Announcer: 0:00

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J. Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management, or Beasley Media Group. Entrepreneur, founder, author, and financial advisor Marc Bernstein helps high-performing business owners turn their visions into reality. Through his innovative work and the forward-focused forum, Marc connects entrepreneurs to resources that fuel their success. Founders Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, revealing the lessons they've learned and the stories behind their success. Join Marc and his guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights, and a little fun. Now let's dive in.

Marc Bernstein: 0:42

Good morning, America. How are you? This is uh Marc Bernstein. This is Founders Forum. Welcome to our show. I have Gee in the studio with us today, actually over Zoom. He's in Dakota Studios, and you'll hear more about that, why there's a Dakota Studios. But good morning, Gee. Thanks for having me on, Marc. Nice to see you. My pleasure. Nice to see you. We're going to get right into a subject, and then I'll formally introduce Gee and you'll hear his story. Gee, um, the the theme of this morning has been we pre-recorded another show and it's been about service. And I raised the subject to you, and I thought it was worth delving into with you as well. You, through your company, you do a lot of service, and I think personally as well, and there's some meaning behind that for you. Um, would you mind sharing that with our audience?

Gui Costin: 1:31

Sure. We started the company in 2006, and by 2011, we were starting to make some money, things were happening, and it just I had this epiphany, just very empty feeling. And I decided to have a mission statement for myself, which is to help other people get what they want out of life. And I think of it over sort of three levels. You know, first our employees and our teammates. That's very important to me. In fact, uh, I'm launching our uh my new, my latest book, my third book's coming out called Be Kind. And the the whole question there is because if you think of service, you think of people every day coming to the office, coming to work, and then how are they treated? Right? How's their boss treat them? How do the other teammates treat one another? And a lot of people, you know, it can be a toxic work environment, it can be, you know, not so kind, if you will. And can you marry two concepts? Can you marry a concept of super hard-charging culture with but to do it with kindness? So to be of service to me is one to our teammates and employees, two to our customers, and then three to our community. In January of 2021, we launched our community outreach program called Dakota Gives, and it's run by Barb Lace Line, and that we give away $10,000 a month. Uh, and our whole focus there is local, so Philadelphia. It is uh uh local, uh impact, and micro. So we really want to give to the smaller charities where we can have impact and we can go on site and help them. So yeah, it's a huge part of my persona, the company, and everything we do. And I never quite realized it because I didn't have any grand plan, other than I wanted to give back is how much Dakota Gives galvanizes our company and gives it purpose. And it just happened very organically without me, you know, doing anything. It just happened. People love it.

Marc Bernstein: 3:20

A side benefit of being giving. Um briefly before the show, we were talking about our last show, and we talked about the Philadelphia Eagles and their culture of being kind would be a good way to put it. It's not exactly the way they put it, but it's how they treat each other within the organization, and it goes from everybody. Team members starts at Jeff Lurie, who's the who's the owner, to Don Smolinsky, who's the president who spoke yesterday, and it goes all through the organization, and it manifests itself like you in giving through their autism foundation and other things that they do. And it really is amazing because if you think about um the NFL and talk about hard charging, you know, the players and the team. And by the way, I asked he if he's if he's an Eagles fan, and he said only when I'm breathing. I love you know, I love that, which is a great answer. So another guy who bleeds green. So they anyway, they um you know it just it just go goes throughout the organization, and they talked about the many benefits and stories about how people within the organization go out of their way to help each other just because of that whole spirit of giving. And it started at the top with with uh Jeff Lurie as a CEO, and in Dakota, uh it starts at the top with Gui Costin, who is our guest today. So that's a great way to now introduce you. Go Birds, by the way. Go Birds. I had to throw that out there. Uh so Gee is the founder and CEO of Dakota, business development database company for investment firms. Founded in 2006, Dakota has over 60 employees with offices in Brynmarr and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dakota's eight-person investment sales team has raised over $40 billion for 15 different investment firms, and Dakota has raised over $13 billion in the RIA channel alone. Dakota Marketplace, an institutional investor database, is used by thousands of investment salespeople who use it to source leads of institutional investors. Gui shares the mission of Dakota, which is to make the life of an investment salesperson easier. Each choice and decision Dakota makes daily comes back to that one point, including Dakota's own sales team. Gui is the author, as he mentioned briefly, of a couple of books, one of which is Millennials Are Not Aliens, a great title, a best-selling book on a generation who grew up on the internet and have fundamentally changed how we buy things. Gui attended the University of Virginia and is married with three kids. Again, Gui, welcome.

