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POWERS

Chris Powers

Conversations with the best founders, entrepreneurs, and investors.

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  • 21 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 24 min
  • English

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  • #428
    Wednesday · 50 min

    Developing North Texas' Iconic Master Planned Communities with Lucy Billingsley (#428)

    This week Chris sits down with Lucy Billingsley, Co-founder and Partner of Billingsley Company, the Dallas development firm she started with her husband Henry in 1978. Lucy is the daughter of Trammell Crow, who built the largest real estate development company in America. She left the family business because she did not want to be a minority vote. She and Henry built their own firm instead, and today they run it with their kids. Billingsley plays a longer game than almost anyone in real estate. They buy land 30 or 40 years before the growth arrives and hold it until the market is ready. Cypress Waters alone is 1,300 acres zoned for 10,000 apartments and over 12 million square feet of office. They discuss: • Why every building they develop goes in the kids' names from day one • The rule that keeps siblings from ever voting on each other's deals • The lake at Cypress Waters they bought for 50 cents a foot • The difference between a park people look at and a park people actually use • Why new office space now rents for more than Dallas has ever seen • Where AI is already saving them real money in construction Timestamps (00:00) Intro (00:52) Building a Family Business and Putting Assets in the Kids' Names (05:55) From the Dallas Market Center Into Development (09:15) Picking Land and Staying Ahead of the Growth Wave (14:33) Designing the Public Arena to Make a Place (18:00) Zoning Is an Art, Not a Guarantee (20:52) What Cities Want and What the State Took Away (22:31) The Future of Office and Why Amenities Win (28:44) How They Decide What to Build and Where to Buy Next (33:15) The Events Business and Public-Private Partnerships (36:52) Buying a Lake for 50 Cents a Foot and Draining It (37:54) Construction Costs and the Frozen Single Family Market (42:07) Reinventing Herself and the Cypress Waters Trail (46:37) Going All In on AI === Presented by True North Advisors: True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com === Sponsored by: Airshare Airshare is trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management. They give you a smarter way to fly private, over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNX Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #427
    August 12 · 1 hr 52 min

    The Man Who Took Elon to Russia & Why His New Company Phantom is SpaceX's Unfinished Business with Jim Cantrell, CEO of Phantom Space (#427)

    This week Chris sits down with Jim Cantrell, Co-founder & CEO of Phantom Space. He co-founded Phantom Space in 2019, where he is now trying to mass produce rockets. He was employee number four at SpaceX and its first VP of Business Development. Jim is one of a handful of people who was actually in the room at the start. They discuss: • How getting arrested for espionage in Russia is the reason Elon Musk ever called him • What a fishing trip in Florida taught him about raising money • Why he believes SpaceX only exists because the Russians said no • What Carl Sagan asked him in a traffic jam • Why the rocket companies that worked spent a few hundred million and the ones that failed spent billions • What he means when he says he is building the Henry Ford of space • Why he thinks the only sovereign place left for a data center is orbit Timestamps (00:00) Intro (01:00) Getting Into Space by Accident (07:06) The Real Soviets and Getting Arrested for Espionage (13:54) The Cold Call From Elon Musk (20:27) The Moscow Trips That Created SpaceX (31:55) From SpaceX Employee Number Four to the Skybox Exit (39:12) Searching for Serendipity in Hotel Boardrooms (43:06) Faith and the Unfinished Business Behind Phantom (53:29) The Case for Mars and SpaceX as a Nation State (57:04) Why America Has to Win Space (1:05:42) Becoming the Henry Ford of Space (1:10:49) Why Data Belongs in Space (1:20:27) Why Phantom Builds Its Own Rockets (1:28:54) Seeing the Future and Staying Under the Radar (1:35:52) The Executives Who Wanted to Destroy Elon (1:40:50) The Launch Shortage and Data Centers in Space (1:49:04) Keeping Space Free of a New East India Company === Presented by Airshare: Trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management, Airshare gives you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. === Sponsored by: True North Advisors True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #426
    August 5 · 1 hr 8 min

    Manufacturing, Supply Chains, and Building an Infrastructure Company with Justin Lopas (#426)

    Today Chris sits down with Justin Lopas, Co-founder & COO of Base Power Company. On Monday Base announced a $1B Series D at a $13B post money valuation. Justin spent his early career at SpaceX, where he helped lead the Brownsville site that became Starbase, then ran manufacturing at Anduril. Base puts large batteries on homes, owns and operates them, and uses the fleet to support the grid. This is a conversation about speed, and about how much of it turns out to be a decision rather than an effort level. They discuss: • Why he wanted their first battery installed fast instead of right • Why he thinks good manufacturing is decided during design, not on the factory floor • Why he does not push his suppliers as hard on price as he could • Why SpaceX put him in charge of building the Starship factory two and a half years into his career • The question he asks to find out why a job is really taking so long • How a battery company ended up training its own electricians • Why he calls Base an infrastructure company and not a product company Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:48) From Late-Night Research to an Office in Austin (07:55) The First Battery Install Was an Epic Failure (09:15) Finding a Battery Supplier Who Would Let Them In (15:47) Killing Gen Two and Skipping Straight to Gen Three (22:52) From a Hundred Requirements to Cardboard Cutouts (26:02) Good Manufacturing Is Won or Lost at the Design Stage (32:48) How to Build a Supply Chain From Nothing (40:51) Negotiating With Suppliers and Deciding What to Build Yourself (44:58) The Turtle That Marks the Slowest Team (47:39) The SpaceX Lessons on Talent and Speed (54:09) Building a Regulatory Team and Choosing the Next State (58:19) Managing Complexity Is the Whole Job (1:03:20) Tesla Sells Products, Base Owns Infrastructure (1:05:24) Training Electricians and Staying Out of Commercial === Presented by Airshare: Trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management, Airshare gives you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. === Sponsored by: True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #425
    July 29 · 1 hr 24 min

