203: From Idea to Impact: Securing Your Startup's Future
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Happy New Year, and welcome back to The Richer Geek Podcast! In this episode, Daniel Barnard, host of CapitalFit and experienced investor, shares tips on raising capital, building networks, and growing your business. With 27 years in the industry, Daniel offers practical advice for entrepreneurs on securing funding and attracting the right partners. Join us as we dive into Daniel’s expertise, his work with startups like MedWatch, and his passion for creating impactful ventures.
In this episode, we're discussing...
The Role of a Connector: Learn how Daniel bridges the gap between founders and investors to fuel business growth.
Capital Raising Insights: Explore strategies for raising capital, from crowdfunding to angel investing, and what it takes to succeed.
Reinvention Through Passion: Discover how Daniel pivoted from a 25-year career in finance to building impactful ventures in MedTech and beyond.
The Power of Intentional Networking: Hear how focus, prayer, and alignment help attract the right opportunities and people at the right time.
Resources from Daniel
LinkedIn | CapitalFit | CapitalFit Podcast
Resources from Mike and Nichole
+ Read the transcript
Mike Stohler
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Richer Geek Podcast. Today we have Daniel Barnard. He's AAMS, whatever that is. We'll let him explain that. But imagine doing the impossible. He's a podcast host of CapitalFit, the creator of CapitalFit the company. He's an experienced business builder, investor, C-Suite advisor, marketing, branding, passionate about health, MedTech solutions, bio hacking, supplements, mindset and all things capital. How are you doing, Dan?
Daniel Barnard
Mike, I'm doing fantastic. It is a pleasure to be on your show. It's a pleasure to be here, and I'm grateful. So thank you.
Mike Stohler
You're welcome. Well, it's been a long time coming. We're doing some business together. We've known each other for a little bit now. Yeah, so it's about time we get you on so we can talk a little bit about your business. So before we get into it, tell us a little about your background. How did you get to the point where you created capital fit and all that you do.
Daniel Barnard
Well, after graduating Iowa State, Go Cyclones, in 1990 I jumped into commercial real estate in Chicago. I was fortunate enough to be in the last trainee class of JMB Realty, a big firm on Michigan Avenue. They own every food group and real estate, including Canary Wharf in London, which, before it became what it is today. It was just swamp land and it was just a dream. Back in the 90s, I had dreamed of actually getting over there, but four years in the company, they moved me to four different cities, we had a commercial real estate recession globally thanks to,The 1986 Real Estate Tax Act, that kind of crushed a lot of the passive loss rules and and the economics of commercial real estate imploded. It was corporate America, right? It was great, great training. My company is moving to San Francisco. They own Silverado Country Club and the winery. So, you know, the regional meetings were up there. And here I am, the kid out of college Iowa State. And I'm in the middle of wine country at 23, it was a lot of fun. I loved the dress part, I loved wearing suits and helping out in commercial real estate. I learned leasing, tenant improvements. I learned what asbestos was. Oh my gosh, you had one part per billion. You know, asbestos, it had to get removed from that office before it was tied out, right? So I learned that industry, that when you're with a company like that, and they sell their company to heighten properties, and your property gets sold, and you're at the whim of them. I was a finance major. Worked for two finance professors at Iowa State. I was sort of a TA professor assistant, cut my teeth. Did the AT&T sort of, dial in and call in your stock portfolio. Did pretty well with that, believe it or not, back in the day. So I decided to get my series, 6, 7, 63, 65 and 94/95/96 and then that career building a practice with individuals, 100 families, three partners, two assistants, that ran for 25 years, six years ago due to a health condition that I had and distress and needing to