Ask a company's leadership which competitor they'd invest in if not their own — and which they'd short.
Go From $10k to $1M in 3 Years With This Strategy | Mohnish Pabrai · Codie Sanchez
You do not need original ideas to make money — copy proven models wholesale and don't change the working part.
Go From $10k to $1M in 3 Years With This Strategy | Mohnish Pabrai · Codie Sanchez
Use three explicit triggers to decide whether to consolidate acquired brands before the complexity becomes unmanageable
Owned and Operated: The REAL Reason Rebranding Can Add $5M/Year · John Wilson
Use commercial-residential seasonality inversion to flatten revenue and reduce customer risk
Owned and Operated: I Have $5M, Do I Buy an HVAC Company or a Security Business? · John Wilson
Cap headcount at owner plus five to maximize excavation margins
Blue Collar Business Ep 32: Dirt to Dollars, Excavating Success with Clay Hudspeth (HudX) · Sy Kirby
Virtual ride-along coaches follow every new tech for 30-60 days, curating the real-job learning that onboarding alone cannot deliver
Owned and Operated: He Built a $100M HVAC Business (Chad Peterman, Peterman Brothers) · John Wilson
Convert sticker shock into committed work by phasing scope, not cutting margin
Blue Collar Business Ep 32: Dirt to Dollars, Excavating Success with Clay Hudspeth (HudX) · Sy Kirby
Quantify recurring vs. reoccurring revenue split before any acquisition decision
Owned and Operated: I Have $5M, Do I Buy an HVAC Company or a Security Business? · John Wilson
Pull live capacity data from Service Titan into a board and adjust digital ad spend per branch daily to match leads to available labor
Owned and Operated: He Built a $100M HVAC Business (Chad Peterman, Peterman Brothers) · John Wilson
Shadow-shop every competitor in your radius before launch to quantify the answer-rate gap
Owned and Operated: Why Septic is the Most Underrated Business in America (Epic Septic) · John Wilson
Architect the business for transferability from day one, not after the grind
Blue Collar Business Ep 32: Dirt to Dollars, Excavating Success with Clay Hudspeth (HudX) · Sy Kirby
Pay employees to get out-of-state licenses and then pay a monthly stipend to hold each license the company actively uses
Owned and Operated: He Built a $100M HVAC Business (Chad Peterman, Peterman Brothers) · John Wilson
Absorb an acquired brand without losing its customers using a phased phone and digital handoff
Owned and Operated: The REAL Reason Rebranding Can Add $5M/Year · John Wilson
Find the branch leader first, embed them in HQ for three months, then build the market around them
Owned and Operated: He Built a $100M HVAC Business (Chad Peterman, Peterman Brothers) · John Wilson
Every pump-out is a diagnostic appointment that generates same-day repair revenue at 50%+ margin
Owned and Operated: Why Septic is the Most Underrated Business in America (Epic Septic) · John Wilson
Turn a $250k pump truck into a tracked inbound channel that competes with a $3k/month billboard for $4k once
Owned and Operated: Why Septic is the Most Underrated Business in America (Epic Septic) · John Wilson
Three public data sources let you model a septic market before spending a dollar on entry
Owned and Operated: Why Septic is the Most Underrated Business in America (Epic Septic) · John Wilson
Pool install crews across proximate branches so sold work is never delayed by one branch running short on labor
Owned and Operated: He Built a $100M HVAC Business (Chad Peterman, Peterman Brothers) · John Wilson
Exploit mandatory product replacement cycles to generate project revenue from existing accounts
Owned and Operated: I Have $5M, Do I Buy an HVAC Company or a Security Business? · John Wilson
Score market geography before evaluating any business-specific metrics in a service acquisition
Owned and Operated: I Have $5M, Do I Buy an HVAC Company or a Security Business? · John Wilson
Size each branch to stay under $20M so central infrastructure can support it without a local management layer
Owned and Operated: He Built a $100M HVAC Business (Chad Peterman, Peterman Brothers) · John Wilson
Centralizing call center, dispatch, accounting, and marketing cuts branch overhead from 45% to 10% of revenue
Owned and Operated: Why Septic is the Most Underrated Business in America (Epic Septic) · John Wilson
Record leadership talks delivered live to field crews and distribute via podcast so the CEO voice reaches every truck, every day
Owned and Operated: He Built a $100M HVAC Business (Chad Peterman, Peterman Brothers) · John Wilson
Measure the real cost of brand sprawl by whether your operator can have an unprompted strategic insight
Owned and Operated: The REAL Reason Rebranding Can Add $5M/Year · John Wilson
A market-creating bet that pencils out on analysis still needs a live, in-person event to convert intellectual interest into capital-grade conviction — go stand in the building before you commit.
MLS Growth Story: A Conversation With Don Garber and Jonathan Kraft (MIT Sloan SSAC 2020) · MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
When a flagship build stalls, stop holding the investments that drive your core product hostage to it — fund the product side now and bundle only what truly must be co-located.
MLS Growth Story: A Conversation With Don Garber and Jonathan Kraft (MIT Sloan SSAC 2020) · MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
"You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with" — your associations set the ceiling on your standards.