    Reindustrialization, Data Center Gold Rush, Death of The Allocator, National Security, & Capital Flows with Michael Levy (#425)

    This week Chris sits down with Michael Levy, CEO of Crow Holdings, one of the largest private real estate firms in the country. This one goes far beyond real estate. Michael runs a major firm, but he opens on the big macro picture and works his way back down to real estate. They start with where the economy and the country are heading, and they end on what it means for how investors should be thinking today. They discuss: • The reindustrialization of America, and why national security and supply chains are driving what gets built • Getting out of the online bubble, and why travel, long-form media, and real conversation matter more now • The data center power wall, where deposits run a million dollars a megawatt for power that may not arrive for years • Why Michael believes a country's wealth comes down to the cost and abundance of its energy • Whether college is still worth it, and why the master electrician may be the new Google engineer • The future of the allocator model in real estate, and why scale and consolidation are reshaping the industry • Where real estate goes now, and why this could be a slow decade before it turns Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:50) The Big Arc of History Has Swung (07:09) Following the Capital Into Defense and Infrastructure (13:22) Getting Out of the Bubble and the Rise of New Media (21:18) How Power Deposits Reset the Data Center Game (25:34) Crow's Data Center Power Strategy and the Dallas Project (30:58) What If We Stop Needing Big Data Centers? (36:22) The Wealth of a Country Is Its Energy (39:26) Why College Debt Buys Classes You Never Needed (44:22) The Master Electrician Is the New Google Engineer (49:23) Is the Allocator Model Done? (55:33) You Don't Get Fired for Hiring IBM (59:29) Why the Local Friends-and-Family Fundraiser Survives (1:05:37) How Crow Competes Against the Big Consolidators (1:12:04) How Co-Invest and Breakpoints Quietly Erode Fees (1:19:43) The 2020s Could Be a Lost Decade in Real Estate === Presented by Airshare Trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management, Airshare gives you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to flyairshare.com to learn more. === Find our sponsors: True North Advisors True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #424
    July 22 · 1 hr 26 min

    He's Raised $10 Billion For Real Estate Fund Managers. His Advice: "Don't Raise A Fund." with Jonathan Glick (#424)

    This week Chris sits down with Jonathan Glick, founder of Incucap and one of the most active fund placement agents in the country. Over his career he's helped place more than $10 billion into real estate funds, and he says raising one has never been harder than it is right now. There are 600 to 1,000 funds chasing a shrinking pool of capital, real estate has lost a decade of ground to private credit, private equity and everything else, and most managers now spend two years raising a single fund. So his advice to almost everyone who calls wanting to start one is simple. Don't. They talk about who he'd actually back out of the 300-plus managers he meets a year, why he says most funds run in the red until their third or fourth one, and how the whole business has slid into a fee game, which changes the incentives dramatically. They get into where he thinks we are in the 18-year real estate cycle, why he believes vacancy is temporary and basis is forever, and the case that the next few years are the best time in over a decade to leave a big firm and build your own platform. Timestamps (0:00) Intro (0:54) Dallas, Talent Wars, and Why Asset Management Became the Hot Hire (7:12) Too Many Funds Chasing Too Little Capital (12:16) Why Glick Tells Almost Everyone: Don't Raise a Fund (16:58) From "Get an A" to "Score 100": Standing Out in a Crowded Market (25:45) Timing Traps and the Private-Equityization of Real Estate (37:17) Chasing 20% Returns Again: Rents, Costs, and the 18-Year Cycle (43:10) Basis Resets, the 401(k) Wave, and the Economics of a Fund (52:08) Sizing a Fund Right and the First-Timer Discount (56:33) Fixing Fundraising: Diligence, AI Backlash, and Old-School Wins (1:05:28) Founder Culture: The Summit, Loneliness, and a New Wave of Spinouts (1:12:03) Quitting Advice, Creators vs. Catchers, and the Attention Economy === Presented by Airshare: Trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management, Airshare gives you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to https://flyairshare.com to learn more. === Sponsored by: True North Advisors True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #423
    July 15 · 1 hr 11 min

