POWERS

Ari Firoozabadi has a simple philosophy: clients are best served by a tightly-integrated, collaborative, and conflict-free platform. This philosophy defines Greysteel and ensures all interests are aligned so full resources and relationships of the firm and its professionals are leveraged on each engagement. As President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Firoozabadi is responsible for defining and implementing Greysteel’s strategic vision as well as overseeing the company’s operations.    For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com.  Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris  Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com.    01:40 – Life Before Greysteel  08:34 – What makes Greysteel different from your competition?   13:24 – How long did you spend building the Greysteel platform?  15:41 – How did you handle another company trying to ruin you?  21:05 – What advice were you given that prepared you for “going up against Goliath” in this litigation?  24:41 – What does it take to be a top producer in the industry for a young person just starting out?  28:19 – Did you have a mentor to teach you about working to be this knowledgeable or was it your natural instinct?  29:19 – What was your first deal?  32:19 – How do you think about going into a new market? How do you get culture from a place like Washington D.C. to Fort Worth if the office has never visited? 40:00 – How did you build everything you needed for Greysteel?  42:05 – How do you think technology will impact the brokerage industry over the next ten years?  44:20 – What does your job consist of today?  46:00 – Do you have a favorite interview question?  48:25 – Do you have an in-house content development team?   48:25 – Is there someone that comes to mind when you think about the beginnings of Greysteel?  50:30 – Are there certain qualities that make the best real estate investors?  53:09 – What are some of the biggest reasons deals fall apart?  56:17 – If you had to bet on one asset type for the next five years, what would it be?

Sean Conway is an avid traveler and former CEO of Pillow, a company he co-founded. Pillow partners with Multifamily property owners to provide short-term rentals as an amenity to their residents. Pillow's turn key software makes hosting easy, profitable, and compliant. Sean held leadership positions from conception to $17.5 million in funding and a successful acquisition by the Expedia Group in September 2018. Prior to Pillow, Sean was the Co-Founder of Notehall, an online class and study notes provider, which was acquired by Chegg in 2011. For Sean’s ingenuity, he was named one of the “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25″ by Business Week in 2009. Sean is an active angel investor and enjoys mentoring startups/programs, such as BUILD. For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com. Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com. 01:18 – Sean’s “Snag Your Ticket Aboard the Magic School Bus” Blog Post  05:30 – Sean and Chris’ Experience Traveling to Other Countries  11:11 – How does the meaning of entrepreneurship change as you start more companies? 12:44 – Sean’s Experience on Shark Tank  17:07 – Notehall 19:00 – What is it like to exit a business in the technology industry?  30:28 – Do you fall out of love with your business when the opportunity to sell becomes a reality?  33:35 – How was your experience selling Pillow and Notehall? How did you tell employees? 42:05 – Do you want to stay in a similar industry, or are you moving on?  44:00 – Meditation and Journaling 45:49 – Expedia & Sean’s Goal to Not Start a Company for 3+ Years  46:23 – Employee Turnover When You Sell a Company 48:18 – Favorite Interview Questions & Using Executive Recruiters   56:07 – Growth Hacking a Network

Abhijeet Dwivedi is the CEO and Co-Founder of ZeroDown, the smartest way to buy a home in San Francisco. They discuss Abhijeet's experience growing up in the education system in India, the influence of Paul Graham, life in a hyper-growth company and more. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com.  Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris   Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com. 01:50 – What has happened in your life which led you to ZeroDown? 11:30 – Gratefulness is one of your most appealing traits. What has helped you adopt this mindset? 14:35 – How did you get into designing video games when you were younger? 20:20 – Were you exposed to these advanced topics at an early age or was this more your nature? 23:40 – What is the difference between education in India and the United States? 26:20 – How did you find the Paul Graham essays? What about them changed your life? 29:14 – What was it like working at such a fast growing company such as Zenefits? 34:03 – How do you prioritize goals in a hyper-growth company and gain buy in? 37:00 – What your experience as Head of Operations? What did you learn? 41:22 – Overview of ZeroDown   54:10 – What are “loyalty points”? How do they incentivize customers to make their mortgage payments on time? 57:32 – Growth Hacking with Slack 1:03:57 – Is there anything that has shocked you about customers or business since starting ZeroDown?

