Think Like an Owner

Ep.221: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Moises Eilemberg (@Meilemberg). My guest is Moises Eilemberg, CEO of XiltriX, a 24-7 life science asset monitoring business that started 5 years ago with 36 employees today and growing swiftly. Moises is unique in that this is his second time as a CEO, his first being back in 2006 when he acquired a healthcare revenue cycle management company Avadyne, which he ran for 11 years before exiting, making 4 add-on acquisitions during that time. Moises has a ton of experience to share leading teams, improving unit economics, building sales orgs, and managing the change that comes with integrating add-on acquisitions. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: XiltriX Moises on LinkedIn Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:20) - Moises’ career & XiltriX (00:07:02) - Becoming comfortable with the CEO role (00:09:33) - When did you start acquiring companies? (00:12:35) - How did your integration process change as you acquired more companies? (00:22:14) - Is there a reason you chose to be in this industry? (00:25:27) - What is the state of your market today? (00:29:12) - Is the market fragmented to a point where there are M&A opportunities? (00:31:40) - What’s driving the biologics growth over the past few years? (00:33:30) - What did you apply from your experience at Avadyne into XiltriX? (00:36:44) - What was your experience setting Sales comps? (00:42:57) - What levers have you used to improve unit economics?

My guest today is Tom Klein, former Morningside Co-CEO alongside recent podcast guest Roland Lessard. This episode with Tom acts as a part two pairing with our February episode with Roland where we talked about M&A value creation after close. Tom and I today discuss M&A value creation largely pre-close of add-ons, talking through industry selection, sourcing methodologies, industry knowledge snowballs, building a reputation, and working with lender partners. Tom has been involved in 12 M&A transactions across Morningside and his previous experience in background screening. As an aside to you the listener, I’m really enjoying recent discussions on M&A value creation and consolidation strategies. If this is an expertise of yours or someone you know, I’d love to connect and chat more so please reach out. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Tom on LinkedIn Greenwich Point Capital Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:37) - Deep focused search approaches vs. scattershot approaches (00:11:18) - What numbers and measurements do you use when determining interest in an industry? (00:20:42) - How do you think about proof of success when examining companies within an industry? (00:28:29) - What are some of your favorite ways to research an industry? (00:34:11) - What are the key characteristics of a business you need to see when acquiring? (00:39:47) - What are some industries you were close to investing in but passed on? (00:43:50) - What do you start looking for once you’ve finalized a platform acquisition? (00:54:50) - What are some key questions you ask sellers? (01:01:35) - What do you look for in lenders? (01:18:30) - Advice for folks pursuing consolidation thesis’

The intersection of media and data has been the top idea on my mind for quite some time now. And my guest today, Craig Fuller, runs one of the best modern examples of this concept in action. FreightWaves, founded in 2016, is a media and data company focused on trucking, freight, supply chains, and all things logistics. To date, they have raised $91 million, will hit $42 million in revenue this year, split 55/45 between data and media, and have a valuation of between $300 and 400 million today. Craig’s work building FreightWaves has been an invaluable model for my work at HW Media as Chief of Staff with CEO Clayton Collins and the rest of our team. Conversations like this one have been instrumental in our discussions on the future of HW Media as an all-things housing media business. But we, and especially myself, also believe this model, this intersection of media and data can be a replicable strategy across industries. The goal of my episode with Craig today was to better understand how media and data can work together to create transformative companies, and I’m grateful for Craig’s willingness to share his experience and expertise. Throughout the episode, we talk about what data sets to focus on first in an industry and how to build around them, developing the product roadmap, the media data flywheel, hiring effective editorial and sales teams, and the investor perception of FreightWaves. Enjoy. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Craig on LinkedIn FreightWaves The Economics of Data Businesses by Abraham Thomas Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:05:08) - Why do media companies typically misunderstand ‘data’ and data companies? (00:07:51) - How did the Media & Data arms of FreightWaves impact each other as you built this business? (00:13:44) - When you think back about creating high-frequency data, how did you approach building it for FreightWaves? (00:18:32) - Where has the bulk of your capital gone in building the company? (00:28:02) - How do you think about expanding your data sets going forward? (00:32:50 - Who is involved in your product development process? (00:38:44) - How did you two sides of your business interact in the early days, and has that changed over time? (00:50:12) - How do you attract high-quality talent? (00:54:56) - How do you structure your sales teams? How do you think about pricing? (01:02:01) - What’s the investor perception of businesses running on Media & Data?

