Adam Torres and David Cunic discuss the Las Vegas Investor Conference.
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Show Notes:
Listen to the Las Vegas Investor Conference coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews David Cunic, CEO at UCS Advisors, explore UCS Advisors and the Las Vegas Investor Conference event.
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About David Cunic
David Cunic is academically trained in physical therapy, healthcare management, professional networking, and cannabis science. However, he is a serial entrepreneur who is an Investor Relations and Networking Expert. “Dr. David”, as most people know him as, has raised capital, expanded several companies, and has employed over 300+ people. He has been in the medical field for 18+ years, has started 15+ companies since 2006 with several exits, and successfully opened 8 cannabis companies in the United States since 2010 and served on cannabis boards in the states of Nevada, New Jersey, and Maine. His efforts in business operations and human resources won him the prestigious Alfred Sloan Award for Workplace Programs and FlexibilitySome people have called Dr. David the “Triple Headed Dragon” due to his diversity and experience.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today I am in Las Vegas and I’m at the Las Vegas Investor Conference hosted by Brad Turner and the Market Completion Fund.
And my guest is Dr. David K. David, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you so much for having me today, Adam. Appreciate it. All right. So first off, is this your first time at the conference? No, it is not. I’ve actually known Brad for about five or six years and I remember going to his conference in LA right before COVID broke out.
I was just going to say timing wise. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So I’ve been an MC here. I’ve been an investor judge here. I’ve had some of my clients here and I’ve had some of my fellow investors come just Watch and learn from others. What keeps you coming back? The diversity. That’s what keeps me coming back is that it’s not just one industry It’s really touching numerous sectors with a diversity of people from all different backgrounds All different financial backgrounds and also people that want to be here and to literally learn and empower themselves with information and knowledge.
Yeah. I noticed you’re wearing a button there. The wire is kind of, I couldn’t see it quite clearly. What is it? Oh, there we go. PMA, PMA, positive mental attitude. That’s what I hoping it was. Well, one of the things is that as a capitalizing advisor, we work with a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of founders, we live in a lot of negative society.
So part of what we do is teach positive mental attitude. Yeah. Bye. And that’s why we always wear the PMA pin. And when you’re working with entrepreneurs and founders and raising money, you got to help others keep that positive mental attitude. What’s it like working with founders in that capacity? Cause that could be a little challenging, right?
It can be really challenging, but by trade, I’m a medical guy. I’m a physical therapist. I used to own a bunch of physical therapy centers out on the East coast. So my little secret sauce is taking a medical approach towards business and working with founders is that you have to listen. Two ears, one mouth using proportionately.
Have them try to really make sure they keep the old phrase, keep the horse in front of the carts. Okay. Also, something I teach a lot is what’s called the positive power of negative preparation. Let’s literally think about every, every day. Everything that could possibly go wrong, and how would we fix it?
So like Murphy’s Law, like you’re like, Murphy’s gonna be rearing that head. What’s up? What’s up, Murphy? I know you’re coming for me. That’s what I do. I talk to Murphy. It’s like it’s another person in my life. I’m like, all right, Murphy. You know, things have been going pretty good lately. Where are you at? I, well, Adam, I hear you.
And that’s why sometimes you gotta think ahead. And that’s where, it also, this is why I like working with entrepreneurs and founders. I’m one myself. I’ve had multiple companies. I’ve sold a few companies. I can relate to you directly. I’m like a consultant that might have never had the experience and never been through it because it’s not having that emotional and that personal connection to with working with entrepreneurs and founders.
Who’s your, right, I won’t say target, but like what type of founders do you find get the most value out of working with you and your team? Like what stage were they at? Like give me some really simple answer. Yeah. If you are a business owner or founder and your company is five years old or less, great fit for us.
And that includes pre revenue as well too. Why is that? Why is that the sweet spot for what you’re doing? So this is called, we’re here in the United States, 83 percent of businesses that are less than five years old don’t qualify for a bank loan or a line of credit. So you’re dealing with some of those like nuances and really specializing and helping those entrepreneurs.
