Cracking the Code of Venture Funding: An Exclusive Interview with Drew Spaventa

The Funding of Companies has had a rocky road lately. In the venture space money has been hard to come by and valuations have been all over the place. 

Today, we are talking with Drew Spaventa CEO and founder of the Spaventa Group about what it is like building a Late-Stage VC firm. Drew is a Forbes Finance Council Member and a Principal Member of the Metaverse Standards Forum. We are going to find out what he looks for in the companies he invests in, and what sectors he finds compelling. 

Welcome Drew

Click Here to Subscribe:

FUTR.tv focuses on startups, innovation, culture and the business of emerging tech with weekly podcasts talking with Industry leaders and deep thinkers.

Occasionally we share links to products we use. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases on Amazon.

Transcript

Chris Brandt: 0:00

The funding of companies has been a rocky road lately in the venture space. Money has been hard to come by, and valuations have been all over the place. Today we're talking with Drew Spaventa, CEO, and founder of the Spaventata Group about what it is like building a mid to late stage VC firm. Drew is a Forbes Finance Council member and a principal member of the Metaverse Standards Forum. So we're gonna find out what he looks for in the companies he invests in, and what sectors he finds compelling. Welcome, drew.

Drew Spaventa: 0:34

Yeah, thanks for having me, Chris. And Sandesh. It's good to see you guys and uh, yeah, glad to be here. As always, excited to talk to you.

Chris Brandt: 0:40

You know, uh, it's, it's been really interesting. The ve the venture, uh, market has been a wild, bumpy road.

Drew Spaventa: 0:47

I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know. You must be, you, you must be living under a rock cause things are going amazing.

Chris Brandt: 0:54

It's just amazing and, and just people are getting this incredible valuation and money's just flowingly crazy, right? Yep. Um, well, so, so on that point, um, you know, we've certainly seen a lot of, a lot of, uh, strange behavior out of that market. What, what are you seeing in the venture market these days?

Drew Spaventa: 1:10

I. Uh, just pure, I wouldn't say pure insanity, you know, let's not, not tag it crazy and just being a little private,

Chris Brandt: 1:15

more than the regular insanity.

Drew Spaventa: 1:16

I, but more than a regular insanity. You know, I think for per the last time, we're pretty much gonna pick up from what we spoke to last time. But, you know, ultimately it's, it was a much needed, I guess, correction, right? Uh, out of the, the insane valuations that we've seen over the last 10 years, you know, and there there's been a lot leading up to that. And it's easy for me, I gotta say, you know, I haven't built, you know, a a, a. 10, 20 billion behemoth. You know, my, my firm does pretty darn well. I, I don't know what it, it's like to build, you know, a software company from nothing to a 20 billion valuation. That being said, uh, you come to realize now that many of those companies really weren't 20 billion valuation type companies. You know, when you're focusing just on top line growth. But, uh, it, it's, it's, it's good to see that, you know, a lot of these, um, executives and business, uh, leaders, It, it, it's time for 'em to go to, you know, adolescence, to adulthood. And what I mean by that, that's a perfect analogy of, Hey listen, how about we start focusing on the bottom line? It, it's one of those things, what I've been telling people and clients, Hey listen, the way my approach is, is at this point, is if you're looking at an opportunity, obviously where your stage is, but especially in the mid to late stage, will you put, allocate your capital into this company if you couldn't sell it and you could only live off cash flows. Hmm. That changes the dynamic of your approach to investing quite a bit where you realize, oh, okay, am I investing in this company just to, you know, get a 2, 3, 4, 5 x x amount of years down the road? Or is this company actually gonna eventually turn a profit, generate cash flow and hopefully once there is a liquidity event and go public some years down the road, actually provided the dividend for me. Right. So, you know, having that dynamic, and obviously that's oversimplification, but just having that approach kind of really makes you look at these investment opportunities in a different light.

