May 25th, Diego and Jean-luc are joined on #SocialConfoes by Renzo Tjon A Joe, Suriname’s record holder on the 50m and 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly. We will of course talk about swimming, but also about representing Suriname, challenges in the world of sports during Covid-19, and a little about Venture Capital as well.

You can also connect with Renzo and his company Kayser Capital:

• Facebook
• Instagram

Episode Overview

• 0:00 – Intro
• 7:51 – Life lessons and education from swimming
• 13:55 – The difference between a top 10 and a top 100 swimmer
• 20:46 – Making the decision to represent Suriname and overcoming challenges
• 29:19 – Renzo’s college experience and journey to Harvard
• 36:08 – Positioning himself for future Olympics in 2024 and 2028
• 39:16 – Time management in career vs swimming
• 42:22 – Venture Capital with Kayser Capital
• 48:02 – Sectors to consider for investments
• 56:11 – Quick-fire from the comments
• 1:06:03 – Closing off with a take on the current state of crypto

Video Version of the Episode

The Hosts

• Diego Ameerali
• Jean-Luc van Charante

Feel free to join our Discord Server.

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Full Transcript

Jean-luc: [00:00:35] hello. Hello. Good evening. Good morning. Good night while gone, wherever you were watching. Today’s Social Confoes. We want to wish you a blessing day morning, evening, our midnight. I’m Jean-luc van Charante. I’m here together with Diego Ameerali and we have a brand new Social Confoes episode for you today with a very, very special guest, but Diego, I guess you will have the honor to introduce him for us tonight.

Diego: [00:01:26] Sure before I go over to that, I want to do a quick shout out to you. Cause I saw this yesterday, you are speaking at the social media day summit 2021. Next month. We announced this, I think at last episode with James Tucker so it was kind of cool to see, you know one of our hosts, you being a speaker at this international summit, along with two of our guests.

Dorien and James. So it’s pretty cool that you guys are part of this, but without further ado just a shout out for that. It’s free. So guys sign up for that, to see Jean-luc and two of our guests who have been here on the show all about social media day

Jean-luc: [00:02:03] just going to jump into the comments because there’s some fun comments.

First of all. Hi, to now we, and Confoes for the way. Thank you, Stephanie. Gregory is always our sound and video check guy. And he’s also noting that you are glowing. Something is different.

Diego: [00:02:20] I forgot to put on my glasses. That’s probably it.

Yeah. Without further ado we are here to talk, have a chill conversation with a very peculiar person, a very, I guess. National figure that was actually, yeah, my accident, but welcome Renzo so a quick brief introduction to, Renzo. He is a Olympian. He is an Olympic swimmer and he’s currently training for the Tokyo. Well, is it still going to be 20, 20 21 Olympics? But he holds the record for the 50 meter at 100 meter freestyle insert numb and a 50 meter butterfly.

So there’s a lot of, I guess, pressure on him, but he’s, he’s, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll dive shortly into that, but I’ve met Renzo. Like I think we briefly talked about it right before we went on six years ago, 2015 and of 2015. And just when he was getting into the scene you know he won sportsman of the year.

Back then. And the way I met him was actually for a photo shoot. I was doing a photo shoot for him and I still have, I just found those photos at Marriott there, and that’s where we met. And so it’s kind of funny how, you know, six years later here we are again in a different setting, but with that being said that, and so welcome to Social Confoes we want to hear more about your, your story this past six years, what you’ve been through. So without further ado, welcome.

Renzo: [00:03:48] Well, good evening. Thank you for having me, Diego and John. I’ve been talking to you guys for the past couple of weeks or days a bit more frequently, huh? I’m happy to, I’m a big fan of the show. And I’m honored to be here. And I thank you for the nice words, Diego also economic back in 2015 you know, essentially, you know, right up, I guess it was leading into the Olympics of 2016.

We met when I was basically a, nobody here in Suriname. Just a couple of people within the sport and seeing  I knew my name within Suriname and, and now it’s, you know, it’s kind of blew up since then been able to secure some, some relatively good corporate sponsorships through Telesur GoW2 and you know, it’s, it’s, you know, the rest is kind of history.

Huh?

Diego: [00:04:44] Yeah, happy to have you. And yeah, you’re on billboards everywhere. For the people that actually go outside. And funny thing is I didn’t even realize on Jean-luc’s other podcasts, they look at the show where we talk about sports and everything. I literally saw you guys on last Thursday and. We didn’t even cross check each other and that we ha had you booked for Social Confoes and the following week was kind of, you know, perfectly aligned with your availability and everything.

So that’s really cool.

Jean-luc: [00:05:11] Wow. I didn’t want to bring it up. I didn’t want to jinx it. I mean, so I think that’s should people should understand that that answer has a very busy schedule and I mean, you’re, first of all, you’re training for the Olympics. So it’s kind of a lot of pressure you already gave him the pressure, like saying like, yeah, but you’re our record holder, so he has to perform, so I really didn’t want to jinx anything.

I just said like, okay, I’m not going to mention anything to Diego, to Dion. Let’s, let’s just have him have him more twice that he gets enough exposure that we have enough people powering him to throughout the Olympics, because I remember the 2016 Olympics and it’s true. I think Renzo in 2015, I think 2016 was a very big year because a lot of events leading up to the Olympics you broke records, you were on your a game and.

That also kind of brought of course, a lot of spotlight on you because people were expecting of course. And then of course the first round you grace through it, everybody was like, yeah, he’s passed the first round. He’s gonna win. He’s got to go into semi-finals. He’s got to go into fight.

Renzo: [00:06:15] Yeah, it was, it was, it was a pretty crazy year. I would say, yeah, that, you know, if we’re talking about pressure and maybe I guess the national record holder, I’ve been all in goals for records  since 2013, probably 2012. So it’s, it’s, it’s been a long time now. For me, it’s been a pressure as a cause it’s a bit of a relative term for me at the moment, but I do get the position that I’m in, especially since, you know, Suriname is only sending about like maybe three to four athletes to the Olympics this year, basically every four years we never send a big delegation.

So the, I guess the, the magnifying glass is just, just, just much bigger for the few athletes going into those games. So it’s been a very, it’s been a great adventure. I would say. A lot of learning of oneself, I would say, other than my formal education and economics, I would say swimming.

It’s been you know, it’s basically the staple of my education of oneself and it’s, it’s, it’s fought me up. It’s taught me a lot about me. You know, dealing with, I guess life’s like life’s challenges as a, as a, a young, very ambitious person from Suriname country. That basically no one knows when, you know, when you’re, when you’re somewhere abroad being from a, quite, quite a small population where a lot of is expected of you and you actually don’t have a lot to work with.

