Here at Alts, we believe that the best investing conversations don’t happen in Slack threads or webinars, they happen in person.
And over the past two weeks, we put that belief to the test.
Our Altea summer meetup tour spanned six cities in fourteen days — from cliffside mansions to airplane hangars, sold-out art shows to tequila-fueled masterclasses.
We kicked things off in San Francisco, where 13 Alteans gathered in a Sea Cliff mansion for warm intros, custom cocktails, and deep dives into AI, alternative farmland, and the new gambling tax hiding in the Big Beautiful Bill.
Meanwhile, over in New York, members scored seats at a sold-out Morgan Library talk before heading to a rooftop for happy hour. In Miami, our good friend (and tequila partner) Miguel organized a masterclass. Los Angelenos got a behind-the-scenes tour of a space station startup.
And we finished strong in Austin, where we filled a private hangar with aircraft leasing pros, real estate investors, BBQ smoke, and damn good energy.
Each location emphasized why Altea exists: To bring smart, curious investors together in real life (not just over zoom, or in some sleepy webinar) and create something truly meaningful.
So today, I’m recapping the people, places, and moments that made our July tour special — and showing you what’s next.
Let’s go 🥂
Table of Contents
🌾 Invest in U.S. Farmland
Announcing our partnership with FarmTogether
This week we had the honor of hosting Artem Milinchuk, founder of FarmTogether, at our Altea investor meetup in San Francisco.
FarmTogether is a leading platform for accredited investors seeking direct access to U.S. farmland.
There are over five ways to invest, but today we’re focusing on two: The Landmark Mandarin Grove offering and the Sustainable Farmland Fund.
🍊 Option 1: Landmark Mandarin Grove
FarmTogether has several live offerings — but the one that caught our eye is Landmark Mandarin Grove – a producing citrus grove in California’s Central Valley.
It’s a clean deal: This 80-acre citrus grove is already producing high-demand varietals (Tangos and Golden Nuggets), with experienced boots-on-the-ground management in place.
- Producing mandarin grove in Terra Bella, CA
- 11.1% target net IRR, 9.4% target net cash yield
- 10-year hold with clear exit strategy
- 46% of investment may be depreciable for tax purposes
- Open to US and international accredited investors
🌱 Option 2: Sustainable Farmland Fund
The Sustainable Farmland Fund is FarmTogether’s open-ended vehicle offering diversified exposure to U.S. farmland, with a curated portfolio of farms across CA, OR, CO, and OK.
The Fund currently includes five properties spanning wine grapes, citrus, pecans, and row crops — all selected to support the Fund’s 4–6% target annual distribution — with continued expansion and diversification planned across regions and commodities.
Performance Highlights:
- Outperformed the NCREIF Farmland Index on a gross IRR basis in both 2023 and 2024
- Delivered two consecutive years of net distributions in line with the 4–6% annual target
Fund terms:
- 8–10% target net IRR with 4–6% target annual distribution
- 2-year initial lockup
- Available to US accredited investors
If you’re accredited and looking for a hard asset that produces income and helps preserve capital, this is a compelling one to consider.
Express interest below. If demand is high enough, we’ll put together an SPV with lower minimums and invest together.
Disclosure: Investments are open to accredited investors only.
Historical data is not indicative of future results and may not reflect fees which may reduce actual returns. Any historical information is illustrative in nature and may not represent future results, therefore any investor investing through the FarmTogether platform may experience different returns from examples and projections provided on the website. You should not make investment decisions based solely on the information and charts contained in this email.
San Francisco 🌁
After a quick stop in lovely Seattle, we kicked things off in San Francisco at one of the most jaw-dropping private homes in the city — a cliffside mansion with sweeping views of Baker Beach and the Golden Gate Bridge.
What we talked about…
San Francisco isn’t exactly farmland country. But just a few hundred miles away lies the Central Valley — a 250‑crop powerhouse that produces a staggering 25% of America’s food — including 40% of the nation’s fruits, nuts, and other table foods.
So it felt fitting to be joined by Artem Milinchuk, founder of FarmTogether, and local SF resident. Artem reminded us that farmland is the original asset class.
Long before we traded stocks or flipped houses, we traded land to grow food. Maybe it shouldn’t be called “alternative” at all.
