@toddsaunders I've been building a "backend" app to run my painting business. Tracks leads, jobs, CRM, business goals, estimate bookings. Does most everything except estimating.
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@toddsaunders I've been building a "backend" app to run my painting business. Tracks leads, jobs, CRM, business goals, estimate bookings. Does most everything except estimating.
If you're in a blue collar industry using Claude Code to build. I want to hear from you. You are the most important people in software right now and nobody is paying attention. Reply below, share your project or shoot me a dm!
What if Anthropic's plan to profitability is: > Launch Claude Code > Make it easy for people who can't code to build apps > Everyone loves it > Ship new features every week > Every new feature burns through more credits > Users hit their credit limits faster > Soon their entire… https://t.co/vXZt1puLCv
It really doesn't have to be some big "leap of faith" Start a business while at your job. Grow it for a few years until it makes enough money to support your lifestyle + allows you to reinvest. Then leave to run it full-time Very low risk if you do it right
You have no experience. You’ve never started a company. You’ve never had a full time job. Nike is going to kill you. You’re a kid. You don’t have technical skills. You shouldn’t build hardware. Apple is going to kill you. You can’t build hardware. You can’t measure heart… https://t.co/VbMIUbRqPM
How to get rich without getting lucky:
Just had the most wildly fascinating call with Tom. He walked me through what he's doing with "Zero-Human" companies. The world is moving so incredibly fast right now. It's hard to fathom. https://t.co/qowV6xw5s7
*cracks knuckles* “claude, read this article and implement all of its advice” *retires* https://t.co/j2POBuL0pk
Nearly everyone dramatically underestimates how high the true bar for product market fit really is.
The 2023 Self-Funded Search Study is now available for download and our podcast on Acquiring Minds is live. 72 pages of insightful content and never before known stats on the self-funded path of ETA: Download the study: https://t.co/lt9Qnoz85R Podcast: https://t.co/dGxD6iP8kJ
How to Make $100k in your First Year Selling Christmas Light Installation Services ⚠️ Warning: LONG THREAD 👇 https://t.co/E9QwE2u0pS
My friend had 65% retention his first year in his Christmas light business. So he decided his 2nd year to spend 7k and get all his clients fancy gift baskets. His retention his 2nd year? 65%.
This strategy got us to $62K MRR in 53 days: Yesterday, my co-founder @RobHoffman_ gave away our entire launch playbook on @gregisenberg's podcast. (plus 6 other playbooks, watch the full podcast here: https://t.co/Zf4NEfWWq7) Here's our Kleo launch playbook breakdown: Step… https://t.co/1jRUKjeIVE
Take Peter Thiel’s key idea from Zero to 1 & invert it: Consciously go into an area where many mediocre people are doing well & just out-compete them. ~Guarantees you won’t be a billionaire (too much competition). ~Guarantees you’ll be rich (plenty of demand).
Most founders need a COO, not a CEO The COO focuses on this quarter The CEO focuses on future quarters If 90% of your net worth is in the business, you should stay CEO Bring in a COO to drive execution, not to replace you
To make $2M as a VC-backed founder: You need a $50M+ exit. To make $2M bootstrapped: You need $200K/year for 10 years. Which is easier? I chose the math that actually works.
I’m obsessed with people who are obsessed. This is what true product obsession sounds like: https://t.co/QZFtIKtgk6
True, ancient Peter Thiel technique. https://t.co/csQgNfnrVS
just to remind you that a friend of mine is making $2m/arr with a SaaS and - he is french - he not a dev - he never did marketing - hired indians - he doesnt speak english - uses deepl for translation - 100% customers are in the US - never took a sales call - 100% bootstrap -…
Be the guy. If you want to live an extraordinary life, you have to be the guy. Be the guy to make everything happen. Plan the nights out, book the trips. Get the first round of drinks. Send shots to the girls table. Crack jokes. Put everyone in a good mood. Lead by example.…
Investing in boring private businesses is an amazing opportunity. You can get in for 2-3x earnings on a biz that's ALREADY profiting. Here's why these owners sell (so you can capitalize on it):
I was at an event last week. One of the guys there - 3x exited founding CFO/CEO - told me about his favorite investment strategy. AI companies are buying shitty booking software used by hotels. I asked him: "Why would a sophisticated AI company acquire crappy incumbent…
If I wanted to quit my job & replace my salary by Summer, here's exactly what I'd do: 1. Set up a simple website with AI before the week is over. Not next month. Not after you "research more." This week.
found someone charging $9/month for personalized ai bedtime stories. 900 subscribers. pulling $8k+ monthly. the content is simple. ai generates a 3-5 minute story starring the subscriber's kid. kid's name, kid's favorite animal, kid's favorite color woven into a new story every…
HoldCo CEO vs regular CEO They’re really different – much more than you think. What to know before you own more than one business:
If I had to make money with apps again from zero: • go to sensor tower • find 2-3 apps doing $100k+/mo • copy the core idea • change the audience or wrapper done
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan earns a dismal 6.7% in a year where the S&P 500 was up 18% and the TSX was up 31%. Imagine being forced to pay into this money-burning disaster. Meanwhile, the Nevada state pension fund owns index funds, beats everyone, and is managed by 2 people. https://t.co/96fkGtCXI0
Guild Garage just sold for 16x. $800 million on $50 EBITDA Launched in 2024. Initial raise was $30, according to wots. Did ~30 acquisitions. Sheesh.
"Travel agencies are dead" — everyone, 2004. They set an all-time revenue record. In 2024. "AI will replace everyone" — everyone, 2025. The obvious prediction is often wildly wrong. Technology rarely kills whole industries. It kills the average and sends their customers to the…
@seandsweeney Anything you can build quickly and easily w AI can be built quickly / easily by someone else
Larry Ellison on the AI moat: AI is commoditizing because models use the same public internet data. The true competitive edge isn't the model itself anymore, but access to exclusive, proprietary datasets. That is the only moat left. https://t.co/8ftfO2282Q
cowork is incredible and you should be using it. this is one of the clearest articles i’ve stumbled across, you need to put down your evening coffee and read it at once. https://t.co/eZTdOl6baM
"i dOnT kNoW wHaT bUsInEsS tO bUiLd WiTh AI" Here are 15 vetted ideas. (the final 2 are approved by billionaires): 15. White-label AI chatbots for local businesses - build once, reskin, charge $300-1K/month per client. 14. AI sales outreach - personalized cold email and DMs…
"HAHA! You fools! You can't just vibe code your own billion dollar software. It's impossible! How dare these small business owners think they can actually make something good?" I mean... I guess they're right. I made it better than their billion dollar software. All the shit I… https://t.co/1FYSRyjEZa
@selinatasnim1 Data is gold. Most people sleep on local businesses. I used a similar method to find winning products people actually need. Built a system around solving problems instead of chasing trends. Game changer.
find app ideas that already work: 1. go to sensor tower 2. sort by revenue 3. ignore anything under 20k a month unlimited idea generator
70% of local businesses still don’t have proper websites. what if we use OpenClaw to: > scrape local businesses from Google Business profile > auto-generate a clean website for each based on the info scraped earlier. > email the owner with a site preview + payment link to… https://t.co/TU9u8OxzKP
Total team cost: $15,000/month Total AI tool cost: $119/month You save: $14,881/month That's $178,572 per year. 👇Here is my exact AI stack that replaced a 5-person team. This is how solo founders compete with funded startups in 2026.
@realEstateTrent This is the one that got me hooked. It may change your life. I use it now to do all my proformas, feasibility studies, market research, operating agreements, etc. https://t.co/qhk26e1FxE
@parkerconrad the lesson nobody wants to hear: cheaper to build ≠ less valuable. it just means the moat moved from 'we can build this' to 'we can sell this'.
@EXM7777 I am that guy, and I got my first customer doing it last weekend. Local HVAC needs his website redone, some insights, his social media updated with trending etc. I had my AI team scrape his site and provide updated information on his local competition, many other things. Meet him…
there's a big opportunity in AI advisory right now, a gap in the market that's waiting to be filled... atm there are two types of "AI experts": the AI normie - know how to use tools but completely delegate his thinking - don't think in systems - can't implement AI in real…
The way startups are built has shifted quickly. We're excited about a range of startup ideas for AI-native companies that can now be built faster, cheaper, and with more ambition than ever. https://t.co/Ms3Vn5Vq7q https://t.co/uTCUqKViiI
everyone in the AI CRM race is building the wrong product. after onboarding 700+ customers one by one and min person, zoom and slack and saw some go, i learned the painfully obvious insight: The best CRM is no CRM at all. Not a better CRM. Not a faster CRM. A CRM you forget… https://t.co/otLttfJLK6 https://t.co/sKGGJuPmpb
this is hands-down the best way to work with Claude right now... whenever you start a new project (startup, content, side hustle, anything...) open a fresh chat with Opus 4.5, turn on extended thinking and dump everything about your project then prompt this: "ask me 5…
Vibe coding isn't just the new product management; it's the new full-stack entrepreneurship. Product management implies you're still inside an org, managing a backlog, writing specs for someone else. Vibe coding collapses the entire chain of command into one person: ideation,… https://t.co/M7P2GyrhEx
Buying small businesses is the fastest way to make $300k+ in cash flow per year. Follow this 6 step process to buy your first business: -BIG thread-
Trying my best to add value to SMB (Small and Medium-Sized Business) Twitter from a legal perspective. If you’re an SMB entrepreneur, search funder, acquisition entrepreneur, or otherwise interested in the SMB space, please follow along. A THREAD:
Unbundling of Reddit Reddit is a goldmine There are ~5000 subreddits where you could make at least $1,000,000 building businesses for those subreddits Rule of thumb: if a Subreddit 2x in size in the last 18 months, go build something or them
@andybrohard My vote is 3-4 new construction apartment buildings in primary markets with no debt. Large enough to get decent management. No debt to reduces risk & refi hassle. Guaranteed demand for as long as humans like cities. Supply constraints. New construction minimizes opex / capex.
I asked, "What's a book that changed the way you invest?" And I received over 100+ responses. Here are 20 books that will make you a better investor:
@patrick_oshag @acquanon and @GirdleyShow
If you truly want to break into real estate: Go on Costar Click Professionals Click Dealmakers Click the Market you want to work in Sort by brokers doing over x deals/yr Cold-call them, one by one. Offer to come cold-call for them. "I got a hold of you, right!"
So you are considering doing a search fund. Great! Before you send your first "pick your brain" email read these:
@lukedigital_ lots of places to look but can start with Flippa MicroAcquire Empire Flippers Fe International
Demand for contractor garages is 5x that of self storage units. Getting into contractor garages today is like getting into self storage on the ground floor.
You’re not bored, you’re purposeless.
@col_the_midlife Can be made simple: become the bank. Get paid principal and interest every month without dealing with any tenants. If I default you get to take the property back and sell it again to someone else
Visiting my daughter Saturday and did some math that may help me be a better Dad. From 0 to 18, I saw her almost every day. 18 x 360 = 6,480. If I saw her 15 days a year for the next 20 years, that would only be 300 days. 95% of our days together are gone.
There are only 3 things that really matter: - Health - Family - Money Everything else is just noise to distract you.
@JustinSaaS This one It will completely change how you think about starting a business and reducing risk https://t.co/k6moDkbNSL
@JustinSaaS apparently this no-code free beginners course is🔥 https://t.co/S8l4hAz4GF
This is the deal that changed my life. 🧵 5 years ago I didn't know Real Estate Private Equity was a thing, but I was working through how to scale my investing.
New software-focused search fund study from Endurance Search Partners and Applied Equity The results of the study A thread 🧵🧵🧵
"I'm an investor looking to purchase small businesses. Have you considered the valuation of your business, and are you open to a conversation around that valuation?" George Vallone used this messaging in his cold outreach to 400 biz owners, and got 75-100 conversations from it
Unlikely you'll 10x an investment with this, but you are making it very unlikely you'll lose your investment either. Low risk - medium/high reward
Anyone who wants to come up with better ideas for multifamily … go visit a bunch of boutique hotels. The design, product, attention to detail and in hospitality is night and day to apartments.
VC market size $211 billion. Private equity market size $6 trillion. Why hasn't @angellist built out its literal exact same product set for PE?
I asked, "What’s a book that’s worth rereading every year?" I received 1,000+ responses. Here are 20 books you should read and reread:
Broker called me about a local biz for sell. First thing I do is google the owners home Wife asks me why? I refer to @BrentBeshore famous saying, (paraphrasing) ‘I like to buy from a wealthy seller’ If the business didn’t make them wealthy, why would it make us wealthy?
Parenting is a long game. Play to win. 15 high-impact principles for raising emotionally healthy adults: 🧵
Reward Effort Over Outcomes: Results-based parenting sets our kids up for failure. I want to raise kids who give their full effort to everything they do. Even if it doesn't produce the desired outcome. Whether it’s at school or working around the home, demand full effort.
1. Investigative Journalism Li Lu once said in his Columbia lecture that investors are like journalists. Good analyses are written like a coherent article that connects the dots between numbers and reality. The end product tells an evident-based story.
@JohnJBlatchford In theory I agree, but not practically. As a *long-term owner*, some thought has to be given to the useful life of the ‘cost’ If that fridge has a useful life of 5y, I think I’d ignore the capitalized value of the inc. rent, save $9k, and just buy a $1k fridge.
There is no such thing as "too expensive." Everything is return on capital. A $10k fridge would work if a tenant paid $100 more /mo. because of it. A $50k mural is worth it if rents increase by $500/mo. as a result. Hard to get right, but nothing should be axed on cost alone.
My advice on business buying in one sentence: Look for high margins, small niches and rich owners.
🧵 The #retwit community is a magical little neighbourhood 9.9 / 10 of you have missed out on epic tidbits from generous folks with a truly abundant mindset. Enjoy some killer tweets. Each one has helped shape the thinking of my new firm. I’m sure it will for you too.
@clark_rei Partner with someone reputable and take a few deals full cycle to build a track record. It’s slow, but it works.
I started reading a bunch on #retwit and #re in 2020. I’ve learned a ton on this forum and connected with folks across North America, sharing stories and experiences. My passion is redevelopment, complex sites and missing middle! Stoked on 22. Below is my first rowhouse. https://t.co/vnz7gVrvgO
What's market opp for a RE syndicate/partnership for sub-instutitional space? Ppl with 20k,50k who want to meet other investment partners to buy a 2-4 unit, etc. Realtors, lenders, accountants, attorneys, contractors who not only want to invest, but do SME work for group #RETwit
Build a startup around something that doesn’t feel like work to you. Find a customer you’d love to serve, find a problem you’d love to solve, and you’ll go far.
Back of the envelope math to use while pursuing a storage facility to buy: If you can pay 100x monthly revenue or less it'll likely cashflow. Meaning if it's doing $10k per month in revenue, you want to pay $1m or less.
Seven habits for success: 1. Read and write everyday. 2. Make your health a priority. 3. Have an attitude of gratitude. 4. Plan your day the night before. 5. Learn from people you admire. 6. Take action even if it scares you. 7. Focus on the goals in front of you.
Lots of new followers, so I thought I would introduce myself. I run Tekton Group, a REPE boutique, in Denver CO. We invest in B/C multifamily properties on the Colorado Front Range. We have bought over 500 units here in the last 7 years.
"If you lack discipline, open this" | Thread
More I look at big MF deals, the more I realize that ideal model for me is to remain focused on being a big fish in the sub $10M space. Don’t graduate up to bigger deals, instead focus on better personal economics and operational advantages that are impossible to compete against
One cold email can change your life. Here's how to write a great one:
@bobbyfijan I have the answer! Thoughtful, locally connected Cafe, bodega, boutique fitness @ the base of Apts. Think of Cheers, where everybody knows your name. If the barista has your espresso ready when you walk in the door w a smile on their face, you'll be less likely to leave.
Normalize building wealth and a family at the same time.
Want to know how to start multiple 6-figure local businesses as a side hustle? Today I interviewed @SqueegeeGod and @sergiosilesky on The Remote Local Pod, who have been running a successful window cleaning company...while being full-time college students. Full episode below👇
@stillwell Our units with the exposed brick always do better.
After helping multiple sweaty startups transform their tech stack this year, I wanted to put together a list of the top tech stacks to use. Implement this, and dominate your competition. I call it the “Blue Collar Blueprints” // A thread🔥
To be clear this isn't bait to sell you a course or anything like that. This is bait to get more followers on twitter because it is the only joy I have left in my life. https://t.co/KVy02sYBIw
The window cleaning business still blows my mind. There are tons of people that are willing to pay $150/hr to get dirt cleaned off of glass.
I have a huge announcement. @sergiosilesky and I launched our maid business today. Completely remote. 3 locations. 🧵 coming Monday on how we’re going to take this business to $50k/mo PER LOCATION in 90 days.
There's ordinary property management services. But then there is Luxury Estate Management and Concierge Services. 🤑 How this small business is making big money solving problems for rich people. A thread 🧵
** Be someone people want to work for I’ve read about many CEOs. They may have been seen as evil or hard by outsiders. But they all had employees that loved them. And stayed super-loyal. Jerks often get ahead in the short-term But bosses employees love win in the long-term.
Reminder: if you're a newer developer looking for your first deals reach out to a more established developer in your market. They see many good deals that are too small for them. Most Developers would be happy to know who to forward them to. And they respect hustlers.
** Your company is not a "family." Stop calling it that. It’s so fake and employees see through it. Instead: Treat your company like an all star team. Everyone is there because it's the best possible fit for both the employee and the employer.
Listening to podcasts of the founders of your competitors is game changing. Stuck on your business? Find your closest competitor and see if their founder has any interviews / podcasts. Almost everytime they drop gems on how they scaled.
Tips for launching a startup without funding. This is basically how I grew @microacquire to $500k/ARR. 1. Annual subscriptions only 2. Talk to lots customers 3. Manage support 4. Have a story to tell 5. Fiverr & Upwork everything 6. Narrow messaging 7. Believe when others don't
Focus on making paying customers your startup’s main source of funding.
How to scale a home service business QUICKLY A 🧵👇
What my dream job looks like: - Build a startup - Grow it to $1k+ MRR - Sell it on @microacquire for $60k+ Rinse and repeat every year.
It also lays out the quote in 3 different packages. Just like this 👇 https://t.co/YYi8ehCihu
#2 Reputation Marketing - @NiceJobApp You probably see me talk about this one a lot. It's because it's my favorite piece of software by a long shot. The ROI of Nicejob has been insane for us. We added 200+ new reviews in just ONE year with Nicejob.
@AskWeaves @HouseCall - CRM @NiceJobApp - Review collection
We've added over 300 reviews in just a year doing this. What if you did this with tips? We use a company @allsetHQ to do this exact thing. Allset increases tips and drives revenue for home service businesses with automated, personalized mobile messaging.
I validate and test business ideas for a living. Here's the validation process that's helped us test 17 ideas now making a combined $38M in revenue between Oct of 2020 to now.🧵
I logged my journey and instead of writing it all up here in tweets, I thought that I would just share the Google doc: https://t.co/NCWBurYcab
After thousands of private requests we are 🙏 Full Lux letter - Q3 2021 "An excess of excesses" (PDF) https://t.co/WBg8c7top6
.@paulg's 200 essays summarized in 49 pages. https://t.co/7XQTWUOWOe https://t.co/IrFI71KJLn
Used the Idaho database of licensed well drillers today and cold called 1/2 from my county. I hate cold calling but it works. 12 conversations today. 2 interested parties 6 “he’s not in right now can I take a message” 4 Not interested. Kick rocks.
😍😍😍😍😍😍 https://t.co/Ab76CEajAI
I sold $80k in stocks when the DOW was 10k - TO BUY A BOAT And I have ZERO regrets. Weekends at the lake, teaching my kids and friends kids how to ski, tubing and cruising. The memories were priceless. Not everything in life has to “pencil” or “make sense” One life.
Thanks to @aebridgeman for hosting me for a 2nd time on his Think Like An Owner podcast. Enjoyed talking about culture, building small businesses in this crazy environment, and reliving some of my lower moments :-) https://t.co/rirzODr40z
@tylertringas I still think of this whole segment as pretty new, so I'd throw @SureSwiftCap on that list, even though we're 6 yrs/46 acquisitions in. I'm guessing we *might* already be in your database tho. 😉
Whenever I pay income tax, I now think "I didn't buy enough real estate this year & that's why I have to pay so much in income tax." H/T to @Keith_Wasserman for implanting this thought deep in my brain.
