Claim OwnershipBusiness Builders And Buyers (ex-HoldCo Builders)
Subscribed: 10Played: 158
Subscribe
© 2025 Business Builders And Buyers (ex-HoldCo Builders)
Description
The Business Builders And Buyers Podcast (ex-HoldCo Builders) with PrivateEquityGuy 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!
140 Episodes
Reverse
For the last 20 years, private equity followed a simple formula: buy with leverage, cut costs, rely on multiple expansion, exit at a higher valuation. That playbook worked incredibly well. But it no longer does. In this episode, I break down why the old private equity model is structurally broken - not just cyclically - and why a new model is emerging. A model where cheap debt doesn’t save you, multiple expansion can’t be assumed, and real value creation matters more than spreadsheets. TI...
In this episode, I’m joined by John Seiffer - the person investors, company buyers and operators call when growth starts getting expensive, messy, or fragile. John has spent decades across manufacturing, software, restaurants, chemicals, and professional services, and he sees the same pattern over and over: founders are great at the product and the sale… but the company can’t scale until the structure scales. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Deals are great, but the money is made in operations 02:15 The rea...
The future of private equity talent is moving toward ownership. We explore why the traditional PE career path is breaking, why carry no longer delivers the upside it once promised, and why more professionals are choosing to build - not wait - for real equity. You will discover: 0:00 The Quiet Exodus Inside Private Equity 1:45 Carry That Never Materializes 2:56 “I Didn’t Join PE to Be an Operator” 3:38 No Real Path to Ownership 5:27 Where PE Talent Is Going Next Sponsors: https://capitalpad...
In this episode, we break down a powerful idea from Jeffrey Walker, a private equity veteran who backed thousands of entrepreneurs and watched success and failure up close. His conclusion is uncomfortable but freeing: the people who win don’t follow a path, they create one. You’ll hear why talent is overrated, why “perfect careers” quietly fail, how one pathless founder built a $200M company, and a practical framework for building a career or business that actually compounds over decades. T...
Today’s guest, David Dowda (Dowda Holdings), went from burned-out insurance salesman working 80-100 hour weeks to buying his first business doing just $30,000 a year - fully seller-financed. Ten years later, he owns nine companies across multiple industries - all acquired with zero outside equity and often minimal cash down. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 How he bought a $30k revenue business with zero cash down 3:00 Rolling up a beach town with chairs, linens, golf carts and a coffee shop 8:03 Buying a c...
How these serial acquirers generate 20-40% annual returns for decades? They buy small, niche, profitable companies again and again. In this episode, we break down the strategy, the structure, and what private buyers can learn from the greatest acquisition machines on earth. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Why tiny acquisitions beat big deals 1:12 21x, 120x, 375x: Lifco, Addtech, Constellation & Heico’s insane returns 2:07 The simple playbook: buying small boring companies again and again 3:56 Engine #...
In this episode, Cyrus Hessabi from Shore Capital Partners breaks down what it really looks like to build AI-enabled services, transition from VC to micro-cap private equity, and back searchers buying “boring” but powerful businesses. Cyrus has lived every chapter of the operator-investor journey: aerospace engineering, Salesforce sales, venture capital, architecting AI rollups at OpenOcean, and now backing searchers at Shore Capital Partners. We dive into how AI is transforming traditional...
Most people in ETA quote the Stanford Search Fund Study, but almost no one looks at what investors actually earn. In this episode, we break down new Yale data from 1,192 investor-level outcomes and shows why access, not modeling, is the #1 driver of 10x MOIC, 30%+ IRR results. You’ll learn why your portfolio will never be “the index”, how a tiny % of deals drive almost all returns, and what elite investors do differently to consistently catch those outliers. If you’re a searcher, investor, f...
Sequoya Borgman has quietly built one of the most interesting retail-funded private equity machines in America. Since launching Borgman Capital in 2017, he’s acquired 20 companies across 8 platforms and raised deal-by-deal from 500+ individual investors instead of institutions. In this episode, we break down how he sources mostly off-market deals in second-tier cities, structures conservative, over-capitalized balance sheets, manages messy founder transitions, and keeps hundreds of retail LP...
Akshay Ramachandran is a retired family office investor. In his last role, Akshay was the sole analyst at a New York-based single family office, reporting directly to the portfolio manager. Together they analyzed over 60 industries using a simple strategy: buy and hold great businesses run by great management teams. In this episode, he explains his biggest winner and covers the whole story. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:43 Defining retirement: cost of living vs net worth 3:04 Immigrant upbringing ...