As we went around the room sharing personal and professional investing journeys, it dawned on me how many alternative investing topics we haven’t covered yet. — like modern senior housing and alternative battery technologies.
After chatting with Altea members Dan and Tom, I’m feeling confident that if (more like when) we get deal flow in those areas, we’ve got the right people in our corner to help diligence the deal.
New York City 🏛️
Meanwhile, over in the greatest city in the world (according to New Yorkers, and honestly, they might be right), a group of Alteans gathered for something truly special: a private fine art discussion with the iconic Lisa Yuskavage.
Here’s how Alts community member and NYC-based art expert Maria Brito describes her:
“Lisa Yuskavage is one of the most influential American painters of her generation. Her bold, technically masterful work blends the erotic, the grotesque, and the sublime, challenging conventions around femininity and desire.
Even her drawings, like those at the Morgan Library, are psychologically charged and painterly in ambition. Few artists have shaped contemporary figurative painting the way she has.”
The sold-out event was held at the Morgan Library & Museum, a stunning Gilded Age landmark built in 1906 by financier J.P. Morgan. It’s part rare book archive, part architectural masterpiece. And this intimate talk with Yuskavage took place right inside its historic halls.
After the art talk, the group headed to Daintree, a rooftop bar overlooking Manhattan, for drinks, small plates, and more high-caliber convos. Alteans swapped notes on what they were investing in — from the Art Opportunity Fund to Auto I, which (at the time) was juuust about to close.
From there, discussion spilled out from the bar and into the streets of New York (as it should).
See, our goal for these events is to deliver something exclusive, something members can’t easily get on their own.
In SF, that meant a private cliffside estate. In Austin, it was a hangar full of aircraft. In New York, it was a front-row seat to a sold-out show from a world-class artist.
But what made this night even more special was that it was entirely organized by two longtime Alts community members: Kaylock Yam and Valerie Fristachi, part of our first-ever cohort of City Captains.
Before we move on, let me take a moment to tell you a bit about this new program we have, because it’s extremely cool.
A quick note on City Captains…
As we’ve grown, we’ve realized we can’t host all of these events ourselves. (As much as we love traveling, we can’t be everywhere at once!)
So in the spirit of the network we’re building, we’ve launched a new initiative: The Altea City Captains program.
City Captains are trusted members who take the reins in their own backyards — organizing meetups, curating local members, and becoming the go-to person for alternative investors in their city.
They’re folks who want to help build a high-trust, high-caliber investor hub, and get rewarded for doing so.
What do City Captains get?
- 30% of all membership revenue from folks they bring in
- A percentage of carry on any deal those members invest in
- Free or upgraded Altea membership
- Priority access to trips, SPVs, and internal strategy convos
- And maybe most valuable of all: social capital. They become the person who connects serious investors in their city
So far, we have 12 captains across 9 cities. But we’re looking to expand — especially in highly populated financial hubs (London, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chicago, Dubai, Tokyo.)
Want to put your city on the map?
Let’s talk! Reply to this email if you’re interested in becoming a City Captain. I’d love to tell you more.
Miami 🌴
Meanwhile, 1,300 miles away in Miami, the tequila was flowing — and the outfits did not disappoint. (City Captains Beata Aldridge and Sophia Hartgrove made sure of that.)
Tequila is still very much a booming alternative asset class. But it’s also becoming very hyped. Unless you’ve got real insider connections, you’re probably getting screwed.
Luckily, we do.
Our longtime friend and tequila partner Miguel Ortiz has deep roots in Jalisco, Mexico, and a rare understanding of the industry’s inner workings. He’s not peddling celebrity brands or quick flips, he’s showing people what real tequila is actually about.
At the sleek Moore Miami in the design district, Miguel hosted an interactive tasting of some of the least-hyped and most pure, delicious, complex tequilas in the world — explaining precisely they’re so special.
Not all tequilas are created equal. Miguel’s private masterclass is the perfect antidote to an age when grifters, fly-by-night influencers, and now even VCs (ugh) buy up a few plants and start marketing a “premium” tequila.
Serious alt investors deserve to understand how this stuff really works. That’s exactly what the Miami event delivered.
