Bridging the Gap Between Founding and Investing in Startups

In this episode, David Duchemin shares insights on mindful leadership and strategic investment, highlighting the importance of learning from seasoned investors and maintaining a positive and open mindset across both personal and business life. The discussion melds the concepts of financial mastery with a holistic approach to life and leadership.

About Our Guest

David Duchemin

Founder | Co-founder | Angel Investor

David Duchemin is an angel investor and entrepreneur, leading 2A Family Capital with a mindful investment approach. He emphasizes the importance of passion and vision in startups, actively supports green tech innovations, and is developing a self-sustaining charity foundation. David also shares his insights as a speaker, guiding the next generation of entrepreneurs.

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What You’ll Learn:

• The importance of a compelling story in your pitch deck.
• Avoiding common pitfalls like over-reliance on templates and excessive text.
• Ensuring your deck not only presents your idea but also answers potential objections and questions from investors.

• The critical role of the founder’s energy and ability to articulate their vision passionately and convincingly.
• How the founder’s capacity to communicate their vision impacts an investor’s interest and belief in the project.

• Insights into how an investor, particularly David, provides more than just financial support to startups.
• The role of mentorship and coaching in guiding startups towards success.
• Utilizing an investor’s network to create valuable connections and opportunities for the startup.

• A sneak peek into David’s future aspirations, including establishing a self-sustaining philanthropic foundation.
• The concept and early-stage planning of a fund dedicated to investing in green tech and other innovative, albeit risky, sectors.

• Understanding why FinTech and blockchain are exciting fields for investors.
• A brief discussion on the potential and future of investments in these areas.

• How intuitive and mindful approaches play a role in investment decisions.
• The importance of aligning investments with ethical and future-oriented perspectives.

• Balancing the risks and rewards in investing in early-stage tech and startups.
• The importance of recognizing and nurturing innovative ideas, even when they come with financial risks.

• The innovative idea of creating a charity foundation that generates its own perpetual income.
• Leveraging connections and strategic financial planning to ensure the sustainability of philanthropic endeavors.

Transcribe

Sadaf Abbas: So, David, could you please share with our listeners a bit more about your journey as an angel investor and entrepreneur? 

David Duchemin: Yes, sure. Thank you for having me on your podcast, Sadaf. And my investor journey started back in 2015. I started, you know, as the opportunity to start investing in UK startups and Canadian startups. I knew nothing, at that stage, about angel investing. But I knew that I was passionate, you know, I have a coaching background, I’ve done a lot in the coaching space before that, and, you know, talking with founders, young founders about their vision, I was going to disrupt a market, bring a new product or new service to the world. So that’s something that was, you know, generating excitement inside of me. So, it was quite natural for me to go into space. I was also going through a kind of mindset shift at that time where, for me, I wanted to master the game of money, the game of investment. And I’ve done a lot with Tony Robbins in the past, so that was, that was a time where he brought his new book, money master the game, to name it. 

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah.

David Duchemin: I went through his seminar, Wealth Mastery. And so that was that was a, you know, big, not, maybe turmoil at the beginning. But you know, for me, it was clear that I knew nothing about angel investing. But now I want to take that step. And I want to master this because, you know, you know, what we usually say about money, don’t work for money, but let the money work for you. So, that was something that made sense. But how do you do that? How do you do so? You have to go into the investment to go; you have to go and ask your investment, whatever it is so that money starts passively working for you. So you are somehow enjoying life, you know, and you have more money in your bank accounts because you made the right investment in companies in other investment products, and it’s all about creating your own. So this is what I knew from my coaching experience, you have to make your environment, you have to if you want to know and master investment, you have to be among the best investors and learn from them. So that’s what I started to do in 1915. Creating a network of asset managers, investors, and angel investors, starting learning from them, discovered new products that I know I didn’t know about, or I knew, and oh, it’s too complicated for me, like trading or structure notes knows that or even real estate from your I can go into real it’s not necessary. But no. And when you start creating this kind of environment, all of a sudden, you know, things you never heard about before, it becomes familiar. And you get, you know, you get more experience in this, and it’s, and you kick off this process. Yeah

Sadaf Abbas: I noticed that you’re also a co-author of a book on mindful leadership. How does mindfulness play a role in your approach to entrepreneurship and investing?

