Can Private Equity Make You Rich?

Carrington Carter 0:00
It’s the expectation for for founders for startup companies. They want more from their investors than just a check. They want advice they want mentorship, they want you help to help them access individuals or people or companies or help them build relationships.

Andrew Brill 0:20
Hello, and welcome to Wealthion. I’m your host Andrew Brill, we have exciting news on June 1, we’ll be hosting a conference in conjunction with salt lake for more information coming out very soon. And many of us look at investing in automatically just think about the stock market. Private equity is another avenue to make investments and is more within reach than you think.

I’d like to welcome Carrington Carter to Wealthion. He’s a former brand manager in the pharmaceutical industry, but is now an entrepreneur, wealth strategist, real estate developer and the co founder of East Chop Capital. Carrington, thanks for joining me, and welcome to Wealthion.

Carrington Carter 1:02
Andrew, it’s a pleasure, thanks for invitation.

Andrew Brill 1:04
So tell us a little bit about yourself. I know that you’re in the what we call the private equity markets, but not really, because you’re into wealth building and all that. So tell us a little bit about yourself?

Carrington Carter 1:17
Sure, sure. Fantastic question. So I am a private equity and venture capital investor. We started the private equity firm e shop capital about five years ago, I would say ever since freshman year in college, I’ve kind of been obsessed more or less on this wealth building journey. Understanding that while money doesn’t solve all problems, it certainly helps make the world a better place and improve one’s quality of life. So I’ve been a student of investing and, and building wealth over the last 20 years or so. And I found a way to do that through private investing in the private markets and also in the public markets.

Andrew Brill 1:54
So you found this passion of yours when you were in college, what was your first project where you were like, okay, you know what, I’m gonna give this a shot.

Carrington Carter 2:05
Yeah, um, I would say, you know, during the Great Recession is where I kind of scratched my teeth in real estate. I mentioned college read Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert T. Kiyosaki, you know, popular book among all in the industry. But I cut my teeth on real estate during the Great Recession, started investing in neighborhoods that that I knew, in and out and my hometown of Dayton, Ohio. And I watched property values, you know, quadruple or quintuple over a over a short amount of period of time. So that’s how I kind of scratched my teeth in the in the real estate market, and just continue to build upon my career that way.

Andrew Brill 2:41
Was there trepidation anxiety about oh, you know what, I’m gonna do this, and it could fail miserably.

Carrington Carter 2:48
Yeah, there was there was and you know, I had you mentioned in my in the intro, our previous career, pharmaceutical marketing and advertising. So I had a good job, kind of in corporate America. But when the great recession hit, I saw a lot of people lose their job or couldn’t get a job. And, you know, kind of much like the layoffs that you’re hearing, you know, consistently in the in the headlines here today. So I thought, you know, how can I kind of take control of my own destiny? So yes, there was some fears, some trepidation, I think I’ve put my first property in 2012, whereas, you know, the recession hit and 2009. So it took about three years to kind of get over those fears and those jitters but once I committed, you know, it’s kind of been, it hasn’t been smooth sailing since then. But I’ve certainly become more better equipped to deal with the undulations of the market.

Andrew Brill 3:32
Do you remember the first property you bought?

Carrington Carter 3:34
Absolutely, we closed August 14 2012. in Dayton, Ohio, is a four bed two and a half bath about 1900 square feet. And we sold it I can’t remember when we sold it, I believe, maybe 2019 or so.

Andrew Brill 3:50
So you you do buy and sell is that the kind of the trick to this is, you you buy sort of when it’s low, you watch certain areas. How does that all work?

Carrington Carter 4:01
Yeah, it kind of depends. It kind of depends. We have a kind of a diversified portfolio strategy. And, and under various entities, we own different real estate assets and also other private equity and venture capital investments. So some we have, you know, long term hold some traditional single family multifamily. Some, we’re about a pipeline of about 50 million and real estate development projects that we’re excited about. And I’m actually now in one of our luxury vacation homes here in sunny Orlando, Florida. We’re checking in on some of our construction projects, or we’re doing about $10 million in new construction here in Orlando, and Reunion Resort, 10 minutes south of business and about 25 minutes south of universal. So to answer your question, our strategy kind of depends on the particular property, the location and kind of what’s our long term outlook for that for that asset.

