• Digging Deeper: Exploring the Depths of Mining

    #Mining #Benzinga

    Digging Deeper: Exploring the Depths of Mining is a can’t miss event that explores the depths of innovation with the mining industry. Join us for a captivating journey as we navigate through the transformative landscape, discovering the latest technologies, sustainable practices, and strategies propelling mining into a new era.

    Speakers:


    Patricia Mohr, Economist & Commodity Market Specialist & Former VP at Scotiabank | Mohr & Co. Critical Metals Inc.


    Rick Rule, Founder, President & CEO - Rule Investment Media LLC.

    https://www.ruleinvestmentmedia.com


    Alex Wylie, CEO - Volt Lithium Corp.

    https://voltlithium.com/


    Warwick Smith, CEO & Director - American Pacific

    https://americanpacificmining.com/


    Stephen Rentschler, CEO - Nevada Lithium

    https://nevadalithium.com/

    (CSE: NVLH) (OTCQB: NVLHF) (FSE: 87K)


    Rob McEwen, Chairman & Chief Owner - McEwen Mining

    https://www.mcewenmining.com/


    Luke Norman, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder - US Gold Corp

    https://www.usgoldcorp.gold/

    (NASDAQ: USAU)


    Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.


    #Benzinga #Mining

    1h 12m - Apr 16, 2024
  • Kanna: What To Know About The African Succulent Helping In Nervous System Regulation With Stephanie Wang

    Today's Benzinga Interviews is all about #KannaTherapeutics and #NaturalAntidepressants

    Guest: Stephanie Wang, founder and CEO of business KA! Empathogenics and a knowledgeable speaker in alternative mental health, emotional wellness, resilience-building in the nervous system and connection to self, others and nature.

    KA! aims to combine ancient healing plant kanna with modern science for an alternative -and legal- means to help people work on their mental health.

    Hosted by: Lara Goldstein

    24m - Apr 12, 2024
  • Level Up Your Trading with Leveraged ETFs

    Level Up Your Trading with Leveraged ETFs” is an engaging virtual bootcamp taught by Mark Putrino — Benzinga Analyst and Trader — alongside Eliott Wellenbach, Senior Vice President - Institutional ETF Strategy analysts from our partner Direxion. Join this live bootcamp to deepen your understanding of leveraged and inverse ETFs and learn how to successfully trade them. With expert-led sessions and live case studies, this bootcamp offers an immersive learning experience you don't want to miss out on. Audience members are encouraged to ask questions in the chat at any time during the 90-minute bootcamp.



    Leverage & Inverse Education



    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    ⭐ EDUCATORS ⭐


    Mark Putrino, Chief Market Technician

    Benzinga Trading School


    Eliott Wellenbach, SVP Institutional ETF Strategy - Direxion

    https://www.direxion.com/


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Check out www.benzinga.com for complete coverage along with all the latest financial news and data!


    Follow us Online!

    📸Instagram: www.instagram.com/benzinga

    👍Facebook: www.facebook.com/Benzinga

    📱TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@benzinga

    🐤Twitter: twitter.com/Benzinga


    Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.


    #Benzinga #DirexionETFs #Bootcamp

    1h 29m - Mar 27, 2024
  • Choosing LSD Over Other Psychedelics For Clinical Development And Biotech Investing - A Conversation With MindMed's CEO

    Today's Benzinga Interviews is all about breakthrough therapies for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and ADHD. #ADHD #GAD #LSD #FDA #LSDTherapy #BiotechIndustry

    Guests:  Robert Barrow is CEO of Nasdaq-listed Mind Medicine (MindMed)

    With a Bachelor in Science and a Masters in Pharmacology, Robert holds over a decade of serving as a pharmaceutical executive and clinical pharmacologist, as well as in regulatory consulting roles for psychedelics companies -startups to Fortune 500.

    He joined MindMed as Chief Development Officer in 2021, was named interim CEO by mid-year, and elected CEO that December.

    Hosted by: Lara Goldstein

    28m - Mar 26, 2024
  • The Surprising Method To Treat Alcohol Addiction: How Can This Non-Hallucinogenic Compound Help

    Today's Benzinga Interviews is all about #AlcoholSubstitutes and #BiotechIndustry

    Guests: Dr. Adi Zuloff-Shani, CEO of the Nasdaq-listed Israeli biotech firm developing a MEAI-based treatment for alcohol substitution and other addictive disorders, Clearmind Medicine; and Mark Haden, VP of business development at the same company as well as a longtime addiction counseling and management specialist.

    Hosted by: Lara Goldstein.

    41m - Mar 12, 2024
  • Unlocking Real Estate Riches: Property Prosperity In The Digital Era

    #Investing #RealEstate #Benzinga

    Welcome to “Unlocking Real Estate Riches: Property Prosperity in the Digital Era” – an engaging event curated to explore the wealth of opportunities within the ever-evolving real estate landscape. Join us for an enlightening journey as we navigate through the digital realm, uncovering the latest trends, technological advancements, and strategies propelling real estate into a new era of prosperity.


    *Register Here


    Speakers:


    Ryan Tseko, EVP - Cardone Capital

    https://cardonecapital.com/


    Brian Dally, Co-founder and CEO - Groundfloor

    https://groundfloor.com/


    Christian Grothe, Owner - Christian Grothe Associates

    https://www.christiangrothe.com/


    Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.


    #Benzinga #RealEstate #Investing

    51m - Mar 5, 2024
  • Why Invest After The Frenzy Is Gone - Psychedelic Assets And Major Industry Events This 2024, By Zappy Zapolin

    Today's Benzinga Interviews is all about #PsychedelicsTherapy and #2024 InvestorTrends.

    Guest: Zappy Zapolin is a known futurist, entrepreneur and award-winning filmmaker. Starting off his career on Wall Street and spotting massive trends across different industries for decades now, his gravitation toward the psychedelics space in recent years has made him earn a spot as one of the foremost experts in the business and therapy domains. A fervent attendee at all major psychedelic gatherings, his work and projects have been featured in different mainline media sources including Forbes, Vice and Business Insider.

    Hosted by: Lara Goldstein

    21m - Feb 29, 2024
  • Benzinga Live Trading and All Access

    #Benzinga #LiveTrading #AllAccess

    On LIVE Trading with Benzinga, Daytrading, Options, Penny Stocks, & Blue Cap Stocks every weekday morning from 9am-11am ET.


    Check Out Our New Partnership With TradeThePool.com! ⬇⬇ @TradeThePool

    ✅ Trade More Than 12,000 Stocks and ETFs

    ✅ Get funded up to $260K

    ✅ Short & long any penny stock

    All trading styles are welcome!


    👉 https://tradethepool.com/?ref=6229


    Reach out to Gil directly at gilbp@tradethepool.com

    For any other questions or concerns, help@tradethepool.com


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    On Benzinga's All-Access, we explore growth stocks and the masterminds behind them. Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain exclusive access and insights that will give you the edge in today's fast-paced investing world.


    Featured Guest(s):


    Andy Heyward, CEO - Kartoon Studios

    https://www.kartoonstudios.com/

    (NYSEAMERICAN:TOON)


    MEET THE HOSTS:


    Ryan Faloona

    Twitter:   / rfaloona  


    Zunaid Suleman

    Twitter:   / madexinxindia  

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    BENZINGA PRO:

    📈pro.benzinga.com

    ✅Free 2 week trial, no credit card required

    🙌GET 25% OFF BENZINGA PRO

    https://benzinga.grsm.io/livetrading🙌



    WEBSITE & SOCIALS:

    💻 Website: https://www.benzinga.com

    👍Benzinga on Instagram & Facebook @ Benzinga

    🛎Benzinga on TikTok & Twitter @ Benzinga



    PODCASTS:

    🔈 https://www.benzinga.com/podcasts 🔈



    BENZINGA’s CORE BUSINESSES:

    ✅Financial news articles: http://benzinga.com

    ✅Real-time news headlines: http://pro.benzinga.com

    ✅Financial, Market, and Alternative data APIs: http://cloud.benzinga.com

    ✅The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards: http://benzingafintechawards.com


    Disclaimer: Benzinga has received compensation from companies featured on All Access. Benzinga cannot ensure that all the information on this show is accurate. All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, futures, and crypto is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.


