ESG Magic: Why Open Access Ventures is Investing in ESG!

ESG has become an oddly controversial term these days, and it is hard to understand why good business practices would create any negativity. So, I have a previous guest back on today to talk about it and their journey.

Today we have back with us Ricky Marton formerly of Koru and now of OpenAccess Ventures. After our last discussion with Ricky, Koru was acquired by OpenAccess Ventures and rolled in to their platform. Koru provides them with the skills to find companies with good business fundamentals and to help their early stage investments foster good business practices.

So let's talk with Ricky about all the changes,

Welcome Ricky

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Transcript

Chris Brandt: 0:00

ESG has become an oddly controversial term these days, and it's hard to understand why good business practices would create any negativity. So I have a previous guest back on today to talk about it and their journey through these tricky waters. Today we have back with us Ricky Martin, formerly of KORU and now of Open Access Ventures. After our last discussion with Ricky, KORU was acquired by Open Access Ventures and rolled into their platform. KORU provides them with the skills to find companies with good business fundamentals and to help their early stage investments foster good business practices. So let's talk with Ricky about all the changes. Welcome, Ricky. Hey, Chris. It's great to be here. Big changes for, uh, Koru, which is now no longer Koru, I guess, um, but you are Open Access Ventures and it's a really interesting story of how that all came about. I'm, could you just talk us through, because I think, you know, not a lot of people have had the experience of starting a business and then having that business, you know, get acquired by private equity and, you know, it's a, but, but in a private equity that specializes in early stage investments, which kind of is. actually operates in some, operates in some ways like a venture capital firm. So like, I just want to hear like how that whole process went and like, you know, what your thinking was throughout the whole process.

Ricky Marton: 1:29

Let's dive right in. Uh, so I guess I'll get started with the fact that it was a total whirlwind. You know, one of those things that I could never imagine that I'd be here today based off the last year, the last two years and everything like that. But I guess that's how these Kind of big deals kind of come up and really take, take place. But essentially to paint the whole picture, we were in the early stage. We were working with some early stage clients, some beta users, pilot users, some early customers and things like that. Like really just honing in on who we were as a business and that service that we were providing. And we had a team retreat out in LA. We were presenting at a conference. And we had this unified vision of who we were moving forward. And along that time, we actually had an investor that was interested in putting just roughly a hundred K into it. They wanted us to do a 300 to 400 K pre seed or say like, we really like you, what you're doing, what you're building. We'd like your team, the technology, all those things that really make for an early stage relationship. And that happened to be. The basically the parent or the sister company of Open Access Ventures. And so Blueprint Ventures was the firm that was looking to invest in us. And I started working with their COO, their CEO, a couple of their other members. And what they're really looking at was our service and who we were as a technology platform. And at one point in time, they kind of sat back and they realized that technology that we built Was not only a good fit for them and their portfolio, but more so as a service for their portfolio companies, as well as the clientele of their future portfolio companies, what they're trying to do. And so big picture, what they were trying to create was a similar private equity. Firm for early stage ventures. So this micro cap, you know, seed stage entrepreneur that was focusing specifically on sustainability ventures, and they're looking at it from a business move. So business sustainability, they go hand in hand. And we've talked about this before, how Being sustainable and really being mindful of your resources and everything like that is good for business. And they wanted to create an entire fund around investing in those sort of entities. And KORU was a perfect solution to help kind of drive those forward, create an opportunity as well as kind of a sales mechanism for KORU. getting clientele in the door for these portfolio companies. And so fast forward conversations over conversations. We just started having deep conversations with their portfolio companies, a couple of their clients, little projects here and there. And one thing led to another next thing, you know, they're flying me out to Florida. We're sitting down for dinner and they go, Hey, Ricky, We want to buy KORU and bring you in underneath the umbrella of open access and have you lead our team and develop a portfolio and sustainability related technology initiatives or something like that. And I kind of laughed at first. I was like, good, good, good one. You know, like I came to you for money. Yeah, exactly. And so it became this, it was a first, just kind of a crazy idea. One that was, Hey, you know, like this is interesting concept. They're spinning around the feasibility of it. And then it graduated to, Hey, this is actually a pretty good idea. Like how do we make this happen? Like legally formation wise, like what does it look like in terms of the whole structure we've created? And then it moved from that to, okay, let's do this and make it happen. And that was about the time of the Florida golf trip when they were like. We can do this. We're going to absorb you here. We're going to implement you here. You're going to have this strategy in place. You're going to have the autonomy over this entire fund and let's, you know, pull the trigger and make it happen. So that was roughly two or so months ago. And since then, it's just been all the onboarding, the legal, the due diligence, all the fun stuff that comes along with that. Um, and, and in line with that, the negotiations, where we stand, what we're trying to do, who we're creating. And as of just last week, we launched publicly. Hey, we. been acquired. We're moving forward. I'm stepping in as the president of Open Access Ventures, and we're creating this new era sustainability focus, micro cap, private equity firm that's growing forth and trying to create some substantial impact in the market.

