Think Like an Owner

Ep.226: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by A.J. Wasserstein.

My guest on this episode is A.J. Wasserstein. Early in his career, A.J. founded Archives One, a physical records management business he operated as CEO for 17 years before selling to Iron Mountain. He then acquired One Source Water, which was eventually sold to Water Logic in 2016. He then began teaching at Yale School of Management where he has written ad nauseam about nearly every topic within growing and running small companies and search funds. His writings are my go-to resource for many questions and business concepts I want to learn more about, and I'm quick to recommend them to others.

A.J. and I talk about being a professor and how to get involved if you'd like to teach, why students do not pursue entrepreneurship through acquisition and work-life integration as CEO, a topic A.J. has written and thought very deeply about, among other topics. Please enjoy this fantastic conversation with AJ Wasserstein.

Links:

More on A.J. Wasserstein

The Judd Lorson story by A.J. Wasserstein

Why MBA Students Do Not Pursue Entrepreneurship through Acquisition by A.J. Wasserstein

How CEOs actually spend their time? by A.J. Wasserstein

Topics:

(3:14) - What made you excited to publish a paper covering an unsuccessful search?

(4:26) - Is it a conscious part of your process to present both sides of an issue in your writing?

(5:45) - What was your experience like going from a CEO to academia?

(8:39) - What were some challenges you faced as a CEO?

(13:49) - In your experience, did you find your workload felt reduced as you grew different departments?

(15:20) - Is work-life integration as a CEO possible?

(18:03) - Are there any CEOs you know who have achieved this balance?

(19:39) - What do you think about the ROI of your time spent as an investor, professor, and content creator via research papers?

(25:52) - You said it takes 5 years to be a successful CEO, would you say it takes the same amount of time as a professor?

(27:04) - What are some best practices for being an effective professor?

(30:20) - What moments as a professor bring you the most joy?

(32:02) - How do you help students think by asking them questions?

(34:25) - For someone selling their business, how would you recommend testing out the waters of academia?

(37:59) - What were some interesting observations you saw in students after they went through the Search Fund curriculum?

(43:20) - For students wanting to pursue Search, what roles were most effective in helping them feel ready

(48:41) - Do you want to turn your papers into a book one day?

(49:55) - Do you find any consistent themes in your writing?

(52:15) - Do you get the sense more folks are thinking about work-life integration than ever before?

(55:18) - What strongly held belief have you changed your mind on?

(57:42) - What's the best business you've ever seen?

Ep.225: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Anthony Bramante (@AnthonyBramante).

My guest today is Anthony Bramante who leads In Control, an automation control systems integrator primarily serving water and wastewater facilities at small and medium-sized towns across the Northern Midwest. Control systems aren't exactly top of mind for me every day, but after chatting with Anthony I'm seeing them everywhere and realizing how integral they are to our daily lives.

Anthony and I talk about example control systems, the importance of cybersecurity and how vulnerable our water infrastructure truly is, how add-on acquisitions play into their growth strategy, recruiting from college campuses, and designing effective internship programs.

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

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

In Control

Anthony on LinkedIn

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:26) - A walkthrough of InControl

(00:06:29) - Anthony's career

(00:09:15) - What are your control systems doing at various facilities?

(00:12:08) - What are some origin points for new customers?

(00:18:02) - How have you built a positive reputation?

(00:19:32) - How do you find talent?

(00:22:52) - What goes into a great intern program?

(00:25:39) - Where should your salespeople be spending time?

(00:27:30) - Does everything come down to the lowest bid?

(00:30:01) - Is there an M&A process with players in other markets?

(00:34:25) - What is your industry's infrastructure and cybersecurity state?

(00:41:37) - Could you expand to other municipal facilities?

(00:43:33) - Could you work with airports?

(00:44:31) - What ideas or challenges are your top of mind?

(00:48:37) - How much of your work can you standardize?

(00:50:25) - Is there any new technology you're excited about?

Ep. 224: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Godard Abel (@GodardAbel).

My guest is Godard Abel, founder and CEO of G2, an enterprise software marketplace that helps software buyers find the right software for their companies and key problems. G2 is the third company he has led as CEO, the first two being BigMachines, founded in 2000, and SteelBrick, founded in 2014.

We talk about lessons learned building all three companies, challenges he's currently facing, picking the right industries to build in, hiring talented people, and what trends in software and AI he's excited about today. There were also some fantastic books, blogs, and concepts mentioned in the podcast so be sure to catch those in the show notes.

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

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

Links:

G2

Godard on X

"Who" by Geoff Smart

"Behind the Cloud" by Marc Benioff

V2MOM

Dreamforce

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:27) - Sweating the details

(00:06:11) - Alternative data points to focus on

(00:08:05) - Measuring momentum

(00:13:11) - What extra data point do you want today that might be more challenging to get?

(00:14:55) - Are there legal issues in obtaining pricing data?

(00:17:32) - How do you pick what industry or market you want to build a company in with regard to enterprise software?

(00:21:25) - What trends are you paying attention to today?

(00:24:54) - How did you improve on your processes when building G2?