@harveyjaysison Hey Harvey, I think Ahrefs is a great tool and has a lot of interesting content (blog & video). I am also building a platform where I share a lot more actionable details on all these aspects of building a startup - I will ping you when we launch if you like :)
Reverse engineer startup ideas: 1. Choose a preferred industry 2. Check SEO volume of related keywords 3. Read "unhappy" reviews on competitor forums As a result, you: 1. Build in an industry you like 2. Understand customer search queries 3. Know features that'd make them happy
I’ll be honest about something. Even just writing this gives me a huge sense of imposture syndrome. That guy on my shoulder yelling that everyone will eventually find out that I’m just an avg guy with below avg intelligence and I have no business trying to build this company. https://t.co/vzI37Ms9Wi
Met a guy at a tailgate this weekend - working professional that also owns a vacation rental management company with 180 units, nets a little over $1mm a year and he just rolls that into new restaurants/strip malls. Incredible.
Mark this Tweet ! → In 5 years we will see these #stocks in 5 digits : 💹Apollo Hosp 💹Dixon Tech 💹GMM Pfaudler 💹LTTS 💹InfoEdge 💹Oracle Fin 💹Coforge 💹D'mart 💹Jubilant Foods 💹Lux Ind 💹Hawkins 💹Divi's 💹SaReGaMa 💹TataElxi Did I miss any ?
Here's a story on how my brother and I closed on a $3.2M retail strip center #retwit https://t.co/AKYh9tSlJh
Hopefully this was helpful. If you enjoyed this summary, please retweet and show some love! You can also view a more detailed analysis here: https://t.co/aXUMUUL6qI
I’ve done over $1M in income in 2 years as an entrepreneur. And I didn't write a single line of code. My 12 "must use" no-code tools: [🧵 thread}
Peloton should just acquire Tonal for whatever they ask for — $8-$10B. And if that doesn’t work, they should pay whatever they must to license Mirror’s connected strength technology from Lululemon. People are working out from home, they just don’t cycle every day.
Well, I decided to apply this process to my life & I've decided to call it my Life Map. There are 6 steps: 1) Core Values 2) 10-year plan 3) 3-year plan 4) 1-year plan 5) Rocks 6) Meeting Pulses https://t.co/bNTIQ7VsFi
The most intelligent people in the world are gathering in one place... Twitter. Don't believe me? Read on...🧵
@10kdiver I like Greenblatt's take on risk: Make money not from taking more risk but from making unfair bets. Seek asymmetric propositions where you can't lose much and maybe you'll make a lot. If you don't lose money, most of the other alternative are good.
@ParikPatelCFA The goal of investing is to grow after-tax purchasing power at a decent rate over the long term. Buffett defines “risk” as the probability that this goal is NOT achieved — due to loss of capital, inadequate returns, inflation, etc. I think this is a very good definition.
4 things you won't regret in life: 1. Spend quality family time 2. Take calculated risks 3. Invest in yourself 4. Learn new skills
You're broke, then Hustle You're unhappy, then Hustle You're frustrated, then Hustle You're unsatisfied, then Hustle You're unappreciated, then Hustle You're unnoticed in life, then Hustle YOU can change your circumstances.
If you enjoyed, be sure to drop a like and follow! (@SqueegeeGod) I’ll be here every week 🤙🏻
I would rather be a failure than someone who never tried.
A lot of entrepreneurs still don’t fully understand SAFE notes and how to use them. They are the single most important innovation in startup financing in the past 15 years. (@ycombinator) You can close in minutes, raise only what you need with no legal fees. 🧵👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
@MnkeDaniel @honam @DennisHong17 @10kdiver @natstewart5 @TomGardnerFool @heymaxkoh @BRK_Student @daniel_toloko @Ajitshah73 Forever is a good mindset in many ways: Only do things that you would be willing to do forever - or at least for a very long time. Once I understood that it changed how I looked at many things - in addition to investing: Friendship, where to live and so much more
Last but not least, the „forever mindset.“ One question that changed my view on investments entirely is the following question? Would you like to own this business forever? This question alone removes all forms of short-sighted thinking.
Indications of Interest A quick thread with our template IoI, when we send it and why we like to use it Do you use IoIs? Do you like them? Here we go…
What I like about credit investments is there’s no exit multiple risk like in private/public equity. In credit, you have a contractual return and have ways of forcing the company to pay you back at par at the end of the investment.
1. Buy crypto 2. Borrow against crypto 3. Buy cashflowing assets with new debt 4. Refi with conventional debt 5. Payback crypto loan 6. Repeat
How to use VA’s for your Home Service Business to get 10x ROI in the first month. Step by Step 🧵 👇🏼
Not sure who said this famous one, but it still holds the test of time: “At the start GPs have the experience and LPs have the capital. At the end, GPs have the capital and LPs have the experience.” Don’t let that happen to you! 😂
3. Similar like real estate, I look for "crappy fixer-uppers" in "up-and-coming areas". I know how to fix and increase value, I am not a great building. 4. Typically I want to see 3 things I can improve on the website and increase value to find deals I use: @quietlightinc
This is what I recommend for creating wealth... 1. Start a company i.e. SaaS startup 2. Raise a seed round or bootstrap 3. Grow revenue to $1-10m/ARR 4. Get @microacquire'd 5. Retain 70%+ at exit It'll take a decade of hard work and a bit of luck but it's possible.
There are a few blog posts and other resources that I keep recommending to early-stage SaaS founders over and over again. ⬇️
@girdley In the short-term, I agree. There's a ton of money seeking yield and micro-PE certainly has the optics. The challenge, as you and I have discussed, is in execution. As I remind people often, including our investors, SMBs are loosely functioning disasters that make money.
As more business schools teach Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, we get more case studies Here is a list of 87 for your reading pleasure https://t.co/Y9M4yZI5wa
Several years ago we interviewed a candidate for a cleaner job. When we asked her why she left Home Depot she replied “I pointed out”. Our ears perked up - pointed out you say? How does that work?
@Adrian_Pinto2 Are you out of space on your $5M SBA cap? Why not set up a HoldCo to own both businesses, then just do the acquisition in a new sub entity? Then you can just get a fresh SBA loan for that acquisition alone and avoid cross-collateralizing directly.
Been stressed & anxious this week with new changes and hires. You’re not alone @SamtLeslie - Hired a new marketing apprentice through Acadium (@WilsonCompanies have you looked into Acadium for your marketing intern?) - Hired a new PT cleaner starting Monday
Me at 25: ⁃weekends were for 🍾 ⁃65 hours worked > output ⁃vacations to escape Unhappy & not rich. Me at 35: ⁃rarely drink ⁃Obsess: health, wealth, impact ⁃10pm bed ⁃Up w/ the 🌞 Happy, wealthy, & free. Keep doing the right things, life changes.
Finding emerging asset classes early is a strength (<risk, > reward). I recognized disruptive opportunity and great ROI. Started building personal portfolio & launched YT channel teaching others: https://t.co/Fy00AZE7ry (this is a great resource to get started, scale, improve -
I talk a lot about how to running a janitorial business but tonight I want to flip the script. If your current cleaning company sucks and you're looking to make a change, here's the things you need to consider, a thread 🧵👇
Completely naive and uninformed view but everyone I talk to is having trouble hiring in the trades and seems will only get worse as avg age of trades worker is prob higher than other fields like tech. How does this problem get solved? Why isn’t there a lambda school for trades?
@phil_harp PRX with dip bar and padded box. Can pretty much anything. https://t.co/m1bglLN2sS
You can get the best startup advice in the world but you'll always learn more as a founder by just building. Both personally and professionally.
One of the highest ROI things I do: If you have a business coach or are in a CEO peer-group Each year, ask the coach/chair to interview the people that work most closely with you. Get anonymized data on how you can improve. Turn that into making yourself better. Repeat.
7. As the process goes through, we attempt to work with the local banks they’ve had decades of relationships with. They know and trust the biz, so normally are willing to lend to us. But local banks that don’t know us are tough. Typically have our main banker give them a call
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@soundslikecanoe On simple economic terms. You can buy a building for $2 million dollars and have it producing $1 million a year in free cash flow in less than 18 months. Then you can do a cash out refinance with HUD at 80% LTV, no pg’s, 35 yr term
After that check out this book for a deep dive in how to operate. Senior Living Communities: Operations Management and Marketing for Assisted Living, Congregate, and Continuing Care Retirement Communities https://t.co/RHMyrzCXyz
If you’re considering a career change look at senior. There are no guru’s, playbooks, or courses that I can point you towards. Just the opportunity. If you’re looking for a place to start try Being Mortal. https://t.co/ml3BSFlA4b
My goal in life: When my wife and I are sitting on the porch or just hanging out 40, 50 or who knows how many years from now … I want my wife to be able to say that marrying me was the best decision she ever made.
@PeterWirt @BrentBeshore @aebridgeman The struggle is that the best businesses to own are often the worst to oparate; solving messy problems…janitorial, port a potty, incinerating animals, asbestos removal, etc
@StrongpointRich Getting replies when you’re emailing as an operator so much better I imagine
Anyone know of a Google Review database to be able to export, filter, and extract list of businesses within the desired parameters? There has to be a better alternative than giving it to a VA to manually scrape for thousands of businesses...
So @taylorawelch just said “Rich people accumulate currency Wealthy people trade currency for assets as fast as possible.” And that pretty much sums up wealth creation in one sentence
I love the business I love long-term builds I don't like starting I don't like working alone This gives me - strategic decision - team environment - multiple business outlets
Dream job: Perm Hold Co in-house strategist/executive team-member for port cos focused on - creating, implementing growth strategies from both sales and operations - optimizing current operations - reducing risks, breakage points - overall problem finder, solver, and preventer
Announcement: @microacquire & @pipe are exclusively partnering to help more startups get acquired. We're allowing buyers & sellers to finance acquisitions almost instantly of all sizes. Today M&A sucks for startups & we’re changing that. Got Russ to chime in. Tres Commas. 🤘 https://t.co/uGgslHP1NZ
@Codie_Sanchez Tuck pointing. Seasonal demand is huge & takes a lot of search to find quality company. Buying one with an excellent crew & reimagining the marketing/online presence would be a goldmine. Even subpar companies booked out months in advance in Chicago, really only by word of mouth.
@Codie_Sanchez Nearly all industrial services businesses share the same benefits: i) <3x purchase multiple on <$500 EBITDA; ii) massive multiple uplift (& arb) once scale is achieved; iii) highly fragmented space ripe for M&A; iv) mission critical service won't be deferred in econ recession
Multifamily Real Estate market is weird right now. You can buy a 1970's building for the same value as a property built in 2018. My current observations and thoughts:
**HOLDCO/OPCO** A structure used that mimics preferred+yield is a HoldCo/OpCo. Everyone gets common equity in OpCo. Investors own HoldCo which lends money to OpCo which pays interest. This is one for special situations beyond the scope of this thread. Consult your advisors!
Another path to wealth: 1. Own a cash-flowing business so your lifestyle is secured and you have investable $. 2. Make many asymmetric bets (small bets with low downside and massive upside). Unlike the OpCo-to-RE strategy, this can make you a centi-millionaire in ~20 yrs.
Big Deal Small Business, Issue #36: Compromising to Close https://t.co/EK5LC4nzwJ
One of the greatest gifts you can give someone is believing in them more than they believe in themselves.
What? Instead of saying this COULD NEVER work. They ask HOW COULD THIS WORK. That’s it.
Only time I recommend doing a side RE deal is if purpose is to create a track record to start a RE PE shop, OR, if your job is an easy 9-5. Why? I did a 4plex side deal. It proved my thesis & allowed me to start my biz, but it very nearly got me fired due to the time it took.
This guy replaced his salary AND his wife's with.... Mobile home parks. Here's his playbook, I'm going to use to buy one... Come along for the ride (wink)... https://t.co/xYByfrq8OS
I'm only about 1/4 through it but "How to Build a Car", Adrian Newey's (CTO at Red Bull Racing) biography, is the best thing I've read in a long, long time.
Real estate has to be the easiest business to produce value in Every extra $25k you generate (whether from increasing revenue or cutting costs) produces another half a mill in value (at a 5% cap rate) And $25k is achievable at any decent-sized property simply with common sense
SMB valuations are going up Our response is to double down in the places where we can confidently answer "If our bid wins, why were we so lucky?" Bidding on businesses where you have no edge is a great way to waste a lot of time
We love when owners tell us they won't be ready to sell for 3+ years In those 3+ years, we will trade many emails, have several phone calls and stop by for lunch every time we are in town. The relationship becomes far less transactional Focus on the long-term!
You can roll up 📜 Fast food franchises Tattoo Parlors E-commerce websites Veterinary clinics Laundromats Funeral homes HVAC companies Dental practices Day cares Hospitals Private schools Plumbing companies Dermatology offices Surgery centers Hotels Day spas The list goes on…
Roll up your sleeves... Let's bootstrap your own roll-up to $150M 👇
"I'm not sure I can afford to start a business." -Gmail (email) -Google Voice (phone) -Google My Business (listing of your location) -Google Calendar (scheduling) -Google Drive (file management) All of these are free. Might not be as pricey as you think.
Setting up a small business toolkit in the linktree in the bio. Just links to Jobber and remote team members for now. I will also be adding some things I’ve learned so far that are cleaning and hiring specific.
Effective strategy for high earners: build stock portfolio w/ a financial advisor. Borrow against stocks to put $ w/ best RE GP you can find. Repay loan w/ salary. Repeat. Within 10 years, should have enough passive RE income to comfortably cover all expenses.
Early in my career, I didn't make long-term plans. I regret that. I worked hard and was busy. But I didn't seem to get any closer to the big things I wanted to do. Fast forward... This is the simple system I use now to set big goals -- and stay on track for years. (1/x)
1/ IBM - $IBM Remember when Warren Buffett bet big on IBM? I did too. I set up a bullish options position on $IBM at $200 because it was: ✅Cheap ✅Big dividend ✅Had Buffett’s approval
If you’re a home service contractor, you can literally put booties on when you walk into the house and justify a 15% higher price than the competition.
Person 1: Can I buy you coffee and pick your brain on a few things? Me: Sure, $500/hr Person 2: I would like to understand how x works and how to integrate with y. I will pay you for a 15 min call. Me: I'd be happy to talk anytime, no payment required. When are you free?
1/ My first @threadapalooza. I've been managing people for 18+ yrs and tweeting about it for 10. Here's 100 tweets on what I've learned and try to implement in my work @PermanentEquity :
Recently, Me and @BrandonNiro got into a heated debate. (Get it? "Heated..." Haha cause we run an HVAC biz). We discussed the capability of a service manager running a plumbing AND an HVAC division by themselves. We ended up recording the whole thing, check it out on the pod!
2/ A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson https://t.co/grSQh5bBc0
Had a larger real estate developer tell me his strategy: build in good times (because you can’t find decently priced deals) and buy in bad times (when you can buy below replacement cost). Seems like common sense. Yet still, so many new syndicators are paying crazy prices
“I wonder what my grandfather would think of this?” This rolls through my head 20 times a day. He founded co in 58. Grew it to 5 EE before selling to my dad. Died before it got big. Has no idea what he started. We will end this year at 100 EE. I wonder what he would think.
Below are some links to reference materials. I especially appreciate Jim Stein's blog post on Roll-up Strategies. https://t.co/5LJdzrSFZd https://t.co/wdT3h4iVCN https://t.co/mtok56BzEW
Here are my 16 biggest life mistakes. I am 46 years old. I still feel young, but old enough to have real regrets. To celebrate reaching 16,000 followers.. .a thread: (1/n)
1/ Six months ago, I launched MBI Deep Dives. I publish one deep dive of a publicly listed company every month for $10/month or $100/yr. Subscribers receive only one/two email each month, and each deep dive is ~8-10k worded piece. Here's how it went. A thread.
A meta-threads of my top threads (that will make you smarter) sprinkled in with memes (that will make you dumber)🧵
H/T to @WilsonCompanies and @OwnedOperatedco for allowing me to share the story of our Family Business https://t.co/Xpvd3dtVhN
A step-by-step guide to getting up to speed on SMB acquisitions, Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, and Search Funds Thread:
@stephenolmon @fortworthchris If I go after jani software it will 100% be based around getting more revenue per customer for jani companies.
@SullyBusiness If you haven’t already, go read: - all the Berkshire letters - all the Amazon letters It’s like getting an MBA for free in like 10 hrs or something
@RayanWillWin Ultimate No Code Stack: @bubble @webflow @airtable @AdaloHQ @bildrHQ @zapier @integromat @MemberstackApp @outseta
Want to make $100,000 this month? Build a micro-SaaS with no-code. DM 50 potential customers a day. Get it to $2,000 MRR. List on Micro Acquire. Sell it for $100,000.
@pkjr1967 1. Ironically, bc we don’t sell, I don’t have enough cash to do the deals we can find (plus I hate high leverage, which I’d have to use) 2. Thinking about the v long term: I want the largest possible portfolio. Would rather own 30% of $x,xxx,xxx,xxx than 100% of $xx,xxx,xxx.
SMB Buyers - roast our CIM 🔥 Below is a demo of a DealBuilder CIM post-NDA. Keep in mind these are for-sale-by-owner generated and designed for companies below $1M in valuation. https://t.co/fMqMQOPs8K
A business throwing off 10k a month in cash is absolutely life changing for most people. Its not that hard to get there. Janitorial is a great way to do so, if you have any questions I'm happy to chat about what I've learned so far and how we plan on getting to 500k ARR.
Prediction: AI will cause the price of work that can happen in front of a computer to decrease much faster than the price of work that happens in the physical world. This is the opposite of what most people (including me) expected, and will have strange effects.
I know 6+ Guys who all became worth 8 figures from this: One guy became worth $100M+ -- > Keller Williams Profit Share & Partnership Plan. < -- So good it's a Stanford Case Study. You want to learn the power of getting equity... here it is. https://t.co/bq86kmCoRs
@Fredy_Gomez_J @cashflowREjour1 @Greenbackd https://t.co/NPQt2nDQHo How’s that for service?
@MattJennissen14 https://t.co/hNFEJBKQ5c
@uriahz No, I absolutely would do new construction like this. Risk adjusted yields just aren’t good enough in LA.
@apurva212 We don’t syndicate on a deal-by-deal basis for this model. Instead, we do: 1. Funds, where we commingle $ from lots of smaller check investors to buy / renovate portfolios of buildings 2. JVs w/ v wealthy families, where one fam writes a check for a whole building or portfolio
@InvestedDrew It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you think in terms of “forever”. My kids will enjoy those promotes more than I ever will.
@moseskagan Avoid debt, take care of your investors first, and think long term. https://t.co/jrTi9F2ivD
@cashflowREjour1 Listen to my episode of @Greenbackd’s Acquirers Podcast. Have never been clearer about how the math works than I was on that show.
Our basic model: 1. Buy a building all-cash 2. Gut renovate (usually also w cash) 3. Re-lease at new, higher rents 4. Refinance to return as much investor $$ as we can (without over-levering & risking losing the building) 5. Hold the building, with our partners, indefinitely
How to get rich without getting lucky: Find a way to make $100 an hour doing something simple IN YOUR TOWN. Do it until you have $10k+ in the bank and you’re too busy to sell new customers. Hire employee for $25 / hr to do what you do so you can sell new customers. Repeat.
I love coming across businesses that are super profitable and run by an ultra lean team. 20 yr old legacy software company with ~100% retention, growing ~10% YoY. $1.1m ARR, $850k owner earnings. Ran by a husband/wife combo with a couple contractors. What a dream business.
I bought a plumbing business about this size 1/1/2021. Im happy to say we are doing very well, but don’t think this thread would have been a great road map because it leaves out the messy parts. Here’s what actually happened along with suggestions: https://t.co/qulUffwNCn
Last week I decided to dive into learning about the AirBnB cleaning game. What was the first thing I did? I sent requests to join these four Facebook groups to truly understand the pain points of AirBnB owners. https://t.co/53Iiq81P2I
SMB Twitter I'm approaching the end of due diligence (DD) for an SMB we have under LOI to acquire Its size doesn't warrant a lot of DD expense. So here is my DIY approach. Feel free to critique or steal as needed if it helps Q = Key DD question WID = My approach to answer it
Below is an example of how you can make GREAT money working for yourself. Don't buy this biz, start it yourself 👇
@Kakashi_fandom @liensofnewyork https://t.co/YEBvGxtq9h
what's the best cold email you've seen?
