Buyers and Builders

In this episode, I sit down with Pascal Levy-Garboua, a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and the founder of Noosa Labs. After making 140 venture capital investments, including seven unicorns, Pascal shifted his focus to acquiring and scaling small, profitable SaaS businesses under Noosa Labs. His next goal? Building a $50 million ARR portfolio with a 50% EBITDA margin. We dive into his journey—fro...

Meet Arie Scherson, co-founder of Bluedot Holdings, a fast-growing e-commerce and SaaS holding company with six portfolio businesses generating over $10 million in revenue. Arie started his journey as a YouTuber in his 20s, testing 15 different products before mastering Facebook Ads and scaling his first business. Through relentless experimentation, investing, and team-building, he has built a div...

Jeremy Giffon is one of the most interesting minds in business that almost no one knows about. As a former analyst at Tiny Capital, he played a key role in acquiring and operating dozens of companies—while staying almost completely out of the spotlight. His insights on capital allocation, holding companies, and finding asymmetric opportunities have made him a legend among those who pay attention....

Bruce Marks is a seasoned lender who has closed over $400M in deals, helping over 1,200 entrepreneurs acquire businesses using SBA loans. As Senior VP at First Bank of the Lake, Bruce specializes in financing small business acquisitions, search funds, and lower middle-market M&A transactions. Bruce doesn’t just finance deals—he knows what makes a buyer successful and what gets deals killed. In...

In this episode, we dive into the world of serial acquisitions with Niklas Savas, an analyst at Redeye, who has a unique perspective on the Swedish serial acquirers' approach. Addtech AB : Over 150 companies, $1.5B in revenue, $150M in operating profit. Lagercrantz Group AB : Around 40 companies, $500M in revenue, $50M in profit Lifco AB : Over 100 companies, $1B in revenue, $100M in profit T...

Today’s story is a huge reminder to not cancel out the troubled kid or the teen who doesn't have it all together. Just a down-to-earth success story (with all the drama, obstacles, grind and persistence for 90-min straight). Dustin Carreon’s journey is a testament to the power of reinvention and strategic thinking. He started with a business that had unpredictable revenue, but instead of acce...

Ben Little runs the #1 Zaxby’s franchise in the U.S. His company owns 14 locations, employs over 800 people, and generates more than $50M in annual revenue. Ben didn’t just buy into a franchise—he built a powerhouse. In this episode, we dive into what makes a top-performing franchisee, Ben’s approach to scaling, and how he structures deals and financing. We also cover the challenges of managing a...

Ryan Sullivan is a risk-conscious entrepreneur who stepped into business ownership in his late 40s, proving that it’s never too late to take the leap. As the co-founder of North Park Group, Ryan has been acquiring small legacy manufacturing businesses across the U.S., starting with a 100-year-old electrical component manufacturer in Wichita, Kansas, producing $700K in adjusted EBITDA. What began a...

Roman Khan is the co-founder of Peak21, a direct-to-consumer holding company that has scaled to an impressive $200 million in revenue—all while maintaining profitability. Together with his wife Jennifer, Roman has acquired 10 companies, building a diverse and thriving portfolio of DTC brands. In this episode, we dive into Roman’s entrepreneurial journey, including the challenges and strategies of...

Christopher Hillier is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in the employee benefits industry. He began his journey as the Co-Founder and President of Benefit Health Advisor, a full-service employee benefits brokerage based in Englewood, Colorado. In our conversation, we delve into Chris’s entrepreneurial journey, from starting a brokerage firm from scratch and scaling it to $1...

Santino DeFranco is a former UFC fighter turned entrepreneur who has successfully transitioned from the octagon to the world of business ownership. Santino has acquired two companies: a Shell Gas Station with a Krispy Krunchy Chicken franchise and a restaurant hood cleaning business. In this episode, we dive into his journey from professional fighting to becoming a business owner, exploring how hi...

Meet Joe Van Deman and Colin King Founders of Circle City Capital Group. Starting with a small amount of savings and an SBA loan, over the past six years, they’ve made 14 acquisitions that have been consolidated into 4 companies, employing a total of 200 people. A combined $30m of revenue. ---------------------------------------------- Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:55 - How Joe and Colin met...

