Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:00:00 · Michael Brown
[00:00:00] S0: Teamshares buys small businesses from recurring owners. And so we've now done this. We have 92 companies since launching in 2020. We've got about, 500,000,000 of of consolidated revenue and 60,000,000 of operating. EBITDA. And we focus on a specific niche, and it's companies that are at the point of retirement, traditional, generally non tech businesses, 500,000 to 5,000,000 of EBITDA.
00:00:22 · Alexa von Tobel, Michael Brown
[00:00:22] S1: Welcome to Inspired. I'm Alexa von Tobel. 6,000,000 small businesses will change hands by 2035. These are contractors, the manufacturers, the companies that keep America running. Nearly 90% are owned by boomers and Gen X, and most will never find a buyer. Michael Brown is on a mission to change that. He's the cofounder and CEO of Teamshares, buys which small businesses from retiring owners. They've acquired more than 90 companies across 30 states with over 500,000,000 in revenue. Mark and I invested in Teamshares back in 2020 when he was just a five person team working out of a WeWork. Fast forward to today, Teamshares is preparing to trade on the Nasdaq. In this conversation, we'll talk about how and why Michael built Teamshares, his long term founder mindset that drives every single decision they make, and why even as they prepare to go public, Michael says they're still just in the first inning. Let's dive right in. If you're running a startup, we know things like managing equity and communicating with investors are always top of mind. Carta has built a connected suite of tools that over 40,000 companies use to do just that. Their platform of software and services helps you lay the groundwork so you can focus on building. To learn more or get started, visit carta.com. And with that, welcome my friend Michael. Michael, first of all, I'm so thrilled to have you on and just such a fan of everything and watching you build now almost an entire decade long. So first, just welcome. So happy to have you. [00:01:43] S0: Thanks for having me.
00:01:43 · Michael Brown, Alexa von Tobel
[00:01:43] S0: Thanks for having me. [00:01:45] S1: Okay, Michael. We're gonna talk a lot about Teamshares and your future and where you're going and what inning you're in. But first, I wanna rewind a bit and just talk a little bit about you. You are one of the most ambitious entrepreneurs. And I, being a mom of three, I love to go back to your childhood and just get a sense of, like, what happened in your childhood. Is there a standout memory, something that helps connect the dots to this ambition that you have? [00:02:11] S0: It's interesting because actually my I think there was always natural expectations in my family, but no one ever really pushed anything. I was sort of self guided. But I also think this... I grew up in a bunch of different countries as an expat. And so I've just kind of always been an outsider to everything. I think being comfortable as an outsider is something that actually when Kevin and Alex and I met, he identified, that each of us for different reasons is what's called a a third culture kid. So there's, like, this natural tendency to just be comfortable as an outsider, which sometimes I think can help you see things in different ways. [00:02:46] S1: I really like that. Say more. When you say comfortable as an outsider, give me give me a few more thoughts on what that means.
00:02:46 · Alexa von Tobel, Michael Brown
[00:02:46] S1: I really like that. Say more. When you say comfortable as an outsider, give me give me a few more thoughts on what that means. [00:02:53] S0: Yeah. I mean... So, specifically to say, like, kind of my own experience. Right? I think, you know, when I showed up at UCLA, I I didn't know anyone. Right? There were 4,000. I was supposedly... Like, I was, like, theoretically in state because my parents had moved there, but I literally didn't know anyone. Everyone knew dozens of people. I think same thing too. Most of the jobs I was supposed to get out of UCLA were in LA or San Francisco, and I came to New York, and I I knew one person, right, who went went to high school with. And then same thing, I think, when I left to go buy the first business. Right? I didn't know anything about construction or electrical. And then when we first started thinking about employee ownership, you know, Kevin and I and Alex went to this conference. And so I I didn't know anything. Right? So I think it's a it's a thing where if you can balance humility of realizing you don't know anything and be curious, it can be a powerful combination.
00:03:44 · Alexa von Tobel, Michael Brown
[00:03:44] S1: So in many ways, what you're really saying is just, like, comfort with the unknown, comfort being in a place where you don't know anybody, comfort tackling a topic. I do think that that inner confidence in places when, in fact, you don't have clarity is a skill I hope I teach all my children. Okay. I want to go directly into Teamshares. I am so fortunate to have been an early investor. Mark and I both remember really well when we met you. And I'll come back to the famous sentence that you once said to me. But for everyone that's out there listening, can you just... What is Teamshares? What is it, exactly in plain English? [00:04:22] S0: Yeah. So Teamshares buys small businesses from retiring owners. Like, that's sort of the most plain way to describe it. As a company, we're what's called a programmatic acquirer, meaning a company and soon to be a public company that sort of routinely acquires small businesses. We're an acquisitive operating company that keeps buying small businesses and integrates them into our company. And so we've now done this. We have 92 companies since launching in 2020. We've got about, 500,000,000 of of consolidated revenue and 60,000,000 of operating EBITDA. And we focus on a specific niche, and it's companies that are at the point of retirement, traditional, generally non tech businesses, 500,000 to 5,000,000 of EBITDA.
00:05:01 · Alexa von Tobel
[00:05:01] S1: One of the things obviously that, I personally really loved about your business was just, you know, a third of The US economy is the small business economy. Right? It's the electrician businesses, the refrigeration companies. And doing right by that part of the economy is just a, I think, a wonderful thing that I'm thrilled you do. When Mark and I first met you back in 2019 and invested in 2020, what stood out was not that you you know, this was an acquisition strategy. It was an attempt to build something much bigger. I remember you had a multi hundred year plan, a two hundred year plan, if I remember correctly. Like Michael said super directly as a compliment, you have more ambition than most people I've ever met in my entire life. And as someone who looks for founders like you all day long, What part of your brain was like, let's go make a two hundred year plan? Like, where where did that come from for the business?