Gui Costin: 5:54

Thank you for having me.

Marc Bernstein: 5:55

That's such a great biography. I used up a quarter of the show just reading it. But anyway, uh Gui, tell me how you got into all this stuff. Where did it all start? Be after University of Virginia, I imagine.

Gui Costin: 6:07

So it's kind of a crazy, crazy story. Uh, and I'll just the last Christmas, I have three kids. We're in Florida, and they say, Hey Dad, before you started to code in 2006, how many jobs did you have before that? And I go, I think I had eight. So my son, Will, who's 21, is a real character. He goes, Really? He goes, Can you go through them? So I went through them and I got to 11. He's like, Dad, that's 11. I said, Yeah. And he goes, How about do it one more time? So I said, Okay. I got to 13. And my final job for working for another company came in the spring of 2006. And I had presented to the CEO an idea for an investment strategy, a fund of funds. And he goes, I love this idea. It's a real estate fund of funds, present it to the investment committee. Sorry, the executive committee. So I did. And we were in Phoenix, presenting the investment, uh, the executive committee, and they said, uh, we're not doing it. So it's rejected. And also you're fired. And so they gave me 90 days severance. And so I took that idea for that fund of funds back to the firm we were going to partner with and said, Hey, would you ever do it with me? Wait, wait, wait a second, though.

Marc Bernstein: 7:16

Why did they fire you? I mean, they brought you out there to present this idea. What was that about?

Gui Costin: 7:21

Do you know it's just, I mean, I I I probably don't want to even publicly disclose because I don't want to disparage anyone, but it was just a it was a cast of characters. Right. And we probably didn't align culturally. Right, right. You know what I mean? So they're like, you're done. Got it.

Marc Bernstein: 7:36

Okay. Well, some the great entrepreneur stories occur that happen out of occurrences like that. So I I get it. So so anyway, so you went to the company that you were going to partner with, presented the idea of the fund of funds, and and they said, Yep, we'll do it with you.

Gui Costin: 7:52

And my boss ended up leaving too, joined me, and we started a company together. And uh yeah, and then it was a great uh and uh we also simultaneously met sort of the the group that has been my guiding light, you know, my mentor, the best person on the planet, uh, a guy named Alan Breed from Edgewood Management, and met him uh again in September of 2006 when we were starting the company. And he just goes, Hey, we have a mutual fund we just launched, it's equities, large cap growth. Would you ever market that in addition to your real estate fund? And I said, Great. We cut a deal, and 19 years later, we've never had a financial conversation. So it's been this most unreal partnership. Unbelievable. Uh really, really wonderful. And just amazing guy, amazing company, amazing investors, and he's just got a culture at his company that we've tried to emulate at Dakota.

Marc Bernstein: 8:41

Is your former boss still your partner?

Gui Costin: 8:44

Uh no, unfortunately, um we broke up in 2009 uh just because he really wanted to focus on the fund of funds. I had a big interest in the you know, Edgewood Mutual Fund. And so we amically parted and uh he went on at the fund of funds, and I went on with Edgewood.

Marc Bernstein: 9:00

Oh, gotcha. So it doesn't sound unfortunate at all. It sounds like a win-win for everybody.

Gui Costin: 9:04

Yeah, it was it was yeah, he's he's he's a super guy. Yeah, great. And uh it was a very nice uh split.

