If an experienced investor looked inside your business today, what would they see missing? You know, you might have strong revenue and great customers, a lot of opportunities, but would they see a company that's ready to grow without every single decision coming back to you? That's what I want to talk to you about today. So welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. George Wright III here. As you know, I'm at the Board of Advisors event at the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas, Texas. My partner and I run Board of Advisors Media, which is their podcast and magazine. And one of the things I value about being around other founders and business owners is that opportunity to step back and think about the business that I'm actually building. When you're caught up in the daily operations, it's easy to focus all your attention on the next problem that needs solving. But at some point, you've got to ask a different question. What needs to change inside this company so that we can handle the next stage of growth? That question is why I wanted to revisit one of my conversations with Anthony Pereira. If you remember this episode, if you listened to it, Anthony built AirPros USA from a single HVAC truck into a company exceeding $200 million. And when we recorded this conversation, he shared how he was applying that operating experience to acquiring and growing founder-led companies through Exuma Capital Partners. And what I appreciated about his perspective is how practical it was. He looks at whether a business has visibility into its numbers, whether there's a leadership team capable of making decisions, and whether the systems are in place to actually support the growth. And those questions matter whether you're planning to sell your business someday or you just want to run a stronger company right now. So in this conversation, we get into the difference between looking at last month's results and knowing what's happening today. You know, we'll talk a little bit about developing operators into leaders and finding opportunities in fragmented industries and also even using AI to improve the way a business operates. So as you listen to this, I want you to just maybe in your business identify one gap in your own company. Where do you need better information or, you know, clear ownership of things and priorities or a process that doesn't depend entirely on you? That's the big part. And I'm just going to play this episode from Anthony Pereira on AI and operations transforming business. And I really think you're going to get a lot of valuable ideas out of it. I pulled it back out mainly because of the environment I'm in this week, but I think it's going to be really valuable for you. And do me a favor, hit me up and let me know what you gained most from this episode. Without any further ado, let's get right into it. if I were to go back in time, starting over and doing it, I would say, okay, let's look at every process I have in the business and how can I automate that process using AI, right? How can I take AI and automate that? Right down to your month-end closing, your month-end financials, your daily emails to your teams, your compliance, every single facet of these companies, whether it be home service, I mean, anything can have AI automation or AI augmentation rather to help improve results. All right. Welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And I've been trying to get Anthony Pereira on the show for a little while now, so I'm excited about it. Anthony, welcome to the podcast. George, thanks for having me, man. Looking forward to being here. Yeah, this is good, man. I got a ton of questions for you. Sometimes I do these episodes for my own benefit. Other times, obviously, guys, I do it for years. But let me give you a quick introduction to Anthony, because he's a real operator, investor, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year winner, 20 years experience in building and scaling companies. He built AirPros USA from a single HVAC truck to 200 million plus nationwide company over six years. And now today has his family office, Exuma Capital Partners, with a portfolio over 300 million. And just so you know his background. He's managed organizations of more than a thousand employees, 800 plus service trucks, founded and acquired seven, eight companies spanning home services, technology, logistics, real estate, hospitality. So you have got a ton of experience and I think we're anxious to kind of dig into it. So thank you again. I appreciate you being here. Yeah, man. It's funny when you said 20 plus years, man, it feels like yesterday when I got started in business and it's crazy to say 20 years now, but it's been a long time for sure. You know, it's a good sign though. It kind of shows, I thought that the other day too, cause I have, I'm going to have my, like my seventh grandkid. And I thought, man, where, where is the time gone? But you love what you do. So it just shows that you love what you do. So, you know, look, you were an entrepreneur, operator, now investor, but you didn't come from wall street. You know, you built companies, you've been basically an operator. So how has that fundamentally changed the way you evaluate business. Maybe give me an idea of just what took you up to where you're doing right now. Yeah. I mean, listen, I got started when I was 19 years old. It was an industry I knew nothing about. I was actually in the publishing sector. So kind of like you, I was a publisher back in the day. And we just, we found a niche that all businesses are kind of common in how they operate, just different products you're selling are different, right? So the way you structure organization, the way you build your leadership teams, the way you, you know, attract your KPIs, no matter what industry you're in, as long as you have systems and processes, it's all the same concept, just different industries. Yeah. Well, and that's obviously, it's true in business, but it's also one of the fundamentals that you use for investing. And