There’s a holding company that almost no one talks about, yet it might be one of the most efficient compounding engines. RÖKO owns 29 niche, traditional businesses, runs 21% margins, generates 14.5% returns on capital and keeps acquiring new companies every quarter. And they do all of this with a headquarters team of just eight people. In this episode, I break down the full story behind RÖKO and its 63-year-old founder Fredrik Karlsson, the former CEO of Lifco - one of Sweden’s legendary se...
Ian Rickwood, Founder and CEO of Henley Group, has quietly deployed $4B+ across US and Europe, built and sold food chains, and is now rolling up US car washes using AI-driven site selection. We also dive into what great operator partners look like, how to handle bad deals, and what it’s really like to build a serious firm with your spouse and kids. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 “Don’t give up” Ian’s core lesson on entrepreneurship and resilience 0:34 Who is Ian Rickwood and what is Henley Group? 1:04 The...
One of the most underrated skills in business acquisitions. Beyond financial models and deal structures, many great acquisitions happen because buyers know how to connect with sellers on a human level. #BusinessAcquisitions #DueDiligence #MergersAndAcquisitions #HoldCoBuilders #ListeningSkills #DealMaking #EntrepreneurshipThroughAcquisition #PrivateEquity #BusinessBuying #SMBacquisition TIMESTAMPS 0:00 The overlooked M&A superpower 4:55 Warren Buffett & Mrs. B: a deal built on trust...
My guest today is Joel Mathew, Head of Originations at Woodson Equity. We discuss how his entrepreneurial path led him into private equity, Woodson’s “inch wide, mile deep” focus on diversified industrials and business services, and why they favor hands-on, control deals. Joel shares a live carve-out playbook, how he sources more than a 1,000 deals a year, the first-100-days operating cadence, culture as an edge, off-market vs. banked processes, and the mindset required to win in the lower mi...
How Sid Jashnani scaled his firm into a portfolio of 15 companies and $77 million in revenue. If you’re an investor or builder, this is a masterclass in turning chaos into compounding cash flows. Sponsors: This episode is sponsored by CapitalPad, the marketplace that connects acquisition entrepreneurs with investors who want exposure to small-business deals. Operators list live deals in one place; investors get standardized terms, governance, and distributions. If you are raising for a deal,...
Buying a small business and raising the equity shouldn’t take a roadshow. In this episode, Donza Worden (ex–institutional PE, Clear Peak Capital) and Travis Jamison (multi-exit founder turned investor) break down how CapitalPad makes both sides easier: 1) curated deal flow for accredited investors; 2) and a streamlined path to capital for independent sponsors/searchers. Start deploying today with CapitalPad: https://capitalpad.com/ (HoldCo Builders is proudly sponsored by CapitalPad.) We c...
My guest today is Mac Lackey, an entrepreneur who has founded and sold six companies, each with 7-and 8-figure exits - including two back-to-back internet businesses during the dot-com boom. In this episode, Mac breaks down the exact mindset and playbook that helped him turn businesses into life-changing exits. He shares the story of advising one company who was struggling to sell for $25 million… and guiding them to restructure and close for $42 million in cash just months later. Sponsors:...
You’ve spent years building something from nothing — finding deals, operating, and growing real value. But what happens after success? Once liquidity arrives, how do you protect your wealth, make it work for you, and ensure it endures for generations? In this episode, we explore the mindset and structure behind lasting wealth — the difference between being a first-generation builder and a third-generation steward. Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by CapitalPad, the marketplace that connec...
Value-driven investor and turnaround specialist Reggie Prior Jr. (Founder, Prior LLC) breaks down his simple but relentless playbook: buy what others overlook and rebuild it into a durable cash flow machine. We go from his first mentor (textile legend Jimmy Gibbs) to reading Graham & Dodd, using collateral to get started, and why he rarely sells, preferring to borrow against assets instead. Sponsors: This episode is sponsored by CapitalPad, the marketplace that connects acquisition entre...
The greatest builders in history share one habit that changed their fortunes. You’ll hear how a single paragraph led Munger to a $500 million investment, how Jeff Bezos started Amazon because of one statistic in an article, and how Elon Musk saw an opportunity through the absence of information. This episode is about building your mental warehouse of ideas, training your intuition, and developing the kind of insight that compounds for life. The Sponsors This episode is brought to you by Ca...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States