Cultivating a Disaster Resistant, Compound Interest Machine – Brent Beshore [Invest Like the Best, EP.10]
This week’s guest is Brent Beshore, Founder and CEO of adventur.es, a family of companies that invests in family-owned companies. Brent has a very specific mission with this company, to cultivate a disaster resistant, compound interest machine. At just 33 years of age he has already built a portfolio of private companies that has produced impressive results. He’s done all this out of the limelight and with no outside investors. Brent discusses his rewarding but difficult journey and what he has learned, including sourcing and evaluating businesses, how he and his team have improved profitability at his portfolio companies after acquisition and so much more. The description of his process starting at 21:40 was very unique–I learned a lot of about evaluating smaller, private businesses.
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Books Mentioned
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic
Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone–Especially Ourselves
The Robert Collier Letter Book
Links Referenced
Shane Parrish of Farnam Street
Show Notes
1:34 (First Question) – Start with some background on Brent and how he has gotten to this point.
3:14 – Brent highlights the types of companies he wants to get involved with and what they hope to accomplish with their acquisitions.
4:20 – Looking at Brent’s early background, including what he studied in school and some of his early jobs
Washington & Lee University – Produced most presidents, also top party school
6:58 – A look at his first business and how that led him to the entrepreneurial journey of buying companies
8:56 – How Brent was able to use his own capital to make his first acquisition and grow from there
11:51 – Some of the books that have influenced Brent’s earliest strategies
12:36 – Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
12:48 – The Fish that at the Whale
13:20 – Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic
15:24 – Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
15:59 – The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone–Especially Ourselves
16:34 – How Brent secures capital to buy companies and the discussion of debt
18:03 – A look at some of the holdings in Brent’s portfolio
21:40 – Patrick asks Brent what he looks for when choosing an investment target
26:11 – What motivates the people who are on the other side of the table that are willing to sell their companies to people like Brent.
29:16 – Would Brent ever consider outside capital on an investment
30:27 – The type of returns that Brent is seeing on his investments
34:10 – How Brent is able to get the profitably model to grow quickly in their investments, often with some pretty simple improvements
40:40 – What are the benefits of content marketing to boost your business
44:32 – The Robert Collier Letter Book
44:38 – Scientific Advertising
45:32 – A closer look at marketing with respect to his business Influence & Co.
48:39 – The conversation shifts to data and how Brent incorporates that into his business decision. Plus, his relationship with Shane Parrish of Farnam Street
53:01 – Patrick asks Brent about his opinion of the public markets
55:31 – Looking at Brent’s most interesting days both personally and professionally
1:01:00 – A look into Brent’s foray in wine making with his wife and the Beshore family vineyards.
1:04:36 – Looking at debt beyond money; culture debt, code debt, systems debt, expectations debt and more.
1:09:39 – What is the biggest miss that Brent has ever had, and what lessons did he learn from that and other deals he hasn’t done.
1:12:37 – What about ones that Brent said no to but then it was a good move
1:15:57 – Brent explains his theory of not over-negotiating for a company that he is bidding for
1:18:46 – The personality traits and skills that would help people thrive in the small to mid-market private investing space
1:25:58 – What is the motivation for Brent to continue doing this
1:28:22 – The daily values and habits that have aided Brent in his career
1:30:55 – The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for Brent professionally
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
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