Jay:  This week’s show guest is my business partner Kyle Ellicott. Kyle is a partner at Explorer Equity Group, who is in charge of managing our Asian investment portfolio on a day-to-day basis. He’s also the co-founder of ReadWrite and chief labs officer at ReadWrite Labs. To date, he’s advised over 175 companies globally and successfully raised over $130 million in venture funding. Kyle, welcome back to the show.

Kyle:  Thank you, Jay. I am very excited to be a repeat guest.

Jay:  That’s right. You might be one of the only repeat guests. I’m trying to think off the top of my head if I’ve had any repeat guests. You might be the first. This might be a really, really important moment.

Kyle:  I’m going to take the honor as the first today.

Jay:  Yeah. I think you earned that. Absolutely. We have a lot of exciting things to talk about, so I want to get right into it. But before I do, I’ve been told I need to say a quick disclaimer. So I’m going to say it now. This is to the audience. Nothing in this episode should be construed as a solicitation or offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied on before any investment decisions. Please consult with a professional advisor, accountant, attorney, or conduct your own due diligence. So I think you guys already know that, but we’re going to talk a little bit more about the investing side, which a lot of you have asked about, particularly here in Asia. So I want to make sure that we are crystal clear that this is not financial advice in any way, shape, or form.

Kyle, welcome back to the show. Always good to have you on. It’s funny, because we’ve seen each other probably three times in the last month and a half in person, and we haven’t been able to sit down and actually do a podcast recording. But now you are currently back in the Bay Area. I’m sitting here in Hong Kong, and we are making it happen. So I’m happy. It’s one of the beauties of the internet and having a decentralized team, so to speak, is that we can do this stuff anywhere. For those who missed Kyle 1.0 or episode 1.0 where he first came on my show, for those who missed that, maybe, Kyle, you could give a quick intro of your background, who you are and what you do.

Kyle:  Sure. The short version is I’ve been an entrepreneur the majority of my life, for better or for worse, as some would say. For me, it’s been an absolute joy. About five-and-a-half years ago, I started a company called ReadWrite Labs. That, at the time, was an accelerator, the very first — and at the time, the largest — accelerator for the Internet of Things and wearable technology. For those who don’t know, an accelerator or incubator are generally programs for startups or either early or mid- to early-late stage. So think of it as pre-seed to Series A type businesses, to come in, get additional support, get access to resources, help scaling or growing their business, or, in some cases, expanding globally.

So we founded that about five-and-a-half years ago in 2013 and then in 2015, expanded that out into Asia. So we went from San Francisco to Hong Kong and then into mainland China. During that time, I spent a lot of time expanding the business and operations, along with the accelerator, out through Asia. I put about 30 weeks or so on the ground per year in Asia, working with local governments, investors, businesses, and entrepreneurs here, helping to grow the ecosystem. So a lot of my background is focused on Asia, focused on entrepreneurship, fundraising, and global business.

Jay:  Before we move on, I wanted to ask you to clarify a point — accelerator versus incubator. I think that it’s a common question that a lot of people have. Can you just quickly explain what exactly the differences are between their two actual terms?

Kyle:  Definitely. The shortest version is that an incubator program is generally for those who… First off, incubator are very long programs. They go from six months to five years. Just like the term “incubation” or “to incubate,” you take a small idea, and you slowly nurture it to being released or birthed, I guess, if you look at the actual definition. Whereas an accelerator is taking something from zero to 60 super quick or 60 to 120 miles an hour very fast. And those programs for accelerators are generally about three to six months long, sometimes a little shorter. Very short in their duration, focused around getting to a targeted milestone, a lot of times around fundraising. So those generally end in a demo day and are focused on helping companies grow super quickly.

But both programs offer communities. They offer networks, education, mentors, and different opportunities. But incubators are generally longer terms, sometimes don’t cost or don’t have a high cost. Accelerators are very short, fast-paced, focused around a demo-day type event, and generally have some kind of investment that’s put into the companies that they work with.

