Episode Transcript
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Tilden Moschetti (00:00):
As a
syndication attorney, I meet a
lot of syndication, real estatefund, investment fund sponsors
and managers. As a syndicatormyself, I also meet even more
now there are some common traitsthat go throughout syndicators
that are especially successful.Let's talk about those traits,
(00:21):
because maybe they're traitsthat you can emphasize or build
within yourself in order to beeven more successful than you
are.
So what makes a greatsyndicator, a great sponsor,
(00:42):
investment fund manager. Whatare those things? Well,
certainly it's great leadership,being able to work with a bunch
of different people and leadthem towards a common goal.
That's very important. Maybeit's financial acumen, really
understanding the market andunderstanding where things are
going that's certainlyimportant. Maybe it's
negotiation, being able to dothings, you know, make it the
(01:05):
very best deal for theirsponsors. That's there. Maybe
it's risk mitigation, being ableto identify risks and mitigate
those risks so that yourinvestors get the best return
possible. That's there. Maybeit's the ability to build trust
and to get people to be all onthe same page, and if they not
(01:26):
on the same page, maybe to atleast trust you enough to take
the ball and run with it. That'sprobably pretty close to the
very top. So those are some ofthe basic just broad overviews
of the big ideas that are partof what makes an especially good
syndicator or investment fundsponsor. As you're coming along
(01:48):
and as you're beginning yourcareer as a sponsor, there are
hurdles along the way. As aswith anything you're you have
two jobs as a sponsor. So thefirst job, find investors.
Second job, find deals, put themtogether. That's what you really
are doing every day, to makesure it happens. Finding
(02:10):
investors is challenging. Ittakes a while to get comfortable
with it. It takes a while to getto understand how to talk to
investors in a way that thatmakes them trust you enough to
give you money. And it's justhard. I mean, it's just, you're
going to somebody and you'resaying, Hey, let me use your
money so I can make more money.It's not the easiest thing in
(02:32):
the world. The real ticket toit, though, is how, learning how
to do it for yourself, learninghow to talk to yourself in order
to be truly successful, Lordlearning how to see your own
value so that you have theconfidence necessary when you're
talking to investors, it'sparamount. But I do totally
understand that finding that keywithin yourself is challenging,
(02:56):
and it's probably the greatesthurdle that you're going to have
to face when you're looking tobecome a sponsor. One thing that
can certainly help new, newsponsors grow and be better in
this business is to grow yourprofessional network. So it's
not only growing the the networkof your investors that's very
important, but it's also growingthat network of who you're going
(03:19):
to call so I like to think ofthe Rolodex, right? So people of
a certain age, we all know whata Rolodex is. For those of you
that don't, you can think of itas your contact list in your
phone. So that Rolodex ofpeople, of numbers I can call, I
need help with this. Who is thatperson? Or at least know how I
can get there. I have to dealwith that a lot as an attorney,
(03:41):
where I'll get a question aboutsomething, how can I how can I
do something from a client ofmine, and I need to come up with
some resources for them, becauseI may not specialize in that
area of law. For example, ifit's an employment thing, they
want to do some sort of benefitprogram for some of their
officers in their syndication.That's not me that knows that,
(04:03):
but I do know a lot of people,and I do know a lot of people
that I can refer them to, andthen it's just a matchmaking
game there to see well, thisperson really would be probably
best served by them, but beingable to have that Rolodex
actually adds to that confidencethat you have. It makes you not
as afraid to say I don't know,because you already know who
(04:24):
does know, right? So if you cansay to an investor or whatever
it is, hey, look, I don't knowthe answer to that question, but
I know who does, and I know howwe can answer it for you, you're
going to be very trustworthy intheir eyes, because that's
really what they're hiring usfor, not only is it for our
acumen and leadership andfinancial ability, but also
(04:44):
being able to get that problemsolved, whatever comes up along
the way, solved in the best way.And the best way to do that is
by having that strongprofessional network of knowing
who you're supposed to contactin the first place a lot of
times. Sometimes people willwork with a mentor or a
collaborator in order to liftthemselves up, and that's a
(05:05):
great way to get started, too.So if you're newer in the
business, you may get you maywork with somebody. You may work
with somebody like myself, whoalso works on the legal side,
but also we do our best to makesure that you're successful in
