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Amit Dogra, CEO of Third Seven Advisors, insists on providing interesting alternative investments that excite his advisers and clients with curb appeal HFactor, a maker of hydrogen-infused water, a so-called super element that proponents claim offers anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant ben- efits. HFactor got a major boost when it was reported the Golden State Warriors were drink- ing the product during their championship run, and pop star Katy Perry was sipping on HFactor's hydrogen-infused water during her stint as a judge on the most recent season of American Idol. NuCalm received a boost of its own when it was disclosed the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Capitals were both using NuCalm's technology during their championship runs in winning the 2018 Super Bowl and Stanley Cup, respectively. Motivational speaker Tony Robbins also uses the product. e straightforwardness of what these com- panies do is part of the key to making them suitable for the ird Seven family of organi- zations, which operate under holding company ird Seven Group. Dogra says if he and his advisers cannot explain in three sentences or less what a company does, they are probably not very interested. Why? Because the firm's advisers and, by extension, their clients want to invest in easy-to-understand companies that make for engaging conversation. "I don't need to go into returns, I don't need to go into the science of it. It's got that curb appeal," he explains. When clients directly invest in these ear- ly-stage companies, they receive nonlisted stock shares that Dogra calls "an opportunity for cli- ents to get some liquidity in an illiquid market." ese early-stage companies do not want to take money from venture-capital or pri- vate-equity firms because they would have to give up too big an ownership stake, according to Dogra. By way of contrast, ird Seven aims to support the companies' entrepreneurial cul- tures and to help them grow; ird Seven does take equity stakes in the companies, though a trivial portion by comparison. "We want to be aligned with their growth and not hamstring the entrepreneur," he says. "Everything that we are doing on the investment side we believe is innovative." ird Seven Advisors focuses on stocking client portfolios with a 5 percent to 20 per- cent sleeve of innovative alternatives, and real assets is a stark departure from most investment products in today's advisory business, which Dogra says are either passive or marginalized. To underscore his contention that investments for retail clients are becoming marginalized, he points to new offerings in the industry: zero- cost index funds. "What they are saying indirectly to the adviser is, 'Hey, Mr. Adviser, we don't think the tradi- tional investment world is actually adding any value, so you can't charge your 1 percent fee because we are not even charging the client.' What they are saying to the adviser is you have to find another way to earn a living, and that is why advisers are getting into planning and insurance and other ancillary services," he observes. "We still believe in the investment industry, and we believe that the opportunity lies in the private markets and unique alternatives." To buttress his argument, Dogra comes back to one of his central points, that nobody talks about individual stocks anymore because every- one is invested in funds, a public-market envi- ronment where people do not actually know what companies they own. e real value is found in the private market, he argues, through direct ownership in companies that advisers and clients like to talk about with one another and with colleagues. GOING EGALITARIAN Taking minimum investments in alternatives such as hedge and private-equity funds — and even stock shares in startup and pre-IPO com- panies — down to the $25,000 to $100,000 range brings the signature investments at ird Seven within striking distance of clients consid- ered members of the mass affluent. Dogra cites an article published several weeks ago in e Wall Street Journal that cov- ered bringing the private markets closer to the mass affluent via widely affordable direct investments with minimums similar to those at ird Seven. Many investors in the mass- affluent space have accumulated several times that amount of money, putting their partici- 31 REALASSETS ADVISER | D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8