on investment, how
leveraged you are being on this,what's your levered?
Irr basically means how muchyou're making on top of your own
(01:33):
money using the leverage inthat deal and very basics of
real estate location, qualityand who you're working with.
Like those are the things thatyou want to trust on uh in these
deals and usually how thesedeals are structured.
What I've seen is you knowthere's someone who is putting
together that equity value.
(01:53):
You know them.
They are bringing everyone ininto that and then generally it
could be a gplp structure wherethey take a waterfall and a
percentage to manage your money,or it's a straight up like LP
split structure where you knoweveryone gets the share of
amount which they have put intothe equity, plus the person
who's syndicating taking somepercentage off.
(02:14):
So a pretty usual structure.
I'm happy to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, if you are on any either side of these, yeah
Well, I mean, I've I've been toconferences, you know, they're
always in Miami or somewherenice, right, and you've always
got a ton of people who areyoung.
That are a lot of young people,right.
They're trying to figure outhow to do this stuff and make a
bunch of money.
But what you've done is yousaid, hey, I don't need to
(02:42):
necessarily continue doing this,I can build a piece of software
, I can build something that Iknow the industry needs to
actually have the people thatuse your software stand out from
the rest to be more profitablethan the other people.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's correct.
That's correct.
That's correct.
So, yeah, like, 220 structuresare common in all levels of you
know financial management, likebe it the VC versus be it.
You know small syndications,like a lot of people do that.
I'll get you a bit of mybackground and how I reached
where to decide.
(03:24):
Building the system calledRealSage, which is a decision
support system for large-scaleoperators is.
I'm an engineer by undergradeducation.
I started coding when I was ateen.
I coded in C Sharp, cabal,foxpro, some of these early
systems when I was 13, 14.
Sold my first software in afloppy drive in exchange of
(03:48):
internet hours, yes, yeah, likewhen I was 16.
And, of course, I went to oneof the top engineering colleges
Some of the top brands actuallydirectly hired for a modern view
from our school and from thereon, I was always excited about
real estate and infrastructure.
So, bringing engineering andreal estate, bringing technology
(04:09):
to real estate, or some of myearly projects, work when some
of the largest public privatepartnership projects to build
technology from country likeGermany and Japan to India.
And then, when I was 26, webuilt hyperlocal delivery engine
mechanism which is basicallysame day, next day deliveries,
(04:29):
with a couple of buddies from myschool sold that to a private
equity company and had a prettygreat exit out of that because
we were doing same day, next daydeliveries back in 2014, 2015.
We were like the whole Wow,early, yeah.
So we had like, sounderstanding that engineering
(04:51):
angle and technology angle hasalways been big.
But then in North America I,you know, did MBA and I started
working in real estate privateequity and I felt like I came
from 21st century to 1800s,because the $43 trillion
industry decisions are made oncrashing Excel sheets which
nobody has any clue what's goingon.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You know, like I did a degree, I did a certificate at
Cornell with in commercial realestate development and it's the
same thing.
Spreadsheets, man.
They got you in thespreadsheets.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, and it's the same thing.
Spreadsheets, man, they got youin the spreadsheets, yeah, and
then you need this fleet ofanalysts to really get across to
any kind of decision making onon any kind of deals Like not
only like your syndication dealsis like different, but if
you're managing assets over likethree, four thousand units, the
amount of decisions you need tomake every day to make sure
(05:44):
your portfolio is working fineand you're delivering the
returns, so that you get that 20at the end of your fund cycle
or whatnot, is tremendous.
They are like.
You need to make sure yourmarketing spends are right.
You need to make sure yourvacancies are right.
You need to make sure that yourNER, which is net, effective
rent, which is correct.
You need to make sure whereyour next capital expenditure
(06:07):
needs to go so that your valueof the building increases.
Like all those decisions as anasset manager, what you make are
all on spreadsheets and it'sjust literally impossible to get
all those data sets frommultiple different systems which
you're using to to make a youknow, I would say high
probabilistic decision toactually, uh, take that call
(06:29):
right.
So you don't, you don't havethat measure right, um, so at
that, at that point you'reliterally taking a gamble on a
lot of things, right, like ifyou, if you don't have that data
set or you don't have a timelyuh for doing it.
So I understand the technologyfront.
So we know that current compute, current data intelligence, the
(06:53):
machine learning and AIalgorithms can help those
decision-making sectors.
So anyone who has seen theIronman movies like, the goal
for our company is to bringJarvis to real estate, basically
that centralized place whereyou can make decisions without
the hassle of bringing all thesedata sets, running numbers on
(07:15):
Excel sheets, using the latesttechnology in data science and
AI, which, for us, we have beendoing it.
Before AI was the talk of town.
We are working with some of thetop PhDs in this sector who
have wrote the first papers onthe transformers and other major
(07:36):
mechanics which currently exist.
So now everyone is trying tosay and look and say, try AI.
But we have been doing thosefrom the very core of decision
making, because the best usecase for machine learning and AI
is decision making and we'rebringing that to the industry
(07:57):
here.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I love it, man.
Yeah, and you said a lot ofthings that I think most people
that are listening are going tobe like wow, this guy's super
smart.
I don't think I'm this smart.
I'm never going to be able tostart a company like this.
What do you say to these peopleLike?
I mean, you don't have to be acrazy data scientist,
necessarily, or someone who'sgot years of coding experience
(08:18):
from you know some of the topinstitutions where you went.
I mean, you've got to findthose people, though, and you've
got to have a good idea, andyou've got to maybe be in the
industry and feel the pain ofthe problems that you're solving
single person right.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
it's always a team effort.
It's always people who youbring together to actually make
that happen.
Um, the one thing which, if youneed to think, if you're
thinking that, okay, you need tobuild a business, the one thing
which I always recommend peopleis you know how long you would
basically can keep on thatpassion and stick with the
problem, because what mostentrepreneurs fall into is fall
(09:11):
into love with the probleminstead of the solution.
And, like when I see theproblem which I realized when
starting this company, even thecompany before I saw this
obvious problem which was outthere and which, personally, was
irritating me and frustratingme to the core, saying, oh, I
(09:31):
can solve this for every otherperson who joins the industry
from here on, and they're goingto love me for doing it, and I'm
happy to put my next 10 yearsof my life towards that mission
and that's what all you need.
You don't need the codingexperience.
You don't need like.
What do you need is thisrelentless passion that you can
(09:51):
stick on for long enough withthe problem.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yeah, and where?
Where are you guys located andwhat kind of support do you get
from the startup community whereyou're at in the investment
community?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
It's actually a super good support.
So we are, uh, our headquartersright now is in Toronto, um,
like some of the best talents.
So we were talking about, youknow, the first person, if you
Google Godfather of AI, thefirst person who wrote neural
network paper, which led to thetransform people of uh and
opening eye and everything, is aUFT professor.
(10:26):
Essentially it's Jeffrey Hinton, right?
So a lot of great, great talentis there in Toronto, which we
believe is like you know.
It gives us access to thetalent, the ecosystem and all.
We have an office in New Yorkand San Francisco.
Both are great ecosystem.
(10:46):
We're pretty prominently verycentralized in New York.