(00:29:46) - What have you learned from CEO peers of yours about maintaining cultures with large headcounts?

(00:32:23) - Are there any ingredients from your time at Salesforce that you apply to G2?

(00:34:22) - Are there more systematic ways to screen for culture and values in hiring?

(00:38:40) - What challenges do you have as you scale?

(00:42:13) - If you weren't running G2, what business would you be excited to run?

Ep. 223: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Rick Torres (@rick-torres).

My guest on this episode is Rick Torres, CEO and co-founder of Applikate Technologies, a digital pathology hardware and software business with a device that can examine tissue many multiples faster than traditional physical slide processes can today. I find this company fascinating given the life science and data element of the business and loved diving into the science behind pathology and how Applikate is making it so much more efficient.

Rick and I talk about the digitization of pathology, where efficiencies are gained through their platform, the process for FDA approval, and what Rick's learned building and leading teams as CEO.

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

Applikate

Rick on LinkedIn

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:52) - What is Applikate?

(00:13:41) - Labor dynamics for histology

(00:16:37) - Do you need to be a histotechnologist to use the machine?

(00:22:33) - What are the key benefits of this faster process?

(00:27:16) - Where are you storing tissue data and what is it used for?

(00:33:16) - What are the steps for gaining FDA approval?

(00:44:17) - How does this timeline affect recruiting?

(00:47:00) - What have you learned about managing and growing teams?

(00:50:47) - What advice has stuck with you most?

(00:52:11) - What skill are you working on improving?

(00:54:14) - What brings you energy?

(00:55:56) - Leadership philosophies

Ep. 222: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Dan Cremons (@DanCremons).

My guest today is Dan Cremons, author of Winning Moves, 105 Proven Ways to Create Value in Private Equity-Backed Companies, and founder of Accelera Partners where he focuses on helping private equity groups unlock people-powered value creation. Dan started at Alpine Investors for 12 years before leaving in 2021 to found Accelera, and his book is an incredibly thorough documentation of everything he learned about the private equity playbook and how it needs to evolve.

Dan and I talk about the five buckets of value creation and what the biggest drivers are, what great value creation looks like at a PE firm and company level, traps for first-time CEOs, and interviewing executives to make sure you have the right team in place.

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

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

→ Buy Dan's bestselling book on PE value creation - Link

→ Resources for private equity professionals – Link

→ Resources for PE-backed executives – Link

→ Connect with Dan on LinkedIn – Link

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:13) - Dan's career background and learnings from Alpine

(00:13:29) - How the Private Equity playbook has changed over time

(00:16:23) - What a 10/10 PE firm looks like

(00:25:40) - Categories of winning moves

(00:30:21) - What have been your biggest learnings about revenue growth?

(00:39:05) - First-time CEO traps

(00:46:36) - Identifying priorities

(00:53:39) - Alex's perspective on finding focus

(00:58:58) - Dan's formative experiences

(01:07:42) - Evaluating management teams

(01:15:36) - Upskilling team members

(01:20:02) - Winning the first few weeks in the CEO role

Ep.221: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Moises Eilemberg (@Meilemberg).

My guest is Moises Eilemberg, CEO of XiltriX, a 24-7 life science asset monitoring business that started 5 years ago with 36 employees today and growing swiftly. Moises is unique in that this is his second time as a CEO, his first being back in 2006 when he acquired a healthcare revenue cycle management company Avadyne, which he ran for 11 years before exiting, making 4 add-on acquisitions during that time.

Moises has a ton of experience to share leading teams, improving unit economics, building sales orgs, and managing the change that comes with integrating add-on acquisitions.

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

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

XiltriX

Moises on LinkedIn

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:20) - Moises' career & XiltriX

(00:07:02) - Becoming comfortable with the CEO role

(00:09:33) - When did you start acquiring companies?

(00:12:35) - How did your integration process change as you acquired more companies?

(00:22:14) - Is there a reason you chose to be in this industry?

(00:25:27) - What is the state of your market today?

(00:29:12) - Is the market fragmented to a point where there are M&A opportunities?

(00:31:40) - What's driving the biologics growth over the past few years?

(00:33:30) - What did you apply from your experience at Avadyne into XiltriX?

(00:36:44) - What was your experience setting Sales comps?

(00:42:57) - What levers have you used to improve unit economics?

My guest today is Tom Klein, former Morningside Co-CEO alongside recent podcast guest Roland Lessard. This episode with Tom acts as a part two pairing with our February episode with Roland where we talked about M&A value creation after close. Tom and I today discuss M&A value creation largely pre-close of add-ons, talking through industry selection, sourcing methodologies, industry knowledge snowballs, building a reputation, and working with lender partners. Tom has been involved in 12 M&A transactions across Morningside and his previous experience in background screening.

As an aside to you the listener, I'm really enjoying recent discussions on M&A value creation and consolidation strategies. If this is an expertise of yours or someone you know, I'd love to connect and chat more so please reach out.

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

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

Tom on LinkedIn

Greenwich Point Capital

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:37) - Deep focused search approaches vs. scattershot approaches

(00:11:18) - What numbers and measurements do you use when determining interest in an industry?

