WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.840 We don't need more people, we need better people. 2 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:05.200 We don't need more cooks in the kitchen. 3 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:06.960 We don't need more hands in the operating room. 4 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:08.040 We need better surges. 5 00:00:08.040 --> 00:00:11.120 This has just been this big recurring theme for me. 6 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:12.680 Like the first question I was trying to, 7 00:00:12.680 --> 00:00:14.680 I'm asking now, it was so different than what it was 8 00:00:14.680 --> 00:00:17.200 before, call it five or 10 years ago. 9 00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:23.240 Over 24 months, we invested in 24 portfolio companies. 10 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:26.120 And then we took 18 months off 11 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:30.160 and ended up doing two deals in that period of time. 12 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.320 I want to talk to you about what I learned 13 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:36.240 in those 24 months and subsequently 14 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:38.320 why we slowed down deal activity 15 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:40.440 and basically just the lessons that we learned from that. 16 00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:43.400 Big picture, the strategy of acquisition.com 17 00:00:43.400 --> 00:00:46.760 like any business has slowly morphed over time 18 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:50.880 from my initial thesis to kind of what my thesis is today. 19 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:53.040 And so the initial thesis was, 20 00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:56.440 if I combine old and new, 21 00:00:56.440 --> 00:00:59.000 old being private equity investing in new, 22 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:00.800 being social media, I would be able to create 23 00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:02.680 proprietary deal flow for us. 24 00:01:02.680 --> 00:01:05.320 And then I wouldn't have to be the best at picking. 25 00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:07.080 I would just basically be able to attract 26 00:01:07.080 --> 00:01:09.440 the best quality deals, best quality founders 27 00:01:09.440 --> 00:01:10.800 who are amenable to working with us. 28 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:12.720 So reasonable deal terms, 29 00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:14.640 rather than what I would consider competitive 30 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:16.760 for auction-like deal terms that happen 31 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:19.520 in a, when you've got 10 different companies bidding 32 00:01:19.520 --> 00:01:21.120 for one, et cetera. 33 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:23.840 And so that was kind of the original thesis. 34 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:26.000 It came true, but in a different way 35 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.280 than I originally imagined. 36 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:28.880 And so that's kind of what I want to share with you. 37 00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:32.280 We did 24 deals, like I said over 24 months. 38 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:36.320 A big part of that was figuring out the deal structure 39 00:01:36.320 --> 00:01:38.400 that made the most sense for what we did. 40 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:41.880 Now when we started, we started with this like little hook 41 00:01:41.880 --> 00:01:44.280 which I haven't said in a very long time, 42 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:47.080 mostly because of me finding out that it was wrong, 43 00:01:47.080 --> 00:01:51.000 which was majority work from minority stakes. 44 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.400 After doing majority work for minority stakes, 45 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:55.200 I realized that there's a reason that people 46 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:57.080 don't do majority work for minority stakes 47 00:01:57.080 --> 00:01:58.520 because it's just not worth it. 48 00:01:58.520 --> 00:02:00.040 But what was interesting though, 49 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.600 and maybe there's a silver lining lesson 50 00:02:02.600 --> 00:02:03.360 I'll be able to take from this, 51 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:06.600 but of the 24 companies that we originally invested in, 52 00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:09.480 we basically divested from the vast majority of them. 53 00:02:09.480 --> 00:02:13.640 Of those 24, I want to say six, 54 00:02:13.640 --> 00:02:16.600 we are still invested in and or double down 55 00:02:16.600 --> 00:02:17.680 into those businesses. 56 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:22.680 So yet again, we're not really immune to power law of 80-20, right? 57 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:27.560 But the thing is, is that most investors will write a check 58 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:30.360 and then kind of just like hope for the best. 59 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:32.800 The way that acquisition.com did it historically 60 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:36.840 is that we would write a check and do a lot of work too. 61 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:38.920 And that was because I wanted to, like, 62 00:02:38.920 --> 00:02:42.960 I don't have a billion dollar fund or something like that 63 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:44.120 that I'm working with. 64 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:46.040 And so it's like, I try to use the resources I have, 65 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.440 which is like we're going to grow things organically. 66 00:02:48.440 --> 00:02:52.000 And so for us, organic growth is what we're best at. 67 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.360 That's how we grow the company so we have. 68 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:56.680 Of the companies that portfolio today, 69 00:02:56.680 --> 00:03:01.520 the average founder has 13x to value their equity. 70 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:05.160 13, not including like the value of the company, 71 00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:06.440 just their share. 72 00:03:06.440 --> 00:03:08.960 That's 13x from the deals they did with us. 73 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:10.960 I feel pretty, I feel really good about that. 74 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:12.760 On the flip side though, 75 00:03:12.760 --> 00:03:16.680 we also kind of let go of the companies 76 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:18.240 that we didn't see as much potential in. 77 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:22.880 We didn't see as much aggressive growth in those businesses. 