Ep.186: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Brian Yormak ( @brian-yormak ). My guest is Brian Yormak, co-founder of Story Ventures alongside his brother Jake, a venture capital firm with a strong focus in data and data software. I connected with Brian as they are an investor in past guest Craig Fuller’s media and data company FreightWaves and are one of the few VCs with a strong focus in data. I’ve talked to data CEOs on the podcast before, but was curious to add the venture perspective to the co...
Aug 29, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 186
Ep.185: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Michael Horowitz ( @mahorowitz ). My guest today is Michael Horowitz who recently sold a roll-up of 20 Wingstop franchise locations (15 acquired, 7 built, 1 closed) and co-authored a paper with A.J. Wasserstein about the franchise path for entrepreneurs. In this conversation, we discuss his strategy and components of an effective franchise roll-up. We touch on the pros/cons of the franchise path, the role of debt, choosing a brand, challenges, and oppor...
Aug 22, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 185
My guest today is Nick Huber, founder of now over a dozen companies beyond Bolt Storage, his self-storage business he’s perhaps most well-known for. Check out our first episode together, episode 68, for more about Bolt Storage. Nick has used his growing Twitter following as a top-of-funnel for all these companies, all of which serve each other in a pretty unique entrepreneurial ecosystem. Nick and I talk about how his role as a leader has grown in scope as his business empire has expanded, why d...
Aug 15, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 184
Ep.183: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Mark Valdez ( @_markvaldez ). My guest Mark Valdez is the founder and CEO of Eads Bridge Holdings, a holding company with a tech-enabled thesis, and now the owner of a behavioral health business, Stokes Counseling. Mark and I talk about what a tech-focused thesis looks like in practice and what it means to be a software-defined holding company, dynamics in the new acquisition, where tech makes the greatest impact, and building a holding company team. Th...
Aug 08, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 183
I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Ep.182: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Jim Vesterman ( @jim-vesterman ). This episode is t...
Aug 01, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 182
Ep.181: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Ben Tagoe ( @btagoe ). My guest today is Ben Tagoe, CEO of Objective Management Group who through a partner network provides sales assessments to sales teams and individual salespeople. Founded over 30 years ago, they have assessed millions of salespeople and 10s of thousands of companies across hundreds of industries. They are a fascinating business that I’m excited to talk about today. Ben and I talk about the various ways they evaluate and coach sale...
Jul 25, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 181
Ep.180: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by David Dodson ( @Dave-Dodson ). My guest today is David Dodson. David is an investor, former CEO, professor at Stanford, and as of July 13th, 2023, an influential author having published his first book, The Manager’s Handbook. I read an advance copy ahead of the recording and was incredibly impressed with how strategic and tactical it was in showing you how to become a more productive leader. The book examines the five essential managerial skills David h...
Jul 18, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 180
Ep.179: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Julian Scadden ( @JulianScadden ). My guest today is Julian Scadden, CEO of Nexstar, an industry education, coaching, content, and data business all-in-one for plumbing, HVAC, and electrical companies. I am super excited for this episode. This is a fascinating company and has been mentioned by no less than three other podcast guests to me, so I’m thrilled to sit down with Julian today. Julian and I talk about Nexstar’s business model and ownership struc...
Jul 11, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 179
I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Ep.178: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Ryan Turk ( @Ryan-Turk ) and Keith Gross ( @Keithmg...
Jul 05, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 178
Ep.177: Alex Bridgeman ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Sieva Kozinsky ( @sievakozinsky ). My guest on this episode is Sieva Kozinsky, co-founder of Enduring Ventures, a holding company founded in 2019 with 17 acquisitions to date. Sieva and I met at a dinner following the Berkshire Hathaway meeting in Omaha, his first time attending the meeting. A theme from our first conversations in Omaha that continues through this episode is long-term thinking being a huge advantage, and that compounding happe...