David Duchemin: Thank you for this question because it’s a topic dear to my heart. And in business, I met so many people that were seeing business from that perspective, you know, the art of war. So business is the word you have to win, you have to make someone, you have to beat someone. And this is not how I see business, or I see investment. For me, it’s, yeah, it’s all about mindful leadership when you’re an entrepreneur, as a way you lead your people, your company. And I think it’s key for me because I would say two things; maybe one is no judgment; I don’t make any judgments, you know, on the people on an opportunity I want to remain, you know, most agnostic as possible when I came across someone or an opportunity I don’t want to make a judgment you know, this business is bad, or this investment is here. I just want to be flexible and open. Another thing that I think is helpful regarding investment is what is possible and what is not possible is not your business. It snatches business, so, so you don’t go into a partnership, or you don’t go into an investment with the idea that this is not possible. If you come into something with this energy from stocks, this is not possible. So you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t do it. So, being more mindful of other people, being more mindful of the circumstances, being more mindful of yourself, your energy, and being conscious of how you interact with people from which energy you’re coming from, you know, so that, for me, it’s key to at the end of the day, it’s key to the success of, of the investment or the business, you know,

Sadaf Abbas: so, come to the end, it means that you need to be mindful and have a positive energy.

David Duchemin: Yeah, I’m a big believer in this. Yeah. In your life, as investors, you know, there’s no difference for me. You can say, I’m like this. I’m positive, with my family, you know, in my personal life, and then in the business, I’m a killer. No, you should. You should remain the same. In business life and personal life. Yeah.

Sadaf Abbas: Agree with you, as seriously, the same thing is happening to me as well. If you have a positive attitude in your personal life, it’ll happen in your business life as well. So my third question is, does your role as a director of European operations at the strategic capitals involve business development on a global scale? How do you navigate the unique challenges and opportunities in different agents? 

David Duchemin: Yeah, exactly. As strategic capital I’m dealing with, we have asset managers doing, you know, trading, futures, and forex. So when we, when you stop talking about these kinds of products, you stopped talking about compliance and very interesting, he knows this. I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing or not, I wouldn’t say it’s a cultural thing. But you know, just because when you’re talking about trading, you’re talking about results like 4% a month, 10% a month, 12% a month, depending on how aggressive you want to be. And you are confronted with this kind of reaction too good to be true, you know, it’s good to be true. And so absent this kind of reaction independently of the region of the culture, it’s kind of, you know, the human mind is wired like this. You have some people we know already trading. Oh, yeah, I know that it’s okay. I just want to go into due diligence and ask, Oh, you do that. And some people were like, Oh, I’ve heard about trading. I’ve heard guys doing a lot. But is it a scam? Good to be true, blah, blah. But you know, so. And I think this is more like a kind of psychological issue. Not so much cultural, I would say, because you have this kind of reaction everywhere. But I would say When, when, whenever there’s any challenge or issue? How I approach this, I don’t want to, I don’t I don’t I don’t let anything dictate what is possible or not possible. Because you will see, you will always find people telling you why a deal is possible, or why you can structure your deal axis or your compliance structure, and so on. So and, and yeah, and always being you know, flexible, adaptable, diplomatic, because there are sometimes cultural issues on origin because you’re not approaching something, you know, as you would, you know, sometimes I’m French myself, but I live in Germany and sometimes a German knows, it has, it has to it is rigorous, it has to be like this and sometimes you have to take more time and discuss and be flexible to obtain the same result at the end, but you have to you know, you have to go that way. So you have to be very flexible and, and not and that comes with, you know, ways to avoid a cave you don’t want to be narrow-minded. Another point also. I know I would say it is very important for you because you’re dealing with a lot of different people. You know, I’ve been talking about you know, South America, me, East, Southeast Asia, Europe and, and my thing, my, my motto is I don’t look upon somebody, and I don’t look down on somebody. So you know, because in the world of investment, all of a sudden, you can deal with a prince of the majesty of, you know, a Middle East state, or you can deal with, with a broker who said, where if you see the guys, okay, what’s this kind of guy where, and you never look upon? Somebody never looked down on somebody? So so, you know, very, I guess, yeah. You have to be humble, and, and don’t make any difference to people. So I don’t know if that’s helpful. But there’s, that’s, I’m dealing with.

