Aleksandra Simanovsky left institutional finance to build Adige Advisory after seeing a gap no one else was bridging. Stepping out on her own meant learning quickly that credibility does not follow you just because your name does. Titles fade. Trust has to be rebuilt one conversation at a time. Her founder journey reflects what many entrepreneurs face after leaving corporate. Building a personal brand without a big logo, navigating early momentum, and choosing purpose over position. The lessons that follow give founders practical ways to earn trust, rebuild credibility, and create momentum after leaving corporate.
Key Takeaways:
1️⃣ Your Name Opens Doors. Your Business Earns Trust
Aleksandra learned quickly that past credibility helps start conversations but it does not close them. Founders still have to prove value again and again. Show your work, stay consistent, and let results speak louder than your resume.
2️⃣ Patience Is a Founder Skill You Must Build
Leaving corporate speed behind forces a mindset shift. Without an army or brand name pushing things forward, progress comes from steady follow up and long term thinking. Founders who last learn to move with intention instead of urgency.
3️⃣ Purpose Creates Momentum Money Cannot
What keeps Aleksandra moving is not deals or titles but impact. When founders align their work with real purpose, the right partners show up and growth compounds naturally. Purpose sharpens focus and gives the work staying power when things slow down.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Hello Chaos
01:09 The story behind Adige Advisory
03:52 Life inside institutional finance
06:59 Discovering private lending
08:14 Neighborhood impact through capital
10:25 Creating the first rated deal
12:08 The gap Adige Advisory fills
13:40 The myth of instant traction
16:38 Building trust beyond a corporate name
21:34 Using data and technology to scale
25:55 Learning patience as a founder
27:25 Finding community and support
31:32 The power of consistent follow up
32:47 Purpose and the next chapter
If you want to connect with Aleksandra or follow the work she is doing, you can find her here.
Website: https://adigeadvisory.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandra-simanovsky-3ab9bb1/
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/adige-advisory/
Jennifer Sutton (00:14)
Well, welcome to Hello Chaos, the show where founders, innovators, and chaotic minds get real, get unfiltered about the mess, the magic, and the mayhem of entrepreneurship. Today we are welcoming Aleksandra Simanovsky. She is the founder of Adige Advisory. And I'm excited to hear about the name. I want you to tell people what the name stands for, because I think it's really neat and profound.
So welcome to the show, Aleksandra. I appreciate you being on here.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (00:45)
Hi Jennifer, really pleasure, great connecting with you and I'm excited to be on and tell you more. just to start, Adige is a small river that pierces through the Italian Alps. And that's very much how I identify, know, small body of water that goes through mountains pierces through irrespective of what gets in the way. So that's part of the name.
Jennifer Sutton (00:50)
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (01:09)
The other part is Adige Asset Advisory. So AAA is the shorthand, which is funny because that's the nickname I got when I worked at my former employer. I was hired to get ratings for a new asset class that hasn't existed before. And for five years, I've been called AAA because that was the target. We were going to get AAA ratings.
Jennifer Sutton (01:13)
⁓ okay.
Okay.
So did you have to back in and go, what can I do to make AAA? Or did you just come out? Was it a,
Aleksandra Simanovsky (01:37)
That was exactly the thinking. That was
it. And then whatever fits that moniker, thank God for chat GPT, you gave me some really good options.
Jennifer Sutton (01:45)
gave you some answers.
So where are you calling out from?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (01:49)
So I'm based in the Northeast. I'm in New Jersey. Marlboro, so some people call it central New Jersey.
Jennifer Sutton (01:53)
very good. What part of New Jersey?
Yeah, my daughter
is in Red Bank.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (02:02)
that's just 20 minutes from us.
Jennifer Sutton (02:04)
I know it was like, I think that's like right around
there. I think I've driven through.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (02:08)
Probably, probably. So it's about 20 minutes to the shore, 20 minutes to Red Bank. I absolutely love it.