Jun 27, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 177
Ep.177: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Mark Stiving ( @Stiving ). My guest on this episode is Mark Stiving. Mark is a pricing expert and consults with companies on developing stronger pricing and product positioning strategies. Our discussion today on pricing is wide-ranging from the purposes of pricing, value-based pricing, segmentation, and who’s responsibility pricing is in an organization. What I loved about this episode is getting a distilled view on pricing based on hundreds of case st...
Jun 20, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 176
Ep.175: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Philip Hussey ( @philipdhussey ). My guest on this episode is Philip Hussey, CEO of Outerland, a landscape maintenance, new build, and snow removal business in Cape Cod, owned by Chenmark. Philip took the CEO role through Chenmark's GVP program in January 2022. A concept he spends a lot of time thinking about that we discuss in detail is their focus on their internal customer, i.e., the Outerland team. They believe by serving and delighting their intern...
Jun 13, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 175
I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Ep.174: Alex (@Aebridgeman) is joined by Alex Thinath ( @Alex-Thinath ) and Nikita Sunilkumar ...
Jun 06, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 174
Ep. 173 Alex Bridgeman ( @Aebridgeman ) is joined by Clayton Collins ( @ClaytonACollins ). Today's episode was recorded live in late April 2023 at SMBash in Austin, Texas, with my boss, Clayton Collins, CEO of HW Media. We opened up talking about how the role came together, but for a short preview, I took a Chief of Staff role with HW Media in March 2022 to help build a media and data company in the housing industry. It's been an exciting journey with a steep learning curve that I'm thoroughly e...
May 30, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 173
#172: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Doug Cook ( @DougCook ). This episode was a live recording at a joint event in Chicago between the Booth and Kellogg Business Schools. My guest was Doug Cook, Chairman of several companies throughout Illinois in windows and siding, chimney care, garages, elevators, and more; With windows and siding being his most notable business in Feldco. Doug gives a deeper walkthrough of his very impressive and entrepreneurial career at the start of our conversation. ...
May 23, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 172
Ep. 171: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Justin Nassiri ( @JustinNassiri ). My guest today is Justin Nassiri, founder and CEO of Executive Presence , a managed social media service for ambitious CEOs, with a focus on LinkedIn today. We talk about why CEOs should care and focus on building a social media following, and how CEOs can optimize their social presence, including a walkthrough of the most important things to optimize on your LinkedIn profile. We also compare the top platforms for CEO...
May 16, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 171
I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Ep. 170: Alex ( @Aebridgeman ) is joined by Aaron Perrine ( @AaronPerrine ) and Kevin Oxendine...
May 09, 2023•53 min
Ep 169: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Amir Haboosheh ( @amirhaboosheh ) My guest on this episode is Amir Haboosheh, Co-Founder and CEO of Snowball Industries, a home services holding company with 4 portfolio companies today. Their vision is to build a permanent, publicly traded home for these companies, and Amir and I talk extensively about what an IPO looks like and the benefits and tradeoffs it brings. We also talk a lot about empathy, a skill ambitious CEOs cannot get enough of, lessons ...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 169
Ep. 168: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Daniel Hudspeth ( @danielhudspeth ). My guest today, Daniel Hudspeth, is the CEO of Discover Health, a concierge medical practice business with locations in California, Boston, and soon to be Seattle. During his search Daniel did extensive research on private pay healthcare and eventually developed a thesis to acquire multiple concierge practices across the country. We talk about this pivot during his search, what the concierge model looks like for pat...
Apr 25, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 168
Episode 167: Alex Bridgeman ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Chris Hoffman ( Chris-Hoffman ). My guest, Chris Hoffmann, is the President and CEO of Hoffmann Brothers, a home services business based in St. Louis. Hoffmann Brothers have scaled from $10 million in 2015 to over $100 million in revenue in 2023. We talk about how that journey happened, their experience building executive teams, investing in people through a training university they started for ongoing training, and investing activity for...
Apr 18, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 167
Episode 166: Alex ( @aebridgeman ) is joined by Ed Redden ( @Edward-Redden ). Ed and his partner Justin Vogt are former podcast guests from episode 59 where we talked about starting Evermore Industries, an industrial services holding company. Last year they acquired AVUITY, based in Cincinnati, which sells physical commercial office sensors that detect motion, temperature, humidity, and more, along with a data and analytics subscription. Ed and I talk about making the first acquisition in a hold...
