Buyers and Builders

What does it really take to build a successful private equity firm from scratch, and what can 30 years and more than 150 transactions teach you about investing?

I sit down with James Andersen, co-founder of Clearview Capital, a lower middle market private equity firm managing approximately $2 billion in assets, to unpack the journey of building the firm since 1999. James shares how Clearview navigated difficult early investments, turned one healthcare investment into a 29x return and developed an investment philosophy built around backing exceptional people.

We also explore why the golden era of private equity may be over, the hidden costs of ambition, and James's decision to step back from day-to-day leadership to invest his own capital and pursue a new chapter.

We discuss:
- What it really takes to build a private equity firm from scratch.
- How Clearview survived an early investment that nearly went to zero.
- The story behind a 29x return in healthcare.
- Why great people matter more than great business models.
- The costly lessons of partnering with the wrong founder.
- How Clearview creates value without relying on financial engineering or cost-cutting.
- Why incentives often fail to motivate management teams.
- Why 40 years of falling interest rates created an illusion of private equity outperformance.
- Where James still sees opportunities in the lower middle market.
- Why humility, transparency, and self-awareness matter when evaluating founders.
- How James thinks about deploying his own capital and backing the next generation of entrepreneurs.
- The trade-offs between ambition, family, and building a life well lived.

Guest:
James Andersen is the co-founder of Clearview Capital, a Connecticut-based private equity firm founded in 1999. Over its history, Clearview has completed more than 150 transactions and grown to approximately $2 billion in assets under management. James has recently stepped back from day-to-day leadership to focus on investing his own capital, advising entrepreneurs, and writing about business, investing, and life through his Substack, You Read It Here.

Are you interested in sponsoring the Buyers & Builders Podcast? Please email Mikk Markus at mikk@privatequityguy.com.

Let's Stay Connected (Mikk Markus):
X/Twitter: @PrivatEquityGuy
LinkedIn: Mikk Markus

Stay Connected with James Andersen:
LinkedIn: James Andersen
The Firm: https://www.clearviewcap.com/
SubStack: https://substack.com/@youredithere

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Building Clearview Capital: 27 Years and 150+ Deals
02:04 The Hidden Price of Ambition and Success
07:05 The Experience That Changed James's Approach to Failure
09:38 Why He Walked Away to Start His Own Firm
16:41 The $155M Deal That Proved Clearview Could Succeed
18:37 How Their First Investment Nearly Went to Zero
24:25 The Cost of Partnering With the Wrong Founder
29:25 Inside Clearview's Extraordinary 29x Return
32:49 Why Private Equity Is Ultimately a People Business
35:44 The Difference Between Rewards and Incentives
38:58 Why Great PE Firms Build Businesses Instead of Cutting Costs
42:08 The Great Private Equity Illusion: Why There Will Be Blood
47:29 Why James Stepped Back and How He'll Invest His Own Capital

#privatemarkets #privateequity #fundraising #familyoffice

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

At 27, he had $0 in assets under management. By 32, he had raised $180 million. Today, Marc Stad's Dragoneer Investment Group manages over $40 billion.

How did he do it?

From getting rejected by TPG to being mentored by its legendary co-founder, David Bonderman, pitching Jeff Bezos in a bathroom, turning a $1 million investment into $4 million, and assembling a multibillion-dollar Uber deal with Warren Buffett, Marc Stad's story is a masterclass in ambition, persistence, relationships, and creative dealmaking.

In this episode of Buyers and Builders, we break down the extraordinary career of Dragoneer's founder, the principles behind his investments in companies like Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, and Meta, and what entrepreneurs, investors, and business buyers can learn from his approach.