Jay:  Right on. Awesome. Thanks for clarifying that. A lot of the jargon in early-stage investing is slightly different, so it’s good to get recaps of this stuff. I remember 10 years ago when I first started looking at companies. There was a lot of learning and a lot of little technical terms and stuff that you just have to get to know before you actually dive in. Or you can just dive in like I did and spend your money and watch it burn away in the trash can.

Kyle:  Just toss it into a fire and say, “Here you go.”

Jay:  Exactly. Just take it.

Kyle:  Something I’ll add to that too, Jay. Go ten years back when we both got really heavy into startups and investing. At the time, it was mostly just talked about. Incubators and accelerators were very light touch. There were only a few of them. They were very well known, and those who weren’t were generally focused around universities. Today, fast-forward, you have online programs, you have boot camps that people can go to for a few days or a week and get the education they need. You could go to an accelerator that’s very, very structured or very loose. You can go to an incubator that’s, again, very long, or you can go to technology parks, which is something we’re seeing a huge trend in in Asia. These are huge, huge campuses that are really their own self-sustaining ecosystem that bring together a little bit of government, a little bit of university, a lot of startups, and a little bit of corporate, and a little bit of venture all into one place while still offering the benefits of these other program. And you have co-working spaces that now are all the rage, including in Asia, as we’ve talked about in the past. And now these coworking are also offering similar services. So 10 years ago, that type of support we had as entrepreneurs or that we could provide to our investments that we would make is completely different today. There are so many more options and so much more opportunities for companies to have success or chances of success because of this kind of changing of the landscape, which is super cool.

Jay:  Absolutely. Speaking of changing of the landscapes… Like you mentioned, you’ve spent a significant amount of the last three years in Asia. I think…what did you do? 100,000 miles for the last three years in a row? I think we were joking about that the other day. You’ve obviously dedicated a lot of your personal time in Asia. We’ve seen in just the last three to five years…I’ve been watching it from the front-row seat. Five years ago, there was zero ecosystem — very, very nascent. Now it’s just exploding at the brim. Every single place I go, there’s a startup this; there’s an early-stage investing that; a conference here; a demo-day there.

Tell us a little bit about at what point you realized that Asia is it. It’s the next big thing. Why Asia? Why now? Why did you dedicate the last three years of your time and your personal life going back and forth between the US and Asia?

Kyle:  The moment I knew was literally the day I stepped off the plane on my very first trip to Asia. It was November 2015. I walked out of the plane, and I landed in Hong Kong and took the Airport Express. For those that don’t know, it’s the most efficient shuttle service or train service I’ve ever seen in the world. It takes you from the airport to downtown Hong Kong or Central Hong Kong is 24 minimum, exact.

I stepped off the plane, got onto the Airport Express, got to Central Hong Kong and had, literally, no questions, no fear, just everything was pointing me in the right direction. And the moment I got out into Central, I just saw this world of energy, of buzz, of excitement and very quickly was off to the races into startup events and meeting startups and meeting some of the investors. That first week, you could not tell me no, that Asia was not going to be the future. You could challenge me, but you could not tell me no.

Since then, I think every trip I’ve made or every time I’ve lived there or spent time there, it continues to show. You’ve got an ecosystem that’s thriving. And all of the piece within — government, universities, investors, entrepreneurs and so on — everybody is giving 110%. Everybody is contributing or re-investing or trying to create new opportunities or learn or anything they can do to make their local region thrive and successful. And you don’t always see that everywhere. That was one thing that just blew my mind.

The Cyberport is one of the technology parks in Hong Kong. Seeing Cyberport for the first time, this four or five-building campus and the fact that it’s loaded with startups and all the resources… They give funding. They do this. They provide education. They make partnerships. They help companies go overseas. I’m looking at this like “Where was this five years ago? Where was this for me 10 years ago?” It opened up my mind. And this was for everywhere I went within Asia. This was a region that was out to make a point. It was out to make sure that they did everything that they could to succeed and keep pace or push us all, as a world, forward.