    The World's Biggest Investors Are Buying Real Estate Again with Mark Gibson, CEO of JLL, Capital Markets, Americas (#423)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Mark Gibson, CEO of Capital Markets, Americas at JLL. He sits at the center of how capital moves through commercial real estate, which means he sees the data long before the narratives catch up. Chris and Mark get into why the world's largest investors are looking at real estate again after four years of underperformance, the signal in late 2024 that told his team the market had turned, and the wave of retirement capital that could reshape who owns real estate for the next decade. He is measured, data-driven, and one of the sharpest reads on this market Chris has had on the show. Timestamps (0:00) Intro (01:36) The Relative-Value Case for Real Estate (04:24) Reading the Market Through Bond Volatility and the VIX (09:50) Three Growth Pillars: Tax Cuts, Reshoring, and the AI Buildout (17:10) Fundraising Discipline (21:49) Operational Excellence Over Financial Engineering (28:53) M&A Acceleration and the Private Equity Property-Management Roll-Up (35:38) Disciplined Lenders, Capitulation vs. Conviction, and Bad Capital Structures (42:46) The 401(k) Wave: Private Real Estate Enters Retirement Plans (48:56) Multifamily's Supply Overhang and the Case for a Rebound (59:54) Data Centers: Scale, Power, and Who Owns This Stuff Long-Term (1:06:31) Office's Haves and Have-Nots === Find our sponsors: True North Advisors True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #422
    July 8 · 1 hr 21 min

    The Hottest Apartment Developer in America (Who Builds For 30% Less Than Competitors) with Steven Campisi, Hillpointe (#422)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Steven Campisi, co-founder of Hillpointe, one of the largest developers of attainable housing in the country. Most apartment developers design a brand new building for every project. Hillpointe has built the exact same building 800 times, which creates advantages that compound over time. That repetition plus their material and labor strategy is how Hillpointe builds across the Sun Belt for 30-40% less than everyone else. They get into their direct overseas sourcing business, how they've built their own in-house subcontractor base, how they underwrite new opportunities, the state of the market, and why they run the whole operation as a series of discretionary funds. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (02:58) Steven's Three-Pronged Competitive Advantage (10:29) Prototype Building Strategy (12:39) Direct-to-Crew Labor and Why Crews Choose Hillpointe (20:02) China Sourcing Operations, Scale & Factory Relationships (25:22) Labor Market Shortages & Specialized vs. Generalist Trades (35:01) Land Acquisition Strategy & Regional Development Teams (41:12) Underwriting Deals (44:09) Achieving Investor Alignment (54:45) Fund Model vs. Traditional JV Equity (1:01:25) Raising Institutional Capital (1:09:48) Debt Structure, Supply Glut, and the Road to a 2027 Rent Rebound (1:16:09) AI and Centralizing Operations With an In-House Contact Center Find our sponsors: True North Advisors True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #421
    July 1 · 1 hr 21 min

    The Ex-SpaceX Engineer Reinventing the American Home with Riley Meik (#421)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Riley Meik, co-founder and CEO of The American Housing Corporation, a company building factory-made row homes for the kind of city lots we've stopped building on. For 70 years we got great at putting single-family homes on the outskirts and basically quit building family-sized housing in the places people actually want to live. Riley's bet is that you fix that the way you'd fix any hard manufacturing problem: own the whole stack, design every part from first principles, and build the home in a factory. His first prototype went from manufactured to installed to finished in 13 weeks, and the goal from here is a home that costs 30 to 50% less than local construction. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (01:22) The Housing Crisis Is a Production Problem (04:33) Why America Stopped Building Family Housing in Cities (09:50) The First Company and Why Selling to Home Builders Doesn't Work (14:58) First Principles Engineering: What Does a Wall Actually Need to Do? (21:39) Getting Code-Certified for a Building System That Doesn't Exist Yet (27:57) One Miracle at a Time (31:47) Three Entities, One Mission: How AHC's Capital Stack Works (37:52) 18 Months of R&D: Panel Install Time Dropped 70% (44:22) The Two-Week Build Goal (47:03) Eichler Homes and Designing for Young Families (52:24) Beautiful Housing Gets Approved: Design as Regulatory Strategy (1:00:08) Gigafactory Over Mobile Micro-Factory (1:04:40) Margin Targets, Market Selection, and the Coastal City Thesis (1:11:39) Earning the Right to Automate and Hiring for the Housing Crisis Find our sponsors: True North Advisors True North Advisors is a multi-family office and private wealth advisory firm serving business owners, entrepreneurs, and families since 2000. With over $5.6 billion under management, they're real investors offering conflict-free counsel and portfolios built around your life. Learn more at https://truenorthadvisors.com Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #420
    June 23 · 1 hr 16 min

    How He Built a 2.5M-Follower Media Machine with Chris Koerner (#420)