Jennifer Sutton (02:11)
Yeah, find that, yeah, everything,
there's all those little towns and it's like 20 minutes, 20 minutes, like a 20 minute drive. ⁓ So yeah, like what inspired you to even start your company in the first place? Like what got you here?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (02:17)
And you say that, get that all the time. But how did I get here, right?
Certainly. So I grew up and started in the world of institutional finance. So I started in early 2000s and grew up in a rating agency. So think big spreadsheets, large names. I started my career at Boody's rating agency. I looked at billion dollar deals, million, hundreds of million dollar deals and, you know, spreadsheets, numbers, presentations.
sat across the table from really big names. But it wasn't until 2019 when I started working in private lending or non-banking that I really saw people with access to money do incredible things. So I started my career in ratings. I did everything from residential mortgage-backed securities. Everybody remembers 2008, the big separate prices. Lived that, had a front row seat.
got to see a big change in the marketplace. After RMBS residential mortgages, did student loan financing. And after that in 2012, I ended up in commercial real estate. So again, huge names. After working at Moody's, I went to a new rating agency, Kroll. I must have been employee number 45 at the time, but it was my first chance to be part of an organization that was really building something.
Jennifer Sutton (03:37)
What?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (03:52)
that didn't exist before. And that's when I got my first taste of entrepreneurship, where I personally could make an impact. Whereas before I worked for Moody's, it was the big Titanic, moving at the slowest pace and going into the crisis of 2008, unable to avoid disaster because it was just already on the course. So 2011 and 12, when I went over to Kroll, it was a brand new organization, none of the legacy.
Jennifer Sutton (04:03)
Right.
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (04:19)
And my opinion actually mattered in a big way where it built a foundation that the company was building on. was an incredible feeling. But because of that, I had a chance to go work for Deutsche Bank, another huge name. The commercial real estate means that I worked on deals that really changed the landscape. So Hudson Yards projects, for example, was one of the projects I worked on. Or the Kalahari Resort in the Poconos in Ohio. Just really tremendous opportunities.
But it really felt so far out of touch. It felt like I can touch it because there was a lot of people with money that could do it. And I was just a cog in a big system, right? So in my private life, my husband and I would buy houses at the time. We actually bought our first personal residence and then an investment property in 2006. And with every bonus check I would get for my corporate career, we would
buy a house, renovate it, and rent it out. So in my private life, I had a chance of entrepreneurship, but not in the same way. So 2019, I was approached by a company called Tora Capital that was really revolutionary in the way that it provided the institutional mindset of a big company thinking, but it provided money to non-bank lenders. And
Jennifer Sutton (05:19)
Yeah.
Okay.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (05:36)
At the time,
I didn't realize that that market existed. So backtrack to my story of buying houses, renovating them, all of that was done with my personal cash. It turns out that there's a big market of private lenders or some of them call them hard money lenders, non-bank lenders. You know, but that has a really negative connotation. You know, these aren't really people that go, you know, knock out your kneecaps. They're
Jennifer Sutton (05:43)
Right. Wow.
That's what I was saying, it's like isn't that the hard money lenders? Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (06:04)
Some of them are, you know, just people pooling money together, family offices, pulling money together and giving you access like you wouldn't have before. And so in 2019, when I joined the Twerk organization, it was an entrepreneurial firm in the sense that they connected with hundreds of these private lenders across the U.S. They went to them and they said, if you could make loans that somewhat look similar, that have a consistent set of guidelines, consistent set of risks, for example,
The borrower needs to have a FIPO score of at least 650 or the property value needs to be at least 20 % or higher than what we're going to lend you. So similar concept that what Fanny and Freddie Mac has done for the residential market. We will be able to lend you money. Not only will we be able to lend you money, but you're lending your money already. You don't need to wait for that borrower to pay you back. Instead,
Jennifer Sutton (06:48)
Okay?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (06:59)
We're going to buy that loan from you so that you have the money again to lend it again. So what they did is they've aggregated billions in dollars in loans across the US from many different private lenders. But the concept of financing it in the big institutional world. So two things that they achieved since 2019 is they normalized some of the lending patterns. For example, there were lenders in California.
that were lending without consideration for appraisals. At the same time, there were lenders in New York, they were lending without the concept of a credit score. So they've normalized the process and with that.
