Today marks the end of an era for me, as I exit public market investing after a 10 year run at my hedge fund. My last day as a W-2 draws to a close. This is it. I'm stepping off "the path", out into the unknown. The professional linearity of the track so many aspire to -- Ivy League degree, investment banking, buy-side stint, single family house in a nice suburb -- is broken. Purposefully. All to take a bet on myself. This moment has been in the making for some time. In my own head, I've lived this reality for so long that now that the moment is actually here, it feels eerily quiet. Almost like a non-event. Not so for some neighbors, friends, and family -- reactions range from positive curiosity to sheer shock. I think life is best lived in seasons or chapters. It was time for a new one. And sometimes, to start a new chapter, it takes a decisive act of violent agency. You quit a great job, you sell a beautiful house, and you move a couple thousand miles. To a lot of people, that doesn't make any sense. But we want this for our family. We want to be out West, and we want to call our own shots, create our own autonomous luck in this life. That's all that matters. It's a simple matter of long-term priorities, with confusing short-term optics for now, and I'm OK with that. I've heard the full range of feedback on Search over the last few years. The hype, the success stories, the horror stories, the "don't do it, no good listings, brokers suck, this is the top" warnings. At the end of the day, I think reality is a spectrum, and the experience needs to be uniquely lived. I need to go out, encounter my own unique truth, take a few (OK, very likely a thousand) punches to the face, and hopefully create the best conditions for luck, to the extent any control can be exerted over this at all. The market is what it is. I need to find my own answer. The worst outcome isn't failing to locate and close on a decent asset. It's the nagging questions at the end of this life. "What could have been, had I seriously tried, gone all out and applied myself to the best of my ability, made the most of my God-given talents?" Only one way to find out. Here we go.

Not gonna lie, it’s pretty freaking cool to see your monthly healthcare contributions go directly towards other people’s needs with @JoinCrowdHealth Makes you feel more invested and part of a community Very happy that the days of paying premiums to a faceless conglomerate are over (For anyone wondering, this does not reflect their monthly ~$240 admin cost, and first 3 months we had a referral rate. Still a bargain at less than $450 monthly run-rate for family of 4)

Crucial advice to my kids as they grow up in this world: Leveraged trust at scale is the way to win in this life Trust at scale = original thought distribution The older I get, the more I realize this is true. You just need to become known as “the guy / gal super smart in domain X”. Niche down build a personal brand. As Kevin Kelly said, don’t aim to be the best, aim to be the only. Then layer on operating business(es) on top of your domain. You’re an expert at X who just happens to do Y. Voila. Wam inbound business is so much easier and scaleable than one-to-one cold outbound. Plus, brand has inherent enterprise value especially if you scale it beyond yourself. Random Saturday morning gym thoughts.

I have a great idea There are probably 100K searchers in the US right now Instead of everyone buying a ZoomInfo subscription at $15K per year for their proprietary search… … why don’t we get everyone to pool their resources and buy out the entire company at $800M market cap, and own the data forever? It would be a great bulk discount. TREMENDOUS Let me know if you want in

So yeah, they did screw up season 2 of Your Friends and Neighbors Season 1 was SO PROMISING and close to perfect Used to be about shallow materialism and the ridiculousness of keeping up with the Joneses Now it’s all about growing old, back problems, grief, and resolving the major villain conflict very conveniently (too easy) Whole thing suddenly got a lot darker (same thing happened in last season of Industry) Also, who in the world would turn down Princeton… it doesn’t make any sense

