Cody Shirk

About Cody Shirk

Before Cody Shirk started down the private investing path, he heard the spiel we all get constantly…

“Get a steady job, save up, invest cautiously, and you’ll be set for life.”

He heard these pitches over and over when he was a professional firefighter at a Class 1 department in Los Angeles. Financial experts would stop by the fire station and explain all the creative ways the firefighters could stretch their paychecks.

These same experts, who knew so much about investing, would spend their entire day driving from fire station to fire station to share their message.

Cody remembers thinking to himself, “If these experts know so much, why are they driving around all day talking to firefighters instead of sitting on some tropical island counting their money?”

We all know the answer to that question. The vast majority of financial experts are just repeating a message they have been told. They haven’t actually gone out into the world to figure things out for themselves.

That’s totally understandable. Going out into the wild is terrifying. Sticking to a secure job that provides a steady paycheck is much, much safer.

But Cody wanted more than that. He wanted life-changing returns. Cody wanted to make investments that would completely transform the way he lived…

And that’s exactly what he did.

In his early 20s, Cody was a collegiate water polo player and then a firefighter. As a firefighter, he was trained as a hazardous materials specialist and arson investigator, and then was detailed to an advanced life support Type 1 fire engine.

While he was still a firefighter, he traveled on his days off to invest in private companies in foreign countries. Because of federal accredited investor rules, his only option to participate in early-stage private companies was to find opportunities outside of the U.S.

Since then, Cody has traveled to over 75 countries and executed investment transactions in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. Along the way, he has learned many lessons firsthand (many of those lessons being particularly expensive and painful!).

After getting an investing education from the school of hard knocks, he launched Explorer Equity Group, which targeted global emerging trends. At EEG, he raised and deployed millions of dollars across industries such as biotech, cannabis, real estate, transportation, construction tech, and psychedelics.

Cody has been a speaker at investing events in China, Germany, Italy, Peru, the United Kingdom, Panama, Colombia, Canada, Chile, and Mexico, and in many major cities throughout the United States. These experiences have created a vast network of contacts throughout the world that he still keeps in touch with today.

Through this massive network of entrepreneurs and investors, Cody has gained access to many early-stage private investments that have gone on to become publicly traded “unicorn” companies.

Currently living full time in Florida, Cody now almost exclusively focuses on U.S.-based private investment opportunities. His experience with international investments has shown him directly how incredible American entrepreneurs are.

In addition to investing, Cody has also founded several companies in the cannabis and psychedelics space that have gone to get acquired.

When not investing or building companies, he can be found in the ocean surfing with his son and daughter.