Jennifer Sutton (07:32)
Right.
Right. Yeah, which just destroyed
melted our, our, our, our whatever our infrastructure.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (07:47)
somewhat it disrupted it, right? So I'll tell you a really great story that made it really come to life for me. When big organizations, big banks get access to money and they buy houses, think BlackRock, right? They buy a ton of houses because they could afford it. And then they change the landscape, right? In 2008, when the market failed, people weren't able to buy a lot of these houses. So banks had to come in and rescue them.
Jennifer Sutton (07:51)
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (08:14)
On the other hand, I met with a single borrower, young guy, maybe in his 20s, that was buying houses in Newark, New Jersey, which is a how do I say this, blighted area of New Jersey. But he single-handedly transformed neighborhoods because he would buy rundown, infested houses that families would not consider living in. He came in.
Jennifer Sutton (08:31)
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (08:44)
with money from private lenders, fixed it up. Not only that, he hired local blue collar workers, gave them an opportunity to make money, fixed up these houses that now welcomed families. And he did the same thing, four or five houses on the same block, which means that those houses are available for families to live in and not necessarily be the crack houses they were before he got involved. So that's what private.
Jennifer Sutton (09:02)
Yeah.
Right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (09:13)
That's what private money is able to do. Where banks don't have a program that allows people to borrow for a year and then fix it up and then refinance it or sell the house. Instead, he had to go.
Jennifer Sutton (09:22)
Right? Like neighborhood, yeah.
Neighborhood reinvestment, neighborhood, kind of beautification. Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (09:27)
That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. And you don't have big organization doing it. You have small entrepreneurs, you have small business people with access to that kind of money really changed the landscape. So that was an inspirational part of my journey. And I was a TORC from 2019 to 2024. And part of my mission at TORC was to get AAA ratings, the moniker to my company.
Jennifer Sutton (09:47)
Okay.
I'm
Aleksandra Simanovsky (09:55)
It was a labor of love. took five years, but what happened is between 2019 and 2024, I worked with rating agencies, kind of my former people, right? Because I knew their language. I knew what they were looking for. And at the same time, I understood the business that they didn't at the time. So I bridged the gap. I explained to them, I taught them about this market. And in February of 2024, they rated the first ever deal.
Jennifer Sutton (10:06)
Great.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (10:25)
in the market. So what that did is the deal is a package of loans that are backed by the short term loans that finance fix and flip properties. And so when that was financed for the first time, and it was rated, it means that previously when there were maybe 2030 investors that would buy on rated bonds, that universe exploded to over 100 because now insurance companies that require ratings could buy these bonds.
Jennifer Sutton (10:33)
Right.
Okay.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (10:53)
money managers, the amount of investors that are now able to access this market and buy these bonds has exploded, which means that ton of institutional capital was flowing in the hands of private lenders, not bank lenders. And to me, it opened up a huge universe that hasn't existed before, which was my career highlight for sure, and I'm absolutely grateful.
Jennifer Sutton (11:01)
Okay.
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (11:18)
while I
was in Torreco to make this happen and make that impact on the industry.
Jennifer Sutton (11:23)
So how has that shaped what you do now in Adige Advisory? Is that the space that you're in? Is that like a gap that you found that you're like, ooh, I can enter here and bring my skill sets and the gifts that I've accumulated over the last two decades into it? Okay.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (11:33)
That is exactly right.
That's exactly it, because
the amount of money flowing into this residential transitional loan or fix and flip space was astronomical. And the private lenders that are not used to dealing with institutional capital providers couldn't catch it fast enough. Just to give you an example, so the deal I worked on while I was a TORAC would take no more than a month to package the deal and sell it to bond investors.
Jennifer Sutton (11:57)
Right? Okay.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (12:08)
In talking to market participants and talking to the bankers that work on the deals and talking to the lawyers, the council and accountants, it took new private lenders or issuers months, know, six months is a number that kept coming up often. And I just thought if I took that long in my job, I mean, my job would be given to plant. Just so much inefficiency, so much.
