The Rise of the Rest: Unlocking Venture Capital Across India & Africa

"RAISE CAPITAL LIKE A LEGEND: https://offer.fundraisecapital.co/free-ebook/"

What if you could unlock the secret playbook of venture capital that most investors never see in the next 60 minutes? 

A Wall Street mathematician turned global investor will reveal how to build wealth, navigate emerging markets and transform capital into a meaningful impact, all without playing by the traditional rules. See, this isn't just another investment podcast, this is your blueprint for Making Billions while changing the world, all this and more coming right now.

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[THE GUEST]: Eva Yahzari Managing Partner at Beyond Capital Ventures.

[THE HOST]: Ryan Miller is an Angel investor, former VP of Finance, CFO of an insurance company, and the founder of Fund Raise Capital,  https://www.fundraisecapital.co where his strategies helped emerging fund managers and deal syndicators to report raising over $1B following his strategies.

Transcript

Ryan Miller  

My name is Ryan Miller, and for the past 15 years, I've helped hundreds of people to raise millions of dollars for their funds and for their startups. If you're serious about raising money, launching your business or taking your life to the next level, this show will give you the answers so that you too can enjoy your pursuit of Making Billions. Let's get into it. 

Ryan Miller  

What if you could unlock the secret playbook of venture capital that most investors never see in the next 60 minutes? A Wall Street mathematician turned global investor will reveal how to build wealth, navigate emerging markets and transform capital into a meaningful impact, all without playing by the traditional rules. See, this isn't just another investment podcast, this is your blueprint for Making Billions while changing the world, all this and more coming right now. Here we go.

Ryan Miller  

Welcome to the show. 

Eva Yahzari  

Thank you, Ryan. It's so good to be with you here on Making Billions. I'm a big fan of the show, and particularly a fan of your relational approach to telling stories of others and being so authentic, thank you for that.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant and we're going to be telling your story today, but not just the story, it's more about the things that you've achieved, because you've done a lot. Soon as you told me about your math career, I kind of geeked out a little bit, and I was like, you got to meet my daughter but with that, let's, let's jump right in. You've done a lot of things throughout your career, but one of the things that we do on Making Billions, especially, is want to know how to win, how to get early points on the board. So I'm just curious, from your experience in everything you've done at beyond, how would you say people get early points on the board when building a career in high finance?

Eva Yahzari  

Yeah, so there are a couple areas. I mean, the first really, is to have a differentiated investment strategy. What that means is that you are sourcing better or sourcing more differentiated deal flow, unique deal flow, deal flow that others can't find. You're investing better, so the actual action and execution of your investments is superior for one reason or another. I don't want to say better because it's a generic term, but superior meaning you are doing something different to produce better results. And then the third is that you're managing your portfolio that better, or you're just simply adding value to that portfolio so that you drive towards exits. That's kind of a cheat sheet to having a differentiated strategy, and I think is one, like oversimplified way that investors sometimes get lost when it comes to, like, what actually are they bringing to the table? The second area is understanding that, in reality, what you're selling is a track record. And for many reasons, people are investing in your track record. So developing a track record is absolutely paramount. While that means that it could, there could be a kind of a mindset of exits starting from day one. I think what's really important is making sure that you understand what exits look like from day one, so it doesn't have to, you know, be like, I give you the money Ryan, and you do what I say, and you produce an exit, and you figure out what that is. I actually come into the deal knowing how I think the exit will occur and that sounds like it's table stakes, but for us, exit modeling is a really important part of our investment process. And I know for others, it isn't actually a part of the process. They're looking at an idea, they're looking at a team. They're looking at potentially a company within a sector that they think will have a rising tide, lifts, lifting all ships effect. They may not always be thinking about the exit, but we want to know specifically how that is going to happen. And so due diligence is really important for us, and also in this how and then, you know, I think generally being a good person, I'll add that in there is a really important like way to win. I mentioned that I really love the relational approach to the way that you prepare for this show, the conversations that you bring forth, you almost tease the best out of your guests here, and why that matters is because you're using relational over transactional, and that is absolutely a winning investment strategy as well.

