#259 Finn & Bowen Alexy — Alexy Metals & Bowfin Capital
Key Takeaways
- Bowen and Finn Alexy represent a new generation of industrial operators, stepping into their family's brazing alloy manufacturing and precious metal refining business early in their careers.
- By applying modern digital strategies like e-commerce to a traditionally slow-moving legacy industry, Alexy Metals gained a massive competitive advantage and significant market share.
- The business model relies on a circular economy where Alexy Metals supplies specialized brazing alloys to high-tech manufacturers and buys back precious metal scrap to refine into high-purity materials.
- Operating out of Northeast Ohio, the brothers have scaled the company from their childhood basement to a tens-of-thousands-square-foot facility while maintaining a culture of speed, transparency, and continuous innovation.
- Alongside their manufacturing operations, the brothers co-founded BowFin Capital to invest in early-stage founders across healthcare, fintech, industrial tech, and consumer businesses.
Bowen and Finn Alexy are brothers, entrepreneurs, and investors based in Willoughby, Ohio. They serve as Co-Chief Operating Officers of Alexy Metals, a second-generation brazing alloy manufacturing and precious metals refining company, where they have helped lead the business through a period of significant growth while becoming the two youngest executives in their industry.
Beyond manufacturing, they are the Co-Founders and Managing Partners of BowFin Capital, an early-stage venture investment platform focused on backing exceptional founders across healthcare, fintech, industrial technology, and consumer businesses. They became angel investors in a fast-growing New York City startup while still in their early twenties and are passionate about expanding access to entrepreneurship and early-stage investing.
Finn and Bowen are the first brothers / dual recipients to ever receive Fast Track 50's Young Entrepreneur Award together, and recently became the first brothers in the 20-year history of the Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club’s Top 25 Under 35 list to be honored in the same class. Under their leadership, Alexy Metals was also recognized as Ohio Business Magazine’s Most Innovative Ohio Company in 2025.
Through both operating businesses and investing in the next generation of founders, they are working to build enduring companies in Ohio while helping inspire more young people to pursue entrepreneurship.
00:00 Introduction to Bo and Finn Alexy and their business journey
02:07 The importance of innovation in legacy industries
03:02 The story of Alexi Metals and their industry niche
07:28 Explaining brazing alloys and precious metal refining
09:52 Innovating in an industry resistant to change
14:32 Valuable insights in scrap and recycling
16:45 Creating a circular economy in precious metals
22:24 Growth opportunities and market expansion
24:16 The role of technology and e-commerce
27:33 Building in Northeast Ohio and community impact
29:09 The origin of Bofin Capital and venture journey
36:16 Lessons learned from early investments and trust-building
40:01 Storytelling, narrative, and building brands
45:24 Leadership lessons from parents and ambition
50:48 Reflections on entrepreneurship and future goals
53:26 The value of building publicly and inspiring others
58:46 Closing thoughts and hidden gems in Cleveland
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LINKS:
https://alexymetals.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnalexy/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bowenalexy/
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does Alexy Metals do?
Alexy Metals is a second-generation brazing alloy manufacturing and precious metal refining company based in Willoughby, Ohio, serving critical industries like aerospace, medical, and electronics.
What is brazing in manufacturing?
Brazing is similar to welding using precious metals, where a filler metal is heated to a melting point to form a super-strong, hermetic seal between two manufacturing components.
How did Alexy Metals innovate in their industry?
They launched the brazing industry's first e-commerce platform, enabling customers to easily browse and order alloy products online rather than relying solely on traditional phone-based sales.
What is BowFin Capital?
BowFin Capital is an early-stage venture investment platform co-founded by Bowen and Finn Alexy to back exceptional founders across healthcare, fintech, industrial technology, and consumer sectors.
Finn Alexy [00:00:00]:
The legacy businesses haven't necessarily adopted those things fully. There is literally an open runway. So if you make any minor innovation, you are literally becoming the most innovative company in that field almost immediately because all of your competitors are multi-generational, 100-year-old legacy businesses. They can't get out of their own way. And then Beau and I wanted to be the fastest moving, most innovative, most able to adopt new technologies in an old-style business. And that's, I think that's absolutely what we've done.
Jeffrey Stern [00:00:35]:
Welcome to the Lay of the Land podcast, where we are exploring what people are building in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. I am your host, Jeffrey Stern, and today I had the real pleasure of speaking with Beau and Finn Alexi, brothers, entrepreneurs, and officers at Alexi Metals, a second-generation brazing alloy manufacturing and precious metals refining company based in Willoughby, Ohio. In our conversation, we explore the story of 2 young operators stepping into a specialized family business at a time when many multi-generational companies are facing uncertain succession. We talk about what brazing is, why precious metal scrap can be so valuable, how Alexi Metals has grown from the basement of their childhood home into a tens of thousands square foot facility, and how Beau and Finn are bringing technology, speed, storytelling, and fresh ambition into an old industrial niche. We also discuss working together as brothers, lessons learned from their parents, building in Northeast Ohio, the industrial resurgence, and their operator-led investing work through Bo Finn Capital. Please enjoy this wonderful conversation with Bo and Finn. Lay of the Land is brought to you and is proudly sponsored by Serity Partners. As a wealth management firm, Serity Partners shares Lay of the Land's same dedication to serving local business owners, and the Serity Partners Cleveland team understands the challenges that entrepreneurs and founders face here in Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, and beyond.
Jeffrey Stern [00:02:01]:
Wealth comes with complexity and increased demands on time and resources. It is easy to become overwhelmed. Serenity Partners clients benefit from a unified team of local specialists who coordinate across both business and personal needs. With Serenity Partners' commitment to transparency and putting clients' needs first, complexity can become clarity. To learn more, please visit serenitypartners.com or call 216-464- 6266 today. Serenity Partners, proud to be recognized as one of the top financial advisory firms in the country.
Jeffrey Stern [00:02:36]:
One of the topics that I wanted to start with was one we were actually just mentioning before we, we started recording here, which is this kind of macro theme of, I've heard called, you know, the silver tsunami, but sort of this wave of founder-led multi-generational businesses where owners are aging, but succession plans are not necessarily clear or even existent. And part of the challenge is that many people in our generation are not exactly lining up to step into the family business of industrial companies and manufacturing jobs or, you know, the less obviously glamorous corners of the economy. And you two have very much gone against that grain, stepping in very young with like real alacrity and enthusiasm into this specialized metals company built around brazing alloys and refining and a lot of other things that we'll talk about. But I really wanted to start there 'cause I'm sort of just fascinated by, you know, what pulled you in where so many others have kind of turned away from the family business and just kind of help ground the whole conversation in in your guys' upbringing and what kind of drew you into this business?
Bowen Alexy [00:03:53]:
Ben, you want to go or?
Finn Alexy [00:03:54]:
Yeah, I got it.
Bowen Alexy [00:03:56]:
Okay. Either way, I didn't know if you were gearing up over there.