Jennifer Sutton (12:31)
Right?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (12:34)
excess money and time that was wasted in order to learn the market because these private non-bank lenders, they're great at what they do. They're operators, they're entrepreneurs of their own right. But now overnight, they would have to learn to be capital markets experts, Wall Street experts. And that's not the DNA they come from. But I did. So I thought that I could build Adagé to be that wedge to that middle expediter that allows them to
Jennifer Sutton (12:51)
⁓ gotcha.
I was like, okay, so you're kind
of that, you come in there and go, yeah, the middle man, like you said, the expediter to, yeah, make it more efficient, faster.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (13:10)
That's exactly right. So I said. That's exactly that's exactly right. That's entirely it.
Jennifer Sutton (13:11)
River, River Through the Rock.
So you came from big, big corporation to then now finding this gap and starting your own business. What did you find the biggest surprise to you, whether it's a myth of owning your own business or maybe it was an aha moment? Did you experience any of that?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (13:40)
Absolutely. So I thought I left my corporate world having a ton of confidence. I thought I had a Rolodex that's filled with potential clients. And after the safety net of a corporate job was gone, I realized very quickly that the deals that I expected were not coming in as fast. And it's funny. So I had the confidence thinking they would hire me right away. Meanwhile, the lenders
Jennifer Sutton (13:54)
Ha
Aleksandra Simanovsky (14:07)
had a lot of confidence thinking they could do it on their own without hiring me. Which, you know, that big ego of I can and granted a lot of the folks that I thought that would hire me right away, they'll get to the finish line, but it took them over a year to get there.
Jennifer Sutton (14:10)
Right, yeah.
It's until people
feel that pain, they don't know. Yeah. And sometimes they have to feel it over and over and over again to realize that there's, there might be a better way.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (14:26)
Absolutely, absolutely.
You know, absolutely embraced let them for the time being. think it's a matter of time and it's funny. I've actually had to pivot quite a bit as I came out thinking I got this. There's a huge demand. There's this.
Jennifer Sutton (14:39)
Yeah.
Okay.
Right, if I build it, they'll
come, you know. And it's funny, know, I kinda had that similar when I left a large agency, you know, working on big brand, I thought, I see a gap, there's a complete solution. I did, you know, I polled a bunch of chief marketing officers and VPs of marketing, and I was like, if I build a marketing agency and design it this, you know, in this model, yes, like you've hit a sore spot.
But it's interesting when you come out on your own, even personal reputation, there becomes a, ooh, I can't hire you until you're more established because I know you, but your company isn't known. And I can't go take the risk to my board of advisors or my executive team.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (15:30)
That's exactly right.
Jennifer Sutton (15:36)
until you have, you you've been in business for two or three years and I'm going, but I've, you know, I've worked with you for two decades. Yeah. so it was, you know, the whole building of trust and credibility beyond my name and my rep, you know, I had to like build the brand of the company and, and the collection of the team, the expertise to build that credibility and trust to get in the door.
And so, but yeah, that was a big kind of, that was a surprise to me of, all right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (16:08)
Yeah, Jennifer, you're I'm entirely
aligned with you. I know exactly where you come from because I'm used to coming from the corporate world. It was enough for me to just call and say, I'm calling from Deutsche Bank. Doors open. I have an army behind me. I'm calling and things just get done. And now it's just me. So I definitely had to learn to be a lot more patient. Each of those conversations take longer than they would had I been established. But I'll tell you at the same time.
Jennifer Sutton (16:18)
Right. Right. Right.
Great.
Right.
That's right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (16:38)
the network I've built before I came out on my own was incredibly instrumental. In fact, I kind of kicked myself for not taking advantage of that in a bigger way. almost to the fact.
Jennifer Sutton (16:43)
Yeah.
How is that?
what, when you talk about, what would you have done?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (16:52)
Definitely. So being in a corporate world, you go to conferences, for example, you represent the company. Speaking to any other people, you are the company, you're not an individual. ⁓ At the same time, you're still building relationships, but it's very hard to distinguish your identity from the company that you work for, especially if you're working there for a long time. At the same time, I really wish that I built rapport on my own as opposed to...