78 00:03:22.880 --> 00:03:25.520 A discerning person would be like, OK, well, are you picking, 79 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:26.360 or is it you? 80 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:29.520 And the answer I think is probably a combination of both. 81 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:32.160 I think on one hand, the ones that we did pick 82 00:03:32.160 --> 00:03:33.600 that have done exceptionally well, 83 00:03:33.600 --> 00:03:35.000 there's an element of picking there. 84 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:39.560 But also, we tend to, I would say we are good at this part, 85 00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:43.960 which is star of the losers feed the winners. 86 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:47.520 And so we did this time study. 87 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:51.040 I want to say about 12 or 18 months in. 88 00:03:51.040 --> 00:03:52.280 I can't remember. 89 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:53.880 Having done a lot of deal activity, 90 00:03:53.880 --> 00:03:56.800 the work on my portfolio team started expanding. 91 00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:00.040 And I could see that they were spread really thin. 92 00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:02.280 And so then I was basically faced with this idea of like, 93 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:04.760 do I need to further expand the portfolio team, 94 00:04:04.760 --> 00:04:06.360 which I could have done? 95 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:08.280 I was like, or should I just take the team 96 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:10.920 that I have and allocate them where we get the best returns? 97 00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:12.600 That's what I ended up moving towards. 98 00:04:12.600 --> 00:04:16.000 But what we did was I did a time study for the whole team 99 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.360 to see where they were allocating their effort. 100 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:20.160 And you can probably already guess this 101 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:22.320 if you're a business owner who's listening to this. 102 00:04:22.320 --> 00:04:25.400 A lot of the time was going towards the companies 103 00:04:25.400 --> 00:04:27.840 that were floundering, you know, the ones 104 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:30.600 that were struggling the most, the squeaky wheels, right? 105 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:34.040 Which, you know, in a services business would function. 106 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:36.840 Anybody who has a services business be to be or be to see. 107 00:04:36.840 --> 00:04:39.360 It's like, this is what you don't want to have happen. 108 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.720 And so I think that what happened next 109 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:43.560 is the thing that you do want to have happen 110 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:45.280 but is also very scary to do. 111 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:46.920 And so maybe this story will, you know, 112 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:48.280 inspire some of you to do that. 113 00:04:48.280 --> 00:04:51.360 Basically in seeing that, I was like, this is all wrong. 114 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:54.240 We have these companies that are doing really well. 115 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:56.000 And we were spending less time on them. 116 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:57.520 And then we have companies that are, you know, 117 00:04:57.520 --> 00:04:59.440 stagnant or not really growing that aggressively, 118 00:04:59.440 --> 00:05:01.600 whatever, always seem to have, you know, problems. 119 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:03.520 And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, 120 00:05:03.520 --> 00:05:05.040 let's put all of our attention there. 121 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:06.440 No, that sounds like a terrible idea. 122 00:05:06.440 --> 00:05:09.400 Again, I think this kind of this thingy process 123 00:05:09.400 --> 00:05:11.040 could be applied across customers. 124 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:12.080 It works the same way. 125 00:05:12.080 --> 00:05:14.520 After the time study, I said, okay, here's the deal. 126 00:05:14.520 --> 00:05:17.000 We're going to reallocate everyone's time 127 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:19.800 in order of company effectiveness. 128 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:22.320 Basically, where do we get the best returns, right? 129 00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:25.520 And so we restacked the team and said, this is what it is. 130 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:27.520 And then we removed people from projects. 131 00:05:27.520 --> 00:05:29.880 We removed people from communication cadences 132 00:05:29.880 --> 00:05:31.640 with particular businesses. 133 00:05:31.640 --> 00:05:35.480 What we did was we got rid of all of the squeaky wheels 134 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:38.720 that weren't growing and taking a lot of time. 135 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:41.720 We also got rid of medium businesses too. 136 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:43.680 And I know that sounds like crazy, 137 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:47.480 but I've just been all in on this concept of focus, right? 138 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:49.000 And you've heard this is this repeated theme 139 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:50.080 over and over again in my podcast. 140 00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:53.120 It's because it's still top of mind for me. 141 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:56.840 What remained after I basically trimmed the portfolio 142 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:00.400 was two buckets. 143 00:06:00.400 --> 00:06:05.000 Companies that had good returns for almost no effort 144 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.120 and companies that had exceptional returns for high effort. 145 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:13.520 And so that's pretty much what we have in the portfolio today. 