so that's pretty amazing. Do you, look, I was curious because a lot of entrepreneurs dream about building a business and having an exit, but you became an investor instead. So what sort of inspired you to transition into being an investor and now going deep into these companies? And why are you still so involved in operating your portfolio companies? Yeah. So we kind of carved out a niche for ourselves, right? You kind of have this interesting dynamic where you have, there's not a whole bunch of equity. So let's kind of go back a second. Our family office, we act more like private equity than a traditional family office, but we actually operate our businesses. So we're investing our own capital and acquiring companies and scaling them and getting them ready to exit. That's kind of our whole thesis here at Exuma. You know, we're true operators. Like you said, George, you know, we come from operational backgrounds. And so, you know, kind of what we do here is we find businesses that are typically smaller than what private equity teams or companies would normally buy, right? We're finding companies that are between two and eight to 10 million of EBITDA, right? We buy those companies. Usually they're, you know, founder-led, founder-owned. So we're backing the founder here, or helping them put in the structure the infrastructure They done something right to get the 2 million of EBITDA plus but maybe they don have the KPIs They don have the knowledge of how to scale and go or do acquisitions or put in processes that can get them from 2 million to 15 20 30 million bucks. And that's kind of what we've been doing, right? So we're coming to these companies, we're helping them put processes in place. We're helping them do organic growth and inorganic growth through M&A and then eventually scaling them. So we're investing in these companies to build what we call a private equity starter kit, right? Companies that have scale, that have a leadership team, that are tracking the KPIs, that have the infrastructure, that have an ERP, a CRM, that are ready to go and then kind of go through the next big boy step of being acquired by private equity. Yeah. So when you go into businesses because of your operator background, like what are the first kind of, and maybe it's always different, but I feel like a lot of the principles are the same at those levels. What are some of the first things that you try to install or put in place that are usually missing by these founder-led companies? Yeah, it depends. And every business is different, right? As you said, but some of them, like, I need visibility. We need visibility. The first thing we've got to have is visibility. How are we performing against our metrics, right? Are we tracking things like on the home service sector, for example? Are you tracking the daily call volume? Are you tracking conversions? Do you have campaign attributions set up for your marketing strategies? All these various things that we try to get our hands around first, because you can't really have an impact on the business until you can actually track the business, right? So being able to track what's going on, real-time visibility, I use this saying all the time in our companies, we got to lead our businesses looking out the front window, not the rear view mirror, right? Like a lot of guys, a lot of operators, especially on the smaller companies, get their P&L at the end of the month and they're like, okay, well, I did really bad on this one category. How do I fix that? Well, it's too late. The month's already gone. You've lost all the money. I want to know how I'm doing every day and I measure our teams every day. Yeah, it seems like you put a lot of those metrics when you use the word KPIs and things. If you're listening to this, you know, there's a lot of, you know, lagging indicators that businesses usually look at a little bit too late and leading indicators that help you to make decisions and call audibles. But some of those things are critical, and I think especially to scale and build and grow. Now, you talk a lot about, you know, fragmented industries, and you think that a lot of the opportunity is in these fragmented industries to grow wealth. Can you explain a little bit about what you mean with that? Like what is a fragmented industry and what is your philosophy around that for your investing? Yeah. So another great question. So there's a lot of industries that we think haven't been consolidated yet, meaning that they're not completely rolled up. Now there's been a lot of consolidation in home services, as you've seen over the years. You know, every PE analyst is looking for what their search fund to go find an HVAC business or whatever it is, you know what I mean? But fragmented business typically is one that hasn't been consolidated yet. And so that's kind of what we're looking for. And then part of our other thesis is if we're investing in an operating business or a service-based business, we like companies that can't be, I wouldn't say taken out, but like destroyed by AI. Like can AI enhance this business? Sure. But I don't think AI is going to, you know, put roofs on homes the next five to 10 years. I don't think AI is going to go and unclog your toilet the next five to 10 years, right? Like those companies are kind of like AI, I wouldn't say proof, but AI resistant, right? And so that's part of our investment thesis. And then again, do we have a good operating team in place? Can we help that company scale? Is it fragment enough to do some M&A and some acquisitions? That's kind of our whole investment thesis. Yeah, and I actually want to come back to the AI conversation here in a minute, but I am curious, like when you're out looking, what characteristics kind of tell you that an industry is ready for consolidation? Because when we say this, you're dealing with HVAC, roofing, logistics, technology, traditional sectors. And I'm curious just for people out there that are trying to see opportunity, trying to see whether they're in their business or whether they're looking at