    #Benzinga #LiveTrading #AllAccess

    2h 7m - Feb 14, 2024
  • The Future of Food: Agriculture and Culinary Innovation

    #Benzinga

    Attend The Future of Food: Agriculture & Culinary Innovation to learn from industry experts as we explore cutting-edge advancements in agriculture and food, discussing groundbreaking technologies and sustainable practices shaping these vital sectors. Whether you’re a retail investor, culinary enthusiast, or work in the agriculture & food industries, this webinar offers valuable insights into the exciting innovations driving positive change in the world of food.


    Register Below!

    https://www.benzinga.com/events/the-future-of-food-2024/

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Check out www.benzinga.com/events for complete coverage along with all the latest news and data!


    Follow us Online!

    📸Instagram: www.instagram.com/benzinga

    👍Facebook: www.facebook.com/Benzinga

    📱TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@benzinga

    🐤Twitter: twitter.com/Benzinga


    Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.


    #Benzinga

    24m - Feb 8, 2024
  • All About The Psychedelic Retreats World And Avoiding The McDonald’s Model With MycoMeditations CEO Justin Townsend

    Podcast description:T

    Today's Benzinga Interviews is all about #PsychedelicRetreats and #PsilocybinTherapy.

    Guest:

    Justin Townsend is partner and CEO of psilocybin retreat center MycoMeditations.

    A business leader and startup advisor in several industries including the healthcare space, Justin’s 20 years of experience exploring psychedelic therapies for wellbeing -and current work as a facilitator- inform his quest for providing truly thoughtful experiences for people wishing to undergo psychedelic modalities of healing.

    Hosted by: Lara Goldstein

    34m - Feb 8, 2024
  • Spearheading Cannabinoid And Psychedelic Medicine In The U.S. And Australia: Meet Incannex Healthcare

    #Benzinga


    Today's Benzinga Interviews is all about the #Cannabinoid And #Psychedelic industry.


    Guest:

    Joel Latham is the CEO and Managing Director of Incannex Healthcare (NASDAQ: IXHL). He is responsible for the Company’s commercial operations, strategic decision- making, and oversight of all clinical development assets. Joel has over 15 years commercial management and executive experience, working for a range multi-national publicly traded companies.


    Hosted by: Lara Goldstein

    20m - Jan 25, 2024
  • The Road To Wealth In 2024

    #Benzinga

    Welcome to “The Road to Wealth in 2024: A Benzinga Seminar” – an insightful event designed to guide you through the financial landscape and unveil the strategies leading to wealth creation in the coming year. Join us for an enlightening journey as we explore the latest trends, market insights, and investment strategies propelling individuals towards financial success.


    https://www.benzinga.com/events/road-...


    🔊 Speakers 🔊


    Abdul Dada, Founder - Market Masters

    https://twitter.com/Mini_Tradez

    Discord Page: https://discord.com/invite/D5A9pNhxAq


    Charles Lieberman, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer - Advisors Capital Management

    https://advisorscapital.com/


    Will McDonough, Chairman & Founder - Corestone Capital

    https://www.corestonecapital.com/


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Check out www.benzinga.com/events for complete coverage along with all the latest news and data!


    Follow us Online!

    📸Instagram: www.instagram.com/benzinga

    👍Facebook: www.facebook.com/Benzinga

    📱TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@benzinga

    🐤Twitter: twitter.com/Benzinga


    Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.


    #Benzinga

    1h 11m - Jan 19, 2024
  • AI Revolution: 2024 Portfolio Building

    #Benzinga #RADAI

    Dive into the world of AI with our must-attend webinar, where RAD AI’s CEO, Jeremy Barnett will discuss the impact of AI in streamlining content strategies, enhancing audience connection and optimizing ROI in a competitive digital landscape.


    This conversation, tailored for investors interested in groundbreaking technologies, will focus on how AI is redefining brand engagement and opening new avenues for investment, highlighting RAD AI’s position at the forefront of this innovation curve.


    https://www.benzinga.com/events/rad-ai/


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Jeremy Barnett, CEO - RAD AI

    https://www.radintel.ai/


    Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross, AI Academic & Founding Advisor - RAD AI


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Check out www.benzinga.com/events for complete coverage along with all the latest news and data!


    Follow us Online!

    📸Instagram: www.instagram.com/benzinga

    👍Facebook: www.facebook.com/Benzinga

    📱TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@benzinga

    🐤Twitter: twitter.com/Benzinga


    Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.


    #Benzinga #RADAITranscript

    41m - Jan 12, 2024
  • AI Expert & Kaiju CEO Talk Stock Analysis & How AI Can Help You

    #kaiju #AI #benzinga

    This episode is all about information: where to get it, how to use it, and how AI can help make that whole process a lot easier for you


    Aaron and Ryan cover key sources for reliable information - from free to paid - software tools that aggregate information, analysis tools, and where AI fits in all this as the fastest, cheapest way to cut through informational noise to reliably get to what you want to know.

    If you always feel like you’re the “last to know”, then this episode is for you.


    ⭐The KAIJU KICKER on this one contains the full list of tools and sources Ryan and Aaron discuss.


    👥Guest

    Ryan Pannell, CEO - Kaiju

    kaiju.ai


    🧑‍🎤Host

    Aaron Bry

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaronbry5


    Check out www.benzinga.com for complete coverage along with all the latest financial news and data!


    PRO TOOLS:

    pro.benzinga.com

    Free 2 week trial, no credit card required

    GET 25% OFF BENZINGA PRO https://benzinga.grsm.io/benzingalive🙌


    Follow us Online!

    Instagram: www.instagram.com/benzinga

    Facebook: www.facebook.com/Benzinga

    TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@benzinga

    Twitter: twitter.com/Benzinga


    Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, futures, and crypto is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.


    #benzinga #kaiju #AI

    40m - Jan 10, 2024
  • Did Elon Musk Miss The Boat On AI?

    Topics: AI, Hollywood, ChatGPT, strike, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg

    Host: Anthony Noto , Benzinga Editor

    Featured Guests:

    David Bloom  Sr. Associate at Kyber Knight Capital. 

    Ary Vaidya  Associate at Kyber Knight Capital.

    David Bloom David is a Sr. Associate at Kyber Knight Capital. He helps lead the built world and labor automation focuses at the fund. Over the past several years, he has led investments in novel homebuilding technologies, robotics, and AI-enabled software. Outside of KKC, David is a Board Member at NextGen Partners and a Senior Fellow at the New Building Institute. As an undergraduate, David was an active part of the entrepreneurial community at UC Berkeley. He was a part of Dorm Room Fund which allowed him to invest in the best and brightest students in the nation. He further developed his investing ability by joining The House Fund, writing pre-seed and seed checks directly into the Cal Network. David graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on behavioral economics.


    Ary Vaidya Ary is an Associate at Kyber Knight Capital. He helps lead the AI and commerce focuses at the fund. Over the past years, Ary has actively advised and invested in multiple start-ups across AI, consumer, and fintech. Prior to joining KKC, Ary worked on the Special Projects team for the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, an Investment Bank in New York. At Cantor, he worked on the company's digital asset strategy focusing on integrating emerging technologies across the firm. Ary grew up in London and graduated with Honors from Stanford University, obtaining a BS in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Artificial Intelligence. During college, Ary also spent time studying Philosophy at Oxford University. 

    35m - Jul 31, 2023
  • From The Creator Of Five Nights at Freddy's - What's Next?

    Topics: video games, AI, augmented reality, Five Nights at Freddy's, illumix, 2D,3D, Mark Cuban


    Host: Anthony Noto , Benzinga Editor

    Featured Guest: Kirin Sinha is the Founder and CEO of Illumix

    Kirin Sinha is the Founder and CEO of Illumix, a leading technology company bridging the digital and physical worlds.

     

    Founded in 2017, Illumix is driving the global shift from passive 2D digital experiences to immersive 3D interactions through its seamless cross-platform infrastructure. Illumix has already powered over 300 million digital-physical interactions across web and mobile in the past two years alone.

     

    To date, Illumix has secured $13 million in venture capital funding, including funding from acclaimed director Michael Bay.

     

    Under Kirin’s leadership, Illumix was listed as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2020, named an honoree in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards, and spotlighted by Google as one of their limited partners for the Depth API to further enhance AR realism. Additionally, Kirin was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 List in 2022.

     

    Kirin received a degree in electrical engineering, computer science and mathematics from MIT and holds advanced degrees in mathematics, statistics, and business from the University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, and Stanford.

