Hello there,
Welcome to the best of the Altea Community.
Let’s go
Table of Contents
👋 New Members
Welcome to the 18 new members this week 👋
A few notable members..
🇧🇬 Nikola Karamanov is a long-time Alts reader (registered back in 2021, has the coveted “OG” tag 😎 ) who’s finally introduced himself.
After a decade in London, seven years of it in finance, he’s now based in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he runs a food-industry manufacturing business and stays active in infrastructure, TMT debt, and data center financing.
🇳🇿 Sally Hodges works at the intersection of strategy, impact finance, and the creator economy.
She’s the founder of Roundabout, where she’s building the infrastructure, community, and talent pipeline to make Nelson, New Zealand a hub for UGC (user-generated content) businesses — the world of YouTube, Roblox, Twitch, and TikTok.
She also helps “missing middle” impact entrepreneurs across Asia raise debt finance and grow through the life of their loans.
🎬 New Film Bridge Loan Available
🍿 Available now — Summer with Friends
Summer With Friends is a feature production from Threefold Production Group Inc., shooting in Ontario, Canada on a budget of $2,750,000.
Logline
On the hottest day in the city’s history, a blackout turns an outdoor festival into an underground party until a heat-born infection starts turning the crowd, and a group of friends discovers the only thing that stops the infected is fire.
Terms and economics
This is a USD $335,000 secured bridge loan against a feature with a USD $2.75m budget.
- Loan size: USD $335,000
- Term: 18 weeks
- Loan-to-value: roughly 37%, with underwritten collateral worth about 2.7 times the loan
Collateral
- Ontario and federal Canadian production tax credits worth roughly USD $564,114, backed by an independent third-party opinion letter, about 1.7 times the loan on tax credits alone;
- an executed letter of intent for a USD $250,000 minimum guarantee from a Toronto-based distributor; a copyright mortgage on the film’s IP;
- a laboratory pledge; and a Georgia UCC-1 and an Ontario PPSA over the film and its proceeds.
Lender position
Secured, with a lien on the film’s IP and an assignment of the tax credits and distribution receivables, a copyright mortgage, an irrevocable power of attorney, and non-injunctionable takeover rights on default.
You’re getting the redacted version of this note because you’ve not yet signed the NDA. It literally takes 30 seconds. What are you waiting for?
🍿 Available now
A summer fun zombie thriller set in Toronto
- Loan size: USD $335,000
- Term: 18 weeks
- Loan-to-value: roughly 37%, with underwritten collateral worth about 2.7 times the loan
🖥️ New alts.co site
Our redesigned website is live!
Our story has evolved a lot over the past few years, and the new site tells it far better — and it plugs straight into Altea, pulling in live discussions, deals, and events. Have a look: alts.co
The site isn’t really designed for existing community members — it’s more aimed at first-time visitors who have never heard of us before. But it’s still pretty cool to see!
A big thank you to everyone who gave feedback on the new site before it went live! (And to those who kindly let us use their image/testimonials) 🙏
🐛 Find a bug, get a mug
Every so often a member spots something broken before we do.
Case in point: Paul M. flagged that the “Join the Singapore Group” button wasn’t doing anything when you clicked it. Sounds minor, but that’s exactly the kind of forgettable broken thing that costs us trust and momentum if it sits there unnoticed.
So we’re making it worth your while. Report a real site bug and earn 55 Altea Rewards points — enough to hit Level 3 and claim an Alts mug. Details here.
🥂 New Events
🎬 Altea Film Night: Private Screening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
On Sep 15, we’re taking over Nitehawk cinema in Williamsburg — the first liquor-licensed movie theater in the state — for a private film screening, drinks, and dinner.
I’ll be there! Joining me will be a few very special guests:
- CEO Stefan von Imhof
- Chris Daniels, producer, director, and founder of Launch Film Financing
🎬 The format
This is not your local multiplex, and we’re not screening someone else’s film. We’ll be watching a film that Launch actually helped capitalize, through bridge lending.
Film bridge financing one of the most misunderstood corners of private credit. There are only a handful of folks in the world who understand Hollywood gap financing inside and out, and Chris Daniels is one of them.
We’ll start at Nitehawk’s Lo-Res bar. Over drinks and bites, we’ll explain how this world works, and open up the floor to questions.
Then we’ll sit down and watch an actual film that Launch has funded:The Dutchman (2026) featuring Kata Mara and Andre Holland.
A successful black businessman, haunted by his crumbling marriage and identity crisis, is drawn into a sexualized game of cat and mouse with a mysterious white woman on a subway that leads to a violent conclusion.
Dinner and cocktails come straight to your seat while the film rolls.
📍 The essentials
- Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
- Time: 4:30pm – 9:00pm ET
- Location: Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg, 136 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn
- Capacity: Space is capped at 32 and priority goes to paying members and their guests.
- Price: Free for Altea Paid members. $99 for everyone else. Includes film + all food and drinks.
This will be a very high demand event. Come hang, watch something great, and dig into film as an asset class with people who take it seriously.