Finn Alexy [00:03:59]:
So I think it's been a very, very interesting road. We definitely didn't anticipate Alexi Metals being our career, especially early on because it was just a small kind of like scrap brokerage business that our Dad had founded and was involved in, and he had experience in the brazing alloy sales side of the industry, where he was actually a salesman or VP of sales at a company which is now our competitor. And he had all these connections. He was making enough to make a living, but it wasn't ever something that me and Beau kind of felt like we could fall back on. And then it was probably junior year of college, Beau's senior year, probably at that time, around that time when the company really started to take off post-COVID. There was a lot of industrial applications that were using brazing, a lot of new technologies that were using brazing, and the sales were seemingly endless and we just couldn't keep up with the demand. So then me and Beau coming outta college, like obviously recognized this opportunity. Obviously we have experience in our family's business.
Finn Alexy [00:05:02]:
We know how to approach it in the best way to not only service the customers, but also just grow as an organization. And I think me and Beau having skill sets from, you know, e-commerce, technology, marketing, social media, those types of things. And the legacy businesses or the old economy businesses like brazing or refining or manufacturing haven't necessarily adopted those things fully. So me and Beau see growing up around this and seeing all these different technologies and different things kind of come to light and nobody's applied it to the manufacturing and old style businesses. There is literally an open runway and there's nobody that's done that. So if you make any minor innovation, you are literally becoming the most innovative company in that field almost immediately because all of your competitors are multi-generational, 100-year-old legacy businesses. They can't get out of their own way. They have so many roadblocks in place that they've almost set themselves.
Finn Alexy [00:06:08]:
And then Beau and I coming outta college with Alexi Metals wanted to avoid that, wanted to be the fastest moving, most innovative, most able to adopt new technologies in an old style business. And that's, I think that's absolutely what we've done. And we'll definitely allude to those topics a little later on in the call today.
Jeffrey Stern [00:06:28]:
Beau, anything you would add to that?
Bowen Alexy [00:06:30]:
No, absolutely. It was very well put. It was a lot of ways, like Fin said, the Company wasn't what it was until just a few years ago. So there were times like in college even where I was considering other internships or looking for other career paths. And then it ultimately just boiled down to not only the family aspect of helping our parents out as much as possible and, you know, taking some of the stresses off their plate, but just the opportunity. And like Finn said, the runway as well. It was just too great of an opportunity to pass up and it was definitely the right move and we're very happy every single day we're here. So.
Bowen Alexy [00:07:05]:
It's a beautiful thing.
Jeffrey Stern [00:07:06]:
Yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:07:07]:
So just to, to set the stage a little bit for someone who has never thought deeply, or maybe even at all about brazing alloys or precious metal refining before, how, how do you explain what Alexi Metals actually even does and the kind of nature of the, the space that you guys are, are operating in?
Finn Alexy [00:07:28]:
Yeah, so we definitely have to give the bird's eye view rundown to a lot of people. That's like one of the things that me and Beau go around and Jeffrey, I'm sure you've heard it multiple times now.
Jeffrey Stern [00:07:38]:
Yeah.
Finn Alexy [00:07:39]:
And it's, it's one of those industries where you have to have like a niche of a niche kind of thing and to be successful, honestly. And brazing in a broad sense is like welding, but with precious metals. And instead of melting or fusing 2 parts together in a manufacturing process, you are adding a filler metal and you would heat up both sides of those components. And once it reaches a melting temperature of that filler, It would flow like a molten metal glue in between those components, making a super strong hermetic sealing bond that literally cannot come apart if the braze joint is structurally sound. And, it's used in a lot of high-pressure or very highly critical industries like aerospace, rocket manufacturing, medical, just any part in a manufacturing process that cannot be wrong is where brazing kind of comes to light. And then say that gold alloy that you're fusing or you're melting in between those 2 components is 50% gold and 50% copper, for example. Our— the other side of our business is that every single brazing operation is going to have precious metal scrap offcuts, parts that don't pass inspection, parts that have extended their useful life and they just need to be recirculated, whether that be for IP concerns or anything else like that. So we will actually buy those components and buy that scrap back from our existing customer base, essentially creating a circular economy.
Finn Alexy [00:09:09]:
And then where we're selling them the braze into those joints, and we're also buying back the scrap and then refining it into pure gold and pure silver, which in our company's tenure, we've made some of the purest gold in the United States. And we've been able to not only make a profit, but also provide that value to the customers on both sides in both of those turns.
Jeffrey Stern [00:09:28]:
So you mentioned that almost any minor improvement is vastly innovative. And I'm curious, as you guys have stepped into leadership of the business, what, how you approached understanding the status quo of how things are done and how historically, you know, the whole industry has operated and where you came into start thinking about, you know, what, what if we tried to innovate here and, and where, where you saw those problem spaces, what, what kind of opportunity have you been able to kind of explore as you've come into the business with, with fresh eyes?
Bowen Alexy [00:10:04]:
Absolutely. Well, yeah, uh, this industry in general, it's been around for a long time, but it's something that like not a lot of people have known about. So it's kind of been in a state, and I've said another podcast where there hasn't been much innovation in like 50 years. It's like, They figured out a way it works and they figured out a way the customer was happy. And then they just kept repeating that and up until almost this point. And Finn and I came in and the first thing we did was we really wanted to understand exactly what the customer requirements were. We wanted to understand how it flowed, especially internally here at our operations. And then once we saw how everything was working, we were like, maybe we could save a step there.
Bowen Alexy [00:10:40]:
Maybe someone could do this as well in addition to that. Subtract a whole step and just make things better, make things faster, a little more streamlined and easier to follow. Uh, the way we set this business up was it was designed to be easy for us to manage and designed to be easy for us to serve our customers to the best of our capabilities and also meet all the requirements of our quality specifications in the aerospace, medical, HVAC, electronics, uh, aviation industries as well. So it was all about just learning and implementing for us.
Jeffrey Stern [00:11:12]:
To fill in a bit of the history here and pay homage to, you know, what your father, you know, built originally.
Bowen Alexy [00:11:21]:
Sure.
Jeffrey Stern [00:11:22]:
How would you kind of describe the evolution of the business? What was the original problem that your dad saw in the market that made it worth starting in the first place? Just, you know, kind of where the whole thing came from.
Bowen Alexy [00:11:33]:
Sure.
Finn Alexy [00:11:33]:
So he, like I mentioned earlier, was the VP of sales at our now competing business. I won't, mention them at all, but he was basically selling these brazing alloys to his customer base, and then they were asking him multiple times, like, what do we do with the precious metal scrap after it's finished? And then he was like, you know, I might be able to do something. I might be able to refine. Just kind of helping the customer out was his main philosophy there, or like trying to be the full service to that customer. And he ended up pitching it to his old employers at that former company and they turned him down because they didn't think that selling a product for a higher premium and then buying it back at a lower price was something that the customers were going to be interested in. And he thought, or their management thought that it would discount their brand or discount their profits or something like that. And he just completely didn't agree with that philosophy and ended up starting Alexi Metals on just the refining side of the business. And he had all connections for multiple years, multiple decades.