(00:20:42) - How do you think about proof of success when examining companies within an industry?

(00:28:29) - What are some of your favorite ways to research an industry?

(00:34:11) - What are the key characteristics of a business you need to see when acquiring?

(00:39:47) - What are some industries you were close to investing in but passed on?

(00:43:50) - What do you start looking for once you've finalized a platform acquisition?

(00:54:50) - What are some key questions you ask sellers?

(01:01:35) - What do you look for in lenders?

(01:18:30) - Advice for folks pursuing consolidation thesis'

The intersection of media and data has been the top idea on my mind for quite some time now. And my guest today, Craig Fuller, runs one of the best modern examples of this concept in action. FreightWaves, founded in 2016, is a media and data company focused on trucking, freight, supply chains, and all things logistics. To date, they have raised $91 million, will hit $42 million in revenue this year, split 55/45 between data and media, and have a valuation of between $300 and 400 million today.

Craig's work building FreightWaves has been an invaluable model for my work at HW Media as Chief of Staff with CEO Clayton Collins and the rest of our team. Conversations like this one have been instrumental in our discussions on the future of HW Media as an all-things housing media business. But we, and especially myself, also believe this model, this intersection of media and data can be a replicable strategy across industries.

The goal of my episode with Craig today was to better understand how media and data can work together to create transformative companies, and I'm grateful for Craig's willingness to share his experience and expertise. Throughout the episode, we talk about what data sets to focus on first in an industry and how to build around them, developing the product roadmap, the media data flywheel, hiring effective editorial and sales teams, and the investor perception of FreightWaves. Enjoy.

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

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

Craig on LinkedIn

FreightWaves

The Economics of Data Businesses by Abraham Thomas

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:05:08) - Why do media companies typically misunderstand 'data' and data companies?

(00:07:51) - How did the Media & Data arms of FreightWaves impact each other as you built this business?

(00:13:44) - When you think back about creating high-frequency data, how did you approach building it for FreightWaves?

(00:18:32) - Where has the bulk of your capital gone in building the company?

(00:28:02) - How do you think about expanding your data sets going forward?

(00:32:50 - Who is involved in your product development process?

(00:38:44) - How did you two sides of your business interact in the early days, and has that changed over time?

(00:50:12) - How do you attract high-quality talent?

(00:54:56) - How do you structure your sales teams? How do you think about pricing?

(01:02:01) - What's the investor perception of businesses running on Media & Data?

Ep. 218: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Henry Schuck (@HenryLSchuck).

My guest today is Henry Schuck, founder and CEO at ZoomInfo, one of the most successful data businesses in recent times with a market cap today around $12B. I've been looking forward to this podcast for a long time because Henry has proven to be an effective founder, acquirer, and public CEO capital allocator, which is a rare combination of skills to find in a single CEO. He's thought very deeply about building high performing organizations, sales functions, and how his own role needs to evolve as the company grows.

We talk through lessons learned building vs acquiring capabilities, M&A and integration lessons learned, fixing problems with a process vs culture approach, and how data businesses will succeed in the future

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

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

Zoominfo

Henry on X

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:03:49) - What would you focus on if you were running Boeing?

(00:07:26) - How have you seen other CEOs solve culture vs. process problems?

(00:12:47) - How do you approach hiring?

(00:20:28) - How can you incentivize employees to buy into company values?

(00:23:11) - What have you learned working with investors and other CEOs to be a great founder and M&A executive?

(00:26:52) - How do you incorporate new tools or partners into Zoominfo?

(00:33:53) - What have you learned about integrating acquired companies?

(00:36:24) - How do you get a conviction when doing due diligence on a potential acquisition?

(00:38:49) - What skills around M&A are you looking to improve?

(00:41:19) - How will data companies in the future succeed?

Ep.217: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Mike Stone (@michael-stone).

My guest today is Mike Stone, CEO of CertaPro Painters, the largest painting company in North America structured as a franchise with 370 owners across 500 territories and over $700m in revenue. Their goal is to become a $1B company shortly and a $2.5B revenue company by 2032. The painting industry is a $60B industry growing modestly and is highly fragmented, making this an interesting industry to explore given the lack of similarly-sized national competitors.

Mike and I talk about why the industry is so fragmented, the tailwinds behind the industry, what needs to evolve and grow to hit their growth goals, and how CertaPro builds a differentiated playbook within home services.

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

Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it.

Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N

Links:

Mike on LinkedIn

CertaPro

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:26) - Mike's path to the CEO of CertaPro

(00:09:16) - Meeting Herb Kelleher

(00:11:25) - Where does your company stand today among competition?

(00:13:14) - What is holding back your competition from scaling like you?

(00:14:54) - Is it faster growing under a franchise model?

(00:19:52) - Are there other consolidators chasing talent?

(00:22:37) - What has become harder as you've grown?

(00:26:59) - Successful meeting structures

(00:29:24) - What data do you value for marketing?

(00:32:22) - How does seasonality affect business?

(00:33:43) - What else do you need to build to scale to your goals?