Andrew Brill 4:52
So you might get a chance to go and visit the mouse while you’re rolling. Absolutely. So what how would some already, if they’re thinking, You know what, I’m gonna do what Carrington did, but I need to start with my first property. How do you evaluate that? How do you make sure you don’t lose your shirt?

Carrington Carter 5:11
Yep. I think first, you know, make sure that you’re familiar with the market, do your research, I often tell people be a student of the game, understand macro and micro economic trends. As it relates to real estate, what are the population drivers are the attractions to the area is it Disney are the new employers coming to the area are the warm climates, so just kind of understand kind of the macro and the micro, myself personally, when I when I when I buy or invest in real estate, I invest in real estate that I would want to live in or that I would want to use or that I would want to visit. You know, there are many different strategies out there. But that’s kind of one of the ones that we implore finite real estate is very capital intensive. So you want to make sure that you have good financing partners. And it often takes a long time to develop deep meaningful relationships with banks and other lenders. So that should also come into factor how much you can afford, whether with yourself, or whether with your investors. And we have about 200 investors under our East Chop Capital network, we’ve done great things with them and continue to keep growing with them and providing strong returns.

Andrew Brill 6:20
Carrington, did this due interest rates play a part in this I obviously, they’re lower than I guess the average. I mean, we you know, we’ve seen mortgage rates seven 8%. Even higher than that, in some cases, right now they’re in that seven range, does that matter when you’re going to purchase one of these properties, whether you’re going to flip it, try and fix it up and flip it, or if you’re going to try and rent it out and make some money?

Carrington Carter 6:46
They do play a factor, I think more than anything, they make you higher interest rates force you to buy, right? To make sure that you’re buying at the right price point. And you’re not afraid to walk away from the deal. If the numbers don’t work. I think higher interest rates also force you to be a better operator. You know, when when money was cheap, and rates were low than most deals kind of made sense. But again, how your interest rates force you to be more disciplined with your buying with your operating and it’s certainly with your exit.

Andrew Brill 7:18
Now, one of one of the services that you provide at each shop capital, and through yourself is wealth strategy and consulting. Would real estate be part of that on how to build wealth?

Carrington Carter 7:30
Real estate is a part of that real estate as a part of that. And I would say, you know, we say at each top capital, our commitment is to provide the best combined financial, educational and social returns. So with any investment, financial returns, obviously, the expectation, but equally as passionate, we’re equally as passionate about educational returns and social returns, make sure people know what they’re buying, why they’re buying, what is your strategy as it relates to that investment, and other social returns, you know, we enjoy bringing people together, networking, building relationships. So we do that with annual investor retreat. We do that with receptions in various cities across the country. So yes, helping people build wealth over time is the core of what we believe in and we help people do so.

Andrew Brill 8:15
Buying a property, you know, you said you know, in college, you had this itch to build wealth and and, you know, start maybe in real estate, it doesn’t happen overnight. How does somebody learn the right way to do this?

Carrington Carter 8:30
Yeah, I think a lot of learning is by doing, you know, I mentioned earlier be a student of the game. So there’s certainly reading that you can do there podcasts like this that you can listen to, but nothing beats actually cutting your teeth, getting your getting your hands dirty, buying your property, taking your bumps and bruises. Becoming a part of networking groups and talking and communicating amongst amongst your peers. I think those are key components that help people be successful in the long run. Real estate is a long game, and recently we’ve been saying it has gotten longer. So I know you see people often see on HGTV and a lot of these TV shows and certainly on social media Instagram, Facebook, a fixing and flipping. It’s It’s It’s difficult. It’s always been difficult, and it’s certainly a lot more difficult with rising interest rates with material costs and other costs that have gone up quite a bit. So real estate is a long game and it’s gotten longer,

Andrew Brill 9:26
But there it’s not without its bumps and bruises. Like you said, if you’re just gonna say okay, you know what, I’m gonna go into this and I’m gonna give it a shot. You have to be prepared to readjust on the fly or try and figure things out that aren’t going exactly right.

