Think Like an Owner

My guest for this episode is Kaustubh Deo. Kaustubh recently acquired a tree service business in Seattle through a self-funded search after working in private equity in New York. I've had the pleasure of getting to know Kaustubh over the last two years and have found him to be one of the most insightful thinkers in the search space.

A good portion of our conversation focuses on concepts like risk-reward and making transitions, topics he has given a lot of thought. Throughout our discussion, we talk about the differences operating in large private equity compared to in small companies, loosening his deal-breaker list, effectively investing his time learning the new business, and YouTube strategy for the tree service industry.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Links:

Kaustubh Deo on LinkedIn

Blooma Tree Experts

Guilty of Treeson on YouTube

SingleOps & the Green Industry Perspectives Podcast

Topics:

(4:24) - Would you ever get on YouTube?

(5:43) - Why don't tree-climbers gravitate toward W2's?

(8:21) - What's your main recruiting base?

(10:49) - Are you seeing any tree service content creation outside of YouTube and Instagram?

(11:48) - How did you end up in the world of tree services?

(14:02) - How did you decide to focus on the Seattle market?

(17:31) - What was your deal process like?

(19:13) - Thoughts on Deal-breakers in search

(22:40) - The deal experience in private equity vs. small business acquisitions

(26:15) - What are some ways you tried to learn about the company's culture without interacting with the employees?

(31:12) - What are some ways you are looking to improve communication with customers?

(37:34) - What's your transition been like actually running the business?

(41:15) - How helpful has it been seeing customer interactions first-hand?

(43:10) - The differences in operations for private equity acquisitions vs. small businesses

(46:40) - Do you have any advice for people in Search?

(48:42) - What were your personal preferences when you started your search and how did those change over time?

(52:30) - What growth goals do you have for the next 10 years?

(54:58) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything?

(57:08) - How do you determine the risk vs. reward balance in a decision?

(58:59) - What's a strongly held belief you've changed your mind on?

(1:01:51) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

My guest on this episode is Alex Mears. Alex started his career in investment banking and consulting before leaving for the Navy and eventually returning to private equity at the Carlyle Group. Two years ago, Alex launched a non-profit called Search and Acquire to support veterans pursuing search. And he just recently announced a search investment firm he's co-founded called the Brydon Group to invest in searchers from all backgrounds.

I've really enjoyed getting to know Alex over the last few years. I always appreciate his ability to take concepts from the military and large-cap private equity and apply them to our own lives and careers. He's a wealth of knowledge, and I've been excited to record an episode with him for a while. Alex and I kick things off by talking about the causes of failure in search, why you should always invert due diligence, best practices from large-cap private equity, and how to run software and government services businesses.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Links:

The Brydon Group

Alex Mears on LinkedIn

Topics:

(4:32) - What are some major causes of failure in Search?

(10:17) - What are some interesting strategies you've seen used to maintain a healthy pipeline while in a live deal?

(11:52) - Phase 2 failures & the period of greatest risk in a search transaction

(15:56) - Alex's background and career

(18:11) - Why did you join the military?

(20:12) - What were some of your learnings and best practices from working in Large Cap Private Equity?

(24:56) - Why are you investing in government services businesses?

(27:13) - How do you pair government services with your search model that emphasizes customer diversification?

(30:09) - What are some KPIs in government that Government Services Business CEOs need to pay attention to?

(31:58) - How do you find out if there are tailwinds and what the government will be spending more money on?

(32:56) - What is inverting in due diligence?

(34:50) - What are some of the best and worst traits in veterans as business leaders?

(36:19) - Are there certain business models veterans outperform in?

(37:23) - How can Brydon be a better supporter of Searchers?

(41:29) - What has been the investor appetite for Search over the past 5 years?

(43:15) - What were the values you spent a lot of time working on?

(45:03) - Brydon's Entrepreneur & Residence Program

(53:23) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything?

(55:22) - What's a strongly held belief you've changed your mind on?

(56:55) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

My guest on this episode is Tony Layne. I met Tony and his wife Cassi at SMBash in February after several folks strongly recommended I talk with them and I'm glad they did. Tony and Cassi are lifelong entrepreneurs in various ventures, but by far, their most successful venture is Senior Dental Care, now called Aria Care Partners under private equity ownership.

Senior Dental Care started as a mobile dental services company for senior care homes and evolved to partner with insurance companies to pay for their services on behalf of patients through Medicare, meaning it didn't cost patients a dime to get dental care. Once the insurance aspect clicked, this business exploded, and it's created life changing financial results for them both.

Our discussion is very story-based as we go through Tony and Cassi's journey, which is fantastic as their story is anything but dull, boring, and smooth, which brings me to a point about challenges. At the end of the episode, Tony said he was concerned that he'd talked about too many near death experiences in their business, but I feel these stories are perhaps the most important to share.