Fidei, which is like you know,they're great great ecosystem
player, friends, circles, whichis growing as well.
And Silicon Valley is SiliconValley, where, like you, have
everything already just designedlike excel.
So we get, like, I think we tapinto these three ecosystems
(11:11):
depending on different thoughtprocesses, because the east
coast ecosystem is very prudent,business, finance driven
thought process, while the westcoast ecosystem is potential
driven thought process, moonshotdriven thought process, and and
toronto essentially is a hubfor great talent which you can
(11:32):
bring together the right balanceum to to have the best of both
worlds.
So we do tap into theseecosystems on a regular basis um
, based on uh, based on what weare looking for, and most of
these ecosystems, if you're inNew York, you're in California,
like in Valley, or you know like, if you're in Toronto, have
(11:55):
these incubators, have theseearly stage support mechanisms
which you know, help you talk topeople, help you understand how
their journeys have been.
You know, like, start goinginto like these early stage
events which are, like there arenumerous events being hosted In
June.
It's a New York tech week inthe first week of June where,
(12:19):
like, there are like series ofevents which are being hosted.
If you're thinking of startinga business, just go in some of
them.
Just talk to other founderslike what their journeys have
been and when they basicallyleft their job and decided to
basically jump full time in itor keep doing that side hustle.
You know going on.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Well and that's a really good point and something
I want to know from you Ihaven't heard a lot of people
say, hey, go to Tech Week, go tothis, check it out, because
most people that are thinkingabout doing this have never had
any experience or connectionsinto the startup ecosystem in
their city.
But there generally is one instates and counties and cities
(12:59):
usually have a chunk of moneyset aside to help businesses
flourish out of their city orwhatever it is they want to
create high growth tech startups, but a lot of that money and a
lot of the talent isconcentrated on the coast, so
you've got the rest of thecountry.
Like us here in Cincinnati,we're kind of overlooked when it
(13:23):
comes to it, but there istalent here.
There's a lot of good reasonsto be here, but you should go to
places like what you mentioned,like travel to New York tech
week, go to Miami tech week, goto go out to Silicon Valley, get
to some of these bigger placeswhere you've got these players.
I mean a lot of people too.
Like you said, moonshot ideasin San Francisco, you think your
(13:46):
idea is crazy.
They don't think it's crazy inSan Francisco, right?
I mean they'll figure somethingout Like let's build it right.
Here's a check for $3 million.
It's nuts the amount of moneythat gets thrown around out
there, but people don't reallyknow it and it seems like a lot
to just drop everything.
And what we always tell peopleon the podcast is is look,
(14:07):
you've got to find ways tosupport yourself.
If you're going to do somethinglike this, freelance something
like I don't care if you're doordashing or you're, you know,
delivering stuff like whateverit is, drive Uber If you have to
, you've got to be able tosupport yourself while you're
doing these startups, right?
Or, you know, if you'reindependently wealthy, I guess
(14:28):
you don't have that problem, butI'm guessing that wasn't you
and you had to make a decisionat some point when you were
going to start doing this, andobviously this goes back.
I mean, you've already had anexit, so maybe go back to your
first startup and what were thesteps you took?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, so that's like one of the basic thing.
I was fortunate because, youknow, I I was pretty plugged
into that community right, likebecause I I am an engineer.
Like our circles are likepeople who have been to like
most like have beenentrepreneurs and I can get
bounce ideas off of them.
Uh, not like family wise, ofcourse.
(15:06):
Of course I'm first generation,probably mostly coming from
service class family, butdefinitely it helps to.
Midwest is a great example.
Chicago has such a good earlystage ecosystem.
Still there are incubators,there are events which happen,
(15:30):
even for our like first company.
Like I just hunted down whowhere, what I can achieve and
who can I talk to, justunderstanding their stories.
So, you know, hunting down allthe basic events which were
happening and back in 2014, likethe ecosystem in India was also
(15:52):
like very premature.
Like there were like literallyfive things that you can do and
five people who you can know whoare part of these bigger
communities, and then you haveto like figure out your way in
onto those things Similarly, andthen you have to like figure
out your way in onto thosethings Similarly.
It is in North America as well.
(16:12):
You can figure out, okay, ifI'm working in, like hospitals,
and I have a great idea.
Or maybe if I'm working in amanufacturing unit and I have a
great idea, given you don't everinteract with anyone who have
built something in technologywhich can help, that closes up a
lot of opportunity.
So, like in the whole year, ifyou go to one event which goes
(16:37):
out and you basically, you know,talk to people who are from
different domains and differentthings they are doing, that
opens up so much more for you interms of network connection,
helps you build that side.
So, uh, for us it was the same.
So even when we were doing thefirst company, it was like, okay
, talking to these people,understanding, of course, the
(16:59):
point is important where, um,you should not jump into
full-time doing something if youare half sure and cannot
support yourself.
You need to be able to supportyourself because if you are in a
good state of mind, that's whenyou can build.
You need that balance and thatbase to really actually
(17:21):
accelerate on a lot of levels,on a lot of levels, and then go
for our like, making that choice, that, okay, I want to have
this passion and really do thisright.
I need this much time and I'msure that I can survive for this
much time and do whatever youneed to do if you're passionate
about the problem.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, and that's the thing it's.
If you wake up thinking aboutthe problem over and over again,
it's not a one time.
Oh, you know what would be niceif somebody solved this.
It's.
You obsess over it, you.
You you're like why has no onedone this yet?
This is crazy that no one'sdone this yet.
But the thing is is I think alot of people don't realize that
(18:03):
, and I think the saying is thatany good idea that you have
there's two other people in theworld right now with that same
idea, right?
So who's going to deliver?
Are you competitive?
Or you know, there's two otherguys somewhere in the world that
are thinking the exact samething you're thinking.
So who's going to deliver?
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So more often than not, it won't be why somebody
has not solved it.
It's more often than not, thequestion is why they were not
able to solve it right or whythey have not solved it yet.
And and if you're coming upwith something which actually no
one has solved it, that means Ithink you should question the
idea itself, because then that'snot worth pursuing by anyone.
(18:42):
Right like the craziest thingyou can pursue.
Humanity has pursued it right,like someone in the world has
pursued that.
Right like the, the craziestthing you can pursue.
Humanity has pursued it.
Right like someone in the worldhas pursued that.
Right like the, the craziestthing you can imagine.
Right there, there are youtubevideos for everything you can
search for right.
So now if, if more often thannot, the question is why they
were not able to solve it andwhat is the right way to solve
(19:04):
it, if the problem is that'swhere your journey begins that I
see this as a problem.
Some people don't even realizeanyone has solved it.
So that's the first step foryou to actually go out and talk
to people, and when you willtalk to people outside of your
industry, they will say oh yeah,this problem exists in mine,
these guys do it and whatnot,right.
(19:26):
So that's your first step toreally, I would say, get out of
that bubble and reallyunderstanding where you place,
and then you might very wellfind a solution which solves
your problem, and then you'regood yeah.
