My guests on this episode are Kurt Leedy and Kyle Coots, co-founders and managing directors at Miramar Equity Partners. Kurt and Kyle have an interesting vantage point in the search world being backed by a family office with an agnostic time horizon, allowing them to invest in the widest set of opportunities in search and parallel spaces. Our episode focuses on a concept they developed they call the three ways to make money, those being classic LBO, M&A-driven strategies, and organic growth. We dive into the characteristics of each along with a few examples from their portfolio. We also touch on how the intersection of two or more methods can create exponential outcomes. Finally, we discuss a few theses they find interesting in healthcare and software and how they develop a thesis on an industry.Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn.Special thanks to our sponsor: Oakbourne AdvisorsLinks:Miramar Equity PartnersKurt Leedy on LinkedInKyle Coots on LinkedInWill Thorndike with Patrick O'Shaughnessy BPD ZenithFlint GroupSwoogoEncore InfusionConstellationBusiness Breakdowns - The NFLTime Codes:(3:36) - How did your backgrounds help form this concept of “The three methods to make money”?(9:18) - Do you have a model of investing that resonates most with what you’re looking to accomplish?(12:24) - Have Search CEO’s been primarily focused on one of these three buckets in your experience?(15:51) - What are some characteristics & examples you’ve seen of the Classic LBO investing model?(18:36)- What questions or risks are you optimizing for when considering LBO?(22:13) - What are some factors that have correlated with a high retention rate in companies you’ve observed?(24:23) - Can you walk us through how you divide M&A Driven Strategies into its two subcategories: Roll-Up and Transformative?(33:46) - Is there some value in having M&A experience for a CEO & their company?(35:42) - Why do you think there is such increased popularity in the M&A strategy within Search?(39:00) - Which companies and characteristics fall under the Organic Growth Model?(46:00) - What are some examples of companies who have combined these methods and found success?(51:10) - What are your thoughts on Software businesses and any opportunities in that space?(54:40) - What are some ways you develop and validate different theses?(1:01:19) - What strongly held belief have you changed your mind on?(1:03:32) - What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?