146 00:06:13.520 --> 00:06:16.000 Companies that there's a lot of work that we do, 147 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:17.960 but we get a lot for it. 148 00:06:17.960 --> 00:06:20.080 And companies that we do a little bit of work 149 00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:22.040 that we get kind of medium returns on. 150 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:24.680 But the relative or proportional returns 151 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:26.160 are probably about as good. 152 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:27.920 And so thinking about like this is like, 153 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:29.960 if there is a company that we think we're going to get, 154 00:06:29.960 --> 00:06:33.800 call it 30 or 40% annualized returns on, 155 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:36.240 now that sound is great in the investing world, 156 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:38.080 but for me as an entrepreneur, 157 00:06:38.080 --> 00:06:40.040 I'm like, I want way more than that 158 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:41.200 because we're working too. 159 00:06:41.200 --> 00:06:42.360 And this is the piece I think people 160 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:44.360 like don't take into consideration. 161 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:49.240 The vast majority of investment funds, family offices, 162 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.440 they write checks and like barely provide 163 00:06:52.440 --> 00:06:53.560 kind of like strategic guidance. 164 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:55.320 We tend to do a lot more than that. 165 00:06:55.320 --> 00:06:57.320 Because of that, we just have additional costs, 166 00:06:57.320 --> 00:06:58.960 both hard costs like labor costs, right? 167 00:06:58.960 --> 00:07:01.360 Like I pay teams of people to do things, 168 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:02.400 but just attention. 169 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:05.360 There's a reason that most private equity funds are, 170 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:08.480 in the eight, 10 companies is what they select, 171 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:11.160 because that's usually what that size team can manage. 172 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:13.080 And most fund managers quickly realize 173 00:07:13.080 --> 00:07:16.840 that you make more money just chasing bigger deals, 174 00:07:16.840 --> 00:07:18.320 then you do off of doing more deals. 175 00:07:18.320 --> 00:07:20.960 Now there are some businesses like Constellation 176 00:07:20.960 --> 00:07:23.600 out of Canada, which is a conglomerate. 177 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:26.160 And they have purposely focused on going horizontal 178 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:27.800 rather than going up market. 179 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:30.280 So their average company I think does like $3 million 180 00:07:30.280 --> 00:07:32.960 revenue and they acquire like 200 of them a year, 181 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:34.640 something some absurd number. 182 00:07:34.640 --> 00:07:37.320 And that was something that I looked at originally as like, 183 00:07:37.320 --> 00:07:38.800 maybe this is a model, because it would make sense 184 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:39.800 with media, there's we have a lot, 185 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:44.040 we have tons of deal flow in the $3, $5, $10 million range. 186 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:47.440 But I would say that we reinvented the wheel. 187 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:49.920 And what we did was we looked at the companies 188 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:53.080 and did the best and we put more of our attention there. 189 00:07:53.080 --> 00:07:55.240 And the thing that was the hard part to cut, 190 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:58.640 I'll be honest with you, is those ones that are doing okay, 191 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:02.160 like we get distributions, they're doing okay. 192 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:04.000 But the thing is I know that the majority of my returns 193 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.400 are gonna come from the beasts, right? 194 00:08:06.400 --> 00:08:08.280 The ones that were putting a ton of effort in 195 00:08:08.280 --> 00:08:10.080 that are just crushing it. 196 00:08:10.080 --> 00:08:13.080 And so basically we made the hard call 197 00:08:13.080 --> 00:08:16.840 and parted ways as amically as we could with this founders. 198 00:08:16.840 --> 00:08:19.480 Overall, the portfolio continues to grow 199 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:21.560 at a faster rate more profitably 200 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:23.320 and the team has more bandwidth 201 00:08:23.320 --> 00:08:25.640 to reinvest in the stuff that matters most. 202 00:08:25.640 --> 00:08:26.840 Some of the things that I learned, 203 00:08:26.840 --> 00:08:29.200 if I had to put bullets on this. 204 00:08:29.200 --> 00:08:31.280 So number one is I would say that, 205 00:08:31.280 --> 00:08:32.920 I would bet on the jockey, not the horse. 206 00:08:32.920 --> 00:08:34.960 This is, and you know what's tough about this 207 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:36.240 is that some of the things I'm gonna say 208 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:37.080 are any things that you're like, 209 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:38.560 yeah, I've heard that before. 210 00:08:38.560 --> 00:08:41.760 And I wish I could translate it into like, 211 00:08:41.760 --> 00:08:43.360 there's like head nodding 212 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:45.160 and then there's like deeply understanding it. 213 00:08:45.160 --> 00:08:46.120 I think there's the differences called 214 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:48.320 between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge 215 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:51.200 knowing about something versus knowing how to. 216 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:52.800 I can say these words and you're like, 217 00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:55.520 oh, I've heard about that kind of selection criteria 218 00:08:55.520 --> 00:08:57.480 versus understanding what it looks like 219 00:08:57.480 --> 00:08:59.920 to live with that selection criteria. 220 00:08:59.920 --> 00:09:02.080 So I just say that as a general disclaimer. 221 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:03.480 Like I said, first off, bet on the jockey 222 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:04.320 and not the horse. 223 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:07.800 It's so much, it's all, you know, it's all people. 224 00:09:07.800 --> 00:09:09.480 It's all about people. 225 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:11.320 Like people build businesses. 