

HoldCo Builders
PrivatEquityGuy
The HoldCo Builders Podcast with PrivatEquityGuy is a place where you can find meaningful conversations about holding companies, entrepreneurship, small businesses, investing, and more.Be sure to follow the podcast, so you never miss an episode!
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Jan 9, 2025 • 1h 22min
How I Bought 2 Businesses With Little Of My Own Money And No Investors | Santino DeFranco Interview
Santino DeFranco is a former UFC fighter turned entrepreneur who has successfully transitioned from the octagon to the world of business ownership. Santino has acquired two companies: a Shell Gas Station with a Krispy Krunchy Chicken franchise and a restaurant hood cleaning business. In this episode, we dive into his journey from professional fighting to becoming a business owner, exploring how his competitive mindset and resilience have shaped his approach to entrepreneurship.Santino is also a highly sought-after MMA coach who has trained and guided world champions in the UFC, bringing the same level of discipline and strategy to coaching as he does to running his businesses. We discuss what it takes to operate across such diverse industries, his insights into finding value in small businesses, and the lessons he's learned along the way.Please enjoy this conversation with Santino DeFranco—fighter, coach, and entrepreneur.Enjoy the episode? Make sure you SUBSCRIBE for more.----------------------------------------------Timestamps:00:00:00 - Introduction00:00:56 - Santino and his wild life as a UFC fighter before his first acquisition00:02:15 - Creation of the first iPhone and Android app called Ultimate MMA00:03:29 - Injuries and life as an MMA trainer for UFC fighters00:04:21 - I started looking for companies to buy00:05:21 - What sites does Santino use to find businesses00:07:08 - Find the first business to buy - a gas station00:07:42 - Where does Santino's entrepreneurial gene come from?00:10:02 - Tough decision: go back to work or start and build different companies00:10:58 - Most of the fighters ended up going broke, so Santino pushes them to invest and acquire the company00:13:35 - Why he is bullish on buying companies00:15:34 - Financial situation before buying the first company00:17:41 - Details of the first acquisition00:19:45 - You don't have to be a member of Mensa to do this job00:21:00 - Advisors on the first transaction00:23:01 - Negotiations with the owner00:26:25 - Doing due diligence all by himself00:29:10 - Reinvesting all profits into the company00:32:10 - First big mistake post-acquisition00:35:45 - Why he loves the gas station business00:38:44 - 2nd acquisition00:42:19 - Companies Santino prefers to buy00:45:52 - The reason why the seller sold the company00:48:54 - How he found this deal00:51:31 - Financial situation before the second acquisition00:56:27 - Hiring great people and taking care of employees by giving them a raise00:58:17 - When is the right time to acquire company number 301:01:19 - Working with children and thinking about buying an 8-figure business01:06:07 - "If someone else can do it, you can do it"01:10:49 - Who does Santino learn from, what books does he listen to01:15:21 - How Santino manages it all: family, businesses, coaching, reading, podcast-----------------------------------------------Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuySantino on Twitter: https://x.com/TinoDeFrancoThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Jan 2, 2025 • 1h 6min
How We Bought 14 Businesses and Built a $30M HoldCo in 6 Years | Joe Van Deman and Colin King Interview
Meet Joe Van Deman and Colin KingFounders of Circle City Capital Group. Starting with a small amount of savings and an SBA loan, over the past six years, they’ve made 14 acquisitions that have been consolidated into 4 companies, employing a total of 200 people.A combined $30m of revenue.----------------------------------------------Timestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:55 - How Joe and Colin met and what they did before their first acquisition00:07.32 - Quitting their jobs to start a 50/50 partnership with a "stranger"00:12:29 - First acquisition00:20:33 - Second acquisition00:24:45 - The industries and companies they are looking at00:32:55 - Current portfolio and deals made so far00:41:42 - How they manage a portfolio of 10+ companies00:49:31 - How they survived the hard times00:57:13 - Post acquisition and learning the specifics of the industry/field within 90 days00:59:44 - Salary, paying dividends or reinvesting the profits01:01:05 - Thoughts on the next acquisitions-----------------------------------------------Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuyColin on Twitter: https://x.com/valuedontlieJoe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joevandeman/This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Dec 27, 2024 • 1h 7min
How I Raised Money (from 44 Investors) and Bought a 40-Year-Old 8-Fig Manufacturing Business | Jason Andrew Interview