When we hear stories of successful entrepreneurs today, they rarely share failures and hardships endured during the path to success, and that makes other growing entrepreneurs think that they're failures when they hit a rough patch. Sharing near death experiences in entrepreneurship is incredibly important as it demonstrates that hardship is normal, even for those that become successful. I hope Tony sharing his near-death experiences encourages others on this podcast and others to share the same.

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Links:

Tony on LinkedIn

Lynniam Farms

Topics:

(6:07) - Tony's background and career in Real Estate, construction & dental health care

(32:50) - Being extorted by the state of Florida

(37:08) - Butting heads with the board

(40:39) - Growing their business and growing their family

(44:31) - Acquiring an 1,800 acre property that would become Lynniam Farms & selling off the dental business

(54:22) - Stepping away as CEO and getting into the transactional side of the business

(56:31) - Setting up a Family Office

(58:46) - Do you want to spend more time working with traditional searchers?

(1:00:13) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything?

(1:01:28) - What's a strongly held belief you've changed your mind on?

(1:02:46) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

My guest on this episode is Tom Birchard. Tom has spent a great portion of his career managing service and operations teams for Ingersoll Rand and Trane, and as of March 2022, has taken a president role with a family office to acquire home services businesses. The family office is Whitney Wilder and it's technically a multifamily office based in St. Petersburg, Florida, that operates like a private equity firm, but without a fund, giving them lots of flexibility, investments, and timelines. The office was formed after some successful real estate investments and their next move is acquiring home services businesses with Tom leading that new effort.

Tom and I discuss managing projects and teams, getting to know a new team and designing successful transitions, how to handle having an iPad thrown at you, and involving family more in your career, among other team management topics. Enjoy.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Links:

Tom's Blog

Whitney Wilder Family Office

The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins

Brent Beshore

Buy Then Build by Walker Deibel

Searchfunder.com

The Effective Manager by Mark Horstman

Topics:

(4:44) - Tom's career and background

(6:36) - What does IR & Train do?

(7:59) - Tom's transition into family office & different roles he's held during his career

(10:23) - What were some common themes you saw in successfully managing teams of different sizes?

(11:42) - How would you define the management role as the size of the team differs?

(13:44) - Are there nuances in managing teams with different missions?

(16:16) - How do you think about improving as a manager and getting feedback from your team?

(19:30) - How do you encourage teams to give genuine feedback?

(22:07) - What have you learned about managing difficult transitions?

(24:21) - What are some effective ways to build relationships with key team members early on in a new management role?

(27:15) - How do you start working on the early wins to build trust with your team?

(29:53) - How do you approach a team member who isn't pulling their weight and determine whether it's a firing vs. training solution?

(32:04) - Where did you get your interest in SMB?

(35:38) - How did you bring your wife into these decisions?

(38:38) - Do you involve owner's families when potentially acquiring a company?

(40:45) - What college class would you teach if it could be on anything?

(41:41) - What's a strongly held belief you've changed your mind on?

(43:41) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

My guest on this episode is Ryan Turk. Ryan raised a traditional search fund in March 2020 and closed on Radiation Detection Company only nine months later in December 2020. Prior to searching, Ryan served in the Navy aboard nuclear submarine USS Michigan as an officer managing their onboard nuclear power system.

Ryan used this experience to launch his impressively short industry focused search. Ryan and I talk about the pros and cons of being from the Navy prior to becoming a CEO, his thoughts on industry focus versus broad searches, establishing credibility and building relationships in a new team, and how his board has been helpful along with other advice to folks working with boards. Enjoy.

Links:

Ryan on LinkedIn

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin

Radiation Detection Company

Topics:

(5:26) - Ryan's background and career in the Navy before RDC

(9:28) - What were some key sales skills you learned working for a startup?

(10:58) - How did you go about the process of developing your Cap Table?

(12:50) - How did you decide your industry focus?

(18:13) - Once you had a targeted industry focus, how did you reach out to different companies?

(20:13) - How fast was it from Fundraise to close?

(20:26) - What does RDC do?

(21:57) - How did you build relationships with the most influential people on your team?

(27:27) - Were there any challenges with the fact that you were taking over a 3rd generation family business?

(30:18) - What have you found is most helpful in communicating that painful growth is best for the employees in the long term?

(33:24) - How did your time in the military affect how you look at job progression and giving people more responsibility?

(38:32) - What were some blind spots you developed while in the military?

(43:44) - How have you leaned on your board?

(45:43) - How did you develop your board?

(48:13) - What advice would you offer to searchers looking to create a board?

(52:35) - What college course would you teach if it could be on anything?

