Kendrick Nguyen: "Democratizing Access to Startup Investing" | Talks at Google

So, Kendrick. You. Have an amazing life you started selling caviar, in high-end places in Las Vegas and, now, you propose, shares of ample food which is an organic brand, of food that is widely democratizing. Distributed, through micro. Investments. On, a very sustainable platform leveraging. Blockchain, and. Your, you have a legal, background you you are a former, fellow, at Stanford Law. And. You. Could, on your spare time but you don't want to say in front everyone at Google right so, that this video people say I'm non-technical. Particularly. In this room. So. The. First thing I want to ask you because we just used a lot of buzzwords there, in a very few sentences. Is. The story of four dogs, so there's a dog from angel list a, dog. From you, know the tech a dog, from Wall Street and the street dog right and all or normal dog and the. Dog from Angela says you know what I want more money what I do is that I leverage. Tokens from a blockchain to do micro investment, in startups. And. The, dog from Texas way worried what's, a micro investment, in a startup and the dog from Wall Street says hold, on what's what's a blockchain right, and the. Dog from the street says what's money because, he hasn't come up with a lot of money in his life so this. Is a you know I don't want it to be a dog-eat-dog situation, I want. Us to understand, every dogs perspective. In this so, how can you make it clear to you. Know to every, perspective we can have on this what. You're doing exactly and watch your company because your entrepreneur, a founder of Republic, which is a, part. Of Angel list what your company does and. That every dog would understand I love. That hypothetical. And I, think when it comes to investing, is definitely, not dog-eat-dog and it's more like dog feed dog world in, this one sense I think the easiest way to look, at money is, that it's a form of energy in a medium of exchange today. We use you know dollar here, the pound in, England. But. Anything, can actually be a medium of exchange so. You need money to, drive. That energy, and grow an idea, into, a business. Condition. Necessary, the. Question, is how. Do you get more people. To. Do that and how do you break this energy, down into smaller pieces and, if, you can do that through, blockchain, technology, then. You have that much more energy, directed, into this ecosystem, and net-net more. Ideas, will grow into more businesses, so. The way I look at investing, is that if you manage, to. Make and to encourage, everyone. To invest, even a tiny. Amount of money into. This whole ecosystem, and direct that money to where they believe the future, should be in, terms of entrepreneurship, and, companies. And products, then. Which is going to have that much more prosperous. Of an, ecosystem, overall, okay so the micro investment, part I get from this how, about the blockchain part, like why would you use blockchain. For this. The. Currently. The, reason why I would take it would cost probably. About. Twenty, fifty thousand dollars minimum if, you. Want to invest into real estate even, a REIT is, that, the cost of transferring. Of. Making. It possible, for people to buy a lot of you, know a stake in a building or home. Would. Be so high the cross processing, of validating. Of confirming, your interest, and but, when when you want to sell that interest it's going to be equally, burdensome. Blockchain. Technology, one, use case of it is fractionalization, and automation, if, you can break the Monalisa down. To a billion, pieces, you. Can have a billion people around the world owning, a piece, of the Mona Lisa yes. It's only worth probably, a fraction of a dollar but. You owning a piece of the mona lisa and that's, only able recently.