focus on my son. Six years ago, I decided to sell my client list. It was hard at the time. It was difficult. There was regret, but I am where I am today because of that. It opened up my mind. It is you talk about a biohack, sell your business of 25 years, and reinvent yourself. I've spent six years reinventing myself, meeting great people like you who are aligned with passion, purpose, you know, alignment with God, and attracting great people in the med tech space, wellness space, I've been on this sort of health kick the last three plus years my co host, Dr. Rick Jacoby, author of Sugar Crush, in the new book Un-Glued, has taught me so much about sugar, health, carbs, and how to unglue yourself with stem cells, which I've used twice on my knee to keep me going to skiing and pickleball. So it's this private equity space. You've been building hotels, and you've done a phenomenal thing. When I meet people like you, I'm like, "Gosh, I just haven't done a whole lot in my life."I hear your story, I'm like, "Wow, Mike, your podcast is crushing it." I've had my podcast since July of last year. Rick and I started our co-host each other's podcast. It's been done in 60 episodes. It's been a lot of fun. We talk about a lot of the similar things, interviewing founders, funders, changemakers, so you know, influencers, and talking about their stories. And the passion that I have here is to is to bend the curve on on glucose, diabetes, and the company I've been really helping out here the last year and a half, MedWatch, technowadays.com, looking to launch the first continuous glucose monitoring wearable in the world that does not use a needle. Not only will it measure glucose, It'll measure ketones, lactates, blood oxygen, proteins and on and on. They have the platform. The test results are accurate. It's been an exciting one to help them out. Yeah, and that's been my biggest project here. And of course, I've had a project down in Tombstone helping with a vineyard and a tiny home and an RV park down there the last six years. I told you a little bit about that of course, projects like that have ups and downs, right?
Mike Stohler
They do regulations, cities, I mean, just everything like that. So you know, you're talking about these different things that you're helping. What is CapitalFit?
Daniel Barnard
CapitalFit is really a collection of mastermind groups. I'm a connector. I'll come in as a consultant. Get the company ready for a prime time to receive investors. Do they have the right pitch, the right document? Is it a safe note convertible, introduce them to angel groups here in town, Phoenix, Scottsdale area, the ones I know in the Bay Area make introductions. I was able to help them with a referral of who the gentleman has become their in house counsel. He was a fractional attorney. I knew him, connected. He's done a fantastic job. The executive assistant, I just was able to refer over, and she's been with the team here for the last two weeks. And as the company ramps up for its Series A round closing out, its preseries, a bridge round, we're closing out and getting ramped up for the much larger series, a round. So she came in at the right time. It just seemed like the timing has been perfect when I bring in the right people at the right time. And so it's been a nice ride. Great team. It's probably one of the most exciting teams, most complete, authentic teams of a startup I've ever worked with in the last six years. So I've been feeling very fortunate.
Mike Stohler
Good for you. So, it sounds like some of our listeners, a lot of tech people out there, a lot of FinTech, a lot of MedTech. There are entrepreneurs that are listening right now, if they need to raise a certain amount of capital, or they need help, how do you raise capital with maybe the pitch deck and getting introduced to the right type of people? You're that middleman, or your group CapitalFit is that person where they could actually kind of come to and say, "Hey, I need to raise $3 million for my next hotel." I need your help, or something like that. That you are that person that brings what we call the founders, which is people like me, right? And you're the bridge between the founder and the limited partner or the joint venture person?
Daniel Barnard
That's right.
Mike Stohler
You're the connector.