    17m - Jul 25, 2023
  • Why Betting On Yourself Pays Off With Founder of CEO School Suneera Madhani

    Topics: Private Equity, Female entrepreneurship, women of color, CEO School, fintech,unicorn,payment systems,Stax


    Host: Anthony Noto , Benzinga Editor

    Featured Guest: Suneera Madhani CEO/Founder of CEO School and Founder of Billion Dollar Fintech Stax Payments

    Suneera Madhani is a true trailblazer in the business world. As the founder of Stax Payments, she built one of America's top 10 fastest-growing fintech companies from an idea to over $100 million in recurring revenue, making it a billion-dollar technology platform. She is the first female CEO to lead a unicorn out of Florida and has received numerous accolades for her success, including being recognized by Fortune's 40 Under 40, EY's Entrepreneur of the Year, Entrepreneur Magazine's 100 Most Influential Women, and Inc.'s 100 Female Founders to name a few.


    After facing personal challenges as a woman in business, Suneera became a passionate advocate for gender equality and female entrepreneurship. She founded CEO School, a company that empowers women to scale their businesses and change the statistics. With less than 2% of female founders ever breaking $1 million in revenue, Suneera is on a mission to make sure her success isn't a unicorn but becomes the norm.


    Beyond her professional achievements, Suneera is a top 100 podcast host, a mom of two, and an avid traveler. She is a role model for balancing work and life and is determined to destroy the gender wage gap and change the narrative for women in business. Suneera's commitment to empowering women is unwavering, and her new adventure as the founder and CEO of CEO School is just the beginning of her impact on the business world.

    35m - Jul 11, 2023
  • Owning Parts Of Race Horses, Sports Cars and Andy Warhol Portraits

    Transforming Analog Ledgers to Tradeable Digital Assets


    Topics: Private Equity, tokenization, Tradeable Digital Assets


    Host: Anthony Noto , Benzinga Editor

    Featured Guest: Dave Hendricks CEO of Vertalo

    Founded in February 2017, Vertalo solves the most critical challenges facing the digital asset economy today.


    Transcript:


    Tony Noto: Welcome to the Benzinga Interviews podcast. My guest today is Dave Hendricks, CEO of Vertalo. Those who are unfamiliar with Vertalo, why don't you tell them a little bit about it?



    Dave Hendricks: We started in 2016. I was living in London. And so initially we started working on a problem using Ethereum Smart contracts to do human capital due diligence. It was a graph where organizations could connect with their associates, people that worked with and for them, and that would be validated on a blockchain.


    So in October of 2017, we created this entity in the Cayman Islands. It was called initially called Certifiable Technology. Then we settled on the name Vertalo

    .

    We work in the securities context and we tokenize securities.  

    Vertalo’s platform allows companies to streamline digital asset management and create liquidity.


    Tony Noto: Do you think that the folks in charge over at Binance and Coinbase are gonna have a branding issue? This scrutiny from the SEC it's a negative for the industry. What is your take?


    Dave Hendricks: I believe that people should be able to invest in things that they want to invest in.Take a look at Wall Street Bets. You know, wall Street bets is out there, saying whatever it wants. People are posting there, they're providing advice, people who don't understand the underlying, you know, KPIs and metrics and, the industry that they're investing in public equities and they don't know anything about, you know, how a theater is run or what the foot traffic is at a GameStop. They don't know anything about it. But they're part of these, you know, piping schemes in public shares, and no one goes after them. And there's substantial risk in buying and selling, puts and calls. But, you know, people are out there doing it .


    Crypto is generally a private market, right? Cuz they're not public equities. They have not gone through an IPO process. They're all private. They're kind of two sides of a coin pun intended, right? Vertalo is on the regulated side.


    I've got a former SEC attorney as a co-founder. But you know, that doesn't mean that I think that the issuers of digital currencies should get slapped or shut down. The buyers understand that there's risk here. This is actually quite a knowledgeable buyer base. I think that people should be free to make and lose money as long as no one else is physically harmed.


    Tony Noto: Do you think that the FTX kind of ruined the show? 


    Dave Hendricks: FTX is an example of malfeasance. I don't think, I don't need to say anything about FTX. I think there's plenty out there that proves that it was a scam. And, and, and, you know, then I don't even consider that blockchain, by the way. That is just like bucket shop scamming, boiler room stuff.


    Coinbase, on the other hand I am very, very confident. And by the way, full disclosure, Coinbase is an investor in Vertalo

    Bad actors need to be punished, but I don't think Coinbase is a bad actor. And I don't think Kraken is a bad actor. I don't know. I don't spend a lot of time on Binance, so I don't know much about that.


    Tony Noto: You're a big proponent of institutional defi. Why is that the future of regulated distributed ledger applications? 


    Dave Hendricks: I'm generally a proponent of defi I think that there's some really great efficiencies.


    The borrowing and lending process going through a bank is very expensive and time-consuming. Institutional defi is a logical next step for large financial institutions.

    Institutional defi gives large financial institutions the opportunity to use the blockchain skills that they developed over the last years and productize that knowledge into offerings, which are step function improvement on current debt, credit and collateral markets.


    And they can cut their internal costs, they can increase speed and they can, they can continue to do things with distributed ledger which should turn in ultimately to consumer products. JPM

     Onyx, and Broadridge is doing this. There's so much collateral out there. And these big institutions, it's kind of like they're just gonna end up maybe buying the tech at some point later on, or they're not really gonna develop anything in house.


    This is called the Monster versus the Baby Problem. Okay. The, the, the monster is the existing revenue stream from the, the revenue producing product that the, that the company creates. Then, you know, the baby is this small startup in inside a large corporation, which is creating something which drives less revenue.


    Apple went through this. The iPhone was the baby and the monster was the iPod. 

    Since we brought Aldo's Digital Asset Securities platform to production, I've been able to test with more than a hundred clients. If we failed, it was all right. It wasn't existential, right? Big institutions are less able to do this successfully because they're less willing to test.


    If a large financial institution tried to build something like Vertalo, which is a digital transfer agent literally manages data. For issuers and broker dealers, et cetera, their competitor, financial institution companies won't use it. Citadel tried to do something with broker dealer technology and it failed miserably because no one trusted them.


    So no one wants to put their data on another. No financial institution wants to trust a competitor, financial institution with their data. So you need an independent. Third party, like Vertalo that can logically and physically separate data, and so that multiple financial institutions can use the same system to get some stability and some standardization.


    Yet they have control. Over their data. Right. And that they're not worried about their, about data leaks. 


    Tony Noto: You're quite active on Twitter, and you talked a little bit about the Andy Warhol pieces of art that have now been tokenized. Yep. I thought that was interesting. 'm an art guy myself but I don't know how I feel about classic pieces of art being tokenized.


    How do you win folks like me over? 


    Dave Hendricks: People like to be part of something. People like to join things, they like to be part of a community. It is very, very hard to buy a whole Warhol for 99% of people because the cheapest, Andy Warhol portrait is $600,000. Sure you can go buy the poster at the museum and you can put it up on your wall. But what if you could own a piece of that portrait? t's not dissimilar from NFTs. The difference is that the fractionalized and tokenized versions of Warhol's art issued by freeport.app. That is an actual legal representation of ownership of an actual Warhol and if it goes up in price or value.


    Sure, you can sell, but maybe you just want to create a virtual gallery that you can send your friends to and say, here's my art collection. And that's what Freeport is doing.

    We already do it with racehorses and sports cars. 


    People who have bought fractional interest in racehorses have literally had horses in the Kentucky Derby. And the horse valuations have gone up like this. And so art is historically illiquid fees for buying and selling art at auction are very high. It's not a market that's easy to enter. And by working with freeport.app you are purchasing a fractional ownership of one of these Marilyn Monroe or James Dean or Mickey Mouse. You can be part of something and, and, you know, you're not there to flip it next week.it's not crypto like that. It's more like, Hey, I'm gonna put some money And if this thing goes up I'll benefit but I can sell it at any time. I think the Marilyn Monroe one went for $195 million. 



    Tony Noto:  What other industries do you think will gravitate towards tokenization? 


    Dave Hendricks: The VC equities, specifically LP interest in VC funds. I think it's a really ripe market because the VCs are not getting exits to distribute gains to their limited partners.