Finn Alexy [00:12:39]:
And ultimately those same customers asked him to supply the brazing in the beginning steps, completing his original vision of selling the brazing alloys into that component, knowing exactly where the value is, and then extracting it through precious metal refining. And in the early days of Alexi Metals, it was literally beakers of acid, experimenting with gold refining and experimenting on how to actually get something back to pure gold, which is a lot harder said than done. Nobody in our immediate family has a chemistry background, but we know this chemistry very, very well. So you kind of have to, and we were literally just experimenting. Beau and I were 10 and 12 years old, I believe, when he first founded Alexi Metals, and we were crushing up scrap parts in our basement to expose that gold braze alloy that was embedded within the component. And We still refine some of those parts today that we were both crushing up when we were 10 and 12 years old. And we've almost refined the world supply of certain gold brazed components. And it's been a crazy ride, but me and Beau always talk like it's from the literal basement of our childhood home to a 52,000 square foot building.
Finn Alexy [00:13:58]:
And we've gotten to see absolutely every single part of that journey. And it's been incredible.
Jeffrey Stern [00:14:03]:
No, it is super exciting. And I feel, you know, lucky enough to have been able to see that facility in person and walk through it with you guys. And I think what stood out to me about it was the nature of the work you're doing lends real credence to that old aphorism of, you know, one person's trash is another person's treasure. But just the operation around understanding the value of scrap I found just really fascinating and how much precious metals live within components that we generally take for granted and don't even really think about, certainly are not aware of. I'm curious what, what you guys see as what most people misunderstand about scrap and, you know, bad parts or things that otherwise might have been thrown away.
Bowen Alexy [00:14:53]:
Sure. Yeah, it is a very common misconception between trash and treasure in this industry especially. So say if there's like some kind of paste or a binder that our customers use, and you know, they scoop it out, they use it for their braze application, whatever that may be. And then there is a little residual paste and some, you know, waste materials used to scoop it out, they just go straight to the garbage with that. And what we offer is, hey, look, man, there is some silver on that plastic spoon you just threw away, there is a lot of gold paste in that tube that you're just putting right in the dumpster. So it's like, instead of doing that, put it in a bin, put it in a bucket, gather it all together, and then send it to us. And, you know, we'll pay you for giving us that scrap and then we'll convert it into gold. And that's just kind of how we do it.
Bowen Alexy [00:15:41]:
But a lot of the times people just don't, they're not even thinking like that. Like they're like, all right, I'm done. Onto the next one. And they just generate so much trash that way. And a lot of things they look at are just taking up warehouse space or it's just, you know, something in the way or something they're not going to do anything with. So, That trash just gets pushed to the back and it's not very focused on. So that's kind of where we've capitalized and what we've done successfully.
Jeffrey Stern [00:16:06]:
Yeah, I found it just sort of fascinating to actually see in practice how much value you guys are able to pull out and kind of recycle in a lot of ways. I think, Fin, you kind of laid out the closed-loop cycle and model that you all practice, and I'm curious how you would expand upon where you actually are like adding value back into the supply chain today? Because I think that part of it is also super fascinating. Maybe just speak a bit to like, who are your customers? What are they looking for? And add some color to that side of it.
Finn Alexy [00:16:45]:
So as it stands right now, our customers for our refined gold and silver are either more braze houses to ultimately cast it back into additional alloys in our brazing industry. So we're definitely creating that full cycle, full circle loop in the brazing space. And then we also sell gold grain to the Diamond District in New York City, which ultimately gets turned into like the golden diamond wrapper and athlete chains. And that's kind of how we, we've created the circular economy in a little bit there. And then me and Beau obviously have gold chains on as well, 'cause it's kind of another way to pay homage to the industry and the business that made us who we are.
Jeffrey Stern [00:17:28]:
Was there any tension at all? I imagine that you're working in an industry where probably a lot of folks have been working in it longer than you two originally maybe had been even alive, and just how you guys reconciled with earning credibility as operators of the business in this kind of market.
Bowen Alexy [00:17:47]:
Sure. Yeah. Well, I literally a couple weeks ago just crossed 9 years in the industry myself. So, you know, I started early in high school and whether that was in the warehouse, you know, taking out the trash, doing the scrap jobs myself kind of thing, it adds up over time. And especially in this business that Finn and I have grown up around, we know a thing or two about how it operates and how we can provide the most help ourselves. And yeah, the industry as a whole, there are a lot of players that have been around for a long time. There are a lot of people that have been around for a long time, and you have to come into it with a very humble mindset and you have to know, I don't know, you know, much of anything compared to some of these other guys. So you have to give yourself that time to learn.
Bowen Alexy [00:18:32]:
You have to give yourself that time to appreciate what everyone else in the industry is doing. So you have to just be like, I'm here to learn. I'm here to help. Uh, I'm not here to change everything and make your lives more difficult. We're here to make things better and to provide assistance wherever we can. And that's kind of how Finn and I approached it. And, uh, we found huge success with that here. And, uh, you know, we're still learning every day.
Jeffrey Stern [00:18:54]:
So. Lave the Land is brought to you and is proudly sponsored by Roundstone Insurance. Headquartered in Rocky River, Ohio, Roundstone shares Lave the Land's same passion for bold ideas and lasting impact from our community's entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders. Since 2005, Roundstone has pioneered a self-funded captive health insurance model that delivers robust savings for small and medium-sized businesses. They're part of the solution to rising healthcare costs, helping employers offer affordable, high-quality care while driving job creation and economic growth throughout Northeast Ohio. Like many of the voices featured on Lay of the Land, including Roundstone's founder and CEO, Mike Schroeder, Roundstone believes entrepreneurship, innovation, and community to be the cornerstones of progress. To learn more about how Roundstone is transforming employee health benefits by empowering employers to save thousands in per-employee, per-year healthcare costs, please visit roundstoneinsurance.com. Roundstone Insurance, built for entrepreneurs, backed by innovation, committed to Cleveland.
Jeffrey Stern [00:19:59]:
As the two now in charge of talent and recruiting on the flip side of that, What's the pitch you would make to young people today to get involved in this kind of industry and business?
Finn Alexy [00:20:12]:
Sure.
Bowen Alexy [00:20:14]:
Well, yeah, it's a fun pitch. It really is. When people come in for tours and they get to see what we're doing, a lot of the times it's disbelief, right? Because again, this is not something like you rarely find internships for in college. It's not like a big industry that everyone knows. But what we've found is that Guys that come from previous experiences, like whether or not they're mechanical engineers or they're automotive mechanics, or they've, I don't know, worked with some kind of CNC machine, those skills kind of translate into a lot of what we do here. So when I'm, you know, selling the dream of Alexi Metals and I'm explaining how far we can grow and how much opportunity there is for every single person that walks through our doors, you just kind of relate that back to what they already know and you relate it to their passions and their skills and what they wanna see in their careers. And it's like, well, how can we get there together? And you kind of just lay that out. And it's hard when you put, you know, a tray of gold in somebody's hand for them to at least be a little interested in what you guys are doing.