your deal. Sometimes you maywork with another developer or
another person who's done abunch of syndications, and
(05:26):
collaborate together so that youget the best of both worlds,
that there's some synergy there,and that your investors are well
suited. That can be a great toolto go to. Generally, there are a
lot of people out there who haveclasses, and those classes can
be very good. Some of them arenot very good. Your mileage may
vary radically. I would suggestyou probably should talk to
(05:48):
people who've done the dealsfirst, like myself. If you want
to give us a call, we cancertainly help you with
understanding the market better,to understand who you may want
to have a coaching relationshipwith or other syndicators who
have had success. In order toreally understand it, I would
recommend that before I jumpinto anybody's like program, one
(06:10):
of the most important things,though, for your overall
success, again, it goes back tothe investors and it goes back
to trust, is a bill isdeveloping your ability to be
truly communicative andtransparent, being able to tell
people that you don't know,being able to communicate
whenever something bad happens,if something bad happens, you
(06:31):
should get almost excited,because now is an opportunity to
talk to your investor or talk towhoever it is, and now it's
going to be an opportunity foryou to build on that
relationship and build on thatlevel of trust. Obviously,
you're not going to go lookingfor trouble, but having
difficult discussions can be avery positive thing for you in
(06:52):
the long run, as uncomfortableas it is in the short run, and
having that mindset of we cansolve this problem. We can grow
from here, we can get muchbetter. Is critical to becoming
successful in this business,because things are absolutely
going to happen. Deals are goingto go sideways, there are going
to be challenges in fundraisingthat you're going to have to
(07:13):
come up with crazy ways in orderto solve. It's just part of the
business, and there always is away to get it done, but you
always have to be willing totalk about it and be transparent
about what's going on. Instantyou do that, you lose the trust.
If you forget to talk aboutwhat's going on, you're gonna
lose the trust. So I've talkedto clients who are going to lose
(07:35):
money in their syndication. Theytalk to they're gonna lose a lot
of money. I have a few clientswho brought me in later. I
didn't help them put their dealtogether, but they brought me in
later, showed me a deal thatthey have a problem with and
will lose all of the investormoney. So how do you deal with a
situation like that? The bestway to do it is transparency.
(07:57):
Communicate, communicate,communicate, communicate. So
that way there is at least thetrust that at the end of the
day, you're on the same side asyour investor, similarly
related, at least in my mind, isgrowing ourselves at the same
time. So not only allowing ourinvestors to grow and be able to
(08:18):
understand and grow thattrustworthy relationship. But
how do we grow ourselves? Andthe best way to do that is to do
continuous learning and to doimprovement. Now, regardless of
what I said previously aboutdoing, about finding specific
trainers or things like that,that is, that's an okay place.
There may be specific roles, butlearning the actual skills. The
(08:41):
actual hands on skills is veryimportant. I personally believe
it's very difficult to teachsales. I think if you want to
find somebody to help you learncapital raising, I think you're
going to have some challenges. Idon't think there's a lot of
people out there who can dothat. I think there is one
person who I could recommend,and if you ever want to know who
(09:02):
that is, feel free to give me acolumn. We can talk about your
project, and we can see if thatkind of person is appropriate.
But the rest of them out there,the rest of them with the books
and the shiny things and theglitzy light centered stage
shows, they're probably not it.The kind of learning that I'm
talking about is details, orlearning that you can actually
(09:25):
learn in the fundamentals. Iwent I got my CC im designation
because I knew it would beimportant for me to be able to
understand investments at adeeper level than I knew. After
I got my CCM designation, Idecided to work on becoming a
certified financial analyst. Iam not finished with that
process. I finished the firsttest. I finished the second
(09:47):
test, which, by the way, isreally hard, probably harder
than the bar. It was reallytough. The third test is up and
coming. I will still take it. Ijust need to find time in my
very busy schedule between do.Deals and helping clients in
order to get it done, but thatfocus on improving and always
improving is part of what we do.I have podcasts in my car. I
(10:11):
have books on my shelf, readingconstantly. I'm constantly
either working on clients,working on deals, or bettering
myself, those are the threethings that I do, besides the
time that I spend with myfamily, which is even more
important,
it's also useful to leveragetechnology for your success.
