Capital & Portfolio Strategy

UKR Investments

Managing Partner 2020–2023 · Partner since · Punta Gorda, FL

The Punta Gorda Airport area in southwest Florida had been designated as an Economic Catalyst Action Plan zone, with 4,300 acres earmarked for industrial, logistics, and aviation development. We identified 170–180 parcels in the zone, totaling 60 acres, owned by individual landowners. Almost none were holding strategically.

UKR Investments was incorporated before the pandemic, with seven partners and the ECAP-zone thesis already in hand. We had acquired a handful of parcels by March 2020 when COVID hit and Leo & Mike, the EdTech I was running product for, shut down. Rather than drift through a job hunt, I focused on UKR full time, brought the partners’ capital in, and ran the consolidation.

Two operational decisions made the portfolio work at scale. Tax structuring cut long-term carrying costs by roughly 90%. We also expanded the consolidated holdings beyond the original parcel count, at low cost.

By the time I stepped back to a non-managing role in 2023 to join Zalo Fresh, we had consolidated 163 parcels and grown the holdings to roughly $7M, a 500+% return on the capital deployed during my managing run. The portfolio is now worth roughly $15M against the same base, a 15× outcome on capital.

163 parcels consolidated. $1M base (approx) before 2020. Roughly $7M by the end of the managing-partner run in 2023; roughly $15M today.

Brazil Capital Structuring

Zalo Fresh · 2023 · Sr Director — New Products, Partnerships & Acquisitions

I structured the 2023 Brazilian acquisition as a split between an operating company and a land-holding company. Brazilian foreign-ownership law drove the structure, but it also did capital work. The land-holding company carried the agricultural assets at a less-than-50% foreign stake, while the operating company captured the controlling 50% with full board control. This separated the underlying real estate from the operating cash flows, with regulatory compliance and balance-sheet treatment both flowing from the same structure.

The full deal context is on the Acquisitions & Integration page.

i‑Script Capital Discipline

i‑Script · 2005–2014 · Co-founder, CEO/CPO

i‑Script ran for nine years on a model that was profitable each year and carried almost no long-term liabilities. I structured the working capital so the business funded itself: customers were billed on 30-day terms while our service vendors were paid on 60-day terms, and the gap covered operating costs without external capital. The platform-plus-services revenue model produced steady cash flow, and we reinvested into the product and the team rather than financing growth with debt. The exit in 2014 was clean for the same reason: the acquirer paid for a business with predictable economics and no balance-sheet drag.

The full company context is on the Zero to One page.