businesses, what sort of things tell you that an industry is ready for consolidation? You know, so our whole last, I would say, probably two or three years of investing has really been around the home. We think the entire home industry itself, not just home services, but things that have to do with the home, right? Whether it be supplies for the home, whether it be technology for the home, whether it be, you know, it's still the American dream. People want to own and live in a house that they own and have, right? And so we spend a lot of our time and effort looking at companies that we can invest in that are kind of around the home. But outside of that, I mean, technology, you know, I think companies and CRMs and that kind of stuff, five, six, eight, nine, you're already seeing it happen, right? AI has come so far that if you're running a, you know, CRM based business that's purely not adapting to AI, you can rebuild Facebook, you know, tomorrow if you want to do with AI. Now, you're not going to get 7 billion followers to come use it, but technology is advancing so far and so quickly that I think we try to stay away from things that AI can have that kind of impact on, if that makes any sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it totally does. And things are moving at such a rapid pace, it's hard to kind of – you've got to constantly be adjusting techniques, philosophies, everything. But I think it is pretty interesting, especially for – look, I've got a lot of founders and investors that listen to our show, but a lot of operators as well. And it's really in those spaces. And you have said a few times, I've listened to a few of the interviews you've done that operators outperform financiers. And, you know, I guess I'm curious, even just your perspective around this idea. And why do investors who actually have built companies consistently create more value than those that just structure deals and do investing and things like this? Because I think it gives, you know, a lot of times business owners that are kind of getting primed and prepped and want to create real wealth, they feel like they got to have this investor, you know, knowledge and background. But yet the, like you said, operators do a lot of times outperform these investors. Yeah. And listen, a lot of, a lot of, there's a lot of smart people in the investing world. I mean, these guys, you know, MBAs, they go to college. I dropped out of college, right? So a lot of these guys have these fantastic degrees and they're super intelligent. A lot of them work here at our company, even at Exuma, right? These guys can run models and build spreadsheets faster than I can, you know, type in my name into a Google search bar. Right. But I think that the difference is like when it comes down to making a tough decision or having to, to, to pivot, you know, a quick example, when I launched inspected, we actually built that business from nothing. We, we sold it to Bayhawk capital about a year and a half ago, that business before it became and got traction, we pivoted three different times. Right. There's no like NBA playbook is going to tell you how to do that. If you go to school for that as an, as an investor. Right. Right You know and listen the whole thesis with PE when they make their investments they want to invest in a company that has a solid infrastructure a good management team that has a path to growth that has a path to drive returns for their investors As an operator, you look at things a little different. The lens is definitely a little different. The lens is, how can I have an impact here? How can I impact culture? Most of our companies we invest in, we don't hire a CEO initially for the first year or two. You usually hire a COO or an operator that can train alongside of us, understand how we run our businesses, and it will promote that gentleman or lady to be CEO after they've proven they can actually accomplish the goals and missions we put forward. I like that. So do you find that that's kind of something I don't hear said a lot, that you bring in an operator, COO, but that you could groom them into that position? Does that happen as much? I mean, a lot of times, at least from my experience, it seems that the CEO level has a little bit of a different lens or filter. But do you feel that that's been productive for you to be able to groom these COOs into a CEO role? It has. And that's the last four companies we've done. We've successfully achieved this because we want them to leave an operator's perspective. Right. Great. A lot of CEOs have been operators, but it's been, you know, a lot of these guys have been years since they've operated anything. Right. They see things from a 30,000 foot perspective, which is a great lens to look at. But they're not in the actual core functions of that. They can't really feel, you know, the pulse of what's going on a lot of times because they're one or two layers removed. But if you get a guy or a female that's been trained in that company alongside our operating thesis, how we look at companies, and you train the individual to then step up to that CEO role, that's kind of how we typically do our investing and grooming of our leadership teams. Yeah, I love it. I love it. That's a great plan. And then in the end, then they can shift their focus into working on the business rather than in the business, but they have the right perspective. But they've been in the business working on it. You know what I mean? By default. Yeah, sort of like in their blood. And so the rest is now how do we take it to the next level? I think that's great. And your resources and strategies come in to help that. So I'm curious, outside of the reporting, because I think that that makes a huge difference. When you acquire a company, what operational improvements usually create like the biggest jump in the first year or so? Which are the areas that show you the most significant improvement and that these businesses maybe are not capitalizing on? again every business is different right every business is looked