Once, once you get. What’d you get to that stage and that, that next level,

Diego: [00:07:51] uh, Jump into that. You talk about education, but we’ll go into the formal education a little bit later, but you’re talking about, you know, swimming as being part of that education growing up. Can you talk to us, is there one thing in particular that comes to mind that you experienced with this new lack of resources limited resources here, that you would be able to translate into a lesson for someone in your position like five, six years ago?

Renzo: [00:08:23] Well it’s well, this due to this whole I’ve, I’ve been in Suriname trailing for the past year and I’ve, I’ve been out of the country for about six, seven years now. And I guess the, the, the biggest, I mean, I was some sometime last year on the, on the verge of retiring, basically, it’s just from the sport I had, I had mapped out financially exactly how much quote on quote I would be spending heading into the Olympics right off there, right off there. You know, the games would finish in August. I would go back to school in September or late August. Everything was, you know, your, you map out everything financially, but you don’t go quite meticulously. And then. You know, the pandemic hits and then you have to come back and then, you know, resources get a bit scarcer.

So I think just covering to constantly just being here in Suriname, having to, having to go through the emotions and letting, letting things, just letting things happen of basically just having to face my face, the demons within me on the, that that basically were telling me to quit. And trying to really grit through training here in Suriname facilities that are.

Okay, but not, you know what I was, what I would be used to, or which is conducive to, to, to competing at a very high level. it’s been, it’s been a tough road, but right now I’m, I feel like I’m in a good position. I mean, I always knew that my, my career would not end after these Olympics.

Right. I was always aiming for Paris 2024. And, and hopefully, you know, Los Angeles, 2028 might sound like it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, six, seven, eight years from now. But for, for me, I mean, my day starts at 6:00 AM and I initially just got out of practice. I’m trying to, trying to eat a banana here, trying to go protein shake. So it’s, you know, my days are very hectic at time, time flies.

Jean-luc: [00:10:33] So I do want to jump into that basically also, because the comment section is kind of asking for it. So Gregory, I didn’t go into the properly appreciated Diego started it. So ha got you there, but Renzo, you got some shoutouts from Naomi hope you’re doing well, also Ro-ann is joining and as well tonight and I guess Dion also jumped in, but there, there are two questions, so, and so do you want to start with a more serious one or do you want to go over a little bit more of a fun one?

Renzo: [00:11:03] Just go ahead. This is your show dude

Jean-luc: [00:11:05] okay. Okay. I’m going to ask this question now because otherwise it’s going to move away. So there are some people that want to know, is it B, is it weird being underwear model? So how, I mean, Diego shared the photo. Just some context. I don’t know if Diego wants to pull up the photo that you shared in the group.

But basically he showed kind of a modelesque picture. And of course, because of your frame, you’re a professional athlete, so you have the body for it. So you get asked a lot to do photo shoots and you’re a swimmer. So basically you sport, you do sports and like

So how is that for you? Is it something like you’re okay with, are you actually enjoy doing our see potential, like after swimming or having a lead? A lot of swimmers have to do something on the side to generate extra income is a Calvin Klein commercial with  also in the mix in the future.

Renzo: [00:12:01] I mean, be sure to, you know, email Calvin Klein for me.

I don’t have contact with those people, but I mean, I guess I would love to right but not really. I guess this physique just comes with, with the job. Right. If I, I mean, just, I make about, I train about, you know, four to five hours a day in between recovery, and then we’ll do a couple of massages. So it’s, it’s not weird. I, I, I guess I, I knew this would eventually happen just because it’s in Suriname, you know, you don’t, you don’t really see dudes walking around in Speedos.

If anything, it’s, it’s a little, it’s a little frowned upon here to do things like that and just how in small suits and underwear, but it’s not underwear, it’s a swimsuit. But I don’t mind it it’s

Jean-luc: [00:12:50] I guess, on a lower level, maybe it’s an issue. I can imagine. I don’t know if you ever, if you remember from your teenage years that there was a guy who had to swim that was like, I’m not getting into a Speedo. Did that happen in the past?

Renzo: [00:13:04] I got actually I got teased quite a bit. You know, being in, in primary school year in Suriname off your blood all day, they, they call those I mean, it’s, it’s quite a Dutch one. They call them like “ballenknijpers” and you know, those things do make you a little self-conscious and it definitely, I definitely was not the cool kid swimming.

Right. All the cool dudes were playing soccer, basketball, or tennis or something like that. Then I was just the weird guy, swimming, I guess, just the odd one, always getting in, getting into schools, smelling like chlorine, very ashy just skinny. So it like. It’s kind of just what it is, right then, I guess once I got a bit older and then put on a bit muscle a bit more muscle it, I guess it just looked a little better and people just went up.

Jean-luc: [00:13:55] So the more serious question. I mean, you’ve trained a lot outside of Suriname, basically. It’s part of the training process. You have also done a competitive swimming in almost every continent in the world. And there is a question here by Gregory as well which I find fascinating, and I think it’s good for people to have an understanding of the difference between swimming and Suriname, like on a local level, becoming the national champion and on a world elite level.

And it’s kind of related to this question. What’s the difference between a top 10 swimmer and a top hundred swimmer? Is it more physical strength and stamina and more mental drive discipline, or probably a combination?

Renzo: [00:14:36] I think it’s a, it’s definitely a combination of them both. I, I expect my, I would say my greatest was right now. I would, I would be classified within being within the sub-top of the world, almost basically the top 20 top 30 swimmers in the world. At the 2019 world championships. Again, this, the semifinals by, you know, the literally a 10th of a second then I guess it’s, it’s, it’s a combination of both strengths.

I am now on the. You know, going towards fall within the sport of swimming, I would say grown man strength. I’m heading towards that 25 now. You know, most of the top elite level swimmers they’re all, you know, with, within their, you know, between 25 and 35 Anthony urban, the Olympic champion in 2016, won the games at 38.

So it’s 36 years old. So you, you, you have to, I guess just, you have to be used to that moment when the lights are on. I think me being exposed to more elite level competition is as has only been, you know, as has only been beneficial and you know, develop my, developing my career towards, towards being a better athlete and competitor. So I think it’s a combination of both.

Jean-luc: [00:16:00] I’m just interested, Diego, if I may, of course, I want to kind of like a trajectory, so let’s start from junior level. Let’s make it easy. Let’s do the 50 meter freestyle. And just in seconds to give us an idea, like when the junior championships, this is kind of the record.

And then when you get into the Caribbean or the Pan-Am games this is kind of the record. And then you get into the world are the Olympics then? The top 10 is this. And then the winner is this amount of seconds. And I guess you have to dial it down the ability seconds for us to do have an idea of what, what time differences we are talking about.