Chris Brandt: 5:25

All you ESG naysayers. You can see right here's an example of how ESG is good for business, right?

Ricky Marton: 5:31

A hundred percent. And I will say that till the day that I die and we'll, we'll get into ESG and semantics in a second, but through and through Koru was a vehicle, a technology service that helped quantify the benefits of ESG. Doing sustainability right doing ESG right and clear and clear. Here's the benefit. This is what we we created and this is what resulted in so period end of story. It's good for business. Absolutely. Chris.

Chris Brandt: 5:55

Obviously, they were looking for an opportunity to source and service. You know, portfolio companies. Right? Um, and, and, and they were, it sounds like they were, you know, because they had a sustainability fund that they were kind of, um, sold on the idea that a company that's run well and it has good ESG practices is, is going to be, um, you know, a good fit for their fund. What? What did you see in all of this that was like, um, really like grabbed you? Like what, you know, like what, what took, what was it that, you know, like sold you on the idea?

Ricky Marton: 6:35

For me, it was the upside and the potential impact that we can create with this as our main vehicle of impact and growth. And what I mean by that is KORU originally in the very early days was Intended to be this partnership tool that looked at a company, did the analysis and then partnered with an organization that was meant to actually push forward with those goals and objectives. What we learned as we are going to market a typical early stage fashion that companies, they didn't even know. Who they want to partner with, why they want to partner with them, any of this. And they want to just to know where I should be focusing the analysis piece. And that's what we really leaned into. And we developed our AI tool around that and open access ventures is taking our analysis piece. And then we're not only finding potential partners, but we're actually investing in those companies because we see the growth potential and the scalability with it. And so. Open access ventures, in a sense, is a hyper focused quality over quantity version of Kourou that has the ability to really specify and look at organizations that are pushing forward with this social impact, sustainability and ROI generated business model and really push forward and try to scale it to the heights that Really, Kourou couldn't before. So while Kourou, I say, is like the early stage kind of training wheels initiative to try to get impact into the growth sphere and what we're trying to build. Open Access has the capital, the resources, and the ability to really take these efforts to a whole new level and see the ramifications of sustainability as a business model and everything that can come from it, which is really exciting.

Chris Brandt: 8:07

I know that like, you know, you can connect these companies with, you know, like the right suppliers for various things that are going to have, you know, zero footprint or, you know, like use, you know, like good business practices. They're not, you know, exploiting people in, in, you know, uh, other countries, you know, things like that. Can you, can you talk about kind of like what that looks like? You know, to the companies that you're, you're working with and how, you know, because it's not like, you know, I think that people have this impression that ESG costs a ton of money. It's not necessarily like this is an added expense to get these things, right? You know, so can you talk a little bit about that?