Bowen Alexy [00:21:14]:
So it's, it's been, it's a very, it's a fun sell. And, uh, people are always just very fascinated and ask a lot of questions. So we're very happy to answer and very proud to share what we're doing here.
Finn Alexy [00:21:27]:
And to expand a little bit on what Beau said about like selling the dream, that's also very, very easy for me and Beau cuz We've seen this go from nothing to definitely something. And all of our competitors in this industry are multiple 9-figure businesses or even billion-dollar businesses. And we're still in the multiple 8-figure range. So there is tons of upside. There's tons of revenue potential. There's tons of market share to kind of capture. And I think that we're faster to the customer, we're more innovative, and we also supply a better quality product. And when you combine those 3 things, it is a matter, it's simply a matter of time before the scales start to tip and you start capturing very meaningful market share.
Finn Alexy [00:22:11]:
So when we're kind of laying out our roadmap to a potential employee, it's like there are so many opportunities to grow here. And it's just me, Beau, my mom, my dad who were the main management structure of the company. And there is tons of upside for anyone to increase their career paths at Electri Metals for sure.
Jeffrey Stern [00:22:30]:
I mean, you, you both introduced the, the concept there of, of the opportunity ahead.
Bowen Alexy [00:22:35]:
Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
Jeffrey Stern [00:22:36]:
Where do you see the most room to grow? You know, more products, more customers, more vertical integration. I would love to talk about that. That was something we explored a bit, you know, as, as we were doing the, the walkthrough the facility, how you guys are thinking about pulling in more aspects of downstream, upstream, you know, parts of the process and integrating that into the business. What, what do you actually see as the, the opportunity ahead? And how are you guys thinking about it?
Finn Alexy [00:23:00]:
Well, I think vertically integrating is just going to increase the profits across the board. And that'll obviously be huge because it's just taking our existing business and increasing the margin. And then in terms of expansion, we haven't really necessarily even gone out and tried to expand. It's simply just been organic. It's people finding us. It's our existing customers who are growing into billion-dollar companies or multiple trillion-dollar companies, like some of these AI semiconductor manufacturers, some of these rocket manufacturing companies are just pulling us along. And because we are so good at servicing the customer, we're so good at supplying a very good quality product that there's not enough players in this industry specifically because there's too many barriers to entry. And these customers are going to elevate you and prop you up.
Finn Alexy [00:23:52]:
to be that supplier for them because they can't or won't do the work themselves. And we are in a very, very good spot to not only keep growing our existing customer base, vertically integrate and increase the profit margin on that existing customer base. But once we do expand, like I was talking about earlier, the scales will absolutely tip in this industry.
Jeffrey Stern [00:24:13]:
How are you guys thinking about technology?
Finn Alexy [00:24:16]:
Good question. Beau can expand on this a little bit.
Bowen Alexy [00:24:21]:
Sure. Well, yeah, technology is always the forefront of our focus. Finn and I being younger guys, myself being a marketing major, we use technology each and every day, especially in this industry and with our products and our capabilities. When we're looking into the future and kind of, well, I guess in the past now as well, Alexi Metals successfully launched the first e-commerce platform in our industry. And that was kind of like almost like an Amazon for braze alloys where our customers could go onto our website and could literally just add to cart whatever alloys, whatever size quantity they want. And it was just basically like an Amazon for our industry. And we've been coined like the Amazon of the braze alloy industry a couple times and it's been a lot of fun. But that was our launch in 2020 and we kind of set the stage for that of this is the way we should kind of be doing things as we move into the future.
Bowen Alexy [00:25:10]:
Because guys in, you know, Finn and I's generation, they don't want to be on the phone with a sales broker getting quotes like it's the '90s anymore. They want to just go online, find what they're looking for, add to cart and get it tomorrow. So a lot of ways we're thinking of that future and, you know, as Finn and I, the way we do business and the way we purchase products and handle things ourselves, we kind of want to take all of that knowledge from the outside world and continue to keep integrating it into our company and into our industry. So, you know, we stay with the times, we stay current, and we know what's kind of coming next.
Finn Alexy [00:25:43]:
And then e-commerce, I know I mentioned this a little bit earlier too, but like there's an open way of applying new technologies to that old style manufacturing business. And what we like, e-commerce is not a new thing. It's been around for, I don't even know, a decade plus now. And it really took off in 2020, but there is still no other e-commerce platform for brazing. In our industry. And we launched that in 2020. So I would say everybody else is 5 years behind. And we have so many ideas now after having 5 years of experience with an e-commerce site on how to expand the marketing, how to make it better, how to meet the customers where they are.
Finn Alexy [00:26:21]:
And there's billion-dollar companies out there that haven't even started yet. So there's just tons of runway on the technology implementation. And then from Beau and I's perspective, There is no, there's no competition and we're learning e-commerce decades before and then applying it to a braising business and then understanding how to work e-commerce into a braising business for 5 whole years before there's any competition in the marketplace.
Jeffrey Stern [00:26:49]:
That's exciting.
Bowen Alexy [00:26:50]:
Yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:26:50]:
It's, it's, uh, in retrospect, like an obvious idea, but clearly one that, that no one was doing to digitize kind of access to this.
Finn Alexy [00:26:58]:
It's too slow to move every single time. And they can't get out of their own way. But we've, like Beau was talking about earlier too, we've always strived to make Alexi Metals very easy to operate and very transparent throughout the entire team. So everybody knows what's going on from top to bottom. And once you do implement a new technology, everybody just connects the dots and clicks it internally so we can all move forward as a group.
Jeffrey Stern [00:27:23]:
What has building this company in Northeast Ohio meant to you guys. How do you think about geography and just building it here?
Bowen Alexy [00:27:33]:
It means everything, you know, it's, it's, this is the homeland. This is the land. And it's really cool because, you know, Finn and I, you know, we've been all over the world in terms of travel and opportunity and went to school in Cincinnati, which is, you know, it's still Ohio, but it's pretty much Kentucky. You know, it depends on how you want to look at it. But yeah, and the opportunity to come home and to put these roots here, especially in this 50,000 square foot building, it was incredible. And again, growing up and even until a couple years ago, we didn't think that that's what this would become. But to have the opportunity to stay home, to help out, grow with our people, and to expand and help and flourish our communities, whether that's UC Cleveland or the city of Willoughby, which we're in. We're very happy to do that and it's just an incredible blessing to be able to do that.
Bowen Alexy [00:28:25]:
And it, yeah, being in Cleveland means everything. And we're Cavs fans through and through, and it's just the home and we're very happy to still be here. It's incredible.
Jeffrey Stern [00:28:34]:
So both of you beyond your roles as operators, I would say have a multifaceted approach and interest about business generally. And I want to kind of loop both in into the conversation here and explore really like where your interest on investing came from and, and kind of the flip side of the coin to the, the work you guys are doing within the business to help other entrepreneurs in, in their own journeys and, and visions for, for what they want to build. Uh, but I guess to start, you know, what, what is Beau Fin Capital? How did you guys come to, to manifest this thing into existence?
