Ep 485: Funds with Intent- How Bridger Pennington is Shaping a Better World

Transcript

Anthony gaona and special guest Mr Bridger Pennington from fun launch if you have not heard of it please go check

it out but Bridger thanks for thanks for everything you do and thanks for just making a difference I'll start off with

that because it takes people like you to make decisions to create and stuff happens behind that

[Music] so well no it's fun to be on I just as

fun hearing about your guys as what you're doing right now raising capital and doing big deals I just it makes me happy to hear your guys a success it

makes me just it makes me just light up I love seeing you guys kill it so congrats to y'all thank you man yeah we are a product of the product so we're

not afraid to say that dude so thank you so much for what you do no that's that's amazing I love I yeah we gotta highlight

you guys I want to hear more of your story in the next 12 18 24 months it's it's gonna be cool to see where you guys go and what else you do I'm just excited

to see what you guys do so it's pretty fun thank you man if you can give every everybody like a brief description of

who you are what you do just kind of kind of highlight 30 second 30 second elevator pitch so everybody kind of

knows who you are if they've never heard of you before yeah yeah so I run a compan called Fun launch that you guys both just talked about so fun launch is

a group and service to help people launch investment funds we have over 70,000 people in our community we've

launched 210 funds in the last two years just out of Black Card which you guys are a part of out of that group 210

funds that's about two funds a week we launch as a service ENT we have a legal team comes in we have pitch deck designers the whole thing to help people

launch funds we throw big events Etc it's pretty fun additionally on that I've ran two debt funds prior I

currently run an eight fig hedge fund in the cryptocurrency space blockchain space and we just launched a GP Stakes

fund so I currently manage two funds and then I've ran two funds prior and that's what I'm doing right now it's pretty fun

dude that's exciting man so I know you're doing the the crypto thing right would you want to just go in that for 10 seconds like your view of the market and

Pennington's Experience in Hedge Funds and Cryptocurrency.): Bridger Pennington discusses his experience running two debt funds and an eight-figure hedge fund in the cryptocurrency space. He elaborates on the strategy behind his current venture, Ugly Unicorn, and its focus on long-term, research-based investments in the blockchain space.

then what what you're exactly you guys are investing in because that's strong man to be investing in this market right now yeah it's pretty fun so we started

this Fund in 2022 my partner Dan he was mining he's so he's he's on the Board of Intel for the last 16 years he's been a

huge player in Silicon Valley he ran a computer company hardware company and did some software companies as well in

2014 he had this whole Warehouse of gaming chips because they were selling chips for computers they'd build these

custom rigs for like Gamers and stuff all these chips on their on their shelves and one of their one of his

employees said hey we should do this thing like called Bitcoin mining so they figured it out they started mining these

coins they actually did dogecoins Bitcoins they actually launched the largest Mining facility in the state of

Utah in 2014 huge warehouse and they did obviously extremely well in crypto um

this is 20145 all the way up 2017 he sold a lot bought a lot of land and real estate commercial real estate Etc still

held a lot of crypto and then through 2020 2019 2020 Dan my partner had a ton

of friends asking him about all these billionaire friends hey I want to buy crypto I want to get in how do I do it and Dan's very good with security he's

done security work for NASA Air Force US Army last 30 years and they were begging him Dan can you just do this for me and

finally we came together and said what what if we did a fund like what if we actually built out a full fund build a portfolio strategy and actually went and

did this um and that's what we launched we launched ugly unicorn is our fund's name find ugly unicorns in the crypto

blockchain space things that are ugly that people aren't talking about that actually are unicorns actually do extremely well so we're a research based

fund we try not to trade we try to actually do a lot of research up front and get into positions and hold those

positions for a very long period of time while producing yield and doing we do a few risk mitigation strategies um

throughout that so we launched that fun in June of 2020 uh let's Jun June of 2022 right when the market was crashing

which was great um it actually proved our thesis out we risk mitigated very well during the crash of 2022 which was

awesome then 2023 rebound had over a 63% return in 2023 2024 we up now over

something like 30% this year um it's been phenomenal we managed just around 25 million in assets um all Equity no

debt in our fund we try to play the long-term game of crypto it's been um extremely fun so that's that's a little

thesis around unicorn we've had a lot of fun with that dude that is amazing man to to get involved in 2014 you got a

Long-Term Investment Philosophy.): Pennington emphasizes the importance of long-term thinking in business and investment, sharing his admiration for successful investors like Ray Dalio and Warren Buffett. He highlights the potential for substantial growth and success through sustained effort, good ethics, and strategic investment over decades.