Ep. 218: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Henry Schuck (@HenryLSchuck). My guest today is Henry Schuck, founder and CEO at ZoomInfo, one of the most successful data businesses in recent times with a market cap today around $12B. I’ve been looking forward to this podcast for a long time because Henry has proven to be an effective founder, acquirer, and public CEO capital allocator, which is a rare combination of skills to find in a single CEO. He’s thought very deeply about building high performing organizations, sales functions, and how his own role needs to evolve as the company grows. We talk through lessons learned building vs acquiring capabilities, M&A and integration lessons learned, fixing problems with a process vs culture approach, and how data businesses will succeed in the future Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Zoominfo Henry on X Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:49) - What would you focus on if you were running Boeing? (00:07:26) - How have you seen other CEOs solve culture vs. process problems? (00:12:47) - How do you approach hiring? (00:20:28) - How can you incentivize employees to buy into company values? (00:23:11) - What have you learned working with investors and other CEOs to be a great founder and M&A executive? (00:26:52) - How do you incorporate new tools or partners into Zoominfo? (00:33:53) - What have you learned about integrating acquired companies? (00:36:24) - How do you get a conviction when doing due diligence on a potential acquisition? (00:38:49) - What skills around M&A are you looking to improve? (00:41:19) - How will data companies in the future succeed?

Ep.217: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Mike Stone (@michael-stone). My guest today is Mike Stone, CEO of CertaPro Painters, the largest painting company in North America structured as a franchise with 370 owners across 500 territories and over $700m in revenue. Their goal is to become a $1B company shortly and a $2.5B revenue company by 2032. The painting industry is a $60B industry growing modestly and is highly fragmented, making this an interesting industry to explore given the lack of similarly-sized national competitors. Mike and I talk about why the industry is so fragmented, the tailwinds behind the industry, what needs to evolve and grow to hit their growth goals, and how CertaPro builds a differentiated playbook within home services. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Mike on LinkedIn CertaPro Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:26) - Mike’s path to the CEO of CertaPro (00:09:16) - Meeting Herb Kelleher (00:11:25) - Where does your company stand today among competition? (00:13:14) - What is holding back your competition from scaling like you? (00:14:54) - Is it faster growing under a franchise model? (00:19:52) - Are there other consolidators chasing talent? (00:22:37) - What has become harder as you’ve grown? (00:26:59) - Successful meeting structures (00:29:24) - What data do you value for marketing? (00:32:22) - How does seasonality affect business? (00:33:43) - What else do you need to build to scale to your goals?

Ep.215: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Ayman Al-Abdullah (@aymanalabdul). My guest today is Ayman Al-Abdullah, former CEO of Appsumo and now executive coach to other ambitious CEOs looking to scale 7 and 8-figure businesses past $100m, Ayman’s specialty. I love learning from CEOs who’ve made that journey and can share key lessons and takeaways, and Ayman fits that to a “T.” He’s also a Durham native, which is where my wife and I will be moving to this summer so we had some fun talking about his move from Austin. Ayman and I talk about chokepoints in a company’s growth, habits that made him successful at Appsumo, why he stepped down as CEO, and how other ambitious CEOs can be more effective in their leadership roles. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Ayman on X Ayman's website How to Make a Few Billion Dollars by Brad Jacobs The Accountant Trailer Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:20) - Leaving AppSumo to pursue coaching (00:12:28) - What was the most informative experience for you in the CEO role? (00:14:27) - What gets companies over the $7m hurdle? (00:18:26) - What culture questions do you enjoy asking? (00:24:03) - Improving the Sales role (00:25:50) - Who was the best salesperson you ever hired? (00:27:38) - Skills you need vs. what can be taught in sales (00:31:34) - Have you reflected on whether you were born to be a CEO? (00:34:44) - What have you found that helps CEOs succeed in the role? (00:37:29) - Weekly journaling and exercise rituals (00:42:30) - Ayman’s 25-year vision (00:50:57) - Do you study other CEOs? (00:53:25) - The hero’s journey (01:02:41) - What’s something you’re passionate about?