If you don't, then you need toquestion why that doesn't solve,
and what is that you can add toit, or what is the difference
(19:48):
which you will build from theget-go and that becomes your
advantage to actually accelerateand execute yeah, because I
mean, there's other people outthere and even in we've got a
new thing that we're doing.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
There are other solutions or other competitors
out there, but they haven'tgained any traction and for us,
I think I know why they haven'tgained any traction and it's an
awareness issue for them, andyou just got to figure out how
to get around that problem.
Right, why aren't people usingthat solution?
Well, maybe it's just it coststoo much for them to build
(20:20):
awareness.
Maybe they're trying to buildsomething when they should
partner with or figure outanother way around the issue so
they don't have to spend so muchmoney building awareness about
their platform or their thingthat they're trying to do.
Because when you buildsomething, that's not the end of
it.
Advertising, letting peopleknow that, it's a thing figuring
(20:41):
out.
I don't know if you've ever readthe book Traction, but all the
different ways you gain traction, right it's.
You know you could do goofythings like public stunts and
stuff like that.
I mean, they don't shy awayfrom everything that startups
have done, and I was what like16, I can't remember what it was
.
There's like 16 different waysto gain traction.
It's like blogging and SEO andall this other stuff you could
do, but it lays it out prettynicely.
(21:03):
But a lot of the things thatwork cost money, right, and just
because you build somethingdoesn't mean that's the end of
the story.
People aren't just going tocome like field of dreams.
This is this requires money,investment, the right investment
partners.
So don't just take money fromanybody and and you've probably
gone through this Talk a littlebit about like what you guys
(21:24):
raise money and who you raisemoney through, like the people
you're looking to raise moneyfrom.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, so we are invested in this company, very
fortunate, invested by some ofthe really known VCs DocuScience
already staged investors, ourinvestors, dropboxes already
staged investors, our investorsand some others, including the
ex-Uber executives, areinvestors in our rounds as well.
(21:52):
The thing is, it's important toactually know two things in
what you just said, adam.
Right, the first thing isknowing whether the solution,
the problem you're trying tosolve, is a painkiller or a
vitamin.
Right and nothing to say.
Take away, people say, oh it's,it's not a, you know,
(22:13):
painkiller, we are not investingin this.
Nothing to say.
Vitamins also sell.
It's just the way to sell isdifferent.
Right like it's.
You know, if your problem isbasically an absolute painkiller
and and you know this is likethis is the problem which people
face day in, day out and themoment they hear about it and
(22:34):
they'll buy it, that's, ofcourse, a different way of
building the product, bringingit to market.
You know a lot of people dobottom-up sales on those kinds
of things as well.
And then if your product issomething which is like, you
know, premium right, like applevision, pro right, it's not
(22:55):
really a painkiller for anything.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
I don't want something sitting on my face and
walking around, but you knowlike I have one, so that's why I
can say that yeah, but I amsaying you're not that guy in
the middle of the road eating ahamburger and like walking
around with this thing ordriving with it on or anything.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
No, yeah, I'm not used it in public yet.
The thing is essentially that'salso sales, but the sales story
is different.
Also sells, but they're, thesales story is different.
You need a lot more investmentto basically have that story,
have that lineup and say, okay,these are the vitamins you need
(23:34):
to live longer, right, and allthat kind of stuff, and it's.
It's two different ways of goingto market going through, um,
the right set of investorsgoverns which way you're going
to market.
If you're going to market thisway, there is different set of
investors whichs which wayyou're going to market.
If you're going to market thisway, there is different set of
investors which you should talkto who can give you that
credibility, give you that youknow marketing leverage, that
(23:58):
that gets you there.
If you're thinking about a moreoperational product, I generally
prefer in, like you know,investors who are ex-operators
yourself, who, like a bunch ofour investors, are ex-operators
themselves, who, a bunch of ourinvestors are ex-operators
themselves.
They have built businessesbefore and now have moved to the
venture capital realm wherethey understand how basically
(24:19):
businesses are built, and youalways should get money from
people who, uh, have moresympathy and, like, understand I
would say empathy is a betterword here like understand what
are the early stages of buildinguh looks like and what later
(24:41):
stages look like, and then canalways associate with those
realms so that they can supportyou the best in those realms.
So that they can support youthe best in those stages,
because that's when you need youdon't need investors only for
money If you you need them tobasically help build your
business as well in in certainways where you think that that
(25:04):
goes beyond the money,especially at the early stages.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
So later stages is more commercial, yeah yeah,
because early on you don't wantthem.
They've got to understand howhard it is to build a business
and the ups and downs and theythey can't be sitting there
worried about their money thewhole time and stressing you out
oh, you got to move fast, yougot to, you got to do this, you
got to that.
These people have to understandand let you build the business
(25:28):
and get off your back Like it'sbecause that's just added stress
that you don't need and I thinksome investors don't understand
that.
It's not helpful.
Like, if you're not adding tothe company as an investor, then
I, your money isn't really help.
I mean it's helping, right, Imean I can, can use that money,
but if it comes with stress,then I don't.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I don't want it, right, yeah yeah, I would
probably spend that money in myuh stress relievers on therapy.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, you have to use it on therapy, yeah I'm back oh
, there you are.
Kyle, yeah, kyle, I've beenhere just listening.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
I had nothing to contribute, because you guys
talking about being founders andstartups and I'm not that but
having invested in a couple ofthese and sitting in on early
stage calls, you know and badinvestors are one thing, but
he's dealing with all these guyson the East coast and San
Francisco, he's the one that'sdealing with venture capitalists
all the time.
I would assume that they wouldput just as much pressure as a
(26:28):
like one of your whale investorswould be from your seed ground,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, that's right, but what's the question, kyle,
here?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
There was no question .
I was just finally contributingto the conversation, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And I think you know the people and Kyle I don't know
if you were on earlier to hearthis, but he was mentioning how
East Coast and West Coastinvestors are also different so
you've got more financiallymotivated and financially people
think financially on the EastCoast, where the West Coast, and
this is very true.
(27:05):
On the East Coast, where theWest Coast and this is very true
, just in my experience tooYou've got the moonshot people
who are like look, I get whereyou're going with this.
I know you're going to need alot of money here you go Right
and it's a lot.
I think it's a lot easier onthe West Coast.
Honestly, the East Coast kind ofpain in the butt, and here in
the Midwest, oh my God, it's bad.
Like these people, every nickel, every nickel, they will.
(27:27):
I don't know if it's because wegot so many German people here,
related to Germans just verytight with the money.
Something's going on, but it'svery tough to raise money in the
Midwest.
And if you have a startup inthe Midwest, maybe you can raise
friends and family money and alittle angel money here.
But you really want to go outWest, you really want to go East
(27:47):
.
Maybe you you're, maybe you gota FinTech company or something.
New York makes sense, miamimakes sense for that, but for
something that's like an Airbnbor something wild that's just
like nobody's ever done itbefore.
I'm going to disrupt the worldand change things.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
That's probably West Coast money, right, that's yeah,
I do believe the early stageecosystem in West Coast is the
greatest Silicon Valley.
Nothing compares to SiliconValley on those areas because
it's the mindset which isdifferent, right, the mindset.
There there are people who havemade those bets for last 20
years and now our billionaireswere again making other
billionaires and they are againmaking that bets.
