Arzays Davani: 10:06
Yeah, actually, I got even more. I decided that I wanted to feel that discomfort, like you said, even more so after college, I got into finance, and on a whim, I decided to move, buy a one way ticket to Dubai in 2007. And that was back when nobody knew what Dubai was. I think it was 2009, where CNN or 60 minutes did a special on it. So that was a unique experience.
And I had started a startup, I started and sold a few businesses while I was in Dubai. But I started one of these startups that had a patent that had reinvented wood using recycled plastic and Rice husk, which is the excess waste of the rice husk, to create a better green alternative to wood. And I had put up, I had put up a post on a forum and somebody had reached out to me, interested as an investor. She had a client that was interested in sustainability based out of Ukraine. And at that time it was Skype and we had a meeting. And anyways, long story short, that person ended up becoming my wife.
John Corcoran: 11:25
So the investor or the person that was.
Arzays Davani: 11:29
Whose client was an investor, right? And she had a consultancy company where she was consulting Italian companies, but also she had a major client in Ukraine that was the largest producer of starch in Europe, and she had been pushing sustainability projects on them. So anyways, that’s how we met and we ended up moving to San Francisco together. And I stumbled across a catalog. We were trying to figure out what business we needed to do something together.
Because that startup that I had, what was interesting about it is we got a large purchase order and we were not able to fulfill it because the joint venture with the manufacturing company in Malaysia was not able to, was not able to meet that demand. So it was a really big life lesson for me, realizing that as good as you can be in business development and strategic partnerships, if your manufacturing is not able to fulfill those orders, then it doesn’t mean anything.
John Corcoran: 12:34
So did you run around like a madman with this purchase order, like knocking on doors of other manufacturing facilities, seeing if you could find one that could fulfill it? Or was it too far? You know, the ramp up period was so long that you couldn’t do that.
Arzays Davani: 12:49
Well, it was multifaceted. We actually had a joint venture with this company that had been around for 40 years. We had hired a I believe it was Deloitte. So we hired a legit company from a consultant, from a company that flew out and spent 3 or 4 days in the factory auditing their books, and did all this despite.
John Corcoran: 13:10
Of all that, it wasn’t that they couldn’t handle it. Yeah, in.
Arzays Davani: 13:13
Despite all that, they were not able because the purchase order was for $10 million for pallets, which was not something we were like thinking about, but they were they just were not able to like, fulfill it. So as my wife and I were looking into new opportunities, I came across a catalog of a beautiful marble company that had beautiful furniture and had done these exquisite projects in Saudi Arabia and Dubai and Russia. And I was like, honey, what is this? She’s like, well, this is one of my clients. And, you know, like every Italian’s dream, their dream is to make it in America.
So I was like, all right, well, let’s meet this, let’s meet this, let’s meet them. She’s like, I know the CEO would love to expand. She’s been asking me to. So what ? Anyways, before getting in bed with that manufacturer, of course we spent a lot of time on the manufacturing side of things.
John Corcoran: 14:07
Even more due diligence that time, I imagine, right. Yeah, yeah.
Arzays Davani: 14:11
You know, which tells me a big lesson. What was a big heartache? Because I spent about five years of my blood, sweat money for, you know, working on that startup. As a result, I met my wife and I had a huge lesson that was able to make me successful in my next venture because I thought, hey, as long as you can do sales, like, that’s that’s all that matters. You bring the deals and everything else will fall into place, but it’s not the case.
John Corcoran: 14:42
Yeah, yeah. So how was it working with your wife on this project?
Arzays Davani: 14:49
You know, a lot of people warned us like, no, don’t get into business with your family. This is a recipe for disaster. But if you look at some of them, especially in Italy, you know, all of these manufacturing companies, you know, we’re talking 50, 60, 80, in some cases 150 years old. So they’re all family businesses. They’re all family businesses.
So I didn’t want anybody’s opinion or their own reality to affect mine. I wanted to create my own story, and I wanted to create a legacy that had our name on it and create something with my wife because, you know, marriage is, you know, when you get married, it’s like a, you know, it’s like a startup, right? You, you’re or it can even be like a merger. You have two companies that are merging together. But to create something together and to find a way to coexist and use each other’s skill sets, because we’re also both visionaries.
It’s not like one is one. It’s not like one of us had an accounting or finance background. And the other one was just, you know, purely vision. We both had really big ideas. And it was, I think, the biggest challenge of working with your spouse for us was separating, like, stop talking about business.