Finn Alexy [00:29:09]:
Yeah, it's, it's kind of like an accidental story in a lot of ways. But everybody's always talking about like their entry into VC and we definitely have a very, very innovative one, very cool one. So basically in spring of 2024, when Beau and I were both about to graduate from the University of Cincinnati, I was doing a final project in an upper-level entrepreneurship course. And the final project was you had to do like a startup pitch deck for a real startup company, you know, find them on Google, whatever. had to pick a real company and they had to be under $100 million in venture capital funding. And I was on the verge of a straight-A semester and I was like, I really have to try on this project.
Bowen Alexy [00:29:49]:
I really have to get over the hump here and get a 4.0 GPA.
Finn Alexy [00:29:52]:
Like, I don't even know why I cared, but I did. So yeah, I was like, I gotta find a company I actually give a shit about and I gotta find a company I care about so I can really try on this project. And when you type into Google all of these requirements for the project, you don't get good results, you don't get good companies, you don't get that like behind the curtain kind of view into the VC space. And I was literally procrastinating the project. I'm like, screw this, whatever, it's a waste of time. And I'm scrolling on Instagram and I see a paid advertisement come across my feed that said the co-founder of Robinhood and the CEO of Uber are backing a Harvard dropout's new stock trading brokerage app startup. And the video goes on to say that they raised $17 million in venture capital and they were meeting these new requirements of this industry and they were solving these problems. And it was literally just checking all the boxes of the assignment.
Finn Alexy [00:30:50]:
And then I was very excited about it and I ultimately like used them for the project, looked into them, did the research on 'em, and submitted the project, got a 100% on it. Got a straight A in the class. Straight A.
Jeffrey Stern [00:31:03]:
Congratulations.
Finn Alexy [00:31:05]:
We made it there, but nobody's clocking it. And then ended up graduating like a week and a half later. And Beau and I started at Alexi Metals like 2 days after that. It was boots on the ground. It was start running. There was not a whole lot of time to like do a post-grad trip or enjoy the graduation or anything like that. Like it was just, Drive up from Cincinnati to Cleveland with all your stuff.
Jeffrey Stern [00:31:27]:
And into the business.
Bowen Alexy [00:31:29]:
Yeah. Get straight to work.
Finn Alexy [00:31:30]:
Uh, so it wasn't even until like June, we graduated in April and it wasn't even until June when I was like cleaning off my desktop and my personal laptop of like all the stuff that we had from college, like Spanish syllabuses and rubrics and just stuff I didn't need anymore. And I came across that pitch deck that I had done, uh, for Dubb. The company was called Dubb. Sorry, I didn't talk about this, but they were basically copy trading brokerage app where you can copy the strategies of professional investors or hedge fund managers or politicians. And that was one of the first things that kind of got my attention to it was, wow, me as a middle-class American can copy a professional trader, a professional investor who knows the spreadsheets, knows the algorithms, and knows how to achieve a gain on a portfolio every single day or every single week or month, and I can't spend all the time doing that. So I can allocate that capital to somebody who does on a brokerage app. And I like to say it's kind of like the Uber for investing in a lot of ways where Uber connects drivers and people who need a ride. Dubb is that de facto platform and that connection point between people who are really good at investing and people who our hardworking Americans can't find the time to become very good at investing.
Finn Alexy [00:32:48]:
So definitely caught my attention. And flash forward to when I was like cleaning off my laptop, I was dragging the pitch deck to my trash can on my laptop and I kind of stopped myself and I was like, you know, I got 100% on the project. I worked super hard on it. I kind of like the company. And I was like, maybe I'll try to send it to someone at Dubb, at this company in New York City. And I didn't have anybody's name. So I went on LinkedIn and I found their chief operating officer, Brett Cheraskin, really good, really good dude. Me and Beau just talked to him last week in New York City.
Finn Alexy [00:33:22]:
And I didn't know his email either, and I had to send him this pitch deck via email. So I went on Dubb's website and figured out their general company inbox, which was info@dubbapp.com, connected his first name with @dubbapp.com, put it together, brett@dubbapp.com, sent him the email, sent him the pitch deck. And I was like, hey, my brother and I, we are new chief operating officers of our family's business, which is a brazing alloy manufacturer and precious metal refining company. And one of their portfolios was actually based on precious metal markets. And I was like, we may be able to provide you guys some interesting educational social media content around these markets from like an operator in the field type perspective. And also here's a free pitch deck. So they were very, very receptive to it. I don't know if the pitch deck was ever used, but I know they did download it and they did actually look at it.
Finn Alexy [00:34:16]:
And then we were actually invited to New York City in September of 2024. And then Beau can kind of give you the rundown on some of that. Sure.
Bowen Alexy [00:34:25]:
Yeah, no, so we went out there, drove to New York City, and we kind of sat down with their marketing team and we kind of were just like, what's the game plan? They're like, we're going to ask you some questions, explain the market, explain to our users why investing in precious metals is a good idea. Why it's such a niche space and why it's a good idea to get involved with it. So we were like, okay, we do that every single day. That's no problem. So we were there with those guys, John and Jacob. We were talking with them for probably close to about an hour and a half, maybe like 90 minutes. And then when we got done with all the content, we were like, all right, cool. And then we said, hey, do you guys mind if we meet Steven Wang, the founder and CEO? We walked by his office earlier.
Bowen Alexy [00:35:05]:
It'd be really cool to just meet him real quick before we head out. And they were like, yeah, sure. So, uh, Steven came in with Brett and we kind of just sat down and we got to talking for about 10 or 15 minutes. And then I said, listen, you know, we use the platform, we love what you guys are doing. It's really incredible. And if there was any way for us to help out or even be a part of the company in any way, it'd be really great. And we're just open to kind of all opportunities. And Steven being a great guy was like, hey, we're doing our, uh, family and friends Series A round coming up.
Bowen Alexy [00:35:33]:
He's like, if you guys are serious, I can get you involved with about that. And we were like, that would be incredible. So basically we left Dubb that day on kind of a handshake deal with Steven and Brett that we're going to become angel investors in this company. So we kind of set all that up, drove back to Willoughby, Ohio, and then Finwall had 6 days to put together 2 LLCs, gather all our funds together, and then make an official wire transfer under Beaufin Capital, which had to be compliant with all the SEC regulations and laws of making angel investments and whatnot. But we turned all of that around in 6 days and made our first official angel investment in Dubb through that family and friends Series A, which was an incredible opportunity.
Jeffrey Stern [00:36:16]:
No, it's an awesome story. I think it is demonstrative of folks in venture often talk about the business as one of access and relationships. And I think Yeah, I'm curious. I mean, how, obviously you've since done a lot more on the investing side since then.
Finn Alexy [00:36:34]:
Sure.
Jeffrey Stern [00:36:35]:
What have you learned about, you know, what it takes to build trust with founders at that stage and gaining really that access, which is sort of the scarcity in the early-stage investing world?
