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May 29, 2022

TLP18: How to Raise Capital as a First Time Sponsor with Brian Adams

TLP18: How to Raise Capital as a First Time Sponsor with Brian Adams

Episode 18: Show Notes.

We are honored to have as our guest, Brian Adams. Brian is currently serving as Principal for Excelsior Capital, founded in 2019, and oversees acquisitions, operations, and capital raising efforts. In this episode, he’ll speak on how to raise capital as a first-time sponsor or entrepreneur.

You might have the best deal of all, but no one will care if you can’t raise capital. So, listen now and learn how to do it most efficiently! 

 

Key Points from This Episode:

  • Commercial real estate is a capital-intensive business.
  • Often, people spend energy finding a deal and fail to premarket the opportunity or idea to the prospective investor.
  • When it comes to raising money, the standard advice is to find a great deal, and then the investors will come.
  • For Brian, it’s the reverse. Talk to prospective investors first, find out what they want in a deal, and then look for the perfect deal.
  • People fail because they don’t establish a good relationship with prospective investors.
  • Brian elaborates on his process of raising capital.
  • It’s not good enough that the deals work. You need to provide value beyond the investments. 
  • Providing value beyond investments is about access, education, and pure networking.
  • Brian gives a shout-out to people that gave him a leg up along the way.

 

Tweetables:

“If you have a wonderful deal, if it’s a beautiful, bright, shiny object but you can’t raise capital around it, that bright, shiny object is art, it’s not a business.” [00:06:55]

“You might have the best deal in the world, but if you can’t raise capital, if you can’t raise equity, if you can’t source debt on it, you can’t acquire it and close it, nobody cares.” [00:07:11]

“I think the big takeaway is, for limited partners, the question that they don’t ask that I think should be the first thing they ask is not about the deal but about the investor journey and the investor experience.” [00:18:11]

“The investment side is getting smoother because of technology and so much more efficient. That also means that GPs and sponsors need to do more than just show up a deal.” [00:21:43]

 

Links Mentioned:

Brian Adams on LinkedIn

Exelsior Capital website

 

About Brian Adams

Brian currently serves as Principal for Excelsior Capital which he founded in 2019 and oversees acquisitions, operations, and capital raising efforts. In addition, he frequently participates in speaking engagements focused on providing the real estate investment community with a real and honest outlook of the commercial real estate market so intelligent investment decisions can be made.