Carrington Carter 9:43
Exactly, exactly. And that’s, that’s part of this. That’s the strategies that we’ve employed with our more traditional real estate, also with our luxury vacation rental homes. So under our ESOP capital, private equity firm, we’ve had two real estate funds. Our first fund we launched in 2018. That’s on track to do about 25% returns net of fees. Our second fund we just closed last quarter. And so that fund is off to an off to the races and doing quite well. And I’m down here in Florida now, monitoring some of those new construction projects for that fund. But as far as pivoting and kind of adjusting, it’s important to have a pulse on you know, different markets. Or if you’re looking at one market than different areas within that one market to make sure that you’re having kind of a dose of a diversified approach to building out your real estate portfolio.

Andrew Brill 10:34
So vacation rentals can also you know, the, it’s obviously the best if you’re going to have own a rental, you want to have it rented out. But vacation rentals can be lucrative as well, as you say you’re sitting in one of your vacation rentals that can be lucrative as well, even if it’s not rented. 100% of the time.

Carrington Carter 10:54
Correct. Correct. And so when we started as single families, you know, it’s also obviously the traditional 12 month lease. But one of the reasons why we want to pivot to vacation rentals on a short term basis, a weekend extended weekend or a week or even longer, is the ability to adjust pricing based on demand. And so that that gives you added flexibility versus kind of the long term rentals. So with that flexibility, you don’t necessarily need 100% occupancy. And we tend to focus on kind of the larger houses the five to 12 bedroom houses. Typically there’s less competition in that segment. And there are a lot of different ways that different types of groups can use these homes.

Andrew Brill 11:35
And do you when you go into a project? Like you say you’re overseeing some projects in Orlando now? Do you buy land? Or is it something that you’ve purchased, that you’re going to knock down and rebuild?

Carrington Carter 11:47
Yep, it’s a great question. And this kind of goes to the pivot strategy earlier. So when interest rates were low, and when there was less competition in the market, you could typically find a house, maybe do some renovations, and it would be a strong performer, bound beat. But because rates were low, and a lot more people got into this space, we decided to pivot buy land at favorable prices with with cash, and then work with builders who have a strong reputation for building high end custom luxury homes, and then try to amortize try to realize some economies of scale by building multiple houses with the same builder. So even during during COVID, you know, where there was still some uncertainty, we absolutely came in and bought land at favorable prices, and we know we would eventually build on on those plots of land.

Andrew Brill 12:34
Are there major challenges to what you do? And how do you overcome those challenges?

Carrington Carter 12:39
I would say first starts with having a strong team. And we have a strong team with the shop capital and obviously our our local partners on the ground, either our builders and contractors or our property management companies who help us manage the house, and and with the maintenance of the homes and also deal with our guests. So it starts with having a strong team. And then with any entrepreneurial type endeavor, or any business, a lot of it’s about resilience, it’s about grit, it’s about hard work and sticking to it, and then be willing to pivot and adjust based on whatever market dynamics are happening at the time.

Andrew Brill 13:13
But each job capital isn’t just Okay, we’re gonna build this, you’ll you’ll take in investors, let’s say I wanted to invest in something and I’m just wasn’t quite sure I could come to someone like you and say, You know what, I have some money put away and I’d like to invest, you would take that money and give me the opportunity to invest in a certain project, right?

Carrington Carter 13:35
That’s correct. That’s correct. So with our first two funds, our first fund is doing well our second fund is doing well. Those funds are closed, we will likely launch several funds in the future. And we also have isolated real estate projects that we do seek investments for, it just kind of depends on on our deals and opportunities at the time. And then, you know, kind of going back to what I mentioned in college and understanding this concept of having your money work for you and not just working for your money. Real estate is a big component about of what we do. But we also Angel invest in a variety of industries understanding that, you know, especially with technology and, and other investments, those are also part of building kind of a diversified wealth building portfolio. And we invite our investors to join some of those investments with us. As a matter of fact, I will say so far this year, we’ve closed about six deals outside of real estate, ranging from FinTech to insure tech. We invest in a professional sports team, a hotel hospitality fund, we’ve invested in Starbucks licensee we’ve invested in so industry agnostic is kind of our kind of our mantra or our strategy. It’s kind of depends on the appetite for different deals at the time.