Ricky Marton: 8:47

Yeah, definitely. And I think using an example really illustrate the picture. Well, and so open access, you know, our main thesis is that we focus on companies that are prioritizing sustainable innovation and lever leveraging it as a competitive advantage to drive these financial returns. While positively impacting both people on the planet. And so it's that twofold, two sides of the same coin mentality. And so the first portfolio company that we're really working with, we have a 75 percent ownership in, it's called mattress IQ and mattress IQ was started as a software solution to help hotels manage the occupancy data around their mattresses to extend the life. And so what this does is by implementing a system. Simple solution that tracks how often beds are being slept on, how often they're rotated and using all this data combined with some research that we've done in the space, we can extend the life of a single mattress in a hotel by anywhere between 30 to 60%. I believe what our numbers come out to, which means. A, you save more money, which means you're not throwing out mattresses and buying mattresses to replace these as frequently. B, you're also throwing out less mattresses, so your entire waste amount is going down. And C, you have the CO2 emissions from all the production required to ship you new mattresses, to produce new mattresses, and everything like that. And so we're going into hotels and we're saying, Hey, by implementing our extremely cheap and affordable solution, you're not only going to save money, so ch ching, we're hitting that sales target. CFO mindset, but you're also going to check the boxes and be more sustainable. You're going to hit your goals quicker and really look at it as a solution. That's hitting both of those at the same time. And that's our entire thesis at open access is to look at these companies who aren't just doing superfluous ESG or this or that, but really driving profits for these hotels, the hospitality industry. That's our early niche. And figuring out the solutions that we can provide that actually hit both of those simultaneously. Because at the end of the day, like we talked about before, ESG gets all the bad rap. All these professionals are starting to feel frustrated because they're tasked with doing these super complex, comprehensive disclosures and reportings and this and that. And I will always kind of stand here and say, just focus on what your business can do to improve, to be more sustainable, to use less resources, to save some money. And, and that's the type of ventures that we're investing in to help grow and nurture in, in the sustainability space.

Chris Brandt: 11:05

Even get better results too, for the, for the end customer as well, because it's not like you're just saying these mattresses have all been here for, you know, whatever, three, six months or whatever it is. And so we got to just replace them all. I mean, you might have. You know, 10 mattresses that get used a ton and actually need to be replaced on an earlier basis, but you're replacing them all because you didn't know.

Ricky Marton: 11:30

Right? Exactly. And that's what, you know, the fun part about this is you get so deep into specific industries. And so who, who would have known I've been doing research on mattresses and hotels, but you know, you learn that they have these rotation schedules. They have these flip schedules because a lot of hotel mattresses you can actually flip. And then they have kind of replacement where they just wipe out a whole floor But, you know, like you said, if you have that beautiful ocean front villa, that's booked up 98 percent of the time, maybe you take that and put it in one of those back parking lot villas and switch the mattress versus just wiping and throwing them out. So just tapping into the data that they already have, it can make their whole entire system more efficient. And the actual work required is about five seconds per every like three weeks or something like that for an extra check that the housekeeper has to do. So, so all in all, it's like, it's basically like a, a dagger as far as this is like the best solution that we could possibly be selling in the early stage here, because it's so almost obviously painstaking that this is going to save you money and allow you to be more sustainable at, in the big picture. And that's just good business. That's just good business. Like, like we said, that's to be the. It's just good business. It really is. Absolutely.

Chris Brandt: 12:37

And you kind of just hinted at it just a second ago, uh, and I talked about it a little bit in the introduction, ESG has taken on this whole other life in the news cycles right now. And I, I, I just, I don't even really understand it. I don't understand why these things have, have like become controversial because it just seems like, yeah, these are things we would want to do because like you said, it's just good business. Um, could you talk to what you're seeing in the market? I mean, I feel like people are kind of walking away from the term ESG and trying to find other ways to describe it. At this point,

