What do Grammy-winning songwriting credits, merchant cash advances for the Latino community, and a reverse merger into the OTC markets have in common? They're all part of Yoel Damas' story — and it's one you won't forget.

In this episode of The Deal Podcast, Joshua Wilson sits down with Yoel Damas — entertainment attorney, Grammy-credited songwriter, and now CEO of a publicly traded revenue-based finance company targeting underserved communities. Yoel breaks down how a chance conversation led him from the music business into the world of merchant cash advances, how he spotted a massive gap in capital access for Latino and minority-owned businesses, and how a random meeting about a vodka brand became the catalyst for a reverse merger into the OTC markets. He's now pursuing a NASDAQ uplisting, and he holds nothing back about what he'd do differently.

Topics Covered:

• How the music industry changed from radio gatekeepers to Spotify playlists
• Why artists lose money without proper paperwork — and how Yoel fixed that
• The story behind landing an Apple distribution deal in 2006* when 'it was impossible'
• How a colleague's tip led Yoel to invest in merchant cash advances
• Why Latinos and gig economy workers were underserved in revenue-based finance
• What a reverse merger actually looks like from the inside
• OTC shell companies — the pros, cons, and honest lessons learned
• The filed NASDAQ application and uplisting process*
• His father's decade in a Cuban political prison — and why that shapes everything
• What Yoel wishes he'd done differently before going public

*2006 (corrected post-recording).

*Update since recording: Audits for the 2023 and 2024 periods have been completed and publicly announced, and a confidential DRS S-1 has been filed.

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Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuadwilson/

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