Excellent discussion of buy vs. start People usually think of greenfielding in the same space they're looking to acquire in (i.e. start HVAC vs. buy HVAC) But as is discussed here, there is a third way: the capital-light solopreneur professional services startup (consulting, recruiting, brokerage, niche content, anything that relies on lead generation and relationships) All of the above more closely match the white collar / professional services background of the population that tends to go into search (ex finance, big corporate), so they have some right to win here IMO 1) way less risky than trying to stand up a fleet based home services / trades business with no prior operating experience (you have ZERO right to win), and 2) more fruitful grounds for AI and automation application Will you create as much enterprise value with a solopreneur gig? Clearly, no. Not as much terminal value (unless you scale beyond yourself with a repeatable sales process that turns juniors into top producers consistently). Consulting and recruiting firms simply trade at low multiples, assuming they do get to some form of scale. But they also throw off cash and have close to zero capex and opex (solopreneur margins can be 90% if you work from home). So you can then take the cash and buy stocks and real estate. As Sam says, if the goal is autonomy and agency, these can be a viable way to create similar levels of satisfaction. And especially for people who have a knack for sales and lead gen. So the menu of choices ranked, as I see it personally, for someone with risk tolerance and agency: 1) Buy an SMB at a reasonable multiple (incredibly rare today) 2) Start a capital-light, unlevered professional solopreneur services in a proven category (sell your intellectual knowledge / process outcomes to other people) 3) Start an operationally complex local trades services business of the type you would also buy (risky to me) 4) go back to W-2 (let's be clear, this is #1 for 95% of the population and I'm ranking it low because I don't want to go back into that world) 5) Buy an overpriced SMB (don't do it, ever)

Spot on. We have direct primary care here in ID and market rate is ~$200 / month for family of 4. Continue to be extremely impressed with this model. Younger daughter got pink eye on Europe trip. Called our DPC practice at 8 AM this morning -> got 9:20 AM appointment with MD. MD also looked at older daughter (fine) AND wife (for unrelated sinus issue) at same appointment, then wrote various RX which they could pick up right there, in-house. In and out efficiently, 3 family members seen, no rush. With traditional insurance, the wait would have been days and the billing a pain (they would probably require 3 separate visits at a couple hundred bucks each all going to deductible). Primary care was never meant to be burdened with bloated insurance claim admin. Doctors just want to practice, not fight insurance denials and file pre-approvals for small ticket services. DPC is a more original, simplified model where your provider has the time to care for you, AND it ends up cheaper. Huge fan. It’s one of those rare win / win situations that just make sense. The middle man provides negative value, so take them out (Also, would love to roll this sector up hard 😂)

Can you imagine getting 15 separate parties on board for a full SMB buyout? Or buying out 2 brothers for the privilege of gaining 13 new business partners overnight whom you have never met and are unlikely to speak to during diligence? The stuff of nightmares. The buyer crowd gasps in awe at this unique opportunity to herd cats for the next 10 years But guess what, in today’s market, this too shall get a bid.

After 3 weeks on the road across both East Coast and Europe, finally back in the greatest country in the world 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 And about to board our final flight to the great state of Idaho Never have 5 letters made me happier It’s good to be back home. (Can’t wait for my kids to wake at 2 AM every night for the next week, what a fantastic way to teach them the virtues of early rising)

When @Sam_Rosati officially changes guidance and recommends proprietary deal sourcing from day 1 (in conjunction with brokered deals), you listen up Also, great anecdata from @JackieHirsch_ on deal interest in this market 150 NDAs within 24 hours? INSANITY (Hearing similar numbers from intermediary contacts here in... IDAHO, not even close to a tier 1 coastal market) If you think brokers have time for relationship building in the heat of a live deal, you are sorely mistaken. They're just trying to survive and triage. So proactive relationship building is once again key across both brokered and proprietary sourcing. Highly speculative, highly long-term oriented. So freaking challenging to make friends and plant seeds. How do you even know how to allocate your limited time anymore? Which brings me back to one of my core tenets: you need a thesis in this market, whether it's geography or industry focused (I had both last year), so you can even start to understand where you should be making friends and build relationships. This small business buying game is shifting further and further away from the actual transaction. You need to be so early now. It's almost VC-like in terms of speculating which broker or owner may have a good deal down the road and getting ahead of it, WAY further up in the funnel. Sourcing timelines are extending, and I know several good and talented people who are in year 3 of searching now. WELCOME TO ULTRA HARD MODE