John Corcoran: 16:12
Yeah.
Arzays Davani: 16:12
Because we found ourselves, you know, in restaurants in San Francisco that we were living at the time were just like, we’re always talking about business. And it’s like, we’re like, we have to figure out a way to separate that. And it’s not that it felt like work because we both loved it, but it’s not healthy. You need to have you need to. There’s more to life than your business.
John Corcoran: 16:32
Yeah. Now I’m looking at your website here and you do custom marble installations, desks, conference tables, dining tables made out of stone. These are big, heavy items. I imagine there were people that said to you, what are you thinking? Like, this is gonna be such a hard project.
You got to ship these things over. And what if people decide once it gets there that they don’t like it? How did you manage all that? That just seems like very big barriers, especially for someone that was new to this industry.
Arzays Davani: 17:07
That’s actually how we started. But we’ve actually made it even harder for ourselves. It’s even more complex because now we’re doing complete homes and villas that have stone, wood, metal, glass. So we’re doing the entire home: the kitchens, the bathrooms, the bars, the wine cellars, the interior, the exterior. Wow.
We are the contractors primary subcontractor in some particular projects. So it’s that’s what, you know, where we bring to the table and where we found a really big niche in the market is, you know, when you’re working on, you know, homes that are $60 million plus. They require a different level of craftsmanship. They require a different level of service. and it’s not something that you just want to offer right off the rack.
Because a lot of times people don’t. There’s a big difference between luxury and premium. People may think that buying a suit from Giorgio Armani is luxury, but in this true definition, it’s actually really a premium product because it’s something you’re buying off the rack. It’s something that’s been mass produced. What is true luxury is having something tailor-made, in our case, having a, you know, having that bespoke service of making sure we are providing that perfect material for the client, the perfect wood, metal, glass, leather, and stone.
And then not only are we prefabricating everything in Italy, but then we’re also flying our installers from Italy to do the final installation. So it’s an Italian made, an Italian design because going back to the suit thing, it’s like, all right, I can just buy a suit for five, $10,000, you know, from Giorgio Armani. Or I can go to a tailor. I can choose my own fabric. I can have it measured, and then they make it, and then I have to go back, and then they have to re-tailor it to make sure it fits perfectly around my neck, my chest, my waist, maybe have my initials on there.
So that’s what true luxury is. It’s like 1 to 1 bespoke for that particular person. It can’t be replicated. It’s not something that, you know, you can say, oh I got it from, you know, so and so or so and so it’s unique for that particular project.
John Corcoran: 19:25
I’m looking at some of your projects here and they just look phenomenal, beautiful, timeless buildings. And actually this weekend I was just in San Francisco. We had our EO San Francisco holiday party, which was actually at the Fairmont. And I was actually remarking to my wife, because we were going in this building that is 125 years old or something like that, which in San Francisco is ancient, maybe on the East Coast it’s not. And, you know, they had these massive columns in the reception desk, and the reception desk was made out of stone and everything was made out of stone, and it just felt so heavy and permanent and timeless. And the Ritz Carlton also is down the street. Same thing. Amazing. Timeless building. You know, you can tell.
Like they build these things. They’re gonna be around for hundreds of years. What is it like for you working with these clients? Like, what have you learned about working with a client like that? That’s building a $60 million house that probably, I imagine, comes from a ton of money or a CEO of a very busy business. Like, what are some tips that you have for working with those types of clients, either the end client or the contractor that you’re working directly with?
Arzays Davani: 20:34
Yeah, I think it starts with education. First of all, because again, I mean, we do work on projects all over the world. But if we’re talking about particular, particularly the North American market. The country is not that old. So, you know, if you go to Rome, for example, you know, the whole city has been built on travertine.
That’s over a thousand years old. Same thing, you know, in Iran and other places in the Middle East and other places in Europe. So there it’s much more acceptable to use stone and use antique material. And it will be you.
John Corcoran: 21:10
Don’t have to educate people on it as much, whereas here you have to educate them on why the additional expense is, you know, justified, I guess, or why they would want to spend the extra money.
Arzays Davani: 21:21
Right, exactly. And it’s also that hand. It’s like we have the latest technologies, but it’s also not losing that, you know, that old world craftsmanship in some cases have like we have sculptors that are like carving into the fireplaces or the columns and you know, these guys are like 70 years, 75 years old. And it’s their passion. They’re just coming in because that’s their pastime.
