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Show Summary
In this conversation, Mark Jennings discusses the evolution of investment strategies, focusing on how technology is being leveraged to educate and empower investors, particularly those who traditionally lacked access to institutional investment opportunities. He emphasizes the importance of breaking down barriers for high net worth individuals and smaller family offices to access the same investment opportunities as larger institutional investors.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Mark Jennings (00:00)
Just don’t give up, you know, ⁓ it’s hard. It’s, I’ve been doing this a long time and it took me a long time to get here. And it’s nice to finally do something I love. I’m good at, I’m appreciated for. So, you know, use technology, learn chat GPT or whatever AI you’re used, cause that’s the future, right? And if you don’t evolve, you’re to end up like the dinosaurs. So, you know, educate yourself on whether it’s on investments, whether it’s on technology, just cause then you’re invested in yourself just as much as you’re investing in others.Quentin Edmonds (02:01)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I’m excited, excited by my guest who I have here today. know, I love when I get a chance to peek through different people’s lenses and what they do and what they do best. And so I’m excited. I am going to say this. You’re probably going to hear this again. This person is not given any financial advice. This is not financial advice, but he is going to help people know how todigitally have access to real estate for investors. That’s some of the things that he’s going to talk about. He’s also going to educate. He loves to educate. So he’s going to educate you on some different things that’s available to you, right? And so I am super excited to introduce you all to Mr. Mark Jennings. Mr. Mark, how are doing today,
Mark Jennings (02:49)
I’m doing well. Just to reiterate, I’m not giving any financial advice. So just making that clear, but happy to educate, happy to answer any questions you have and let’s get into it.Quentin Edmonds (03:00)
I love it man. Listen, sir. So listen, I don’t want to waste any time. I want you to take us into your world. I want you to tell us what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story about how you got into what it is that you do. We love origin stories. And also if you want to tell them a part of the world you’re in, know, so geographically like where you are. And so Mr. Mark, sir, you have the floor, man.Mark Jennings (03:23)
Alright, cool. Yeah, I’m from Westchester, New York. I come from 100 year old family construction company. I started sweeping floors and digging ditches every year as apprentice electrician, plumber, carpenter, assistant sewer. I built a Costco and graduated college. I 50 people working for me, but I started five bucks an hour, graduated 25 bucks an hour andIt taught me to use my head and that’s my muscles. But so I got into this business. I started working at Blackstone out of college and I was supposed to go to Australia learning to surf for the summer. And I grew up with a family that the father was a CFO and he said, you sent me my resume and I got an interview and got off to the job. So my father said, you’re not going to Australia learning to surf, you’re going to work with Blackstone. So I was supposed to work 500 hours, I worked 1,000 hours and I helped them raise their first.
billion dollar funds. That’s how I fell in love with this business. But, you know, it took me 23 years to, you know, figure out what I wanted to do with my life and what I was good at and appreciated for. So it’s finally great to be doing something I love and, and educating people, helping people get access to real estate investments like the one we’re to talk about today.
Quentin Edmonds (04:28)
Man, I love it, man. Very concise way of showing us how you got up to where you are now. I want to pick your brain a little bit on strategies, Mr. Mark. And so I know, you you found your lane, you know, you’re in what you do. took you years, but you got it. You know what you love. What are some of the strategies that you use business wise to kind of keep you on point and keep you focused? And actually, what are some strategies that you use on a personal level?They kind of keep you motivated, keep you on point. So let me know some of the strategies that you use,
Mark Jennings (05:49)
Yeah, so. ⁓know, the strategies that we’ve been using is using technology to educate investors, whether the institutional or retail investors opportunities, whether it’s real estate or other alternative investments like private equity or venture capital or private credit or hedge funds, you name it, infrastructure funds. So, you know, traditionally these investments were for institutional investors, endowments, pensions, large family offices that were right in 5, 10, 25, 50 million checks.
investors, know, smaller family offices, the high net worths, the credit investors, even though RAs and broke dealers didn’t have access to these big institutional investments because they were such big checks. And that’s how we actually originally, the first company that the founders created was to raise money for institutional investors for institutional funds. But what they noticed was there was some high net worth credits, you know, smaller family offices that wanted access. And we had to keep saying, no, we didn’t really believe in that model.