little runup so that's pretty cool for you to be in that space right now man and then uh yeah congrats to you guys man you've done a lot you've done a lot

and you're all over social now I think everybody knows your name now so it's pretty fun yeah crypto's in a fun spot

too we can dive into that if you want we have the Bitcoin having ethereum ETFs there's a bunch of news happening right now in crypto um which is pretty fun too

but yeah it's been it's been a fun ride and I'm I'm in for the long game I know you guys know that but I I try to play the long game of just business in

general if I can do well and do good in the world and get investors good returns it's and you guys know this when you

compound it's incredible over most people think in two or three year blocks I'm thinking in what what can we do in

10 years or 15 or 30 years like it's insane if you just do well if you treat people right if you you know have a good

Mantra return Capital to investors you can do extremely well over over decades um I it's funny I went and researched

like Ray doio and Warren Buffett Ray Dal and Warren Buffett they started their first funds uh 28 26 years old wow with

like a 100 Grand and they just compounded for 50

years all sudden Ray doio oh man he's so big like he's been at this game for 30

40 50 years it's incredible what you can do when you have a long Horizon and you do well so that's kind of my uh my

Mantra with this whole game and so anyways I I love seeing people like you win it's going to be cool to see what you guys are at in 10 20 years it's be

really cool thank you man yeah yeah if you could kind of Deep dive into it you want to give us a little bit more about Bitcoin and and kind of where the space

Insights into the Cryptocurrency Market.): Offering insights into the current state and future prospects of the cryptocurrency market, Pennington touches on Bitcoin cycle theory and its historical four-year cycles of peaks and troughs. He suggests that the market is entering a new phase, indicating potential for significant movements.

is and that kind of stuff you kind of alluded to it right now yeah I'll give you a couple just things to think about

and we have a full video on ugly no corn.com and other stuff I'll just give you the the Odes kind of the the Nuggets

here but so right now we're filming this you know middle middle of March we have um Bitcoin just I'll give you the broad

view there's a thing called Cycle Theory in Bitcoin Bitcoin has historically ran in fouryear Cycles we are entering the

fourth of these fouryear Cycles um they usually do a run up if I had a chart I'd pull it up but I I'll just

I'll just talk you through it 2013 we had a peak we then had a 70 something percent selloff it took about a year to

recover we then have a rebuilding phase and then we have a major runup 2017 we

had a peak four years later we then capped we fell 70 80% over the course of

about 12 months we rebuilt we then had another major runup 2020 2021 huge Peak

we fell that's when we started our fund uh we fell 76% last cycle we fell for about 350 something days we we recovered

we've now approaching the next Bull cycle okay this has happened three times now going on four times now what has

kicked off the next at least historically Bitcoin Cycles is What's called the Bitcoin having um the Bitcoin

having event is mathematically built in there are only 21 million Bitcoins that

can ever be created ever right now about 19 million have been mined or created

and how that's created is there's about let's just for an analogy sake let's say there's a 10,000 computers around the

world that validate transactions so if I send money to Dan Daniel or whoever Joe

down the street a computer will validate that and 10,000 computers will validate it and for doing so they get rewarded

coins and in this case it's called Bitcoins so they get rewarded these coins every four years their rewards get

cut in half so for example right now about $500 million of Bitcoins are

created a day or earned per day you could say by miners on April estimated

April 19th just next month those rewards will be cut in half so it'll Lally go from 50 million a day to 25 million a

day wow what this does is it puts a strain on Supply which in historically

has increased price uh you contrast that as well with just recently we had 11

spot buying ETFs that opened up and that's very significant for a lot of reasons we can dive in but now institutional players are buying

Bitcoins around the average about $500 million a day is inflowing into Bitcoin

500 million a day just on the ETFs and we're producing about $50 million a day

and it's going to be down to $25 million a day so it's just it's just math there are just way more inflows currently at

least and that's what we've seen it with historical cycle so we are just approaching this next Bitcoin cycle bottom to top last cycle Bitcoin did a

20x so 20 times just roughly ethereum did about a 28x bottom to top and then

altcoins did you know 30 50 100x bottom to top last cycle we believe this cycle

Bitcoin will do around a 4 to 5x bottom to top something like that ethereum will do maybe an 8 to NX depending if their