Jennifer Sutton (17:01)
Right.
⁓ yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (17:16)
you know, having both the company and myself in mind, right? So building a reputation, building a brand, not only for the organization, but also for myself.
Jennifer Sutton (17:17)
Yeah.
but
your own, what we call like an executive style guide, your own personal brand is so important. That was a lessons learned for me too of I was so comfortable under, I think I had more confidence and more courage when you're representing another brand out there networking and all that and it was such a weird
Aleksandra Simanovsky (17:28)
Right.
Jennifer Sutton (17:47)
vulnerability, don't know, lack of confidence, whether it's called, you know, imposter syndrome. When I came out on my own, it took me a couple of years, like, why am I so shy and not as confident? I'm feeling like, I feel like I can't be bold like I was, you know, in years past. And it's been a ha-ha for me over the last like four or five years of I had to really
what I call, you know, we build brands for, you know, and build brand guidelines for companies. I started doing it for myself as like, here's an executive style guide, your personal style guide, and doing it for the executives that we work with. Because I started to notice the same thing you did of, you could see people going, I have so much more to offer, how do I show up more authentically and confidently in my office work?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (18:26)
That's tremendous.
Jennifer Sutton (18:38)
environment and the corporate environment so I get seen and noticed and promoted? Or if I leave, how do I then show up and be able to stand more firmly in my own self?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (18:52)
I would love an access to that because that sounds tremendous and would have been really helpful. It's just one of those things that you pick up as you go and if there's a shortcut, embrace it wholeheartedly.
Jennifer Sutton (18:55)
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's
like shout out to the, because it, it's like those were little mini ahas that yeah, it was, took over a decade for me to like wake up and go kind of, and we started, know, when you kind of realize it for yourself, like you're kind of going through, you start recognizing it in other people. Like we would sit with founders and you would hear like the founders feeling lost of after we developed the brand and they're like, well, wait a minute.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (19:13)
Wow.
Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Sutton (19:32)
That's now, now how do I show up differently than just the brand? And, yeah, and it's like, okay, well, you know, the brand is, this is their voice and tone. It represents a much bigger, you know, collection of feelings and emotions and experiences that you want people to relate to and connect with. But you're not the brand. You might have built it.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (19:37)
Interesting. Full circle.
Jennifer Sutton (19:58)
You've influenced it and you help lead in that cult, know, build that culture, lead that culture. But you're also very, you at some point you're gonna, you need to kind of go in parallel lines, but how does that, you know, how does that work? What is that voice? Where does it show up in aligned and where is it not aligned?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (20:11)
That makes sense. I see that.
Jennifer Sutton (20:20)
Yeah, so we've helped founders even help push, especially in new categories. Like if you're in a business where you founded something and it's like you're shaking up the category, you might need the founder's voice to be that rogue pushing and having it be authentically loud ⁓ and kind of disruptor.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (20:41)
Yeah, no.
Jennifer Sutton (20:43)
but then the brand itself, the company brand maybe can't. Maybe it's gotta be more conservative, play it safe, but let the founder lead it so that it paves the way for the company to kind of set into. So, we've seen it, ⁓ but I don't think I would have identified it if I hadn't gone through that same pain myself.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (20:51)
Interesting.
Interesting.
That makes sense. makes sense. But I'll tell
you, so, you know, being confident coming out, thinking I would have all these clients to help navigate this new world that didn't exist before, I've learned to pivot as well. So using the network, at least the connections that I've built have been incredibly helpful in bridging the gap and helping me connect with other organizations because being in the industry, I've seen it from a perspective that not many, for example, not bank lenders might have seen it.
Jennifer Sutton (21:14)
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (21:34)
So interestingly enough, I partnered with a technology provider and have through access to their data have created a dashboard of analytics that is now helpful and useful to not only the non-bank lenders, but also the capital markets that's putting money into the space, meaning the new money, the new investors into this short-term market and real estate, short-term financing market and real estate.
