Interview with Marissa Limsiaco - President of Otso, 4X Entrepreneur, Combat Veteran, West Point Graduate

Marissa Limsiaco didn’t realize it at the time, but she started honing her business development skills recruiting young women to the West Point women’s tennis team.

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Guest - Marissa Limsiaco
Host - Carl Grant
Producer - Seth Grant

Transcript

Carl Grant: 0:00

Welcome to Rainmakers! Now to our hosts Carl Grant. Welcome to rainmakers on here with Marisa Lim Shaco. President of Otso elcome, Marissa.

Marissa Limsiaco: 0:14

Thanks for having me, Carl.

Carl Grant: 0:17

Yeah, so I can relate in certain ways with Marissa and that she is a graduate of West Point, I did not graduate from West Point I was ROTC. I know how hard it is to get into West Point. So you must have been driven at a very young age.

Marissa Limsiaco: 0:32

I was yes. And then the whole idea of doing something a little different in college and serving the country afterward, but pretty appealing to me as well.

Carl Grant: 0:41

Yeah. So we're gonna walk through your career, you run your own company now. And sounds very complicated to me, you. It's a real estate related insurance play, and we're going to dig into that. But I want to go back and talk about your drive and and then your service to our nation. And then this is a business development podcast. And we were talking about your days at West Point, you really started to realize you had a knack for business development, when you were recruiting for the tennis team to talk a little bit about that.

Marissa Limsiaco: 1:13

Yes, so we had the I had the opportunity, some of us who graduated have the opportunity to go back, I played tennis for West Point for division one, college athlete. And so I had the opportunity to stay before reporting to my first duty station for six months to help my head tennis coach, recruit and assistant coach as well with players. And so a big part of that was the recruiting. And we started, you know, first first thing I did was start just going to tournaments all around the country. And I didn't realize that at the time and looking back, but that was really my first kind of experience and and realizing I'm pretty good at this because there's a there's a sales and there's a business development component to that, where you got to kind of capture them and get their interest. And I think as someone that graduated, my coaches really smart to put me in the front, because I was super excited. I just graduated from school. Uh huh. And so I was I was really happy to talk about my experiences and share them. And so, over time, you have to cultivate those relationships. And not only do you have to capture the interest of the player, the girl wanting to go to West Point, oh, by the way, this was 2005. And so this was during the height of the war in Iraq at the time. So a little bit kind of daunting to talk to, I know, some parents didn't even want to talk to me. Um, so but there was a component of me getting the interest of the player and then getting the interest and buy in from the parents, and really having to cultivate those relationships and the trust that hey, we're going to take care of your, your, you know, your girl when she comes to school, and you're going to see her come out, and she's going to turn out like this, and it's going to be amazing, just to serve our country. Um, so that was really I ended up recruiting were the biggest classes that year. And I was kind of like, sat back. And I was like, Well, I guess I'm pretty good at this stuff. And I enjoyed it as well.

Carl Grant: 3:10

Were you able to use that skill set when you went off and served you were an aviation Support Battalion Commander, after that?

Marissa Limsiaco: 3:17

I did. I did. I'm in another kind of time. It was really, I think one of my realizations to going into entrepreneurship at the time is business sales, business development, in a way, but it was also a little bit there's ingenuity and innovativeness around one of the projects I did in Iraq, I ran a forward arming refueling point. So what's called like a hot refueling an army point where helicopters come in while they're still running. Think of it like a gas station, where you're also like, putting on like missiles and stuff like that. So it's a 24 hour operation. And I read, we're kind of in the middle of our own area, about 16 miles north of Baghdad. And I just realized, like the system, the fueling system was slow. It was taking 20 minutes 25 minutes to fuel a back Blackhawk and I was pulling the thread with I 70 soldiers under me with over 100 years of experience, and just my curiosity was like, hey, how do we make this faster? Can we make this faster? And as you know, being in the military, everything is by, you know, training manuals and by the book. And so we're going a little bit outside of the box by thinking hey, we can add these pumps here and do this, this and, you know, just started playing around with the ideas. And the idea became we read this could actually work and so for probably better of like four to six months happen more. I was there for 15 months to the beginning part of my deployment was pitching this idea to my to my superiors, my commanders, which had to essentially go all the way up to the general in charge of Iraq at the time had a high because it was pretty high visibility operation. So if something went down and helicopters can get fuel coming in and out of battle. And that was a big issue, right? So it was persistence, I think and getting my my leadership on board, and cultivating new relationships of people that I knew more decision makers over time. And afterwards, we were able to get it through. And I always tell people, when we had one hour to do that whole transition of the whole system, and I don't think I clenched my book sheets for like, an hour straight, they're like, Oh, so nervous that something would go wrong, because it just couldn't go wrong. Right, and, and we went from 20 minutes, 25 minutes to fill up a Black Hawk to a minute and a half to Wow. And it couldn't have come at a better time. It was actually right before the surge happened, we had no idea the surge was happening. So we went from volume of 20 birds a day, 2030 aircraft a day to over 100 a day. And so we just it came in good timing as well.

