From Special Forces to Real Estate Entrepreneur

00:00:00] So during my career, I felt that that environment that is full of procedure so you don't have so much initiatives. Didn't fit my personality. So a very curious person, I look left, right, catch opportunities. And it was, it was not my environment, but as everything that they do, I want to do it at the best.

[00:00:25] So I got in, in the military as a officer. I did the military academy and I wanted to go in the special forces. So I, I went there, but when I arrived at the top. I realized that I wanted something else in life, and I feel that the, these are entrepreneurial life giving me the impression, the pipes that I need to, to feel myself.

[00:00:55] All right, Vicentio Vlad, welcome to Innovators Collab. So everybody, this is an exciting show. We got Vicentio here whose background is far different than most of the guests I've had on the show. He used to be a lieutenant in the special forces for the Italian army, but now he's an entrepreneur and his latest venture is stock dot estate, where his mission is to provide fast and easy capital for developers and vetted real estate opportunities for investors.

[00:01:22] Essentially it's a real estate crowdfunding for the Romanian market. Vicentio, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation. It's an honor to be here. My first question for you, Vicentio. Is what was one of the first entrepreneurial things you did as a kid? You were when you were young, you trying to make some money?

[00:01:42] Well, the, the first things I was, uh, giving flyers on the street and was the, the first job that, that I remember. And I get together these, uh, crew kids and we were basically these master kids, ma master flyer kids. So this is my birth entrepreneurial thought. And, uh, as usual, everything goes wrong. So we were not, uh, really ethical in our job.

[00:02:09] And, uh, so we used to get from the shops, these flyers for them, getting to people and the other life, but just throwing the ban. So the mafia kids, flyer, flyer group. So if there were ever any competitors, were there ever any other kids? And did you like send them a dick fish in the mail or something to scare them off your territory?

[00:02:30] Anything like that? No, we, we, we were more people than the other little gangs, so they never tried to attack us. So we, we were pretty famous in that era, in that area. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Okay. Now, real estate crowdfunding is, is very interesting right now. I mean, before you could do crowdfunding campaigns to try to support a business, but now real estate.

[00:02:58] It gives people the ability to make a small investment into into properties, whether it be commercial or residential. Now, what, when was that moment that you first thought, Hey, there's a market opportunity here in Romania for such a business? As in many cases, you confront yourself with the problem that you try to solve.

[00:03:19] So I started this business from a need I was building. A mountain villa here in Romania that is called, is branded stock estate as well. And I was looking for funding at the beginning. Of course, uh, any bank, uh, could give me, uh, capital because, uh, uh, the company was still a startup without a truck record.

[00:03:41] So even if the vision was, uh, uh, great, they wouldn't fund me. So starting from this personal problem, I studied the co-founding movement and I. Got, uh, into, uh, this, uh, investment side and it was frustrating because I like my project is, uh, great. The villa is great. Do we have a occupancy rate of 100%? So the first of ability is in the next February, but anybody from the banking sector could see these potential and the end, uh, I did it with my own phones.

[00:04:22] But as an investor is not so smart to work with your money when you can not raise capital and do some leverage. Now your background though, is in the military and you were there for quite a long time. I mean, you were a lieutenant in the special forces in the Italian army. So why did you leave that?

[00:04:41] Because it seems like you were having a successful career in the military, but now you're involved in real estate at the crowd, you know, funding platform. So I guess, tell us first. What was one of the most interesting missions that you were, uh, you were involved in with your military background, Cynthia?

[00:04:56] Well, uh, a long, uh, a long story, long, long, long time ago. And let's say that the military from outside is really interesting. Uh, could seem, could say really dynamic, but you have to have a vocation for, for it. So during my career. I felt that that environment that is full of procedure, so you don't have so much initiative, didn't fit my personality.

[00:05:27] So, A very curious person, I look left, right, catch opportunities, and it was not my environment, but as everything that I do, I want to do it at the best. So I got in, in the military as a officer. I did the military academy and I wanted to go in the special forces. So I, I went there, but when I arrived at the top.