Ep.214: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Dennis Dresser (@DennisDresser). My guest today is Dennis Dresser. Dennis was a sales leader at IBM and Oracle and became CRO at Anaplan and Dialpad before taking on an advisory role with companies looking to develop best-in-class sales organizations. Throughout his career, he’s developed a playbook for creating these high-performing sales teams and has thought deeply about talent management, performance management, and implementing better processes. This episode dives into some of that playbook along with characteristics to look for in hiring great sales leaders, scaling sales orgs, sales qualification methodologies, and so much more. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: JMI Equity Dennis on LinkedIn Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:17) - Career lessons learned (00:06:27) - Evolving a Sales Team (00:08:14) - Churn impacts (00:10:10) - The high-performance sales framework (00:14:28) - Characteristics of successful Salespeople (00:15:58) - Hiring in Sales (00:18:29) - Is there one skill or quality you’ve been able to coach up? (00:21:17) - The Sales Qualification Methodology (00:23:50) - What are some effective ways to involve those outside of Sales in the process? (00:25:43) - Where do you see Sales Teams most often get stuck? (00:29:15) - Characteristics of a high-performing prospecting function? (00:32:14) - The future of content marketing (00:35:04) - Advice to CEOs and heads of Sales teams

Ep.213: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Armon Petrossian (@ArmonPetrossian). My guest today is Armon Petrossian, co-founder and CEO of data transformation company Coalesce, built on Snowflake’s ecosystem. Armon and I kick off talking about his time in China and learning Mandarin in undergrad, and move through topics like building within Snowflake’s, nuances in selling to enterprises, hiring in sales, opportunities in data, and navigating challenging topics with a co-founder. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Coalesce Armon on X Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:54) - Experiences living in China (00:09:59) - Founding Coalesce (0012:14) - How does Data Transformation work? (00:13:46) - Choosing to build around SnowFlake (00:20:01) - What other opportunities arise as data becomes more abundant? (00:22:41) - Where are you investing capital right now? (00:23:49) - What evolution does your sales team need to make right now? (00:27:39) - What’s a typical sales cycle for you? (00:29:54) - What have you learned about selling to enterprises that people often struggle with? (00:31:36) - Navigating political dynamics or relationships (00:33:02) - What do you look for in new sales hires? (00:35:11) - What have you become passionate about within building the company? (00:38:32) - How do you handle disagreements with your co-founder? (00:42:00) - What works for retaining engineers? (0044:54) - What companies do you admire? (00:45:30)- Advice to other data founders

Ep.212: Alex Bridgeman (@aebridgeman) is joined by Sieva Kozinsky (@sievakozinsky). My guest on this episode is Sieva Kozinsky, co-founder of Enduring Ventures, a holding company founded in 2019 with 17 acquisitions to date. Sieva and I met at a dinner following the Berkshire Hathaway meeting in Omaha, his first time attending the meeting. A theme from our first conversations in Omaha that continues through this episode is long-term thinking being a huge advantage, and that compounding happens everywhere. Reputation, lessons, and learning - well beyond capital alone. Given that our guest last week, Eric Jorgenson, is the CEO of one of Enduring's companies, I thought this would be a timely episode to bring back to the top of the feed We talk about Sieva’s background as a founder and how it impacts his role at Enduring Ventures, how he discovered he is a better buyer than a builder, great companies and founders he’s studied and taken lessons from, and much more. Enjoy! Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Sieva on LinkedIn Sieva on Twitter Enduring Ventures Founders Podcast Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow The Gambler: How Penniless Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History by William Rempel Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:27) Belief Documents (00:09:13) Long-termism trends (00:11:57) Takeaways from the Berkshire Event (00:20:36) Helping employees & executives think and behave like an owner (00:26:17) Being a Buyer vs. Builder (00:33:08) Culture Index (00:35:55) The importance of having experience as a founder/operator to succeed at Enduring (00:44:50) Perretto Prinicples (00:54:17) Habits, tactics, and learnings from biographies on great founders and companies (01:08:46) What strongly held belief have you changed your mind on? (01:10:06) What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?