The biggest lesson? Your current resources don't define the size of your opportunities.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The $12 Billion Uber Deal: Marc Stad's Extraordinary Story
3:44 From $180 Million to $40+ Billion: Building Dragoneer
7:22 The Inner Flame: From a Difficult Childhood to Harvard
9:23 Breaking the Rules: How Marc Got Into TPG After 25 Rejections
0:59 Creating Your Own Luck: The Jeff Bezos Bathroom Story
12:53 Turning $1 Million Into $4 Million With MercadoLibre
14:34 The Power of Mentorship: David Bonderman and the $5 Million IOU
17:25 Finding Opportunities Others Don't See
19:04 Lessons in Ambition, Leverage, and Building Great Businesses
20:34 Building Relationships Before You Need Them

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

What does it take to acquire companies, build a serial acquisition platform, and never sell?

My guest today is Giuseppe Balzano, founder of Novaterra, an Italian permanent capital holding company acquiring niche industrial businesses with defensible technology and intellectual property.

At just 30, Giuseppe has secured $25 million in equity commitments, pursued two acquisitions, and set out to build an industrial group that could endure for generations.

We discuss why Italy's overlooked industrial champions present an extraordinary opportunity, how to find businesses with near-monopoly positions, the realities of raising permanent capital, and why patience may be the greatest competitive advantage in investing.

We also explore Giuseppe's unconventional journey from venture capital to business ownership, his approach to acquiring and operating companies, and his ambition to build something his children might one day own.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Building a company he never wants to sell
3:56 The mentor who shaped his long-term thinking
7:20 Why he left venture capital to build something permanent
9:42 Why Italy's industrial businesses are overlooked
12:29 Solo founders, co-founders, and playing the long game
15:05 How he learns and makes investment decisions
18:29 Inside his first two industrial acquisitions
23:37 The next acquisition: water management
24:25 Growing businesses without chasing growth
29:44 Finding acquisition targets other buyers miss
34:14 How to win the trust of family business owners
40:07 The brutal reality of raising $25 million
44:22 The numbers behind his fundraising process
48:12 Deal structuring: debt, equity, and ownership
50:09 Managing acquisitions without replacing CEOs
57:22 Founder incentives and building an ownership culture
1:02:49 Why finding great people is harder than finding deals
1:05:11 Building a legacy despite the odds
1:10:49 The road to a self-funding industrial compounder

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

What does it actually take to build a world-class roll-up?

After spending a day at the RollUpEurope Serial Acquirers Summit with some of Europe’s most active serial acquirers, we break down the operating playbooks behind groups that have completed hundreds of acquisitions—and the lessons that matter whether you’re pursuing acquisition #1 or #50.

This episode covers how great acquirers choose markets, build proprietary deal flow, win sellers without simply paying the highest price, keep founders engaged after closing, integrate without destroying what made a business special, and eventually turn a collection of companies into an institutional platform.

The examples are remarkable: one group has acquired roughly 680 pharmacies. Evergreen has completed roughly 160 acquisitions. Another platform deliberately stopped acquiring for nearly a year after its first two deals because the founders wanted to understand the operating model before scaling it. Later, they completed an additional 18 acquisitions.

Roll-ups look like finance from a distance. Up close, they are a combination of sales, psychology, operations, hiring, negotiation, capital allocation, culture, and endurance.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Inside Europe’s most active roll-up builders
2:36 Find the pain you actually enjoy
6:11 Why the best roll-ups start extremely niche
7:22 Your acquisition pipeline is part of the research
9:23 Seller psychology: why the highest price doesn’t always win
11:58 Don’t scale a roll-up you don’t understand
13:09 M&A is not value creation
15:08 Integration, capital partners & building an institutional platform
18:54 Reputation as an economic asset
20:08 The roll-up flywheel

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

My guests today are Deiya and Dean Pernas, founders of Pernas Research, who have compounded capital at roughly 30% annually over the past nine years.

We explore their private equity-like approach to public markets: understanding businesses from the inside out, judging management teams and capital allocation, and finding inflection points before they show up in the financials.