(28:32):
Right, like here on the EastCoast.
It comes from finance driven,because the people who are
making those bets have made betson public markets.
They're Wall Street people,yeah, wall Street people, right,
and you have all the datapoints in front of you before
you make those bets.
And that's not startups.
(28:53):
But if you see the later stageecosystem, where you have Series
A, b and C and later stageecosystem, new York and East
Coast is coming back becausethen the companies start
becoming more mature and that'swhere you can use some of the
learnings which you have had inyour investment banking career
(29:16):
or whatnot to like reallysupport those companies in later
stage.
But the early stages isunmatched in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, and you mentioned being first generation
.
We've had several people on ourshow that are first generation
and have done huge things.
I feel like there's somethingwith people who immigrate here
to the United States, maybe geton a student visa or something,
or come here with their families.
(29:43):
Come here with their families.
They are hyper motivated tostart businesses and you've got
a ton of people who are born andraised here that think they
just got to go get a job.
I want them to get out of themindset when you're here.
The longer you're here, themore settled you get and the
more I don't know lazy maybe youget.
I don't want to say that, butyou just kind of get.
(30:04):
I don't know, you don't thinkyou need it, right, you get
comfortable.
What is it about?
Maybe your family or whereyou're from, that motivated you
to become successful, to be aperson who builds companies, who
sells companies, who doesn'tsit back, and you're not okay
with that.
You keep creating, you keepbuilding.
(30:25):
What is it from your backgroundthat made you like that?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
It's actually a very good research study which has
been done by a couple of greatpeople in Boston and I know in
my circle as well what found.
You know trends in, likesuccessful companies and
successful builders, especiallyunicorn builders, and there is a
(30:52):
big percentage of those unicornbuilders have been immigrants.
And the reason is a very core,underlying piece about the
people who have traveled likethere's a correlation, direct
correlation, of people whobasically go out of their city
or country to actually get anexchange or travel somewhere to
(31:16):
like, find or explore thoseplaces or get education or
whatnot.
That is, I feel, a veryfundamental quality of those
people is curiosity.
Those people are fundamentallycurious people who want to go
(31:37):
out of their state, um, who wantto go out of their state, and I
met so many, you know, and myfriends, um americans who have
never been out of their statetheir entire life.
So they don't have thatperspective and they are not
even curious about going um andexploring um cultures, other
(31:59):
mindset, other perspectives.
And if you're innately curiousas a person, that correlates
from your choices in your lifeabout do I want to travel Like?
What do I want to explore?
Why I should?
I just want to take this classor cohort or like you know
(32:23):
course out there just to knowright, and if you're not, then
you just end up at the localmost school which is the closest
to your house, where you want,like you have that comfort.
So that curiosity is a verybasic, I feel like trait of a
lot of and they are innatelycurious as people.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, you know that there's actually a gene called
the Wayfarer gene that peoplehave, like you either have it on
or you have it off, and it hasto do with a lot of human
migration, right, people thatleft and moved and went places
and were curious like, well, Iwonder what's over there.
They generally have theWayfarer gene and there's
(33:02):
another name for it too, but itmakes you like curious, right
you just you're curious aboutthings, you, and I mean there's
a large percentage of thepopulation of the world that
actually has that, and I thinkit's why people love to travel
so much, like you know mostpeople.
If you ask them, hey, ifsomebody you know put you on a
cruise ship, would you go?
And yeah, why wouldn't I?
You know, I want to see what'sgoing on.
I want to do something.
(33:23):
You know, I think we all haveit in us.
It's just tapping into that andhaving the courage to tap into
it and actually do something.
And I mean, you've obviouslydone it with to great success,
and you're doing it now withyour company.
So where are you guys at rightnow with the company?
Where are you at?
And again, guys, it'srealsagecom, r-e-a-l-s-a-g-ecom,
(33:48):
and you can go on the websiteyou can look at all these
customers they've got.
They've got tons of all thesecompanies together managing a
ton of real estate, a ton ofvalue.
These guys are fueling it withtheir software, smart
decision-making.
Where are you guys at right now?
I mean, you've obviously got alot of customers, but what are
you looking to do?
What's?
Speaker 2 (34:09):
next?
Yeah, there's this.
One mission our company has isto change how the industry makes
decisions and in the nextlittle while, what we are trying
to achieve is to be the marketleader in the data-driven
decision-making in this sector.
The beauty of what we are doingis, in the last three to four
(34:30):
years, the way real estate ismaking decisions has changed and
they are looking at data moreactively.
I was speaking, I've spoken onmultiple panels, like in New
York, in Miami, or real estatespecific industry conferences,
and the more I hear people inthe last three, four years, the
(34:56):
whole category of data duringdecision-making is being created
because there is a good amountof generational wealth transfer
from, you know, from the olderuh ownerships to the newer
ownership, and the newerownership is digital, even not
digital native, but they are.
They are heavily exposed todigital ways of making decisions
(35:19):
, um, and I've always been doingit, so that's their way of
doing things.
And also, there have been goodamount of leadership in these
companies which have come fromoutside of real estate recently
to actually enable that spark ofAI, data-driven decision-making
(35:41):
, data-driven competition, andnothing is selling right now.
The transactions are so muchdifficult right now, with this
interest-laden environment, todo.
A lot more focus has come intobuilding efficiencies and we
have seen this tremendous shiftin the industry where they are
very actively now looking atbreaking the old ways of making
(36:04):
decisions and embracing thenewer ways of making decisions
and going from there.
For us, it's journey to be themarket leaders to serve our
customers really well whilethey're embracing this journey.
So you know, we want to changehow real estate makes decisions.
Industry wants to change how itmakes decisions.
(36:26):
Why don't we bring thattogether and be the best of it?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I love it.
I love it.
This is great.
I really appreciate you beingon the show today.
This has been insightful.
I know people really appreciatewhen successful founders come
on and tell their story and givesome feedback and just let them
know this isn't an easy thingto do.
It requires a lot of dedication.
You've got to love your ideaand you've got to put in a lot
(36:53):
of time.
If this is something you wantto do, right.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
That's absolutely right, um, persistence and
perseverance is the only key tobe a great entrepreneur.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Arnab, I really appreciate you being on the show
today and good luck witheverything, sir.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Thanks a lot, adam, thanks a lot, kyle, take care.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of Side
Hustle City.
Well, you've heard from ourguests, now let's hear from you.
Join our community on Facebook,side Hustle City.
It's a group where people shareideas, share their
inspirational stories andmotivate each other to be
successful and turn their sidehustle into their main hustle.
We'll see you there and we'llsee you next week on the show.
(37:36):
Thank you.
Welcome to Side Hustle City and thanks for
joining us.
Our goal is to help you connectto real people who found
success turning their sidehustle into a main hustle, and
we hope you can too.
I'm Adam Kaler.
I'm joined by Kyle Stevie, myco-host.
Let's get started.
All right, welcome back to theSide Hustle City podcast.
(00:27):
Guys, today we're talking alittle real estate, arunabh
Dastadhar.
How are you doing, sir?
Very good, adam.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Super excited for this one.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Can you explain to our guests what is a syndication
?