Ep.211: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Eric Jorgenson (@EricJorgenson). My guest on this episode is Eric Jorgenson. Eric became a close friend while my wife and I lived in Omaha. I love the energy and enthusiasm he brings to whatever he’s doing, whether it’s investing in tech startups, writing books like The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and The Anthology of Balaji, hosting his Smart Friends podcast, or telling you about the latest innovations in sandwich making. And as of last summer he is the CEO of Scribe Media, a book publisher where the author retains full creative control and financial upside from their creations, and in my opinion, is the perfect business for Eric to run. In this episode, we talk about the publishing business, the power of books over other creative mediums, his new role as CEO of Scribe, and what he’s learned as an author himself. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Eric's books Scribe Smart Friends Podcast Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:18) - The power of writing (00:06:27) - The business side of being an author (00:12:44) - Is there a ‘right’ time in someone’s career to write a book? (00:18:46) - The business of Scribe (00:27:06) - Podcasts vs. books (00:31:22) - The story of Enduring Ventures stepping in to buy Scribe and making Eric the CEO (00:38:59) - Learning how to be a CEO (00:44:51) - What are some publisher benchmarks to compare Scribe to? (00:50:22) - Do you see large publishers trying to replicate your model? (00:55:22) - Who would you be excited to write a book about? (00:57:18) - What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned in your time as CEO?

This week, we are running the episode I did with Chris Powers on the Fort podcast where I was a guest on that show, and in this episode, we talked all about my background, my interest in data, the podcast, and all kinds of other things that kinds of weird theories I have about restaurants too near the end! This is a good episode showcasing not only the origin of this podcast, but also a good friend of mine, Chris Powers, his podcast, which I think is awesome, especially if you're into real estate. But it's also helpful if you're not, he's got episodes covering all kinds of areas of business and life and he's a really close friend of mine and a podcast that I really enjoy listening to. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: The Fort Podcast Chris on X Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:06:29) “If you want to buy a business, don’t start a search fund, start a podcast.” (00:13:13) The impact of Think Like an Owner (00:17:13) The Chief of Staff role (00:29:24) The content customer acquisition flywheel (00:33:47) What are the structures of data companies? (00:38:17) Are we living in a world where everything we do is creating data for someone else? (00:41:59) Does AI impact the data world? (00:43:34) What would it look like to buy a data business? (00:48:10) Would you implement a content flywheel if you owned a data company? (00:50:08) How would you grow a data business? (00:51:47) What fascinates you about the sales side of data business? (00:56:20) Alex’s Chicken Theory

My guest on this episode is Roland Lessard, former Co-CEO of Morningside with his partner Tom Klein, a language translation services business that served over 4,000 clients in 55 countries. A core piece of their thesis revolved around M&A, and Tom and Roland through that experience acquired deep domain expertise in creating value through a methodological M&A and, more importantly, integration process. This episode is all about M&A and corporate development, both for companies doing occasional M&A and those with more programmatic strategies, which is where Roland is spending most of his town now as an advisor to CEOs. Today Roland and I talk about the “why” of M&A, how M&A most often destroys value and how to avoid this, getting the team right prior to beginning M&A, assembling and leading an integration team, planning for integration and pitfalls to avoid, and the role of debt. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Roland on LinkedIn Morningside Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:34) - Catching up (00:06:45) - Categorizing M&A (00:09:45) - Why should someone consider pursuing M&A? (00:16:22) - Horizontal deals (00:21:48) - Building Integration Teams (00:33:44) - Having a 12-month outlook, maximum (00:41:03) - Creating a dealbook (00:47:31) - Benchmarks for processes and projects (00:55:07) - Categories of integrations (00:59:56) - Metrics to track in order to make sure you’re staying on goal (01:04:23) - The role of debt (01:08:31) - Key Takeaways

My guest on this episode is Richard Reese. Richard took over as CEO of Iron Mountain, a physical records management business, in 1981. He ran the business as CEO through going public in 1996 before retiring from the role in 2013. Revenue over that period grew from around $3 million in 1981 to $3 billion in 2013. Our discussion focuses on incentivizing teams with cash and stock, something Richard has thought deeply about over many decades, developing compensation plans, working with private and public investors, and a few stories from the early years of running Iron Mountain. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Richard on LinkedIn Iron Mountain Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:05:17) - Richard’s background, career, and time as CEO for Iron Mountain (00:15:18) - What became easier when you went public? What became harder? (00:18:44) - What did your management team look like when you stepped in and how did you look to evolve it? (00:25:43) - When you started thinking about incentivizing the management team, what were some ways you got them to buy in? (00:39:49) - What kind of challenges did you run into with equity compensations?