Jay:  Absolutely. It reminds me of an article that Peter Diamandis wrote. I think it was last year or two years ago. When he first brought one of his groups over to China. And he talks about the 9-9-6 lifestyle. It’s kind of like a term. It’s like saying you’re a hustler in Chinese. It’s basically, instead of working 9 to 5, they work 9 to 9, six days a week. And so he wrote an article about this, and it kind of went viral. I can’t remember which publication. I think it was HuffPost or one of those. It’s like “We’re going to basically disrupt work and figure out how to surpass the rest of the world because we want to make up for lost time.”

Cool. So you got the Asia bug. You got hooked. Obviously, like I mentioned in the introduction, after being an entrepreneur, you’ve worked with a bunch of companies, and you’ve successfully raised venture capital funding — I think north of $100,000 — for your various companies. You’ve had a handful of exits under your belt as well, and now you’re shifting gears a little bit or expanding your offering and skillset as a person. You’re starting to invest in companies yourself. So maybe you can tell us a little bit about the fund you’re running and how you go about your investment decision. Maybe give us some top-level overview, and then we can dig in a little bit closer to your investment process.

Kyle:  Yeah. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been working with investors in some way, shape, or form, and I think that’s an important fact. Part of the reason we decided to start the accelerator, but then also the reason I work with so many companies is, having been an entrepreneur myself and lived and breathed the struggle but also have worked with several on both sides of the table from venture to entrepreneurs and seen what worked, what hasn’t, why there was success, or why there may not have been, and kind of looking at things holistically… And after having worked with so many companies in IoT and around the world, the one thing I really wanted to jump in deeper, that I saw as a missing piece, was venture. And so I wanted to start making a deeper shift into venture.

After having traveled a lot back and forth, Asia, to me, is an area that I see of tremendous opportunity that I see from an investment side. There are so many great entrepreneurs building real companies and real technologies that scale, that hit one of the largest if not — depending on the country — the largest population or consumer market globally. And you just can’t find that anywhere else. And so I’ve decided to start moving more into the world of venture, as you said, Jay, and wanting to provide that type of resource in a more mass quantity to entrepreneurs within the cross-border worlds of the US and Asia.

Jay:  Right. Venture is an exciting place. It’s a huge, huge space, particularly venture in Asia. Are there any specific verticals that you focus on? Obviously, you have a natural background and expertise in IoT and hardware. But tell us about the different verticals that you’re looking at to invest in.

Kyle:  Not just on the investment side, but also what I’m seeing as trends and what I’m seeing as exciting in Asia is something to note as well, because there are so many different areas. When you look at it from an investment standpoint, you don’t want to be too scatterbrained but sometimes you do. Sometimes you want to be super specific. Sometimes you don’t. For me, you polled it very greatly. I’ve been in IoT for five-and-a-half-plus years. And during that, the Internet of Things has literally touched every different industry, and every industry is affected by that.

Because of this, I’ve gotten the chance to really see a lot happening or moving in several different areas and get the chance to work or to help companies in all these. I’ve stayed close to the trends and where things are going or where things are coming. And so trying to stay on the forefront, yes, IoT is a very big focus. But when we look at Asia as a whole and the opportunities that exist with the growth of the consumer market and, more particularly, to the region of like the Greater Bay Area where the Pearl River Delta has been re-designated as the Greater Bay, or China’s Greater Bay area, and it encompasses 11 different cities, or regions I should say — districts — that encompass about 70 million people — 70 million people — who can all reach each other within one hour. And you think about the impact of just that region and the types of things and technologies that are going to be needed… Or you look at something like Indonesia, an area that’s on the up-and-coming rise and has extreme wealth and population. Or you look at areas like Japan and Korea that are starting to surge into the entrepreneurial scene or Vietnam and Thailand. All of these have something very much in common — again, that’s focused around consumer.

