The Fort

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

Kendal Harazny is a Principal and Co-founder of Wexford Developments, a real estate development, investment, and management company. Wexford has completed over $500 million of development, currently has $500 million in assets under management, and has an upcoming development pipeline exceeding $400 million, including over 900 units breaking ground in 2022. Focused on Western Canada and the Southwestern United States, Wexford is primarily involved in urban mixed-use residential projects but has also developed substantial land, retail and industrial assets. In this episode, Kendal and Chris discuss an array of topics such as the differences in Canada vs. the United States and what it takes to develop a generational asset. They also chat about how Wexford identifies and selects projects to work on and why design matters and how to communicate to neighboring stakeholders and much more!  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/DN61kAEFq-4 (02:08) - Kendal’s Background and Career (04:10) - What are the top things that create bad deals in development? (06:10) - More on Kendal’s Background (10:44) - What are the biggest differences between Canada and the United States? (13:02) - Getting Project Approval in Canada (15:25) - How do you handle emotional opinions from the community when doing development? (17:53) - Incorporating Feedback From the Community & Rezoning (19:48) - How long is the process from submitting to the city for approval? (21:45) - Is everything you do for rent or do you have for sale opportunities? (22:13) - How do you capitalize deals and think about debt? (24:00) - Why don’t you bring US debt into Canada? (25:07) - Cultural Differences in Lending (26:54) - How is recourse structured? (28:28) - How do you think about parking for your projects? (31:35) - Thoughts on Building EV Stalls (33:49) - Is a lot of your equity coming from Canada or is it global? (34:50) - The Toronto & Vancouver Real Estate Market (36:52) - What experiences are you having as it relates to building and the supply issues we’re seeing? (40:27) - What do you look for in markets before entering? (43:16) - How do you know you’re going into the best location? (45:07) - How do you think about hiring architects? (48:49) - The Importance of the Cohesion Between Architects, GC’s and Engineers (52:02) - What matters to you when picking General Contractors? (54:39) - What is ‘crystalizing the promote?’ (1:00:08) - Kendal’s Hunt for an Acquisition Manager The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

Chris chats with Keith Wasserman, Founder of Gelt Inc. which is one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in the country. Gelt focuses on purchasing multi-family communities, storage facilities, and RV parks. You can connect with Keith by email at Keith@geltinc.com or @keith_wasserman on Twitter. 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/ (01:05) - Keith’s Background and Career Founding Gelt (09:59) -  Investing In The Person vs. The Project (11:14) - Why are you focused on multi-family and mobile home parks as a business model? (15:14) - How do you think about the future of renting and ownership? (18:10) - The Biggest Changes in Tech and Living We See For The Future (23:10) - Other Asset Classes Gelt Focuses On (31:05) - How do you go about entering new markets? (33:49) - Building Relationships  (36:44) - YPO Global Real Estate Fair (37:52) - Gelt's Process of Finding Investors & Securing Deals (45:40) - How has your job changed as the company grows? (50:27) - Where will the company be at the “end”? (52:55) - Keith’s Thoughts on Growth (54:07) - Origins of The Name Gelt, Thoughts On Charity, and Both Their Thoughts On The Future Of Education (1:02:15) - Advice For Folks Thinking About Starting Their Own Business The Fort is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

Peter Lohmann is the founder & CEO of RL Property Management, a residential property management company in Columbus, Ohio. Peter graduated with a Bachelor’s in electrical engineering and spent 5 years as a control systems engineer before founding RL Property Management in 2013. RL Property Management now manages over 500 units for central Ohio real estate investors. On this episode, Chris and Peter deep dive into the operations of a residential PM business. They discuss his thoughts on Airbnb entering the PM space, What technology the PM industry needs, and how he bought & valued 2 PM companies. 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/1Ho_tj32xus (02:27) - What brings a person to own a property management business in Ohio? (05:01) - Peter’s Pathway To Breakeven & Profitability (07:10) - What do you mean by “spending time on bigger pockets”? (08:27) - Who was your first hire? (10:09) - Where do you stand today since starting in 2013? (11:44) - Peter’s Flat Fee Model (16:54) - Are there other revenue line items you’re charging outside of that flat fee? (19:03) - Does the client expect you to get a property ‘rent-ready’ or is that on them to do and then come back to you? (20:11) - How much maintenance do you have going on at any given time and what do their days look like? (22:22) - Are the techs ‘jack of all trades’ or do you look for specialists in electrical or plumbing? (23:08) - Thoughts On The Current Labor Market When it Comes to Blue-Collar Trades (27:23) - How do you approach maintenance when it comes to accountability? Is this a landlord responsibility or tenant? (29:51) - Dealing With Owners Leaving You and Then Coming Back (35:32) - What are you doing with automation and technology in your business? Buildium | Airtable | Process Street | Zapier | Lead Simple | Notion (41:50) - Who contributes to the company Wiki and how do you keep it from getting bloated? (44:31) - Is it better to own 5 SFR’s or one 5-unit building? (46:05) - Is your management radically different based on the number of units a client owns? (48:01) - Is there anything that really needs to be built on the software side to better streamline your industry? (52:53) - Peter’s Experience & Processes for Buying Other Property Management Businesses (59:09) - Do you get to speak to clients of a prospective business during due diligence? (1:00:01) - Was there high churn from the acquisitions? (1:01:01) - Thoughts on Airbnb in the Residential Property Management Space (1:07:39) - Twitter: What lessons did you take away from Greg Crabtree & What was the conversation like when your partner stepped away to run your engineering company? Simple Numbers by Greg Crabtree (1:13:40) - Peter’s Side Hobby of Restoring Historic Windows (1:16:53) - What’s the best way for people to get in touch? Twitter: www.Twitter.com/PSLohmann Peter's Website: www.Peterlohmann.com Owner occupied Podcast

