In the latest episode of business podcast MBA: Minority Business Access, host Solomon RC Ali opens up about his own journey with entrepreneurship, filled with bumps and bruises, before hitting it big as CEO of NDR Energy Group and Revolutionary Concepts and licensor of multiple technology patents for some of today’s most widely used technology.
Mr. Ali was one of four keynote speakers at Magnify Your Wealth summit in Denver, Colorado, hosted by Laughlin Associates in celebration of their 50th anniversary. In this episode of MBA: Minority Business Access, recorded live at Magnify Your Wealth, Solomon takes the stage to share how his company, Solomon RC Ali Corporation, helps businesses looking to raise capital, packages businesses for investors, raises valuations for businesses and takes them public.
During his speech, Mr. Ali speaks of his first business running a maintenance company at age 21, when he failed to note the importance of accounts receivables. “I didn’t know what accounts receivables were. After spending all my money on materials and equipment. I had all these people working for me and a couple of trucks. Now it was time to pay all these people. I owed out $148,000. I had about $15 in the bank account, but I was owed half a million dollars. I just didn’t have the infrastructure in place to collect it.”
“I had no idea companies will string you along and not pay you,” he recalls. Panic set in until help arrived in the form of a payroll company that fronted him the money he needed to meet payroll while accounts receivables were put in place.
Solomon segued into running Los Angeles nursing home and assisted living facilities that turned him into a young millionaire until failure to keep good records and not following through on measures to insulate himself led to financial ruin in 2008. “I had procrastinated and not taken the proper steps to protect myself, financially,” Solomon admits to the crowd. After losing it all, and with a wife and daughter to support, he says he contemplated taking his own life because he knew he had no one to blame but himself.
Having learned hard lessons, Solomon rebounded by helping to arrange capital for companies to monetize their intellectual property while earning commission. He then asks the crowd, “Anybody heard of a [smart home] RING doorbell?” To which nearly everyone in the room replied “Yes.” Next, he asked, “Does anybody ever get a text [message] from their bank?” Nods all around. “Well, that’s our technology,” he announces. “That is what my company does. We invest in a lot of companies like that, and then we take them public,” referring to Solomon RC Ali Corporation, which offers business management consulting and arranges capital in exchange for an equity stake.
Now a strict adherent to the “Rockefeller Method” of doing business, Solomon shares, “We go out, we expand technology, we develop it out and we monetize it. We invest primarily in companies that are private, and we take them public.”
Going on to tout his strict adherence to “The Rockefeller Method” as “one of the most effective business strategies on the face of the earth,” Solomon explains, “As a foundation of this strategy, I have been able to build $100 million companies and above and create just under a billion dollars in assets, understanding and using this strategy.”
The 30-year investment veteran concludes, “Life is not hard. Life is about making the right decisions. How do you make the right decisions? You have to get the right knowledge and information from the right people.”
The next episode of MBA: Minority Business Access with Solomon RC Ali featuring Mr. Ali’s keynote speech live from the Magnify Your Wealth Summit in Denver, Colorado, drops Monday, Feb. 8, 2021, wherever podcasts are streamed.
