Brian Paes-Braga: 28 Year Old CEO of Lithium-X on Meeting Frank Giustra and Building a $100M Lithium Company
At just 28 years of age, Brian Paes-Braga is the CEO of Lithium-X, which has gone from a market cap of $5 million to over $100 million. This is despite the fact that the company only started trading roughly seven months ago.
Brian and his cofounder and mentor Frank Giustra developed a recipe for success, being respectful to your share structure, not diluting and obtaining world class assets. These are three ingredients he believes are at the core of Lithium-X’s success. The improved economic climate in Argentina has also helped greatly at the same time the price of lithium has risen more than 3 fold!
Storage of erratic green power sources are key to the switch to green technology, this along with the massive rise of Elon Musk’s Tesla electric car company is driving ever increasing demand.
We also wanted to ask Brian the difficult questions surrounding lithium. Does the entire boom rest on the shoulders’ of one man – Elon Musk? With a 4X rise in lithium prices, does upside still exist? How to deal with the roughly 100 new entrants into the space? Is that not indicative of the bursting point of a bubble?
Talking points from this week’s interview:
• Lithium demand being driven by electric vehicles
• Lithium demand set to soar
• What is next for Lithium-X?
• Why Lithium price is not a major factor in battery price
• Goldman-Sachs called lithium the new gasoline
Brian has spent almost a decade in the international financial sector working with firms ranging in services from underwriting, mergers and acquisitions, asset management, venture capital and private equity. He has held various positions focused on deal origination and capital raising including VP of Retail Sales of a Canadian Broker Dealer as well as Managing Director of a Boutique Merchant Bank. Brian advises and invests in real estate along with many public and private companies across multiple industries, where he is able to apply his passion for entrepreneurship and depth of experience in venture capital. Brian is also a Board Member of Community First Foundation, which focuses on childhood hunger in the Vancouver, Canada area through its program Backpack Buddies.