ETF gets approved altcoins will maybe do a 15 to 20x this cycle so it's gets it gets muted as you get bigger it's hard

to you know double when you get so big but so that puts us uh you know we think again with this cycle and ETFs could

change this this Theory but we're targeting around A1 175,000 to $200,000

Bitcoin over the next 18 months at a peak that's kind of our our target range right now on bitcoin we hold in our fund

about 80 to 90 different positions throughout the cryptocurrency market we do a lot with alternative coins and

different coins we have about 9% exposure to bitcoin right now a little bit more exposure to ethereum but we uh we spread across the landscape so

anyways I can go on and on but I I'll stop the other compelling news right now is Black Rock just yesterday announced

the roning a $100 million tokenized fund we can Ty into that if you'd like and then additionally ethereum is waiting 11

spot buying ETS for ethereum as well the SEC is now looking into it we'll see if they get approved here soon but that's the current update but just overall

landscape there is a lot of we are just starting the next Bull rally of this the

fourth cycle this is how it at least historically has happened and we're just getting started we think we're still

very early on this cycle and it's it's GNA be a pretty fun ride that's crazy

how long and these Cycles change over each trunch of each cycle or is there like a set like 24mth period where it

kind of Cycles through yeah most most of the time it's a it's around 12 to 18 months after the Bitcoin having actually

the pre previous the three previous Cycles have almost been exactly 18 months like EXA this cycle people are

theorizing it could be broken because of ETFs it could change so again take it with a grain of salt that would put put

a top on this Market that we're in right now middle of 2025 you know you you'd

pro at least for us right now we're thinking we want to start selling positions June July of 2025 one theory

is maybe it's earlier maybe it's a year from now we'll be peing maybe it's going to be a little bit longer with the ETFs we'll see and and I I reserve the right

to change my opinion but currently I would I would tell people to start exiting positions for this cycle on you

know maybe June or July 2025 interesting very interesting uh one

thing I want to talk about is um I I love the Bitcoin space it's very interesting and a lot of people don't

understand it and it's I think it's very early on to adapt and if you have a lot of information you can make uh create your own future in that way are you are

you long-term holding stuff or is it always going to be to to ride the wave on the top and sell in the bottom so we

yeah good question we try not to trade and we think of ourselves more of I guess swing Traders we we trade in terms

of years yeah rather than day trading so we will yes we will exit positions during a broad cycle Trend we try not to

exit positions on a weekly Trend or a daily Trend or even a monthly Trend if that makes sense but we do think on

Trends because historically I mean you look at people that I know at least people that try to day trade and move in and out they end up losing um almost

always I I don't know really anybody that's traded Bitcoin or Forex for more than two or three or four years without

blowing up their account because they want to add margin they want to do different trades and what happens is they just get stuck in bad positions and

so we again we've try to play the longer term game in crypto we may some of these positions we may just ride through the

next cycle wave as well because we believe in eight or nine or 10 years this is a very compelling future for a

lot of these Technologies and maybe I'll touch on that for a second we we approach crypto like technology we just

think of it as good technology that's what we underwrite for so we we generally aren't investing in like meme

coins you know in dog on coin or what there's a bunch of funny ones right now there like there's frogs and all sorts

of crazy stuff we typically don't do that we try to look for things that are have utility in the real world we'll

look for blockchain and there's actually some very cool Ai and blockchain projects right now and they have a token

that represents their projects we have ones that are uh it's blockchain and real estate blockchain and accounting

blockchain and genetics and they're using those together it's a company they actually have Revenue they have employees and they have a token a coin

that represents that company um for real world utility so that's what stuff we like to get into has a compelling

feature we feel like it's kind of like the the internet in the 1996 yeah stuff but there's also some

underlying good technology that we think will last over the next few decades yeah I think that's where a lot of

people are going to miss the boat right because if you think like an investor that's not very very Savvy in that space they're just thinking about oh if I buy

a certain amount of tokens I'm going to write it up you know just Based On Demand right like the greater four Theory but if you're have if you have

the fundamentals right like you said like Ai and other companies that are actually allowing you to participate in their company through that offering

that's when I think it's going to be a tremendous yeah because these companies as they grow and as they're uh they're like their token becomes more valuable

then you get to ride not only the growth of the company but also the the growth of the coin itself 100 perc yeah so we

that's what we try to get into so I I want to ask about this I didn't know R doio and you mentioned R

doio and Warren Buffett started when they in their 20s what do you have to say people maybe wanting to do this in

their 20s without necessar the information or thinking like that long-term play I think you're the perfect example of somebody in their 20s

who knows when you're in that age what you've done in your track record by because I think you're you're definitely

playing the long game what what do you say to somebody who's in their 20s wants to learn the fund space and invest whether they're doing real estate crypto

or any other type of fund well I'll say a few things I currently 2024 it is the

easiest best time in world history to start when you're young things are it is

the world is becoming flat as some would say there's a book that actually was written called that and it's not like the flat earther Theory it's the the

idea that anyone can compete with anybody around the world you're not just

you're not just competing against people in Dallas Texas in your local market you're competing with a guy in Iran

you're competing with a lady out of France you're competing with someone out of Mexico because the internet has made

the world flat everyone is equal on equal footing I guess and AI I think will further do that and so I I at least

for me my story at least my my path I'm currently 28 years old I started my first fund at 22 years old in

college dude and I won't bore you with my whole story but my uh my dad and brother were both in the investment fund

