Ira Riklis

Taking on the inspiring business model of his father, Ira Riklis is actively investing in a number of startups while he propels his current ventures forward. From new media tech to SaaS, Ira has provided funding for a number of startups.

One of his most successful ventures is C.O.P.S Monitoring, where Ira Riklis is the CEO. C.O.P.S. Monitoring has experienced exponential growth over the past 10 years and is growing at a faster rate in 2015 than ever before.

Currently in his 2nd stage of philanthropy, Ira Riklis is never shy to give away and contribute. He selflessly donates to charities around NYC. He makes sure that his donations are made in such a way that helps non-profits grow and succeed. He will often at times help charitable institutions establish and continue funding till other entities are willing to lend a hand.

Ira Riklis has a huge business network that expands from financial institutions, to entrepreneurs, mergers and lobbyists. His network has Ira travelling almost all the time, not that he doesn’t love to travel. He is also managing a travel blog of his own where he shares his experiences from around the world. Ira currently lives in New York with his wife of 42 years.

Ira Riklis is a double alumnus from University of Pennsylvania. He pursued his BS in Economics from the Wharton School and later did his MBA with a specialization in Mergers and Acquisitions.

He started off his carrier by making ties with multiple business entities as an investor, like the BusTV, Buyer Leverage, and Asset Alliance. Later on, as the CEO of COPS Monitoring, Ira Riklis turned a small security company into one of the leading authorities in its industry. COPS Monitoring now offers services to one out of every four alarm companies in the US.

Coming for a strong background in finance, Ira has the ability to optimize businesses to turn revenue generators that have losses into profitable businesses. He has an innate ability to identify the winning horse in a business model, while divesting companies of areas that are causing losses.

Ira has always been a prolific reader and has studied the annals of history, with a focus on successful entrepreneurs. Ira's father also had a great impact on his outlooks in business. Having grown up in the household of a very successful businessman, Ira experienced first hand what it is like to buy and sell companies. Leveraging these experiences has helped Ira throughout his entire career.

Ira Riklis plans to expand his business and develop new business entities that play a pivotal role in giving back to the society. He is a workaholic but doesn’t plan to miss out on opportunities to connect with his family or children. Ira also plans to setup many charity organizations to play his role in eradicating poverty from around the world.

Additionally Ira is actively investing a number of internet based startups through Sutherland Capital. Ira looks for great people that have business plans that have mass scale ability.

One of Ira's recent investments is in an exciting News Media startup that has the ability to revolutionize the PR Industry. Up until 2015, if a company wanted to launch an article in the news they would typically hire a PR firm to pitch the media. The company that Ira invested in has created technology that allows brands to pitch the media direct through software that the media licenses to receive pitches.

If the pitch is picked up and written, the brand pays the publisher directly. The publisher then in return writes the story and launches it in the news section of the website. From there users can distribute the story to millions of people and measure the success of the story. And without Ira Riklis, this business idea would have never become a reality.

As a final note here, Ira is constantly traveling for business and would prefer to travel less so he could see his family more. In the future, Ira is working toward hiring protégés that take over the certain operational functions of his business so he would be required to travel less.