Through Proxy and technology, that you can fractionalize. Things. To that degree and, that. It cost next to not thing to. Transfer, a tiny, fraction, of an assets, between, two individuals I have, a feeling they all know that I mean she would have loved your idea right so. And. Be very interested, in the mechanism, so what I get from this is that this, micro, investment, which is a form of expression of crowdfunding, but more organized, right more on, a platform. You're. Standing somewhere between crowdfunding. And an IPO right, there. Is this middle space that, has not really been invested. Family, the word before in. Which. Initiatives. Need, money and why. Wouldn't you come at this earlier, than the formal IPO which return investment might not be so so, high because, now there's the technology, and if I notice, we're also the regulation, for this, early. Investing, naturally. Comes with high risk, and much higher return so, I think most people nowadays. This, ecosystem know, that uber, is about to file, for IPO, people. Who buying in post. IPO. Pretty. Much anyone who's not a millionaire. We. See a return or a depreciation. But you know 2 X 3 X or 20% loss, obviously, if you invested, $10, in, $400. In to Ober is very, first round on AngelList, today. That's going to be worth somewhere, between 1.5. To, 2 million dollars on face value so, getting. In early is definitely. A value, proposition. But. It wasn't, legal into 2016. Up. Until, two, and a half years ago you've, gotta be a, millionaire. To invest in private companies and, I'm glad they were is very different now all right and so that's when your legal background comes into play because you knew the law had just changed and they'd open a huge new opportunity, for people to invest because they don't need to have certain. To be certified investors. If I get this right and so. Then the. Question is how do we organize this to work efficiently for everyone right there am i right in this absolutely. Yeah so obviously, the law is there to make sure that people are now they're defrauding. You know grandmas and people with very, little. Dispensable, income. Now on the other hand. 99%. Of the world of the United States wealthiest, country, in the world 99. Percent of people have never made a private investment, so, they don't know what it is, everyone. Had taken a cab or a taxi, almost everyone before, ubers, so when they made it possible it, was just a natural leave what. We're trying to do is to get everyone, to do something, that they have never been done before, so it's a much more challenging. Journey. From. The branding, marketing exposure. As, well as legal and business alright, so I went, to your platform as part of the preparation, for this talk I, discovered. The breadth of products, that you have there it's amazing you go from ample, food which I mentioned. To. Some, more tech startups, can you tell us how do you curate the propositions, because I still, want to know that, my dollars are invested in place that is kind, of safer curated and I think you provide that service. Given. That Angeles, is our institutional. Co-founder, and our team, has. A heritage, back to the venture the VC lens so, we do apply some natural, lens is there credibility. Founders. Have domain expertise, on, the other hand I fundamentally believe, that, people should invest for. Any number of reasons maybe, they just want to support women founders maybe. They want to get, some return back from that food truck and not. Necessarily, a thousand, acts in a tech company, so. If the vision is to bill Amazon. For private, investing, where. You have thousands, and thousands of companies and millions and millions people participating. Then. One, of our core focus is to present as, many. Options, credible. Viable, options as possible and let, the crowd follow. Their heart and their head and make, the decision, for themselves all, right so I got, a better idea of what, you do at Republic, you.

Allow Everyone, to make micro, investments, even a few dollars without, overheads, because the technology, is there without, legal. Constraint, because the regulation, has changed, and there's, this new highway, of potential, investment, open. However. My mother told me never to gamble, you. Know and. I don't, know that I've been such a good son but, what. What would you say about the risk/reward and is this for everyone or is this something that you. Know how, do you reassure, me that you're not about to create the next subprime. Crisis, with your idea of course you, know even when it comes to gambling it's. Not so much you should never gamble I think that people should do whatever it is they wanted you if they are fully, aware of the, risk and the consequences. So, you know the gambling, likely. It's gonna result in total loss of money but you have a lot of fun doing it and you, can afford that $50, at the slot machine by, all mean in my opinion you, should do it obviously. The risk of gambling, is very high now when. It comes to early stage investing, the. Risk is still high not as high but every. Single year about. A hundred, billion dollars, are being spent at a casino not. By millionaires, mostly, by non-accredited. People. Another, 80 billions, dollars into a lottery ticket, can. You imagine what the world would be with Silicon Valley and, the, US and the world, at large would, be if, 10% of, that a hundred and eighty billion dollars per, year get, invested. Or, gambled. Informally. Into. New innovations. That has that opportunity to. Change our world so, basically, you're saying. The. Micro, investment, is worth the risk why do you have to lose it's a few dollars. What. Is what is the average amount, of people that people spend on your platform if, I may take. The, answer. One question about, money, this is my more like my personal, view I, think generally, from what I observe, how. People spend fall. Into three categories. One. Is the basic necessity, you know putting food on the table or buying toothpaste, feeding. Your kids you have kids the. Second, one is for enjoyment. For value you know you go out and buy a nicer jacket and you necessarily, need you take a kite surfing lesson, and the, third one is for. Growing. That. Capital, they were able they were enable you to do number, one and two, so. Obviously. Don't spend any money did you absolutely, need to feed yourself your, family in the casino, or in investing, for that matter when. It comes to micro, investing, $100. 500, dollars investing, not buying a product I think, it's a blend between, two and three it, is quite satisfying, if, I really, believe in, that food truck founder, and her food and her resilience, day-in day-out and, she, decides to fundraise. To build a Mexican, restaurant, and I invest $200. Into it you. Know if she doesn't make it I'm still. Rooting for her now, I'm investing $200,000. Into it I probably want, to know that, I can get you know the money back or, that she would do so well that I could make you know two or three times as much but, when it comes to micro, investing, you're gonna be you. Will be able to let people gamble. Or make. Informed, decision, and have fun between, two and three how, is, it different from crowdfunding. Let. Me give a very quick, definition, of crowdfunding. Kickstarter. IndieGoGo, whether, you go on and. Buy. A product that hasn't been made, that's generation.

