Lt. Col. Derren Burrell (21 years USAF, $20B AUM), Ari Rastegar ($500M AUM), and Seth Bradley, Esq. ($90M AUM) have all sat on our stage. Plus securities attorneys, fund managers, and 7–9 figure dealmakers who have actually raised the money. No fluff, no LinkedIn theater. Just the playbook from people our audience trusts with their LP capital. Hosted by Natu Myers, founder of Raises.com®.
Most shows chase volume. We curate guests who can speak credibly about capital, structure, and close. That is why our audience is fund managers and dealmakers, not tire-kickers.
Every episode ships with executive summaries, transcripts, and chapter markers so operators can pull a specific tactic into their next raise without scrubbing an hour of audio.
Browse the full archiveGuests on this stage include
Full dossiers on the operators, attorneys, and capital deployers already on the record with us. Watch the episode, then dive into show notes and transcripts on each guest's page.
Founder & CEO, Raises.com
Natu Myers is the founder and CEO of Raises.com, consultants helping people raise money to buy businesses and cash-producing assets. In this episode he walks through the seven-month raise timeline, why the firm only backs assets that already make money, and the $3.4 million client close that proved the system runs without the founder. His personal story is at natumyers.com.
ClientFounder, Texas construction & services roll-up
Cody Sechelski has operated in Texas construction for more than a decade, building from the ground up: twelve years ago he was sleeping on a couch. He found Raises.com the way most serious buyers find anything now, through a podcast interview on YouTube, and booked a call in October 2025 with a roll-up thesis and a target in mind.
In July 2026 he closed the inaugural acquisition of his operator-led platform: a profitable Texas HVAC services contractor, structured with an institutional senior credit facility, junior debt, a seller note, and seller rollover equity, closed with minimal sponsor cash equity. The close was covered by Yahoo Finance, AP News, and other outlets.
This episode is unusual for the show: a client, on location in Navasota, Texas, walking through what the process actually felt like, the clean-financials work, the funding tournament, the lender whose three weeks became two months, and the rollover-equity math he now uses as a buyer targeting construction and building-services businesses nationwide.
Raises.comVP of Capital Markets & Private Equity, Raises.com
Tre Brown runs capital markets at Raises.com. He sources senior debt, junior capital and equity for acquisitions, negotiates underwriting terms with banks and private credit groups, and carries transactions through to close across the United States and Canada. He ran the capital markets side of the Texas HVAC platform acquisition that closed in July 2026 and was covered by Yahoo Finance and AP News.
This episode is the working session most buyers never get: the capital stack with prices attached. Roughly 3x EBITDA on a senior term loan, 70 to 80% advance rates on heavy assets, revenue-based financing at 10 to 12% of yearly revenue priced at 12 to 15% and sitting junior unsecured, bridge debt at 12 to 15%, and merchant cash advances he has seen at 30 and even 50% that can be refinanced at around 6%.
He is equally direct about what kills deals: signing a purchase and sale agreement instead of a letter of intent, which can put $150,000 into escrow just to open books an LOI would have opened free; targeting a company you have never operated; and arriving with financials that do not reconcile to the bank statements.
OperatorFounder and author, Home and Plus Contracting
Kenny Bricks started Home and Plus Contracting in Ottawa in 2010 after helping a friend lay tile at his own house, discovering he was good at it, and asking what people charged for the work. He named the company for the ambition to offer everything, made his own flyers, and knocked every door in his condo complex until a neighbour hired him for a $6,000 fence and interlock job.
Two years later he was late on his mortgage and had decided to sell the company for $15,000. He borrowed $2,500 from his mother, drove her to Montreal to pray, and on the way home asked himself how he had won that first job. He went back to knocking doors the next morning and closed a driveway and patio project on the spot for $15,000, the exact amount he had been ready to accept for the entire business.
Today he runs four companies: Home and Plus Contracting, which now finances client renovations up to $100,000 against after-renovation value, The Exit Lounge restaurant, Ottawa Skate and Play (a 20,000 square foot entertainment centre he built from the ground up), and a co-owned spice brand. He is the author of The Face Yourself Method and coaches owners on the mindset and systems required to scale.
VeteranFounder & Managing Partner, Veteran Ventures Capital
Lt. Col. Derren Burrell served 21 years in the United States Air Force, including assignments with the White House Communications Agency where he managed secure communications infrastructure for the President and senior national security staff. He is a Citadel graduate who rose from enlisted airman to lieutenant colonel.