A thread of the best cold emails I've seen: 1/ A High schooler emailing Evan Spiegel to work at Snapchat https://t.co/AgTdxbhxJm
(1/2) Had a good convo today with an executive at a near $1B real estate company focused on group homes for adults with developmental disabilities. 1,800 homes under ownership. His advice: You sound like a young guy, if I were you I would partner with an operator and get ...
@bobbyfijan @StephanieNOlson I’m in this space and have chosen to focus more on commercial res than homeowners. It’s incredibly tough to scale when each owners expectations are ever changing and unique to them and your main lever for growth is skilled labor. In CRE a bit easier to build a large biz.
Another business idea: #32 productivity tool with financial commitment and real person to keep you accountable More details in the 🧵 #sharebusinessideas
I run a small community for people who want to buy Real Estate Investment Properties. I give advice and I also invest. Here's @NikhilMithani. 24-yr old Software Engineer in NYC. Bought this last month. $700 cash flow a month. Oppty's are out there - you just need to work hard! https://t.co/NrUxpZi0w5
Possibly contrarian take: I think the best way to do business is without emotion. Neither up nor down. Neither happy nor sad. Just putting one foot in front of the other, day after day.
@gannonbreslin if you add every company in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to your lists and central banks in another list... lot of work but it is absolute beast mode for intraday trading.
1/ One of the ways SMB operators increase their equity value and reduce risk is by professionalizing operations. Most sub-$1mm (or even <$2mm) EBITDA SMBs lack core elements of a scalable, less risky company. Here are some examples...
Building a list of acquisition targets is no easy task Here is how we do it for relatively little money over the course of about a week...
Step 7: SET UP EASYHIRE Next step was to set up a way for folks to apply and work with Happy Clean and have a smooth way to screen and onboard them. That's right, Brittany does none of the actual work she built an online business from jump... https://t.co/g5YpFDIzfX
@WilsonCompanies his pinned tweet is pretty much the playbook I am going to be implementing. I feel like I’m stealing from someone in plain sight. Also enjoy his Owned & Operated pod https://t.co/scfraRuSmp
Frank Slootman is regarded as one of the top CEOs in tech. He is best known for his operating skills and has successfully taken three companies public as CEO, including ServiceNow and Snowflake. Here are 3 operational frameworks that he has found to be the most effective... https://t.co/hCcgjBMHmb
How to succeed • Be a learning machine. • Find a way to maintain high energy
Hold yourself accountable for high achievement. If you're a cab driver, drive the most miles if you're a fisherman, get on the best boat.
Had an interesting seller meeting today. New opp: 4M sales 500k SDE 30 employees Residential Electric! Here’s the interesting fact: Hasn’t received a single “I want to buy you” letter from a PE firm. For reference, I receive a letter every single day. Elec got overlooked.
@ruleof39 @SullyBusiness my opinion - most businesses can use shopify, even if just for a web site invoicing and payments
@friedmandave @PlainSite Bezos pledges stock, borrows $500Mil, pays no taxes and for a yacht. What a country! The fear of democracy was the poor would unfairly expropriate the assets of the rich. Did not consider Regulatory, legislative and judicial capture, + burdening poor with low wages and inflation
5. @SullyBusiness Local (to me - NC) janitorial business owner. Lots of great transparency around scaling a new business that relies on high-churn, part time, help.
@girdley Paying fees feels great when everybody is getting rich together. The contention on fees comes from the shitty deals where the GP gets rich on the back of the LP.
Cashflow through deal structuring. I beseech thee... if you learn one thing, learn to structure deals. Nothing else has made me more $ WARNING: This is technical - but I'm not here to entertain you, I'm here to mutually grow. Let's go to school eh?
One thing I'm very proud of is that Fort's current holdings provide enough recurring fees to our op-co so that all expenses are covered whether we transact or not. This allows us to only buy when it makes sense. This becomes a huge competitive advantage as we grow.👇
I’ve help build internet communities that have generated hundreds of millions of members The most often question I get asked is: But Greg - how do I build a community from scratch?! Here's what I usually say:
My "Product Strategy Book" is here & it's always been free. It's on Medium, so I edit, respond to questions, collect feedback, ponder highlights. Someday I will write a real book but this saves you $30. Buy yourself something fancy instead! https://t.co/NIlYptraAg
Want to know how to turn a $10k investment in a small business into $10M in 10 mo. It's damn easy. Here's how. A thread —>
I spent 2 years looking at 100s of “systems” to help my businesses run better. I found 7 that are the best at solving the problems every business has. They have transformed my businesses, career, and life by allowing me to focus 100% on pleasing my customers. Here they are!
Where are my cold callers out there? I just wrapped up a 2 hour session of cold calling. 44 calls in 2 hours. Hoping to turn Good Friday into Great Friday. https://t.co/pKva5El1J1
Individuals pay tax on revenue but companies pay tax on profit and most individuals don’t understand that and it shows
Why in the world do I want to buy a scaffolding company? 🤷🏽 It’s the best type of rental business. You buy the assets once and rent them forever 💸 Below 👇👇I will share some thoughts💡 on what we like/dislike about the company. Let’s start with a peek at the financials👀
My mind is wandering to a scattered-site, tech-enabled rural-ish multifamily strategy quite a lot these days. Thats too much jargon — think @sweatystartup but multifamily, acquiring 50-150 unit buildings in micropolitan statistical areas (defined as 10-50k population).
@laughridge @sweatystartup Encountered a lot of these tech enabled building in Montreal and loved them. Doors Service Elevators Garage Mail Even special setups for package and food delivery. Really neat, totally autonomous, well controlled.
@SullyBusiness I would look into Entrepreneurship through Acquisition(ETA). Search the phone book for niche local businesses that advertise in the yellow pages but don’t have an online presence. Find out if it is a 65+ year old who owns it and talk with them about buying their business.
@SullyBusiness B2B commercial property maintenance. One stop shop, tenant turnover, roofing, AC, landscape maintenance... sub at first slowly bring in house. Service sub institutional owners. Scale to 5mm and make 1mm in income.
"Cash flow is not affected by the reclassification of intangible investments from the income statement to the balance sheet. [As as a result] investors respond more to surprises in free cash particularly for young companies with lots of intangible assets." https://t.co/F0kCnuxz50 https://t.co/ip8c8IB2vs
I'm on vacation this week (finally...) but still wanted to post. So I pulled together the reading list I went through as I was learning about SMB buying. Hope it's a helpful starting point for anyone dabbling/debating whether to search: https://t.co/lZ10qeBdRz
@SullyBusiness Honestly though, with your contacts you've built on here? I'd probably look into Lambda School equivalent, learn to code, and continue with content. Be a bartender if needed. Then partner with an investor and roll something up and build tech along the way.
@Monkey69Space https://t.co/onreQsd5Bf
We are struggling with understanding clients different levels of clean. Chatted with @SullyBusiness. He brilliantly suggested asking clients if they want us to deliver a full service Marriott, a reliable courtyard, or a motel 6. We won’t do motel 6. Let’s see how it goes!
A thread with answers to the questions we get most often from prospective acquisition entrepreneurs. This won’t cover every detail, but it will hopefully cover first level Q&A. This is meant to supplement what is on our website: https://t.co/DRhJK8QTRI
1/ Brex raised new funding at a $7.4B valuation. Interestingly, the corporate card startup launched in 2018 with a very successful $300k out-of-home (OOH) ad campaign. Here's a breakdown of Brex's OOH strategy 🧵 https://t.co/gw8n4cP7oh
My friend asked for advice on how to do well on Twitter. This person is a small business CEO. This is what I wrote. What would you change? https://t.co/ViIBv0CpgO
@GaetanoMortgage I actually didn’t charge anything on Fund 1. I did this to ensure I could raise and to prove myself. Fund 2 was 75/25 over a 7 and it’s been 70/30 over a 7 since then.
Had some time on this lovely Friday to make a thread for you all. How to make money in real estate via syndication: A Thread 👇
Solid point of reference on SMB valuations (actual closings -- not what it takes to get deals signed up -- can be a decent delta there) https://t.co/2E9azDLDiN
Searching for a business to buy, especially if offering to allow the owner to retire, is in itself a service business Every bit of Josh's advice applies to searching https://t.co/Dxqg8KLCIC
If you invested $100,000 towards a boat in 2010, you'd have over a million friends by now. Invest money to buy friendships instead of buying material things.
Easy way to stand out in a competitive market is having the BEST customer support. - phone support - email support - live chat - up to date tutorials - 24/7 availability This isn’t startup rocket science but it really works. Be the “Zappos” of your market.
@girdley “Our offer is as high as we are comfortable bidding. If seller wants more, we may be able to structure some risk sharing / earnout above that amount. What all-in number is a yes right now?” Now you’re playing “you set the price I set the terms” - which is winnable.
I've gotten 50+ messages, like this one from @stephsmithio, saying our pod with @awilkinson is the best one ever. I might agree. But I didn't think so at the time. You listen to it. Decide. Tell me in the comments: https://t.co/RnLT8kYXt4 https://t.co/SZYBcbgLua
A nice and enjoyable Saturday afternoon. https://t.co/8jkXsInaQM
A career is like a series of games. The key to winning is taking a step back early on and figuring out which game is worth playing and which one isn’t. Too many people play the wrong games with stiff competition and shitty prizes and wonder why it’s hard af to get ahead.
@tsludwig @J_M_Vogt Launching an incubator in May to solve this exact problem: helping prospective self-funded searchers who are uncomfortable with the "deal process" by providing one-stop-shop support (team, tech, playbook, deal flow, capital) to search, close and succeed in ETA.
This week I sold an asset on @microacquire @agazdecki for $20,000. I'll tell you the entire story. During the early pandemic, I had some spare time and read a blog post by @searchbound about domain names and their inherent business value. 👇
@SullyBusiness came on for an interview on Owned and Operated pod! Really great episode - janitorial is a hard business but has some really interesting mechanisms to grow quickly. Bryant is doing awesome things and we loved hearing about the journey! It’ll drop next week https://t.co/cBnEPgQ0bJ
Massive tax advantages: Some of the greatest benefits of investing in real estate are the available tax breaks. There are far too many to cover in this thread... but here is a link to get you started https://t.co/WPrvmW9F9K
9. Have children This is counterintuitive. Thinking children are expensive (and not having them) is a terrible mindset. It's also wrong. Having children will bring you energy. When you have a child you will move mountains for them to ensure that they have a bright future.
1. Know you are high-value High-value individuals have aspirations. They will work toward goals without letting anyone else get in the way. When you have self-worth you will work harder to give yourself the life you deserve. It is expected. Value yourself and feel worthy.
Real Estate investors can get stuck in the weeds analyzing too many metrics on a deal. The most successful investor I've ever met told me he only looks at one thing. If he can get all of his money back within 5 years he buys, if not, he passes. The rest takes care of itself.
Breaking the Model, Issue #6 of Big Deal Small Business: https://t.co/QgnrortePk
Last year I put 75K into an RE syndication without having any idea what I was doing. I am a moron when it comes to this. What does below even mean? Which one of you wants to break this down for me like I am 12 years old? lol. How do I break this math down to compare... https://t.co/90zOrvqXz1
Very simply, I am looking to pay a fair price for a piece of the absolute best companies in the world. Time arbitrage and the ability to hold indefinitely is ultimately my greatest advantage. Play to your strengths.
And I get it, multiples and SBA debt is fun. I talk a lot about it here. But the only thing separating searchers from big PE is our genuine care for a business's legacy. More accurately - a family business's legacy.
GUEST THREAD about.... Buying Businesses. *How to find a business to buy *How to finance it so you only put down ~10% or less *How to grow it *How to sell it for a profit. Handing the mic to my buddy @SievaKozinsky who does this for a living....
"Let's use this big-name law firm for our tiny deal!" Congrats, you just 10x'ed your chances of the most junior doofus in the firm working for you with little supervision at top dollar. Better: find a senior partner who quit their BigLaw partnership and is now practicing solo.
A very cool thing about this business is that, if we do it right, we’ll create twenty to thirty jobs by the end of the year. Not high paying jobs, not tech jobs, but our team knows the work they do carries a lot of dignity and it’s steady.
What are the 7 Wonders of the Business World? Here are mine: 1) The invention of debt 2) Decentralization 3) AWS 4) Crowdfunding 5) Tesla 6) YC 7) Charlie Munger Your turn.
Vibe coding is the new product management. Training and tuning models is the new coding.
Playing around with @openclaw trying to figure out real use cases for me as a founder not that inspired for now BUT then... found this "Guide to build an AI Agent Squad" I guess an "skill issue" from my side 🤣 GREAT job @pbteja1998 https://t.co/WDNr2csaPr
there are only 2 jobs left in this economy: – Idea Guy ($1M / yr) – Execution Guy ($500k / yr)
how to pitch your startup: - describe an inevitable future, - highlight the reasons it hasn’t happened yet, and - explain why your solution + unique insight make now the moment it changes
“YC stopped investing in Canadian startups” is a bad hype-headline because any Canadian can always incorporate in Delaware easily via Stripe Atlas and it wouldn’t stop you from doing business as usual.
A Lovable user recently built a service that turns your pet photos into renaissance portraits and ships them to you. The app is now making $100k/month, and we ordered one for our office dog! https://t.co/e48XA7MwJ2
Claude Code made me the CRM I've wanted for ten years. Automatically updates from text messages, email, iPhoto, calendar, etc. Shows all interactions in one place. Most of us have decades of data on interactions with thousands of people that just sits there unused. I call it… https://t.co/Fi7GAB2M54
A general thesis of mine is that there is vast amounts of private data hidden in plain sight that will eventually be made public. https://t.co/8RguW7NSAp
Fuck it, @clawdbot tips and tricks thread, stream of consciousness style. Every time I learn something, I'll add to this thread Because while it's super hypey and amazing, it's still brittle as fuck, and there are rough edges all over. If this helps someone, amazing https://t.co/xkKocxMmtk
This is it. The most important video you'll watch this year. ClawdBot has taken X by storm. And for good reason. It's the greatest application of AI ever Your own 24/7 AI employee In this video I cover how it works, how to set it up, and why I think we should all be nervous: https://t.co/yBa8QrtRzI
You sell Clawdbot the same way MSPs sold cloud, security, or IT in the 2000s: install it, tune it, own it. Installing clawdbot is scary for 99.999% of people. You help there. You start niche. One vertical. One job to be done. Real estate brokerages, law firms, ecommerce ops…
@brettberson PMF = people are grabbing the product out of your hands faster than you can keep up with When we hit it, our sales calendars were completely full, 50 meetings a week and then hundreds
Source: Growth Through Acquisitions | Wharton Scale School Professor David Wessels https://t.co/j3ByAnr8ow
One of the counter intuitive things about building software is that speed leads to quality. Number of iterations is the best predictor of how good a product is. This has been an Amplitude mantra from day 1. https://t.co/WtLifOsFLI
@Buyside_Guy @HighyieldHarry @Buyside_Hub Fully agree, but if you do it you get paid more than if you 3x a $100m TEV business. If you 3x the $100m you create ~$40m of carry, and if you 2x the $10bn you create $2,000m of carry. In which case will you as an MD or partner get paid the most?
Here’s how to get the most out of Claude for CRE: 1) Click new Project 2) Upload the whole deal folder: OM, rent roll, T12, your proforma, Phase I, title, whatever... 3) You’re done Now it actually knows the deal inside and out. I just ask “what are the 3 things that kill…
The mega prompt: Just copy + paste it into Gemini 3.0 Pro and plug in your stock. Steal it: " ROLE: Act as an elite equity research analyst at a top-tier investment fund. Your task is to analyze a company using both fundamental and macroeconomic perspectives. Structure your… https://t.co/FEcQc7iwF7
NEW: Function Health raised a $298M Series B at a $2.5B valuation to expand its AI-driven health platform. The company has completed 50M+ lab tests, is lowering membership to $365/year, and is launching a Medical Intelligence Lab to unify labs, imaging, wearables, and records. https://t.co/WocjlpiKSi
List of a few VC-backed companies going hard on vertial AI rollup strategy: Accounting/Professional Services - Crete Professionals Alliance (Thrive, ZBS, Bessemer) - $300M+ revenue, 20+ firms - Accrual (General Catalyst) - $16M raised, founded by ex-Brex CTO Cosmin Nicolaescu -…
This is what my company is building: the American 3-Story Rowhouse The goal is to build the highest quality infill starter homes so young people can have kids and STAY in their community, in every City across the country ... like we did 100 years ago 1200-1600sf, 4BR/2.5BA https://t.co/bEYyCVzp5O
98% of problems below $1M are solved with more leads 98% of problems above $1M are solved with better systems
Investable startup: 1. Founder is unstoppable force of nature 2. Founder seeks disconfirming evidence, and changes 3. Serves niche inside a large and growing market 4. Customers genuinely love the product (high retention) 5. Employees genuinely love the company (high retention)
Both at Ramp and at Unify, I’ve seen that velocity comes from organizing the company into pods of 3-4 people tackling ambitious projects that align with your north star goals. One person needs to be clearly empowered as the pod lead with ultimate decision-making power.
Founders should take secondaries when they can. But don’t stop there. Let your employees participate too. They’re the ones who made the equity worth something alongside you. Some examples of companies making that happen recently: - https://t.co/LdY7AgXVEY -… https://t.co/D8CQF6MQ6h
@Gundwolf Of course, it depends on the deal but don’t put so much focus on the cash flow multiple. The true value is the future cash flow you can generate as the new owner discounted back to today. The ability to improve CF is the real valuation analysis.
@Gundwolf Assuming this is res with gd customer diversity, pop grwth is the safest proxy for LT success. Every thing else (acq, adding trades) is too risky for 5x. Also I would assume worst case that u won’t b able to hire, 1-200k of CF will have to go to a training program/yr
Thoughts on paying 5x EBITDA for an HVAC business? Details: - Almost holds a monopoly in its area - 8% annual growth for last 10 years - Includes net working capital - Huge opportunity to add on plumbing and electrical work
Cold called an RV & Boat storage facility I’ve driven by every summer on our way to Lake Ouachita. Talked to the owner. 100% full. 450 units. Asked if he’s considered selling. “Not really, we’re having too much fun..... (pause) ...you wanna make me an offer?” Bingo.
Free cash flow. Maximize this. For as long as possible. Everything else is just noise.
@shawngorham MSP is sort of the generic name for outsourced IT. Yes, landscaping, HVAC, etc. can also be B2B, but most of the Twitter talk seems more focused on residential.
I'd be eager to see more searchers focused on B2B services, which I think can be as, if not more, compelling in many cases. Some examples: - P&C insurance brokerages - outsourced bookkeeping services - managed service providers (i.e., outsourced IT)
Will Thorndike, Trish Higgins & Brent Beshore If you are interested in SMB Operating, Lower Mid-Market PE, EtA, HoldCos or Search Funds this is a must watch! How does this interview only have 2k views? https://t.co/VaJBGhgcR9
Rule #8: Options Appear as Relationships Build. We had two difficult-to-finance acquisitions close with mostly seller financing. This would have been impossible on the first conversation, but was reasonable after trust was built and we were in diligence.
Rule #5: Evoke Curiousity Bad outbound: I am a Stanford MBA and the founder of Granite Point Capital. I am looking to make an acquisition between $5 million and... Great Outbound: I love your service. Would you ever consider selling your business for the right price?
Dec 2020, found a HVAC company near me which has great reviews online. Met with the owner who seemed like a straight shooter. Very proud of the company that he had built, looking to move into GC and flipping homes. He wanted 3x 2020 SDE which was ~$650K till Oct.
@sonnysizzak @WilsonCompanies Here's a quick case study I found that is helpful. Can vary massively depending on size of business and how many real assets you're buying vs intangibles: https://t.co/fBh1opH4eI.