What is, what is, what arethese apartment deals and how
are they structured normally?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
yeah, happy to do that.
I personally come from a largescale uh private equity
background on on the real estateside of things.
So we have, like I handle,close to a billion dollars of
real estate assets in northamerica with private equity.
But general, a lot of people inmy circle, like you mentioned,
do syndications and mostly it'sbasically you know you have
(01:11):
equity in that structure.
The equity is being syndicatedfor most of these projects.
You do need to look at the samenumbers, same kind of basics,
like you know what is your IR?
Irr looks like, what is yourreturn on investment, how
leveraged you are being on this,what's your levered?
Irr basically means how muchyou're making on top of your own
(01:33):
money using the leverage inthat deal and very basics of
real estate location, qualityand who you're working with.
Like those are the things thatyou want to trust on uh in these
deals and usually how thesedeals are structured.
What I've seen is you knowthere's someone who is putting
together that equity value.
(01:53):
You know them.
They are bringing everyone ininto that and then generally it
could be a gplp structure wherethey take a waterfall and a
percentage to manage your money,or it's a straight up like LP
split structure where you knoweveryone gets the share of
amount which they have put intothe equity, plus the person
who's syndicating taking somepercentage off.
(02:14):
So a pretty usual structure.
I'm happy to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, if you are on any either side of these, yeah
Well, I mean, I've I've been toconferences, you know, they're
always in Miami or somewherenice, right, and you've always
got a ton of people who areyoung.
That are a lot of young people,right.
They're trying to figure outhow to do this stuff and make a
bunch of money.
But what you've done is yousaid, hey, I don't need to
(02:42):
necessarily continue doing this,I can build a piece of software
, I can build something that Iknow the industry needs to
actually have the people thatuse your software stand out from
the rest to be more profitablethan the other people.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's correct.
That's correct.
That's correct.
So, yeah, like, 220 structuresare common in all levels of you
know financial management, likebe it the VC versus be it.
You know small syndications,like a lot of people do that.
I'll get you a bit of mybackground and how I reached
where to decide.
(03:24):
Building the system calledRealSage, which is a decision
support system for large-scaleoperators is.
I'm an engineer by undergradeducation.
I started coding when I was ateen.
I coded in C Sharp, cabal,foxpro, some of these early
systems when I was 13, 14.
Sold my first software in afloppy drive in exchange of
(03:48):
internet hours, yes, yeah, likewhen I was 16.
And, of course, I went to oneof the top engineering colleges
Some of the top brands actuallydirectly hired for a modern view
from our school and from thereon, I was always excited about
real estate and infrastructure.
So, bringing engineering andreal estate, bringing technology
(04:09):
to real estate, or some of myearly projects, work when some
of the largest public privatepartnership projects to build
technology from country likeGermany and Japan to India.
And then, when I was 26, webuilt hyperlocal delivery engine
mechanism which is basicallysame day, next day deliveries,
(04:29):
with a couple of buddies from myschool sold that to a private
equity company and had a prettygreat exit out of that because
we were doing same day, next daydeliveries back in 2014, 2015.
We were like the whole Wow,early, yeah.
So we had like, sounderstanding that engineering
(04:51):
angle and technology angle hasalways been big.
But then in North America I,you know, did MBA and I started
working in real estate privateequity and I felt like I came
from 21st century to 1800s,because the $43 trillion
industry decisions are made oncrashing Excel sheets which
nobody has any clue what's goingon.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
You know, like I did a degree, I did a certificate at
Cornell with in commercial realestate development and it's the
same thing.
Spreadsheets, man.
They got you in thespreadsheets.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, and it's the same thing.
Spreadsheets, man, they got youin the spreadsheets, yeah, and
then you need this fleet ofanalysts to really get across to
any kind of decision making onon any kind of deals Like not
only like your syndication dealsis like different, but if
you're managing assets over likethree, four thousand units, the
amount of decisions you need tomake every day to make sure
(05:44):
your portfolio is working fineand you're delivering the
returns, so that you get that 20at the end of your fund cycle
or whatnot, is tremendous.
They are like.
You need to make sure yourmarketing spends are right.
You need to make sure yourvacancies are right.
You need to make sure that yourNER, which is net, effective
rent, which is correct.
You need to make sure whereyour next capital expenditure
(06:07):
needs to go so that your valueof the building increases.
Like all those decisions as anasset manager, what you make are
all on spreadsheets and it'sjust literally impossible to get
all those data sets frommultiple different systems which
you're using to to make a youknow, I would say high
probabilistic decision toactually, uh, take that call
(06:29):
right.
So you don't, you don't havethat measure right, um, so at
that, at that point you'reliterally taking a gamble on a
lot of things, right, like ifyou, if you don't have that data
set or you don't have a timelyuh for doing it.
So I understand the technologyfront.
So we know that current compute, current data intelligence, the
(06:53):
machine learning and AIalgorithms can help those
decision-making sectors.
So anyone who has seen theIronman movies like, the goal
for our company is to bringJarvis to real estate, basically
that centralized place whereyou can make decisions without
the hassle of bringing all thesedata sets, running numbers on
(07:15):
Excel sheets, using the latesttechnology in data science and
AI, which, for us, we have beendoing it.
Before AI was the talk of town.
We are working with some of thetop PhDs in this sector who
have wrote the first papers onthe transformers and other major
(07:36):
mechanics which currently exist.
So now everyone is trying tosay and look and say, try AI.
But we have been doing thosefrom the very core of decision
making, because the best usecase for machine learning and AI
is decision making and we'rebringing that to the industry
(07:57):
here.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I love it, man.
Yeah, and you said a lot ofthings that I think most people
that are listening are going tobe like wow, this guy's super
smart.
I don't think I'm this smart.
I'm never going to be able tostart a company like this.
What do you say to these peopleLike?
I mean, you don't have to be acrazy data scientist,
necessarily, or someone who'sgot years of coding experience
(08:18):
from you know some of the topinstitutions where you went.
I mean, you've got to findthose people, though, and you've
got to have a good idea, andyou've got to maybe be in the
industry and feel the pain ofthe problems that you're solving
single person right.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
it's always a team effort.
It's always people who youbring together to actually make
that happen.
Um, the one thing which, if youneed to think, if you're
thinking that, okay, you need tobuild a business, the one thing
which I always recommend peopleis you know how long you would
basically can keep on thatpassion and stick with the
problem, because what mostentrepreneurs fall into is fall
(09:11):
into love with the probleminstead of the solution.
And, like when I see theproblem which I realized when
starting this company, even thecompany before I saw this
obvious problem which was outthere and which, personally, was
irritating me and frustratingme to the core, saying, oh, I
(09:31):
can solve this for every otherperson who joins the industry
from here on, and they're goingto love me for doing it, and I'm
happy to put my next 10 yearsof my life towards that mission
and that's what all you need.
You don't need the codingexperience.
You don't need like.
What do you need is thisrelentless passion that you can
(09:51):
stick on for long enough withthe problem.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yeah, and where?
Where are you guys located andwhat kind of support do you get
from the startup community whereyou're at in the investment
community?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
It's actually a super good support.
So we are, uh, our headquartersright now is in Toronto, um,
like some of the best talents.