Ryan Reeves is the Founder and CEO of Investing City and is also the host of the Investing City podcast. They discuss the power of value investing, the world of an investor, the hype around cryptocurrency and more. Enjoy!  For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com.  Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris   Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com.  01:46 – Ryan’s Background and Investing City 05:37 – Growth Investing vs. Value Investing 07:00 – How to Get Better at Utilizing Search Engines 09:25 – A Typical Day in the World of an Investor 13:53 – Is there a method to the madness when reading an S2 or a quarterly earnings report? 16:54 – Do you look at companies who hemorrhage cash differently in terms of the money they could make in the future? 19:30 – Is there a time horizon for how you look at things? 23:14 – How much time do you spend stress testing an idea as opposed to looking for new ones? 24:50 – Do you think Berkshire is set up for companies in the modern era? 29:30 – Ryan’s Research as a Service (RAAS) 37:14 – Ryan’s Core Portfolio Policy 39:00 – How do you know when you “actually know something”? 41:27 – How do you get to know employees in the companies that you look to invest in? 45:08 – Are you a believer in the Bitcoin revolution? 50:38 – What are the biggest mistakes a novice investor makes? 53:07 – Books Influential on Ryan’s Journey

Jeff Richards is the Founder of Mooala, the fastest growing plant based milk product in the industry. They discuss Jeff's journey from a corporate job to entrepreneurship, the highs and lows of starting a company, the trend of non dairy milk products and more. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris  Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  01:28 – How did Mooala start?  04:48 – Aptitude Testing 06:56 – Why is dairy-free taking off faster than dairy? 09:50 – The Process of Making Almond Milk 12:55 – Is almond milk expanding internationally? 15:23 – What was the turning point for leaving an established job in finance to start a company? How were the early days? 24:43 – How do you know you’re successful when acquiring new clients and expanding to new markets beyond Texas? 31:07 – Finding a Broker 33:16 – The Process of Raising Money 36:10 – When did you start hiring more people? 39:36 – What is the process of innovating new products? Who was instrumental in building Mooala? 46:54 – What do the next five years look like? 53:40 – What conferences should newcomers to the food and beverage industry be in? 55:02 – Does it bother you that this might not be a long-lasting trend?

Craig Lashley is the President of Valiant Residential, a property management firm based out of DFW that leverages the best in next-generation technological advances to make clients’, residents’ and potential residents’ experiences as rich as possible. They discuss the phases a company will go through as it grows, what separates a great property manager, the idea of buying time and the process of working out a deal and what can kill it. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com  Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris  Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com   1:54 - The early days of valiant  4:30 - The process of hiring and finding leaders 6:23 - phases and changes of a company as the number of people grow 7:52 - First big kahuna (SEGMENT IN QUESTION) 9:18 - Craig’s evolving day to day job 12:20 - How do you identify units to service/manage?  15:05 - What separates a good property manager from a bad one? 17:09- are there any easy fruit to get things in line to make a property more profittable when you take it over? 20:40 - Are people living differently now than they were 5-10 years ago? 22:46 - Buying time in the urban core vs. mving out to the suburbs 29:04 - Time 32:16 - is there an average of how many communities a renter will look at before making a decision? 35:33- Are people moving more frequently than they used to? 38:05 - Different impacts on what will affect rents and underwriting deals (pay increases, weather, recessions) 43:38 - Supply component and development in different markets 48:07 - different ways of living in different cities in the US 50:10 - Work/Life balance 51:08- The process of working out a deal and the things that kill a deal The FORT is brought to you by Straight Up Podcasts, for more information on starting a podcast for your business, brand or creative project, visit www.straightuppodcasts.com

Sam Parr is CEO and co-founder of Hustle Con Media, which includes one of the most popular daily newsletters at over a million readers. They discuss Sam's journey to Silicon Valley, how to build a media company, the correlation of money:happiness and more. Enjoy! You can subscribe to The Hustle at https://thehustle.co For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com  Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris  Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com 2:00 - How did you end up in the Bay area and how did The Hustle come to be?  4:40 - How did you go from working with American Pickers to starting a hot dog stand to an online liquor store? 6:18 - How did Bunk change your life? 8:46 - What is the common theme that you see from founders coming through HustleCon? 11:48 - Chris’ biggest experience at HustleCon 14:26 - The Hustle newsletter  19:00 - How do you develop content? 20:10 - How did you learn growth hacking and finding this non-filtered voice? 22:44 - How does living in Silicon Valley without this politically correct filter affect you? 24:14 - The key things people can do to grow an online media brand 27:08 - How do you know what a user is worth? 28:17- Do you need a certain number of users to become profitable or is it based on the type of content? 31:15 - How the world is shifting in terms of accessability to online content 33:30 - popular media companies becoming less and less relevant, Chris’ newsletters and new media companies like Barstool 39:30 - Feedback from readers at The Hustle 40:38 - How do you judge what content is published and what gets filed away 41:50 - Hosting profitable events  46:22 - Building The Hustle to sell vs. growing into a media empire, investing and starting businesses, and the correlation between money and happieness 54:40 - handling money and success 56:50 - What is Trends and why did you decide to start it? 1:00:00 - Sam’s thinking process 

