Transcript of Courtney Reum on Venture Capital, AI Hype & Smart Wealth Building 📈 E163

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special edition of the Money, Money's podcast. We cover three core topics: how to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. As you guys know, this podcast is designed to be under 40 minutes, around 34 to 38 minutes for your listening pleasure, because the average workout is 45 minutes, the average commute to work is 45 minutes. So we will keep this episode short and sweet for you because we have what's called a 93% listen-through rate. We It's a top 50 podcast in the world because of our listen-through rate helps us on the charts, and you help us on the charts. Liking, commenting, subscribing, and sharing. As we dive in, you got to keep in mind, when you're listening to these podcasts, it's not just for you. You might hear from someone that can help someone that's your friend, family, or a follower from your past, present, or future. This episode might help you six months from now, two years from now. You might be sitting there thinking, I should forward this episode to my friend because of the important person that's on this episode.

So without further ado, Courtney Ream. Give us a quick two-minute bio, so we get straight to the money.

Two-minute bio. Let's see. Chicago, born and raised, moved to New York when I was 18. I'm now a reformed Goldman Sachs investment banker. Originally, caught my chops working on consumer acquisitions, things like Procter & Gamble, Gillette's merger, helped take Under Arm Republic, was around all these brands and people that were really contagious, and I'm sure we can get into. And it made me think, if they can do it, I don't know if I can. So let's find out. So now, almost 20 years So left that with my younger brother, Carter, who's been my business partner for 20 years. We have been starting things since in the form of everything from a venture capital firm to a bunch of our own things as entrepreneurs. And now we have a little hybrid investor, entrepreneur. We have a family office, and then a venture firm called M13.

So M13 gets emails coming in, people pitching. They see you in an elevator, they're pitching in the elevator. Every way someone's trying to pitch you, what are the first few things you immediately say no. This is not something I want to mess into.

Well, I mean, from a thesis point of view, like everyone else, we're doing a lot of AI at the moment. So I think part of it's that we've changed our thesis a lot for M13, meaning we did a lot of consumer. Then we were around for the direct to consumer boom. Then that became consumer technology. Now it became general technology, of which some has a consumer-facing angle. So I think a big part of it is actually just staying on your thesis. But I think it's I think it's that. And then when you meet people, I'm impressed how many people are not succinct and don't get to the point. And then other people where you're just like, there's something about him or her where I'm going to listen more, or they feel like they're galvanizing something. And that at least piques my interest. It doesn't get a check, but it keeps the door open.

What are things that you're like, you know what? I actually want to go deeper on this and hear talk to my team. I actually like this. Are there certain words or certain concepts or certain things that make you want to invest in something or someone?

I think as it relates to the person I'm now believer, the days of the Travis at Uber all breakthrough walls, like what is it? Move fast and break things mindset. I don't know if that's totally gone, but I think now I really look for... We all have pattern, recognition, but also bias, where it's like, this person reminds me of me. Oh, I bet they'd be great. Oh, I bet they could build a $10 million company. I think it's important to go, this person might be really different from me, but I see all the traits they have that That could lead to a really successful company. So on the person side, I love the soft things that are harder to test for. You start to see how they deal with a little adversity, a little grit. Those are the things that I think are missing with most founders, right? Because as you know, it can look like up into the right, but it's more like a zigzaggy line. And so I love the founders who say, Here's what I'm good at, but here's what I'm not good at, and therefore, here's what I'm building, here's what I'm hiring, who's I'm surrounding.

It's like being a president, at least in theory, you can't do everything. So you have to hire great people in and lieutenants and all that. And I think I look for that in the people and in the idea so much. I'd say today, though, I almost look for things like when someone starts telling me they're an AI company, but I'm like, you're not only not an AI company, you're a company that's not even a data company. You have some data that you may or may not know how to use. That is the immediate turn off when everyone just says, oh. Ai. And I'm like, but you're not an AI company, right?