@Sam_Rosati @CTW_SMB Is the seller not understanding why W/C peg exists? Or he just doesn't want to leave it behind? If the former, I like the car & gas example from @MatthewGHinson in the link below to make it more "real". If the latter, then just a price negotiation. https://t.co/pjsC97wEuB
Founders: Here's a tactic I've seen accelerate a pre-seed round. Get 1/3 to 1/2 of your round committed from angels before you talk with VCs. Allows you to practice your pitch & get strategics on board. Plus, creates scarcity and time pressure once you start VC meetings.
@KirkNewcombe @DeebMartoma @mailshakeapp That’s right: professional outbound tools. The gold standard is a software called Outreach-its what every top company utilizes. However, if you’re just starting out, you can use something more basic
In real estate 300k+ is too large for most small-time investors. $2MM and under is too small for most competent capital allocators. What does that mean? Opportunity for you as a small, lean, competent allocator / operator. https://t.co/SCBUCY5vCP
1) Enduring and predictable demand 2) Good-to-decent industry standard margins 3) Low competitive professionalism 4) High fragmentation 5) Low industry customer satisfaction 6) Startup capital needed matches your personal capacity 7) Ability to work 60 hrs/wk for a decade https://t.co/BofEw0Iwtm
There are different types of labor - I see my friends talking about labor as a moat a lot ( oh hey @SullyBusiness ) ... but I'm looking for labor that's highly upside-oriented and prefers sitting at a desk. So many newco concepts, so few operators.
@soundslikecanoe Investment Real estate. You buy a $15-$16 million dollar asset with that $5 down payment and have long term lease revenue to reinvest in additional investments.
@soundslikecanoe Software! Heck no! Buy an apartment complex worth about 8 million. Put the 5 mill down which is 62.5% and accelerate note to 10 year pay-off. By putting so much down you only need 60-70% occupancy rate to meet PITI obligations. In 10 years you can retire on 900k per year.
Close a $7 million dollar deal for your employer: 5% raise. Close a $7 million dollar deal for your own business: $7 million dollars. It's an easy decision...
If you can’t afford assets, create them.
Real estate folks - what is the biggest pain point in your business you wish software could solve?
I’ve spoken to ~25+ SMB owners/ceos in the last 60 days. Most are very impressive in their domain. But...few are geniuses, world-class leaders, or incredible operators. They just took some risk, worked hard, and moved forward day by day. It’s a very empowering realization.
If I had $0 and wanted to start a service business, here's the first three things I would setup: -Google Voice -Google Site -Google My Business (all three are free)
Here's how you can turn $140,000 into $1,250,000. Read this case study if you want to learn how apartment owners make money.
If a company reinvests all of its revenue such that it doesn’t have any income, it doesn’t pay corporate income taxes. That is by design. Companies reinvesting everything they make is exactly what we want.
1. Most sellers don't even know they can allocate these tax advantages 2. Most lawyers are looking to either kill deals or extend them indefinitely (they're usually incentivized to) 3. Bad lawyers will look to interject themselves DEEP in a deal to accomplish #2
You lose clients at random, your pipeline dries up on a dime. It’s feast or famine and unpredictable. I kept reading about what @dhh and @jasonfried were doing with Basecamp, building software for themselves then selling monthly access to it. https://t.co/YuEnrVvI8z
I'm starting to think that consistent differentiation in service businesses is built around having tenured, high-quality labor. I spent 15 minutes brainstorming different processes to build into my business:
1/ Get a cup of coffee. In this thread, I'll help you understand Warren Buffett's famous quote: it's better to buy a wonderful business at a fair price than a fair business at a wonderful price.
First experience with Upwork (thanks @J_M_Vogt ): Pulled PPP data, filtered by target states and NAIC, resulted in list of 235. Posted a job on Upwork to find website, owner, owner email for each. Had 40+ offers in 2 hours, selected one who did first 3 as an example; only $60.
receives even a 5% the value I’ve received from others then this unnecessarily long tweet was worth it. I’m simply trying to do my part in providing value to others. See below - https://t.co/mCHRmOaxZ7
@WritingToRiches “Want to make a million dollars? Help a million people.” - @MJDeMarco (I first read about this concept in his books) I like that it posits the mindset of being a go-giver (aka @BobBurg and @JohnDavidMann). Sure, we should strive to be efficient, but this is about helping people
Senior housing has multiple ‘sand boxes’. While we all serve seniors each is different due to nursing care requirements, payor source and government involvement. I play in the assisted living sand box. Understanding these differences is critical to understanding senior housing https://t.co/HhNFIJLvyp
The greatest indicator of early success in people, companies, ideas and nation states is not intelligence, wealth or even network. It’s how serious someone is about the mission. “Don’t take things so seriously” may be the worst advice you can give to someone.
Time for another biz for sale overview! Janitorial services business for sale in LA area with ~3M in revenue Asking price of only $1.3M 🤩
Start-up idea: Real estate brokerage as SaaS Provide all of the services / tech a licensed broker needs to create & run her own brokerage for a recurring fee: - contracts - CRM - insurance - design / marketing collateral - HR (for agents broker brings on) - training - etc.
Jeff Bezos lives by a Regret Minimization Framework. He makes decisions based on if — at 80yrs old — he will be happy with his choices. Since 2020, I’ve been doing a Regret *Maximization* Framework. I started by not buying Bitcoin...and, so far, it’s working very well.
I admire people who can turn it on and turn it off. Be a gentle spirit with most, but stand firm whenever necessary. Don’t take yourself so seriously most days, but turn into a straight killer when the game begins. Etc. Being one thing all the time is suboptimal.
@J_M_Vogt Great follow up! I think I’d trust seeing a detailed process around a buyers flexibility to structure a win-win around the sellers goals (within reason) A lot of cold emails I get rarely mention “win-win” or an understanding that the seller is a person and not a machine
Search funds are sweet. Hoping this helps with their outreach. As an SMB owner, I would want to know: 1 — how you structure GOOD deals for both you and for me. Win-win. 2 — Details on your management of our staff. They are family. e.g. 30/90/180 day plans Anyone disagree?
Ben and I have a good talk on seller psychology, pleasure to be on. https://t.co/OGZFJpUVrm
I saw this somewhere on Twitter/Searchfunder so can’t take credit, but while in diligence on a business, try joining Facebook groups for owners in that industry. Following the chatter and questions they ask each other has been illuminating, plus I’ve gotten some good tips.
How I got started in Real Estate ... Every weekday for almost 2 years I would wake up at 4:45 am and take the shuttle from San Francisco down to Menlo Park. I hated it SO MUCH ...
Becoming a Billionaire is a silly goal. they just give the money away anyways. Instead..be a: - Help Billionaire, helping 1B people. OR - Time Billionaire - having complete freedom of schedule, to invest billions of minutes into projects you care about.
😃 Hi! I'm a tech CEO that recently took my company public on the TSX V. ✍️I write about finance and productivity 💸I angel invest through @quirkycapital I'm the beneficiary of many mentors providing advice. LMK how I can help you.
Owning a SaaS company ≠ starting one. Individuals can now acquire their way to recurring revenue. But are different sized businesses all alike? Enter: Hobby SaaS. https://t.co/DclPlUEvbp
I was fortunate to collaborate with AJ Wasserstein and Jeanne Odendaal from @yalesom on a recent article about how aspiring entrepreneurs can choose to build a long-term hold investment entity. Some names that may be familiar are featured as well :) https://t.co/IcsES0EtiW
A trick I learned from @naval to get rid of envy: If you are going to be jealous of someone, you must be willing to swap your *entire* life for theirs. You can’t cherry-pick the aspect of their life you want. You must give up *everything* you have and know. Not interested.
Had a blast with @aebridgeman reflecting on the time and changes at Precision Stoneworks. Was a great time recording the episode, and I really recommend subscribing to the podcast for a lot of great content https://t.co/FKpYm1BjxS
I miss 2014 when everyone wanted to start the "next uber." Lean Startup was the thing and people were thinking big. Now everyone wants to buy a tiny plumbing company.
@SullyBusiness Take 50%-80% equity in every company they plan to operate and ROFR in any sale :)
Here's Why I Love Equity: Let's say you're starting a janitorial business. In the first year you do 40k in revenue and do most of the work yourself. You make a salary of about 30k.
If you're a college student who wants to pay off all your loans... here's an idea for you: It takes ~$5k to start and will make ~$30k a year of profit It won't get you rich, it'll pay for college. (..and will teach them more about business than they’ll learn in school)
One of our sales people took our snowblower and box truck to each of his hot leads this morning. He personally cleared their driveway and shoveled the walk. I almost feel bad for the competition. Having sales people this good is like cheating.
How To Start A Janitorial Business 🧵👇 1. Pick a name. If you're having trouble with this keep it simple and SEO friendly. Use the formula "your service + your location" Do some competitor research so that you don't take a name others in your region have.
This will make you money: Insist that all of your offices/facilities/warehouses/etc are neat and tidy. Go nuts if they aren't. Why? Do you want a culture where the non-visible is done to a high standard? No better way to send that message than with the visible.
@fiddler_on_roof At a certain threshold they do become more valuable, multiple millions in revenue. However most firms never hit these numbers. Some more reading for you if you’d like: https://t.co/l8MNh77C7w
My conversation w/ @MikeBotkin_ on: - First 30 days in landscaping co - Building trust & learning from employees - Roll up potential - Carrying on the seller's strong reputation in the community - Raising his equity investment from Twitter Enjoy! https://t.co/9Qj6cTpahn
My conversation w/ @WilsonCompanies on: - Acquiring his 3rd generation family plumbing business - Scaling in home services - Best way to walk up to a customer's house - Why techs don't make good managers - And much more.. Enjoy! https://t.co/9aIRTXmukX
The best "job pitch" I've ever received. https://t.co/xGUiBgy2Bq
1/ An Allegory of Finance I have been posting a lot of educational (and humorous!) threads on finance, money, and economics. My mission is simple: to demystify these concepts and make them accessible to everyone. All of the threads can be found below. Enjoy and please share!
If you are looking for tools to help * run your operations, * automate a process, * or analyze your data, I put together an ever-growing list here: https://t.co/ReonpVhw9g
The biggest opportunities in real estate from a cap rate perspective are in the $1-5MM range. Too small for most private equity and larger syndicators but too large for most regular investors. And there are millions of these deals in every small town in America.
If there was one piece of advice that has fundamentally changed the way I embrace all interactions: "It is not what you say, it is not what you do, it is how you make them feel". Think about that one every single day. 🙏
In light of @BrentBeshore's recent Annual Letter, a throwback to an incredible conversation on buying and operating small businesses. "Small businesses don't stay small on purpose." Check out the Annual Letter on the @PermanentEquity website. https://t.co/lWbfBdXCur
2/ @Bundl Home provides a range of home maintenance services to homeowners in a straightforward monthly subscription. Today, we are announcing the launch of our beta in Minneapolis!
Been getting the 'how do you buy a portfolio of micro SMBs?' question a lot recently, esp from 1st time searchers. My answer: simple math makes it hard, but if you can play the long game, it gets easier. (math below is rounded + TONS of assumptions = keeping it simple)
If you'd be happy w/ 5 businesses after 15 yrs, then you have 3 yrs/biz. This makes it a LOT easier, even w/out growth: operate for 3 yrs, pay down debt ($200k/yr plus $100k/yr of excess FCF), so your loan is down to ~1x SDE after 3 years + you have the cash equity for biz #2.
I'm thinking about doing a personal MBA over the next few months by reading some great books in each "core curriculum" area. Take a look and let me know if there are any books I'm missing or should remove. https://t.co/sBe0bBZG4q
To newly minted Product Managers: Several years ago, I left school early to accept a job as a PM. I barely knew what the job entailed, failed a bunch, & learned a ton. With that, I tend to get a constant stream of new PMs reach out for advice. Here's what I tell them —
I will be compiling a thread of all of my threads. I have a lot of information in my threads and I want them to be accessible to you guys. Otherwise this information will just get lost in Twitter.
@JordanG32294800 Ive never met a contractor who enjoys working with Home Advisor and I’ve met hundreds who hate working with Home Advisor. Most get away from it as soon as they can because HA is such a nightmare to work with.
Today I performed an extremely complicated market demand analysis: Opened up Nextdoor and scrolled. Tallied all the times someone needed something over the past 7 days. Electrician 7x Handyman 4x Plumber 3x Painter 2x Security 2x Garage Door 1x Interesting.
@WilsonCompanies They seem to be a good business to be in, Tommy Mello A1 garage doors has a good podcast and seems to be doing very well.
How to find a good service business to buy with immediate upside? Build a scraping tool that searches for companies with comcast, hotmail, yahoo email addresses on their websites.
Getting from $1m to $3.5m is extremely difficult for small businesses You are out-growing current resources, but not yet cash-rich enough to get what you need. This used to be a business graveyard or plateau. Not anymore, here is how to cross that chasm...
This is a very long thread. @SamtLeslie asked to give the playbook for service companies so here it is. Follow it and you’ll get to 5M+ in a few years. This is pure operations playbook. No leadership, financial or HR discussion. Enjoy.
SMB Twitter has been on fire recently with tons of great threads of stories, lessons, and operating advice. All of these folks are must-follows in this little SMB community of ours. Here's a few of my recent favorites, let me know if I missed any. (I'm 100% sure I did)
I’m working with dental tool co selling to, not dentist but DSO’s. They buy for & do all admin work for dentist, allowing dentists to just be dentists. Could this type of model work for home service companies?
This is a valuable thread and @XavierHelgesen has excellent intentions. If you were planning to buy a SMB using the SBA, the deal got sweeter. That said, there are caution flags I'd like to raise: 1) It's brutally hard. I outline the steps here https://t.co/MZ0beEl0UU https://t.co/KXSgC0jsRr
In late 2013 I was a "searcher", but I had never heard the term until recently. I was 7 years deep into a commercial banking career. Small bank I worked at was being acquired by a big regional bank and I was ready to get out. (a thread...)
Welcome to all the new followers here. A bit about me and what to expect here: I’m the GM of a franchise business called 101 Mobility. We do home/business accessibility for people with disabilities. In 18 months, we’ve taken the business from ~$400,000 to $1.1mm in revenue.
@CREfinanceGuy Each one is large enough to have a GM. I build out the metrics, systems and then hire a GM. I work with them for 60-90 days then back out. I started a mgmt co that charges mgmt fees to provide back end support for benefits, fleet and shared overhead.
@StrongpointRich @laughridge When they say they are going to invest the money and that the business is a "Great Investment!" Then, ask them if they will invest in you as the buyer by giving you acceptable terms. Their return with you will surely be higher and very secure since they know the biz.
@StrongpointRich @laughridge In a convo with the seller, one of the best questions you can ask is, "what are you going to do personally and with the money once you sell?" Then, ask them if they think that the business is a good investment for a buyer.
If you are interested in getting started in the alternative lending industry, Twitter can be a great education. Here are my suggested resources to follow: News: @LendAcademy @deBankedMag @Lending_Times @FTPartners
Check out our podcast about small business M&A deals. Need proof? Here's what my cousin said about it: "Why would anyone want to listen to that?" Oh, indeed. Oh indeed. https://t.co/0sD8hHDrAr
Interested in investing in SMBs but don’t feel confident you have a good feel for what SMB life is like? Here’s exactly how to close that gap. 1. Pick an industry 2. Join 4-6 Facebook groups in that industry 3. Read the posts and comments section for several days.
The market is not closed for serious investors / traders on weekends. This is the time to sharpen our sword by - - Reading books - Watching interviews of successful investors / traders - Scanning stocks for next week
If I annualize the last two weeks (post incentive roll-out) for one of my plumbers, his AGI now exceeds $150,000. Last year, it was $56,000.
@moseskagan @ERosey6 I appreciate that, Moses. I think you're right. Increasing retention to as close to 100% as possible makes growth much more achievable for these businesses. And happy plumbers seem to want to shout it from the rooftops, bringing more to our door.
First week update: • 1 plumber: +$12/hr increase • Another: +$8/hr increase • Others were on track, but sidelined due to virus Smashed our goals for the week. Team's on board and finally participating in some the upside. https://t.co/8zKkK0WfQk
@keerthivasanck @DennisHong17 Here’s a cheat sheet for ya ;) https://t.co/iPN1SsqOVj
A buddy of mine who played in the NFL became an RE Investor has done well & recently started a pressure washing biz! What’s funny is people ask him “why you doin that?” - we laugh because they don’t realize bro doing 4-5 figures a week; focus on the bag, not what looks cool
The real answer here may not actually be a fund structure, but rather a more traditional holdco. Nevertheless, I think shared support functions is very important. https://t.co/b07pdEcGko
@laughridge Great piece; thanks for posting. Another example of the power of focusing on buying & improving one type of asset over & over & over again. (Like Malone in cable or Murphy w TV stations).
There are probably 50,000 small mismanaged self storage facilities in the USA. Too small for REITs, too small for institutional investors, too big and scary for single family investors. Thats a perfect storm in my book!
First four pages for anyone who cares https://t.co/Mht9M8oRIS
I've had this conversation multiple times recently. There's a gap in the market and highly profitable investment firm model here. SBA/USDA ($5M/$10M limits) requires 10% down and a personal guarantee. Many are willing to sign the guarantee, but can't come up with the 10%. https://t.co/CaoGWwp2XI
My most popular tweets on real estate, self storage and entrepreneurship. A thread...
A Poor Kid's Path to Prosperity:
Breaking down my recent post: 1/ @scale_AI, I interviewed everyone we gave an offer to for a long time. I wrote a memo to the company about what I look for. I wanted to share it with the community because I don’t think people do this enough. Thread👇 https://t.co/Da5OFUATWT
Companies tout their "customer focus" and that's great - I want my team to put the customer first. Me, though? I've been taking an employee-first stance. Hard to take care of customers if you can't attract & retain quality EEs, esp. in a skilled trade like plumbing.
Non-technical? Want to make a lot of money, but not ready to start a company? Uncommon path that isn't discussed enough (but is what I did, and have seen others do it well): Commit to a 5-8 year journey working at large tech companies and jump from sales to product.
I got a new truck over the weekend. $60,000 MSRP. Got it for free. Learned a few things, wanted to pass them on... https://t.co/qhY8P4Nxn7
(Lots of new followers, so:) I run Adaptive Realty, a real estate PE shop with ~$135MM in AUM, focused on renovating small apartment buildings in Los Angeles. We're weird: - Extremely narrow mkt / asset focus - Full gut rehabs (not lipstick) - Permanent hold (we never sell)
I would put $300k aside for operating capital. Raise $7MM from LPs. With a $700k co-invest (my money). And go buy $20MM worth of self storage at an 8 cap. Increase NOI from $1.6MM to $2MM over 12 months. Sell portfolio for $33MM at a 6 cap. Take my $7MM and repeat. https://t.co/fhrye5OvRS
Wealth Roadmap in 2 phases. Phase 1: a. Start a straight-forward, less risky, cash flow business (consulting, services, agency) b. Reinvest profits into cash flowing assets (real estate, dividend stocks, bonds) Once passive income covers living expenses, go to Phase 2.
if you own-operate an SMB or portfolio of SMBs that you acquired - request to join our private operator network where you'll find others who do the same. Here you'll get access to articles, posts, and messaging with other operators. https://t.co/rWfC6d5Lh1
Things to consider: Ideation: Tops-down (A new technology or regulation came out & I want to methodologically navigate what can be uniquely built as a result) Bottoms-up (I experienced this problem, & built X to solve it) Both can work, but there's a stigma against tops-down
@Austen @SafeGraph https://t.co/ZQ0Q5K8gAL compliments of @auren
If you want to document your entire business for reasons pointed out here https://t.co/ybakRRCWlT .. but it seems daunting and overwhelming, here is a process I have used to fully document 4 smbs. These are the 20+ steps I have found to get to 80% documented. 👇🏼
@sweatystartup My parents’ catch phrase to us 4 kids growing up was “do well to do good”. It means building a platform so you can lift others up to it. Hard to do much good if you haven’t done well first, and a rich life without helping others is an unfulfilled one.
