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Through its secure business environment, Opportunity Network breaks down barriers to trade and investment with its anonymous one-stop solution for vetted executives and investors to connect with reliable counterparts for all their commercial, fundraising, investing and M&A needs. Members are invited only through reputable financial institutions that ensure the reliability of the members.
Founded by CEO Brian Pallas while at Columbia Business School, his initial mission was to help his father expand the family business in Milan. Pallas started a newsletter anonymously connecting his fellow MBA Family Business Club members with each other’s actionable business opportunities. Flash forward to today, Opportunity Network has experienced astounding growth in just seven years.
According to the platform, the network currently hosts 45,000+ C-level executives across 130+ countries and 100+ industries, with headquarters in Barcelona, London and New York and boasts an estimated deal flow of $400Bn, and 9,000 live deals stretching from the United States to Europe, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia and Latin America. Awarded the Seal of Excellence by the European Commission in 2019, members include Banco Sabadell, BBVA, CaixaBank, BCG, YPO, the London Stock Exchange, Intesa Sanpaolo and VISA.
I connected with Pallas via email to learn more about a variety of topics, including Opportunity Network’s new partnership with Sabadell, opportunities for growth post-pandemic, best post/pandemic team engagement practices, investment strategies, job search advice and our shared neighborhood in Barcelona. Our interview follows.
EKMH: Explain what you do versus what people think you do.
Brian Pallas: We enable CEOs to do business with peers who are reliable and like-minded. CEOs enter the platform, post business opportunities and are contacted by peers that want to work with them. Often people mistake us for a middleman, but we really don’t enter their negotiations. We focus on creating a curated environment where everyone is reliable; it’s quick and easy to find a reliable counterpart for any transaction.
We are not a LinkedIn or a Facebook, where anyone can contact you to pitch you on something, we’re more like an Amazon or an AliBaba where the cornerstone is the business opportunity. CEOs only get contacted by people who are interested in a specific deal they have published.
EKMH: Please clarify deal flow stat (M&A? Sales transactions? Investments?). How did you get to this point so quickly, what draws clients to your network and what’s next for the company?
Brian Pallas: Members can pursue any type of transaction on our platform, so we do see both trade and investment opportunities. Our main categories are:
- Buy and sell products and services
- Buy and sell companies
- Buy and sell properties
- Raise and invest capital
We grew very fast by partnering with banks such as Banco Sabadell, when each bank invites its best commercial banking clients to join Opportunity Network. We enabled our 75+ partners to pool all their best clients into a single network, enabling them to do business with reliable counterparts in 130+ countries.
EKMH: What specific initiatives will Opportunity Network’s new partnership with Banco Sabadell launch to break down trade barriers and better facilitate global business transactions and also tackle the expected decline in Spain’s economic activity?
Brian Pallas: Our partnership with Banco Sabadell is primarily focused on three areas to facilitate global business transactions for the bank’s clients:
1. Mastery in using digital tools – we are working with the bank to educate, support and motivate clients to use Opportunity Network, in order to grow their business. We do that through client webinars, simple “how to” materials and swift Q&A with clients.
2. Visibility of Spanish opportunities – we are working with clients, via our platform and Account Managers, to support them in showcasing their products or services in a concise, professional and marketable manner.
3. Engagement with bank specialists – we work with international trade specialists, via training and ongoing support, to prepare and empower them to support their clients not only with financial products and services, but also with tools to help them find suppliers, buyers and investors. Banco Sabadell wants to be a partner to its clients in this difficult time, and sees Opportunity Network as the key offering in this journey.
EKMH: What invaluable lessons have you learned from working with your family business, founding Opportunity Network and engaging with international clients? How have these past experiences, risks and/or failures helped you become a more effective leader?
Brian Pallas: What really makes or breaks it in this business is the relationship of trust you create with your colleagues and with your partners. In the seven years running this business, we can proudly say that our word is our bond and we never took back any promise we made – no matter the cost. We’re building a network that we hope will help millions of companies for the decades to come, a pristine track record is key.
Two years ago we started running a quarterly anonymous survey to all the people working at Opportunity Network – part time, full time, contractors, interns. We asked only three simple YES/NO questions. They can be summarized as follows: Do you believe we will manage to achieve our purpose?; Do you believe everyone is doing their best to live according to our values?; and Would you recommend your best friend to become an Opportunity Network employee, client AND supplier? For eight quarters in a row we received a participation rate of 100% and more than 90% of people answering yes to all three questions – the last quarter topping that with 96% of people responding yes to all three questions.
EKMH: What techniques have you adopted in your daily schedule to ensure your global teams’ connectivity, collaboration and productivity during the pandemic? What practices proved invaluable for not only communicating well, but also effectively troubleshooting and problem solving?
Brian Pallas: Adapting to the pandemic has been quick for us, as there is almost no task that requires being performed in person. One of the reasons why we believe the shift has been so successful is due to the culture we built over the years and the strong bonds among our people. Having built that in person really allowed us to endure the months of the pandemic.
That said, starting July 2020 we allowed people who wanted to go to the office to work from there, and despite not setting any rules yet, almost half of our people started working again in person somewhat regularly. Every month, we also hold a townhall for one hour with the whole company participating, during which we give a summary of how things are going and anyone can ask anything. In seven years we still have not gotten a question we were not willing to answer. We’re also extremely transparent as a company: all decisions are taken in plain sight and every colleague has access to all the key numbers: from our revenues, to our profits, to our cash balance. We feel these things help foster an atmosphere of trust and accountability.
EKMH: How has your own investment strategy evolved from vetting clients and fomenting deals?
Brian Pallas: Well, the investment strategy of founders is always very much skewed towards their own company: the majority of our eggs are in one basket.
The high number of CEOs in this situation inspired the launch of a separate company called CEO: Collective Equity Ownership, where CEOs can pool their equity with peers to further balance their personal portfolio.
EKMH: With fairs, conferences and events all canceled, what advice do you have for international graduates who are interviewing and networking online? How can professionals establish meaningful and trustworthy connections digitally?
Brian Pallas: In the last month we’re seeing the job market heating again, with a lot of demand for new people. This is clearly a great time for international graduates to enter the job market.
My recommendation is to show in your application that you researched the company and show you really care about them specifically. You’ll send less applications, but your success rate will more than compensate for the lost volume.
EKMH: And finally, international travel vacations are soon becoming a possibility -- which locations are on your “Must Visit” list, which books will you bring with you and which podcasts will you download?
Brian Pallas: Living in Barcelona really helps always feeling on vacation, but I will keep traveling often to see my wife in New York and my parents in Milan – especially now that I just managed to get vaccinated. I’m hearing a lot of friends going to Mexico and I’ve never been, something I’d love to fix.
When it comes to books, I highly recommend Scale from Geoffrey West (hint: is not about scaling companies!), if you haven’t read it yet Bad Blood from John Carreyrou, and if you happen to speak Italian, definitely Eden or Carnivori from Franci Conforti.
*Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this series are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
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