Ryan Miller  

Oh, brilliantly said, and maybe it's because you were so kind, but no in all seriousness, thank you. That was very kind. And you know, for those who have been listening to the show Eva a lot, and I know you're one of them, and one of the frameworks that I put out there, and people often ask about, you know, different strategies on raising capital. And I said the three most valuable assets in your possession are your reputation, your relationships and your results. And you just hit on all three and I don't, I don't know if we've even spoken about that, that framework. And I teach a lot of people who ask like, hey, I want to launch a fund, or flip a few houses, whatever it is you want to do deals and I and that summarizes what we call long game strategy. Is to say you're not going to build reputation relationships and results overnight, but you do need to build reputation relationships and results and a story that I'll tell. I haven't said this live so recently, I was on a road show, and for those, if you know, you know what those are like. And I was very fortunate, so I flew into Dallas, and I was around the table of about nine guys, and from the best I could calculate, they collectively controlled about half a trillion dollars, and they all came to see me. Maybe it was for the steak dinner, I don't know. But either way, they were around the table, and I talked to this really, they were all such brilliant guys. Some of them owned investment banks like these were really, really cool guys, down to their core, amazing human beings. And it really resonated when we're having a discussion about finance, exactly what you talked about Eva, and we said, I remember telling them, and they were like, that's it and so it's that moment, there's, I call it the meeting of the nine. All eyes are on me, and we're talking about high finance and more of a philosophical way, I get that way sometimes. And we talked about, if you think that finance is about transactions, you've missed the point. It's about trust and funds, or whatever vehicle you do. It can be a fund or whatever deal. That's just how you move those trusting relationships, your reputation, all that you move it through those fund vehicles. And so if you just want to build a structure, you can anyone can, call your lawyer, spend $150,000 set up your own fund, do whatever you think, right, talk to your attorney. But at the end of the day, if you try to do that without establishing a reputation or relationships or results, right? Everything you just said, it's going to be really hard, really hard, and but there are ways that you can go about it, but I don't think there's any shortcuts to what you said. And so just between you and I and anyone else listening, because we've never discussed this before, but you can see that when you're in the game, we all arrive at the same place with experience. Is to say, sure you can go to school and learn how to do the transactions and due diligence and the math which you did. But I think it's important to keep the main thing, the main thing in the North Star is what I call the r3 is reputation, relationships and results, and make sure that how you conduct your business, that you're the way you conduct your business, is like investing in those assets, and over time, they become more valuable, and you can do more good in the world with your fund. Is there anything else that you can add to that?

Eva Yahzari  

Well, I think it there's a little bit of an abundance mindset that's required to play the long game. And I mean, I think one way, like you said, How to Win, but like, one way, like not to lose, is to be on top of your mental game, and if you're not organized, or you don't have the right support around you, or you don't really believe that it's going to work out, when you're playing the long game, you're often not able to play the long game. You're thinking, you're constantly thinking, When is the shoe gonna drop? This is not working out, and I'm not never going to make money with a strategy. And so I would add that it does require a little bit of personal work to stay in the long game, to stay, to be able to command a room of serious wealth and pitch an idea, is energetic, and it's that work is sometimes more personal than it is professional. And what I mean by that is I'm lucky enough to have worked with an executive coach, Karen Eldad, for 2025 so now, for eight years, on and off, I've done other things that have really helped me stay what I call above the line, relational, abundance mindset, and able to see possibility as well. Because if I was transactional, short term focused, and, you know, more kind of focused on me, I when I win, you lose, which is what we call below the line at our firm, then my results actually won't be the same. I won't go the extra mile that's required. 

