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- [00:01]
Brian Chambers
This episode is brought to you by indeed. Stop waiting around for the perfect candidate. Instead, use Indeed sponsored Jobs to find.
- [00:08]
Austin Hankwitz
The right people with the right skills fast. It's a simple way to make sure.
- [00:12]
Brian Chambers
Your listing is the first candidate. C. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs have four times more applicants than non sponsored jobs. So go build your dream team today with Indeed.
- [00:22]
Austin Hankwitz
Get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply. Public.com presents the Rich Habits Radar a new Friday episode of the Rich Habits Podcast, where every Friday morning we're coming at you with the biggest headlines impacting you and your money. My name is Austin Hankwitz. I'm joined by my co host Robert Kroke. And the three things sitting at the top of our Rich Habits Radar this week include the January jobs report, the Dow Jones industrial average crossing 50,000 points for the very first time, and the rise of the AI agent. Cannot wait to talk about that one.
- [01:00]
Robert Kroke
We're also going to be joined by Brian Chambers, co founder and president of Capital Factory, one of the most influential startup platforms in the country and the connective tissue of the growing tech ecosystem in Texas.
- [01:14]
Austin Hankwitz
Tech in Texas. I kind of like that. And also be sure everyone to stick around to the end where we talk about the 20% of Americans that have a monthly car payment over $1,000. Can you believe that? Robert? New data from Edmonds talking about that. I can't wait to cover it. All right, Robert, so how about we dig into our first story?
- [01:32]
Robert Kroke
Yes, the January jobs report came in way hotter than expected. And on Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the US economy added 130,000 jobs in the month of January, more than double the 55,000 that economists had expected. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3% from 4.4%. Wages grew 3.7% year over year. The this report was actually delayed by about a week because of the government shutdown that ended February 3rd.
- [02:02]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah, so Robert, the jobs gains were led by healthcare. Which sector added 82,000 new positions. Then you had social assistance adding about 42,000 new positions in the month of January and construction adding 33,000 new positions. We're on the flip side. The Federal Government lost 34,000 jobs as DOGE related deferred resignations officially hit the payroll data. The financials activities sector also lost about 22,000 jobs during the month of January.
- [02:33]
Robert Kroke
But here's the thing everyone needs to know in this report, the BLS also released its final benchmark revisions for 2025, and they were brutal. Total job growth for 2025 was revised down from 584,000 new jobs to just only 181,000 new jobs. That means the economy averaged only about 15,000 new jobs per month throughout all of 2025, way below the roughly 49,000 jobs per month originally reported. So while January was a good month, it's coming off as an extremely weak base of 2025 reporting.
- [03:09]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah. And of course, Trump took to truth social calling January's numbers in all caps, great job numbers and again push for the Fed to lower interest rates. But the market read the strong numbers very differently. Traders on Poly market are now pricing in no rate cuts until at least June later this year. Now, for the stock market to continue to trend higher, we need a Federal Reserve that's willing to cut interest rates. You've heard us saying, don't fight the Fed for years now. During March of 2022, when the federal Reserve raised interest rates at the fastest rate in history, of course that caused the stock market to fall pretty aggressively. And now as we flip the script and the Fed begins to cut interest rates, we're seeing the stock market over the last couple years now in this rate cutting regime trend up and to the right. But of course, as people expect the to not cut interest rates or to stop cutting, that's when you start to see some volatility, which is what we've seen in the markets as of late. So, Robert, what does this mean for you and your money? What are the great job report for January? What does it mean for our listeners?
- [04:14]
Robert Kroke
The job market is stabilizing, but certainly not booming. Think of it as the labor market finding a floor after a rough 2025. The strong January number is good news if you're looking for a job. And it seems like healthcare in particular is still hiring pretty aggressively. But the revised 2025 numbers are a reminder that things were weaker than we thought last year. You not being able to find a job last year or your friend was common. Turns out you weren't crazy. We very much have a tough job market right now as it relates to our investments. The markets are now pricing in maybe two cuts at most in 2026, with the first one likely not happening until summer. Remember, the stock market likes rate cuts. Rate cuts by the Fed equal lower interest rates, which means looser monetary policy, allowing companies to borrow more money cheaply. More liquidity equals more money in the markets and moving around businesses. So as long as we avoid an economic recession and the Fed continues their rate cutting regime, the stock Market should be just fine.
- [05:17]
Austin Hankwitz
Speaking of the stock market doing just fine, let's now move on to our next story which is the Dow Jones industrial average hitting 50,000 points for the very first time. So the Dow Jones industrial average crossed this 50,000 point threshold for the first time last Friday. So about a week ago from today, closing at 50,115 points after rallying 1200 points in a single trading session. To put this in perspective, the dow went from 40,000 to 50,000. So about that 10,000 point spread over a 21 month period of time. The fastest 10,000 point gain in the indices 130 year history. Where on the flip side, the journey from 30,000 to 40,000.