Ep.207: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Savneet Singh (@SavneetS). My guest today is Savneet Signh, CEO of PAR Technology, a billion-dollar market cap publicly traded point of sale software business serving the restaurant industry. I’ve been following Savneet’s career since college when he went on Invest Like the Best talking about acquiring software businesses through his holding company Tera. Through that work he connected with PAR, joining the board and eventually replacing the CEO. Since then he’s turned the business around and is finding more success. Savneet and I talk about turning around teams, management techniques he’s developed, his role as a teacher and chief communicator at PAR, and his views on software businesses from an investor perspective. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: PAR An Excellent Puzzle by Will Larson Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:02) - Joining the board of Par, becoming CEO, and saving the company from bankruptcy (00:14:08) - Retaining speed over time (00:16:22) - Stages of structural changes (00:18:48) - Nurturing healthy tension (00:20:32) - Incentive models (00:25:29) - What have you learned about your role in making hard decisions? (00:29:08) - Communication styles (00:32:34) - What does a typical week look like for you? (00:34:23) - How has your view of M&A changed? (00:36:45) - What distinguishes a great product? (00:38:01) - Is being the all-in-one solution becoming the trend in SaaS? (00:40:01) - What stands out as a trend in software right now? (00:42:24) - Takeaways from running and growing product teams (00:43:59) - Communication between sales or product and customers (00:45:11) - Advice to listeners

Ep.206: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Tim Strickland (@Tim-Strickland). My guest today is Tim Strickland, former Chief Revenue Officer of ZoomInfo and now an advisory partner at Summit Partners. Tim led during a massive growth period for ZoomInfo and had to learn how to rapidly scale sales teams both within ZoomInfo and incorporate go-to-market teams from acquired companies. I’ve loved my own sales experience through data at Altos Research and wanted to hear what sales look like in hugely successful data companies just like ZoomInfo. Tim and I talk about the characteristics of high-performing sales teams, where companies get stuck and common challenges, key points in a company’s growth cycle for sales teams, and what he looks for in new sales hires. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about the audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Summit Advisory Tim on LinkedIn Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:37) - Tim’s Sales career and the impact on the CRO role (00:08:02) - Focuses for a sales team (00:15:07) - Key reorgs within the sales team at Zoominfo (00:17:39) - Defining the CRO Role (00:20:51) - What to look for when hiring (00:26:28) - What makes a good SDR into a great SDR (00:29:07) - Where do you see the sales team get stuck most often? (00:33:50) - Hard lessons learned

Ep.205: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Mike Wyman (@michael-k-wyman). My guest today, Mike Wyman, brings over 30 years of experience in various CFO roles to this episode where we dive into the CFO role, especially in newly acquired businesses with limited financial infrastructure. Today Mike advises CEOs throughout the search fund ecosystem on making critical CFO hires and brings his experience to several boards as well. In our discussion, Mike outlines the CFO mentality and focus on constant improvement, what the various phases look like early in a new CEO’s tenure concerning finance, and advice for hiring your financial team. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Mike on LinkedIn Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:02) - Mike’s favorite roles during his career (00:12:31) - Developing the CFO Mentality framework (00:16:19) - Early improvements to implement in a finance department post-acquisition (00:18:38) - Phases and priorities in the finance of a search fund company (00:30:27) - Hiring a CFO (00:34:07) - Responsibilities of a strategic CFO (00:36:25) - Personal discoveries about life as a CFO (00:38:16) - Common mistakes from CFOs and CEOs post-acquisition (00:39:57) - What makes an effective finance team? (00:42:25) - Closing advice

Ep.204: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Mike Zani (@MikeZani). My guest today is Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index, a talent optimization platform built around their nearly 70-year-old behavioral assessment tool. Today they help companies optimize their teams by identifying the key strengths of employees and hiring prospects to get the fit right. This is Mike’s third time being a CEO and he brings a wealth of knowledge around early team construction and scaling. Mike and I talk about the story of The Predictive Index, the evolving role of human resources, the landscape of tools to help optimize talent, and all kinds of lessons on change management. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: The Predictive Index Mike on LinkedIn The Science of Dream Teams by Mike Zani Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:18) - Acquiring Predictive Index (00:07:15) - The keys to early success (00:12:28) - Goals and ambitions in the early days post-acquisition (00:22:13) - Developing HR Teams (00:37:49) - How do you create a cohesive portfolio of tools to gather team data? (00:44:28) - The T-shirt analogy (00:53:00) - Improving yourself: Not listening (00:57:17) - Preparing for the next CEO role (01:00:19) - Maintaining high levels of energy (01:02:50) - The joys and frustrations of growing a company alone vs. with a partner