Compound Interest: SMB Operator Edition -Work hard on 1 problem -Make an adjustment (i.e. price, sales, inventory) -Reap benefits of that adjustment forever -Repeat with another problem
Folks who are worried about getting "trapped" in a SMB ("buying a job") need to take greater personal responsibility for the outcome. Once you're in the driver's seat, you don't have to do things the way the seller did. Build it your way. https://t.co/49Ukyr8BIP
EtA Myth Bust Series #6 - If I buy a business that's too small, I'll be trapped working in the business. I hear this over and over when I tell searchers they're looking for something too big for a first acquisition. I think it's (H)BS caused by the HBS CityWide Case.
Speaking with sellers has become 10x easier now that I have some experience running a business that was just like theirs.
What an amazing line. Encapsulates my entire investing philosophy. (For the record: I didn't know who it was until smarter people got it in the replies.) https://t.co/82q3aO1kN6
"When should we expect to hear back from you?" My favorite closing question for meetings that have next-steps. It also shows you how potential employees/partners/customers think about follow-up and commitment.
1/ Starting a janitorial business allows you the opportunity to expand into the following: -Disinfection -Carpet Cleaning -Hard Floor Care -Window Cleaning -Construction Cleanup -Powerwashing -Handyman -Event Services -Pest Control -Parking Lot Striping -Lawn Care -Landscaping
7/ 🏁 Brokers FE International (@FEIntl) Empire Flippers (@EmpireFlippers) BuySellEmpire (@buysellempire)
4/ 🏁 Micro Private Equity Funds SureSwift Capital (@SureSwiftCap) Calm + Capital (@CalmCapital) Apollo Black (@atomicbev) LTV SaaS Fund Concrete Capital (@Nile)
This is a never ending thread of the very best online content and resources for early stage startups. Relevant for both self-funded/bootstrapped and venture backed pre-seed/seed stage companies.
I made a giant list of my top recommendations. Here are the themes: ∙ Business & technology ∙ Society & philosophy ∙ History, science & math ∙ Creativity & learning Warning: Reading this will make you want to cancel your plans for the next year. https://t.co/7eLJYTMnwI
101 Lessons from a Decade in B2B Sales:
People who ask for general advice will never act on it. Twitter is packed with advice on life, career, business, etc. Go-getters ask questions like this: "Hey, loved your tweet on X. Here's my attempt to implement. How would you improve it?" Lurk generally. Ask specifically.
If you want to improve at sales, don't read sales books. Study Joe Rogan's podcast. Not the guests — the host. Rogan is a master at getting information out of people. Thoughtful questions. Intent listening. Disarming presence. The best salespeople have the most information.
First truck returned from wrap shop today. We'll be "the guys in the blue trucks" from here forward. Photo doesn't do it justice - this thing is bright! https://t.co/bzTD8yhJ7l
“When I was 30 years old, I’d had two startups fail, and let me tell you, no one was buying stock in Andrew Yang” @AndrewYang (thx for speaking to my class, Andrew)
If I could invest in a series of small businesses under the following structure I’d be PUMPED and would start doing a lot of it: Founders: tell me if this is one-sided Investors: tell me if this is stupid Thinking out loud... Here goes:
Heard a clever deal screen from another investor-owner-operator I talked to today ... I'm looking for sellers who hate their business. If that's the case, that gives me some confidence I'll find plenty to improve.
Something I'm observing: ~3 out of 4 calls we get are from folks aged 70+. Why? For the past 30yrs, seller had very little marketing. He's grown by word of mouth referrals and customer retention. And his customer base has aged with him.
This week, we rolled out menu pricing for the plumbing biz. 5 options provided to customer for every job. No hard selling - we'd be happy performing any of them. Average ticket this week: $815 Last month: $524 +56% increase just by adjusting our presentation.
You doctored a pre-built template from Squarespace, a $50 logo on 99 Designs, and a starter G Suite Account. The criteria are locked and loaded. You're looking for a privately-owned business with an owner seeking a successor.
The Endurance Search Partners website is a must read for prospective searchers. The resources tab and ability to filter their searchers by search phase and school are both fantastic. https://t.co/0cRgkIgCof
A thread on how most real estate folks structure deals with outside investors. Most GPs utilize the "preferred equity" structure when they raise money from outside investors. They "syndicate" deals. Here's the basics:
Going to try my hand at the long form thread - very open to ideas and feedback: — This is what I am starting to do in my life, and a great tax strategy for business owners and even high income W-2 folks. Here’s how and why: https://t.co/Qo3TAPSTvx
@BrentBeshore Hinge funder participation on a minority position with no intent to ever sell. They get their money back via dividends instead of debt paydown. Funders could start out as a majority holder and structure an earnout that is less onerous than standard.
@BrentBeshore If i were a SF, I would approach it almost as a journalist / young student looking to capture stories/wisdom/advice from older/retiring SMB owners. Really good interview questions will create trust/kinship. Learn a ton + get access to the absolute best, proprietary deal flow
Enjoying the autonomy and satisfaction of SMB ownership while also being generously compensated is intoxicating. There's really no going back. https://t.co/uW8NTXrYGU
To go from doing one good deal to building a firm requires having a repeatable process. That's why I'm not focused on "stealing" off-mrkt properties. When it happens, it's great. But we need enough of an edge to be able to buy on-market & still deliver super-normal returns.
@hayesbryant I don't have a good handle on the hurdle rate required on each. In general, I look for asymmetric risk situations and make those work by adding more swings at the plate each year.
Altruistic professions aside, there are few cooler job titles than “private investor.”
1/7 Stages of mastering #SMB operations. Still going for me, so I'm sure this isn't a complete list. First... 👇
People often ask me what my search criteria are. My current best simple answer: I want to find SMBs where the current owner is holding it back, not holding it together.
@joelrandyblake @TalktoHenryJ @sweatystartup @aebridgeman @girdley @myfirstmilpod @ShaanVP @theSamParr @InvestLikeBest @patrick_oshag Yep. Co-sign all of the above. Will also add: Big Time Small Business podcast (discontinued, but available on Spotify). Excellent interview-style podcast with operators from various industries.
My favorite twitter is quickly becoming small business operator twitter. Are there some good small business operator podcasts out there? I’d love to dive into those as well. @StrongpointRich @joelrandyblake @sweatystartup do any of you have a podcast or any recommendations?
Want to become a Real estate investor? A framework for people who are serious and committed ... 1) Go work for someone you admire. Minimum 18 months. Do as much as possible for them. Structure compensation 100% based on performance. Dedicate next 18 months solely to this.
Unpopular take: Raising good kids is 10x harder and 10x more important than making good money.
@joelrandyblake Don’t know if you are in Denver/are familiar with it, but if not, here’s a tip: hire a local task rabbit in Denver to speak on the phone for 20min. Ask them about how desirable the neighborhood is, if they would live there, etc. You figure out quick if it’s a good deal
Hallmark of bad product execution: Pop ups explaining or announcing a new feature.
@glad_cap @sweatystartup @laughridge @StrongpointRich Margin consist. as sales increases. What I have found in my limited exp when I dig into 1-3M topline 40+% margin bus. is that they occupy some niche that req. little/no sales opex. So growing out of that niche requires sales opex or capex to modify product to fit new mkt
@glad_cap @LifeMoneyTips @sweatystartup @laughridge @StrongpointRich Do a three year earnout. If you perform better then him, he wins. If you perform as expected, you both win. If it’s all false, or the market falls out, he loses. If he won’t commit to three (or at least some) year earnout, ask many more questions.
@glad_cap @sweatystartup @laughridge @StrongpointRich I've bought >3 dozen small companies. Retired now. but happy to help young guys get in the business. DM anytime. A lot can go wrong and will. Get some folks around you that have lost a lot of $ making mistakes so you dont do the same =-)
Putting in an LOI to buy a small company that manufactures, sells and tests building safety equipment. ~500k SDI on 1.2 gross, asking 1.7. First on-site went well. What are the overlooked questions I should drill down on @sweatystartup @laughridge @StrongpointRich
I'm excited to be recording a convo w/ the founders of @MetaPropNYC - @aaronnblock & @ZacharyAarons this week. MetaProp is a leading VC firm backing startups shaping the future of the real estate/built world environment, i.e. PropTech. What should I ask them?
Have you called all of your top customers lately? If not, you're missing the best opportunity you'll ever have to grow your business.
I'm excited about this new business method I thought of (not a totally innovative idea). What do y'all think? Downsides? - Use a profitable cash flowing company to hire a problem-solving employee - separate that person from the rest of the business
Picking “right” to give yourself a headstart is a superpower: For investing & operating, the best decisions are the ones you don’t make. Not every company/industry/deal is equal... https://t.co/klFYtRXBW9
Unpopular opinion but I genuinely believe that joining an early stage startup that’s raised a healthy seed round is less risky than working for a big company.
@SkolCapital This is why pricing is tighter on larger deals. More competition. Thus is why we focus on small deals size. I’m not trying to make fees off of over-capacity AUM and leverage. Happy to target higher returns and stay small.
New addition to VC Guide: The New “Sand Hill”, which consists of early stage investors, micro & rolling fund managers, and "solo-capitalists" who are changing the landscape of early stage investing. https://t.co/GW2RFjGNIU
If you’re looking seriously at a storage deal I’m happy to help you take it through underwriting! 1/4 the cost of a feasibility study and 5x the value. https://t.co/tMkPjq1QMA https://t.co/oUguYFg1ld
For the right SMB acquisition, you'll have no competition. Target opps that are: - Too small for institutional $. - "Friends and family" deals where you have an inside track. - Uniquely suited to your skills. Check these boxes, and you only lose if the owner does nothing.
Bad take. Spouses are incredible assets for early stage entrepreneurs. Emotional support, EARNINGS, HEALTH INSURANCE, and on and on and on. Id be half as far without my wife, who I met the same year I started my biz. She fed our family for the first few yrs. https://t.co/ZWXtaeNGib
- Controlling your own destiny. - Deeply meaningful work. - Flexibility of schedule and focus. - New and different challenges every day. - Satisfying customers, employees, and family. - Income and equity value potential. Just a few of my favorite things about SMB ownership. https://t.co/qRltv4k7XL
Some of my smartest friends are stuck in the rat race. Tentative rescue plan: Stake them with investment to buy and operate Boomer SMBs. Call it the Smart Friends Thesis.
Garden City is hiring 2 roles on our deal team (Associate & VP). We’re a purpose-driven holding company that buys, grows & holds service businesses in the Southeast. Our vision's to create a world where all service workers thrive & love their work. https://t.co/56ZQOXZxxx https://t.co/UFudGgMJND
Here's my best estimate at generalizing the search acquisition timelines in different ETA business models. The 4th emerging model seems to be the funded holdco which takes some of the advantages of each model, and should have a timeline somewhere in between. https://t.co/mZm8x8Qla5
My conversation w/ Collin Hathaway from Skylight Capital on: - His focus on home services like HVAC and plumbing - The operating playbook he's developed over time - Some counterintuitive improvements he does in new acquisitions Enjoy! https://t.co/y8rRXM6Td7
Buy a fourplex with FHA loan which requires you to live in one of the units. You can buy with little down payment. Get your hands dirty with owning and managing property. https://t.co/iogQSkjGv0
@aebridgeman OMG. Foundation is amazing. Also read Ender's Game. For a business-related read, The Son (about texas).
So, for most people, if wealth creation is the goal, RE is a better asset class in which to invest time, effort, and capital. For me, however, I just really like business and seeing teams come together & thrive and having the constant challenge of staying competitive. /end
The best SMBs to buy are the ones that "educated" people scoff at: - Backbreaking work - Harsh operating conditions - Dirty / smelly / greasy industries Ask smart friends what jobs they'd never do, then find SMBs doing them. A successful search starts with your re-education.
@joelrandyblake When looking for my first purchase I approached it this way. Narrowed it down to markets I was willing to live in/had great prospects. Left myself open on niche, only requirement was "non-sexy" biz. I was able to have a broader set of opportunities and pick the best one for me.
When looking for a Small Business to buy, factor in market compatibility. Many searchers get their hearts set on a certain niche - HVAC, plumbing, manufacturing, etc. - before understanding the opportunity landscape in their target geography. Find acquisition/market fit.
Even with great product market fit and huge TAM we still had to make 110,000 cold calls over nearly two years to get to our first $3M in ARR. Imagine a small TAM and questionable product? That’s why investors push so hard on those things!!!
Sept roll-up for plumbing biz: - Full paper -> digital transition - 2 new plumber hires - Outsourced US-based CSR - Avr. 12.5% wage bump across team - Health + 401k benefit added - +42% Google reviews - ~$50k Net Profit (+66% > historical!)
@MCJsays @tsludwig @moseskagan @valueterminal @mgirdley My experience with smaller sellers is it’s best to adjusted your price in term sheets based on $0 cash. My single biggest hangup on SMB deals was sellers being ‘confused’ or ‘forgetting’ the working capital requirement in term sheets and LOIs and renegotiating.
I raised $100k, turned that into a $10m/ARR business & exited. The mentorship and support I received from those with skin in the game changed my life. The small seed round? Not so much. Seed Money + Mentorship + Community + Support = Winning Strategy https://t.co/YQMlyo2MUo
Deal #3 - Industrial Single Tenant Cold called the owner for 5 years. Below market rents, below replacement cost, BBB+ credit Forever hold https://t.co/YUvN2wV2AA
How to get rich without getting lucky: Find a way to make $100 an hour doing something simple IN YOUR TOWN. Do it until you have $10k+ in the bank and you’re too busy to sell new customers. Hire employee for $25 / hr to do what you do so you can sell new customers. Repeat.
Officially obsessed with Oxford’s “Very Short Introduction” series. The books are generally well-written and don’t have any fluff, which is everything I want from non-fiction. Plus, they’re short enough to read in 2-3 nights. Highly recommend. https://t.co/tXNsxiLqRb
I strongly believe in picking a smaller market and owning it. I will never be the first guy to look at every NYC deal. In NJ I often get a first look before deals even list. The municipalities know who we are and how we work. Tenants want to rent from us specifically.
Yes. Another quote from seller: "I knew if I passed this to my kids, I'd never be able to step away." https://t.co/5zjQYrxNVN
@theSamParr Hiring a coach is a bad idea unless you want him to be a professional career coach. Instead: Get him lunch with each of her 10 smartest friends in multiple fields. Make him write down 10 good questions as prep for each.
4/5 The larger goal with the survey is to publicly share survey results on my website (https://t.co/Schr07m2hL) to form a database where any prospective searcher can review FAQs from dozens of searchers, collectively saving many hours of time for both sides.
@NersesAposhian @ThinkCRE @sweatystartup Adding to David's list @antonia_mdprjct @EllliotttB @PinkPoloShorts @Tom_Lawless @AyeshaSelden @ccchaircut @DonutShorts @ShitFund @negative_IRR And don't forget the all-knowing @rabois RIP: @retail_risk
I love vertically integrated multifamily operators. One of the most interesting firms out there is Monarch. Link below is to an hour long presentation for your geeking out pleasure. Here’s what I like about Monarch: https://t.co/7j2ypaZyQj
.@joerogan: "What is 'discipline?'" @MikeTyson: "Do what you hate to do, but do it like you love it."
Even better. Buy an 8.5 cap deal, keep debt as your own equity as if investors are buying an unlevered asset, send investors 8.5% every year, and you own 70%. https://t.co/AwrXmoeud2
If you’re thinking about purchasing a business or perhaps already have and add-on deals are a significant part of your thesis, here’s something that I’ve been noodling on today:
The licensed plumber who's my 10% partner is coming on full-time next week. Leaving his gig with the local union. Likes the environment, wants to be on the team, sees the growth potential. Solid endorsement that we're on to something.
If you're a skilled salesperson and want to run your own business, start a brokerage / agency. Companies will trip over each other to pay you commission for selling their stuff. Zero overhead for them. Near-zero startup costs for you. My industry is built on this model.
Been looking at buying a lawn service company. Zeroed in on one near me in Central Florida 40yrs in operation. Owner is in 60s. Has nobody to pass it down to. Does $800k in gross sales per yr. (just wait)
Is it possible to make a 3.6X ROI over 24 months in real estate? Yes. But obviously, you will need a highly specialized set of development skills like the guys in this thread.👇 Breaking down real estate developments & the capital stack.
Recruiting: It's important to get the first 10 hires right b/c each employee will replicate themselves 10 times. Take ur time Since you can't compete w/ Google, you want to find ppl Google isn't chasing after but have even more talent & grit Like drafting Tom Brady in 6th round
Website that came with the company had a 24-letter url https://t.co/tFAVYoG1ge Bought https://t.co/HXPL5JQVu5 and set it up to forward to the old domain. ✅ Able to maintain SEO standing and history ✅ Have a punchier url to put on trucks and marketing materials
How to find a small business to buy, the best listings, and what its going to take to execute it. Since I seem to be deeply entrenched in Micro PE twitter now, and keep seeing this question. Here you go.
1. Accumulate wealth, through entrepreneurship and/or living below your means 2. Invest a disproportionate share of that wealth & your time educating your kids & setting them up to succeed at 1 3. Repeat for several generations This is the recipe for family success in America.
So much of the literature around buying & running SMBs is around sourcing, the numbers, sales, etc. Not enough attention is paid leadership - the kind you learn as captain of a team, a camp counselor, or (I imagine) a military officer. This thread is about leadership. https://t.co/d15ulY7u6n
Touchy topic.. how good is your Startup's ESOP policy. https://t.co/re4g69McVn
Formula for startup success: Find large highly fragmented industry w low NPS; vertically integrate a solution to simplify value product.
Here is a link to the full transcript of the Naval Ravikant @naval "How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky)" Podcast: https://t.co/2yO2FznsnN
Submerged myself in the Naval Ravikant @naval How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky) podcast. It is modern Philosophy on wealth generation. And like any good philosophy, it should be consumed slowly and deliberately. My biggest lessons learned. /Thread 👇 https://t.co/WH4N2Uj065
I will be the greatest startup investor of all time by 2030... because I’m sharing my deal flow freely with everyone & they are sending me great deals in return! [ Unlike, for example, a winner take all firm like @a16z ] https://t.co/khmyt7o3TA
Name every permanent capital hold co structured firm you can think of, a la @PermanentEquity. Think it would be fun to put together a list to geek out on. Any size portfolio companies, just operating businesses (not real estate).
One formula for ramping up a new saas company or product: - interview 50-100 users until you fully understand problem - work with 5-10 beta / pilot customers to get product right - stay here until they’re happy - get case studies - launch and do product marketing like crazy
Hi @nielsen - I have invested in 170+ startups via @HustleFundVC. We're interested in seeing if we might be able to partner to get a startup package / discount of sorts for some of our portfolio companies. Interested? Who's the best person to chat with to discuss? Thanks!
Want to be a RE GP? Need to be careful starting out at an institutional RE co. Learning how to do large, complex deals is great. But, when you go off on your own, you're probably going to struggle to raise the $$$ to do those deals. Maybe better to start somewhere scrappier.
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Or find a tech co-founder. Here are a few ways: • Join startup networks like @bunchoffounders, @CoFoundersLab or Startup Club on @joinClubhouse • Post on @AngelList or the @newsycombinator whoishiring board https://t.co/oIGuMjI7xG • Search @ProductHunt for "cofounder" apps
My pick: @worrydream This is still one of the best talks I’ve ever seen. https://t.co/cJ4tIs2WwS
Generating an extra $1 of discretionary earnings in a small business you own adds $2-4 to your net worth. Compare that to earning an extra $1 of salary, paying like 50% tax, and then buying $0.50 of stock or whatever. Once you understand, it's pretty obvious what to do.
Love this... We partner with ‘sleepy’ SMBs that are profitable but unsexy & overlooked... this market is a huge software/SaaS opportunity Software is only going to eat more of the tech stack in these sleepy industries https://t.co/3vvR00DFGo
This is basically the thesis of my self storage strategy. Usually coupled with no online rentals, no marketing, no revenue management, no recurring billing, no digital leases / records, high admin costs. Buy, wrap in tech, cashflow. Repeat. https://t.co/fKLlGZQW2r
@mouthofmorrison @bradleyjohnson2 It’s an arm of CoStar which is the only real estate data player in the US
Cheat sheet for finding real estate deals…fast: - Comb through LoopNet listings - Ignore 99% of those deals - See what brokers are prolific in your niche - Create database in excel or CRM - Reach out to them monthly Hyperspeed tactic: offer to pay their commission
I love real estate niche strategies: - Mobile home parks - Self storage (retail conversions) - Cell towers / Data centers - Cold storage (spin on industrial) - Lab space Common trait: Sticky tenants & low ongoing capital. What are some other emerging real estate niches?
