In this episode of the M&A Launchpad Podcast, hosts Feras Moussa and Casey Minshew sit down with Josh Davis (JL Davis Enterprises) to unpack how he and his wife built one of the fastest-growing logistics companies in Canada—bootstrapped—then exited to a private-equity–backed strategic buyer in just three years. Josh shares the pivotal mentorship that shaped him, the asset-light pivot that unlocked scale, how custom software and ruthless scorecards drove margins, and what he learned operating under PE during a two-year earn-out. He also walks through his current family office and consulting work—helping founder-led SMBs get people, systems, and leadership right.
In this podcast episode, we discuss:
- Josh’s origin story: entrepreneurial grandfathers, real-world mentorship, and the storm at sea that rewired his approach to leadership and preparedness
- From mining to trucking: why roll-ups clicked and how a logistics pivot to asset-light changed everything
- Building in-house software: dispatch → LTL consolidation → visibility → invoicing, and how “gamified” scorecards boosted GP and accountability
- Scaling fast in a low-margin industry: the metrics that mattered and the hiring playbook that attracted top talent
- Deciding to sell: pregnancy, capital intensity, and choosing a PE-backed strategic with operational support
- Deal mechanics: two-year earn-out, integration lessons, and why the “education” was worth it
- Life after exit: identity reset, launching a boutique family office, and spinning up a consulting arm for people/systems/tech turnarounds
- Advice for first-time acquirers: right people/right seats, operating systems that actually run the business, and leveling up leadership
Guest Contact Info:
Connect with Josh Davis
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scaling-with-josh-davis/
Company: https://jldavisenterprises.com
Additional Resources
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🎧 Podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HVyrLQDUqog
🎧 Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4neMfx9y2QgLJQ6fC7URNt
🎧 Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/roll-ups-earn-outs-and-a-3-year-exit-with-josh-davis/id1740382586?i=1000735244346
Transcript
00:00 Hey there, this is Casey with the M&A Launchpad podcast. Put it on your calendar. This is a do not missed
00:07 one-day event. There’s going to be incredible headliners, but really at the end of the day, you’re going to get a
00:12 chance to talk to people that have made acquisitions, learn from some of the challenges that they’ve made because
00:18 this is definitely a challenging process. But more importantly, there’s going to be people there that can help
00:23 you and support you along the way from great vendors, quality of earnings, how to run the due diligence process, and
00:29 how do I get financed, how do I raise capital, how do I structure all of these things. It’s going to be hundreds of
00:35 people that are all focused, like-minded people, and man, everyone that’s come has given us incredible feedback. We
00:41 look forward to seeing you. All right. And on today’s episode, we interviewed Josh Davis where we talked about what it’s like to basically start
00:48 a company, pivot a little bit, and build a large logistics company that’s kind of
00:53 softwarebacked and the rapid growth that that brings, right? I think over the course of three years, they went from
00:58 idea to, you know, 100 employees, 500 contractors and all the above and
01:03 ultimately making an exit to private equity and what that looked like. And then from that, right, finding what
01:09 you’re passionate about and really giving back to the entrepreneurial community. So Casey, what were some of your takeaways? Yeah, you know, it’s it’s the
01:15 entrepreneur journey is tough and uh everybody has a different one. You hear about people, oh, I exited my first
01:20 company in three years and I’m out and I’ve I’ve learned, but what are the common things instead of thinking about
01:25 the destination, right, of what you’re going to exit and how you’re going to get there and all those things, you know, I find that the successful guys
01:32 that we talk to or gals that we talk to every time on this podcast, you know, they think about the learning
01:37 experiences that they’re getting at every different turn of the events. And I felt like Josh being a very humble
01:44 guy, but also, you know, he looks at life as a learning and uh, you know, being able to go through go sell his
01:50 company. Maybe it was an earnout and and all of these things that would would would really maybe put some barriers for
01:56 a lot of people, you know, instead of looking at more as like, man, it was a great time to learn and be mentored and
02:01 be coached along the way. And that’s why you start meeting these this side of of how do you become better? How do you get
02:07 involved in these things? Mentorship and learning. And so anyways, my take away from that was just a wealth of knowledge
02:13 of of what he’s learning and how he’s learning. Yeah. And you know, let me dive into just kind of how difficult it is to grow
02:19 and scale, right? I mean, you everybody thinks you’re making millions and really everything’s going back in the company
02:24 and on top of that like what it’s like to walk away from all that and just kind of the relief of stress of no longer
02:29 having 30 meetings a day and 3,500 emails to kind of follow up on. So those are some of the topics we get to on this
02:36 one. [Music]
02:41 All right, guys. Just take one second here real quick. When you’re buying a business, ensuring the financial health of the company is critical. And that’s
02:47 where a quality of earnings partner comes in. Quality of earnings gives you confidence in the financials of the company that you’re purchasing. It aims
02:53 to protect your investment and ensure that you’re stepping into a profitable business on day one. Patrick of Okonnell
02:59 Advisory Group is your dynamic quality of earnings partner. He’s here to help you buy the right business on your timeline. Patrick’s entire practice is
03:05 focused on business acquisitions. Your niche is his niche. And over the past decade, Patrick’s helped more than 200
03:11 buyers like yourself successfully purchase and operate enduring profitable businesses. In fact, Patrick’s helped
03:17 some listeners of this show. So, if you’re buying, looking for help with the quality of earnings, financial due
03:22 diligence, network capital, and more, head to okconelladvisorygroup.com or just click the link in the show
03:27 notes. Hey Josh, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me guys. Yeah, we’re excited about this one. So,
03:33 uh, why don’t you jump in? Tell us a little bit about your background. Sure. Um, yeah, I mean, I’ve I’ve been
03:40 an entrepreneur for almost 20 years now. Um, really started from from nothing.