    In this episode, Chris Powers sits down with Chris Koerner, a serial entrepreneur and host of The Koerner Office, one of the fastest-growing business podcasts in the world. Koerner has gone all-in on media: 1.4M on Instagram, a 270k newsletter, and a YouTube channel he grew to 600k subscribers in a year. They get into how he cracked short-form, why he thinks attention is the only moat left once AI makes any business easy to build, and the filters he uses to decide what's actually worth starting. Then they go somewhere completely different. They talk in great detail about his experience as a missionary for the LDS Church. Koerner spent two years in Hungary, knocked on roughly 25,000 doors as a self-described introvert, and discusses the skills it taught him that made him a better businessman. Timestamps (00:00) Intro (01:08) From Mobile Home Parks Tweeter to Business Media Juggernaut (09:38) Why Audio Builds More Loyal Followers Than Anything Else (12:21) Facebook's Hidden Creator Payouts and Getting Shut Down Overnight (17:11) The Two-Pizza Company: Building a Lean Content Machine (23:36) From Impulse to Publication: How Content Moves Through the Factory (28:13) The YouTube Split That Unlocked the Algorithm (33:52) The Real Mission: Inspiring Strangers to Start a Business (37:37) Why People Don't Act Until They Hit Rock Bottom (40:03) Selling Religion Door to Door: The LDS Mission in Hungary (50:01) 25,000 Doors, 11 Baptisms: What Mass Rejection Really Teaches (56:53) Homecoming: The Most Depressing Day of His Life (1:06:53) Violence and Death in the Missionary Life === Sponsored by: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers/ === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #419
    June 16 · 1 hr 44 min

    The Business That's Selling Sunlight After Dark with Ben Nowack, CEO of Reflect Orbital (#419)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Ben Nowack, co-founder and CEO of Reflect Orbital, one of the first companies building satellites that redirect sunlight from orbit to specific spots on Earth, with the goal of delivering sunlight on demand, 24/7. Why would you want sunlight 24/7? Agriculture and farming, construction projects, rescue missions, military operations, powering solar panels closer to 100% of the time instead of ~30%, etc. Ben started Reflect in 2021. He spent the first year in a garage, $60k in credit card debt, before a $350k raise came in. Reflect has now raised more than $35 million. Sequoia led the seed (its first space investment since SpaceX), Lux Capital led the $20M Series A, and it launches its first satellite later this year. They discuss: • A speech Gwynne Shotwell gave during his tenure at SpaceX that he will never forget • What he learned while working at SpaceX that he implements at Reflect • The story of building the actual company and why building hardware is hard • How they think about vertical integration • The trillion $ business case for redirecting sunlight • How he recruits technical talent, what works and what doesn't Timestamps (0:00) Intro (1:07) "Rockets Are Cool, But They're Not the Big Money Makers" (7:00) Lessons from SpaceX: What Ben Took (and Left Behind) (16:35) The Origin: From High School Fusion Reactors to Reflect Orbital (25:10) The Fossil Fuel Problem and Why It's So Hard to Beat (28:37) "By 3 AM You Have a Minimum Viable Financial Model" (35:44) The Breakthrough: Putting Mirrors in Space (41:00) Building the First Satellite (51:03) First Satellite and Seven-Figure Demand Nobody Expected (57:00) The Constellation Plan: 18 Satellites, Global Coverage (1:10:00) What It's Like to Order Sunlight (1:22:00) Why Fashion Designers Build Better Spacecraft Than JWST Engineers (1:25:36) The 10-Year Vision: Starship, Scale, and Powering the Earth Find our sponsors: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers/ Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #418
    June 9 · 1 hr 2 min

    State Of The Private Aviation Industry with John Owen, CEO of Airshare (#418)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with John Owen, President and CEO of Airshare, one of the largest private jet operators in the country. Airshare started in 2000 and spent over twenty years as a regional Midwest operator before going national in 2023 by acquiring Wheels Up's aircraft management business. They get into how the business actually works, where operators make and lose money, and where the industry is headed. They discuss: • Why fractional is the one part of the industry growing • How the Wheels Up deal came together • Why new jets are booked out to 2029 • The Wi-Fi arms race in the air • His approach to bringing AI into the company Timestamps (00:00) Intro (03:01) Rise of Fractional Ownership (05:10) The Hidden Costs of Jet Ownership (08:40) Choosing Between Charter, Jet Cards & Ownership (11:35) The Wheels Up Acquisition (16:28) What Makes a Good Acquisition Target (21:39) Why Empty Legs Rarely Work (24:38) The Lasting Impact of COVID on Private Aviation (28:35) The Evolution of In-Flight Wi-Fi (31:18) Dealing with Airport and FBO Congestion (37:37) Consolidation in Private Aviation (43:03) Transferring a Management Company (47:31) Airshare's Most Important Metrics (51:41) AI Inside the Business Find our sponsors: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers/ Download FastJets: iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fastjets/id6756160345 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyjetting.app Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #417
    June 2 · 1 hr 23 min

