S7 E6 - Vishal Gupta | Why Every Hiring Mistake Made Me Better
Release Date: 11/26/2025
S9E6 - Stephanie Puryear Helling | Why The Best Teams Build Instead of Fix
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Stephanie Puryear Helling, an international keynote speaker, executive coach, author, and founder of SPH Services. After more than 20 years leading learning and development inside a global multifamily organization, Stephanie explains why the best teams are built on strengths instead of fixes, and how tools like DISC, CliftonStrengths, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team show leaders what’s really happening inside their companies. She and Andrew also get into employee engagement, where AI fits in, and a new faith-inspired leadership...
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S9E5 - Isaac Carter | Lead the Market, Don't Chase It
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Isaac Carter, CEO of Contollo Consulting, a technology entrepreneur with more than 25 years in data architecture, software, and business transformation. Isaac explains why founders who lead with their own voice stand out in an AI-saturated market, and how free 10-minute interviews with 62 founders at DFW Startup Week doubled as market research. He and Andrew also get into why leading with value beats leading with the ask. Timestamps: 00:00 - Cold Open: Henry Ford Didn't Invent The Car 00:38 - Meet Isaac Carter 01:37 - From Staffing To...
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S9E4 - Vicky Schiff | Private Credit and Loan to Cost Investing
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Vicky Schiff, CEO and founder of Avrio Clean Fund and a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded six firms over three decades in real estate. Vicki breaks down how private credit actually works, from senior loans and stretch senior proceeds to the debt yield math lenders use to protect their basis. She and Andrew also dig into why the recent private credit "exodus" headlines are mostly a corporate credit story, how construction cost overruns and rate hikes have squeezed multifamily borrowers, and how Avrio's PACE financing ties...
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S9E3 - Joe Cardosi | The Four Ps of Specialty Pharmacy
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Joe Cardosi, Founder and CEO of Free Market Health, a healthcare technology company that connects patients to the specialty pharmacies equipped to treat their most complex diagnoses. Joe breaks down why a tiny slice of patients, those on specialty drugs for conditions like cancer or cystic fibrosis, drive the majority of a health plan's total drug spend, and why the system built around them is often too slow and too fragmented to serve the people it exists for. He and Andrew also get into what it actually took to build a fast-growing...
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S9E2 - Kevin Morris | Crowdfunding Capital in the Modern World
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Kevin Morris, founder of Atlas Rd, who has helped raise over $350 million in capital across his own companies and the businesses he now advises. Kevin traces the evolution of equity crowdfunding from a fallback for companies that could not raise anywhere else to a tool blue chip brands are choosing on purpose, and makes the case for why a cap table of 10,000 small investors can be a bigger asset than a single VC check. He and Andrew also get into the work they are doing together on Reiturn, Birgo's platform built to bring real estate...
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S9E1 - Jay Parsons | What the Data Actually Says about Rental Housing
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Jay Parsons, a rental housing economist, advisor, and podcaster who helps investors and other stakeholders make sense of what's actually happening in apartments and single-family rentals. Jay pulls back the curtain on the data behind today's multifamily market, from where institutional capital is and isn't looking, to why the national affordability conversation gets the real story wrong. He and Andrew also get into migration patterns within a single metro, the flight to quality reshaping renter demand, and where the next decade of returns...
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S8E9 - Season 8 Recap
Real Returns
In the Season 8 finale, Andrew and Dan look back on an incredible season of guests. Four years in, the hosts reflect on what makes this podcast meaningful: the honest, humanizing stories of entrepreneurs who aren't afraid to talk about what it really takes to find success. Greg Furer: Solving the "Cheesecake Factory problem" in financial planning, and why simplicity and trust matter more than the size of the inheritance. Adam Taki: Why tax lien investing isn't what you think, and how an overlooked niche turns non-performing assets into performing ones. Patrick Colletti: What it means to...
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S8E8 - Afif Ghannoum | Building Trust in the World of Supplements
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Afif Ghannoum, founder and CEO of CPG Radar, a platform that uses big data and AI to help consumer brands accelerate innovation in the supplement space. Afif pulls back the curtain on how the supplement industry actually works, from the brands getting it right to the ones cutting dangerous corners, and explains why the data behind what you put in your body matters more than most people realize. He and Andrew also dig into the 85/15 principle, the hidden challenge of AI hallucinations in CPG data, and where the science on ingredients like...
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S8E7 - Hisham Albahar | Logistics and Geopolitics in the Middle East
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Hisham Albahar, CEO of three logistics companies operating in the UAE and GCC region. Hisham shares a candid firsthand account of running a logistics business in the middle of an active conflict, how supply chain disruption rippled across an entire region, and why he believes scale and consolidation are the keys to modernizing a fragmented, century-old industry. He and Andrew also discover they're running nearly identical playbooks toward the same billion-dollar goal! Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro: Real Returns Season 8 01:07 - Meet Hisham...
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S8E6 - Mary Fearon | Bringing Purpose to the Employee Experience
Real Returns
In this episode of Real Returns, Andrew sits down with Mary Fearon, Founder and CEO of OnPrpose, a leadership and communications firm built on the belief that stories change people and people change the world. Mary makes the case that the staggering employee disengagement crisis isn't a people problem, it's a culture problem; and shares what it actually looks like to help leaders reconnect their teams to purpose, identity, and the work that matters. Timestamps: 00:00 - Opening Segment 00:43 - Welcome & Guest Introduction 01:34 - What Mary Is Building: Connected Organizations 03:24 - More...
info_outlineWhat happens when a number-crunching engineer discovers his biggest mistakes all have one thing in common?
In this episode of Real Returns, hosts Andrew Reichert and Dan Croce sit down with Vishal Gupta, tech entrepreneur and former CEO of Seclore, to explore his 25-year journey from IIT Bombay to building global cybersecurity companies serving clients like American Express, GM, and Aramco across 35 countries. Vishal reveals why angel investing became his most expensive hobby, the critical transition from engineering logic to leadership empathy, and how holding onto the wrong people too long taught him more than any success ever could. From raising capital to landing contracts bigger than funding rounds, Vishal shares his investment philosophy centered on three filters: people you enjoy working with, technology with transformative potential, and impact that matters. Learn why AI will make people more important (not less), how saving 5-7% of global manufacturing waste could reshape entire industries, and what gets Vishal energized every morning about making the digital world a safer place for everyone, especially the elderly vulnerable to cybercrime.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Opening Segment
01:00 - Vishal's Background: From IIT Bombay to Global Tech Entrepreneur
02:55 - The Expensive Hobby of Angel Investing
04:00 - The Biggest Lessons: Every Mistake Was About People
05:15 - Why Hiring Mistakes Are Getting More Expensive in the AI Era
07:10 - From Engineer to Leader: Logic to Empathy
09:00 - Why People Problems Don't Follow Engineering Formulas
10:10 - Investment Criteria: People, Technology, Impact
13:00 - Real Impact Examples: Manufacturing Waste and Cybersecurity
15:50 - Making the Digital World Safer
17:00 - Lightning Round: Customer Contracts as Funding, Ethiopian Food, and Sleep
20:10 - Content Recommendations and Young Entrepreneur Energy
22:10 - Closing Segment
Key Quote: "I went from a number crunching engineer to, I would say, a pretty people oriented leader..." - Vishal Gupta
Connect with Vishal Gupta:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiguptaji/
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