Marc Bernstein: 9:10

Great. So, okay, so tell what happened from there. So let's say from 2009 on that you focused on the the one particular real estate fund.

Gui Costin: 9:19

Yep, we were just you know raising money out, doing what we do, traveling the country, raising money from institutional investors, RAAs, banks, broker dealers, foundations, endowments, et cetera. And uh we in 2011, another thing happened where I was trying to hire salespeople. And I had this whole method, I didn't have a methodology. I call it the read my mind method, right? And then so I kind of burned through a few salespeople because it wasn't working out and they were looking at me. And so I said, you know what? I've got to figure out a process here. And I happened to find a book that was all about processes and procedures, and so I I documented every single thing I did as a salesperson, called it the Dakota Way, and trained everybody on that, those processes and procedures. And uh, I just dropped my second book called The Dakota Way in January of 2025. And so the Dakota Way ended up being what we all followed, and it really accelerated our success to have a very tight sales process. And then we did something really crazy in 2019. We had taken this database that we used to raise 40 billion, as you mentioned, in the bio, and we decided to turn it into a product. And what that means is we wanted it was our own database using Salesforce.com with all this great information on investors around the country, institutional investors, not individuals, all institutional investors. And so we created a product so people could actually go to the web, log in, and basically have a fully up-to-date CRM of leads, right? So we basically keep every investment firm's CRM up to date. Effectively, that's the that's the concept. Today we have about 1,275 investment firms as subscribers, about 6,000 fundraisers, and we hired 70 people. And so now we have a much bigger company to do all the things that we're doing to help them get what they want out of life from a career perspective.

Marc Bernstein: 11:11

And so those are the two businesses. So you're helping, so you've taken um you've you've taken that business and you've created obviously a lot of jobs, a lot of opportunities. You're helping salespeople that sell to investment in institutional investors, um, and you're helping those institutional investors in a sense as well raise money, in a sense. Is that a fair way to say it?

Gui Costin: 11:37

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So if you think about every business almost like globally, their their CRM database of sales leads for their company is generally out of date.

Marc Bernstein: 11:48

Right.

Gui Costin: 11:48

And the reason is is because you you there's a lot of turnover in every industry, people move jobs, and then you're asking salespeople to keep data up to date, which is a very that's not what they're hired to do. Right, right. And not their unique ability.

Marc Bernstein: 12:02

It's not not right. That's not right, right. That's not what salespeople do, right? Got it.

Gui Costin: 12:06

Exactly. And so, you know, utopia for a salesperson is to have a database that's completely up to date and accurate and complete, and that's effective. And so, since it doesn't exist, it was a nice problem to solve because everyone wants that, right? Because you don't you'd rather just log into one's uh database and if you're going to Boston, know exactly who you should be calling on and have a complete and accurate view of Boston and all your opportunities. And that's what we do. So, and and make it very easy. And then on the other side, I think what you're saying is those institutions, those pension funds, those foundations and endowments, we now uh are able to supply information so they so these salespeople can reach out to them and introduce them to some very compelling investment ideas.

Marc Bernstein: 12:49

That's really a great synergy you've built. Is your customer that buys the database is that the salesperson or generally the companies they work for? That's the companies they work for. Gotcha. That's what I figured. So you're selling at the company level, and so your customers are ultimately are these the the sales companies on the one hand and the you know the institutional investment brokers on one hand, and on the other hand, the institutional investors themselves. Exactly. Right, got it. Okay. Very interesting. Uh what kind of challenges did you have in growing this business along the way? Because, you know, I I always say entrepr with a smile, I say, you know, entrepreneur being an entrepreneur is a very smooth ride, easy sale, right?

Gui Costin: 13:33

Um well how we actually got into it, I didn't quite say because we had a another my first idea in 2016 was a content platform. That's why I rate that's why I wrote the book, Millennials Are Not Aliens, because they they they spend 70% of their time doing research on their own before they talk to a salesperson.

Marc Bernstein: 13:52

Right.

