On this episode, Jason Baxter and Chris Powers take a look at the last year for Fort Capital and discuss how their team evolved and prepared for scale, Jason's transition to CEO, company highlights, and thoughts on their strategy, and why 2021 was a record year for Fort Capital.  Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OSDF2GK5two Lex Sisney's Organizational Physics (03:09) - Reflecting on Previous Reviews 2018 Year in Review 2019 Year in Review 2020 Year in Review (05:28) -  Transitioning Jason into CEO & Learning from Lex Sisney (11:36) - Jason’s Growth in 2021 (15:53) - Leadership Communication and Structuring Executive Meetings Good 2 Great by Jim Collins (23:54) - Getting Deliberate With How Actions Impact Fort’s Flywheel (30:01) - Fort’s Purchases in 2021 & Improving the Acquisition Process (42:16) - 2022 Deal pipeline (46:57) - Identifying the Need for a Director of Leasing (51:51) - Aligning Incentives Across Departments (56:05) - The Importance of Bringing Fresh Eyes to Look at the Business (1:00:15) - COR’s Impact in 2021  (1:14:03) - Thoughts on Growing Investor Pool (1:18:07) - Growing the Property Management Side of the Business (1:24:26) - Where We are Heading into 2022 The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

Chris Pate, Managing Director of independent wealth management firm True North Advisors, spent the first 11 years of his career at a multi-strategy hedge fund. Prior to True North Advisors, Chris spent 8 years managing the investment activities for Western Commerce Group in Fort Worth. Chris oversaw both public markets and private investments within Western’s investment advisory operations, including equities, fixed income, alternatives, and hard assets.  On this episode, they discuss what Chris learned while working at a hedge fund, how True North selects and underwrites GP sponsors. They chat about capital allocation decisions in today's market, best practices when thinking about wealth management, and Chris' thoughts on the market. Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ (01:58) - Chris’ Career with Q Investments & the Hedge Fund industry (05:27) - How Hedge Funds Determine Where To Focus Their Attention and When to Move Along (12:15)  - Transition into Wealth Management and Chris’ Current Role with True North (22:25) - What is a Multi-series LP? (24:20) - The Difference Between Private & Public Investments (28:35) - How do you identify good portfolio managers? (38:38) - What are things that are immediate No’s for you? (45:36) - What are some reasons companies want to get into a larger fund? (47:51) - How are some people so good at raising money without a track record? (50:03) - How much time do you spend on references? (52:35) - How much weight goes into due diligence when you are familiar with other folks in a deal? (55:43) - How do you underwrite hedge fund managers vs. private investment managers? (56:52) - How do you think about deal structures? (1:00:47) - How do you think about the movement behind the democratization of capital? (1:03:33) - Does more alpha exist in direct deals than anything public? (1:04:18) - How do you think about capital allocation? (1:10:54) - Is there any reason that would cause you to not continue investing in specific funds? (1:13:24) - What are your thoughts on the current market? (1:21:06) - Final Thoughts on True North and Working With Entrepreneurs The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

Tyron McDaniel is the Owner of Houston Vintage Homes, focused on the Design & Development of Affordable Housing in inner-city communities around the country. With a keen eye for design and historical context, Tyron works with multiple cities and coaches, mentors investors, home builders, and developers from around the country in creating affordable housing solutions to meet the ever-growing need for more affordable housing.  On this episode, Chris and Tyron chat about how Tyron is using his platform to get younger generations interested in service trades, his life mission, and opinions on how to make housing more affordable, at scale. It is a thoughtful conversation about building affordable housing that helps create a positive impact in communities. Enjoy!  Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ Follow Tyron on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/TyronMcDaniel Urban Vintage Designs (02:31) - Tyron’s Background and Career (04:27) - Tyron’s Work in Inner-City Houston (08:27)  - What are you doing differently with these homes that no one else wants? (12:05) - What are you doing with the homes when you’ve finished renovating? (15:26) - Is there something that happens where people start to notice a neighborhood is prime to develop around and are wanting to buy there? (18:01) - Tyron’s Urban Builder School (25:58) - How early do you need to get involved in these inner-city kids’ lives before they head down the wrong path? (27:38) - What does the definition of affordable housing mean to you? (28:56) - What’s your process for underwriting a tenant in the communities you work in? (31:54) - Do prisons give ex-cons any kind of statement that they were “good” people inside? (34:48) - How do you finance your properties? (36:05) - What are some obvious housing changes that we need at the political level? (39:33) - What are you seeing in the market in regards to rising costs and inflation? (41:52) - Are there specifics that you implement into your projects to keep your costs low? (49:02) - How do you think about setting your rents? (53:27) - What are your thoughts on gentrification? (57:41) - A Discussion on the Trades (1:00:45) - Do you have a childhood experience that changed the trajectory of your life? (1:03:38) - What’s the advice you’ve been given? (1:04:34) - Is there a book that’s had an impact on you? The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

