Meet Eric Satz, a 53-year-old serial entrepreneur whose journey has taken him from selling frozen lemonade in Miami to revolutionizing the investment industry with Alto.
As a seasoned entrepreneur, Eric shares invaluable lessons learned through overcoming challenges, embracing resilience, and believing in the power of conviction. Discover how he navigated the ups and downs of his entrepreneurial career and the wisdom he has to offer to aspiring founders.
What are the challenges Eric Satz faced during his entrepreneurial journey?
At 53, Eric Satz is a serial entrepreneur who has made numerous mistakes before creating and launching Alto. With each new venture beginning as a small idea, he has faced resistance and doubt while exploring the viability of various business opportunities.
Startups have tested his conviction, resilience, and confidence. A famous Mike Tyson quote often cited in founder conversations is, “Everyone has a plan until you get hit in the face,” followed by, “It’s not how hard or far you fall, but how high you bounce back.”
Eric’s first entrepreneurial experience was selling frozen lemonade from an unairconditioned van in Miami, where he grew up. This endeavor taught him discipline and the importance of optimizing his route, as the more he sold, the more he made. In college, he took over the campus-wide newspaper distribution route for both The New York Times and The Boston Globe, learning the value of storytelling in sales, relating to customers, and exceeding expectations.
After college, he moved to New York City to start a career in investment banking before opening a coffee bar, which became his first significant business failure. Eric got everything wrong about retail: location, location, location. After moving to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2003 with his wife, they started an online delivery service called Plumgood Food. It grew steadily for several years until the economy crashed in 2008, shattering their business alongside countless others.
Eric then returned to investment banking and co-founded Currenex, the first online foreign currency exchange platform, which was eventually bought by State Street bank. This sale provided him with financial breathing room, and he decided to launch a VC fund investing in Tennessee-based businesses. Interestingly, it was his experiences as a VC that led him to Alto.
Realizing he should be using his retirement funds to make long-term, tax-advantaged investments in alternative assets like private companies, Eric found an industry that represented the single largest bucket of investable retail capital but hadn’t changed since its creation in the early 1970s.
Seeing a market void, he identified a way to fill it and viewed it as an opportunity to expand access to alternative assets for everyday Americans. This is a crucial part of entrepreneurship: identifying market gaps and creating solutions to bridge them.
How did he overcome them?
Eric admits that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for overcoming obstacles.
Instead, it’s about having the right attitude and approach. He emphasizes the importance of moving forward, embracing trial and error, being comfortable with making mistakes, and constantly problem-solving.
Believing that success is possible and celebrating victories, no matter the size, is essential. The way one gets up after being knocked down defines a company’s culture and resilience.
As a founder, Eric highlights three crucial factors:
- Hiring people who are smarter and have more experience or expertise than oneself;
- Hiring individuals who prioritize the company’s mission over the opportunity itself; and
- Ensuring one’s spouse is on board, as they are also along for the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship.
Eric credits his wife for keeping him in check, providing candid feedback, and offering unwavering love and support. Without her, he acknowledges that he couldn’t do what he does.
What are some of the lessons he learned along the way?
A poem by Edgar Albert Guest titled “It Couldn’t Be Done” was memorized by Eric in second or third grade, as instructed by his mother. The poem has remained with him and serves as his guiding light.
Whenever he encounters doubt or challenges from others, his determination to prove them wrong only grows stronger. Eric firmly believes that with enough conviction, anything is possible, which is why he adheres to the principle, “Know it can be done.”
What advice would Eric give other entrepreneurs starting out can learn from?
Eric advises against pursuing entrepreneurship solely for financial gain, as there are easier ways to accumulate wealth. He emphasizes the importance of being actively engaged in the process, adapting to unexpected situations, and staying flexible. Ensuring there is a paying customer for a product or service is the first crucial step; otherwise, the idea may not be worth pursuing.
He also warns against wasting time trying to secure funding from nonbelievers and suggests finding a partner with high emotional intelligence for better discernment. Eric believes in hiring individuals who are more knowledgeable and skilled in areas where he may lack expertise or interest, as no one can do everything.
Lastly, he emphasizes the importance of getting enough sleep and maintaining regular exercise.
If you would like to get in touch with Eric Satz or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