(54:56) - What's a strongly held belief you've changed your mind on?

(57:01) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

My guest on this episode is Preston Holland. Preston is the COO of FLYING Magazine, which was purchased in July 2021 by Craig Fuller and has been going through a broad transformation to a modern media business.

Preston and I became friends over our mutual love of aviation and media, and our conversations are always wide ranging and leave me with a new idea or view of the world. I'm very excited to share today's episode on niche media and publishing.

Over the course of our discussion, we talk all things print publishing, why your favorite magazines aren't what they used to be, why the print is dead narrative is misleading, FLYING's fly in community plans, how to grow an editorial team, and aviation puns. Enjoy.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Links:

Preston on LinkedIn

Preston on Twitter

Flying Magazine

Watch: Flying into Oshkosh

Alpine Airpark

Topics:

(5:03) - Preston's career leading up to Flying Magazine

(7:15) - Are you a pilot now?

(8:51) - What's the culture like at Flying?

(14:28) - What was the process like of acquiring Flying from Bonnier?

(17:45) - What were some new directions Flying needed to take to become a more modern publication?

(23:31) - Why isn't print publication dying out?

(30:07) - How did you think about the different products that Flying could offer?

(34:32) - Is there a plan to build more of these fly-in communities?

(41:10) - How did you transform the Flying team since the acquisition?

(44:34) - What have been some challenges or growing pains you've experienced?

(46:37) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything?

(47:48) - What's a strongly held belief you've changed your mind on?

(49:34) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

My guest on this episode is David Dodson. David started the second ever search fund after being a Stanford case writer, purchasing Smith Alarm Systems in 1989. Over his career, David has been the CEO or executive chairman of five companies, has and continues to invest in search funds today through his firm Futaleufu Partners, and he is a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, teaching classes about search and the management of small companies.

My conversation with David starts with his time as a case writer before launching his search fund. We talk about peaks and valleys in his search career, including some very hard conversations. We dive deep into the topic of transitioning from a contributor to a leader of a small firm and important leadership skills.

We also talk about how the search fund world has evolved over time and where it might continue to change in the future. Finally, we talk about the relationships searchers have with their investors and how to foster better ones. I've been really excited to have David on the podcast for quite a while, and I hope you enjoy our wide-ranging conversation.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Links:

David on LinkedIn

Futaleufu Partners

Topics:

(5:26) - David's background and career

(9:21) - What sticks out to you the most when thinking back on getting someone to write you a check?

(12:11) - Once you had the capital, what did you do to search for companies?

(13:43) - What were some of the more stressful calls you had with owner/operators?

(15:03) - David's experience acquiring & running Smith Alarm Systems

(19:06) - How did you approach your first 18 months as the new owner?

(23:50) - The 5 skills of Leadership

(29:11) - What are some examples of early prioritization as a leader?

(31:42) - How do you advise making the transition from being a contributor to one organization to being a leader of your own organization?

(34:46) - What are some common struggles folks have when they become a manager of managers?

(38:48) - What have been some "near-death experiences" in your career?

(45:16) - Are there any exercises you try to do to put your mind at a pause when you're making a critical decision?

(47:41) - What are some ways you've seen the Search Fund world change throughout your career?

(51:11) - Are there too many searchers?

(53:00) - What advice do you have for searchers to build relationships with their investor base?

(56:26) - What college course would you teach if it could be on anything?

(58:22) - What's a strongly held belief you've changed your mind on?

(1:00:15) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

My guest on this episode is Glenn Gonzales. Glenn is the founder and CEO of Jet It, a fractional share private jet business with a unique model serving customers across the country and in Europe. Prior to founding Jet It, Glenn was an F-15 pilot in the Air Force and sold private jets on behalf of Gulfstream and Honda.

This episode is a deep dive into all options available for business owners who want to fly private. If you want to explore private travel options, fly private more frequently, or even buy an aircraft directly to make your business and personal travel more efficient, this episode is for you. We talk about high level benefits to flying private and what factors to consider when evaluating your options. We walk through each of the four core private travel models – charter, jet cards, fractional ownership, direct ownership – along with their pros and cons and what kind of person or business each is meant for.

After diving into each model, we talk about how Glenn's company Jet It fits into the private travel ecosystem and where that ecosystem is headed in the future. Finally, I ask him what it is like flying an F-15. I hope you enjoy this episode and find it useful for deciding how you and your business can utilize private travel in the near future.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Links:

Glenn on LinkedIn

Jet It

NetJets

Topics:

(5:04) - Glenn's background in aviation and military career

(6:41) - Do you have any favorite memories from your days in aviation sales?

(8:27) - What are the different breakdowns of customers who would buy a place directly?

(10:22) - Where does someone get started in exploring private aviation?