Sadaf Abbas: So my fourth question is, with a diverse portfolio of investments, how do you balance your time and resources effectively across different projects and companies? 

David Duchemin: Yeah, time is…, you meet people saying, I don’t have time, first stop, you know, you know, erasing the sentence from your vocabulary, I don’t have time, this is this time you take it or not. So you know, time is energy, time is getting at the same pace for you. And for me, the only difference, that I can influence is the quality of my energy during this time. So you know, for me, it’s very important to get into the flow, remainings of flow, and somehow let this kind of serendipity dictate the pace of the project’s, you know, so sometimes you have an issue on, on, on the project ends that will require your attention. But you shouldn’t, because you get people who are using the word “problem”, I’m using the word “challenge”. So it’s easy, to identify a problem, and all of a sudden, the energy is getting down and getting frustrated or getting angry. And should pay deepest conscious to, where are you at? In terms of energy? Are you over the line? Or are you below the line? Are you you know, in a kind of emotional state, which is positive, because you are connected to gratitude, for instance, you connect it, you know, or are you in a negative state, they get negative emotional state, because you connected to what, what happened minutes ago, or still years ago, but it’s still working on your mind. And, also this project, or this guy from this company, and I still have a problem with him. And, and so and I don’t have time, and so you get into this kind of frustration, which you want to avoid at all cost. Because really, time is energy, and you want to know a lot of people saying this, I guess, but you want to want to invest your time in things that you love to do. So if there are things you don’t love to do, at some point, you say, okay, that’s, that’s for me, or, or I’m dealing with, from this business. And I think each time I’m interacting with this guy, I feel, you know, negative emotion so I have to make a decision, so I don’t want to deal anymore with this guy. We will make things happen in a very good manner. But you have to make some decisions very consistent in how you manage your energy and, and conscious of where you are at each end at any given moment. Yeah.

Sadaf Abbas: The same thing I’m doing in my life, we have the world’s total law of universals. First and in the first foremost, the law of the universe is the law of vibration. That is your energy. Either it isn’t a good point, or it isn’t a bad point in your energy because it should match the success rate. So you need to have a conscious mind and then think about it. Okay. This investment is not just for the business as the part for personal attention, we need to think positively, always be consistent have a good vibration, and have a good birth frequency. Perfect. So yes, I do the same thing in my life. David, whatever you are saying right now, this is good to know that we are on the same page. So many people find inspiration and codes. Do you have any favorite quotes or mantras that resonate with you and have gotten you through your career?

David Duchemin: Yeah, that would be on the same page. What you have now because, you know, his name, is Paulo Cuello, I love this quote from his book, when you want something the universe conspires in your favor. So that’s, knowing that the universe is doing good is one thing. So that’s something you know I love to have in my mind and it’s the kind of mantra I would say each morning when I wake up the first thing I’m saying to myself is that wherever I go, I will create a joyful, peaceful loving world. So yeah, that said, this is a mantra I’m used to saying every morning now.

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect, balancing a busy career can be challenging, How do you prioritize wellness and self-care to maintain a healthy work-life balance? which is very important right now David, after COVID people don’t know about work-life balance, but after the Covid people are thinking about it. So how are you balancing your career?

David Duchemin: Yeah, no, you’re right. And for me, it’s priority number one, and, you know, in the coaching space. Before my, I would say, my involvement in the investment space, or what we, the first challenge was people, no entrepreneur, and they were giving everything to the company to their business. And the big, the big ones, it would call problems. The big problem, well, was health and family. So the family would suffer from adult app time for the kids for my wife or men. And so that’s, that’s an, you know, priority number one should be your health should be your wellness. So for me, starting the day means meditation, yoga, and stretching, so it takes me maybe one hour but it’s a ritual it’s become a routine so it’s I can start the day without having done my maybe my meditation, my my yoga, and of course health habits you have to you have to to take on some good health habits. You know what you hate, what you’re eating, what you’re drinking, so or avoid, you know, this is sodas, sugar, sodas and all. I don’t want to name any brands but steps that are not good for you, buddy. You’re poisoning you, buddy. You know, smoking, smoking alcohol. I’m not. Sometimes not drink, I’m French. Sometimes I drink a glass of wine. So for me, that’s okay. But you know, I’m in Germany when I see some friends, you know, having their beer every day. So that’s too much. But that’s a lot. So you have a beer? One to one or two times a week. Okay, but yeah, so, you want to pay a big attention to what you are continuing.