For me, consumer, enterprise — very common, great businesses, great investment opportunities. But then we dive deeper, and you look at something like retail. To me, the retail sector — or what’s called the “new retail,” the merchants of online and offline retail, or O2O, I think, is fascinating. It’s exploding in China. It’s exploding throughout greater Asia. So consumer retail, enterprise and cloud, IoT, as we mentioned, fintech, goes without saying in many of the regions because you have a lot of these emerging countries or emerging markets coming on that have, essentially, a fresh start to their financial system and the way that the population will interact and transact from a financial standpoint. Whereas here in the US, we’re still using credit cards with chips in them because of the way we’ve progressed.

But also, deeper technologies. We know China is hot on artificial intelligence, but that goes throughout Greater Asia into robotics, into drones, into industrial 4.0 and the rethinking of manufacturing and supply chains to what I would say is a forgotten area, and that’s education.

You’ve got millions upon millions, hundreds of millions of people coming online wanting to be educated in a more globalized way. Education technology, I think, is going to be huge. But really, in summary, it’s technologies that are core to the Asia region that are focused on growing Asia that could have a tie back to the US or Europe or other areas but are core to the development of Asia.

Jay:  Absolutely. So much to unpack there. First, in my mind, there’s a couple of things I want to say. First, obviously you mentioned the great macro tailwinds that we’re seeing here in Asia, specifically in China, such as the Greater Bay Area, the One Belt One Road Initiative… A lot of these things may sounds like top-level propaganda and that sort of thing, but there are actual results and synergies. For example, like the Greater Bay Area, like you said, we’re all connected within an hour. That little ecosystem is just getting smaller and smaller. They just announced — or launched, rather — the high-speed train between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, which I haven’t taken yet — 10 minutes, which is crazy, if you think about it. To be able to literally step out the door and be right in the middle of Shenzhen in 10 minutes, the Silicon Valley of Hardware, if you will. That’s amazing to me. So there’s a lot going on, obviously, in this region — in China and this region in the world.

And I think that, going back to what you were talking about when you were explaining the different verticals that you look at, it’s like you said. You have to kind of be focused, but you also have to cast a wide net because I think what you said is true in that a lot of these solutions will encompass more than one vertical.

I was just speaking to our mutual friend David who runs the co-working space up in Shenzhen yesterday. A perfect example of this is where he’s actually taking that concept of co-working and making it co-living. So he’s encompassing, now offering solution not just for the eight hours that people are at work but also the eight hours after that which include meals, social, a bar concept, and sometimes even a nap or a snooze after that. As these solutions cross the different verticals, I think it’s important that we actually take a step back and look at the core. What we like to look at and invest in, I think, is really strong entrepreneurs. And I imagine that’s the same case for your experience as you’ve been working with a bunch of entrepreneurs in the past.

Kyle:  Yeah. Absolutely. What David and Beeplus are doing, the co-working space is phenomenal. Entrepreneurs — and really, all of us in general — put so much time and effort into the things that we do that there needs to be a balance, and there needs to be a lot of things rethought as to how we work and how much time we spend — and again, that balance of “this is work” versus “this is life” so you can keep that healthy mental state while moving 24/7 on a global calendar or clock every day.

Jay:  So if you wanted to summarize some of the top-level themes, so to speak, that you look in or you stand by, when you look at companies that you invest in, if you could categorize them on a high level, what would they be?

Kyle:  In terms of themes, I’m looking for innovative, consumer experiences. I’m looking for enabling technologies. I’m looking for companies or technologies that are being built around social, that drive engagement or growth. I’m looking for something that’s going to push and increase consumer expansion and, of course, something that adds value at the end of the day. Those are probably five areas that I really, really look for, top-level themes, aside from something like the Internet of Things or consumer and enterprise as well.