I’m 38. I’ve moved a lot. Lived on 3 continents growing up (US, Europe, South America). It’s been enormously valuable. I’ve been part chameleon, part lone wolf. I’ve often struggled with the concept of “home”. Growing up, part of me envied the kids who were firmly rooted and had strong, multi-generational networks in their home towns. Part of me took pride in being a detached outsider. A protective veneer of superiority. I’ve had to recreate networks from scratch every time I moved. I’ve built confidence and adaptability. You end up with this dispersed global network of a few select friends you keep in touch with from every distinct chapter in your life. When I met my wife, I realized she was the same way (pilot family, Continental Airlines). You keep moving, but your core family and values are tight. She “gets it”. We are now finally moving into a stage of our lives where we think that Boise is our final home. You never know, but my gut tells me this is it. And that’s special. We’ve seen a lot and empirically solved the equation. But I wouldn’t have gotten to the destination without the journey. That’s the irony. My kids will be the same. They will leave home, live overseas, live in NYC for a few years. Then find the place that’s right for them. And the cycle repeats.

This is the most insane HVAC post-close organic growth margin expansion story I have ever seen. Massive congrats to Rob. Well deserved. Worked incredibly hard for it. The man has clearly met his destiny. No… destiny met THE MAN.

I’m on the DC metro. Used to live in the DMV for 10 years. Hit up my old gym this morning and talked to 5 people from back in the day. Let me tell you - not being a W2 anymore in this town is the strangest feeling ever. It’s like you’re witnessing the matrix. Morning routine, people heads down, going about their day. Except I don’t have an office to go to here anymore. Nothing has changed around here. But feels like I’m so far removed from this old life. It feels so distant, so it’s strange to see it up close again. I’m this unrooted tourist now. Having exited the system and stepped off the consensus path is a very, very weird feeling. (Do I miss it? Besides friends and neighbors, not really)

I keep hyping you guys up on how awesome Idaho is But little did I expect my posts to have such an amazing direct impact on the public markets Proud to have lifted up the purchasing power of senior citizens across the nation via their SPX portfolios Thank you for your attention to this matter. And thank you, Idaho.

The number of randos that are sliding into my LI because they saw my profile on SearchFunder is wild Everyone and their grandmother pitching me on every conceivable kind of M&A and marketing service I get cold emails too trying to sell me website and cold email services (how meta, right?) As a (former) searcher, you are constantly being sold to, but it's precisely NOT what you set out to buy (a small business) It's like being a business owner walking into an ACG event where the room is full of sharks smelling blood

These observations are spot on for a number of dimensions on my mind this weekend. The financial ROI on a college education has been declining for a long time. Tuition growth WAY above CPI, the fate of entry jobs increasingly uncertain. But the social return remains sky high, at least for me. 80% of my best friendships have come through my alma mater. When else are you going to have 4 years of recurring spontaneous run-ins and interactions within a small campus footprint? The real world doesn’t work like that. And college was only the seed stage for this network. It was only the first chapter. Post graduation, many of us became roommates in NYC. And then I really got to know most of my college friend group by traveling the world together in the early 2010s (Oktoberfest in Munich, Southern France, Istanbul, Dubai, China, and many other places). We have a WhatsApp group chat going on for almost 15 years now, named “TravelFrat” (and yes, we’re co-ed). Over the years, the friend group has grown, as many members have brought in their spouses and own friends, and many mini networks have coalesced. But one constant has remained - our formative college experience has been the foundation for all of this, and always will be. And that, to me, is priceless. So I’ve worked extremely hard to indoctrinate my 5 year old this weekend. She thinks she has a choice. But no, she doesn’t. It’s Princeton or bust

