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I hired Steve Davidson when he was 23 years old.
I was so broke I could only offer him $24K/year, with commission incentives that might get him to $50k if he hustled.
I pitched him hard on the culture and the vision at Cambridge House, knowing my salary offering wasn’t going to land anybody. But when we got to that conversation, he responded calmly,
“It’s not about the money right now. I want to build my network and my knowledge. The money will come later.”
What?
He was 23. He just defied every millennial on the planet.
Six years later he became my VP at Cambridge House. And the money came.
When you find people like this you hold on to them for as long as you can. You put the resources they need in front of them, and get out of their way.
Steve is the lead on one of the hottest new experiences we’ve created at Cambridge House.
Last month we were in Las Vegas for our new Pangea Club Conference.
The Pangea Club is a project we have been working on for the last two years. We register about 24,000 investors at Cambridge House conferences each year. Within that crowd, there is a small percentage that we consider to be Super VIP’s.
These are the people that can really move the market. It’s the discrete family offices, off the radar fund managers, Chairman's Club brokers or super high net worth investors.
Some you would recognize from our conference podium. Many you would not.
In Las Vegas last month we flew in about 50 of these individuals. We had fund managers from Buenos Aires, Family Offices from Hong Kong and high net worth investors from Europe, the UK and all over the United States.
Then we brought companies from Canada, the U.S., Germany and some special guests from Tel Aviv to introduce to these high profile investors.
The Pangea Club name was derived from our ambition to gather our international network - bringing all the continents together - and letting the most influential people we know rub shoulders.
This is one of the most exciting things we are working on right now. And it’s opened up incredible doors and partnerships already.
At a Pangea Club Conference, we get super intimate with the deals and the people - private companies, public companies and international money.
There was one deal that I am specifically excited about.
It’s a health-tech play. Think smart-home solutions for infants. It’s a product that’s near and dear to my heart.
It is a subtle device, that measures and differentiates your sleeping baby’s heartbeat and respiration, giving you real time data to your phone. Under the mattress, it produces a gentle vibration, mimicking the mother’s heartbeat, simulating the womb.
The cool part?
They are gathering data from every monitor in use and determining patterns. For example, within a small margin of error, your phone can tell you that your baby is about to wake up in the next ten minutes based on a slight change in respiration.
It’s a privately held, multimillion dollar business, with consistent multi-year growth and strong margins. Already successful in Europe and Asia, they are now coming to the North American market. For that, they need capital.
A few of our Pangea Club members had birth complications with their infants. They had to be monitoring their child's vitals every hour for the first year of their baby’s life. They were all over this company.
We also had a few of the Chairman’s Club brokers from Canaccord Genuity at the show. After a quick chat, one of them pulled me aside,
“I need them at a dinner tonight with some of my clients, can you do that?”
I replied, “Yes. That is what we do.”
At a Pangea Club Conference, the smartest money I know is there with me. We can round table an idea, and expedite a first round of diligence remarkably fast.
One of our guests was an Executive at Telus. His first thought was that we needed to get this in front of Telus Health.
That’s the incredible advantage of the Pangea Club. You never know who is in the room.
Is this deal coming to the markets? I don’t know yet. But if it does, they will get a cheque from me.
They are from overseas. But I am bringing them back to Vancouver in late September for our Extraordinary Future Conference on September 22 & 23.
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