space taught me a lot about funds I first learned about funds like crazy I just learned and consumed as much as I

could I then saw opportunities for funds and I thought you know what I uh I'm gonna I'm gonna launch my own fund um I

pitched my dad for money my dad said no but I went and raised some money from other people pulled together I pulled a

teeny fund together it was $49,000 my first little fund at 22 years old teeny wow but it was enough to get started we

uh I got a 64% return to those investors so small amount of money but good return

tremendous what happened was I I dovetailed that into our second fund our second fund we raised employed millions

of dollars at that second fund off the track record of our first fund and then that we did very well actually actually

ran that for three and a half years we did extremely well returned all capital to investors plus a very handsome return and a competitor bought us out we then

dovetailed that into ugly unicorn which is our crypto fund we raised I raised $10 million in our initial launch Tada I

I hope my next fund we raise a hundred million in our initial launch because we've done so well with the capital

we've been given if that makes sense and so that's kind of the game I'm I'm playing I'll tell you just one I guess

little story though was so I was running my fund uh in college I was a pretty good student I I was uh in the finance

programs I wanted to go work on Wall Street Investment Banking and then I was running my fund as well in school I had

some like other students that were running it with like I hired them as interns and stuff like hey you're gonna do this you're gonna do this you're gonna take phone calls like I made a

little team I had and I started a bunch of businesses in college and I so anyways I go to this internship in

Silicon Valley while I'm running my fund and I'm out there and I'm I'm working my guts out my boss is there he's

incredible dude this guy was he' probably worked there for 10 11 years worked his guts out I mean this guy was

working 80 hours a week 10 years in I mean he was he was working he worked way more than I did and he was I I just felt

you know bad for him I estimated you know his he was probably making five to

600,000 a year something like that it's kind of what I estimated he was making which is good money don't get me wrong

and I was sitting there like huh okay so and and his goal i' asked him he's like yeah one day I want to run my own firm

or I'm going to try to get promoted and he was still trying to please the man right to get a

better ranking or better job and and I remember for whatever reason I don't know if this is arogant or just I don't

know how I felt but I at the time I was making about 125 130,000 a year myself

running my Fund in in college I was already making six figures a year amazing and they gave me a job offer hey

bridg we want you to come out after you graduate come work for us in Silicon Valley we'd love to have you here and for whatever reason I just

looked at I looked at that guy and I said if I if you give me 10 years and I

spent 80 hours a week on myself and my own businesses I I bet I could make more

than $500,000 in a year and if I don't I'll learn a lot of

stuff and and secondly I'm not appeasing to the man and trying to get promoted I I'll be my own King yep and I remember I

I I was like I'm gonna I I remember actually prayed about it and I felt prompted as well by God I'm a

God-fearing person I felt like you should not take this job offer and actually go full out on these businesses and so I that's what I did and crazy

enough the next year I was close but within two years I made I made 480,000

in one year and the next year I made over a million and I was like holy crap like within it was a couple years I'd

already beat that guy and I then I made a million dollars just this is personally to me the next year and I was like wow this is it's crazy and I now am

running my own business and thing I don't share that to brag or anything I just share that for someone in their 20s listening to this like it's possible

Bridger Pennington I'm not that smart of a dude as you can tell from this interview I'm just a pretty average guy but i' I've feel like I've applied

myself in a specific asset class very intentionally and it's helped me extremely well and uh I think it'll keep

compounding over hopefully over years to come as we continue to grow man I I commend you man yeah you you've done a

lot in a very short amount of time um when I don't know if you looked into hive mind but we have the it's basically

the same concept like where we offer training that kind of stuff like how to start the fund we've done that with uh real estate investing right so we're

buying these million-dollar ranches in Texas and we're developing them out flipping them that kind of stuff so when somebody asks what fund launch is I'm

like it's a high M for starting a fund so yeah really applaud what you've done

man it's amazing well great it's awesome I love it I gotta I gotta come see more of your stuff I haven't been in there

yeah it's it's it's it's it's it's exactly what you're doing it's very similar very very similar and I I love the model because it's empowering people

and I I love the the biggest thing about fund launch is they Empower individuals

it's not just White Collar it's not just blue collar it's individuals I went to the fun Louch venge in uh Salt Lake City

and we went to we were hanging out after the event and I haven't told any I didn't even told Ane the story but I was

hanging out after the event and there was three people there that were truck drivers because I'm a truck driver I was

truck driver used to be used to be a truck driver in my early 20s and I mentioned I was a truck driver and the

guy looks to me hey I was a truck driver too and then the guy around him I was a truck driver too and all talking about funds so it was just like people have

the if you have the foresight to look elsewhere and look at other opportunities you can do whatever you want you're not have you're not branded