Daniel Barnard
I'm the connector. In the case of MedWatch, there's a gentleman who knows the health ministers of Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, and we were able to put together a distributorship agreement. I've done that with two companies, so it's a unique position that I'm in. And I don't know how it happens, but it just seems to happen at the right time. I know, I do pray, meditate, think intentionally, write out my goals, whiteboard, a lot of stuff. When I come onto our project, I really try to be very intentional. Draw in that energy and the right connections at the right time. And it seems to have worked. The last couple years, I've kind of honed in on that ability to do that in looking forward to helping you out as well as we, you know, work together, and you got a really interesting project overseas I'm excited about, and it's really just getting the right people at the right time to to look at it and just tell them, there's only a moment of time where you can kind of get in and see and get an in on this opportunity and what want to come in as a, you know, an investor, or as an ambassador of sorts, or a social influencer. There's a lot of different ways that people can help now with social media on the internet, not just here's my check, but here's my district, here's my network. A gentleman here in town that runs a 1000 affiliate company that helps with travel, and he's got 1000 affiliates around the world, and they buy into his system, and they can help people get travel and vacation. So I definitely want him to connect with you. You probably know, I won't tell you who he is, but we'll connect with him at some point. So that's this kind of person. I do a lot of networking here in town. I have for 33 years, I had to build, you know, a business of clientele. And you do that one person at a time.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, absolutely. Now talk about, you're that connector. And there's a lot of different ways that someone that might have a blossoming FinTech company or or an idea, what are some of the different capital raising strategies depending on what type of entrepreneur? What do you see? You know, I know there's JV, there's angel investing. What are some of the capital raising strategies that you could talk about? To give our listeners an idea of what's out there.
Daniel Barnard
One of the most common is the crowdfunding route. And hopefully they've had some friends and family that believe in them. That's the first kind of hurdle. How much have you raised? How much money do you have in it? Are you bootstrapping it? Do you have actual cash into it? Have your friends and family invested? Number one, number two is, what is the strategy? Whether you're in an incubator group, accelerator group, like Techstars, the incubator accelerator groups that are here in Tempe and Scottsdale. Angel investor groups like Grand Canyon University ASU. So we'll talk about that. Are you ready? Is your pitch good enough? Do you have enough capital to survive for a few months, you know? Or are you just running on fumes? So you kind of give them an idea of where they are in that journey and how investors are likely to perceive them. There's risk in every sort of process of raising, of raising capital, finding distributors. So I kind of help them prepare them for, you know, the likely questions they're going to get, and the pushback and the resistance and how you answer those questions. So I'll guide them, consult them. So I guess in a sense, an accelerator, incubator coach to these startups, and it's been a lot of fun. You find out the personalities of these founders and whether they're even fundable, yeah, are they so connected to that idea that they can't even bend or pivot? Do they have the ability to take advice, or are they just so headstrong that they think they're on the right path? Those are real difficult you know, people and I've worked with in the past, so now I've really learned to kind of find the ones that really match my personality and how we're going to work together for the benefit of them, of the shareholders, they brought on the folks that invest in the past and invest alongside with them as well. And we'll push through and then obviously, you have the different levels of pre seed to the seed, to the bridge, round to the Series A, and hope by the time they get in the series A, they're in revenue and they're able to, you know, scale and have the deal de risk, because they're scaling the right market and getting products sold or services sold. So obviously the numbers are difficult. You know, in the startup world, you got to invest in 40 companies, you know, you know the numbers. And you limit your risk because you're a one off, you know, hotel, but in the startup world, you really gotta from an investment you gotta invest in a lot of companies. Then you gotta help guide them along, and help them incubate them, and have them make decisions that benefit the company in the direction they're going. Maybe they have a pivot they have to do because competition came in, and it's fun, but it's very treacherous, and you just gotta help them as much as you can.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, because it is different. You have those people that are trying to, kind of like MedWatch, they're creating a brand, a whole company, where there's guys like me. It's like I just once, every couple years, or once, I buy two or three hotels and do syndication. So it's very different type of fundraising and different level of risk where I do the syndications, and I don't do the whole series A and get into the whole right funding to start a company, I just need, hey, let's do a hotel, keep it for five years and sell it, cash out and do it again. And do it again. Do it again, instead of this whole lifetime, like the MedWatch Company, where there's, it could be around for 100 years, right? I mean, it'll finally, probably eventually get sold, right? You know, absorbed into a larger company. But talk to us a little bit about, let's say someone's worked for this tech company, and they have this idea, and they've gone to this tech company, and they're like, going, you know, we don't care about it. So they say, Okay, well, I'm going to go to Dan, see if I can raise capital on this idea.