at you know from a different lens because they operate differently they have different areas to improve upon you know a lot a lot of a lot of businesses you know i'll give you a quick example we bought a company that was a predominantly residential um new construction roofing business that business great business 30 years in business um and they're growing you know nicely at a you know single digit clip a year every year, our thesis there was how do we bring retail roofing into that company? What's our go to market strategy there? Business didn't have any CRM. They were dispatching on pen and paper. Literally, I've never seen it in my life. A company that's doing $35 million a year and we bought it had pen and paper, six by nine postcards, like the ones you use in high school. Yeah. They would hand that to a sales rapper, a repairman and say, hey, here's your dispatch routes for the day. So like just the operational efficiencies is kind of the first thing we look at. And I led with, you know, visibility to KPIs and tracking all that good stuff, because that's really what tells you what's either right or wrong in that business, right? So every business is different. Another quick example, we bought a small coffee shop chain called Ella Coffeehouse down here. It had one location doing $10,000 a week, and they never did any sort of social media. This company's around since 2016. We bought it in 2023. We started doing social postings and engaging local influencers, local branch. One store is now doing $30,000 a week. And now there's five corporate stores, 25 franchises. So every business is different. It's just, you got to look at it from that kind of individual, what's lacking and how can I improve that business? Yeah. It's interesting because I think technology is just something that usually lags behind. And so whether it's, you know, online, digital or CRMs, and honestly, that's a real key to reporting. And so that is something that's big. So you mentioned before AI, and I actually feel like sometimes people in the service industries or logistical operational businesses, they haven't necessarily seen where it would apply. They feel like it doesn't really move the needle for them as much. Where have you sort of seen the biggest practical applications of AI when it comes to service businesses? There's so many different ways AI can have an impact on service. But look, I mean, AI agents, I mean, just coming out today, where they're going to be three, four or five years from now, the fact you can automate almost everything in your company, right? I mean, straight down from just SEO optimization to customer interaction, customer engagements, lead follow-up, lead closing. I mean, scoring your technicians based on how they're performing on a certain type of leads. I mean, this doesn't take an engineering degree to do this kind of stuff anymore. We didn't have this stuff when we were doing the AirPros business back in the day, right? Like we had manual people going through our call-by-call channels, making sure that they were compliant. Now, put an AI agent as a Slack bot and go say, hey, which one of these reps are compliant? Are they doing the right steps on every call? Like, it's just, it's so impactful. So I would literally, if I were going back in time, starting over and doing it, I would say, okay, let's look at every process I have in the business and how can I automate that process using AI, right? How can I take AI and automate that? Right down to your month-end closing, your month-end financials, your daily emails to your teams, your... I mean, every single facet of these companies, whether it be home service, I mean, anything can have AI automation or AI augmentation, rather, to help improve results. Yeah, it's interesting because it also, I've seen it, it increases the opportunity where, like you said, in the past, we had to hire really expensive designers and web programmers and people like this that now you not only don't have to hire them, but you don't have to know how to do it either to still open the opportunities to have a better looking website or to have better communication or, you know, respond to your customers quicker when you're out on the jobs. But you have something now that can communicate with them without it. That's a huge advantage. it's a huge multiplier, like Leverager, right? For businesses. So I think it's- Even when I think about like an Angie's List or one of the other companies that use lead aggregators you use right Whatever they called I mean Speed to Lead is the name of that game So building AI automation that as soon as that lead comes in listen you and three other guys are getting that same lead Whoever responds to that customer first is going to win that fight every time, right? And there's so many tools that can do that now. So just one example. I agree. I agree. That's huge. Well, and I think that there's, you know, obviously there's an indirect. And so if you're running a service business or you're investing in service businesses, this whole topic of AI is going to keep going deep for a lot of people in the automations. But I think it's something that really does have a trail right straight through to profitability and decision making and all these kinds of things that are sort of indirect intangibles, but they will affect all the decisions in a business. So I think that's very wise to say that. So give me, I'm curious, give me a story of maybe a recent business that you've had some success with and then give me an example of something that really caught you off guard? Because I'm sure they're not all just wins, right? Yeah. Listen, I'll go back to the company inspected, which we spoke about earlier. So back in 2020, we launched a company called inspected.com, which was a novel idea back then. I'm sure you're familiar with it. If you're in the home service company or home service based businesses, think about every time you go get an ACU to change out in your house or a new roof, right? And in that industry, I go to your house, I put a new system in