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

David Duchemin: So at the same token, you want to pay attention to what you’re putting inside the body, but also what you’re putting inside your mind. So what if you, if you spend your time listening to the news, for instance, where you only have negative stuff? That’s not good. You have to, you have to use the same thing where every morning you’re washing, you’re washing your body, you want to work, wash your brain, you know, and meditation can help you with that.

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah, it is helping to clear your thoughts. They are stopping that thought process. And then you will be present in the moment. What is right now? So, again, this is the very best quote I’m having in my mind that a present is a gift. Why? Because the past is history and the future is a mystery. Yeah. Yeah. So this is the thing that whatever we are doing right now, whether it is in our personal life or our business, we need to be present in that moment. Because this is a present. This is a gift we are having right now. So the next question is: is the business landscape ever-changing? How do we stay adaptable and open to new opportunities and challenges?

 David Duchemin: It’s a fast-paced world of investment. 

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah, yeah.

David Duchemin: Well, for me I’m a networker. At heart, you know, so networking with other families because, you know, I was hit I was I came across this concept of family money years ago and it was for me you know, when when you were leaving this world what are you what your what will you kids how will they remain to remind themselves of you and what is left after you passing and legacy is interesting and family money so you creating wealth not only for you, not only for generations and that’s why I started to network with other families because I think. After all, yeah, to learn from them, and you will learn a lot from them and in this world of investment or as you say, it’s rightly said it’s ever-changing and getting very, very quick. And you see what’s coming now mining and web three and opportunities.

David Duchemin: So accessing, you know, families where these guys are well organized, they have you know, they are already three, four or five generations and they have some staff and so these families, usually they are an expert at one investment tool or vehicle like I know familiar doing structured notes for instance and say getting better results and big banks, you know, where it’s okay, I go to the bank because I want to do a structured note investment, that the guys are better than the bank, JP Morgan and so on real estate, you have families mastering their game because they’ve done it so so already from so so often from so so many years. So that’s a way for me to access their investment, co-invest with them, and profit from the knowledge and their experience in this specific investment vehicle for instance. And also on the other side, bundling networks has been a goal of investing. That’s why I think adding interest or community for myself is important because as I see so many good deals, I have access to such a large deal flow. And I see sometimes the tickets are too high, you know, 5 million, 10 million, really interesting deal. So, adding this kind of community where you say okay, let’s let’s, let’s manage a deal together and set up a kind of structure to access the deal, you pull the investment together and you can access better deals. So that’s also an interesting way to do it.

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah, yeah. So this is my last question. Your profile mentioned your involvement and co-investment opportunity with other family offices and high net-worth individuals, how does this collaborative collaborative approach benefit investor entrepreneurship? So what is your role in that? The whole process, David?

David Duchemin: Yeah, because as I said, you, as an investor profiting from other’s experience that’s huge, because, especially in the VC space in the startup space, if you have a family, whereas was already, you know, it’s you have some analysts, and they have already done due diligence, and we came across, and, you know, you, you showing up, and you say, Okay, I just have whatever money, I have a little ticket, and I’d like to make a deal. So it’s, it’s, it’s quite a privilege to be able to co-invest because you know, they’ve done the work, they’ve done the due diligence, and you just have to write a check. So you can rely on them, because you know them, obviously, you can rely on their due diligence and so that’s, that’s, that’s a big, big benefit. And, on the other side families, as I said, you want to access better deals, you need sometimes to make higher tickets, like 10 million or 20 million, sometimes 50 million, and you only used to do 1 million tickets, that’s already for some investors starting, that’s already a huge ticket, but if you want to access some other kind of, of deals, the minimum will be 2050, whatever. So adding this investors pool, this is also useful for you, you, you benefit from this, so you can show up to the investee company and say, yeah, I gotta make this 50 million ticket. And I want maybe a seat on the board or I want to be on you know, because you have this kind of influence with this higher ticket, you can also get better influence inside the company, which, again, is productive and beneficial to all the investors.

