The Money Mondays
How Retail Investors Beat Wall Street (The Rich Hate This) w/ Darren Marble 💵 E99
Mon, 09 Dec 2024
Darren Marble knows something that Wall Street doesn't want YOU to know, and he's going to share it with us, along with many more business and marketing topics, in this episode. --- Darren Marble is the CEO and founder of CrowdFundX, a leading digital marketing agency specializing in raising capital for private companies through online platforms. He is also the co-founder of Going Public, a groundbreaking television series that showcases companies going public via Regulation A+ offerings. Additionally, Darren is the founder of Issuance, a technology company that simplifies the process of issuing securities and managing investor relations for private companies. Like this episode? Watch more like it 👇 Why You Must NOT Miss Out on the Modern Day Gold Rush w/ Sean Holmander: https://youtu.be/Y8quALjs2hE Matt Morgan, the Cannabis King's Secret to Managing the MOST Volatile Portfolio: https://youtu.be/ILnM-alJB1E The Secret to Turning Your Passion Into a Million Dollar Empire w/ Danielle White: https://youtu.be/0dlLoC2TUGw Dan Martell: The Man with the Cheat Code to Money: https://youtu.be/xj_y30BXEyo Watch ALL Full Episodes Here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6k --- The Money Mondays is a business podcast here to teach you how to make money, invest money, and donate money by showcasing some of the world's most successful people and how they do the same. Hosted by serial entrepreneur Dan Fleyshman, the youngest founder of a publicly traded company in history, this money podcast gives you an exclusive behind the scenes look at how the wealthiest celebrities, entrepreneurs, athletes and influencers make, invest and donate money. If you want to learn more business and investing while you work to improve your financial life, you're in the right place! Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@themoneymondays?sub_confirmation=1 Dan Fleyshman, The Money Mondays Learn more here: https://themoneymondays.com Watch all the podcast episodes: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs0D-M5aH-0IOUKtQPKts-VZfO55mfH6k Let’s Connect... Website: https://themoneymondays.com Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-money-mondays/id1663564091 Twitter: https://twitter.com/themoneymondays LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-money-mondays/about/ TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@themoneymondays FB: https://www.facebook.com/The-Money-Mondays-110233585203220/
Chapter 1: What are the most exciting aspects of the financial markets?
Alternatives are maybe the most exciting aspect of the financial markets right now. Investment opportunities that are not public. Alternatives are startups. They are secondaries, maybe secondaries in Anduril or Stripe, big, big multi-billion dollar private companies, but where there's demand for those securities. This market is maybe the fastest growing market in US capital markets right now.
Chapter 2: Who is Darren Marble and what is his background?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Money Mondays. We are sitting here inside of an RV motorhome in Beverly Hills, California. I had podcasts lined up all throughout the day and I happened to be scrolling through social media and saw my next guest was in Beverly Hills also. Normally he's in New York and Tokyo and flying around the planet working on...
financial things in the public markets crowdfunding Etc and so I noticed he's right down the street and so I convinced him to come over here and do this episode so I'm really excited we've been friends for I don't even know how many years now it's got to be 8 9 10 11 12 years and so timing wise it worked out perfectly and that's the concept of an RV motorhome is it removes friction I would have driven over to wherever he was I often do that for celebrities athletes and business moguls I drive this
motorhome to them to remove the friction to remove the timing and so it is serendipitous that our guest is here today because he happened to be in town now over his career i'm gonna let him get into it he has been a lot of his time in the crowdfunding space that's where i first met him and i watched him build that up and watch him help raise tens of millions of dollars for multiple different companies to help them with their businesses so we'll get right into that so if you can mr darren marble please give your quick two minute bio so you get straight to the money
Dan, thanks so much, man. It's awesome to be in here with you. The last time I was checking this out, I think we were in Temecula filming part of season two of What's Your Star of going public. So serial founder, born and raised in the Bay Area, came to UCLA for college, dropped out of UCLA, got into sales. Sales took me into entrepreneurship, and now I'm a serial founder.
I own and operate two companies that are in the online capital raising space. So I have a FinTech company, Issuance, which is like a processing engine for securities. It's like Stripe for securities or Stripe for capital.
And then as you know, I'm a producer of a show of which you're a star called Going Public, which is like Shark Tank where viewers can learn about exciting companies like Cards and Coffee. and ultimately click to invest and buy shares in featured companies while they watch.
I would say, in summary, my mission and kind of what drives me in these companies is a very simple idea that customers deserve an opportunity to be owners in companies, regardless of your net worth, your income,
And now there's new laws in the United States that permit everyday Americans to buy shares in companies like Cards and Coffee or thousands of others that are turning to their communities to help fuel the next stage of growth of their businesses.
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Chapter 3: What is the concept behind Going Public?
So goingpublic.com, someone goes there, they watch this show there. Where else can they watch it? How did you come up with it? Walk us through what is Going Public.