Ryan Miller  

So that reminds me of a framework called the UVE framework, stands for umpires, vampires and empires and umpires are those people that keep you on the straight and narrow, right? They call it even when maybe you're clouded, you're busy and not thinking straight. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but if it does, those are the people in your life that you need. You need those people and it could be people that have an amazing marriage, and maybe yours is struggling, and they're like, don't do that do this right? Or maybe you have a legal question, and you have great attorneys or accountants on your side, or just good friends for heaven's sakes, or other professionals, executive coaches, all of them matter. You need those umpires in your life that will not let you take this crazy train we call life off the rails. Vampires, same thing or same fashion, these are people, but most likely, your own habits, your own crappy perspectives, your fracture, fractured realities that you have, these time wasters, these these things that just drain your energy. Most of them are self inflicted, because when we think Energy Vampire, we think someone else, right? We couldn't be doing it to ourselves, of course. And then finally, empires, these are people who think big, just hanging out with them. They're building their own empire, that's a little dramatic spin, but these are people who are in the game as well. And having those people around you to say, have you ever considered this? Or, you know what? I just I did a deal last year with this person who would be perfect for you and what you're trying to do. And these people that are builders, they're about the process. They have big vision. You need people like that around you to stay that. And guess what, they probably need you as well. And so having that energetic is getting your energy right. Then we when you're in a good state, and we've all met those people who are just like you, they're infectious, they're so good, you just get pumped up and you're so happy to be around these people. We need more of those in our life and when you do that, imagine you being that person in a pitch, or you being that person with that kind of energy, because you've stood on guard, you're the Sentinel of the sanctuary, and you've now stood on guard, on your own mind and life, and you've structured, in a way, to be wildly energetic and you bring that in everything. How cool is that? So when I, when I figured that out, what a difference that made. And the final thing I'll close on, on this thought is, I had a good friend of mine, Ben Reinberg, he just recently released his book. He managed about 500 million and wonderful human being. And he always says this to his energy is he says, who always ask yourself the question, who do I want in my green room, and who do I want in my boardroom? And he said, that's more of a people focused thing, but no less profound. And so green room, if you've ever spoken on stage, you got you got your posse. They show up, they're pumping you up, and you feel like you're ready to run through a brick wall before you go on stage. You want people like that, those cheerleaders, those people that stand up and clap when you win and then you want people in your boardroom. So those would be your empire builders and so if I'm saying anything at all. If I'm connecting with what you're saying, it's really saying, You know what? Sure, we'll talk about transactions, but what about all the prep work that goes in front of that, behind the scenes? And a lot of that comes down to energy. And so if we want to transact, because if you're raising capital or doing deals, guess what? All that money that's going to be in your fund, it's sitting in someone else's account, and there needs to be an energetic exchange for that to happen. And so keeping yourself in check and being that professional and optimizing your energy, that is one of the best ways we could do to really enjoy our pursuit of Making Billions. So I absolutely love that I geeked out pretty hard on that, because you're speaking some real truth. You really are. Now I'd love to talk about, we talked about track records being exit ready and exit due diligence, you mentioned that. So that's really good. That's really good, right? Get some early points on the board, and then focus on your results right from day one to say, how do we want this to go full circle? But that's not enough to look at the upside, there's downside as well. So from all of your perspective, all of your experience, and all the cool stuff that you've done. What would you say are some helpful pieces of advice on how not to lose in fund management?

Eva Yahzari  

Yeah, well, number one is what I call trust but verify. So if I'm thinking in this UVE framework, it is kind of employing more of an umpires type mindset. So, you know, I mean, I'm an empire builder too, like you, and I see the big vision, but I know that umpires are required as a part of that strategy, so trust, but verify is kind of our firm motto, which is really verifying the claims in due diligence. So, you know, you hear a pitch, you're told, here's the total addressable market. You know, here's what we're going to hire the countries that we're going to expand into, if it's in Africa for us, because we do have companies that expand across the African continent, if it's India, here are the new markets that we're expanding into, and why? Or here are the new business lines that we see being attractive for the next five years. The company and we need to verify all of this through our due diligence, whether it's verifying that the market exists, whether it's verifying that the company has the right connections or it is not too expensive for them to do that. That is, you know, a basic rule, but something that I think is really important, particularly if you're not employing a power law investment strategy, like we are, we like we are not at beyond capital ventures. And what that means is power law would be kind of a portfolio of 10 investments where you have one, you know, 10-100x and the rest of them are kind of singles and doubles and maybe even losses to make up for the winner makes up for all the losses. And so we are more of a kind of, I would say, like an investor that's focused on having returns more narrowly around a specific band and having less losses in the portfolio, and therefore verifying assumptions is super critical. 