Or hey you’re going to go raise maybe 50 million or a hundred million dollars in four or five years. How are you going to raise that first? Maybe 5 million or 2 million, even million. That’s what we come in and we really help out with. And the reason why we always say five years or less is that most people forget.
Your business is going to need more money in the first five years. So who do you turn to? Yeah. Where do you go? Yeah. And that’s really what our niches speaking of looking at the negative or looking at some things that happen wrong or otherwise, or what I said, my words are not yours. Murphy rearing his head.
When have you found like, what are some of the reasons why you find entrepreneurs often fall short when they’re looking to raise? Like, what are some of those like general reasons? Sure. So we call those Dr. David’s green of your advisory tips. Hold on. Say that slower. What is it called? All right. So we call those Dr.
David’s, Dr. David’s green nugget advisory tip, green nugget advisory tips. Is that trademark? No, we’re working on it. But if you follow me on LinkedIn, you will see twice a week videos or a post about a green nugget advisory tip. Okay. And we give out information about this all the time. So our number one green nugget advisory tip is this.
It’s an oldie, but a goodie. Yeah. Failure to plan. It’s planning to fail. Oh, when it comes to raising capital, a lot of founders, they just, they don’t know what they don’t know, or unfortunately they’re a little lazy when it comes to raising the money. Hey, I’ll, I’ll work on a business plan. Yay. So they want to do it.
They’re like out there, but they’re not like executing on what they should be out there doing. Am I understanding that? Right. Because their intent is there, right? Like, they mentally want to do it, but Yes and no. Okay, go ahead. So, and I know we have a limited time here, so I’ll give you some very cliff, cliff notes.
Yeah, go for it. Number one, either you don’t know what you don’t know, so who do you turn to for help? It’s not your accountant, it’s not your lawyer, and it’s not your business coach, so who do you turn to? You turn to a capital raising advisor like myself, Dr. David. Who’s done it before, who’s worked with a lot of things, you’ve seen a lot of case studies, so you’re not like on your first or second raise, you’ve worked with many, many people.
So either directly or indirectly, you’ve been through it. And the other thing is too, is that the second part is, is that how bad do you really want it? All right. And when it comes to people saying, Oh, there’s no money out there. So tough to raise money. I’m realistic. Have you practiced your pitch to at least 50 people?
Have you done your two minute elevator pitch in the commercial? Your two minute elevator pitch? In front of a mirror. Yeah. 150 times minimum. Mm hmm. And the reason why I bring this up is that a lot of reason why people have a difficult time raising money is due to the fact that they’re not putting as much effort as they should.
And let’s just call a spade a spade here. We’ve all heard of a little show called maybe Shark Tank. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Kevin O’Leary, Mark Cuban, or Have you ever heard of a little, a little guy who has a little bit of success called Richard Branson? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All three of those people say the same exact thing.
If you are an entrepreneur, your number one job is to learn how to raise money. Wow. Learn those capital raising skills because you’re going to need it for the rest of your life. And Adam, this is what’s going to really blow your mind. You know what the real trick is behind capital raising? What? I’ll bite I’ll bite what it’s called networking and having proper networking skills.
Yeah, because the main reason why people cannot get investors is They lack proper networking skills, which then comes across as they lack emotional intelligence or they lack proper business etiquette. And that’s how they’re showcasing themselves inadvertently. So we also, people, a lot of what we do is teaching networking skills and something you can use for the rest of your life.
Well, David, I know you got more to do over here, but appreciate you taking out some time. Last thing I want you to do, I want you to look at the camera and I want you to tell people how they can follow you, how they can learn more, how they can follow up. So great ways. Go to our website, ucsgreatness. com.
We offer a free investor ready quiz. Best second best way to follow us is you can literally check me out if you want on instagram. David dot c u n i c and it is a public profile or linkedin linkedin linkedin. I’m gonna tell you right now you need 7. 5 billion or less. We call that linkedin money. If you want to know more, Check me out at LinkedIn, David Kunick, C U N I C.
As we tell everyone here, Adam, always be willing to achieve your greatness. Cause you got this fantastic and for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links to the David and all that good stuff in the show notes. So you can just click on it and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, click that subscribe or follow and David, man, appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much for having me today. Appreciate it.