    From One $3M Loan to a $25B Firm - How Madison Realty Capital Was Built with Josh Zegen (#417)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Josh Zegen, Co-Founder & Managing Principal of Madison Realty Capital, a $25 billion real estate private credit firm he started with his college roommate in 2004. They dig into how he built one of the largest private lenders in the country starting from a desk in his dad's law office, and why he still thinks of himself as a businessman first and a real estate guy second. Josh got into lending almost by accident. Laid off from a VC firm at 26 when the dot-com bubble burst, he took one mortgage deal nobody else would do, saw how fragmented and non-institutional the market was, and built a fund around it before "private credit" meant anything. Chris and Josh go deep on surviving '08, reinventing the business when capital dried up, and how Madison grew into a platform that now lends to other lenders. They discuss: • How Josh went from a laid-off VC associate living back home to founding a $25B firm • Surviving '09, including giving up 50% of the company for a $50M anchor that collapsed at the last minute • Why he built servicing, asset management, and capital raising in-house instead of outsourcing • The $10B back-leverage book that makes Madison the lender to ~100 other private lenders • The $720M single loan behind the largest office-to-residential conversion in NYC • Where he sees real estate credit headed, and why he stays away from office, data centers, and anything "binary" Timestamps (00:00) Intro (00:52) Rate Volatility and a Stalled CRE Investment Market (09:44) What's Getting Done Today: Construction, Conversions, and Recaps (18:49) Founding Madison: Seeing Opportunity in a Fragmented Market (23:10) The GFC: Gating Investors and Going Vertically Integrated (29:17) The $50M REIT Deal That Nearly Ended Madison, and the Door It Opened (42:19) Why Borrowers Now Prefer Private Credit Over Banks (45:08) In-House Loan Servicing as Madison's Competitive Edge (46:57) The Back Leverage Business: Lending to Private Lenders (53:26) Capital Markets Expansion and Staying True to Real Estate (1:03:46) The Pfizer Deal, Lifecycle Lending, and Madison's Road Ahead (1:12:57) Staying Relevant by Constantly Innovating and Looking for Acquisition Opportunities === Presented by Airshare: Trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management, Airshare gives you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to https://flyairshare.com to learn more. === Sponsored by: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers Relay Human Cloud Relay Human Cloud gives you pre-vetted, fully managed global talent for up to 75% less than hiring locally. Your best people stop doing repetitive work and get back to the work that moves your company forward. Learn more at https://www.relayhumancloud.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #416
    May 26 · 1 hr 21 min

    The Texas Power Grid, AI, and the Race for Data Centers with Rep. John McQueeney (#416)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with John McQueeney, State Representative for House District 97 in Tarrant County, Texas and member of the State Affairs Committee covering power grid and electric policy. In the last six weeks alone, John's committee has run three interim data center hearings. He is also drafting the Data Center Responsibility Act for the January 2027 session, the bill that will set the framework for how Texas handles the data center build-out for a generation. Texas has 440 gigawatts of applications in the queue against roughly 110 gigawatts of current peak capacity. Someone has to sort out what's real, what's speculative, and who pays for the grid when it all comes online. John is one of the people doing that work. They discuss: • Why the data center industry is losing a PR battle it should be winning • The tax story hyperscalers haven't been telling • How the large load approval process works in Texas, end to end, from TSP submission to ERCOT study to Approved to Energize • What's real vs. speculative in the 440 GW pipeline • Behind-the-meter data centers as grid stabilizers • What the Data Center Responsibility Act will cover • The railroad analogy: why communities that miss this build-out will fall behind for decades Timestamps (00:00) Intro (02:27) Why Data Centers Are a "12 Out of 10" for Texas (08:17) A Day Without a Data Center (09:34) Inside Stargate: Lancium, Crusoe, Oracle & OpenAI (14:34) When One Data Center Funds 30% of a City's Budget (17:03) The Vicious Restudy Cycle & the Batch Zero Fix (28:55) 440 GW of Applications Chasing 105 GW of Capacity (35:53) The 75 MW Threshold & Going Behind the Meter (48:36) Drafting the Data Center Responsibility Act (54:19) North Texas's Hidden Risk in Batch Zero (01:08:35) Who Actually Pays for the Grid Buildout? (01:14:32) Data Centers Are a National Security Issue (01:18:12) Data Centers in Space & the Long Arc === Presented by Airshare: Trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management, Airshare gives you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to https://flyairshare.com to learn more. === Sponsored by: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #415
    May 19 · 1 hr 22 min

    Building a $2.2B Aerospace Business From Scratch with Bryan Perkins (#415)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Bryan Perkins, Founder & CEO of Novaria Group, a Fort Worth-based aerospace manufacturer he started in 2011 and sold to Arcline last November for $2.2 billion. Bryan didn't set out to be in aerospace. He needed a job. But once he was in, he saw a niche nobody else wanted, high-mix, low-volume, esoteric parts that go under the radar, and spent 15 years rolling up 27 companies into one of the biggest businesses most people have never heard of. His North Star from the start was TransDigm, a company he'd been studying since his 20s. Chris and Bryan unpack the full operator's playbook behind that arc, how his thinking has evolved across a family office, KKR, and now Arcline, and where the entire aerospace ecosystem is headed by 2030. They discuss: • Why you can't outmanage a bad capital structure, and what most lower middle market PE gets wrong about underwriting • How Bryan built a roll-up that produces 80-90% proprietary deal flow, and the patience it takes to do that • Why commoditization is an immediate no, and how the "layer cake" of process IP, material science, and unit economics creates moats most people can't see • What an arranged marriage with private equity actually looks like, across three different capital partners • Why he thinks the world still won't have enough airplanes by 2030, and how the new space economy is reshaping demand • The decadal-thinking, "win the day" mindset behind a 15-year compounding machine Timestamps (0:00) Intro (01:22) "You Can't Outmanage a Bad Capital Structure" (05:00) Underwriting Deals (12:17) Novaria's Strategy in Plain English (15:04) IP Moats Over Commoditization (17:04) Why Making an Aerospace Washer Is Harder Than You Think (21:56) Business Model Business vs. Single-Product Business (27:07) Patience and Decadal Thinking as a Proprietary Deal Flow Strategy (30:49) How Unglamorous Early Jobs Build Real Credibility (38:01) Centralized Controls, Decentralized Operations (44:44) Leveling Up: Founders Who Start with the End in Mind (55:11) What Is an Institutional Compounder? (1:03:05) TransDigm as North Star: Carving a Differentiated Strategy (1:08:41) Why Aerospace and Automotive Factory Playbooks Don't Transfer (1:14:10) The Road to 2030: Demand Surge, Space Economy & New Aircraft Design === Presented by Airshare: Trusted across the country for fractional ownership, jet cards, charter, and aircraft management, Airshare gives you a smarter way to fly private - over 25 years of experience, operating their own fleet, with the top safety ratings in the industry. Drive up to the FBO, walk on, and go. Go to https://flyairshare.com to learn more. === Sponsored by: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #414
    May 12 · 1 hr 22 min