Ricky Marton: 13:13

yeah, it's, it's a whirlwind and this could warrant its own completely long conversation about it because what our team discusses all the time, we share these new article, we have a slack channel that's, you know, research and, and we just dropped links here and there about another large company just completely dropped everything from ESG, you know, uh, professionals losing their jobs that have ESG in it or DEI or all these things. And to me, it's, it's really disheartening actually, because we've, As a society, especially in, you know, these large companies, we've attached the term ESG to negativity, meaning it's a cost center. It's something that's going to either be highly scrutinized and it's going to bring you negative press at some point in time, if not done properly, it's going to, you know, make you see things differently. And that's going to give you the spotlight in a way that you don't want to. And so all, all these companies are starting to realize that, Hey, a quick, easy route is just to wipe it out completely. And so there was a really interesting stat and I'm not going to say it specifically because I don't remember specifically, but basically it was something about greenwashing the concept of basically doing something saying you're doing something green or environmentally friendly, but not actually following through with it or making claims that are too large. And the actual companies that were afraid of greenwashing, so it's called this green hushing, was a much, much, much higher, somewhere in the 70, 80 percent compared to the ones that actually were greenwashing, which was like 1 percent or 2%. And so what happens is because of the fear and the discourse that all these companies don't want to have that new headline that so and so sued because of X, Y, or Z, they're just saying, we're not going to do it at all, which is terrible because you have all these initiatives, all these efforts that have been put into place over the last three, five, 10 X amount of years. And all of a sudden it's come crashing down because there's a little bit of polarization behind it, because there's this fear over these headlines that are taking place. And to me, what, what that means is that we are just, For just coasting through in a reactive state and not actually thinking about what it actually means to really value ESG and what that stands for, and the terminology in itself, it's, you know, environmental, being more mindful of the resources that you're using the social side of it, caring about the people that you're working with and that you're hiring or that you're serving. And then the governance side of things like be mindful of the diversity in your organization. These are all. Very obvious things if you break them down individually, but the Goliath of ESG in itself has just become this nomenclature that just pulls negativity and big individual execs or C suites or 4 500s see this as a red flag, a way that they're going to get sued, bad press, or anything in between, and they just say the quickest way and the most risk averse way to deal with it. It's just remove it completely.

Chris Brandt: 15:58

Yeah, I guess, I guess we can't have nice things in this country. I guess,

Ricky Marton: 16:01

I guess not. I don't know where that was in any sort of bylaws or constitution, but that's what we're seeing, I suppose. Not allowed

Chris Brandt: 16:06

to

Ricky Marton: 16:06

have

Chris Brandt: 16:06

nice things. Well, but, you know, we, we talk about this like perception of, um, downside. And I, I mean, I think, you know, some of it is just, um, not fully committing and leaning into it. I think too, just sort of, you know, like taking the easiest path. But I mean, I think there's a, there's a false narrative here too, that, that, like you mentioned, it's like the ones that were doing the bad behavior, you know, were far smaller than the ones who were scared about the people who were doing the bad behavior and getting associated with them. So, um, you know, clearly, you know, Not companies that are pursuing ESG initiatives are not getting sued out of business and they're not, you know, like you said, not all greenwashing and they're not all, um, you know, and I, and I would imagine, you know, there's part of it is like, you know, sometimes comes from your biggest fans. It's like that you're nothing you do is ever good enough to, which is, uh, is a hard spot to be in, you know, people you agree with attacking you. But, um, You know, but, but I got to imagine like it's the reality of the problems is just not there. I don't, I don't see companies getting sued over their ESG initiatives or because they're greenwashing or, you know, I just don't see that happening. So, so where is all this that everybody's so frightened of?

Ricky Marton: 17:26

Yeah, it, it's, I I think it's the, the use case of there's that one martyr out there that gets, you know, put up there in the spotlights and the rest of the people kind of run and, and fear from that initial or big kind of, you know, one group, you know, catching the flame. And the, the funny thing is, is, is it's like you said, it's. I'll keep saying this tagline. It's good for business. And so you have businesses that are really holding strong and going through with this. And I think those are the businesses that are actually going to start to really thrive and taking your question in a slightly different route here. But like, for example, just this morning, Lego announced they just had, you know, Breaking records of sales or revenues, what, what not doing really, really well, but they're also investing a ton of money into making sure that their entire Lego lineup is completely recyclable from all reused materials. And the CEO announced like, Hey, we're doing really well. We're sales are doing You know, very, very good profits are high, but we're also going to be spending a lot more money on this initiative because we believe that this is the future. And it's that mentality to kind of come back to the original question is, is he sees this long term future projected that Legos in the future, however many years from now will be completely recycled. It's not going to be plastics. The CO2 is going to be removed to almost nothing, or he's his goal to get it down to zero. And that's the sort of mentality that these big companies need to adopt and small ones for that matter, too. But instead, what happens is, is they look at it from a quarter to quarter basis and they say, wait, I need to install what machinery I need to, you know, remove what protocols or create other SOPs or other processes? What's that going to cost me? What's my benefit? What's the ROI? And then the quarterly by quarterly basis that we all operate in and we've been trained to is just completely opposite of what's required for the long term ESG sustainability movement. And I think that in itself, the short sighted ness versus the long term thinking is the main downfall when it comes to these different initiatives and why they're not really taking hold and benefiting the way that they can.