Bowen Alexy [00:36:48]:
Absolutely. Well, yeah, the way we approach it and the way Fin and I kind of have Beaufin Capital set up is Yes, we are angel investors, but we're also strategic partners. So Fin and I coming from an operations background and kind of building up our own business over the years, we understand the challenges that come up. We understand how difficult it can be. And if you don't have good guys in your corner that can offer advice when you need it, it makes it even more difficult. So Fin and I like to be that kind of strategic arm and that partnership you can bounce ideas off of with our founders. So just even after our conversation with Steven and Brett and what we learned, the way we approached it with those guys, we kind of kept rolling into that with the additional founders we chose to partner with. And it's just being there for them and being that helping hand that you would wish you had, right? If you were taking on investors, it's like, you know, we don't want a guy that's just going to be kind of hands-off and we're like just working for this dude in the shadows.
Bowen Alexy [00:37:45]:
We want somebody that's going to be involved and help us out and make strategic decisions that are best for the business. So that's kind of how Finn and I approach it. We're so, we're here to help, same as the Alexi Metals mindset.
Finn Alexy [00:37:56]:
So, and just to build, yeah, sorry, just to build off that a little bit.
Jeffrey Stern [00:38:01]:
Yeah.
Finn Alexy [00:38:01]:
With like the Alexi Metals and Beaufin kind of bridge and where me and Beau have been able to apply so much value to both of these different industries, it's when I look at Alexi Metals and I look at where me and Beau are best and what we do. It's stewardship in a lot of ways on behalf of our parents, and it's literally just us being the blood and guts of a manufacturing business to, for lack of a better word. And we just want to take on all the problems, take on all the responsibility, and solve as many things as we possibly can every single day so our parents do not have to. And I think there's a serious lack of that kind of mindset in VC, in angel investing. Where these people kind of cut a check and walk away and they don't ever care about the founder. They don't ever care about the company. All they want to do is pump it and sell it in 5 years and get a return. And me and Beau kind of have the opposite approach of, it's like, what do you guys need from us? How can we help? What can you pawn off on us to do work-wise? How can we provide more value? How can we help you acquire customers? And then on the manufacturing side and how we've kind of bridged the venture to the manufacturing.
Finn Alexy [00:39:15]:
I think on the venture side, our skillset is the marketing and it's the narrative and it's the storytelling ability and the building up of these brands or the building of these stories. And nobody has, or very few people, but nobody in our industry, brazing and precious metal refining, have ever built a narrative around their company. So we're taking Beau's marketing background and then just our experience in venture of building these narratives and building this kind of marketing promotion and applying that to manufacturing. And that's been very, very successful for us as well. So when you apply those 2 philosophies to industries that really, really lack it, you get that disproportional result that me and Beau have had in the last couple of years.
Bowen Alexy [00:40:01]:
Hmm.
Jeffrey Stern [00:40:02]:
Yeah, I think there's a lot that resonates there. I mean, especially in a world where capital is sort of a commodity at some point. You know, the scarcity is sort of about attention and storytelling. A narrative is really how you broach that challenge. And the other thing you mentioned is, and this has always been sort of confounding to me, but I would be personally quite uncomfortable in the position of investing had I not been a founder and operator myself. To empathize and understand the actual challenges of entrepreneurs. And so to build on all that context, how have you guys found that running Alexi Metals has shaped the way that you guys are evaluating founders and companies and opportunities? And then, you know, on the flip side of that, once you've been able to make an investment, actually helping them in the business itself.
Bowen Alexy [00:40:56]:
Sure. Well, the way we looked at it for a while, As we started off both in and at Alexia Metals at the same time, it was almost like 2 different headspaces. But then as time went on, you started to realize that in a lot of ways they bounce off each other. And it kind of just, some things by being a better operator and being in the business every day and learning how it runs and operates, you can look at a more macro lens of all these other companies and you can understand what they're doing and what they're doing really well. And oh, they're building this, that's really something we might be able to look into. So as we adjusted our brains to think more outside the box for Bofin, it translated a lot as an operator in Alexi Metals. And then on the flip side of that, if you go the other way, by operating Alexi Metals, you understand some things that maybe some other companies are missing and some areas where you can offer support as well.
Finn Alexy [00:41:50]:
And I think we have really strived to look for founders that Beau and I kind of see ourselves in, in a lot of ways.
Jeffrey Stern [00:41:58]:
Mm-hmm.
Finn Alexy [00:41:59]:
Uh, like young hustlers have been trying to, you know, make a serious career path for themselves for a very long time. Like me and Beau, 10 and 12 years old, crushing up scrap parts in the basement. And a lot of people have childhood type backgrounds like that and have stories that they've carried forward in their careers. And I, I think like we've been able to resonate, especially with Gen Z founders, very, very well. And kind of build friendships and forge that trust and that partnership that a lot of traditional VCs or like the old accreditation investors can really forge. And we've been able to do it very seamlessly.
Jeffrey Stern [00:42:37]:
Where do you think your collective ambition comes from? Because I love how you guys think about things and have gotten to see how it manifests in practice. But how do you think about ambition?
Bowen Alexy [00:42:50]:
Sure. Yeah. Well, for us, we always just wanted to be busy and we always wanted to be working on something, be making some money, be making some change. So like back in the day, I used to have like an Uber-type service business where I wasn't 18, so I couldn't be an Uber driver, but I replicated the service where I'd pick people up for $10 or $15 and drive 'em here to there when I first got my license. So it's just that drive of wanting to be busy and to have something you're passionate enough to be working on. And, you know, when you look at like Alexi Metals and like we've said in the past already on this pod, like just the growth trajectory of it, where it can still go and like, you know, how much more work and how much more fun the journey still has to offer us. It's just when you get to that mindset, it's hard to think about anything else besides doing the absolute best you can. And Now that Fin and I are involved with Beaufin and we're having a lot of fun with that and the opportunity just keeps rolling in, it's like, you know, you gotta just rise to the challenge and you gotta be there for it and you can't let it sail by.
Bowen Alexy [00:43:54]:
And that's kind of the mindset Fin and I have had, and it's been a lot of fun so far.
Finn Alexy [00:43:59]:
And I think some of the ambition as well comes from, like, we've seen companies that we are, you know, looking out to acquire in a lot of ways, and it's because they're Dad or mom or parents are just too old to run the business and the kids kind of never stepped up. And me and Beau just as a collective and like literally sat down and had this conversation of like, we don't ever want to be those types of people that just couldn't handle it or couldn't rise to the challenge.
Jeffrey Stern [00:44:27]:
Yep.
Finn Alexy [00:44:27]:
And our parents are still working at 70 years old. Like we did not want that to be the reality whatsoever. So it was just kind of, keeping an open mind and rolling forward with it and doing the absolute best you can every single day. That's where a lot of the ambition comes from. And then we're still so young in our careers and we, like you were talking about earlier as well, where we're younger than some of the employees at our company. You're like, we haven't even been alive for as long as some of these people have worked here or in this industry. And we definitely have something to prove. We definitely don't feel like we are accomplished in any sense of the word there.
Finn Alexy [00:45:05]:
And yeah, that's what led to Bofin as well, is kind of being able to prove yourself outside of the family business and outside of our industry, and then being able to kind of apply the knowledge learned from Lexi Metals and the knowledge learned at Bofin to move the whole organization, the whole kind of empire forward.