And it’s fortunately, we’re finding that to be a little bit of a lost trade. But what’s great is there are people still interested in working with their hands so that trade and knowledge is still being passed on to the next generation. I just don’t know how long that’s going to last. But I hope I don’t think it will die out because it’s artisanal work. You’re not going to lose painters. And, you know, I don’t think we’re going to lose people that are going to paint or sculpt because of me, for example.
John Corcoran: 22:18
Well, yeah, I’ve actually used that example a number of times because there’s a lot of people in professions that are really worried about how AI is going to affect them, but those are the industries that probably people will flee to because they’re, you know, there will be jobs eliminated through because of AI in other industries where where jobs, you know, frankly, can be eliminated. But in an industry like that, like you can’t an AI can’t do it until at least until we have functioning robots that are going around doing it.
Arzays Davani: 22:47
Even so, I think it’s the authenticity of the human emotion that’s attached to that particular product. If you see some of the videos of these guys working on these materials, they are romancing. They’re romancing the material from like selecting the material to make sure it’s perfect to hand finishing it, even if it’s like machine cut. There’s still an element of hand finishing. I think that emotion you can’t replicate with AI or robots. So there are going to be there’s still going to be people that want that authenticity and want that human touch and human element, because that’s something you can’t you can’t replicate emotion with AI.
John Corcoran: 23:30
Yeah. I want to take a step back. I’m curious, what is it like for you? You came to this country probably with a lot. Not a lot of money. You know, your parents scraped by in order to save money, to buy a house, to put you in a better neighborhood. And here you are. You’re working with some of the most affluent people in the United States, building buildings that will be here long after we’re gone. What is that like for you emotionally to be in the place that you’re at?
Arzays Davani: 24:00
Well, I don’t see myself in a particular position. I just feel like it’s like a constant evolution. One of my philosophies is always growth. So I’m always never thinking that I’ve reached a destination. But it is interesting to kind of step, you know, to step back and see that what, you know, what we do is such that it’s an emotional part of people’s homes.
Like if you’re building a dining table, that’s where people laugh, they cry, they have the best memories. They have the worst memories you’re building in some cases, you know, hotels that, like you said, are going to be here for generations and generations to come, where people save up a lot of money to have these particular memories. So it’s really nice to be a part of that. And I, I am conscious and aware of that when we’re taking on these projects, because we have the luxury of working with some of the top architects and designers in the world. I’m telling you, these designs that these people are coming up with are like out of this world.
And it’s all about the human experience. And what human experience is to create lasting memories, right? Whether you’re kids, whether you’re, you know, proposing to your future, your future wife. They’re all memories that are going to last, you know, lifetimes. And actually, maybe those stories will actually pass down to, you know, generations to come as well.
John Corcoran: 25:24
Yeah. And even if I reflect on it, your story is kind of reflected in the company. You come from the old world. You’ve come to the New World as a human. You immigrated here, and you are bringing the old world for each of your clients to the new world. And in a way that will last.
Arzays Davani: 25:44
That’s I, you know, very interesting. I never thought of it that way, but I can definitely see the correlation.
John Corcoran: 25:49
Yeah, yeah. And you and your wife, you actually ended up kind of splitting it off the company. Is that right? Do you, do you still work together or did you separate it? And now you don’t work together?
Arzays Davani: 26:00
No. We 100% still work together. My wife got pregnant about seven years ago. She took some time off. She took about 3 or 4 years off, which, you know, again, for me it was a little bit difficult because, you know, I didn’t have my rock and I had to figure things out.
But that was actually a moment where we also pivoted, and I made some decisions that took the company in a different direction. We started our own brand during Covid, which actually we have the Davani Group, which is custom projects, and then we have our brand, Devaney, which is high end furniture that’s sold around showrooms. So it was a difficult time, but it was also a, you know, an interesting time because, you know, the company did end up going in a different direction. But now she’s back. And thank God for that.
John Corcoran: 26:51
Yeah. And you, I know this has been a tough year for you. I’d love to know you kind of reflecting on how we’re recording this at the very end of 2024. The economy has been very up and down for a lot of different companies, especially, I believe, with the kind of higher end. And then you also had kind of a hacking, I guess, that affected you personally, a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of money of yours that was lost. So just kind of reflecting back on this last year, what has been like for you?