We also discuss their “motor” investing framework, why trajectory matters more than absolute quality, lessons from poker and bankroll management, and how they think about position sizing, averaging down, and knowing when a thesis is broken.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The opportunity in public markets
2:49 From poker and engineering to investing
6:08 Private equity lessons for public investors
11:35 The Motor investing framework
14:40 Finding potential before the numbers
17:02 When to sell
19:20 How to judge great CEOs
23:39 Capital allocation: good and bad
29:59 Trajectory over quality
33:32 Finding inflection points
36:45 Incentives and shareholder alignment
41:48 Poker lessons for portfolio management
45:16 Position sizing, averaging down, and surviving mistakes

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

My guest today is Sam Allsopp, co-founder of Neal Roofing and Waterproofing, a home services company he started with Andrew Neal in 2020 and has since grown from zero to roughly $50 million in annual revenue—all organically.

What makes Sam’s story interesting is that he didn’t come from roofing. Before starting Neal Roofing and Waterproofing, he ran a marketing agency and worked with more than a dozen roofing companies, where he began to see firsthand why some contractors could turn leads into profitable growth while others struggled. That experience eventually became the foundation for Neal Roofing and Waterproofing: build a world-class customer acquisition and sales machine, then pair it with excellent execution and fulfillment.

In this conversation, Sam breaks down how the business changed at every stage—from the first few million in revenue to building management layers, professionalizing the sales organization and eventually creating the systems required to operate at $50 million of scale. We go deep on marketing spend, lead generation, speed-to-lead, booking rates, sales capacity, one-call closes, compensation plans, hiring ahead of growth and the KPIs he watches every day.

We also explore how Neal Roofing and Waterproofing has remained profitable while growing aggressively, why Sam prefers opening new markets from scratch over acquiring competitors, how he thinks about incentives and accountability across the organization and why he believes the underlying playbook can work far beyond roofing.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 From zero to a $50M roofing company
1:11 The real business: customer acquisition + sales
3:25 $1M → $2.5M → $6M → $14M → $25M → $36M → $50M
8:33 What changes at every stage of growth
15:01 The KPIs Sam tracks to run the business
17:52 Facebook, PPC, LSA & the marketing mix
19:15 Why they contact leads in under a minute
23:15 Building the sales machine & one-call close
27:24 The operating system behind $50M of roofs
33:07 Growing fast while staying profitable
38:48 Hiring, incentives & performance pay
40:34 Why they prefer organic growth over M&A
46:14 How Sam actually learned sales & marketing

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

My guest today is Felix Jander, co-founder of Arsipa, a buy-and-build company focused on occupational health and safety.

Felix and Stefan began exploring the idea during COVID, studying roughly 60 niche industries before choosing a fragmented market with significant room for consolidation.

Arsipa went on to complete more than 40 acquisitions, grow to over 1,100 employees across 60+ locations, and surpass $100 million in annual revenue. In 2024, the company partnered with Warburg Pincus, with Felix remaining invested in the business.

We discuss how they chose their market, built proprietary deal flow, and used highly personalized outreach to generate reply rates as high as 80%. Felix explains why the first acquisition matters so much, how Arsipa financed its early deals, and the operational playbook behind recruiting, finance, pricing, integration and culture.

He also shares the story of splitting with his original co-founder, finding his next partner, and transitioning from operator to investor.

This is a practical conversation about acquisitions, capital allocation and building an institution from a collection of small businesses.

Please enjoy my conversation with Felix Jander.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 From zero to 40+ acquisitions and $100M+ in revenue
3:33 Why boring businesses beat venture-backed hypergrowth
5:08 How they chose one market from 60 niche industries
7:40 The 1% conversion math behind proprietary deal flow
11:08 Raising the first pool of acquisition capital
18:00 Buying businesses without brokers
20:41 The first acquisition changes everything
23:04 Equity first, debt later
24:58 Turning acquisitions into an operating company
28:13 Losing a co-founder in the middle of fundraising
32:27 Selling to Warburg Pincus and rolling equity
40:08 The roll-up integration and value-creation playbook
44:32 The economics of scaling a roll-up
48:06 What changes after a major private equity investment
51:24 Felix’s advice for aspiring buy-and-build founders
54:18 From operator to investor
56:12 Final lessons from building Arsipa

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

My guest today is Justin Escajeda, an entrepreneur who owns 12 trade businesses around Pittsburgh, employing roughly 250 people and generating more than $50 million in annual revenue.