Andrew Brill 14:50
You also own part of a whiskey company a very, very quick growing whiskey.

Carrington Carter 14:55
Absolutely, absolutely. Absolutely. I’ll go nearest premium whiskey it’s one of the fastest growing most awarded spirits of all time and I recently crossed the $1 billion valuation mark, the CEO fawn Weaver is just outstanding and continues to do amazing things with that company with that product and then different brands, or different product extensions. I’m all for the whiskey. So absolutely, we’re the largest actually minority led group. And Uncle near stank, and we’re excited we’re proud of it.

Andrew Brill 15:25
Explain to some of our viewers that may not understand what exactly is Angel investing?

Carrington Carter 15:31
Sure. Angel investing, I would say, you know, when any company when they’re when they’re starting out when they’re a startup, whether it’s a tech company, or whether it’s a restaurant or even you know, like a T shirt manufacturer, angel investing is more or less going in first, you know, you’re that you’re that friends, family, or sometimes they say fools around. So you’re, you’re the friends or family round of financing. Because when they’re a company as a startup, they typically can’t get traditional bank financing. So they’re relying on friends family, they’re relying on on angels, and in most cases, credit cards. So you’re a part of kind of that that group who is helping this company, mature and grow. So that’s what angel investing is the, the cheque size or investment could be anywhere from $1,000 up to 100,000, or 250 pounds. And it just kind of depends on your strength as a as an investor and your financial security, your appetite for risk, and how confident you are investing in this particular opportunity.

Andrew Brill 16:32
So they can so if back to the original investors, me or our viewers, we could come to you and say you know what, we want to put some money in your fund. And we’re going to let you invest it the way you you see fit in an angel investing sort of environment. Yep, that’s

Carrington Carter 16:50
how we did with our real estate funds. We haven’t launched a fund for angel investments yet. But what we have done is we invest through what’s called SPV or special purpose vehicles, or they can also be known as syndications. And that’s just a fancy a fancy term where you create a legal entity, typically an LLC, you pull capital from investors, and then you make that particular investment. So when I gave the example of the six investments we just made, ranging from, you know, to fintechs, to a hotel fund to a Starbucks licensee, we’ve also invested in venture capital funds. So with all of those investment examples, we created an entity, a special purpose vehicle, we collected investors money, and then we made that investment into the company. And then obviously, we report to investors on a quarterly basis or an annual basis, annual basis, to let them know how their investment is doing. As a matter of fact, there’s this Riverside platform, we’re actually investors in this platform, through a venture capital fund that we invested in back in 2022. Back in 2022, so investing in funds is a good way to get diversified exposure to different investments. So when we invested 300,000, in this venture fund, we have exposure to about I think, 25 different companies within that fund.

Andrew Brill 18:11
I appreciate you investing in reverse. I really liked this platform. It’s one of my favorites, because it’s got a lot of tools that I like to use teleprompter and all this stuff. So I thank you for helping to get this off the ground. Now, how does someone realize again, if say, okay, you know, what I’m gonna invest in you, like you said, you can invest anywhere from $1,000, up to $250,000. How does someone realize a gain on that money

Carrington Carter 18:35
probably depends on the particular investment. And that’s probably the reason why we like real estate, real estate, it has cash flow, the cash flowing property. So a lot of times you can realize gains that way, through distributions, or from the sale of assets on the angel investing side or the venture side, often gains only realized when the companies are either acquired, or when they go public. So those are typically the ways that you realize gains in this kind of investment world. And that’s why we couple real estate investments with kind of angel investing, because you can realize gains in a lot of different ways. With our first fund I mentioned and we’re on track to do about 25% returns Netta fees, part of those gains have been the a percent preferred dividend from the cash flow of the properties. And the other part of the gains have been when we sold the properties and they’ve appreciated over time.

