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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel Podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Marshall Sykes, a seasoned investor and founder of Capitano Investing Group. Marshall shares his journey from real estate to diversifying his investments into oil and gas and pre-IPO companies. He emphasizes the importance of building an investor community, educating investors, and the power of networking. Marshall also discusses his future goals and strategies for helping others navigate the investment landscape.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Marshall Sykes (00:00)
I think…The power of investing together as a community is what I’ll probably, that’s the approach I’ll use, that we can get better leverage terms with our sponsors if we invest together as a community. And that’s kind of, that’s what my sponsors will, they allow me to bring in folks like that so that we can have better terms than their own retail investors can get in a lot of cases.
Michelle Kesil (01:59)
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the investor fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. And today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Marshall Sykes, who is a seasoned investor, founder of Capitano Investing Group. And he also has a private investor community. So excited to have you on the show today, Marshall.Marshall Sykes (02:25)
Michelle, I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me today.Michelle Kesil (02:28)
Yeah, absolutely. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you have approached your investing business, being able to grow, scale, and support others. So let’s dive in.Marshall Sykes (02:42)
Let’s do it.Michelle Kesil (02:44)
First off, for those who are not familiar with You and Your World, can you share what your main focus is?Marshall Sykes (02:51)
Yeah, right now I’m mainly for my background’s in real estate. I grew up in a real estate development family and got involved in single family ⁓ rentals for a long period. I’ve been had those for over 25 years. And then I kind of pivoted a little bit to multifamily ⁓ investments. And then I pivoted even further to oil and gas as well as ⁓ into pre IPO companies because I wanted the diversification that⁓ Real estate didn’t provide a lot of diversification and I knew I needed some. I realized I was kind of over leveraged in real estate.
Michelle Kesil (03:30)
What does that mean? That you were over leveraged in real estate? Like what does that look like?Marshall Sykes (03:35)
Yeah, I mean, I think 60 % of my assets or 80 % were in real estate, my net worth. And so it’s like, that’s a lot of net worth to be tied to one one particular market. And so I wanted to diversify out of that and understand. So I’ve worked on a little bit of that with some really super superior partners. So I’ve been able to network into oil and gas business that I wasn’t I was with Exxon Mobil foralmost a decade. So I understood oil and gas, you know, investing in the oil wells is a little bit different. And so I’ve found really good partnerships, sponsors that do that. And so can bring my investor community to that oil and gas plays that they’re invested in.
Michelle Kesil (04:24)
And as far as real estate, what type of real estate investments are you focused on? Like fix and flip, short-term, what’s your go-to?Marshall Sykes (04:36)
Yeah, my original go to was building a couple rentals at a time, selling one to make a little bit of profit and then keeping one as a rental. So that was kind of the pattern that we used for 15 or so years. And then more and then I started investing as a general, a limited partnerin multifamily deals. And then
I have done ⁓ as a general partner, I’ve been a general partner in some multifamily deals as well.
Michelle Kesil (06:00)
Awesome. What are?Marshall Sykes (06:02)
I haven’t tried the fixand flip thing yet. So I have some short term rentals as well with some of my partners. Fix and flip, I’ve thought about that. I haven’t done that yet, but that’s something maybe I’ll do that in the future. I don’t know. I’d probably focus more on other types of investments at this point.
Michelle Kesil (06:25)
Yeah, what types of investments are you planning to focus on?Marshall Sykes (06:29)
Yeah, so what I’ve really like focused on the last couple of years is allocating, ⁓ trying to figure out my allocation and trying to diversify in my investments. And so I’ve set aside some for like short term loans or oil and gas, pre IPO companies, even have some investments in a fintech company. ⁓ And then there are some people whothat need capital for their fix and flips. And so I’ve done a little bit of that as well.
Michelle Kesil (07:07)
So it sounds like you’re gearing out of real estate and into other investments. Is that correct?Marshall Sykes (07:14)
I would say that’s pretty accurate. I’ve tried to,I like real estate. I grew up in the family doing real estate. It’s kind of in my blood, but at the same time I realized that there are other types of investments out there. So I’ve done a lot of study on that and a lot of networking to get into the even better deals than maybe real estate can offer. Definitely different types of investments. I think it’s important to have some real estate.
Because minute real estate has so many different benefits to it for taxes as well as appreciation and cash flow ⁓ but also I like I like the idea of of companies that have already made it past they’re not startups anymore They’ve already made it past that stage and they’re actually producing revenue, but they need some more more ⁓ They need some more benefits for it. So our group that I’m in
We bring in a couple of other key items that they’re missing so we can take them to an IPO or take them up to a Forex return after four years. So that’s kind of what we’re looking at doing in that group, one of the groups that I’m in with pre-IPO companies.