- [06:00]
Brian Chambers
Right.
- [06:00]
Austin Hankwitz
So not 40 to 50, but from 30 to 40 took about three and a half years, which is much longer than the 21 months it took us to go from 40 to 50.
- [06:09]
Robert Kroke
So what's driving it? Well, a few things. Earnings are coming in strong with Q4 earnings growth tracking around 13%. The Fed has been cutting rates, bringing the federal funds rate down to 3.5% to 3.75% range, something Austin just touched on. But most importantly, we're seeing a real broadening of the market rally. And it's not just in big tech anymore. Industrials, financials and healthcare stocks are all participating. Think Caterpillar, Goldman Sachs and Nvidia, which replaced intel in the Dow last year, were some of the biggest contributors to the push past 50,000.
- [06:45]
Austin Hankwitz
And the Dow is actually outperforming the S P and the NASDAQ here to date up about 4% while the Nasdaq has been basically flat as we record this on Thursday, February 12th. The markets are red right now, so maybe we're a little off on that. But you kind of get the gist of what we're saying. That is the rotation. Trade in action, right? Money moving away from the high flying software and AI names that everyone has grown to love over 2024 and 2025 into the more traditional boring blue chip stocks. And if you're inside the Rich Habits network, you'll be well aware of how I've begun to reconstruct my own portfolio to be overweight on these boring things like industrials and timber in infrastructure, energy and even international names here in 20.
- [07:30]
Robert Kroke
I feel like Austin, you really nailed getting ahead of this in this restructuring because we are seeing this rotation away from the Mag 7 and all the big tech stocks. So break it down for the audience. What does this mean for you and your money?
- [07:45]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah, what worked in 2024 and 2025 might not work in 2026 digestion. Right? So think like the market trading sideways, coming back a little bit. Right? Getting rid of the froth and the hype. Digestion is good and it's healthy, but please make sure you understand the difference between digestion and hype. 2026, in my opinion, will be the year that we begin to see the markets truly begin to broaden out beyond just hyped up technology stocks. Because they've got the word AI somewhere in their investor relations deck, right? Maybe even the equal weight S&P 500 ETF RSP will outperform the market cap weighted variant of Voo. Who knows? Hard to say, but broadening of the market I think is beginning to take place. And The Dow hit 50,000 points for the very first time in outperforming the S and P. And the NASDAQ year to date is healthy for the stock market, in my opinion. I love to see broad market participation across different sectors of the market, despite the weird rut our economy might be in right now. Specifically Reflecting upon those 2025 job numbers Robert had just shared.
- [08:55]
Robert Kroke
And I don't think it could be any more important than right now to be diversified. We talk about owning index funds and ETFs all the time. And this is exactly why, while single stocks like Robinhood and Palantir are deep in the red, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is hitting all time highs. So that is why we're giving you guys the playbook right here, right now. So you know what's next in the markets. And our final headline is the Meteoric Rise of AI Agents. I know Austin is ready to go and excited to talk about this. And there was a wonderful article that Austin found, AI slop or not, that was shared to X by Matt Schumer earlier this week. And we think it's really important for everyone to read and understand it. AI agents are real and they're here to stay. A year ago, AI agents were still very misunderstood and far away to make a meaningful impact on business. But now they're here and they're everywhere and you need to get ahead of it.
- [09:52]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah. So a few weeks ago Open Claw was released which was a hobby project by Peter Steinberger. And now more than 1.6 million AI agents have been created using this open source software. They also went and created their own Reddit style website called Mult Book to communicate with one each other completely autonomously without human oversight. And some of them have proposed to even communicate in a language that humans cannot yet understand the co creator of OpenAI. Literally OpenAI went and posted on X that the state of Openclaw is one of the most amazing sci fi things that he had ever seen.
- [10:28]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, up Until February of 2026 the most practical consumer facing use of AI has been through chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini which simply answer questions you might ask. With OpenClaw, users can command and interact with personalized AI agents through messaging apps. Elon Musk described OpenClaw as a very early stage of singularity in reference to a moment where technology advances so quickly that it is beyond human control. Wow.
- [10:58]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah, wow is right. So what am I doing? I personally am trying to figure out how to use this thing. I've already gone out and purchased a 600 Mac mini computer from Apple and I'm gonna go use that to run my my bot on my Open Claw AI Agent bot. I'll be setting that up this weekend, so stay tuned on the progress there. My goal is to have this 24. 7 personal assistant or employee, or how you want to think about it, to help me with any task I can come up with. So for example, Claw Agent will have its own Gmail account and will be able to share rich habits podcast guest ideas with me. Hey, I saw you guys had Brian Chambers on this episode of the show. Here's another really interesting person that I think you guys might like. And then if I say, yeah, that's a good person, then Open Claw will go in autonomously, search the Internet for their contact info, send them an email telling them about the show, scheduling a time to maybe even have them on the show, and then once we schedule the time and everything aligns, they'll send the invites to everybody. Like the anything a human can do on a computer. We're getting to a point now where these AI agents are just as capable, so it's a very awesome time. I'm very excited to tinker and play around with this new technology. But Robert, what does this now mean for our listeners and their money?