Chris Brandt: 19:26

I would suggest to Lego, if they really want to even double their business, make the edges less sharp. You mean you don't like waking up in the morning and get one right in the foot, stepping on it, jump it a few times? That is brutal. That's, that's the next ESG initiative for them. So how do we advance this cause, I guess, is, is the next thing, you know, I mean, you know, I'd love to highlight, you know, as many, you know, success stories as possible. But I mean, but it's going to take more than just that to, you know, advance the cause of, of ESG. I mean, as somebody who's in the middle of it, what, what do you think, what do you think we can do to kind of remove that, that log jam that we've got going on right now?

Ricky Marton: 20:03

Our conversations internally at open access, we talk about this thing called quantifiable benefits, meaning putting numbers on what we're actually doing, what we're actually creating and whether we'd like, you know,

Chris Brandt: 20:15

and, and. And just to put some context here, ESG was originally an investment strategy, right? I mean, this is not like something that's coming from, you know, like the, the, the people, you know, like the environmentalists in the company or whatever. This is something that's coming from the street and like, Hey, here's, here's, here's some, you know, thing indicators and markers to look at that, that, that, you know, successful companies have. So like, so that's why, you know, this disconnect is really bizarre to me too, but.

Ricky Marton: 20:43

And I will add ESG in the seventies is when this first started too. So this isn't a novel thing that, you know, came, you know, post team two thousands here that all of a sudden X, Y, and Z professionals are trying to jump on board. This has been a long standing. Vehicle in a way to discern stocks that are having a good impact versus having a bad impact period. And I think that's, what's the frustrating thing, because so many professionals and financial advisors and, you know, investment firms are kind of linking themselves to this polarization that's occurred from it and, and getting. Afraid of it. And all of a sudden running a different direction, although it's been such a long standing history of what ESG actually is. So, so that's kind of a side point, I suppose, but how do we move forward from here? I think the most important thing that we can do is focus on the numbers. And what I mean by that is, is our open access ventures. What I was mentioning before is that we're seeking solutions that you can showcase the benefit. On a line item where whether it's ROI, whether it's growth in numbers, whether it's, you know, something that shows to a professional who's working in the space that's thinking about implementing a sustainable solution, that this is going to either increase your profits, or it's going to reduce your outbound expenses. And whether it happens in three months, whether it happens in three years, former obviously is a little bit easier, but that's going to be what drives the change because What we are trying to do and what I'm really trying to build this platform on is showcasing that sustainability, like we said, tagline is good for business. But how do we show that is to really articulate very clearly by implementing this solution, by taking this initiative, by removing this process and replacing it with this process, you're going to save money in this amount of months or this many years. And also you're going to drive more customers. You're going to increase your employee retention. You're going to gain new audiences and your stakeholders are all going to be more happy because we like being green and better for the world. And so I think while we're in this kind of wishy washy period where. There's a lot of professionals. There was a fascinating study that just came out showing that sustainability professionals, people with that in their title are becoming frustrated because they're tasked majority of the time, which is putting together reports and making sure that companies look sustainable, but they're like, we're actually not doing sustainability work. We're not creating environmentally friendly solutions. We're just here to be that token individual that can file for those disclosures and make sure that we're not breaking the law. And what we say in the PR sphere isn't going to get us sued. And they're sitting back going, I want to actually create impact. I want to make my product line or my supply chain more eco friendly, or I want to install different, you know, processes that we're going to save X, Y, and Z resources. And so our position is to, you know, more aggressive, I think, than most where we're not just saying we're supporting impact causes, but more so we're supporting those causes that really can show benefit from both environmental or social impact perspective and the bottom line simultaneously. And I believe, you know, through years and years of doing this work, that's what's required to actually get through to these professionals that are just looking at the bottom line at the end of the year.

Chris Brandt: 23:52

Although, we've been going through this since the 70s, so, you know, like, it almost feels like the benefits of a lot of these things, you know, should be more obvious. And I think that sometimes when you see a new process implemented that, that is, you know, a sustainability effort that does net you, you know, like, less waste in the process and things like that. It's often not viewed as, you know, sustainable. Something that was a sustainability effort, but it was a cost saving measure, you know when which is true, too But I think the the fact that like and we're saving, you know So much so many resources are not polluting or you know, like not exploiting people I mean like all those things It just seems like we hone in on the profit piece and all the rest of it gets lost somehow.