    The Most Powerful Land Broker in North Texas with Rex Glendenning (#414)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Rex Glendenning, founder of REX Real Estate and the man known across North Texas as the "King of Dirt." Rex is a fourth-generation Celina native whose great-grandfather homesteaded 160 acres in 1887. Over the last four decades he's brokered billions in DFW land deals, including the $130M public-private partnership that brought the Cowboys to Frisco, while quietly running a 4-broker shop out of his hometown. Chris and Rex unpack his patience-and-dirt playbook, why he believes DFW is becoming the financial epicenter of America, and how he reads a real estate cycle years ahead of the rest of the industry. They discuss: • How Rex originated the Star deal in 60 days, and why Frisco won the Cowboys instead of Irving • His foundational theory: why every American city grows north (with one exception) • 40 years of plowing every dollar back into dirt • Why he believes DFW becomes "Y'all Street" • Why he never scaled past three brokers • His read on where we are in the cycle Timestamps (00:00) Intro (05:20) Learning When to Shut Up in Business and Life (08:53) Growing Up Rural in Celina & the Work Ethic It Built (11:02) Why Every City in America Grows North (14:18) Betting on the Pandemic: $1 Billion in Deals with Just His Wife (23:38) The Star Deal: How Rex Helped Move the Dallas Cowboys to Frisco (30:23) Small Towns vs. Big Cities: The Public-Private Partnership Advantage (40:24) DFW Airport as the Hidden Engine of North Texas Growth (44:06) The H-1B Visa Pullback & Its Real Impact on the Housing Market (48:11) How Rex Thinks About Surviving a Recession (56:23) Will an "Artery Pop" in '26 or '27? (01:00:26) Why Rex Is Worth 6%: Full-Service vs. Order-Taking Brokers (01:04:43) Selling the Same Ranch 7 Times Over 40 Years (01:19:03) What Keeps Rex Up at Night: Reading the Current Market Cycle === Sponsored by: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #413
    May 5 · 1 hr 35 min

    Building a $100M CPG Brand With Only 10 Employees - James Beshara (#413)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Rex Glendenning, founder of REX Real Estate and the man known across North Texas as the "King of Dirt." Rex is a fourth-generation Celina native whose great-grandfather homesteaded 160 acres in 1887. Over the last four decades he's brokered billions in DFW land deals, including the $130M public-private partnership that brought the Cowboys to Frisco, while quietly running a 4-broker shop out of his hometown. Chris and Rex unpack his patience-and-dirt playbook, why he believes DFW is becoming the financial epicenter of America, and how he reads a real estate cycle years ahead of the rest of the industry. They discuss: • How Rex originated the Star deal in 60 days, and why Frisco won the Cowboys instead of Irving • His foundational theory: why every American city grows north (with one exception) • 40 years of plowing every dollar back into dirt • Why he believes DFW becomes "Y'all Street" • Why he never scaled past three brokers • His read on where we are in the cycle Timestamps (05:20) Learning When to Shut Up in Business and Life (08:53) Growing Up Rural in Salina & the Work Ethic It Built (11:02) Why Every City in America Grows North (14:18) Betting on the Pandemic: $1 Billion in Deals with Just His Wife (23:38) The Star Deal: How Rex Helped Move the Dallas Cowboys to Frisco (30:23) Small Towns vs. Big Cities: The Public-Private Partnership Advantage (40:24) DFW Airport as the Hidden Engine of North Texas Growth (44:06) The H-1B Visa Pullback & Its Real Impact on the Housing Market (48:11) How Rex Thinks About Surviving a Recession (56:23) Will an "Artery Pop" in '26 or '27? (01:00:26) Why Rex Is Worth 6%: Full-Service vs. Order-Taking Brokers (01:04:43) Selling the Same Ranch 7 Times Over 40 Years (01:19:03) What Keeps Rex Up at Night: Reading the Current Market Cycle === Sponsored by: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #412
    April 28 · 1 hr 28 min

