My deal juices are flowing and it’s exciting and a full circle moment for me, really Went from a few years in the deal making business (investment banking) -> to a decade plus in the analytical business (fundamental HF), ivory tower environment and deep thinking -> back to the deal side, earnest shot at buying a small business last year with both brokered + off market approach, direct response outreach relationship building focused (enjoyed this) -> greenfielding a niche recruiting business using a lot of the learnings from M&A deal sourcing and relationship building, with very deep analytical / domain expertise / system focus I’m back baby. This is essentially human capital deal brokerage, but I’m trying to build something that is much higher touch and intentional than the Wild West of “cold calling based on vibes”, resume shotgunning generalist recruiters, who will face enormous pressure going forward More like exec search for the middle market. Very strategic in GTM and match making. An inch wide and a mile deep. Early days but some small wins and it’s exhilarating

In case you didn't know, your cell number is floating on the internet, on probably 4-5 different websites Along with your address and every address you ever lived at And your family member names And your age And (some of) your private email addresses Oh, and it's mostly free to pull up all this info, and it's never been easier Why do I know this? Because I headhunt I'd bet 95% of people are not aware of this and would be shocked how much information about them is out there It's truly insane

Happiness really is reality minus expectations Couldn’t be more true in business Any new endeavor most likely takes 5-10 years to reach serious escape velocity momentum + scale Silence is the default on the first 8-10 outbound touches Everything becomes easier if you put in the reps mechanically without emotional involvement You just need blind trust in the compounding, which will kick in as long as you don’t quit All failure is really mental besides death (I believe that’s a Jocko quote) Everything will be so obvious in hindsight, but in the beginning, you need blind, unfazed, quiet trust, and LOTS OF IT

Starting a business from zero is tough Not just because you need to brute force your value proposition into a market place that's never heard of you But also because every progress and setback is a direct and intimate reflection of yourself It's the ultimate accountability journey It is a painful grind Not having enough hours in the day is like constantly running out of oxygen And any wasted minute comes out of your family time budget It's brutal and it's the ultimate forcing function to become better, slowly, every day The constraints, limits, and errors of being human hurt a lot when you encounter them every day, but your capacity expands, every day, brick by brick and phone call by phone call You think you built this business? Nah, the business built YOU. You're on to a much better version of yourself. It's about self actualization. That is the whole, entire goal of being on this mission.

It's funny, as a headhunter / recruiter, you're really a story teller Stories sell. And you help the candidate tell the best story about their journey and strengths (they have to be good, of course). The one-pager profile I compile for them BLOWS THEIR MIND. They have never seen anything like it. I can see their self-confidence shoot through the roof. Yeah bro, you got representation now. The companies have never seen anything like it. We don't need a freaking generic resume. We just need a branded one-pager that hones in on stories, KPIs, and problem-solving abilities. It boggles the mind how many talented people don't get hired because they drown in a sea of generic paper where they can't achieve differentiation. And then, all of a sudden, you realize you are the match-maker who has just created a synergistic deal and opportunity for both sides OUT OF NOTHING And you go, HOLY SH*IT, this is kinda cool

Accurate We are so back

Signed my first client contract today. Huge enterprise (in top 100 nationally). And immediately submitted candidate (who I already had). It took 20+ multi-channel touches and weeks of persistence across multiple stakeholders to get this done. Calls, emails, LinkedIn video messages, holy sh*t do you need persistence in this game Loooooooooong road ahead ha. But proof of concept... is there. As an analytical person, ramping up my outreach volume has been my biggest personal challenge. In the beginning, you are so freaking slow and inefficient, and you have to fight the perfectionist impulse of a decade long analyst stint. You overthink EVERYTHING. But this is progress. Small wins, every day

At BOI, a bacon, egg and cheese bagel runs $8.60 At SFO, it’s $18 and subject to a 5% employee benefit surcharge Both live data points from this morning What did I do? Of course I bought 20 of these at BOI and tried to sell them out of my carry-on suitcase at SFO during my 1.5 hour layover Arbitrage, always

With mortgage rates hitting 7.1% Good luck to anyone out there with boomer parents insisting on home ownership at any cost “Oh yeah, I remember 16% rates in the 70s, we made it work.” Yeah dude, that’s because a SFH was like $250K back then in today’s dollars OF COURSE THAT PENCILED

The independent sponsor market feels like one step behind the SBA buyer wave in terms of popularity Financing has always felt more "nebulous" / more challenging to me (can't really do this with friends & family) So you could argue that accessibility to the mainstream corporate guy has always been lower At the same time, I feel like these deals are vastly more competitive Since you bump up against PE and strategic buyers a lot more at $2M-$10M in EBITDA At the end of the day, I think gritty and capable people will always be able to close a deal on a long enough timeline All this influx just creates more noise, but there's a big difference between "capable capital" and "incapable capital" (and you could argue the capable capital has been in this game for some time) Very similar evolution to SBA search actually

I just watched a cold email video on YT that basically concludes "cold email still works" Well yeah, if you send 100K+ emails with a generic offer to every CEO in America with >25 employees and >5 years in business (which is what these guys did) Well, no shit Yes, if you push out that kind of volume, it "works" But man, your meeting conversion sucks And you messed up the game just a little more for everyone else who's running a more targeted strategy People get too much email every day It makes them as numb to any kind of inbound as general anesthesia

Two years of building. Today is Day 1 of our relentless march to fix hiring for everyone. Hiring sucks. Businesses hate it. Job seekers hate it. Everyone has accepted it as the cost of finding people. The reason is friction. -Friction to post. -Friction to review resumes. -Friction to schedule. -Friction to share. -Friction to contract and onboard. It’s friction. So we built a marketplace designed to remove friction. Made by recruiters, for businesses that don’t have time to recruit. Search a role. Match with the right people in seconds. Watch intro videos. Book interviews for tomorrow. All in under 15 minutes. That’s Scout OS. A searchable marketplace for busy owners and hiring managers who need great people in minutes. Browse 400k candidates with a free profile. Want to interview? $99/mo. Cancel anytime, or when the hire is done. You only pay the success fee after the contract is signed: $1,999. To celebrate our launch, half off for the first 30 days — $999. You get 60 days of hire protection free. Payroll, assessments, and the rest are in the product. After 60 days, $149/mo. Cancel anytime. 200+ businesses are already hiring on it. If you complete a hire in the next 30 days, the success fee is half off— $999. Try it. When it works, send it to a friend. You get 10% back on every hire they make for the first year.

Table by fountain

See you at 10 AM Finde the guy with the Wraith hat And the guy with the Sun Valley shirt (GOTTA REPRESENT IDAHO IN NYC)

Happening tomorrow 10 AM Bryant Park (fountain) Lots of RSVPs Will be a good time! NYC is beautiful right now. See you there SMBoys and gals

I had literally forgotten about humidity as a concept Until about an hour ago when I stepped off the plane and outside the airport into the majestic New Jersey evening air Gosh, how life used to be different

My wife letting me know she’s about to take the bus back from NYC to New Jersey while I wait outside of Mathnasium to pickup my daughter before we grab pizza. I can’t wait to drive into NYC on Saturday morning to hang out with a bunch of over caffeinated Patagonia boys like myself to talk small business!