So there's a lot of companies that are raising at different stages. Some of them are raising a seed round when they're first getting their idea going. Some are raising their Series A between one and $10 million range. And then some of them are Series B, I want $10 to $50 million, C, D, et cetera. Did you evolve over time of what companies you wanted to invest into? And what would you say you land now? What stage do you like of a company?

Yeah, well, the great news is that I actually think I have something for everyone these days, meaning if I like the person and where the company is at, I can probably find a for it, meaning, as we were talking off camera, because we haven't seen each other in a second, I'm newly married, right? So my wife and I, I'd love to circle back to we're just starting to do some investing together, right? And so she likes to do very early checks, things like she's focused on women's health and beauty. So something to go there. For our family office, really, we have total flexibility, and we've written small mid eight-figure checks to seven-figure checks. And We have a lot of flexibility where we go there. And then for M13, it's pretty much bigger seed in Series A. So the good news is I would always show us in the M13 first if there be a conflict. If they're like, it's too early or other people agree it's not a fit right now, sometimes I write a personal check into something, and then we can track it from M13. And then every now and then it's good when some of my partners aren't on board with what I'm doing to just go, I'm just going to put a flyer in this just so we can talk about later.

There's one of these new-ish fantasy sports betting apps We decided not to do as a firm. I put in 100K personally, and it's marked at 19X in three years. And we're like, Yeah, we could use that one on the table there, portfolio.

So for the founders that are listening that are out there, how do they approach a VC firm? How do they get the attention? Because you get bombarded by hundreds of options throughout the year, especially as you guys and your firm have gotten more and more famous and done more and more deals, your name is on the radar, right? So people go to M13 and they're applying. How do you filter through? What can make them stand out so that a VC firm will listen to them?

I think it's harder and harder because, as you know, the cost of ideas is really cheap. The execution is dear. And I literally just yesterday was, this isn't even meant to sound like a brag, but was going to our IT firm going, I need you to keep tidying the spam filters because it used to be, I'd maybe get 50 cold outreaches a day. Now it's easily over 100. A day? A day. Oh, my God. So it's like to just even look at that and say, Oh, this is a spam, market a spam or delete it. I mean, it just takes so much time. It's hard to have an assistant to because occasionally there's something in there. It looks like spam, and it's not.

Dim in the rough.

And then you never know when someone's like, I have a friend who has... Do you want to get the introduction? In my head, I'm thinking, no, but you never know. And occasionally it does happen. So you have to stay open-minded. So I think that's a long way of saying. I will be honest, it is pretty hard to just, as they say, it's not hard to get someone's email these days. I can tell you Tim Cook's email. It's hard to get Tim Cook to reply. He's never replied to me, right? And I'm sure, like most people, as sad as it is, it is very hard to expect someone, I don't know, from a background, I don't know, maybe with an idea, I don't know, to hit my inbox and me to just take a look at that. That would be a tough use of time. So really trying to find either some mutual touch point or a unique way to get in touch. I mean, this is an analog example, but back in the day, as email is taking off, I remember this guy who's a real well known entrepreneur, and he was trying to land sales accounts, and he would send FedExes to everyone to get their attention.

Why? His theory, and again, this is like 2000, so bear with me. But he's like, if I was sending you a FedEx, then it was still novel enough. It was something where chances are a lot of people's assistants didn't open it, or even if it was 50/50, a much better shot that the boss opens his own FedEx because it was new. And he's like, I would just keep sending someone a FedEx every week until they replied. And they're like, okay, I got it. I'll take a meeting. And he's like, no problem. I was just warming up. And I do think I like to call it pleasantly persistent. I think everyone has to find their way to be pleasantly persistent. And if you want it badly enough and you really think it's the right fit. But it's also too many people shoot their shot with like, I'm like, and so what? Like trying to, I don't know, either connect it back to the value prop, the win-win, why this fits with our firm's thesis, why I'd make a great angel investor. Sometimes people lack that, and it's not always obvious at first glance. It might be obvious to them, but I'm just meeting them and hearing for the first time.

So it's all those little nuances.

