The Alternative Investing Advantage

Harley Green, CEO of InvestAway, learned how to become a hard money lender by rolling his 401(k) into a self-directed IRA and funding fix-and-flip deals in a market he knew. He left a 15-year career in computer engineering to do it. On this episode of the Alternative Investing Advantage, host Alex Perny talks with Harley about funding loans with his own capital, letting investors co-lend, and runn...

Impact investing lets investors put their capital behind their values, and Claire Smith has built a vegan investment platform around that idea. Claire is the founder and CEO of Beyond Investing and its venture arm, Beyond Impact. She joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how her ETF screens out animal exploitation and where her venture fund invests. Key Points: - Impact...

Credit-linked notes let an operator raise project capital on European exchanges, and Taimour Zaman has worked in structured finance since 2014. Taimour is the founder of AltFunds Global, a financial advisory firm based in Canada and Switzerland. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how these notes are structured, how they get underwritten, and which projects they fit...

Pre-IPO investing has long depended on knowing the right person at the right time. In this episode of the Alternative Investing Advantage, host Alex Perny talks with Harvey Kesner, Chairman, President, and Co-Founder of EquiDeFi, about how technology is making private placements easier to find and complete. Harvey draws on a career that started with reviewing IPOs at the SEC to explain what change...

Mortgage note investing means buying the loan instead of the property, and Jamie Bateman has been doing it since 2018. Jamie is the founder of Labrador Lending and a former Department of Defense employee who started with rentals in 2010. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how notes are bought at a discount, how a defaulted loan gets worked out, and where investors...

Land banking means owning the ground before development reaches it, and Marcella Silva has spent nearly two decades doing exactly that. A former software engineer at a national laboratory, Marcella rolled over her 401(k) into a self-directed IRA and bought her first parcel in early 2008. She joins the Alternative Investing Advantage podcast, with host Alex Perny, to explain how the strategy works,...

Real estate debt funds sit on the other side of every fix and flip, and Brandon Rickman has worked both sides. Brandon and his wife flipped between 500 and 600 houses in metro Atlanta before he co-founded ProLend Capital four years ago. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how these loans are underwritten, how draw schedules work, and what an investor should ask befo...

Agricultural technology is undergoing what Chris Rawley calls a fourth revolution, and he has spent a decade funding the companies behind it. Chris is the founder and CEO of Harvest Returns, a platform that raises capital for farms and agribusinesses. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain what precision tools, robotics, and biologics are actually solving, and where an...

Manufactured housing gets harder to buy in California, and that is exactly why "Ali" Nasir Ali stays there. Ali is the managing director of Rise360 Ventures, a former commercial appraiser, and the second generation of his family in manufactured housing. He joins the Alternative Investing Advantage podcast with host Alex Perny to explain how rent control, vacancy decontrol, and aging infr...

Farmland investing separates the land from the crop, and Rob Moore says that separation is the whole thesis. Rob is the general manager of AcreTrader, which buys row crop farmland and leases it to working farmers. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how the asset class works and why returns come from the ground rather than the harvest. Key Points: - Row crops and pe...

Senior housing investing is drawing capital as demographics tighten the supply of beds. Rod Khleif hosts Lifetime Cashflow Through Real Estate Investing, and his coaching students own more than 305,000 multifamily units. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain why he has moved part of his focus into assisted living and memory care. Key Points: - Roughly 10,000 people a...

Nonperforming notes are defaulted mortgages bought at a discount, and Dave Van Horn has been buying them since 2007. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of PPR Capital Management, and he joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how this debt actually gets resolved. The property is rarely the goal. Key Points: - Defaulted mortgage debt trades at a steep discount...

Leo Young is the founder and managing partner of Cornell Communities, a vertically integrated operator of manufactured housing communities across the Midwest and Southeast. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain what has changed for anyone buying a mobile home park. Easy acquisitions are gone. The edge has moved to underwriting and operations. Key Points: - Buying a mo...