03:46 Uh, what really drove me to be an entrepreneur. I mean, there’s a number of things, but uh, both my grandfathers
03:53 uh, were successful business owners. One in the mining industry, then other in construction. He was also mayor of a a
03:60 town that that he lived in. Um and so seeing that as a kid I was super inspired by them and uh just seeing them
04:07 you know create jobs and help people and you know build a build a you know a life for the family and as well as their
04:13 employees. So that was always inspiring for me. Um and then growing up my my
04:18 parents I I watched them go through some some hard things financially uh which led to them getting divorced
04:24 and we we lost our family home through that process as well. And so, um, I think the combination of seeing my
04:31 grandfathers being successful business owners and then seeing the struggles my parents went through, uh, just kind of
04:36 really lit a fire to me to to want to kind of follow in my grandfather’s footsteps. Um, and then from there, um,
04:44 I kind of thought the typical route. I needed to go to, you know, college, university, get a business degree. So, that’s what I started doing out of high
04:50 school. Uh, unfortunately, one of my grandfathers, um, ended up getting, uh, sick with cancer, and I was very close
04:57 with him, so I ended up dropping out of, uh, school to take care of him. So, I spent, you know, a couple years, um, uh,
05:05 taking care of him. Yeah. Like, I mean, it was it was very tough to to do. Um, but it was just
05:12 something that I knew knew I had to I knew I had to do for my grandfather. And so, um, yeah, through that I learned a
05:18 lot about business and his career and and you know, meeting with different business partners and we did some traveling together. Um, and, uh, I
05:26 learned a lot. So, that kind of really kind of sparked me wanting to continue to move in his footsteps. Kind of
05:32 that mentorship, man. That that mentorship you got more out of than college. I’ll tell you that right there.
05:37 that I mean I yeah I my my wife on the other hand like graduated in like a a top university for from our area and so
05:44 she’s very you know she’s got a business degree as well and then I yeah went the other route got you know good mentorship
05:49 from people like my grandfather and then after that but that was uh yeah getting that real world experience was was was a
05:55 game changer for me um and then yeah so basically he he was
06:00 quite sick and he he sailed a lot um after he’d do a business deal he’d go off and sail to Tahiti and Mexico and
06:08 all Hawaii and all these places with my grandmother and they were very adventurous and uh he wanted to after my
06:15 grandmother passed away he wanted to go on one last sailing adventure and I as a kid was never allowed to go. He’s
06:21 always got in big storms and lightning striking the mass all that stuff. So
06:26 badass man. He was he was he was very very tough old school guy. I mean uh uh yeah he was uh
06:34 he was like he was he was my best friend. uh and mentor. And so we ended up going on a sailing adventure. I was
06:40 in my early 20s. Could finally kind of do that. And it was a bucket list thing for him. He wanted to do one last trip
06:45 down to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. It’s a bit of a long story, but the short story is, you know, the first 5
06:50 days it was like out of a movie. You know, we’re catching salmon and tuna and we’re cooking fish and it’s, you know,
06:56 beautiful weather. Uh then eventually, you know, we got in this massive storm. To me it felt like 100 foot waves, but
07:02 maybe they were like 40 50 foot. Uh totally totally destroyed the boat. Um
07:08 very lucky to to make it out of alive. Um and you know fortunately we did um
07:14 and ended up getting into shore and then he he passed away soon soon after that. We didn’t make it to Mexico but we made
07:20 it to Northern California. Um and even you know going through that kind of storm it really there’s a lot of
07:27 parallels to what I do in our business and putting the right people in the right seats and having the right leadership and things like that. you
07:32 know, we we definitely weren’t prepared for that trip. One, my grandfather who’s the skipper, you know, was dying of
07:37 cancer and we had a couple of my buddies from school and then one of his friends and so, you know, we definitely weren’t
07:44 prepared. We weren’t kind of monitoring the weather and things like we should have. So, like lots of parallels of business, having the right systems and
07:50 the right team. So, um that was a big wakeup call for me. Um, and so yeah,
07:56 after that, after he passed away, I basically kind of did a number of different business ventures, went into