- [12:11]
Robert Kroke
It means that that dystopian future everyone's been talking about is here. That is for sure. It is happening right before our eyes. And we're going to link that article by Matt Schumer in the show notes below that I was alluding to earlier so you can understand why this is such a big deal. Read up and make sure you understand where all this is going. This tech is still in the early phases, but eventually 25 to 50% of all tasks humans are capable of completing on their Own using a computer will be done by these AI agents. And these AI agents cost only $600 a setup, assuming you use a Mac Mini like Austin is, and you pay around 25 to $50 a month for the API credits to set it up.
- [12:55]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah. So this is not, in my opinion, a moment to be scared. This is a moment to be excited. I am so excited to be able to start playing around with this new technology, tinker around with it, figure out what I can do, what I can't do, what it is capable of, what it's not capable of. I cannot wait to figure out how to use this to find efficiencies in my own business, in this podcast, and literally everything in between. It will be a 247 personal assistant or employee for someone like you. They can work on tasks while you're asleep, they can work alongside you or work while you're doing whatever you are doing awake. I truly believe that 2026 will be a year that we look back on and we're like, yeah, that open cloth thing, that is what really started it all here, right? Because listen, ChatGPT was over three years ago. AI is moving much faster than you think. And I believe we have a rare opportunity right now. Like I'm going to.
- [13:46]
Robert Kroke
Like what?
- [13:47]
Austin Hankwitz
Like, like Robert, bookmark this episode. It is February 12, 2026. This opportunity to figure out AI agents and the efficiencies that come with them will not be here in two years from now. Everyone's going to already be doing it. Every business is going to have one. Like you have a rare opportunity where something exists, but it's not yet widespread. And that's what I'm trying to figure out for myself right now. So I think this opportunity to take advantage of this new tech before the masses get all about it, and I think you all listening right now should look and learn more about what's going on with these agents. Another call out though is Anthropic. Anthropic is the company that created the model most people run their open claw AI agents on. And Amazon owns a healthy chunk of Anthropic stock, which is pretty exciting. They plan to IPO sooner than later, so keep an eye on that one. AI agents are coming for big businesses, Robert, and it's really important to be ahead of it.
- [14:35]
Robert Kroke
I am so excited to be at a point very, very soon where I can wake up in the morning, my AI agent worked through the night to get everything in my inboxes organized, all my appointments organized, all the notes that I need to really make me so much more efficient. And it's just going to be such a great time for people that are like us, that are very busy, that have multiple businesses, our personal brands to run. So it's going to be a lot of fun this next six months, really learning all this and getting it integrated into our daily lives.
- [15:06]
Austin Hankwitz
Now before we jump to our interview with Brian Chambers, let's go check out ETF central.com where anyone can go learn more about the biggest best performers and the worst performers as it relates to thematic ETFs and all things ETFs like inflows, like performance, total return, just all the fun stuff as it relates to ETFs. Now I've got shared on my screen right now the three best performing segments of ETFs here over the last week. Coming in third place with best performance is US energy of about 6% this week. In second place is Japan blended cap at 8 and a half percent and over 9% this week. Coming in at number one best performing slot is Niche Commodity.
- [15:48]
Robert Kroke
And shocker for the three worst performers this week, blockchain. Coming at number three, down four and a half percent. E commerce at number two, down about five and a half percent and down over 10% is cryptocurrency. So for me, calling out the three losers this week, definitely no shock at all on that side.
- [16:09]
Austin Hankwitz
I'd say my biggest takeaway from this is that US energy. I really think that energy, especially after we see what's going on all around the world right now, energy is going to be more and more important and a niche commodity. That's a good one too. I'm not exactly too sure what what the exact definition is of niche commodity, but I've recently started buying shares of the Wood etf, the Forestry and Timber etf W o o D so maybe that rolls into niche commodity that just hit a new 52 week high, which is pretty interesting to me. But yeah, seeing cryptocurrency ETFs down 11% in the last week, that's no surprise to anybody.
- [16:45]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, no surprise at all. And I love the niche commodity one because you've been talking about potash a lot. You've been talking about wood, you've been talking about palladium and some of these non traditional because everyone talks about gold, silver and copper. So that's probably what it is and I really like that and it makes a lot of sense.
- [17:03]
Austin Hankwitz
All right Robert, so today we are joined by a very special guest, Brian Chambers. If you've ever wondered why Texas has quietly become one of the most important startup regions in the world. It's people like Brian who've been building the infrastructure behind the scenes for more than a decade. Capital Factory sits at the intersection of founders, investors Fortun, Fortune 500 companies and government. Helping startups go from idea to scale and helping investors get exposure to innovation long before it hits the public markets. Brian actually helped us get exposure to Apptronic, a humanoid robotics company, all the way back in 2024.