(12:54) - What are the broad pros and cons of flying private?

(18:25) - Glenn's rule of them for business owners considering flying private

(20:29) - Private aviation models: Chartering & Jet Cards

(24:26) - The state of Jet Cards as an industry

(25:41) - Costs within Chartering and Jet Card

(27:07) - Private aviation models: Factional Ownership

(29:32) - Pricing within Factional Ownership

(33:48) - Yearly income needed before considering direct ownership of a plane

(35:12) - How does JetIt fit into the ecosystem of private aviation?

(39:05) - Does JetIt help arrange transportation after landing?

(40:31) - Have you faced any near-death experiences in building your business?

(42:17) - How do you hire and recruit folks?

(43:46) - What do you think the private aviation landscape will look like in 10 years?

(46:03) - How can private aviation become more affordable?

(48:05) - How much does an electric plane drop the cost of a flight?

(51:01) - What college class would you teach if it could be anything?

(51:37) - What strongly held belief have you changed your mind on?

(53:32) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

(54:10) - Who are some aviation entrepreneurs that you admire?

(58:26) - What are some differences between flying a Honda Jet and the F-15?

Welcome to the first episode in our trilogy search partner series with great entrepreneurs and investors from the traditional search world. Today, I am joined by Nikita Sunilkumar and Kush Das who both search and acquired home healthcare businesses through the traditional search process. Kush acquired Ennoble Care and works as a CEO today. Nikita acquired Crown Health in June 2020 and, in fact, just recently sold in early 2022.

Both Nikita and Kush are fantastically talented entrepreneurs, as well as being friends which will be apparent as you listen to the episode. Their combined experience offers a great lens into what acquiring and operating a healthcare business looks like today and how to succeed.

During our conversation, we talk about search interest in healthcare, different subcategories of health care, value-based trends, challenges and diligence, talent management, changes from COVID, and so much more. Please enjoy this first trilogy search episode.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Links:

Crown Health

Ennoble Care

Nikita on LinkedIn

Kush on LinkedIn

Planet - Daily Satellite Data

Topics:

(10:07) - Nikita and Kush's Backgrounds

(14:05) - Nikita and Kush's businesses: Ennoble Care & Crown Health

(18:10) - Can you explain what value-based care means and the implications for both of your businesses?

(21:40) - Are there challenges behind running a value-based healthcare company?

(24:38) - What are some challenges running this kind of business model without the scale behind it?

(26:29) - What is the team management dynamic like in your businesses?

(29:33) - What does it take to find really great people to plug into your company?

(33:13) - Have there been any challenges or benefits with increased remote patient monitoring since the pandemic?

(40:21) - How have you approached Revenue cycle management?

(43:29) - How have you seen Health Care in Search become more or less popular?

(47:35) - What are some challenges or mistakes searchers make in diligence health care businesses?

(52:53) - What were some pandemic-related changes you saw in your respective businesses?

(58:13) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything?

(1:01:30) - What's a strongly held belief you've changed your mind on?

(1:03:22) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

My guests on this episode are Michael Curry and Keith Burns who together have acquired 11 diagnostic radiation and other physics services businesses since 2014 through their platform Apex Physics Partners.

This episode is loaded with wisdom and insights. I had a number of alternative titles I considered based on quotes for the conversation like "the CEO of Delta doesn't know how to fly" or "putting out fires with your face." Ultimately, earning the right to lead felt right as we talk extensively about their experience being first-time CEOs in an industry they had no background in, but through it all, they've managed to build an impressive track record at Apex with an ever-growing team.

Over the course of this episode, we discuss the concept of the messy middle between the start and ultimate success of a business, signal versus noise and learning about the company you've acquired, how to know you're a good leader, letting go of control, and building a culture that grows. Enjoy.

Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

Links:

Keith Burns on LinkedIn

Michael Curry on LinkedIn

Apex Physics Partners

Seneca Creek

Kruger Gilbert Health Physics

The Hard thing about Hard things by Ben Horowitz

Topics:

(5:07) - Michael & Keith's backgrounds

(11:19) - What does a medical physics business look like?

(15:19) - Learning about what you actually bought vs. what you think you bought

(20:17) - Earning the right to lead

(22:33) - How did you figure out where you needed to invest your efforts in repairing relationships with the team?

(28:07) - How do you interpret the "messy middle" of acquiring a business?

(33:14) - Are there key memories where you felt like things were turning in your favor?

(39:33) - Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.

(42:34) - How do you let go of people who aren't a good fit yet are embedded within a small company?

(48:27) - How did you approach hiring people who were smarter than you and giving them control?

(56:14) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything?

(54:45) - What strongly held belief have you changed your mind on?

(59:40) - What's the best business you've ever seen?