Chris Brandt: 3:00

What do you think was driving, you know, cuz we did see some companies that, you know, like had barely made a sale and they, you know, they're like, uh, 8 billion valuation all of a sudden. Um, what, what do you see that, what was the mechanism that drove that and what was the dynamic that caused that to change? And, and, and is that just a. You know, you kind of indicated that's kind of a correction, you know, like, you know, getting to where it should be. But is this like a short-term correction? Is this a long-term correction? Is this gonna be the new normal?

Drew Spaventa: 3:28

I think it depends on what industry, generative artificial intelligence. I don't, I think that's gonna be fair. There's gonna be a, there's ton we're seeing it right now. There's a ton of money being thrown out. So, pretty much, yeah. You know, human beings never learned their lesson and we have very, very short term memory. Everything could, yes, we do. Everything will affect you for 30 days and anything beyond 30 days. Wait, what? What happened? You know, so, so we don't seem to learn our lesson ever, ever, ever, ever. But, right. I think, I think there's a combination of variables that led to. These valuations that were, were, were not warranted for a lot of these companies going from, you know, right. The early 2010s to the late 2010s. You know, I think a combination of, uh, easy monetary policy, uh, all this, this VC money just being thrown around like crazy. All these crazy valuations that we're seeing all of a sudden accompanies. Look at ftx. I mean, obviously FTX is an outlier because we all know what the, the end game there is happening. You know, not every company is committing fraud, but let's just use them as an example. Prior to the discovery that they were committing fraud, they've been around for three years and were valued in the private market at 30 billion. I got approached. To invest in the FTX at a 30 billion valuation. Oh my God. And I'm not gonna preach that. Hey, listen, I'm, no,

Chris Brandt: 4:48

you must feel like I'm a genius right now. Not having, invested in that

Drew Spaventa: 4:51

yeah, I was like well, the reason why I, I said, listen, there has to be, you know, meat left on the bone. Even though I'm a mid to late stage investor through one of our subsidiaries, there has to be meat left on the bone for my, my LPs to make a, a return on their investment. And at this point, at a 30 billion valuation, I identifying anything they're doing is specifically different. You know, we already had a vested interest in another crypto exchange, and we already were investors in Coinbase several years ago. But it, it is just one of those things where, you know, you have to sit back and say, okay, what warrants the valuation for this company? Yeah. A as you dig in further, you know, you know, listen, let, let's call it what it is. There are some companies out there that when you're an early stage investor, you could strike when the iron's hot, and then as the company grows, you're. You know, listen, let me offload my position to some other sucker in the secondary market or to the IPO. So, you know, and, and mind you, I've, I've definitely made mistakes in my co my career and I'm gonna continue to make mistakes, but I'm definitely have a, a, a very disciplined approach and, and I take my emotion out of it where. You know, I'll pay attention to a specific industry, but especially in the mid to late stage, I care more about what the company's doing, the specific company, and care less about the industry they're in and looking at the, the success that they're having, you know? So I think, again, human beings don't learn their lesson. Some industries, they're gonna be more particular about where they put the capital. I think capital efficiency's gonna matter most. Like FinTech for, for example. But obviously as certain industries come about, Generative artificial intelligence, whatever, gene, uh, genetic engineering, um, let's just say astro mining becomes a thing and we actually see that there's potential to, to mine minerals and, you know, possibly become the world's again, just money's gonna be thrown out because that's, that's the dirty little secret is people really don't know. And the people that you see all over CNBC on Bloomberg and all the media outlets, those are individuals that, and not to take away from anybody's success whatsoever, but you look at the tip of the iceberg, right? Yeah. That, that, that old motivational poster where, you know, here's what people see and they don't see anything underneath. Yeah. But when you have these VC firms allocating capital across, you know, a hundred names, 200 names, everybody's gonna focus on the winners. Right. Right. So again, it's, it comes down to the fact that human beings don't learn that lesson.