- [17:42]
Robert Kroke
And today Capital Factory supports thousands of startups, has backed hundreds of companies, and is currently focused on its newest vehicle, Texas Fund 2, which continues their mission of investing in high conviction founders, many of which are building in and for the Texas economy.
- [17:59]
Austin Hankwitz
And what makes Brian especially interesting for this conversation is that he doesn't just see startups as a lottery ticket. He sees them as long term systems. Systems of talent, capital, culture and timing. And in a world where venture capital has gone through a massive boom and bust cycle over the last few years, that perspective matters more than ever. And now with the meteoric rise in technology, specifically AI and some of these AI agents we just talked about, it's never been more important to know what industry experts who are building in the space are actually doing with their money. As you can tell by this intro, there's a reason why we've partnered with Brian and Capital Factory and his team to bring an exclusive event offering to people inside of the Rich Habits network here in 2026. Cough, cough. The Rich Habits retreat. Stay tuned for that to learn more. Brian, thank you so much for joining us on this Friday episode, the Rich Habits Radar.
- [18:55]
Brian Chambers
Hey, it's really great to be here, guys. Thanks for having me.
- [18:58]
Robert Kroke
Definitely. Well, let's jump right in. You've been building Capital Factory for over a decade now. For listeners who may know the name but not the full story, how do you describe what Capital Factory actually is today?
- [19:10]
Brian Chambers
It's something I have to explain a lot because, you know, Capital Factory is. We do a lot of different things and we've grown a lot over the years. Today, Capital Factory is really a totally unique community full of investors and founders working to build the next generation of crazy, amazing companies. And it's, it's full of that and that's really what it is. If you zoom out just a little bit, we do three different things at Capital Factory. We have a venture arm and a, and a number of different funds. We invest into startups and we do everything we can within our power to just help them succeed. And that's our venture arm. We have a government and corporation, a government and corporate innovation arm and where we advise and work with, with and consult two dozen Fortune 500 or government agencies. And that's all about getting a lens at the tip of the spear of what's happening at the seed stage series A Stages of technology and innovation. And then of course, Austin. I know you've been to Capital Factory before. We've got a killer space in the middle of downtown Austin. It's turned into a venue where, you know, the most important people in tech, whether they're, they're starting companies already running large enterprises or VCs are coming in every single day, you know, engaging the community. So ventures, government and corporate innovation, events and venue. And we throw some really good ones.
- [20:28]
Austin Hankwitz
I think you definitely throw some, some very awesome events. I, you know, shout out to you guys for allowing me to bop around at south by in 2025. Last year, capital Factory guys crushed it, had a blast, and are excited to partner here with the Rich habits retreat in 2026 for another event with you guys. So here's my perspective though. Texas used to be seen as this flyover country for venture capital. That has clearly changed. So what do most people outside of the startup world misunderstand about why Texas has become such a powerful place to build companies?
- [21:01]
Brian Chambers
Yeah, well, and I think it's slowly changing. A lot of people don't know that prior to me joining Capital factory in 2017, I had a startup, Capital Factory was an investor in it. You know, we, we got to sell that company and make some money for the investors. And, you know, that's when Josh, my partner, really looked at me and said, brian, please, you know, join Capital Factory and let's go scale under this vision and this mission. We called it initially the Texas Startup Manifesto. I still think it's something a lot of people misunderstand. Today. Texas is a unique state and it operates a little bit differently than most other states. We have very large cities and you know, five of the top 11 are all in Texas, but they're a little bit apart. All of them do different things. You know, everybody was already making putting those, the cities on lists in 2016 and 2017 it was, Texas was the fastest growing state, but at the time I think it was the 10th largest GDP in the country. But Texas got less than 2% of national venture. And we, we looked at Texas and we said, if we can organize this better, Texas should really. We believe that there was asymmetry in the market and that Texas was going to disproportionately grow. You know, that was our, our, our really big bet. And in 2016 and in 2017, that sounded really crazy to a lot of people. People were not, they were looking over Texas and it wasn't the place to come. And I think there's a couple of trends that are all converging. That was, you know, that was one. And that was the start of something very meaningful. We restructured capital Factory scaled across the state, really connecting, you know, this megalopolis in Texas. We, we like to compete internally because of sports teams across our cities. But, you know, Texans really unite when we step across a border and you know, people, you know, people kind of erase the boundaries. And that was, that was our vision was to get, drive the collaboration between Austin, Houston, Dallas, you know, this, this mega region and kind of help the who state. And so, you know, we did that. I think Covid really benefited