So we were talking about, youknow, the first person, if you
Google Godfather of AI, thefirst person who wrote neural
network paper, which led to thetransform people of uh and
opening eye and everything, is aUFT professor.
(10:26):
Essentially it's Jeffrey Hinton, right?
So a lot of great, great talentis there in Toronto, which we
believe is like you know.
It gives us access to thetalent, the ecosystem and all.
We have an office in New Yorkand San Francisco.
Both are great ecosystem.
(10:46):
We're pretty prominently verycentralized in New York.
Fidei, which is like you know,they're great great ecosystem
player, friends, circles, whichis growing as well.
And Silicon Valley is SiliconValley, where, like you, have
everything already just designedlike excel.
So we get, like, I think we tapinto these three ecosystems
(11:11):
depending on different thoughtprocesses, because the east
coast ecosystem is very prudent,business, finance driven
thought process, while the westcoast ecosystem is potential
driven thought process, moonshotdriven thought process, and and
toronto essentially is a hubfor great talent which you can
(11:32):
bring together the right balanceum to to have the best of both
worlds.
So we do tap into theseecosystems on a regular basis um
, based on uh, based on what weare looking for, and most of
these ecosystems, if you're inNew York, you're in California,
like in Valley, or you know like, if you're in Toronto, have
(11:55):
these incubators, have theseearly stage support mechanisms
which you know, help you talk topeople, help you understand how
their journeys have been.
You know, like, start goinginto like these early stage
events which are, like there arenumerous events being hosted In
June.
It's a New York tech week inthe first week of June where,
(12:19):
like, there are like series ofevents which are being hosted.
If you're thinking of startinga business, just go in some of
them.
Just talk to other founderslike what their journeys have
been and when they basicallyleft their job and decided to
basically jump full time in itor keep doing that side hustle.
You know going on.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Well and that's a really good point and something
I want to know from you Ihaven't heard a lot of people
say, hey, go to Tech Week, go tothis, check it out, because
most people that are thinkingabout doing this have never had
any experience or connectionsinto the startup ecosystem in
their city.
But there generally is one instates and counties and cities
(12:59):
usually have a chunk of moneyset aside to help businesses
flourish out of their city orwhatever it is they want to
create high growth tech startups, but a lot of that money and a
lot of the talent isconcentrated on the coast, so
you've got the rest of thecountry.
Like us here in Cincinnati,we're kind of overlooked when it
(13:23):
comes to it, but there istalent here.
There's a lot of good reasonsto be here, but you should go to
places like what you mentioned,like travel to New York tech
week, go to Miami tech week, goto go out to Silicon Valley, get
to some of these bigger placeswhere you've got these players.
I mean a lot of people too.
Like you said, moonshot ideasin San Francisco, you think your
(13:46):
idea is crazy.
They don't think it's crazy inSan Francisco, right?
I mean they'll figure somethingout Like let's build it right.
Here's a check for $3 million.
It's nuts the amount of moneythat gets thrown around out
there, but people don't reallyknow it and it seems like a lot
to just drop everything.
And what we always tell peopleon the podcast is is look,
(14:07):
you've got to find ways tosupport yourself.
If you're going to do somethinglike this, freelance something
like I don't care if you're doordashing or you're, you know,
delivering stuff like whateverit is, drive Uber If you have to
, you've got to be able tosupport yourself while you're
doing these startups, right?
Or, you know, if you'reindependently wealthy, I guess
(14:28):
you don't have that problem, butI'm guessing that wasn't you
and you had to make a decisionat some point when you were
going to start doing this, andobviously this goes back.
I mean, you've already had anexit, so maybe go back to your
first startup and what were thesteps you took?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, so that's like one of the basic thing.
I was fortunate because, youknow, I I was pretty plugged
into that community right, likebecause I I am an engineer.
Like our circles are likepeople who have been to like
most like have beenentrepreneurs and I can get
bounce ideas off of them.
Uh, not like family wise, ofcourse.
(15:06):
Of course I'm first generation,probably mostly coming from
service class family, butdefinitely it helps to.
Midwest is a great example.
Chicago has such a good earlystage ecosystem.
Still there are incubators,there are events which happen,
(15:30):
even for our like first company.
Like I just hunted down whowhere, what I can achieve and
who can I talk to, justunderstanding their stories.
So, you know, hunting down allthe basic events which were
happening and back in 2014, likethe ecosystem in India was also
(15:52):
like very premature.
Like there were like literallyfive things that you can do and
five people who you can know whoare part of these bigger
communities, and then you haveto like figure out your way in
onto those things Similarly, andthen you have to like figure
out your way in onto thosethings Similarly.
It is in North America as well.
(16:12):
You can figure out, okay, ifI'm working in, like hospitals,
and I have a great idea.
Or maybe if I'm working in amanufacturing unit and I have a
great idea, given you don't everinteract with anyone who have
built something in technologywhich can help, that closes up a
lot of opportunity.
So, like in the whole year, ifyou go to one event which goes
(16:37):
out and you basically, you know,talk to people who are from
different domains and differentthings they are doing, that
opens up so much more for you interms of network connection,
helps you build that side.
So, uh, for us it was the same.
So even when we were doing thefirst company, it was like, okay
, talking to these people,understanding, of course, the
(16:59):
point is important where, um,you should not jump into
full-time doing something if youare half sure and cannot
support yourself.
You need to be able to supportyourself because if you are in a
good state of mind, that's whenyou can build.
You need that balance and thatbase to really actually
(17:21):
accelerate on a lot of levels,on a lot of levels, and then go
for our like, making that choice, that, okay, I want to have
this passion and really do thisright.
I need this much time and I'msure that I can survive for this
much time and do whatever youneed to do if you're passionate
about the problem.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, and that's the thing it's.
If you wake up thinking aboutthe problem over and over again,
it's not a one time.
Oh, you know what would be niceif somebody solved this.
It's.
You obsess over it, you.
You you're like why has no onedone this yet?
This is crazy that no one'sdone this yet.
But the thing is is I think alot of people don't realize that
(18:03):
, and I think the saying is thatany good idea that you have
there's two other people in theworld right now with that same
idea, right?
So who's going to deliver?
Are you competitive?
Or you know, there's two otherguys somewhere in the world that
are thinking the exact samething you're thinking.
So who's going to deliver?
Right?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So more often than not, it won't be why somebody
has not solved it.
It's more often than not, thequestion is why they were not
able to solve it right or whythey have not solved it yet.
And and if you're coming upwith something which actually no
one has solved it, that means Ithink you should question the
idea itself, because then that'snot worth pursuing by anyone.
(18:42):
Right like the craziest thingyou can pursue.
Humanity has pursued it right,like someone in the world has
pursued that.
Right like the, the craziestthing you can pursue.
Humanity has pursued it.
Right like someone in the worldhas pursued that.
Right like the, the craziestthing you can imagine.
Right there, there are youtubevideos for everything you can
search for right.
So now if, if more often thannot, the question is why they
were not able to solve it andwhat is the right way to solve
(19:04):
it, if the problem is that'swhere your journey begins that I
see this as a problem.
Some people don't even realizeanyone has solved it.