Carl Grant: 5:59

That's incredible. So talk now about the transition to the real estate business.

Marissa Limsiaco: 6:05

Yes, so we I, I bought the army about 11 years ago, active duty, went to grad school and discovered my love for entrepreneurship. And I don't think I realized that but years after I'd already gone out and started running my businesses is, you know, I, the feeling I get when I'm coming up with new ideas and getting people to buy in was a lot of those same kind of excitement and passion, passion feelings, I had back no one else, I was in a back story I just told around the the fart in Iraq. And we've evolved over the last six years, my whole vision and goal has been to make commercial real estate more efficient, and leasing just easier. In general, there's not a lot of data available to businesses looking for space that there is people looking for houses, because there's an MLS on the residential side, there is no MLS or regulated database from the commercial side. And so I started kind of my journey in the industry trying to solve problems like that through technology. And through understanding kind of the leasing process, how landlords think. And brokers think it just so happened, we came up with this idea for otso. And seeing the friction point, when people are doing leases, and having to put up a security deposit for business, a lot of money typically 1000s upon millions of dollars, depending on your business. But we really looked at it from a landlord side and landlord side is that there is a big gap between upfront costs of putting a tenant in and the collateral that they put up in the deposit. It's a big, big gap, and you don't realize your ROI, typically till mid term, and if that tenant defaults are out all that money. And so our our product is really a way for not only businesses to save capital, but for landlords to gain coverage on a deal and have a little bit more cushion and, you know, transparency and comfort with bringing new tenants in. And so what we essentially do is we underwrite the tenant, they take a quick, you know, financial assessment for us, it takes five minutes or less, the decision goes to the landlord, if they're approved, they work us into the deal. And say, instead of putting down that $10,000, the tenants only having to pay $70 extra per month. And so it's this kind of big play on just being more efficient with capital on both ends, really an increasing increasing protection for landlords, which, as you know, is very top of mind with everything going on in the current environment.

Carl Grant: 8:46

So in running your own company, not only do you have to, you know, come up with this great idea, and and recruit employees and and service your clients, but you also have to go out and you have to get these clients. And so what component of this type of business is business development? And how do you do that?

Marissa Limsiaco: 9:08

Yes, so there's, yeah, you're right, we wear a ton of hats as a founder. And, um, if you have to get a blend of both, you've got your sales that you got to get your short class and be more aggressive and close deals and get no again, your first couple of customers in the beginning and, you know, grow that to scale. So there's obviously a heavy sales component, but a lot of founders don't realize there's a big, big business development component to being a founder. And there's this nurturing process where whether it be investors that you're bringing on or big customers or partners. It's over the last, you know, six years, it was just like I took every meeting, because you just never know. And I'll tell you a lot later the number of people on my cap table that invested But in me that told me no at first, but because I kept nurturing and you're just kind of getting to know people, as a person, as I know, people have probably talked about on their show here is business development. And it's all about making that connection, remaining memorable. But having people want to help you or you want to help people want them to see you're a good person and wanting to investment investors patient best in you, or in a business partners case, or a big customer trust you that you're you know, you're going to deliver what you're saying you're going to deliver. And if some of these bigger deals take time, years, multiple months, and there's that component of that. I mean, there was, like I said, there's people that told me no, first year, two, three years later came in and I'm like, I really love what you're doing, I want to be part of this somehow.