08:03 some different industries. I followed in his footsteps in the mining industry. Uh, got connected with his old business
08:09 partners and old geologists. And that’s what really, you know, sparked my interest about doing acquisitions and,
08:17 um, you know, I saw, you know, taking over distressed mining companies and doing mergers and rollups and things
08:22 like that. And so that’s something that uh that I I really liked. I liked, you know, taking over an underperforming
08:28 asset, turning it around and putting the right people in systems and and things like that. So um yeah, after my wife and
08:35 I uh got married, um she she had a business degree, but she was working in transportation logistics. She had um she
08:42 was working at one of the biggest shipping companies in the world. Um, and then a friend of mine who’s uh who’s in
08:48 the trucking industry kind of p we’re both friends and we’re both in each other’s wedding parties and he pitched me on a strategy to do some acquisitions
08:55 in the transportation space and uh my wife was very uh in and this is back
09:02 about yeah just over 10 years ago now. Um and uh especially where we were in in
09:08 Western Canada there wasn’t a lot of tech focused logistics companies. So my wife was really passionate about
09:13 technology working for like a you know an international shipping company. They
09:19 would send her and she was in her early 20s then as well. They would send her all over you know to learn more about
09:24 their systems and she’d come back to the office and train them and show them how we can make them more efficient. So um
09:29 yeah so we ended up week after honeymoon start a business with another partner um and just kind of got going. Um and yeah,
09:37 I mean the short story is that from startup to exit was about 3 years. Um we
09:43 were one of the fastest growing logistics companies uh in Canada. Um we built our own technology. I talk about
09:50 this a lot. I was totally against it. I thought we should just use something off the shelf. I thought, you know, spending
09:56 all this money on programmers, I I thought it didn’t make sense. But my wife and my partner really felt like we
10:01 needed to do it and it would really help us streamline operations. And so reluctantly I said, “Okay, let’s do it.”
10:06 And um yeah, we ended up building this amazing system, streamlined everything. It helped us recruit top talent, you
10:12 know, right out of university. We were able to, you know, bring people into like an old school industry and um yeah,
10:19 it was a lot of fun. So we scaled quite rapidly. Um really really quick. So you started
10:24 the business from scratch. Yeah. Right. What was the vision of what you guys were going to actually go make? And
10:31 also, what was the problem that you guys saw that you were actually trying to solve? Because logistics means honestly it means whatever you want it to mean.
10:37 So, let’s get a little bit more like what were you what was the problem he saw? What were you trying to solve? Yeah. So, originally when my partner
10:44 kind of first it was about a year he was trying to pitch me on it, but he showed me like how there was a lot of like
10:50 small, you know, mom and pop trucking companies and there was ability to do a rollup strategy. So that was what we
10:56 thought we were going to do. So we started out assetbased did an acquisition in asset based trucking and
11:02 um you know we we thought you know the vision was to like scale you know a large trucking company uh you know
11:09 across Canada and into the US. After kind of dabbling in that for a year we
11:14 realized like we’re not trucking guys, we’re not maintenance guys. Uh what we really liked was technology and sales
11:22 and building teams. So about a year into it, we pivoted and then we focused on asset light transportation. So we
11:30 totally changed what we were our model was and then we focused on being as asset light as possible. So we did
11:36 acquisitions in the space. We would keep uh trailers. So we would never keep any
11:41 trailers that we own. We’d always do like fat sorry full wet lease program. So we didn’t want to have run
11:47 maintenance and have shops and things like that. Um and then we like scaled up the technology the freight management
11:53 the freight brokerage side as well. So we were basically we turned into like an asset light carrier slashf freight
11:59 management broker and uh and that that’s that’s how we pivoted and we scaled quite rapidly and we got
12:06 into different streams from long haul to short hall to LTL to warehousing. Um so
12:11 we did a whole bunch of uh different lines of services where we could do an acquisition and crossell.
