My guests on this episode are Kurt Leedy and Kyle Coots, co-founders and managing directors at Miramar Equity Partners. Kurt and Kyle have an interesting vantage point in the search world being backed by a family office with an agnostic time horizon, allowing them to invest in the widest set of opportunities in search and parallel spaces.
Our episode focuses on a concept they developed they call the three ways to make money, those being classic LBO, M&A-driven strategies, and organic growth. We dive into the characteristics of each along with a few examples from their portfolio.
We also touch on how the intersection of two or more methods can create exponential outcomes. Finally, we discuss a few theses they find interesting in healthcare and software and how they develop a thesis on an industry.
Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.
Special thanks to our sponsor: Oakbourne Advisors
Links:
Miramar Equity Partners
Kurt Leedy on LinkedIn
Kyle Coots on LinkedIn
Will Thorndike with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
BPD Zenith
Flint Group
Swoogo
Encore Infusion
Constellation
Business Breakdowns - The NFL
Time Codes:
(3:36) - How did your backgrounds help form this concept of “The three methods to make money”?
(9:18) - Do you have a model of investing that resonates most with what you’re looking to accomplish?
(12:24) - Have Search CEO’s been primarily focused on one of these three buckets in your experience?
(15:51) - What are some characteristics & examples you’ve seen of the Classic LBO investing model?
(18:36)- What questions or risks are you optimizing for when considering LBO?
(22:13) - What are some factors that have correlated with a high retention rate in companies you’ve observed?
(24:23) - Can you walk us through how you divide M&A Driven Strategies into its two subcategories: Roll-Up and Transformative?
(33:46) - Is there some value in having M&A experience for a CEO & their company?
(35:42) - Why do you think there is such increased popularity in the M&A strategy within Search?
(39:00) - Which companies and characteristics fall under the Organic Growth Model?
(46:00) - What are some examples of companies who have combined these methods and found success?
(51:10) - What are your thoughts on Software businesses and any opportunities in that space?
(54:40) - What are some ways you develop and validate different theses?
(1:01:19) - What strongly held belief have you changed your mind on?
(1:03:32) - What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?
