Episode 123: Devon Drew, From Sales Exec at a Trillion Dollar Asset Manager to Founder of Tech-Enabled Sales Platform AssetLink on Why Fund Distribution Needs Disruption
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You know those Wall Street movies where young, hungry salespeople make 500 dials a day?
That was real life for Devon Drew.
He built his career in distribution at some of the biggest asset managers in the world—including Vanguard—before walking away from it all to launch AssetLink, a tech platform designed to disrupt how fund distribution gets done.
Because Devon realized something: the model wasn’t just archaic, it was broken.
Now, he’s putting powerful tools in the hands of fund managers who’ve been overlooked for too long and giving wholesalers a way to work smarter, not harder.
In this episode, Stacy and Devon discuss:
What it’s really like to go from Wall Street to founder life
Why the old-school “spray and pray” sales model needs to go
How AssetLink is making sales teams more efficient (and more human)
What Silicon Valley taught Devon about innovation (and what Wall Street can learn from it)
His experience with Google’s accelerator program and what it means to build “tomorrow, today”
More About Devon:
Devon Drew is the Founder & CEO of AssetLink, an AI-powered platform modernizing fund distribution.
With 18+ years in asset management and over $30B raised, his career spans major players like:
Merrill Lynch & J.P. Morgan Chase (Financial Advisor)
Fred Alger & American Century (VP, Wealth Management Sales)
Vanguard ($10T AUM, Sr. Exec in Broker/Dealer Sales)
In 2021, Devon founded DFD Partners, the early version of what would become AssetLink, a tool built to help under-resourced managers compete and win in distribution.
Drew has been recognized for his innovative work, receiving several accolades, including:
• Top 25 Founders of 2025 by Founders Square
• 2025 AWD Pioneer Award
• Top 10 to Watch in 2024 by wealthmanagement.com
• Finalist for the Wealthies Award in 2023, 2024 & 2025
Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
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TRANSCRIPT
Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.
[00:00:00] Stacy Havener: You know those Wall Street movies where young hungry salespeople make like 500 dials a day? Yeah, that's real. My next guest lived it and it led him to sales positions at some of the largest asset managers in the world, including one of the biggest at the Bigs Vanguard. But he traded all that in when he realized something.
[00:00:25] The fund distribution model was not only archaic. It was broken. So he launched a disruptive technology firm called Asset Link to modernize the playbook and unbreak the hearts of every salesperson. Who knows they can do more than block and tackle with a list or a spreadsheet. This is a great one. My friends meet.
[00:00:52] Devon Drew. Hey, my name is Stacey Er. I'm obsessed with startups, stories, [00:01:00] and sales. Storytelling has fueled my success as a female founder in the Toughest Boys Club, wall Street. I've raised over 8 billion that has led to 30 billion in follow-on assets for investment boutiques, you could say against the odds.
[00:01:15] Yeah, understatement. I share stories of the people behind the portfolios while teaching you how to use story to shape outcomes. It's real talk here, money, authenticity, growth, setbacks, sales and marketing are all topics we discuss. Think of this as the capital raising class you wish you had in college mixed with happy hour.
[00:01:40] Pull up a seat, grab your notebook, and get ready to be inspired and challenged while you learn. This is the Billion dollar Backstory podcast.
[00:01:53] Let's be real. No one wakes up and says, I can't wait to build some operational infrastructure today, you are [00:02:00] here to manage money to build something that lights you up, not chase down reports across five systems and 15 service providers. That's where Ultimas Fund solutions comes in. They're your ops dream team, consolidating all your middle and back office chaos into one clean, scalable setup.
[00:02:20] Registered funds, private funds, SMAs, all integrated, one team, one tech platform, one rock solid source of data. But here's the real differentiator service. I know that fund in a box sounds convenient. It's also a box. Know what? You can't put in a box? A human who picks up the phone when you call and need help.
[00:02:46] Real life people who know your name and your fund, and they care about getting it right. Ultimas was built on people doing business with people. You get institutional strength combined with boutique level [00:03:00] service without getting stuck in a phone tree of doom. If you're ready to simplify scale and start working with a team that feels like an extension of yours, check out billion dollar backstory.com/ultimas.
[00:03:14] That's ul. T-I-M-U-S. You've got the investment strategy, the vision, the track record. Now it's time to upgrade the engine behind it all with UL Devon. Thank you so much for being here today. We are friends. We are also, we're not like from the same alma mater, but it's super close, so I feel like this podcast is a long time coming.
[00:03:41] I don't know why it took us so long to come up with this idea, but I'm honored to have you on the show today.
[00:03:48] Devon Drew Raw: The pleasures on mine. You know, obviously a a a big, big fan of yours. And every time we get together, you know, it's like the first time it's, it's, uh, nothing, not nothing but smile. So it's, it's, it's my [00:04:00] pleasure to, to be here today.
[00:04:01] Stacy Havener: Okay. So I wanna do some backstory because where you sit today as the founder of a company in the tech space is very different than what you were even doing prior to this. But I even wanna go way back, machine.
[00:04:16] Devon Drew Raw: Let's go.
[00:04:17] Stacy Havener: Okay. Like when you were a kid, what did you wanna be when you grew up? Was it in the investment space?
[00:04:24] Like is this a lifelong dream right now?
[00:04:26] Devon Drew Raw: So, you know, funny enough, I've always had like an entrepreneurial spirit. Mm-hmm. Right. I've always, you know, owned some type of business, you know, even if it was back to like the pyramid skiing type days in college. But truth be told, my passion was sports growing up.
[00:04:41] Mm-hmm. You know, I was a three sport athlete in high school. I did football, basketball track. For some reason I thought I was going down the NFL track. I don't know why I got, I got that crazy idea. Mm-hmm. Uh, that ridiculous idea. But yeah. So investments. I couldn't have been further from my mind growing up, you know?
[00:04:58] Um, I really thought I'd [00:05:00] be playing on Sundays and everything else would figure out from there.
[00:05:03] Stacy Havener: Yeah. Which is, I just hung up from another call and the person had the same exact childhood dream. But I think what's interesting about it, and tell me if this vibe's for you, there's a certain competitiveness.
[00:05:17] That the investment space has, that's very similar to how we feel when we're on the field or the court or the track. Does that resonate?
[00:05:26] Devon Drew Raw: Absolutely right. And you start thinking about, like, I remember when I was an internal wholesaler as an example, and the goal of our entire sales desk was to get promoted into the field.
[00:05:39] It was like the Hunger Games, right? Yes. It's like in order to, in order to get promoted in the field, I mean, you, like you were first in, last out, you wanted to be at the top of every metrics. We used to have pitch competitions talking about this fund, talking about that fund. You had to be ready at a moment's notice to get up and cite the mm-hmm.
[00:05:58] The firm philosophy, uh, the [00:06:00] process, uh, the ticker, simple quizzes. It was definitely more correlated than people think, right? Yeah. And then of course it's the, the work that people don't see, right? It's the hard work behind the scenes that allow you to show up, whether it's a game day on a Saturday in college, or it's showing up to pitch a, a mutual fund or an etf, right?