One Of crowdfunding and. That's back in 2008 or so then, you have 2011. Angeles came into the, mix that allow millionaires. To Co, invest, into, tech deals so. That's the second, wave of it and when, Republic, launched in 2016. That allows anyone, anywhere, of any income in net worth invest. As little as 10 or 20 dollars into. Businesses. That's. Crowd. Investing. Still, crowdfunding. I think, all of us can agree that there's a different. Psychological. Attachment. When. You. Invest, when you have an interest, in something. Compared. To buying a product I used. To work for the guy who founded, Skyy Vodka and, I. Don't think there's a difference between absolute vodka, inside Skyy Vodka but. If you Bryce had. Made in 50. Dollar investment, into absolute, when. You go out to the bar with me. Every day you, can abide me absolute, shots you're, gonna serve, up that kind or that brand of vodka you, know over the holidays and July 4th so, that notion, of, engagement. Of commitment, of having skin in the game I think is what going to drive, Crowl investing, into a new trend and indeed. That's the underlying, foundation of. A token economy of, using. Tokens. To incentivize. Participants. All, right so what, I understand, is that crowdfunding might, be more before. There's a product. Micro. Investment, is at the early, stage when there is something and you know what you're investing into, but you still have attachment, because you're such an early contributor. To this that, you want to serve that vodka to your friends or or that strawberry juice and that you potentially get that return and share in that outside, is broke because. This is more or a return. On investment perspective. Than the crowdfunding which might be just you're buying something, really and paying. For it correct, and. It's, still early enough before, there, will be a. Stock. Exchange play. That. You have the the huge reward curve if you are investing on the right thing and that your your, passion, and your gut goes along with the market a hundred. Percent right so. Thank. You for all these explanations is already very very interesting, now, I would, like to to. Go on the step, further because you. Are in the middle of. A. Lot, of trends and each of them collide in what you are doing right now, how. Do you see the, future of of. Investment, because so let's, say that we public is the present, of investment because I can go to the Unruh per week with a big coup right it's, for everyone who wants to harm. That club, all. Right you. Got, rid of the M right, and so River big cool and what, your your. Platform, and how it works and operates. So. I understand, the past's, I understand. The present, and this this very new initiative, and interesting, way to see it how. Do you what. Are you going to launch what are you dreaming about how do you how do you foresee the future what, is your take on the future investment. First. Let me just share one, tippet about the, presence, and the, funding. Landscape I, don't, know how many people even here in, at. Google. And in the heart of Silicon Valley realized. That 50% 5-0. Of all venture, capital, go, to businesses. In California. Another. 50% go, to just, social apps. African-american. Founders african-american. Women founders are, responsible. For 30 billion dollar worth of Revenue her business is founded by African, American founders. Responsible. For tens of billions of dollars and statistically, 0, percent, get funded on certain years so. If we can agree that good. Ideas exists everywhere that. No community no, City no, heritage. Has, a monopoly, on. Innovations. That if. Funded. Can. Be true into the Google the Apple of the world ten and twenty years from now then. There's, a lot, of work to get done so. Now to answer your question what's the future I think the future is indeed. That. If. Not, 80, or 90%, then. 50, 60, 70 percent of adult, would. Look at micro, investing, 10, and 20 dollars at a time as. A way, as, a new, way as a new spending behavior. Similar. To or, adding. On to whatever else they have been doing think. Of it as a social engagement.