Renzo: [00:16:39] So I actually swam at the junior world championships in Dubai in 2013 where I qualify for that, that final of the 53. So at one point in time in 2013, I was one of the top eight fastest juniors in the world in the 50 freestyle. And that’s coming from Suriname, man. I, you know, I, I think the winning time was 20 to 22, 22 points, three seconds.

In that final I went 22 seven the Olympic medal I would say in 2016 is anywhere between 21 point 21.4 seconds and 21.2. So almost a full second quicker, I would say. I’m not sure how to exactly explain. How big of a difference? Just a second is, but from 28, from 2013 to 22 to actually 2018, when I started 2019 when I swam on my best time, I’ve, I’ve only dropped about six tenths of a second.

So I’m, I’m about 22.1 right now. So it’s actually a little bit faster, I guess. Second, second and a half almost. Okay. But then there kind of is for you, it’s almost a full body of them. I would say if you wouldn’t be raised.

Diego: [00:18:02] would you say swimmers and I guess athletes in general have become faster over the years. If you look at history records from, you know, the nineties, the twenties,

Renzo: [00:18:13] because obviously, yeah, definitely because everything has, you know, sports, science, sports, medicine, sports, recovery everything has been evolving. Right. There, there, there are smaller methods of training at the normal and you know, people have just been just, there’s just more tolerant. There’s just more knowledge about this sport. There’s, there’s more, there’s more of everything.

Diego: [00:18:37] So could you quickly before we move on to the next topic on the topic of, you know science and medicine and recovery, could you talk to us a bit about the importance of that in your current stage and you know, to. No Excel do what you’ve done previously. How does it help?

Renzo: [00:18:57] Well, it’s, I wouldn’t say it’s everything. Usually obviously it all comes down to the amount of work you put into actually optionally racing and training. And, you know, you know, there’s a common saying that champions or apps are made in the kitchen and not in the gym.

And it’s it’s yes and no, definitely. I guess, with. With competing at a high level, but definitely if you, if you, if you’re seeking longevity within the sport, especially a sport like swimming in which, you know,  it’s not as harsh on your body as say something like American football or, or, or, you know, soccer or say it’s, you know, you’re, you’re constantly in an element of, of, of zero gravity.

Obviously we, we pumped quite hard in the gym, you know, be, and that’s where somewhat of. Not somewhat a lot of, you know, supplements and I guess sports, recovery, ice baths, Norma tech. I just got them on my second machine. That’s, you know, air that’s actually like compression on your legs. You know, gets you a bit fresher for the next session.

So everything it’s, it’s, it’s really the small things you do over a prolonged period of time sleep. It’s a big thing, obviously in terms of recovery, there’s, there’s, there’s no better recovery actually than sleep. I’m just drinking a ton of water. I get into all of the supplements that I literally have to take on a daily basis, just vitamins and literally everything is to keep yourself going. And to actually just perform at this level on that. On a constant, you know, you’re constantly, so.

Jean-luc: [00:20:46] It’s interesting. I almost wanted to jump into the sleep part because of the story of the first Olympian from Suriname but we’re not going to do that because it’s kind of a negative connotation, but for those who are interested, you can look it up the first one habit, the, the first Olympian from Suriname at the Olympic games.

And it was actually featured in a Seinfeld episode. So that’s great, but we won’t jump into that. Yeah. because it’s kind of a, it’s kind of a, not necessarily negative story, but it is something that that’s, it’s not, has not had enough spotlight, but I think for us, it’s more interesting because you made a decision, you made a decision to decide that you would swim for Suriname, and you would always swim for Suriname

now Maybe you can enlighten us a little bit about this decision, because there’s a lot of pride in representing your country, but like you mentioned, there’s also a lot of challenges. Now we’ve seen other swimmers even recently other swimmers that on a junior level, we’re still considered Surinamese swimmers, but in the end, decided to swim for different countries for other countries then. Sure enough. How difficult of a decision was it for you to make, to say like no matter what I’ll always represent Suriname and what, what are the biggest challenges that you have to overcome when you make that decision?

Renzo: [00:22:05] Well, you have to, you have to definitely be, you have to definitely be comfortable with the fact that you should not expect to be appreciated. Right. For, for what, for what you actually do. And the amount of time consuming efforts, you constantly put into it and you I don’t want to sound like a Debbie downer thing or be negative, but there’s, it’s just the,

Jean-luc: [00:22:31] well, you you’ve made the choice to represent you represent. So that also, that already means a lot.

I need

Renzo: [00:22:41] right now I’m leading into an Olympic games that has been incredibly challenging and I’ve been, you know, constantly trying to just, you know, be more focused on the positive things happening within my, within my swimming career. You know, there’s a lot of you know, We all know what happened a couple of months ago, we have, we had one of, one of our athletes come out with a Facebook message that actually just literally exploded.

And I would say what happened immediately after it’s you know, our sports policymakers, they, they, they came up with a lot of, you know, it was basically a lot of talk on what they’re going to, you know, what they’re going to do different for us. We expected a lot then, you know, time and time again, it, it just proved, proved to be just talk.

Right. So I think that’s what you can expect from Suriname rather than being a certain on certain on these professional athletes, who it is. There’s a lot of talk but then again, I am, I am in that position in bridge, I am representing a company like Telesur as a brand ambassador or GoW2 energy basically Staatsolie as, as another brand ambassador.

And I’ve been. Somewhat trying to pave the way for the following athlete. Right. But the next athlete, because we haven’t had basically a, you know, for, for, I would say extended period of science, it’s now been about two years with that. I’ve been with both companies actually a year with, with your energy two years with Taylor suit.

And it’s, it’s been a lot of molding it’s, you know, they also haven’t ever worked with professional athletes. So they actually basically don’t know what to do with me, except for, you know, some sometimes just slap me on the billboard. They might in my swimsuit and let’s just see how the country will react to that. Right. So we’ve, you know, we

Jean-luc: [00:24:39] No, I there’s. I mean, there’s a question that I would love to ask, which is, I mean, last Olympics, Jurgen Themen was a sprint sprinter, a hundred meter sprint there. He ended up in, in the same heat as Usain Bolt. So he can actually say that he ran during the Olympics alongside Usain bolt, and he, if he had run his personal best, he would have actually qualified for the next round, which would be awesome that you could say I was in a youth, which was involved and I qualified for the next round.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go that way. And a lot of people didn’t even know Jurgen at the time. They were like, okay, who is he as cool, like another Surinamese person. Have you talked with him and Sunaina about their experience in the U S and what’s the college experience like going four years for college and becoming like a college athlete student athlete. Was that ever in the realm of possibilities that you. What’s the part of your,

Renzo: [00:25:36] it’s just two things I honestly believe at the Olympics times, times and your personal best. All of that goes out the window. Right. It’s literally, no one cares at that. If you, the most important thing is qualifying for either the semifinal or the final right. I missed the semifinal in 2016 by a 10th of a second.