So it's a show like Shark Tank where we follow the stories of founders building their businesses, raising capital. And now we've infused the format with apprentice style challenges. So for instance, if you haven't watched, we put Dan in a boxing ring with Floyd Mayweather. Yes, we did. And the lights go on and it's boom, there's Floyd, the greatest boxer alive.
And you're at the Money Mayweather gym. And your challenge was to pitch your business while sparring with him. That is you and the other founders out of their comfort zone. And that's what makes this show exciting. It's what makes it authentic and entertaining. Season one was much more of a documentary style. Put a few million dollars into the production. We got a startup documentary.
I went to my partner the other year and said, if this is going to be bigger than Shark Tank, it needs to be more interesting. We have to have a true reality format here. Like kidnapping me? Like kidnapping you at your own ranch, nonetheless. The origin of this company is my co-founder, Todd Goldberg, pitched me on this idea in 2017. We were at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in New York.
I was involved in an IPO where the retail investor, Everyday Americans, were actually able to buy IPO shares. And it was unique. It was an historic deal. And he said, Darren, what if we were to create a show like Shark Tank where viewers can invest? And I said, Todd, as you're a very good friend, I'm here to tell you this is a very bad idea.
I've heard this pitch myself 100 times, and you're not the only guy that's pitched me on this. And he was kind of shocked. Todd is not a guy who likes to hear no, which ultimately makes him a good co-founder for me. He said, OK, this is such a common idea. Where do I watch it? And of course, it didn't exist. And what we realized in that moment is that it's a very complicated business to execute.
So we figured out what were the components that we would need to put together to produce this show. We need production, we need capital, we need technology, we need a business model, we need a distribution partner. Who's gonna put this show out where their audience can potentially invest money into a company that may or may not be successful? Maybe a company fails.
So we were trying to answer these questions, liability, risk, compliance. And it's taken us seven years, you know, to put out two seasons. And now we're on our way into production for season three and hopefully a lot more next year.
Now, behind all that is a company called Issuance. Explain that. That is the more technical, important structure, which all things need, all sexy, cool things need infrastructure in the back end. What is Issuance?
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Chapter 4: How does Issuance facilitate online capital raising?
Issuance is a software platform. It's a platform that supports various kinds of online capital raising. So we have a product for campaigns which are known as regulation crowdfunding campaigns. This is a capital raising tool that's been in effect since 2016 that allows companies, startups, to raise up to $5 million from anyone over the age of 18 globally.
But to host a Reg CF campaign, you have to work with a FINRA regulated funding portal or a FINRA regulated broker dealer. So we're regulated. This is a regulated software platform. It's Shopify for shares or Stripe for shares. But ultimately, it's a subscription engine.
It's a software that allows retail investors to buy shares in a startup using their credit card, debit card, cash app, ACH or wire transfer. It's mobile optimized so that the everyday American, the retail investor, can buy shares in a startup on their phone and check out using Apple Pay.
same way we buy products when we see an ad on instagram so we've really worked to make this software super slick really fast checkout it's about 45 50 seconds and compliant with sec rules and regulations it's taken us many years and many millions of dollars to kind of build out so let's say someone has a company and they're like oh i'm gonna google search crowdfunding crowdfunding campaign
Why should they consider doing a crowdfunding and what are the options?
Really good question. So just like any kind of capital raise, you know, raising capital for your business under Reg CF, for instance, it's not a fit for everyone. Typically, the companies that raise the most capital have a community of customers, fans, and followers.
So if you're listening, you're watching, if you have a brand that's been established for several years, you're doing a few million in revenue, you've got a big email list, highly engaged email list, you have a real authentic and engaged community, you're a great fit to raise capital under reg CF. You have a community that you can very easily turn into investors.
Conversely, if you're an AI guru who sold your last company for a billion dollars and you're starting your next business, but you don't have that natural audience, you're actually not a good fit.
So, you know, we, we try to work with companies and figure out which businesses are actually going to have success raising capital this way, because it tends to favor the brands that have existing communities.
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Chapter 5: What are the prerequisites for a successful crowdfunding campaign?
You know, this is the rich getting richer. And what I believe is that real wealth can be created and should be created by everyday Americans, regardless of how rich you are, how successful you are. You shouldn't need to stroke a million dollar check or a 10 million dollar check into a business to be able to earn a real return, to earn a venture style return.
So what we're doing is we're working to level the playing field. and make it exciting. The whole purpose of this show is to provide entertainment, insight, education, and access. Access to exciting investments that the average person has never had access to until now. And that's what we believe in.
So we have a lot of entrepreneurs that listen, business owners, and they start to accumulate some wealth. They go from making 80 grand to 100 grand, 150 grand, quarter million, hopefully more. They start to bring in some real income. How do they decide when there's so many options? I can invest in cryptocurrency, real estate. I can invest in XYZ company. I can do private equity.