You can build a six-figure business in under a year. Here’s how I would do it: 1. Choose 1 niche (health, wealth, relationships) 2. Choose 1 subniche 3. Find 1 problem 4. Choose one offer as a solution 5. Choose one traffic source 6. Learn sales 7. Raise your price 8. Go deep
Working on buying SMB w/ $1.5M EBITDA. As I work through financing, it’s pretty clear that the $1.5-2M of EBITDA range (give or take) is a sweet spot for SMB buyers b/c it’s an “in between” size for usual buyers. Too big for “job buyers” and too small for other folks (PE, SBIC).
PE badass: Graeme Hart worked in a body shop and junk hauling biz as a young dude, got an MBA at around 30 and did a thesis on the subject of building an acquisitions centric hold co. Went out and did it, building a $13 Billion fortune by 65! 🤑💰 https://t.co/qDntcYludk
Great write-up: 1. There’s riches in niches 2. Seek capital efficiency 3. Exit multiple matters 4. Test and stay flexible 5. Believe in/care about your pursuits 6. Learn from others 8-9. Always be selling Excluded 7 bc I don’t love it/creates costly distractions... https://t.co/cPhV0I9rOS
This email is awesome. From this, you can see what made Barbara Corcoran successful in an ultra-competitive field. Tremendous sales ability, confidence, smarts, and storytelling. https://t.co/YBGHgYPeDN
Got a few responses like this to the IB advice thread. IB isn’t for everyone and it *certainly* has its flaws... ...but it also has quite a few merits that are often thrown out with the crazy work hours bath water. The case for taking the IB route... A thread 🧵👇 https://t.co/MamAM1nVev
If I was interviewing at a startup, here are questions I would ask: ▫️Current revenue? ▫️What's the burn rate? ▫️Do you have product-market fit? ▫️What's the sales / distribution plan? ▫️How do you become profitable? ▫️Do you need to raise more $ to get there? How much?
What is Longvue? I’ve pulled together a thread to give a detailed look at how it was built from the ground up, why we focus on the lower MM, and give an inside look at what a permanent capital partner looks like … buckle up! https://t.co/SJmF0BNHUG
“Walk in the back room and talk to the warehouse guy or the forklift operator and say, ‘If you were running this business, what would you do differently?’ ” says Hendricks. “I guarantee if you fixed what they tell you, 95% of the time that would be a successful business."
Seller advantages: • Mini-pension plan (in effect) funded by company earnings • Qualified successors, hungry to grow the business • Partake in future upside • No headaches around financing options / approvals • Continuation of multi-decade legacy
A thread on how real estate investors, developers and operators can make millions a year and pay almost nothing in TAXES by using depreciation, bonus depreciation, and 1031 exchanges. How it works:
4 Rules for Buying a Small Business (that you can BREAK):
"Startup idea" isn't in the vocabulary of most entrepreneurs. New ideas rarely work. Do something somebody else is already doing but do it a little better. You don't need a "blue ocean" - you just need to be able to carve out your piece of the pie.
Simple rule for founders: don't take money from people you wouldn't hire. Simple rule for investors: don't give money to people you wouldn't work for.
I was curious to estimate how many SMB PE/CEO-types are active on Twitter, so I started to make a list. Thought others would like to see (and maybe add to) it. So, here goes: 1 @BrentBeshore 2 @LongvueMatt 3 @rudman_ben 4 @mgirdley 5 @awilkinson 6 @MatthewGHinson /1
Evermore Industries, our permanent capital holding company, is now up and running! As always, please let us know if there is any way we can be helpful to you. I owe much of my learning to so many of the folks here on twitter. https://t.co/4XGEggC1Yh
A sale would mean my partners and I pay a big chunk to Uncle Sam and then have to work to re-deploy capital. A refinance and long term hold allows us to continue to hold and generate cashflow extremely tax efficiently! https://t.co/GCKeKcvj0Y
Self storage is powerful because even a small 20,000 sf facility ($750k or so) has 125+ tenants. Thats a lot different than counting on a single anchor tenant to pay you 30-50% of your revenue each month. Things can still go sideways, but you're hedged against a lot of risk.
A trend I see: Small scale in-home catering for intimate groups. May become common practice for middle class folks over the next 10 years. If I were a restauranteur I’d rent a commercial kitchen and do this for 5 clients every night of the week and 20 on weekends.
@tsludwig @JeremyJHarbour Thanks for the shout, Tim. Thread below. "Entrepreneurship through Apprenticeship" is the model I used (by accident) to buy out my own company. I see a wealth of opportunity to formulize it, both discretely and at scale. https://t.co/FynKLqGqo8
@tsludwig A lot of my members use a strategy we call WIBO (Work in, buy out) you take a paid consulting role with an equity kicker, normally around some quick win. Once you have proved yourself & have foot in door equity wise trust its much easy to pitch 100% vendor finance for the rest.
Yes! I was floored when I learned there are so many friends of mine that angel invest with $1k-$5k here and there. That is probably the real secret to the Silicon Valley - the huge # of microangels. I wish I had learned that in my 20s instead of my 30s. https://t.co/b6CUeoQ5WE
I’ve never encountered worse apps or websites than elementary school “parent portals”
A lesson my dad taught me that will ring true forever: If you’re going to do something, Do it to the best of your abilities And do it with a smile. It doesn’t matter if it’s making your bed Or doing work at your job. Always give it your all. Always be cheerful.
Ok, have a reading list going on the blog, thanks to @hugorsmith. These are the books that came to mind first... will add to it over time https://t.co/MITbtGCGOf (Scroll down) https://t.co/THQgkcGeWS
I have a suspicion that most adults (75%+) could pick any skill—excluding sports—and work their way into the top 10% in the world simply by working exclusively on it every day for two years. But almost nobody displays that degree of focus, so we will never know.
It’s real estate and susceptible to all sorts of issues but it’s a lot safer than a LMM business. This is assuming you find a good deal on a building but that‘s sort of the point—these things have to be uncovered and structured. 💰🍾🤑
Here’s an alternative path to building some wealth that’s similar to buying a business from a financing perspective. Less risk but still nice upside:
A trend I want to see more of: Hungry operators scaling what they uniquely do well, to build a portfolio/holdco of long-term companies Supported by permanent growth capital (NOT supercharged VC or inflexible/impatient private capital) I call this “bootwrapping”
Airbnb founders famously took a $21M secondary from the $112M Series B in 2011, which valued it at $1.2B. VCs said back then what they say today: secondaries terrible for innovation… I don’t buy it Airbnb went on to be a smashing success. Founders: take secondaries if you can https://t.co/maXMjhqwLz
i have met multiple super successful and impressive women recently that are former ballerinas and are now in tech and i must say i am noticing a trend here https://t.co/EovKuEbCCN
As an in-fill apartment investor: You want to own in neighborhoods where, when the tenant tells someone where she lives, it’s accretive to her personal brand.
I once had dinner at my friend’s parents’ place in Tribeca… $30 million view of Manhattan… place was straight out of a movie. His dad, 60s, a partner at a big law firm, settling in after a long day. I told him, “This place is incredible.” He looked at me, tired, glass of…
@PrivatEquityGuy I would only add prioritization. Most high performers have such a broad set of interests and limited time. Efficiency in focus is the last step. Making my minute and hour count towards the mission is key. Lots of amazing topics to learn about.
I'm doing research on a gentleman who across his career acquired over 150 companies. He has said: "Information is commodity. Motivation is scarcity. That’s the world we live in now. Knowledge has zero marginal cost. Anyone can access it. The rarest asset in business isn’t…
Developers often think in terms of rent / sq ft, bc it makes the math easy. But rents don't scale linearly like that. Think of what happens when you convert a 675 sq ft 1/1 to a 675 sq ft 2/1, or a 900 sq ft 2/2 to a 900 sq ft 3/2. You can make a *lot* of $ in real estate…
My editor sent me a message that this 31-minute episode has a total of 3,000 downloads and an average consumption of 81%, which is the highest we've seen after posting over 150 episodes. https://t.co/UCfGKkzBck
I created a million-dollar Pixar-quality short in just 8 days using AI. Workflow: nano banana + midjourney + seedance + kling 2.5 + Suno + Elevenlabs I also tested Sora 2…and the results were surprising (see below) Excited to finally share this! 🧵 https://t.co/t7zbOyxdFC
I had a conversation with the CEO today about why he's struggling to hire. His original response was, "It's just too hard to find good people." But after we drilled down, I asked him, "How much time are you spending looking for people?" He said he wasn't tracking it. I…
If you’re gonna build a consumer product, build for rich people
I’m not sure there’s a better life hack than a supportive spouse. Someone who has your back 100% no matter if things are going up, down, or sideways.
if i had 7 days to build an ai agent that actually delivers value, here’s exactly what i’d do: --- please note this isn't an n8n template. you bookmarked 5000 of those posts and never built one, you might as well get some new information --- this isn’t theory. this is how i…
I'm 33. I paid for my home in cash. l've hit a $4,000,000 net worth. My daughters are 3 and 1 years old. Here are the 40 biggest lessons l've learned along the way:
After being in hundreds of board meetings, I've learned: World-class board members are worth their weight in gold. Here's how the greatest board members set themselves apart. 🧵
Private Credit is printing Billionaires. Wall Street’s biggest players are going ALL IN on this $30 TRILLION opportunity. A simple primer on Private Credit🧵 https://t.co/E3MtPBzdyA
Reposting my current favorite 6-plex floorplan: 1230sf, 3BR+Office/2BA And at 54' wide ... means it can fit on a 6000sf single family lot or a mixed-use area with ground floor retail https://t.co/1eRtgXnunP
Gemini can turn any book into an interactive mindmaps You can do it for books of hundreds of pages thanks to the massive context window and with a single prompt. Perfect for those who memorize better visually (demo and prompt below): https://t.co/nC17tHJE3M
5 ways to increase sales: 1) Raise your prices 2) Follow up religiously 3) Hire better salespeople 4) Offer 3rd party financing 5) Improve the quality of leads What would you add?
I've spent the past decade at leading hedge funds like Millennium, Citadel and a Tiger Cub. I often get questions about how to perform due diligence on a new stock. I will use $NVDA as an example. Here are 10 critical things new investors often miss, based on my experiences:
Sam Altman’s life advice: https://t.co/h8nNN5SDzM
Bullshit. Do it simpler. Do it smarter. Do it faster. Do it better. Do it cheaper. Do it in a new country. Do it with better design. Do it automated. Do it personalized. Do it with a social mission. Do it sustainably. Do it w/ top-notch service. Do it on subscription. Do it for… https://t.co/6NKsNDSbKl
Marc Andreessen on how to hire the best people: https://t.co/zBoyok9LKE
I own 10 stocks. Here is why I own each one (in 4 points and a visual):
If you're an accredited investor, perhaps you've heard advice that you can (kind of) replace a $50k/yr MBA program with $50k/yr in angel investments. The post-covid v2 version of this advice: move to a lower cost area, work remotely, and invest the $50k/yr savings into startups.
At a certain size, the job of a founder switches from building a product to building a company. It drove me crazy for a while to not be building a product directly ... until I realized that for a founder, the company is the product.
Three questions to finish every investor pitch: 1 - How are we thinking about this business wrong? / What would you do differently? 2 - What do you see that would stop you from investing? 3 - When should we hear back from you/best next steps?
Just came across this @chenholdco case study from Yale School of Management: https://t.co/ZJqfXUmUOi
A side hustle that produces $1000/month, will bring you an extra $12,000/year. You’d need a $400k investment portfolio earning 3% to replicate a $12,000 revenue stream.
A lesson from my father: If there's an activity you don't want to do and are putting off (e.g. working out) Do it for 10 minutes and stop if you still don't want to do it. You'll find that the hardest part was not the activity itself. The hardest part was just starting.
Books I've found most useful to get smart on small business acquisition and operation: 1. Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs An excellent primer on understanding the numbers of business. Easy read. Actionable. https://t.co/ctn3pWYuix
Andrew Wilkinson and Tiny Capital Operating Manual https://t.co/QkxLbe1kTJ
Someone should do a book of interviews with PE / REPE / VC GPs about how they built their businesses. Not the deals. How they set terms, raised capital, balanced fee income vs. hiring, systematized, navigated growing AUM, created new verticals, etc. A book about the GP biz.
The 4 qualities of a great career: 1) I enjoy it 2) I’m good at it 3) I make good money 4) I’m around fascinating people Answer in reverse order: 1) Where are fascinating people? 2) In what ways can I make money with them? 3) Which ones am I good at? 4) Which ones do I enjoy?
Giving unconditional love is just as good as getting it.
Startup idea: Vertical market software studio. Hire middle managers from industry as CEOs. Give them salary plus equity. build mvp using in house team. Productize. Spin out newcos. (Exit them to all the VMS hungry buyers!)
@sweatystartup Yes. The way I see it: CRE for wealth protection, growth, and stable (but relatively small) cashflows. SMB for cash generation. Pair the two and you can build some generational wealth.
@davehclark What an interesting mentality — ‘Day One’ That’s the thing that’s hard to keep in big companies, they can become so risk adverse that it cripples their continued growth
“All these 77 million Baby Boomers are ready to sell SMBs and retire rich!” Nope. Buyers approaching Boomers often find they have no interest in selling. “What would I do with my time if I sold?” It’s confusing to us GenX/Millenials. The difference is generational. 1/x
I’d love to partner with someone to build this out. Service Co accelerator in niche services like plumbing, HVAC, pest control, etc. Operator = Trade School + 'Biz Partner in a box' Capital Partner = long-term, growth-oriented, minority equity bets on operators https://t.co/dNCTyDM6WG
@swilera @nickfedele @MatthewGHinson @Jer_Car Indeed. I talked about it some below (more to come). The gist: Work in the business for 1-5 years to capture customer relationships and tribal knowledge. De-risk buyout for both sides, and unlock options for creative deal structures. https://t.co/WSZWbKikrV https://t.co/gl0SkEP3b8
Great profile piece on private equity badass Todd Boehly. He runs an insanely interesting holding company funded by a KS based life insurance company he owns. In short, bought a lender to lend to himself and avoid LPs in his PE biz. 🤯 https://t.co/wVkIeiW1vT
My “lamba school for” tweets were not really serious. Serious one: would you subscribe to “morning brew for entrepreneurial wealth building”? Newsletter with stuff like the Todd Boehly profile and SBA thread plus tools like the small buyout model. Free of course.
If you're searching for an smb acquisition, @aebridgeman has put together a super helpful podcast playlist called Micro Private Equity on Spotify. Great place to start, especially if you don't know what you're doing. https://t.co/zJcWsw4DFr
My uncle ran a small business. He taught me 3 things as a teen that I've never forgotten.
Real estate is: - Largest market (~$33T in US) - Fragmented (48MM rental units in US; largest owner owns like 100k) - Opaque (lots of deals done off-mkt and/or poorly mkted) - Relatively stable & tolerant of leverage Just an insane opportunity for entrepreneurial people.
Great to meet all of you today. Didn't expect such a huge reception to my early morning rant but glad to see it resonated. For those of you totally new to the world of biz buying, here's a thread of resources:
Words of wisdom from @profgalloway - "Rich is having passive income greater than your burn." https://t.co/yiS5rVwkSI
Here is the awesome micro buyout model built by @bschaf12. Make a copy, edit the blue input fields, and let your mind run wild with the possibilities. 💸🤑 https://t.co/cj22j4WMVL
Made a few tweaks to the micro buyout model based on feedback over the last few days. It's still accessible via the same link but here it is again. Updates are outlined on the "Change Log" tab. Let me know if you have any questions! @laughridge https://t.co/jWlNLauw7u
If you own or run a business and you are an optimist, the end of a day creates a sense of excitement about what tomorrow will bring. Will I book the order? Sign a new client? Have a breakthrough with an employee? Even in sucky, stressful times like now, there is always hope.
okay I’m working on a notion doc that lays out the foundation of getting into VC/startups. if anyone would like to contribute/share their story with me - my DMs are open!! Please share widely ❤️ Working in public is fun so here is my rough draft so far: https://t.co/ohmTgKLQtD
Super excited about launching @EmpoweredVen recently, an employee-owned acquisition holding company. We’re looking for great businesses to buy & hold permanently. The employees join our ESOP. Our ideal seller cares deeply what happens to the business & employees after selling.
One of the best pieces of advice I received when I was graduating from college: When you’re meeting someone for the first time, try to find some common ground in the first 5 minutes. This will help you create a stronger connection.
@Suhail @shiladitya out of all resumes I receive for PM, ~25% have the product name what you have built. more power Suhail https://t.co/UlsWCMu0Fn
If you got fired today and they brought in someone exceptional to replace you, what do you think they would do? Why aren’t you doing that?
@BuckleyBarlow @myfriendjanine @AustinGreen https://t.co/oNbj8eqQ5c
@moseskagan Or, wait for someone else to pay too much on the parcel you want, offer a mezzanine loan to that buyer at a basis that matches your valuation, collect a coupon until the buyer exits, with an opportunity to own at your value if there’s a default.
@moseskagan Best to go deep in a single market, get to know every BBL by heart, and simply wait for the ones you want to come on the market, at a price that you already know you’re willing to pay. Requires supreme levels of patience.
Dear VC Associates/Principals: Good news! If you come well prepared to a first call with a founder (know product, smart questions, etc.) you have a great chance of building a solid relationship. If you do a call with no prep, you might kill your fund's chances. Plan accordingly.
@tjrwriting @sama Take a look at the https://t.co/QwgnaTQYtZ introductory courses. They're designed to get you up & running w/ practical examples without a lot of deep theory. They're great. https://t.co/c4jmGXVDJu You're going to need access to a GPU. https://t.co/sduC0DItwq You can do it!
A CEO’s first job is to get the company capitalized. A CEO’s second job is to recruit a team. A CEO’s third job is to provide them with clarity so they can solve their customers' problems. A CEO’s fourth job is to get out of the way until one of the above is no longer true.
@joaoabrantis Creating wealth for the seller to do good things, creating wealth for yourself to do good things, keeping people employed, creating income for your lender and fees for your government, plus 100 more examples.
@CMDalluge Recurring service businesses that can be improved upon with basic tech but not easily did intermediated by it. Also, companies that have an enduring brand to some customer base. I have one of each so I’m probably just reinforcing my own bias 🙃
Firmly believe the most certain path to building a high net worth ($10M plus) is buying a small business at a relatively young age. Here’s a model:
👇Thread. Published a new essay: The red flags and magic numbers that investors look for in your startup’s metrics – 80 slide deck included! https://t.co/w6HRD4o22f
Naval Ravikant's @naval appearance on the Joe Rogan @joerogan Experience was one for the ages. One of my favorite podcast episodes of all time . Naval was dropping truth/wisdom bombs left and right. Here are some of my favorites: /Thread 👇 https://t.co/xcrPp8hG41
1/ We need a new national unifying movement of support + compassion––like the Peace Corps (now 60 years old with a $400M budget) but instead of abroad––we need it to be focused domestically to aid working-parents, teachers, elders. “Care Corps” It needs a few key elements...
It’s good to remember the people who bet on you when others wouldn’t, and it’s good to bet on people who others won’t.
Current favorite newsletters: Lenny's Newsletter @lennysan The Profile @polina_marinova Fintech Today @iankar_ This Week in Fintech @NikMilanovic Anti-Racism Daily @nicolecardoza Keeping Things SaaSy @annarchyy What else should I be reading? 🤓
Please please when you get sent a deal by someone in the ecosystem and you end up doing it: Send them a note to thank them for their intro. Bonus points for a thoughtful gift, even better. Little things go along way. Build relationships for the long term.
i am the best angel investor of all time https://t.co/qtiaGRm5LG
Got my copy today. Very excited to dig in! https://t.co/BIIPLWv8Tl
@auren Missionaries vs mercenaries. https://t.co/6JNc57DWXD
Founders often ask about the value early-stage VCs can add Reflecting on 4 years in venture, I’ve found it generally falls into the below categories THREAD👇
A reminder of our Open Data for Operators page: 57 free and regularly updated data sources ranging from consumer behavior and travel volume to jobs and construction. We hope you find it helpful - let us know if there are sources we should add. https://t.co/P8Jt8vZK7J
Venture firms trying to do a deal https://t.co/npWQu7XdaR
Selling to private equity https://t.co/LEp3nI4SRP
Let’s talk about High Agency: an attitude I’ve seen in every successful product manager & leader I’ve known. Some ppl are born/raised with High Agency. It can also be developed later in life. High agency is a prerequisite for making a profound impact in one's life & work 1/20 https://t.co/8vPSbj4lKF
the best employees are the ones always trying to get the CEO to move faster. you want to be pushing the CEO … you don’t want the CEO pushing you.