Almost. Like recycling, but. Adding, on to that potential, for. Growing. The. Capital, that de saving that you have and I, think there's. No question in my mind that. Amazon, for private investing, will. Be the future the, people will be investing, as easily, and quickly. And cheaply as, buying, a product on Amazon and once. We get there I think we can eradicate global, poverty, once and for all because. Investing. In a new day and age when technology. Uses not, increases. Jobs, how. Do you, lower. The. Income gap by. Allowing people to invest ten twenty thirty dollars, and have. That opportunity, to. You. Know get a major distribution, and, realize. Their potential in different ways Wow it's a pretty bold vision thank you for sharing it. One. Thing that I forgot to ask you how do you make money for, a republic out of out of this like we're you know how, do how, does your system operate financially, well currently, full disclosure we're about three years old we definitely are not making money, we're completely, venture-backed, losing. It, were very much in the red hopefully, one day we will be making money but, we have a cash commission, out of their mouth being raised as well as a small, interest. In, every, single company, that successfully. Raises on Republic, hmm so in a way if one, of the companies, that had raised on Republic, in. Ten, years, there's. An IPO it decides Oberoi Airbnb, then. Republic. Would do very well now. We're, going through an initiative that, we aim to tokenize. Our future, revenue, and give. Them back to, every user, and investor. And partner, on Republic, hmm, so that if and when we, get that major distribution. That. All the, hundreds, of thousands, of early, believers in Republic, can, benefit in that as well monetary. Wise so, he if I'm investing in ample, food on Republic, I'm also some high investing, in Republic, correct, so currently not yet currently. If you invest in ample food and if, they get bought out for 10x and you invest $100, you. Know give or take you're gonna get about a thousand dollars back. But. Very soon we, will be giving, for, for making an investment, on ample, food or in any project, let's, say a hundred Republic, tokens, each, token, at one point will. Represent a, portion. Of future, income that Republic, takes it ok, so, that imagine. Back when in the early day. When. Amazon just had, and companies, on the platform, and they. Had given out a billion tiny, little slivers, and. Each. Sliver, represent. Revenue, from each of the company, at the time it may not mean much but. Now 20, years later it can be very substantial, so. That's very interesting because what I understand, from this is that this way for you to monetize your services. For, one thing tells us that you you, have skin, in the game of the companies that are on your platform that, you believe in them enough that you took a small share yourselves, and the. System also allows. You to create the transaction, system that is completely. Zero. Cost right like like if I have a share of any. Company on your platform and in, five years they, are really doing super, well I can, divide my my token, in as many as I want because it's infinitely.

Divided. Dividable. Are you saying you can infinitely divide it and then. Transfer, this to anyone, globally, in the world without any overhead, or expense am i right in understanding this, yes. How. How. Much or how into how many pieces you break it down and. Who, to grant it to that's the realm of token economics, and. The different ways of incentivizing, people but absolutely, back. When Google, was still a private company. An. Employee, holding. A thousand shares. In. Order for her to transfer. It to her sister say. In Singapore. First. You gotta get the consent, of the company, then, you have to go through the transfer agent then, you have to sign probably. About four, set, of documents, both counterparties. Signing the, company would need to do background check a white CMA or on the sister and that's, why that process, is so inefficient, that. Transfer. Of private securities, even. Today's heavily. Have a limited. Blockchain. Technology, and. The. New, application. Of it in the, months and the years to come will make that process, even. More seamless. Than. Public, stock trading, today, and. I again, it would just bring that, more of that energy that. Feed into these, budding. Companies. Around the world. And. I want to talk about the other side, of the equation so we were right when we talked about, how. You are castrated platform, we talked and what liberated. This initiative on the basis of technology, and regulation, changing we. Talked about the the the part, of the people who need funds we talked a little bit about the part of the the, investors let's. Say tomorrow I want to monetize, something that has never been monetized, before so, let's take an example that at Google we talked about a lot or we hear about a lot which. Is our data people, say to me all the time how, about my data it has value you know and. You use that value and there's, a huge conversation because, I think they gain value, against, that value from using the services for free and yeah it's, a topic from