And that hurt obviously same thing with the world championships in 2019. And I know I’ll get there at some point being in a semi-final or being able to fight for a spot on top, and then I guess eventually a medal but all of that goes out the window. Once you’re at the gates, at least for me, I could literally care less on how fast you are that day.

If you’re in the final, you’re in the final. Right. I guess moving on to my, my collegiate career, I haven’t really spoken to those guys, but. I, I chose a different approach. I did swim in college on, on their Auburn university and then Harvard university training those teams. And then I guess prior to that, after that with, with Virginia tech and Sergio Lopez but I chose not to.

Not to invest everything I had, especially as a, as a Surinamese athlete in college. Yes. Or now, because literally what it means. And I think a big part of my longevity within the sport and why I’m still swimming is because I did not choose to swim for a college team because it means that for 4 years while you’re. You’re competing in college. You cannot, they say you’re going to free education, right from, from, from, from that in return. But in those four years, it basically means you’re not getting paid. Even though that might make sense for an American athlete. And a lot of people were, were actually probably involve me, like why I made that choice to go pro at that early.

But, but if it literally, it was for me that, how, how am I going to be able to sustain myself in the U S without being able to be actually paid from Suriname because, because that would actually be illegal. And there are ways around the system in which you can, you know, try and get money while you’re a collegiate athlete.

But it was really simple for me. I wanted a very long career and not very short, short thing that would, you know, Literally, literally four years of collegiate swimming almost sucks. Everything out of you, right? Especially coming from where I came from here in Suriname swimming, maybe three, 4,000 three or 4,000 meters a day, and then going to a collegiate program and then suddenly it’s swimming six, seven, eight kilometers a day.

And that, that would have killed me, I believe at that point. Right. So that’s why I chose to go pro and then kind of roll the dice on myself. Being able to secure corporate sponsors earlier on being able to actually receive money from back home and sustain myself as a professional and then do my education on my own terms because I knew Lord, I knew that going in into go moving to the U S it’s one of them, I guess it was 2014.

I spoke English, but not a lot of it. Right. It’s good. My, my SAT scores were trash. And then actually being in the U S trailing with Auburn university team gave me the opportunity to really focus in on with the things that were important at that time. My sat math, my sat English, and then applying towards schools and educations that I wanted to after that, and not necessarily based or driven around swimming, if that answers the question.

Diego: [00:29:19] Could you talk to us about aside from the swimming side, your college experience, how we combine that? Cause you’re, you’re doing economics and tell us the story of Harvard, because Harvard is. Yeah, the world’s yeah, it’s, it’s one of the world’s top, top universities along with Stanford, Caltech, all those big boys. And one does let’s simply get into Harvard. So tell us about that journey from Auburn your college degree and ending up in Harvard what the pedigree like there.

Renzo: [00:29:52] So it’s, I mean, I can tell you, it was never my dream to go to a school like that. Right. You, I just being from Suriname adjust you, you kind of see, can see Harvard university in movies.

You see that stuff online, but not it wasn’t up until I actually was swimming at Auburn that I basically, I wasn’t going to school. I literally was just focused on my English sat and my English, I guess my sat math and. While within that year in 2014, I retook the sat close to 11 to 12 times. And then with the combined score I had previously enrolled in the Harvard extension school.

And then just being able to just, just going through, through the motions of doing it’s pretty technical, you have to complete expo 15 to basically prove, prove your English proficiency and do another tests and then get a couple of credits. So it was basically a back, I don’t even call it a backdoor into Harvard, but it’s it’s, it was, it was really a, a struggle of literally having to constantly prove your.

It was me proving to them like how much I wanted to get into there. And I, and I applied to a couple of other Ivy league programs, such as brown Yale Dartmouth Columbia at the time only got accepted by two of them. Obviously Harvard being the best choosing Harvard, then, then I guess the rest is kind of history, but I knew that even though it was, it is still an, you know, a fantastic opportunity in my life. I know that swimming has always been central for me, and they understood that and always gave me the lead the way and the space that, the focus on that, because you can always educate yourself, right. And the education and that school will always be there. But I really only have a small, I would say, a small space and time and space that I could be a professional athlete from Suriname.

And You know, put myself in a position to hopefully do something special for my country, myself, my family, and I’m giving myself that room. It was supposed, I was supposed to go back to school last year, right after the Olympics, the Olympics got pushed this year last year. It’s about to happen hopefully.

And, you know, I guess we’ll just see what, what happens after that. I’ve been really good taking things one step at a time. While I’ve been trying to give myself anxiety on my, my life’s trajectory, so as I believe that if my first love stay safe and I’m committed to the game of swimming, you know, things will be a, okay.

Diego: [00:32:39] I want to combine that with what you said earlier in the conversation, when you had planned out Olympics meticulously with the, the finances, the budget, and you’re doing economics and Harvard. So. Did that add or help in that, you know, planning phase like, is there a particular reason that you decided professionally aside from being an athlete to go the economics finance route?

Renzo: [00:33:05] Absolutely. Well, I always knew just moving before, before I moved to the U S just about track a little bit. I already like, already knew exactly what I wanted to do when I was going to get there. It wasn’t me getting going there and then figuring out what I’ve, you know, what I liked or what I love, what I don’t like.

And even if, once I was in the motion of doing something, I, even if I didn’t like it, I would, I would still commit to the finish. Right. And I always was, it was actually my dad who always from a young age, he’s like, dude, you should go in investment banking. You should, you should do private equity. And he’s like sending me these links of things.

I like have zero interest in, right. But he’s like follow the money and you should go and do this. You’ll be in, you’ll be meeting these people. You’ll be. And you know, you’ll be in a, in, in a very, I guess, privileged position of, of being able to meet a lot of, you know, very high net worth individuals.

And then it would be, it would be a damn shame if I did not know, I guess, grab the, grab the bull by the horns and run with it. Right. And, and that’s actually just, just what I did. I chose that, that finance route, just do economics. And then, you know, here we are a couple of years later, we’re doing well.

Jean-luc: [00:34:34] If you’ve been more open-minded to the links that he was sending you, because I, it sounds very familiar, actually. I think both Diego, both Diego and I have very persistent dads who kind of have, have been through a lot and have a very clear view on how they believe the world is. And I think for you, like, are you were open-minded to the links that he sends? Does he send the same links now, as it changed a little bit?

Renzo: [00:35:03] No, it’s, it’s only gone progressively worse. My dad actually sent, like, my dad is sending me a links on Bitcoin. On, financial technology is like, dude, this company you’re running Kaiser capital, you should really get into crypto currencies.