Jason Andrew is the co-founder of a holding company Arbor Permanent Owners - team of operators and investors committed to growing businesses for the long-term.They just closed their fundraise and cornerstone deal: 40-year-old manufacturing business in the materials handling sector. $25m in revenue, 25%+ EBITDAJason, Simon and Rowan have done an exceptional job in their first year at Arbor Permanent OwnersTheir structure, strategy, fundraising, and first acquisition are all unique—and we cover each.Timestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:32 - Life before acquiring "boring" traditional businesses00:07:15 - An honest opinion (criticism) towards search funds00:10:52 - The best structured cold email lead to business partnership00:14:27 - The first 30-60-90 day action plan for finding the best deals00:23:13 - Closing the first $25 million deal in 6 months00:32:14 - The structure of the first acquisition00:35:50 - Feedback from investors (changing the structure of the holding company 4 times)00:44:36 - Investor exit strategy00:55:35 - Growing holding company from 7-fig EBITDA to $45M without raising additional equity00:57:25 - Thoughts on never acquiring companies with less than $3mm EBITDA01:02:59 - What does Jason consume to learn the necessary skills to double the business?-----------------------------------------------Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/holdco-builders/id1695713724Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy Jason on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-andrew/?originalSubdomain=auThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Dec 19, 2024 • 1h 11min
How We Bought 25+ Businesses and Built a $600M HoldCo at 34 and 33 | Iryna and Sameer Interview
Meet Iryna Dubylovska and Sameer Rizvi.Founders of RD Capital Partners (RDCP). Over the past eight years, they’ve made 31 investments that have been consolidated into 12 companies, employing a total of 2,000 people.A combined $400m of revenue and $40m of EBITDA.1. We pick sectors and businesses where profits and cash-flow are the main driver of value.2. Decentralize your operations, 'Hire very smart people and leave them alone, let them get on with it.'3. We ran companies nice and lean. We just reinvest those profits so rather leaving those profits to pay down debt quickly or for the improvement of our lifestyle.This is how they’ve been able to compound at almost a TRIPLE digit internal rate of return (91.4% IRR) for eight years.4. When it comes to wealth creation point of view:Private market is better than public markets.Because there is significantly less arbitrage…5. At the end of the day, it's all about how you can buy $10 million for $3 million.6. 50% industrials, 25% healthcare, 25% consumer – that’s quite a balanced portfolio in sectors and businesses which are relatively critical to the British economy.***A true buy and hold strategy experts.Acquiring manufacturing, construction, engineering and healthcare companies for 3x EBITDA to sell them (if they want to) for 8-10x EBITDA.I hope you enjoy listening.----------------------------------------------Timestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:02:31 - Life before the first acquisition and the risk of not starting your own investment company00:07:21 - Leaving the job and going all-in finding the 1st deal00:09:43 - Details and the structure of the first acquisition00:14:22 - Improving lifestyle with every transactions00:16:04 - Overview of the portfolio and thought process behind previous investment decisions00:23:30 - Building dealflow and finding the best deals00:29:42 - Only buying businesses they really understand. No complex transactions.00:34:39 - Why did they give up buying distressed companies?00:42:41 - 12+ portfolio companies, 4 kids - how they manage it all00:46:22 - Common reasons portco CEOs approach Iryna and Sameer00:50:07 - Saying ‘no’ to outside capital00:54:36 - Why don’t more people do it?01:04:44 - How they’ve been able to do this without giving up equity-----------------------------------------------Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy Sameer on Twitter: https://x.com/sameer_rdcp This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

4 snips
Dec 5, 2024 • 56min
How I Bought 35+ Businesses and Built a $240M HoldCo At 38 | Andrew Wilkinson Interview