It's amazing being back in my college town for my 15th Reunion. This may be the happiest place in America this weekend, air full of nostalgia and school spirit It's also funny when you see classmates in 4 or 5 year intervals, because it feels like you're watching their lives in fast forward (this can be a good or a bad thing). Bringing kids also means the Reunions experience evolves over time. I remember a few years ago we were just trying to keep our one-year old from dying in the 95 degree NJ heat, while my friend group was raging next to us, not a care in the world. We were early A LOT more people here with kids this time around, or thinking about having kids. Another great thing is that, in this Twitter bubble, we think everyone is always aware of what we're doing all the time, judging us, watching our progress. But in the real world, surprisingly few people know what we're up to. And that's comforting to some extent. Nobody is watching. So do the non-consensus thing. The non-NYC, non-East Coast thing. Do your thing in life, and have fun telling people that you can just pack up and move into the mountains if you want, instead of slaving away at Morgan Stanley in Midtown Manhattan.

The OneManLBO Story Part 1: My Unlikely Journey into Investment Banking, or, Make Sure You Get Lucky in Life My first exposure to investment banking occurred in October 2007, when Lehman Brothers, a still legendary institution at the time, came to campus. Princeton was a prime target school for them, feeding hordes of ambitious undergrads into the insatiable money machine, year in and year out, like clockwork. The US economy was rocking and rolling, deal flow was gleaming hot, and here they were, a sleek group of suits and ties, true masters of the universe, filing into the ballroom of the Nassau Inn in front of a crowd of wide-eyed undergrads. Including yours truly, a lowly, know-nothing freshman in his navy blue blazer with gold buttons, sticking out like a sore thumb. I still remember the moment Lehman COO Joe Gregory stepped out into the breathless limelight in a pair of Texas cowboy boots, proclaiming that being a banker was the single greatest job in the world. Part of me was disturbed by his overbearing, alpha demeanor. Part of me was impressed. It was my first glimpse into a strange and fascinating world, with zero context or reference point. Suffice it to say, I was intrigued, and intrigue was all it took to plant a seed. A year later, Gregory was out, Lehman went bust, bankers were classified as a permanently disgraced species in the history books, and the American economy went into a tailspin. But it didn't matter. I was a sophomore. Unlike the hundreds of thousands of juniors and seniors staring into the abyss of 2008 and 2009, I wasn't force-ejected into a barren, desolate hellscape of an internship and job market. I got lucky. Yes, I got supremely lucky, and this would become a recurring theme in my career. The spontaneous confluence of random factors and events can make or break critical life moments in extraordinary ways. For me, most of these life moments worked out favorably, sometimes insanely so, to the point that I sometimes pause to ask myself “what if?”. Then I quickly move on with my day, because I don’t want to think about it. By the time I applied for banking internships, it was the spring of 2010, the worst of the GFC was behind us, or so it seemed at a time when news flow was still controlled by the mainstream media outlets, the Internet moved at a snail’s pace, and the thought of seeing real-time KPIs by some freight brokerage expert or plastic bag manufacturing dude on Twitter was still the stuff of wild futuristic imagination. I applied to a bunch of internships. Consulting, banking, the usual brand name subjects. I didn’t have the greatest GPA, and freshman year (a big adjustment period for me) had created a bit of an airpocket I was slowly digging myself out of, averaging higher with every passing semester. I was a public school kid with an autodidactic streak and a perfectionist tendency that was out of touch with the practical, speedreading, 80/20 principle requirements of an Ivy League education. I had learned to work hard, but not smart. I slept maybe 5 hours on average freshman year. Guess how many interviews I was invited to? One. Exactly one. Yeah. So, I did the logical thing. I took the train to New York City to go to Macy’s and buy my very first business suit (DKNY, gray). The sales rep (named Bipur) said I would get 20% off if I applied for a Macy’s credit card. I never had owned a credit card