Apr 11, 2023•58 min
This is the third and final episode in our three-part series on Chenmark, a highly successful small business holding company founded in 2015. Today they have acquired 11 operating companies, completed 30+ acquisitions when including add-ons, and have over 600 employees today. This third episode takes a deep dive into their CEO recruiting function and what has to happen to keep Chenmark on its growth trajectory. We discuss their GVP program where they recruit young hungry leaders to eventually be...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr 12 min
Please take 2 minutes to complete this audience poll and give feedback on the podcast This episode is the second in a three-part series we are running on Chenmark, a highly successful small business holding company founded in 2015. Today they have acquired 11 operating companies, completed 30+ acquisitions when including add-ons, and have over 600 employees today. This second episode focuses on their operating ethos, culture, and incentive structures. We discuss meeting cadence and formats acros...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Please take 2 minutes to complete this audience poll and give feedback on the podcast This episode is the first in a three-part series we are running on Chenmark, one of the most well-known and studied holding companies in the entrepreneurship through acquisition world. And for good reason! Since its founding in 2015 they have acquired 11 operating companies, completed 30+ acquisitions when including add-ons, and has over 600 employees today. This series is not meant to be a one-stop-shop for ev...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 6 min
Please take 2 minutes to complete this audience poll and give feedback on the podcast My guests on this episode are Jalen Ross and Orlando Remak, cofounders of CAM Collective, a holding company for association management companies like HOAs founded in April 2022. Today they have four member companies. I was lucky enough to meet Orlando during a trip to Ohio two years ago before he had started CAM Collective and have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him and Jalen. We talk about being intentiona...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 19 min
Please take 2 minutes to complete this audience poll and give feedback on the podcast Daniel Reese is my final guest on the CEO series with early career CEOs. Daniel acquired IntellaTriage in November 2019 after a military career and searching with a distinct thesis. IntellaTriage handles after-hours calls for providers, senior living businesses, and others with a remote nursing team. Daniel and I talk about growing a business that felt very much like a startup early on, advice for new CEOs, sca...
Mar 07, 2023•45 min
Please take 2 minutes to complete this audience poll and give feedback on the podcast This episode is the second in our CEO series with early career search CEOs in their companies. Today I’m joined by Adam Ilowite and Michael Upex, CEO and President of Axero Solutions, respectively. Axero is a digital workspace platform for internal communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing that was acquired by Adam and Michael in July 2021. We discuss the timing of making changes in the business, crea...
Feb 28, 2023•53 min
My guest, Ryan Galea, is the first guest in a CEO series I’m doing with search CEOs who acquired their companies within the last 3 years and have early lessons and emotions in their very recent, or current, memory. The series aims to learn strategies and hear stories from early career CEOs about how to manage the first couple of years running a new company. Ryan acquired VoiceFriend in August of '21, a communications platform for nursing homes and senior living facilities. Then less than a year ...
Feb 21, 2023•40 min
This is the last of a six-episode series with Trilogy Search Partners focused on Search, Search-backed acquisitions, and small business operations. Today we have a great conversation with Stijn Hendrikse, an operating partner at Trilogy. As an author of T2D3.pro, serial entrepreneur, and marketing leader, Stijn has contributed to the success of 10+ startups as a C-level executive, including the Chief Revenue Officer of Acumatica and CEO of MightyCall, a SaaS contact center solution. Stijn founde...
Feb 14, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Today’s episode is a rerun with past guest Ross Brendel, a co-founder and the managing partner of Westerly Group alongside cofounder Rich Littlehale. Westerly Group invests in acquisition entrepreneurs with committed, permanent capital to pursue a specific industry thesis over an indefinite time horizon. They are investors in several of our podcast guests such as Justin Vogt and Ed Redden, Eric Factor, and Austin King, among others. I wanted to bring this episode back to your attention as perman...
Feb 07, 2023•50 min
