The Exchanges

Q It's interesting that you have integration between port codes because, you know, from my understanding on the Warren Buffett, Andrew Wilkinson type model, uh, they don't do much of that. They keep it very separate. You know, what's your thinking on that? And are they, you know, why are they so anti, uh, Coordination between, and collaboration between companies.

A Yeah. So I think, um, I think a couple of things, uh, one is, uh, I think that the level of centralization you should have totally depends upon your asset type. So let's say you build a whole code where you have, uh, 14, uh, 14 restaurant franchises. Right. Um, and like, let's say seven of them are Burger King and seven of them are Wendy's. Like this is, this is a very common American holdco style where there's families that Are multi-unit operators of franchises. They have built great businesses this way, and they're making millions of dollars a year. It would be stupid for you to have an HR person and a marketing person in every single one of those like stores, right? Like you should centralize that kind of stuff. You should centralize your bookkeeping. You should centralize your ordering. And so to me, the level of centralization that makes sense where you have like interaction between the individual port codes where you're Where you're centralizing stuff at headquarters, that totally depends upon the types of assets you have and what you need from those assets, right? And so the more homogeneous those assets tend to be, the more you can centralize stuff. And so the, you know, the other end of the spectrum is you decentralize those things. You push things out to the edge, uh, into the individual portfolio companies, and you let them do that stuff. And you don't centralize th…

AI assessment note: “they have built a level of centralization that ties to the asset type”

Q I like it. And last thing before, before we leave, what's this, what's this chili thing? Like where, where does this connection with Chili's come from? And basically for, for the folks who don't know, Michael Girdley is a must follow on Twitter, but just so you know, you're getting 10 or 15% of his tweets to be Chili Chili's related tweets.

A I, I need to cut down that. Look, for me, um, for me, I, I have some views of the world that I think are important and, and Chili's like, yeah, it's kind of goofy and I'm a pretty goofy guy and I'm happy to be out there as a goofy guy. But I think also there's this idea of how I feel about Chili's that, how I kind of feel about the part of America that I live in. And I think America to some extent is so focused on a number of things, but one of them is like, I've always felt kind of a resentment To thinking that, you know, this idea that everything has to be special. It has to be like a Michelin star to be beautiful, right? Or it has to be handcrafted in downtown LA for it to be great, right? Or it has to be this extreme thing. And, you know, you got to go to Burning Man to find peace. Like that to me is just like, you know, there's joy to be found in many places. And I think all those things are beautiful. And I think all those things are great. But when I like think about Chili's or I joke about it, it's really that feeling like, I, if I go into a Chili's, like there are people who are nowhere near Twitter, nowhere near the world you and I live in, and they're just there with their family, like enjoying a beer or like relaxing over lunch or spending time with a colleague after, you know, after hours. And to me, like just normal people and fly over America, like just living li…

AI assessment note: “when I like think about Chili's or I joke about it, it's really”

Q and just to clarify one thing, so when I talk about startups, I do, like, mostly tech startups. We do do some agency stuff, um, but it's mostly tech startup stuff. I think a lot of the stuff that you do, you have, you have a mix of non-tech and tech, right? So my question to you is, uh, holding companies, uh, What type of businesses can be in them?

A Yeah. So it's a pretty blank canvas in terms of how people want to approach it. And it's a, it's a big label. When I talk about holding companies, I think you can have all kinds of different businesses in there. Um, you can have asset, different asset classes as well. So in my world, like I own not only like big chunks of real businesses and I'm on the boards of those and I'm in there with the management, you know, supporting them and that sort of stuff. There's also like real estate assets. So like I have a big portfolio of real estate, um, that I control. And that's not being an investor in somebody else's fund. That's like literally stuff like you go look at the deed and like my name's on it. So, you know, when, when I look at the definition of a holding company and we'll talk about the different types here in the next couple of slides, um, you really have a lot of freedom to define what sort of assets you want to have in there and you're holding basically equity, right? Ownership of those things. So, um, those could be a portfolio of high growth startups. If you figure out a way to own big chunks of those things, you know, where you're not Not a passive investor in them. Like you could totally do that. If you want it to be agency and services businesses, you can totally do that. If you want it to be a mix, a mix of different stuff, whether it's tech, tech and non-tech like …

AI assessment note: “I think you can have all kinds of different businesses in there.”