On this solo episode, Chris provides an update on industrial fundamentals and how they're holding up to date. He also deep dives into interesting things he is thinking about by way of capital markets and provides insight into what the office data is saying. Enjoy!  Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ Links: Sean Dalfin on The Fort Chris Powers on Why Texas Topics: (02:30) - Thoughts on Industrial for 2022 (04:28) - The Fundamentals of Industrial - Location Premium (6:45) - Class B: A Diminishing Portion Of The Industrial Stock (8:59) - Accelerated Rent Growth & Increasing Tenant Demand (11:10) - Capex Requirements and Operating Expenses Are Changing (12:10) - Is having multiple tenants better than having one tenant? (12:34) - Does there continue to be portfolio premiums? (13:27) - Just In Case Inventory (14:38) - Industrial Price Increases Across Texas & Non-Texas Markets (16:34) - Transaction Volume Increases, E-commerce & CapEx (18:54) - Thoughts on Office (21:34) - The Great Game of Chicken With WFH (24:38) - Thoughts on Commercial Real Estate (25:33) - Dry Powder, Open and Closed Funds, Mega-Funds, and Allocations From Pensions and Institutions (28:18) - Family Offices & Non-Listed REIT Fundraising (30:10) - Debt & Lending (31:30) - (non) Distress in the Private Markets and Cap Rate Compression  (32:20) - Debt Pricing & Proptech (33:50) - Migration (37:32) - Market Liquidity, Inflation, Net Profits interests and Industry Leverage (40:57) - Final Thoughts The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

Principal & Founder Riaz Taplin has been thinking about workforce housing for most of his professional life. Growing up in a real estate family, Riaz detoured early in his career from the family business to develop his own style by founding a design/build firm and developing over 50 ultra-luxury residences in the Bay Area. In successive projects and ventures, Riaz explored co-living, adaptive reuse micro-units, student housing, and traditional ground-up construction – all of which led to the firm’s custom workforce housing solution – the Micro-Living Studio.  Riaz leads Riaz Capital, a vertically integrated workforce housing developer and institutional-grade sponsor with a core team of over fifty professionals managing a portfolio of over 1,300 units, and with over 1,000 residences in the pipeline.  On this episode, Chris and Riaz discuss developing amazing projects in 30 months or less, how Riaz Capital builds units that are 28% more affordable than the competition. They deep dive on why design matters and why the Bay Area matters and will be a strong market for decades to come. Enjoy!  Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ Links: Riaz on LinkedIn Riaz Capital  Topics: (04:10) - Riaz’s Background and Career (12:24) - What is Microliving? (15:12) - How are you able to build these developments in 30 months when other deals take 7 years? (21:22) - Do you self-perform GC? (24:24) - How does zoning work in your market? (27:20) - Affordability Without Public Subsidizing (28:19) - Riaz’s ‘Simple Build’ Model (32:09) - Family households have dropped 69% to 29%, what does that mean for you? (35:54) - What do these units look like inside? (40:34) - Do tenants have to put a deposit down since the unit is pre-furnished? (41:34) - How do people getting into the industry get furniture designed for units? (42:43) - How do you design the layout of your units? (46:35) - Are we headed into a world where everything is smaller and more efficient? (50:39) - What are most people still getting wrong with apartment development? (53:28) - What would you change immediately that would make housing more attainable at scale? (56:10) - Why is the Bay Area still really important at a time when people are trying to write it off? (1:00:52) - Raising Capital, Funds & Opportunity Zones (1:11:33) - Wrap Up The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