Michelle Kesil (08:28)
Awesome. So what are you most focused now on? Maybe solving or scaling to next in your business.Marshall Sykes (08:39)
You know, I think trying to get the word out to people a little bit more to of what I do and kind of being more vulnerable on my side on what made some of the some of the failures I’ve had and tried to be show them how I’ve overcome those. I know that people in investing, you know, it’s easy to make a bad investment. And so I want toto be able to help people make good investments, but you grow in those bad investments, or not so good investments. So, that’s kind of where I’m focused on is helping my investor community get into really good deals with really good sponsors that have really compelling returns. And the risk downside is mitigated.
Michelle Kesil (09:33)
Yeah, absolutely. What do you feel are some main keys that have made the biggest difference for you as you were growing your business?Marshall Sykes (09:45)
I think part of it is a little bit of coaching. So I’ve done some coaching. been in a lot of different groups with coaching ⁓ and some there are particular ones with ⁓ I did some sales coaching last past year that was really beneficial. Just amazing, honestly.And how I ⁓ gives me more confidence as a capital raiser as well as being able to talk to investors in their language. You know, that that was very helpful for me.
But also I did some marketing. I was in a marketing group for a couple of years as well. And so learned a little bit about capital raising from that group and made a lot of a lot of good connections, network connections that now I can. feel like I’m ready. You know, I’m not running it. I’m not walking anymore. I’m definitely running as far as investments are concerned. And I’ve kind of grown in a lot of areas where I can help other people out. I can help my investor community out.
to get in those better deals.
Michelle Kesil (11:23)
Can you expand on your investor community, what that looks like?Marshall Sykes (11:27)
Yeah, so my investor community, I was in the Navy for 25 years. I retired as a captain and the Navy, the name of our group is called Capitano Investing Group because I was stationed in Italy. I like the Capitano a little flair. I love going to Italy and I kind of wanted to bring that little bit of ⁓ flavor to the group. But it’s around 300, mostly military veterans and or engineers from the oil and gas field.Of course, anybody can join it. It’s a free investor community to join. ⁓ But so it’s we really focus. I gear a lot of my marketing towards military veterans and that have retired. Most of them have retired or they’re they’re out of the military and they’re making good wages. They’re making good high salary, but they may be unfamiliar with investing, particularly in syndications or oil and gas types deals.
So I wanted to really spread the news to them that there, don’t have to only invest in the stock market. There’s a lot of other options out there. And I like the stock market some, but I’m not going to put all my money in the stock market. And I think a lot of people are over leveraged in particular military veterans, because they’re, they don’t understand real estate. They don’t understand pre investing in syndications or pre IPO companies. So I want to just kind of get that message out there to them and give them other options.
Michelle Kesil (12:56)
Yeah, that’s awesome. So how do you help them get started in their real estate journey?Marshall Sykes (13:04)
Yeah, I think the big part is kind of educating them at their level, but also just nurturing them on a consistent basis helps a lot. Also, I know a lot of them from my past from my I know almost, I’d say 90 % of them are former colleagues or or acquaintances that know me. So it’s easy to have aone-on-one conversation with them. So I do a lot of that as well.
Michelle Kesil (13:38)
Awesome. And as far as your community, like what are the types of people? I know you mentioned like military and stuff, but are these people that like have never invested before or they already have some experience under their feet?Marshall Sykes (13:53)
Yeah, I think the ones that I found that the ones who actually invest, I mean, there’s 300 in our group, maybe 100 of those have invested, right? So the ones that have that are easier to invest, that find it easier to invest are the ones who have done some kind of real estate investment in the past, maybe just a single family home that they rented out, that kind of thing. But they their experience with that passive income kind ofidea and what the benefits are of owning real estate as an investment are. So those are the ones that I find are little bit easier to invest ⁓ in a syndication type of a deal.
Michelle Kesil (14:43)
Yeah, good.Marshall Sykes (14:43)
But also getting back furtheron that. the oil and gas business, you know, I was in the oil and gas business for 10 years, but when I first offered an opportunity to invest in an oil and gas deal, there was some education there. I mean, we had, there was some education as far as teaching folks how about oil and gas deals and why
a good time to invest right now because the market, the commodity prices are down for oil.
what happens when you do invest in an oil deal. so we went through a little bit of, some of us are technical, kind of what’s an oil well even about? Because, you know, I think when I first went to Exxon, I may not have understood this, and I know a lot of people don’t understand it, is that when you, most wells that you drill have oil and gas in them and other natural gas liquids in them. So you’re getting all three.
commodities out of that single well. But a lot of people think, hey, it’s just a natural gas well, or it’s an oil well. No, it’s a combination of it really is what they are. So there’s some technical details like that that help investors understand as well.