226 00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:13.200 And if you have done people, you build done businesses. 227 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.080 And if you have smart people, you build smart businesses. 228 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:17.080 And if you have good people, you build good businesses. 229 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:19.080 If you have bad people, you build bad businesses. 230 00:09:19.080 --> 00:09:20.800 Like smart bad people, very bad. 231 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:22.560 Not a good combo, right? 232 00:09:22.560 --> 00:09:25.120 I think more above it talks ways like you wanna, 233 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:28.960 you want somebody who's smart, hard working, 234 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:32.200 and ethical, right, more or less, antagonist. 235 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:35.240 He said, because if you have somebody who's smart 236 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:36.760 and antagonist, but they're not hard working, 237 00:09:36.760 --> 00:09:38.480 you're not gonna get a lot done, right? 238 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:41.160 If you have somebody who's dumb and antagonist, 239 00:09:41.160 --> 00:09:42.040 well, the stuff that they're gonna do, 240 00:09:42.040 --> 00:09:44.080 and hard working, they're not gonna do good stuff. 241 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:46.400 But the worst case scenario is that you have a partner 242 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:49.840 who's intelligent, hard working, and evil. 243 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:52.320 And then you have somebody who's working, 244 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:55.080 you know, 24-7 against you, which is what you don't want, right? 245 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:59.440 That's probably number one, it's all about the people, man. 246 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:00.720 It's all about the people. 247 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.200 Number two, this is more of a business thing, 248 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:06.120 but I say now we look for revenue retention, 249 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:10.440 or the path to revenue retention, meaning fundamentally, 250 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:12.800 you wanna have some compounding vehicle within the business. 251 00:10:12.800 --> 00:10:14.600 And this is something that took me way too long to learn. 252 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:17.120 But it's like, you need to have something 253 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:21.320 that I get credit for the work I did this year next year. 254 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:23.240 If you don't have a way of getting credit 255 00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:24.800 for work you did two years ago, 256 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:26.600 it means the only way to scale a business 257 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:28.600 is simply acquiring more customers. 258 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:31.160 And that is a very hard way to grow, 259 00:10:31.160 --> 00:10:32.440 because there are so many things 260 00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:34.240 that can disrupt acquisition. 261 00:10:35.280 --> 00:10:36.720 Like if you're making content, 262 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:39.440 you can get de-platform for stuff for whatever reason. 263 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:42.160 If you have a big call, like door knocking team, 264 00:10:42.160 --> 00:10:45.400 it's like a key leader can walk with half your sales force. 265 00:10:45.400 --> 00:10:48.600 If you're in paid ads you can get de-platforms, same thing, right? 266 00:10:48.600 --> 00:10:53.040 And so if you're very reliant on traditional advertising, 267 00:10:53.040 --> 00:10:55.800 which to be fair, I make so much content about this stuff. 268 00:10:55.800 --> 00:10:58.240 And so I say, I understand this firsthand, 269 00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.800 is that if you were so reliant on that, 270 00:10:59.800 --> 00:11:03.360 the company is significantly less stable 271 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:05.440 and enduring than one that, 272 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:07.640 even if we lost all of our marketing tomorrow, 273 00:11:07.640 --> 00:11:08.600 we still have all the customers 274 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:09.800 to be required over the last five years. 275 00:11:09.800 --> 00:11:11.000 And then we would have some time 276 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:12.880 to figure out what the next thing we're gonna do is 277 00:11:12.880 --> 00:11:15.600 to get customers refined where the attention is. 278 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:17.520 I'll paint you two pictures really quickly. 279 00:11:17.520 --> 00:11:19.840 So let's say you've got company A 280 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:23.120 that sells a hundred customers this year. 281 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:24.640 I'll say, cool, loses a hundred, 282 00:11:24.640 --> 00:11:26.800 so those people don't buy again. 283 00:11:26.800 --> 00:11:28.640 Now, you might be like, oh, they're a backup, 284 00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:30.640 and there's some businesses that lend themselves 285 00:11:30.640 --> 00:11:33.720 more to reoccurring revenue and repurchases than others. 286 00:11:33.720 --> 00:11:35.600 But let's just say, they don't sell those people 287 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:37.320 anything else a year later. 288 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:39.560 So the next year, they sell 200 customers 289 00:11:39.560 --> 00:11:40.800 so the company doubles. 290 00:11:40.800 --> 00:11:42.080 Okay, all right. 291 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:44.840 Year three, the company sells three times as many customers. 292 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:46.280 So they sell 300 customers this year. 293 00:11:46.280 --> 00:11:49.640 Okay, but they don't have any from year one or year two. 294 00:11:49.640 --> 00:11:51.480 All right, so that's company A. 295 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:54.760 Now, company B sells a hundred this year 296 00:11:54.760 --> 00:11:56.240 and then keeps all of them. 297 00:11:56.240 --> 00:11:58.600 And then next year, they keep acquisition the same 298 00:11:58.600 --> 00:11:59.920 and sell a hundred, but they still have 299 00:11:59.920 --> 00:12:00.880 the hundred from the first year. 300 00:12:00.880 --> 00:12:01.840 Now, they have 200. 301 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:04.480 And then year three, they still don't grow acquisition. 