They're interested in knowing how, for example, a loan in California will perform relative to a loan in New York. So having partnered with a technology provider that, by the way, has had decades of experience in the space is really knowledgeable in this specific sector. ⁓ Having access to their technology, their information, and making that available to the capital providers has broadened my network, which is wonderful that I didn't see initially.
Jennifer Sutton (22:14)
Right.
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (22:25)
Another
one is this new AI innovation. For example, I've partnered as an ambassador to a company that's creating AI agents and this is really cool. This is basically you know everybody's embraced chat to PT which is a computer communicator. And this is a company that offers a human interaction of voice that's generated by computer which you would never be able to tell or very hard to tell that basically talks to you and a really.
Jennifer Sutton (22:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (22:52)
in any accent you want to, for example, a lot of people that make loans and a lot of private lenders that make loans, they hire offshore employees to collect information. So if you've ever gotten a mortgage, for example, you're being told to give them your driver's license, your ID, your bank information, your budget for how you're going to renovate the house. And then you have people chasing down this information. And, you know,
Jennifer Sutton (22:58)
Right?
Right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (23:18)
there's sometimes a language barrier, there's sometimes an educational barrier, if they're working offshore. AI doesn't have the same hurdles, AI can have more friendly access. For example, if you're out of Texas, you could have a ⁓ approachable. It does. not only that, similar to talking to JetGBT or Gemini or whatever AI tool people are using, it gives you human responses that kind of
Jennifer Sutton (23:24)
Right.
Also it like molds based on the region. ⁓ my gosh.
Right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (23:46)
Parsis trusa is an example. There was one that was chasing down a budget for a rehabilitation of a house, a renovation of a house. And I told the computer, said, well, I don't even know what a budget is or what it's supposed to look like. So then the computer told me that this is something you get from your general contractor. And here's the different sections that you usually have. And here's, for example, a cost for windows. And it just gives you so much more than any human that you could have hired would have done it.
Jennifer Sutton (23:58)
Right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (24:12)
Which is tremendous because as private lenders grow, as they now have money coming in from institutional space, and they're now accessing more and looking for ways to be more efficient, this is a way for them to scale without having to hire people, without having to throw money at the problem, and just scaling with technology. So that's given me access to, again, incredible opportunities that I wouldn't have otherwise.
Jennifer Sutton (24:24)
Yeah.
Like, hat.
Right.
Right.
That's fantastic. Yeah, because we work with different financial institutions and there are some that are very obviously AI and bot, which disrupts, makes people not trust, they back away, they get fearful. But that's interesting if the technology is advancing so it feels more human.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (24:48)
Mm-hmm.
Well, I'll tell you, I certainly see the approach of human touch and specialization, especially as you're putting big money on the line, millions of dollars, you don't want it to be automated. At the same time, there are low-hanging crude that you don't necessarily need to have a touch point, similar to In-N-Out Burger, right? So In-N-Out versus McDonald's, right? In-N-Out is very personable, it's still old technology, but they do have...
Jennifer Sutton (25:06)
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (25:26)
cashless registers, they still embrace a component that's electronic. So what I mean is there's a market for both in this space. And to the extent people, you have two similar companies that embrace technology and one does not, I think it becomes a real distinguishing factor in companies that are growing.
Jennifer Sutton (25:28)
Right.
Yeah, I completely agree. So in this process of your journey, what have you really learned more about yourself or what has surprised you about yourself?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (25:55)
And the ability to be more patient. Having worked in large organizations with armies behind me, things are done. Things are done right now. It's entirely in my shoulders on my head. I have to wear all the hats. So I have learned to be more patient. Giving myself more grace and you know.
Jennifer Sutton (26:03)
Yeah.
giving yourself more grace.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (26:21)
Even though I came into this and I've only started the company in October. So we're just approaching the one year mark. That's right. That's right. But I have to say that I've been incredibly blessed with the people that have been around me with my network, because without actual advertising, it's really the connections where I meet one person and they introduced me to another person. And that leads to three more relationships.
