Think Like an Owner

Ep.214: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Dennis Dresser ( @DennisDresser ). My guest today is Dennis Dresser. Dennis was a sales leader at IBM and Oracle and became CRO at Anaplan and Dialpad before taking on an advisory role with companies looking to develop best-in-class sales organizations. Throughout his career, he's developed a playbook for creating these high-performing sales teams and has...

Ep.213: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Armon Petrossian ( @ArmonPetrossian ). My guest today is Armon Petrossian, co-founder and CEO of data transformation company Coalesce, built on Snowflake's ecosystem. Armon and I kick off talking about his time in China and learning Mandarin in undergrad, and move through topics like building within Snowflake's, nuances in selling to enterprises, hiring i...

Ep.212: Alex Bridgeman ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Sieva Kozinsky ( @sievakozinsky ). My guest on this episode is Sieva Kozinsky, co-founder of Enduring Ventures, a holding company founded in 2019 with 17 acquisitions to date. Sieva and I met at a dinner following the Berkshire Hathaway meeting in Omaha, his first time attending the meeting. A theme from our first conversations in Omaha that con...

Ep.211: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Eric Jorgenson ( @EricJorgenson ). My guest on this episode is Eric Jorgenson. Eric became a close friend while my wife and I lived in Omaha. I love the energy and enthusiasm he brings to whatever he's doing, whether it's investing in tech startups, writing books like The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Anthology of Balaji, hosting his Smart Friends po...

This week, we are running the episode I did with Chris Powers on the Fort podcast where I was a guest on that show, and in this episode, we talked all about my background, my interest in data, the podcast, and all kinds of other things that kinds of weird theories I have about restaurants too near the end! This is a good episode showcasing not only the origin of this podcast, but also a good frien...

My guest on this episode is Roland Lessard, former Co-CEO of Morningside with his partner Tom Klein, a language translation services business that served over 4,000 clients in 55 countries. A core piece of their thesis revolved around M&A, and Tom and Roland through that experience acquired deep domain expertise in creating value through a methodological M&A and, more importantly, integration proc...

My guest on this episode is Richard Reese. Richard took over as CEO of Iron Mountain, a physical records management business, in 1981. He ran the business as CEO through going public in 1996 before retiring from the role in 2013. Revenue over that period grew from around $3 million in 1981 to $3 billion in 2013. Our discussion focuses on incentivizing teams with cash and stock, something Richard h...

Ep.207: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Savneet Singh ( @SavneetS ). My guest today is Savneet Signh, CEO of PAR Technology, a billion-dollar market cap publicly traded point of sale software business serving the restaurant industry. I've been following Savneet's career since college when he went on Invest Like the Best talking about acquiring software businesses through his holding company Ter...

Ep.206: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Tim Strickland ( @Tim-Strickland ). My guest today is Tim Strickland, former Chief Revenue Officer of ZoomInfo and now an advisory partner at Summit Partners. Tim led during a massive growth period for ZoomInfo and had to learn how to rapidly scale sales teams both within ZoomInfo and incorporate go-to-market teams from acquired companies. I've loved my o...

Ep.205: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Mike Wyman ( @michael-k-wyman ). My guest today, Mike Wyman, brings over 30 years of experience in various CFO roles to this episode where we dive into the CFO role, especially in newly acquired businesses with limited financial infrastructure. Today Mike advises CEOs throughout the search fund ecosystem on making critical CFO hires and brings his experie...

Ep.204: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Mike Zani ( @MikeZani ). My guest today is Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index, a talent optimization platform built around their nearly 70-year-old behavioral assessment tool. Today they help companies optimize their teams by identifying the key strengths of employees and hiring prospects to get the fit right. This is Mike's third time being a CEO and...

Ep.203: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by David Dodson ( @Dave-Dodson ). Today's episode is a re-run of my conversation with David Dodson, an investor, professor, former CEO, and author of one of my new favorite management books, The Manager's Handbook. We talk about the strategies and tactics he's learned over many years of studying high-performing CEOs and distilled into his book. If you're loo...

Ep.202: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Scott Barstow ( @ScottBarstow ). My guest today is Scott Barstow. Scott has founded and led tech companies and teams throughout his career. He now supports the Pacific Lake portfolio as an operating partner focused on building great software product and engineering orgs. I've had the pleasure of getting to know Scott through my Chief of Staff role with HW...