Before launching Veteran Ventures Capital, he led TAG Resources to five consecutive years of positive returns while managing roughly $2B in assets under management. His operational background spans the Pentagon, Iraq, and Afghanistan, where he oversaw $20B+ in theater funding and built the financial systems that keep mission-critical programs funded.
At Veteran Ventures Capital, Derren stacks non-dilutive government capital on equity for veteran-led defense tech founders, bridging Silicon Valley innovation with federal procurement. He was named 2025 Entrepreneur of the Year for turning battlefield discipline into institutional-grade venture deployment.
Founder & CEO, Rastegar Property Company
Ari Rastegar is an attorney and technology-driven real estate operator who built Rastegar Property Company from a $3,500 loan into an institutional platform managing hundreds of millions across Austin, Dallas, and major U.S. markets. His origin story, chronicled in the bestselling book The Gift of Failure, is a case study in compounding setbacks into scale.
His portfolio includes 1899 McKinney in Dallas, home to the world's largest living wall, and a pipeline of acquisitions engineered for institutional LPs seeking yield with operational upside. He structures deals for performance, not fee extraction.
Ari speaks openly about capital structure, LP relations, and the discipline required to move from scrappy operator to institutional-grade sponsor. His episode is one of the most shared in our catalog.
Founder & Managing Partner, Raise Law · Tribe Vest
Seth Bradley is a securities attorney who founded RaiseLaw to give fund managers and syndicators a compliance-first legal partner for Reg D raises, fund formation, and ongoing regulatory obligations across multiple states.
As Chief Legal Officer at Tribevest, he built the infrastructure that lets operators launch and manage investment vehicles without the co-GP complexity that sinks most first-time sponsors. He co-founded StackRack and Klaviss, and serves as Managing Partner at Law Capital Partners.
With roughly $90M AUM across portfolio companies and fund structures, Seth speaks from both sides of the table: the attorney keeping deals compliant and the operator who has raised and deployed capital himself. His fund founder playbook is a reference point for our audience.
Founder, Wallace Law
Steven E. Wallace, Esq. is the founder of Wallace Law, with offices in South Florida, Dallas, and Houston. He is licensed to practice in New York, Florida, and Texas, and is one of fewer than 5% of Florida lawyers who hold Florida Bar Board Certification in real estate law.
His practice spans two economies: a transactional book in real estate, securities, and business law for sponsors and operators, and a bankruptcy and restructuring practice that runs when markets turn. He describes himself as a business owner first and a lawyer second, a dealmaker, not a deal-breaker.
On the show he walks sponsors through Reg D 506(b) vs 506(c), broker-dealer landmines, and what actually keeps a syndicator out of trouble when the SEC comes asking. He also lays out the true cost of going public before operators chase an S-1.
Founder, RPI Education
Monika Josik is the founder of RPI Education, one of the fastest-growing real estate investing education platforms in North America. A former stay-at-home mother with a master's in education, she has trained thousands of investors across Canada and the United States.
RPI Education runs a three-rung ladder: Wealth Immersion for fundamentals, Personal Group Coaching for 10–25 unit operators, and Elite advisory for fund design, capital stack engineering, and exit planning. The curriculum moves serious students from single-family rentals toward multi-family value-add and private fund structures.
On the show she breaks down why a fund pays four revenue lines where a one-off deal pays once, how to underwrite in a 2026 rate environment, and the three income buckets every operator needs: income for self, income with others, and income for others.
Founder & CEO, Acquisition Network
Ryan Morgan is the founder and CEO of Acquisition Network, an M&A advisory and social-marketplace software company for individual investors buying small businesses. His team of operators, drawn from firms with billions in transaction experience, has closed 14+ acquisitions totaling over $30 million for clients, most of them corporate professionals buying their first business.
His model turns roughly $3.5M in client down payments into about $5M in annual cash flow, through done-for-you acquisitions, an acquisition-consultant program that pays deal sourcers in equity, and a marketplace app with 70,000+ listings and built-in due diligence.
Ryan speaks plainly about the no-money-down myth, why deals die at lender approval, and the $90 trillion silver tsunami. His stated mission: a publicly traded technology company that buys businesses for everyday investors.
Attorney, Coach & Ecosystem Builder, Opportunity Main Street
Jenny is an attorney, coach, and ecosystem builder focused on capital access for underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.
She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul.
Jenny co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, the Force for Good Fund, Crowdfund Main Street, and Angels of Main Street.
Most recently, she founded Baltimore Community Commons, a financial inclusion and wealth building ecosystem project, housed at The Mulberry, which is owned by community investment company, Opportunity Main Street.
Apply to be a guest if you have institutional track record and audience value. Or book a strategy call with the Raises.com® team and we will map your capital path.