My guest in this episode is Mike Botkin. You might remember Mike from episode 48 where he described acquiring B&B landscaping in Orlando, Florida with his investor equity raised entirely from Twitter.Well, he's acquired a bigger one and has raised a holding company called Benchmark Group to buy and build a vertically integrated lawn care and landscaping business in central Florida. In addition to Mike's new acquisition and holding company, we also talk about systems and policies he's implemented at B&B, how he hires and routines members of his team, and benefits from scale and vertical integration.Mike has become a great friend of mine over the last year, and I always leave our calls thinking we should have hit a record. I'm glad we were able to do so for this episode and mark this momentous event in his career. Listen weekly and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.Links Mentioned: Mike Botkin on LinkedIn Mike Botkin on Twitter Benchmark Group Think LIke An Owner Episode 48 (Mike Botkin - First 30 Days in a Small Landscaping Business) Think Like an Owner SponsorsLive Oak Bank - Live Oak Bank is a seasoned SMB lender providing SBA and conventional financing for search funds, independent sponsors, private equity firms, and individuals looking to acquire lower middle market companies. Live Oak has closed billions of dollars in SBA financing and is actively looking to help more small company investors across the country. If you are in the process of acquiring a company or thinking about starting a search, contact Lisa Forrest or Heather Endresen directly to start a conversation or go to www.liveoakbank.com/think.Hood & Strong, LLP - Hood & Strong is a CPA firm with a long history of working with search funds and private equity firms on diligence, assurance, tax services, and more. Hood & Strong is highly skilled in working with search funds, providing quality of earnings and due diligence services during the search, along with assurance and tax services post-acquisition. They offer a unique way to approach acquisition diligence and manage costs effectively. To learn more about how Hood & Strong can help your search, acquisition, and beyond, please email one of their partners Jerry Zhou at jzhou@hoodstrong.com. Oberle Risk Strategies- Oberle is the leading specialty insurance brokerage catering to search funds and the broader ETA community, providing complimentary due diligence assessments of the target company's commercial insurance and Employee benefits programs. Over the past decade, August Felker and his team have engaged with hundreds of searchers to provide due diligence and ultimately place the most competitive insurance program at closing. Given August's experience as a searcher himself, he and his team understand all that goes into buying a business and pride themselves on making the insurance portion of closing seamless and hassle-free.If you are under LOI, please reach out to August to learn more about how Oberle can help with insurance due diligence at oberle-risk.com. Or reach out to August directly at august.felker@oberle-risk.com.Interested in sponsoring?

My guest in this episode is Matt Moldenhauer. Matt is the president of Bellwether Forest Products, an integrated wood supply company owned by a family office called Elmore Companies, where Matt is also a partner. Matt became president after Bellwether was acquired in 2016 and has grown the business from 13 employees to over 60 today with plenty of ups and downs along the way. In this episode, we talk about identifying and promoting talent from within, running an asset-heavy business, building trust with your team and customers, adding technology and systems, the fragmentation of the timber industry, and their broader timber acquisition strategy at Elmore. Matt was recommended to me by Rich Jordan, who I consider to be a phenomenal operator. And when he recommends someone I listen closely, I think you'll see why in this episode. Enjoy! Listen weekly and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.Think Like an Owner SponsorsLive Oak Bank – Live Oak Bank is a seasoned SMB lender providing SBA and conventional financing for search funds, independent sponsors, private equity firms, and individuals looking to acquire lower middle market companies. Live Oak has closed billions of dollars in SBA financing and is actively looking to help more small company investors across the country. If you are in the process of acquiring a company or thinking about starting a search, contact Lisa Forrest or Heather Endresen directly to start a conversation or go to www.liveoakbank.com/think.Hood & Strong, LLP – Hood & Strong is a CPA firm with a long history of working with search funds and private equity firms on diligence, assurance, tax services, and more. Hood & Strong is highly skilled in working with search funds, providing quality of earnings and due diligence services during the search, along with assurance and tax services post-acquisition. They offer a unique way to approach acquisition diligence and manage costs effectively. To learn more about how Hood & Strong can help your search, acquisition, and beyond, please email one of their partners Jerry Zhou at jzhou@hoodstrong.com. Oberle Risk Strategies– Oberle is the leading specialty insurance brokerage catering to search funds and the broader ETA community, providing complimentary due diligence assessments of the target company’s commercial insurance and Employee benefits programs. Over the past decade, August Felker and his team have engaged with hundreds of searchers to provide due diligence and ultimately place the most competitive insurance program at closing. Given August’s experience as a searcher himself, he and his team understand all that goes into buying a business and pride themselves on making the insurance portion of closing seamless and hassle-free.If you are under LOI, please reach out to August to learn more about how Oberle can help with insurance due diligence at oberle-risk.com. Or reach out to August directly at august.felker@oberle-risk.com.Interested in sponsoring?Links Mentioned: Matt Moldenhauer on LinkedIn Matt Moldenhauer on Twitter Bellwether Forest Products Official Website