So on the personal side, there's also a huge amount of options: real estate, stock market, cryptocurrency, cash flow in business. How do you decide for yourself what else to consider investing into?

Yeah, it's a really interesting time for you to ask me that question because my brother and I have been business partners for almost 20 years. We have obviously started the same things, invested in the same thing. So it was easy to keep our money pooled. Now we're starting to change a little in that I just got married. He's been married for about four years. He has a couple of kids. So maybe our needs change, maybe our monthly, yearly, nuts change. So I think we're in the process of exploring that, meaning I don't know, our late father used to always be like, Diversification for the sake of diversification isn't good. That's how you end up in stuff you don't know and whatever else. And I think there's truth to that, but there's also, like anything, risk appetite, right? And so for the last Almost 20 years, starting when my brother and I had very little money compared to now, we had a very much a barbell approach. We were in tons of illiquid private things, different companies we started, different things we invested. And then there was what I would call just enough money sitting aside for the rainy day, where if it all disappeared, that 90 %, the 10 % would give us enough to rebuild.

And that was great. And I'll say over the last twelve years, my brother and I's personal IRR return has averaged 44 % annually. And let me tell you, if you knew where we started and where we're at now, the power of compounding is a very powerful thing. 44 % over twelve years has changed the trajectory of my life by many zeros. And I think it's important, though, to also right at this moment, you're asking me this, I'm realizing that the risks I took, which I'm glad I did, and thankfully, on the whole, they paid off, are not the same risks I want to take because the risks I had to take to get here are not the same risks I want to take to preserve capital and still grow it, of course, but just not take the risk, whatever it is, to have a 44 % IRR. I'd be very happy with something. And this is where my brother and I are divergent. He's probably pretty maverick, and he still wants maybe not 44 %, but he wants 20. So I was like, you look how many few thingsI just have net 20 % IRR.

I'd be happy with low teens, somewhat set in, forget it. So I think I'm in the process of going, we should have hedges against this or that or have some... We have very little that's monthly income cash generating. You could teach me a lot about real estate? Other than personal properties I own, which have stacked up, we have no other real estate as an investment. So I think we're in the process of doing that as we get more liquidity.

We all grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. You I'm going to talk about it so bluntly, which is my whole passion, which is the whole reason I do this podcast is to be able to have real-life discussions where it's not rude. We need to talk about what happens if my friend borrows 400 bucks and doesn't pay me back? How do you tell your kid what to do? What if your 17-year-old wants to lease a car, or should they rent a car, buy a car? We think it's rude to ask about salaries. Why is it rude to ask about salary? What if you don't tell your kid who's 22 years old that you should get paid 60 grand, they get paid 45. Now they're on the hamster wheel for an extra six years until they get to 60 when they should have actually got that from the beginning. We got to have these discussions. Was that something that happened in the household? When did you feel like, okay, we can have a blunt discussion about money?

Yeah. I think my parents, and especially my father, who I reference, he He was really good about, as you said, I think we're roughly the same. Maybe no one's teaching financial literacy, right? So he wasn't trying to teach me financial literacy in the sense that I went to Columbia and Harvard and you do case studies and balance sheets. But just going, those are the things that they can teach you at an MBA. What they don't even teach you is how much of my disposable income should go to rent. I mean, now people are talking about that. But when I was a kid, even when I was in my first apartment, no one talked about it. So I think my parents taught us enough to have an idea, but they were a little bit of that generation where I would have no clue how much we did or didn't have growing up. I would know that, Oh, our house is a little bigger, a little smaller than Johnny's. I would know we can afford to go to a nice dinner once a week, but just understand that directionally. Yeah, I think so much has changed, We live in even parenting styles.