    And so imagine 12 years ago as an LP you invested in a VCs fund that hasn't had enough exits. But you know, you wanna move on. And there's some internal rate of return (

    irr) that has been, you know, from the markups and the investments in the portfolio.


    You might see VCs getting pressure from their LPs to make them liquid. Well, you can create a liquid market out of LP interest. We talked about collateralization earlier. Debt is still one of the most antiquated markets, debt and credit. I think that real world asset tokenization works really well for making debt easier to buy and sell.


    Real estate has been reluctant to adopt cuz it's one of the most, most antiquated anti-avian, as they say before the flood kind of markets. And it's a really, really fragmented market. But as their loans come due over the next couple years, you see this in San Francisco and New York and their buildings are not recovering Post covid.


    They're going to have to sell off some or all of their interests in their buildings. And so if you're the owner of one of these large real commercial real estates or office buildings and you've gotta meet your loan requirements, we’ll sell off some of your equity to investors in order to stave off the collections so you don't have to turn your keys back while you wait for the return of people to the office.

    34m - Jun 27, 2023
  • Private Equity For All But Not For The Faint Hearted

    ‘I had to hear my share of inappropriate comments along the way’ Sunaina Sinha Haldea


    Topics: Private Equity, glass ceiling, thoma bravo, nasdaq, women in finance, Stanford, Raymond James, Sunaina Sinha Haldea

    Anthony Noto , Benzinga Editor

    Featured Guest:

    Sunaina Sinha Haldea Global Head of Private Capital Advisory, Raymond James


    Transcript:

    Tony: There was a big private equity deal this week, and those are few and far between. Nasdaq agreed to buy Thoma Bravo-owned software firm Adenza for $10.5 billion. That's not small change. 


    Sunaina: That's not small change. It's a huge exit for this environment, and a huge congrats to the deal team there.


    I think that we have to look at it in the context of where we've been for the last nine months, which has been in a bit of winter for M&A activity, both exits ie sales, coming out of private equity portfolios, but also private equity buying assets. I think I'm hoping that this Thoma Bravo deal is a sign of things to come.


    Now here's why. My hope is an educated hope. Most of M&A deal volume is driven by private equity, right? Private equity holds companies that need to sell and private equity runs on a clock. Right now, if you look at total private equity, Undrawn commitments.


    So these are funds that are waiting to be called to be put into companies. That stands at over 3.5 trillion dollars. You just look at the capital that sits with buyout funds that can do large transactions in profitable companies. That's over $1.1 trillion. So that's a lot of overhang.


    And one thing that people forget is that private equity runs on a clock and the clock doesn't stop ticking. Doesn't stop ticking for you, me, or anything. And that clock basically states the following four years or five years of deployment followed by four or five years of exiting. And the more you run down the clock without doing any of the above, ie doing new good deals, buying companies or selling companies, the clock then works against you.


    Your net returns to investors suffer. If you don't put money in the ground and buy companies fast enough your net Internal Rate of Return (IRR) will suffer if you don't sell companies according to the right time to sell it which is generally 3, 4, 5, or 6 years after buying them. Your Distributed to Paid-In Capital (DPI) numbers suffer, and you need both those things to be very standoutish to be able to raise capital these days. Raising capital is hard for everybody. So private equity can go on pause for three months, six months, nine months, 12 months, but it cannot go on hold forever because investors then say, well, I'm paying you 2% management fee to put money in the ground. Why aren't you doing so? 


    And I think that we're now starting to see the wheels turning. if you ask my M&A colleagues, they will say that May was one of the highest months for signed sell-side engagements that they've seen in recent years. 


    So I think it's a sign of things to come that the M&A markets will open up and deal activity will pick up. Of course, the big unknown is the debt markets, but we can talk about that, a little bit later in the conversation. But for right now, we're seeing a lot of green shoots in private equity firms wanting to buy and sell companies.


    Tony: Definitely. And it's reminding me of a lot of the conversations I had with PE Pros, 10 years ago. When there was a lull in deal-making as well, and they were talking about holding onto these portfolio companies a little too long and what to do with them and, and how their investors would react to that.


    And they did sort of express optimism last year and they thought that maybe the tide would turn in Q1 of this year. But that wasn't the case. And then it kind of lines up that it was the lowest M&A volume for a quarter, since 2013. 

    what could we expect in the second half of this year?



    Sunaina: I think we can expect to see a lot more dynamism in the m and markets in the lower mid-market and mid-market of PRI private equity. What does that mean? That means companies sub $50 million of EBITDA, they don't require the syndicated loan market to get the deal done.


    Those companies will have a receptive audience. Why? Because leverage is available through direct lenders, the private credit markets are open for business. Those folks also have a clock. If you have a private credit fund, you are also running on a clock. You also need to put money to work. Structured credit funds are all seeing attractive deals come their way and they're doing those deals. They're underwriting those deals. So if you are operating in that sub $50 million EBITDA range, you're going to see a lot more transactions, both M&A processes where you can cherry-pick your spots. or you may be saying, okay, I'm gonna take my own companies out for sale because I need to return capital to my investors, otherwise I'm gonna fall behind in the Distributed to Paid-In Capital (DPI), which is the most important metric, some would argue to investors, you'll find fall behind that curve. And you don't wanna do that. You don't wanna be fundraising with that fact pattern. So in that end of the market, we're gonna see transactions coming to market. 


    Over $50 million ie the bigger deals you do need the, you know, bank debt, right? You do, you need the syndicate loan market function, or you need banks to provide you with leverage. And that is still, that is, that is a tale of idiosyncrasy. Right now, the, the markets are not functioning, let's say one once used to, but the green shoot there is, we're starting to see, uh, a pricing in of terminal rates. Right. So we, we all expect now, given the inflation print this morning, that the Fed will take a, what is they're calling it, the Fed skip. The Fed will take a pause rate. I. And folks expect Okay. Maybe there might be one more hike after that. But that's it. We're near the end of the hiking cycle such that banks can then underwrite risk. So with that, we'll start to see more functioning of the debt markets for larger deals. But certainly in the $50 million and south EBITDA range, we'll start to see deals come to market.


    Tony: Just before we wrap up this topic, I want talk about the type of deal we saw. what does it say about PE, Thoma Bravo specifically did a deal with Nasdaq. And they sold a large portion of their portfolio company, Adenza, but they kept about a 15% stake. And this is not the first billion-dollar plus deal that they did with a stock exchange.


    They did one with the New York Stock Exchange, back in 2020, what does it say about that part, this particular type of deal? what's the strategy here? 


    Sunaina: I think the strategy here is two-fold. It is, and again, the ultimate viewpoint on this has to come from Thoma Bravo, but when you're reading what was announced and had the playbook that's being deployed here is that strategic buyers will always pay up for strategic assets and that's what you have here. You have NASDAQ, a strategic buyer. They will always pay more for companies and especially strategically oriented companies than private equity buyers. So good for Thoma Bravo for finding a strategic buyer for the asset. So that's fantastic. and I think that you are seeing a leaning into businesses with predictable revenue, right? So you think about why did NASDAQ do this from their perspective? Why does this make sense? It really is about building up a software business with a recurring revenue business model in this market environment and this macro that we are live in.People will pay up for annualized recurring revenues and which this deal very much brought to the table for NASDAQ. Now, NASDAQ stock didn't react very well, was down quite a bit yesterday. But that's a one-day event. I think over time when you hear NASDAQ talk about its rationale for the sale, it really is the predictability of the revenue stream that was attractive to them.


    Tony: I did, I did see that about the stock, but, and, and with all the stripe powder, you still not seeing PE sponsor come in and be like, well, we can pay north of $10.5B? 


    Sunaina: Well, the, the PE buyer needs to enter at a price where it can make two and a half times. So, yes, of course they can put any number out there, but they got, they gotta make, they have to make money. They have to make a return on that. And so generally when you put pit a private equity buyer, head to head with the strategic, the strategic can pay more because the private equity investor, has to. price in its own fees. Remember, there's fees on the capital that goes in.The capital considerations are different for a private equity sponsored buyer than for strategic buyer, number one.


    And number two, the strategic buyer has synergies, that they can price in which the sponsor usually cannot. 