302 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:05.600 They sell another hundred 303 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:06.840 and they have the hundred from the year before 304 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:07.920 and the hundred from the year before that. 305 00:12:07.920 --> 00:12:09.200 And so they have 300. 306 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:10.680 Now, when you look at both these businesses 307 00:12:10.680 --> 00:12:15.000 from the onset, you see 200, 300 customer businesses. 308 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.240 But which business would you rather own? 309 00:12:17.240 --> 00:12:19.560 Obviously, you'd rather have company B. 310 00:12:19.560 --> 00:12:21.760 Because it's significantly more stable. 311 00:12:21.760 --> 00:12:23.200 Typically, if you had a business out of search, 312 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:25.720 so that way it's very likely that it'd be more profitable 313 00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:27.680 because you don't have to keep paying, 314 00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:28.520 like if you think about, 315 00:12:28.520 --> 00:12:31.520 so the company A had to pay the cost 316 00:12:31.520 --> 00:12:34.920 of acquiring 600 customers and company B 317 00:12:34.920 --> 00:12:37.440 only had to pay the cost of acquiring 300 customers. 318 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:38.800 So all of that added cost 319 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:40.480 drops straight to the bottom line. 320 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:42.160 Pretty neat, right? 321 00:12:42.160 --> 00:12:44.160 And typically, not always, 322 00:12:44.160 --> 00:12:48.080 but typically customers become more efficient over time, 323 00:12:48.800 --> 00:12:52.720 they require less to maintain them over the long haul. 324 00:12:52.720 --> 00:12:54.360 So actually margins can expand. 325 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:56.560 Like it's the most expensive thing to do in businesses 326 00:12:56.560 --> 00:12:58.920 acquire a customer and then onboard and activate them. 327 00:12:58.920 --> 00:13:01.280 Once you have an onboarded and activated customer 328 00:13:01.280 --> 00:13:02.840 and they keep buying stuff from you, 329 00:13:02.840 --> 00:13:04.120 you're just making money. 330 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:07.040 That is probably like the second big thing that we look for, 331 00:13:07.040 --> 00:13:09.600 which is like, do we already have 332 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:13.280 some demonstration of revenue attention? 333 00:13:13.280 --> 00:13:15.440 Is there a subset of customers 334 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:16.640 that have good retention in others? 335 00:13:16.880 --> 00:13:18.760 That would be a great silver lining for us 336 00:13:18.760 --> 00:13:20.320 because we'd probably double down on that. 337 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:23.000 Or is there like a path that we already know 338 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:25.920 they're not doing that we know we could implement 339 00:13:25.920 --> 00:13:28.880 that would get a revenue attention to kick in, right? 340 00:13:28.880 --> 00:13:31.480 And so there's kind of like the second big thing. 341 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:33.880 It's like, okay, so we got the jockey 342 00:13:33.880 --> 00:13:35.000 and this is, you know, 343 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.320 revenue attention should be more of the horse, okay? 344 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:39.880 The next thing, I prefer businesses 345 00:13:39.880 --> 00:13:41.680 that I understand well. 346 00:13:41.680 --> 00:13:45.760 And so we tend to focus on service businesses 347 00:13:45.760 --> 00:13:47.160 and software businesses. 348 00:13:47.160 --> 00:13:49.360 And so we don't talk about this as much, 349 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:51.560 but like right now 40% of the portfolio is software. 350 00:13:51.560 --> 00:13:53.200 And it's because they get, 351 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:54.680 it's a higher return on effort, right? 352 00:13:54.680 --> 00:13:58.000 Like if I add, you know, $10 million in profit 353 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:00.160 to a B2B SaaS company, 354 00:14:00.160 --> 00:14:01.960 I might have added, you know, 355 00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:03.800 $50 million enterprise value 356 00:14:03.800 --> 00:14:05.520 or $100 million enterprise value. 357 00:14:05.520 --> 00:14:09.000 Whereas if I add $10 million to a service business, 358 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:11.360 it might get a multiple on trailing EBITDA. 359 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:13.280 So maybe they run 30% margins. 360 00:14:13.280 --> 00:14:15.720 And so we'll call that $3 million EBITDA 361 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:17.520 unless they trade at $8. 362 00:14:17.520 --> 00:14:19.400 And so they would get $24 million for that. 363 00:14:19.400 --> 00:14:21.320 So I can get $50 to $100 million for the same effort 364 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:23.280 as I can somewhere else where I get $24. 365 00:14:23.280 --> 00:14:25.000 So it's just, even though the actual work 366 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:26.880 is more or less the same, that's what's crazy. 367 00:14:26.880 --> 00:14:28.280 This is something that I've only realized later. 368 00:14:28.280 --> 00:14:30.440 It's just like, I can do the same work 369 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:33.440 in a company that just gets more for what we put in. 370 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:34.760 Now, you can make the opposite argument 371 00:14:34.760 --> 00:14:36.160 that it might be more competitive. 372 00:14:36.160 --> 00:14:38.240 It's harder to book it software, et cetera. 373 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:39.240 So of course, there's trade-offs 374 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:42.160 and there's a reason that the market prices it at that, 375 00:14:42.160 --> 00:14:44.200 at that is because there's just not as many of them. 376 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.240 Three is that it's within our sphere of competence. 377 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:49.320 And so those are kind of, and for me, 378 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:50.960 I love B2B. 379 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:52.720 I think we're, I just looked at our stats. 380 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:57.720 I think we're like 30%, I think we're 30% 381 00:14:58.040 --> 00:15:02.440 dirt consumer, 70% B2B across before it might be 60, 40. 