DC, to, Europe. Down to the private citizen yes and right now it's it's like a very. Top. Of mind topic for everyone, especially in this day and age so let's, say tomorrow, populations. Wanted to monetize, their data right, that they would say all right let's create a. Platform. Together. To put our data together maybe, individually, mighty resonant worth so much but. Maybe as part of, I, don't know my. Income level in. On, the west coast or I'm, French so as part of the French community living abroad or you know any identity, maybe some companies, would be interested, in purchasing, some of my data could. I use a platform, like Republic, and the. New regulation. And the, arrival of blockchain, to. Somehow put my data wittingly, knowingly, on the market and decide. How my data is going to be purchased, traded, board and so on in a way that I feel to be transparent, and empowered. Absolutely. Certainly, not on Republic, today because we're currently a more, of an investment platform, but. There are two, elements, of, blockchain technology, that would in my opinion solve. In. Major. Ways or in meaningful ways the, data privacy, concern. One. Is that security, but, decentralized. So. That you don't have to worry about a, sin. A party, holding. All relevant, information getting. Hacked and so, that in imbibe itself does ease the, security, concern, and the, second, one one of the men. Using. Probably, my own, psychological. Attachment. Or assessment, of this. Particular data, question. And I, think that even though yes I agree to the terms but, I didn't know quite that I was consenting. To providing. All of these, personal, information, and data to. A couple, central parties and I'm, certainly not feeling. Like I'm being incentivized, by, it. If. You apply a token economy around, it and enable. People to make. Money. When. Or, share in that that. Economic value. Of data and. A. Choice to opt out I think you're gonna get so much opting, in, that. Net. Net it benefits, everyone and it still serve that. Same purpose, of using. Data to analyze, to, produce. And, put our better products, that sort of you know human at large as a community, all right so I took a very extreme case because, very Dimity realized or people's data but. What I understand, from this discussion up to now is that, the, shift in. Paradigm that, you're here to talk. To us about is. Both democratizing. The investment. And what, is being proposed. For investment, and creating. This new space in which people for, the price of a lottery ticket could actually apply.

Value. To their values value. To their commitments, participate. To things that are already there and that are already started, and visible and gain. The traction, of early investment, and that this is probably going to profoundly, reshape, the, way we create monetization. Out, of, various elements of investment, that today are still. Believed, to be very restricted, to, a system, with a cost base with knowledge, and expertise, and that may be tomorrow all these things are going to fly out the window and will be available for a lot of people truly, democratized. A hundred, percent I think, the next Facebook. The, first investors, in the next Facebook. Should. Not be Peter. Thiel's of the world but. Be the 500, door maids of the. Founders, hopefully. It doesn't have to be a Harvard it can be a women's college out of Pakistan and, that, the next wave of founders, can be a single mom in Ecuador, reading. About it and putting in 10 and 20 dollars and that, by the time the bangs into eventual, funds or whatnot get in, everyone. Else getting more and more and that when does an IPO. Event, like. The one is going to produce a hundred thousand, millionaires, in the Bay Area that they're, gonna be hundreds, of thousands, of people. Benefiting. Or at the same time so, I think the last. Wave. Of venture capital, the last thirty years has produced has. Lifted. 1.3. Billion, people out, of abject poverty, in the world we've been living, in the most in, a, better time than ever before. But. The much. Of the fruits of it in terms of wealth has, gone back to the wealthiest, and institutions. If. We, can encourage, everyone, and, make. It possible a small. Amount for, everyone, to buy in I think. The. Word twenty years from now will. Probably be almost like sci-fi, fiction where, they're very little, you. Know the. Wealth is just across the board standard, of living can, be lifted from all corners of the world alright well, thank you so much this was very enlightening I loved both preparing, this with you and having this conversation time. For us to open to the rest of the audience. Any. Question. Any comments. Anything, you, would like to ask and Rick please, so. I went. To the, platform, and there is one thing I don't understand, here. When, I invest, a certain amount do, I get equity. In, the company, do, I like own 2%. Of that startup. Now or how does, that work so, each of the deals. On, the investment, and thank you so much for for joining. Each of the do is on the platform, has, its own set of terms some, of the companies are already venture backed they've, raised tens of millions of dollars and now they just want to bring.

