From a tiny timber HoldCo to $14.7B in revenue

Buyers and Builders,

The story of goal-setting, talent and multiple 5x MOIC investments:

Had a short trip to London to meet 6-7 people who buy and invest in $1-10M EBITDA businesses.

On top of that I had great conversations with investment bankers from Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan.

One person I met was the GP of a private HoldCo, built from the liquidity of a large exit. He was in his 30s and told me he had discovered Graham Weaver and his work a few years ago.

Graham is the charismatic co-founder of Alpine Investors, the $18B AUM private equity firm.

Our conversation was about the way they set goals and find the right talent to run the portcos (often the high potential young operators, many who come out of top MBA programs).

He suggested to sit down and listen to a few Stanford presentations:

• How to Live an Asymmetric Life

• Your Life as the Hero’s Journey

• How to Live your Life at Full Power

All about goal setting and getting clear on who you want to become, what exactly to build. Graham gives multiple examples of how they built Alpine, which is all about clear targets and finding/backing these special individuals, this talent.

All about clarity, focus and talent.

I got curious... hmm, what type of talent is he talking about?

And I found the answer...

The best place to look is who their PE firm Alpine has backed.

So while in Stockholm a few months ago, I came across a company where Alpine Investors is the majority shareholder.

If you want to see that talent in action, do yourself a favor and listen to my interview with Ramsey from Evergreen (backed by Alpine). (Links to this episode: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube.)

Also... if you want to see how to set goals and actually accomplish them...

When they started in 2017, they set a clear goal of reaching $100M in EBITDA by 2023...

They achieved it.

Now they're at $1.5B in sales and $250M in EBITDA, with a goal of reaching $5B in sales and $1B in EBITDA by 2030.

Whether you are building your own firm, buying companies or backing emerging founders, I suggest listening to this episode with Ramsey. Thousands have already done it.

Listen their story here: Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

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Every day, there is a lot going on in the niche world of $1-10M EBITDA businesses.

One of the most attractive asset classes out there. Said by many.

Being in this industry for the past 3.5 years, I created a short daily news show:

With a simple goal: for you to get better at buying, building, and owning small businesses.

Take the lessons from yesterday’s 5 Minutes in the Lower Middle Market episode, where I covered how AI is starting to automate some of the most expensive cognitive work in finance… and why that matters for private equity, search funds and traditional small businesses.

Or the huge lessons from François Pinault and how he first started to consolidate the timber market in France, one acquisition at a time, then expanded into retail and eventually luxury goods (bought Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga… 2025 reported revenue was close to $15 billion).

All started with a small platform of timber companies.

Great motivator for all of us. It doesn’t really matter what type of businesses you build and acquire today, as long as you evolve and simply keep going

Because the real value is not in the first business you build. It is in the platform that the first business gives you.

All very interesting, isn’t it?

Posting these stories, takeaways, and nuggets every Monday to Friday. In 5 minutes (on 2x listening speed, even less), you get the outcome from daily research we often spent 2-3 hours.

Listen and subscribe here: Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

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Lastly, the Buyers & Builders podcast is planning a summer tour.

One of the near future guests will be the folks who started building a rollup in a very specific industry back in 2020.

They completed 40+ acquisitions and eventually sold the platform to a well-known PE firm.

When asked how to start a successful roll-up that you exit to PE in 4 years?

The answer was, “Being consultants, we worked in sprints…we had a list of 60-100 niche segments - including vets, speech therapists, tax advisers. It was a very iterative process.

We ran 5-hour workshops with friends from Private Equity who’d give us feedback”. 

What stood out was the growth rate of the market they went after — they chose the one that was growing 5-7% and not the one that was growing 15% per year…

When I asked why they didn’t chase the faster growing category, he said, “the most attractive market is not always the best market.”

“And faster growth often brings more competition, more capital, higher seller expectations, and more ways for deals to go sideways.”

The 5-7% CAGR market still had all the great credentials: a fragmented industry with sticky customers and high gross margins.

Being under the radar seemed to be working well for them. They rolled some equity, so they’re still building but they also back new emerging founders from their small fund.

This and many more episodes like this on Buyers and Builders pod.

That’s all for this week.

Take care,

Mikk Markus / PrivateEquityGuy