Jim Rohn - The Challenge to Succeed Seminar (Anaheim, California 1981) · Jim Rohn
Build best-in-class connectivity and data into the live venue ahead of the curve — even when peers call it a distraction — because the in-person experience has to out-compete an ever-improving living room.
Sports in 2045: Ahead of the Curve with Jonathan Kraft and Mark Shapiro (MIT Sloan SSAC 2025) · MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
Control ownership of a franchise lets the tax code co-fund the purchase — a structural after-tax edge a passive minority stake can't fully capture.
New England Patriots President Jonathan Kraft Expects NFL ROI to Beat Stocks (Sportico, 2024) · Sportico
A branded set of ~30 individually-named training principles that turned tacit gym knowledge into teachable, ownable IP.
Brothers of Iron: Building the Weider Empire · Joe Weider, Ben Weider, Mike Steere
Optimize for forever, not for the white-hot space — own assets that compound instead of chasing what's newest.
JAY-Z: The New York Times Interview with Dean Baquet · Dean Baquet / The New York Times Style Magazine
You cannot fix what you refuse to diagnose — emotional honesty is the precondition for growth.
JAY-Z: The New York Times Interview with Dean Baquet · Dean Baquet / The New York Times Style Magazine
Take the asset, not the access — the wisdom you'd pay a fortune for proximity to is usually already encoded and cheap.
JAY-Z and Gayle King: Brooklyn's Own · Gayle King / CBS
Secrecy is a tax on speed — the founders who win say the idea out loud and then outrun everyone to build it.
J. Darius Bikoff — first TV interview after the $4.1B Coca-Cola sale (The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch) · The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch (CNBC)
Don't bid for the asset you want — buy the thing it can't operate without, then set the terms.
Patriots Owner Robert Kraft on The David Rubenstein Show (full episode) · The David Rubenstein Show / Bloomberg
Refuse to be an employee — even in the family business. Own equity or leave.
Patriots Owner Robert Kraft on The David Rubenstein Show (full episode) · The David Rubenstein Show / Bloomberg
Reveal whether a franchise fee buys you a launch pad or a lasting competitive edge.
Acquiring Minds: Phil Miller, $100K store to Pawville (11 locations, PE exit) — Acquiring Minds · Acquiring Minds
Buy two competing businesses in the same market, merge them into one dominant location
Acquiring Minds: Phil Miller, $100K store to Pawville (11 locations, PE exit) — Acquiring Minds · Acquiring Minds
Acquire unprofitable small operators using asymmetric knowledge and turn them profitable
Acquiring Minds: Phil Miller, $100K store to Pawville (11 locations, PE exit) — Acquiring Minds · Acquiring Minds
Acquire a business with real estate for near-zero capital by pairing with a REIT buyer
Acquiring Minds: Phil Miller, $100K store to Pawville (11 locations, PE exit) — Acquiring Minds · Acquiring Minds
Acquire, remodel, and rebrand underperforming businesses to triple revenue in three years
Acquiring Minds: Phil Miller, $100K store to Pawville (11 locations, PE exit) — Acquiring Minds · Acquiring Minds
Progress from knowledge deficit to frontier-level insight to spot deals others miss
Acquiring Minds: Phil Miller, $100K store to Pawville (11 locations, PE exit) — Acquiring Minds · Acquiring Minds
Layer multiple revenue streams onto idle square footage to multiply business value from a single fixed-cost envelope
Acquiring Minds: Phil Miller, $100K store to Pawville (11 locations, PE exit) — Acquiring Minds · Acquiring Minds
Identify rare compliant real estate first, then evaluate the business sitting on it
Acquiring Minds: Phil Miller, $100K store to Pawville (11 locations, PE exit) — Acquiring Minds · Acquiring Minds
Cascade a 10-year audacious goal into quarterly actions that compound into results
UpFlip Ep222: College Hunks $300M/yr (Nick Friedman) — The UpFlip Podcast · The UpFlip Podcast
Establish purpose, vision, and people before building any operational system
UpFlip Ep222: College Hunks $300M/yr (Nick Friedman) — The UpFlip Podcast · The UpFlip Podcast
Turn your branded vehicle into a rolling billboard that works even when parked.
UpFlip Ep222: College Hunks $300M/yr (Nick Friedman) — The UpFlip Podcast · The UpFlip Podcast
Kill a failing bet the moment you know, give the money back, and feel proud you acted quickly.
Michael Rubin on Building Fanatics Into a Billion-Dollar Empire (Boardroom cover story) · Boardroom (Rich Kleiman)
Before entering a market, ask: is it big and interesting, can we make it better, and is it a good business to be in?
Michael Rubin on Building Fanatics Into a Billion-Dollar Empire (Boardroom cover story) · Boardroom (Rich Kleiman)
Win incumbent rights by guaranteeing the counterparty their peak earnings, then cut them into the ancillary markets they never monetized.
Michael Rubin on Building Fanatics Into a Billion-Dollar Empire (Boardroom cover story) · Boardroom (Rich Kleiman)