Buying a $40m Business as a 49-Year-Old First-Timer

Especially in a post recession, post council world, it was time for something new. We just didn't know what it would be. And so she ultimately agreed to go on this grand adventure with me.

And we picked up the kids and moved to what I always. The Hershes had their own manifest destiny on the west coast and got out there and it was a great company. It was purchased right in the middle of the recession when everybody else was having a panic attack buying companies.

The guys love that. And so I really went to work on the back end. There was a great CEO and a great team, but growing it, building out the processes, building out the structure so we could scale it. That was really where I was able to go and shine.

And Greg, what kind of say more about what this platform business was, what kind of trucking business? And then what was the opportunity that you all or Don or whomever spotted to go out and roll this industry up? Say more about that.

Yeah, absolutely, will. So we. That particular one was he bought a really cool company and we're gonna. And needed to scale it up and grow it.

So that's where we started. And then about a year or two into it, there Was a conversation of, hey, this flatbed specialized trucking business industry had never been rolled up. You know, dry vans have been rolled up, reefers have been rolled up, A lot of things have been rolled up, but not specialized trucking.

And that was just primarily because it was a unique group of people. It's a lot of mavericks that do that, a lot of strong willed folks and bringing them all together. I also think we hit a part of the market.

I mentioned the recession a couple times because that just changes everything. There's these moments in time that changes things. And those were all mostly second, third generation companies.

And I think they said, hey, we just survived that recession and maybe, you know, linking up with others and making ourselves bigger and stronger would make some sense. So there was a market there that maybe not had been there a few years before of folks looking to band together for resiliency. So we continued to grow the platform company.

That was my day job and we scaled that in about four years from about 38 million to about 90 million. And that was processes, people building a growth mentality. Knowing that 20% growth a year is very viable.

You have to build out the infrastructure to catch it. And you've got to have the right team mentality. And you might need some either new team members or a shuffle of the deck of a little bit of what everybody's roles are, but it's very doable.