Think Like an Owner Alex de Pfyffer & Ross Porter - Investing Strategies in Data - Ep.150
My guests on this episode are Heritage Holding co-founders Alex de Pfyffer and Ross Porter. Heritage acquires companies across industries, but has a special focus on IT services and data centers. I’m a data geek and love talking with entrepreneurs in data, and haven’t talked with much of anyone on the hardware side so this conversation was a lot of fun for me.
We talk about identifying companies offering essential services, their data center acquisitions and strategy, what they’ve learned from private equity on growing companies, and thoughts on a long-term structure for Heritage going forward.
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Topics:
(3:03) - What’s the background for Heritage and how did you each get to this point?
(5:56) - What ideas were you considering for a startup?
(7:57) - Have there been any guiding principals or common threads through the acquisitions you’ve done thus far?
(11:49) - What does the data center business model look like?
(13:53) - Is there some overlap with your ISP or Fiber investments?
(15:00) - Is there some first mover advantage to bring Fiber Optic Cable to a certain area?
(16:33) - Who is your typical competitor?
(18:38) - Once you own an ISP, what are the ROI metrics for expanding that footprint?
(20:27) - Where do you see other opportunities in data for investments?
(26:10) - What have you learned from managing companies of different sizes?
(34:09) - What changes the most when you go from $10m to $50m of EBITDA?
(37:29) - What are some structure questions in your mind as you look to future acquisitions?
(43:35) - What’s a strongly held belief you’ve each changed your mind on?
(49:41) - What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?