1/ Data businesses are generally misunderstood. DaaS has different metrics than SaaS. While there has been a lot written about SaaS businesses (how they operate, what metrics to watch, etc.), there has been surprisingly little written about data businesses.
the number one criteria for hiring: the person really wants to work at your company
@bencasnocha https://t.co/p89Pyh9hMT https://t.co/5p0cuNaV6l
@immad Welcome to the club @immad https://t.co/IcJSyYo07M
so far, the hardest part of starting a company is opening a business bank account
software is such a cheat code in the game of business. My first company was a restaurant. One of the worst businesses you can start (everyone told me this, but being young, I told them to kick rocks)
@CMillerTalks Never satisfied but Always grateful
Never tell tenants you are the owner of a building. Always refer to yourself as management. If you are management then you are able to blame things on the owners. Thus you will have to spend less time explaining your reasoning for why they cannot do certain things.
I don’t have a CS degree so I've had to learn on my own. Thread on creating your own CS degree online.
9/ Moreover, we should be looking at risk from an even broader perspective, an investor’s portfolio risk and for that, we need to know the correlation between all of the assets in an investor’s portfolio, this slide comes from @invescous and is based on Cambridge Associate data. https://t.co/aiqMW0xIP3
When I was a 22 year old founding Bleacher Report, I cold emailed all sorts of accomplished people asking for advice or to collaborate. Most ignored. But some replied. Many I’m still close with today. Never be afraid to take your shot.
New episode with @JarenGlover is out! Had a ton of fun discussing: - what technical leadership looks like - how to invest in a "personal brand" - who should play Bond in the next 007 https://t.co/8mUtpIXFX1
@iankar_ every early stage fintech Gelt VC portfolio company https://t.co/D7yv8Q1mul
A day in the life of @loganbartlett https://t.co/x83U9JkRrt
Data gets people to believe you, stories get people to care.
Venture: Roulette Private equity: Blackjack Bootstrapping: Poker
@gregisenberg & Udemy(& Teachable) is Netflix for Nerds.
Some people would love to have your bad days. https://t.co/wJq4b9y8Q4
TRUE WEALTH Worriless sleeping Clear conscience Reciprocal gratitude Absence of envy Muscle strength Frequent laughs No meals alone No gym classes Good digestive functions No meeting rooms Periodic surprises Foamy coffee Crusty bread Ability to nap Access to a hammock
Founders often thank their VCs for investing. But it should be the opposite: VCs should always thank founders for being given the opportunity to invest. The only reason I can pursue my dream job is that our founders have decided to say YES to me. I never forget that.
Here's a simple decision making strategy I've found useful: Brainstorm at least 3 options before deciding. Many decisions seem like a choice between A or B, but there is always a third way. Listing at least three options forces you to get creative.
Just a reminder, we as VCs are not in the transaction business but in the people business. Some of the best founders we met were introduced to us by founders that we passed on due to fit or some other reason. Life is long + treat every call or Zoom as such. Good karma works.
PATH 2: COMPOUND EARNINGS OVER 20 YRS (BUFFETT STYLE) - 50-80% chance of success... - Pay yourself whatever you want out of profits over time - If you can bootstrap a $250k/yr profit business and grow it/reinvest in new businesses at 20%/yr for 20 years = $59 MILLION. https://t.co/fHAhAYcZbz
I'm listening to @naval's Joe Rogan podcast and will be sharing key insights from the podcast under in this thread.
We're proud to be considered by CB Insights as the #1 FinTech investor since 2019! https://t.co/R5HD1QNDIB
📖 Time for a story: The backstory to Shepherd, my new company: A few years ago my business was struggling. We needed to lean up and lower our costs. I started cancelling unnecessary services. However some things couldn’t be eliminated, so we looked for alternatives.
How to tweet: 1. Write the essay. 2. Write the tweet summarizing the essay. 3. Delete the essay.
My favorite Munger line is: “Fish where the fish are” It’s so simple. Fish in a lake crowded with expert fishermen and you’re unlikely to catch many fish. Fish in a quiet fishing hole off the beaten path with few competitors and ample fish and it’s hard NOT to do well.
What are the biggest reasons aspiring founders don’t start companies? B/c they don't have: 1. The right co-founder 2. The right idea 3. Founder community 4. $ to live w/o salary 5. Healthcare 6. Immigration On Deck has been tackling 1-3 We just announced “Runway” to help w/ $ https://t.co/1WJyJR0KFL
Founders, In case you missed today's amazing live Ask-Me-Anything with @hustlefundvc's Elizabeth Yin (@dunkhippo33), the full segment is now available! Check it out 👇 https://t.co/qqAuXHvDtj
1/ Most entrepreneurs start with one goal in mind: FREEDOM. If you truly value freedom, you should have one goal for your first company: Something that can produce $100-$200k of personal income. It can be boring and doesn't have to scale.
How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):
We’ve made many mistakes but also learned a lot about seed stage portfolio construction over last 10 years. I wrote this blog post in hopes other seed managers can avoid making some of those mistakes. Includes downloadable version of our holistic model. https://t.co/iTRRc9TKHX
Minimum Viable Company: The least amount you can do to gain sufficient traction across 3 pillars: Value prop—Solves job-to-be-done w/o excess friction Ecosystem—Can get product in customer’s hands w/o excess friction Business model—Path to positive unit economics over-time
Living in cage with a tiger would be terrifying. For the first week you’d be living in primal fear. No sleep. Constant adrenaline. But if the tiger didn’t eat you, you’d eventually relax. The danger wouldn’t change, but you’d adapt to it and take chances. That’s COVID-19.
Once you’re calm and fit, you have everything worth having, as the rest just comes and goes.
Don't build a product. Build a portfolio of small bets. Once you adopt this perspective, it becomes a lot easier to figure out what you should be doing (and not doing).
@amyecheetham @samir_vasavada @PodiumHQ 💯💯💯 https://t.co/MieUTTLudO
@J264B @moseskagan Yes--and--do what my brother-in-law did and after you acquire it start building out a maintenance service for those same high-end clients (they want to work with people they already know). Someone who spent $100K on their windows is happy to pay $80K/year for small fixes.
@jacob_anstey Immediately get started getting a sales agent license (should take 2-3 months, tops and cost a few hundred $). While you're working on that, reach out to local property management co's and brokerages. Guarantee you'll get interviews.
Young people thinking about getting into RE: An interesting way to dip your toe in is via leasing. Our leasing people work mainly early evening / weekends, part-time. They make $2-5k / month. Side benefit: Get a really good sense for what makes tenants say "yes" to an apt.
BuiltWith is an amazing site that I use regularly. But it's also an amazing business. 1 fulltime employee. $14m a year in revenue. Can you name a business more efficient than that? Let's see em.
@thinking_slow I love the imagery here: https://t.co/QiO1zebn9N https://t.co/qNSpELKnhn
Build the necessary first, then the useful, then the nice.
Fast, lift, sprint, stretch, and meditate. Build, sell, write, create, invest, and own. Read, reflect, love, seek truth, and ignore society. Make these habits. Say no to everything else. Avoid debt, jail, addiction, disgrace, shortcuts, and media. Relax. Victory is assured.
Some random Friday musings on why VCs are always on Twitter?? (don't they do any work?) 1) I created my Twitter acct more than a decade ago. But rarely used it. In the last 14 months, I've been more active than ever. Why?
My favorite tips on how to raise a seed round 👇 Paraphrasing Paul Graham: Pretend you are a venture capitalist, that you have their incentives in mind, then convince yourself that you'd invest if you were them. Convince yourself you can convince your partners too.
Consider founder archetypes: Younger founders should take market risk (market that are small or doesn't exist yet) Older founders should take execution risk (market is very clear & execution, expertise, and relationships are the differentiator). https://t.co/2vp37D2QDm
Aggregated threads on company building, including: - How to pick startup ideas - Picking co-founders - How to raise a seed round - Recruiting - Hiring execs - Management - Growth - Network effects - Building communities - Remote
@domm name: Sourcery url: https://t.co/JJ32xq0XTQ funding round: pre-seed location: London, UK 1-line pitch: Grammarly for code
4/ Too much globalization (horizontal progress) e.g. Take one type writer copy it all over the world. Not enough technology (vertical progress, 0—>1) e.g. Turn typewriter into a word processor.
@eriktorenberg This was a fantastic thread, it helped me clarify many thoughts I have about my career. Here’s a graphic I made that helps me visualize @eriktorenberg ‘Career Feedback Loops’ https://t.co/7p38ByT79O
See your career as a product: - Get so good they can't ignore you (10x better product) before doubling down on marketing (networking)& PR (credentials) - When you're younger, take market risk (e.g crypto, VR) When you're older, take execution risk - Nail retention (reputation) https://t.co/zfQrvmg9f5
@andupotorac Sure! Here are the big areas: 1) Morale / cheering up. It's lonely as a CEO-founder. <-big one 2) Help think through cashflow. Deferred expenses / rev upfront. 3) Intros for fundraising 4) Opportunistic M&A 5) Guidance on SBA loans 6) How to lay ppl off :( 7) Brainstorm pivots
For people looking to get into VC: Can’t stress enough. Everyone has stellar backgrounds & loves tech. Show a freemium version of you. List of companies you like. Why they fit with the firm? Why and how you build conviction? Examples of how you went above & beyond. 👍
More and more of seed investing is adding so much value to founders *before* they raise so that when they do, they feel compelled to make room for you. https://t.co/afJXAiJ3BL
@eriktorenberg Don’t forgot about startup employees. I’d forgo my 401K to invest in a @sequoia (my company’s backer) portfolio fund.
The average founder may have a good outcome, but we need to make the median under have a better outcome. How? Diversification VC firms can give upside in portfolio, or VC founders can become scouts, or they should engage in founder pooling activities. (Employees too, ideally)
Aggregated my thoughts on VC in one place: - Structural advantages in VC - Why we need *more* founders & *more* VCs - The case for diversified portfolios & no pro-rata - Venture socialism - How to break into VC - How VC evolved - The future of VC - The role of pre-seed Thread👇
1/ A little thread on how one venture capitalist thinks about the pandemic from a fund standpoint
23/ Whether we hit pause for 2 weeks or 2 months I don't know yet. We invest money on behalf of other people and right now we do not feel confident putting cash to work. I read voraciously and try to understand as much as I can, and I haven't gotten my head around this yet.
My Twitter account is more valuable than my college diploma. These are the best things I've learned about using this wonderful platform: 1. If you want to build an audience, help people. Teach them and entertain them. Share what you learn and make your followers smarter.
CSES, @queensu Parking, & @queensuPPS would like to remind everyone that #WereStillHere to service the needs of the campus community! We're all seen here dancing together for #Courage4Canada - we'll all get through this together (separately). @thehipdotcom #queensu #ygk https://t.co/xkZ1uj2Z5Q
Too many investors are turning their backs on young, low burn, technical, early stage, high margin software companies. These are the types of teams that more easily survive an economic downturn.
Running list of startups / categories that are proving anti-fragile to the current mess: * Remote work: Zoom etc * Gaming, online entertainment * Social (Twitter), messaging * Food delivery: Blue Apron etc * Online education * Telehealth, digital thermometers * What else?
Atlassian: 2012 revenue run-rate: $26M subscription $116M license 2019 revenue run-rate: $915M subscription $720M license 35x subscription & 6x license growth Yet, revenue per customer is still $10k/ year Moving up-market is not required to build a large software business.
Most ppl are too risk-averse, and so most advice is biased too much towards conservative paths Risk: Also, let’s re-define risk: I think what risk actually looks like is not doing something that you will then spend the rest of your life regretting
Here are favorite takeaways & quotes from Sam Altman interviews It takes 10yrs to create a great startup. If you don’t love & believe it, you’ll likely give up at some point along the way. There’s no way I know of to get through the pain without a belief that the mission matters
A lot of hot takes on Credit Karma today. I'll add my own: Ken, our CEO, went from living on food stamps and listening to family argue about money to building a $7B company over 13 years. Grit and building products to solve real problems pays off.
there's one, dominant no-code stack: webflow, zapier, airtable and memberstack. you can do almost anything with it. there isn't a more powerful one right now. there's all-in-one tools too.
Has anyone written an amazing guide to tech startup business models? (I know - YC should already have one...)
Introducing Rolling Venture Funds: Always-open venture funds with auto-renewing capital commitments https://t.co/jiRWB8VMt3
Founder that I didn't know at all reached out via Twitter DMs letting me know that he loves Toucan and his entire team of 8 have been using it. 💫 He offers to introduce me to one of his investors and the intro email details exactly why they all love Toucan so much. ♥️ Epic! 🔥
What funds *actually invest in pre-revenue companies?
“We pursue a differientiated strategy” Riverside (x2) RiverGlade Charles River May River Platte River Riverstone Blackstone BlackRock Bedrock Peak Rock PeakEquity Vista Equity One Equity One Rock Owl Rock White Owl White Oak Silver Oak Oak HC/FT Oak Hill Oaktree TripleTree
"There are no bad ideas in tech, only bad timing" My partner @jeff_jordan makes the case the time is right for @neighborstorage, the Airbnb of storage. (If you ever wished you could stash stuff as a nearby neighbor's place for much less than a self-storage place, enjoy!) https://t.co/WkAfqWYiD4
Leafs rolling twitter sentiment - the return of big safety elicited some positive tweets yesterday and tweets have largely remained positive since late November. https://t.co/bYbEH4br1k
Before I became a founder, I would criticize often. “Wow that sounds like a stupid business idea. Jesus their unit economics are bad. That seems unsustainable.” Now that I’m a founder, I think, “Props on them for putting themselves out there and creating something in this world.”
@ShaneAParrish https://t.co/Saa8KPWSZP
@MJB_SF @naynerz My $5M micro-fund shares 0 LPs w/ a fund of a16z’s size $10B+ in assets under management Criticizing another woman publicly and assuming a man got her where she is today doesn’t belong in 2019 I hope to see you at @the_wing soon in SF! Let’s grab a coffee and chat live ☕️
I'm pretty happy with this final version, though the format may be a bit wide for twitter https://t.co/g8xgBalxkK
@dksf @Alex_Danco More broadly, VC's ultimately have to prioritize fiduciary responsibility to LPs when making investments. Angel investors have many forms of ROI: financial returns, social status, ability to learn, working w/people they like, etc. That's why it's easier to start raising w/angels.
Buffett should buy Bloomberg.
"It's a real pleasure to earn the trust of your customers slowly over time by doing what's right." -Charlie Munger
I have been coding in Python for 8 years now. ⏳ If I were to start over today, here's a roadmap...👇 https://t.co/iz0YacjQWu
I found a guy who goes around Miami asking insanely fit people over 40: • What they eat • What workouts they do • What supplements they take They all have really surprising answers... Here are my top 8: https://t.co/6HPNR8UeWz
Nobody taught me how to backtest a trading strategy. So I read all the books and blogs. Then, I distilled what I learned into a simple step-by-step guide. But unlike a 300-page book, this won't take you 1 month to read (or cost you $150). Here it is in 2 minutes (free):
This is a serious question for my friends on X: What does being wealthy mean to you? Get up an hour early tomorrow morning or go in a quiet place with a glass of wine later tonight and just write. Write some bullet points that outline what you want your life to look like.…
The #1 reason most people don’t get rich: They try to do it over 2 years, not 10. They try 5 separate times and end up failing… While the person who did a boring thing for a long time ends up rich and everyone ends up surprised.
How Real Estate Developers Make Money: Merchant builders are real estate developers whom build properties for tenants like Chipotle or Starbucks then sell the property upon completion of construction. This strategy optimizes compounding of capital when compared to holding for… https://t.co/1W3QvFlNGG
SaaS apps have the same core functions. Notifications, payments, analytics, user auth. Devs spend weeks building basics instead of validating ideas. SaaS boilerplates help you build core functionality in hours, not weeks.
Build a fundamental data research database. Use Python to download financial market data, parse it, and develop fundamental factors. Grab the step-by-step guide:
2024's hottest skill: Learn how to build Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) applications using Large Language Models. Every company wants in. Your mind will explode if you look at the jobs posted on freelancing platforms. A few weeks ago, I wrote about LLMWare. It's a…
"Discipline is trading what you want now for what you want most" I don't know who originated this definition. I like it.
So you want to leave your job to start your own real estate private equity firm? Here’s how to prepare to leave while still at your W-2: There’re several issues people run into when they want to start their firm: 1. no lender relationships 2. no investor relationships 3. no…
My definition of “Life’s Work:” “A lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are” 3 parts to the definition, all important… “A LIFELONG QUEST” reflects the reality that work isn’t about a series of accomplishments, which ultimately ring hollow.…
Been exploring new indicators for ideas, And found something called "Trend Exhaustion". It works by calculating the amount of time a stock/asset stays over a moving average. Here's how to code it: https://t.co/vjzigTRNur
In 2023, I ran 2:57:31 in my first marathon 6 months after I started running. In 2024, I'm training to run a sub-2:50 marathon while building strength and muscle mass. Here's the exact training plan I'm using: Note: Long post, so bookmark it for future reference. I’ll split… https://t.co/7ACIUrId1G
The most popular part of trading: Backtesting. But most beginners get backtesting wrong. How to get up and running with Backtrader. Step by step: https://t.co/ZkjS9pKxPM
The best investments I've made in my life, in order: 1) personal trainer for my wife 2) cleaner for my house 3) nanny for my kids 4) country club membership for me 5) self storage facilities
If I had a local service business and $75k to invest in growing it: Id use $10k to wrap my vehicles, buy door hangers, yard signs etc. I’d call all of my clients every 3 months and ask them for a referral. I’d beg all of my clients for a Google review with a photo. $10k on an…
Amazed that my talk at @Wharton on The Art of Product Management now has over 445,000 views! I still get notes every week from new viewers like this: "I can't thank you enough for shaping my knowledge, awareness as well as helping me craft my product management skills. Your… https://t.co/d42TUAqwDq
Why most people in business fail: They focus on everything but the bottom line. Your business lives and dies by cash. A few more harsh business truths for you:
12 years ago I read a blog post by @noahkagan. It inspired my to start a conference biz, which made 6 figures personally when i was like 23. Literally just copied him. Obsessed over his blog https://t.co/YWj8MqKteb, which inspired me to start The Hustle. His work literally… https://t.co/iVCdu7AxM2
@shreyas Senior PM is Vancouver or remote Canada https://t.co/jK4dYNgAQz
@shreyas We’re hiring for a Principal PM role @thumbtack https://t.co/wUkt8h1MFF
ANNOUNCEMENT: Today I'm launching something that, if done poorly, will make me sound like such an entitled ass. It's called MoneyWise, a podcast that reveals personal finances of high net worth people. The topics being discussed...they can sound super dbag if done incorrectly.…
I rarely go back to re-listen to a podcast, but I have gone back to these two podcasts multiple times recently Justin Ishbia on Invest Like the Best Sam Corcos on Tim Ferris
This is the wrong approach. The real billion dollar opportunity in SaaS is this: 1) Unbundle SaaS businesses like Salesforce into many verticals (vertical > horizontal) 2) Clone and make 100% feature complete (not 80%) 3) Move business model to pay-per-usage over monthly SaaS… https://t.co/lfbTKkECkn
In 2011, I committed my first code to GitHub. Since then, I've starred the best Python repos for quant finance on the internet. Here's the 9 best (*definitely* bookmark this):
159 pages the best examples of machine learning in finance. h/t @predict_addict Download the PDF: https://t.co/1ximl6aS1t
How to make amazing dashboards to power alpha analysis. All in 5 minutes: https://t.co/dCNGEtketp
Do it yourself quant investing: Code from @dyjh:
Ten years ago, I was a high school sophomore interested in the stock market so I wrote letters to the twenty or so best investors asking for advice The only one to reply was @BillAckman, who sent this note and list of books to read Looking back, it made a major impact on my… https://t.co/SxedXW7nnO
I’ve been working in tech for 15 years. I joined a few startups, started and sold one, and invested in 100+ companies. 95%+ of my net worth remains illiquid. This is the norm in tech. But I'm seeing growing interest in profit-sharing startups (and liquidity, ofc). :) Full… https://t.co/wH1NMQwMd9
Lost how to format Python? Use black. https://t.co/8cvPP3Y2Zz
The more time I spend in business, this is the success recipe: 1- Pick a great person 2- Give them a single mission 3- Help them along the way If they think in the shower about the problem, magic happens every time.