What makes Justin’s story interesting is that he never set out to become an acquisition entrepreneur. He started in masonry, construction and real estate before buying his first roofing company which did $600k in SDE in 2018 for $846k. That acquisition changed how he thought about building businesses.

Today, Justin owns companies across masonry, roofing, insurance, material supply, general contracting, property management and luxury remodeling. His approach is unusually simple: buy businesses that already work, preserve what made them successful, put great operators in charge and resist the temptation to change things simply because you can.

We also explore how he manages 12 businesses without micromanaging them, the four KPIs he watches every day and why he stopped taking cash from portfolio companies to fund new acquisitions.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Building a $50M portfolio of trade businesses
1:24 The first acquisition that changed everything
4:34 Buying a roofing company for under $1M with an SBA loan
6:21 Why Justin never wants to start another company
8:15 Why he avoids changing businesses after buying them
12:24 Inside a portfolio of 12 trade businesses
15:00 The acquisition Justin overpaid for
16:49 SBA loans, cash, and why he prefers seller financing
22:25 Solving key-person risk after an acquisition
27:14 Growing companies without micromanaging operators
31:05 Why Justin went an entire year without buying anything
34:38 The four numbers he watches every day
37:42 A $300K mistake, liquidity, and why ownership isn’t passive

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

In 2010, Robert Finkel wrote the book The Masters of Private Equity and Venture Capital: Management Lessons from the Pioneers of Private Investing

In this episode, I explore the ideas, decisions, successes, and failures of two people who helped define modern private equity: Joseph Rice, co-founder of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, and Warren Hellman, co-founder of Hellman & Friedman.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The Masters of Private Equity
2:15 Private equity is more than buying and selling companies
5:42 What separates the best private equity investors
7:14 Joseph Rice: Building Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
10:13 Jack Welch’s advice during the 2008 crisis: “Hammer them”
15:23 The failed deal that changed how Rice invested forever
19:28 Lexmark: Turning an IBM division into an entrepreneurial company
22:06 Kinko’s, a total loss, and the danger of believing you can do anything
26:20 Joseph Rice’s five lessons from 40+ years in private equity
31:03 Warren Hellman: Building Hellman & Friedman
32:23 “This time is different” — the investing lesson Hellman never forgot
36:35 Every investment is guilty until proven innocent
39:51 Think like an owner, not an employee
42:38 Levi Strauss and the deal that put Hellman & Friedman on the map
45:34 Why a great security can still be a terrible investment
49:08 Warren Hellman’s five rules for investing

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

Greg Geronemus bought a ~$5M EBITDA business with no operating experience, financed half the purchase price with a seller note, and spent his first year doing something most new owners struggle to do: almost nothing.

Four years later, the business was larger, professionally managed, dramatically delevered, and sold at roughly 9x EBITDA—producing just under a 5x net return and ~50% net IRR for investors.

Greg breaks down the entire journey: finding the deal, negotiating the structure, taking over from a deeply embedded founder, deciding what not to change, discovering the growth channels that actually worked, and ultimately selling the company.

Above all, this is an episode about buying well.

Because you can change your team, strategy, marketing, systems, and operations after closing. You cannot change the price you paid or the structure you agreed to.

For anyone searching for, buying, financing, or operating a business, this is a case study worth studying.