12:18 All right. So you still said it a lot and I’m not an expert in logistics so I’m going to d it help dumb it down for the audience. And so like at its core
12:24 what was the actual software doing? Was it coordinating freight
12:29 getting moved between places between different companies? Was it you know helping lease, you know, providing a
12:35 simple system for people for you to inventory manage your product and you know your your trucks and having people lease it? Was it all the above? None of
12:41 the above. Yeah. I mean originally it started out as like dispatch software. So um and and
12:48 focus on asset light. So we wanted to like basically make it as efficient as possible for our team with as less
12:53 clicks and streamline everything so they could move the freight as quickly and efficiently as possible. So that’s how
12:59 we originally designed it. And then when we get into we do an acquisition in a different area then we build new modules
13:07 like LTL consolidation module so that we could make sure the trucks are fully loaded and and visibility. And so from
13:14 there, we just kept building off of it. And that’s why, you know, building in-house, a lot of people, I don’t always recommend this, but for us, it
13:21 was a game changer because when we acquire a new business, we would build a new module so we get more visibility,
13:27 making sure we’re being more efficient, make sure we understood the business. And then I got really focused on, you
13:33 know, gamifying the business and understanding, you know, the the scorecards and the metrics and the gross profit and and also giving visibility to
13:40 each team member so they knew kind of where they were at. um in regards to the business as well. So that’s kind of
13:46 where it started and then obviously you know getting into like the invoicing accounting side and making sure
13:51 everything’s talking to each other. Uh but yeah, it originally just started off as like hey let’s make the dispatch as
13:57 efficient as possible and then from there we just saw the power of building out systems to streamline things and
14:03 make yeah give you more visibility. Yeah. So I I’ve had I’ve had my fair share of logistics. Right. So right
14:09 after COVID, the company I had acquired was in the is in the oil field. Yeah. And right after COVID, which absolutely
14:16 there was no business in the oil field, we had to put a plan together within 6 months to explain to SBA, hey, we’re we
14:23 are a going concern because they deferred 6 months on the note. So in that month, you know, we we bought
14:28 I went ahead and just bought, you know, trucks. And over that next year, we bought about 18 trucks, trailers, hopper
14:35 bottoms. I mean, we just loaded up. Well, the market rates just got crushed in 22. Um, a lot of like there’s a lot
14:42 of theories around it, but there was just a lot of drivers taking lower rates. It just became very difficult. So, we just pulled back and we today we
14:49 run about nine trucks doing local grain hauling. But what we all want to do in that space
14:55 is to be asset light because the cost to buy that truck, right? You know, 200 250 grand if you
15:02 want to buy a nice one. And the problem with these Pack RS and some of these new trucks is that they’re they’re using
15:07 these computer chips and the chips the chips if if you if it goes down or that
15:13 thing shows, you know, whatever error on it, it’s very expensive to to fix that
15:18 chip, right? And so you find yourself buying the old trucks that don’t have the old technology, but you’ve got to
15:24 have maintenance on that side. So, if you can go to just dropping trailers, doing all of those things, orchestrating
15:30 that in freight, man, that’s why you guys scaled. You got you didn’t get in the trucking business. You got into the
15:37 the that’s where the logistics conversation is. You’re organizing the freights. You’re dealing with the
15:42 carrier, you know, the groups that need that product to get that stuff there. That’s where the money’s at. And it is a
15:49 very challenging competitive, highly competitive space at least in in the US and I’m sure in Canada. So man, that’s
15:55 that’s pretty incredible story, man, because I I think about it all the time when it comes to our our company and
16:00 just to connect all those dots. It’s it’s it’s a lot to connect.
16:06 Totally. I mean, exactly how you said it, like that’s our vision to like build
16:12 and scale, you know, the largest trucking company in Canada and move across North America. It just Yeah, it
16:18 requires a lot of capital. We bootstrapped everything, you know, we, you know, basically got lines of credit
16:24 from from the bank. Um, and so yeah, we didn’t have any outside investors. So we we needed to move to asset life for
16:31 necessity to continue to scale. And then yeah, we just use our skill set in building technology and sales um and
16:38 then just, you know, rapidly figuring out how to provide solutions. But yeah, like you said, it’s very competitive,
16:44 uh, industry and margins can be low as well. So, you got to you got to figure
16:49 out, you know, ways to to make sure that you’re profitable. And that’s why like really managing the metrics of the
16:54 business is super important. And um yeah, I mean, it was it was a wild ride. Um and uh yeah, I mean, I learned a lot.
17:01 I mean, from a from a business standpoint and some of the new the things we’re doing now. I mean, uh yeah,
17:06 I I I definitely got my MBA u learning how to to run a logistics company.
17:12 So, that was a three-year run. So, in three years, you guys accomplished. So what happened in the third year? Yeah. Where’d you grow it to and then
17:19 kind of you know how did the transaction itself happen for the sale? Yeah. So um the plan was never to
17:28 uh I mean I don’t want to say never sell like when we first started. We we talked about it. Uh but I mean we just put our
17:35 heads down and and got into it and we loved it. I mean, seeing our team scale and, you know, moving across Canada and
17:43 doing acquisitions and turnaround strategies, um, we were just having a lot of fun, especially, you know, my
17:49 wife and I, uh, just getting married and built. I mean, the whole business revolved around our whole life revolved
17:55 around the business. So, obviously that can be a little bit challenging in marriage, but it definitely made us stronger. Um, and so kind of what
18:02 happened was after, you know, close to three years into it, um, uh, my wife was
18:08 pregnant, uh, with our first child. Um, and, um, we, uh, yeah, she basically
18:15 just said, you know, I don’t want to continue kind of running this business 24/7, 365 in her role. So, she said, you
18:23 know, when we when we have our child, um, I think I want to be out of operation. So for me it’s like even
18:28 though on paper you know it looked like we’re making lots of money and the business is scaling everyone our headcount was growing like crazy. So
18:34 people think you know we’re just piling in the money but when you scale like that in in a low margin business
18:40 everything goes back into the business. So even my wife saying hey I want the ability to possibly be a stay-at-home
18:46 mom. I was kind of panicking a little bit. I’m like we’re barely paying ourselves anything and you know how are we going to make this work? And so that
18:53 was kind of like a point where we thought about hey should we what should we do next? So I went to my partner and
18:59 talked to him about it and you know he he felt like it was now was the right time especially we got to a point where
19:05 if we want to keep scaling we needed to get more capital maybe take an investor like you know it’s it’s just you know
19:11 it’s a capital intensive business. So that was kind of the the tipping point. So we yeah ended up you know going to
19:18 market and you know doing the the dog and pony show and meeting with different
19:24 you know uh strategic buyers uh private equity and um yeah so that that that’s
19:30 kind of what happened and then fortunately we found um a transportation company that was privately equitybacked
19:37 in the US um and so they had a couple large assets in in our market um and uh
19:44 so yeah we ended up choosing them. So it was uh private equity back plus a strategic and so their group was like
19:50 one of the biggest transportation companies in in North America and so it was um yeah it was a good fit for us and
19:56 then I worked with them during a transition for about two years. Um and then uh yeah at the end of the
20:03 transition um I just I made the difficult decision to step down as CEO.