Daniel Barnard
Yes.
Mike Stohler
You know, how hard is that? I mean, what are some of the things you have to sit down and discuss with them?
Daniel Barnard
It is hard in that investors have made money in real estate over the years. They've made money in tech. And you need to know if you're talking to a real estate investor. They're just real estate you gotta look at you gotta talk to the tech investors that have had exits in the tech world. They know the risk, but they know the reward, and they're in it for the long term, and they have the bug, and they will invest in a lot of companies, knowing that a handful of them will take off and they'll do another 50 to 100x sort of return. So you have to find the right investor. That's the hardest part, really. But after you get a feel of which you know, VC firms, family offices, what categories of investments they like, then you have to find out their timing and do they invest each quarter, and they have a certain amount of capital. So it is challenging, but once you understand the folks you've built these relationships with, you can kind of point them in the right direction with the founders and get them in the queue. It's a matter of timing. A lot of folks, you know, here in town, Scottsdale, Phoenix, had made money in real estate, and very few have made money right on the tech side. And of course, in Silicon Valley, Orange County, you got real estate, but you also San Diego is med tech heavy, yeah. So that's where a lot of investment capital is, where you talk to 10 VC firms, and they're all going to talk to you because you're med tech and you're trying to solve a big problem like diabetes, or you're solving a problem where you're testing infants on their DNA and looking for genetic defects at another company Fore Genomics, F, O, R, E, Genomics that have the first to market testing infants for about 550 genetic defects, and they have a whole protocol that is then associated with that genetic defect to help the parents and medical provider kind of. Know What to plan for with this if this gene does express that particular genetic defect. So they're the first to market in that category. Very exciting. And you got one of the big hospital chains here that has 5000 births a month a month. I was connected to the top individual in the company that deals with the births, and we're going to put together, you know, talk to them about, why not have genetic testing on every single birth? That's 60,000 a year, $1,500 per test. You can retest it for a small amount of money for each and every year to, like, the child's 18. That would be a great value add.
Mike Stohler
What is the idea of doing this genetic testing? Convert pre-dispositions?
Daniel Barnard
Yeah. Early detection.
Mike Stohler
Early detection.
Mike Stohler
I think a lot of times a child hits 6, 7, 8 years old, and they're like going, "Why in the world are they always sick or always this?" In total, regular doctors mean they don't know anything. They're just, I don't know. Give them this. Give them this.
Daniel Barnard
They're trying to solve a problem. So this is the company Fore Genomics are trying to at least identify the problem before it happens. If it does express itself because of epigenetics, because of diet and the environment, stress, whatever, then that gene is expressed, that defect is there, and all of a sudden they know how to treat it, and they're not letting it run because I was born with asthma. My uncle had asthma, but I was allergic to everything. My parents didn't know I was allergic until I was 14 years old, I suffered from, you know, athletic-induced asthma, to the dog, to the oak tree, to the mold in the house that we found out that was there many, many years later. So, yeah, I suffered because of that. But it would have been nice to have had a genetic test that would have shown that because it's, oh, gosh, you know, this gene here, you know, expresses itself as asthma. It should be a national policy. There's 3.3 million births from 3.6 last year. Why are we sending $65 billion to Ukraine to blow people up? I mean, we should spend 3.3 million births at $1,500 is what? $300 million yeah, worth of testing to test and do that every single year. Wow. Anyway, I would love for that to be policy. And how do I help the company do that? You gotta talk to legislators here. You gotta get to the national level, get to Washington, knock on doors and say this should be a national policy.
Mike Stohler
Are any of those companies still raising funds? Are they still looking or are they up and running?