I don't think you can live in my parents were really loving, but in that benevolent dictator way. I don't think you can be as much of an authoritarian now. I think you just have to be very open with your kids. So this is just one of those. But I think to answer your question directly, the person who said to me, it really stuck with me is we have some businesses with Tony Robbins, including a longevity startup called Lifeforce. And so obviously, as he would say, proximity is power. And when I'm around some of his stuff, he just said it quite simply, my goal was always to help people live their best lives and whatever else you ascribe to Tony. But then he wrote a bunch of books on taking control of your financial future because it was great that I helped you do your dream job or do this or leave this or change this habit. But now, if I don't help you think about how to manage your money, it all be for not. And that really resonated.

So as you go through your journey, you've watched the evolution of things that are now we're in the AI world. How important is it for people to add AI into their life, whether it's their business or theirin your personal life?

I think it's really important because, ironically, I invest in tech as a profession, but in my personal life, I can be a bit of a Luddite in the sense that I'm a little bit risk averse to the change. I have an iPhone 13. It works just fine. I need to about change it because nobody, no Uber drivers have the right adapter. So it's stuff like that where I'm like, But my phone works just fine for what I do. I think AI is different. I think it's that not everyone has to be this super embracing of it. But even personally already, the fact that ChatGPT is running commercials just for the tab of ChatGPT Health tells you how powerful they think this could be. So if you need a more selfish reason than that, I doubt there is one. But I don't think you have to be understanding how LLMs work at a deep level. But I think if you don't play with these things a little, start to train, watch the power of it, you'll just feel like you woke up one day and you live in a world you don't even recognize because it's so incremental, but incremental every day that adds up to just a tidal wave behind this little wave.

Let's talk about the charity side of the podcast. Why do you think it's important for brands to consider to have a charity component to their brand their employees, customers, clients, vendors, et cetera to see?

Yeah. I think the days of either not taking political stands or what you stand for or what your giveback is, I think people demand more from their brands, and there's all the legacy examples of cool companies like a Patagonia who is the first to show you, here is actually how your sheep started out and where we did this in the supply chain. So I'm very much into that side of things. So I love that supply chain transparency and different things like that. But I think you know how it is, just culture 101. A job is not enough for most people anymore. When you see unemployment rates not even here, but you go to places like China and it can be as high as 20 %, it's because they're just not engaged. They want more than just a paycheck and to work that... What is it? 996. Nine to nine, six days a week. You can't do that unless you're connected and you want your product or your brand or you believe in what you're doing. So I think first, it's always internal bringing along people who are mission-driven. I'm a big triple bottom line guy, right?

Do well by doing good or people planet profits, whatever colloquially you want to use. I just think it's so important because it doesn't matter. It's like working out. It doesn't matter whether you're doing it for vanity reasons or just general health. It all goes toward the greater good. And chances are, if you connect it, generally, your product or company will do better, and you'll have better culture, and you'll have more evangelism among your customers. So it helps everything.

Would you like to have children?

I do. I'm sure my wife will listen to this because she knows I was coming over. So that is on the roadmap in the not too distant future. Start working on in 2026.

So there's only one question that's a repeat question on every single episode. Out of hundreds of episodes, I've actually never gotten the same answer once. I've gotten the same math, but never the same answer. You build M3 13 ventures, you invest in things privately, you and your wife invest in things, and all of a sudden, billions and billions and billions of dollars happen. But hopefully, with the new age of technology and AI, you last another 100 years due to the medical field. At some point, unfortunately, Gordie passed away. What percentage of those billions of future dollars do you leave to those future children?

I think percentage is a little hard because that depends on my number, right? I think I've usually thought about in terms of absolute, but then again, absolute could change because who knows if the value of the dollar or any stock changes. I think, directionally, if this is too vague, you can call me on. I'll be more specific. I want to give them just enough that they should be able to do whatever they want and pursue their passions and dreams, and not so much as any of it's a free ride. And I think it is such a fine line. And we were talking with one of your previous guests about YPO and organizations like that that I've been in for 17 years. One of the most talked about topics is, how do I raise good kids that are not spoiled, but also don't struggle too much? And I think I would do it just like how I was raised. We were not wealthy by LA, Miami standards at all. I was better off than most of my friends, and my parents just did a really good job of instilling value, meaning it's not like they didn't get me something for fun.