Sadaf Abbas: So, when you think about your legacy as an investor in Japan, what impact or contribution would you like to remember?

David Duchemin: Yes, so inside, inside my family, you know, I’m singing a lot about this, you know, I kept, I’ve been discussing with families, what one was in the 30s generation was was amazing. And I don’t want to have my picture, you know, inside the inside or the house. That was that. So, as a funder of the family, I would bet what I like to have is, I like to be reminded like you know, for some principles like adding a culture having sets, you know, this is the right principles, like you have to take responsibility for your own life. And, and you want and we want to be we want to have you know, we’re talking about soft structures with family offices, you know, like Investment Committee and, and all this kind of stuff. But one idea I’d like to remit to two to three men and that other generations still work on is to be your bank. So you have some assets, real estate, gold, or whatever and you leverage that to be your bank and invest again in other assets. So that’s how you create generational wealth. And linked to that is also this responsibility. So setting up a foundation is also something I’d like to work on and see and see done as soon as possible now.

Sadaf Abbas: All my best wishes to you for this. Okay, so my next question is networking is crucial in the investment world, you already told me that. Can you share some strategies for building and maintaining a strong professional network?

David Duchemin: Yes. You have, I would say, a mindset and systems people. Once you start learning something new, they always rush into the systems they want. What is it? What is a trick? What is magic? What is a trick? It is a sentence just saying what is what is? What is the action you’re doing? So, 80% of the success is mindset. So, when you go when you meet a new person, what is the mindset you are entertaining? And one, one thing you should have, when you, you know, meet a new person is or you start a new conversation, face to face, or over, over, over the internet is how I can help. How can I so, so many times I see people on the first connection starting to pitch me on something good? Again, no judgment, but to start pitching on something, instead of learning from each other and saying, Okay, how can I help you? And when somebody is asking you, How can I help you? You know, you Oh, yeah, maybe you can do this or this or, and at the end, you also saying, oh, and how can I help you? You know, the law of reciprocity. So that’s one thing. How I can help my mindset is very important. And systems. So you have LinkedIn, I’m using LinkedIn. So again, it comes back to habits over one hour a day. I’m using LinkedIn to make new connections to learn new people. And coming back to the mindset, another tip I’d like to mention is not going too deep into coaching, but the quality of interaction, what is the quality of interaction you want to have? With a person so when you’re, you know, you have a Zoom meeting, when the people hang up? At the end of the meeting? What are the words you want her to have on her mind? After your conversation? I’ll do you want her to recall your conversation? Oh, it was fantastic. It was positive it was you know? So what are the three adjectives you want her to remain? Remains of you. And in terms of quality, you know, so if you focus on that before entering a conversation that would make a big difference.

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. Many companies are curious about what investors look for in a startup, especially, this is a very good question for me. Could you outline the key criteria or attributes that make the startup stand out to you?