Mike Berry is the President of Hillwood, one of the top industrial, commercial, and residential real estate developers in the country. He has been the leader of development efforts in AllianceTexas, one of the largest global logistics hubs in the world. They discuss how Alliance developed from concept to reality, the future of transportation for both people and freight in the next decade, autonomous vehicles, and buying your home online. This is one of our most fascinating episodes—enjoy! Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ (02:47) -  Mike's Background and Career (07:22) - The Story of Hillwood (10:02) - How Alliance was Conceived (15:23) - Could something like this deal ever come together in today’s world? (17:50) - What is a foreign trade zone, and how do you get a foreign trade zone designation? (21:22) - Was the Alliance vision originally to become a city? (25:05) - Mike’s job as part of this growth and how he's changed as a leader over time (28:59) - Alliances Mobility Innovation Zone (35:31) - Why DFW/Hillwood Offers More For This Type of Testing Than Other Testing Sites (38:47) - Freight and Human Capital in Autonomous Driving and Autonomous Vehicles (43:45) - What’s it like inside like these forward thinking businesses like Amazon? (47:31) - What is something you would say the world will have in 10 years that people will find shocking? (50:01) - The Talent at Hillwood and Adapting to These Changes (51:53) - The Trends in Residential Living and How They Are Changing  (59:37) - How have you been able to balance your family and work? (1:01:13) - What advice would you give your 21 year-old self?  (1:04:25) - Is there anyone you look up to? (1:07:31) - Picking Sides in Today's Society and The Amount of People Work That Goes into Building a Building  (1:11:04) - The NextDoor Analogy with Determining Market Demand and How it Slows The Process   The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

Happy Holidays! We wanted to co-launch a special episode where Chris was interviewed by Eric Jorgenson (guest on episode #152) on Eric's show: Jorgenson's Soundbox. Enjoy!Links: Chris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fortworthchrisThe Fort Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4dLKPVTiXWmrFwd43iN2LZ Chris Powers & Pete Chambers Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2X8vKyUIQaIxV5Mr9J5KMvGood to Great by Jim Collins: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Social-Sectors-Business/dp/0977326403/ref=sr_1_4?hvadid=241662136256&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9027256&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7276001728265049979&hvtargid=kwd-362385377706&hydadcr=21909_10171323&keywords=good+to+great%27+by+jim+collins&qid=1639750831&sr=8-4Owned and Operated Podcast w/ Chris Powers: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/21-chris-powers-building-%24600mm-commercial-real-estate/id1560999545?i=1000527344852Fort Ventures: https://www.fort-ventures.com/Topics:(3:52) - Who are your heroes?(7:56) - Chris’ upbringing & his father’s impact on him(20:47) - Chris starting his career in RE at age 17(26:17) - Reflecting on the ’08 financial crisis(35:02) - What was your next big inflection point after graduating college in 2008?(41:02) - You can’t scale when you’re not clear on your path(47:52) - The results of learning to focus(59:22) - What’s role does Fort play in your investor’s portfolios?(1:05:41) - How does an investor recoup their money?(1:09:26) - Compounding business with online content and media(1:13:20) - The divergence of focusing the mission of Fort Capital and the mission of Chris Powers(1:19:31) - What is your day to day like now?(1:25:00) - Chris’ VC investing exposure(1:31:11) - What’s the end goal for you?(1:42:27) - What is the most foundational principle you can offer all entrepreneurs?