Why shouldn’t they have access to the same thing the institutional investors do? So we ended up creating this company, or I came on board after they created it, but I helped them raise money for it because I really believed in educating the investor and helping make sure it’s appropriate and make it easier and faster and more efficient for investors to invest in alternatives that normally they didn’t have access to. It just went from 0.05 % to 2 % now of
know, retail investors are invested in institutional alternatives. And, ⁓ you know, 70 % of these advisors don’t even understand these alternative investments. So it’s a component of educating the advisors, educate the investors and giving them access to something different that normally they wouldn’t have access to, but using technology to do that to make it easier and faster and more efficient.
Quentin Edmonds (07:38)
I love it, man. I love it. And so as you continue to build, as you continue to be successful, as you continue to cover how the company looks, have you ran into any adversity? Like, I tell people all the time, we can show people to success, but there’s a journey to success. And that journey to success sometimes is adversity. So have you faced any adversity as you was building your business?Mark Jennings (08:04)
Yeah, look, I always think everybody’s investor. I always think everyone’s a client. I’m in sales. It took me a long time to figure out what I was good at. so it’s weeding them out and making sure whether it’s an appropriate investment for an investor or whether it’s appropriate technology for fund.to use, you know, it’s not for everyone. So that’s part of the beauty of the technology is it helps you save time. And you go to a conference, you meet 100 people, 95 of them trying to sell you life insurance, right? You want those five people that need your help, that want your help, that meet your requirements. by using technology, it just makes it easier and fast, more efficient.
whether it’s your CRM or your data room, your onboarding platform, there’s so many point end solutions out there these days. And you have to sign into five different places just to make an investment. now…
using the technology like our own, can kind of sit as a tech overlay to connect those different technologies and to access those, whether institutional or retail investors, but not just domestically, but abroad as well. lived in Bermuda five years. I’m from New York. I’m currently in Malta, just flew 16 hours here. so, you know, I think using technology, saves time, but then the data, right? Knowing where these investors are coming from, what they’re interested in.
What’s appropriate? What’s not appropriate? Fill out all the paperwork with the KYC, AML, the compliance, the capitals, reporting institutions. It’s all the worst part of raising money, but it’s on your website, on your platform, for your clients. instead of sending your client to a third party site, relationships are like the new currency these days.
You know, why send them somewhere else? Make those platforms come to you. So, you know, it’s cool using technology. I have one, two compliance sites. So this way, the accounts, the lawyers, the fund admins, the placement agents, all the different people that are part of the process can come to one place and a single source of solution of truth and internationally too, right? Like, you know, there’s international investors who want to invest in real estate and in the U.S. there’s U.S. investors who want to invest in real estate internationally. And normally, you know,
It’s a much flatter world out there that normally they wouldn’t have access to those opportunities. So it’s really empowering to educate and to give access to investors and just making it easier, faster, more efficient, saving time.
Quentin Edmonds (10:58)
Yeah, I love it. I love how you talk about empowering the investor. Also how like how you keep saying people is the currency. I say that probably once a show people is the real currency. And I love how you’re looking at how to invest in people. because if you find the right investment people data bring you great dividends long, long term. And so I love how you say that, Let me ask you, what’s the next real goal for you? Like, what are you looking to solve in scale next?Mark Jennings (11:29)
I think now we can, you now that we’ve kind of gotten through where we’ve gotten to, it’s just scaling it. Because, you yeah, we built it for ourselves actually initially for own clients, for own investments, for own opportunities. And then all of a sudden our clients are like, hey, we want that. So we cloned the technology, but it was kind of initially a little clunky, take a long time to spend. So we sassed it out. Now I think we have 125 GPs or a thousand funds paying us, but it’s a flat rate fee.They’re not paying us a success fee or management performance fee. So we get to stay on the side of the client and do what’s best for the investor.
We pass down those breaks to the investors and to the advisors. Everyone wants to get into retail. We know we want to get their hands dirty. No one wants to get in the trough with all those retail investors. But if you can use technology to wrap it up, write one check, one LP, there’s a lot more retail investors out there than there is institutional. And institutional investors are using as well because they have kind of an old-stylegy process as well. someone sent an 85-page sub-data the other day. said, if I got to fill out this paperwork myself, I want my money back.
It’s just, it’s not worth it. Time is money. And so people want it on their fingertips. They want to swipe left, swipe right for investing in real estate or whatever alternative investment they’re looking at these days.