Timestamps:
0:00 From Private Equity to Buying a Business
5:12 The High-Volume Strategy for Finding Deals
7:42 The Unlikely Chain of Introductions That Found smarTours
10:01 The Deal: ~5x EBITDA and 50% Seller Financing
13:50 From First Meeting to a $29M Acquisition
17:18 What Made This Business So Attractive
23:14 How the $29M Acquisition Was Financed
25:21 The First 100 Days: Don’t Screw It Up
31:35 Why Great Buyers Go Slow Before They Go Fast
35:23 Modernizing the Business—and What Didn’t Work
39:39 The Growth Breakthrough Nobody Expected
44:12 Selling the Business, ~5x Returns

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

Eric Tan and Patrick Grove are building one of Southeast Asia's most interesting serial acquirers. As CEO of Catcha Digital, they've completed 14 acquisitions while creating a permanent home for market-leading businesses across digital media, B2B exhibitions, and vertical software.

In this conversation, Eric shares why his failed startup became the foundation for Catcha Digital, how they evaluate hundreds of acquisition opportunities, why culture matters more than spreadsheets, and what he's learned from studying companies like Constellation Software, Danaher, Roper and Europe's leading compounders. We also dive deep into capital allocation, decentralized operations, buy-and-build strategies, and why live events may become even more valuable in the AI era.

Timestamps:
0:00 Building Southeast Asia's serial acquirer
1:00 From failed startup to Catcha Digital
8:20 How Catcha Digital operates a decentralized holding company
13:05 Why 99 out of 100 acquisition opportunities get rejected
15:25 Lessons from Sweden's best serial acquirers
24:00 Why B2B trade exhibitions are exceptional businesses
28:40 The software acquisition strategy inspired by Constellation Software
30:15 The buy-and-build playbook behind Catcha Digital's growth
39:00 Learning from Danaher, Roper, Constellation & other compounders
43:50 Why live events become more valuable in an AI world
47:00 Working with Patrick Grove & building an acquisition machine
51:00 Capital allocation, going public & balancing long-term thinking with quarterly results

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

Frederik Brandis was one of the key minds behind Arsipa, a buy-and-build platform focused on acquiring occupational medicine and workplace safety consultancies. As one of the earliest investors and strategic partners, he helped scale the business through dozens of acquisitions before it achieved an exit to Warburg Pincus just three years after its founding.

Today, he is the Founder & General Partner of Aven Capital Partners, where he backs exceptional entrepreneurs before they even own a business—helping them acquire, integrate, and scale small companies into market-leading platforms.

In this conversation, we discuss what separates AAA entrepreneurs from everyone else, why emotional intelligence matters more than pedigree, how Frederik evaluates founders before they've built anything, why buy-and-build remains one of the most attractive opportunities in investing, and the biggest lessons from building one of Europe's most successful acquisition platforms.

We also explore:

• What makes an exceptional buy-and-build entrepreneur
• How to evaluate people before they've built a track record
• Why relationships outperform spreadsheets in acquisitions
• The biggest misconceptions about roll-ups and ETA
• When to sell—and why leaving value for the next owner matters
• The future of buy-and-build investing

Whether you're interested in private equity, entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA), search funds, capital allocation, or building businesses through acquisitions, I believe this episode is packed with practical insights.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 The gap in private equity that led to Aven Capital Partners
06:04 What makes a true "AAA Entrepreneur"
09:00 How Frederik evaluates founders before they've built anything
13:34 Is now still the best time for buy-and-build?
16:43 The Arsipa story: from first investment to major exit
20:20 Why Frederik chose investing over becoming a searcher
27:00 Holding periods, exits & leaving upside for the next owner
32:50 Designing businesses that private equity actually wants to buy
37:16 How young entrepreneurs earn credibility without pedigree
43:25 Why many searchers and roll-up founders fail
46:06 Frederik vision for building Europe's operating system for buy-and-build

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

Greg Geronemus is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Footbridge Partners, where he backs entrepreneurs pursuing search funds and other forms of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA).

Before becoming an investor, Greg lived the search fund journey himself. In 2013, Greg and his partner David acquired a tour operator generating roughly $5 million of EBITDA. Over the next four years, they grew EBITDA by approximately 50%, paid down most of the company's $20 million debt load, and ultimately exited the business at approximately 9x EBITDA—around four turns higher than their acquisition multiple.