Chris Brandt: 7:10

And, you know, you mentioned that, you know, like FTX and, and, and companies like that. You know, one of the things that seems like, you know, like Elizabeth Holmes just got, you know, Theranos Yeah. Her whole insanity, uh, her insane situation, sort of, you know, caught up with her. Um, but, but you know that you're like, we're talking about there's a lot of money going into these companies. Insane valuations. And it seems that along with that, you know, when you put more money into things, you get more bad behavior too. I mean, we're seeing, you know, a lot, and again, I think we saw this during the first.com crash too. There's just a lot of really bad behavior and you know, here we are again, we're seeing a lot of companies that are just, you know, fraud and, you know, like, I mean, you mentioned the crypto market. Crypto markets rife with fraud. Right. You know? Um, so do you, do you think that. That's turning away investors. And do you think they're, you know, that's at an old adage, you know, escape to value. Do you think that they're looking for better value in, in the companies they're investing in? Or, or how, how do you think that's working?

Drew Spaventa: 8:09

I, I think I get fomo. Fear of missing out and human emotion. You know, I'm, I'm very, you know, running a financial services firm with different methods of compensation and. Different characters. I guess it, it really is a unique experience into human nature. Not only am I seeing people, you know, some individuals within an organization that have no salary whatsoever, so it's pretty much each what you kill. Um, then there's individuals with salary. You see that dynamic there. You have some individuals that have, uh, you know, how they manage their clients on our financial planning front or how they manage their LPs on our asset management front. So I'm, I'm always constantly taking in how. These individuals make decisions, you know, what makes them tick. Whether it's from the personnel within my organization or down to our clients. You know, when I, when I was a registered representative myself, and I was dealing with clients for anywhere from individuals worth, you know, several hundred thousand dollars that are investing, uh, a very small amount to tens of millions, to hundreds of millions, you know, so, but the common dynamic that I think across everybody for the majority, whether you are, uh, very poor or you're ultra ultra wealthy, wealthy is, always letting your emotions get the best of you, right? So I think there's, and, and mind you, there's, there's definitely individuals that are extremely dis disciplined in their approach. But, uh, uh, you know, per, per your point to specifically crypto, there's this whole fear of missing out or finding the next best thing. And sometimes it's not even just about putting my money in here so I can make an investment. Especially when you get into the more accredited, it's more of, I made this investment and it becomes a bragging right. You know, to, to a certain extent, here's what I put my capital on. I was right about this. So I think you just have a lot of money being thrown out because everybody's expecting, you know, Bitcoin to replace gold, which I don't see anytime soon. I, I don't, that's like, I, I, even if it becomes a thing. Uh, but, but again, you know, you have all these people and you hear generative AI and everybody says, I want a piece. I want a piece. I want a piece. And it, it's at that point where I think the best thing to do, and it's always cliche, but it's, it's, I've learned it. I'm only 30, it's gonna be 37 in a few weeks, so I'm relatively young to a few very old to to many. But at the same point, it's, it's,

Chris Brandt: 10:27

it's very young to me.

Drew Spaventa: 10:28

Yeah. Well, uh, I think it's also, it's crazy how the most simple lessons and the most cliche lessons, Are the right ones, and people just never tend to forget as time goes on. And, and going back to the investment thing, it's just you gotta be disciplined and patient. And while everybody's jumping, jumping, jumping, it's okay to jump as well, but you gotta take a stand back and look what's going on before you decide to get in. Either that or you gotta lead the way.

Sandesh Patel: 10:55

Yeah, you're getting into a little bit of something that Chris and I have been talking about for a long time, which is the actual, uh, entrepreneur themselves. You know, we look at the people, the idea, the market, you know, so on and so forth. But at the end of the day, the founders matter and, uh, you, you made the comment that you're really looking at how they are making decisions as they're building these companies. So can you gimme a little idea of when you are meeting a founder? What are you looking for that would compel you to invest and what would be a detractor.