So that's the first step foryou to actually go out and talk
to people, and when you willtalk to people outside of your
industry, they will say oh yeah,this problem exists in mine,
these guys do it and whatnot,right.
(19:26):
So that's your first step toreally, I would say, get out of
that bubble and reallyunderstanding where you place,
and then you might very wellfind a solution which solves
your problem, and then you'regood yeah.
If you don't, then you need toquestion why that doesn't solve,
and what is that you can add toit, or what is the difference
(19:48):
which you will build from theget-go and that becomes your
advantage to actually accelerateand execute yeah, because I
mean, there's other people outthere and even in we've got a
new thing that we're doing.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
There are other solutions or other competitors
out there, but they haven'tgained any traction and for us,
I think I know why they haven'tgained any traction and it's an
awareness issue for them, andyou just got to figure out how
to get around that problem.
Right, why aren't people usingthat solution?
Well, maybe it's just it coststoo much for them to build
(20:20):
awareness.
Maybe they're trying to buildsomething when they should
partner with or figure outanother way around the issue so
they don't have to spend so muchmoney building awareness about
their platform or their thingthat they're trying to do.
Because when you buildsomething, that's not the end of
it.
Advertising, letting peopleknow that, it's a thing figuring
(20:41):
out.
I don't know if you've ever readthe book Traction, but all the
different ways you gain traction, right it's.
You know you could do goofythings like public stunts and
stuff like that.
I mean, they don't shy awayfrom everything that startups
have done, and I was what like16, I can't remember what it was
.
There's like 16 different waysto gain traction.
It's like blogging and SEO andall this other stuff you could
do, but it lays it out prettynicely.
(21:03):
But a lot of the things thatwork cost money, right, and just
because you build somethingdoesn't mean that's the end of
the story.
People aren't just going tocome like field of dreams.
This is this requires money,investment, the right investment
partners.
So don't just take money fromanybody and and you've probably
gone through this Talk a littlebit about like what you guys
(21:24):
raise money and who you raisemoney through, like the people
you're looking to raise moneyfrom.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, so we are invested in this company, very
fortunate, invested by some ofthe really known VCs DocuScience
already staged investors, ourinvestors, dropboxes already
staged investors, our investorsand some others, including the
ex-Uber executives, areinvestors in our rounds as well.
(21:52):
The thing is, it's important toactually know two things in
what you just said, adam.
Right, the first thing isknowing whether the solution,
the problem you're trying tosolve, is a painkiller or a
vitamin.
Right and nothing to say.
Take away, people say, oh it's,it's not a, you know,
(22:13):
painkiller, we are not investingin this.
Nothing to say.
Vitamins also sell.
It's just the way to sell isdifferent.
Right like it's.
You know, if your problem isbasically an absolute painkiller
and and you know this is likethis is the problem which people
face day in, day out and themoment they hear about it and
(22:34):
they'll buy it, that's, ofcourse, a different way of
building the product, bringingit to market.
You know a lot of people dobottom-up sales on those kinds
of things as well.
And then if your product issomething which is like, you
know, premium right, like applevision, pro right, it's not
(22:55):
really a painkiller for anything.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
I don't want something sitting on my face and
walking around, but you knowlike I have one, so that's why I
can say that yeah, but I amsaying you're not that guy in
the middle of the road eating ahamburger and like walking
around with this thing ordriving with it on or anything.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
No, yeah, I'm not used it in public yet.
The thing is essentially that'salso sales, but the sales story
is different.
Also sells, but they're, thesales story is different.
You need a lot more investmentto basically have that story,
have that lineup and say, okay,these are the vitamins you need
(23:34):
to live longer, right, and allthat kind of stuff, and it's.
It's two different ways of goingto market going through, um,
the right set of investorsgoverns which way you're going
to market.
If you're going to market thisway, there is different set of
investors whichs which wayyou're going to market.
If you're going to market thisway, there is different set of
investors which you should talkto who can give you that
credibility, give you that youknow marketing leverage, that
(23:58):
that gets you there.
If you're thinking about a moreoperational product, I generally
prefer in, like you know,investors who are ex-operators
yourself, who, like a bunch ofour investors, are ex-operators
themselves, who, a bunch of ourinvestors are ex-operators
themselves.
They have built businessesbefore and now have moved to the
venture capital realm wherethey understand how basically
(24:19):
businesses are built, and youalways should get money from
people who, uh, have moresympathy and, like, understand I
would say empathy is a betterword here like understand what
are the early stages of buildinguh looks like and what later
(24:41):
stages look like, and then canalways associate with those
realms so that they can supportyou the best in those realms.
So that they can support youthe best in those stages,
because that's when you need youdon't need investors only for
money If you you need them tobasically help build your
business as well in in certainways where you think that that
(25:04):
goes beyond the money,especially at the early stages.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
So later stages is more commercial, yeah yeah,
because early on you don't wantthem.
They've got to understand howhard it is to build a business
and the ups and downs and theythey can't be sitting there
worried about their money thewhole time and stressing you out
oh, you got to move fast, yougot to, you got to do this, you
got to that.
These people have to understandand let you build the business
(25:28):
and get off your back Like it'sbecause that's just added stress
that you don't need and I thinksome investors don't understand
that.
It's not helpful.
Like, if you're not adding tothe company as an investor, then
I, your money isn't really help.
I mean it's helping, right, Imean I can, can use that money,
but if it comes with stress,then I don't.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I don't want it, right, yeah yeah, I would
probably spend that money in myuh stress relievers on therapy.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, you have to use it on therapy, yeah I'm back oh
, there you are.
Kyle, yeah, kyle, I've beenhere just listening.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
I had nothing to contribute, because you guys
talking about being founders andstartups and I'm not that but
having invested in a couple ofthese and sitting in on early
stage calls, you know and badinvestors are one thing, but
he's dealing with all these guyson the East coast and San
Francisco, he's the one that'sdealing with venture capitalists
all the time.
I would assume that they wouldput just as much pressure as a
(26:28):
like one of your whale investorswould be from your seed ground,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, that's right, but what's the question, kyle,
here?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
There was no question .
I was just finally contributingto the conversation, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And I think you know the people and Kyle I don't know
if you were on earlier to hearthis, but he was mentioning how
East Coast and West Coastinvestors are also different so
you've got more financiallymotivated and financially people
think financially on the EastCoast, where the West Coast, and
this is very true.
(27:05):
On the East Coast, where theWest Coast and this is very true
, just in my experience tooYou've got the moonshot people
who are like look, I get whereyou're going with this.
I know you're going to need alot of money here you go Right
and it's a lot.
I think it's a lot easier onthe West Coast.
Honestly, the East Coast kind ofpain in the butt, and here in
the Midwest, oh my God, it's bad.
Like these people, every nickel, every nickel, they will.
(27:27):
I don't know if it's because wegot so many German people here,
related to Germans just verytight with the money.
Something's going on, but it'svery tough to raise money in the
Midwest.
And if you have a startup inthe Midwest, maybe you can raise
friends and family money and alittle angel money here.
But you really want to go outWest, you really want to go East
(27:47):
.
Maybe you you're, maybe you gota FinTech company or something.
