Meeting Summary — Events Strategy & Construction Investment Discussion

Overview

A wide-ranging discussion covering three threads: the events-driven fundraising strategy for the hedge fund, the fund's AI-automated crypto derivatives trading approach, and — the centerpiece — Marcel's Florida construction business, which surfaced as a live investment opportunity. The meeting closed with an agreed path toward organizing the company's financials and preparing an investment pitch, with a follow-up session targeted for August.

Key Takeaways

1 · Events & Fundraising Strategy

Nick recapped the pivot from Indonesian equities to crypto derivatives, including a prior Bali conference that drew ~20 substantial attendees (Singapore VC, Dentons) but ran at a ~$17k loss — an accepted cost of relationship-building. The strategy now: intimate, classy events in Bali (Coin Fest window, Bitgo being pursued as sponsor) and Singapore (Marina Bay venue; introduction.com curating founders/CFOs as community sponsor; financial sponsor still sought for venue costs).

• Fundraising is the mission; events are the venue. Target is quality investors — primarily US and Asian — over headcount.
• AI-driven outreach (LinkedIn filtering and automation) scales contact to a very large prospect pool with a small team.
• Marcel expressed interest in attending and potentially co-hosting/co-sponsoring the August events; he plans to be back in Bali around Aug 17 after travel to the US and Spain.

2 · Hedge Fund & Trading Approach

The fund runs a fully automated crypto derivatives strategy: roughly half the portfolio dollar-hedged, structured so the fund ends each quarter with either more dollars or more bitcoin — a "boomerang" profile in volatile markets. Options income supplements the core position; the only discretionary lever is the hedge ratio.

• Manual trading was phased out — automated execution reads the order book and applies rules without fatigue, emotion, or cognitive overload on option Greeks.
• A new Polymarket product uses professional derivatives pricing (Deribit, CME) to identify undervalued binary-market bets, currently running small automated bets with full decision logging to refine the formula.
• All trades and decisions are published live on the website — transparency as a trust-builder for investors.
• Five outside investors to date across the US, Italy, Lebanon, and Dubai; high-watermark structure in place.

3 · Construction Business — Investment Discussion

Marcel's Miami/Tampa operation focuses on high-ticket repair and renovation ($40–60k projects), with third-party bank financing that approves customers regardless of credit or income — the bank pays the company directly, removing collection risk and supporting premium pricing. Lead flow exceeds capacity; the current bottleneck is estimating and staffing.

• Heritage & licensing: family firm with 27 years of history; the licensed contracting entity dates to 1989. Newer operating company drove the revenue acceleration starting mid-2025.
• Technology edge: AI in development to return instant estimates and renderings from lead photos; payroll, reporting and sales tracking already automated. The industry remains largely old-school — a durable competitive gap.
• Growth plans: two commission-based sales hires (2% per job), a Miami showroom by year-end, materials import from Vietnam/China, and eventually ground-up builds (~$100k profit per house on a 6–7 month cycle; longer-term, multi-property compounds).
• Deal structure discussed: 51–66% to a venture/recap investor group; two-part closing with formulaic valuation on the second close once books are fully organized; NL&Co would take a small carry (~5%) for structuring and raising; Nick would invest personally alongside.
• Transparency: Marcel reports all-electronic transactions, no cash, well-maintained QuickBooks — audit-ready foundation for GAAP statements.
• Labor referral: Nick offered an introduction to Sergey Nikitin (Miami), who runs reliable Ukrainian crews — relevant to Marcel's short-handed field teams.

Action Items

Next Steps