Texas greatly. Maybe Texas grew, you know, at scale disproportionately the most. But a couple of other like trends happened around that same time that I, I'd have to point back to one under Trump, one, I mean, he created a whole set of strategic priorities with government and defense and national security funding that launched under the, under the first Trump era. Army Futures Command was created. Space Force was created. You know, the army chose to move to Austin. They chose to lean into capital factor capital. Factory leaned back. This was 2018, 2019 timeframe. That was still pretty early for hardware and national security and defense. And, you know, now defense is surging. Texas has always built big, hard things. You know, Texas did not thrive in the Internet, social, mobile, consumer era the way that, you know, other pockets of venture did across the country. It's energy and energy infrastructure, it was semiconductors, telecom back in the day was hardware, it's transportation and logistics. And now we're back to these cycles again and where Texas really gets to flex some of its superpowers. We have a lot of land. We have government regulations that allow things like hot fire tests for, you know, innovative hypersonics or propulsion systems. And it's really hard to do those things in California or New York. And so Texas is kind of wide open with these new types of hardware companies that are really coming. And I think, you know, the other part of that is, is Texas really gets more money in categories for infrastructure, national security and defense. Those budgets are up and to the right and more of it is going to come. So Texas is going to continue to grow and, you know, eat into that pie. I think Austin alone is now over 5% of the entire market. One of the top hardware markets in the entire country. You know, I think we, we recognize the momentum of Texas. What we didn't really know was how impactful the army, the Air Force, diu, DARPA working with, you know, government agencies, federal agencies, how much that was really going to impact us us. And so you know, that was both lucky but, but perhaps serendipitous for us.
- [24:58]
Austin Hankwitz
I guess just like a really quick follow up. I mean you're talking about infrastructure, you're talking about hardware. I, I didn't think about that until right now. You're totally right. I mean it's really hard to fly hypersonic in the state of New York or the state of California. Right. Which makes a lot of sense. They build software over there, they've got their fintechs. Like it's, it's a very different space. Then you think about companies like Sironic that are in Austin, Texas who are building really cool like hardware, physical things. It makes a lot of sense. So is maybe hardware and infrastructure you mentioned you're bullish on it, but like, you know, let's fast forward a couple years. Not to put you on the spot here but I mean is it something that you really think is going to continue to grow and thrive not just in the state of Texas but as like a secular growth trend?
- [25:38]
Brian Chambers
Yeah, I think, I think we're going to watch it grow for two or three venture cycles. This is a, this is a two decade long transition away from Internet, social, mobile, consumer, you know, especially deep in Covid. And I don't know about anyone else but I am not, I'm not trying to download more apps, I am not trying to sign up for more subscriptions. The sentiment in the markets have really changed. Everything's been ampified and sassified and that doesn't mean there won't be great software companies to come. But everything, you know, through the transition of LLMs, I mean everything has really changed. That company I mentioned that Josh and Capital Factory invested in back in the day, it's not a venture backable company anymore. Or because of the dynamics of how people write code, you know, build and deploy apps, you don't need what we needed back then. And so it's really changing the dynamics about where kind of outsized returns will come from. Where are the really hard technical moats that exist. And hardware physics is really, really hard. When we get into building, you know, deploying large scale infrastructure, I think it's going to continue. I think this is what, you know, where we See, you know, extraordinary value is going to be unlocked for humanity. It's the brain, computer interfaces, it's high speed travel. These are such hard problems. They are different problems. So you know, LLMs and you know, the Gen AI movement have contributed to it greatly. But I think what's happening now, and of course, you know, we see it with Apptronic and Sironic is a great example. But AI meets the physical world and this is a massive transformation created lots of new opportunities across hardware. And so it's when AI meet the physical form of a humanoid robot, the potential for those things are now capable to be realized. It's ready for commercialization and I think this is going to continue through nuclear, lunar landers, moon bases, big rockets, hypersonics, you know, energy. It's, it's a pretty exciting time. It's going to continue.
- [27:35]
Austin Hankwitz
It's definitely exciting. And to what your T shirt says the robots are coming. So I.
- [27:39]
Brian Chambers
The robots are indeed coming.
- [27:41]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, yeah. I want to click back in time a little bit. We've heard you talk about COVID a couple times now and let's go back in time a little bit because venture capital really went euphoric in that 20, 21 years to very selective over the last few years. And from your seat, what has actually changed and what lessons should founders, and more importantly for our audience investors take from that market cycle? Shift. Shift.