In this episode, Greg and I explore how the search fund ecosystem has evolved from a tiny, relatively unknown corner of entrepreneurship into a rapidly growing asset class and career path.

We discuss why buying a great small business has become more competitive, the differences between traditional and self-funded search, and why owning a larger percentage of a smaller company doesn't necessarily create greater economic upside.

Timestamps:
0:00 Greg's acquisition story and introduction to ETA
1:03 How search funds have changed since 2010
6:40 Raising equity and debt when almost nobody understood search
10:40 Is buying businesses actually harder today?
17:30 The Harvard ETA course that changed the industry
24:42 The mindset required to survive a two-year search
27:16 Traditional search vs. self-funded search explained
35:33 The biggest misconception about ownership and wealth
40:22 Why committed capital vehicles are exploding
48:38 What Greg looks for when backing acquisition entrepreneurs
50:24 If you had $500k today—which path would you choose?
53:08 Greg's advice for future searchers

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

Nathan Lindley is the CEO of Lindley Home Services, an HVAC platform that has completed 11 acquisitions across Texas.

But this story almost ended before it began...

After acquiring his first two companies with an SBA loan, Nathan watched revenue collapse, burned through his cash, nearly lost his father's retirement savings and came dangerously close to bankruptcy. The turning point was a complete rethink of incentives, compensation, and how to build an acquisition platform that actually compounds.

In this conversation, Nathan shares the brutal reality behind his first acquisitions, the lessons that reshaped his operating philosophy, and why he now believes buying a business is really about buying opportunities—not revenue.

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction: Nathan's 11 acquisitions and $16M run-rate HVAC platform
00:25 The acquisition timeline: from the first deal in 2020 to acquisition #11
01:24 From Christian book publishing to buying HVAC businesses
03:55 Selling real estate to fund the first acquisition
04:33 Buying a one-technician HVAC company—and the costly assumptions that followed
07:58 Losing 40% of revenue almost immediately after closing
10:26 Acquisition #2 makes every problem much bigger
11:20 Running out of cash—twice
14:18 The decision to put everyone on commission
15:15 Every employee quits on the same day
16:21 The Indeed hire who changed the entire business
18:59 The emotional toll: fear, alcohol, and nearly going bankrupt
23:13 One technician outperforms the rest of the company
25:52 Why Nathan waited a full year before doing acquisition #3
27:00 Acquisitions #3 and #4—and buying businesses the second time around
28:46 How his M&A due diligence completely changed
29:30 The "buying at-bats" framework for acquisitions
33:08 Why Lindley spends almost nothing on marketing
34:15 Turning acquired customer databases into new revenue
36:27 Hiring exceptional technicians and building repeatable systems
37:35 The company today: 50 employees across three markets
39:13 How Lindley integrates acquired businesses
42:38 Teaching acquired technicians to double their income
43:17 The acquisitions that didn't work—and why
46:47 Planning an exit and doing it all over again
49:04 Where to connect with Nathan

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

Chris Rolls is the founder of PieLAB Capital, a holding company with nine portfolio companies built through 13 acquisitions.

After building and selling multiple businesses, Chris entered private equity to learn the investing side of the game. But he eventually became convinced that the traditional PE model forces investors to sell their best businesses too early. That realization led him to build a permanent capital holding company inspired by Berkshire Hathaway, Constellation Software, TransDigm and the Swedish serial acquirers.

In this conversation, Chris explains how PieLAB sources deals, why private markets offer advantages over public markets, how he evaluates recurring revenue businesses, lessons from growing Detector Inspector, and the three primary levers he uses to create value after an acquisition.