12 ideas and observations from the 56-minute conversation with Andrew Wilkinson, the the founder of Tiny, on building a 30+ business holding company: Starting companies is fun, but anyone who has done it knows it is a lot of work. Buying established businesses with existing cash flow isn’t as sexy so I suspect it is wildly underrated as a way of building wealth. He will occasionally pay 10x for an amazing business, but that is rare. Some CEOs will go 6 months or more without speaking with Andrew. Portfolio companies are not at all connected. They each operate independently. Cash is kept in the company based on historical working capital needs and any extra goes to the head office for new acquisitions. Andrew is willing to pay up and hire CEOs that have managed similar businesses at larger scales already before instead of trying to find underpriced less-experienced talent. They have a 60-70% success rate on hiring CEOs. Favorite interview question "What's the worst job you've ever had?" He finds that people that haven't had crappy jobs are less motivated. Incentives act as a magnet to get what you want done. Money is more meaningful to new CEOs than to founders that have been making great money for the last 5 years. The first CEO he hired was paid $250k base + a couple hundred thousand variable. Andrew’s strengths are: Laser focused on problems for a short period of time. Moves fast; Very good at 0 to 1. Burns bright for 15 days; Inch deep and a mile wide; Not good at execution or day to day details.All of these highlights come from an interview with Andrew, founder of Tiny and the research I did on him.Listening to this episode is the easiest way to download Andrew’s ideas into your brain. I hope you enjoy.Show notes:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:19 - Ruthless and money focused Andrew on his early 20s00:05:42 - 1st business, billing in USD while living in Canada00:08:37 - First realization that it is better to buy a company compared to starting it00:10:28 - Buying the very first business for 3x ARR and $1.5M cash00:13:25 - Looking at companies that make a whopping $100 million in revenue but very little profit00:19:25 - Having extreme patience while waiting for excellent companies00:23:23 - Inefficient market and what many investors don’t understand00:27:32 - Everything post-acquisition and delegation00:33:45 - Andrew’s strengths and weaknesses in managing Tiny Group00:39:04 - A huge lesson about tech businesses: small $500k businesses get big00:43:52 - Big mistakes in pricing a product/service00:48:20 - Lessons from Jason Fried, Sam Parr and Sahil Bloom00:52:31 - Equity is forever. Never just give it awayFollow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuyAndrew on Twitter: https://x.com/awilkinsonThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Nov 25, 2024 • 1h 13min
How I Started, Bought and Sold 6 Service Businesses (In $500k to $3M EBITDA Range) | Robert Lombardi Interview
Selling the very first flooring business for $30k turned into a career of starting, buying and selling B2B, B2C service businesses.A total of 6 different companies in different industries: 2 residential flooring companies 2 commercial flooring companies 1 restoration company 1 commercial cleaning companyMy conversation with Robert Lombardi, the founder of Lombardi Group.He’s sharing a journey of making plenty of mistakes and falling on his face MORE than anyone would like to admit (and this being a major part of the journey and something he’s STILL grateful for).Enjoy.Show notes:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:19 - Early days and making first $50,00000:06:03 - Building a flooring business, targeting commercial clients vs B2C00:20:09 - In the flooring business, B2C is good, but B2B is much better00:22:33 - There is no recurring revenue in the floor covering business00:31:56 - Structure in buying and investing in companies00:37:29 - Sale of two companies at the same time00:43:49 - Didn't know about the roll up strategy 3-4 years ago00:53:59 - Earn trust by giving away free business leads01:03:37 - A restoration company, a roofing company and 2 plumbing companies will be bought nextFollow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuyRobert on Twitter: https://x.com/roblmakeithappeThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Nov 18, 2024 • 1h
How I Built a 7-Figure Swim School HoldCo With 30-35% Margins | Josh Scott Interview
Forget HVAC and trade businesses…Private equity comes after your kids swim schools…Meet Josh Scott (with wife Annie): 5 locations 7 figures in revenue (30-35% margins) Spends a lot of time with family and children.Again, the riches (both time and $$$) are in niches.We discussed:- Raising prices and selling it to private equity (which they choose not to do now).- Buying more and more swimming pools (property)- Why aren't $1mm+ EBITDA deals coming to market?- The cost of building swimming pools- Why is selling pool fences going to be a very big business?- A 33% IRR and spending time with the kidsHere is my conversation with Josh Scott, co-founder of SwimSRQ and Swim Academy.Show notes:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:18 - Being more interested in business than just coaching00:02:26 - Chasing a $300,000 salary vs becoming an entrepreneur00:04:56 - Started in summer 2018; "A year later, we knew we had something..."00:09:01 - Learning business00:11:36 - Growth in number and decision to buy the first property00:14:28 - Revenue streams00:22:47 - Buying more and more swimming pools (real estate)00:26:23 - The future is about following a boutique model (add gymnastics and ninja model)00:30:05 - Swimming schools and private equity00:43:17 - Competition of talent and coaches00:44:20 - Opportunity in NYC (lots of people, no water)00:47:03 - Technology and automation in the swimming business00:52:31 - Expanding into the pool fence industryFollow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuyJosh on Twitter: https://x.com/swimschoolJoshThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Nov 12, 2024 • 1h 1min
