Today, I welcome Sequoya Borgman to the Investing Secrets Podcast. Sequoya’s path to running his own private equity firm spans two decades inside the industry. A CPA by training, he spent years at top PE firms working on M&A alongside the best in the business. He eventually made partner, but being one of a thousand partners meant he couldn’t drive the direction of the firm - so in 2017 he walked away from the W-2 and started fresh. Today, Sequoya is the founder of Borgman Capital, a lower-middle-market private equity firm that has acquired more than 20 businesses, buying older family-owned and founder-led companies in industrial manufacturing and food, where his team is often the first institutional investor. He’s also built an industrial sale-leaseback real estate arm and launched Pass the Hat, giving accredited investors direct access to his deals. We kick things off with Sequoya’s origin story - how walking away from a partnership, and surviving a first deal that collapsed, set the foundation for everything that followed. From there, we dive into the real mechanics of the business: how he structures leveraged buyouts, what actually drives the multiple you pay for a company, and the value-creation levers most people misunderstand about private equity. We close on where he sees the biggest opportunities heading into the second half of 2026 - the wave of aging baby-boomer owners who need to sell, why the best-performing funds were born in down markets, and the one investing secret he’s learned to live by. If you’re serious about understanding private equity, alternative investments, and how sophisticated investors buy and build real businesses for outsized, tax-efficient returns, this one delivers. Welcome, Sequoya, to The Investing Secrets Podcast…

Follow Sequoya:
Pass the Hat: https://www.passthehat.com
Borgman Capital: https://www.borgmancapital.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sequoya-borgman-8a6057a/

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Today, I welcome Adriel Hsu to the Investing Secrets Podcast. Adriel’s path into real estate started in the last place you’d expect - an oil and gas job. Fresh out of Georgia Tech with an environmental engineering degree, he was shipped off to a small Texas town in 2016, and within his first days on the job he knew he didn’t want to spend 40 years behind a desk. After cycling through e-commerce and drop shipping, he landed on real estate - then spent the next five and a half years grinding two full-time jobs at once (9 to 5 at the office, 5 to 9 on his own deals) before finally walking away from the W-2 in 2021 and never looking back. Today, Adriel runs a residential development business in Houston focused on land splits, entitlements, and ground-up luxury construction - the higher end of the market, where he believes the spreads are actually worth the effort. We kick things off with his origin story - how a guy who just wanted a brand-new house without paying market price taught himself to find land, split the lots, and build it himself. From there, Adriel breaks down the mechanics of his development model: how he sources off-market opportunities, why he abandoned thin-margin starter homes for the luxury market, and how he structures deals with private investors. We close on his read of the Houston market heading into the second half of 2026 - what’s really happening across office, multifamily, and self-storage, why staying flexible matters, and the one investing secret he’s lived by for the last decade. If you’re serious about off-market sourcing and building durable, conservative returns through every real estate cycle, this one delivers. Welcome, Adriel, to The Investing Secrets Podcast…

Follow Adriel:
Website: https://www.adrielhsu.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adrielhsu
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@adrielhsu
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adrielhsu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrielhsu

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LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3L2sTc7
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3soYxtW

Today, I welcome Zachary Levitt to The Investing Secrets Podcast. Zach's path into investing started early and moved fast - soaking up the strategies of the world's great hedge fund managers in high school, launching a derivatives trading club at university that put him in the room with some of the top portfolio managers alive, running a biotech alpha-capture strategy by 21, and becoming one of the youngest hedge fund managers you'll ever hear of by 25. Today he's the CIO and Founder of Sixth Turn Capital, a capacity-constrained multi-manager fund built for high-net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, and family office investors - a stable of uncorrelated portfolio managers, each an expert in their own narrow strategy, engineered to deliver smooth, consistent, risk-adjusted returns.

We kick off with Zach's origin story and how a college trading club turned into managing real capital before most people finished their degree. From there we get into the architecture of a multi-manager fund - how he vets and underwrites portfolio managers, why he pays each one only on their own sleeve, and why true diversification comes from uncorrelated strategies rather than simply owning more stocks. We close on where he sees the biggest opportunities heading into the second half of 2026, why now may be an opportune moment to protect against a market crash, and the growing shift toward alternatives. Welcome, Zach, to The Investing Secrets Podcast…

Follow Zach:

Website: sixthturncapital.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-levitt-428160144

Follow Me:

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3L2sTc7

Instagram: https://bit.ly/3soYxtW