Jay:  As far as venture goes for an ecosystem — I’m just going to use Hong Kong as an example. You guys in the audience, you’ve heard me talking about the current state of affairs here. It’s obviously gotten a lot better in the last five years. What we’re still lacking here in Hong Kong is a few exits which will then make entrepreneurs re-invest in the ecosystem and be sympathetic towards future entrepreneurs and startup founders. By the large, the VC scene, early-stage investing as an asset class, is not necessarily seen as a big solution for a lot of these investors. Family offices like traditional investing. Property, real estate is how everyone made their money here in Hong Kong. They like playing the stock market. When it comes to investing in startups, they’re a little bit more hesitant.

And so they, unfortunately, that has a negative effect because they aren’t sympathetic towards the entrepreneurs, and they treat it like a stock investment. If an entrepreneur is struggling for 12 months and it’s a little bit beyond the runway that they first agreed upon, the Asian family office or investor — whoever backed them — will basically trade out of that position and basically cut off ties and move on to the next thing, which I don’t think is a healthy thing for the ecosystem or for, obviously, the startup founder.

On the flip side, if you go and get venture funding in Silicon Valley at some of the big boys, the ol’ boys network, sometimes you get an overreach of involvement where the large VCs will literally try to take control of everything. And all of a sudden, you realize that your business is no longer your business anymore. It’s just literally being run by those who wrote the checks. So this I see as a challenge that we face in Asia. How do we nurture in grow the investor class to be more savvy and sophisticated and provide the right type of support for the entrepreneurs and the companies that are coming up?

From your standpoint on the VC side, Kyle, what do you think? As a VC, what do you bring to the table? How do you want to play it differently and toe the line between providing enough support but not being overbearing and taking too much control?

Kyle:  It’s a great question and a tough answer because it really revolves around balance, but it’s also on a case-by-case basis. I don’t think it’s as black and white as “We either do this or we don’t do that.” You’re going to look at each individual investment as you make them. This is something that I look at. Some companies, you will get very involved in. They will just need that — either up front or later on in their life. Others may not. Others may just need the check. You provide the funding. You’re there if and when they need it, but very rarely do they take advantage of it.

It’s okay if it’s one side or another. I think what’s really good for other investors to think about — or even entrepreneurs who are looking — is, from an entrepreneur’s standpoint, know what you want from the investors that you’re working with or you have investing in you. Know some of the added value that they can provide and be very transparent on where you can use their help, but don’t fully rely on it being your sole source of fixing that problem or that weakness within your company. Instead, think of it as a support function and someone who can provide guidance or resources or a short-term fix. But again, not going to be your full-time hire.

From an investor’s standpoint, I think you’ve got to have a little bit of an even playing field for all investments. As you make an investment, let’s say you expect to have a meeting at a minimum of once per month or once every two weeks for the first couple of months just to get to know each other and see how you can help. Make sure that you’re getting updates on the companies, and you show them, if they haven’t done that, what the format is and how to get that regular. And then you’re always on the lookout. I think this is probably one of the most important things and the thing that I hope to continue to do is always… The A, B, C. The “always be closing” for your portfolio. You’re out there just as much as they are. While you may not be talking to company A on a regular basis because they don’t need to talk to you on a day-to-day, you may see a great opportunity. You may see a great co-investor. You may see a great partner. You may see a great opportunity for them. Always be thinking of your portfolio and find ways to make that connection and help them indirectly.

So for me, that’s what I’m hoping for. I’m hoping to continue with my investments, having a baseline of once or twice-a-month meetings and adjusting it based on the need for a short amount of time to make sure the company can get its value or get jump started as necessary. And then beyond that, always be closing for them and always be thinking of other ways or opportunities that come my way that they can benefit from and be there when they need. Be there when they have questions about coming into the US. Or be there when they’re looking to do business development around a particular area or make a connection. I think you have to start with a baseline and adjust it. Just as you mentioned in the beginning, sometimes we have expensive lessons. This is one of those, and you have to find your base and adjust it from there. For me, that’s what I’m looking to continue to do.