- [28:07]
Brian Chambers
I'll, I'll. You know, there was a specific point in time. I was at Josh's house in Austin. We're sitting on the porch. Jim Breyer was with us, Tim Draper was with us. I think we, I think it was four star general Mike Murray at the time was with us. A couple of us were out, you know, having, having dinner on the, on Josh's patio. And, and I remember Tim asked the question, so when are y' all coming back to Silicon Valley? We used to do these roadshows where we'd organize all our startups. We would take them to, you know, to the Bay Area area. And we looked at each other and we just said, why? Why would we do that? You know, and it was, it was kind of the aha moment for all of us going, I think this is different. I think it's really changed. More is kind of coming inbound. You know, Covid was, was kind of the, it created these trends and sometimes I like to say Texas really went national with what it has to offer to this next generation of startups and corporations. And so now of course people are coming. It's, it's inbound. From every state, every country thing into the government opportunity and tapping into venture. And so I'll never forget that moment. And that was, you know, that was a moment in time. I think we recognized, you know, the markets had changed enough, you know, and we're continuing in Texas's favor. So, you know, through that, I think, you know, back to the market shifts. LLMs, you know, new, these new tool sets allow anybody to build and deploy apps. As a result, everyone's doing it right and the resources required. So I mean you're just seeing, you're seeing a change in what used to be be a venture backable asset no longer requires these resources. And so it's just, you know, it's a really big change, you know, focused on kind of the scientific markets where deep scientific breakthroughs and tough commercialization really comes in is, you know, is a pretty big transformation. So we're going through it right now. You know, I'm sure there will be really great fintech companies and really great apps that come out, but there's just a flood of them. And it's hard at the end of the day to find, find transformative value opposed to incremental value. And you know, real outsized returns come, come from transformational value for sure.
- [30:09]
Austin Hankwitz
That's really interesting to think about. You're totally right. Because if we rewind, I mean, Robinhood's the best example ever, right? It's this company that needed to go raise a ton of money from venture capital firms. They needed to get a bunch of marketing dollars spent. They need to go do all this stuff. And they did that very well. Then they IPO'd at some like $80 billion valuation. And I don't know if this today, but like, if you, that's like a great example of like, you know, before AI existed, we went and hired a bunch of engineers, we built this great app. It was all software. People loved it. It was disruptive, transformative. A bunch of investors made a lot of money, like cool. And to your point, now with the rise of AI and these agents and everything that is like so interesting with this new tech, you don't, to your point, need to go raise hundreds of millions to go hire a bunch of engineers. We're seeing people, you know, use these agents and you got 15 agents that are building this app for you behind the scenes or whatever's going on. And then you've got agents that do your marketing. And so the real lesson, it seems like, is like moving away from what is really defined as a venture investable asset. Like like what, like actually needs venture money and what doesn't? And it seems like to your point, you're really focused on the hardware because that's not software, that's agents. Or you actually need venture money to go, you know, build these things physically and then deploy them and test them in the hypersonics and the rockets. Like, that is such a great takeaway. I never thought about that. But it's really cool that that's how you guys are now approaching your venture in this new market cycle. That's beautiful.
- [31:37]
Robert Kroke
Yeah.
- [31:38]
Brian Chambers
And we were, we were lucky enough because of the army that we, we did it early. Right. And we didn't know all of, you know, the trends were going to converge the way that they are. And, you know, that set us up for a lot of success. We've got a pretty awesome portfolio. So, you know, they're growing. That's always very helpful. And more is coming faster. And, you know, Texas is, you know, Texas is doing well. So.
- [31:57]
Austin Hankwitz
Last question here for you, Brian. What separates founders who compound success over time from those who burn out, out or stall out or just. They don't make it right? What, what's the separation there for someone who's listening, that's excited to make an awesome angel investment?
- [32:13]
Brian Chambers
Right.
- [32:13]
Austin Hankwitz
They're accredited. They're like, listen, I'm ready to rock and roll. How do they find the separation?
- [32:17]
Brian Chambers
Yeah, you know, this is, this is the million dollar question. But, you know, there's a couple of obvious answers. Repeat founders, they rock. Once you, once you build a great company and maybe you sell it for 100 or $250 million, you don't do that again, it really shifts your perspective to think a lot bigger, to go for much bigger outcomes. Repeat founders kind of, you know, end up with that DNA and that perspective. And I think that's really helpful. Of course, you know, people that can sell a vision. This is a big part of fundraising. It's an important skill because great companies have to fundraise constantly, all the time. And so, you know, people that have the ability to, to transfer the enthusiasm of what it is they're working on, that comes in a vision.
- [32:59]
Robert Kroke
Right.