    Tony: So I wanted to bring up a little bit about the image of private equity. it's an industry that you are a top player in. And I know from experience there arent too many women in it inking deals. It's predominantly men. II read something that you had written. You wrote it for https://www.penews.com/ 

    Sunaina Sinha Haldea: ‘I had to hear my share of inappropriate comments along the way’

    and I wanted to get your thoughts on private equity as an industry. I think, it still struggles with this image problem of settling companies with debt and perhaps, too much so because a lot of them are going into bankruptcy. And I wanted to get your thoughts on one, what it's like being, oa young, mover and shaker in this industry. two being, a woman in this space and if representation is improving, and three, what folks like you are doing to make sure that maybe PE gets the makeover that it, it.It needs to appeal to the, the average consumer?


    Sunaina: So let me start in reverse chronological order and talk about the industry and its reputation and its contributions to society, if you will. What is the value of private equity in the world today? And then we'll move backwards into the you know, probably more disappointing territory, which is representation of women and women of color and, and, you know, lots of -isms that come with it.


    Often also, some of it's stereotyped, but some of it very legitimate. So when it comes to private equity and image problem, it is so easy to say, Hey, they saddle companies with debt, and then they go bankrupt. But remember, the, the incentives are not aligned for that to happen. Because with private equity is a long only model.


    Private equity buys. It doesn't short. It goes long, number one, right? And it buys low and sells high. That's the model. Buy a company of this size. And sell a bigger company three to five years later. It's very simple. And now the question is how do you make that company bigger? How do you finance the acquisition and how do you finance the growth of the business?


    So you adding value on the way out. Because it has to create a more valuable business. That was, it can't sell it for more than it bought it. It has to make the business stronger, more efficient, more operationally resilient, and a better economic contributor. To society and to the economy around it. In order for that to happen often means way more jobs growth because the business is growing, the business goes to international expansion, business goes to acquiring new companies.


    It often means that the, the companies are left much larger, more scale players. And so whenever you have private equity inflows into countries, if you look at emerging marketing and economies, if you look at parts of the United States, for example, where. Capital has not flown to more,naturally ie the Midwest, etc. You see that every time you have private equity in flow. It creates a thriving entrepreneurial community because that private equity is designed the way it's engineered to build better companies, build bigger, healthier companies, because that's the only way you get someone new to come in and buy that business for you.


    If you create value, if you create something more valuable, hundred percent that if you cannot do that, if you are one of those. Uh, in those unfortunate moments in your portfolio as a private equity fund, and almost every private equity fund has one or two of these stories of, Hey, I tried. I couldn't get there.


    I have 10 or 15 portfolio companies in this fund, and one of them didn't make it. I couldn't turn it into what I thought I would turn it into. So either I sell it at the loss or in the Armageddon scenario, I lost the business in its entirety. If you look at the loss ratio in private equity, which means a total wipeout, it's incredibly low.


    It's, it's one of the lowest in any market. So private equity does not wanna lose, have a complete wipe, because that's terrible to their own fundraising, prospects out there because it's so rare to have a complete loss. Yeah, you can lose money, but to have a complete wipe out a bankruptcy pretty low.


    And what you are seeing right now in the last nine months is that debt hasn't been so available. So the companies are buying, certainly in this cycle, are not over-levered. They can't be because there isn't that much debt available. In fact, it's the opposite. It's a slight over equitization of deals.


    So that's the private equity perception issue. I think it comes from all the, all the stories of the heyday that took the industry, by storm and its reputation for being like barbarians of the gate and whatnot. But I think if anyone actually studies the business model who looks under the hood and especially the private sponsors that play in the mid-market, Mid-market, all they're doing is buying, creating value, making bigger, healthier businesses and selling 'em on. That's the model. That's how they're incentivized. 


    Tony: But do you think that over the past 10 years they've gotten better at bringing that message out there and changing the narrative in a way for better?



    Sunaina:  I think that it, it's a question of who you ask, right. So they've done a great job of doing that in their ecosystem ie doing that amongst. Advisors, the investors, the players that they deal with all understand how it works, but they haven't been asked.


    So the industry at large has not been so good at getting the message out to people outside of the PE ecosystem. There is still wood to chop, but they've made some good steps in organizing themselves better. There are associations such as the Institution Limited Partner Association (ILPA) and so we are doing a better job of telling the story.


    But we're still not there yet. We still have a lot of evangelism to do.I think it's important that they do so. Private equity touches everything. The mic you are on was probably made by a company that is backed by private equity. The water you drink, The roads you're traveling on. The airport you're taking off from or landing into. It's all owned by a private sponsor in one way, shape, or form. It is unbelievable that the things on your desk, what percentage of it will be owned by a private equity back company? Quite a lot.


    To your point on representations, I think that's where the industry has done a very disappointing job. It is still far too low. We're still in the single digits for female representation and private equity in general, but when it comes to senior women, It's sub 5%. And when it comes to women leading businesses, folks who are in my chair, Sub 1%.


    It's very low when it comes to both on the buy side of private equity on the sell side. Dismal, numbers. Is there a lot of talk behind it? Yes. Now just keep in mind, we've gone through a macrocycle where they were able to fundraise very quickly. That tide has just turned and, but by just turned, I mean only just in the last six, seven months, it's become difficult to do so, which puts the investor in the driving driver's seat. And my, certainly, my hope and expectation is that these investors will now start asking tough questions.


    If I have, if I only have limited capital, I need to commit to it. One of two funds, maybe I will commit to the one that has better diversity policies. Maybe I will commit to the one with better Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) policies. This is where you drive change in this environment, right? This is the silver lining of a more stressed mark Macroeconomic backdrop for fundraising is that you can drive change with responses saying, Hey, unless you fix this female representation issue, it's gonna be difficult for us to invest with you.


    That's when you'll get the behavior change. Otherwise, it's been unfortunately not very acceptable or not very helpful in terms of what's happened with the numbers. Then your final question is, what's it like been like for me, I'd say peaks and troughs. There've been many, many moments where I've had to raise eyebrows at my colleagues in the industry because of things that are said or the way things are put across.


    That's because they're just not used to dealing with a lot of senior women. By and large, the industry has warmly accepted me. It was hard in the beginning, no question about it. When I started, when I started my own business, which was now 13 years ago it was not easy at all. They didn't understand who I was, what I was building.


    My firm is a 100% female led when I had it myself. And then also in Raymond James. I run the business globally for them. We're hundred percent female led and we're over 60% female and minorities when you combine the two together now. So we look very different.


    Tony: And just so our listeners know you were essentially an acqui-hire. Is that a fair way to put it? you had a firm and Raymond James was like, I want you and your whole team


    Sunaina: So they bought the whole business and they've been great to us. You know, I'd say Raymond James's culture has been a pleasant surprise. We did the deal because we believed in the culture at Raymond James, and I'm pleased to say it's almost two years in. So the honeymoon's definitely over. This is not honeymoon speak.


    Yeah, it's real speak, which is, they've been really good to us, I think culture is set at the top by leadership and James Bunn who runs the investment banking division of Raymond James has been a terrific, supporter of the type of business we've built. We've built differently. We've built diversely.


    He's backed that all the way and it understands that that may mean certain compromises. We may not rush to make a hire just because we need to get on with it. We'll wait to get the right diversity in the candidate pool before making that decision. So he gets that we will build a little differently to many other businesses he has under his wings, but we will do so for the right reasons.


    Tony: Now you have a pretty cool backstory on how you inked that deal with your firm. It wasnt done on a golf course.



    Sunaina: Life does these things to you to show people who they are. I love the Maya Angelou quote, “when people tell you who they are, believe them.” Right? And for me it was, the pandemic that made it happen this way. Firstly, I'm useless on a golf course.

    most full-time working moms of three kids would, would probably say they're useless on a golf course. I certainly am. It's definitely on a wishlist of something I'll pick up when my kids are off to college, but, but not today. So that would've been lost on me. And in the pandemic, this was in the throes of the pandemic.


    Remember this is early to mid-2021. The Raymond James folks in headquarters could not visit me and I was in London. At the time, they couldn't visit me because of quarantine requirements without spending 14 days in quarantine. And I couldn't get into the United States because Trump had a travel ban on.


    so we're like, well, where do we meet? There's no way we're inking this deal. They're not going to buy the business and I'm not gonna sell it to them without meeting in person. And so we looked at a number of Caribbean islands and settled on Antigua as a place where we could both fly in and out of and just the way the flights worked.