How I'm Building a $15M EBITDA B2B Micro-SaaS Holdco | Kjael Skaalerud Interview
“Selling B2B SaaS is great, but owning assets is better - that's why I went and built Skaling Ventures on my own.”A portfolio of profitable niche vertical B2B SaaS businesses: $1-3M with some ARR growth (~10%) logo retention greater than 95% limited go-to-market (GTM) knowledge/investment, fragmented competition, and technical founders.We discussed how he found the best deal among the 300 deals he looked at.How he structures deals and what his game plan is 90 days after the acquisition.How 75% of private equity buyouts are add-ons – and how he does the same.And much more.I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed chatting with Kjael Skaalerud of Skaling Ventures.Show notes:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:19 - Life as a B2B Saas salesman (strategy: go-to-market)00:04:31 - Selling software to fund managers00:09:30 - SaaS, Venture capital - The importance of game selection00:16:25 - Where was Kjael financially before acquiring the 1st company00:18:20 - Details on first acquisition00:23:15 - Structure of the first transaction and Skaling Ventures Holdco00:25:30 - Lessons learned after the first 18 months as a holdco builder00:32:45 - First 90 days after acquisition00:40:53 - Buying and building a business - has it been more painful/harder than he thought00:42:15 - 75% of PE buyouts are add-ons – “we do the same”00:47:40 - 5-year holding and reinvestment for growth00:49:52 - Acquisition number two (under LOI)00:53:41 - Ways to get better at what you do and buildFollow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuyKjael on Twitter: https://x.com/skaalywagKjael's Substack: https://skalingventures.substack.com/ This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Nov 8, 2024 • 28min
This Grocery Store HoldCo Opened 32 New Stores in 90 Days | Research Episode on Tomasz Biernacki of Dino Polska
This gentleman and his grocery store holdco opened 32 new stores in 90 days.Tomasz Biernacki - a true capital allocator has cracked the code on how to compound his wealth (at a staggering rate!)His grocery holding company has invested 96% of its earnings for the past 10 years. He opened 167 new stores in Q1-Q3 in 2024.Every store he opens returns 20-30% on invested capital…All while net debt to EBITDA sitting at a conservative 1.1xWild!There must be something special about Tomasz.I got curious so I spent almost 6 hours reading about him (best 6 hours I've spent in a long time).I hope you enjoy this 27-minute episode of the HoldCo Builders research edition I did on Tomasz Biernacki of Dino Polska.Show notes:00:00:00 - Intro00:03:51 - Grocery store holding company00:06:54 - Extreme discipline on net debt00:09.01 - Real estate ownership00:13:41 - Focus on small towns with a population of 30,00000:18:11 - Own production of your highest margin products00:19:22 - No money spent on ads and marketing00:21:46 - Offer a simple product to simple small town people00:25:34 - Reinvesting earnings rather than paying dividends👉 Follow host Mikk Markus on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuyThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

Nov 6, 2024 • 59min
How I Left Goldman Sachs and Turned $25k Into an $11M Live Lobster Business | Alex Schultz Interview
Not too many folks are willing to quit their job at Goldman Sachs to start a holding company.It gets even better…He even decided to move from the US to Hong Kong.That’s the story of Alex Schultz who grew a live lobster business to $11m a year; growing 20-30% per year.- Convincing the Hong Kong government to grant him a Visa to build a business- Printing out Google Maps to find the first suppliers (IT WORKED!!)- Bootstrapped business, selling $11m worth of live lobster per year in Hong KongMy conversation with Alex Schultz of Turnbury Group.Enjoy.Show notes:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:24 - Early days after Goldman Sachs00:02:22 - Finding the right company00:07:37 - Moving to Hong Kong and not knowing anyone00:14:31 - The story of founders who lived in China for $1 a day00:17:40 - Printing out Google Maps to find suppliers00:22:00 - Initial investment $25,00000:31:55 - The first 12 months and all challenges00:37:34 - Cash flow is what keeps you in or out of business00:44:50 - Building relationships with 2nd and 3rd generation business owners in Hong Kong00:49:50 - Stay in Hong Kong or go back to the US?Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuyAlex on Twitter: https://x.com/mrturnburyThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.