- [32:59]
Brian Chambers
That inspires people, people that can do that well. Well, you know, because they have to constantly do it. They have to build, you know, you know, they have to build believers, they have to build a following. I think that's a, that's a gift. Not everybody does that well. It's a required skill, you know, on this journey. So, you know, it's always a nice skill. I think that we look for. These are, you know, a little bit prerequisites, but you know, it's that when it's combined with somebody's life work or their, their mission in life, I think these things kind of set themselves apart. Somebody's been working on a hard problem for decades of their career and you know, now the, the market creates this opportunity to commercialize that business or launch that business. You know, it's their life, right? It's their life's work. You know, this, this comes from a deep, deep, deep obsession. And I think if you can find that, and you can find those kind of outliers, those people that work on such hard problems with such intensity for a long time because that, you know, they are, they're deeply intersected or passionate or knowledgeable of the sector that sets a company up for some, some really nice success. And of course, you know, one of my favorite questions is always to ask, ask founders like, or it really is to identify if they don't make it obvious, but like, what are their real unfair competitive advantages. Like, every great startup has a lot of unfair competitive advantages. Sometimes they're obvious, sometimes they're not. But I think that really will set a company, you know, differentiate a company and, and, and help set them up for success. You know, beyond that, you know, the, is real. Like when people, when founders take on these journeys, I mean they are among the most difficult and the most grueling periods of life they'll ever go through. The highs are high, the lows are even lower. And what allows and motivates a person to, to stay at it with that grit, founders that win early, founders that can find success or success is contagious, momentum is contagious. When it's working, you're full of inspiration and you know, and you're waking up and you're, you're wanting to put in, you know, know, 15, 16, 18 hour days. And that's a little, that's an outcome that I noticed that is, is connected to success. When you founders can get that early momentum and rally their, their employee bases, you know, their investors, creates a contagious momentum, you know, that's turned into an unstoppable, unstoppable company. And so I think that's, you know, one thing is like, how do we get the early wins and build that momentum? And that momentum, it really fuels a lot of inspiration enough that it can take people past some of those really, really tough times because they exist, certainly do exist.
- [35:31]
Austin Hankwitz
And you know, you were alluding to people making it their Life mission. They've been working on something for much longer than everyone else. And then finally the market begins to play in their favor. I mean, Apptronic, in my opinion, is the best example. That started in 2016. They've been working on these humanoid. What does a robot get out of your robot stuff? I don't care about that. Who cared about robots in 2018 or 2020? Yeah, exactly.
- [35:52]
Brian Chambers
Nobody else. And you know, was. And that's right. I mean, like, look, you know, high conviction. But founders have to look far into the future and they have to know something about the future. They have to, have to sit on a truth about the future that nobody else knows. And you have to, you know, have to one do you align with that truth? And you know, if there's a possibility, it changes everything if that market becomes a market market. Right. Another sometimes a fun exercise. You know, my team and I will recognize we get on lots of pitches. We see so many deals. Sometimes when founders have a difficulty explaining what it is they're working on and what they're doing, it's not, it's not a negative outcome. It's because the words don't exist. It's because the market doesn't exist. And it's the first time people are making up words and adjectives and it's biological. Compute. And whatever it may be, nobody knows what that is. Right. And so it's, you know, these are brand new sectors and people are having to come up with words and phrases to try to describe, describe what it is they're doing. That's a positive example of like going through the, you know, the confusion process of learning and understanding. Everything is new words and phrases and totally new radical approaches to things, you know, opposed to what? Sometimes it's, you know, falling into the comparison trap or kind of falling into something that's of incremental value. The Uber of. Right. I mean, this is just a comparison. These are frequently buzz, you know, when buzzwords and comparisons are usually used. You know, it's kind of a signal of incremental value opposed to transformation.
- [37:23]
Austin Hankwitz
It reminds me of that meme. Right? Oh yeah, man. I got a startup. Oh, cool. What is it? I'm building a Tinder for dogs. Yeah, okay, man.
- [37:31]
Robert Kroke
Cool.
- [37:31]
Austin Hankwitz
Have fun, right?
- [37:33]
Robert Kroke
Yeah. I love this conversation as being someone who's been both the founder and the investor for decades now. You know, it's always, I love that you touched on having obsessed passion because so many of these founders, I remember Tony Hsieh and I invested in a guy in an idea and it was an app and it was in a great sector. And two different times I went to the office and one time he was riding his bike right after we had all the funding. And the other time the founder was gone and they said, oh, he was walking his dog. And I just waited for three hours and he didn't come back. And it was just like, it really made me realize that was going to be a debt investment because he just wasn't obsessed with the work. And so I really, really love that you touched that I could spend hours talking on just this. But we really appreciate it. So for everyone listening, if you're interested in startups, venture capital, or understanding how innovation actually gets funded before it shows up in public markets, Capital Factory is one of the most important names to follow. Brian, thank you so much for joining us on the Rich Habits podcast. These episodes are so important for our audience and we're so happy that you stopped by.
- [38:43]
Brian Chambers
It's great to be here.
- [38:44]
Austin Hankwitz
Y' all.
- [38:44]
Brian Chambers
Look forward to seeing you in Texas.
- [38:46]
Austin Hankwitz
Thank you.
- [38:46]
Brian Chambers
Soon.