Provide, An opportunity for, their customers, and fans to get in so. Typically, would say evaluation. For, example, the document would say that you're investing, a thousand dollars and at. The company's, valuation, of ten. Million dollars, so. Usually. What investing, what that means is that later on if Google buys, that company, at a hundred million then. You would get a hundred acts give, or take on your, own personal, investment, so. In a way yes, its skin. In the game is buying in it's not sure there's a range. Of distinction, between shares, and stock and debt and save. And convertible, notes but. The general, thesis is very much the same that if the company, does well you. Will do well proportionally. So as well to. Contrast, against buying a product or, making a loan and get a fixed income return. Back so. Sharing. In that success in that growth I think is a, psychological. Satisfaction. And validation, that a lot of people in tech have, experience. Has. That answered your question and to. Be very clear for everyone who hears this. Because. We all understand, the concept of share and being a shareholder. When. I invest, who Republic, what, am I and what do I have how. Do you call this what is it you're, an investor, okay but in most cases you're, not a shareholder yet. You're. Just an investor, to make it simple, for the company, and the founders, so. In fin tack is, a confluence. Of law and regulations. In the one hand and innovation, on the other end so. You have a set of laws that was written some 80 years ago at the time when the. World we live in wasn't. Even on anyone's mind and, how, to apply these rules, to. Make it possible for a word now that you can have a million investors. At a very early stage into, it. Because. Of that need their, new instruments. Like convertible, notes like, to save etc. But, you're an investor, shareholder. Not is far less material, but, typically, at, one point you will become a shareholder and, then, you get payout in cash now alright so and what, would be that point like when do you make the shift. From being an investor, to being a shareholder, yep so the. Instrument, that we created. To make it possible for founders, and companies, to deal with so many people, is, that if and when they, experience. A liquidity, event, meaning a merger acquisition or, going, IPO, then. They will convert everyone, into shareholders, and then. Because you're a shareholder you get payout or get cash down and then, leave the company alright, because, otherwise if, you keep ten, million, shareholders. On the cap table the. Cost of administering, it is exceedingly. High to, comply with corporate. Laws all right Barry thank you so much for the question, very very good question and thank you so much for your little answer I have. A question I see your initial coin offerings, it's, many. Startups, are doing that in the last few years and frankly. Most, of them are just scams, you, know they you need a, coin and get pen 20 million dollars and not. Doing anything then. SEC, start regulating, that for for, bigger icos. So, what's. Your view on you know smaller ones which are still happening in Silicon. Valley and sometimes, in one world, I. Think that's a great question, you. Know when, the. Ico boom in, 2017. In 2016. It. Gave all of us a republic you know, warm and fuzzy feelings, all over, because, is. A true real life validation. Of our model, in the future where. Thousands. Of individuals, and not venture capitalists, financed, random, projects, and companies not, here in Silicon Valley not out of Google but can be out of Singapore or, wherever so. Crowd. Investing. In. Its best form, was. I CEO back in 2020, 16 now. It was done in. A non-compliant, way with. US securities, law sue, the law caught, on and so, now you apply laws and regulations, many, of which are meant to prevent, fraud. And scams. Perpetuated. On the investing, public but. It does come with bells and whistle so, it makes it a little bit more difficult, for people to participate. Know your customer anti. Money laundering and, whatnot so you seeing a, in. Many ways a healthy. Contraction. Of that, type of financial. Products but. At. Republic, we're trying to make that compliant. And easy and get back to one point when.

