Ep. 224: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Godard Abel (@GodardAbel). My guest is Godard Abel, founder and CEO of G2, an enterprise software marketplace that helps software buyers find the right software for their companies and key problems. G2 is the third company he has led as CEO, the first two being BigMachines, founded in 2000, and SteelBrick, founded in 2014. We talk about lessons learned building all three companies, challenges he’s currently facing, picking the right industries to...

Ep. 223: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Rick Torres (@rick-torres). My guest on this episode is Rick Torres, CEO and co-founder of Applikate Technologies, a digital pathology hardware and software business with a device that can examine tissue many multiples faster than traditional physical slide processes can today. I find this company fascinating given the life science and data element of the business and loved diving into the science behind pathology and how Applikate is making it so...

Ep. 222: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Dan Cremons (@DanCremons). My guest today is Dan Cremons, author of Winning Moves, 105 Proven Ways to Create Value in Private Equity-Backed Companies, and founder of Accelera Partners where he focuses on helping private equity groups unlock people-powered value creation. Dan started at Alpine Investors for 12 years before leaving in 2021 to found Accelera, and his book is an incredibly thorough documentation of everything he learned about the private...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

This is my 200th episode of Think Like an Owner, and for this special episode I’ve invited my good friend Justin Mazeka Vogt on for the honors. Justin and his business partner Ed Redden were among the very first to reach out to me when I first started the podcast 5 years ago. We’ve discussed this episode’s topics extensively, from thinking bigger to gaining leverage and designing the ideal life for ourselves, all topics Justin is passionate and thoughtful about. We also talk about what...

Ep.199: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Ann Rhoades (@Ann_Rhoades). I’m thrilled to share my episode today with Ann Rhoades on building values-driven cultures that drive outperformance. Ann was the VP of People at Southwest Airlines with founder Herb Kelleher and was a founding executive as VP of People, and eventually a board member of JetBlue Airways. She has also worked with companies like Doubletree Hotels, P.F. Changs, Restoration Hardware, and countless others through her consulting...