Blake Janover, CEO of Janover (Nasdaq: JNVR), is a Harvard Business School alumnus with billions of dollars of multifamily and commercial real estate deal experience.

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Guest Resources

Blake Janover’s LinkedIn – Connect to Blake on LinkedIn.

Janover Website – Faster, smarter commercial property financing.

3 Value Bombs

1) Going IPO (Initial Public Offering) was amazing and not the faint of heart and ringing the bell in Nasdaq was more fun.

2) Debt is affecting everybody. One of the fundamental things about open market capitalism society is we have the opportunity to borrow and take equity investment. But, when the rates go up, entrepreneurs lose interest to capital.

3) Everything is going to be okay just keep grinding. Its our resilience and ability to fall down and get up again that separates us from the pack.

Sponsors

HubSpot: Grow better, faster with HubSpot’s all-in-one intuitive customer platform. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more!

Ziprecruiter: Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day! Try it for free at this exclusive web address: ZipRecruiter.com/fire! ZipRecruiter. The smartest way to hire.

Show Notes

**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: AI, Commercial Finance, and the Road to Nasdaq

[1:12] – Blake shares something that he believes about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

• Most people think that entrepreneurs know what they are doing but entrepreneurs are figuring out the things as they go and it doesn’t matter how long they are in the business.

[2:12] –  Blake talks about the story of Janover.

• Before Janover, he was in real estate, finance and technology  for most of his career. He experience many failures and has committed not to operate , own and run a business again. He worked for a project in Miami for a $50 Million building apartment where he did a ton of work in debt and equity. It was painful and tough and he thought of building a software  tool to make it easier to finance large complicated deals. That is the nexus of the  company and he pledge not to borrow money or run a high operation leverage like what he did in the past.
• He went to so many things before he came into the Nasdaq stage , a combination of boot strap growth, crowd funding , start engine and given a 5 year tight frame , they turned the engine in late 2019 – 2020 and by year 2023 they were listed.

[4:26] – Blake tells about the IPO during insane market conditions.

• Going public was amazing and not the faint of heart and ringing the bell in Nasdaq was more fun and he encourages it.
• When they started the IPO process, the real estate tech market was on fire, stock were soaring and they had a framework for a deal on that market condition.
• When it went down and the market deteriorated, their business was still on the path although their deal died twice on its way to IPO, he kept going and it was all worth it.

[7:16] – Blake talks about the challenges both small businesses and CRE entrepreneurs face today with debt and insurance.

• Debt is affecting everybody.  One of the fundamental things about open market capitalism society is we have the opportunity to borrow and take equity investment. But, when the rates go up, entrepreneurs lose interest to capital. There are times that the capital is abundant and they can raise money for new business but there are times that the cost of the capital is doubled.
• Insurance is less for small business and more for multi-family entrepreneurs, sometimes the cost is doubled, tripled or even quadrupled and makes it impossible to run a business based on the business plan. It’s a tough time to be an ambitious entrepreneur.

[10:01] – A timeout to thank our sponsors!

• HubSpot: Grow better, faster with HubSpot’s all-in-one intuitive customer platform. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more!
• Ziprecruiter: Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day! Try it for free at this exclusive web address: ZipRecruiter.com/fire! ZipRecruiter. The smartest way to hire.

[13:25] – Blake talks about Janover solving that problem.

• Janover / Nasdaq  started in the debt business building a market place for multi family commercial mortgages and it quickly expanded into small businesses.
• They have  10% of banks in America and when you go to their website and  log in to their platform there are AI chat and advisors who will help build them a deal and solve their problems by getting  the money and insurance that they will need for their business.

[16:30] – Blake talks about Janover using  and how he recommends Fire Nation to use it.

• If you go to their website, there are active AI agents in chat, voice and text. They use AI for front service , qualifying sales leads, solving problems, answering questions and matching using its advance tools.
• He mentioned the importance of using GPT 4.0 as the cheapest employee because its like you have a personal MBA, CEO, Scientist and Physicist in your pocket. It’s a user friendly interface and you need to know how to use it or else you will be falling behind.

[19:16] – Blake talks about what’s next in JNVR.

• They build an unbelievable backend software that is used by their internal sales people and advisers. They are now in the process of beta testing and they will offer this software out to the end users. They are productizing their backend.
• They are building an institutional insurance practice and announced the launching of their public DNO focusing on large financial lines , building a bigger middle market and active on SAS.
• Many small business are going to their website and they collect the data to better service them.
• They aim to deliver value to their customers and build a pipeline.
• They aim to acquire insurance and PBB SAS companies over the next year.

[21:19] – Blake gives his one key takeaway.

• Everything is going to be okay just keep grinding. Its our resilience and ability to fall down and get up again that separates us from the pack.

[22:19] – Call to action.

• Blake Janover’s LinkedIn – Connect to Blake on LinkedIn.
• Janover Website – Faster, smarter commercial property financing.

[21:20] – Thank you to our Sponsor!

• HubSpot: Grow better, faster with HubSpot’s all-in-one intuitive customer platform. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more!

Killer Resources!

1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!

2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!

3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!

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