Jeffrey Stern [00:45:24]:
What are the most important things you've learned from watching your parents you know, operate the business and as you've kind of stepped into, you know, leadership role of the company, what you carry with you from them.
Bowen Alexy [00:45:38]:
Sure. It's so much, honestly. It's hard to pinpoint exactly, you know, some examples, but just the general way they have done it and the longevity of it and like how much they've been able to carry for so long. And it was just, it's very inspiring and they've, Both been very hard workers. Grayson has been in the industry for over 30 years now. He really knows his stuff. And it's just, they're very just hardworking, ambitious people. And they instilled that into Finn and I at a very young age.
Bowen Alexy [00:46:08]:
And for us to come in and kind of honor their legacy and match their work ethic and kind of achieve the dreams they want to achieve is ultimately where we have just been like, we gotta, we gotta just make this happen and live up to their legacy. Their standard, you know.
Finn Alexy [00:46:23]:
So, uh, number one lesson I've, I've learned, and I'll kind of quote Grayson here because I know he's gonna watch this, but— Well, he told both Beau and I when we were young that he has the perfect combination of brains and balls to be a very dangerous person, and he has instilled that in both Beau and I. And you don't really understand that until you go through like an entrepreneurial rise like we have with Beaufain Capital. So what he means by this quote, after you get past the surface level of it, it's really a quote about entrepreneurship. And what he's saying is you have to have the perfect combination of brains to tee up an opportunity for yourself, to line something up in the scopes and to be able to build a relationship with somebody and be able to have You know, provide enough value to where somebody would want to do something for you. And then once you set up that opportunity for yourself, you have to not only get it in the scopes, but you also have to have the balls enough to pull the trigger on that opportunity. And I think our example with Dubb is the perfect example of that, where, you know, we met these founders in New York City, we provided them value, we set up this opportunity using our brains. And then when it came time and it was our turn to take that entrepreneurial leap and take that entrepreneurial jump and make a very large angel investment in our early 20s, we actually had the balls to pull the trigger. And I think when you combine those 2 things, that leads to success or leads to you being a dangerous person in the words of Grayson.
Bowen Alexy [00:48:06]:
Yep. And Jeffrey, sorry, the one lesson I do have that Grayson says almost every Every other week that I hear is tough on problems, soft on people, because in any business you're in, there are going to be challenges, there are going to be difficulties, there are things that are going to go wrong. But as a leader and as someone that's building a team and building a culture, you want to prioritize being hard on the problem and, oh, this problem is rough. We got to just work together and solve this. You cannot go around yelling at your guys because then you're going to lose the culture and the motivation. So he says that. almost weekly. So he was, remember, tough on problems, soft on people.
Bowen Alexy [00:48:43]:
It's like, yep, I got it. So, yep, absolutely.
Jeffrey Stern [00:48:46]:
Fin, you talked about conviction essentially, you know, it was kind of the spirit of that quote. How do you guys distinguish conviction from, call it like overconfidence? How do you like base your decision-making?
Finn Alexy [00:49:03]:
So especially with Dubb, I'll just use this example again, but it was, It wasn't even something that we were 100% confident that it was going to succeed. I do believe it's going to succeed now. They had a very successful Series A round. They raised another $30 million, bringing funding to about $50 million, and they grew the user base on the app to over 2 million people. This is all post Beau and I's angel investment, so I do believe it's going to work out now. But when we made that investment, it was really just a matter of not wanting to let it pass us by. Because you only get so many of those types of opportunities in your lifetime. And we just couldn't live with ourselves or like look ourselves in the mirror if it was like, damn, when I had that opportunity, I was afraid, or I didn't make that call, or I didn't make that decision.
Finn Alexy [00:49:52]:
And I would rather just lose all the money on the angel investment than have to live with that truth.
Bowen Alexy [00:49:58]:
Yeah.
Finn Alexy [00:49:58]:
So that's really where that conviction came from for us was just wanting To do something outside of the box to inspire others. And I think that's what we've done as well. Like we took that story back to the University of Cincinnati and we said like, hey, pointing at a student in a chair, I was like, I was literally sitting in your chair a year ago and now we're in an investor group with the CEO of Uber, the co-founder of LinkedIn, and the CEO of Microsoft. And it's like, how does that happen? It's because you take risk. It's because you Step outside the box, outside of your comfort zone, and look at an opportunity where yes, there's a high risk. Yes, there's a high reward, but regardless of how it works out, we have to take this step because you don't get this many opportunities in your life and you certainly don't get them when you're 20 and 22 years old.
Jeffrey Stern [00:50:48]:
Well said. When you reflect on really the last 10 years doing this, I'm sure a lot of challenges and mistakes along the way too. What, what is something you guys have come to understand or believe now about business and, and entrepreneurship that, you know, probably you didn't understand 10 years ago?
Finn Alexy [00:51:10]:
It's a great question. We haven't taken too much time for reflection. I gotta be honest. Yeah. We've just been barreling forward.
Jeffrey Stern [00:51:17]:
Onwards.
Finn Alexy [00:51:18]:
Yeah.
Bowen Alexy [00:51:19]:
Onwards. Yeah. Uh, you know, business is ever evolving. The world is ever changing and I guess the big term for us and the big way we do things always is adaptability. You have to be ready to go. You have to be ready to handle new challenges, new problems at almost any given day. You never know what's going to come down the pipe. So yeah, just being kind of ready to go is the mindset Finn and I have had for almost over 2 years now.
Bowen Alexy [00:51:46]:
And we've, a lot of ways Finn and I'll say we came up from school and we haven't really stopped We haven't really stopped. So it's the best kind of way to be. And we've just been like, just tackling one after another and going up the ladder, I guess, per se. But yeah, just being ready and, you know, just, yeah, just being anticipatory.
Finn Alexy [00:52:07]:
I don't have a good, like, in retrospect example for you about entrepreneurship because we're still like really very much in the fold of the day-to-day operations across multiple organizations.
Bowen Alexy [00:52:18]:
Yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:52:18]:
Yeah.
Finn Alexy [00:52:18]:
What I'm, what I'm kind of working on right now is the best example I can give where I'm really focused on not being the point of contact for multiple things. I'm trying to delegate more. I'm trying to organize more. I'm trying to set systems that are sustainable over the long term. So it doesn't just kind of bottleneck on me because these organizations have grown too much for that to be the case. And, you know, back in the day, especially when me and Beau first started a couple of years ago, We wanted to have that control and we wanted to be like, my name's on the box. It says Alexi Metals. Like it has to be perfect.
Finn Alexy [00:52:54]:
It has to be perfect. But you do have to learn that skill of delegation and being able to train others. And I think that's really where me and Beau are at in a lot of ways today.
Jeffrey Stern [00:53:05]:
Yeah, no, that's awesome. Noting that, and I appreciate sort of you guys are in it and you'll have time for reflection and introspection.
Bowen Alexy [00:53:15]:
Sure.