Eva Yahzari  

The second area, I think that's quite undervalued in this interestingly, in the fund industry, is knowing how to run a fund to business. It's running a fund is a business in and of itself. And I find myself chuckling when I have to explain that to founders who, you know, ask for an extension on a loan because we have a credit fund. Or, you know, make a late payment, which doesn't happen very often, but occasionally happens and then don't want to pay the late payment fee. And I have to explain, like, we're in the business of investing people's money, and that is an actual business. So it's important to know what it takes to launch a fund. It's important, you know, launching one, I think you said just, you know, go, put down the money and launch it earlier in this conversation, but running one is very complex. If this, if you don't want to have run basically two businesses, the business of investing in the business of keeping the lights on at your fund from a compliance perspective, from a financial perspective, from a reporting perspective, to your LPs, from an investor relations perspective, then do not launch a fund because there is a lot that is required, including the third job of raising money, which, you know, I am comfortable with and happy to do when I'm in empire building mode. But that can sometimes be 50% of your job as a fund manager, depending on where you are in your fundraising cycle. 

Ryan Miller  

You know, you bring up a good point, as I, as I jokingly say, about raising capital, I was like, well, without capitals, a bunch of smart people having coffee over zoom, really? What are we doing here? Like, someone's got to put the money in the deal, or we're just going to keep talking about deals. You got to do them, which goes back to the third hour of results in a joke, and I've said it on the show before, running a fund and launching a fund, launching a fund is like having a wedding. And running a fund is like having a marriage, although those two sound similar, they're very different. Skill sets only anyone can get married, but to stay married is different. Anyone can launch a fund, but to run one, and to do everything that you talked about, and you just highlighted the top line stuff, it's tons and you obviously know that it's a lot of work. And so launching a fund, depending on where you're at. Obviously, we're not attorneys, but check with them if that's what you're thinking about doing. But really, I think the message of what you're saying, even keep me honest, is to say, really understand what you're getting yourself into, whether it's a fund, structure, syndication, structure, tax regimes, due diligence, investing, raising capital, is just the spirit of everything that you're saying. Where it all converges is to say, make sure you really, really know what you're getting yourself involved in. If you do, you're gonna have a great career. If you don't, there might be some surprises and ironically, investors don't like to be surprised. Who knew.

Eva Yahzari  

Yes.

Ryan Miller  

We they're like, what you didn't tell me that, or whatever that is. And so as they say, I believe in the Navy SEALs is slow as smooth and smooth is fast.

Eva Yahzari  

Smooth is fast.

Ryan Miller  

Or something? Yes.

Eva Yahzari  

Yeah. 

Ryan Miller  

So seek smoothness, not putting fund manager in your LinkedIn title and making mom proud. Although that's good, we got to make mom proud. But the thing is, is beyond titles, beyond social media, beyond all that stuff that maybe people feel like they need to do, the important thing is, is just really understand what you're getting into, and it's okay to be in a process and work your way up to excellence. So that being said, I love it. Any other pointers as far as how not to lose in this industry?