20:09 they, you know, made gave me opportunities to move into a larger uh
20:14 larger role inside their organization and um yeah, I just kind of felt um I
20:20 wanted to kind of be able to control my own destiny and get back into acquisitions and and build something
20:25 again. So, I ended up stepping down uh coming up about four years ago.
20:30 So, really quick, because there’s a lot in that. So, how you know, how big were you guys? And then whenever you were
20:37 selling, it sounds like you guys went out and found and sourced your own buyers or did you guys use a you know
20:43 some a broker or somebody to kind of help facilitate just finding you buyers?
20:48 Um we actually ended up using an M&A adviser. So we had a guy who was kind of
20:54 specialized in or a group that was specialized in in trucking. So um that was really helpful for us because we
21:01 could continue to operate the the business. Um, yeah, as far as like
21:06 numbers, the size-wise, I mean, we were one of the largest in in British Columbia, uh, Canada, and one of the
21:13 fast growing in in in all of Canada in in logistics, but I got to be a little bit careful about numbers because it was
21:20 private company and and I sold. So, can you say how many people it was just to kind of help maybe the audience can
21:26 kind of gauge? Yeah, we went from about three of us to about a hundred like kind of the internal office staff and then we
21:33 had, you know, that’s not including like all of our contracted, you know, carriers and things like that. We had
21:39 probably about 500 contractors on top of that and then we had different warehouses across Canada. Um, not ones
21:46 that were fully operating. We were basically outsourcing them. So that was kind of the the size. Okay. And then in terms of the
21:52 acquisition, right, how did it get structured? How much of that can you share in terms like was there you it sounds like there you were required to
21:57 stay on for two years was there an earnout component was there a seller finance component was there a role you know they just want the whole thing
22:05 um yeah there there was a there was an earnout period so I mean that that’s kind of common knowledge in in the deal
22:11 but uh yeah it was a a two two-year earnout structure and especially for us like we were such high growth and
22:21 technology focused Um yeah, we found kind of going to market that, you know,
22:28 people were concerned about buying us like they there’s a lot of questions not understanding like how do we continue to
22:34 scale so fast. Um so yeah, that seemed like a risk to um when we were going
22:40 through the the buyer process. So there was always going to be a component of earnout in in any way that we went.
22:47 Okay. And you guys are already familiar with that. So it wasn’t because some buyers or sellers, right, that they’re like, “What? I don’t want an earnout.
22:53 You know what if they screw up the business, right? And they don’t understand the value of earnout and why it’s there.
