Investment
Hondros Consulting
Our Investments
To help the reader and prospective clients better understand what makes me tick as an investor, I thought I’d share some stories of privately owned company investments we’ve made in recent years. My headline approach its pretty simple…what’s the idea and who’s behind it.
I’m driven to find people that I care about doing great things as entrepreneurs. I find it very satisfying to both invest time and money into the success of others, especially when their purpose is noble and for the benefit of others. These benefits can come in many forms and the first of the organisations I’d like to talk about is an investment my family and I have had for the last six years which is Nexba – an Aussies success story for all natural sugar free beverages that just taste great!
I was first referred to the Co-CEOs and founders of Nexba by who I consider to be possibly Sydney’s coolest accountant, Stephen Jedovnicky who was living in Bondi at the time. As a result I met with Drew Bilbe and Troy Douglas in early 2016 and talked about their plans and how CBA might be able to assist them. This led to my family investing in their future plans later that year and we haven’t looked back.
Nexba
They recently announced that due to selling all natural and sugar free beverages over 12 years that they have now removed Five Billion Grams of sugar from the diets of their Aussie customers. That’s an amazing achievement for two Aussie Boys who kicked things off on the Northern Beaches of Sydney selling sugar free iced tea out of the back of a van.
Fast forward 12 years and the business is now across Australia through outlets like Coles and Woolies and in the UK though Sainsbury’s, WH Smith and Tesco with a lot more to come! I’m really proud of my “Nexba Legends” status and my family are great supporters of the Nexba vision.
Esfam
I found Esfam at a similar time to Nexba also referred by Stephen “Jed” Jedovnicky. I had the opportunity in 2016 to meet with Liz Ferentinos at our of her cafe’s on Toorak Rd in Toorak. Liz at the time had recently taken on the challenge to help Professor Albert Frauman and the Esfam team raise capital for their Prostate cancer research they were conducting with Melbourne University. I recall that afternoon meeting with Liz the enthusiasm and belief she had in what she was doing. Some months before it was Professor Frauman’s wife that had come into Liz’s cafe complaining that the American backers had pulled out and the Esfam team was looking for other investors. Liz, not being afraid of a challenge, said that she could do it and the rest is history.
Since then Esfam has pursued other cancers and has unique IP by creating new compounds for the potential cure and treatment of Covid strains and the PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome) virus.
Once again the experience has been based on what’s the idea and who’s behind it. I have great respect and admiration for Professor Frauman and the amazing energy Liz brings to the effort and I’m convinced Esfam will make a very positive contribution to the health and well-being of humanity.
iYarn
The story of my connection with Lockie Cooke Founder and CEO of iYarn goes well back into my CBA Private Bank days. At the time in 2013 I was one of the CBA executive supporting the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards which CBA co-sponsored with EY. On arriving at the awards night at Sydney’s Star Casino I went to one of the bars near the reception room as it was too early to go in. I heard some voices from a group having a drink and worked out they were over from Perth for the awards so I went and introduced myself. At that moment I met Lockie Cooke of iYarn and he was in the running for the Social Entrepreneur of the year award.
The night progressed and my clients from Melbourne’s Commonwealth Private Bank won the national award so I ended up hosting a small impromptu party at our table to congratulate the team from Pepperstone.
We became the place to be and Lockie and his Perth crew joined us for the evening. This then led to staying connected for some time after the event and we met again at our next opportunity and I got to know him and iYarn better. Once again, what’s the idea and who’s behind it.
By my judgement Lockie was a high energy, high integrity individual who was seeking to make the world a better place through a platform and framework that couched discussions about mental well being and how people felt about different aspects of their lives. I have been in support of Lockie and iiYarn ever since and in more recent time my family invested to assist with his growth ambitions. The business has expanded since then making a genuine well-being difference to thousands of users.
DeFi Link
A final example of investments I’m very involved in is our venture onto the Blockchain and into the crypto universe. Through my membership at Club of United Business I met Riley Stewart who told me about his plans for DeFi Link. I haven’t been interested in speculating on crypto currencies, that’s not for me, but I do believe in the eventual profound impact the Blockchain will have on business and life including Smart Contracts.
DeFi offered an opportunity for exposure to the future that the Blockchain promises as it’s a crypto payments platform with other functions around peer to peer lending and investment opportunities. In more recent times it’s expanded into offering its own NFTs (of which I have four) and we’ve sold land in our meta-verse being Wonder Games. It’s the new frontier and we are barely a few minutes into the long term future the Blockchain has.
I think to stay relevant and contemporary it’s best to get involved in new and exciting things even if others are talking them down and calling for their downfall…this is not unusual when those in power (the incumbents) feel threatened by the new comers. Not the first time and won’t be the last!