Drew Spaventa: 11:30

As far as the, the mid to late stage arena? I'm not, I'm not meeting founders face-to-face. Um, there's a few that I've spoken to. Uh, other than that I'm either speaking with people directly in contact with them. Um, that being said, Especially years ago when I was working for an investment firm where I were speaking with CEOs of, of companies, you know, all, you know, small caps, anywhere between 50 million to, you know, the largest one was about 3 billion. Understanding that dynamic, right? So as whether it's a founder or, you know, a CEO of a company that's been around for a hundred years, let's use the term leader, I guess, you know, the leader of an organization, what, what separates a leader of an organiz organization. Uh, whether it's a small business or you know, a multi-billion dollar company that's gonna buy into the fact that that person's gonna succeed or that team's gonna succeed to the ones that they don't, what do we look for? Um, and that's the thing. It's, it's, I wrote an article today and I was literally just, it's, it's crazy how the world works that we're having a conversation with this because you guys didn't even tell me what you planned on speaking about. Uh, you wrote some bullets, but that question was not on it. And I had this conversation with our chief marketing officer, Dana, earlier today, and I said, um, I'm borderline obsessed with what makes certain people successful. Coming from my background, you know, single parent, right? My dad wasn't around. I know what Americanized po I always say Americanized poverty. Not poverty. Americanized poverty. Cause I don't care who it is in this country. The worst person, the single person outta 350 million people, the one person was at the worst outta 350 billion people in America has a better than. Several hundred million people across in another, uh, you know, parts of the world. So that's why I call it Americanized poverty. But I said, I'm, I'm always curious on what makes people tick. And I've found that if you look at things that face value, there could be people that are leaders or founders, how you said ish, that okay, they have a 5 billion company or a 20 billion company, they're successful. That's the person that we follow. But the, the, the unique thing is that there, there are prominent people that have success with this one endeavor, and then after that they start side endeavors or they do this or do this and they flame out. And I hate to say luck cause I don't think it's luck, but I think there's just, there, I think there's a combination of passion that has to be incorporated in it. Stoicism to a certain extent. Ingenuity. I think ingenuity is a, a huge thing in combination with resourcefulness and the ability to have a vision and get a a team to support you across that common goal. Mm-hmm. Not an easy thing to do. And that to me is true leadership. Right. That's what I want to buy into. And the best, uh, I always bring up this example, and it was a company that I was worth, in the public markets, about 30 million. It wasn't, you know, a large company by any means, right? Ever since then, it's tripled in size. But I remember speaking to the CEO, and I hear all this stuff in the background, and I've interviewed over a hundred CEOs that working for this investment firm, we're gonna invest in you, blah, blah, blah. And he was the only one where I hear something in the background and I, and I, I asked him, I said, oh, okay. Um, and I'm a very direct guy. I said, uh, we having a party back there or are we actually discussing your company? And he goes, and he said, no, I'm sorry. I'm on the floor. You know, kind of reminded me, Elon Musk a little bit, he goes, listen, I don't, I'm hardly in my office. I need to be in the grind with what's going on, knowing what's going. And I need my, my team, because we're not a large company, I need my team to know that I'm in the trenches with them. Hmm. Uh, I have a picture over here that says, on the top it says, boss, and it has a Spartan leader pointing. And his soldiers pulling him, and underneath it it says Leader and the Spartan soldiers pulling his soldiers. And it reminds me of that man and his company wound up being appreciating over and market cap over a hundred million dollars and they actually started executing in a large way. So I I, I, I hope I wasn't too gen tangential there, and I hope I answered your question, but I think it's, yeah, it really comes down to having a conversation with somebody and just the culmination of conversations and interactions. Really just going with your gut on whether you think this person's gonna execute because you could look in a market and all the, you know, the quantitative statistics that you want, but I think Steve Jobs said it best when he said that, um, most of the time people don't know what the hell they want, and if people don't know what they want, you could solve a specific pain point. But I think, and I truly believe that there's markets out there that could literally be created just by you being, having some inuity ingenuity and figuring out. Some contrarian idea that people don't even think that they needed and all of a sudden you provide a market for it and created it yourself.

Chris Brandt: 16:10

Yeah. We have one guy who, who said to us once that, you know, like, I didn't even know I had a problem until I saw the solution.