Jennifer Sutton (26:26)
Wow, you're almost like a one year. That's fantastic. Yeah.
That's right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (26:48)
And that's been the most rewarding part of this all. It's funny to...
Jennifer Sutton (26:50)
⁓ I was gonna ask you,
yeah, what is that the biggest reward is the people?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (26:56)
It absolutely is. It's really at the end of the day, the money will come with all of these factors, but that rewarding opportunity to help something, to have an impact on something is incredible. And that's exactly the feeling that I chase. And so just one small component. So, you know, I met a woman in private learning and now this is a world that is 80 % dominated by men, which is the world.
Jennifer Sutton (27:02)
Mm-hmm.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (27:25)
the fish tank, I've learned to swim in. But meeting this one woman and joining an organization called Women in Private Lending has been a tremendous platform that gives me a voice without having a platform of a company that existed for decades. And through that, I've been able to reach companies, have a voice on panels, have a group that just has my best intentions in mind.
Jennifer Sutton (27:27)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (27:53)
without having to have a corporate structure, which has been incredible. And that's just one connection that led to so many.
Jennifer Sutton (27:53)
Right.
Hmm.
Yeah, is. It's right. We have to build our own kind of community, our own circle of support when we're like, can't stress that enough, like find a community, find your people, get your cheerleaders. Who is your biggest cheerleader?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (28:06)
Absolutely.
That's right. That's right.
you know, to be honest, it's actually initially been the company that I worked for, which is not something I expected at all. ⁓ so being part of that company, I've really transformed the industry. Having that institutional recognition of a space that wasn't there before has really done tremendous things for the company. And like any organization.
Jennifer Sutton (28:21)
Really? That has been, wow, that's so great.
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (28:41)
A lot of them take it as their win, but I really had an opportunity to be put on a platform along with them of this one. So just to give an example, in April, the company won an award. It's funny. It's sort of like the Grammys in structured finance world. It's held in the city in a marble filled room. exactly. It's, you know, a couple of thousand dollars per plate. It's really fantastic. And even though I was no longer part of the organization.
Jennifer Sutton (28:55)
Yeah.
Everyone wears black tie.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (29:10)
Having been welcomed and been asked to join them as a guest, having the opportunity to join them on stage has been an incredible platform and I couldn't be more grateful.
Jennifer Sutton (29:21)
That's a great story, because that doesn't happen. What ⁓ a win.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (29:24)
It doesn't and that is exactly why knowing and having
a frame of reference is so helpful.
Jennifer Sutton (29:30)
Yeah. So what would listeners be if it's not on your resume, it's not LinkedIn or anything, but is there something that would surprise or people would find really interesting about you that's, again, that's not on your professional bio?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (29:47)
So funny enough, I'm an adrenaline junkie. I kind of chase that fast pace world, which is funny. So hello chaos is yes, that's exactly where I was going. So nobody probably guesses it, but my husband and I just ever since we've been together have done things like paragliding and yeah, jumping out of a road airplane.
Jennifer Sutton (29:54)
Are you a plane jumper?
Yeah, tell me the list.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (30:11)
and flying helicopters, small planes. It's just been, you know, I always say that rush, which is probably why I've been seeking this entrepreneurial journey because it is so adrenaline inducing when it works. And it just such an incredible kind of feeling. That's exactly right. That is exactly right. And you know.
Jennifer Sutton (30:14)
Wow.
Yeah.
It is like jumping out of a plane. That's what it feels like when you start a business.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (30:36)
letting go of that parachute and just figuring out what happens. And it's funny. So I've learned to be more patient and while I've had to pivot around while partnering with industry leaders, I've also been able to commit and really help organizations. So achieving what I've actually set out to do. it's interesting. So the companies that I have partnered with have been able to get to a finish line within two months, as opposed to the six months that I've heard others navigated through.
Jennifer Sutton (30:47)
Right.
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (31:04)
At the same time, they've saved hundreds of thousands of dollars because of access to the network that I've had building since the time I've joined. it's, you you're absolutely right. should.
Jennifer Sutton (31:10)
Wow.
