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One of the best things about Money Talks is I get the opportunity to drill down into what's really going on in the world of business and finance and investment, all of those things, but with people who are doing it on the ground. We're not talking theory. We're not talking about people who come in every day and have to deal with all of these issues of the broad space of finance for individual companies. That's why I'm so pleased to have the managing partner of Sequoia Management,
does a great job. As I say, they operate throughout the whole sphere. I mean, they got questions on all sorts of things, but I've got their managing partner with me. Ali Akeemzadeh is on the line. Ali, first of all, I really do appreciate you finding time. Let me just ask you, what's kind of the most asked direction that you're getting right now from different businesses? Yeah, well, firstly, thank you very much for having me on your show, Michael. It's a pleasure to be here and speaking to your audience.
Yeah. You know, in this day and age, investing in the small cap, what we call public venture capital world, obviously is a perilous task at times because, you know, there's a whole myriad of different companies out
There is very difficult to, and not a whole lot of information necessarily. So it takes a bit of expertise and due diligence and whatnot to figure out what is what and how to do this. I've been doing this kind of work for the last 25 years, of course, as an investment banker previously, started up Sequoia Partners as a boutique merchant bank. Effectively, what we endeavor to do is find good management teams that
back them with right kind of capital, bring capital market partners to it and help them essentially execute their business plan.
You know, in Canada, we do things slightly differently than in the United States. Over there, they have a very organized venture capital marketplace from an institutional perspective. In Canada, we have the public markets that effectively fill that void. And so it's very interesting. It's different, but it can be very rewarding.
It looks like that, you know, I'm just looking at the track record. I mean, you've been involved, I know with, well, you're on the board of American Pacific Mining Corp. So obviously dealing a lot in the mining space, but also the tech side of things. Yeah.
Again, I'm just wondering, they're very different industries. I would think it would be tough to stay abreast of all of that that's there. I mean, also, by the way, I remember first hearing your name as executive chairman of Plurilock, which we featured several times because cybersecurity is a big time deal. But, you know, you helped with that company, making it financially viable, refinancing. I looked at the stock recently. It's done very well. That seems like a heck of a lot of different areas to be involved in.
Yes, 100%. And again, my area of expertise is working with the management team, empowering, bringing the right amount of capital and capital structure to it. So it's less about the knowledge of the industry, which obviously given the number of years that have been added, I know enough to be dangerous. It's more about guiding them and providing them with the tools necessary to execute their business plans.
In the case of American Pacific, a great mining company operating in the western United States, gold and copper assets. They have a partner out of Japan that is essentially funding a good portion of their drilling costs, about $17 million of loan this year. And they've got great prospects. We're very pleased to be involved with them.
In the case of Plurilock, which we just mentioned, again, I recently got involved with that company.
The reason I got involved with it was we actually ended up selling another company to a private equity firm out of San Francisco by the name of Banneker. The company was called HS GovTech. It was a government software company, very similar in certain ways to Plurilock, also operates in the government space. So from that perspective, I had the background and experience to understand how that works, working with governments. And that was actually quite attractive.
because government tend to have very sticky businesses. They are great clients. They pay late, but they always pay. So that was something that we were looking for. And Plurilock really just needed a little bit of a push, a little bit of support. Again, we brought capital to it, as you mentioned. We brought a bit of a restructuring and some new energy from a public markets perspective.
So in both those cases, we've been very successful in returning shareholder value. So, yeah, they are divergent in terms of spaces, mining and technology. But again, the small cap world is really what we're focused on, the public venture capitalist.
It would seem, makes a lot of sense that people could have a different expertise. Like, for example, I understand, like if I did, I understand the whole process of mining and I'm in there. That doesn't mean I can manage a company or it doesn't mean I don't need help managing the company. And then within that,
You know, look at the financial sphere. How many different questions can come up about that? Whether it's, I think, should I go public as an example? Or I am public, what can I do? So I can just see that it makes a ton of sense that people need that other expertise and
And they can be excellent at the business they're doing. So I can see the demand for that. Do you find anything in particular lacking? Is it a realism? Do they understand that? And that's why they come to you. They go, hey, there's a bit of a gap in our knowledge base. We're small companies, as you said. We can't afford to have a 200-person management team, which is great news for investors that they don't. But that's why they come to outside. Yeah.