Holt Lunsford is the Founder & CEO of Holt Lunsford Commercial, a Dallas-based full service commercial real estate company. They talk about luck in business, the process of finding and hiring great people, and Holt's advice for fathers. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on Twitter! @fortworthchris Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  1:40 - Holt Lunsford 4:00 - The generation of Texas Real Estate 16:40 - how much of business success is luck and how much is things that you can control 18:55 - Growth standards 21:40 - How long was the business going until you started making hires 22:40 - what were things you werent doing well that people could learn from? 26:12 - Holt on building relationships with the people he works with and loyalty 28:37 - Holt on the culture of people moving jobs constantly and attracting the next generation of employees 33:36 - What within Real Estate has changed dramatically since starting off in ’86? 35:49 - Chris and Holt on life balance  40:20 - What did you give your kids for their 18th birthdays 43:35 - What advice would you give your 21 year old self  

Tegan Broadwater is the Founder and President of Tactical Systems Network, a security and investigations firm located in Forth Worth TX. Tegan is also the author of "Life in the Fish Bowl: The true story of how a white cop infiltrated and took down 41 of the nation's most notorious CRIPs. They discuss Tegan's undercover work in narcotics, his inspiration for starting TSN and how he is helping change the systemic lack of opportunity in the inner-city. Enjoy! For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on twitter! @fortworthchris Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  Questions for Chris? Ask us anything and Chris may answer your question on the podcast! click the link to leave us a message: https://anchor.fm/thefortpodcast/message 1:53 - Tegan’s Story from rockstar to deep undercover gang infiltration 15:29 - When you’re undercover, do you start changing as a person? 16:38 - How “normal” are one of these drug dealers you deal with?/Heirarchy of gangs 20:33 - Was your goal not to stop until you got to the top guy? 23:45- Tegan’s experience writing “Life in the Fishbowl” 25:54 - moving from FWPD to Entrepreneurship, the relationship between his undercover work and business 27:40 - the similarites of the functions of a gang heirarchy and business organizations 30:09 - How do you move up in the gang system? 33:50 - was there sadness as you reached the end of the operation? 39:25 - What are options for former-convicts to be able to re-enter society, specifically in business? 45:26- what are things people do that contribute to this systemic issue that they may not necessarily recognize 47:50 - How microfinance could play a role in alleviating these systemic problems 51:40 - the idea for starting Tactical  54:20 - Investigations by Tactical 58:38 - The fluidity of running a business and the importance of always learning 1:03:50 - Are you drafting off the success of businesses that lead to needing security? 1:08:28 - is it harder to get away with a crime today with technological advancement? 1:10:40 - Cybersecurity and AI ethics 1:13:25 - does looking through the lens of the bad guy ever work to your disadvantage? 1:16:08 - How many clients that call with a suspicion that something bad will happen end up happening vs. being paranoid 1:17:45 - consulting with developers on security meausres in real estate 1:19:50 - Is there anything besides the current business you are thinking about or working on?

Brent Beshore is the Founder and CEO of adventur.es, a company investing in family-owned businesses. Brent is also the author of The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers. They discuss the history of the company, doing deals, mentorship and tons more, enjoy!  For more information on Chris Powers and Fort Capital, visit www.fortcapitallp.com Follow Chris on twitter! @fortworthchris Connect with The FORT by emailing us at thefortpodcast@gmail.com  2:10 - How did you start this business? 2:55 - What are the benefits of running your company out of Columbia, MO vs. a major market? 5:13- What are the common characteristics of companies that you acquire? 9:27 - When talking with these founders, what is the relationship like in terms of selling them later on?  14:10 - Do you find that as you grow, you see the people that come to you are more aligned with what you are looking for?  16:28 - is your traffic inbound or are you doing outbound marketing? 18:07 - How has “The messy Marketplace” been recieved, and has it led to more growth for Adventures? 20:02- The experience of writing a book 21:58- What are some of the questions you love to ask potential businesses early on? 27:10 - What is your role in getting a deal done? 28:35 - How do you learn about buying a business and keeping everyone on board motivated to keep running it the same way? 30:50 - Once you buy a business, how is it determined how long current management will stay on? 32:16 - How do you define the “line” of we are here for you but you are your own company and need to run it? 34:57 - Have you ever recalled a time where the company was caught in conflict and how are those conflicts resolved? 37:05 - What are common tools that you use to work on with companies?  41:44 - Is there a common thing that small businesses arent doing well in marketing that can be easily fixed? 44:26- What does Google Analytics do for a business 47:02 - Owner Earnings vs. EBITDA 53:40- How do you determine what a ‘boring business’ is, and what industries are you interested in these days? 58:05 - When you start redistributing to investors, does it ever come off as a sign of weakness? 1:01:36 - How much time do you spend reading? 1:02:50 - How important is your morning routine to you? 1:03:58 - Do you have a favorite book 1:04:25 - What is something you believe that few people believe?  1:07:49 - What advice would you give your 21-year old self? 1:08:45 - Do you have a mentor(s)?