    The High School That Refunds Your Tuition If You Don't Make $1M with Nat Eliason (#412)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Nat Eliason, founder, writer, and now launching Founders School, a new entrepreneur high school in New York City. Tuition is $150K a year. The promise: every student hits a million dollars in gross profit by graduation, or the family gets their tuition refunded. The first class is around 20 freshmen. The day is split between AI-driven academics in the morning and business building the rest of the day. This is also the same Nat Eliason who in his spare time built Felix, an AI agent he gave a Stripe account, an email, and an X handle, then told to launch a business overnight. Felix has done $60+K in sales since. Nat has not touched the code. They discuss: • Why the "game of school" is kayfabe and what's finally breaking it • The 16-year-old flying out to California to run short-form video for Al Pacino's new movie • The Munger inversion behind Founders School's curriculum: "why would these kids fail?" • What businesses a 14-year-old should and shouldn't build (and the $500/month software budget) • How Nat masters a new domain every two or three years, and why his $35K smart-contract loss accelerated him faster than caution would have • Felix, what "zero human" actually looks like, and the rules Nat set up to keep himself out of it • The day Anthropic shut off Open Claw and Alpha students reverse-engineered a proxy workaround in hours • Why the founding fathers wrote the Declaration in their early 20s, and what we forgot about teenagers Timestamps (00:00) Intro (05:55) What Alpha Does Differently From Conventional Schools (11:48) Playing the Fake Game of School (21:46) How Nat Masters New Domains (32:18) Open Claw Deep Dive (43:50) Building the Founders School Entrepreneurship Program (51:43) Freshman Year Structure at Founders School (1:00:23) How Students Can Pitch for Equity or Debt Funding (1:04:08) Why Establish a New York Location for Year One (1:11:15) Nat's 10-Year Vision (1:15:11) AI as a Force Multiplier for Teenage Founders (1:16:15) How Alpha Students Quickly Reverse-Engineered a Workaround After Open Claw Went Down (1:24:13) Teen-Parent Conflict as a Symptom of Infantilization === Sponsored by: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • #411
    April 21 · 1 hr 33 min

    Building a $3B Family Office From Scratch with Matthew Ogle, Co-founder & CEO of Legacy Knight (#411)

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Matthew Ogle, Co-founder & CEO of Legacy Knight, a $2.8B multi-family office in Dallas, TX that he co-founded in 2019. We dig into how you build a world-class multi-family office from scratch, and why so many wealthy families out there don't actually have one yet. Matthew's path into wealth management didn't start in a boardroom. It started on a tennis court. A summer teaching tennis to a CIO's family at Cape Cod opened the first door, which led him to Credit Suisse's private bank through the GFC and then five years at the Crow family office, helping transform it into one of the first true multi-family offices in Dallas. He opened Legacy Knight's doors in October 2019 with $2.5M of operating capital, 14 seed families, and a contrarian bet, that the new generation of sub-50-year-old entrepreneurs hitting their first liquidity event needed something the bulge brackets couldn't offer. Six years later, Legacy Knight manages over $3B and was named the fastest-growing RIA in Texas. Chris and Matthew go deep on what it actually takes to build a multi-family office the right way, the technology, the hiring, the legacy conversations with families, and why Matthew refuses to grow by acquiring other books of business. They discuss: • Why every hire at Legacy Knight comes out of the family office world, not from the bulge brackets • How most $100M+ families are still running their wealth on a Google Doc and a handshake with their accountant • Why "do nothing in the year after a liquidity event" is half good advice and half terrible advice • The most creative things Matthew has seen ultra-wealthy families do with their capital • How Matthew thinks about his own kids, legacy, and when to start the wealth conversation Links: Legacy Knight: https://legacyknight.com/ Matthew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-ogle-ab11873/ Timestamps (00:00) Intro (02:01) Matthew's First Exposure to Wealth Management (07:58) Joining Credit Suisse (Pre-GFC): Why the "Bulge Bracket" Mattered, How the Private Banking Associate Model Works (13:08) Why Credit Suisse Failed to Serve Ultra-High-Net-Worth Families (20:07) The First Client Meeting: Soft-Tissue Questions (28:57) Tax Timing and Mitigation Strategies (37:57) The Founding Thesis: People and Platform (Building Legacy Knight) (44:46) The Decision to Launch Legacy Knight Independently (54:43) Fundraising Lessons: Managing Expectations and The Importance of Pitch Order (01:01:18) The Full-Service Family Office Model (01:06:24) What a Vertically Integrated Family Office Actually Includes (01:09:07) Proactive Investment Sourcing (01:13:02) Next-Gen Engagement and Family Legacy Planning: How to Involve Children Appropriately (01:21:46) Matthew's Hiring Philosophy (01:30:05) Time as the Hidden Cost of Unstructured Wealth === Sponsored by: Collateral Partners Collateral Partners builds institutional-grade investor materials for private credit, private equity, real estate, and family office firms, the kind of marketing collateral that helps you close capital. Learn more at https://collateral.com/powers === Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispowersjr/ === Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • April 14 · 1 hr 21 min