He’s like all about cryptocurrencies, right. It’s actually driving crazy. And obviously I know he is onto something because I guess that’s my, my, my dad for sure, is, is living his, I guess the life that he couldn’t. I guess the opportunities that he couldn’t have when he was my age is somewhat vicariously living through me.

Right. And I appreciate that because I know I love my dad. My dad loves me and I know you just wants the best. And he knows how much swimming means to me. And he isn’t at all, you know, trying to, you know, it’s just trying to keep me on track and I appreciate that. So I let him send his links I kind of do what kind of pick and choose what I, what I like and what I choose to run. So.

Diego: [00:36:08] On the flip side, if you have this profession and meeting high net individuals, being in those privileged circles, being in a position to sustain yourself financially as well. And we all know how difficult it is for athletes to you know, get that financial backing from sponsor, from everything, but you positioned yourself thanks to your dad in a position to prolonging for 2024, 2028 two Olympic spirit, to be able to do that yourself.

Renzo: [00:36:39] Yes, absolutely. So I would say obviously my corporate sponsors, if you’re competing at the level that I’m in right now, especially with swimming and all the traveling that you have to do, thank god for this pandemic. Actually. Then I get to save on money and not travel as much. But A little of, a lot of the, I guess the finances have first off, my mom is, my mom has been awesome.

Right. Also just not, not just my dad, but my mom has been, especially before I made any money. And then I was just literally broke in college. It was really my mom keeping me afloat. And then as the years progressed and being in that position, she leveraged my network, my network. It’s been, you know, that’s been, I guess, a core staple of my, you know, sustaining my in my swimming career.

And I believe that, you know, making a ton of money is important, but right now I’m actually just making that money to feed into swimming, to prolong my career as a professional athlete, because more than anything, this, you know, this, this persona of, of a being this, this athlete from Suriname, a small country is, is more of that.

It’s more of a platform to basically it’s Surimame, get into wherever you want. There is, there’s literally no place. I believe I could walk into in Suriname where people, you know, won’t somewhat recognize me or, or, or give me a call back. And eventually in, especially within a small business community like this, that is all you can really hope for. If you’re trying to make a name for yourself and people taking you seriously. And I think that’s what serves swimming has given me. I think that as, as one of the most important aspects is a platform.

Jean-luc: [00:38:25] I wanted to quickly jump in because Diego, I think we have a couple of things to do. First of all, we have to make a Renzo Tjon A Joe NFT? It had just has to be made. We might have to call in some favors from others to create a whole series and answer then of course, the question comes, which you wind swimming in a swimsuit, which has a dog on it because we, we can get the doge community. Just, just get it. But the real question for me is if we.

Yeah, we’re, we’re going to have the doge coin community has already sponsored the Jamaica bots bobsled team to the winter Olympics. They’ve sponsored a NASCAR driver. So why wouldn’t they sponsor a swimmer from Suriname? I mean, there, there are some, some ways to do it.

Renzo: [00:39:15] That’s awesome.

Jean-luc: [00:39:16] No, but in seriousness, of course, it’s, it’s kind of a joke. The NFT is no joke. By the way I see Tevin is already scratching his head to making an NFT or swimming NFT, but you actually already said. I want to do at least four Olympic games. So this is going to be the second one.

And you feel like if, if you, if you prolong your career good enough long enough, you’ll be able to get to four Olympic games. And then of course, the question is on the same, at the same time, you’re already kind of making a trajectory for yourself. You do want to stay in swimming. Of course, you’re now also getting into investing might be even a broadcasting career or something, a career that’s related to swimming. How much time do you spend on looking at your career trajectory and looking for options after your swimming career is done and how much time goes into actually the swimming career?

Renzo: [00:40:13] Yeah, that’s a very good question. It really all depends on first off, I’m always looking for. Another investment opportunity. Right? I, I think that’s a big part of my, of what my company does ties with capital. I’m sure we’ll get into so that in a bit, but always looking for that, that next opportunity to, to execute the ball, especially in Suriname the Caribbean I believe obviously, Guyana. We’re all in Suriname, we’re sleeping, I’m going to on it and what’s happening over there.

But it’s, it depends on where I am usually with, you know, within the year. I, I thankfully have a very, very, very great team here in Suriname with, with, with guys like box year that have been, you know, a big part of my support and gas Joe out there. So my mom asked as a, as a, you know, as, as, as just a business mind here in terms of, you know, advising me on what my next steps should be.

And right now I’m training for the Olympic games. Right. And where, you know, I, my, my day starts at 6:00 AM. Right. Six or 5:00 AM. Like I do emails work in the morning. I have a prolonged breakfast. That’s like two to three hours. Look, a couple of small meals. I do emails within that, that workspace. I train at nine 30.

I come back, I arrest you know, I’ll do a couple of calls and then, you know, it’s, there’s time within the day. Obviously. It’s all about, you know, you just get scheduling and mapping out your day and obviously it’s, it’s a little harder right now just because I am in this place that I would more, more accurately describe as like the shadow realm in which I feel like I’m in the meat grinder of training.

And I’m learning a lot about myself. I’m constantly in and out of the pool. And constantly, I feel like I’m constantly eating constantly hungry trying to stay hydrated, trying to have this, you know, maintain, maintain good skin you know, just, just, just trying to be a better person, you know, you know, every day and with, I guess, a positive attitude.

Diego: [00:42:22] I have a quick question. Since you mentioned Kaiser capital a few times and that that’s basically correct me if I’m wrong later. Of course the company you co-founded with a few others and it’s you guys primarily focused on, you know investment and venture capital is a word that’s been. Being thrown around a lot lately especially here in Suriname the Caribbean, Latin America especially is very popular in the US and basically that’s how businesses grow big scale big. So in, in your term for the people quickly watching, could you define what venture capital is really short and then what the state is here now that you saw the opportunity?

Renzo: [00:43:08] So, so venture capital in its essence is, is really just identifying opportunistic investment opportunities. And then, and then at the end of the day after, I guess, a long period of, I guess, intensive research executing upon that investment opportunity with, I guess this is a substantial amount of capital or whatever that investment needs based on its financial models and its performance.

That’s basically venture capital in a nutshell. Right? What, what I’ve been trying to do is obviously bring that American business, that American venture capital mindset, and kind of that the business ethics of what goes on out there, here in Suriname. It’s been incredibly, I would say, you know, it’s been a great learning experience this past year, since I was here, you know, have my, you know, planting my feet on the ground, things, things in the U S move very quick.

Right? It’s things are very dependent. Things are very set. You can, you can rely on the banks to, you know, transfer your money from point a to point B. You can rely on a currency that is stable. All of the most things, you know, something I do when I travel up and down, out of the us or to Europe and come back to Suriname, I have to take two steps back right.