My guest in this episode is Heather Endresen, co-director of Search Fund Lending at Live Oak Bank. Her name probably sounds familiar as Live Oak is a sponsor of this podcast. Given the strong interest from our audience, I decided to bring Heather on the show to share the ins and outs of the SBA program as it's highly relevant to the subject matter of Think Like an Owner. During our episode, we discussed the history of the SBA program as a government program, high-level terms of SBA debt, what companies and deals are good fits, what add-backs are accepted and which are not, risk to searchers and the worst case scenario, and the SBA programs value to strategic acquirers.I hope you enjoy this in-depth episode on the SBA program with Heather. Enjoy.Listen weekly and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.Think Like an Owner SponsorsLive Oak Bank – Live Oak Bank is a seasoned SMB lender providing SBA and conventional financing for search funds, independent sponsors, private equity firms, and individuals looking to acquire lower middle market companies. Live Oak has closed billions of dollars in SBA financing and is actively looking to help more small company investors across the country. If you are in the process of acquiring a company or thinking about starting a search, contact Lisa Forrest or Heather Endresen directly to start a conversation or go to www.liveoakbank.com/think.Hood & Strong, LLP – Hood & Strong is a CPA firm with a long history of working with search funds and private equity firms on diligence, assurance, tax services, and more. Hood & Strong is highly skilled in working with search funds, providing quality of earnings and due diligence services during the search, along with assurance and tax services post-acquisition. They offer a unique way to approach acquisition diligence and manage costs effectively. To learn more about how Hood & Strong can help your search, acquisition, and beyond, please email one of their partners Jerry Zhou at jzhou@hoodstrong.com. Oberle Risk Strategies– Oberle is the leading specialty insurance brokerage catering to search funds and the broader ETA community, providing complimentary due diligence assessments of the target company’s commercial insurance and Employee benefits programs. Over the past decade, August Felker and his team have engaged with hundreds of searchers to provide due diligence and ultimately place the most competitive insurance program at closing. Given August’s experience as a searcher himself, he and his team understand all that goes into buying a business and pride themselves on making the insurance portion of closing seamless and hassle-free.If you are under LOI, please reach out to August to learn more about how Oberle can help with insurance due diligence at oberle-risk.com. Or reach out to August directly at august.felker@oberle-risk.com.Interested in sponsoring?Links Mentioned: Heather Endresen on LinkedIn Heather Endresen on Twitter Live Oak Bank Official Website

My guest today is Collin Hathaway. Collin runs a small micro private equity fund in Seattle, WA called Skylight Capital and has developed a strong core competence in plumbing, HVAC, roofing, and other home services businesses. He also has one of the most interesting stories I’ve heard of getting into micro private equity. During the episode, we talk about his path to Skylight, why he focuses on home services businesses, characteristics he looks for in new acquisitions, and a little bit of his home services operating playbook.I’ve been trying to get Collin on the podcast since our first conversation a year ago and I wish this episode could have been longer. Collin is a great, entertaining storyteller and I hope you enjoy his hearing fascinating journey so far.Listen weekly and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.Think Like an Owner SponsorsLive Oak Bank – Live Oak Bank is a seasoned SMB lender providing SBA and conventional financing for search funds, independent sponsors, private equity firms, and individuals looking to acquire lower middle market companies. Live Oak has closed billions of dollars in SBA financing and is actively looking to help more small company investors across the country. If you are in the process of acquiring a company or thinking about starting a search, contact Lisa Forrest or Heather Endresen directly to start a conversation or go to www.liveoakbank.com/think.Hood & Strong, LLP – Hood & Strong is a CPA firm with a long history of working with search funds and private equity firms on diligence, assurance, tax services, and more. Hood & Strong is highly skilled in working with search funds, providing quality of earnings and due diligence services during the search, along with assurance and tax services post-acquisition. They offer a unique way to approach acquisition diligence and manage costs effectively. To learn more about how Hood & Strong can help your search, acquisition, and beyond, please email one of their partners Jerry Zhou at jzhou@hoodstrong.com. Oberle Risk Strategies– Oberle is the leading specialty insurance brokerage catering to search funds and the broader ETA community, providing complimentary due diligence assessments of the target company’s commercial insurance and employee benefits programs. Over the past decade, August Felker and his team have engaged with hundreds of searchers to provide due diligence and ultimately place the most competitive insurance program at closing. Given August’s experience as a searcher himself, he and his team understand all that goes into buying a business and pride themselves on making the insurance portion of closing seamless and hassle-free.If you are under LOI, please reach out to August to learn more about how Oberle can help with insurance due diligence at oberle-risk.com. Or reach out to August directly at august.felker@oberle-risk.com.Interested in sponsoring?Links Mentioned: Alpine Investors Skylight Capital Flint Group