that one thing that you were you kind of went down that path and you kind of created so it was really intriguing to

oh I love that story that's amazing I love that to see varying types of people at fun

launch and it was just it was a really unique experience uh you can do whatever you want to be youn get the right

information from the right people H that's great I think something where

you you shipped it think I was gonna say I think something you you shifted our thinking is because

we were doing like a traditional real estate investment right so you you buy a property you flip it you take those

funds you reinvest it to a new area and that was our primary business model you know it's been happening for five years which has done very very well but once

we started following your content we started like it completely uh shifted our whole thinking because we didn't

have to change our business model at all but now we're thinking in terms of hey we need to be amazing at raising capital

and that makes all of our deals flow a lot easier right because in real estate a deal gets choked up things slow down

um but now thinking in terms of us primarily being Capital raisers we raised more this year than we have in

the last five years just just from being exposed to your content dude so it's a it's a just completely like a mind shift

Game Changer big time I love that that's so I just love I just love seeing your guys success man it's awesome I just

love hearing it so cool so let's let's talk about raising Capital because I think everybody

like everybody has like the that that that ceiling over their head like I can never raise Capital how did you raise

your first 48 Grand and how are you raising money now like what's the difference now and uh what it look like

when you first started because I think it changes as you get more experien and you become more confident and you know you can produce an Roi so I think it's a

great question yeah I like it 49,000 by the way don't cut me short

49,500 so yeah let's talk about that so I um I remember so I was wanting to

launch this fund I went and pitch my dad for money my dad said no and I was like well how am I going to raise money like

I don't have a track record never done this before I haven't graduated college I'm fairly young I'm 22 years old who's

gonna invest with me and I asked my dad this question I said well what like he it was like a couple days later we were

on the Whiteboard and he's like Bridger imagine you g this example he says and I I think you guys have heard this before

I'll share it again he goes imagine uh we found me and you found a Lamborghini Aventador for it's a $300,000 car

there's a there's a lady selling it in Billing Billings Montana and she is going into bankruptcy she needs to sell

the car quickly and she can sell the car to us for $50,000 on Saturday morning

but we have to come up with brand we can't use our own money we have to come up with 50 Grand by Saturday we can buy

the car and we believe we could flip it for $300,000 no problem maybe even 350 if it was a good

deal my qu my dad asked me the question could you find 50 Grand by Saturday morning

I think so and I was like huh you know what like I'm gonna make

$250,000 this weekend like in college

like I might I'm gonna probably I won't sleep for a couple days I gotta talk to a former boss as college professor I'm gonna knock doors like but I'm gonna

figure it out like I've got four days five days I will figure it out to make a quarter million dollars like this

weekend I'm gonna do it and he goes okay what if it was

$100,000 you're still going to make1 $50,000 $200,000 spread could you do it

and I was like man it would be I think it'd be tough but I I think I could do it he goes why and I said well the deal

is so good and your little example you gave me that deal is like foolproof it's so good it's such a good flip like I can make tons of money on it like you know

de he goes aha there it is I go what do you mean he goes three minutes ago you were telling me I'm too young I'm

inexperienced I can't do it and all a sudden you're telling me you could find $50,000 by Saturday morning if the deal

was so good and he goes there is your solution right there if you can when you're when

you're starting out you lean way heavier on the deal and you got to spend a lot

of time finding truly a really good deal I mean it can't be kind of a good deal it can't be okay it's got to be an

actual really really good deal what happens is you find a really good deal investors you say hey just

look at the deal you you poke holes in the deal right now he goes later on in your career you'll lean more on your

experience and your team's experience hey just poke holes in us look at what we've done and yes we're going to look

at all these different deals but you're going to lean more on yourselves versus the beginning you're gonna lean more on your deals he goes that's how we launched our funds they would just lean

heavy on deals um and so I hopefully that makes sense but I took that

approach to raising capital and so I I was launching this debt fund I would go and Pitch these investors I'd say hey

let me just run you through the deal mechanics right at the beginning I'm like this is what we're doing bum boom buom and I start running them through

every piece of the deal and I tried to explain it in a very simple just organized way and I said hey here's

where we could lose money but reality we're going to risk mitigate all those things where we could lose money and our

upside is here I mean there's this huge gap of alpha of this asymmetrical risk

versus return and uh I guess lo and behold investors like that idea and that's how

we got those first checks in and I I'll just tell you this one little story though I when I was pitching so I would

I would be talking through the deal whatever and I would pause mid pitch and

I'd say hey you know Anthony Daniel I know you guys are great I I know you

probably love this deal but I bet you're sitting there thinking that I'm too young to be pitching and presenting this

to you today I just call out the objection like I know you probably think I'm too young let me explain to you why