Alex Lieberman is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew, a multi-platform business media brand. In October 2020, Alex & his co-founder sold a majority stake of Morning Brew to Business Insider for a reported $75 million. Today, Morning Brew provides quick and digestible business content to more than 3 million users, successfully changing the way young professionals engage with the business world.  On this episode, Chris and Alex deep dive into the founding story of Morning Brew, the future of Morning Brew, and Alex's transition to Chairman from CEO. They also discuss how newsletters and online media companies are valued, how crypto/blockchain/NFT's will impact media, and much more! 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/ (01:52) - Alex’s Journey Starting & Growing Morning Brew (08:02) - What did the newsletter space look like in 2015? (12:44) - What was the process for putting in a day’s worth of content? (16:09) -  Where did you end your senior year of college and when did you come to the conclusion to go full time into MB? (24:30) - Where was the business at when you decided to leave Morgan Stanley and how did you initially monetize? (31:32) - How did the MB referral program work? (37:20) - Was there an inflection point along the way that caused the balloon effect to happen? (41:22) - How do you price ads today? (44:21) - What was the process to come to the decision to sell MB? (52:34) - Did you do anything wild after you sold? (56:55) - How is a newsletter valued? (58:17) - Alex’s Transition Out of the CEO Role (1:07:28) - What’s the goal for The Brew going forward for your 3 million users? (1:08:44) -  How does Crypto and Blockchain impact MB? (1:17:09) - How do you think about the future of media and truth? (1:21:44) -  How can people get in touch with you? Follow on Alex on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/businessbarista Listen to the Founders Journal Podcast Morning Brew The FORT is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts

On this episode, Chris does a full deep dive into the world of fees, including what they are, should you be charging fees at all, and when, fee misconceptions, the benefits of a profitable company, and the pathway to building a world-class REPE operating platform. Chris also answers your questions submitted on Twitter and much more! 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/ (01:16) - Why Fees? (02:45) - Misconceptions: GP’s Charging Fees and Making a Profit is Bad (05:20) - Charging Market Fees and Getting Great Returns (06:49) - What are the benefits of running a profitable company? (10:05) - GP’s That Don’t Charge or Offer Reduced Fees are Hurting their OpCo in the Long-Run (11:01) - The Difference Between OpCo’s and Assets (13:18) - Understand Where Your Company is: Fee Structuring for Young Companies (15:03) - How to Charge Fees and How to Talk About What’s Behind the Fees (17:43) - How do we know what we can charge for and what we cannot? (21:24) - Fort Capital’s Fee Strategy Early On (23:35) - An Outline of How to Think About Fees and Example Scenarios (30:27) - GP’s That Don’t Charge What They’re Worth (31:25) - Ways to Think About What You Should Be Charging (36:04) - Running Your Company as a Break-Even Business vs. a Profit-Generating Business (37:53) - Specific Fees to Think About (49:18) - Real Estate Private Equity: Fees Charged to Allocate Capital to GP’s vs. Fees Charged by GP’s Who Actually Operate (50:47) - Charging the Right Structure of Fees for Your Business (53:50) - Twitter Question: What’s an example of a deal you’ve done and how the fee dollars are allocated? (59:00) - Third-Party Providers  (1:00:32) - Twitter Question: Can an established sponsor with capital charge an acquisition fee that’s equal to their contribution? (1:04:16) - Twitter Question: How have Fort Capital’s fees changed over time? (1:07:56) - Twitter Question: 3rd Party Management & Leasing vs. Vertically Integrating (1:10:14) - Wrap Up The FORT is produced by Johnny Peterson & Straight Up Podcasts