Andrew Horowitz has spent more than thirty years watching markets move. In this episode of the Alternative Investing Advantage, he explains the macro forces that shape every investment decision you make, from monetary policy to market structure. Key Points: - How politics entered monetary policy and changed the market cycle - Why rising debt to GDP levels matter more than most investors think - Th...

Student housing investing turned pharmacist Ryan Chaw into a millionaire by 28 and let him retire from pharmacy at 31. In this episode, host Alex Perny sits down with the founder of Newbie Real Estate Investing to break down the rent-by-the-room strategy: buying spacious homes near top colleges, adding bedrooms, and renting each room individually to students and young professionals. Key Points:• H...

Digital asset treasury is changing how companies manage cash and protect value. Wojciech Kaszycki of BTCS joins host Alex Perny to explain how actively managed Bitcoin treasuries work and why the Bitcoin standard could define the next thirty years of corporate finance. Key Points: - Digital asset treasury companies actively manage Bitcoin rather than simply holding it like an ETF. - The Bitcoin st...

Major Hillard IV started with $1,500, a used book he found in his father's attic, and three jobs he couldn't make work. Today he runs MH Estates LLC, a vertically integrated real estate operation built entirely on buying distressed properties that other investors avoid. In this episode, Major joins host Alex Perny to break down exactly how he turns overlooked deals into long-term cash flow...

Samir Patel bought his first hotel as a junior at West Point. Two decades later, he runs Trophy Point Capital, a private debt fund that has originated over 1,500 loans. In this episode, Samir joins host Alex Perny to break down how debt funds generate yield, why he keeps 8 million dollars of his own money in a first-loss position, and what separates a well-run lender from a risky one. Key Points -...

Mark Khuri, CEO and co-founder of SMK Capital Management, joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to break down two niche real estate strategies built for passive investors: mobile home park investing and industrial sale leasebacks. Key Points: - Mobile home parks have a structural supply moat driven by zoning restrictions - Tenant ownership models reduce expenses and improve occupan...

Franchise investing is more sophisticated than most people realize. Bob Bernotas brings four decades of experience as a franchisee, national chain CEO, and consultant to walk us through how the industry actually works today. Key Points: - Franchise sales organizations (FSOs) have reshaped how brands grow across the country, and why the best ones screen rigorously before taking on a brand - Brand a...

What actually goes into the financial data powering your brokerage app? In this episode, Alex Perny sits down with Andrew Lebbos, Director of Licensing at Benzinga, to pull back the curtain on how financial data is produced, validated, and delivered at scale. Key Points: - Benzinga provides earnings, dividends, analyst ratings, and news to Robinhood, Fidelity, Schwab, and more - Data validation co...

Chan Ahn is the founder of Tessera and a 17-year veteran of Wall Street. He joins Alex Perny to explain how blockchain tokenization is opening private markets to retail investors. This episode covers pre-IPO investing, atomic settlement, counterparty risk, on-chain proof of reserve, stablecoins, and the regulatory outlook for tokenized assets. Key Points: - Private markets are restricted due to se...

Africa burns off enough energy every day to power entire cities. Bitcoin miners figured out how to profit from it, and almost no one is paying attention yet. Jesse Pielke, founder of HashrateUp, joins Alex Perny on the Alternative Investing Advantage podcast to break down one of the most overlooked plays in alternative investing: using stranded energy in Africa to mine Bitcoin at near-zero cost. J...

What does it actually take to build a profitable rental property portfolio without doing all the work yourself? In this episode of the Alternative Investing Advantage podcast, host Alex Perny sits down with Lindsay Davis, CEO of Spartan Invest, to break down the full-service turnkey real estate model and why the Southeast, especially Alabama, continues to be one of the strongest markets for cash f...

Most business owners think raising capital is out of reach. Tyrus Shivers, co-founder of Legacy Wealth Capital Group and former U.S. Air Force signals intelligence analyst, joins host Alex Perny to explain exactly how founders and business owners can access the capital they need legally, strategically, and without giving away the store. Tyrus shares the frameworks he uses every day to guide busine...