A Credible, project can. Raise ten, 20 million dollars without, having to go and pound the pavement and, Sand Hill Road because. She happens to be not living in America, and not economically, possible to do that so. I'm very optimistic about. Blockchain. Technologies, and. Startups. That are built or leveraged their technology in the long run and. Republic itself is applying some of that as well oh and. I wanted, also to you. Know highlight, something and, I will just let you answer to this but you, could say I'd Republic we do this and repair it would be only you in a garage in Palo Alto or, it could be a you. Know bigger, team, so can you tell us a little bit more about you, know under the hood like your organization. How many people you are where they are located yes. And. Definitely. I was. General, Counsel for, angeles and we spun, out and, set up shop in new york because that's. The seat of the capital market and most people still have never invested, privately, so. Our team probably. Slightly different, than, a lot of true tech startup, in the valley, but we're pretty equal, purposely, so between engineering. Business. And then. Obviously compliance. Being an investment, company I do, about 50 of us have. Most in New York there's, a small office in San Francisco, among, the team the seven former, attorneys, and business. Or engineer. To. Navigate, this confluence, of legal and innovation, and. We, have a mildly. Distributed, team but, there's still a core team. Based out of New York alright so and and here what I what, I meant to to, get from you which I do get is that this is not just you or two, or three people in, a graph this is like. Solidly. Enough organized already that, you have some very serious people in every department of this making, sure that this work is sustainable, and this efficient, and compact and oh absolutely because. We're so, heavily regulated, for touching, retail. Investor. I think we've been audited, something like a dozen terms by, FINRA and the SEC in, two and a half years that's why we're so many lawyers in-house. We. Have on the business bench, people, who background. Experience, at Blackrock. At, McKinsey, one. Of our founding adviser founded. The Malala fund whose. Work got Malala the Nobel Peace Prize so. Influencer. Service and what have you chasing. Kid the athlete, is a key, millionaire the rapper are. Both, advisers. And influencers, for us so. To. Do, and to build on this vision it takes more than a village it, takes partnership. And the. Goodwill of people. Across all different. Sectors of society I know, that is very hard to determine a valuation of a company particularly, very, early on so, what. Is Republic's involvement, in valuing. A company, before they. Create. An offering on your site and how, will that scale as you have thousands. Or millions of companies on, your platform. Thanks. Again for the question and valuation in due diligence, so, in the past two and a half years we've gotten I, think by now almost 5,000. Applications and, we've, done due diligence on depending. On the level of due diligence but on all of them and we've. Launched, less than 5% on. Republic. When. It comes to valuation. There's, actually, no real math particularly, for an early company, your. Valuation, is whatever investors, are willing to invest in you so, we. Look, at if. They have raised money before, then. Use, that as a potential. Point, of data if. They have never raised money, before, then, we want to make sure that it is at least in line with. The, current eco. System to give you an example why, see startups, typically, raise at about ten fifteen. Million. Dollars in valuation, pre-product. Pre-market, just two dudes in New. York the same team out of New York City would, be probably twenty five thirty percent less in valuation because. Venture, capitalists, in New York aren't, just as willing to fund a company. That's about you at 15 million pre-market, so.

Applying. All of these relative, lens that, we pass. A reasonableness. And it's still up to the founders, to do their work and convince. Investors. And strangers, and families, and friends, to make that investment. Kendrick. What are some of the challenges of, expanding. These investment. Opportunities, to international. Markets outside. Of the US. Thanks. Could be on, our platform, today, the. Companies, have to be based in the US for now even. Though we have partnership, with different, platforms, in other continents, but we have investors from like 30 or 40 countries. Around, the world investing. On Republic. Going. Back to a writer try statement, that good ideas exist everywhere I. Really, look forward to today where you know people here, and in New York at. Lunch time go. On it look at a bunch of companies in Africa or Latin America, and this, our small, amount and, happened. To bill and make meaningful. Businesses. That create jobs in those regions, so. The future is very much global when it comes to entrepreneurship, you. So you talked about Michael investing, and you must $27, a company but. Given, the high base of early-stage startups, one, has to us. Many more say 100, 200 companies to ever reach the VSM returned so, how, do you thin the average on talk I managed such a large, portfolio. When. It comes to the very. High risk of Asia investing, the name of the game is diversification, as, you mentioned, so on, Angeles is an example at, the minimum amount, usually. It's higher than $1,000. But, the, lowest is gotta be a thousand dollars, that's. A lot of money for, most, people in this world if. You can reduce that down to $100 and allow $10, investment into. Ten companies, that. Changes, the landscape of things and hopefully at one point we can even bring it down to like five dollars or two dollars my, family immigrated, here from Vietnam, and I. Remember when we first moved here my mom used to send back like, 100 dollars a month to a couple, of her sisters the transaction. Fee on, that transaction, was, I