Sandesh Patel: 16:15

These entrepreneurs out there. The more and more Chris and I talked to them, it's the ego seems to play a big role in many of these startups. And so when I dig into that a little bit, I'm trying to figure out, why is this person starting this company? Are they starting it because they want the fame? Do they want the money? Is it, is it all driven by the monetary benefit or is it driven by the purpose and the vision and to really truly build something and to truly build something, like you said, you have to get in the trenches. You're, you're wearing every single hat in the company, and I don't think people always see that. They see, oh, co-founder, CEO on LinkedIn, and they're thinking, they're just, you know, putting out demands and people are just, you know, pulling this thing together. It doesn't work like that. No. You know, every single day you got. Five, six new problems with maybe one or two things that went well that day. Yeah. And so it really takes a special kind of human being, especially when you said the leadership comment that you made. Chris and I talk about this all the time. Where's all the good leaders? You know, where are the people that just, what you just described is exactly the leader that Chris and I are always looking for. Those are hard to find. Yes, because when you do get into those leadership ranks, that ego comes in again, and it really comes down to what is your purpose here? What is your sense of duty here? Is it just to look at the bottom line? Or are you trying to build something special?

Drew Spaventa: 17:51

Yeah. And and that's the thing too. So I'm in the unique position where everybody that works in my organization has a business. Within a business, you're managing people's money. That's, that's how traditionally it works. And, and there's certain things where you have to be traditional still, but edgy at the same time. That's what I look to do. Like we have to be innovative, but we also can't, you know, reinvent the wheel to a certain extent. So I also have to be the cheerleader to everybody out there. And I'm constantly, and no matter, you know, I've also learned you could bring a horse to water. You can't force it to drink, but I have to be the best version of myself because it starts with me. So I could get the best version, whether it's reciprocated or not, I have to do my best. But it's something that I preach to everybody as well. Listen, we're, we're in a cutthroat, excruciatingly difficult business. It's not, you know, and I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal saying I'm better than anybody, but, you know, listen, if you wanna have a conversation about selling software and scaling a software company or convincing people to hand you their money on a day in, day out, and 90% of the time, 95% of the time, 99% of the time getting told F off. It, it's, it's not easy. So I tell everybody, knowing the adversity that you faced in this business, but knowing the reward is there. It can't be about money. It has to be about money to a certain extent because the money that you can make in financial services could allow you to provide a life that you could only, most people can only dream of, you know, but you need a reason to get out of bed no matter what that reason is. Because if you don't, when tough times arrive, whether you're in financial services, whether and speaking exclusively for the entrepreneur, and when you start a business, it's not all rainbows, gumdrops, and unicorns. 95% of the time is gonna be high. I could be honest with you, and I'm very transparent. Half the time I don't even know what the hell I'm doing, but I'm still here. Right. You know, I'm still here in scaling. Yeah. But you need, you need that vision and be obsessed with that vision because when the time gets tough, when you're low on capital, when the, the whole world shuts down three years ago, you need something that's still gonna get you out of bed to fight, to fight, fight, fight. Because if you don't have that fight in you, eventually you're gonna falter. And that's why I tell my, my organization, aside from your materialistic pleasures and your, your, your personal achievements, put a picture adorn your, your wall with material, things that you want to accomplish, personal things you want to accomplish, as well as other things that are extremely powerful, your spouse, your children, because yes, if the, if the, the going gets tough to a point that you feel like giving up, if you can't look in the eyes of your, I don't have kids, but I could only imagine if you look in the eyes of your kids and that doesn't inspire you to fight. For everything you have. Yeah. You got bigger problems than I could even, you know, uh, rectify for you. Yeah. You know, that's, that's on you.

Sandesh Patel: 20:36

Yeah. There's an article that just came out today actually, so it's interesting that we're having this conversation. And I'll send you the link, Chris, so you can put it in the notes if you'd like. But it was by, it was, it was by Fortune Magazine, and it says that the title of it is, The symptoms of high, high, high functioning depression are dangerously subtle, how to recognize them. And here it says, in one survey, 72% of founders reported feeling concerned about their mental wellbeing, entrepreneurs about their mental wellbeing.