Gui Costin: 13:53

And so I said, well, if we create a content platform for investment firms to put podcasts and videos and all this information, it would really simplify like the the due diligence process. We launched that in June of 2018, 14 pan customers. By July of 2018, the customer said to me, Where are all the people? No one's coming and looking at my content. And I was like, Well, you were supposed to send it to your email list. And so I realized that that product was not gonna work. And so what I did is I I did something very novel. Since we have this killer decoder way sales process, which includes a weekly sales meeting and check-in, I invited them to listen into our sales call. And what I did was is I choreographed it. So I brought on a CIO and interviewed that CIO. We covered a geography like Boston. So, hey, if you're going to Boston, we said these are the 30 investors that you must see. And then we covered a big platform called JP Morgan Private Bank, which has six uh operating groups that you could call on to potentially raise money for your funds.

Marc Bernstein: 14:57

Right.

Gui Costin: 14:57

And that launched on uh August 24th of 2018, and that was called Dakota Live. And today, uh, I think we're on episode 274. And so what ended up happening is we created this content and we ran the show every week. And then by September of 2018, everyone said, Hey, all those people you're talking on your show, can we have their contact info? And I was like, No, that's our proprietary database. And they said, Well, you know, we'd really like that because you're talking about it. I sat down with the team, and then I said, Hey, we uh do you mind if we commercialize the database? And they were like, Well, that's kind of the data that we've collected. I said, I know. And then they finally agreed, and then October 1st, we launched the process, and then April 1st of 2019, we went live with the database. So that the actual that business was born out of a failed platform that we built. So that was a big challenge.

Marc Bernstein: 15:49

And in a way, you were selling out your salespeople because you're selling their database to their competitors in a sense, correct?

Gui Costin: 15:55

100%.

Marc Bernstein: 15:57

That's great. However, that's so great.

Gui Costin: 16:00

However, they now have the single finest database in the world to prospect. Right. So it's up to date. So they don't have to keep any data up to date, they don't have to do anything. We have a whole team that does that for them now. So they actually increase their leads by about 100x. So it's been really beneficial to their careers.

Marc Bernstein: 16:16

Talk about great pivots. That's a brilliant pivot. We talk about pivots a lot. That's great. We're going to take a really quick commercial and we'll be back in one minute on Founders Forum.

Announcer: 16:26

Are you tired of constantly jumping between multiple databases and channels to find the right investment opportunities? Introducing Dakota Marketplace, the comprehensive institutional and intermediate database built by fundraisers for fundraisers. With Dakota Marketplace, you'll have access to all channels and asset classes in one place, saving you time and streamlining your fundraising process. Say goodbye to the frustration of searching through multiple databases websites, Form ADVs, and say hello to a seamless and efficient fundraising experience. Sign up now and see the difference Dakota Marketplace can make for you. Visit dakota.com/dakota-marketplace today.

Marc Bernstein: 17:20

We just heard the Dakota ad, which neither of us knew existed. So we're both doing that means we're both doing a good job at our jobs because we're not supposed to know that. So that was great. Anyway, so uh what kind of challenges do you have in your business today? We talked about you know getting to where you are. We talked about pivots. What kind of challenges do you have on a daily basis? Uh the what's the hard stuff? Because you have a lot of great successes, but let's talk about the hard stuff.

Gui Costin: 17:50

Yeah, the the the hard stuff is just making sure your your product is staying current and you and you're solving problems for your customers. And then growth is a is a forever, you know. I I I probably don't look at it as a challenge as much as just as opportunities, yeah. But we we we always have to find ways to grow uh the business and compete and keep the the product up to date, keep the product growing, keep the data up to date. So it's it's just always focused on growth and product and then making sure that we're giving career opportunities to our teammates, you know, always as people are growing. That's a huge uh component of Dakota, is there are no ceilings at Dakota so people can grow. And so that's you know, that's something I think about every day. Um I mean, I I think I talk to our data person every hour. I talk to our product people two, three, four, five times a day, our chief technology officer. So I'm just all over all of those aspects of the business so we can continue to serve our customers in a meaningful way.