Quentin Edmonds (12:49)
Yeah, no, absolutely. ⁓ Again, you know, I’m going to bring up again, I love how you talk about people, you know, how you talk about people being a real currency, how it seems like you are invested in making valuable connections. So when I asked you about relationships, I want to get your viewpoint on relationships. Are they important to you? Is it important to build good relationships within business? Like how has building relationships made the biggest difference for you?Mark Jennings (13:18)
Yeah, look, at the end of the day, this is a relationship-based business. I don’t care how good your technology is, I don’t care how good your investment is. I built my business or helping raise money for the business I’ve been working for for the last six and half years off of those relationships. Those are family and friends and people that trusted me that I’ve built up for 23 years. I’ve been planting seeds and now it’s harvest season because I actually have something people want and they need. helping people.which is the most important part. I think relationships is very important just because getting to the bottom of like what is the issue? What is the problem? What do you have? What should you have? What’s missing? How can we add value? Because if you can find that pressure point of like, right, you just need help with a CRM or a data or onboarding platform. But then once you get in the foot in the door, they’re like, you know, we’re not going to make you change everything. But you know, you could be doing all that one place and paying one fee, one flat rate fee versus paying basis points and
you know, all this other jazz, like, you know, people don’t forget that if you do the right thing, and by staying on the side of the client, you know, we’re agnostic, right? So we don’t really care who you’re funding, who you’re placing in, who your consultant is, you know, as long as it’s appropriate for the investor and they pass the KYCML. You know, our job is just to…
is to weed them out, to educate them, and to fill out all the paperwork. And then we take all that information, we send it to the fund admin to do the KOAC amount. Everybody’s got a job when they come in, but to have one SOC 2 compliant site where then you can help them stay within compliance internationally when they’re out there raising in Europe and signing reverse solicitations and digital NDAs and all that stuff. But the data is the liquid gold as well, because you get to see what you’re like big brother. You get to see where everyone’s clicking, what they’re looking at.
And you can develop relationships with the group of people that you know, like, right, cool. These are people I know said they’re interested in this real estate fund or whatever it is. And now every time an opportunity like that comes across my desk, I know that these are a curated group of people that have invested with me before and they can invest again without having to go through all that rigmarole. Because once they do it once, they’re in the system. And then every time you have an opportunity,
You’re not going to do it, but it helps them diversify their portfolio as well. So not just sticking stocks and bonds and ETFs and mutual funds. You know, it’s important to diversify your portfolio and have alternative investments in there to kind of weather the storm.
Quentin Edmonds (16:24)
Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, man, you are doing just what you said you was going to do. You’re educating, you’re bringing value. And so listen, before we wrap up, is there any other kind of advice, education, inspiration, anything you can think of that maybe you want to give the viewers before we do an official closing? Is there anything?Mark Jennings (16:44)
Just don’t give up, you know, ⁓ it’s hard. It’s, I’ve been doing this a long time and it took me a long time to get here. And it’s nice to finally do something I love. I’m good at, I’m appreciated for. So, you know, use technology, learn chat GPT or whatever AI you’re used, cause that’s the future, right? And if you don’t evolve, you’re to end up like the dinosaurs. So, you know, educate yourself on whether it’s on investments, whether it’s on technology, just cause then you’re invested in yourself just as much as you’re investing in others.That’s all I have to say. And this isn’t financial advice. I got to this approved by KYC, by my compliance and all that jazz. So, ⁓ anything I said, it’s not appropriate. We’ll have to change it, but I really appreciate taking the time and definitely curate those relationships. It’s a relationship based business and don’t, don’t stop giving up on those relationships.
Quentin Edmonds (17:35)
Absolutely. We repeat again, this has not been any financial advice. Not at all. Listen, sir, Mr. Mark, if you if someone wants to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate, get in contact with you, how can they get in contact with you?Mark Jennings (17:54)
You know, they can go on LinkedIn, although I’m maxed out, I got 30,000. So you can follow me or you can message me on there. ⁓ I think it’s Mark E. Jennings Jr. But, you know, you know where to find me. I’m not hard to find. So feel free to reach out. I’m happy to help any way I can. Shoot me a message on LinkedIn and or follow me and I’ll connect with you if I can and happy to help any way I can.Quentin Edmonds (18:17)
Absolutely listen mark. I appreciate you sir. Appreciate you for your time. Appreciate you for your story. Appreciate you for your perspective. Thank you for bringing your lens to this platform so people can find value and so I appreciate you so much for being here today man.Mark Jennings (18:32)
No problem, anytime.Quentin Edmonds (18:34)
Listen, absolutely. So y’all heard my man Mark. He’s giving you value not financial advice, but he’s definitely giving you some things to think about. And so go ahead and make sure you subscribe this. You want to make sure you can come back when the alert goes off, see just these amazing people that we continue to bring up segments to Mark. And so I thank you again, Mr. Mark and listen, everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