22:59 Um, yeah, like I I knew about earnouts from being in the mining industry. Um,
23:05 and so yeah, I mean ideally it would have been, you know, uh, yeah, I mean it
23:12 would have been nice to not structure an earnout if you could. I always tell that to buy bars, if you can get away with it, you know, yeah, I mean, try try to
23:20 do it without an earnout, but if you get enough upside, um, it can definitely be worth it. And one thing I will say about
23:26 working with this group and especially them being private equity backed, I actually got my eyes really open to a
23:34 lot of things, especially on the finance side and you know them doing acquisitions and so you know being part of like the executive team and you know
23:41 working with the C CEO originally I was reporting to him. Um it was an amazing
23:46 learning experience and you know working with the CFO as well. So um yeah the the
23:51 earnout was a component of it but it was also like an amazing learning experience for me you know running the company and
23:58 then fortunately the way that we had it structured we were running fully independently so we got support from you
24:05 know back office and financial and things like that. Um so that was you know that that was great. So I uh yeah
24:13 it it was a I I I mean it it was a great experience for me. So yeah, we had a we had a good friend of mine um
24:19 Carl Kleman here on on this podcast probably about 3 4 months ago and he said something very similar to what you
24:25 said. He was like, you know, he didn’t really know on his on his acquisition about rolling in equity and doing all
24:31 these things, but he kind of just trusted the process, went through went through it and and he made that
24:36 observation that man, the learning that I got through that whole process was stuff that just elevated my entire
24:43 entrepreneurship game. And then it’s allowed him to go to another company now and really take advantage of all those
24:49 skills that he got. Plus, I mean, his role in ended up being very well. I think his rolled three times, didn’t
24:54 he? Yeah. Right. Very well. But but again, you reflected similar to you. But
24:60 man, the he’s like the education to be able to sit in that group and to learn that stuff, man, has taken me to a whole
25:06 another game in this other company that I came to do years later. Totally. And I would I would say the
25:12 same thing. It told you know the the group when I when I left like it was an
25:17 amazing learning experience. I am very grateful for the time that I had with them for the the couple years and I’ve
25:24 definitely been able to it definitely up my up my game in in acquisitions and
25:29 even like some of the things learning about how they do the financial budgeting and stuff like that stuff that we did didn’t did nothing especially
25:35 when we started the business. So, um, yeah, I’ve took a lot what I’ve learned there and I’ve been able to apply it in in our kind of next next venture. And,
25:42 um, yeah, very grateful for that opportunity. And that’s why, like I tell people, if you’re going to exit,
25:48 um, make sure you find the right group that you’re going to enjoy, you know, if you are in earnout, that you’re going to
25:54 enjoy working with and making sure that going into it, you know, there should be some sort of, you know, learning
26:01 experience, something you can gain through it as well. If you’re going to, you know, sell your business, sell your baby. you know, I talk about, you know,
26:07 selling your business and working in the business. It’s like almost like giving your kid up for adoption and living in
26:14 the same house, right? So, um it can definitely be emotional and and
26:20 challenging and especially when you’ve got, you know, a larger entity, you know, purchasing you and, you know,
26:26 you’ve got to, you know, make sure that you’re kind of fitting in and you don’t want to be the bottleneck in certain
26:31 things and, you know, ultimately you don’t own the company anymore. So, um yeah, it’s uh it can be it can be
26:37 emotionally uh challenging, but overall I had a really great experience with these guys and um and yeah, it it worked
26:45 out well. I think it it was a win-win in the end. Yeah. And were you able to roll anything forward as well or No.
26:52 Um not in not in this deal. No. Okay. So, yeah. The next thing is really, you know, what you going to negotiate with them in terms of like,
26:58 hey, how are we going to grow this company? But I guess it’s a little bit less relevant than that scenario. Yeah. I mean, we definitely continued to
27:04 scale together. Um um and they provided me a lot of back-end support and and
27:09 things like that. So, it it definitely helped us scale like we we continue to scale quite significantly over the two
27:15 years. So, I felt good about transitioning out with the business continuing to growing. So, um yeah.
27:23 Okay, that’s great. So, then from there, what’s next? What what did you do after that? Tell us where you are today. All
27:29 that good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean to to be totally honest with you, once I actually stepped down,
27:35 I kind of hit this wall like, you know, having hundreds of people, you know,
27:40 either reporting to you or needing things from you and all this stuff and literally, you know, your email your
27:46 emails getting shut down. It was like, you know, I I walked out of the office, you know, had some tears, you know, with
27:51 my team and everything. And, you know, people that going through that and building and scaling and, you know, the
27:57 business, you know, working long hours and it was it was really hard to say goodbye to my team. I I really I still
28:04 care about them and I still have relationships with people from the company, uh, even though it’s been four years, but they they were like family to
28:09 us. So once I actually kind of yeah made the decision, I kind of went through
28:15 this like not like a depression but more of like you know who am I like what is
28:20 my identity? And you know obviously I had you know I had quite a bit of capital in the bank. I didn’t need I
28:27 don’t I didn’t need to work if I didn’t want to. And so I I really spent I had another baby at the time. So we have our
28:33 two kids now. And um so I just spent time with the family pouring into them getting to know you know my kids really
28:39 well. Obviously, I was really busy in the business when they were first born. And so, uh, did some bucket list trips,
28:45 you know, took my mom and, uh, our mother-in-law to Italy and, you know, did a whole bunch of things with my