Jay:  Totally. I think it’s also important to recognize, for the most part — and obviously, this is different than if you’re running a family office or if you’re just independently wealthy — but a lot of VCs are literally just another step in the whole investment process. VCs have investors themselves they have to answer to. So they’re not the end boss in a lot of cases. I just thought of that when you said, “Always be closing.” A VC is just as much under the gun to have exits and to grow the portfolio companies as the actual entrepreneur is. So that’s important to recognize. VCs should be your friend and your partner, not the parents looking over your shoulder and telling you how to run your business.

Kyle:  If you go in knowing two things… One, what you need help with and being transparent about that in those initial meetings that you have, getting to know each other a little bit more, so that they can help. We’re there to help. We’re not there just to always write a check and move away. We’re actually there to help. On the other side is thinking about the life cycle. Your life cycle of your company, you’re going to have a lot of people that come in and out of it that you’re going to need at different times and have to revert back to. And so build those strong relationships. Know how and when to use the people around you who are willing to help at the right time in your life cycle and know that you can come back to them as well. I think that it’s sometimes forgotten that the people that gave you your first check could be someone that’s hugely valuable five years down the road for their industry knowledge or for other reasons. Those, I think, are two things to keep in mind as well.

Jay:  Absolutely. I want to jam into a quick opportunity for you to do a bit of humble bragging. If you look at the amount of VCs that are trying to enter the space, there are, obviously, a ton of them, a ton of micro-VCs, which is a very popular format right now. You’ve explained a lot of your background and your expertise and your network. Why invest with Kyle Ellicott versus probably the thousands of other micro-VCs that are out there that might be looking at exactly the same stuff that you are?

Kyle:  It’s a great question. I think you do point something out that the micro-VC trend is popping up in Asia and on a global level. There’s a lot of money out there and a lot of money that wants to be put into the private equity or private startup space. It’s just kind of a natural occurrence. There’s been a lot of exits. Hopefully, if all goes well in 2019, there will be a lot more. So we’ll see what happens.

For me, one of the exciting things is I’ve been to the region. I’ve been on the ground, learned a lot, a lot of hard lessons. It wasn’t just land and everything is great. I learned a lot of lessons and from that, I’ve been able to provide a lot of insight and chances of success to the companies that I invest in or work with in some way that are looking to go there or looking to be there.

I have the cross-border experience, so I’ve gotten the chance to be based on the Bay, in Los Angeles, and throughout the US and then also traveling back and forth to Asia. The other thing is, after running an accelerator for some time, you build a lot of relationships. So I have a lot of accelerators and friends that are running them or co-investing in some of the same companies that we accelerated together. And so I want to be able to continue to help bring in good deal flow for those accelerator programs and also help them follow on as well.

I think you pointed out in the beginning, Jay. The relationships from being on the ground go very, very deep in Asia. There’s a lot of good people doing a lot of good things, and I’ve had the chance to learn about those opportunities and want to be able to help companies take advantage of them. I’ve been doing this thing on a global scale for quite some time. And so now it’s time to take it to that next level and get towards more of the capital side versus just the business development and strategy resources as well.

I would actually add lastly, I like to be hands-on with entrepreneurs that I invest in. So whether it’s — like we talked about — that baseline or something more, putting a great team around them and myself to make sure that their people know where they are, no matter where they are, that can help them either locally or globally to increase their chances of success.

Jay:  I think you’d probably be the ideal investor for a startup. Not only are you an entrepreneur yourself, you also have spent a significant amount of time basically working to help entrepreneurs. That’s basically what you’ve done for the first five years. I can’t think of any better investor that could be backing your company than you, actually.