New York makes sense, miamimakes sense for that, but for
something that's like an Airbnbor something wild that's just
like nobody's ever done itbefore.
I'm going to disrupt the worldand change things.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
That's probably West Coast money, right, that's yeah,
I do believe the early stageecosystem in West Coast is the
greatest Silicon Valley.
Nothing compares to SiliconValley on those areas because
it's the mindset which isdifferent, right, the mindset.
There there are people who havemade those bets for last 20
years and now our billionaireswere again making other
billionaires and they are againmaking that bets.
(28:32):
Right, like here on the EastCoast.
It comes from finance driven,because the people who are
making those bets have made betson public markets.
They're Wall Street people,yeah, wall Street people, right,
and you have all the datapoints in front of you before
you make those bets.
And that's not startups.
(28:53):
But if you see the later stageecosystem, where you have Series
A, b and C and later stageecosystem, new York and East
Coast is coming back becausethen the companies start
becoming more mature and that'swhere you can use some of the
learnings which you have had inyour investment banking career
(29:16):
or whatnot to like reallysupport those companies in later
stage.
But the early stages isunmatched in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, and you mentioned being first generation
.
We've had several people on ourshow that are first generation
and have done huge things.
I feel like there's somethingwith people who immigrate here
to the United States, maybe geton a student visa or something,
or come here with their families.
(29:43):
Come here with their families.
They are hyper motivated tostart businesses and you've got
a ton of people who are born andraised here that think they
just got to go get a job.
I want them to get out of themindset when you're here.
The longer you're here, themore settled you get and the
more I don't know lazy maybe youget.
I don't want to say that, butyou just kind of get.
(30:04):
I don't know, you don't thinkyou need it, right, you get
comfortable.
What is it about?
Maybe your family or whereyou're from, that motivated you
to become successful, to be aperson who builds companies, who
sells companies, who doesn'tsit back, and you're not okay
with that.
You keep creating, you keepbuilding.
(30:25):
What is it from your backgroundthat made you like that?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
It's actually a very good research study which has
been done by a couple of greatpeople in Boston and I know in
my circle as well what found.
You know trends in, likesuccessful companies and
successful builders, especiallyunicorn builders, and there is a
(30:52):
big percentage of those unicornbuilders have been immigrants.
And the reason is a very core,underlying piece about the
people who have traveled likethere's a correlation, direct
correlation, of people whobasically go out of their city
or country to actually get anexchange or travel somewhere to
(31:16):
like, find or explore thoseplaces or get education or
whatnot.
That is, I feel, a veryfundamental quality of those
people is curiosity.
Those people are fundamentallycurious people who want to go
(31:37):
out of their state, um, who wantto go out of their state, and I
met so many, you know, and myfriends, um americans who have
never been out of their statetheir entire life.
So they don't have thatperspective and they are not
even curious about going um andexploring um cultures, other
(31:59):
mindset, other perspectives.
And if you're innately curiousas a person, that correlates
from your choices in your lifeabout do I want to travel Like?
What do I want to explore?
Why I should?
I just want to take this classor cohort or like you know
(32:23):
course out there just to knowright, and if you're not, then
you just end up at the localmost school which is the closest
to your house, where you want,like you have that comfort.
So that curiosity is a verybasic, I feel like trait of a
lot of and they are innatelycurious as people.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, you know that there's actually a gene called
the Wayfarer gene that peoplehave, like you either have it on
or you have it off, and it hasto do with a lot of human
migration, right, people thatleft and moved and went places
and were curious like, well, Iwonder what's over there.
They generally have theWayfarer gene and there's
(33:02):
another name for it too, but itmakes you like curious, right
you just you're curious aboutthings, you, and I mean there's
a large percentage of thepopulation of the world that
actually has that, and I thinkit's why people love to travel
so much, like you know mostpeople.
If you ask them, hey, ifsomebody you know put you on a
cruise ship, would you go?
And yeah, why wouldn't I?
You know, I want to see what'sgoing on.
I want to do something.
(33:23):
You know, I think we all haveit in us.
It's just tapping into that andhaving the courage to tap into
it and actually do something.
And I mean, you've obviouslydone it with to great success,
and you're doing it now withyour company.
So where are you guys at rightnow with the company?
Where are you at?
And again, guys, it'srealsagecom, r-e-a-l-s-a-g-ecom,
(33:48):
and you can go on the websiteyou can look at all these
customers they've got.
They've got tons of all thesecompanies together managing a
ton of real estate, a ton ofvalue.
These guys are fueling it withtheir software, smart
decision-making.
Where are you guys at right now?
I mean, you've obviously got alot of customers, but what are
you looking to do?
What's?
Speaker 2 (34:09):
next?
Yeah, there's this.
One mission our company has isto change how the industry makes
decisions and in the nextlittle while, what we are trying
to achieve is to be the marketleader in the data-driven
decision-making in this sector.
The beauty of what we are doingis, in the last three to four
(34:30):
years, the way real estate ismaking decisions has changed and
they are looking at data moreactively.
I was speaking, I've spoken onmultiple panels, like in New
York, in Miami, or real estatespecific industry conferences,
and the more I hear people inthe last three, four years, the
(34:56):
whole category of data duringdecision-making is being created
because there is a good amountof generational wealth transfer
from, you know, from the olderuh ownerships to the newer
ownership, and the newerownership is digital, even not
digital native, but they are.
They are heavily exposed todigital ways of making decisions
(35:19):
, um, and I've always been doingit, so that's their way of
doing things.
And also, there have been goodamount of leadership in these
companies which have come fromoutside of real estate recently
to actually enable that spark ofAI, data-driven decision-making
(35:41):
, data-driven competition, andnothing is selling right now.
The transactions are so muchdifficult right now, with this
interest-laden environment, todo.
A lot more focus has come intobuilding efficiencies and we
have seen this tremendous shiftin the industry where they are
very actively now looking atbreaking the old ways of making
(36:04):
decisions and embracing thenewer ways of making decisions
and going from there.
For us, it's journey to be themarket leaders to serve our
customers really well whilethey're embracing this journey.
So you know, we want to changehow real estate makes decisions.
Industry wants to change how itmakes decisions.
(36:26):
Why don't we bring thattogether and be the best of it?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
I love it.
I love it.
This is great.
I really appreciate you beingon the show today.
This has been insightful.
I know people really appreciatewhen successful founders come
on and tell their story and givesome feedback and just let them
know this isn't an easy thingto do.
It requires a lot of dedication.
You've got to love your ideaand you've got to put in a lot
(36:53):
of time.
If this is something you wantto do, right.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
That's absolutely right, um, persistence and
perseverance is the only key tobe a great entrepreneur.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Arnab, I really appreciate you being on the show
today and good luck witheverything, sir.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Thanks a lot, adam, thanks a lot, kyle, take care.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Thanks for joining us on this week's episode of Side
Hustle City.
Well, you've heard from ourguests, now let's hear from you.
Join our community on Facebook,side Hustle City.
It's a group where people shareideas, share their
inspirational stories andmotivate each other to be
successful and turn their sidehustle into their main hustle.
We'll see you there and we'llsee you next week on the show.
(37:36):
Thank you.
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