When Andy Smith was growing up, he said he was ingrained with the idea that middle-class families were limited in the ways they could grow economically because of how investing of any kind was seen as out of reach. Families didn’t have the money to invest, and industry lingo confused and intimidated people. The list for why goes on.

“There is a rigged game being played,” he said.

That’s why Smith started The People’s First Company, a company dedicated to creating a low-price entry point for people looking to invest in a crowdfunded real estate portfolio worth $100 million.

Smith said The People’s First Company, or TPFC, is still in its “ground stage.” They have a team across the U.S. and a launching investor and partner in the real estate development industry in Fargo-based Christianson Cos. He said the company is “weeks away” from launching its portfolio.

To be a company for working class people, Smith said people can invest as little as $200 in the portfolio.

Upon the launch of the portfolio, he said the group will start acquiring real estate assets in the hospitality industry. Hospitality real estate was chosen because it was an industry Smith and others on the TPFC team had experience in.

“The reason we did that is because it’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s interesting and it’s understandable,” Smith said. “We just saw that as a knowledge base and expertise that we had in-house amongst the partners, founders and also the real estate development company that we partnered with, so it gave us an easy first focus point to start growing.”

The real estate assets are bought in cash, Smith said, because he wanted to avoid a portfolio that was leveraged in debt.

“If we can go out and acquire cash flow generating properties and assets, without debt, then [an] investment of $200 or $2 million is backed by a real property that’s holding value and generating cash flow,” he said. “Our thesis is that we’ll make money from giving everybody the opportunity. We’ll acquire property, the property can back the investment.”

Then, if an investor wants to leave after a year, they can liquidate. There’s no need for a decade-long hold, Smith said.

Critical help, Smith said, came from a new “nonprofit venture capital firm” BisonX. Elizabeth Duran, the director of development at BisonX said the group has been looking for businesses that need money to get off the ground or guidance for understanding the region.

Smith said BisonX provided TPFC with connections, which he said sped up the process of building the crowdfunded portfolio.

BisonX, Duran said, was meant to help entrepreneurs in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming because a BisonX founder felt that there were no venture capital groups in the region.

Both TPFC and BisonX are headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. Smith, who lives in Atlanta, said he chose Fargo because he spent years in the oil and gas industry and because they have a relationship with Christianson Cos.

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