Marc Bernstein: 18:48

I I can see why you're an author because the Dakota Way is an example. I mean, talk about what you just said. Keep your always keep your product current or ahead of the curve, which is ideal, right? Um, always have find ways to grow the business, right? Any business should be thinking about that. But the key one that you said, which not every business I know thinks about, and it's something I'm really adamant about in our business as well, is that everyone with the organization is growing and th that the and that there is no ceiling, that they can keep going and and grow in ways that they they can imagine within your within within your company, which I think is wonderful. Is that did I sum that up pretty well?

Gui Costin: 19:28

Yeah, yeah, and I I just I really take this like deadly, deadly seriously, and I'm not perfect. So my new book, which is a leadership book uh you know called Be Kind, is Lessons Learned, right? It's just all lessons learned. I don't I don't have it figured out. But what I've really worked extremely hard, and it's much more mental than anything else, is how do we create you know insanely great place to work? And considering people spend so much time at work, and that's not always the case in every business, that it's a great place to work. And the leader has total control, you know, over that. And it comes down to your brain, what goes into your brain, and what comes out of your mouth, right? Because words matter. And one word can cripple someone, right? Yeah, and so I just have such a such a huge, huge commitment to to getting the word out on you know, kindness, not nice, right? Not nice is like the devil. Right. Right. Kind because kind, kind, you know, you don't you don't want to sit around a kumbaya, you know. That that's not the point. But you know, if you're nice, so I don't want to.

Marc Bernstein: 20:28

Also, there's the term Minnesota nice. You've heard that before. I spent a lot of time in Minnesota and they said, Oh, yeah, I said people are here are so nice. They said they're Minnesota nice. It's kind of like a thing. It's like, don't turn your back, you know, they're Minnesota nice. So nice, so I get it. So nice isn't really what you're looking for. Kind is what you're looking for.

Gui Costin: 20:45

Well, yeah, because because one a big part of kindness, right, for a leader is a leader has to show you know what good looks like. Right. And if if things are happening that you know aren't look you know, aren't looking good or you know, that you have to address that. And and but there's a way to do it with kindness, but you can't like let people get away with stuff that's just because you want to be nice, you don't want to ruffle feathers, you don't want to step on people's toes. I always tell our team, like, my toes are here to be broken. Right. That's another way of saying it.

Marc Bernstein: 21:13

So nice is not necessarily being good to people. It's you're you might you're you're trying you're trying to protect them rather than help them.

Gui Costin: 21:21

That's what you're saying. Yeah, you could be it could actually be unkind. Right, right. Right? Because but but then you don't publicly dress down people, you know, and and then also when you have to address somebody, if they're struggling, you can kind of notice, you got to do it with intense compassion and thoughtfulness. Right. And so so you make them feel, you know, feel great about themselves. And I just think that's uh that's my number one. That's I obviously wrote the book on it. You know, Roberto's here in the studio. He's he hears me talk about this all the time. It's been my number one commitment for the past five years is how do you create a great place to work, have a super hard charging culture, playing at the highest professional level, but do it with kindness. And we've proved We've proven that you can do that. And I just want to share that message, you know, with anyone who wants to listen to it.

Marc Bernstein: 22:06

I I can think of places I'd love to have you speak and I'd like to order some of your books when it when it comes. I want to read it. And assuming it's what I think it is, I want to take some of those books and give them away. I think it would be gr it's great. It's great material. Can't wait to send you one. So, Gui, um looking out to the future, which we like to do on the show all the time, is I often ask people about their three-year vision, which I think we talked about before, but you've chosen your one-year vision. So if you and I are talking and it's just about November next year, 2026, and we're looking back on the last year, what would have to happen for in your life, which your business and but perhaps your personal life as well, for you to feel that that was a great year, look, you know, that you that was successful. And to me, success is you know, you're progressing along the journey.