Ricky Marton: 24:40

And that makes me think something that I've been explaining recently. And I've actually never thought about it this way until Open Access came along. And I'm trying to basically position ourselves in this new light. And, To do that, I like to break down the word sustainability on a very obvious level, but sustain ability, the ability to sustain, meaning how can we implement things that make our resources last longer to make our business last longer, to create processes or resources that aren't using as much intensive, whatever you want to call it. And when you break it down to being that painstakingly obvious, of course you should say as a business, I want to Make my business sustained for longer. I want to use less materials when I'm creating something. I want to use less water, use less electricity and things like that. And so ESG in itself kind of shifted away from sustainability because when you're looking at implementing sustainable business practices, you become more lean, you become more nimble, you become smarter, more savvy with, you know, removing a paper clip here or a piece of paper there or little things like that. But then you take a step back and you're like, Oh, yes, G. This is this investment framework. There's these legal ramifications. There's all these different things. I might get sued if I say this, I might get that. And I think we're just straight away from the root of what it means to actually be mindful of, of what the whole purpose was staying away from bad practices and your businesses and ensuring that you're doing good with your business too. In the interest of your entire business or corporation and what you're actually trying to accomplish.

Chris Brandt: 26:14

And I see this from the technology side a lot too, you know, companies get into this tech debt. Area where, um, You know, it just sometimes doing the right thing does, it's going to save you and it's, it's, you know, quantifiable what it's going to save you, but it takes maybe an initial capital investment, you know, this year and then you see that, well, let's defer that to next year and then I can give it another year and then let's just buy a little bit to get us to the next year, you know, so you get into this, you know, You know, you start digging yourself a bigger and bigger hole and then the problem's harder to solve when you finally get to the point where you got to solve the problem. And so it looks like an even bigger expense. I mean, how, how do you, how do you, um, and I think, you know, this is one of the reasons why I thought Koru is kind of really interesting because, you know, you could point people in the right direction of like, Hey, you know, you don't have to spend a lot of maybe capital investors who do this right now because here's a company that's already kind of got it all Prebake for you kind of thing. Um, but, but how do you get companies past that point of like, you know, constantly just digging themselves deeper into a hole until the problem is so big that they can't really fix the problem anymore?

Ricky Marton: 27:23

Yeah, we, we are actually, we're working on that right now. Actually, it's funny you ask because one of the offering that KORU is creating that we are required for within Open Access was to create these kind of reports and these analyses for companies, for clients, things like that. And one of the, Angles that we're approaching is, is maybe it's a little harsh sounding, but like the fear tactic of showcasing, you know, what can happen if you don't respond to this or what's going to happen or use cases or stories of, you know, if you just keep ignoring this or go too far down the line. And it's not meant to just say, Oh my gosh, like out of fear, let's purchase everything that I can to be more green and sustainable. But more so it's a way to think about things from a perspective of, wow, I didn't realize that. You know, if my, uh, let's just see if my plumbing system has a small leak into it, what that can actually equate to over time. So one of the companies we've spoken to in the past is, you know, we're looking at IOT devices on their plumbing system on the water meters to detect real time leakages. And so once again, you're going to save money because you're not just. throwing water out the window, but literally you're saving water as well. And it's those sort of stories that you go, Hey, have you thought about managing or, or, or monitoring this from a, an instant perspective? And they go, no, I haven't really thought about that. And you're like, well, we had this horror story basically where this apartment complex was Basically, you know, paying three times amount for their water consumption because they had this underground leak. And by the way, it also rusted out their entire system. It needed to replace their entire this or that they had mold and all these different things. And you kind of get this like, Oh my gosh, I didn't even think about that. And you know that these can happen. And it's one of those, you know, wear a seatbelt because you don't want to fly through the front window, but you also start to realize that these are precautions that you can put in place and also have. Benefits from it if that were to occur and I think that perspective has been really really powerful in what we're trying to do. So Um all in all it's something that we're still actually working on because it is a tough one to to showcase You know, like if you are ignoring this for so long Is it are we going to prove that your customers will you know? Start to dwindle are your employees going to become dissatisfied like those things are kind of hard to quantify but If we can show, Hey, this was a business that was just like you. And this is what happened when they kind of swept it under the rug year after year. And this is what could happen to you. Like let's help and get ahead of this. I think that's a way to really get through to them. And we're seeing some success with those as well as from individual conversations we've been having.