I believe that's an advantage for me number one if I was old gray hair and

pitching this deal well I've got a lifestyle to live I got a big house I go to Hawaii three times a year I got kids

I'm watching Netflix like I'm I'm already made it in my career I'm I hopefully I do all through money but

I've already made a bunch of money and I'm I'm trying to just collect management fees from you okay number one in my fund I'm not I'm collecting zero

management fees I only make money when you make money so I lean to that edge number two because I'm young I only live

on like 300 bucks a month I actually would say this I live on like $300 a month I have no reason to commit fraud

the guy that has the big house the nice the big mortgage payment he's got to keep up his lifestyle he might commit

fraud and steal money from you me I am literally here because I want to get you

the best return possible because I want you to go brag to all your friends about how great of investment you had with

Bridger because I want to do this for the next 20 to 30 years and I'm gonna I because I'm young

I can work hard I can stay up late I can dig into deals I can spend more time on the phone with clients that can really be in the details and the weeds rather

than someone who's done this for 30 years they're not going to be in the weeds right they're not going to do this anyways that was my pitch and I'd say

does that and whether you like that or not I I had to lean into my constraints because that was that was the objections

I just leaned into it I said hey I'm I know I'm young this is why it potentially benefits me and most those

investors liked it and anyways we raised that little bit of money and then we I said the same thing on that second fund it was same strategy and we we raised I

think we raised about 800,000 right at the beginning which was plenty of plenty of money because we're doing these these loans were two or three or $4,000 and we

we grew that beyond beyond from $800,000 but we raised about $ 800,000 just at the which I just leaned into those

constraints at 20 it was about 23 years old I did that there you go I I love the story

because it's you you face the objections head on and it leave it doesn't fear any doubt like you know you know what their

questions are concerns are and you're bringing it up right up front and it it lays the playing field where now you're

now now you have a a valuable pitch without without the concerns you know but it's a lot yeah

I'll say this again like people in real estate that are listening it's it's so much easier to lean on a good real estate deal and say hey we got this

great deal it's in Miami here's the breakdown we plan to do 10 more deals just like this this deal is closing the

next 45 days we if we're raising this fund we're going to do deals just like this and and uh you know poke holes in

the deal please tell us if you find holes please poke in man we think this thing is Rel almost foolproof if not

foolproof on this deal so that's how I like to I like to raise I still kind of raise on that premise um we've now shift

a little more to experience because I hedge fund is more on experience and track record as well it's a little bit harder to pitch a deal because there's

not like a certain deal with a hedge fund um that that's nice thing about real estate it's very tangible dude I

like what you just said right now about like saying hey like if you see something I don't see I love that that phrase right there when it's when you're

raising capital I used it today actually so these guys are going to send us uh 550 and uh he said hey look we're

trusting your judgment you know we'll look into it because I asked them to go ahead and run their own comps but I said I said hey look I guess they might have

thought maybe I took a little offense to it because they were question in the deal and I said dude I would actually prefer that you guys pass on one here

and there you know like so just hey like if you if you see something I don't see pass on the deal so that's a great great

great like mini takeaway to get some to instead of hammering them into lending you the money you uh you kind of just do

a little passive like hey I would love for you guys and pass on this if you don't feel it like I feel it so that's that's amazing like like just threw

out this this is this is really good really good tips uh so now you're pitching more onto the experience side

leveraging your hedge fund are you still doing that debt fund or is it's all crypto right now 100% crypto so yeah the

debt fund we actually sold I ran that for three and a half almost four years we had a competitor come buy us out so I sold that fund actually got an exit on

that and had a decent exit on on that fund and then um currently I run our $25

million hedge fund and then uh we just launched a GP Stakes fund called fund launch Partners we're raising 50 million

for that fund so where's that Capital going still crypto no that's a GP stake

so that's uh what we do is actually with members of Black Card and Beyond what we'll do is like for instance like

something like you guys we'd say hey we love your we you'd come pitch us we get we have about 200 to 300 deals we're looking at we would become a partner in

your GP so we'd say hey we're gonna be an anchor LP for you we're gonna write you a check for whatever uh for some

startup costs when you're getting going we're g to be on your team as well so we will take you know seven eight nine% of

your general partner we're gonna be on your team you can leverage our experience on your pitch deck we'll also write you a check into the fund for

let's call it a half a million dollars into the fund and then we also can give you some startup Capital maybe it's 100 Grand just to make to get you off the

ground and get moving and we're going to be partners with you on this fund uh we're going to be partners and investors

in the fund it's called the GP stake uh fund so we take stakes in GPS so we we want to do about 20 to 30 deals of the

next 18 months we've already done three Deals um which have been phenomenal we just got a we have a venture capital

fund we're working with a real estate fund and a a a mobile home park fund that we're working with right now and it's been phenomenal so that's the we

