The Ledger
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Girdley: Market selection matters far more in business than execution quality
“The thing that matters most in business is not how well I run a business. It is what game am I playing? Like, I would much rather play a really good game and be in a super good business and do that not very good than to be the best at a really hard business be…”
Girdley: Marginal Utility of Wealth Turns Negative Above Private Jet Level
“Well, it's also this idea that nobody talks about is that there is a diminishing return on money. Like, and I also have this like weird idea I've been toying with that. It's actually, there's negative marginal returns on money as you get more of it. Like, as I…”
Girdley: HoldCos allow founders to design businesses around desired lifestyles
“Like for me, I think that when you do hold going, you really craft a world for your business where it serves you in terms of how you want to be living here every day.”
Girdley: Most founders overcomplicate their holding company structures
“Most people tend to way over complicate it. Like you can keep it as simple as I have in terms of, kind of, how you structure stuff or things just flip to you individually rather than having, like, a bunch of LLCs and stuff like that.”
Girdley: VCs work on portfolio deals for 10 to 15 years
“Like as a VC, you're going to be working on those deals, 10 or 12 years, sometimes 15 years after you make them and before they exit, right? And so like, I'm still working on a fund on a regular basis for deals that we did back in 2014.”
Girdley: Established holding companies can achieve 100% debt-financed add-on acquisitions
“If you look at some people with hold codes you can start to basically become a better or a more attractive borrower to lenders and other folks like that. So for example, let's say that you know, are a roll up of a bunch of foundries like Red Zeller is if you w…”
Girdley: Founders underestimate time spent managing outside investors and conflicts
“People really discount how much time you have to spend, like managing those investors and relationships and dealing with conflicts that arise.”
Girdley: Holding companies protect entrepreneurs by diversifying against cyclicality and business failure
“By having a portfolio of businesses and having a diversified set of things that you built through a holdco, you can avoid some of the risk that normal entrepreneurs have. And that's where one of the strategies and one of the things I like about holdcoing is yo…”
Girdley: More homogeneous holdco assets enable higher operational centralization
“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 …”
Girdley: Running a holdco requires comfort with relinquishing operational micromanagement
“I don't think hold goings for everybody. I think it requires a certain set of skills. I think you and I are some somewhat unicorny and not feeling like we need to have our hands to control every single thing. And like not everybody's like that.”
Girdley: When asset prices are high, entrepreneurs should build rather than buy
“Assets are super expensive and it's very expensive to buy businesses. You know, I think when assets are expensive, you go create assets.”
Girdley: Mature businesses must transition to serving the owner, not themselves
“It's easy to start as an entrepreneur. And your business, you serve the business, right? Cause that's what happens when you're trying to get off the ground. And it's easy to forget as the business grows that ultimately the business needs to switch to serving y…”
Girdley: Vulnerable 40- and 50-somethings face a blue ocean on social media
“If you would actually be one of the people in their forties or fifties, who's learned some stuff and it's like willing to put yourself out there and be a little bit vulnerable, like it is such a blue ocean for us. Like we have such an opportunity to share and …”
Girdley: Entity choice depends on cash flows, ownership, and exits
“There are times in which you want to have passer entities, and there are times in which you want to have C corps, and that it all ties back to what the cash flows are going to look like. What the ownership structure is going to look like, and then what the eve…”
Girdley: Holding companies can offset portfolio gains and losses for tax efficiency
“Like a hold code can provide you ways of having tax savings. There's, you know, there's, in the US, there's typically active earnings and passive earnings. Those are different, those, you know, if you have passive losses, you can use those to access Offset pas…”
Girdley: Mid-sized businesses must plan hiring 3–4 quarters ahead
“In a small business, for example, you don't have to look really two or three quarters ahead to think about people problems, right? You could, you're fixing your people problems right now, but like at a midsize business, like you have to get ahead of the game t…”