[00:06:20] Mm-hmm. So absolutely there's a lot of parallels between the two.
[00:06:23] Stacy Havener: Yeah, I think so too. And there is that daily scoreboard. I think we all, you know, scoreboard, like we all wanna point to that as athletes. Yes. So I gotta have a plug here for the Connecticut State University system, which friends who don't know it is not Yukon.
[00:06:40] Okay. There's a whole nother university system happening in Connecticut. I went to Western Devon. Where'd you go?
[00:06:49] Devon Drew Raw: I went to Southern Connecticut. So part of the Connecticut's state system. Um, go fighting owls. Uh, yeah, it was a good hour away from Danbury. Yeah. But, uh, we [00:07:00] share that connection. We do share that
[00:07:01] Stacy Havener: connection.
[00:07:02] And so how'd you go from Southern Football Dreams to getting a job in investing?
[00:07:08] Devon Drew Raw: So that is quite the story, right? So I was playing football actually. I really, I really, you know, when it talk about sports, right? When I, when I figured out I actually wasn't that good, right? Or, oh, come on to be playing on Sunday.
[00:07:19] You know, I tried to work at espn right? Which is Oh, which was in Connecticut
[00:07:22] Stacy Havener: too. Yeah, it right down the street.
[00:07:23] Devon Drew Raw: Right. It made, it made a ton of sense. That was great. I thought so too, until I realized I didn't know as much as I thought I knew about, about sports. So. You start having these internships. I interned at Enterprise Rental Car, which to this day was like the hardest job I've ever had in my life.
[00:07:39] Right? You're literally cleaning the car, you're doing it and you're doing the pickups. And this was before GPS, right? You're just a wing and a prayer. Oh my God. Trying to figure that out. Then I entered internship at, uh, New York Life for an insurance agent, filing a bunch of papers, but a lot of my friend group is, is several years older than I, I am.
[00:07:58] Folks were in these crazy [00:08:00] jobs called like investment bankers, sell side sales and trading.
[00:08:03] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:03] Devon Drew Raw: And they were making a ton of money.
[00:08:05] Stacy Havener: Yeah. Right.
[00:08:05] Devon Drew Raw: You know, especially for someone like myself outta college. Right. So it's like, listen, I need to emulate what they're doing.
[00:08:10] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:11] Devon Drew Raw: Right. However, coming from, you know, the glorious Connecticut state, uh, school system, Goldman Sachs and Morgan and Merrill were not beating down your door.
[00:08:20] No. Right. So I had to actually go the road less traveled and you know, I actually cold called. Out of like a phone book, every single investment firm I could find and try to get a job right. I love that. And finally, finally, I found one called WestRock Advisors. This is back in probably like oh seven. I wanna say you.
[00:08:40] I come in and I was like, okay, one out of maybe 50 return my calls and you know, I, I'll never forget, it was on 45th and Park Avenue, right? And I walk in and I'm thinking it's gonna be this like deep interview and they say, pitch me the stock. Stock any stock, pitch it. Oh my God. Right. And my job interview was pitching a [00:09:00] stock on the spot.
[00:09:01] Right. They're like, you start on Monday.
[00:09:04] Stacy Havener: No way. So it
[00:09:04] Devon Drew Raw: was, you know, so my way in was, was different, right? Yeah. It wasn't your traditional, Hey listen, this is preplanned. It was. It was definitely not right. And did I know that I was going to have to dial 500 cold calls a day? For my first couple years, no, I had no idea.
[00:09:21] Right. Does that seriously
[00:09:22] Stacy Havener: what you had to do? 500 dials,
[00:09:25] Devon Drew Raw: 500 dials equaled 10 leads, equaled one client. Right. And that was the formula to building a business back then, right? So, wow. You know, came in around seven and you staged from about seven to seven, and then on the weekends you'd be right, nine to one, you start calling overseas and, and holy cow.
[00:09:44] Another place in the country, right? So yeah, it was, it was, uh, it was a grind. It was the grinds. Right? But you, you learned thick skin, right? You a
[00:09:52] Stacy Havener: hundred percent incredible training. And also what I love about your story, 'cause of course I, I know where this is all gonna go, is that now as a [00:10:00] founder, you grind.
[00:10:01] It's not 500 Giles, but my gosh, there are a lot of similarities about that hustle and grind that you need when you start your own business. But before we get there, at some point you end up at a very big place. How do you go from the 500 dials to. Vanguard.
[00:10:19] Devon Drew Raw: So it's funny you mention that because the epitome, right?
[00:10:25] Of all of the hard work.
[00:10:27] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:27] Devon Drew Raw: All of the discipline, all the sacrifice. I was coming up in the ranks. Right. Okay. So I started, you know, like I was doing $500 a day, right. Then it got recruited to Merrill Lynch, and then from from Merrill Lynch I got recruited to JP Morgan. Mm-hmm. And JP Morgan. You know, I really wanted to be on the outside pitching funds.
[00:10:46] Right. And my best opportunity, I went to a smaller firm for Alger, and then the bigger called
[00:10:54] recruit. $10 trillion asset manager.
[00:10:57] Stacy Havener: Unbelievable. Right? Like,
[00:10:58] Devon Drew Raw: who would've thought Yeah, right. [00:11:00] That, you know, kid from Jersey going to Southern Connecticut would end up at a, at the second largest firm in the world. Right. Um, that gets
[00:11:07] Stacy Havener: applause from me. So,
[00:11:09] Devon Drew Raw: yeah, no, it was, uh, it was kind of, it was surreal, right?
[00:11:12] Going into like that massive campus. And, you know, funny enough, uh, my name is Debon. Pennsylvania and Malvern and that whole area. You know, what a wonderful place to learn and get that type of real world experience at a multi-trillion dollar organization.
[00:11:25] Stacy Havener: Unbelievable. And just the training, I mean, all this is the thing, like for people who are earlier in their careers that might be listening, I mean, big firms have incredible training programs.
[00:11:38] Incredible training programs. Yep. Um, best of the best. It's the best. And I think I never had that, so I was more of like a, you know, learn by fire type of situation. Right. But when you talk about that, I'm like, God, that is really such incredible training. Like the stand and delivers, the pop quizzes and like having to be ready like [00:12:00] that, that's like really good, especially when you're young and early in your career.
[00:12:05] What I find so fascinating though. Is that you would, I mean, I know having been a salesperson, what that job is like, how hard that job is, also how lucrative that job can be. And so at some point you decide like, I've been doing this for a minute on the sales game, but I wanna start my own business. And that's like a massive leap, massive risk.
[00:12:28] Why? Like what drove you to that?
[00:12:31] Devon Drew Raw: I must have some screws loose.
[00:12:32] Stacy Havener: I feel the same. I think we all talked you crazy. I know you,
[00:12:35] Devon Drew Raw: I know you've been doing it, you've been doing it for a long time. Utmost respect for you. I must have some screws loose. Right? Because you know, you go from the most coveted position at one of the most coveted firms in the world.