are asset class agnostic we will work with any asset class um we just want to

find really good operators running really good funds that just need our leverage and expertise to help them launch and scale um through a GP stake

well we're singing your Praises man so hopefully we can send a bunch of people your way that that have good offerings like that too yeah yeah come come uh

come talk to us fun launch partners.com you can come submit your your whole fun we we just had a full two-hour meeting

yesterday we we reviewed a bunch of deals yesterday we're doing it right now we're deploying Capital so I love that

model because you're investing in your students and I think that's the that's the biggest thing you that's what we do yeah we invest in our students we put

raise it yep so uh I want to ask you this uh can you explain what a fund of

funds is just for people that never heard it before and the power of funding funds because I I want to I want to a

lot of people in in the business in real estate space they feel like capital is very hard to come by but one thing we're

realizing is that there's trillions of dollars out there like a lot there's a lot of money out there for the right

opportunities so can we talk about like fun of funds and different types of of of of fund structures that actually have

large Capital interest yeah so to just quickly answer your question fund to funds is a fund that invests in other

funds it's very simple similar to like our G like GP Stakes fund is almost like a fund of funds we're a fund that

invests in other funds but we take stakes in those funds fund of funds just simply just write checks into other funds the reason for that is some funds

have large minimum commitments you have to have a hundred million do minimum commitment to get into certain funds like Ray Doo's funds for example and

most people don't have $100 million so you invest into a fund and everyone puts their money together and they write a check together at $100 million into that

fund and oftentimes they can reduce fees and reduce you know carried interest Etc um so that's what a fund of funds is

they generally in my opinion only work uh at the at a larger scale fund of funds in my opinion do not make sense at

a small scale you have to be running a multi hundred million to multi-billion Dollar fund of funds for it to make

sense for your investors because they're getting two fees they're getting double feed so most fund to funds are massive that way and to your point that I want

to kind of dbb down this Daniel is there is so much money out there I

had to I've had to rewire my brain multiple times to be like there is so much

Capital out there me and Lincoln last week went to the Greenwich economic forum and so we're there and you know

hey I'm running a $25 million fund we help I I say we help emerging fund managers in most of these people's minds

that we're talking to an emerging manager is anybody less than a billion

that's that's still emerging oh yeah you're an emerging manager and for us we're like yeah like we're like less

than 50 million that's an emerging manager to us right it's just different vernacular and we had a there had a panel there uh um these guys are all

managing pension plans 50 billion 80 billion $120 billion pension plans

minimum check size is $50 million minimum bare minimum that they write

into a fund the fund they and they want to be less than 10% of that fund meaning you have to have a $500 million fund to

even talk to them right minimum they they tend to like they like to write checks in the 250 range to$ 500 million

dollar range that's what they like to do and they're not joking that's actually what they do day and day out so there is

I mean to your point it's just like that is just you have to rewire your brain on

how much money is out there in existence and and like flowing through the through

the economy and so and I it's it's hard to do especially when you're grind ing when you're on 300 bucks a month when

you're on you know it's hard to think there is just trillions of dollars floating around I just need to open my

pockets and get some it's hard to think your brain that way and and something I I had to do and I still do to this day I

have to I rewire my brain to think in terms of what would I do if money was

unlimited meaning I still had to generate a return but if I had unlimited amounts of money what would I do would I

go buy that skyscraper would I buy MGM Grand would I buy the Dallas Mavericks what would I actually do where could I

produce yield and it's an interesting thought process would I go buy a 500 unit

apartment complex what that would actually makes sense for me to buy that well what's the mechanics and and to

think through because to rewire your brain of if I found a good enough deal

whether it's a 500 unit apartment complex or a five unit apartment complex

I can raise money for it it just needs to be a good deal and so I've had to rewire my brain to stop thinking in

terms of what could I invest into and change that to what's just a

good investment period Point stop and the money will find it if I can find a good investment does that make sense oh

yeah Absolut I'm sure you guys have done a similar thing but it's it's hard to rewire your brain like I could buy that

skyscraper right there if it was a good enough deal and if I you know what I mean like it's it's strange to walk

around and think that way but what it does for me at least helps me think way bigger and actually in I actually do

think it's a real a real thing if if you did find a good enough deal I think money there is so much capital in this

world um it it is trying to look for a yields and good deal I'm GNA I'm going to just like tell you everything you

just said right there is actually what changed our career because we were going after anything right anything that would produce a yield whether it was 10,000 or

