In this interview, Speaker A shares how he transitioned from being a hands‑on operator to a strategic deal‑maker who owns businesses without needing deep operational knowledge. After a decade of running his own company, he discovered his weakness in day‑to‑day management and turned to mergers and acquisitions to acquire businesses that he could steer strategically while delegating operational execution to experts. He describes buying an HVAC company in 2019, applying a very light‑touch ERS (Execution‑Review‑Support) framework with monthly board meetings and key performance indicators, and spending only one to two days a week overseeing the business. The founder stayed on with a 20% equity stake, and two key directors received equity as part of the deal. Later, he hired an experienced sector CEO who previously grew a company from $20 M to $80 M to accelerate growth. Speaker A also explains his acquisition criteria—targeting 8‑figure profit companies with solid balance sheets in the construction/HVAC sector, which he now sees as future‑proof due to AI and robotics trends. The conversation highlights the philosophy that ownership can be strategic, that the right people in the right seats enable minimal owner involvement, and that equity incentives align management with growth objectives.
Chapters
You don't need to understand what a business does to own it successfully.
Okay. Fab. Where do you want to start? Do you want to go back to the government? No, leave the— no, we're going to leave the government. Let me go with where you are, right? So you don't need to understand a business to own it. You don't have to know anything about it. You do have to know how to run a business. You just don't need to know how that business does its thing. Was that what you mean?
I think all of that is up for scope because it took me a long, long time to realize I wasn't actually good at running a business.
Okay.
Probably after 10 years of owning a company, I realized I wasn't very good at it. So when I learned mergers and acquisitions, it was absolutely amazing. I realized I could go out and buy something, team up with somebody that does know how to run a business, And leave me to go out and do all the fun stuff, drawing the diagrams and the structures of where we're all going to get to. And someone else can go in and do what they do best, which goes back to the kind of EOS philosophy, the right person in the right seat.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm a dealmaker. I like strategy. So I've owned a HVAC company now for 6 years. It's a fantastic business and I still barely understand what they do, to be honest.
But you've got a managing director in there. And he, he, he or she is obviously very good at running the company. So do you have a series of KPIs that you're like, okay, as long as you're delivering this, I'm happy? And what's the— what's your cadence for— I mean, how many days, how many days a year do you— are you there managing that business, not managing that business?
I was in there for probably one one day per week, I think, in the first several years, maybe 1 to 2 days, because I'd bought it just before COVID So I was probably in there 1 to 2 days per week. So the founder was still involved, the 2 key directors were still involved. So all I instilled into that business was a very, very light-touch structure using the ERS framework. So there was monthly board meetings, which sounds radical, but they weren't really doing board meetings every month. I put some KPIs in there. So very, very light touch stuff to improve that business. And it's gone all guns blazing. But now I have found someone very experienced in that sector who grew a company from $20 to $80 million, and he's now taking it to a completely different level.
Aha. And so, which is sort of an evolution of that, of that, like phase 1, phase 2. Because you probably couldn't afford— could you? You couldn't have afforded him in 2021.
No.
No. I mean, if you could, they're hard to find. So you stumble across these people occasionally, and then if that's what you're trying to do, then the paths align. And does that— I mean, it does fit with my philosophy, which is, you should be able to run the company 2 days a week, which you were absolutely doing because you weren't in the other 3, but you were doing It's not that you're not doing— you're thinking about the business, you're the strategy. You don't need to be in there behind a desk to have to be thinking about where this business might be going. You're doing— no, it's almost like that's not work. Do you know what I mean? Like, you know, if you enjoy it, it's not—
Yeah, everybody else would probably see it as not work. But for me, it was— it's just as, you know, it's just as complex as somebody internally, but I'm trying to Figure out what the best strategy and structure is for the business going forward.
Why did you buy the HVAC business?
I, well, that's a good question. I was at that particular time, I would say it's lucky, but you're only lucky when you put a lot of effort in.
Yeah.
I was looking for companies of specific sizes and specific balance sheets. So in 2019, I bought 2 companies. Almost identical, both doing roughly a million pound profit. Let's say both sort of 8-figure businesses. And so there wasn't— there was a plan because I was after construction specifically, but what it's turned out to now is being absolutely perfect sector because with AI robotics coming in, it's actually probably one of the best sectors to be in.
Yeah.
There's now private equity, there's overseas companies now. getting involved in the UK market. So I feel quite lucky to have got into the sector, but there was a little bit of a method to the madness back then.
And you said the previous owner stayed, which is why you could do it, because you had some management who knew. And what was their motivation to sell to you and then to carry on? What were they trying to achieve?
Well, he owned multiple companies and he was running the business half the time from Spain, half the time from the UK. So he wasn't full-time either.
Right.
So I guess for him, he could see a way out because the business was doing well. He was extracting capital. Obviously, I come along and say, look, you've got a great business, let me buy it off of you. And that frees him up to focus on the other activities he does, which is other businesses and Oh, I see.
So you took, you took the founder out, you took the owner out, but you, you kept the rest of the management team.
I bought a majority stake of the business.
Okay. Okay.
So I kept him in. So he retained 20% of the business.
Right.
And then 2 of the key directors got equity as part of the transaction.
