Mike Boyd, Vroom Vroom Vroom and Mudbrick Capital - Ep. 2
My conversation today is with Mike Boyd. Mike is originally from Brisbane, Australia and currently lives in Singapore where he runs one of the leading car rental comparison websites in the world - Vroom, Vroom, Vroom, among other portfolio companies. He has been an entrepreneur for virtually his entire life, starting at a very young age. Mike built on his experience starting businesses and has evolved to buying them whole. Today he invests his own money, permanent capital, into digital-only companies and intangibles globally, with the goal being to build a portfolio of cash-flow producing companies for the very long term.\n\xa0\nOur conversation includes discussion on his early entrepreneurial stories, how he became CEO at such a young age, what he looks for in digital investments, and his experience building a remote team. This one, and our prior phone call, are two of the most memorable conversations I've had about business and investing. I hope once you finish listening, you will feel the same way.\n\xa0\nI got to know Mike after he reached out over Twitter after seeing my conversation with Trish Higgins and was very generous with his time and experience. If you work in micro private equity or permanent capital, or know someone who does, please feel free to reach out through my website or Twitter - I'd love to have a conversation.\n\xa0\nLinks mentioned\nMudbrick Capital\nvideo on future of workplaces\nVroom Vroom Vroom\nUpwork\nCEO AMA\nHiccup Insurance\nCarHire\n Envato\n\xa0\nShow notes\n0:00 Introduction\n1:49 Early entrepreneurial businesses, keg rental business, video on future of workplaces\n2:15 Planning 18th birthday party\n4:50 Decision to start keg rental business, Coolybar Keg Hire\n6:50 Story about inbox filled with orders for keg rentals, top of Google results for \u201ckeg hire Brisbane\u201d\n8:40 Evolving beyond college, moving from Brisbane to Singapore, started non-profit called The Hive\n10:20 Getting to know various entrepreneurs through starting non-profit program, mentorship\n11:45 Using photos to market Coolybar Keg Hire\n12:12 Digital/social media consulting\n12:50 Vroom Vroom Vroom opportunity\n13:30 Owners of Vroom Vroom Vroom reached out\n15:26 Offered, and accepted, to run Vroom Vroom Vroom as CEO\n17:01 Starting adding/fixing processes within the company, scaled\n21:20 Frequently seeing poor business skills within digital world\n22:10 Discussion on why only digital companies, finding these companies, filtering\n23:28 Vroom Vroom Vroom business model\n25:45 Why Mike moved to Singapore, remote workforce\n27:30 Training freelancers for remote work\xa0\n28:50 CEO AMA\u2019s, http://ceoama.co/\n33:40 Sourcing acquisitions and deals, finding new digital companies, filtering\n34:25 Hiccup insurance\n35:44 Mudbrick Capital, private company diversification\n36:20 Finding opportunities in digital intangible space\n38:05 Types of digital companies sought out\n40:12 Challenges in reinvesting capital in digital companies\n42:20 Types of companies found, examples, transacting sellers\n45:40 Purchase price multiples\xa0\n48:00 Example prospective acquisition company\n52:30 Demographics of owners\n53:27 Benefits of permanent capital for sellers, Mudbrick value proposition to sellers\n57:54 Reasons why digital companies with great economics don\u2019t receive higher multiples than 2-4 times EBITDA\n1:01:08 Add backs/withdrawals from EBITDA to get to true \u201cowner earners\u201d\n1:04:02 Reinvestment risk, if Mudbrick Capital is in part solution to this risk\n1:07:01 Carhire\n1:09:38 Can only really reinvest in marketing when it comes to digital companies\n1:10:26 Most fortunate event to have happened that was completely by chance\n1:16:34 Best business you\u2019ve ever seen,\xa0Envato