Business Founders x Spare Cash = ? A Delphi Founders's Summit
You've nailed it! You founded a business and it's now spewing cash. But what do you do with it? Invest it all back in your company; splurge on bitcoin, or buy a condo?
For this event, a Delpite wants to meet the best minds in Tokyo to brainstorm the following business case- study:
His small, founder-led company wants to consider and weigh various options for what to do with the earnings he's retained over the years. He always maintains a minimum of eight months' worth of operating costs as a "rainy-day fund" in cash. He's also open to options that are nearly fully liquid but not as "value-pointless" as holding pure cash.
The primary aim is to build a second, investment-based leg for the company over a long-term period (10-20 years minimum). The goal is to create a reliable source of passive income that will eventually help secure his retirement - just in case the business does not continue to flourish!
He has a few options he's considering, along with the issues he's identified:
1. Investing in smaller businesses: He's starting with a pilot program. The issue is that he's not a VC and has no experience structuring investment contracts, plus most investments of this type fail.
2. Investing in real estate: This would involve starting with small rental properties and building a portfolio over time. The issues are that he has zero experience as a property owner and very low trust in the long-term viability of Japanese real estate.
3. Investing in passive equity (ETFs, etc.): He has basically no experience with this. He would not invest in Japan due to a lack of trust in its long-term viability, and he's concerned about exchange rate risks.
Are there other options he hasn't considered?
He's not talking about millions of dollars here, and this isn't a decision for tomorrow. He's talking about a few hundred thousand dollars over the coming years.
Ideally, he'd like to talk to other people in similar situations who feel they made the right choices and are comfortable with them, or to people who have a professional point of view.
This will be a tight and confidential group of successful founders, happy to share their thoughts in an atmosphere of camaraderie and appreciation of the desperate risks - as well as opportunities - of "going it alone"!