#149: What If Your Company Had Its Own Private Stock Market?

Father and son team Chris and Graham McConnell are the founders of Nth Round, a software platform that allows business owners and potential investors to find each other. Nth Round allows employees and outside investors to bid for shares in a company. The idea is that the platform simplifies the process of getting funding and liquidity for a business. Chris and Graham tell me how they created the blockchain system Nth Round is built upon. We discuss who benefits from this platform and why they felt it was needed in this current market. Nth Round strives to “level the playing field” for all parties involved and take the flow of capital away from private equity firms and smoke-filled back rooms. These guys are being hailed as game changers, tune in to hear why.

What you will learn:

• Graham’s background in software and finance.
• Chris’s background in business and private equity.
• The problems the guys saw within the private equity world.
• How Nth Round was developed to fight these problems.
• How Nth Round works.
• How companies come to an agreement on the value of their business.
• The 3 target markets Nth Round appeals to.
• How Nth Round equals the playing field for everyone involved.
• How their system is different from private equity and M&A.
• Why venture capitalists have mixed reactions to Nth Round.
• The goals for the company moving forward.
• How video is a great tool to keep business owners and investors in touch.
• The FCC’s reaction to Nth Round.

Takeaways:

People are trying to fix the market. Private companies are the backbone of America and the system is broken. If you need liquidity or investment in your business don’t just settle for the first answer you get. If you know what you want, there is a way to get it, just use all the resources you can to do it.

Links and Resources:

GEXP Collaborative

Nth Round

About Graham:

Graham is an entrepreneur with strong passions in finance and technology, especially software development, cyber-security, and blockchain protocols. After stints at TA Instruments and Savana, Inc., Graham joined Relay Network, where he served as a product owner, managing priorities for a team of twelve software developers and test engineers. Drawn to finance, Graham then joined AJO Partners ($25B AUM), a top-tier quantitative investment firm, where he oversaw software development. Today Graham runs all aspects of NthRound operations: from product development to sales and marketing, to customer support.

About Chris:

Chris is a recognized technology entrepreneur and executive. He has extensive experience with blockchain programming, artificial intelligence, surface science, process control, and public and private finance. After starting at Dow Chemical, Chris co-founded CFM Technologies, a global semiconductor capital equipment manufacturer that grew to $80 million in sales and 400 employees. It went public in 1996 (NASDAQ: CFMT). Chris went on to form The Founders Group, and later Adondo Capital, a quantitative equity hedge fund based on computational linguistics. He holds eighteen US patents. For NthRound, Chris focuses on strategy and technology.