Eva Yahzari  

Yeah, I would kind of echo and extend on what I said before about doing the personal work. I think the other way to not lose is to know what are the other tools, aside from financial analysis, market analysis, team analysis, reference checks, the low hanging fruit stuff, what else will give you an edge? And I really believe that for us, the edge is being very founder focused, being what we call founder fair, rather than founder friendly, and understanding who our founders are from multiple perspectives. So we not only get to know their style of running their business through due diligence, but we also do psychometrics on our founders and on our team, using the disc framework, the D, I, S, C framework to get this kind of mental map to know how to add value post investment. We don't use it for investment decision making, but we It allows us to know what motivates each founder and potentially which Relationship Manager We should partner with that founder for our portfolio management approach, post investment. And then one other area that is really key for us is we talk about a framework called conscious leadership. John Mackey, who started Whole Foods, wrote a book about this. It's really leaders who consider all stakeholders as critical to their business success. And I had somebody ask me, you know, what does that really mean? And the answer is, simply put, I just want to make sure that this founder has the skills to be able to get the job done. And we think about, we evaluate how founders are, you know, behaving in frameworks like UV, like your energetic framework, like, what? What are they doing to up level themselves, to call themselves to higher leadership. But we also help understand like, Who else could be a stakeholder that come could come in and make your business difficult? Perfect example, you said flipping houses. Like, if you can't get the permit, you can't flip the house. And that's just what this comes down to. So you should be thinking about the government as your stakeholder, because otherwise it's a bad investment for me.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant. That's, you know, I don't know if anyone calls it this, but you're hitting on something very brilliant. And I think it's up to us as kind of the up and comers or, I mean, I don't know if we're that new to it, but just the next generation in, we'll say generally capitalism, capitalism, 2.0 I think, is moving away from shareholder focus to stakeholder focus, you're you're spot on, on. That is to say, yeah, obviously we it's broader, it's not one or the other. We're saying, yeah, obviously we take care of our investors, or shareholders, people that own have an, have an equity interest in what we do. But there's also stakeholders, there's employees, there's government, there's all kinds of things. And when you broaden that scope. And those are also because I spent some time early my career in oil and gas, and I can promise you, at least the place I worked at, it's a wonderful place called Suncor Energy, and they really looked at Aboriginal rights and protecting the land and honoring the fact that they had treaty agreements and they really said they're stakeholders. They're not shareholders in our company, but they are stakeholders and how we utilize the land, it matters. And so taking that holistic view from all things, not only is it like, oh, that's nice, yes, please do that, but also it hits right at the core. What you said is say, but we need to make sure that we've considered all things, because at the end of the day, we need results, and we have to make sure that the person we're backing, not just the company, but the person, has the emotional and mental metal that they need to get it done. Because, guess what, as professional investors, that's our job, people are trusting us with their capital, and so we have to do it, because that's why they gave it to us. If they were going to do it, they wouldn't need us. So it's our job to look around corners and really do that due diligence, and you do it masterfully, both from not only running the company, but also through mathematics. I can't wait to get into that too, as well. So I love it. And like we say, I summarize it, success is an inside job, and so making sure that those things and so taking the DISC framework, understanding who are the people that I'm potentially going to be locked with for five to 10 years, who are these people, and is this a good fit at the end of the day to say what's going on on the inside. Because if we want to be successful, we can't ignore that. So anything else you can add to that.

Eva Yahzari  

I just think I need to get the tattoo that says success is an inside job, that's so great.

Ryan Miller  

On your forehead, please. Yeah, no,

Eva Yahzari  

Yeah.

Ryan Miller  

But yeah, it really is. So I actually do have that. That was something I came up with when I was much younger and maybe filled with more dreams than results. But I was like, you know what if I'm going to achieve what I set out to at all, it comes from the inside out, so love it. You could, you're starting to get it energy, yeah. So there was a framework shaping up here. I think so now we wouldn't be a show called Making Billions if we didn't talk about the market, right? So the one and only so there's many markets, but you're paying attention to, I know you invest not, not necessarily, in America, but your focus is on the other side of the planet. So I'm curious, what are you seeing in the market right now? What's, what's getting your blood either boiling or smooth sailing? What are you seeing right now?