(10:33):
Now, most commonly, you'll usethings like an investor portal.
So investor portal softwareallows your investors to be able
to log in and see what's goingon in their investment. They are
terrific. They're notnecessarily terrific, just
because it simplifies your life.I think they're terrific because
in the mind of the of thisinvestor, it means, wow, this
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guy's really a pro that I canget my info just like as if I'm
going to Charles Schwab, right,so that they can get their
things. They can see their taxesat 2am in the morning, if they
want to. I think that's reallycool. I think it makes investors
look really think of you very,very favorably. There are other
things that I think are veryimportant, like a con customer
(11:19):
relationship managementsoftware. CRM is super
important. If you know me atall, you know I rely very
heavily on my CRM. That's howall the communication goes out.
My entire business is revolvesaround me using my CRM in order
to stay in contact with my myclients stay in contact with my
(11:41):
investors, make surecommunications go out so I stay
top of mind. Make sureeverything that comes in comes
in properly, and that nothinggets dropped. It's all part of
what I do now, without my CRM,without the technology, relying
on it, boy, would I be introuble. So because I need it, I
mean, it's just a fact of life.I There are too many clients
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that I have that I have to stayon top of. I need to look at
notes to be able to understandsay, Oh yeah, that was the
client that we're doing thisdeal for. Otherwise, I won't
remember. So I do look at mynotes. Just as an aside, look at
my notes before meeting with myclients, so that I can catch
myself up once I see what it wasregarding, I know what I
(12:28):
remember the client. I remembereverything that's going on. But
you know, it's it's challenging.I guess my last point to be
truly successful as asyndicator, as an investment
fund manager, is to look longterm. Think long term. You're
the decisions that you make now,if you make them for short term
gain, you will lose in the longrun. Making a decision to take
(12:52):
that additional point 1% foryourself in exchange for taking
it or giving it to yourinvestors may be a costly
mistake. If you think long termabout the nurturing and care and
stewardship of your investors oftheir money, if that's your
primary thing, you will be verysuccessful in this business,
(13:13):
because investors not only willtrust you, but you have earned
their trust. Right? You've shownthem that you absolutely can
deliver on what you've promisedthem, they'll believe that you
always consider that you've puttheir best interest first, which
is what you really kind of needto do anyway. You do need to
make money in this business, andyou do need to do things, but
(13:35):
never take something for shortterm gain. I'll tell you a
horror story that will make it alittle bit clear, working on a
partnership beforehand that Iwas a part of. So there were
four of us as partners. A dealcame in that was terrible,
absolutely terrible. It was abad, bad deal that should have
(13:56):
like, stay away from this. Dealstill went forward, and I pulled
myself out of it very quickly,but it still went forward, and
primarily was because one of thesponsors said to them, I don't
care if we make any of theinvestors money, we'll make a
lot of money for ourselves. Oh,my God, that is the absolute
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wrong mentality. That is thewrong mindset to have in this
business. Your mindset needs tobe on 100% success for your
investors, with the knowledgethat when your investors are
successful, you are going to besuccessful yourself enough
preaching. My name is Tildenmoschetti. I am a I have a
(14:41):
syndication attorney for themoschetti syndication Law Group.
We help real estate syndicators,businesses that are looking to
raise capital, private equityfunds with special offerings,
all those things, who arelooking to raise money from
investors who are going to takea passive position and put
offerings together under.Regulation D that's what we do.
(15:03):
If we can help you with yourproject, we'd be happy to
discuss more. Give us a call orvisit our website and sign up
for a time, and let's talk aboutwhat you're working on. You.