Q I'm curious about that. I'm starting to see a lot more, uh, Holt Co entrepreneurs, multipreneurs, build out media companies. Um, so I know I just had Nick, Nick Kuber, sweaty startup on the pod and, you know, he has a team now that helps him with stuff. How do you think about what are the goals for your media team? Like what, what does success look like to them?

A Yeah, well, we've set a 10 year vision for our media stuff, uh, to get to a billion annual views. Um, right now I'm at like 200 and Two hundred and fifty million. If you count all the Twitter stuff. So, um, that may be low, but like the goal for me and the reason to do it is really impact. And I think impact is things I want to do in terms of helping people around the world. Like I've discovered, like, I'm not just like sharing messages and like teaching here. I'm like creating connections with people at scale. And I want to do that at a bigger scale and do, do it in a very genuine way to help make the world a better place. So that's, you know, that's kind of our North star is like maximum impact along the way. I have some rules, which is like, uh, number one, I'm not doing social media. Cause I want to get rich. It actually is probably not a good way for me to do that. There's better things I could do, but I think it presents an opportunity for me to scale the other things I'm working on and make them all so much easier. Right? Like if I want to fundraise for a deal in the future, or if I want to hire somebody, like it's just easy just to tweet when you have an audience, I think, you know, this, your audience is bigger than mine. So. Um, so that's the goal of this is, you know, for me, it's like a karmic refilling of how I'm doing it. Like by giving it to the universe, it pays…

AI assessment note: “we've set a 10 year vision for our media stuff, uh, to get to a billion annual views.”

Q Dura software is a very good business to be in. Like the business of buying hyper niche software. I mean, Constellation software, I've been Following them for the last five or so years, and they're just so, such a great business. Um, what do you think of, what do you think of Constellation software? Have you spent much time just looking at what they're up to?

A Oh, tons of time. I mean, there is, there is a thesis right now that there are going to be a lot more Constellation style, you know, hold codes and roll ups happening. Um, especially ones that are just holding for yield rather than for appreciation, right? Which is what, like, what Dura does, right? Like we're, we're cashflow buyers. And so like, I think Constellation and Mark Leonard and the things that those guys have invented and then the level they've taken it to, like, is just ungodly. Like, like most people don't understand the level of just what Mark Leonard and his team, Mark Leonard is the CEO and founder of it, former VC, like what they've done through like, 25 years of just inward focus of like, how do we optimize every part of like Like learning and feedback and the acquisition model and keeping track of potential acquisitions and like organizing it. And then all of that, like they just do it at such a high level compared to the smaller aggregators of which were one. Right. And someday we want to get there, but like, for example, their feedback process of how they do posts acquisition, like, you know, reflection to do better for the next one is like over the top. Like, it's just like standardized. Beautiful data centric, just like all the stuff you want. And that's because Mark is really smart. He's not in there trying to run those companies. He's in there trying to…

AI assessment note: “Oh, tons of time. I mean, there is, there is a thesis right now”

Q respect him, but the idea of like giving up control and just having, and maybe VC is different than PE, but just having to prime it for an exit at some point made me a little uncomfortable. So we ended up declining that. I'm curious, A, do you, are you happy with that situation? And then B, if you were me, would you have taken that deal from that VC?

A Oh, if I was you, that's a great question. Um, first of all, I'm a happy, uh, totally delighted. Like when we started to talk with Peterson, we asked around about their reputation and talked to references and all that kind of stuff. And it, it was fascinating even after we signed the deal that friends of mine, like college buddies would be like, oh, I've worked with those guys. They're really great. And it turns out they are really great. And what I enjoy about them And this is a cool anecdote. Like, um, they're from, uh, Utah. So it's like a very family oriented stuff. So it's not like, it's not like, uh, what I've described as New York private equity or Dallas private equity, where they like show up and they're like, okay, show me how you're going to make me some money. Like these guys, like, uh, they were awesome. Like the first meeting, they're like, okay, well, welcome to the business meeting. First, I'd like to know about you. Tell me about your family. Like, and I was like, what is going on here? Like, these guys are amazing. And that was really like, Like a cultural alignment with the company we've created, like our number one core value is to make mom proud. Like literally we have that written there. So it's like the nicest group of people ever. So it was a good fit there. And I think what is awesome is when you bring on growth equity from a private equity firm, like t…

AI assessment note: “first of all, I'm a happy, uh, totally delighted.”