Eva Yahzari  

Yeah, I'm seeing an incredibly large, growing next wave of consumers who have been left out because investors don't know how to access their market. So it's not intentionally left out, they've just been left out. There's not the level of healthcare, or health tech or FinTech, or ag tech or mobility that we have in I'll call it the West, just to be convenient, but the US and Canada and Europe, it's just not the same availability. I think I've said earlier today, like the beauty about me being American is like you have the paradox of choice. You can, you can actually express your values through all of your investment decisions or all of your spending decisions, because you have 10 different yogurts that you can buy in the supermarket, probably more than that. And so why I'm so bullish on emerging markets is because so many things have not been built yet. There's a lot of there a A lot of consumers that are demanding access to need to haves. 53% of the world's growth will occur in the next 10 years in the two markets where we invest, India and Africa, and there is lacking access to basic goods and services, that where there's a market opportunity to make money. And so what I'm seeing is the future of global growth. That's where I get to invest, it's why I get up every day, and it's why I believe other investors should pay more attention to what is happening outside of the US. And I think the beautiful tool of capitalism, which is elegant and never perfect, because nothing is perfect, but provides just the right amount of incentive for founders and to build and innovate so that they can, you know, create generational wealth, but create solutions that really meet their markets. Is the way that we are capturing this at beyond capital ventures. So that's our focus. Is investing in the future of global growth in two of these largest market.

Ryan Miller  

Yeah, India and East Africa.

Eva Yahzari  

Correct.

Ryan Miller  

Oh, love it. You know, I wouldn't call myself an expert, but more of an enthusiast, but I could say I always looked at those two areas and just intuitively, like. We're following the numbers, especially Africa, just generally speaking, that continent. And I was like, man, it just seems like that is so untapped for some reason, the little I can tell, and maybe I'm wrong, right? I don't claim to be an expert on that continent, but I can. It just seems like there's so much potential. I mean, they've got every geography you can think of, right? So you can do agriculture, mining, finance. There's so many things out there that is just untapped and I don't mean that like rub your hands together like a greedy POS. What I'm saying is maybe there's opportunity to help people rise. And for those who have listened to the show, you know my mission since I was a young guy growing up in the hood, was to say, I'm going to make it out. And I've dubbed it the rise of the rest and that has always been my life mission is to say, how can I fulfill that mission? And so thank you for doing that. You didn't maybe you didn't know that, but I really want to appreciate that you not only are smart in business where you can see the opportunity, because that's what people are trusting you to do, but also in the place to say, you know what? I'm going to take a shot. I'm going to take a shot in these places instead of stick to the trusty old America strong capital markets. That's great, too. But I think what you're doing is absolutely brilliant, and you're facilitating in the rise of the rest. So I commend you for your efforts and everything you've done. Now, stepping out of sentiment, it's one thing to say, this is what I'm seeing, it's another to say, but where do you see it going? So let's use your math brain and extrapolate moving forward. We're talking about the future now. Where do you, where do you see the future holds for for what you're doing? 

Eva Yahzari  

Yeah, well, what's great? I mean, you kind of pointed out there's a win win opportunity, and for us, the Win Win opportunity creates a track record, and the track record helps us raise more funding later on, and we so just to be concrete, what we do at Beyond Capital Ventures is we have a venture fund, or multiple venture funds. We have a venture arm where we invest seed to series A plus, and we do that into businesses in the sectors I mentioned before. So need to haves, and we also have a credit strategy, and we close that on June 30, and so we are able to make loans to our venture fund portfolio companies, and we're building a track record. So where do we go as a firm? We continue to pick quality companies, and we continue to back them both with equity and debt, which I know is somewhat unique in the capital market spectrum, but there isn't much credit available, so we're able to make that work. We have the right conflict committees in place and things like that. I'll give you an example, though, because I think it'll really help you understand where things are going. 

Ryan Miller  

Please. 