Well, that's right. That's exactly right. Because management teams, they know their business and they want nothing more than to have enough ample time to spend basically operating their business. So when folks like myself come along and can take and lift some of the burden of the capital markets off their shoulders,
that's usually welcome. It allows them to do their day-to-day speaking with their clients or operating their drill rigs or whatever the case may be, and less time dealing with the public markets. And so the division of labor and the burdening of multiple sides of the business is really what it's all about, bringing that kind of value to it.
And it would seem essential. You know what I mean? I'm just saying a lot of times we fall in love with a sector, for example. And again, just because we mentioned it earlier, you know, I like the gold sector, you know, and I'm waiting for the, in general, the gold sector.
stock side of things. Obviously, the medals performed. We heard from Luke Roman earlier in the show. I mean, the medals performed. I think there's more to come over time. Well, that should be great news if you're in that sector, but you've got to execute it properly. So I'm sort of sitting there, just wait. I believe it will happen, but I'm waiting. But it's got to be well managed to do that. I guess that's hardly an insight, but that's what I think I'm waiting for. And that expertise, I think, is
It's not lacking, but it's got to be welcome. No, 100%. You know, it is the world of the haves and have-nots. And as you mentioned very astutely, the fundamentals of gold price, copper price, these things are near all-time highs. And some of the juniors aren't necessarily tracking that same direction, but they will.
That part is something that we certainly are betting on. We think we will be correct in that thesis. They will. And so you want to be ready to take advantage when the tide turns to be essentially on top of the wave, riding it all the way. And in order to do that, you need to have all of your ducks in a row. You need to have your finances in order. You need to have your opportunities.
operational team moving. You need to have your partners set up and that's what will separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.
You should be writing a newsletter. No, but that's the question is you come and it's a large sphere. And I'm with you, by the way, I've said on this show so many times, I've quoted Hemingway. I think I did with Luke. You know, when he says, you know, how did you go bankrupt slowly than all of a sudden? Well, it's also how do you make money? You watch how abrupt some of these moves are, even golds. And I know it's been, you know, having a nice chart. If you look at the longer term chart, it looks great.
But you do go through periods and Silver's just done this. You know, let's have a leap forward. I think it's very difficult to get involved late in that. You know, people just have a tendency to want it. Well, I'll get it if it ever gets back to that again. And, you know, on a strong move, it doesn't. So I really appreciate what you're saying about you've got to be positioned. You have to I think you have to have a list.
You know, of saying, okay, if things start moving and I have a trigger point, I'm going to jump in. Let's just finish with this. It's a completely different hat, but I want you to put your, you know, you got your nephew come to you, you know, that kind of thing. And they say, well, how do I select one of these juniors? What are the things...
that I should be looking for, that I have a checklist? Obviously, management is, but can you drill a little deeper for me? Yeah, 100%. Management is always key in these small companies, of course. You have to back the right teams, and that's the start of it. The other thing is, for example, in the case of Pluralog, which is cybersecurity, you're looking for big themes.
Cybersecurity is a big theme. Every day in the news, you're hearing something about, for example, Live Nation and Ticketmaster. They got hacked. Half a billion accounts got compromised. This, everyone's going to get affected by that in North America. That's actually more than the population of the entirety of North America, right? So it's a big theme. And we want to always go with...
the reward side, right? Risk reward, you wanna go for the reward side. And from there, you're looking at technologies, you wanna be a little bit different than the others in terms of competitive advantage. You wanna have a great management team that's proven in terms of their track record. And then you drill down into the financials, make sure that they got enough money to execute, speak with the team, ask them the hard questions,
and drill down, find out who else is an investor. You know, smart money should follow smart money, so to speak. And that also applies in the mining world, really. Just one last, how long should, you know, people have a bit of a, what have you done for me in the last 15 minutes kind of approach? So what's a realistic timeframe? Is it three years? Is it five years when you guys approach a company?
Yeah, no, we actually have a long-term view on these things. Our previous company that I mentioned, HSGovTech, we were involved with it for, I believe, about seven years. So four to eight years is the timeframe. Clearly, if something is not working out and you just do not have the conviction with it, then you must cut your losses a lot.
And that happens also, right? At the end of the day, we are talking about venture capital stage companies. And you're going to have a few winners, a whole lot of companies that do mediocre and a few that actually don't. So you got to cut your losses. But certainly you want to ride and back up the truck on the winners.
Well, good stuff. I really appreciate you finding time for us. I know you guys are busy and that's a good thing for you. But managing partner of Sequoia Partners, Ali Hakimzadeh, great stuff. I hope we can visit again soon. Thank you, Michael. Pleasure.