    #410 - Austin Tunnell - Founder of Building Culture - The Power of Developing Beautiful Buildings

    In this episode, Chris sits down with Austin Tunnell, founder of Building Culture - a real estate development and design-build company based in Oklahoma City specializing in structural masonry construction and walkable, mixed-use urban infill. Austin's path to real estate is one of the more unusual ones we've had on the show. He grew up a football player in the suburbs of Houston, went to work at KPMG out of college, hated it, and joined the Peace Corps. A chance meeting with a master mason in Panama changed the trajectory of his life. He returned to the US and apprenticed for two years laying brick by hand for $12 an hour in rural Oklahoma while his wife cleaned houses to support them. Today Austin designs and develops some of the most beautiful residential and mixed-use projects being built in America, including an 18-townhome, live-work, and mixed-use commercial project currently underway in downtown Edmond, Oklahoma. Chris and Austin go deep on Austin's philosophy of beauty, the case for building things meant to last hundreds of years, and the policy, financing, and culture obstacles standing in the way. We discuss: - How a chance meeting with a master mason in Panama changed the trajectory of Austin's life - The difference between veneer brick and true structural masonry, and why almost no one in the US builds the real thing anymore - Why Austin believes beauty is real, beauty is important, and beauty "connects us to the divine" - Five simple brick details any developer can use to make a veneer building look dramatically better for almost no added cost - How fire codes, building codes, and Euclidean zoning quietly destroy neighborhoods and push developers toward the same ugly apartment complexes - Austin's long-term-hold model for funding new construction infill, inspired by Moses Kagan and ReSeed - Missing middle housing, walkability, and why a 30-unit townhome neighborhood can feel more like home than any class-A apartment building About the guest: Austin Tunnell is the founder of Building Culture, an Oklahoma City-based real estate development and design-build firm focused on beautiful, durable, human-scale neighborhoods. Building Culture specializes in structural masonry construction, walkable urban infill, and mixed-use development. Links: Building Culture - https://www.buildingculture.com/ Austin on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@austintunnell Austin on X - https://x.com/austintunnell Austin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-tunnell-2a41894a/ Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:33) - Austin’s journey with the Peace Corps and how that led him to Masonry (00:12:26) - Why we moved away from Masonry and toward wood frames (00:15:19) - What drew Austin to Masonry (00:19:34) - Learning the craft (00:24:25) - Why humans gravitate toward humanely built things (00:26:51) - What people can do with brick to get more value from a home (00:31:23) - What to ask architects when looking for a Mason (00:32:39) - Training Masons (00:33:28) - Austin’s project in Edmond, OK (00:38:17) - Defining beauty (00:50:03) - The impact of over regulation in construction and zoning (00:55:50) - Austin on scaling his business (00:59:38) - Local, state, and national policies that need to change (01:05:03) - Interior beauty in Austin’s world (01:09:30) - Tax incentives and capital structures (01:16:52) - Building a media business in Real Estate (01:18:05) - Live-work real estate Support our Sponsors Collateral Partners: https://collateral.com/fort Chris on Social Media: Chris on X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNX Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

  • April 7 · 1 hr 49 min

    #409 - Jason McCann - CEO @ Vari - How a Simple Product Became a Global Brand

    Today I sit down with Jason McCann, Co-Founder and CEO of Vari - a company that started when his business partner stood at a cardboard box complaining of back pain and turned that moment into a brand that has shipped millions of desks and transformed over a thousand offices. Jason built Vari direct-to-consumer in an industry that had never seen it. He bootstrapped the company while every instinct in the market said raise capital and burn cash. He became the fastest-growing company in Dallas, survived COVID after just putting $15 million into a TV campaign and opening 12 showrooms, and came out the other side as a fundamentally different leader. We go deep on what it actually takes to innovate legacy product categories, how he recruited the former Chief People Officer of Southwest Airlines over a cup of coffee, and why an introvert had to learn to over-communicate when hundreds of families were counting on him. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Links: Vari - https://www.vari.com/ Jason on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-mccann-vari/ Support our Sponsors Collateral Partners: https://collateral.com/fort Ramp: https://ramp.com/powers Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:29) - How Vari was started (00:08:42) - How entrepreneurs should think about product development (00:11:24) - How Jason approaches AI (00:24:07) - Developing the standing desk (00:36:53) - Jason’s approach to manufacturing (00:47:16) - How Vari develops new products and services (00:56:59) - Bringing on the head of people of Southwest Airlines (01:04:31) - How Vari thinks about innovation vs. leaving products alone (01:14:55) - The future of work in 2026 (01:19:50) - The reindustrialization of America (01:23:36) - Jason’s unique leadership style (01:28:47) - Why Jason only wears black (01:31:52) - What a week looks like for Jason (01:40:46) - How vari runs exec meetings Chris on Social Media: X: https://x.com/fortworthchris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepowerspodcast LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/45gIkFd Watch POWERS on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3oynxNX Visit our website: https://www.powerspod.com/ Leave a review on Apple: https://bit.ly/45crFD0 Leave a review on Spotify: https://bit.ly/3Krl9jO

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