Ep.203: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by David Dodson (@Dave-Dodson). Today’s episode is a re-run of my conversation with David Dodson, an investor, professor, former CEO, and author of one of my new favorite management books, The Manager’s Handbook. We talk about the strategies and tactics he’s learned over many years of studying high-performing CEOs and distilled into his book. If you’re looking for a belated gift for an ambitious friend, I cannot recommend highly enough gifting a copy of The Manager’s Handbook. And now, please enjoy this fantastic primer discussion on the book with David Dodson. I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/ Links: Pick up a copy of The Manager's Handbook by David Dodson David on LinkedIn Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:15) David’s experience as a first-time author (00:09:33) The decision to design the book for busy people (00:11:24) The challenge for CEOs to read given their time constraints (00:14:08) The 5 skills that are common among great leaders (00:22:51) How readers can apply the book’s lessons to their company (00:27:14) How to improve meetings (00:32:19) Radical Candor (00:38:35) The impact effective communication has on the 5 skills (00:43:42) Thoughts on good hiring (00:50:46) Successfully onboarding a new hire (00:54:28) Knowing when to fire an employee (00:56:22) The fanatical custodian of time (01:01:10) Best email & Slack habits (01:09:47) What section David would add to the next revision

Ep.202: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Scott Barstow (@ScottBarstow). My guest today is Scott Barstow. Scott has founded and led tech companies and teams throughout his career. He now supports the Pacific Lake portfolio as an operating partner focused on building great software product and engineering orgs. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Scott through my Chief of Staff role with HW Media and Pacific Lake’s executive leadership program, and I think highly of his perspective on software and team construction. Scott has spent years thinking about what makes high-performing product orgs work, and in this episode, we dive into key characteristics of high performance and how software CEOs can implement them in their product teams. We talk about key fundamentals like culture, communication, ICP, to more complex topics like Conway’s law, the role of leadership, and recruiting tactics and strategies. I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Pacific Lake Scott on LinkedIn The Alliance by Reid Hoffman Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:04:14) - Framing the goals of a Product org and key roles (00:07:53) - Defining Product Software companies and key differences between product and engineering (00:14:16) - Who determines the priorities of features and creates a product roadmap? (00:16:48) - How to effectively communicate across an organization (00:23:04) - How the CEO’s role plays in prioritization (00:25:43) - Building trust in an organization (00:33:19) - Benchmarks for timing from idea to shipping (00:39:15) - How $5-$10m ARR product orgs scale (00:47:34) - Keeping teams independent and autonomous (00:56:41) - Recruiting (01:07:18) - Final thoughts

Ep.201: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Gary Walter Jr. (@GaryWalter). My guest on this episode is Gary Walter, Jr, who took over running Infutor, a consumer identity data business, as CEO after his father passed. Infutor took on investment from Norwest Venture Partners and experienced rapid growth before selling to Verisk for $250m in 2022. Today he advises other data companies and CEOs, with specialties in data and sales orgs. Gary and I talk about building great sales teams and go-to-market strategies, developing effective 5 year plans, and empowering your team. I want to tell you about our audience survey we are currently running. These surveys help us create the best content for listeners and better understand your needs and interests. Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback, we greatly appreciate it. After 30 days we are giving $250 cash to 4 survey responders, just add your email at the end of the survey. Take the survey here: https://bit.ly/3QLBB1N Links: Verisk Invest Like the Best: Brad Jacobs Topics: (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:39) - Gary’s intellectual curiosity (00:06:35) - Gary’s career in data and the state of Infutor (00:15:20) - Learnings from Gary’s father (00:18:59) - Hiring an executive team (00:21:21) - Empowering your team (00:23:38) - Finding your zone of genius (00:26:28) - Building a sales-driven culture (00:31:12) - Creating an effective strategic plan (00:32:50) - Handling disagreements (00:34:26) - Finding inspiration in others (00:37:25) - The sales strategy is more important than data being proprietary (00:40:32) - Synching product priorities (00:43:25) - The emotional side of selling a company (00:45:30) - How CEOs can effectively approach selling the company