In my mind, because things just move at a different base. Here. We, we can’t necessarily rely on banks because their rules change literally every week in which now we get only either. Yeah. Don’t even get into the technicalities of the bank at the moment, but they’re not very reliable. And then also our currency is as, is simply fluctuating.

So it’s obviously you, if we’re talking venture capital where we’re primarily focused in either euros or us dollars, primarily obviously, but being in Suriname, you know, a lot does have in our currency it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s been a lot of give and take within this sphere of, of, of private equity here and starting off, we’ve been running some interesting projects, especially in the, in the space of real estate. FinTech obviously there scripts, currencies which is at, is I would say it’s grassroots, especially in Suriname because of the banks. And

Diego: [00:45:34] wait, quick clarification on that. So when you’re talking about banks and the capital side does the capital come through the firm and the money come from the bank? Or is it that you have investors that directly have the capital to invest in these projects? Because the culture there is you have a lot of investors with wads of cash and they are able to, you know, pump in money in projects that they see potential in. So which is, yeah,

Renzo: [00:46:00] so let’s, let’s hold the clarify on, on what you’re actually asking is that we’ve been. Because we’re a new country because we’re a relatively new company. You know, obviously this past year we’ve been having to create a track record of who we are, and that’s been working with smaller amounts of capital from investors here. Obviously, it’s trusted, trusted people that we know that, you know, we’re on the strict NDAs, obviously revealed who they are to, to actually, to actually to show them what venture capital could be.

And, and, and to actually, you know, solidify, you know, whatever. They’ve invested and their returns giving, giving them on, you know, quarterly reports on how their model has been working for them and what potential investment opportunities we have identified and executed on the, we have a good board of directors that, you know, that, that, that are of, you know, that have that senior insight of having the business here in Suriname and abroad that are giving us, you know, constant guidance on what to do, because obviously this is other people’s money.

So you gotta really fool around with it. Not at all, actually you know, every, every cent that goes anywhere needs, you know, goes through three layers of authorization. And obviously, you know, we obviously, we’re going to get to that stage in which we’re going to be working with our own capital but at the stage we’re at right now, we’re working, invest in invest investors stuff.

It’s debt it’s actually not debt but actually if you’re seeing, working with loans from banks here in Suriname, the, the percentages on loans, here in Suriname loans actually work with an on an investment with are way too high. They’re there anywhere, you know, if you’re lucky you get anywhere between 10 to 15% on a loan and they usually only invest those in real estate.

So it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s been, we haven’t been relying on the bank, so let’s just say that.

Jean-luc: [00:48:02] I, I know I kind of, I kind of understand where, where it is going and it’s, it’s also a difference in, in financial structure of course, in a country. But what I’m really interested in, because you now have gotten some experience here with investment and one of the key questions, I mean, you mentioned Guyana and seeing we’re sleeping on Guyana, but with the size, the market size that we have, how profitable is it for a venture capitalist to actually invest a couple of million dollars in a project in Suriname and, and to meet, maybe make it a little bit more niche. What kind of branches, what kind of sectors would you consider and would you definitely not consider investing millions of dollars in insurance right now?

Renzo: [00:48:56] So to actually somewhat backtrack on what you’re asking me. So Kayser Capital especially the partners we’ve been working with, we are a very data driven company. we’ve been using Guyana as our case study for basically the ground and grassroots of Kayser Capital. We’ve been following very meticulously, everything from, you know, when they first saw it and its development since then, and actually mapping up and then making a mirror of what is, what, what we have to expect is going to be happening here a lot, just the country.

It might seem like it’s a small economy right now, but Once, once these oil reserves start to hit our national banks here and our central banks, and it starts going into our sovereign or sovereign wealth fund brand, it’s being invested back in the country and not only infrastructure, but literally everything will look will somewhat explode.

I was in, I was in Guyana in 2018. The last time I was as meeting to going back last year and this year, but obviously due to the pandemic and we’re pretty familiar with the movie star wars, right. It’s literally when Obi-Wan travels to the outskirts of space. And, you know, I was staying at this, this, this little hotel, 60 bucks a night, and I’m sitting at the bar having a couple of drinks with a couple of friends.

And, you know, you’re meeting big oil guys from Texas in, you know, you know, a Jackie hotel. You are, you know, there are literally roads being me like into the jungle. There, there, there, there there’s construction everywhere. I’ve been to a lot of places. They have a very big Marriott that’s there hard rock cafe.

There’s, there’s, there’s so much going on. It’s, it’s, it’s very similar to what happened to Trinidad and Tobago in the eighties. Right because we’re, we’re used to that small, that small economy that, that very safe space of operating. We haven’t been able to think outside of the box, but it surely overnight those things hit and you’re like, what are we going to do with all of this money?

And that’s what we’ve been preparing for. We’ve been trying to stay ahead of the growth, even, even though like what, you know, even though it tends to 10,000 to 20,000, $30,000 investment might not seem large to a big foreign company, but we are creating that track record and that’s, that is eventually going to set us up for what will eventually happen here and what is happening there.

We are a couple of years behind the curve through the four years, but it will happen. And if, if. No, we’re still sleeping on, on what is going to happen here. And our Staatsolie director, we currently have a new one. Mr. Elias Rudolph Elias he has been east he’s constantly hinting towards is that we don’t know what’s you don’t know what is about to happen.

You don’t know what it’s about. And then that guy tells me that’s like, you better take this guy seriously. Cause he’s, he’s talking to these guys constantly and he knows what is going to be deposited in our, you know, and what’s going to be injected into our, our economy at some point we’re rich, obviously in minerals and gold and you know, we have a fantastic climate for agriculture.

I love agriculture. So all of these things will, at some point in time, time, time, perfectly with obviously the right leadership that we very desperately need, sir. If that answers your question.

Jean-luc: [00:52:48] I want to do one quick follow up question before Diego, I asks the next and of course the question I have to ask for people that are watching and people that are interested, what’s the minimum buy-in to actually get your, the services or from Kayser capital. What’s the bit of, of that we, as an investor would have to invest in your businesses,

Renzo: [00:53:08] send us an email at contact@kaysercapital.com and they’ll call me all the time.

Jean-luc: [00:53:13] That’s a failure, failure, politically, correct answer. But we’ll, we’ll repeat that one at the end so that people get the opportunity to write that down or know that, but go ahead, Diego.