before, nor had ever heard the term FICO score. Sure, I said. Sounds great. They ran credit, and I got swiftly declined. Twice. So I paid cash. The interview was held in February 2010, after a complete New Jersey snowmageddon couple of days with 20 inches total. I remember walking up campus, barely able to sidestep deep puddles of slush, secretly hoping that the weather would deter a good number of competing juniors from showing up. But sadly, this was Princeton, a deep ocean of bottomless ambition. Alas. The bank hosted their interviews at a hotel, and as I entered the lobby, I bumped into a girl I knew from a student business group I was involved in, who was on her way out from her own interview. “How was it?” I asked. “Good,” she said. “It’s not too technical, but they will ask you for one stock you would buy, and one you would short.” My heart sank. I didn’t know what the term “shorting” meant. I am dead serious. My class load at the time was a mix of humanities, economics, and philosophy. No choice. I swallowed and confessed to her, in complete embarrassment. She was extremely gracious. “Just say you’d short the Euro,” she said, which even to a doofus like me, seemed to make a ton of sense in the raging depths of the European sovereign debt crisis of 2010. So that’s exactly what I did during my interview. “I would short the Euro, Sir,” I said with supreme confidence. “OK”, said the banker. It was good enough. And once again, I had gotten lucky. I got the internship. NYC baby! Life was glorious. The summer of 2010 would be legendary. A few weeks later, I was out on a Saturday night and bumped into another acquaintance of mine (who I knew from the same student business group, coincidentally). Let’s call him Josh. Two important notes for context: 1) Josh was absolutely hammered, and 2) Josh had interned at the bank I just got my internship offer at. “HOLY SHIT!” Josh exclaimed when I told him I got the job. He leaned forward, almost falling into me. “YOU HAVE TO JOIN NATURAL RESOURCES!,” he yelled, the stale smell of beer on his breath. "THAT TEAM IS FUCKING AMAZING! YOU GOTTA EMAIL THE TEAM LEAD, SHE’LL MAKE SURE YOU GET IN!” To this day, I don’t know if he remembers this moment. But it was formative. Because I’d never given any spontaneous thought to natural resources, or the oil and gas industry (I think every major bank has rebranded to "renewables" today). The Permian Basin, lateral shale gas drilling (all the rage in the early 2010s), MLPs… I would have never, ever thought about any of this. Had I not run into Josh. So I emailed our school team leader, who was a Vice Chairman at the bank, about my interest in the Natural Resources group. She emailed the group head about me. And I got placed into that group for the summer. Which I later found out was a top 3 industry franchise on the Street. And at the end of that glorious NYC summer of 2010 (too many wild stories), I signed a full-time return offer, on the spot, without any hesitation. “Do you have any questions?”, the HR rep sitting next to my staffer asked me, offer on the table. “Do you have a pen?”, I asked. (My staffer still laughs at that moment, to this day.) Boom. Done. I was officially a master of the universe, against all odds. Once again, I had gotten lucky. Exactly one path had worked for me. One singular path, with no real alternatives. And it wouldn’t be the last time. — If you have gotten this far and are still reading this, thank you. You may also wonder what the hell this is. In simple terms: I enjoy long-form writing, and I am trying to share a bit more about my personal journey here on Twitter. It’s been a while since my last major life update post, written on 12/31/24 and linked below. That was the moment I embarked on my search for a small business acquisition. I am trying to write a series of posts bridging from the past to the present, and ultimately the future. This will happen in an organic, piecemeal fashion. I wrote this post while sitting on the tarmac in ORD waiting for air traffic control to clear our landing in EWR. It’s been 90 minutes. This felt like a good time. If you enjoyed the read, let me know. And I may write Part 2.

Getting on a plane for a 3 week trip East Coast, Germany, Sweden Wife ran the packing logistics with absolute military grade discipline and efficiency Oldest daughter did NOT want to leave Idaho, even though she loves planes and is closing in on 100 flights in 5 years I’m kinda looking forward to coming home already. I take that as a good sign about where we live. “Idaho” by the Gorillaz is an amazing song by the way