[00:05:53] I realized that I wanted something else in life and I feel that this entrepreneurial life is giving me the vibration, the vibes that I need to fulfill myself. Okay. And were you fascinated with the idea of like, okay, I'm going to build this villa? And I'm going to pick Romania to do it. Why not Italy? I mean, why, why come back to Romania and do this here?

[00:06:17] Did you feel like there was more of an opportunity here versus Italy? Yeah, since Italy is already a big market and with a lot of beautiful properties, even in the realistic. The market is already full is difficult to get in while Europe in general is still in a development in a continuous development.

[00:06:39] So there are so many opportunities under the real estate point of view, you really with a sort of small capital can do big things and even on the technological side. And I matched these two, these two passion, a real estate and technology and banking to build stock estate. So here it's perfect. You can find everything you need to build a successful business.

[00:07:05] Zero to one, very fast. Then one to 100, you have to go back outside. Yeah. Yeah. So what were some of the, I guess, some of the trends that you saw, especially it's here in Romania or Eastern Europe that. That you believe, okay, this is like the land, the new land of opportunity versus, you know, back in Italy, was it because real estate here is cheap or was there something else?

[00:07:29] There are more components. First of all, there is a lack of quality, quality construction. It's starting now, a new vibe, but till, let's say, five years ago, the quality of the developments was not so high. So there is space. There are still three lands. So for example, in Bucharest, that is the main center, you can still find some lands in order to build something and something beautiful instead in Italy is like since The last century, you can't find anything available.

[00:08:07] So this is the first point. The second point, being a society so new, so vibrant, there are opportunities. You can see to each corner development going up because there is the need. So you can breathe, feel, you go on the street and you see development, right? So now, here, the moment. And to build all of it, you, you need capital and to get capital, you have different sources of financings.

[00:08:40] Okay. If somebody wants to invest in the crowdfunding platform in stock. estate, what are the requirements? How does that work? So stock estate is a marketplace. So we have two sides. One side is the real estate developers that are looking for capital in order to develop big projects. On the other side, there are the investors that wants to optimize the savings, that wants to get some earnings that are more than the average of other investment projects.

[00:09:12] So, Stock Exchange is the match of these two sides. And for each side, there are different requirements. So, let's say for the developers. First of all, the project should be viable. We do a due diligence on the legal point of view. They have to have a construction permits and all the company set up should be clean, clear, transparent, and the numbers should add up.

[00:09:40] On the investor point of view, there is an onboarding process where basically we verify that the person, the investor is legit. And then the investor, we categorize the investor in a sophisticated and unsophisticated and just enjoy, enjoy your investment. What's the minimum investment you can make on the platform?

[00:10:03] 10 EUR. Oh, wow. Really, the investment for everyone is even for the consumer to get the same opportunities and really good deals that a sophisticated investor can get. Okay. And I guess how many properties do you expect to be on the platform by the end of 2020? So we are growing organically by the next year.

[00:10:31] The idea is to go out at least with the four campaigns or months. So around the 50 project, we are going to have the next year and each project is basically a loan because the practical point of view behind the investment, there is a. Contract a lending con. Uh, so basically the investor is, uh, lending money to the real estate developers for some recommended terms, like the long term, the return of investment, that is the interest air and the collaterals that are in place in this contract.

[00:11:12] What kind of interest, I guess, what's the range that somebody can expect over, you know, the first, I don't know, five to 10 years from making an investment on the platform. Listen to you. So when we speak of crow funding is more than any other conventional, uh, investment products. So the range is between 10 and 20 percent per year.

[00:11:36] That's what, what, what you can get depends of the risk of the project. And let's say, uh, higher is the interest. Higher is the risk of the project, but we try to promote on our platform, just project that we consider a safe for the investor. Okay. I love this back in the States. I used to use a platform called LendingTree and I would give out, I would invest in these loans to, to people.