[00:12:50] Right. Not just in, you know, your, your little area town. No, in, in the world.
[00:12:54] Stacy Havener: Yep.
[00:12:55] Devon Drew Raw: You say, you know what? It's not good enough.
[00:12:57] Stacy Havener: Trade it all in.
[00:12:58] Devon Drew Raw: Right. It's not good enough. [00:13:00] Let me make a bet.
[00:13:01] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:01] Devon Drew Raw: And I, you know, during COVID time, right? So you have a lot of time to think and a lot of time to ideate, right? And it's not good enough.
[00:13:09] That's not, I am having potential that is unfulfilled.
[00:13:13] Stacy Havener: I love this.
[00:13:15] Devon Drew Raw: Right? And the only way that I could say. Back the athlete references. I left it all out on the field. Yeah. To leave my organization and don't look back. Right. Yeah. You. There's no plan B. Mm-hmm. There's no plan C, there's, there's no parachute.
[00:13:32] Stacy Havener: No.
[00:13:33] Devon Drew Raw: Right. I, you know, I'm all in. Right? Yep. And that was from, you know, now going into my fifth year. Right. I mean, now it's, you know, looking back, I mean, it's just really outta my mind. Right. But there has to be a certain type of ignorance to it, right? I think so. Like, because you can't sit there and think of the what ifs, right?
[00:13:50] It's gotta be, here's my plan. I proved out the logic. Hypothesis sound, the addressable market is big enough. Mm-hmm. It's ripe for disruption. [00:14:00] Who's in the market, who's coming in the market, who could disrupt you? And once you validate kind of what you're thinking from a business perspective, you go
[00:14:09] Stacy Havener: mm-hmm.
[00:14:09] Right?
[00:14:09] Devon Drew Raw: And you learn a lot along the way.
[00:14:11] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:14:12] Devon Drew Raw: And what I would say this, and, and I'm sure you can appreciate this, starting a business in this industry or any industry is the easiest thing you could ever do because. No one ever tells you what you need to hear.
[00:14:24] Stacy Havener: What do you mean?
[00:14:25] Devon Drew Raw: It's all, it's, it's all smiled and this is great.
[00:14:28] This is the best thing I've ever seen. Oh, this is, oh my, oh
[00:14:32] Stacy Havener: yes. You're gonna kill it. You're gonna kill this. Yeah. Oh, this? Yes. Yes. Right.
[00:14:37] Devon Drew Raw: Until it comes time to write a check.
[00:14:41] Stacy Havener: Oh, I know.
[00:14:42] Devon Drew Raw: Whether you're brand new fund manager who has the greatest fund idea in the world, or someone like myself who is trying to disrupt.
[00:14:49] The distribution and distribute with technology. Everything is yes, this is, yes, it's gonna work.
[00:14:53] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:54] Devon Drew Raw: And then, you know, you're in for a long ride.
[00:14:57] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:58] Devon Drew Raw: When the checks don't come in. Yeah. [00:15:00] Right. Talk about that, that,
[00:15:02] Stacy Havener: because that is,
[00:15:03] Devon Drew Raw: it's so
[00:15:03] Stacy Havener: true. I mean, I think on a lot of levels people wanna cheer for us also.
[00:15:08] Like it's super brave to start a business. So they want you to feel like, yeah, you know, go and do this and I'm behind you. But there is this real. Thing of like, okay, now it's time to get clients and no one shows up. And that is like, it's almost shocking 'cause you're like, but wait, everyone was so c but you, but you, yeah, exactly.
[00:15:30] But you disrupt it. What happened? Yeah. Oh yeah. She worked through that. Yeah.
[00:15:35] Devon Drew Raw: Oh, it was humbling. Even now, right? It's, it's all humbling. And, and I'll never forget my first client, who's actually a client of yours, Rodney, with ch with Channing. Oh, right. Rodney Harrington. Love Rodney to death. Me too. Anytime.
[00:15:48] Me too. You call them always gonna pick up. Right. And you always remember your first,
[00:15:51] Stacy Havener: yeah. Right. Someone that wrote it,
[00:15:52] Devon Drew Raw: someone that wrote a check and was like, Hey man, it's early. I believe in you. You'll figure it out.
[00:15:57] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm. Right.
[00:15:58] Devon Drew Raw: But to get to that [00:16:00] first client, it took so much.
[00:16:02] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm. It took
[00:16:03] Devon Drew Raw: hearing everything in the world.
[00:16:05] Oh, I gotta, I, you know, I gotta talk to this person, that person. You realize a lot of things from a client perspective, right? You start realizing who your ideal customer profile
[00:16:13] Stacy Havener: is. Mm.
[00:16:15] Devon Drew Raw: Right? And the further away you are from there, that's when you're just hear a ton of, oh, this is great, this is great, but no, no action being done.
[00:16:23] Mm-hmm.
[00:16:23] Stacy Havener: But the
[00:16:24] Devon Drew Raw: closer you start getting to your, your ideal customer profile and the pain points that they're feeling. Mm. Right. That's when you start getting the more intricate, the more in depth questions that at the time, I was not prepared to. So then you realize, okay, I'm getting close, but I don't know anything about anything business wise.
[00:16:42] Right. So then that's a whole nother can of worms. Right. And you had to get together everything in a deck, in a data room and financials and projections. Right. Which is a whole nother story for another day. Right. But it's until you start solving real world problems for your work clients. Yeah. That's when you start getting [00:17:00] the real feedback that allows you to actually grow a business, even see if you have a business.
[00:17:04] Stacy Havener: That's right.
[00:17:04] Devon Drew Raw: Right. So it been been a journey.
[00:17:07] Stacy Havener: Yeah. Wouldn't it be cool if you could diversify your investor base and add some non-US investors? Europe could be fun, or Latin America, maybe Antarctica. Hey, icebergs aren't really my jam, but you never know. You've only got one problem. How the heck do you do that?
[00:17:26] Fair question. Maybe this is a who not how thing. Meet my friends at Gem Cap. Not only do they handle all the back office stuff, the how. They'll also solve the who in your distribution conundrum. They have an incredible network of distribution partners who can help you sell the thing. Once you've built the thing.
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[00:18:38] So talk about. I wanna come back to this 'cause I remember when you launched and I remember sort of watching, you know what you were saying, kinda. And I was like, dang, this guy is polished. He's kind of fancy. He came out of Vanguard, he's got his shit together. It's like all organized. Plus you're in this super like high tech industry and I remember like with the [00:19:00] popcorn, like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
[00:19:02] And so I want you to know that even though you felt. Like, oh my God, this is so difficult. Outwardly, you looked like you knew exactly what you were doing.
[00:19:12] Devon Drew Raw: That means a lot. Yeah. Right, because you really did. I know I did because I know I did what I was doing. No, no one does.
[00:19:17] Stacy Havener: That's the secret. That's the secret to entrepreneurship.
[00:19:20] Nobody knows what they're doing. Everyone's making it up as we go. So go back to like. You mentioned there was this opportunity that you saw for distribution to be disrupted, and you had a perfect seat to this because you had been in distribution for your entire career and at one of the largest global asset managers.
[00:19:41] So what did you see that needed, you know, a new way, a different way that, what was that?
[00:19:49] Devon Drew Raw: So. Raising capital, whether you're at a $10 firm or you're a startup, it's still a belly to belly.
[00:19:55] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm. Business.
[00:19:56] Devon Drew Raw: Right. It's a trust in the flesh. It's, I look in your [00:20:00] eyes, look at you look in my eyes, and we're developing a trust.
[00:20:02] Right. That part is not going to change, but the operational inefficiencies to even get meetings.
[00:20:10] Stacy Havener: Mm. Right.
[00:20:11] Devon Drew Raw: It's so outdated. It is so spray and pray.
[00:20:15] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm. Right. You
[00:20:16] Devon Drew Raw: have to fill up a calendar with 20 meetings through the head. The advisor community in this case, they don't wanna meet with you, right? So like you're pulling out all the stops to try to fill out a calendar and kind of, there's some math behind it, right?
[00:20:30] I mean, if I had to do 20 meetings in a week, I had to do, um, a roughly 30 minutes of prep per meeting, right? So. You're going in, you're doing 600 minutes of prep work just for these meetings. Right. You know, and if you think about like an ROI model, right? So just for meeting prep, what about D the firms and the advisors you're talking to?
[00:20:50] Right? So before anything you have to, you have to diligence and you have distribute. Those three things cost us. So much time [00:21:00] and money as an industry. Mm-hmm. So I said, well, if there's a technology that allowed our industry to discover diligence and distribute faster than we ever had before, ideally without a human in the loop, ideally having an automated sequence.
[00:21:13] And if you think about the $50 billion or so, it's probably more now that is spent on distribution, 70 plus percent of that goes into headcount. Headcount related resources. Right. We have a bloated industry. Yeah, we do. I love our industry, but it's bloated.
[00:21:27] Stacy Havener: Yep.
[00:21:28] Devon Drew Raw: It is right for disruption. So all those times that I was spending doing meeting prep, trying to figure out who I need to talk to, going through all these data packs, I would fall asleep in a courtyard by Marriott with two data packs tied to my chest in a, in an iPad next to me, just to try to figure out who do I need to talk to to be able to try to raise the capital from,
[00:21:47] Stacy Havener: yeah,
[00:21:48] Devon Drew Raw: and it's just like all of this fragmented data out there.
[00:21:50] You have inefficiencies in prospecting. All of that was kind of like, you know what? Gotta do something. Now's the time.
[00:21:57] Stacy Havener: Yeah. Right.
[00:21:57] Devon Drew Raw: And I didn't know it at the time, but [00:22:00] the technology that we, or the technology that I developed, even back in 20 20, 21, and we recently, you know, got some IP protection around it.
[00:22:10] It made all the sense in the world at the time because I'm like, if we could just somehow correlate all of this unstructured, fragmented data. Mm-hmm. All these different sources with the ability to try to. Automated at some point. Well then I don't need to spend all those times, I don't need to spend the 30 minutes per prepping, right?
[00:22:29] I don't need to spend the two hours doing diligence of who I need to speak to and why I don't need to try to go to Facebook, to LinkedIn, to someone's website, right? The full FBI 360. A potential investor, I would have all of that at my fingertips at the ready so I could do what my organizations were paying me to do, which is press some flesh.
[00:22:53] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:22:54] Devon Drew Raw: And it's the nuances of that, that's not going away. But the leading up to that I [00:23:00] think was RIP for disruption.
[00:23:01] Stacy Havener: Oh my gosh. Absolutely. And anybody who's been in that seat knows. How much work it is to prepare for those meetings. And to your point, like they're not all gonna hit, there's a conversion ratio.
[00:23:15] So you're doing, like, if you actually take that work and those hours and, and apply it to what actually converts, it's massive amount of lift.
[00:23:24] Devon Drew Raw: It really is. And then kind of taking a full circle on the distribution side, how much time do your clients spend. Sending personalized emails out. Right. Oh my God.
[00:23:33] And like I was one of those typers, and I'm typing like this and I'm trying to draw personalization, so my emails will get answered. That all has to stop. Right. And with modern technology, there's too much data out here about me. You all, the allocators, the LPs, the advisors we're at scale. We need to be able to meet and I think about the future, do those three things.
[00:23:54] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:23:54] Devon Drew Raw: Discover, diligence, distribute, discover, diligence, distribute, do it, have it all automated, have all the data [00:24:00] points, all correlated, draw hyper-personalization. So we could at scale, get to the bottom line, which is how do I get in front of this person? Yeah. So I can shake the money trick.
[00:24:10] Stacy Havener: I mean, I think, and this is really in my mind, where technology plays a massive role potentially.
[00:24:17] Because if you can get it to do the things that are rote, that are repeatable, that don't require or don't benefit from the human touch, then you can take the human part of it and lean in even more to make those experiences that much more special. Exactly. And I think what happens sometimes is like. We think, oh, AI is so cool.
[00:24:43] It's gonna do my entire job. And you're like, no. If done right, it would do the 80% of your job. That is repeatable. That doesn't really benefit from having a human do it like personalizing an email. Right? High divine, right, like Connecticut, don't, Connecticut State. I didn't add any jazz to that, right? [00:25:00] But the meeting itself, that's an opportunity for us to be friends.
[00:25:04] That's an opportunity for us to get to know each other. That's where you want the human. So I love the model. I mean, I have so many questions of like, how the heck did you know how to build this? Because I agree, but like to actually say, and I'm gonna build the thing that's gonna do those three Ds that need to happen.
[00:25:22] I mean, I don't even know how you squared that in your mind.
[00:25:27] Devon Drew Raw: Why used to have hair. Right.
[00:25:31] Stacy Havener: I mean it's, that's, that's a massive undertaking. Oh man. And like the tech side, I mean
[00:25:36] Devon Drew Raw: Yeah. You know, I think about on a personal side, right? I think about the amount of time and money and resources spent even getting to where we are now.
[00:25:45] Right. And the interesting about tech is you could build something and it's obsolete in too much.
[00:25:51] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:25:51] Devon Drew Raw: Right. And you've like, damn, I just spent $20,000 in the past month in resources building this out, and now it's obsolete. Right. So it's, it's more than [00:26:00] just even, you know, it's more than just even the build, right?
[00:26:03] It's like how do you stay ahead of change? Yeah. Right. In an environment where change has never been more rapid.
[00:26:09] Stacy Havener: Seriously, can you tell us now? I'm just asking questions that I wanna know the answer to. That's why I have a podcast. Okay. The thing you did with Google. What was up with that? That looked insanely awesome.
[00:26:23] Devon Drew Raw: Google's an incredible partner. Um, you think about the resources that they provide for you to grow and to kind of incubate your idea. So essentially it's Google for Startups, an incredible opportunity, and we were selected off of the thousands of thousands of applicants and to get real world hands on training from the best of best, right?
[00:26:47] Not just on the tech side, but even on the go to market side, on the storytelling side. Right. And people think about who was just a tech firm, but it's just, it's, it's so much more. And we had the, um, [00:27:00] embarrassment of riches at our, at our it still do. Right? As a, as an as an alumni. So we stayed pretty, you know, we stay close to our Google mentors and, and shout to those cloud credits that we get to, that we gotta to burn through and Yeah.
[00:27:12] So they had outside Mountain View went out, right? Yeah, yeah. We would, we would go out to Mountain View California, uh, which is a very long flight, but, but worth it, right? And just seeing, just being around the innovation. Wow.
[00:27:23] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:27:24] Devon Drew Raw: Right. Just being. In Silicon Valley, like you just feel like you're getting smarter, even if you're, you know, even if you're not.
[00:27:31] Yeah. Um, the, how people think about the world, right? When we're out there, it's like there's people that are trying to really disrupt life, right? God, like we're vertical, right? So we're a vertical company. Vertical ai, investment distribution. There's people within those walls that are trying to disrupt life, right?
[00:27:53] Uber or the next truly disruptive technology is being incubated in those walls. And just to be [00:28:00] around that just felt amazing, you know? So I have chills.
[00:28:03] Stacy Havener: That must have been like one of the best experiences like that is so cool.
[00:28:08] Devon Drew Raw: It was an incredible experience. Right? And even in New York, whether it's their New York office or their San Francisco offices, just hearing from the teams out there, right?
[00:28:18] And how they think about business holistically. I just, I can't say enough about the experience and what I learned from a leadership standpoint as well.
[00:28:28] Stacy Havener: Yeah. Right. Because
[00:28:28] Devon Drew Raw: there's future leaders, you know, in, in those walls. You know, there's just disruption in the walls, right? There's even a cohort that I was a part of, one already got acquired and there was no way, right?
[00:28:39] So it's, you think about being at the front lines of not what's now, but what's next,
[00:28:45] Stacy Havener: right? Mm. And
[00:28:46] Devon Drew Raw: what that allowed us to do is piece together a roadmap. Would allow us to stay a year or so ahead. Ahead. Right. So while people are talking, you know, so like, you know, it's funny, I feel like I'm pretty [00:29:00] active on LinkedIn staying abreast to what's going on.
[00:29:02] Right. So, you know, we were talking AI ML 2021, right. And now you're starting to see people talking about, oh, AI and agents and like mm-hmm. Right? We're, you know, we're onto, you know, we're onto the autonomous. Right. And then from the, you know, then from the autonomous, like continue to iterate from there. So it is definitely humbling to be a part of like cohorts and part of Google.
[00:29:24] Mm-hmm. Because you're seeing kind of what's now and what's next. And I truly believe when I wake up every morning, I believe that I'm building tomorrow, today. Yeah.
[00:29:32] Stacy Havener: I like that, that staying ahead is real. You know, the other thing I really like about, thanks for giving us a glimpse. The other thing I really like about this is I feel like Silicon Valley.
[00:29:45] As an industry, if you will, just like that entrepreneurial vibe, that software vibe, that whole spirit out there. It's very collegial. You have the successful founders, entrepreneurs, and companies sort of feeding the next [00:30:00] generation of businesses and participating in those business economically and mentorship and support and all the things.
[00:30:07] And then, you know, you turn and look at Wall Street and it's like zero sum game times a thousand. We're not helping anybody. We're cutting people out at the knees. Like in order for me to succeed, you all have to fail. Like WTF. I mean, I think that model of how they incubate and innovate and support each other is so inspiring and so critical to a healthy ecosystem, and I wish that would happen more on the asset management.
[00:30:38] Side, like on Wall Street that you'd see the big firms incubating the, the next generation of boutiques. You'd see them providing support and cohorts and things like this for, and it just doesn't happen. And it's like a heartbreaker for me. So I feel like there are lessons in your experience that are so applicable, that's entrepreneurship.
[00:30:58] Doesn't matter what [00:31:00] industry you're in, it should be happening here too.
[00:31:02] Devon Drew Raw: It should be, you know, but our industry, it is for a reason, right. There's a lot of friction. Definitely a lot of friction, but there's a ton of money to be made.
[00:31:10] Stacy Havener: I know when there's friction. I
[00:31:11] Devon Drew Raw: know, right? So as long as that pot of gold is at the, is at the end of that rainbow, you know, it's probably,
[00:31:15] Stacy Havener: it's hard for people.
[00:31:16] It's probably much change
[00:31:17] Devon Drew Raw: anytime soon. So I, I, I get that right. And to the victory, go to spoil. So, yeah. You know, I get that because, you know, at the end of the day, I wake up trying to take my unfair share. Right.
[00:31:28] Stacy Havener: Well it's survival though. This survival, it's survival. Right,
[00:31:32] Devon Drew Raw: right. I'm, I'm all for having a good time, but I'm here to eat somebody's lunch.
[00:31:37] Stacy Havener: Yeah,
[00:31:38] Devon Drew Raw: right. No, but you know,
[00:31:39] Stacy Havener: challenge, respectful challenge though because Yeah, really for you, like if I sit and say, okay, it's nice 'cause like I've seen a demo and it's fantastic, but like really there's nobody I would argue. You probably know that there's like competitors, but to me it's like the real competition here in my [00:32:00] opinion, is an old way of, it's an old playbook.
[00:32:03] It's an old way of thinking. Biggest competition thinking. That is the biggest competition. Yeah. Is that the industry and sales or you know, the sales infrastructure inside asset management houses doesn't understand how they could even implement this. It's a massive change.
[00:32:22] Devon Drew Raw: You know, it's, it's really interesting you say that.
[00:32:24] So my next call is with one of our clients that we're doing a pretty large integration with, right? Mm-hmm. And you start thinking, so we're talking to head of distribution national sales in the first two things outta our mouth. Like where the heck do we start? Yeah. Right? Like, how are our wholesalers that traditionally carried a spreadsheet around for the past 20 years gonna adopt this nature technology?
[00:32:45] So that we get our return on our investment.
[00:32:47] Stacy Havener: Yes. I love this. And how do you talk to 'em about that?
[00:32:51] Devon Drew Raw: Right. So it's, it's going at it together. It's developing custom prompts that fit their use case, that fit their product set, that fit their competition, [00:33:00] and continue to drill down to where that's part of their everyday life.
[00:33:03] And you start thinking about like, well, how do you use AI distribution for lead generation, for meeting prep, for being able to build out your territory? The good news is all those answers are within a data set somewhere. Mm-hmm. The tough part is it's in the data somewhere. Right. And it's your job to parse through it.
[00:33:21] So how do we turn all of that into your day-to-day workflows? Right. So what we're doing with that is we're working together with them to build that out in their CRM system. Right? 'cause we don't want any disruption from the day-to-day. We want it to be as natural as possible. Yeah. And that is probably the biggest challenge for anything, right?
[00:33:39] It's like the hybrid model. Like how do you, how do you integrate this, you know, with your natural life, right? So you're definitely right on that. The, the biggest competition is the old way of doing it
[00:33:48] Stacy Havener: is the old way. So I want you to paint a picture because I can, like, I can get back there. I can remember the card carrying the spreadsheet, carrying days.
[00:33:56] I remember 'em well. So [00:34:00] paint a picture for me. I'm a wholesaler. I'm a salesperson. I'm an institutionalist, so who cares? Right? Right. What does my day look like in the new way? Let's pretend I had this system running for me. Like, let me see it. Let me feel how my life is gonna be different. So I get to my desk, am I making 500 dials?
[00:34:20] Devon Drew Raw: You're not making five if you wanna Sure. Go right ahead. Right. The the way things need to go right to maximize efficiency and productivity is you wake up on a Monday morning and whether you're typing or texting it, you say, show me all the advisors from, you know, a hundred million dollars to $500 million and a u that are increasing your allocation to ETFs that have a propensity to purchase active carbon swap products.
[00:34:46] Right.
[00:34:47] Stacy Havener: No, I don't type that in. And it gives me something.
[00:34:51] Devon Drew Raw: And you have your 15 people, your 20 people that have the highest likelihood of buying that type of product based [00:35:00] off of all the available internal external data, right? And then it's what is the best way to engage with those people? Then you're going to have a roadmap.
[00:35:08] You're gonna know the best times to reach out based off of all of your emails that you've sent and got responded. You're gonna know, based off the times they've been posting on social, you're gonna know what to what, what the flag to be able to mention to them, right? And then it's gonna be hyper-personalized based off of who you are as a person and then who the allocator is, or who the advisor is, right?
[00:35:27] That is how the forward thinking world, and that's what conversations we're having with our clients are gonna be. No more mail merges, right Love. Mail merges. I still like the concept of it, right? No more mail merges. No more data packs. Right. No more, no more toggling, no more filtering. It's being able to speak in natural language, to find your ideal client profile faster than you ever had before, so you can get there, get to diligence, get to distribution so you can get to the money.
[00:35:55] Right? Because these firms, like if you're at American Funds or BlackRock or Vanguard, your [00:36:00] goal isn't getting any smaller, right?
[00:36:01] Stacy Havener: No. Their are massive, are gonna continue
[00:36:03] Devon Drew Raw: to go higher and higher. So how do you do more of less?
[00:36:07] Stacy Havener: Okay, so I come in, I sit down, I'm gonna type this incredibly detailed question in, or whatever I'm doing, and it's gonna give me, I'm saying, this is what I'm looking for and it's gonna come back and it's giving me, so again, here's my old way, head space, it's gonna gimme a list.
[00:36:25] You can correct me. Okay. So to gimme a list. And now with that list, I start making phone calls. Tell me how I'm wrong there. So.
[00:36:35] Devon Drew Raw: If you're right, you're still gonna be sending out phone calls. Right. But if it's emails, that's when,
[00:36:43] Stacy Havener: right.
[00:36:44] Devon Drew Raw: Then it's once people, it's. Create a customized email to each one of them.
[00:36:50] Integrate my data, who I'm as a person with their data, who they're as a person, include my fact sheet commentary, summary perspectives, and pull keywords from their website and [00:37:00] what's on the fact sheets and what's on the commentary. And also create a lighthearted joke in there based off of what you've seen on their social and send it to everybody.
[00:37:08] And then if they respond, include my calendar link in there so that they could book it so I don't have to talk to anybody so I could wake up and have meetings on my calendar. So that's the future state, state, that's bonkers. And the state after that is, you know how I think you know what type of people I target.
[00:37:25] Hit a button, do it all for me.
[00:37:27] Stacy Havener: Because it learns. So the point being that the first few times you do it, you're giving it a lot of pro, just like with any chat GPT sort of thing. Correct? Correct. You're giving a lot of prompts. It's gotta learn your style, it's gotta learn and then over time it gets Is that what autonomy, what is at, when you said you're onto autonomous, what does that mean?
[00:37:43] Is that what? That
[00:37:44] Devon Drew Raw: so that's right. So when you start thinking about the next, right? Yeah. When I say that I'm building like we're building tomorrow, today it is with enough data of how you and your clients interact with. LPs and data and their workflows, we'd be able [00:38:00] to remove the human out of it. So instead of me doing all of this and okay, I have six months of data on you now, and I know how you interact with your investors and your advisors and your LPs.
[00:38:09] I know your workflow to get that type of meeting. So we could replicate that without a human. It's called human outta. So that is the, that is kind of the next iteration. There needs to be a lot of trust built.
[00:38:20] Stacy Havener: Yeah. Before
[00:38:21] Devon Drew Raw: you get to that place. But you start thinking about the future of fundraising. The future of fundraising looks still belly to belly, still pressing palms.
[00:38:28] But that operationally it could look very different.
[00:38:33] Stacy Havener: You know, it's so interesting. So, God, I have so many ques, okay, so the first thing is now you've got, the organization has to adopt this. So that's like, there's that. Mm-hmm. Then the people have to adopt it. Mm-hmm. So you've got these people who are old way and they're ingrained, so they need like training, and then it all just feels like super heavy and scary.
[00:38:53] I'm sure. And also, I'm sure there's a big budget that's attached to that because there is a big budget, [00:39:00] a huge deployment of tech and training and customization and all the things you would need it to do.
[00:39:07] Devon Drew Raw: Mm-hmm. There's a budget associated with fitting is not a small one.
[00:39:11] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:39:11] Devon Drew Raw: Right. But there's two school of thoughts there.
[00:39:13] Right. Okay. There's the big heavy implementation firms lean in, say, Hey, we need this. We need to customize our people based off how we operate. And then there's the. Off the shelf way of getting access to kind of all this technology. Right? And the way I see this is that as it continues to iterate, becomes kind of mainstream how people operate from a wholesaler, national account, institutional cetera.
[00:39:37] Right? There's gonna be more opportunities for just off the shelf. Yeah. You know, you think of like think, think of like CHATT T, but more verticalized to like our Yeah. Specific industry, right? So that's, so you have your CHATT T type where it's like outta the box here, set it and forget it because you're not getting any customizations.
[00:39:54] And then there's the actual implementing and building it inside of a organization's infrastructure. [00:40:00]
[00:40:00] Stacy Havener: So I love that because you know, of course. I think it's great that the bigs are gonna have this technology, and they have the budgets to do it, and you deserve it and so do they. And that's awesome. And then I also think about from the boutiques perspective, where it's really difficult to compete with the bigs.
[00:40:18] And even for myself, I think about this like. It's expensive to stand up a sales team. It's super expensive to stand up a like experienced sales team. And if I was just sitting down like dreaming up what I would dream up for our boutique friends, it'd be like, gosh, if you could have like one sales person, but they could function like five,
[00:40:43] Devon Drew Raw: right?
[00:40:44] Stacy Havener: And if you could use the tech to do all the blocking and tackling as a mm-hmm. You know, whatever. Mm-hmm. And setting up those meetings and then giving that one salesperson the ability to sort of take it from there, so to speak. Right. Or, or facilitate that. That's a dream. [00:41:00] That's a dream. And the, and the spend between paying five experienced salespeople versus one plus tech.
[00:41:09] Devon Drew Raw: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I would actually think there
[00:41:10] Stacy Havener: would be a cost savings.
[00:41:12] Devon Drew Raw: Big cost savings. Yeah, big cost savings. And it's in and, and for a boutique firm, yearly, it's in the six figures. Right. So, and that's why we've developed both the solution for the boutique plug and play. Here's the, here's the ROI. Right.
[00:41:24] For this type of subscription you'll see about 200 some thousand dollars in, in net benefit. Right.
[00:41:30] Stacy Havener: Oh, you can help them see that?
[00:41:32] Devon Drew Raw: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
[00:41:36] Stacy Havener: And also, and then there's sort of like the group in the middle. That group in the middle, that's like not the super specialized boutique.
[00:41:46] Mm-hmm. And not the big, not the vanguard. Mm-hmm. But there's that like mm-hmm middle, the middle child of the industry that also has real challenges because they're big and they have budget, but they're. BlackRock [00:42:00] big, and then they're not like specialized enough to sort of lean into like, you know, the founder led boutique kind of story.
[00:42:07] I would imagine that that middle ground, gosh, if I'm them, I'm like, give me this because this makes me give it, give it to me. Yeah,
[00:42:14] Devon Drew Raw: give it to me by tomorrow. Right. And, and think about that mid-tier firm that has a big challenge, right? A lot of 'em are mutual fund heavy and you know, you're going from.
[00:42:24] Basis point product down to a 50, 60 basis point product, and you have to find a creative way to fix that. You know, fix the delta between the legacy products versus the products you have now. Right? Where is that delta gonna come from, right? Yeah. Are you gonna sell your way out of it with more headcount?
[00:42:44] Stacy Havener: Maybe, maybe not,
[00:42:46] Devon Drew Raw: probably not. Probably not. You have at the margins, it's going to be a tech enabled solution that's going to be able to help these mid-tier in maybe to 500, [00:43:00] or maybe that's 50 to, you know, 50 to two 50 type firms. But they're going to be the ones that need to lean on tech. Because you don't wanna be obsolete, right?
[00:43:11] When the market, market market downturn, and you need to be well positioned in the way that you have that multiplier effect is by technology.
[00:43:21] Stacy Havener: Yeah. So as somebody who's all about authenticity. I have to admit, like I was not an early adopter of chat GPT. Like I, I have friends who are super into it and I try things here or there and I get it, but like, make me feel better about that because there is a part of me that's like, oh, but if I not just type Devon's name, but if I actually like take the time to write him an email and it's from me and I talk about, Hey, it was great, a future proof, or I make a joke about the wealthiest or whatever it is like.
[00:43:53] How do I square the wanting the help from the efficiency side, but also [00:44:00] the fear of losing the authenticity side.
[00:44:03] Devon Drew Raw: Authenticity. A lot of times, especially with emails, with with ai, it could seem just so generated, right? And you're like, mm-hmm.
[00:44:11] Stacy Havener: This
[00:44:12] Devon Drew Raw: is so corny. Yeah. I think there's two things there. One. You could prompt it to be casual and speak in your tone, right?
[00:44:19] Ah, yeah. So going, so, so if you, let's say you connect your chat gt to your Google instance, right? And you have all your dots and how you write and your emails, it could start getting a sense of, of, of how you write. Um, I'm one of those people that I like personalized emails as well, but I also know that man, it's like, but too many hours in a day.
[00:44:38] Right? I know. So I need to, I need, I need to, I need to darn help on the, on the email. You're so right. I, I, so for me, I always. Prompt my emails in a casual tone.
[00:44:49] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm. And
[00:44:49] Devon Drew Raw: I'll have our system read through my emails and, and mimic, so to speak, so it does sound, it does sound more authentic. Mm-hmm. Then there's that, that ugly dreaded, very long [00:45:00] hyphen that it's automatically everyone, everyone
[00:45:01] Stacy Havener: hates that thing.
[00:45:03] Devon Drew Raw: Yeah, that's kind of, it's, yeah, every, everyone is kind of just like, okay, this is clearly ai, AI written, right? So I used to make myself more efficient, right? So I don't, yeah, I don't, I don't do all my emails or et cetera, but like it gives me a good starting off point love, right? For kind of what I'm doing.
[00:45:18] I love that right there.
[00:45:19] Stacy Havener: I think that is so smart because listen, once, once you have a funnel, like there's a place for like. Hey, we're having a webinar and join us. Like, I'm not gonna like pour my heart out to, you know, Devon in that email. So there's a place for the, for the efficiency to step in. And then there's a place where you might wanna just write.
[00:45:38] An email. Email as a friend and as a trusted partner to somebody. And it's not that you can't do that. Yeah. Yeah. So I agree with you. I think it's great. Yeah, for sure. Well, okay, I wanna end with a couple questions to let us get to know you a little more.
[00:45:55] Devon Drew Raw: Let's do it.
[00:45:56] Stacy Havener: Okay. Ready? I mean, I may you can do podcasts 'cause I know you're a [00:46:00] tech guy, so maybe this is like too old school for you.
[00:46:02] What book inspires you?
[00:46:05] Devon Drew Raw: So I'm a Big Alchemist fan. Um, but you know, recently I'm actually on a journey writing my own book. So I am hoping to be inspired by, by my own words. Um, you know, it's just come up mid next year called the Data Disruption. Um,
[00:46:22] Stacy Havener: I love it.
[00:46:22] Devon Drew Raw: And so that's been taking up a lot of my free time.
[00:46:25] So when I wasn't, you know, reading now, you know, now I'm on the other side of it. So, uh, that's an interesting
[00:46:32] Stacy Havener: journey.
[00:46:33] Devon Drew Raw: Interesting. Uh, flip to the script.
[00:46:35] Stacy Havener: Do you have a hero book, like a book that you're like, oh, I really like if I could like a book that you're kind of like, if I could be like that, but my version of that, did you have to do that?
[00:46:45] Devon Drew Raw: No, I didn't. I didn't have to do that. Um. You know, it was more from, it was like a hybrid between like, me coming with my experience, you know, versus like, you know, what's, what's happening in the marketplace Yeah. Versus
[00:46:57] Stacy Havener: what's
[00:46:57] Devon Drew Raw: the future? Right. And, and took all of those [00:47:00] themes together to, to write it and, oh, it's so exciting.
[00:47:02] Um, yeah, it's, it's taken a, uh, it's taken a lot. Right. Even, you know, even now, like deliver, man, it's, it's not a, it's, it's, it's definitely a commitment to, to get to the offer.
[00:47:13] Stacy Havener: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, when it's ready, I'm, I'm offering up my services as a reader. Um, I love that for you and I am cheering for you and will help anyway I can.
[00:47:26] Thank you. Thank you. So from books to Places, what place inspires you?
[00:47:33] Devon Drew Raw: So. I'm a big fan of Greece. Um, my friends and I, we go, we've gone every year since like 2016, and those same friends were my original investors, right? Oh, you know, from, you know, the people that bet on you and they that know you personally.
[00:47:53] So I get inspired every time, every time I step foot in Greece. [00:48:00] Obviously it's beautiful, you know, beautiful scenery, beautiful friends, beautiful music. Everything is just inspiring. Right. Yeah. And it makes you, everyone is, you know, and my friend was very successful, right. And it just, it's, it inspires me to, I gotta have a great time this week, but as soon as this week is over mm-hmm.
[00:48:19] Gotta get back to it. Right. Because, uh, that stuff obviously isn't, isn't free. Yeah.
[00:48:25] Stacy Havener: And well, right, and also what I like is it's a kind of, it's a slower pace there, isn't it? That whole Mediterranean. Yeah, absolutely. That whole vibe of living. It's gotta be a nice balance for you in the space you're in now.
[00:48:40] Although I think you're probably always been this way, just like super high paced, super focused. Yes. So I love that you have. The ability to sort of just step back, slow it down. Yeah.
[00:48:49] Devon Drew Raw: Yep, yep, yep. Absolutely.
[00:48:50] Stacy Havener: Okay. I'm really, really excited for the next question. So your book is out. You're gonna take the stage to do a talk based on said [00:49:00] book before you take the stage.
[00:49:03] What song do they play as your walkout anthem? Like what's your hype up song?
[00:49:09] Devon Drew Raw: So I have to go back to the nineties. And I have to go back to the, I call it the like Chicago Bulls theme song.
[00:49:20] Stacy Havener: Ooh.
[00:49:21] Devon Drew Raw: Okay. And I was a basketball fan growing up and you know who doesn't love when? Michael Jordan, number 23 from North Carolina six six.
[00:49:29] And they have the, and it's the Allen Parsons project. The song is called Serious, and I would 100% be walking up to that song, no questions asked. I dream about it. It's, it's, it's a thing, right? So are you doing the
[00:49:44] Stacy Havener: basketball while you walk out? You know,
[00:49:47] Devon Drew Raw: I, I've the hand up and, and, and we're good to go. I love it was an easy.
[00:49:53] Stacy Havener: That's so good. Okay. This is interesting. What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt? [00:50:00]
[00:50:00] Devon Drew Raw: Well, shoot, I'm trying to author things now. Um, you know, I, I hear they have an over 40 like flag football league. Right. So, like, you know, I, I would, I would get back in a game. I would, I would put some bega on my knees and, you know, put some, put some wraps around my, around my hands and I would, I would go try to What position would you
[00:50:20] Stacy Havener: play?
[00:50:21] Devon Drew Raw: So I would play defensive back. Okay. Um, I would try my hand on, on receiver. I probably lost a step or two or five, so I wouldn't have the speed anymore, but I could still react probably. But yeah, I, I, I definitely would try my hands in that. It's so good. And hope I don't tear a knee and have to have a year's worth of rehab.
[00:50:40] Yeah.
[00:50:41] Stacy Havener: Hopefully we don't see at the next conference. And you're crutching about Right.
[00:50:44] Devon Drew Raw: Exactly. That'd be a terrible, that'd be a terrible story. Terrible,
[00:50:46] Stacy Havener: terrible,
[00:50:47] Devon Drew Raw: terrible.
[00:50:48] Stacy Havener: Okay. Flip side, what profession would you not like to do?
[00:50:51] Devon Drew Raw: I wouldn't wanna get back in this bus, in this industry. Right. I mean, like if we, you know, if we're It's tough,
[00:50:57] Stacy Havener: isn't it?
[00:50:58] Devon Drew Raw: It's tough. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough, [00:51:00] right? So I wouldn't, so specifically I think raising capital was extremely difficult, right?
[00:51:07] Stacy Havener: Yeah.
[00:51:07] Devon Drew Raw: It takes a certain level of grit. I did it for a very long time. You did it for a long time.
[00:51:11] Stacy Havener: Mm-hmm.
[00:51:12] Devon Drew Raw: It is not easy. You have to have thick skin, um, after you it for a certain, certain time and you're out of it.
[00:51:18] You kind of feel like I, I, I, you know, obviously the entrepreneur I'm still in every day, but I would not wanna go back into it, like starting, you know, no, starting like right now versus everything that's out there right now. I, yeah, I, I think I'd have to pass on that.
[00:51:31] Stacy Havener: It's, I, you know, I so appreciate you saying that, and also I think it has gotten more difficult.
[00:51:39] Post COVID because I feel like before COVID, that was just like the way of the world. We were traveling every week doing the things, and then after COVID people are like, but that's tiring. And I'm not home and like, I don't know if I wanna live that lifestyle. I feel like it really shined a light on how hard everyone was grinding.
[00:51:59] Um, [00:52:00] anyone who was traveling like that, like really had to step back and say, wait a minute, what am I doing? What am
[00:52:04] Devon Drew Raw: I doing? I'm, I'm gonna flight to Riyadh. I'm gonna flight to Dubai. I'm gonna here, I'm gonna there. Yeah. It's,
[00:52:11] Stacy Havener: it was, it's, it's tough. It's tough. Okay. Last but not least, also a long time away.
[00:52:18] What do you want people to say about you after you've retired or left the industry or sold your business or whatever, fantastic thing you're gonna do next.
[00:52:27] Devon Drew Raw: This person was not supposed to succeed and defy the odds.
[00:52:31] Stacy Havener: Oh, I mean, hello. I have goosebumps. That is amazing also, uh, also ditto. Yeah, I love that.
[00:52:39] And you are defining the odds and you are doing the things. And I'm so incredibly proud of you and I'm cheering incredibly loudly for you. Um, if people wanna follow along or connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?
[00:52:54] Devon Drew Raw: So I, I am available on, on LinkedIn, Devon Drew, um, at Asset Link on, on all [00:53:00] social platforms and follow, follow our journey.
[00:53:02] And, and, um, you know, it's been a, it's been a very humbling experience. This, this entrepreneurial race. And I say, I say race mildly. Um, so yeah, the, the, the more folks that are cheering us on from the, from the sidelines, the, uh, the better.
[00:53:18] Stacy Havener: Yeah, well you got a big fan in me and I know there are people here who are gonna walk away and say, wow, not only is that person awesome, but like this future of fundraising and the way you're thinking about things challenges us in a very, very great way that we need.
[00:53:36] So thank you so much for being here.
[00:53:38] Devon Drew Raw: Thank you so much for having me, Stacy.
[00:53:40] Stacy Havener: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy.
[00:53:54] Investment values may fluctuate and past performance is not a guide to future performance. All [00:54:00] opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm. Manager's appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Haven or Haven or Capital Partners.
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