Jeffrey Stern [00:53:15]:
But when you do reflect on the journey and just what we've talked about so far, is there something that feels particularly important that we haven't talked about yet that you guys would want to talk about?
Finn Alexy [00:53:27]:
The only thing I can think of is maybe like another reason for why me and Beau have decided to build so publicly. That's also a pretty rare thing that people try to stay away from or they shy away from it in a lot of And Beau and I have taken the opposite approach there. Like, ingrained in the fabric of Beau Fin Capital is podcasting. And I could have never predicted that that would be something that me and Beau would end up doing, but we leveraged a podcast guest appearance to become angel investors. And then flash forward to today, we're still podcasting, we're still meeting with very successful people like you and having these types of conversations. We've also won numerous awards. We've been published in editorials. We were just recently on the COVID of a magazine, on a manufacturing magazine.
Finn Alexy [00:54:18]:
So it's just choosing to build publicly is also another risk that me and Beau have taken, but it's definitely accelerated our career paths. And the reason that we chose to build so publicly is other people could draw inspiration from it is the is the motivation there. And I really want me and Beau and our kind of career paths, because first of all, we're brothers. We have a great relationship. Very few people have that. But I really want us to show that and have us show the world basically that you're not just getting a times 2 multiple when you're working with brotherhood or family, it's times 10. It's exponential. And we've been able to kind of start on that path of documenting the journey from start to finish.
Finn Alexy [00:55:07]:
And in like a decade or so, me or Beau will be able to clip up this video and say, you know, I called it back in 2026 that Alexi Metals was going to be the most forward-thinking, most innovative brazing company in the world, that Beaufin Capital would have $10 million in assets under management, and both Beau and I would be Forbes 30 Under 30. And I want to clip this video right here in 10 years and share that with the world. And the reason I want to do that is so people can see that and then apply it to their goals and their dreams and their aspirations, because that's really what inspires me. And what inspires Beau is how do, how does somebody get over that hump and take that risk and then envision a better future for themselves and actually go out into the world and build it?
Jeffrey Stern [00:55:53]:
Yeah, I love that. I feel like when you, when you put it out to the universe, the universe can conspire to help you get there.
Bowen Alexy [00:56:00]:
For sure.
Jeffrey Stern [00:56:00]:
That's just kind of how it works.
Bowen Alexy [00:56:01]:
For sure. You attract the vibes you put out, you know?
Finn Alexy [00:56:04]:
We, we, yeah. Speaking of that, we heard, we first heard your name in October of 2025 from Jim Hovland. And the second I heard Jeffrey Stern Lay of the Land, I don't know what it was, but I knew that we were going to be on the Lay of the Land pod. And then In March of this year, we walked into a Movers and Shakers or Cleveland Professional 2030 Club event in downtown, like just a social club event. And the first person we talked to was Ashton Morris, and shout out Ashton, by the way. And she literally was just like, hey, what's your names? What do you do? Do you guys know Jeffrey Stern? And I'm like, matter of fact, I do. I've heard his name before. That led to this connection right here, and that led to this podcast right here.
Finn Alexy [00:56:49]:
So it's pretty crazy. And yeah, I do definitely believe that the universe has a way of making everything come true for you.
Jeffrey Stern [00:56:55]:
Yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:56:56]:
You guys have manifested it. It's very cool. Awesome. Well, I definitely appreciate you guys coming on and doing some introspection. It's really cool to see what you guys are building and I'm excited to follow along on your guys' journeys.
Bowen Alexy [00:57:15]:
Awesome. Thank you. Yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:57:16]:
So with that, I'll kind of hit you with our traditional closing question, which is for a hidden gem in Cleveland.
Bowen Alexy [00:57:23]:
Ooh.
Finn Alexy [00:57:24]:
Okay. Hidden gem is Julia's 1902 off the strip of downtown Willoughby on the east side of Cleveland here. This company was basically founded with the proceeds of the sale of Alexi Metals' current building. The former owner, Mike Nurendorfer, took Grayson's capital or our financed capital to ultimately found this business on the, all the way downtown strip of Willoughby there. The guy's name's Mike Nurendorfer. Great guy, pillar of the community. It's the only fine dining restaurant in the city of Willoughby. So a very good spot.
Finn Alexy [00:57:59]:
We put up all our guests there.
Jeffrey Stern [00:58:01]:
Yeah.
Finn Alexy [00:58:01]:
When people come to visit Alexi Metals from out of state or out of town, we We put 'em up there. It's like a bed and breakfast and high dining. Yeah.
Bowen Alexy [00:58:08]:
Yeah. Cool. Yeah, I was thinking about it. Oh God, maybe this morning I saw a post on Instagram. There's a really cool spot at the cemetery right off of Little Italy there. It's called the Wade Memorial Chapel and it's where parents got married and it's got like all marble floor, ceiling, wall, and it's got a nice big stainless glass window. It's an incredible spot to like take some pictures and to visit in the summertime when it's nice out. And I don't know why I was thinking about that this morning, but I'm like, that is a really cool spot.
Bowen Alexy [00:58:38]:
And that just popped right back into my noggin. So there it is.
Jeffrey Stern [00:58:42]:
Yeah, no, those are, are 2 wonderful hidden gems.
Bowen Alexy [00:58:44]:
Oh yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:58:45]:
Incredible. Um, well, Beau, Finn, I just, I want to thank you guys. I'm, I'm rooting for you and appreciate you guys coming on to, to share, share your story.
Bowen Alexy [00:58:53]:
For sure. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah. Thanks for having us.
Jeffrey Stern [00:58:57]:
Yeah, for sure. If folks had anything they wanted to follow up with you about, learn more, Where, where would you point them on the, on the internet?
Bowen Alexy [00:59:05]:
Sure.
Finn Alexy [00:59:06]:
LinkedIn's probably the best one.
Bowen Alexy [00:59:08]:
Yep. We're very active on LinkedIn, Instagram, or even email. It could be bowen@aleximetals.com or fin@aleximetals.com, all lowercase. We try our best to, you know, answer as many as we can. Sometimes they get lost, but yeah, we'll definitely answer if people have any questions. Right on.
Jeffrey Stern [00:59:26]:
Well, thanks again, guys.
Finn Alexy [00:59:27]:
Awesome.
Bowen Alexy [00:59:28]:
Thanks, Jeffrey. Have a good one.
Jeffrey Stern [00:59:33]:
That's all for this week. Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show. So if you have any feedback, please send over an email to jeffrey@layoftheland.fm or find us on Twitter @PodLayofTheLand or @SternFA. J-E-F-E. If you or someone you know would make a good guest for our show, please reach out as well and let us know. And if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or on your preferred podcast player. Your support goes a long way to help us spread the word and continue to bring the Cleveland founders and builders we love having on the show.
Jeffrey Stern [01:00:06]:
We'll be back here next week at the same time to map more of the land. The Lay of the Land podcast was developed in collaboration with The Up Company LLC. At the time of this recording, unless otherwise indicated, we do not own equity or other financial interests in the company which appear on the show. All opinions expressed by podcast participants are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of any entity which employs us. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