382 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:05.160 I'd have to think it out, but somewhere in that area. 383 00:15:05.160 --> 00:15:07.640 So we're a little more B2B than we are B2C, 384 00:15:07.640 --> 00:15:10.680 but we still have a significant B2C presence. 385 00:15:10.680 --> 00:15:13.480 I'll say the next thing that I really focused on 386 00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:17.400 is not going after great ideas. 387 00:15:17.400 --> 00:15:19.160 All right, so hear me out on this. 388 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:23.160 I'm an entrepreneur and I am an optimist, 389 00:15:23.160 --> 00:15:24.080 eternal optimist. 390 00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:26.720 I get excited about the potential. 391 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:28.440 That's what allows me to start businesses, 392 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:29.920 like I'm willing to take on risk. 393 00:15:29.920 --> 00:15:31.840 But that has been a double-edged sword for me 394 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:33.840 because I will believe in something 395 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:36.320 more than the founder will sometimes. 396 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:39.840 Basically, I've gone for a little bit more tested, 397 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:41.400 a little bit more tried. 398 00:15:41.400 --> 00:15:44.680 Like I want to see it, not believe it could happen. 399 00:15:44.680 --> 00:15:47.040 And so I think that's something that a lot of investors 400 00:15:47.040 --> 00:15:48.560 go into, to be fair, it's kind of the same thing 401 00:15:48.560 --> 00:15:49.560 with business, right? 402 00:15:49.560 --> 00:15:51.560 Like if you have an acquisition channel 403 00:15:51.560 --> 00:15:53.640 or a product line that you're thinking about starting, 404 00:15:53.640 --> 00:15:55.000 it's like it's nice to know that there's already 405 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.600 demand for something, having some sort of pre-test 406 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:01.080 before making a big bet. 407 00:16:01.080 --> 00:16:03.880 And I think I made a lot of bets on things 408 00:16:03.880 --> 00:16:07.000 that I was like, I was really excited about the idea 409 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:09.720 and the execution was lagging behind. 410 00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:13.040 And it was far more likely to get something 411 00:16:13.040 --> 00:16:16.040 that actually works that already is working well. 412 00:16:16.040 --> 00:16:17.640 Like I said, like some of these lessons 413 00:16:17.640 --> 00:16:20.720 that I've learned have been, I actually do them now, 414 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:22.440 rather than kind of nodding my head. 415 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:24.560 I know what it's like to turn something down, 416 00:16:24.560 --> 00:16:27.120 just because it's a great idea and it's exciting, 417 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:29.840 even though they don't have the tracker 418 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.400 that I think is supported. 419 00:16:31.400 --> 00:16:33.920 And so that kind of translates into fewer, 420 00:16:33.920 --> 00:16:36.720 better, bigger deals. 421 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:39.320 Now I could make the equal opposite argument of, 422 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:42.680 well, you had to go through those to know these lessons. 423 00:16:42.680 --> 00:16:44.880 Now, yes, no, I don't know, 424 00:16:44.880 --> 00:16:46.680 but I know that I have those lessons down. 425 00:16:46.680 --> 00:16:49.760 And so basically we're doing fewer, 426 00:16:49.760 --> 00:16:53.760 fewer bigger checks to fewer better companies 427 00:16:53.760 --> 00:16:57.440 that are typically bigger than we were three, four years ago. 428 00:16:57.440 --> 00:16:59.160 And a big part of that is also that like, 429 00:16:59.160 --> 00:17:00.320 the biggest companies that perform, 430 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:03.480 are they're big, they're not small. 431 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:04.840 I make content that's like, 432 00:17:04.840 --> 00:17:05.960 how do you get your first five customers 433 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:06.800 and things like that? 434 00:17:07.520 --> 00:17:09.400 I like to encourage new entrepreneurs. 435 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:13.920 And my long game is that many of those entrepreneurs 436 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:16.840 who do make it, they will hit me up when they're at, 437 00:17:16.840 --> 00:17:19.080 30 million or 50 million or whatever it is, 438 00:17:19.080 --> 00:17:20.560 so we can go from there. 439 00:17:20.560 --> 00:17:23.560 And so that's kind of my long game with this, just FYI. 440 00:17:23.560 --> 00:17:26.680 The businesses that we have are fairly big. 441 00:17:26.680 --> 00:17:28.000 I think we have, I can look at it, 442 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:30.000 but I think we have four companies 443 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:31.440 that are doing over 30 million a year, 444 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:33.000 ones over 100. 445 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:37.520 So like in our average positions, just about 40%, right? 446 00:17:37.520 --> 00:17:39.640 And I don't use anyone else's money. 447 00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:42.760 And so this is all, this is all, you know, our funds. 448 00:17:42.760 --> 00:17:45.120 Those are probably been the biggest lessons. 449 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:47.520 It's the, it's the jockey number one. 450 00:17:47.520 --> 00:17:49.960 Then what's the, what's the one metric 451 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:51.560 that I look at from an investing perspective, 452 00:17:51.560 --> 00:17:52.960 which is gonna be revenue retention. 453 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:55.360 I mean, I'll obsess about that. 454 00:17:55.360 --> 00:17:56.920 And I'll double click into that real quick. 455 00:17:56.920 --> 00:17:58.400 The reason that I like that one so much 456 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:01.120 is also that I can typically reduce 457 00:18:01.120 --> 00:18:03.880 CAC dramatically in a business. 458 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:05.680 So that's like my sphere of confidence, right? 459 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:07.000 Like I know how we can get more customers 460 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:08.800 and how we can get them cheaper, make it better, 461 00:18:08.800 --> 00:18:10.080 have a better offer, et cetera. 462 00:18:10.080 --> 00:18:12.400 If I know somebody's got a product that's sticky, 463 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:14.480 that people want, people like, 464 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:16.480 then I can figure out a way to sell it. 465 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:19.360 That's why I like those types of businesses. 