Arzays Davani: 27:25
Oh, man, it was a really, really the year I started off really tough. It started with a huge storm where we ended up getting a random leak in our house that, you know, cost us, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars. I had to replace my roof. Two weeks later, I got hit by a lawsuit by our neighbor. Didn’t like the fact that we put a metal roof there.
Three weeks, three weeks after that and three weeks after that, again, it was the first quarter. So we had really invested a lot into working capital. We invested a lot into marketing and our sales cycle is long. So we found ourselves actually extending ourselves for the first time and dipping into our line of credit. So financially, we were probably at our best and we were probably also at our weakest.
And then on top of that, I had a knee injury. A week after that I got into a car accident. Three days after that, my wife, as she was backing out of the garage, closed down on her car with the kids in it, shattering all the glass. Two days after that. So you can see back to back to back. Two days after that, I got a call that somebody had hacked into my Coinbase account and my account was compromised. And long story short, I had my Coinbase account completely wiped clean well into the six figures.
John Corcoran: 29:03
Wow.
Arzays Davani: 29:05
So that’s like a sequence of events, it was like six at a time, six, seven at a time, which happened over a course of, I would say 6 to 7 weeks. I kept a really positive attitude the whole time. My whole mantra during that time was this too shall pass, this too shall pass, this too shall pass. But when the Coinbase thing happened, I just, I kind of prayed and I asked like, well, what is the lesson? What’s the lesson I’m supposed to learn from all this? I know this will pass. Thank God it’s not my health, except I hurt my knee. But it’s nothing serious. My family’s okay. But what is.
What is the lesson? What am I supposed to be learning here? What is in it for me? Because there’s always a lesson. And I would say five days after that, it was on a Friday and I was at Costco. It was 430. All of a sudden I get a phone call from my lawyer. Your neighbors want to drop the lawsuit? And then ten minutes after that, I got another phone call that we closed a very big deal. Five minutes after that, I got an email confirmation of another deal that closed.
I didn’t realize until later that evening as I was writing in my journal that, oh, my moment. The lesson for me was to have nothing to do about finance, or managing your money, or being a little bit more careful. As I was reflecting in my journal, the lesson for me was that as bad as things can be and will be and can get, things will turn around even faster. And it was like, wow. And it and it was, it was in a matter of 20, 25 minutes.
Even though those sequence of events happened like in six, seven weeks, in 20 minutes, everything was just like again changed just like that. And I was like, wow, that’s what it was. That’s what it is. Because I had no idea what the lesson was.
John Corcoran: 31:17
What a tough year, what a tough year.
Arzays Davani: 31:20
What a blessing. And we and I’ll end it with this. We are ending our strongest year ever. We have grown by 30%. We’re hiring an additional 4 or 5 people. So we started off in the worst financial position that we were in in nine years because of the fact that we dipped into and started really dipping into our credit line, into ending it with our strongest.
John Corcoran: 31:46
Well, that’s hopefully a good sign for the economy as we head into 2025. As I said, I want to wrap up with my gratitude question. So I’m a big fan of gratitude, and I’m a big fan of giving guests the space and opportunity to acknowledge anyone, especially peers or contemporaries, that have helped them in their journey. Anyone you would want to, you know, point out.
Arzays Davani: 32:07
Yeah, I actually like to point out three people. One is my wife that put me on the journey of constant growth. And Tony Robbins, who, you know, was an instrumental mentor for me that, you know, resonated with the constant and never-ending improvement. And as a result of being on this path of non-stop and never-ending growth being introduced to EO Entrepreneurs’ Organization that also consists of like minded people that are also always looking to grow and improve themselves, their businesses and, you know, their family and business life. So I would, you know, those three pillars, you know, you know, I think have been instrumental in my growth. And it’s not going to stop here. I just want to constantly grow.
John Corcoran: 33:03
Yeah, yeah. That’s great. Where can people go to learn more about you and the Davani Group?
Arzays Davani: 33:08
You can follow us on Instagram at @thedavanigroup. And our website is www.thedavanigroup.com.
John Corcoran: 33:16
Some gorgeous photography on your channel. So definitely go check that out for Arzays. Thanks so much. Thank you John.
Outro: 33:27
Thanks for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast. We’ll see you again next time, and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.