Ep. 173 Alex Bridgeman (@Aebridgeman) is joined by Clayton Collins (@ClaytonACollins).

Today's episode was recorded live in late April 2023 at SMBash in Austin, Texas, with my boss, Clayton Collins, CEO of HW Media. We opened up talking about how the role came together, but for a short preview, I took a Chief of Staff role with HW Media in March 2022 to help build a media and data company in the housing industry.

It's been an exciting journey with a steep learning curve that I'm thoroughly enjoying. In the episode, we talk about acquiring within your industry, the acquisition journey at HW Media, the case for acquisitions as a compliment to organic growth, what a bad acquisition looks like, and so much more. This event is fantastic for all those looking to pursue entrepreneurship through acquiring a company, and I hope to see you all at next year's event.

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

Links:

HW Media

Clayton on Twitter

SMBash

Timestamps

(00:03:56) Introducing Clayton 

(00:05:36) The Chief of Staff role

(00:08:26) Growth through Acquisition

(00:11:15) HW Media’s 3 acquisitions

(00:14:53) What Clayton looks for in potential acquisitions

(00:18:47) Evaluating a team inside a company being acquired

(00:20:33) Building relationships in an industry

(00:22:00) Avoiding train wreck acquisitions

(00:26:13) Debt

(00:27:24) Advice for CEOs wanting to build a repeatable acquisition process