David Duchemin: Yeah. Yes, I’m not a due diligence guy per se. So you know, I’m not but I want to hear what are the key levels you want to see. Yeah, of course, because its chaos could be very different from one to another investor. So, of course, you learn when you see oh, there are some key investors on the cap tables there are some key clients so you have some traction so that’s already big but for me first is a deck so the deck should tell a story to make the deck because you know when you’re sending a deck to someone to a professional investor, you’re receiving so many decks so that it will that will be very fast for him to select to sort out so you want to have a deck not on the good one, but one with when I see a deck, which is which raise my attention by the first-page first one-two page and you see yourself keep on reading because Oh yeah, it’s interesting. I want to see the next one so that’s already a perfect, perfect deck. So 50% of the job is already done, I would say because you want to meet the guy behind the deck. And the second thing is I’m very, very very it’s for me it’s very, very important. Not only because I’m intuitive, so somehow intuitive, but the energy of the thunder always telling the beach I came across lately a guy in a lovely guy but he couldn’t tell the beach he couldn’t you know it couldn’t say He was, it was, it was horrible I was no is. So maybe his business is really good. But if you don’t want to go further on due diligence and so, the ability of the founder to share his vision vividly, you know, in with kind of passionate intensity will make such a difference how they articulate the vision, because if they can’t transmit transparency or patients or passion to you on a one to one call, how will they do that? When it comes to motivating their people, their employees, their vendors, or their partners? And, so that’s leadership again, you know, and we could go back to mindful leadership if you see a guy not so mindful with this as all the partners are corporate professionals. Oh, yes. So that said, some, some, some people will say, Oh, yes, that’s not a big criterion, because that’s, if you have already big investors in big clients, but again, if you have, in the beginning, as at the top of the company, the head of the company is not able to share his vision. I think it’s an issue. So for me, it’s a big, big criterion. So the first thing is the haystack. The second thing is the founder, the vision, how he shares his vision and passion, but these two things, what are the things in that district you want to see? Just like you’re seeing those two pages, what other things are the elements, you want to see? I see it too often, it’s too boring. decks, which are much too boring, you know, because he has that, you know, the taking a template, and our vision is our value our and our mission as, as a problem and the solution. It’s that I don’t say we don’t have, you don’t need to mention permanent solution slides, it’s sometimes it’s sometimes it makes sense. And to bring the investors where you want to bring them, but that you know, it if you don’t feel the passion, if you don’t feel the logic, if you don’t, so when you have a deck, for instance, where sometimes you’ll see some decks, which are more, this kind of investment bank type of things where you see a table of contents, so I don’t like that table of contents. And too much text on a slide you see, it’s done by an investment banker, and it’s that I want to see the soul of the thunder inside a deck. So especially I love you know, the deck world starting with, you know, couldn’t be fancy or Hi, Mr. and Miss, you know, such and such, and I came from this space, I’ve done this, and this and, and now ads are a big idea. So they’re bringing you on a story, and you say, Oh, I know where I see already where it’s coming from. And I see how he came to this idea. So that’s what is interesting. And then, okay, if you can describe the purpose of the business in two, three slides in a very efficient manner, where you understand Oh, that’s a big idea. You know, you want to you want to, at the end of having read the deck, you want to see oh, I recognize but what’s the big idea inside of that is, so I got it. This is a big idea. And I got the second point you want to get is? Why is this great for the client? Why is this a big idea? So for the client, because you bring us you know, I remember, I’m not technical. So when I see technical text, I can’t judge because I don’t know. Is it a good technical or not a good tech on up? And so I remember something around it was about eliminating waste, like plastic waste, which can be a very good solution. But at the end of the day, it didn’t answer the question. Why is it so great? I knew I was, you know, grasping the idea that oh, yeah, it could be great. Because you don’t have to take all the plastic, but at the same time I was thinking Ah, but because I knew all the texts. We’re working on replacing plastic. So is the future. So, you know, in my mind Oh, mate, rather invest in a tech that replaces which makes this tech useless but I know also intuitively you have so many plastic ways to you have to do something but that’s not the point. The point is you want to be you want to get all these questions in your mind answered at the end of the deck. So maybe you have to you need a slide about competitors, maybe you need a slide, you know, you have also to answer these kinds of objections and sometimes it’s too you know, it’s I don’t know it’s too investment thing type of tech, you know, without a content needs. Yeah, don’t use your hands. Yeah.

David Duchemin: I want to embark on a journey of the founder and founder I want to see his vision Oh, where are you gonna go? Are you Oh, are you going to transform the world? Or was your service or was your product I want to see? I want him to make it for me available this vision as I see just like him you know? And when a deck is succeeding in this you have a super deck yet so people want to call you you want to you want to meet the guy Oh yeah. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t know the tech. I’m not a tech guy. But I just want to know more about this and make it make up my mind if you know so that’s and sometimes people don’t say also fail in promoting themselves is a good way to say it forget because I can understand that because they are so focused on the mastering my tech my idea my say forget Oh, as for me this is this is normal. This for others is not normal. So you have to elaborate on this challenge you had or on this new idea you had because it’s not it’s not natural. It’s not normal. You have to explain to someone who is near fit. 

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. You have a lot to set aside for David because this is to maintain the status of people who don’t know about it, especially the founders. Usually, the pitch starts with the table of contents, then we have the problem and solution but we need to start with the story. Why this? Why is this idea coming up in life? This is the main thing: Yeah, perfect. Thank you David for this answer. 

David Duchemin: Sure. 

Sadaf Abbas: The financial support, do you often provide mentorship and or guidance to the startups you invest in? How do you see your role as an investor beyond capital? How do you do with the startup piece?

