Most of you who have not lived under a rock are most likely aware of “rich” gurus such as Tai Lopez, Dan Lok, Dan Pena etc. At first glance, you may think that they have some valuable information that would help you build your income and net worth. However, they are all offering questionable advice at best and charge exorbitant amounts of money before providing access. Here’s what they have in common:
- They will claim that they are billionaires and will often show you a tour of “their” mansions or fast cars
- They will claim that conventional and the tried-and-true path is a bunch of bull and that they have a method that’s better in generating income
- They will claim that it’s a limited opportunity and only a select number of people will be accepted into their seminar/course
- Most will offer a free introduction course to get you hooked and to pressure you to sign up and pay for the “real deal”
There are many other common traits that I may be missing but the ones listed above are the most important ones. In this article, we will be analyzing Kohler Global Investments, a supposed investment firm run by Michael Kohler. Additionally, we will be highlighting the bullet points mentioned in his offering and explain why you should not trust these get-rich-quick schemes with your time and money. Without further delay, let’s get this show on the road.
On his website (link not embedded for obvious reasons. We aim to protect our users’ safety), Michael Kohler claims to be a self-made millionaire at the age of 25 and that now he runs Kohler Global Investments, which “buys, sells and merges Businesses all over the world since 2018”.
A quick Google search nets no deals nor press releases regarding these acquisitions and sales since 2018. In fact, Kohler Global Investments’ own site does not have a portfolio page showing off their acquisitions nor a news page for press releases. Contrast this with KKR’s page: (For those not familiar, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts or KKR is a well-known private equity firm. One of their well known transactions is the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1989 depicted in Barbarians at the Gate)
You may be thinking, what is the point of a news and portfolio page as an investment firm? The whole point is to show investors that the firm is legitimate and serious. A Google search in any of these transactions would corroborate the firm’s story and most likely lead to a press release or news article by a third party. A private equity firm’s business model relies on constantly raising funds and purchasing companies with those proceeds to generate a return upon sale several years later. Thus, a portfolio and news page is critical which is why when you search up smaller private equity firms in the middle market, they most likely feature a portfolio page and release press releases to build credibility with investors. A private equity firm dies when it cannot raise funds, either internally or externally.
To make matters worse, Michael Kohler’s front page features just a sales funnel meant for users to signup for a free call. The site claims that it’s a consolation call but I’m assuming this free call is just a sleazy sales pitch to pressure unsuspecting users to signup for an overpriced course. Additionally, there is no investor page which either means that the firm is self-funding (highly unlikely) or funds simply don’t exist!
But the most damning of all is the Network page. To save you the trouble of going to his site, below is a screenshot.
What I find hilarious is that Michael Kohler apparently encourages his students to upload confidential documents such as purchase agreements, NDAs, etc. Basically, when an actual deal is going on it is actually forbidden to share documents such as NDAs and purchase agreements unless with third party due diligence professionals such as accountants and lawyers and even they have to operate in a hush-hush environment. Zooming into some of the documents in the screenshot reveals the company names. One such company is GSX Technology Solution but a Google search reveals that no such company exists! In fact, the closest thing to that name is a company called GSX Participations SA and that company was acquired by Martello Technologies Group Inc. for $18,700,000 CDN which is roughly $14M USD, not even close to the $1M mentioned in the screenshot!
For the final nail in the coffin, Michael Kohler has been losing a steady stream of followers on all of his social media accounts.
This indicates that Michael Kohler has most likely been using fake follower accounts to boost up his profile. The decreases in view counts on his YouTube channel and loss of followers on Twitter means that he isn’t paying for fake traffic to boost up his stats. Additionally, Twitter recently announced that it would be deleting bots and fake accounts, which would explain for Kohler’s large drop. If Kohler is using fake followers and bots to write fake reviews and boost his stats, would you really trust him with your money let alone your valuable time?
Conclusion
To conclude, don’t waste your effort in signing up for Kohler’s class. You would only be burning $100 in your wallet and wasting your precious time. One last thing to think about is if Michael Kohler is truly successful in this space, why would he be spending all this time and effort teaching people instead of pursuing deals? Why would he willingly be giving away people his secret sauce only to create competition in future deals resulting in a bidding war? Always think about why someone would be willing to give something away even if they are charging for it because sometimes knowledge is more valuable than money.