Last three questions. Again, thanks for coming on and for the time and for just explaining the opportunity and what you’re working on. It’s very exciting here. You mentioned a bunch of verticals and thematics that you were focusing on in Asia. If you had to pick one teaser that you could throw out to our audience, what’s the big trend that might be worth taking a closer look at in Asia for the next five to ten years?

Kyle:  Ooh, great, great question.

Jay:  There are so many.

Kyle:  There is. It’s so tough to choose. I might be apt to say either retail or social — the social internet area that’s booming where more people are coming online. More people are engaging. More people are leveraging social in their apps or as a part of their business. That’s why I’d bring retail in. A few companies I’ve seen where if you go and find a product that you like, you can leverage the power of your social network to also get excited and express interest. And through that, the more people that express interest from your network, the bigger discount you get on that particular item. I think we’ll see that as a growing trend around, not just your consumer-type products, but that will move into travel. That will move into services. It will move into a lot of different areas as people are more connected, more communicative, and really more engaged or in tuned with working with others versus the independence that they once had.

Jay:  I want to just put that into a little bit of context because, for the listeners that have never been to Asia, you’re probably thinking, “What? Social, consumer? That’s boring.” You’re probably thinking, “Why didn’t he say AR, VR, or IoT, or artifi— whatever?” But the scale that China is actually disrupting the consumer market with social media and their social networks — things such as WeeChat and mobile payments — they’ve just leapfrogged the West. Don’t underestimate these trends that have been around for a long time in the West, but they’re that much more at scale in China and in Asia and that much more efficient.

So go back and do some more research and think about what Kyle just said. He basically hit the nail on the head. It doesn’t sound like it, but trust me on this. Go back and look into it. It’s a huge, huge opportunity.

Second-to-last question. I just listened to this podcast. I’m an aspiring entrepreneur. I would love to get in front of you or get into one of the hundred pitch decks that land on your desk every day. What’s one piece of advice that you could give to get in contact or to penetrate the noise and get in front of your eyes.

Kyle:  The easiest is to get an introduction from a referral. If you’re looking to get in front of me or any of my colleagues, the easiest is to get an introduction. Have someone within my network who will tell you if they’re close enough to me, have them introduce you. If I get an introduction from somebody, it’s usually higher looked at than something that comes in cold. Not to say that I don’t look at cold emails or messages, but, as you mentioned, sometimes it’s noise. LinkedIn can be very noisy. Email is great, but usually 99% of the time, the best way to get in front of me is to get an introduction or to get referred by someone in my network.

Jay:  It’s true. It sounds obvious, again, but you’d be surprised at how many people actually miss this or don’t do this right. It’s not that difficult. It takes a little bit of effort because of the way that we’re connected now in this world with the internet and social and all this stuff. It doesn’t take… I feel like it’s not that much work to basically find someone that knows someone that knows you. You know what I mean? So be smart about this, guys. If you’re trying to pitch Kyle, do a little bit of extra work. Try to find that right connection and get in front of him.

Dude, last question is basically where can people find you, follow you, and learn more about what you’re doing? Again, thanks so much for your time, for coming on the show. It’s been awesome catching up, as always. We’re looking forward to seeing the great things that you end up doing and investing in. So where can people find out about you?

Kyle:  Definitely. I think, for me, the easiest place to find me is Twitter, @KyleEllicott. And then, of course, on LinkedIn. You can definitely find me elsewhere, but definitely start with LinkedIn and Twitter. @KyleEllicott.

Jay:  Awesome, brother. We’ll get it all linked up in the show notes. I’m looking forward to chatting again and best of luck on the investing side.

Kyle:  Thank you so much, man. Really appreciate it. Couldn’t be happier to be a repeat guest on the Jay Kim Show. World famous.

Jay:  It’s actually a thing, man.

Kyle:  I know.

Jay:  You should be proud of it.

Kyle:  I am. This is one of the best podcasts out there. I’m proud to be here and excited to get started.

Jay:  Awesome. Talk to you soon, man.

Kyle:  Alright. Talk soon.