Chris Brandt: 29:47

Well, it's interesting too that you've got, you know, you're paired with a private equity firm because, you know, some of these, like I mentioned, some of these things are capital investments and things like that. I mean, you know, there, there could be some interesting financial vehicles to kind of help companies get over that initial hump. And, and, and like, if you paint out, here's the ROI, here's, you know, Here's the cost of not doing anything. And here's the cost of doing something. And if you need that little upfront, you know, here's a, here's a financial vehicle to kind of make that happen too is, I mean, that, that does seem like a really interesting mix of things.

Ricky Marton: 30:19

A hundred percent, Chris. And that's one of the things I'm, I'm most excited about, because one of the things that our team is doing right now is just sourcing and creating this funnel system that looks at different companies, different industries, how we can help and assist. Yeah. And our, our owner, the open owner of open access, Steve Yelley, he says it beautifully. He's like, find companies that have a challenge and let's help them kind of satisfy that challenge. And oftentimes in the PE space, what that means is just adding some capital into that, but also the experience and expertise to look at things from a different perspective to say, have you, you know, tried doing this versus that, or like, let's put a little money in trying to do some AB testing to see if we can fix it and go a different route to see some, some growth occur. And you're spot on. A lot of these businesses are kind of hesitant to take the plunge and make that big investment because of the uncertainty. And so what we do as a firm is we were looking to really de risk the founders and these, these companies because we've done it before and or we have the research, the guidance. And by the way, we're also not saying, You have to spend your, you know, very limited budget or your, you know, resources on this. And we're actually going to help kind of supplement some of this. So it almost becomes to some degree a no brainer because we're providing guidance as well as capital. And we're finding a way to help support them in the whole purpose of PE is to get those returns, obviously. Um, but from this perspective, being in this, Position where in this cap versus from Krus perspective, it's, it's entirely different. And, and I love, and I'm, I'm really excited to see what, what we can really create from that mentality.

Chris Brandt: 31:51

So is Kru still an ongoing, uh, entity? Can people still, you know, get some, you know, consulting from ESG separately without, you know, uh, being acquired or? Yeah,

Ricky Marton: 32:04

it's, it's a, it's a fun question. We, um, we haven't shut down cover. So cover itself, the sites, the live, we have a nice banner at the top saying, you know, congratulations, you know, big news. We've been acquired. We're, we're actually on the fence of going back and forth. We just make it a landing page that says head over to open access or do we just keep it up there? And if someone trickles in and we're like, we need your service, then, you know, who are we to say, no, let's just put an automated report and do a little monitoring and consulting on the side. So For time being, what, what I envisioned occurring is we'll just kind of let it coast, will continues to engage with our partners and clients and things like that, they're all been made privy of this as occurring and kind of our new direction and here on out. But eventually, you know, what we've talked about is Cobra can almost like spin up in itself and that platform with that recommendation analysis, with that data collection piece might actually be of use in the future when we have a wide variety of portfolio companies all underneath our umbrella. And we might use it as a tool to say, Hey, hotel, and we identified this gap, this challenge, this piece of, you know, uh, sustainability effort that you can change. And by the way, we've collected all of these solutions for you and put some predictive analytics on it or extrapolate what change that they can create if they partner with these groups and then upsell and cross sell all of our portfolio companies to them in one place. While still driving forth with the sustainability ecosystem that we're building. So a lot of, you know, maybe we'll see, time will tell sort of thing. But for time being, I think we're just going to take it, you know, one, one week, one month at a time. And it's not going anywhere for time being.

Chris Brandt: 33:35

Well, that's good. And it, it sounds like there's some great, uh, opportunity in, in, in the future. Um, so if, uh, if. If you, uh, if you're in a company that is in, you know, kind of this sustainability space and you're looking for money, what are you looking for out there? Is there anything specific in the market that's, you know, like, hey, if you're doing this, come talk to me kind of thing?