David Duchemin: Exactly. It’s not only money you’re investing it’s also

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah, your energy, your time. Yeah. And

David Duchemin: You want to open up your network and see how I can help and how I can bring business or bring mindful partnerships to the company so yeah, it’s mentorship Yeah. Sometimes you see coaching and mentorship to different things but sometimes you’re getting some advice or if the person is willing to receive then it can be very, very fruitful. You know, this kind of coaching or mentorship relation so you can and again, this is I spent so many years coaching and mentoring before so that this is something I naturally do so that’s an and, and I guess it should be part but when you are a little investor, you know, founder you know is you won’t even know that your year. But if you can sell coaching mentorship is not maybe the thing you can bring but if you can bring contacts from your network that can help it will always be very happy and

Sadaf Abbas: perfect. So it means that you are active in investors’ value or also playing a role in investment when you’re investing in a startup.

David Duchemin: Yeah, it’s yeah, it’s kind of my second nature to you know, to provide coaching or mentorship And when, when when it’s needed and, and yeah, and, again, it’s kind of one of my network habits to see, oh, I know this company or this company of yours. So let’s make a connection and see where it goes. And yeah, yeah, as you’re creating value from that, you know, for everybody. Yeah.

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. So lastly, what are your future goals and aspirations as an investor and entrepreneur? Are there any specific projects or initiatives you’re particularly excited about?

David Duchemin: Yeah, one, one, I have two, two projects. On My Mind, one is about I’m singing about, you know, at some point, creating a foundation to you know, to invest in different charity projects, things like that, but, but to do it in a way we’re setting up this foundation on on on with, with, with his bank, so that it can become self-sufficient, you know, so so, like, a self perpetual, you know, kind of income for this foundation. So, that’s the one thing and 

Sadaf Abbas: This project is related to philanthropic activities, David.

David Duchemin: Yes, yes. Because you know, now hanging around with some cool traders and asset managers doing money you see, you see, they’re raising money is that I don’t I wouldn’t say it’s easy but you have people who are mastering this can generate money so so adding a kind of, you know, it’s just having the right setup and having you know, this self perpetual generating income machine for foundation so that you that that’s something I’m working on at fund wise so I also like to I don’t know how to do it yet but I think a fun starting a fun, which will invest in all this, you know, all these topics, which are key for four hours for the planet for, you know, like energy or, like, pretty like no Greentech, all that kind of stuff where you taking a lot of risks, but especially with early tech, but I see I came across a couple of guys already. A couple of founders, you don’t know it’s your genius. Because you because it’s so telling you about new tech, clean renewable, all three extracts that but you don’t have any money to start anything. So just taking a bath is already and they’re out of money already. So ABS have a kind of intuition that you may lose a lot of money but you against it would be so, so good. We would get into charity, maybe by giving that kind of money for people to start exploring these ideas. Yeah, that’s what would be interesting.

Sadaf Abbas: Can you tell me about it because I’m more interested to know about these two projects? Can you tell me the word progress so far? The idea stage, David?

David Duchemin: It’s an early stage for me, you know, already for the foundation with this idea of a bank, it’s about leverage and you are funding first about two funds. And then from these funds, your will leverage so you can use our life insurance, which is working pretty well there, or gold assets and reinvest. So with my connection to different traders, I can do things to make things work very well. So that you know, even on a very conservative strategy, you’re making 4% a month so that you’re creating services. We’ll see if we’d be about funding first. Yeah, and for the green tech Yeah. I’ve been reviewing a couple of settings for this kind of bond, but still not there yet. So it’s a very, very early stage. Yeah.

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. So are you also interested in other Fintech companies that require investment? What do you think that we can share the early days of FinTech?

David Duchemin: Yeah, I love FinTech myself. Yeah. FinTech and I think there’s a lot. Yeah, we will see a lot of new stuff coming in, in FinTech and blockchain-related projects. Yeah, that’s, that will be amazing times.

Sadaf Abbas: So thank you for your uh, David for your time and this insightful information you have provided to business consulting and other startups. So I will catch you up in other podcasts where we will discuss the other stream and the startups and other details with you. So thank you for your time, David. Yes, we had a nice meeting with you.

David Duchemin: Thank you very much, cheers.