But a lot of times if I can get you those shoes and that'll make you play better or feel better or this trainer or something that actually enhances your life, always found money for that, which is amazing. A lot of what I just called the gluttonous things, they weren't about, and at least now I'm not about because I do think there's something to be said for just that feeling of like, I'm so big on value, right? My wife will tell you we flew business class here coming yesterday because JetBlue did this new liebed seat. We flew to Palm Beach on JetBlue. I'd say in the US, I fly business about 10% of the time. No judgment for someone else who does, but it doesn't bring me some crazy amount of joy or some dopamine hit. And in general, I mean, come on. If I'm flying from Miami to Atlanta, what could possibly happen? At the best, they give me warm food, probably not even warm food. The seat's marginally better. All I'm going to do is open my laptop and work. Why would I do it? I don't ascribe any value to it. So I think I've always been one of those people where for better and worse, I could spend a big amount of money, not blink twice.

And then I will argue with someone over $12. And people are like, What do you... I'm like, It's the point. You know that wasn't $12. And I think that's mostly a good quality, but it can be a bad one. So I think I just want my kids to really understand the value of it, whatever the it ends up being.

So as you go into 2026, and there's this multitude of companies Companies, options, investments, and you just recently got married. Has it changed your perception of what you want to invest into, or has the general thesis been the same?

I think the general thesis has been a little bit the same in that, as I said, I want to start diversifying my portfolio, but I don't plan to become a real estate expert tomorrow. I don't think from what I know, it's rocket science to figure it out. But rather than me pretending like I've learned real estate, I will ask our team and our family office guys to start to partner with people who we really expect Respect in the real estate area, dip our toe in, learn it and go from there. Having said that, I think there are areas I know really well, consumer and tech, that I'll keep doing personally and through M13. But I think the interesting part is, since I have started doing some investing with my wife, she has really good instincts. She actually has an insane amount of TikTok deal flow, or she has a podcast called Hot Smart Rich that's blowing up. So she actually sees really great deals really early. So the question when I say to her now is, she's like, this looks good. I'm like, it does. But what's it doing? Do you think this can be 100X return?

Or do you think this can be a really risk-protected 3X return? No one doesn't want 3X if you feel like there's a lot less risk. Of course, by nature of it, it shouldn't be. But maybe you see something that makes you feel like the whole key is the asymmetric risk reward. And then occasionally do other things where you're like, I don't know about this, but I love the founder. They have some interesting other things, and I think it will help build my platform in the space. So I've been saying, is this a company you really believe in? Is this a. Org check? Is this somewhere in between? So I think you just really have to know what categories you're putting in and not have too many of the relationship checks slip in or, Oh, this could be good and there could be some partnership down the line, right? Yeah.

All right. Where can people find you? Find the social, find if they want to apply to get an investment?

Yeah. Apparently, as I said, based on emails and everything else, it's really easy to find me online. There is only one Courtney Reem. So if you can spell it, you can find me. It's just my name at Instagram, Courtney Reem. Same on LinkedIn. And my email for M13 is just Courtney@m13. Co. Not. Com. That's so passive.

All right, guys. As I mentioned before we started this podcast, it might not just be for you, but this might be, bam, five months from now, you're sitting in a meeting, you're like, Oh, my friend has a tech company that wants to apply, or my friend is building something and just wants to learn and listen to Courtney or go find him on social, go find his wife and check out her cool new podcast. You're going to find things that are not just for you. It could be people from your past, present, and future. Again, we grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. We need episodes like this where we can have blunt, clear-cut discussions. I'm going to try to bring Courtney back here later on this year. Come find him to get him back on the podcast. I want to talk to more because I have so many questions. I've been watching his career for years, and it's been very exciting to see has he's evolved and the companies that he evolved and the companies that he invests into and some of the exits that have happened. I have a lot more questions for him.

Check him on social media. Check out these companies. I appreciate you guys. See you guys next Monday here at themoneymondays. Com.