Always Be Raising Capital: Investor Relationship Strategies That Win Deals

Marisa Amirian (00:00)
One of my theses is that I always say is always be capital raising. And what I mean by that is to be constantly consistently communicating with your investors, with people and tell them what you’re doing. And you never know what kind of like partnerships are going to come out of that. So whether it’s on LinkedIn, where I’m posting most of the time, ⁓ you know, whether you’re sending emails to your investor base.

24 7 365, especially when you don’t have a deal is when you should be reaching out and building these relationships.

Scott Bursey (02:04)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host Scott Bursey and today we’re talking capital cashflow and crushing goals.

Our guest today is a master of technology, bringing that critical high octane fuel we all need to get our biggest deals across the finish line. She’s the co-founder of CapBloom, Marisa Amirian, and she’s here to give us the playbook on smarter investing structuring. This conversation is going to light a fire under your portfolio. Marisa, welcome to the show.

Marisa Amirian (02:39)
Thanks, Scott. Good to be here.

Scott Bursey (02:41)
It is just fantastic to have you here and for our listeners that do not know your journey. Could you please tell us how did your career begin and what is your main focus now?

Marisa Amirian (02:53)
Sure. My name is Marisa Amirian. I’m the founder of CapBloom. ⁓ I build capital raising CRM systems for real estate investors, indicators, fund managers, operators with small teams who are raising capital and want to do it without. I spent a while, a long time, about 20 years in technology before this.

moved over into investing in real estate and joined a multifamily coaching program. And in there, I started helping my peers build out their tech steps, systems to start raising capital. And then I turned it into a business. So we build, customize, and set up capital raising systems and we don’t go away. We are partners.

Scott Bursey (03:41)
That is awesome. Wow. And inspiring by the same token. And let’s dive right on in, Marisa. If someone’s listening to this and they’re thinking, hey, this is someone I like to partner with or learn from, what would you like them to know about your business first?

Marisa Amirian (03:41)
story.

So we are a white glove service and we are here to help out and we, you know, setting up their role raising systems. And like I said, we don’t go away. are there till building it until it’s done, until they’re happy. ⁓ You know, we believe that capital raising is a relationship ⁓ game. And, you know, we’re here to build relationships with our clients so they can build relationships with LPs.

so that they can raise more capital and do more deals. And that’s kind of our theses that we are building upon.

Scott Bursey (04:38)
Those relationships are so critical, Marisa.

especially in your business.

Marisa Amirian (04:45)
You know, LP

investors. Yeah. I mean, I have relationships with all my clients, you know, some of them are texting me and we’re hanging out and stuff, but ⁓ we believe, you know, and I think rightly so that if someone’s going to hand over their money to you and you’re going to be a steward of their money, that it’s important that you understand an LP investor in your deal or someone who is investing in your fund.

it’s better to have a relationship to get to know that person and for them to understand you as an operator, to trust you. And it takes time to know, like, and trust and build that trust. We help set up systems to do that.

Scott Bursey (06:12)
Spot on. And Marisa, no business is perfect. What’s one thing that you’re still figuring out or you’re trying to work around here lately?

Marisa Amirian (06:22)
So we are scaling, trying to scale and grow. And I think, you know, as a small business owner, that is always a juggling act to decide where to hire. ⁓ and, you know, where we’re implementing AI in the right places to help us scale. I think right now in the scaling era of CapBloom, we’re just trying to figure out, you know, where to grow first. And, you know, it’s.

It’s always challenging as a business owner.

Scott Bursey (06:52)
Absolutely, absolutely. And what do you feel is the biggest opportunity on the flip side of things? know, something that you’re watching closely that you might be ready to capitalize on, like a market shift perhaps or a new offering or something of that nature.

Marisa Amirian (07:11)
We are doubling down on AI and using AI and testing it to scale building employees for ourselves and then hopefully transferring that over as services to our clients. That’s the biggest opportunity right now in my space in technology, but really everywhere.

Scott Bursey (07:29)
Sure. And on that note, what sort of strategy are you going to be implementing in regards to AI over the next, let’s say, 12 to 18 months?

Marisa Amirian (07:40)
⁓ building employees for myself, building my own AI employees, but also rolling out services. My clients need people or agents that are doing things inside of a CRM. There’s opportunities for agents to be doing a lot of work inside of commercial real estate, whether it’s underwriting or giving first looks or managing processes. just building out agents like that and trying to deploy them and see where we can fit into the different, you know,

spaces.