Ep.201: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Gary Walter Jr. ( @GaryWalter ). My guest on this episode is Gary Walter, Jr, who took over running Infutor, a consumer identity data business, as CEO after his father passed. Infutor took on investment from Norwest Venture Partners and experienced rapid growth before selling to Verisk for $250m in 2022. Today he advises other data companies and CEOs, wit...

This is my 200th episode of Think Like an Owner, and for this special episode I've invited my good friend Justin Mazeka Vogt on for the honors. Justin and his business partner Ed Redden were among the very first to reach out to me when I first started the podcast 5 years ago. We've discussed this episode's topics extensively, from thinking bigger to gaining leverage and designing the ideal life fo...

Ep.199: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Ann Rhoades ( @Ann_Rhoades ). I'm thrilled to share my episode today with Ann Rhoades on building values-driven cultures that drive outperformance. Ann was the VP of People at Southwest Airlines with founder Herb Kelleher and was a founding executive as VP of People, and eventually a board member of JetBlue Airways. She has also worked with companies like...

Ep. 198: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Joel Peterson ( @JoelPetersonGSB ). My guest today is Joel Peterson. Joel is the founder and chairman of Peterson Partners, a private equity, venture, and search investment firm, and the former CEO of Trammell Crow. He is also the former Chairman of JetBlue AIrways and is currently in his 31st year teaching at Stanford GSB. Finally, Joel has published tw...

Ep.197: Alex (@ aebridgeman ) is joined by Jason Anderson (@ andersonjasone ). My guest today is Jason Anderson, CEO of Arizona College of Nursing and former CEO of VRI. Jason brings an extensive range of experience as CEO to this episode and we dive into critical skills he's developed to be effective at each step. One of my favorite parts of our discussion was on how he is constantly on the looko...

Ep.196: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Shikhar Saxena ( @shikhar-saxena ). My guest today is Shikhar Saxena, co-founder and CEO of Milan Laser Hair Removal. Milan, founded in 2012, is the nation's largest laser hair removal provider with over 300 locations in 32 states and 1,900 employees performing 50,000 treatments a month. Keys to Shikhar's growth story have been an obsession with customer...

My guest today is Mahesh Rajasekharan, CEO of Cleo, a software platform for supply chain system integrations. A few months ago I asked a few friends which sales-focused CEO they admired most and they all unanimously said Mahesh. With Mahesh at the helm, Cleo has grown from a single-digit ARR business in 2012 to nearly $100 million in ARR today, with even greater ambitions for the future. He has bu...

Ep. 194: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Coley Andrews ( @coley-andrews ) and Mitch Cohen. This is the final episode in our Launch Series with guests Coley Andrews and Mitch Cohen, partners at Pacific Lake and Trilogy, respectively. Through this series we have talked about industry research, starting your search, working with sellers, legal diligence, first 100 days, and more. Today's conversat...

Ep.193: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Jehiel Oliver ( @Jehiel ). My guest today is Jehiel Oliver, founder and CEO of Hello Tractor, a farming equipment rental platform serving farms across Africa. Jehiel has an amazing blend of energy, excitement, and tenacity that is hard to find and energizing to be around. Jehiel and I talk about how he influences behaviors in creating new markets, trainin...

Ep.192: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Chris Powers ( @fortworthchris ). My guest today is Chris Powers, founder and chairman of Fort Capital, an industrial real estate investor based in Fort Worth, TX. Chris is also the host of The Fort Podcast, which I was a guest on just last week and we'll link to that episode in the show notes. Chris has built an amazing real estate firm and recently prom...

Ep.191: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Sam Krieg ( @sam-krieg ) and Chris Hendriksen ( @chris-hendriksen ). Today is the 6th episode in our Launch Series, a partnered episode series with Pacific Lake Partners and Trilogy Search Partners on preparing for the CEO role as a search fund. This conversation centers around a CEO's first 100 days in the company post-acquisition, and I'm joined by Sam...

Ep.190: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Felix Brooks-Church ( @felixbc ). My guest is Felix Brooks-Church, CEO of Sanku, which helps local mills across Africa produce fortified food, primarily flour, via their machines and technology. Felix was introduced to me by David Dodson, co-founder and chairman of the board at Sanku. Sanku has a fascinating origin story, which includes a stint in Nepal,...