Eva Yahzari  

We're invested in East Africa's leading e mobility business. So when you think e mobility, you think Tesla, you think four wheelers, you think cyber trucks, you think Waymo, you know, all the electric cars. The reality is, people in emerging markets are typically getting around using two wheelers and sometimes three wheelers and sometimes very small four wheelers. But we are invested in East Africa is leading two two wheeler e mobility business called the upper sand. And this company, its entire focus was initially building the bike. So they figured out how to build the bike. And then they went on to the next piece, which is almost more critical if you know about mobility, the battery. They started to create their own battery technology, understand, you know how to optimize batteries, understand battery life, where batteries, where batteries are, using it as a tracking mechanism, because the rider owns the bike, but they own the battery. And then they realize that your average African does not have a plug in his or her wall, and therefore they can't charge their bike at night when they go home after they deliver Uber Eats or take people around the city in a ride share. They need a battery swap network, and this company moved on to setting up East Africa's first battery swap network in collaboration with a very large French energy company that has allowed them to put the battery swap stations in petrol stations and gas stations so that there's absolutely no behavior change. And I think what's fascinating about the arc of this business is that it started out with a product and it moved on to become an infrastructure play, and that's the type of evolution that we are seeing in our portfolio companies, companies starting out with something simple and moving on to a much bigger vision. And there are many different directions that this company can go, but I think serves as like the perfect example of where Africa is going, and now this company has more than half of its revenue coming from battery swaps rather than bike sales, because other OEMs, other bike manufacturers, are plugging into that network as well.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant. There's so much promise in that region of the world and everywhere, but I know it's the we'll say, the flavor of promise on that looking forward, there's so much opportunity, and thank you for being the trailblazer in that area. I'm sure a lot of your founders invested in are pretty grateful. So that being said, you know, as we round through base, I'm just curious. One of the things we take, I really take joy in, is providing people with deep competitive advantages. And you didn't get this far by accident. And as they say, the person at the top of the mountain didn't fall there. And so there's a lot of experience. And so I'm wondering if you had, say, two or three deep competitive advantages that you can provide for our listeners.

Eva Yahzari  

Absolutely. The first is understand risk. I really believe that in this environment, we were in a risk on environment. When I worked in the Find the hedge funds business, I watched Lehman fall, you know, Lehman go bankrupt in front of my eyes on the Bloomberg terminal. It's a moment in life that I'll never forget, the flashing red in all caps on the screen that was also a risk on environment. And I think understanding what that means is critical to being a good investor. And so if I were to select a manager in my own portfolio, I would make sure that they had experience in the last market cycle, or a financial advisor. I think that that's what, what does risk actually mean for your investment cycle? So perfect example, let's continue the house flipping, which is something I've done in the past on the side, just for fun. And certainly think about doing it all the time if I had spare time in my life. But like, if you can't get the permit, you can't flip the house. If you if the market drops because there's an issue with credit availability and or pricing in the market, or supply demand imbalance, you can't flip the house. So I think these are important things to understand, is like, where are we in a market cycle? The second area is to really just be a good portfolio manager. Don't just sit on a board and dial into the meeting and do other work and stay off camera, be on camera. Are you doing are you being a U, V or E? Are you being an umpire? Are you being a vampire, or are you being, are you helping build an empire that is really important when being a portfolio manager providing value to your companies and being what we call founder fair. I'm not sure founder friendly really is a real thing, and that's why founder fair is the term that we really prefer so be influential in ways that strengthen relationships. And then the final point is think about a mechanism to find a real win/win in Beyond Capital Ventures. That means that we are bold enough to give a percentage of the general partner profit share that carry in this fund, in our funds, to all the founders. 

Ryan Miller  

Very generous.

Eva Yahzari  

And that win/win means that our founders are more willing to work together. They're more willing to give us good deal flow. They're more willing to pick up the phone when we call, they understand our portfolio and our investment strategy probably better than other organizations, because it's not just a check for them, it's a carry stake. It's something meaningful, and I think that that's something that more VCs could be a little bit more innovative about their structures and how they actually do business and share value with their portfolio companies. And the final thing is, understand that managing people's money is a privilege that's super critical for me, and is really one of the areas where I think I'm deeply competitive. I'm deeply kind of have a competitive advantage is that we are great communicators at my firm. We always pick up the phone. We always answer the questions in a timely way. No stone is left unturned, and it's not a burden. I don't see it as a burden when an investor asks questions and I don't understand when other investors, you know, roll their eyes at somebody saying, hey, can you explain that to me?