think thirteen or fourteen dollars to. The sister in a larger city and like, seventeen dollars to someone in a smaller town. Which. Is absurd but. It was that's what everyone lived with now. In a day given. A Vietnam is very warm. To like crypto technology you. Can make the same transaction, in a fee be less than a dollar so. And, we're - we're like 2 a.m. into, this new day so, I have no doubt that a couple years out a person. With a $50, saving. Not, the money that she needs to put food on the table would. Be able to deploy their $50, into 10 or 20 companies and still, potentially, get a meaningful return, out of it net net down the road is. This micro transaction, model really, better than the angel The Syndicate model where you have some professional that goes in and that's. They invest. Like their company's a little better first because. We know that even some of the best investors, don't actually succeed. Better than the S&P 500 so. The. Question about venture. Validation, an elite investor, investing. Is, addressed, in two different ways, just. Because you allow Michael investing, it doesn't mean that you wouldn't have, that validation, so. I think 27. Or 28 percent, of the companies, on Republic. Had, been venture, backed so. Already went through that lens now, on the other hand the. Problem with, venture, investing, is that a fund, like Sequoia. Would only pick startups, that they think, potentially. Can, give them the proverbial, unicorn. 50x, at the very least 20, X 5 X not, interesting, is not enough that fits into the economic, model if. You have two. Founders, building a business in, East Oakland, there, will never be more than a. 20 million dollar company, but, that creates 500. Jobs for. Single, moms in East Oakland, and you, happen, to just want to support that particular, business and get. Two or three acts back that. Currently, you. Don't have that that Avenue, on Angeles. Or with any venture fund so, I view vendor entrepreneurship. And investing, it has to be Silicon. Valley has done a lot of good but, that's like v2. We're. Now ready for like that next stage that people. Have a say in, the type of businesses, they get financed and that will you, know create a word that we really living in 10 years from now you, mentioned, that, Republic. Will take a portion. Of the, companies that are on your platform can you share what that is and is that consistent, for, each company yes, so currently I'm just gonna use a very. Specific use, case so. There's a. Company. That raised, on Republic, when, we first launched six. Months out and now, she has gone on to raise additional capital from, VC the. Founder. Latina. Mom who, was working for a, corporate, incorporate.

For A grocery chain doesn't. Have a technical, background doesn't, fit the lens of someone, who, would get venture backing, and she. Just needed that 5060. Thousand dollars to build. Out a first model hire. An, you, know an engineer and a business person and grow so. We were like alright we think that she's incredible. And resilient, and her experience. Saving. Money is so relevant to building a business so, we launched a campaign and, she raised about, $80,000. A lot. Of it was financed, by you, know Latino, American professionals, in the Bay Area and Beyond, out. Of that $80,000. The, time and money that we've deploy into it was probably, I'm gonna guess 20,000. It being the very first project, but, the math is that we get 6%, out. Of their mouth successfully. Raised so. 6% of 80,000, plus. We get a, security. Interest, in her company worth. Two percent of the amount raised so in this case a sixteen hundred dollars, worth of her equity. If. She, she's building, an. Employment. Training platform. That. Trains, very, low level, employees. To mid-level management. The. Shopping. Bag, cashier. At Safeway, and lucky, into. Assistant. Manager if. She, somehow becomes, the LinkedIn of the world that one point six so, that one sixteen. Hundred dollars stated we have may be worth millions, and if that's the case we're gonna send that back to investors. On thank, you so much candy for joining and I want to thank you for two things the first thing is sharing, with us your, knowledge and, your, on your experience, and your you, know your company's. History. And life and mission which was very interesting, and the, other thing also is I want to thank you for sharing your story because it's very inspiring, you being you know coming from Vietnam, having. Grown to be a. Stanford. Fellow. At Stanford, Law becoming. An entrepreneur connecting. Back to the world giving, it back to the world as you know it will we we, really embrace diversity, we. Want not, only diversity but Inclusion, like it's not only your in the nightclub or invited to dance right so inclusion. And what. Everything you say. Spins. The positive lights on on, the world, on. How it's doing and how it's going to become and on, these values that we hold very dear and your living example of those values connecting. Technology to. Good business to good to good value and initiatives, from people respecting, what we call here respecting the opportunity.

And. All these in great ethics and transparency so, thank, you for all of this it was a pleasure having you I'm so thrilled to have had you today you know and I'm looking forward to everything that's going to happen for Republic in the coming year and I. Want to wish you the best of success thank you so much Brice is truly an honor to be here and I want to thank everyone for having, me I think, the model of, do good is, something that's like close to my heart Google. Is the first company that put do good together with profit and that's. What gave rise to Republic. And you know on the personal level is incrementally, we do what we can to live, up to something that you guys have perpetuated. Or throughout the globe so thank you so much all right later thank you. You.

2019-04-13 03:17

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