Andrew Brill 19:27
So how do you go in and say, Well, how do you evaluate a company and say, You know what, yeah, I think that this is a good place to put some money.

Carrington Carter 19:36
Yep. On the company side or on the venture side. You know, first we look at the market opportunity, how large is the market? It is a billion dollar market is 100 billion. And the thinking there is if it’s a large enough market, and this company can capture a certain portion of it, then they investment will likely do well. So we look at the market size. We also look at the industry, you know, not just the market. Is it growing? Is it shrinking is a stagnant. Who are the major players in the industry? You know, Michael Porter, Harvard professor has this kind of the five forces model of of a market? What’s the? What’s the competition? Like? What is the buyer? Is their buyer power? Is their supplier power? So we kind of look at the dynamics of the market. Also, probably most importantly, is the team, you know, who’s the founder? Who’s the leadership team? If it’s a tech company, who’s our CTO? How are they as leaders? How are they as people? Do they have the ability to mobilize people behind an idea. There’s a saying, you know, angel investing is more, it’s more important to bet on the jockey than the horse. So who’s who’s who’s the jockey is kind of most important in this game. And so that’s one of the other factors that we take into consideration as we evaluate a company. And I’ll say, lastly, how much more capital will this company need to scale? And do they have the ability to continue to raise capital, if that’s needed in order to scale because if you invest early stage, and you don’t think this company, or the founders will be able to raise more money, then it’s almost, you know, flushing money down the toilet to invest early if you don’t think they’re going to be able to continue to scale.

Andrew Brill 21:11
So I was, I was once a sports broadcaster, and I covered horse racing. And yes, betting on the jockey, I had some of my favorites. So I did that a lot. But it the the team is important, the team that you have to have confidence in that team that’s trying to borrow money and get this company off the ground.

Carrington Carter 21:29
Yep. Yep, absolutely.

Andrew Brill 21:31
How much money do people actually come looking for?

Carrington Carter 21:35
I’ll say it varies based on kind of the stage of the company. So usually, only take a step back, just, you know, depending on the the the experience level of your viewer. So with fundraising at an angel investing round, there’s there’s early stage, which is considered precede investing, or seed investing, or Series A, and then the series kind of go B, C, D, E, F, all the way through the, you know, the rest of alphabet. And so you typically raise small amounts of money early 500,000 1 million, 3 million, and then as your company grows, your capital needs are greater. So you raise more money, kind of in the in the out years of your of your capital raise. So, um, that’s typically kind of how it goes.

Andrew Brill 22:19
How do you find out about these things? Obviously, they’re not just advertising, hey, I need money. And I have this great company. And here’s my prospectus or whatever it is that they’re going to show you. Wait, how do you find out about this? I would assume that because you’ve done this before, somehow you have an inside track. But if I, you look, I say I have a lot of money sitting around and I want to put it to work. How would someone find out about this stuff?

Carrington Carter 22:42
Yeah. So there are, there’s no shortage of companies out there raising capital. I think, you know, part of it is, you know, being a student in a game and getting involved. I mean, other platforms like Kickstarter, and we funder and, and things like that, where companies are looking to raise capital Angel List, that’s another platform where people can go and sign up and get what’s called deal flow. That’s when deals are emailed to them. They’re also tech incubators, and probably most cities across the country, especially large cities. I live in Columbus, Ohio, there’s a tech community there where their companies and an angel groups that are that are that are connected to these companies looking to raise capital. Not too long ago, I was down in Tulsa, at a business incubator out there called at house and they had a demo day demo day is basically when companies go through an incubation period, it could be anywhere from five weeks up to 20 weeks, where they’re gaining skills and mentorship and resources to help scale their company. And then Demo Day is kind of like the graduation where they unveil their product. They pitch out they pitch to investors so that their demo days all across the country, their pitch competitions. I think a lot of professional organizations now typically incorporate some kind of a pitch competition as a part of the conference or as a part of the week, the week’s activities. So I’d say you know, look at the look, actively look for deals and opportunities, and you’ll start to be more aware that there are available.