Write those case studies down. Write them down. Share them.
So what's the best piece of advice that you've received or that you've taken to heart and or maybe it's advice that you would give because it's lessons learned from you that you would give to other founders?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (31:32)
Sure. So it's interesting. So my husband is an entrepreneur. He owns a Italian restaurant. And when I went into this thinking I would just achieve it day one, he just said, make a list because you have one conversation and it seems like it's going to go so far. And they tend to fizzle unless you are the cheerleader and you follow through on the promises. Right. A lot of people don't necessarily have your interest in mind and you have to focus on the fact that it's you driving your success.
Jennifer Sutton (31:53)
Yeah.
Right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (32:02)
So he suggested track each conversation, revisit it on a monthly basis just to see where each of those conversations have gone. Because unless you're the one that's pushing and cheerleading each of those efforts, it cannot come from the other end. It cannot come from a team. It's entirely you. So that's really helped and really.
Jennifer Sutton (32:03)
No,
Yeah.
Right.
That is such
a good lesson. think we all need to, that we think after the initial conversation, meeting, someone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you'll send a follow-up and then you're like, okay, well, I haven't heard back from them. I think we forget that we, other people get busy, we become less top of mind. So how do we keep doing those reminders, whether it's weekly or monthly, because you're right, you're, you know.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (32:42)
Exactly.
Jennifer Sutton (32:46)
You have to be your own cheerleader and your own ⁓ navigator of those. So if you had to sum up your journey in just one word, what word would you use?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (32:47)
That's right.
That's right.
It's purpose. It's purpose. It's really given me purpose because I'm no longer serving a bigger organization. It's really my internal purpose that drives me. So it's certainly for purpose. That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
Jennifer Sutton (32:59)
Purpose. Okay.
⁓
It's bringing you joy. Yeah. So
if you have to look to the next chapter, know, you're year one. What's the next chapter in your journey? What word defines that? Or what word do you want to define it? Impactful. Okay. All right.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (33:23)
Impactful, impactful. I want to
make a difference and we're all put on this earth to do something, so I definitely want to have an impact.
Jennifer Sutton (33:32)
That's right. Use our gifts for purpose. ⁓ So if we meet a year from now, next October, September, October, you're at one year, other than being two years, what will we be celebrating? What when would we be celebrating in a year?
Aleksandra Simanovsky (33:35)
That's right.
I'd say it's growth for my partners. It's growth alongside my partners. Their success is my success. My incredible network and the ability to help the private lending space that's so fragmented. A lot of these family offices, for example, are isolated on an island. While they're successful on their own, having access to the network that I could build just makes everybody that much better. So I think celebrating the success of my partners would be where I'd be.
Jennifer Sutton (34:12)
Yeah.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (34:21)
in two years.
Jennifer Sutton (34:21)
Let's do
it. Let's do it. We're manifesting that right now. love, Alexander, thank you so much for coming on the show and telling us your story. And I appreciate you chatting with us. Before we go, where can people get ahold of you, connect with you, support what you're doing? How, you know, give them all your stuff.
Aleksandra Simanovsky (34:25)
Love it. Yes. I'm embracing it.
Thank
Sure. So the best way to reach me is by email. It's Aleksandra at adigeadvisory.com which is linked to the site here. The other place to find me. Thank you. And the other place to find me is LinkedIn. Pretty active, have a tremendous community, really grateful to them. And it's Aleksandra Simanovsky and love to connect and give back.
Jennifer Sutton (34:51)
That's right. We will link it all.
Perfect,
perfect. Well, we will share this wonderful episode and your story. But that's a wrap on today's chaos. The journey doesn't stop here though. If you did find yourself nodding along or maybe want to get to know Aleksandra and what she's doing and how she, you know, her community can support what you're doing. Make sure to subscribe, share and give us a five star review on Spotify.
Or you can dig deeper into founder resources or tools and more episodes over at orangewip.com. That is orangewip.com. That W-I-P is for work in progress, because that's what we all are. Until next time, stay curious and stay scrappy. And we will see you again next week.