    We couldn't, there were no daily flights because it was the middle of the pandemic. There were lockdowns and so we kind of all had to fly in and spend three days together. And that was such a blessing because as you rightfully said, Tony, you can pretend in a conference room setting, you can even pretend over one dinner and then fly back out.


    That's right. So it's really hard to make up pretenses for three, four days when you're swimming together and going snorkeling and figuring out how to spend time. Yes. Because your flight's not until two days later. So that was a great blessing for us, and I'm very glad I did it because it made me very comfortable selling the business.


    Tony: I, I know you wear a lot of hats, professionally, but you also, as you mentioned, uh, mom of three kids, uh, what's the balance like, and do you have any advice?


    Sunaina: I think most days the advice is tape and staples pick your tool and make it all work together. But I joke, I think, for me, the pivot to my life came from finding my own mental balance every day.


    Once I was able to achieve that centricity on a daily basis, everything else. Stop feeling like work. otherwise, the rate of burnout for working moms, in particular in finance is very high in private equity It's sky high. I got into meditation about a dozen years ago and held onto it, and now it's part of my daily practice and has been for over half a dozen years.


    Come what may rain or shine, sick kids or deals that are on fire, I will meditate. I'll do it for full hour now. Most people find that daunting, and so I tell them start with five or 10 minutes and then build the muscle. It's, it's a muscle, like anything else in your body takes time to build. And for me, that's been a game changer.


    It means that whatever life throws me that day, I'll take it, I'll deal with it. I'll be able to reset from it and move on. It doesn't, things don't sway me the good or the bad as, as much as, as they once used to. It's like your sine curve of life. Stops being so deep and high, both on the peaks and the troughs. It's a much narrower band, and therefore you live a more balanced and happier life. And that's been a game changer for me. 


    Tony:  what's like the first step to someone who has never done it or maybe sees an ad on Instagram or something like that about meditation, but they want you to pay a certain amount of money to get started and maybe someone just needs, uh, you know, that, just that first step to just.


    Try it out for maybe, like you said, five or 10 minutes, and then maybe invest more time. What's your advice? How do what? What do you do? Is it just a matter of sitting and and letting a candle and doing nothing, or just clearing your mind? What is it? 



    Sunaina: I would say if you're brand new to meditation, Pick your favorite app.It doesn't matter. Hit play and start. You have to start somewhere. There's many different types of meditation out there. Get on, get going, right? Don't be so picky on which app and which type and, and this and that. Just get started because any moments of stillness you can get, give your brain is a moment of healing, is a moment where you are letting go and not adding that's, that's a moment extra of peace in that day that you would not have had.


    So my first recommendation is get started once you've been. In your journey and you're now finding yourself doing guided meditations. You know, once a day for a few minutes each day, then say, okay, now I wanna take a deeper step. And that deeper step to really train that muscle is to attend a meditation course.


    The course I go to every year, in fact I'm going in a couple of weeks, and I've done it every year for over a dozen years now, is the Vipassana Meditation. It's free. There are many centers across the US I think about 20 centers across the United States, many centers across Europe as well. you sign up and you go and you sit and you, they teach it to you and you leave everything behind. And that's a form of immersion. If you think about, you're trying to reset your body. You take yourself to a health retreat or a, or a yoga course, or you take yourself into bootcamp, right? and you put yourself through a full cleanse. This is a mental cleanse, right? It's a full mental reset. Where they really teach you how to meditate and you just practice it continuously for a number of days and you come out of a course going, now I know how to meditate.


    And that's the full immersion that you can then take with you throughout the course of the next year until you feel like you need a new reset and you need a new sort of jolt to the system to get your mind into, the mode of meditating. So that's how I would say, I'd say just get started guys.


    Just get, get going. Your favorite app, whatever you like. Do it for a few months and you'll find, okay, now I'm seeing some benefits from this. What's next? How can I take the next step? And then think about going to a course. 



    Tony: And what was the name of that course? 


    Sunaina: Vipassana Meditation And there's a wonderful website that links to centers around the world. https://www.dhamma.org/


    Tony: Who has been an inspiration for you, either personally or in the business world?


    Sunaina: I would say there's, there's a number of folks that are higher on my list. but if I had to pick one person whom I have always admired personally and professionally, it would be Oprah Winfrey. It's a little cliche to hear a woman say that but she's been a tremendous service to women around the world through her message, and also what she's done and with respect to spreading the word of spirituality towards women. Think about what is your spiritual path and follow it. But she's done it in the domain of a terrific media empire that she's built. so nothing but tremendous respect. If I had to pick one woman, it would be her. 


    Tony: She was also a journalist. 


    Sunaina: She was also a journalist.


    Tony: She also comes up every now and then from folks that we interview at Benzinga. When she plugs a brand or a company, That is like a golden ticket for some entrepreneurs.


    Sunaina: She's the original influencer. now we've got so many, but she's the original.

    28m - Jun 20, 2023
  • Beating The Odds - The Real Story of Bosco - Now A Major Motion Picture

    The Quawntay Redemption: The Incredible Story Of A Marijuana Convict Who Studied Law To Get Himself Out Of Prison

    As featured on the History Channel documentary "History's Greatest Escapes" with Morgan Freeman.

    In 2006, over 2.3 million Americans were incarcerated, but only one managed to escape a federal maximum-security wing while under 24-hour surveillance: Quawntay "Bosco" Adams. Sentenced to 35 years behind bars for the distribution of marijuana, Adams made a miraculous escape.

    Now, Quawntay Adams is producing an original motion picture soundtrack for the feature film "Bosco," based on his incredible story.

    Topics: Marijuana,Cannabis, War against drugs, cannabis legalization, movies, Morgan Freeman, Film Festival,Motion Picture, Blockbuster

    Anthony Noto , Benzinga Editor

    Featured Guest:

    Quawntay Bosco Adams is a former prisoner turned film producer, author, and motivational speaker.

    Transcript:

    Tony: Your story is very unique, and if they haven't read your book Chasin Freedum, they should pick it up. It's amazing. you have three names, Quawntay Bosco Adams (https://quawntayboscoadams.com), but you also have another name that you were known as Houdini. Why do they call you Houdini? 


    Bosco: Because I kept escaping from federal prison and Marshals decided there was actually no place to hold me, even though there was, but they would jokingly say that there was no place to hold me, because every chance I got, I was trying to escape. And no matter what circumstances they put me on, I found a way to escape.


    Tony: Now, it's not once, not twice, but three times. 


    Bosco: Actually a little bit more than that as used. Considered some of the other attempts that really didn't get too much too far. 


    Tony: But I have to ask, I mean, do you think that they just didn't learn after the first time or were you getting creative? 


    Bosco: I was getting more creative with each one. I learned, and picked up different, different ideas and I became more determined. And you know, with determination, you, for some reason when you're determined about something, you'll figure out a way to make it happen. And I think the fact that they kept locking me in solitary confinement also helped because it gave me the time to just think and ponder and strategize and figure out a way to actually penetrate their security system. 


    Tony: What was the security system?



    Bosco: All of 'em were high-security prisons. All the times I was locked in solitary confinement. The first time I was confined to a cell I cut the bar out the window.


    After that first attempt, they locked me in solitary confinement and it became more strict. So even after the second one, when I was in solitary confinement, they transferred me to this other maximum security, and they locked me up 24 hours a day. And in that cell, they had a camera in it monitoring me, and I escaped and got away from there.


    So it was like, it seemed like the more strict the security the easier it became for me. 


    Tony: Which prisons were they? 


     Bosco: Alton Jail in Illinois, St. Clair County in Illinois. Jackson County in Illinois. 




    Tony: So when you started escaping, Did they have some prison experts come in and be like, look, what are we doing wrong here? Because this guy's outsmarting us. 


     Bosco: I'm not sure if they did, but I know that they started training, correctional officers by showing them my escape and videos of the escapes that I was doing. So I, I definitely became a part of their, their training course. 


    Tony: And what is solitary confinement like? I'd imagine that is next to impossible to escape. And you're saying you, you saw it off, you found a way to cut the, the bars. 


    Bosco: So solitary confinement is when you're locked in the cell by yourself and you can't come out of that cell. A lot of times you're, they bring you out for one hour a day. And they might lock you inside of a cage, a rec cage, or inside of a TV room or whatever, a day room to where you can watch tv, shower, and make a phone call or whatever, right within that one hour timeframe.