Diego: [00:53:23] Yeah, no, that’s exactly what I was going for too. Cause yeah, cause generally outside in the us, but we’re talking millions and people are ready to go one, two, three, and. You said you already decided here, you’re at a stage now for building a track record of making these opportunities. So do you see this being a, I guess, stepping stone for smaller investors, the, do you think this will be able to give a paradigm shift in the way people invest here and then where I’m not looking at the, the people with the millions now, because that’s an old generation, but the new, and up-and-coming people that you know, kind of lack access to the network in the U S or the network in Europe. Is that also an opportunity for them through Kaiser?

Renzo: [00:54:13] Absolutely. We are trying to democratize what it means to be, to invest in anything that you want. Right. At some point once you, obviously, if we have the, the, I guess the inner workings of the banks here in Suriname, we would like to be a platform for Surinamese people to also invest in, in, in the us stock market or, or in the European stock market or in, or having access to, you know, obviously, you know, crypto currencies, if you want to do that through us or by yourself.

Absolutely. Yes, yes. Diego

it’s, it’s, we’re going to get there. Obviously if you’re a new company, people will be hesitant, you know, who, you know, who are you?

Diego: [00:54:54] Yeah. Cause there have been like companies in the past and actually companies. It’s still currently, I think trying, who’ve been trying to, you know, get a, an exchange sorted out here, but then comes a lot of regulations and laws and policies and all that, you know, stifles the progress in this. So from, from the way you’ve been explaining things, you, you guys are preparing for all of this already.

Renzo: [00:55:18] Let’s think of this. None of those companies have, have me, right. As a psychopath that will actually not accept no for an answer and my team members are, you know, there, there are sharks. We, you know, be one at all ads. We, you know, obviously it, it might seem that were a bit ambitious, but it’s, it’s just very much just the, our, our positive attitude moving forward.

Diego: [00:55:43] And yeah, she’s had psychometric resilience come from swimming and pushing you through everyday. So that, that education helps, you know, I did yeah. So I think we can we, we should wind down a bit now since we have a. Bunch of questions in the chat. So I want to do this real rapid fire quick. So just, you know, first thing that comes to mind, I’ll go through the questions in the chat.

Renzo: [00:56:07] I’m only now seeing like a list yeah.

Diego: [00:56:11] For you. And then we’ll just quickly go through and then we’ll close off with a final question. So, yeah from the previous part of the conversation that Tevin agrees he’s been following the Guyana on the news every day. So he’s been seeing the things you’ve been talking about and yet have been, is an illustrator. So who knows maybe you’ll see yourself NFT’d it in one of his illustrations shortly.

That’s right. Yeah. Joined in a bit late. And a quick question from Gyanno with regards to chairman happy, have you taken step in terms of mental coaching to increase your apart of performance? Do the school’s your trained at provided,

Renzo: [00:56:47] I’ve, I’ve actually been doing a lot of the, I would say the mental prep of sight of the, I guess, the sport and swimming. If we’re talking about specific myself my I’m actually coached by someone in bred Hawk wildly successful sooner. And back in this day, I’ll show you an Olympian has coached the Brazilians two Olympic gold, Cesar CLO is currently coaching. And, and I guess he, he has a degree in psychology, right? So he, he, you know, he prepares us as well as possible for, for those lights and that day, that, that moment, and that’s. Aye. Even though I do take a lot of, you know, a lot of that, I do a lot of that myself, but I do let the professional do his job. And then, you know, I just go with the flow.

Diego: [00:57:38] Yeah. Professional is always helpful because sometimes you cannot see. So next question from Tevin is it possible for Renzo that you can build a scouting bridge for upcoming talent from Suriname to the U S? Is that anything you’ve considered?

Renzo: [00:57:55] It’s nothing that I’ve considered as of, as of right now, just because my hands are a bit full, especially with, with the swimming and press with Kayser private equity, all of these things are happening at the same time. But that is definitely something I would consider the future i, you know, that there’s so much volunteer, but it’s, you know, it’s not that I don’t want to do it. It’s just, it takes being responsible and spearheading an operation like that. Being in charge of people’s lives. It’s it could be quite daunting to us. I think I would do something like that. If I had a bit more time.

Jean-luc: [00:58:33] It’s actually interesting. I want to follow up on this because you’re actually training here for a very long times of, since a very long time. So my question, maybe COVID kind of helped push it away, but you being in Suriname, how much does that mean?

That all these people are coming to your like hey Renzo so your answer now I want to do business with you. I want to do this. I want to do that. do you feel like being here on one side, maybe it does provide more opportunities, but also can be like a hinder towards your training schedule that when you’re in Suriname, a lot of people of course want something from Renzo because Renzo is in Suriname now.

Renzo: [00:59:13] Well I actually moved like Batman. Yeah, she don’t really see me moving in Suriname, but I have pretty, pretty, pretty standard training periods in which I grow the practice. But sir, I’m, I’m not like with biggie boy, it’s different. I feel like, because just these, you know, he’s a guy that is from, you know, like hardcore  like this guy is, you know, I’m, I don’t really feel like I’ve ever gone, you know, cloud like that in which people run up to me or anything.

Obviously, you know, people come up to me sometimes, you know, very brief conversations. I think it’s it’s maybe it’s just, it’s just, my personality is just very, how would I say it? It’s a lot of ups maybe here in certain but it hasn’t been a hinder that, that people, you know, what you know, would come up to me or that, that has been a, you know, a negative on my training as such a preparation. Just, I mean, I’m at, I’m at Parima of my every morning and there’s basically no one there like me and my coach. So it’s

Jean-luc: [01:00:23] how was the swimming today? Now I have to ask that question. How was the swimming today and getting Parima it will have to buy through a distributor for this morning.

Renzo: [01:00:35] We need to work on infrastructure. Like this is crazy. I’m, I’m sure like all the car mechanics are having a great time at the moment because cars must be breaking down. Right. So it’s yeah. It was, it was like tactfully. I drive an SUV and I get to just roll up to practice, but it’s not without its challenges. Right. It’s the city was going water as well.

Jean-luc: [01:01:00] Today was the day was crazy. I think, you know, I think we just jumped in with a, with a question as well, but there are also some older questions.

Diego: [01:01:11] Yeah. I’ll do one more and then you can take over then we’ll go to the final question. So quickly from a Anil real short, what’s the future of swimming. And especially with the COVID situation now, is it going to change? Is it going to normalize again?

Renzo: [01:01:27] There are a couple of interesting things happen with within this course swimming. There’s this Ukrainian billionaire that has starting, it has started with its own swimming league. And it’s very much, you know, he’s, there’s, there’s a, there’s a crazy article out the plot to kill the Olympics.

I think you all should read in, in basically these assays always asking itself, like why are swimmers poor and swimming at the Olympics is the most watched sport and the Olympic games. This year in 2016 has rack in anywhere close to five to $6 billion and athletes don’t see a cent of actually no, the revenues and all of these things.