466 00:18:19.360 --> 00:18:21.720 Because again, it's uniquely suited to my competence, 467 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:22.720 which is number three. 468 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:25.560 And then going after fewer, bigger, 469 00:18:25.560 --> 00:18:27.280 basically going after Wales, not Midos, 470 00:18:27.280 --> 00:18:29.120 or hoping Minos turn into Wales. 471 00:18:29.120 --> 00:18:31.720 Now, if I were to play Devils Advocate with myself, 472 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:33.280 which you can probably tell from the nature 473 00:18:33.280 --> 00:18:34.840 of this podcast, I do a lot. 474 00:18:34.840 --> 00:18:38.400 We did 24 deals and we have basically like, 475 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:41.360 I'll call it three stallions in the portfolio 476 00:18:41.360 --> 00:18:44.120 that are really monster businesses. 477 00:18:44.120 --> 00:18:46.320 Like all three have billion dollar potential slash 478 00:18:46.320 --> 00:18:48.600 are already past, billion dollar potential 479 00:18:48.600 --> 00:18:51.680 in that, you know, they've received 480 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:55.640 investorship in access of that valuation. 481 00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:59.360 And I would say, okay, well, three out of 24, 482 00:18:59.360 --> 00:19:01.920 it's like, okay, this is parallel, right? 483 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:04.440 You should have had somewhere in the neighborhood of four-ish, 484 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:07.840 maybe five, companies that did exceptionally well 485 00:19:07.840 --> 00:19:08.680 and we do. 486 00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:10.240 And the three monsters are obviously way 487 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:13.560 outsized of just doing well, they're monsters. 488 00:19:13.560 --> 00:19:16.120 It's like, maybe I should just repeat that process again. 489 00:19:16.120 --> 00:19:18.200 And so I think a lot about this stuff, 490 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:20.680 because this is fundamentally what my job is, 491 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:23.000 is where do we allocate our resources? 492 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:24.920 Where do we get the highest returns 493 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:25.840 on what we put in? 494 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:28.640 And so I will, I will, I will leave you with this, 495 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:32.240 which is like, I think in the next few years, 496 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:34.960 some of these podcasts will probably get a disproportionate 497 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:37.720 amount of use because we will have the third party 498 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:40.280 verification that the numbers we said 499 00:19:40.280 --> 00:19:43.000 are the numbers that we do. 500 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:44.840 Maybe I'll just say this as a reminder 501 00:19:44.840 --> 00:19:46.720 for myself at that point. 502 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:49.080 Everyone just is, everyone's just figuring it out. 503 00:19:49.080 --> 00:19:51.720 There's so many things I don't know. 504 00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:53.320 And there's so many times where I just, 505 00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:55.520 I make a guess, I mean, I make a bet. 506 00:19:55.520 --> 00:19:59.280 I'm like, this feels like it makes a little bit more sense. 507 00:19:59.280 --> 00:20:02.680 The big thing that I keep coming back to is just leverage. 508 00:20:02.680 --> 00:20:07.000 Where do we get the most returns for what we put in? 509 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:11.720 And how can we speed that loop up as fast as possible? 510 00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:13.280 And so I just spend a lot of time doing that 511 00:20:13.280 --> 00:20:15.760 and a lot of time deleting. 512 00:20:15.760 --> 00:20:18.520 And that comes, that's like from the top down, 513 00:20:18.520 --> 00:20:21.920 deleting companies that just aren't a good return for us, 514 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:24.000 deleting people that don't have good returns, 515 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:25.920 deleting processes. 516 00:20:25.920 --> 00:20:28.840 There are, in my opinion, only a handful of people 517 00:20:28.840 --> 00:20:31.680 that provide the outsized value within a company. 518 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:34.160 A lot of the rest are not, 519 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:36.120 they don't really move the needle that much. 520 00:20:36.120 --> 00:20:39.960 When you're thinking through making a company better, 521 00:20:39.960 --> 00:20:43.600 removing the delusion of value can sometimes 522 00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:45.520 be one of the most powerful things you do. 523 00:20:45.520 --> 00:20:47.160 Anyone who's worked with a team before, 524 00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:49.160 I don't know if you've ever worked with a team in high school, 525 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:50.480 we had to do like our college. 526 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:52.840 We had to do like a project in a group or something. 527 00:20:52.840 --> 00:20:55.840 And you're like, guys, I'll just do the whole damn thing. 528 00:20:55.840 --> 00:20:59.920 Like you guys can take off, it would be easier for us 529 00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:02.600 and we will all get better grades if I just do it. 530 00:21:02.600 --> 00:21:04.680 Then me try to fix all the terrible stuff 531 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:06.760 that you're gonna do and then be affected by it. 532 00:21:06.760 --> 00:21:09.240 And the thing is, I think a lot of companies run that way. 533 00:21:09.240 --> 00:21:12.400 Is that people do group projects because there's a group, 534 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:14.840 not because the outputs better, right? 535 00:21:14.840 --> 00:21:16.960 The outputs get better in theory 536 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:20.040 because we assume 10 hands with five brains 537 00:21:20.120 --> 00:21:23.240 is gonna be better than two hands with one brain. 538 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:26.840 But if one brain is way more experienced 539 00:21:26.840 --> 00:21:29.440 and has more knowledge around that specific thing, 540 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:32.760 then that one brain in two hands is honestly handicapped 541 00:21:32.760 --> 00:21:34.800 by the other eight hands that don't know what they're doing, 542 00:21:34.800 --> 00:21:36.360 literally just getting in the way. 543 00:21:36.360 --> 00:21:37.160 So I'll give you an analogy. 