Michelle Kesil (16:42)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s important to share. What would you say your goals are for your business moving forward?Marshall Sykes (16:52)
Yeah, I’ve thought about that a lot as the end of the year is approaching here. What I want to do in 2026 and I will take a few days kind of just to get off and have a little retreat on that. My wife and I are going to do that for three days, probably and get away from the house and kind of think through the goals, what we want to do in 2026. I think one of them is always growing your investor community because there’s always other folks thatneed to hear the message or you want to help. ⁓ So that’s part of it. The other part is kind of doubling down on the folks that are in there. I mean, I guess there’s 200 or so who haven’t invested. So I want to make sure that they’re not left behind as well. And I’ve got may do some more personal reach out to them to see where they’re at and what they want to do in the future. Maybe some of them don’t want to be part of the community any longer. Maybe they find some other avenues or their situation has changed. So
I want to clean up some things on that. I also want to clean up some things on my businesses because I want to make sure that I’m solid all the way across the board. And I’ve been flying so much the last couple of years, I need to take some time and maybe the next six months and just kind of ease a little bit and get some things cleaned up before I dive into another adventure.
Michelle Kesil (18:17)
Yeah, definitely. I know you mentioned that networking is something that you really love to work on. Are there specific networking strategies that you have found made the biggest difference for you?Marshall Sykes (18:32)
I think, ⁓ well, I like the social situations and networking. So I like being in part of groups and I do call into several different groups each week on Zoom calls, but also do in-person conferences. So I’ve got three that I’ve already scheduled for in January that ⁓ are part of my investor masterminds that are hosting their own conferences. So I’m looking forward to networking there andSo I think in-person events really make a difference. like being on the Zoom calls because you get to connect with people that way too. But in-person is where you have the real deep relationships and the sidebar conversations. And really, you can learn from each other and understand where each other are in your investment journey, I guess.
Michelle Kesil (19:27)
Yeah, definitely. Those relationships are everything in this space.Marshall Sykes (19:34)
Most definitely, mean, think that’s the thing, because people invest when they trust, right? And so I’m able to see what they’re like, they’re able to see what I’m like, you know, so that’s in a real, in an in-person event that really makes a difference.Michelle Kesil (19:54)
Yeah. And are you holding in person events for your community?Marshall Sykes (19:58)
No, that’s one of, that is one of my goals for 2026 to think, to start doing that at a local area here, because I moved to a new area three years ago, but it’s basically back where I grew up in North Carolina, but there’s a lot of retirees here. So I kind of want to do a reach out to them to help them understand that there’s a type of investment they can get involved in, just not just with stock market investing.Michelle Kesil (20:26)
Yeah, absolutely. Is there like a specific real estate strategy that you give for your first timers that you find they have maybe the most easeful approach with?Marshall Sykes (20:42)
I think for them, I think it’s a matter of starting small and understanding, not really trying to do it on their own necessarily. mean, especially the folks that I’m after, they’re mostly executives or they’re ⁓ later in life. mean, so they’re not going to go out and do a fix and flip or anything like that.think…
The power of investing together as a community is what I’ll probably, that’s the approach I’ll use, that we can get better leverage terms with our sponsors if we invest together as a community. And that’s kind of, that’s what my sponsors will, they allow me to bring in folks like that so that we can have better terms than their own retail investors can get in a lot of cases.
Michelle Kesil (21:36)
What does that mean to invest as a community?Marshall Sykes (21:39)
Well, I put together a fund myself, so I’m a fund manager, and we all invest within that fund into a bigger, with a sponsor. So normally we bring a million to $2 million to that ⁓ investor, to that sponsor. And so when you cross the million dollar mark within a sponsor like that, you can usually get better terms than there. So for example,In the oil and gas business I’m in, they’ll give me 85-15 % split. So they’ll take a 15 % split, give us 85%. I’ll have a split within my fund, but even with that split within my fund, we have a better terms than an investor would have going directly to that sponsor. Because if they go directly to that sponsor, they’ll have a 70-30 split, normally where the
sponsor takes 30%, whereas our fund would probably, between the sponsor and my fund, they would probably have a 75 % stake instead of a 70 % stake. Let’s just call that for ease of numbers.
Michelle Kesil (22:56)
Yeah, absolutely. That makes sense. Thanks for sharing that. So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you and connect with you?Marshall Sykes (23:10)
Well, I love to connect with people, I’d love for them reach out to me. I have a site called investwiththecaptain.com that they can go to and they can download a free playbook on investing and it gives them a guide on different types of investments like oil and gas, pre IPO companies, multifamily. But they go to investwiththecaptain.com and they can and I’ll get their email and we can connect from there.They can also reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Michelle Kesil (23:42)
Perfect. Appreciate your time and your perspective. Thank you for being here.Marshall Sykes (23:47)
Michelle, thanks for having me. It’s been a pleasure today.Michelle Kesil (23:51)
And for the listeners tuning in, you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Marshall who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on the next episode.