Drew Spaventa: 21:05

I'll putting two hands up on that one,

Sandesh Patel: 21:07

Entrepreneurs also experienced high rates of depression, 30% and substance use conditions 12%. Um, I just think that speaks to just the absolute challenge in the market to find these people that are willing to go build something given all the things that we started the conversation on. Capital is tough to get. The financial markets are super complicated right now, going i p o or anything like that, it's gonna be really, really tough. So when, when I look at the market, the sad part to me is that this is what we really need right now is the innovation. This is the time to innovate. The, the world is changing so quickly. Our way to get out, you know, fix a lot of these problems is going to be through innovation. Um, do you have any comments on like, what, what areas are you seeing in the market where outside of generative AI that is going to help shape the, the world for the next two, three decades?

Drew Spaventa: 22:05

Generative AI is all sexy and nice. Electric vehicles are all sexy and nice. Obviously we're transitioning into that. Uh, it's really exciting that we're on the cusp of. Getting to explore space, how that's gonna be monetized. I mean, obviously the, the easy answer is, you know, asteroid mining minerals, um, going to Mars, you know, have fun with that.

Chris Brandt: 22:24

That's, that's like an don't order of magnitude. Uh, uh, a different kind of investment too, cuz you know, you start talking at minerals often. Oh yeah. That's asteroids. It's trillions of dollars.

Drew Spaventa: 22:33

Yeah. I mean, right now, at least for space, we're starting, you know, 3D printing companies or. Exist to say, Hey, listen, we could go to the moon 3D print on the moon, you know, go into Mars, right? Have fun with Mars. It's not happening in our lifetime. I don't know, even if we get there, okay, we, we got, we got other problems on this planet that we gotta fix before worrying about what the hell we're doing at Mars. Blockchain obviously has huge potential. Uh, Chris and I had a conversation that, uh, we don't, it has huge potential, but not to the point that we think that it's gonna be extremely. Um, defining to a certain extent. Um, but to answer your question, nothing, the issue that I have and, and I'm sitting here and there's certain times where I have to, you know, I ask myself, all right. You have to realize where you fit in best. You know, I'm, I'm the money guy. You know, my, my, my firm's, uh, were just over eight figures at this point. Not small, but not large. And we've only been around for, you know, barely two and a half years. Second firm, by the way, another lesson in human nature. So at 37, I'm, I'm hopeful that I keep on the grind within the next 10 years. Um, I have a name for myself where we could actually get to a point where we could deploy capital to solve some of the larger issues. So what are the larger issues that I don't see that do need? Innovation Healthcare. It's one of those things where if I'm walking down the street and there it's, it happens every once in a while. Where you have the CEO of open AI or anybody in generative AI itself, and I don't wanna isolate somebody, that's why I just said anybody in open, um, excuse me, generative ai, where on one hand they're saying, we gotta worry about the, the repercussions of artificial intelligence. Okay? Then why keep on doing what you're doing? If it's that big of a deal, why keep on doing what you don't? All right, I get that. There's a good use case and you have to, but if it's really that much of an issue and you're, you consist consistently, say you're, you're scared, you're scared, then stop. Let's call it what it is. You know, you wanna monetize it to a certain extent. You wanna make deals, you wanna grow, okay? No big deal. But everybody's focused on software, software, software. Why? Cuz it's easily scalable, right? Artificial intelligence. Any, any type of business model that's easily scalable that you could create a monopoly off of. Well, we're all focusing on this. What about the little girl that's walking down the street that has no arms or can't see? The little boy that can't hear. What about uh, MS, diabetes, cancer? What are we doing about all that you're telling me? With all the technological BS that we've been able to accomplish, we can't divert our efforts into innovation in the health industry because there's another age old saying that says, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. And I agree a hundred percent true. What about our infrastructure? Look what they're doing in Dubai. I've never been to Dubai, but I see what's going on in Dubai. I can't go on, uh, I live on Long Island, New York. I can't drive. They just fixed the, uh, the expressway a couple of months ago. After six months of playing a video game and getting, uh, 40% the people's salary, 40% of it is spent on rent or home ownership? Uh, not home. Excuse me. Um, shelter. No wonder. Yeah. There's other issues that even if they, you want a, a generative uh, ai, you figure it out. And now we have generative artificial intelligence. Now we could go to Mars and now we have electric vehicles everywhere. Okay. Well, You're not really fixing the problem, are you? So I think they're, you know, per good point there. I think ego has a lot to do with it, and that's coming from a guy that named the company after himself, which I could get into the reasons why in a little bit. But

