Castle Placement

Hi All, I hope you find this tongue-in-cheek video funny. Please comment below! Regards, Ken Margolis Castle Placement - Managing Partner #venturecapital #privateequity #raisingcapital #castleplacement

We didn't need to pay an ad agency $500,000 to develop our brand strategy. #investmentbanking #technology #corporatecurrency #homecrowdadvantage #privateequity #venturecapital #castleplacement #cpgoapp

We didn't need to pay an ad agency $500,000 to develop our brand strategy. We knew it from day one, 15 years ago.   Trust. That's by far the most important branding. You can't buy trust. You can't buy expertise. You can't buy track record. You have to build it. Every relationship. Every client. Every investor. Every closed deal. A capital raise may be the single most important thing that a company ever does. The founder's dream may be on the line. The CFO's job may be on the line. Who are they going to hire? The firm that they trust. And that's the brand strategy. #investmentbanking #technology #corporatecurrency #homecrowdadvantage #privateequity #venturecapital #castleplacement #cpgoapp

What’s Happening. A View From The Castle. "It's a supernatural delight"... The S&P 500 is up 18% so far this year, its 11th best start to a year since 1928. Play like a girl!!! Willow Bay and her husband, Disney CEO Bob Iger, bought women’s soccer team Angel City FC for $250 million, making it the most valuable women’s sports team in the world (7.5x on the $33 million in revenue it generated last year). “I am easily distracted by shiny objects"... The combined market caps of only five companies represent >13% of the entire global stock market (out of 55,214 global publicly listed companies) and almost 25% of the US stock market. Shady, we're back, nothin' can stop and nothin' can change it"... The CEO of alternative asset management firm Blackstone ($1.1 trillion AUM) said the firm achieved its "highest level of investment activity in two years" in Q2, with $40 billion of inflows and $34 billion deployed. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead... Bank OZK’s nonperforming loan holdings reached their highest level since at least 2009. But in Q2 but it made $670 million of new real estate loans, bringing its total portfolio to $28.5 billion (365% of its available capital, above the 300% threshold targeted by regulators). You think??? The Director of the Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC said banks should disclose more granular information to improve investors’ understanding of the risks inherent in their commercial real estate portfolios as well as the steps being taken to mitigate those risks. "That fateful night the car was stalled upon the railroad track"... Car repossessions have increased by 23% so far this year, due to high interest rates and inflation – and are up 14% from 2019. "But what a fool believes he sees no wise man has the power to reason away"... A New York federal jury convicted a prominent Chinese Communist Party critic on most charges claiming he operated a vast fraudulent scheme to raise over $1 billion from his supporters. “Paris is always a good idea"... A Parisian hedge fund employee at Syquant Capital is suspected of providing insider tips to his brother to execute profitable trades on stocks such as ArcelorMittal SA and Alstom SA right before market-moving announcements. "Well, who am I to keep you down"??? Cash distributions to LPs of VC funds continue to decline as a share of assets and are now at the lowest level since the global financial crisis. The venture industry grew rapidly over the past decade because it outperformed other asset classes. However, its size is now a liability as it is extremely difficult to exit and generate strong returns. "So if we're gonna go at all, go big or go home"... Global VC fundraising is on track for its worst performance in ten years, with emerging managers continuing to struggle to raise capital and investors focusing on the behemoths. #investmentbanking #technology #corporatecurrency #homecrowdadvantage #privateequity #venturecapital #castleplacement #cpgoapp

What is: The Home Crowd Advantage®️? It’s access to capital. Which is the LIFEBLOOD of a growing company. How do you access capital optimally? By building a platform with qualified investors. And obtaining granular investment criteria for each of them. One investor at a time. Then building a team of amazing professionals that provide full-service investment banking services. And help the issuer (and investor) every step from engagement through closing. Patience, research, data, technology, relationships, expertise, execution. That is The Home Crowd Advantage®️ #investmentbanking #technology #corporatecurrency #privateequity #venturecapital #castleplacement #cpgoapp

What’s Happening. A View From The Castle. I never make up items in “A View From The Castle”!!! Nigeria is developing Nigerian, an indigenous blockchain to enhance data security and transparency. Yikes!!! Howard Marks, billionaire co-founder of distressed debt behemoth Oaktree Capital Management re: current office building prices: "Let's say you are getting 70% off. Is that enough? The mere fact that the price of something is down doesn't make it a buy." Perhaps the most important issue not being discussed enough... In Q1 Facebook removed 631 million fake accounts from its platform, a significant portion of its user base and raising significant questions about the authenticity of the data it has communicated to shareholders, advertisers and the public over the years. "With the lights out, it's less dangerous, here we are now, entertain us"... In Q2 startups received significantly more VC funding YOY, but significantly fewer received funding, and a small number of giant AI deals skewed the data. If you are not a genuine AI company it's still tough sledding. Female-founded startup funding is way down (even though it was minuscule in the past), and geographic prejudice continues. Fogging the mirror??? In the first half of the year private equity achieved its best performance metrics since 2022: deal count (4,000+) and value ($375+ billion) increased by 12%, as 129 US PE funds closed fundraising rounds with $155 billion raised. "And whispered in the sound of silence"... US office building vacancy rates hit a record 20.1% in Q2, the highest since Moody’s started tracking the sector 50 years ago. San Francisco vacancy rates reached 34.5%, up from just 5% pre-pandemic. Moody’s projects vacancy rates will continue to climb through 2026. “So no one told you life was gonna be this way“… Friend.Tech, which tokenizes people’s social networks with access to private group chats, is struggling. The price of its native cryptocurrency (down to 20 cents from $3+), the amount of crypto assets locked in Friend.Tech (down to $5.7 million from $49.7 million), and revenue generated by the platform (down to $20,000/week from $millions/week) have all plummeted to at or near all-time lows. "Go your own way, you can call it another lonely day"... A Manhattan federal jury convicted Archegos founder Bill Hwang of fraudulently inflating the value of stocks and his assets as his family-office hedge fund was crumbling. Like a good neighbor... After suffering $16 billion of underwriting losses last year (the largest since at least 2000) US home insurers have increased premiums by an average of 20% since early 2023. That's a "b"!!! A cousin of Cambodia's ruling family is allegedly running an $11 billion crypto scam and money laundering online marketplace. It is alleged that the majority of transactions on the platform are tied to illegal activities. #investmentbanking #technology #corporatecurrency #privateequity #venturecapital #castleplacement #cpgoapp