Carl Grant: 10:49

And then you and I met kind of in a biz dev type of manner, we were introduced by a mutual friend, we did a zoom, and here we are doing a podcast together. There's no real, you know, near term business reason for us to be in contact other than we have a common friend. And I can we can like each other. Right? And so I do you maintain many relationships like this, and and where do they serve you business wise, down the road?

Marissa Limsiaco: 11:18

I do I do. I like it. And for the most part, business is all relationships, right. And that's, that's the biggest part of this that I love. And that's what gets me out of bed every day is not only you have to be motivated by your mission and your vision of what you're building. But it's the fact that I spend my time meeting new people such as yourself, and learning about them. And when you form a relationship with someone that's like, you know, oh, we like each other, like, you know, I felt you feel you get the comfort down the road to be like, hey, and it's not like I have anything to ask right now. But down the road being like, Hey, I know you're involved in this, I need help. And I think that's another component to being a founder is having to ask upfront with people, because at the same time, unlike traditional business development, where you prepare corporate environments, all we have is our time. So it's like that balance of, you know, cultivating relationships, because you just like, never know what happens. But also, you know, kind of keeping that database in your head. And remembering I take notes about a lot, almost every person that I meet, just kind of remember it like I when we met, we talked about this, and this is our connection, this is a memorable thing that they told me. Oh, and they're, they're connected to this, and I'm actually looking at, you know, making relationships in this field. So maybe I could just like reach out and talk. So having that kind of ask. It's a kind of a juggle. But that's, like I said, you just never know. And it's also just genuine me liking to connect with people as well. And, and especially during COVID

Carl Grant: 12:55

drop down that I also play tennis probably not nearly as good as you. And my two favorite states are the two states that you live in Florida, and you have your company in Austin. So Texas and Florida and my two favorite states work. So, alright, and and so as you think about it, and like I put it all together, recruiting for the tennis team, it probably the same skill sets that helped you bring those young women into the tennis team, or helping you bring clients in and nurture relationships and build trust that you're doing today, all these years later. What What advice do you have to say, a young woman who's listening, who is just starting out in life, and says, Wow, I'd love to be like her, I'd like to run my own business like that.

Marissa Limsiaco: 13:46

Um, yeah, it's, it's go after it and don't sit on it, I talk to almost every founder is that ideas, don't let an idea stick in your head, you know, try try to start pulling that thread, and you build your you know, get by that curiosity, and the persistence, and the resourcefulness to kind of put yourself out there and try to connect, my network didn't build overnight to where, you know, I'm able to connect with people, such as yourself through, you know, second, third order effects of people that met, it's a lot business development, especially when you're starting a business is a big portion of that. And over time, you know, you find that people that respond to you, and that you find the people that want to support you or be a part of what you're doing. And you kind of like grasp on to that. And then there's like second third order effects of that down the road. So it's it's really just persistence and passion. And I think one thing that's coming in it depends on your industry. And I don't know if you see this in your industry, Carl, but in my industry, I'm finding that you know, when you have made a lot of connections, and you probably have a ton of LinkedIn followers as well, and I've been on Twitter and Facebook and all of that, but there's a component to social media now, that's become really important in business development. Um, and that's how, you know, people kind of come back to me and be like, Hey, I saw this post about this and it doesn't even have to be about your business. It's like articles that inspire your you think will, you know, connect with your audiences or your network, being genuine is important, but the social media kind of aspect of it, I think the younger generation get this more than us before. Is, is really, really big component coming into I think sales and and especially business development, because when you you're connecting with all these people on these platforms, and 1000s upon 1000s, you can't call and, you know, text or email them every day, or have even like to keep up with all of that. So having that presence I'm finding is extremely important as well.

Carl Grant: 15:51

Absolutely. Great advice. Thanks for joining us today. wrestlin Shaco, President and co founder of Otso, if you like what you've heard today, please subscribe. Please share it with your friends and rate us. Thanks. You have been listening to brain makers with Carl Grant