544 00:21:37.160 --> 00:21:39.480 So think about it like there's a surgeon, right? 545 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:44.480 So we're all down surgeon and he's gotta do a brain surgery. 546 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:48.440 You say, okay, well, we're gonna bring more people 547 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:52.840 onto the surgery room so that they can help them out 548 00:21:52.840 --> 00:21:55.280 because they've got brains in hands too. 549 00:21:55.280 --> 00:21:58.120 I'll bet you that surgeon would just be like, 550 00:21:58.120 --> 00:22:00.640 just get out of the way and let me do the surgery. 551 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:02.840 And so sometimes we have this, 552 00:22:02.840 --> 00:22:05.120 and this is just something that's been a theme for me right now, 553 00:22:05.120 --> 00:22:06.080 just cause it's probably top of mind 554 00:22:06.080 --> 00:22:07.400 with some of the portfolio companies. 555 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:10.480 We don't need more people, we need better people. 556 00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:11.840 We don't need more cooks in the kitchen. 557 00:22:11.840 --> 00:22:14.680 We don't need more hands in the operating room. 558 00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:16.280 We need better surgeons. 559 00:22:16.320 --> 00:22:20.400 And so this has just been this big recurring theme for me. 560 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:23.560 It's been a big emphasis for how I'm building, 561 00:22:23.560 --> 00:22:25.680 really assembling companies more than building them. 562 00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:27.320 It's like, how do I get the absolute, 563 00:22:27.320 --> 00:22:28.880 like the first question I'm trying to, 564 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.680 I'm asking now, it's so different than what it was before, 565 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:33.600 call it five or 10 years ago. 566 00:22:33.600 --> 00:22:34.920 Like the first question I asked is like, 567 00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:36.480 how do I get the absolute smartest people 568 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:38.320 to want to work here? 569 00:22:38.320 --> 00:22:40.400 And then that question becomes almost central 570 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:44.200 to the strategy because if we have the absolute smartest people 571 00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:46.040 who are the hardest working and they're incentivized 572 00:22:46.080 --> 00:22:47.320 and they're aligned with the goal, 573 00:22:47.320 --> 00:22:48.800 I'll just walk out of the surgery 574 00:22:48.800 --> 00:22:50.240 and let them do this surgery. 575 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:53.840 And so that has shifted dramatically from, 576 00:22:53.840 --> 00:22:56.040 you know, how I thought about things before. 577 00:22:56.040 --> 00:22:59.200 And if you listen to some of the founders 578 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:00.440 that I look up to a lot, 579 00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:02.800 a lot of the big public-be-trader companies 580 00:23:02.800 --> 00:23:04.480 who are still founder led, 581 00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:06.680 this is this recurring theme that they talk about too. 582 00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:08.280 It's just all about the people, 583 00:23:08.280 --> 00:23:10.400 which is why I say, I know you'll nod your head 584 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:12.560 and I know you'll say, well duh, 585 00:23:12.560 --> 00:23:14.440 it's hard to be able to recognize 586 00:23:14.440 --> 00:23:18.160 that level of talent and have a deliberate strategy 587 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:21.840 for attracting true A players. 588 00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:24.240 And the thing is is that your idea of an A player 589 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:26.440 is not as good as what your idea of an A player will be 590 00:23:26.440 --> 00:23:28.480 in 10 years, I promise you that. 591 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:29.960 And so it's trying to like, 592 00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:31.680 it's trying to like play this game with myself 593 00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:33.520 where I think, okay, what will 10 years from now 594 00:23:33.520 --> 00:23:36.880 me think A player is and how can I hold 595 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:39.240 that standard in that bar today? 596 00:23:39.240 --> 00:23:41.160 Like what do I have to do to trick myself 597 00:23:41.160 --> 00:23:43.480 and how can I get into these networks 598 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:47.880 where I can leverage some of these better people in? 599 00:23:47.880 --> 00:23:49.840 Those are some of the lessons that I've learned 600 00:23:49.840 --> 00:23:54.280 from the 24 deals that we did over 24 months. 601 00:23:54.280 --> 00:23:55.440 We shrunk it down to the deals 602 00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:56.880 that we got the highest return on. 603 00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:58.880 We shrunk, we deleted people. 604 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:01.920 We deleted processes that were not value additive. 605 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:05.480 We focused on the jockey, not the horse. 606 00:24:05.480 --> 00:24:07.280 The horse itself, we looked at revenue retention 607 00:24:07.280 --> 00:24:10.240 as long as we thought that we could add the acquisition part. 608 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:13.320 That's where the third element of that is 609 00:24:13.320 --> 00:24:15.880 our core competence, which for us is business services 610 00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:19.000 and sorry, services and software. 611 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:23.440 And going after fewer, fewer, better, bigger deals. 612 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:27.280 And so yes, my friends, that is the top mind pod. 613 00:24:27.280 --> 00:24:29.680 I partially am making this so that I can document it for myself 614 00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:33.640 so that when we do hit our B or multiple Bs, 615 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:36.440 I can not let it go to my head, 616 00:24:36.440 --> 00:24:39.040 because I'm learning as I go, same as you. 617 00:24:39.040 --> 00:24:40.400 Anyways, have an amazing day. 618 00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:41.320 I'll catch you guys soon. 619 00:24:41.320 --> 00:24:42.160 Bye.