Timestamps:
0:00 From Entrepreneur to Investor
3:03 Trading Operational Help for Private Equity Experience
5:01 Why Chris Abandoned the Traditional PE Model
5:25 Discovering Constellation Software & Serial Acquirers
8:43 Why Private Markets Beat Public Markets
13:05 Building Australia's First Serial Acquirer
14:59 The Challenge of Permanent Capital & Investor Liquidity
16:24 How Detector Inspector Grew Into an Industry Leader
17:08 Why Chris Loves Compliance Businesses
20:41 The Three Levers of Value Creation
23:00 The Pricing Power Playbook
25:27 Using AI to Reduce Costs & Improve Operations
33:03 Why Every HoldCo Needs an AI Champion
41:07 Bolt-On Acquisitions vs Platform Acquisitions
43:38 Building a HoldCo for the Next 30 Years
46:06 Work-Life Balance, Curiosity & Long-Term Success

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

In this episode, David Flickinger, founder of Vellm.ai, joins Mikk Markus to explain how his journey from Marine Corps officer to AI implementation shaped his perspective on technology, and how business owners, private equity professionals, search fund operators, and CEOs can move beyond using Claude and ChatGPT as a simple productivity tool and begin building AI infrastructure that creates real enterprise value.

Drawing on years of experience deploying AI solutions inside operating companies, David shares how AI agents can be connected directly into CRMs, ERPs, financial systems, proposal databases, and operating workflows to capture institutional knowledge, reduce key-man risk, improve decision-making, and dramatically increase productivity.

One of the most fascinating examples comes from a commercial roofing company where an AI system analyzed 47 building plans and produced a $6.5 million estimate in 23 minutes—nearly identical to the estimate produced by a senior estimator after two weeks of work.

We discuss:
0:00 Introduction: Why Most Business Owners Use AI Wrong
1:20 David Flickinger's Journey from Marine Officer to AI Operator
6:48 ChatGPT vs Real AI Infrastructure
0:24 The Roofing Company AI Case Study
6:17 How AI Learns Decades of Business Experience
20:39 Human Oversight, Trust & AI Decision-Making
25:30 What Happens to Junior Employees in an AI World?
28:07 How AI Doubled Revenue Without Hiring More Staff
32:17 AI, Key-Man Risk & Higher Business Valuations
39:02 The Biggest Risks of Implementing AI
45:05 The First AI Project Every Business Owner Should Start

David on X: https://x.com/DWFlickinger

David's firm - AI agents for the workflows that run your business: https://vellm.ai/

Brett Kelly is the founder and CEO of Kelly Partners Group. Since founding the firm in 2006, Brett has completed more than 90 acquisitions, compounded revenue at over 30% annually and built a business expected to generate roughly $50 million in EBITA in 2026.

Timestamps:
0:00 Brett Kelly's early years and losing his job at 22
3:57 Writing to 80 successful Australians while unemployed
9:13 The moment Brett decided to start his own firm
12:24 Launching Kelly Partners with a clear long-term vision
13:22 Inspired by Disney, McDonald's, Ritz-Carlton & Berkshire Hathaway
17:10 Choosing the right clients and creating a business system
18:36 The 204-step operating system behind Kelly Partners
19:01 The acquisition strategy: becoming #1 or #2 in local markets
24:05 Winning clients through a differentiated value proposition
28:27 Lessons learned from 95 acquisitions
29:06 Why the 51/49 ownership model works
31:39 What types of firms Kelly Partners acquires
32:59 Capital allocation and building a capital-efficient roll-up
34:30 Doubling profits after acquisitions: the biggest lever
35:18 AI, accounting, and the future of professional services
36:28 Permanent capital vs. traditional private equity
37:20 Brett's biggest challenge today: financing growth
37:53 Kelly Partners' 17-step hiring process
38:28 The future: building a global accounting platform
39:45 Focus, systems, and operating at world-class standards
41:17 Why passion and meaning matter in business
43:05 How accountants can genuinely improve people's lives
44:24 Final thoughts on leadership, culture, and making a difference
45:32 30% revenue CAGR, 35% book value growth & 90+ acquisitions

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

Andrea Allegrini is one of the key operators behind one of Europe’s most fascinating small-cap acquisition stories.