Andrew Brill 24:13
Pitch competition sounds like a little a little bit like Shark Tank, but on a different scale.

Carrington Carter 24:18
Absolutely. Absolutely. And Andrew you know, one of the things that might be helpful to mention, angel investing is governed by the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission. And there are three important criteria levels that investors must meet in order to invest. The lowest threshold is called an accredited investor in order to be accredited investor, as an individual, you have to have 200,000 and household income as a married couple of 300,000 in annual household income or a $1 million net worth excluding your primary residence. So that’s kind of the minimum threshold for angel investing. The step above that is you have to be a qualified client and that’s 2.2 million in net worth, I believe. And then the highest threshold in order to participate a lot of venture capital funds is a $5 million in assets. And I’m sorry, $5 million in investments. And that’s a qualified purchaser. So those are just kind of a high level criteria in order to Angel invest.

Andrew Brill 25:16
Is, is there a timeframe when you Angel invest to hopefully get your money out of that investment?

Carrington Carter 25:23
Yeah, well, it depends with a lot of things that kind of depends on on the product or service, the industry, the company, and then also where you invest in them along their timeframe. So example, if you’re investing early at the early stage precede or seed, you’re gonna be with them for a long ride, it could be five years, eight years, 10 years or even longer. But if you’re coming, maybe Series C, D, or E, somewhere along there, and they’re going to IPO soon, or as a higher probability that there’ll be acquired, your timeline to invest might be shorter. So that’s kind of on the investing side, the angel side, but on the real estate side, I mentioned, you know, real estate’s a long game, and it’s gotten longer. So with real estate, I would think of it more as a 1020, or maybe even a generational play, depending on the investment and think of it as something you can pass down to your posterity’s to your kids to your nieces, nephews, and those that come after you to help them build wealth.

Andrew Brill 26:21
But on the real estate side, there is some income generated on the angel investing side, is there some income generated as well?

Carrington Carter 26:29
It depends on the investment. If it’s if it’s a high growth tech company, then often not, because they’re plowing their earnings back into the company to fuel their growth. I mean, if you think about companies, even like Apple, Apple was a publicly traded company for many, many years, maybe even decades before they even issued a dividend. But you know, since then the public market, you can trade their stock, so you can lock in some gains that way. Amazon is another company, high growth tech company, I don’t believe that they’ve issued a dividend. So different type of investment, but just kind of put that into perspective that often. Investing is it’s a long game.

Andrew Brill 27:09
One of them just declared a dividend. I’m not sure which one it is, but it’s like the for the very first time they did. So. It’s that is on the horizon. Now, how closely do you get to monitor progress? With your angel investments?

Carrington Carter 27:23
Yeah, um, I will say that depends on the investment. But for the most part of the companies that we’ve invested in the founders, founders that we’ve invested in, you know, it’s very close relationship, and, and they’re an open book. So it’s as simple as just reaching out to them and, and, and having a close look on their progress. I will say, you know, with the advent of technology, most of them kind of have in their communications cadence, either an email going out monthly or quarterly, to keep investors investors aware of the particular investment, we do the same with our real estate investments, you know, we’re sending out quarterly updates to our investors, we have annual investor retreats, where people can come live and, and interact with us. And we’re also on the road quite a bit. And whenever we’re in a city with where an investor lives, we certainly try to connect with with him or her. Whenever we have that, that opportunity.

Andrew Brill 28:13
Does anyone come to you? And say, you know, what, this is your expertise, we’d like to have you been an angel investor, but we want you a little more involved than you would ordinarily would be? Because this is the this is what you know.

Carrington Carter 28:28
Yes, they have they have and I would, I would even venture to say that now. It’s the expectation for, for founders, for startup companies, they want more from their investors than just a check. They want advice, they want mentorship, they want you help to help them access individuals, or people or companies or help them build relationships. So I would say, I’d also have a saying money is the cheapest form of currency, you know, cutting a check to the to an investor or I’m sorry, cutting a check to to a startup or to a company, that’s kind of the least you can do. There’s so much more required to build a business and they’re leaning on their investors to to help them with those other resources.