Jason Andrew is the co-founder of a holding company Arbor Permanent Owners - team of operators and investors committed to growing businesses for the long-term. They just closed their fundraise and cornerstone deal: 40-year-old manufacturing business in the materials handling sector. $25m in revenue, 25%+ EBITDA Jason, Simon and Rowan have done an exceptional job in their first year at Arbor Perman...

Meet ​Iryna Dubylovska and Sameer Rizvi. Founders of RD Capital Partners (RDCP). Over the past eight years, they’ve made 31 investments that have been consolidated into 12 companies, employing a total of 2,000 people. A combined $400m of revenue and $40m of EBITDA. 1. We pick sectors and businesses where profits and cash-flow are the main driver of value. 2. Decentralize your operations, 'Hir...

12 ideas and observations from the 56-minute conversation with Andrew Wilkinson, the the founder of Tiny, on building a 30+ business holding company: Starting companies is fun, but anyone who has done it knows it is a lot of work. Buying established businesses with existing cash flow isn’t as sexy so I suspect it is wildly underrated as a way of building wealth. He will occasionally pay 10x for an...

Selling the very first flooring business for $30k turned into a career of starting, buying and selling B2B, B2C service businesses. A total of 6 different companies in different industries: 2 residential flooring companies 2 commercial flooring companies 1 restoration company 1 commercial cleaning company My conversation with Robert Lombardi, the founder of Lombardi Group. He’s sharing a journey o...

Forget HVAC and trade businesses… Private equity comes after your kids swim schools… Meet Josh Scott (with wife Annie): 5 locations 7 figures in revenue (30-35% margins) Spends a lot of time with family and children. Again, the riches (both time and $$$) are in niches. We discussed: - Raising prices and selling it to private equity (which they choose not to do now). - Buying more and more swimming...

“Selling B2B SaaS is great, but owning assets is better - that's why I went and built Skaling Ventures on my own.” A portfolio of profitable niche vertical B2B SaaS businesses: $1-3M with some ARR growth (~10%) logo retention greater than 95% limited go-to-market (GTM) knowledge/investment, fragmented competition, and technical founders. We discussed how he found the best deal among the 300 d...

This gentleman and his grocery store holdco opened 32 new stores in 90 days. Tomasz Biernacki - a true capital allocator has cracked the code on how to compound his wealth (at a staggering rate!) His grocery holding company has invested 96% of its earnings for the past 10 years. He opened 167 new stores in Q1-Q3 in 2024. Every store he opens returns 20-30% on invested capital… All while net debt t...

Not too many folks are willing to quit their job at Goldman Sachs to start a holding company. It gets even better… He even decided to move from the US to Hong Kong. That’s the story of Alex Schultz who grew a live lobster business to $11m a year; growing 20-30% per year. - Convincing the Hong Kong government to grant him a Visa to build a business - Printing out Google Maps to find the first suppl...

Meet Dan Tamkin, co-founder of Resurgent Capital Partners: - Portfolio of 4 companies in different industries - $60M in revenue - $8M EBITDA - No LPs - Happy, excited about life, spends tons of time teaching kids to play hockey This is a must listen for someone who’s extremely good at growing and building a single company but feels that they aren’t happiest and need more moving parts on their life...

Graham Duncan from East Rock Capital is so generous that wrote a letter to his friend who was considering starting an investment company. Why listen to Graham: - Started his fund at 31 years old - Today $2B in aum - Manages the capital of five families "Letter to a friend who may start a new investment platform" Show notes: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:50 - When everything is uncertain, are yo...

James started and built a financial media holdco to the point where it was acquired for $31 million. He did it in 5 short years… We discuss: - Founding HoldCo with the most financially creative person he knew – a former commodities trader - Organic growth vs growth through mergers and acquisitions - Looking for stable year-over-year growth opportunities. “I’m not the dude who wants to do turnaroun...

Organic growth is great, but if you want to grow through M&A while beating almost every private equity firm in deal competition. Learn from Jesse. He became so good at it that he built the company to $200mm - 8 acquisitions and counting - 100% bootstrapped - Being 35 years old; hungrier than ever A couple of notes: 1. I am a forced entrepreneur, I dropped out of school and then I couldn't...

Imagine that for a moment… You are 24 years old and want to acquire a business… You pick up the phone and make your first cold call to the founder who owns two companies in the $1-2mm EBITDA range The founder says, "yes, I would be interested in selling my company," four months later you are the new owner of a small holding company with two traditional businesses (First Fleet Maintenance...