    But the other 23 hours a day, you're locked inside your cell. And, solitary confinement is where they put high-risk individuals or people who are constantly, disrupting the prison. 


    Tony: Now you were in there for cannabis possession. 


    Bosco: Yes. And that was it for attempting, attempting to possess cannabis. I never even had it.


    Tony: Yeah. So just just for attempting to possess, you were in jail for how long? I was sentenced to 35 years. 


    Tony: 35 years. Just for attempting. 


    Bosco: Yep. 35 years just for attempting. 


    Tony: So when you were there, you said at one point, I think you started studying law because obviously, anybody listening to this thinks that just can't be right. 35 years for just attempting cannabis possession just sounds so screwy.


    Bosco:  I mean that's our system. That's the war on drugs, right? You know, with this federal war on drugs, it was give out the most harsh sentence you can to try to deter others from getting involved or specifically it really not to deter, but to more so they encourage.


    Those individuals to start cooperating and providing information on others so that the cycle could continue. 


    Tony: Were there any lawyers who tried to help you, like reduce that time 


    Bosco: There were, there were plenty of lawyers who would come and none of 'em were ever able to accomplish it. I started teaching myself the law. At the very end filed a motion represented myself, and I was able to get it reduced 


    Tony: While you were in prison? 


    Bosco: Yes, while I was in prison. So you sort of, that's stuff that you sort of see in, in movies like the criminal, you know, in confinement, you know, trying to, who's not supposed to be in jail and he is trying to study law. But then, for you, that was a reality. 


    Bosco:  It's the entire story. It's the entire story. That's why it is a movie. I tried escaping. And then I got to the point to, you know what, let me try the legal way. Let me see. Let me talk. Let me stop trying to escape. Let me start teaching myself the law and let me try to learn a legal, find a legal loophole rather than creating a hole within the ceiling or the ground and tunnel on my way out.


    Once I started doing that, I applied the same determination. And it started coming to me and I was successful at that. 


    Tony: Why were you so determined to escape? 


    Bosco: I had a daughter. When I got arrested, I found out that I had a child on the way, so my daughter was born eight months after I was arrested, and so I was constantly trying to get out so that I can be a present father didn't want to repeat the same cycle that my father had repeated and his father had repeated, so I was determined to break that cycle. And so at one point you're just like, I gotta stop trying to escape and get caught. Cuz if I'm not gonna be successful, if the, if the, the guards are going to get wise to my attempts, I guess gotta study law.


     Tony: How did you start studying law?


    Bosco: Really it wasn't so much that of that, it was once after the third escape when I escaped from the prison. In the cell that they had, the camera monitoring me, the National Geographic Channel produced a documentary about that. And I started getting mail from people all around the world. So now I was famous, so to speak, you know, and, I started when I just, the letters and support that I was getting.


    It made me re-evaluate whether I wanted to escape because people started saying that I was smart. You know? I'm like, okay, if I'm smart, then I can figure out a, a smart way to do this. I can figure out a way within their legal system and, and get myself out. And so I gave it a try. 



     Tony: And were you able to just get a hold of books?


    Bosco: Case law. A lot of times you have law libraries where, you know, they'll bring you books to read, law books you can check out. And then there was a time when I was in solitary confinement where it would, things were so strict for me that the only thing that I can get was mail from my attorneys. I couldn't get reading books. I couldn't get personal letters, and so I would just have my attorneys send me a bunch of case law to read. And I would read that case law for recreational purposes as I repeatedly read the same case law over and over, just to take my mind away from the prison and, and, you know, escape, so to speak.


    I began to interpret law pretty good and you know, and that's how I really became good at law, just from reading case law over and over again. 


     Tony: Any cases in particular?


    Bosco: I mean, not none in particular. I would just read all type of case law, whatever I can read. Most of the time it was circumstances similar to mines, you know, drug, drug trafficking, marijuana cases, speedy trial cases, cuz I had been waiting to go to trial for nearly five years.


    Tony: Why do you think it took so long? 


    Bosco: Probably because I was constantly escaping and, You know, and they were constantly, the feds were still investigating and, and I wasn't, I wasn't really complaining because the, the way I figured that is the longer that I could sit around before I was actually convicted and sentenced, the easier my chances of escaping were.


    So I didn't really complain too much about it. 


    Tony: Did it ever get physical with, with the guards? 


    Bosco: No


    Tony: For the folks listening, Bosco is a, is a big guy. You're, you're very tall. I think you're about what, 6’ 5’’? 


    Bosco: Six four and three quarter six fiveish with shoes on.


    Tony:  So like, and you know, I can imagine it's, you know, it's intimidating to see like, oh man, he's out now, we gotta go, you know, apprehend him again and bring him back. how did they treat you when that happened? 


    Bosco: I mean, of course they're coming hostile, you know, they have guns and they have plenty of them. They got more people with guns behind them, and they got military behind that, you know, so at at that point you're just like, all right, you got me. 


    I still had to make sure that I was around for another date to try it again. And so I had to be smart about that.


    Okay. If they got me, they got me, you know,. I've been caught before and escaped again, and so let's, let's repeat the cycle. 


    Tony: When did you start documenting your story? 


    Bosco: After National Geographic did that documentary and I started getting mail from people is when I decided that I was going to share my story on paper to give people more details about my story because people were writing and they wanted to know more. And ironically, they all opinioned that I didn't deserve to be in prison. But we had a criminal justice system was said differently and so I wanted to kind of like share everything about me so that people can decide whether I deserve to be in there or not. And also for those who thought that I didn't deserve to be in there, to give them ways that they can help prevent other people from finding themselves in that circumstance. And also to just share my story to shed light. To people who didn't understand individuals like me who come from communities like mine to where there's this misperception that, you know, young black men who come from Compton and grow up in that culture that we're just inherently dangerous and violent, and that's not the case.


    It's really that we're just a product of our environment and we tend to take the roads that are available to us. And when I was growing up, there weren't any roads available other than the ones that I decided to take had I had someone. Had they shown me something differently, I probably would've been a lawyer.


    You know, I probably would've done, something, well, I most likely would've done something differently, but I took advantage of the opportunities that were present to me. And unfortunately, in communities like that, there aren't too many opportunities. 




    Tony: Where did you grow up?


     Bosco: In Compton, California, South Los Angeles. 


    Tony: Give me an idea as to how you started out. Like would you, were you, disinterested in school? Were you a good student or did you just get involved with folks who just were, I dunno, you, you talk about the roads that you chose.


     Bosco:  I think, I think that's the, where people don't understand and that's why I wanted to share all that in my book because the school is no different than the neighborhood. The schools that we have access to are identical to the street corners that we hang out on as kids, the same people are there in the school.


    Sometimes the same people teaching in the schools are the same people from communities like that, or either. There are people from communities who don't understand, so there's a disconnect. And they believe that a person has the option that the person has. What's really, we do have an option, but well, we have a choice.


    Every individual has the ability to make a choice, but when your options are narrow, you don't have too many different things to choose from. And so a lot of times sometimes you have where there's a disconnect between the students and the teachers. And they don't understand. And so they think, well, you know, just do better, do the right thing.


    That's not how it works, right? Cause sometimes children don't see and don't understand and don't believe the right thing. And that's the case, how it was for me growing up in the eighties and nineties. I didn't see any other choices, so I did the right thing, I didn't know what the right thing was. 


    Tony: Who do you credit for helping you see that your story could potentially help others? Was it the letters that you were receiving? 


    Bosco: Yes. It was the letters. It was the letters and the determination that make something of my life in my story. Even though I was locked in prison without any end in sight, I figured that if I would die in there, I wanted people to understand me.


    And I wanted, particularly the criminal justice system to understand me and the people who didn't understand people from our community and who sided with the criminal justice system to let them see how unfair it really was. And the only way they could see that is understand that I was a human and that I was no different than them and their children, and that if given better opportunity how likely would it have find myself in a criminal justice system? 


    Tony:  So 16 years in prison, And when you got out, what was that day like?


    Bosco: I went straight out, got my daughter, and went through a custody battle. Got full custody of my daughter, but I went to work, started working on production of the movie immediately.


    Because I had to, you know, I'm getting old, you know, I needed to start securing some type of wealth and particularly start setting up to where I can take care of my daughter. So I didn't have the opportunity to just go sit still and spend time with her constantly. She was with me on set every day, so we were spending time together all the time.