If I were starting a new service business today, I would do this 1-minute Google Maps trick to find out exactly what cities and what industries to target: 1. Search any service business in XYZ city on Google Maps. For the video below I chose "plumbing companies in San Antonio,… https://t.co/rXsgSl6Nvg
Startup: “Our customers love us because [insert arcane product differentiator]” VC calling customers: “So, what do you like about [startup]?” Customer: “We love their customer support! Nice, responsive.” So many times. Customer support is the unsung hero of startup success.
One way to get started with algorithmic trading: Buying a $120,000 master's degree from MIT. The other way: YouTube. The 10 YouTube videos to get you up and running today:
See a dying business? One of two things is wrong: First, they may have built something nobody wants. Second (and more likely), their business isn’t defensible. We call those moats. And there are 7 types of them: 🧵
If you’re buying a business you need to increase revenue after your first 2-3 months of integration. Here’s 20 simple, effective ways to boost sales. 💰 👇
The best way to learn to code: Build something useful. If you're just starting out, here's the perfect resource: 179 Python projects *with* source code. Get it here: https://t.co/mpR3bt9ktA
I always wanted to invest in real estate. Problem was no one would let me invest small amounts early in my career. So I partnered with one of my developer clients. Here’s how to do it: https://t.co/mBGeha4QpG
A thread of my best Operating Manuals Here is how the greats get it done. (Give me a follow to see more stuff like this!)
I wrote an Operating Manual for Mark Leonard, CEO of Constellation Software. Mark has bought 500+ niche software companies over the last 25 years. And turned $25 million into a $32 billion empire. This is how he makes it work. https://t.co/7Ja9MARNle
7. Impact Running small businesses is notoriously difficult. Making owners' lives easier and making their businesses more money is fun. We have taken many dog walkers from struggling gig workers to making six figures or more in a year. They love us for it.
The riches are in the niches. That's why we buy vertical software like SaaS for dog walkers. 7 reasons boring vertical software prints money:
Just finished sifting through the Q3 2023 hedge fund letters. Here are 10 investment pitches that piqued my interest 👇 https://t.co/TEMs6NyXYu
In 2007, Charlie Munger gave a speech at the USC School of Law. It contained his most crucial ideas for living deliberately. If you can master these 9 principles, they'll change your life (and help you live a better one):
The more boxes checked, the better the business... 1. Asset light 2. Highly fragmented industry 3. Negative working capital 4. Contractual recurring revenue 5. High margin 6. The ability to raise prices 7. High operating leverage 8. True value to customers 9. Organic growth…
HOW PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS ANALYZE DEALS: Most important metrics: 1. Stabilized yield: Since we focus on value add, the entry cap doesn’t matter, as long as we can service our debt The stabilized yield matters because it shows the intrinsic cash flow of the deal The stabilized… https://t.co/yPayTqXavs
1) Is it blocking a Hell Yes? @sivers has a legendary way he makes decisions. It's simple. When deciding to do something, It's either a Hell Yes or a No. There is no in-between. If staying in your current thing blocks a hell yes, quit.
Everything you need to start using Python for algorithmic trading (FREE). Here's what you get: • ChatGPT prompting frameworks • Real quant code to backtest strategies • Step-by-step code to automate trades • And loads more... 7 days. Big results. https://t.co/oMuWK86JhR
I spent $90,000 on a master's degree. I should have spent my time on YouTube instead. Here's 32 YouTube videos covering the fundamentals of quant finance. All free: https://t.co/tAgeK3kwMi
2) To do Taste Tester Transactions he would buy a small percentage of the biz (usually 10-20%) and buy an option or right of first refusal to buy the rest of the business if he could turn it around.
I read 69 books about quant finance during my master's degree. Most of them were 100% useless. But these 4 are still on my bookshelf 12 years later: https://t.co/BBbzCsK29h
Lots of skeptics. Here is a post that analyzes the typical search deal economics. This is Twitter so I’m making unstated assumptions. Run your own numbers. https://t.co/74447E7tQR
Do something simple. Do something proven. Do something other people are already doing. Find the dumb rich people and go compete with them. Just do it a little bit better. Its the best way to win in the long run.
Buy the real estate, sell the income. Repeat. Our business plan, in a nutshell.
🤩 350k+ Views on 🚖 Uber Data Analytics | End-To-End Modern Data Engineering Project Kick-start a career in data engineering by learning various tools and services by completing one project. Get a complete understanding of how modern data engineering project is executed. In… https://t.co/a6V0iXKwEX
Yesterday I posted about how to use $75K to buy a $1M business that can pay you $200K. Lots of naysayers, and also lots of curious people. So here's an actual deal that meets this criteria (currently on BizBuySell). Let's talk about how we can buy it! https://t.co/et5sbf0S0L
For those entering their 30s having taken a couple swings in start-ups w/o having made life-changing $$: Maybe take those tech skills & use them to build wealth in a more traditional biz. Really want to avoid hitting 40 w nothing to show for ~2 decades of work.
"Jarryd, I don't have that capital to buy a $2.5m dollar business?" But, teaming up with investors, you actually do. "How do I structure the deal & terms?" My friends, it goes like so (this was a real deal). Purchase price: $2.5m EBITDA: $683k Total Injection: $250k Your… https://t.co/ljmK7B7zIi
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A lot of the advice from Real Estate Twitter overlooks some of the basics for newcomers. Therefore I wanted to make a thread that broke down 10 basic things that you might not know if you are new to real estate. Enjoy! Let me know if you want more stuff like this
How to build a $2000/mo membership site for $0 (Even if you have a small audience) A simple guide to get you started:
Being negative all the time is a terrible business trait to have. No one will want to be around you if you always focus on the negatives. Pointing out downside risk is ok just phrase it in a good way.
Most great product ideas DON’T make great businesses But most great product ideas DO start with “WHAT SUCKS?” These are great. @ronlieber https://t.co/goLQV8DJDw
The real key to success is utterly simple, yet insidiously difficult to actually execute: 1) Make a to-do list 2) Do the things on the to-do list 3) Do NOT do the things pinging your inbox or feed 4) Repeat daily 5) Profit I need to tattoo this on my eyelids.
Guaranteed way to land a job as #CRE broker: 1) Ask someone in the industry for a coffee meeting. Ask for 15 mins and stick to it. Tell them you are just getting started and ask for the opportunity to make a brief intro. (Never ask to pick someone’s brain).
If getting rich is your #1 goal... You have a higher (& easier) chance of making big money by gunning for COO/CMO/CFO spots at early-to-mid stage companies than starting your own business https://t.co/8w7qaWMAOt
Every piece of advice I could think of after 4 years as a Solopreneur. 1. Pessimists are often right, and optimists are often wealthy.
The most popular part of trading: Backtesting. But most beginners get backtesting wrong. How to get up and running with the most popular Python backtesting library—Backtrader. Step by step: https://t.co/0qREuFtLhM
My wife and I recently started a monthly check-in ritual. It’s been incredible for our relationship. The Life Dinner:
I'm sharing my complete research toolkit for analyzing stocks. Includes tracking of insiders & super investors, financial data, charting, tracking of traffic, product sales and more! Reply 👋 below, I’ll send you my complete research toolkit. Follow me so I can DM you. https://t.co/FCAwNkhDCX
A simple build that I am incredibly proud of, which is often called “the missing middle.” Eight units on a 6,000 sqft parcel would have historically been one or two homes if redeveloped. I’m proud because the secondary suites have housed students, new immigrants and refugees, to… https://t.co/tTvGSWp1h5
On the last day of every quarter, I perform a simple self check-in. It’s a practical way to reflect on progress, assess my heading, and adjust accordingly. Ask yourself these questions today:
Buying a business is the fastest way to make $500K+ per year. Here’s a simple process for buying your first business:
The ultimate model in SMB acquisitions: Acquire a company for a 3-5x price with $2M+ EBITDA. Get an SBA loan so you only need ~10% equity. Raise convertible participating preferred equity so you only have to personally invest $50-$100k. End up owning ~75% of the businesses.…
You've heard of them, you may even have one, but do you really understand what an S Corp is? In this thread I break down exactly what "S Corp" means and why they're popular in SMB. In a future thread I'll address their drawbacks in M&A. For now, grab a mimosa and let's dig in! https://t.co/jHf5Sc8nJr
Life "cheat codes" everyone should know:
@sweatystartup What about partnering or doing something with @AltisourceAMC? @JasonKopcak is a fantastic CEO and knows all the players in the industry. And they already have operations. Plus- they have multiple forward flow contracts to sell DSCR loans to large institutions with many billions…
In 2023, the SMART move is to learn technology. Here's a list of 27 top resources to get up to speed (for free):
My professors taught me MATLAB during my master's degree. So I studied 76,948 Python code repositories to teach myself Python. 99.9% of them were a complete waste of time. But these 9 are worth more than a $90,000 master's degree:
Bootstrapping a software company is the best way to build wealth. Jason Cohen has bootstrapped 4 software companies from 0 to $1+ million in revenue. Two are now worth $1+ billion. Here's his exact plan to self-fund startups:
Jupyter Notebook is the most powerful tool Python developers have. But most people don’t know the hidden features. Need a quick web app? Or to create REST APIs? Here are the 6 ways to use Jupyter notebook you never knew existed: https://t.co/nBt9JYxQGX
A letter I wish I sent to my younger self:
Google "python tutorial" and get 533,000,000 results. Google "quant finance" and get 513,000,000 results. Utterly exhausting. So I took 1,049,000,000 search results, added in 20 years of experience, and had a baby. This is what I named it:
Treating yourself: ✅ Exercising ✅ Eating healthy food ✅ Sleeping 8 hours ❌ Buying a $60K car on a $50K salary
"I want [my son] to wonder why his dad’s friends always come over and shoot hoops with him. Why they always invite him to their houses. Why there are so many of them at his games. I hope that he gets sick of them." Gut punch.
The passage that hit me hardest: "I have already told some of my friends: When I see you in heaven, there’s only one thing I’m going to ask—Were you good to my son and my wife? Were you there for them? Does my son know you?" (continued)
Everything is negotiable. Legal bills, fees, contracts, offers, compensation. Contract? Strike out the terms you don’t like and send it back. Can’t get the deal done? Offer to buy the seller a Ferrari. Don’t like quarterly board meetings? Make them annual. It's all made up!
8 Low code + No code sites web developers may feel illegal to know. You can save tens of hours every month (trust me):
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" is one of the most successful books ever published. It's full of practical ideas and insights you can use in work and life. Here's a brief, no-fluff summary of the most important and actionable ideas in the book: https://t.co/7T1vVNyjBO
Where's everyone making millions on bounce house rentals? I'm already 150 MGs of caffeine deep today so let's knock this out real fast. Here's how I'd do it in DFW:
If I lost everything tomorrow & only had my knowledge, here's how I'd make $500k profit in 2023: A tree service biz. I helped a friend do this exact thing in 2018. Here's a step by step detailed breakdown of exactly how I'd do it:
How to live a life of happiness. The Surfer Mentality: https://t.co/9dXBMYcB24
Want another thread on this stuff? Check this out ⬇️ https://t.co/dhZbGQlLm3
Deep Dive on Recruiting: - Sourcing - Evaluating - Closing - Referencing - Building an interview process - 90 day plans - Mistakes founders make "The team you build is the company you build" 👇
Skip the quant finance degree. Dive into 17 code repos that will teach you more than all your professors at school. All without costing you $90,000:
My rocket scientist professor told me to learn Octave during my master's degree ("it's free MATLAB"). So I watched 197 YouTube videos to learn Python instead. 94.4% of them were a complete waste of time. But these 11 taught me more than all my PhD professors combined:
$7 trillion of Baby Boomer businesses will be sold by 2030. A quick and dirty guide to buying one:
I've been trading for 10 years. Everything you need to know is in these 25 threads:
Here is a huge productivity tip and gratefulness tip. Get a Life Calendar from @waitbutwhy It has all the weeks of your life until your 90. When you look at it, its not that many weeks. You see all the weeks as checkboxes. Benefits are.... https://t.co/4xXNPc651b
Systematizing your SMB: 1. Company Wiki (how to do things) 2. Task Map (who does them, and when) 3. Core Process Checklists (see if they are getting done) 4. Forms (forces standard inputs to the system) This will transform your company from a job, into a business.
@TravisWiedower @rosskopfe of Boreo (HLSE: BOREO) has operating managers read the book to get a concept of capital allocation. Heard him speak and pitch the biz at the @MicroCapClub Leadership Summit. His presentation can be found here: https://t.co/4qCuA3NlJD
@SMB_Attorney Income builds a lifestyle but equity builds wealth. Your Choice in 2022. Never been more accessible.
@RLElmer @SMB_Attorney @sbabmarks Do a revenue share on the four big customers. Gets them to their desired price as long as those customers stick around.
Myth: You need a PhD to get started with Python for quant finance. Reality: You need Jupyter Notebooks pre-built with quant code. Get 20 with Getting Started With Python for Quant Finance. Here's a breakdown of all 20:
In summary, how to build a software business in 60 days: 1. Identify an underserved market 2. Find a problem worth solving 3. Build your landing page 4. Test/find a channel to acquire prospects 6. Build your proof-of-concept product 7. Iterate and improve 8. Begin charging $$
@Codie_Sanchez Only a few ways to get insanely wealthy: 1) Fame (actor, athlete, influencer) 2) Move money (investor, RE) 3) Invent or build something (business owner) 4) Get lucky (birth, lotto) Have met all of them. 2-3 are most interesting and accessible. 1/4, meh.
These are the habits that have changed my LIFE. 🧡 For a deeper dive into this topic, head to episode 1336 on The School of Greatness: https://t.co/fHjnWNiCNk https://t.co/lCpB8VP2Dl
THIS skill will set you apart from the rest 👀 Don't miss today's episode of The Daily Motivation! Listen to the full episode: https://t.co/HoC3GpaBoy https://t.co/McKYyc6yuk
If your business is profitable, competitors will attack. To protect it, you need to understand the idea of "moats." Use them well and you'll stay profitable in the long run. The 7 types of moats in business: A🧵!
My PhD professors taught me MATLAB during my master's degree. So I watched 200 YouTube videos to learn Python 96% of them were a complete waste of time. But these 8 taught me more than all my PhD professors combined:
Let’s say you’re buying a company that has: * Has no major moats (easily replicable) * No recurring revenue * Highly profitable with easy growth levers * No capex required How do you structure a deal?
1. Harvard Web Programming with Python and JavaScript Web development is wildly in-demand. With this free course, you'll learn everything you need to get your foot in the door. From DB design, security and scalability. 👉 https://t.co/u4XTGJNgg0 https://t.co/eIZSVDNlrG
Confident parents raise confident kids. 10 traits of confident parents:
In 2007, Charlie Munger gave a speech at the USC Law School. It contained his most crucial ideas for living deliberately. If you can master these 9 principles, they'll change your life (and help you live a better one):
Great stock selection framework from @safalniveshak: https://t.co/kMp12xv1AW
This thread was based on the great book What Works on Wall Street from @jposhaughnessy. James is one of the highest quality people on FinTwit I know of. https://t.co/oxLwr9bRHT
Free Python PDF Books 🧵:
28 short pieces of life advice: 1. Block off 90 minutes in your calendar every morning to work on the most important thing. Wake up early if you need to. Don’t compromise.
12 things you need to say to your spouse - immediately (that aren't "I love you"):
The mind can be convinced, but the heart must be won.
12 Sites to Practice Coding with Exercises ✨😍 🔹 codewars . com 🔹 leetcode . com 🔹 hackerrank . com 🔹 topcoder . com 🔹 exercism . org 🔹 coderbyte . com 🔹 codingame . com 🔹 codechef . com 🔹 projecteuler . net 🔹 edabit . com 🔹 codeforces. com 🔹 hackerearth. com
Great stock selection framework from @safalniveshak: https://t.co/5sekjQZCNW
I went from 0 coding experience to landing a job as a developer in 6 months...and spent $0 doing it Here are the topics I focused on and some FREE resources you can use to do the same (warning: 100s of hours of content)
7 books every man needs to read at least 1 time in his life:
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The Verdict: This deal mostly sucks. 1) "Return on Hassle" is low: = amount of money you earn divided by time or brain damage to get there (@baldridgecpa) When better deals exist, you don't want to be doing espresso shots for 19-year-olds for $50K.
You don't need to spend a ton of money on a Bootcamp to become a developer. Here are 6 platforms that will teach to code for free:
Local coffee shop in wealthy area. Asked owner to pay for the next $100 worth of coffee and leave business cards. ROI: 4200% - 1 commercial customer and 3 residential.
@barrettjoneill Doesn’t matter how old you are, the sweaty businesses are crushing it https://t.co/J0TPnI7ZsF
The 7 must-have books everyone using Python for algorithmic trading needs to know:
The game, in case no one took the time to explain it to you: As quickly & efficiently as possible, transmute your labor into ownership of scarce and / or productive assets. (Hence: “capital”-ism.)
Apps to build to practice your HTML, CSS, and Javascript skills 📝 Quiz App ❌ TicTacToe 🔟 Calculator ⏰ Alarm Clock 📁 File Explorer 🐍 Snake Game 🎵 Music Player 🌐 Web Crawler 🔗 URL Shortener 🤖 Web Automator ❓ Files Rename Tool 🚅 Speed Typing Test 🔒 Password Generator
You’re super motivated to learn data science/analysis but don’t know where to start? Here's a start to get familiar with data area:
College completely failed to teach me data analysis beyond Excel. So I learned Python and never looked back. Along the way, I picked the best libraries for machine learning and data analysis. But unlike college, these won't cost you $60,000. Here are the 16 best for free:
2) To do Taste Tester Transactions he would buy a small percentage of the biz (usually 10-20%) and buy an option or right of first refusal to buy the rest of the business if he could turn it around.
1) Only make the deal if you are right you’ll get rich, if your are wrong you won’t go broke. He would use leverage sparingly and he’d do taste tester transactions.
@channel5 @Youriklijn It needs updating, but check this https://t.co/B3w545KsPm
I started a business that has generated almost $10M in revenue. And I got the idea from Reddit. But only a few people know the power of Reddit to fuel entrepreneurship. Here are 9 under-the-radar subreddits that will help you build a million dollar business: Thread 🧵👇
Buying businesses is the quickest way to cash flow $500k+ per year. Here’s a 5 step process for buying your first business:
Skip the quant finance degree. Dive into 17 code repos that will teach you more than all your professors at school. All without costing you $90,000:
@J0EDUB 100% disagree. Been in client service for 15 years (as a consultant and now as a VC), and u establish trust by saying “im here to listen, u are the expert of ur business, Im just here to help u accelerate that, by leveraging tools that ive seen be successful before. I work for u”
The wealthiest person I know prints millions out of thin air in the real estate business. This is what he does... A thread.
@lucallaer SBA loan+seller notes minus cash upfront required. Is my math off?
The game is changing. You don't need VC funding. You don't need college. You need Twitter. The best 7 threads you can use to ship now:
If you want to become a millionaire in your 30s, read this:
"the more than 140,000 Americans who earn more than $1.58 million per year. … typical rich American is … the owner of a 'regional business,' such as an 'auto dealer' or a 'beverage distributor.'” https://t.co/PydTccsqCb
How to build a $10,000/mo business (by copying other people):
Just run your business as if: 1. You own 100% of it; 2. It’s the only asset in the world that you or your family have or will ever have; and 3. You can’t sell it for at least a century - WEB