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Three Failed Partnerships and a Surrender Moment: How Rick Thomas Built First Generation Advisors
🎙️ Exit Planning Theater and the Truth Below the Waterline: Rick Thomas on What Most M&A Advisors Won’t Tell Founders
Rick Thomas, founder of First Generation Advisors in Washougal, Washington, grew up crossing borders before he could ride a bike — through Venezuela and West Africa as part of a family Peace Corps program — and spent his adult life watching what people do when there’s no safety net. He carried that lens through 13 years in manufacturing, through leadership consulting, financial advising, and three failed partnerships that eventually led to a surrender moment on his knees, alone, that changed everything. Today he works with lower middle market founder-led businesses on growth strategy, exit readiness, and the things no one on the deal team will tell you about selling a company you built with your life.
✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:
What growing up in Liberia and Venezuela taught Rick about joy, contingency, and the human condition stripped bare
Why Rick calls most exit planning ‘theater’ — and who is actually being served by it
Confirmation bias in M&A: how cocktail napkin valuations hijack founder decision-making
Why the highest transaction value is often the wrong choice — and what gets left off the balance sheet
What happens to founders emotionally after the sale and why most are never warned about it
The iceberg analogy: what the M&A world sees versus the 90% of the founder experience that’s underwater
Why three failed partnerships were all the same lesson in different clothing
The surrender moment in 2007 — down to $1,000 a month, marriage in counseling, everything at risk
The wood pile principle: what a country boy from North Dakota taught Rick about building anything
How Rick is now building AI agents to grow First Generation Advisors while working fewer hours
🌟 Rick’s Key Mentors:
His Mother (Puerto Rican, Bridge Between Worlds): Gave Rick his first experience of cultural duality and the resourcefulness that comes with it
His Country Boy Business Partner (Manufacturing): Introduced the wood pile principle — leave it higher than when you started, every single day
Portia Nelson (Author, My Life in Five Chapters): Her poem on recovery gave Rick language for the cycle he kept repeating with failed partnerships
His Wife: Stayed through the hardest years, the counseling, the near-bankruptcy, the reinvention — the only partner who never left
His M&A Strategic Partners at Pilot Wealth: Introduced him to the world of exit advising through a 2012 conflict resolution project that changed the trajectory of his business
👉 Don’t miss this conversation about the difference between a transaction and a transformation, why smart founders get outmaneuvered by advisors who see their exit as a capital placement event, and how a man who watched children play soccer with a milk jug for a ball came to understand what actually matters.
🔗 Connect with Rick Thomas:
Website: firstgenadvisors.net
LinkedIn: Rick Thomas — First Generation Advisors
📎 Transcript Available: Three Failed Partnerships and a Surrender Moment: How Rick Thomas Built First Generation Advisors
📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast
🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast
📎 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com
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By Anthony Codispoti🎙️ Exit Planning Theater and the Truth Below the Waterline: Rick Thomas on What Most M&A Advisors Won’t Tell Founders
Rick Thomas, founder of First Generation Advisors in Washougal, Washington, grew up crossing borders before he could ride a bike — through Venezuela and West Africa as part of a family Peace Corps program — and spent his adult life watching what people do when there’s no safety net. He carried that lens through 13 years in manufacturing, through leadership consulting, financial advising, and three failed partnerships that eventually led to a surrender moment on his knees, alone, that changed everything. Today he works with lower middle market founder-led businesses on growth strategy, exit readiness, and the things no one on the deal team will tell you about selling a company you built with your life.
✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:
What growing up in Liberia and Venezuela taught Rick about joy, contingency, and the human condition stripped bare
Why Rick calls most exit planning ‘theater’ — and who is actually being served by it
Confirmation bias in M&A: how cocktail napkin valuations hijack founder decision-making
Why the highest transaction value is often the wrong choice — and what gets left off the balance sheet
What happens to founders emotionally after the sale and why most are never warned about it
The iceberg analogy: what the M&A world sees versus the 90% of the founder experience that’s underwater
Why three failed partnerships were all the same lesson in different clothing
The surrender moment in 2007 — down to $1,000 a month, marriage in counseling, everything at risk
The wood pile principle: what a country boy from North Dakota taught Rick about building anything
How Rick is now building AI agents to grow First Generation Advisors while working fewer hours
🌟 Rick’s Key Mentors:
His Mother (Puerto Rican, Bridge Between Worlds): Gave Rick his first experience of cultural duality and the resourcefulness that comes with it
His Country Boy Business Partner (Manufacturing): Introduced the wood pile principle — leave it higher than when you started, every single day
Portia Nelson (Author, My Life in Five Chapters): Her poem on recovery gave Rick language for the cycle he kept repeating with failed partnerships
His Wife: Stayed through the hardest years, the counseling, the near-bankruptcy, the reinvention — the only partner who never left
His M&A Strategic Partners at Pilot Wealth: Introduced him to the world of exit advising through a 2012 conflict resolution project that changed the trajectory of his business
👉 Don’t miss this conversation about the difference between a transaction and a transformation, why smart founders get outmaneuvered by advisors who see their exit as a capital placement event, and how a man who watched children play soccer with a milk jug for a ball came to understand what actually matters.
🔗 Connect with Rick Thomas:
Website: firstgenadvisors.net
LinkedIn: Rick Thomas — First Generation Advisors
📎 Transcript Available: Three Failed Partnerships and a Surrender Moment: How Rick Thomas Built First Generation Advisors
📺 Watch on YouTube: Inspired Stories Podcast
🌐 Our Website: The Inspired Stories Podcast
📎 Special Thanks to Anthony Codispoti & AddBack Benefits Agency: Providing innovative employee benefits solutions that improve employee well-being while optimizing your bottom line. Website: addbackbenefits.com