Chris Brandt: 25:54

the, the, the titular Spaventa Group, right?

Drew Spaventa: 25:57

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Chris Brandt: 25:58

Um, Well, but you know, um, I know one thing that we were talking about before. That's, you know, cuz I, I, I agree with you. Healthcare is a really interesting, biosciences is a really, really interesting space. And I, I think in particular, there's been some really interesting advancements around aging too, which are, are, are going to be, that that is true, uh, an interest, interesting part, but. You know, going back to, uh, to earlier what Sandesh was saying about a lot of these founders and, and you know, there's, there's a mental health crisis and I think that doesn't just extend to entrepreneurs. I think when I look at this country in particular and I look around, I see a lot of people in a mental health crisis, right? And, um, one of the things that has shown tremendous promise on that front, um, is something that we, we were talking about earlier, that you're kind of getting interested in investing in, and that's the psychedelics market. Mm-hmm. Could you talk a little bit about what, what, what kind of invest in investment opportunities you're looking for there.

Drew Spaventa: 26:53

Yeah, I mean, I know ketamine is, is being used, uh, quite extensively now. I, I'm very interested in something that's extremely risky and that's, you know, psilocybin and lsd, right? I just started conversations about making poten and I'm not gonna pull the trigger for, for a little bit, you know, I, I have to right further build out. Um, You know, my network of individuals, cuz everybody has a hot idea, but, and further educate myself about the, the industry. Mm-hmm. But I think there's definitely promise in there. And the studies that have been done so far have shown good results when it comes to, yeah, mental illness, esp especially if I'm not mistaken, uh, veterans. You know, PTSD. Yeah, like PTSD. Exactly. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Alternative medicine has gotten a lot more popular over the last few years, you know, and I'm gonna mm-hmm. I'm, I'm plan on doing it, you know, I re-upped my passport, haven't been able to go, but it sh I should come within the next few weeks, and most likely by the end of the summer, I will be in Peru at an Ayahuasca retreat. Um, because that's also a thing too. Anything that I invest in, I have to try myself to a certain extent. I've, I've invested in a particular space company. Um, so I'm not gonna try it myself. I'm not going into a spaceship. I'm going blast that out to space. So there's a certain level of things that I'm not gonna try myself, but, you know, gaming and certain things that, all right, I have to try it myself. You know, I'm investing in alternative food. I'm trying it myself, you know, because you have to engulf yourself in the mind of the consumer as well. So, okay, psychedelics, you know, a lot of people should know that many tech CEOs, microdose, uh, I've tried microdosing. It does help. And I could say that's somebody like mental illness, uh, on my father's side of the family runs pretty prominent, you know, depression and everything like that. And I've had my moments. I could, my, my team could tell you that I'm as bipolar as they come. I, I really am. But I, I do a good,

