Necessary Conversation: Racial Equity in the Financial Markets? | Joe Cecala CEO of Dream Exchange | 267

Isn't it about time people people of color had equal access to capital markets?  That's the mission of the Dream Exchange. It is the first equity market founded and owned by a group of people who are from minority communities. Today's Necessary Conversation is with the Founder and CEO of this exciting venture - Mr. Joe Cecala.

About Joe Cecala & Dream exchange

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Joe Cecala is the Founder and CEO of Dream Exchange, a stock exchange in formation. Mr. Cecala is a world renowned expert in capital markets and corporate finance. His research on the U.S. capital markets is published in Oxford University's Handbook on IPO's. Mr. Cecala is also a trained CPA, and securities lawyer with an expertise in small business capital raising. In the late 1990's, Mr. Cecala was legal counsel for the company that created the first electronic stock exchange to trade stock over the internet. That company went on to become the electronic infrastructure used by the New York Stock Exchange.

Mr. Cecala is also a large contributor to a piece of legislation called the Main Street Growth Act or H.R. 2899 to create venture stock exchanges in the U.S. Dream Exchange will be the first venture exchange in the U.S.

As a former civil rights lawyer, Mr. Cecala is a passionate about social issues and effecting meaningful change on our society.

Here is a Transcript of Today's Show

Dave Lorenzo (00:02):

How do we translate what you're doing into other industries that desperately need it to other industries where you you've worked in particular are known as just all, almost all white in leadership and that's the practice of law and that's, you know, CPA firms or even big ticket consulting firms. Why can't law firms? Why can't CPA firms, why can't big ticket consulting firms, figure this out, Joe,

Joe Cecala (00:32):

I appreciate your question. Actually. No one has asked me the question, that question that you just asked right now in, in the, I've probably done a hundred podcasts since July. So thank you for actually being brave enough to open up the conversation because that's the one that I don't get the opportunity to say I'm filmed, like I'm doing right now and I'm happy to say it, you know? So yeah. Thank you for doing that. That's awesome.

Dave Lorenzo (01:01):

Hey there, folks. Welcome to another edition of the inside BS show today, we're taking you inside the creation of a new financial exchange. That's right. Imagine if you could be in the room when the New York stock exchange started, or imagine if you could be with the founder of the NASDAQ and ask him or her any question that you wanted. Well, we've got that opportunity today. My guest today is Joe Cecala and he's the founder and CEO of dream exchange. Now this is a stock exchange information. How many times do you get to be in the room where it happens when it comes to the formation of a new stock exchange? Mr. Cecala is a world renowned expert in capital markets and corporate finance. His research on the us capital markets is published in Oxford university's handbook on IPO's. He's also a trained CPA and a securities lawyer with expertise in small business capital raising in the late 1990s, Mr.

Dave Lorenzo (02:10):

Mr. Cecala was legal counsel for the company that created the first electronic stock exchange to trade stock over the internet. That company went on to become the electronic infrastructure used by the New York stock exchange. Mr. Cecala is also a large contributor to a piece of legislation called main street growth act, the main street growth act or HR 28 and 99 to create venture stock exchanges. And the U S Dream Exchange will be the first venture exchange in the U S . Joe is a former civil rights lawyer, and he's passionate about social issues and affecting meaningful change on our society. This week's necessary conversation is with Mr. Joseph Cecala.

Dave Lorenzo (03:01):

So Joe, tell us about the inspiration for the dream exchange. What led you to you know, how, how does this idea come about?

Joe Cecala (03:12):

So just a little bit of my eclectic background to kind of forest Gump my way through my career to think I could start a stock exchange. I, I really it's a it's born of archipelago. So I was in the room once before, as you described it. When archipelago was being constructed and born in the late 1990s just understanding how capital markets go about what they call hunting for liquidity and and really being a small business, transactional lawyer, and seeing that, that wasn't available to most of the most ingenious people in our society. They are raising capital. Today's a relationship-driven environment. So if you've got good relationships, you can raise money. If you don't, doesn't matter. If you've got the best idea, you don't get the same exposure. So I brought the combination of those things together over the last 10 years, really, and started to formulate how we could build a brand new type of exchange.

Joe Cecala (04:15):

And I've assembled a great team and we're in, we're building the pipes as we speak. And really, I also, you know, I started my career really wanting to just be a business lawyer, but in, in Chicago, in the 1990s there was just such civil unrest a bit like we, what we just went through. And so some of my law partners and I got together and we took on a lot of pro bono, civil rights cases, and it just became very passionate. I became really a member of the, the fabric of the black community in Chicago. And in fact, consulted the Chicago urban league entrepreneurial center and did a lot of things in the black community here. And I just saw all this combination of unique things as a way to forward change in our society where capital markets and economic prosperity and the rights of our citizens to have a free and open market, really all the convergence of all my experience, my career really came there together in doing this a little bit, my military background too.

Joe Cecala (05:21):

I was an armor officer and I just learned that you, you really have to have a compassion for other people. The army really taught me that you know, in spite of the fact that it's designed to go out and kill other people you know, surprisingly I love the army. I'm, I'm part of the army family as well. And that's been, my leadership style has been running the organization as if we're on. We're kind of like we left the boats on the beach at Normandy and we are headed to Berlin and therein lies the birth of the dream exchange. So we're not co we're not going back into the ocean. We're, we're, we're on a mission to change our society and do it through the dream exchange. And it's kind of how we operate so

Dave Lorenzo (06:06):

Well, first of all, thank you for your service. And second of all, let's talk about the aspirational nature of being the first minority owned stock exchange. Is it your opinion that this is going to unlock a whole generation of people of color who own their businesses n...