28:51 family and and, uh, yeah, then after about 6 months, my wife was basically
28:56 like, “Okay, I think it’s time time time for you to get going now.” And, um, I,
29:02 you know, I I’m really passionate about people and and business. And so um and
29:07 yeah, so that that’s kind of how we started. And then we, you know, went to some different mentors and trying to figure out, you know, what we wanted to
29:13 do. So we set up our own family office. We’re not a massive family office. We’re a boutique family office. It’s all our
29:19 own capital. And um yeah, we started making strategic investments and
29:25 acquisitions in different industries. And one thing I realized, so yeah, that’s what I thought. I thought, you
29:31 know, we’d be like, you know, small private equity arm, you know, control our own destiny. We’re making investments and then maybe I’d sit on a
29:38 board and, you know, give some strategic advice. And as I started doing that, I realized a lot of these companies, you
29:45 know, founders were, you know, stuck in the weeds. you know, they’re involved in all the stuff that I I went through, you
29:51 know, involved in all the big decisions in the sales, in the firefighting, you know, they didn’t put in the right systems, even like, you know, the right
29:57 financial or the right, you know, CRM system and all that stuff. So, it was stuff that me and my wife were very
30:03 skilled at. Like, we’ve done some pretty nasty turnaround situations, companies losing a lot of money to, you know,
30:09 getting over, you know, a million bucks in EBA within, you know, 12 months and
30:15 things like that. So we really like we when we were making it even these businesses that were stable and you know
30:20 had you know a decent amount of IBIDA they still had challenges putting the right people in the right seats getting the founder out of the weeds all that
30:26 stuff. So through that we set up a business consulting arm and so that’s
30:31 where we started you know originally we built it to like make it when we made investments into a company we come in
30:37 we’d help them with their human capital side my wife and I we built a leadership development program to help you know
30:43 people upskill and and learn to be managers and you know all the kind of soft skill stuff you know having
30:48 critical conversations holding people accountable all that stuff so we started doing that inside the businesses and
30:54 then when I was doing acquisitions I saw, you know, business owners that
30:59 businesses that we didn’t want to buy, they were kind of stuck. So, like, you know, they really wanted us to buy. You
31:04 know, we’re a high integrity group and, you know, we’ve got a good reputation, but maybe their business just didn’t fit
31:10 our criteria criteria or fit our vision and values. So, then we just start to consult. And so helping them, you know,
31:17 put the right people in the right place, building the right systems, bringing in the right technology, making sure it
31:22 talks to to each other, building the right score scorecards. And then so originally when we built it, it was out
31:28 of just supporting our own deals. And then we saw there’s actually a big market for that um and helping other
31:33 businesses. And I’m very passionate about helping entrepreneurs. So um yeah, it kind of took off from there. And so
31:40 we’ve done a few acquisitions in that space. and we’ve got a technology company and so we do like AI and we we
31:47 can build software as well but basically kind of putting in the right technology making sure it talks to get to together.
31:53 Um then we’ve got a human capital firm as well inside there. So helping you know recruit top talent, develop
31:60 leaders, all that stuff. And so yeah, as it started as like kind of a side project, it’s really taken off over the
32:06 past couple years. And I’m really super excited about that as well. So I like the fact that I can still impact and
32:13 help small to mediumsiz businesses. I mean we have some large organizations that we you know consult on their you
32:19 know human capital people side but I’m really passionate about helping small to business small to mediumsiz business
32:25 owners through that. So that’s basically a great story because I’ll tell you then, you know, after being somebody
32:30 that’s in the weeds, have operated, being in the company part, right? It’s it to be able to leap to consulting, you
32:37 you’ve got to just breathe a little bit differently, right? Because now you’re you’re you’re not having to do all that,
32:43 but you’re you’re able to help think way above the 30,000 foot view to help them make the right decisions. And buddy,
32:49 that that is a much more fun place to be than actually in the grind operating the company every day, right?
32:55 Totally. And and yeah, and the thing about that is like I learn through
33:01 getting around guys that were way further along than me and like guys with real world experience. So like you know
33:06 even though some of the founders are help helping like they’re you know wouldn’t say twice my age although some
33:12 are close it’s like they from my experience I can help make them make
33:17 quicker decisions on what they need to do as opposed to them just keep being in the weeds. So, I get a lot of joy out
33:23 of, you know, using from my experience. And I mean, yeah, I say this as well, like I’ve had a really good 10-year run.
33:30 Like, me and my wife have been on a really good run together. It’s been really hard. Uh, but yeah, we we were
33:36 very good at doing acquisitions and turning businesses around. Uh but yeah, first 10 years of my journey, a lot of
33:42 hard knocks, a lot of failed mistakes, a lot of, you know, not learn knowing how to be a leader and getting the right
33:48 people in the right places and all that stuff and being in the weeds and just focused on revenue is going to solve all
33:53 my problems like just bringing the revenue and so um yeah, I love the fact that I can give back uh by advising
33:60 these guys about the things that I I made mistakes on. Awesome. Awesome. a lot of here and it’s
34:05 you know it’s always it’s a lot more fun to kind of coach and guide and nurture and you know the problem is you can’t
34:11 force change like you can if you were you know running the show but at the
34:16 same time right you don’t have the grind of the dayto-day to kind of deal with because it’s you know working on a
34:21 business is very different than working in the business and I think a lot of times it’s a lot more fun to work on the business and strategize because that’s