Chris Brandt: 28:39

seems seems like a, an advantage in, in the market. May maybe you're in,

Drew Spaventa: 28:43

maybe. But you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, I hold it together. I, I do, I don't buck under pressure to a certain extent. But it's like, you know, when everything's fine and we're just status quo, that's when I go start going crazy. So, and, and unfortunately, even on a personal level, because of my, my, my family background, um, that's a reason why I do not wanna have kids. Um, and I understand, you know, nature virtue is nurture and, but there's a genetic thing that, that encompasses it. So that's, that's why psychedelics have been on my, my, my list because, you know, listen, part of me feels that in this. Country, which I don't care who you are, it is no country's perfect, but out of any country on this planet to live in, I think this is the country to be in. Um, mm-hmm. So to a part of me feels that, you know, why is mental illness a thing? You know, people should know how good they have it, this, that, and the other thing. But in a grander scheme of things, um, it is a thing. It, it really, truly is a thing. I can't imagine. Not having control of your mind. Yeah. And whether it's dementia, Alzheimer's, you know, depression, having control. At least you always have if, if you have something else, but you have control of your mind, you have control to a certain extent. But if you can't mentally get it straight, I think that's like I. The worst thing that could possibly happen to you, because how, how can you live like that? You know? It's, it's right. And I th

Chris Brandt: 29:57

it's a terrifying prospect. I, I mean, I, I worry about those sorts of things all the time as I get older, you know, because I, I mean, in some, in some regards, you know, now I'm 57 years old. I do feel like, you know, I'm not quite as, you know, um, fast as I used to be. Right. You know, I got a lot of clutter in the head that I gotta sort through before I get an answer out.

Sandesh Patel: 30:16

Well, there's, there's a lot of education to be done there too. I mean, scientists are still trying to define what is consciousness and unconsciousness. Right, right. Um, so these are things that we never really thought about before. We never used words like stress, I'm stressed out today. You know, we didn't do that 2, 2, 2 decades ago, but now. It's a real thing. Yeah.

Chris Brandt: 30:39

Um, I don't know. I was pretty stressed out two decades ago.

Sandesh Patel: 30:45

Not like you are today.

Drew Spaventa: 30:46

Yeah. I was, I was a, I was a growing teenager, so yeah, I was totally stressed out listening to nineties rock Grunge. Bury my life into Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots.

Chris Brandt: 30:56

Where's, uh, the Spaventa group going? Like, what's next for Spaventa Group?

Drew Spaventa: 31:00

Focusing on our mid to late stage VC opportunities. Uh, but in addition to that, we are, we've been really scaling our financial services division, so the tsg, which is the moniker we use, or the acronym I should say. Sure. For Sventa Group, easier to pronounce. I guess, right. You know, accomplishing our financial services arm. We have three different entities, three different divisions. You know, we have the asset management side, which we manage private investment funds, which is where the mid to late stage we see investing comes from. We have our financial planning division, and then we have an insurance division. So as we continue to scale where we're starting to experiment with generative AI to incorporate. To enhance our client experience, but we still have to make the focal point that human touch. But we also want to bridge, mm-hmm. The human touch with technology. So as we continue to scale, we're gonna be focusing more on the financial planning front. Um, we're looking to start getting into other assets, be innovative in that regard. Um, we're looking to a bunch of cool things to do on the real estate front. The, the only thing is we have to risk our own capital before we start putting our client capital, uh, and involved as well. So we, we do have some exciting stuff. Uh, On the, the horizon. But, you know, a as such, you know, circling all the way back to where we started, you know, that's finding the right people, getting the quality in here. Um, you know, making sure that everybody adheres to our culture, what we're looking to, and a part of our overarching vision. That's, that's the whole goal.

Chris Brandt: 32:20

Well, that's awesome. So if, if people wanted to find you, where, where should they go?

Drew Spaventa: 32:23

tsgInvest.com. Um, all our social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, uh, YouTube is at TSGInvest. So anything TSGInvest, you could find us.

Chris Brandt: 32:33

All right. And I'll put a link in the, in the show notes. Well, drew, it's been awesome talking to you. It's, uh, it, you know, sounds like a, uh, uh, a really, uh, Tricky market and, and know, but fun to navigate and, and in investigate all these cool companies and put your money in things that you're excited about and you believe. So, you know, congratulations on, uh, building your company and looking forward to see where you go from here.

Drew Spaventa: 32:56

Awesome, man. I hope you guys have me back.

Chris Brandt: 32:58

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Thanks for watching. I'd love to hear from you in the comments. And if you could please click on that subscribe button, hit that like button, do all those things that help the channel, and I will see you in the next one.