We recently connected with Phil Cantore and have shared our conversation below.
Phil, appreciate you joining us today. Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)? Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style.
I am Italian American but I was abandoned by my biological family and raised by Chinese. My stepmother is Chinese.
In my 20’s I became an apprentice to a wealthy Chinese American entrepreneur and worked in his Family Office which specializes in acquiring distressed Businesses & Commercial Real Estate through Bankruptcies, 363 Sales, REO, Defaulted Mezzanine/Fulcrums, Hostile Takeovers, etc
This man immigrated to America in his early 20’s with $78 to his name, he is now worth high double digit millions.
Most Valuable Lessons:
My mentor trained me to look for PROBLEMS. This is where great opportunities are found. Not many people are willing to get their hands dirty and implement creative, unorthodox solutions.
The Mandarin word for “crisis” is “weiqi,” which combines two characters: wei & qi.
“wei,” means disaster, and “qi,” means opportunity.
Disaster and opportunity are the same thing.
Expense Management:
I learned about business from capitalists who grew up in communist China during the years of government food rationing. They had to learn to be resourceful in order to survive. What typically takes an American company 2 fulltime MBAs and $100k to accomplish can usually be done for $10,000 by a Chinese company and in 1/10 of the time!
From my mentor and his associates, I learned to be resourceful, lean, “scrappy” and ultra-competitive but always with the “value-add”, artistic mindset of an Italian ;)
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a commercial real estate agent and the founder/CEO of NeoSapien, Inc (Toad Tech). For our main business we are currently the global distributor of a patented device called Airbar® for laptop. www.airbar.xyz
Our technology allows non-touchscreen laptop users to upgrade and convert to a touchscreen for only $79.99 – $99.99 with a simple Plug & Play device.
There is a logical cost savings right off the bat: instead of shelling out $400 – $700 for a new touch laptop, you can just add the Airbar® and get touch for $79.99-$99.99.
It also senses gloves, pens and other objects since it uses light beams instead of capacitive or resistive energy.
I first learned about this technology in 2016 as I was day trading stock. I read about a tech company Neonode, Inc as a potential trade.
They had invented this breakthrough device (Airbar®) but the company filed Bankruptcy in Sweden shortly after releasing it due to unrelated business issues.
While still floating on the NASDAQ in USA, their Board of Directors made them liquidate all their unsold inventory for cash.
I became personally fascinated with this extremely clever and practical device. So in 2018, I reached out to their Global Sales Engineer in Sweden and asked if I could help them expand in the USA. They offered to sell me their inventory and takeover the brand.
Taking a chance and not being afraid to look foolish, I formed a new corporation (Toad Tech Corp) and raised the capital from my former employer (who was recently bought-out by overstock.com for $20M). I purchased Neonode’s unsold inventory of Airbar and I took over the global wholesale accounts, leads, Amazon FBA sales and we sold it successfully world-wide for 6+ years.
I quickly paid back my boss with handsome returns and eventually refinanced him out with cheap debt.
Just before the COVID lockdowns, I bought out another distributor’s inventory in Dubai and brought it back to the US. A few weeks later, all the retail stores closed as the lockdowns were mandated. The COVID lockdowns actually boosted our sales by 300%+ as we are primarily ecommerce D2C and wholesale export sales . I wish I could say I planned this all in order, but we just got lucky there!
Today we are working up the value-chain vertically and investing into our own R&D. We plan to develop and produce a new generation of this device for expanded applications. Our next target has billions of dollars in market potential. With God’s favor and any luck we will have beta testing in Q4 2024 and our demos of the new releases in 1st Quarter of 2025. If not, we will pivot.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
I found the opportunity, did all the legwork and I showed it to my former employer. (One of his tech companies was just bought out by overstock.com for $20M). He wrote me a check the next day on a handshake and a handwritten agreement on the back of a napkin. I paid him back a 47% annualized return.
Then one of my commercial real estate developer clients came in to fund me. I refinanced him out with cheap SBA debt.
Today I am preparing for the next phase of hyper growth.
I am issuing stock options and new restricted stock to advisors and part-time engineers to help complete the R&D, marketing, manufacturing, legal, etc.
Once the contracts are all lined up properly, we are hoping to secure non-dilutive debt (or other creative funding solutions) to fund this growth as we are acquiring an existing brand assets and some IP.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I just turned 40 and its a miracle that I’m even alive today.
I survived cancer, I’ve been held at gunpoint, I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and financial abuse.
When I was just starting out in business, I was living with a roommate in New Jersey who randomly got jealous of me and threw me out in the street while I was in the middle of my first multi-million dollar transaction!
So I slept in my Volvo V70 Station Wagon in the cold winter while brokering a $6.7M loan on a $9M building that my client was buying. My father slammed his door in my face when I asked him for help because he was using drugs and jealous of me as well.
For the next few weeks, I showered at the homeless shelter then dressed up in a suit & tie in the morning when I went to work. No one in the office had any idea I was homeless.
I continued to serve my client and took care of business throughout the entire process. Talk about a Poker Face!
I also started a mobile car detailing business with a decentralized Uber-Type app concept while I living out of my car. This work eventually led me to meet a wealthy car collector who gave me a job working in his hedge fund service company. He eventually became my first investor who funded the acquisition of my first business deal. Six years later, that business is still running and growing.
That one unexpected relationship opened the door to dozens of other professionals who are my friends and business partners today: securities lawyers, fund managers, lenders and others.
For me, major opportunities came from unexpected sources. It tends to happen when I do more than is expected of me, keep an open mind, pray and I stay willing to do anything it takes… and I avoid all negative naysayers!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.neosapien.io/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philcantore/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/phil.cantore.1/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philcantore1/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/atlanticoinnov1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@neosapien1
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-713858925/ballzdeep-riffs-w-nag-hamadi-dream-audiotrimmercom-1
- Other: My Personal Brand & Music:
www.ballzdeep.io
www.bigballzdeep.comOther creative pursuits:
www.atoll.art
(I’m an advisory board member)TIKTOK:
https://www.tiktok.com/@www.neosapien.io
Image Credits
Neonode, Inc
NeoSapien, Inc D/B/A Toad Tech
toadtech.io