“I try to see the potential in people, rather than just focusing on their history and background. That has helped me build a world-class group from disparate backgrounds, rather than an assembly of people with matching resumes.”
Marin Aleksov is the founder and CEO of Rosland Capital, a precious metal asset firm based in Los Angeles, California. With more than twenty years of experience in the precious metals industry, Marin started Rosland Capital in 2008–the company has now grown to approximately seventy people.
Marin grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, moving to the United States as part of a study abroad program in 1993. He began his career in the precious metals industry at Merit Financial where he served as Comptroller before joining Lear Capital in 1999. Marin held the position of Vice President, Manager of Sales for nine years before leaving to start his own company in 2008. Over the years, Marin has led the international expansion of Rosland Capital, opening offices in Hong Kong, London, and Germany.
In addition to his position as CEO of Rosland Capital, Marin has made numerous appearances in news publications and television to discuss gold markets, including TheStreet, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, and more. Marin is also a published author, co-writing the Rosland Capital Guide to Gold with John Watson in 2015.
Marin has helped create philanthropic coin partnerships as well. In 2014, Rosland Capital donated $1 for every Peace Dollar sold in a special promotion, raising over $12,000 for the Red Cross, serving more than 90,000 people in Los Angeles. Marin has also supported the Fisher House Foundation and Canada’s Valour Place through a custom coin design created by the Royal Canadian Mint. The proceeds from coin sales directly benefited both organizations which provide accommodations for military and veteran families during hospital care for their loved ones.
Other philanthropical pursuits include partnering with organizations like United Way New Directions for Veterans, through their “Walk for Warriors”, and OPCC in Santa Monica. Marin has also participated in the Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes event, showing support for active-duty troops, veterans, and military families. In 2017, Rosland Capital sponsored the 18th Annual Bruin Run/Walk where Marin and other Rosland Capital employees joined a 5K walk to raise money for the Chase Child Life Program at the UCLA Children’s Hospital. Through Rosland Capital, Marin worked with UCLA to create a dedicated fund for veterans at the Veteran’s Resource Office of UCLA. Marin has also participated in community fundraising events for the United Way to combat homelessness in the LA area.
In 2016, Rosland Capital was named the official distributor of the Formula 1® Coin Collection. Rosland Capital offers a gold and silver collection that celebrates the FIA Formula One World Championship, the most prestigious motor racing event in the world. Marin reacted to the partnership, stating, “With this project we bring together the allure of gold and the global popularity of Formula One – it’s the perfect combination.” Rosland Capital partnered with Formula 1 again in 2017, when Marin presented the new Ayrton Senna gold and silver coin collection to Bianca Senna, which was designed in collaboration with the Ayrton Senna Institute to honor Ayrton Senna’s memory on the 30th anniversary of his first of six wins at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Where did the idea for Rosland Capital come from?
I realized I was using my talents to make someone else rich, so I stopped doing that.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I get in around 7 am so I’m there to help and advise our team, particularly the new hires who are just finding their feet. My door is always open, of course, but I find it most productive to get out of my office to be with the salespeople, so I understand the ebb and flow of the market.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I realize that I can’t do everything, and that leaning on the talented people who work at Rosland is the quickest way to bring the ideas in my head into the real world.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Being in the precious metals business, I’m fascinated by digital currencies like Bitcoin. In many ways they’re the exact polar opposite of what we sell here at Rosland, and opposites attract, don’t they?
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I play tennis and play it hard, four times a week. The focus it gives me clears my head of all the detritus that builds up in the business week, and lets me see what matters.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I’d tell my younger self to trust himself and strike off on his own earlier. We all feel insecure some of the time – we lack confidence in our own abilities – and we wait for right moment to try something new, which may never come.
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on?
The optimum music for driving in LA is opera, turned up close to the threshold of pain.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
I constantly remind myself what I was told years ago – “Your ego is not your amigo”, meaning that self-awareness is a more helpful trait than self-infatuation in dealing with all that business life throws at you.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
I try to see the potential in people, rather than just focusing on their history and background. That has helped me build a world-class group from disparate backgrounds, rather than an assembly of people with matching resumes.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur and how did you overcome it?
Without giving away too many secrets, I got involved with a business that sounded stimulating and even romantic, that was outside my sphere of experience, and I learned from that to follow my head as well as my heart.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Dog rentals.
Not everyone who wants the pleasure of walking a dog, and meeting fellow dog-lovers, wants to have a dog all the time. If shelters would rent out dogs by the day they’d fill a market niche and give their dogs more interesting lives. And maybe lead people towards permanent ownership.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
New tennis balls. You can never have too many. The way they bounce, the first time, is always delightful.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
I’m addicted to Salesforce sales funnels and always have them on my screen.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
“Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun“. It makes a great conversation-starter, and it still resonates today. If you think about it, Attila was disrupting on a global scale, and the only technologies he had were horses, bows and arrows.
What is your favorite quote?
“Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union” Joseph Stalin.
Who else could have come up with that perspective?
Connect:
Marin Aleksov on Facebook –
Marin Aleksov on Twitter –
Marin Aleksov on LinkedIn –
Marin Aleksov on Crunchbase –
Rosland Capital on Facebook:
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Rosland Capital on LinkedIn:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.