Lindbergh is building what could become the country’s first national HVAC maintenance platform through a disciplined roll-up strategy focused on fragmented, family-owned businesses.

In this conversation, Andrea explains how Lindbergh evolved from a logistics operator into a serial acquirer, why Italy’s HVAC market is such an attractive hunting ground, how the company structures acquisitions, and why technician retention matters more than financial engineering.

Timestamps:
0:00 Lindbergh’s evolution from logistics to HVAC roll-up
2:51 Building a pan-European logistics platform
6:03 Why Lindbergh exited France and pivoted to HVAC
11:47 The massive opportunity in Italy’s fragmented HVAC market
13:17 Inside Lindbergh’s acquisition strategy and deal structures
18:29 Cross-selling, technician sharing, and operational synergies
20:05 How word-of-mouth became Lindbergh’s sourcing engine
23:22 Acquisition multiples, seller financing, and capital allocation
30:23 “More plumbers, less managers”
31:40 Retaining technicians and building an internal academy
35:24 How Lindbergh attracted long-term U.S. investors

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

Ramsey Sahyoun shares how Evergreen grew from a Berkshire-inspired idea into a $1.5B revenue, $250M EBITDA HoldCo with 160 acquisitions.

We discuss proprietary sourcing, decentralization, talent, value creation, MSPs, and the lessons behind building one of America’s most interesting acquisition machines.

Timestamps:
0:00 Evergreen’s scale and long-term hold model
2:06 Discovering private equity and buying private companies
4:14 Meeting Jeff Totten at Alpine Investors
5:53 Evergreen’s first acquisition and current portfolio
8:14 How Berkshire Hathaway inspired Evergreen
10:23 Leaving Alpine and starting young
12:18 The first 6-18 months after closing
13:15 What went wrong with an early MSP roll-up
15:25 Why centralization hurt customer intimacy
18:44 Building Evergreen’s sourcing engine
22:27 Why Ramsey still talks to business owners himself
23:07 The value of having a large acquisition database
26:09 How to build trust with business owners
29:18 Why finding great deals is still the most important part of M&A
32:09 Higher valuations, higher rates, and value creation
34:02 Evergreen’s M&A, talent, and playbook flywheel
37:43 Why talent drives investing outcomes
39:17 Motivating founders vs. hired CEOs
41:54 Lessons from 160 acquisition post-mortems
44:22 Setting big goals and planning backward
47:16 Evergreen’s one-page plan and quarterly renewals
48:53 What Evergreen learned from Alpine and Graham Weaver
51:27 How Ramsey and Jeff’s roles changed as Evergreen scaled
54:21 What people misunderstand about Evergreen
55:07 How Ramsey’s view on managing people changed
56:48 Closing thoughts from Ramsey

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

Mark Sinatra has lived the full search fund journey: discovering ETA at Wharton, acquiring Staff One HR, surviving the 2008 crisis, scaling the business, selling to Oasis Outsourcing, and later helping build ETA Equity.

In this episode, Mark shares what he learned from nearly a decade as a search CEO, why talent unlocked the business, how he survived the hardest years, and what he now looks for after backing 80+ searchers and 35+ acquisitions.

Timestamps:
0:00 Mark Sinatra’s journey from searcher to ETA investor
1:21 Discovering search funds at Wharton
7:53 Raising a search fund and finding Staff One HR
13:17 How underwriting search deals has changed
18:34 Buying a business right before the financial crisis
21:14 When Mark finally felt like a real CEO
24:19 Hiring the right people and upgrading the team
31:38 Surviving the emotionally hardest years as CEO
37:30 Rebuilding Staff One and selling to Oasis
42:14 Starting ETA Equity
45:20 What Mark looks for in searchers today
51:20 Lessons from deals that did not go well
58:30 Jockey, horse, and barn: what really matters in ETA
1:01:50 How the search fund market has changed

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