My guests in this episode are Paul Yancich and Daniel Eisen, who founded Arcadea Group, a permanent capital holding company that has raised $320 million to invest over ultra-long periods of time in typically independent, founder-controlled software companies with strong growth in duration potential.Prior to founding Arcadea, Daniel and Paul had careers in private equity, growth equity, and buyout. Most recently is Constellation Software, where they both were hired by and worked for Mark Leonard in various senior executive roles in the company. We talk extensively about what they learned in their backgrounds, how Arcadea differs from PE growth equity in Constellation in their approach, and what it means to invest in and grow a company over a very long time horizon. It seems like more and more of these permanent capital vehicles are being created.If you know any great ones with a unique approach, please reach out and let me know. This is a fascinating area that I want to learn more about.Listen weekly and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

My guest on this episode is Badge Stone. Badge started his search journey with a Stone Pump & Trench that was on the verge of bankruptcy when he acquired it. After turning it around, he acquired another company called Perimeter Security. He sold both and made investing in searchers his full-time role through his firm, WSC & Company, alongside two other partners. Badge has invested in over a hundred searchers and has extensive experience as both an investor and operator.WSC’s seven-person team is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and is investing and of its second fund, a $100 million fund closed earlier this year focused on the traditional search fund model.During our discussion, we talk about turning stone-pumping trench around, lessons learned from over a hundred search fund investments, a few notable companies, he's been a part of, what's typically missing in a new company, and a wide range of discussion on board construction, and usage for entrepreneurs and investors alike. This episode is fantastic and I learned a ton and I think you will too. Listen weekly and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.

My guests on this episode are Andrew Soon and Michael Novielli, co-founders of Due West Education. Due West counsels and helps Chinese students apply to top American universities and study abroad programs. I visited China in college on a school trip and it was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. Since then I’ve been looking for interesting businesses abroad to study and invite on the podcast. Andrew and Michael are incredible examples of US entrepreneurs creating new businesses in other countries around the world and I think you’ll love our conversation.  We discuss China’s cultural view of US education, tailwinds pushing Due West’s business along, how data factors into process of helping students apply to the most elite colleges, fighting inherent incentives in the education industry with great internal communication, and how their business might be impacted by moves against after school tutoring in China. For the full episode transcript and more, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.

This is a special episode of Think Like an Owner. In this episode, Tim Ludwig turns the microphone around to interview me on where my interest in small companies came from, starting and building Think Like an Owner, memorable moments from running the podcast, my answers to my own closing questions, and much more. We also discuss a new media company I’m incredibly excited to announce called The Operator’s Handbook. The Handbook is a print publication interviewing small company operators to find new ideas on how to operate, improve, and grow small companies more effectively. Tim has been very impactful in starting The Operator’s Handbook and is a close advisor of mine as I build this new media company. If you want to learn more about the Handbook, visit theoperatorshandbook.com and sign up to receive updates as we prepare the first issue for release. Tim believed in me when I had very little to show for my ambition and has continued to be an impactful mentor in my life and career. He was the perfect person to host this special episode and I am incredibly grateful for all the time and wisdom he’s shared with me. Please enjoy this turn-the-tables episode with Tim Ludwig and myself. For the full episode transcript and more, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.

 My guest on this episode is Reg Zeller. Reg worked in corporate engineering roles for many years before deciding to leave and do his own thing. His own thing ended up being rolling up foundry businesses through his holding company CaneKast, with five companies acquired so far. These companies are very hard to acquire and operate and Reg spends a lot of time sharing why most buyers can’t acquire foundries and why he’s best suited instead. Over the course of this episode, Reg and I talk about how foundries operate, how he looks to acquire others, finding your strengths and leveraging them, some of his operations playbook for new foundries, and drinking too much coffee. For the full episode transcript and more, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.

My guest on this episode is Mia Jackson. Prior to searching and acquiring her health care supply business, Vital Care Industries, Mia worked in consulting, engineering and supply chains, a friend’s start-up for a time, and received her MBA and Masters of Science in Engineering Management from Northwestern. She brought a ton of great experience into her search business and we talk about how impactful that was in being a CEO for the first time. I haven’t had too many health care entrepreneurs on the show so we also spend some time diving into Vital Care’s product line and where it fits in a hospital setting. I found this part fascinating and I think you will too. During our conversation, we also discuss her passion for health care, supply chains, and going paperless, how she wants her company culture to evolve, how she motivates her team, and how she helps team members advance in their careers and their ongoing education. This was such a fun episode and Mia’s energy is impossible to ignore, I hope you enjoy the episode! For the full episode transcript and more, visit alexbridgeman.com/podcast.I’m also the founder of The Operator’s Handbook, a print publication where small company operators share their insights and ideas for building more effective and profitable companies. Articles focus on process improvement, sales, hiring and training, managing culture, and all responsibilities within operating a small company. If you run a small business and are looking for new ways to grow and improve, subscribe today and join your peers in the endless pursuit of better at theoperatorshandbook.com.