Daniel Barnard
Fore Genomics is up and running. They have sales. They just contracted with the South Korean lab in San Diego. They love their technology. They're going to license it to all of Asia. They're about the cutting edge technology for births and finding diseases before they happen. So it's great that just happened two, three weeks ago, I got introduced to the CEO, just had a dinner, hosted a dinner for him with about 13-14 people. A lot of great feedback from people that said, wow, and some folks that couldn't make it. I scheduled Zoom calls yesterday, actually, and they're like, "This is really what we've been waiting for." So it's just all timing. And I feel like he's hit the sweet spot. It's gotta get out there. And if we can get to the national level and get every single birth to just be automatic, it gets tested, or if you want it, you know, of course, if you don't want it, you just opt out. But it should be a no brainer for this country to be on the most advanced, cutting edge technology in the world. And you know, we're not pre testing for for genetic defects, which would, you know, get again, it's about lowering health care costs in the future,
Mike Stohler
exactly. So it lowers insurance costs, and it helps corporations. It helps the government, you know, with Medicare, Medicaid. But you know, that's logic, right? And when's the last time Washington did logic? You know, it's, it's hit or miss. Back on the investor side. What have you seen now? The upheaval, you know, there's wars, the inflation, the economy, there's still people out there investing. You know, have you seen it? So is it harder? Are they being more choosy? What's the flavor of the investors now?
Daniel Barnard
So if you just look at the data, and you look at the amount of money raised last year in startups, it was an all time low. You look at the companies that went IPO last year on the NASDAQ, it was a super weak market on IPO, so capital formation has not been robust for sure. There's still more money out there than there are good deals. And you find that out from talking to VCs' family offices. The other challenge is to raise money from 0 to 10 million. It is so difficult because the risk is so high there, obviously the returns are the most at that point in time. And it seems like all the conversations I've had with the funding sources and family offices and just getting feedback from companies that you know, they say, "Wait, when you get to revenue and you need ten million and you'll be a good fit for us, but don't call us until then. So that's the challenge. And a lot of the investing in the startups is really a passion. It's a passion for the investor. It's, it's a space that they get, that they like you're trying to make. Difference in the world, whether you're testing for genetic defects or you're trying to bend the curve and on diabetes and in particular, or another company, Blink Frames out of Orange County. Blink Frames, one the best ocular technology last year. They have little cameras in the back of the lenses here that were the frames. I'm saying. It's not you're looking that way, like a Google or Apple glasses, not looking out. It's looking in to look at your eyes, to measure your eyes, to measure the for myopia. It'll measure screen time. It'll send a message to the parents to say the kid's been in this, his computer screen or phone for six hours, right? It'll show the curvature of the eye over time. And it's doing continuous pictures of the eye, and then creating a database, and then measuring that, and then providing the data for the doctor to see, or the parents, and he's going to the pediatric world. And there's 1,000 pediatricians in the country that treat myopia, and one of the first ones, the glasses of Blink Frames, was Dr. Wooten here. Allison Wooten, and she got four clinics, and I knew her, connected her with the founder of Blink Frames, Josh Park and match made in heaven. So now she's going to invite him to her national conference of optometrist, ophthalmologist and eye surgeons. I hope that he'll blow up his whole company.
Mike Stohler
There you go. I mean, that's what it is. It's you're kind of like the matchmaker, yes, exactly between founders and and the investors. So before we get into how people can find you, is there anything that I did not cover that you would like to enlighten our audience with?
Daniel Barnard
Yes, if you were to listen to my podcast, any number of the episodes on CapitalFit. We're talking about your health, your mindset, prayer, and meditation. To live the best life every single day that you can live, you gotta wake up like your positive mindset. What David Bayer, he's got a great podcast called The Changed Mind. David Bayer, great guy. I found him when I was in Dublin, over on a trip, solo trip, just kind of jumping in the cool ocean and just kidding. My head cleared. He popped up somehow, and on Spotify and listened to several It's been phenomenal. He talks about mindset. And then he calls it the morning dump, The Morning Mind Dump.
Mike Stohler
There you go. Not the other kind of morning dump?
Daniel Barnard
No.