We love doing traditional capital raises. We REALLY love doing groundbreaking capital raises. Credit Rating Securities (CRS) - game changer for risk management and trading, tackling downgrade risk in corporate bonds. Our client, DelphX, offers a 1:1 direct solution for rating change protection setting a new standard in portfolio risk management. CRS consist of CPOs and CRNs: -         Collateralized Put Obligations (CPO) are exercisable upon a rating downgrade of a reference security. Unique protection for corporate bonds at risk of downgrade. -         Collateralized Reference Notes (CRO) provide returns to the risk seller from both option premiums and interest on collateral.   Developed by DelphX, with documentation by Latham & Watkins, and BNY as the custodian.   Helps manage rating downgrades from investment-grade to non-investment-grade, helping insurance companies mitigate higher capital charges. Provides a new way to express market views and boost returns, addressing the limitations of traditional CDS protection. There's a growing demand among insurance companies to protect their corporate bond portfolios, and CRS provide a robust solution. We have active bids from hedge funds and multiple insurance companies seeking protection in this first tranche of trades. Please DM me to learn more! #investmentbanking #technology #corporatecurrency #privateequity #venturecapital #castleplacement #cpgoapp

If you don't understand "meme" we're here to help. In the 90’s Seinfeld/Costanza created a show about nothing. That was early meme. It's: -      a funny image/video that spreads rapidly online -      an internet trend that becomes a part of pop culture -      a viral social media post -      media that mocks current events or societal norms -      a celebrity launching a token to enrich themselves, leaving their fans holding the bag when it goes to zero -      animal JPEGs from 2021 that had seven figure values, until they didn't -      stock pumped on Reddit, until the fundamentals crater the price -      crypto tokens serving no purpose except speculation Meme is fun! BUT, don’t invest your hard-earned money in a black hole! #investmentbanking #technology #corporatecurrency #privateequity #venturecapital #castleplacement #cpgoapp

What’s Happening. A View From The Castle. Really, this makes perfect sense... Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is considering using nuclear energy to power its data centers, exploring partnerships for modular reactors in North America and Europe. Flight to what??? The Dow Jones Industrial Average index has gained less than 4% so far this year, with components Nike, Intel, and Boeing all down over 30%. "Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of"... In the last eight years the US has added $13 trillion to the national debt. The Debt-to-GDP ratio is now higher than during World War II. I guess land is practically worthless now too... A San Francisco office building at 995 Market Street was taken back by the lender with a credit bid of $6.5 million ($72/SF). It was purchased in 2016 for $62 million. “I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive”… The SEC has launched investigations into VC firms that invested in cryptocurrency platforms and received discounted tokens to sell to retail investors, claiming they are acting as unregistered broker dealers selling securities without a FINRA license. Are you sure hedge funds are out of favor??? Jain Global, Bobby Jain’s new multi-strategy fund, received $5.3 billion in commitments and is set to start trading. "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission"... The SEC sued cryptocurrency firm Consensys, alleging it failed to register as a broker through its MetaMask swaps service and failed to register the offer and sale of certain securities through its crypto staking programs, claiming the firm collected over $250 million in fees as an unregistered broker. "If you think the system isn’t broken, you’re not paying attention"... The average costs of a typical home, including mortgage payments, property insurance and taxes, consumed 35.1% of the average salary in Q2, which made owning a house less affordable in the US than at any time in the past 17 years. Not so fast!!! A US District Court in Texas granted a stay and preliminary injunction preventing the FTC's new prohibition on non-competes in the workplace from taking effect against the plaintiff, holding that it was likely to succeed on the merits to vacate the new rule because the FTC lacked authority to issue a non-compete ban and the rule was arbitrary and capricious. "Once we were standing still in time, chasing the fantasies that filled our minds"... Public SaaS companies are now valued at 5.7 times annualized recurring revenues, down from 17x in 2021, and the lowest SaaS multiple metric since early 2013. #investmentbanking #technology #corporatecurrency #privateequity #venturecapital #castleplacement #cpgoapp