(And by the way, if you haven’t seen Wyatt’s teardown of the new tequila brand from “The Besties”…my god. Do yourself a favor and read it.)
Austin ✈️
Oh man, this one was so cool.
This past Tuesday, we hosted Alteans inside a massive private aircraft hangar just west of Austin. Fully air-conditioned, decked out with gleaming planes, a beautifully set dinner table, wine, music, and perfect lighting. It was easily the most unique venue we’ve ever used.
What we talked about…
Topics ranged widely, but real estate definitely dominated (Austin’s got no shortage of property investors).
Other big themes included:
- Hangar economics (private spaces like this are incredibly rare, and cities don’t always love them)
- Pre-IPO startups (Altea member Christine Healey noted that Space X may never go public, but it may not matter)
- Alternative plastics and climate-tech
- Starlink competitors like Austin’s AST SpaceMobile (whose stock is skyrocketing by the way)
- And Robinhood’s controversial move to tokenize private shares (We’ve got a terrific community discussion on this here)
But my favorite discussion was around the world of aircraft leasing — one of the least-understood alternative investments out there.
We were lucky to have Adam Davidson from Aero Capital Solutions join the event and break this murky world down for us.
What many people don’t realize is that most airlines don’t actually own their planes. Instead, they lease them to conserve capital, smooth cash flow, and de-risk balance sheets.
This is where Adam’s company come in. They basically buy huge airplanes and lease them back to the ,carriers. It’s behind-the-scenes capital allocation at its finest. And as we discovered when we explored aircraft leasing last year, this space almost impossible for retail investors to access. Almost.
As always, real estate was a big theme — and Patrick Taylor stood out.
Patrick plays running back for the San Francisco 49ers, and he’s already preparing for life after football by investing in duplexes in Green Bay and Houston.
If you’re bummed you missed this event, there’s some good news: Payton’s planning more of these hangar events for 2025.
Every Altea member gets one local meetup per year for free.
Oh — and get ready for some extremely rare aircraft leasing dealflow next year. Direct from the source.
Los Angeles 🛰️
Many readers may not realize just how many Altea meetups are happening these days.
That’s partly because we keep event promos local (no need to unnecessarily blow up your inbox), and partly because some of these gatherings come together fast.
Case in point: this past Wednesday in Los Angeles, where a last-minute favor somehow turned into a multi-hour tour of Vast Space — a private aerospace company that is building the world’s first commercial space stations (!)
Vast’s near term goal is replacing the International Space Station (ISS), which is set to be decommissioned by NASA in 2030. Their long-term goal is creating artificial gravity habitats for humans to live in space.
The company has been self funded by founder Jed McCaleb since inception with ~$800m of personal assets. They’re now doing their first external fundraise and there is an opportunity for Altea members to participate!
What’s next for Altea?
These past two weeks showed exactly what Altea is all about: exclusive access, meaningful conversations, unforgettable venues, and a community that’s starting to take on a life of its own.
If you made it out to one of these events, thank you! If not, don’t worry — there are plenty more on the horizon.
City Captain Payton Guenter wants to make the hangar dinners a quarterly tradition in Austin. Kaylock and Valerie are planning NYC events every 6–8 weeks.
And demand is growing for something bigger — we’re considering another week-long event next year in Las Vegas.
Finally, we’re also creating new Local Spaces within the community, so Altea members can connect locally. (Big thanks to Mandar in NYC and Anthony in Seattle for the inspiration here!
Here’s how to stay in the loop:
- 👉 Activate your account in the community (if you haven’t already)
- 🗓️ Keep an eye on our Upcoming Events board
- 🎟️ Join Altea Gateway which lets you attend one local event per year for free
This is just the beginning.
This network is real. The people are serious. And the momentum is building.
Let’s keep building — city by city, deal by deal.
Hope to see you soon! 🥂
That’s it for today!
A big thanks to Dasha Titlebaum for the excellent photography in San Francisco and Austin. You can see more of her work on Instagram.
See you in the Alts Community!
Stefan
Disclosures
- This issue was written by Stefan von Imhof
- This issue was sponsored by FarmTogether.
- Alt Assets, Inc has no current holdings in any companies mentioned in this issue.
- This issue contains one affiliate link to TradingView.
