Founder & Portfolio Manager

---

Nick does not have the typical background of a fund manager. No ivy league education, no internship at an exclusive firm or years at a big bank, but he will argue he has always been an efficient allocator of resources to achieve the maximum return on investment with what he had available at any given time.  

Before studying finance and psychology at Bryant University Nick dove into all the investment books he could find like The Intelligent Investor, One Up on Wall Street, the Rich Dad Poor Dad series and likely any similar you can think of. During this time he also began practicing strategic games like high low jack and poker as small side businesses outside of work and school.  

With the knowledge gathered from his studies, a good paying job as a high stakes blackjack dealer at Foxwoods Casino right out of  high school and the post 9/11 recession Nick saw an opportunity and started to pile 50% of his wages into stock funds within his 401K.

While in college Nick became aware of a Security Representative and Series 7 exam employment recruitment class being offered at CCRI by Fidelity Investments.  He immediately began the prep work to get into the course.  He added to his knowledge a great deal and even sat and passed The Series 7 General Securities Representative Qualification Exam at 19 years old.  With no real part time positions available to pursue without abandoning his degree, Nick took the deeper investment knowledge but let the series 7 license expire and continued his education.

With a consistent investment into his 401K working part time, holidays and weekends and pursuing his degree and playing poker in his spare time, Nick was able to save enough money to have a downpayment on his first investment property. This 3 family provided the opportunity to move out on his own, begin to learn how to manage property and keep expenses down to prepare for the next opportunity. It was a great learning experience with an eviction required almost immediately after closing.

Poker became more profitable than Nicks job as a blackjack dealer. When he completed his degree in 2009 during the global financial crisis poker was his best option vs trying to put his finance degree to work at a 9-5.  He played poker and collected rents from his small real estate portfolio from 2009-2013. Then in 2013 he leveraged his real estate management experience and all available capital he could borrow to launch Nexus Property Management®.

Nexus quickly grew from just Nick's 8 units under management to 160 at the end of year one and 345 at the end of year two and would become the top ranked property management company in the area within 4 years.  Renting just a tiny storefront office, Nick was looking to provide the business with more room to expand and operate.  Opportunity presented itself in a 55,000 sq. ft. mill building in the heart of downtown Pawtucket RI.  Nick went to view the property and not having any real capital or loan prospects he decided to put a low enough offer in where if accepted he would have to figure it out.  Nick negotiated a purchase price of just $175,000 with $30,000 down payment and seller financing for 2 years @7%.  Having only $5000 but a great deal and a thriving business he was able to raise $25,000 from friends to secure the asset. 

Before starting Nexus Property Management® Nick read The E Myth and was targeting a franchise expansion plan from day 1.  After working on the franchise disclosure document, operation manual, websites and other required legal filings for close to a year, Nexus sold its first franchise office in Dec 2017.

Utilizing just the first floor of the large mill building for Nexus offices and convention space there was value to be unlocked in the upper levels of the property for residential apartment units. With 4 Nexus offices opened and all running smoothly, Nick took his capital and pursued the opportunity to work on development of 27 apartment units above the Nexus offices.  

In 2016 Nick started to manage some of his own capital with a concentrated stock portfolio. He was in a position to take advantage of the 2020 market downturn and grew his assets under management substantially over the next two years in preparation to launch Ace River Capital.