Scott Bursey (08:10)
Absolutely, and no one has a crystal ball. I firmly understand that, but where do you think that the AI may go here, you five, 10, even 15 years down the road?

Marisa Amirian (08:26)
That is up for grabs. Sometimes I’m dark about it and ⁓ worried. And then other times I’m excited when I see what’s going on on my computer screen every day. But it truly changes from day to day. Things I was doing last week I will never do again because the technology is changing so rapidly.

Scott Bursey (08:45)
so rapidly and there’s so many question marks out there and that makes perfect sense. What worked is recently as yesterday may not work today and vice versa.

Awesome, great perspective on that, Marisa. Thank you for that insight. Is there any challenges you’re watching closely? You know, like market risk, competition, access to deals or capital, that sort of thing?

Marisa Amirian (08:58)
Bye, Cheryl.

Or sure, I think the market right now is everyone a little skittish investors and LP investors. A lot of clients, a lot of capital raisers are just talking about how the days of easy capital raising are over ⁓ and, you know, finding deals that are even penciling are harder. you know, a lot of people are having to go back to the well with new investors, new leads that

you know, haven’t been scared off in the market yet. So I think just, you know, market shakiness is a big problem right now. But people are diversifying into other asset classes. A lot of people are looking at oil and gas and land and funds, you know, so I see a lot of different things happening. A lot of my clients used to be in just multifamily and they’re all kind of doing different things right now. So I think

That is a big issue for my clients in terms of finding deals and raising capital. But the ones who are still at it, I think there’s going to be opportunity for deals. then, you know, just educating people will always be at the top of the list of things to do. Educating investors and trying to win back some of the ones who may have been burned in the last cycle.

Scott Bursey (11:05)
100%. Marisa, where are most real estate investors making the biggest mistake in their capital stack right now in your view?

Marisa Amirian (11:17)
and

So I would say just in terms of my business and how I help investors, ⁓ you know, staying in communication with investors, being transparent, being honest, having tough conversations if deals are going south. And then also just communicating in between deals and keeping investors in the loop, keeping them as the partners that they are. You know, if you’re in partnership with people, you should be communicating with them.

A lot of times the problems I see are people who are doing deals and asking for money without putting in the prep work, putting in the due diligence or the time they need with their LP investors.

You know, there’s, I could talk about this all day. Yeah. ⁓

Scott Bursey (12:10)
makes perfect sense and outside of the obvious, Marisa, what emergence, emerging capital source is seriously undervalued in today’s investment environment in your eyes.

Marisa Amirian (12:26)
So one of the new cool things I’m seeing is, you know, there’s a lot of like groups or friends or, you know, people who are learning how to invest with each other and building out sort of these funds, know, fund to funds or, you know, just people who want to get involved in real estate, but don’t want to be in the trenches of real estate, pooling their money and

you know, meeting up with operators and finding them and, you know, kind of coming to them in various positions of the capital stack, think is a cool new way to find investors. So, you know, if you have a group of 10 doctors or dentists or, you know, friends from a fraternity 10, 20 years ago, and they’re all deciding to finally get into real estate and pulling their money, I think

teaching those kind of groups of people or talking to people in a way that they could pull their money together and come into a deal ⁓ is just ⁓ one of the newer ways that I’m seeing that people are using to approach their LP investors.

Scott Bursey (13:34)
Excellent breakdown and it sounds like you’re combining technology and relationships. That’s so pivotal. That is awesome. And what sort of advice would you like to leave with our listeners today? Or a golden nugget, something of that nature, Marisa.

Marisa Amirian (13:41)
Yes. That’s what we do. Yep.

One of my theses is that I always say is always be capital raising. And what I mean by that is to be constantly consistently communicating with your investors, with people and tell them what you’re doing. And you never know what kind of like partnerships are going to come out of that. So whether it’s on LinkedIn, where I’m posting most of the time, ⁓ you know, whether you’re sending emails to your investor base.

24 7 365, especially when you don’t have a deal is when you should be reaching out and building these relationships.

Scott Bursey (15:06)
Communication is the key. It’s the theses of a thriving empire.

Marisa, this has been pure gold. And if our listeners want to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Marisa Amirian (15:18)
Thanks.

way to reach me is on LinkedIn Marisa Amirian I post most days and then we’re at www.capbloom.com

Scott Bursey (15:33)
Thank you so much for joining us here today, Marisa.