Hi, Andrew! Who are you and what do you do now?
My name is Andrew Masanto. I guess the best way to describe me would be “a post-economic entrepreneur”, or “an entrepreneur between projects”. I see myself as a creator who's drawn to new and interesting projects and trends. I am curious by nature and have started several companies. The first in 2008, was an advertising agency called Higher Click, which I sold. The second is now one of the world's biggest cryptocurrencies called Hedera. The third is a project called Reserve.org, which created an app which became the Venmo of South America alongside several other successful decentralised applications. The fourth is a pet supplements company called PetLab Co. which was recently sold to BC Partners. The latest company I co-founded is Nillion.com, which decentralises trust for sensitive data.
When and where did you work at Rothschild & Co?
I worked as an Analyst in the energy sector. I worked there for about a year, between 2004 to 2005. Then I got sponsored by Linklaters to work in corporate law, and moved to London.
What sort of things were you doing day to day?
Back then it was mostly pitching, spreadsheets, and a lot of PowerPoint presentations. One thing I learned was attention to detail. The standard and quality of work was so high that it elevated me way beyond what I had expected. The pitch decks would be presented to some serious people within the industry, so the thinking was how to pitch these ideas and industry consolidations. Your first job out of university is so important because it shapes you. You look for guidance as to what people expect, because everything previously has just been academic, now its about taking action and executing. It was a big learning moment for me. I thought: “This is serious now. These guys are expecting a lot from me in terms of output, quality and detail orientation.” It seemed so foreign to have to think about the consolidation of the energy infrastructure of companies that provide energy within Australia. That's a gigantic space.
People often say that Rothschild & Co feels like a family. Do you agree?
A family is usually a three-four-five-person unit. Rothschild & Co is a huge organisation, so the sense of family comes from the relationship with your senior, and the people directly alongside you. I had a good relationship with my senior, Danny Huang. He was tough and had the spirit of a mentor, but entrusted me with a lot of things, and gave me good feedback and flexibility in working.
Are you still in contact with anyone you used to work with?
It was 20 years ago, it was in Australia, and it was only for a year, so it's a bit difficult to reconnect. But I would love to find out what happened to Danny Huang.
Have you joined the Rothschild & Co Alumni Network?
Yes. Someone sent me an email, so I signed up, where I saw some other alumni spotlight interviews, and offered my story for this one!
What do you miss most about your time working at Rothschild & Co?
I'm retired now, so I don't really miss working that much. But I’ve built some big companies. I’m 43. I could have retired at 30 – that was my first real exit, but I was still hungry to do stuff. Now I would like to have a family and kids of my own.
What did working at Rothschild & Co teach you that you still use today?
The requirement for excellence and attention to detail, not just to please someone's expectations, but because it moves the universe. What I really learnt was how to change people's minds, which then changes the trajectory of industries. I took the methodology, attention to detail, hard work, and focus I’d learned from working in investment banking, and applied that to the companies that I built from the ground up. In investment banking, you pitch and win business, and make your millions on fees. I did the same in the creation of my companies. Your master isn't someone who's selling a company. Your master is the market. If you can build something people want, or consider a capital asset, then it'll become very valuable. But in order to do that, you have to be executing at an extremely high level. You have to see the world differently, and you have to have excellence, which is what I was taught at Rothschild & Co. Rothschild & Co gave me the foundation on what it meant to be excellent, which I took to higher levels once building my companies.
If you went back to work as an analyst at Rothschild & Co for the day, how do you think you’d get on?
I think I’d be too much of a gunslinger! I have a high-risk appetite after making my first eight figures. I am no longer just interested in ‘making money’. Whatever I do with my time must involve “concept risk”. For example, I started one of the world's largest cryptocurrencies. The market cap is about US$14 billion. But when I started it in 2016, no one believed this could be big. I pitched it to Silicon Valley and was laughed out of the room. So the key thinking is: “What is something that not many people can see that I believe is going to be a part of the future? And how can I take risk in the concept itself?” It's not like starting a business. It's the very concept of a cryptocurrency.
What's the riskiest thing you've ever done?
Probably hold onto my stock for a company which others would have sold for millions of dollars if they were in my position. I must have lost nine figures, but I still believed in it long term. Now, it’s mostly recovered and I’m very happy I held.
It’s not like you lost hundreds of millions on the bus!
Exactly. It’ll go up and down. That’s the risk of hanging onto any capital asset. I supposed I had the advantage that I started it, so I understand the entity itself. But, nonetheless, it's the Elon effect. Rolling everything into Tesla is a crazy risk. It doesn't make any logical sense as to why you would do something like that.
Could you be the next Elon Musk?
Well, my friends joke, because trajectory-wise, I'm not too dissimilar to where he was when he was 42. But I prefer to be more quiet and understated - more in the pursuit of happiness than I am of recognition or the forward momentum of the human race. I feel that I have contributed adequately to that already. I don't have any open questions around that anymore. I do have open questions around having kids and raising a good family, etcetera. That, to me, constitutes an important challenge that I want to focus on next.
What would you say to Elon if you met him?
I'd just say: “Respect.” He’s older than me. He’s clearly well accomplished. I met Richard Branson once. We went on a bike ride together up a mountain. He said that I was one of only two people who’d managed to keep up with him the whole way, which is funny. When we got to the top, I’d been thinking – what questions to ask this guy? I said to him, “Richard, I don’t want to ask anything business-related, because making money doesn't necessarily change my life in any significant way. But you’ve been married to Joan now for 30 years. What's the secret?” And he said: “You're not going to like my answer. It's just all luck!”