What if your fundraising edge isn’t a prettier deck, but the energy you bring into the room? We sit down with Miami operator and “crypto guy” Kyle Sonlin to unpack how conviction, curiosity, and consistent behavior become the signals investors actually trust. The journey winds through a decade of Miami tech growth, the post-remote shift in capital access, and why in-person time still matters when you’re reading character and momentum.

Kyle pulls back the curtain on tokenization in plain language: move cap tables to a shared digital ledger, compress the compliance burden, and make private markets more liquid without ditching guardrails. He connects this with the JOBS Act’s broader investor base and explains why automation is no longer a nice-to-have when you’re handling cross-border investors at scale. Then we get tactical: how he reversed the pitch by collecting buy-side mandates first, why family offices decide differently than VC funds, and how “side quests” become the hidden gateway to real checks.

The standout story is a $75 million oil refinery acquisition completed with a crypto-to-fiat bridge in minutes, solving a payments headache that would have dragged for months through traditional rails. From there, Kyle outlines Global Settlement’s capital stack and strategy—multi-layered SAFEs, deal-specific SPVs, a network token aligned with clarity on the rules, private credit and trade finance, and a fully backed digital dollar to move money globally with speed and compliance. Threaded through it all is tenacity: flying to Asia on a credit card, rebuilding during a dry market, and betting on a thesis grounded in real-world frictions and practical tech.

If you’re a founder or investor navigating family offices, cross-border capital, or the future of private markets, you’ll walk away with a playbook that is equal parts relationship and rigor. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s raising, and leave a quick review telling us the biggest financing bottleneck you want solved next.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithkohler1/