And I see with this are Ukrainian billionaire just doing a bunch of crazy things with them, serving and investing heavily in something called the, in the national swimming league and which I’ll hopefully be part of in, I think it’s September or October for one of the teams. I think the future is bright for swimming. Swimming is the greatest support that actually makes your brain bigger. So

Jean-luc: [01:02:36] but also I think for people that don’t know a lot about swimming, I mean, it’s not just swimming, but you also. Do the most important swimming event, like the 50 meters freestyle is kind of like, it’s the same.

but, but to a serious note, because we have some fellow servers joining in and Dimitri wants to know, can you expand a bit on who  are and how their guidance has impacted you? And also, would you be able to reach these heights in Suriname,

Renzo: [01:03:11] these Heights in Suriname? That’s a very, very good last three, couple of words. So, so Caesar CLO is the Olympic champion from Brazil in 2008 in the 50 freestyle coached by Brett Hawk. Bruno Fralis this is the most. Consistent fastest 50 freestyler in history. Another Brazilian also coached by Brett Hawk. I’ve had the privilege of being able to train with Bruno since 2014.

And then we had a quick hiatus. I went to school and then I was prepared for him, the Olympic for Olympics, 28, 20, 19 to 20 it’s one year COVID and now I’m here. And Bruno has been in every Olympic final since 2016, constantly missing a metal. He’s the silver, silver metal. He’s won a bunch of world championship medals 50 freestyle.

Cesar CRO is actually the current world record holder in the 50 freestyle. So very would I say it’s a very. This thing, wish company of, of gentlemen. And I would say these, these, these students like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovich of swimming within the 50 freestyle wildly successful. And do I believe that I can reach these heights for certain, all these guys have told me that I can reach these heights so who am I in lots of belief that right. Do I believe I can do that within Suriname? No, not yet within certain homes, just because we just don’t have that, that infrastructure of, and that mindset. But really wanting to invest in, in a gold medal and a gold medal is made over a couple of years. But I do believe that with, with the proper guidance outside of Suriname serving in the U S or in the Netherlands, I will, I will get to that point.

And that’s what I’m giving myself a lot of time. Obviously it’s all with all of these guys, everything is built around them, right? The only thing these a guy like Bruno does was he wakes up in the morning and he swims, right. The Brazilian Olympic committee takes care of most of it. It’s training expenses traveling.

He only, he sends out a quick text and the tickets get booked then and he’s, and he’s off. I literally don’t have those privileges. I have to do everything myself. I don’t have a physio therapist that’s specifically assigned, assigned to me when I go to meet sometimes I’m by myself oftentimes, or with just a coach I’m missing small technical details to get to, I would say that the next level, that’s why I’m getting myself up until2028 to properly do this.

And I believe that I can definitely be in the Olympic final. And once you’re in the, in the final, you’re competing for a medal. And if that answers your question, yes, I believe I can.

Diego: [01:06:03] Awesome playing the long game and slowly compounding every experience over time. So I guess my final question since we’ve been talking about investing and compounding, so not financial advice from people, just virtual opinion people who’ve watched the show know that Jean-luc and I are pretty bullish on crypto blockchain and NFTs the like, so what is your stance on the current state of the crypto world? Now

Renzo: [01:06:31] Elon Musk tweeting.

Say, I literally don’t want to pretend like I’m a crypto expert or anything like that, but he should stick to designing as well. Teslas. And focus on that because every time that guy tweets it takes it, it dips. Right. I mean, I think it’s, I think it’s big. Whoever gets into it, don’t put all of your app, your eggs in one basket.

I think that’s the most important advice I would give anyone investing in general. Do not put all of your, your, your finances in the cryptocurrencies, or don’t put everything in NFTs or don’t put anything in stocks spread yourself out. Create a very sound portfolio. I like, just because of my, my, my, my, my mom’s side of the business and the upbringing I’ve had.

I love real estate real estate in Suriname on the market. I would say it’s a little sick. Just because people aren’t just doing crazy things for these prices per square meters or janky ass houses going for $400,000 or euros. But I, I think there should be, you know you know, an executive committee installed that actually regulates what you do within, you know, the real estate space, especially in certain I’m just, just that we have, we keep having a healthy environment invested instead of sick environment, but don’t put your eggs in one basket, spread, spread yourself out a little bit.

And just give yourself time to keep educating yourself on a bunch of interesting opportunities popping up everywhere for you, if you know where it is.

Jean-luc: [01:08:20] Yeah. So, so we want to know, we want to know now of course if people are interested, I mean, if people want to know about your swimming career is quite simple, go to switch on, or you follow you on Instagram or on Facebook, but for people who are interested in, in venture capital and investing how can you reach out to you?

Renzo: [01:08:37] You can either email me at tjonajoe@kaysercapital.com or info@kaysercapital.com, and then we’ll see it. You know, we’ll, we’ll get back to you, I guess, as soon as we could. You know, we have, you know, we have a diligence team that does a lot of analyzing of investment opportunities here in Suriname but we’re willing to work with basically everyone that makes sense for us to work with.

Right. But everyone does have. You know, could you could send us their business plan or anything like that. We, we rewrite a lot of business plan to make it translatable for an American or European businessman to actually read it. You know, something that, you know, usually a, an investor usually looks at is a financial model and the pro form us.

And just very, just the technical stuff that goes into that. We, we, we dive into that. We rewrite a lot of that stuff where people here, obviously yes, as, as, as a, as a, basically a consulting branch of Kayser capital, but they’re, you know, info@kaysercapital.com or

they’re sending us a message on Facebook,

Diego: [01:09:47] Yeah. So the closest off, thank you again, Renzo in your, you know, very tight schedule for having this conversation with us. And we hope that the people tuning in have learned and seen another side of Renzo so that is not just a swimmer. It’s been busy with a lot of things and especially in the, in the development space, investing space as well. So he is not just a swimmer, although that is still one of his big goals to compete and win in the Olympics, 2024, 2028. Look forward to that. With that being said, thank you, everyone for tuning in live here on Social Confoes, we will release this episode on the audio platforms and the websites on Saturdays.

So if you’ve missed it, if you have friends who’ve missed it, you can listen to that. You know, when it’s raining outside or you driving through this through work or something too little in the background and yes, share a difference. Let us know what you think. What topics you’d like us to cover. Thanks again, Jean-luc.

Jean-luc: [01:10:43] so Renzo it was really awesome. We want to wish you the best of luck with the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo as well. We will be cheering for, for you, whether it’s COVID free in a bar or at home, we will cheer for you. We really want to thank you. And we’ll close off with a cover comment from the Dimitri. Lobi Roos! Success guys and girls. Thank you for watching. Again, this was Social Confoes and a half a great rest of your day. Bye-bye.