14 spots taken | 18 spots remain
🎬 LA Event: Creative Financing in the Creator Economy (Oct 6)
Creators are building real businesses now — with real revenue, real audiences, and predictable revenue streams.
And a whole new private financing layer is emerging to fund them: advances, revenue-share deals, credit lines, catalog loans, film gap financing.
We’re bringing together the people building that layer for an evening of straight talk on how it works — where the debt & equity opportunities are, how deals get structured, and what it looks like from both sides of the table.
🎤 Expert Speakers
We have be a lineup of some of the most active lenders and investors in the creator economy.
📍 The essentials
- Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2026
- Time: Late afternoon into the evening (exact timing to come)
- Location: Los Angeles — venue being finalized (exact address to confirmed guests)
- Price: Free for paying Altea members (use code ALTEA), $50 for guests and everyone else. Includes catered food & drinks.
- Capacity: 20 people max
14 spots taken | 6 spots remain
If you’re in LA and interested in creator economy financing and investing, you don’t want to miss this.
🦞 Boston Meetup (Sep 14)
On Sep 14, join me, Stefan, and Chris Daniels hosting our first ever Boston meetup.
📍 Details
- Date: Monday, September 14, 2026.
- Time: Early evening — roughly 6:00pm to 9:00pm.
- Location: Boston, MA — venue being finalized, exact address shared with confirmed attendees.
- Price: Free for Altea Paid members (use code ALTEA). $50 for everyone else. Includes all food and drinks.
Max capacity reached | Waitlist only
We’re past capacity on this one, but may release another spot or two. Join the waitlist if you’re interested.
💬 New Discussions
The real cost of Japan’s “cheap” houses
Stefan’s LinkedIn breakdown of Japan’s akiya math, a $25k house that needs $110k+ more just to make it rentable, kicked off a sharp debate about whether these are yield plays or lifestyle buys.
“6-10% on an asset that is going to reduce to near zero (market) value over time, JPY in free fall, and extremely limited liquidity…If your cash is coming from outside Japan then it’s neither sensible value preservation nor a yield play; it’s a pure lifestyle choice.” — Matt Bowden
“I live in the countryside in Japan. And I also bought an Akiya in Kyoto some years ago. As others have pointed out, this is pure folly. You are essentially borrowing the future against an asset that is worthless.” — Phil Smy
Revitalizing traditional Japanese homes
On the other side of that same trade: Terrie Lloyd, who’s spent 41 years in Japan and now runs a portfolio of renovated akiya as short-term rentals, shared how the properties are actually performing in his thread.
“Although we built for the foreign tourist market, we have been surprised by the enthusiastic reception by Japanese domestic travelers.” — Terrie Lloyd
🤝 New Public Deals
🎵 Music royalties (Mariah Carey, Dr. Dre, Eminem)
Two new offerings from our friends at Groundfloor — one for upside, one for income, each filling on a clock.
Music Royalties Portfolio
- Rights to 2,000+ songs across 18 catalogs, including Mariah Carey, Dr. Dre, and Eminem.
- Targeting 12–15% net IRR,* with quarterly cash and a 7% preferred return before Groundfloor earns a fee.
- $5k minimum, 1099-INT (no K-1).
- Open through Aug 31.
Fixed Bond Note
- Six-month note fixed at 9.5%
- $10k minimum, paid in full at maturity (+0.5% if called early).
- Groundfloor reports a 100% on-time payment record on every note since 2018.
- Open through Sep 3, and nearly full.
Accredited investors only. This is not an Altea SPV.
🙏 New Asks & Offers
Founders in LA or Seattle? A VC intro (and maybe F1 Singapore)
Stefan’s friend Sanjay Reddy, founding partner at Unlock Venture Partners, is actively looking for founders to back: pre-seed to Series A, LA/Seattle, data/AI focus.
There may even be a trip to the F1 race in Singapore in it for you. Learn more.
🙌 Community Shoutouts
🏈 A font on an NFL field
Remember our issue on The Business of Fonts?
The designer we interviewed, John Roshell, based in Santa Barbara CA, was watching a game when he noticed the Buffalo Bills using his BEARHUG typeface.
Same thing happened with his Superman font: buyers are often anonymous entities, so he only finds out when he spots the work in the wild. Very cool.
📈 Senjin Capital makes the rounds
Our friend James Halse and his partner Toby from Senjin Capital (who’ll be with in Tokyo on the October Japan trip) have been all over financial media.
They were profiled in the AFR (headline: a 60% return from “Japan’s hidden billions”), and James was just on Bloomberg TV, pushing back on the narrative that Japan is getting tougher for shareholder activists — talking through the deals Senjin can access that larger activist funds only dream of.
Honored to be spending time with them both of them on our Investor Trip to Japan in October.
⛩️ Japan trip coming up!
Tokyo, sumo, bonsai masters, snow monkeys, and whisky at a private distillery. October 18–22, 2026.
- Price: $3,999 (bring a guest: +$2,999)
- All-inclusive. Everything except flights is covered.
- Only 4 spots left.
Want in?
That’s it for today!
See you next week, Wyatt & Stefan