50,000 or 100,000 we started following fund launch we started thinking a little bit bigger we re shifted our business

model into only going after deals that are a million and up and now we made over a million dollars in the first five weeks of the year so just with that one

simple mindset shift like you said like there's there's giant amounts of capital out there but they don't like little Deals they like bigger deals so once we

started thinking like that like man now the money is starting to flow in like quickly like now we're having to scramble like we need more deals right

away so I love it big time mindset shift yeah I love it it's hard to do too it's

like hard to do very hard and but con kudos to you guys man that's uh and I think what will happen over our careers

is we'll just continue to do that bigger and bigger and bigger and and uh and then you see these deals these you know

10 or 20 or50 billion doll deals like wow who put those together dude and uh it's it's pretty cool so we're signing

one today we sent out over $6 million in offers today that we're going to get signed up uh one of those is a 400 acre

wrench that we're going to turn into a housing subdivision so that one's going to end up in 60 to 120 million in gross

sales so that would be our first big project that we're doing so hopefully we're starting to inch closer to those 50100 million do deals more often I love

it well and actually I I'll add this and and you guys are living proof of this there is a I I mentioned the thinking

like thinking bigger and thinking bigger but there's also a piece to just doing deals and get going because what it does

it builds confidence in you and your team hey man we just crushed that single family deal should we try a

duplex there's something to that and then oh we just crushed that deal and for you guys say oh we man we just bought this big Ranch and it's to you

like it's just rolling up oh yeah it's gonna be so easy we're gonna do this and this and this because you have confidence because you've done this for

years yeah and so there I believe there's a massive amount of psychology

that goes into this game number one thinking that there's unlimited amounts of money that you I need to play bigger and number two building the confidence

within yourself and your team that you can actually do these types of deals um over the course of a lifetime you can do

incredible extraordinary things when you have those two mindsets paired together I think you guys are living proof thank

you man I feel like we owe a lot of it to you and and fun launch and black card so yeah man I just I hope that we keep

on running together and uh we'll make you proud I love it um where can people

find you online I think we're GNA end it here it's been such a great episode I know you have time sensitive sensitivity on this one so we appreciate you coming

on but we're g go find you online and I know you have a live event in April you want to pitch that yeah so we have fun

launch live in April it's our this our Mass event for the year it's our third one we've thrown 2,000 people in Orlando

Florida all around investment funds so this is meant for people that want to get in the space of funds this event is

actually going to be different than our previous events it's very going to be very choreographed every speaker dove in the next one over three days to tell a

compelling story around how do I launch a fund what are the actual tools

mechanics pieces nuggets I need to like build this thing together to launch a

fund or if you have an existing fund to scale my next fund that's the idea of fund launch live over three days so we

are very excited we have an incredible speaker lineup I won't bore your your audience with that but we've got you know one of the Steve Ean from The Big

Short coming to speak you know $30 billion fund manager we got incredible incredible people come to speak it should be very fun we have a little a

gift for you guys if for your audience if they want to just start in the world of funds we have a free course on funds

so if you go to fund launch.com fund launch.com has our hub for Everything But at the bottom there's a thing called

our fund launch accelerator it's a free course completely on funds it's 20 plus videos that you can just dive in start

learning get your feet wet on the fund space and just get going my goal is to democratize the world of funds help more

people understand what funds are how they're put together how to launch one how to scale I believe more people need to do this I believe more people

need to figure out this game because if we don't we will be slaves to Black Rock and State Street and Vanguard who

control the entire world abut and we need more people like me and you to

understand this game how it functions how it works where's Capital being deployed to number one keep these people honest and number two even compete with

them on deals and just create a competitive Marketplace I'm all for competition I'm all for capitalism I'm

just not for monopolies at the top controlling the whole world and so I think it's a a civil duty of ours to

understand the biggest game on earth right now which is investment funds funds own everything on Earth and so we

need to to go out and do that I told Daniel last night we've been teaching our audience how to pull the land together like to get land deals I told

them we're going to shift our business model right now to raising Capital we're going to start teaching our people how to go out and raise capital for that exact reason we got to give some push

back right now before there's nothing yeah it's a it's a huge thing we have Orin clf come to speak if you guys have read orin's books incredible flip the

script and and uh um Pitch anything he's coming to speak at our event and he's a great guy I can introduce you guys as

well he's been fantastic with capital raising on our stuff as well and I know you guys are great Capital raisers too but it's it's massive we more people

need to understand this that's why I'm okay to work with other people and play ball because I'm we just need to help truck drivers like you mentioned earlier

understand this game and you know play in this bigger this kind of bigger realm

so anyway hey I want to say thank you guys so much for having me on it's been a a fun episode send me the clips I'd love to work with you guys and share

with to my audience you guys are so great and I just I love having you guys in blackart it's so fun thank you man love the energy dude thank you yeah for

everybody here go like share subscribe see next episode thank

you

Ep 485: Funds with Intent- How Bridger Pennington is Shaping a Better World

Daniel Esteban Martinez

Anthony Gaona

Bridger Pennington