Gui Costin: 22:54

Yeah, and I I I I totally get what you're asking. Like I don't think of my six myself as successful, right? Because I think it's it's a it's a never-ending journey, it's never-ending climb, right? There's no peak to get to. Yep. And what comes down to how you treat people, uh, one of the biggest things for next year, just think of the simple example I can give you is we we have end channels that we sell to, right? We sell to investment firms and their salespeople. Think of that as you know, a 16-ounce glass.

Marc Bernstein: 23:24

Yeah.

Gui Costin: 23:24

And let's say that's half full, right? Well, there's a there's a number of other glasses that represent other end markets that we want to start pouring water into and selling our product into these new end markets. So it's versus products, it's not more products, it's more end markets that would subscribe to our database and get value. So success to me, December of 2026, would be a lot of water in those other end markets. And that's what we're pursuing now. And the reason that's so important is because we have to keep giving our teammates and our employees opportunities for growth.

Marc Bernstein: 23:57

Right.

Gui Costin: 23:58

And if we're not growing, then they can't grow. And so that's why it's so important. Now, we do it right with low volatility. And I think you probably relate to this because I talked about in my book, low volatility at an organization, I think you sort of have to be operating around 80% of the time. There's always going to be a fire drill here or there, stuff, something happens. Doesn't happen a lot to us, but managing and running a business in a low vol environment allows everybody to perform at their best, right? Because it's not like pressure all the time and a pressure cooker and the boss all over me, this, all that kind of stuff. And so, so I want to be able to grow fast. Um another big concept about fast is as an organ as an organization grows, you have to make decisions faster as you grow and not sacrifice quality. And that that that really comes down to the leader, because the B-word can you know get into businesses called bureaucracy, and you got to really cut that out if you want to grow fast.

Marc Bernstein: 24:59

I I love that philosophy. I've been in high volatile, what I would call drama type environments. Um and you know, and I've sworn off of those. And I I love your vision of how do you create opportunity for everybody, do it quickly, and do it with low volatility is a is a really a great concept. And it seems obvious, but I've never quite heard anyone speak about it like that. So I I you you have some really great thinking going on. And I really appreciate you saying, because by most people's standards, you would look at you and say, This is a very successful guy. But I'm I'm right where you are. Success is a journey, and once you feel success or successful, to me, it's over, you know, because it's right, you've ended the journey, and I don't think any entrepreneur really wants to end the journey. So very interesting. Um what I know you're a reader yourself. What book are you currently reading?

Gui Costin: 25:56

So I always have there's um man, I have so many books on my Kindle. Uh there's my goodness, there's so many. Like Winning with Purpose is you know a great book that I'm currently reading. And I'm I'm really just blown away by how many people, as we're kind of progressing through 2025 and 2026, how people are really embracing these kind of concepts of where I'm talking about around kindness, because every business is a people business, and it's so it really comes down to how you treat your people. And you can really dramatically change people's lives uh based upon how you treat them. And so I'm tending to find more and more books that are hitting at this these concepts. So winning on you know, winning with purpose is a great book.

Marc Bernstein: 26:46

I love that. I know you read a lot because your staff, when they sent you know your pre-interview information, that you were on a whole nother book at that point. It was a say less, get more on conventional negotiation techniques. So I know you're constantly reading. By the way, what you just said I think is very profound because with all the chaos going on, if you listen to the media and politics and situations around the world and everything that's going on, and we don't get political here, but you would think the world's falling apart. But I see what you see, which is in business, partly because of I was just at the Sattel Institute and we're talking with a lot of different large companies, and we talked about the Philadelphia Eagles being there. We're the move everyone's moving towards purpose and being kind to use your words, and that's a really good sign of hope for the future. Thanks so much for being here today. Thank you all for listening on Founders Forum, and we'll see you next week.

Gui Costin: 27:42

Dr.

Marc Bernstein: 27:43

Abbott. My pleasure.