Andrew Brill 29:11
And I would assume everyone has an idea, and there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Have you bandied about and figure out if it’s a good, you know, if it can work or not, but as an investor, you’d love to have your ideas heard, I would assume?

Carrington Carter 29:23
Oh, that’s correct. That’s correct. You know, it’s, it’s also important when you’re evaluating a founder or a leadership team, for them to for their minds to be valuable to to, for them to be open minded and receptive to feedback. So that’s a characteristic that you want to look for. But then also, you know, I’m an investor. I’m also an operator, I’ve operated businesses and I still continue to build businesses. And so as an investor, you need to recognize that they’re the best person to run their business, typically at that time. So it’s about trusting them to do what they think is best and even if they make them even if they make mistakes, to pivot to adjust and and to move the business in a different direction. Now

Andrew Brill 30:04
part of your business is is wealth consulting and strategy. What advice would you give to a young person starting out as you were at one point that is looking to enter the private equity market,

Carrington Carter 30:16
I would say you know, be a student of the game, read, listen to podcast, get your hands dirty, you know, be able to be willing to roll up your sleeves. And I would say, you know, teamwork makes the dream work. I think key to our success has been working together. Myself, my general partner, Calvin butts, Jr, who’s located in South Jersey, we’ve been building a shop for last five years, we’ve been investing together for almost 15 years. So work together. And then also, I would say, you know, I’m big on setting goals, setting goals and writing them down, reviewing them quarterly by annually yearly, and being committed to that growth as an individual. And then also as a team.

Andrew Brill 31:00
Looking back anything that you wish you knew, before you got into this?

Carrington Carter 31:05
That’s a great question, what I wish I knew, I would say, you know, I think often we put limits on ourselves either because of fear or because of a lack of confidence. So I would say, you know, anything is possible with with the right team, and with the right persistence, determination, and grit. We’ve grown up in a time where we’ve seen, you know, phenomenal companies have been built over the last couple of decades, whether it’s, whether it’s Tesla, whether it’s apple, whether it’s Amazon, whether it’s, you know, open AI and chat GPT, just Nvidia with artificial intelligence chips. We’ve seen miracles happen with building these companies. And I think it’s been possible because you have visionary leaders at the helm, who have dare to dream big. One of our went to Hampton University, undergrad, our college professor was Dr. William R. Harvey, he had the saying, you know, dream, no small dream. So if you can conceive something in your mind, and you’re willing to put in the hard work, then anything is really possible. And I believe that

Andrew Brill 32:08
You say you have to be willing to adjust and do the hard work. Is there a challenge that you can remember that you had to overcome? Whether it be an investment, or a project that you said, Well, you know, maybe this just wasn’t worth it. But in the end, you were able to work through it?

Carrington Carter 32:25
You know, that’s, that’s it? That’s a big question. I mean, I will say every project, no project goes as planned, no investment goes as planned. So it’s always monitoring, evaluating, pivoting and adjusting, having those difficult conversations and try to figure out what you can do better. And, and so there is, this might not be helpful there is there’s nothing that that stands out. But I will say everything, everything has been a challenge. It’s not easy. Everything requires, you know, refining your strategy. So yeah, building building and I will say over the last, with with the advent of social media, I think founders business owners, private equity fund managers, VC, people are being a lot more honest and transparent about just how difficult it is to build to build businesses and do great things. So I’ll say everything is hard. Everything is hard.

Andrew Brill 33:25
But as a little kid Carrington, is this what you envision you would be doing when you were, you know, a young kid on the playground?