Daniel Barnard
You know, he says, "Get rid of the negativity when you wake up, open your mind up, because you'll attract positive things during the day." Things will happen better. Serendipity happens when the right people come to you because you have an open, positive mindset. I think that's really key. And the second key is, I'm 58 I've never felt better. I'm in the best shape I've had in years, and it's really because of fasting and going keto. Did a whole kind of broth and an egg. I hate to call it a diet, but I practiced limiting the food with just beef broth and eggs for a week. I think I lost five pounds. I feel phenomenally energetic. Obviously, alcohol, we all enjoy, you know, a little bit of alcohol, if you can limit the alcohol. Or, you know, Gary Brecka talks about in his podcast and on his Instagram, he said, if you're going to, you're going to do one kind of alcohol, just do two tequila. It's keto. It won't spike your insulin. So now I'm on this insulin lower, you know, at least maintaining your insulin, not spiking it throughout the day with different foods and cards. So I think that's just being mindful of that every day. Read Richard Jacoby's book, Un-Glued, on Amazon. If you're in town here on October 30, we'd love to have you at a book signing at Fogo de Chão. We'll have about 35.
Mike Stohler
I'll be there.
Daniel Barnard
Yes, I had a friend send me a text. She was riding a bike at the gym. His picture, Rick's book, is there, and she says, "Oh my gosh, this has changed my life."And she's already super fit, but we all deal with inflammation here and there, but we don't think that drinking that zero calorie energy drink from Costco with aspartame or the other sucralose genetically modified, manufactured zero calorie sugar replacement. The body still reacts to it in a negative way. You still get inflammation. And you just think you're in great shape, and yet you're still and I'm like, Well, now you know, and you know whether it's pretzels and just, you know, processed foods, and it's you don't realize it till you read it and go, Oh my gosh. And then how do you fix it, stem cells, or you just get rid of the source of the inflammation. So that's really my message to anybody. My podcast is, "What is your wealth without your health?" You're in great health now. You've really led a great life, and you're a great example of that. My dear friend, Dr. Jacoby, and many of the guests on my show are great examples of having health in their later years. They've created wealth, they've paid attention to their health, and now they're living a great life. So I think that's the secret.
Mike Stohler
There it is. How can people find you?
Daniel Barnard
capitalfit.us, dan@capitalfit.us, would be the easiest. My phone number is on my website as well, and my calendar link. I do social media, so Instagram, Facebook and then, of course, LinkedIn is great. I have my LinkTree there to get a hold of me. Daniel Barnard, AAMS, which stands for Accredited Asset Management Specialist. AAMS, I was a financial advisor for 25 years, so that was one of the designations I did get experienced kind of Trumps it off. So I have 25 years of experience, and it's a lot of fun. So I enjoy the process of wealth creation, and I enjoy keeping a super fit mind and helping others like you do with your activities with dream city. So in helping folks that need help, you need a helping hand. That's really important. I think that gives us purpose, not just the accumulation of wealth, which is great, but you gotta use it for betterment of humankind. So that's where I'll end it.
Mike Stohler
Yeah, that's great advice. And everybody, Dan Barnard, capitalfit.us. Thank you, bud for coming on. And this concludes another episode of The Richer Geek Podcast. Take care. Everybody.
Daniel Barnard
Appreciate it Mike.
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ABOUT DANIEL BARNARD
Daniel is an experienced entrepreneur, business owner, investor, podcast host (CapitalFit, "what is your wealth, without your health?") professional investment (former) advisor for 27 years managing over $100M, C-Suite advisor, advisor to start-ups, business development officer, real estate investor, former VRBO owner/manager, corporate finance, investor relations, results driven business growth strategist and relationship manager, Arizona licensed insurance agent number 18217 since 1995. Father of three active amazing young adults, recent U of A Graduate and current ASU student. Lives by the mantra, do better each day, never give up, be authentic, have integrity and mindset.