[00:12:05] It could be anywhere from a thousand dollars to 10, 000. Maybe somebody wanted to make a home improvement for their house. And you could see the level of risk that each investment was. And I used to just do a mix of them, sometimes very conservative at six or 7 percent but sometimes riskier at 18 or 20%.

[00:12:23] And I, I enjoyed it. It was, it was a lot, it was a lot more fun for me knowing that I was helping somebody out who was trying to achieve something, a goal or something. And it just felt like it was a safer bet than playing the stock market. I should have stuck with it because I did play the stock market eventually.

[00:12:39] And my returns were not that great compared to the lending tree experience. I mean, the core funding in general is such a beautiful thing, even on the conceptual point of view, because basically it's a peer to peer, it starts with the peer to peer culture. And now you are trying to help each other. And then in the last couple of years, it professionalized, uh, it's, it's going, it's going higher and better as a culture and a current.

[00:13:12] Yeah. Yeah. Let me ask you this. Are there any specific strategies or mindsets? From your military experience that you've applied to your startup, maybe it's to mitigate risk or something to do with organization. No, I would say that never give up, um, mental. I mean, because some days, uh, you wake and maybe you are not so happy because, uh, business is not growing as expected because in our mind, we expect always to be.

[00:13:39] 100 times better, faster, uh, and so on. And in that moment, so you should have a residence. So I would say the take away from the army is the residence. I saw in a good and bad condition. I just go on, on, on, on my mission. All right. All right. What do you wish you had known before you launched your startup?

[00:14:00] And Cynthia. Wish. Oh, that's a good one. I mean the, the main wish of the startup is to be super successful and in a five year time is to be in Europe and have a portfolio that is that 100 million per. Alright. Alright. Those are ambition goals. Wish you the best of luck. I've got some rapid fire questions for you.

[00:14:27] Are you ready? Just gimme the first thing that comes to your mind. Tell me. Okay. Uh, what's an unusual, unusual object that you have inside your home? I knew that. No, I, I, I can't say the first thing that comes, uh, in my mind. So oh my God, this, this, this question, I'm not so bad that unusual. No, I can't, I cannot respond.

[00:14:51] No? Let's go to the next one. Okay. Okay. Publish this one. So let's go to the next. Oh man. Oh man. Okay. A silly reason you once cried. Oh A silly reason you want to cry. I don't cry. It sounds like, like maybe like Arnold Schwarzenegger, like, I don't cry. No, I have other manifestation, but not crying. Okay. Okay.

[00:15:18] Oh, it's that sometimes it's worse. So I can have like a rash on my skin or things like that, but I don't have that manifestation. All right. Here's another one for you. Aside from your mortgage, what is your, what is your biggest expense every month? Maybe restaurants. Really cool. Okay. All right. Last one for you here.

[00:15:42] What is something unusual that you do to wow investors? Is there something unusual you do to wow investors? No, I'm conventional. Okay. All right. Nothing strange. I just try to communicate openly every time in each interaction. All right. Well, there you have it folks. Vicentio Vlad, he is making real estate crowdfunding accessible and approachable for all.

[00:16:11] You can check it out. I'll put the link to the website and the show notes, but it's stock. instate. Cintia, where can people learn more about you? Yeah, just call me, go in, in the platform, invest, and I will call you back. Show how everything works and where you can invest in from there. You can know me very good.

[00:16:33] All right, Vicentio. I have a fantastic day. Thanks for coming on the show for everybody listening. I'll be back next week with another entrepreneur here based in Europe. This is Eric signing off. Thank you. Hey, hope you enjoyed my conversation with Vicentio Vlad and hearing about his little mafia he created with other kids and his first entrepreneurial venture as well as the real estate crowdfunding platform he launched here in Romania.

[00:16:55] Which anyone can participate in. I think it's remarkable to see someone with a military background go and launch a business. In fact, one regret I have in life is not joining the military. I feel I have the discipline and courage to have been a good soldier. If you enjoyed this, feel free to give us a review and subscribe.