I could just put it into a CD. I could do an S&P 500. So many things that people can do. How should they be thinking about researching and figuring out what the heck to invest into?
It's a very good question. You know, I think there's a common adage and it's probably been said before on your show, which is invest in what you know. Right. So everybody has some level of expertise, whether they know it or not. A lot of people have expertise.
They don't think they're experts, but they are relative to someone else down the street that doesn't have three years, four years of experience doing whatever they're doing. Investing in what you know is a good starting point.
You're never going to be an expert in five sectors, 10 sectors, but maybe you're an expert or you have some knowledge or some advantage in one because you worked at a business, you started a company in some sector, you're passionate about consumer products or medical devices because you have a family member that had some issue and you've got some knowledge.
I think that's one thing is kind of investing in your passions, things you are knowledgeable about. That's going to make it a little bit easier. And what's cool about this industry is that the retail investor can invest $100 into Cards & Coffee or another company in our show or outside of the show. You don't need to put in your life savings. In fact, of course, you shouldn't.
So not to say that the person that's investing $100 shouldn't do any due diligence, but at minimum, I like the idea of people investing into things they know they have some expertise in. That's maybe a good starting point.
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Chapter 6: Why should consumers invest in startups or midsize companies?
Why do you think that corporations should include some charity or philanthropy into their business?
You know, that's a good question. I've thought a little bit about this lately, and I don't know that every business needs to or should have some kind of charitable component. My personal thought is that that's a very personal thing.
concept now you're somebody who's incredibly passionate and committed to giving back and i admire that about you i don't know that every founder that runs a business necessarily needs to have that but i think it does make sense for certain businesses We are in talks with a company. It's a hot sauce company. It's a cool company. It's called The Crippling Company.
The founder of the business is a young guy's kid, really. His name is Drew. And he suffers from cerebral palsy. And he's in a wheelchair. And he has not let that stop him. So Drew wanted to start a business when he was in high school. I think he was a senior. And he was in like a business class competition. And he told his professor he had an idea to start a hot sauce company.
And it was going to be the next big thing. And his professor said, this is unrealistic. And gave the kid a B minus. And that was his inspiration to start the crippling company. She's like, he's making fun of himself. You know, he's calling himself a cripple, a crippling company. And the names of the hot sauces are similarly, you know, funny and kind of have humor.
Anyways, he took $3,000 he had saved up, started the business, and they'll hit $5 million in sales this year. What? $5 million. They've sold over 400,000 bottles of hot sauce. The crippling company. And... 5% of the revenues of this business go to a cerebral palsy foundation. And so I think that for his business, that makes sense. And maybe for another business, it makes sense.
So I think it really comes down to the founder. Who is the founder? What are they passionate about? Do they think it's appropriate to give back? And maybe they can.
So in every episode, I ask this question, and I've never gotten the same answer.
Darren Marble, you have multiple children, and you're involved in a lot of companies, you have equity in a lot of companies, and over the years, you may accumulate tens of millions, hundreds of millions, who knows, maybe even billions of dollars that Darren Marble accumulates over the course of time, going public, season 74. What percentage do you leave to those kids?
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Chapter 7: What risks and rewards come with investing in alternatives?
It's starting to really get exciting in terms of the execution, the tangible results, and there's maybe some wealth accumulation just now starting to happen. And I've spent 20 years of my life to get to the moment where it's just now getting exciting. It's been 20 years grinding, failing. I don't know if you know all the details, but I've been hacked, stalked, sued, extorted along the way.
I know some of those you can relate to, maybe others not. Anyways, it's been a long journey. I don't want my children to come into a world in the future. If these companies are big, you know, big success, which I hope they are for my sake, my investor's sake, my family's sake. I would never imagine just laying it out for, for my children where they don't know the value of hardware.
Here's $70 million. Yeah.
And maybe that's old school, but like, You know, I think there's value in learning how to commit to something for many, many years and to work hard for many, many years. And we live in an era where there's a lot of younger people that maybe don't have the work ethic of you or me. It's different generations, different time.
But I think personally, it's really important to instill a work ethic in my kids. So at minimum, they're going to be working and they're going to learn and I don't care what they do. Maybe they can serve fries. Maybe they can do something else. But, you know, they need to be working and learning and kind of earning their keep over time.
Where can people find you, find the TV show, find Issuance? Walk us through the things you talked about. Where can people find it on social?
You can watch the Going Public series on goingpublic.com. If you're looking to raise capital and you've got a massive community, you should check out issuance.com. Find me on Twitter at Darren Marble. And this was awesome. It's a real treat to be in here with you, D.
So as you guys know, I've been keeping this commercial free for over a year and a half now. We've done nearly 100 episodes. We stayed in the top five on both business and entrepreneur category for 90-something weeks in a row. And it's up to you guys. Your support to like, comment, subscribe, and share is what keeps us going. It's what drives us.
You going to themoneymondays.com and watching and supporting there and sharing that. All those things are what are important.
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