Colin Landforce is an entrepreneur and tactical leader with more than 10 years of experience in regulated and emerging consumer product spaces. With deep experience at the intersection of recreational cannabis and CPG, Colin’s thought leadership is widely recognized both inside and out of the cannabis industry. At Unrivaled, Colin drives process and technology innovation, enabling teams and developing proprietary B2B tools and consumer experiences. On this episode, Chris and Colin deep dive into Colin's career beginning with how he got into the Cannabis industry and his first acquisition. They discuss the ins and out of the Cannabis world including what makes a top-shelf Cannabis brand and risks in the industry.  (01:45) - Colin’s Career and Getting into the Cannabis Industry (4:24) - What was your early team like as distributors? (7:02) - Were you primarily selling bulk flower or did you convert them into edibles and oils? (7:35) - What does it cost to make a pre-roll and then what does it wholesale and retail for? (8:35) - What matters when you’re making deals with growers? (10:36) - Do most growers grow outdoors or indoors? (12:09) - Why is indoor growing harder to scale? (13:32) - What checks and balances do growers go through in order to make sure the customer is getting the correct product? (14:55) - How is THC measured? (15:56) - Was there an inflection point where you wanted to grow the company and where did that happen? (18:00) - What are ‘brands’ in cannabis? Sticks Cabana Korova (19:19) - What makes a top-shelf cannabis brand? (20:35) - How did you finance the business early on? (22:34) - Can you get lines of credit or traditional loans? (23:10) - Is there anything on the horizon that will make the industry more bank-friendly? (24:28) - How do you value cannabis companies when thinking about M&A? (25:49) - Colin's First Acquisition (26:41) - Cannabis Extraction (27:47) - What does your line of products look like? (28:47) - How do you get products you can’t make yourself? (29:14) - Colin’s Latest Acquisition & ‘Going Public’ (30:48) - What are the different asset classes in Cannabis? (32:15) - Licensing in Cannabis (33:12) - Medicinal vs. Recreational (35:02) - Non-plant touching companies being allowed on the NASDAQ (35:42) - What is your role as CTO? (37:46) - Creating a Brand Within a Culture vs. One in an Agency (40:14) - Who is your typical customer? (41:29) - What are your thoughts on the boomer generation and their relationship with cannabis? (43:22) - Is there anything that keeps you up at night or risks in the industry? (44:24) - Is there anything on the horizon that excites you in the next 12-24 months? (46:45) - When do you predict federal legalization? (47:06) - Is CBD a placebo? (49:55) - Is there anything being created in the market that can get rid of someone’s high? (50:56) - Colin’s Experience as a Music Manager (53:47) - Colin’s Email Hack and How To Be Better At It (56:16) -  How can people find you? Colin on Twitter Podcast - Tab Talk The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

Moses Kagan is the Co-Founder and Head of Adaptive Realty, a Los Angeles-based development, and property management group. Since 2018, Moses has overseen the repositioning of 80 properties in Los Angeles and grown Adaptive from $0 to $110M of property under management. Moses joins Chris for his third appearance on The FORT Podcast. In this two-part episode, they discuss the decision to not deploy a fund he raised in early 2020 and his new core strategy. They also explore rent control vs non-rent control. How he talks to his family about wealth and potentially taking over his business, learnings from ReConvene, and where we go from here.... Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ (02:31) - A Discussion on Rent Control (09:25) - Defining Moses’ New Buying Strategy (20:36) -  How have you thought about growing your business over the next decade?  (26:32) - How are you thinking about leaving the businesses to your kids? What if they don’t want to go into it? (35:50) - Thoughts on Growing Third Party Property Management  (38:38) - Is there anything keeping you up at night?  (42:13) - The Slowing Rate of Development (46:01) - Our Collective Tolerance for Emergency (48:28) - If I gave you $1B to put to work by the end of the year where would it go? The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts.

Moses Kagan is the Co-Founder and Head of Adaptive Realty, a Los Angeles-based development, and property management group. Since 2018, Moses has overseen the repositioning of 80 properties in Los Angeles and grown Adaptive from $0 to $110M of property under management. Moses joins Chris for his third appearance on The FORT Podcast. In this two-part episode, they discuss the decision to not deploy a fund he raised in early 2020 and his new core strategy. They also explore rent control vs non-rent control. How he talks to his family about wealth and potentially taking over his business, learnings from ReConvene, and where we go from here.... Follow Chris on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FortWorthChris Learn more about Chris Powers and Fort Capital: www.FortCapitalLP.com Follow Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Follow Fort Capital on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fort-capital/ Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ci-4AXwSZOI (2:51) - Moses’ journey through ReTwit (4:24) - What do you think the next 2-3 years look like for you in this online journey? (6:35) - How do you explain this Twitter world you’ve built to people not in the know? (8:04) - What your experience putting on ReConvene and what does it mean for the greater RE industry? (12:54) - Was there anything that stood out from the feedback you got from the event that you’ll be implementing going forward? (14:47) - Thoughts on ‘Quality’ when it comes to Moses’ expectations for doing a deal to lead into his new buy strategy (21:28) - Bank’s attitude toward owning an asset for a year vs. having a loan on the asset (25:36) - Spreadsheets vs. reality: experienced investors are losing out to inexperienced investors (27:07) - How are you processing all of the craziness in the CA real estate market? (29:52) - Moses’ Fund and the investor reactions to not spending any of it over Covid (35:20) - Dealing with the eviction moratorium in LA The FORT is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts