IAM2831 – Experienced Professional is Dedicated to Identifying Emerging Opportunities in Tech-driven Sectors and Fostering High-level professional Partnerships

Full Audio Transcription:

Justin Roopnarine 00:00
If I were to go back, it would just be to persevere. Right? I mean, one of the reasons I do this is I'm, I'm passionate about this. It's, I can wake up every day, I mean, still right now, right? I can still wake up every day and read the news, check, check the market, you know, indirect flights. It's fun to me. You know, I'm passionate about it the way it is, but, you know, so I would go back and tell myself and persevere.

Gresham Harkless 00:52
Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. And I have an awesome guest on the Joe show today. I have Justin Roopner. Justin, excited to have you on the show.

Justin Roopnarine 01:01
Wow, thank you again. Gresh. Great to be here.

Gresham Harkless 01:03
Yeah, super excited to have you on as well too and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Justin so you can hear about some of those awesome things and. Justin is a professional with a deep expertise at the intersection of finance, technology and innovation. He holds a Bachelor's of science in Electrical engineering and a Master's of Science in Mathematical finance, providing him with a unique technical and analytical foundation. Throughout his career, Justin has focused on leveraging these disciplines to drive growth and navigate complex financial landscapes. And he is currently dedicated to identifying emerging opportunities in tech driven sectors, fostering high level professional partnerships. Justin is a frequent guest on industry platforms where he shares insights on the evolving relationship between engineering principles and modern finance. And one of the favorite books that I have is book called Range. And a lot of it talks around like how in order to prepare for tomorrow, you need to have a range of different experiences, a lot of exposure to different things. So I love Justin's background just because a lot of times to be able to create the solutions for tomorrow, you need a range of those different experiences. Justin is definitely a example of that. So Justin, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Justin Roopnarine 02:15
Oh, of course, yeah. And thank you for that intro. That was very kind. And yeah, I like that point too about Range. That was how my career more or Less panned out, a wide variety.

Gresham Harkless 02:24
Yeah, absolutely. And it's so funny because things are evolving and changing so often that, you know, you have to make sure because what is the one silo ends up being in another. It all ends up melding a lot together. So I guess before we jump in and hear a little bit more on how you're approaching that, what you're doing. What I wanted to do was rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started. What I call your CEO story.

Justin Roopnarine 02:43
Yeah, so particularly for my CEO story. I mean, as you just mentioned, throughout my life, engineering has always been a passion of mine. And we formally started Limitless capital back in 2021. Funny. And stepping back a little bit too, right? You know, overall, my background mainly in engineering, but also in the military. I know you mentioned maybe a little bit earlier in the show, you know, your father was also on the Air Force. I too is also Air Force. You might be familiar. You know, engineering and military have a lot in common, such that they're very structured, discipline and you know, you have to know how to operate in like uncertain environments, so to say, you know, limitless capital, where my transition more or less into financial engineering was kind of the accumulation of all that. You know, I realized markets kind of operate in the same way. They're complex, unpredictable, there's high stakes. And that's how we more or less start Limitless Capital. With a few partners of mine.

Gresham Harkless 03:33
Absolutely. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more and hear a little bit more on how you're working with and serving your clients. Can you take us through a little bit more on what that looks like?

Justin Roopnarine 03:39
Yeah. As far as serving clients, what we do on a day to day basis, same thing. Let me step back a moment too. So myself, right. My official title is I'm a managing partner at Limitless Capital. We're a relative value hedge fund focused in the global equity space. You know, primarily right now we're working on scaling our operations, capital introductions and you know, of course, good conversations with good people, partnerships. So as far as interactions with clients. Right, our clients. So our so to called LPs or limited partners, essentially all that means is they're investors into the fundamentals. What is a fund, you might ask? All right. All we're doing is basically pooling money into a vehicle, you know, by so to say pooling money into a vehicle and that vehicle going out and making these respective investments, you essentially amplify your returns or losses, you know, being transparent there. But that's what we do. You know, I, as the general partner or you know, close alignment as a CEO, help manage that vehicle for the benefit of our LPs, our investors or our clients, so to say.

Gresham Harkless 04:42
Absolutely. So I'm curious like what you would consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce. It could be for yourself, the business or a combination of both. But I almost wonder if you have in that background, at least personally, especially from a military perspective, if that is part of that secret sauce. And what kind of sexual partner makes you unique?

Justin Roopnarine 04:59
Yeah, I mean, I would say in a way. Right. The variety or range of experiences really helped shape my decision making. And just you know, overall day to day life, you know, the wide variety of experiences compiled over time with the variety of people outcomes, it really did shape a few different things. I mean, as far as you know, what more or less makes Limitless or myself unique, maybe it's just as you said, that the accumulation of all those different experiences, from military to engineering to finance, to what it's become today. Right. You know, as far as you know what, why is Limitless unique from a fund perspective or why am I unique as a general partner? I would have to say this, right? Most people, when they think like hedge funds or stocks, what do you think they think, right? Hey, pick this, do that. Most people try to predict the markets as limitless capital. At Limitless Capital, we can't predict, so to say we're not sure of outcomes. I cannot tell you if stock this will go to 100 or you know, drop to zero. But we can control risk to a certain degree. Not just limitless capital, but as individuals we can control our risk, but you cannot always control the outcomes. And that ethos is what defines us. You know, as far as maybe some other things that makes us unique. You know, in the fun space, we are still very early on, you know, a lot of more experienced managers, they just go out and seek capital from their clients. Or maybe they've, you know, 20 year investment bank or some big bulge brink, they play with other people's money. So to say, hey Garresh, would you trust me with your money off the street? I don't think so. But what all that to say, hey, us at Limitless Capital, we're invested alongside, right? With you, you know, our capital is there too, so we have our skin in the game. And then maybe the controversial point, going back to the CEO point, I don't know if you really need to be that different. You don't, you know, maybe you said Unique selling proposition or selling point. Right. But as a CEO, I mean I think everyone has a general idea of what a CEO does, right? They are responsible for the day to day operations of the business. A partner is responsible for making the business work or firm work. So it's like maybe you don't have to have this crazy, hey, we do this X unique thing that no other firm in existence or corporation does. You know, it's just, hey, inherently being a CEO is you are responsible for your business. Just keep that in mind. And you're responsible to your clients. Must be a good steward.

Gresham Harkless 07:39
Absolutely. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book or a habit that you have. What's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

Justin Roopnarine 07:50
Something that makes me more efficient. Right. I mean, to be honest, I think a lot of the advice is already out there. Right. Hey, have a detailed decision making process, have a detailed risk management process, know how to block out time, etc. You know, I would like to think I don't want to just regurgitate all those. I mean I've seen a lot of episodes. I think a lot of other founders and CEOs not it. But a point that is important. Maybe it's like outside of being a CEO. Right. I'm sure you still have a family. Everyone else has still those other responsibilities. Block out time, of course for your everyday management roles, responsibilities to your firm, fund business, as silly as it sounds. But also block out time for the people you care about. Hey, 7pm Saturday is date night. Hey, you know, 10am Is maybe you have you go to church or something. Block out time to spend with people. Because often people forget, hey, at the end of the day you have other responsibilities too. Outside of your business. As much as the culture is, hey, you are non stop focused on this. I would say block out time for other things, other people too. You know, you gotta have a balance.

Gresham Harkless 08:58
Wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. Little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. You might've already touched on this, but I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client. Or if you have to tell a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Justin Roopnarine 09:09
Oh man, there's a lot of things that come to mind when it's like we can go back in time. Yeah, I think my, the ethos I have now is definitely different than when we started Limitless. Capital, you know, it was definitely a lot harder than I thought, you know, to go from zero to. Admittedly, we're still early stage, but even till now, I think what was his name? Jensen Wong said it the most or said it the best, right? If you were to go back and say, hey, you're going to make a video one day. But he said he wouldn't do it if it's too hard, I was like, wow, that blew my mind. But yeah, I mean, to that point, if I were to go back, it would just be to persevere, right? I mean, one of the reasons I do this is I'm passionate about this. It's, I can wake up every day, I mean still right now, right? I can still wake up every day, you know, read the news, check, check the market, you know, indirect flights. It's fun to me, you know, I'm passionate about it the way it is, but, you know, so I would go back and tell myself to persevere. At this point, it's definitely harder than I thought it would have been. And there's still a really long road to go, but just keep going. I mean, you know me, five years ago, I still the same passion, even more so than I do today. It's just the little lessons learned along the road like, hey, block out time for this, don't do these things, do, do these things. It's just, it's been a great journey. So persevere.

Gresham Harkless 10:40
Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And you touched on this a little bit. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. But Justin, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Justin Roopnarine 10:52
You know, I, I don't think I can really offer a better definition than your guests have already offered. You know, at the end of the day, if you take anything from this, being a CEO, you're responsible for the business. As simple as it sounds, right? You are responsible for the business. It's people, right? You've hired probably people or whatnot. You're responsible for their well being. How do you lead them? What is leadership? How do you inspire your personnel? What is stewardship? How do you, you know, are you a good, prudent, I guess, lack of a better word, steward of your investor's capital. Yeah, to that point, right? You're responsible for your LPs, you're responsible for the tax, you're responsible for choosing the branding or the little colors on the deck or whatnot. You are responsible and you have to lead. So as to far as, as far as to, you know, how you do it, you know it's going to be a journey. Hopefully you figure it out. But going back to that earlier point, if you're passionate about it, you wake up every day, you keep doing what you love to do, you're willing to learn from your mistakes and triumphs or whatnot, hey, you'll be a responsible CEO partner, et cetera, and the rest will hopefully come along.

Gresham Harkless 12:01
Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Well, Justin, truly appreciate that definition. Of course I appreciate your time even more. So what I want you to do now is pat you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people can get a hold of you and the team to find about all the awesome things that you

Justin Roopnarine 12:15
all are working on. Understood. No, Gresham, thank you again for allowing me on the show. This has been great. Hopefully I'm able to add the value to your audience. If anyone wants to reach out to me personally, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn and it's Justin. I know it's a tough last name, but always willing to help. Always willing to add value. And yeah, hopefully we can talk soon.

Gresham Harkless 12:38
Yeah, absolutely. And of course to make it even easier, we're gonna have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so everybody can follow up with you about all the awesome things that you're doing. But I truly appreciate you taking some out of your schedule to pop on the show and to provide some value for us and to be able to help us like understand like how best we can set ourselves up for success. And I think one of the really big takeaways for me is that so often we over glamorize maybe is the right word, the things that we're doing and not realizing that the power is in the execution. The power is in understanding what you're supposed to do and executing that on that on a regular basis. And I love that you all have been able to do that. I love that you remind us of that. And of course I appreciate you appreciate your time and I hope you have a problem.