Organic growth is great, but if you want to grow through M&A while beating almost every private equity firm in deal competition. Learn from Jesse.

He became so good at it that he built the company to $200mm

- 8 acquisitions and counting

- 100% bootstrapped

- Being 35 years old; hungrier than ever

A couple of notes:

1. I am a forced entrepreneur, I dropped out of school and then I couldn't find a job so I was forced to start my first company Job Mobz

2. Entrepreneurs give up too quickly; had I sold too early I would never have built a $200M company

3. Recruiting companies must transform into SaaS companies or they will be replaced

4. We've helped build teams for Coinbase, 23andME, Stellar, and Scale AI when they were very small companies

5. The way you get big WHALE-like clients: figure out what their problem is. Then do an insane amount of research and sort it out for them. No one does this and you can stand out very easily

6. Being in one industry for 10+ years gives you insane “market knowledge” that allows you to acquire companies many times cheaper than newer competitors and private equity firms that “know” less about the industry.

7. Having a huge pipeline just because of a great reputation in space – the niche focus has been incredibly beneficial

8. You can make your business 2x as valuable by reviewing your contracts and making sure you're pricing correctly

9. You can't just work 40 hours a week and win.

I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed talking to Jesse Tinsley from Recruiter.com

Show notes:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:29 - Being a firefighter and the early days of starting a business

00:04:31 - Being a part-time entrepreneur for the first 4 years

00:05:58 - Moving away from the traditional recruiting business model to recurring annual contracts

00:09:34 - How he managed to get Coinbase, 23andMe, Scale AI as clients

00:13:37 - Being frugal allowed to acquire 8 companies

00:17:00 - Having the “market knowledge” allows you to acquire companies many times cheaper than your competitors simply because they know less

00:19:00 - Deal structure

00:23:20 - Turning 3x multiples to 30x EBITDA multiplies

00:31:00 - Post-acquisition

00:35:39 - How to make your company 2x more valuable: review and fix your pricing contracts

00:43:19 - The benefits of focusing on one specific industry

00:48:32 - The cyclical market provides an additional opportunity

00:51:53 - Focusing on recruiting and recruiting only

00:54:48 - Continuing to build a business instead of saying yes to a life-changing amount of cash

00:59:27 - Is Jesse easy or hard to work with

01:01:47 - How to run a $200 million company? Schedule wise

Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠⁠

Jesse on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/JesseTinsley

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

Swedish serial acquirers have cracked the code on how to compound their wealth (at a staggering rate!)

Their holding companies trade at 12-29 times EBITDA.

Here is the story from their founder and CEO Fredrik Karlsson who got so unhappy with his boss so he decided to leave…

Start the exact same business.

Following the exact same strategy.

Today, ONLY 6 years later, he and his team has done 26 acquisitions which does $600M in revenue and $100M+ in EBITA

Here's a 74-minute in-depth summary of two full interviews with Fredrik Karlsson, a true buy-and-build pioneer, and Johan Bladh, Röko's CFO.

(I often learn by reading and listening, so I decided to read these interviews out loud.)

Show notes:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:29 - 26 portfolio companies, all asset light businesses

00:10:14 - The benefits of being sector agnostic

00:20:20 - Offering a 10-year put call option to the founder

00:26:01 - The hurdle of 15% operating profit

00:30:03 - With 8 people in the HQ, we can grow our profit even to $400M EBITA

00:35:15 - Looking at 300-400 deals per year (which leads to 6-12 acquisitions per year)

00:37:42 - HoldCo model vs Private equity: Decentralization and reporting of portfolio companies

00:44:03 - Understanding the markets, knowing what to acquire

00:56:07 - Competition in transactions

01:00:03 - What type of companies are they acquiring

01:11:12 - Maximum number of deals per year: 7 platforms; 2 add-ons

Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠⁠⁠

Full interviews are free to read on In Practise website (huge thanks to their team for doing this):

Fredrik Karlsson, the CEO of Röko: https://inpractise.com/articles/roko-building-a-leading-serial-acquirer

Johan Bladh, the CFO and deputy CEO of Röko: https://inpractise.com/articles/roko-manda-strategy-transaction-structure-and-returns

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

Imagine this...

• First acquisition March 2023
• Today a portfolio of 10 companies
• $7.5M in EBITDA
• Average acquisition multiple so far 2.5x (!!!)
• Last deal: $550k EBITDA business acquired for $850k

Craziest part, doing all that with ZERO personal investment and still making 50% of the carry

Show me a better salesman!

When asked how you did it?

“There are no rules. Literally.”

This conversation with Nigell Lee of RBO Group has everything. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Show notes:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:53 - An unconventional path lead to entrepreneurship & building a company in NYC

00:07:27 - Mixed emotions and growth while growing business in the US

00:09:51 - First days of RBO Group: 9 months of market research and search of the first deal

00:12:34 - Financial structure and financing of the first deal

00:19:32 - Acquiring a company in an industry you don’t know much about

00:20:35 - The biggest secret revealed: How to find the absolute best deals

00:25:44 - Getting in the game vs spending years looking for a perfect deal

00:28:57 - Size and structure of the holding company

00:36:39 - 2-5-10 year strategy post acquisition

00:42:40 - 10 deals with 2.5x average acquisition multiple

00:46:19 - 90-day integration post acquisition

00:57:55 - Focusing on one business/platform vs wide range of companies

Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠⁠

Nigell on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/nigelllee1

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