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant, you know, you remind me of a friend of mine who started as a guest. His name was Michael Episcope. He was the trader of the year in the CME for one year, and he switched to real estate. And he said, I didn't want to be known as the guy who used to be rich, so he switched to real estate. But one of the things he talks about in his firm is he said, to complement your point is to really triangulate to, for our audience to say, professional managers like you and many others. They have a very strong communication policy notice they said successful managers. And so one of the policies he taught me, and I've implemented it as well, and what I do is to say, we walk out good news, we run out bad news. I was like, damn, they, I mean, they may not love the words coming out of your mouth, like, hey, the deal went whatever, but they will always respect and trust. And remember, finance is more about trust than transactions, and so maintaining that trust, even if it's bad news, it doesn't mean your LPs are going to leave, but it's a moment where that is where you are introduced to the foundational culture of your investment firm or fund or whatever it is you're running, is to say, when things go south, how do we handle that? And Job Number one is to say compliment. Exactly what you said is managing other people's money is a privilege, and we and people to remember that. I think it leads you to, hey, I'm managing your money. You need to understand what's going on. The deal went the way it went, whether it's good or bad, but either way, whether you like what I have to say or not is irrelevant if you don't trust it. And so above all things, that trust coming out of your mouth, that is the key part. And being really good at communicating, and you're a pro, we can obviously tell we're having a great conversation. So I love that. 

Ryan Miller  

Now, before we wrap things up. Yeah, this has been absolutely brilliant. You're brilliant. This is amazing. And I'm looking forward, I can be the, maybe the umpire and empire for you, I'll applaud you from Canada, and people sit on the sidelines and watch you just, your star continue to rise. Before we wrap things up, though. Eva, is there any other final comments? Any ways that people if they want to learn more about beyond or you? Or how do people dive into your orbit a little bit more if they're looking for it? 

Eva Yahzari  

Yeah, well, you can find my firm and me on LinkedIn, kind of for more of a professional perspective. You can also learn more about a book that I wrote called The Good Your Money Can Do, at thegoodyourmoneycando.com because the reality is, we can all line up our values with our resources, and that's a really powerful, energetic thing to do. It helps you get up in the morning when your alarm clock goes off too early, or your kids are waking you up. And so those are the two main ways. Is, you know, learn about our portfolio, learn a little bit more about what it means to think about investing from a different way, but in a way that brings an edge to the table. I mean, that's, that's what, that's what everybody's looking for, is where, what is my edge. And so what we communicate through LinkedIn and through our website as a firm, which is obviously available through LinkedIn, is how we do just that and why that matters. And then I do have a four season podcast, if you're interested to listen to interviews with purpose driven leaders, and that's called The Beyond Capital Podcast, and you can find it on all of the podcast channels. And that's a really fun, a really fun show where we get to understand what really drives purpose driven leaders, what keeps them glued to their whys.

Ryan Miller  

Brilliant. I love that totally resonates. So you can see there's a lot of depth that you can dive into a lot more so just to summarize everything we talked about, just be willing to give a percent of the GP carry to some of the founders of jumping in with both feet, and you're jumping into venture capital that's considerable as far as a strategy goes to create alignment and win/win for all parties. And you know what that also enhances your reputation, relationships and results. And another one is understanding risk make sure you understand the downside. When I graduated grad school, my wife asked me, Did you learn anything different from undergrad to masters? And I said, maybe one thing, and that was, grad school teaches you a lot about risk and covering your downside and anticipating it, and so that is a really, really important part. Thank you for saying that. And then finally, just get good at being a portfolio manager and not necessarily. You don't always have to launch a fund. It's a good vehicle in the right scenario, and it's a horrible vehicle in the wrong scenario. So really understand what you're getting yourself into. You do these things and you too will be well on your way in your pursuit of Making Billions.

Ryan Miller  

Wow, what a show. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Now, if you haven't done so already, be sure to leave a comment and review on new ideas and guests you want me to bring on for future episodes. Plus, why don't you head over to YouTube and see extra takes while you get to know our guests even better. And make sure to come back for our next episode, where we dive even deeper into the people, the process and the perspectives of both investors and founders. Until then, my friends, stay hungry, focus on your goals and keep grinding towards your dream of Making Billions.