- [38:46]
Austin Hankwitz
Thanks, Brian. Man, shout out to Brian Chambers. What a guy. Shout out Capital Factory. We're so grateful to be partnering with them and just love it when such innovative people join us on the show and can talk about things that I don't even think about. It's just. It's awesome. Well, speaking of things though, that I do think about, Robert, we've got our segment of the show here to wrap things up. Our call outs, our Rich Habits radar call outs. I've got three. Three? You've got three? My first one is that McDonald's value menu is actually now working. It's working pretty well. The CEO of McDonald's said earlier this week that their effort to reduce prices through their value menu is what has caused their same store sales to surge by mid single digits year over year. The company plans to invest in new menu items later in 2026. They're testing new burgers and beverages and they expect to introduce a new line of. Get this one, Robert. Energy drinks. Energy drink drinks. How cool. So apparently they're collaborating with Red Bull. Stay tuned on that. Who knows? I don't drink Red Bull. I don't eat McDonald's. But for those of you that do, maybe you're into that stuff. Get excited. Next one is Uber rolling out their robo taxis in downtown Abu Dhabi. So we ride in. Uber have officially launched their first commercial robo taxi service in downtown Abu Dhabi, marking the Emirates first deployment of autonomous vehicles in its central area area. With this expansion, the we ride Uber Robo taxi service collaboration now covers about 70% of Abu Dhabi's main areas and the fleet has quadrupled in size since their operations began in December of 2024. Uber is certainly not asleep at the wheel. See what I did there? When it comes to the rise of Robo taxis, good for them. I'm an Uber shareholder and I'm glad they're letting Robo taxis propel their business is higher. So my last point that I want to call out here, and I alluded to it earlier in the episode, 20% of new car buyers have a monthly payment of $1,000 or more. This is according to new data from January. Thanks to Edmunds. You heard that right. 20% of new car buyers committed to monthly payments of $1,000 or more on an average of 84 months. That is seven years of $1,000 a month of payments. That is unbelievable. The average amount also hit an all time high of just under $44,000 for these new cars. These car payments are the biggest wealth destroyers in America. So if you are listening right now to the show and you are not yet filthy rich, please do not go out and financed and brand new car at $1,000 a month. That money can be used to build wealth and do much smarter things than putting it into a depreciating asset.
- [41:32]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, it really speaks volumes to how much people are gambling and we wish they were investing more. But also I love your McDonald's call out because because I read something that they're considering adding more protein to their markets to combat all of the GLP1 usage because they said that people are eating less calories and more protein. So interesting kind of addition to your call out on McDonald's. So my three call outs today. Let's start first with mortgage rates dip down to near three year lows. Mortgage rates dipped slightly lower this week weathering volatility in the bond market markets. While bond yields sagged early in the week, Wednesday's surprising job report sent yields soaring. The news was digested quickly by the treasury market and a recovery to previously low levels took only a day to happen. And according to Freddie Mac, the average 30 year fixed rate this week was 6.09% down from 6.11% the previous week and the 52 week low is 6.06%. Meanwhile, the 15 year fixed average averaged 5.44%. My second radar call out today is American households are piling up debt at historic levels. At the end of 2025, U. S households ran up more debt than ever before. About $19 trillion with a T in the fourth quarter alone. This includes a miscellaneous random amounts for credit card debt, mortgage, student loans, auto loans, and lines of cash credit. So to put that number in perspective, that's up roughly 191 billion from Q3. So what happened? Well, the Federal Reserve bank of New York released its quarterly household debt and credit report and the numbers are definitely big and bleak. Mortgage debt rose by 98 billion to 13.17 trillion. Credit card balances, and this one is wild to me, increased by 44 billion, reaching $1.8 trillion in the markets in that quarter. And about 4.8% of all household debt was delinquent, the highest overall delinquency rate in nearly a decade. And my third call out today is Credit unions enter the stablecoin market because while the US Cryptocurrency market structure remains paralyzed by this congressional infighting, the National Credit Union Administration has opted to act regardless of regardless and get in the StableCoin game. On February 12, the agency issued a proposed rule to license and regulate payment stablecoin issuers that operate as subsidiaries of federally insured credit unions. And this is massive for the stablecoin market because over 4, 500 institutions holding over $2.4 trillion in assets operate within those credit unions. Opinions that I'm talking about here. So a good step in the right direction while we sit here and wait to get this congressional approval of these crypto bills that have just been getting bounced around back and forth for months.
- [44:37]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah, Robert, fingers crossed that these mortgage rates continue to trend lower. I as you know I'm trying to build a house this year so lower mortgage rates are always a good thing in my view. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us on this week's episode of the Rich Habits Radar. If you learned something something, please consider sharing this episode with a friend. Leaving us a five star review on Spotify, voting in the poll below on Spotify and leaving us a comment. We always get back to your comments here on Spotify and we're super, super grateful. And of course stay tuned about the Rich Habits Retreat taking place in Austin, Texas later this year. If you want to know a little inside scoop or be invited I guess before we even mention on the show, be sure to join the Rich Habits Network where our biggest fans hang out. Hang out. They're going to get first priority access to joining us in person for this retreat. Thanks everyone and we'll see you on Monday.