Carrington Carter 33:31
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And this we’re pivoting comes to play. So I studied chemistry and undergrad, then my MBA in marketing, actually wants to be an interventional radiologist. So I was gonna study chemistry, and then and then go to medical school, but I took a break after grad school and, and went to business school, I fell in love with business, and I realized you can make a lot more money, or you can make as much money in business, or you can have a greater impact on the world and the economy, without the student loans without an additional 10 years of school. So I decided to pivot into business. And then even with even with private equity, you know, it’s just been our journey has been a testament to setting goals, being resilient and working to build the life that you want to have. You know, me, myself or my partner, we didn’t work on Wall Street. We both went to the top 25 business schools, but we didn’t go to the Warrens, or Harvard’s or whatnot. But we’re still in private equity. You know, we’re still we’re still in venture. We’re investing in funds where we’re shaping the next generation of founders and entrepreneurs. So no, I had had no idea this is the life that I was going to build, but I’m grateful for it and I’m having fun.

Andrew Brill 34:45
And you’re your partners. Were you friendly with them or these people you met in college?

Carrington Carter 34:50
Yep. We all we went to college together so we both went to Hampton University. I was a freshman when kava was a senior so we were there at the same time but didn’t know each other. We connected at a at an alumni event at alumni conference. So that’s another piece of advice I would give to anyone, especially the young folks, you know, tap into your alumni network, go to those, Join your local chapter, go to those annual alumni conferences, or those regional conferences and connect with folks. Because you already have that that commonality, you already have those same principles and values that your university instilled in you. And you can use those to foster into even deeper relationships and have success that way.

Andrew Brill 35:31
So to sum up, Carrington, it sounds like the best thing to do is, is just go and do it. Yep, learn, be prepared. And, you know, just try and learn everything about what you’re about to do. Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. And the money will definitely, you know, be there if you do it the right way. And see help, you know, what, call up Carrington and say, Look, you know, what, can you give me some advice? You know, use your services to get that going?

Carrington Carter 36:01
Absolutely. Absolutely. And then Andrew, I’ll add one thing to that. And, and it’s fresh on my mind, because I’m reading Simon cynics book, start with why. So I think it’s always important to kind of have that to center you, you know, think about why you’re doing X, Y, and Z, why you’re making this investment? Why you want to build this business? Or why you want to create this team of people around you. So always asking your question why and being grounded in that, I think also will result in you creating the life that you want to build, and then and then doing it with the people you want to do it with.

Andrew Brill 36:36
So, character, I want to thank you so much. This was enlightening. I think that if there’s people out there that want to invest in real estate or get into private equity, they can now realize you don’t need a million bucks, you can start with 1000. You can if you have a lot more, obviously, you can spend a lot more. But you know, thank you so much. This was this was eye opening for me. And I think that, you know, our viewers will find it very, very helpful. Thank you for joining.

Carrington Carter 37:01
It’s been a pleasure.

Andrew Brill 37:02
Where can we find you either on social media? Or if somebody wanted to reach out? Where would they find you?

Carrington Carter 37:08
Sure. So East Chop capital, we are on LinkedIn. We’re also on Instagram and Facebook. So feel free to reach out there. I’m on LinkedIn as well Carrington M. Carter. And then mentioned our luxury vacation rental home. So we actually market those under a separate brand called Getaway Society. And you’ll see our portfolio there, which spans seven states. So we’re excited about the growth of that, especially our new construction projects coming online. And then that’s at getaway society on Instagram, and then getaway society.com and an E shop capital.com. We’re everywhere. And then if you can’t find those, then Google good old good old fashioned Google, you can catch us.

Andrew Brill 37:46
Use the Google machine. Carrington, thanks so much for joining us. I really appreciate it.

Carrington Carter 37:50
Thank you, Andrew. It’s been a pleasure. Have a good one.

Andrew Brill 37:53
That’s a wrap on another discussion here on Wealthion. Thank you for joining us. If you need help being financially resilient, please head over to Wealthion.com. Sign up for a free no obligation consultation with one of our registered investment advisors and remember to follow us on social media please, for the latest news and information to help you invest wisely. And if you could like and subscribe to the channel, we would greatly appreciate it don’t forget, hit the notification bell so you can find out when we post new videos to the channel. Thanks again for watching. And until next time, stay informed, be empowered and may your investments flourish.