34:27 that’s the stuff that can really impact and move the needle so so Josh a lot of the people listening on
34:32 our podcast these are these are people that have been probably mid-level career. Um they’re thinking about making
34:38 the acquisition leap. Um maybe they have started a company, they went back to their career and now they’re thinking
34:43 about buying a company and running the day-to-day. Um so being a being a
34:49 consultant and having the experience you’ve had, seeing a lot of deals and stuff, what are just a few of the kind of like key tips that you would tell our
34:56 listeners that you’ve kind of taken away when you do your consulting? What are some of those key things you really help them focus on? Okay. So, the first thing
35:04 I mean there’s a couple things. It’s always the I say if you’re going to, you know, acquire a business, you got to be
35:09 really focused and making sure you get the right people in the right seats. And so, that’s always where we start. You
35:15 know, you do an acquisition, you got to look at the team that you’re acquiring, especially, you know, hopefully you’ve
35:22 got some industry experience in that. But if you don’t and you’re passionate about a certain industry, you got to
35:27 make sure that the company you’re acquiring, they got the right people in the right seats. And if if they if you feel that they don’t, you got to like
35:34 make a decision. How are you going to manage that? And so a lot of times when you do an acquisition in a founder
35:40 business, you got to take over their responsibilities as well. So you got to focus on the people. You got to see like
35:46 is it a strong team? Is this something that I can step into and I’ve got the right team that’s going to support and
35:52 the right culture? And then the second thing is always the systems. like do they have kind of a clear playbook or
35:58 the right systems and technology so that you understand how the delivery of the the service is is going to happen. So
36:04 those are the two things I always talk about, people, systems, and then a big one for anyone who wants to be an
36:10 entrepreneur, business owner, or if you’re going in to do an acquisition, you I mean, I’ve got lots of books on
36:16 this as well, and I attend conferences and get mentors, you better learn to level up your leadership skills because
36:22 ultimately the the way that you’re going to be able to attract top talent or retain them is they got to look up to
36:28 the leader and they got to be a visionary. and you so that’s one thing that I spent a lot of time is really
36:34 developing my leadership development skills being a strong leader and understanding how to be strategic set a
36:40 vision hold people accountable and get the right people on the bus. So, those are those are the big things. Love
36:46 tips, man. No, great stuff. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And with that said, we’ll go
36:52 ahead and move on to our rocket round where we ask our guests the same three questions. So, first question,
36:58 Josh, what would you like to do? What do you like to do in your free time? In my free time, I mean, funny enough,
37:04 even though I went through a big storm and almost died, I love boating. Um, so right now just got a a I’m fortunate
37:11 enough we live, you know, right on the water here. So we’ve we’ve got a boat and right now it’s just a kind of a ski
37:17 family boat, little bit of a fishing boat. Uh, but yeah, now my wife and I are talking about going to that next
37:22 level. Some sort of something a little bit bigger, somewhere we can go to the islands and sleep over. Um, but yeah,
37:27 I’m not ready for the the open waters yet. But uh,
37:33 PTSD from that, right? Understand? Yeah, that was a life-defining moment for sure.
37:40 All right, next question. What’s your most memorable moment in your business journey journey?
37:47 My most memorable moment. Um,
37:52 there’s been so many. I I think yeah, this kind of goes together, but
37:58 definitely starting a business with my wife and her, you know, me leaving an
38:04 opportunity in the mining industry and her leaving her job and just like doing
38:09 whatever it took to make that successful. That was Yeah, that was very memorable. And then ultimately, you
38:16 know, doing that together, building and scaling it up and then having that exit.
38:21 Um, even though it was bittersweet, um, it really validated, you know, the years of grind and sacrifice that, you know,
38:28 we did for for our marriage to set ourselves up for for our family and our kids.
38:34 Fair enough. Beautiful. And the last question, what’s your favorite tool or resource?
38:40 My favorite tool or resource? Um,
38:45 yeah, actually, I’m going to go a different way on this. So, the best resource that I personally have is
38:51 getting around mentors and peers that have actually operated and scaled
38:56 businesses or things that are further along than me. That’s always been my best resource is, you know, getting
39:02 around people that have been in my shoes and are further along. That’s I mean, I always tell people you got to you got to
39:07 get in the rooms with the right people. And I guess tool obviously you know
39:12 customizing you know AI and chat GDP and um you know and and then integrating
39:18 that stuff with HubSpot CRM. I think uh right now those are my two kind of favorite favorite tools.
39:25 All right. Fair enough. Awesome. Beautiful. All right. So Josh, how can people get a hold of you?
39:32 Um yeah, people can get a hold of me on uh I’m very active on LinkedIn. So you can find me on LinkedIn at scaling with
39:37 Josh Davis. or you go to our family office website which is jld
39:42 davisenterprises.com. Um, and yeah, we got a bunch of free resources on there or if you add me to
39:49 LinkedIn, uh, you can DM me the word scale and I send people a playbook that I have. It’s frameworks that my wife and
39:55 I use to scale, acquire, and exit companies. So, if anyone wants that resources, uh, feel free to reach out,
40:03 man. And we will put that in our show notes so people have that. That is incredible. Well, Josh, thank you very
40:08 much for spending some time with us today and telling your story. It’s It’s pretty incredible. I appreciate it. Thanks so much, guys.
40:13 Appreciate it. Thanks, Josh. Thank you for listening to the M&A Launchpad podcast. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to
40:20 support us, please leave us a rating and a review after you listen. I’m Casey Menchu, and I look forward to talking with you next week.
