How I Bought 8 Companies and Built a $200M HoldCo (100% Bootstrapped) | Jesse Tinsley Interview

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 find a job so I was forced to start my first company Job Mobz

2. Entrepreneurs give up too quickly; had I sold too early I would never have built a $200M company

3. Recruiting companies must transform into SaaS companies or they will be replaced

4. We've helped build teams for Coinbase, 23andME, Stellar, and Scale AI when they were very small companies

5. The way you get big WHALE-like clients: figure out what their problem is. Then do an insane amount of research and sort it out for them. No one does this and you can stand out very easily

6. Being in one industry for 10+ years gives you insane “market knowledge” that allows you to acquire companies many times cheaper than newer competitors and private equity firms that “know” less about the industry.

7. Having a huge pipeline just because of a great reputation in space – the niche focus has been incredibly beneficial

8. You can make your business 2x as valuable by reviewing your contracts and making sure you're pricing correctly

9. You can't just work 40 hours a week and win.

I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed talking to Jesse Tinsley from Recruiter.com

Show notes:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:29 - Being a firefighter and the early days of starting a business

00:04:31 - Being a part-time entrepreneur for the first 4 years

00:05:58 - Moving away from the traditional recruiting business model to recurring annual contracts

00:09:34 - How he managed to get Coinbase, 23andMe, Scale AI as clients

00:13:37 - Being frugal allowed to acquire 8 companies

00:17:00 - Having the “market knowledge” allows you to acquire companies many times cheaper than your competitors simply because they know less

00:19:00 - Deal structure

00:23:20 - Turning 3x multiples to 30x EBITDA multiplies

00:31:00 - Post-acquisition

00:35:39 - How to make your company 2x more valuable: review and fix your pricing contracts

00:43:19 - The benefits of focusing on one specific industry

00:48:32 - The cyclical market provides an additional opportunity

00:51:53 - Focusing on recruiting and recruiting only

00:54:48 - Continuing to build a business instead of saying yes to a life-changing amount of cash

00:59:27 - Is Jesse easy or hard to work with

01:01:47 - How to run a $200 million company? Schedule wise

Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠⁠

Jesse on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/JesseTinsley

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.