your house. I put a new roof on your home. I had to go back and meet the city inspector, Bob, who's going to come by a week from today and give me a window from nine to five. They're worse than the cable companies. No offense, love them all. But literally, they'll give you a massive window and you're like, hey, George, you got to stay home with me on Friday from nine to five to make sure Bob comes by and inspects his install. You're like, go kick rocks. I'm not staying home again. I waited home all day on Monday with you. I can't do that again. So we had this massive issue with open permits in our companies, right? And so I had to fix this. So this is 2020, right before COVID hit. And so we launched the business to try to provide a tool for municipalities to do virtual inspections. And everybody thought we were crazy. I got so many doors slammed in my face. The company ran out of money three different times. And then we finally pivoted and realized that every state had a version of a private inspector or a private engineering. Think about Lenar, Pulte, GL Holmes. These big home builders aren't sitting there waiting for Bob and a pickup truck. They have an engineering company on site. So let's marry that technology to, you know, what they're doing, our technology, to what these engineering firms are doing and doing third-party inspections. Long story short, we had to literally go and change the law in these states to allow for this to happen. And now the company does, I don't know, 12,000, 13,000 inspections a month. Wow. Broke at leaps and bounds, was acquired by a big PE, a majority acquired by a big PE company up in Boston. And, you know, and so again, we talk about trials and tribulations. That company had to pivot three separate times to get the profitability before it found its right course, right? And so as an operator, most, if you weren't, if I was an MBA guy, no offense to the MBA guys out there, right? Financers, you said. Yeah. Most guys, okay, well, bad investment, let's move on. And I believed in the idea. We believed in the idea and we found a way to make it work. And it was a, you know, three year fight. And, you know, we sold it for multiple, multiple figures, you know, so it was a good outcome. Yeah, that's interesting because that way and I use it a bunch because I think the word pivot is so applicable, especially for operators, because as an operator, you have to learn to pivot because you're in it to win it. Like you're trying to find a solution. And, you know, that is maybe that nuance sometimes that distinguishes successful operators from not is knowing when to pivot and knowing when to just keep pressing through and having perseverance versus looking for another way, another another path. Right. To take the direction. And so I know that that's probably something you have to deal with on an ongoing basis. How involved are you with the companies that you are with? You're very deep into the operations. Yeah. So we're big believers in the US. I mean, the US methodology and traction, you know, Wickman, all that stuff. So we have a weekly cadence meeting with all of our portfolio companies with the leadership teams of those companies. We have a team at Exuma, we call them the operating partners that help expert marketing, expert in operations, expert fleet facilities and risk and insurance, expert in BI. And so they help support every one of these companies, help them grow. We have an M&A team for acquisitions. So yeah, so I would say we're pretty actively involved in all of our portfolio companies to the extent they need us. Like we don't like, we're not in their shorts 24 seven, but if they need advice or help and like they have a sounding board in us here at Exuma to help them drive. That's awesome. That's great. Well, I appreciate you sharing all your thoughts with us. One of the big questions I was going to ask you is what do you see, what's the big priority for your business right now on the future outlook, for example, like what is it that you are really excited about? I think, you know, what really gets me up in the morning is the ability to create and grow something special. And so I get to do that now all the time. Like no matter what company we're in, what we're buying, we're doing, whether it be real estate, we're trying to add value. Like I love the change of, I wouldn't say issues, but the change of being able to, one day I'm talking with a a roofing business. Next day we're in a coffee business. Now we're in a technology company. So it's always something new and, and, and, and created to go and work on. So I think that's what excites me the most, you know? Yeah. Those challenges, but also that, that opportunity to take it to the next level. I love that. That's, that's, I'm very much the same way. So, well, that's awesome, man. I really appreciate you spending some time and, and you know, I wish we had some more, cause I actually had some real detail level stuff I was going to ask you, but with that said, how, how can people connect with you? Kind of learn a little bit more about your company and connect with you if they wanted to follow you a little bit more. That's right. I'm on LinkedIn. You can go to exumafunds.com and my email is on there as well. Happy to be helpful any way I can. Great. That's awesome. Well, listen, guys, I appreciate you being with us today. Do me a favor, share the show. One of the key things that I want to do, and I know we kind of go back and forth between that operator mindset, the clarity, the discipline, but then also into details, tactics, and strategies. But I hope today this has given you kind of a glimpse into how Anthony thinks, because I think this is, you know, success leaves clues. There's no question about it. And so, Anthony, I appreciate you being here with us today. And I hope that if there's anything that you are, if you're listening to the show, if there's anything you have questions with, make sure you hit us up at The Daily Mastermind. I look forward to talking with you a little bit more. Have an amazing day.