Ricky Marton: 34:03

The original wedge that we're, we're really excelling in is, is Sustainability solutions that are often tech driven in the hospitality space, and that's a little bit more narrow than cover was because we were kind of everything under the sun. Um, and we're not, you know, planting the flag, and this is where we are permanently from here on out. But our initial connections, relationships in the early portfolio companies that we are working with are going a lot of time in the hospitality space. And I think the really interesting thing about hospitality is if you look at it, there's a wide source of, of ranges of products and solutions that we can sell, whether it's, you know, the actual mattress very specific to a hotel, but also there's camera systems and restaurants that show your waste that you're throwing out. So you can put out less food to your buffet or. There's furniture items that are completely 3D printed to remove waste and it's from recycled materials. So it's kind of sky's the limit as far as being creative and find solutions that can actually fit within the hospitality space. But if you are a company and you're in this early stage and you're, you know, really looking to excel or push forward with sustainability initiatives, period, we want to talk to you. It's just a matter of whether we invest in now, or we look at how it fits into our portfolio in the near future and just kind of react one, one by one at that point in time. But either way, I think what's really exciting is we're, we're on almost like ground zero for this. We have a few portfolio companies we're working with. We have our eyes open, the funnels open. We're looking for companies to start coming in and engaging with those conversations and where it takes us is to be determined. But I think that's, that's part of the fun of the wild ride that we're, we're jumping into here.

Chris Brandt: 35:37

So if people wanted to get in touch with you, where's the place to go? Where do they find you?

Ricky Marton: 35:42

Yeah, so our website, everything kind of leads back to our team. So I'll see it one way or the other. OAV. ventures is our site. Or inversely, you can reach out to me directly in my email. I'm sure what we'll put it up somewhere is Ricky at OAV. ventures. And so we are in this early sponge state. Like I mentioned before, we're just trying to talk to leaders in the space, startups in the space, anything in between. We're also trying to nurture relationships and partnerships from, you know, groups like accelerators or other investment firms that the company might not be a good fit, but hopefully they'll go, Hey, I know this guy, Ricky, they're pushing forward with something pretty cool here. You should speak to them. So really just trying to engage with these conversations and anyone, you know, anyone and everyone, if you want to reach out, I'd be more than happy to talk over any of these points as well.

Chris Brandt: 36:25

Ricky, I got to say, you know, thanks for, for being on again. Um, I'm, I'm excited to see where this goes. Cause this is a, an interesting turn. I mean, I was a fan of Koru, you know, when, when you first talked about it and now that you're adding, you know, more of these details, uh, and, and building up the stack, it's, it's getting even more interesting. So thanks a lot for sharing it with me and, uh, you know, keep in touch as I want to see where you guys go from, from here.

Ricky Marton: 36:52

Yeah, I appreciate you having me on again, Chris. And, and who would have been able to guess that this is where the second version of the second showcase would be? I, I would have no idea. It's been a whirlwind. It's been a lot of fun, but I would love to keep in touch and maybe we'll do a round three once we have, you know, 20 portfolio companies and we're implementing this huge change or something like that. Cause I'm a big fan of future TV and what you're, you're putting out there. So Let's keep in touch. But yeah, great for great to speak again. And thanks for having me on the show.

Chris Brandt: 37:16

Yeah. Well, and I love sustainability companies. So like once you start building up that portfolio, come talk to me. Cause I'm sure I'd love to see what's in the portfolio.

Ricky Marton: 37:25

Yeah, absolutely. And for any of your future guests to be like, Hey, maybe we can get this. Group go in and collaborate all together, create that ecosystem. All, all stem from you, Chris, of course, the mastermind behind it all.

Chris Brandt: 37:37

I don't know if mastermind is, you know, lost his mind. Maybe it's better. You gotta be a little crazy

Ricky Marton: 37:42

to do, do big things in the world, right?

Chris Brandt: 37:45

That is true. That is true. Well, you keep doing big things and, uh, cause it's just good business and, uh, we'll talk to you soon. Perfect. Thanks so much, Chris. Take care. Thanks for watching. I'd love to hear your thoughts on ESG in the comments below. And if you could give us a like, think about subscribing and share this with a friend if you could, and I will see you in the next one.