    She was with me every single minute. But I was working at the same time. B


    Tony: Before the movie even gets set up for production, there's the writing process. Did you have a writing partner? 


    Bosco: Well, all, all of that took place while I was in prison, actually started writing, you know, I started this, we started this maybe like a year and a half before I got out.


    So the, the goal was to produce this movie while I was in prison, just to share my story and hopefully, you know, get people to support my release. But I ended up getting myself out in the right after we finished writing a screenplay. So screenplay and novel or biography really are 


    Tony: Both being written in prison at the same time? 



    Bosco: Yeah. All, all of that was done in prison. The book was actually self-published while I was in prison. 


    Tony: Okay. And when you, and when you came out, you're just hitting the road and trying to get financing, what was that like? You're like I got the book, I got my documentary, here's my story.

    And what was the response like? 


    Bosco: Exactly. That's it. And once people heard the story, they were like, you know what? I want to be a part of it and just hitting the ground, hitting up. Just, you know, the regular, average individuals, no VCs, no wealthy people, just individuals, you know, who might have $20,000 saved in the bank. Oh sure. I'll contribute that in just a bunch of individuals start getting behind the story because they loved it. 


    Tony: So there was no Hollywood folks involved at first. It was just really almost like a, a crowdsourcing thing. 


    Bosco: Yes. No Hollywood folks involved at, at first, no. 


    Tony: But then how do you, you eventually did make inroads to, some Hollywood heavy hitters, though.


    Bosco: Oh, yeah. As far as the cast, there's definitely, and a lot of that was just through, you know, people who know people. 


    Tony: So who's in it? who could we expect to see in Bosco, the motion picture. 


    Bosco: You got, Aubrey Joseph from Cloak and Dagger. He's playing me. Tyrese Gibson from Fast and Furious and Thomas Jane from The Punisher and Vivica A Fox from Kill Bill.


    Tony: That's an amazing cast. How so did they, when did they start to come on? Did Vivica A Fox come on, and then the rest came on?



    Bosco: It was a trip because it was, we were, we were putting it together as we were going along. We started filming just with, you know, a handful of money. Didn't have a full budget, didn't have a full cash. And just started going out there, knocking stuff out and, and people were coming on board as we were going along. 


    Tony: Who, who directed it? 


    Bosco: Nicholas Pino.


     Tony: How did you meet Nicholas Pino?


    Bosco:  I met Nicholas through one of my, co-producers. when I was in prison and we decided that we were gonna start putting the film together, they reached out and found Nicholas. Nicholas had won some awards for screenplay writing. So me and Nicholas, we would talk a lot on, on the phone and, and go over the script when I was in prison.


     Tony: I know from experience that there are three big accomplishments when it comes to making an independent film

    Getting a film made is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. , getting into the festival is - a hurdle and Toronto Film Festival is one of the big ones. There's, also South by Southwest, there's Sundance. Are you, dedicating a certain amount of financing to just getting the word out and sending it to those festivals as well?


    Bosco: Yeah. And then just putting in the work, just, you know, putting together the best quality, product and presenting it, right? And, using the same energy that I use. So far, everything I've been doing, such as escaping from prison, representing myself in the federal court, getting out and raising the funds to produce this movie, getting full custody of my daughter and just getting off probation, just all of the things that I've been accomplishing, applying that same energy. And sometimes I think it is not even so much me, I'm doing the work that I'm supposed to be doing, but I think sometimes it's just meant to be, you know, I sometimes it's this train ride, it's going where it's going and you just gotta enjoy the ride.


    I think that's what's happening here. I think a lot of it is, is meant to be and there's good energy and there's the universe is conspiring with me here. 


     Tony: where is the source of that energy? What gives you, that drive? Because a lot of people, they just, they would break, you know? you didn't, you, you just, what you just said, enjoy the ride. 


     Bosco: I think once you start fighting for stuff, And you fail and you repeatedly fail and you lose and you fail.


    And then if you get back up, that's the thing when you continuously get back up. You start training yourself to continuously get back up. And when you get to that phase, that mindset, then everything just becomes a ride. You just start enjoying, you're like, okay, you know, I'm going to fail sometimes, but I'm not going to even focus on that failure because I'm going to get back up afterward.


    And if you keep getting back up, if you continue to get up after the fall, you're going to eventually accomplish what you're trying to accomplish. And so, Now it's to the point where I don't even focus on the failures. And then when you don't, even once you get to that point, it's just like everything is positive now.


    And when you are constantly in that positive mode, then you're going to continue to attract positive things. And when you get to that phase, you're going to get more wins than losses. 


     Tony: I imagine spending time with your daughter is one of them, Talk to me a little bit about that. 


    Bosco: Yeah, and looking at where I'm coming from in my life over the past couple of decades, right now I'm already winning. Right now, I'm in a great place even though I don't have financial wealth, I have my daughter and I have freedom.


    And those are the two most, those are the most valuable things that a person can ask for freedom and physical health. That's the, you know, once you have those things, you have the people you love and you care about around you. Then nothing else really matters. You can, you can make do with whatever, you know, even if we had 10 people living in a one-bedroom house and we're frying noodles, it's the mindset you have about it.


    And coming from prison, solitary confinement, eating the worst food, and not having that freedom and having to deal with men that you don't know and don't care for, who don't care for you. You learn to appreciate little things, and I think that right there is what contributes to the mindset that I have.


    I don't cry over spoiled milk. I take it and I add sugar to it and make, you know, make cottage cheese or something. You gotta, you gotta make something of it or else it's just the waste. And when you're talking, when you're talking about your life, I can't just consider, you know, those years to be a waste.


    I want to make something of it, make it count even though they were not good experiences.


     Tony: Do you take your story on the road? Do you talk to kids in schools and, and after-school programs? I think that they would get a lot out of hearing your story, especially if they're feeling like you are or if they're worried about where their road might take them.


    Bosco:  that is definitely one of my passions and where I see myself here in the next year or two. Traveling and speaking. I haven't made it to high schools yet, but I hope to make it to a bunch of high schools and share my story. I think that a lot of people can benefit from my story, not only kids, adults, also because it's one of resiliency.


    It shows that when a person is ambitious and driven that you can accomplish anything, no matter Whatever card you are dealt. It's, it is about learning how to play those cards to the best of your ability and making the most of it. 


     Tony: You're looking to sell equity in the film, right? If there are folks listening to this interview and they would like to perhaps come on board as a co-producer or a financier, or if you are selling equity and a piece of the film, why don't you tell us a little bit about that?


    Bosco: Yeah. I, I have a lot of equity in the film and. If some people like to be a part of it, there's an opportunity where they can get a piece of my equity and I can use a lot of that fund to capital to use to invest in, the soundtrack and other projects that I have. Like movie merchandise and other things that I plan to put together. So yeah, there's an opportunity there. If anybody's interested, they can definitely reach out to me and contact me, whether it's through email quawntay8@icloud.com, or even gimme a call. I'm old school. +1 661 917 5418. 

    And we also forgot to mention the documentary with Morgan Friedman, the Great Escape, which has already been produced and going to be aired on a history channel this fall. 


    Tony: History Channel, Morgan Freeman documentary. He narrates your story, correct?


    Bosco: Yeah. He narrates my story. Correct. 


     Tony: That, must be really surreal to have Morgan Freeman narrate your story. That's like having God narrate your story. He played God and he was the guy who narrated one of the greatest prisoner escape movies of all time - Shawshank Redemption. Did you see that movie before you were locked up and did it inspire you in any way?


    Bosco: Ironically I saw that movie while I was in prison. 


    Tony: What do you mean they showed you that movie? 


    Bosco: Yeah, just one day I was out in the rec cage watching TV and it came on AMC or something, and I sat there and watched it and I'm like oh, that’s a sign. 


    Tony: So when you were caught, did you just say, look, “I was inspired by watching the TV that you guys do.”


    Bosco: There you go. That's funny, right? 


    Tony: Well, I think that we're gonna have a modern-day Shawshank Redemption film coming up and, I'm very excited to see it. I wish you all the luck and, in getting your movie seen and your story heard, and, I would love to do a follow-up interview. 

    Tony: So thank you so much for coming on Benzinga Interviews. 

    30m - Jun 13, 2023
Audio Player Image
The Benzinga Interviews
Loading...