Mastering Deals, Capital and People with Kevin Ramsier

0:00Hey there, this is Casey with the M&A Launchpad Podcast. I want to invite you to our next conference, May 2nd, 2026 in Houston, Texas. Now, this is a one day high impact event for anyone serious about mergers and acquisitions. And it's our third one. It's going to be huge. You get to hear from top industry experts, spout sourcing deals, running new diligence, structuring deals and raising capitals. Plus, you're going to meet our vendors, people that we have used and people that like to help you source fine diligence and get your deal to the finish line. I want to do a special thank you for our podcast listeners. And we're going to offer a limited time discount code, launch, L.A. UNCH. This is for a discount on your tickets. Now, our past attendees love the conference. We feel like we're going to have a lot of return listeners. If this is your first time, we can't wait to see you there. Mark your calendars May 2nd, 2026 in Houston. We can't wait to see you. All right. And today's episode, we interviewed Kevin Ramseyer, where we did a deep dive into what it's like to build really a small private equity company, right?

1:02How we kind of got the start, how they find deals, how they find equity, how they find people. And most importantly, how do you operate the business, right? And this one was really inspirational for Casey and I. It's very similar to the vision of what we're doing and kind of where we're going. And we learned a lot of little nuggets from this. So Casey, what's in your takeaways? I mean, it's our track is where we're going, right? And when you move these people that help you tell the story of where they started and they grow. And remember, you know, when you look into this, Kevin's been doing this for 25 years. And he started to attract high quality talent to his team two years ago to then take it and scale it and take what he had done. So he could ground ground ground grassroots by company dig in, make it work, and he did it time after time. I'm talking about by company fly out to that company, live there for two years, get it right, move to the next one and to have that kind of commitment, that upward or mentality and then just say, Hey, I can scale this and grow this. And that's what he's been able to do. Very, you know, just spoke to me all the way around a very incredible podcast.

2:04Yeah, no, and then kind of again, we dive into really how do you start to grow? How do you start to scale, right? And from that smaller ones to the bigger ones of the pros and cons of those, and how do you find those businesses? So again, lots of things to kind of think about for ourselves. And I'm sure listeners will find the same. Welcome to the M&A launch pad podcast with your host, Casey and Ferris with equity launch pad. On this podcast, you will get insights on acquiring investing in and selling profitable businesses in the lower to middle market, whether you're a business owner, investor or a spine entrepreneur at equity and launch pad, we will provide you with the knowledge, guidance and capital to navigate the world of mergers and acquisitions. Hey, Kevin, welcome to show. Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. It's great to be here. Yeah, nice. So we're looking forward to learning more about you and hear your story. So why don't you jump in and tell us a little bit about your background and then what you're doing now? Sure. I will. I, my name is Kevin Ramseyer. I am a managing partner founder of Sire Capital Partners. I'll talk about from the beginning.

3:04I grew up with a single parent. My mom raised me by herself outside of Akron, Ohio and we didn't grow up with a lot. So I always had a business and as a kid, a four football cleats or something else that I wanted or closed or something like that. And I grew that business and became, you know, my mom wanted me to go to college. And that was a long care business. And I still tell her to stay if she wouldn't have made me go to college and have the largest landscaping business in the country and selling for pretty big multiples now. But she really wanted me to go to college, be the first one in my family, go work for a big company, rise up the corporate ladder. She was worked in a factory your whole life. And that was really important to her. So I begrudgingly followed that path. I went to a small school in Ohio, played football there and learned how to really become a leader, I guess. A role that I had never taken our step out of outside of, you know, my small local business. And I get out, I get a job at Invesco, a large global investment firm raising capital for their strategies.

4:12And I end up being there for 10 years. And I always say this, I think a lot of people are in this space where I really became a victim of my own success. I was, you know, financially making more money than I ever thought possible as a little boy. But I woke up one day and really looked in the mirror and said, I never thought I'd be this financially successful. But I'm literally the most unhappy I've ever been. I was happier, you know, mowing yards and building a team. I want that feeling again. So hold on handcuffs. Yeah, exactly. It really was that. And it's funny how the things you pray for as a little boy become a reality and you're like, and this isn't what it's about. And I really pivoted to my mother's dismay. I put it in my two weeks and I said, I'm going to go buy a business. This was 25 years ago. And it was not called, you know, a searcher or an independent sponsor. It was just called crazy back then. It was literally, I had hair when I bought that business and it started out.

5:14I brought on a partner and there was a handful of, it was a small little business, add five employees. And we grew it across the country in 34 states and ended up selling it. And it was a giant windfall for, for both of us. And I took that money and started buying more companies and doing the same. And then what did that first company do? We did environmental indoor air quality inspections. We franchised that across the country and we had corporate owned locations and it was an awesome business. And we took three years for us to get it right. And it was very stressful and there was times when we didn't think it would work, but we ended up figuring it out. But about 12 years ago, my partner today is Adam Althus and Adam, I always say this, but Adam's just younger, a lot better looking and a lot smarter than me. And Adam was probably going to go work at a large private equity firm. And came to me and said, look, you got a track record.

6:15You're doing some things that are interesting. I want to help you scale that, institutionalize it. And so he stalked me a little bit and then I finally said, let's do this. And he joined 12 years ago and six years ago we added Adam. Aaron Lazar is our other partner now. And Aaron was at Wharton and worked for a large investment bank and helps us kind of with financial modeling and all of our existing portfolio companies. But we're a small firm. There's only three of us. We do a couple acquisitions a year, help our portfolio companies do acquisitions on top of those initial ones. So we're constantly busy and we look for interesting people primarily to invest and back and help them grow a business into something great. And I live in Charlotte. My partners are in New York. I'm in Charlotte. I have a wonderful wife of over 20 years and four great kids and a giant dog. I love it. Hey, so just one of the things I can tell you is, it sounds like you attracted in your journey some pretty high caliber guys that wanted to join your team, right?

7:21So like you said, you're like, you're like, hey, I went to school and this is my story. But you know, again, you know, the great side of leadership is surrounding yourself with people that are better than you, right? And it sounds like that is what you've been able to do to get your capital and to get this company really where it sounds like it's become a dream come true. It really has. I think both of them have made me so much better. There's so much more effective as an organization and able to do, you know, own a dozen or so companies now and look at lots of them. And buy two or three a year and with just three people, it's been a very efficient process that we have in place. Yeah, and that's, you know, that's what's beautiful about this business is done correctly, right? The parent company doesn't need to be massive, right? And I think, you know, this is where you guys are very similar to what we do at equity launchpad, right? And I think we kind of look at it as really there's like three legs to the stool, right? There is finding equity, finding deals and the third one is finding people, right?

8:24People that can go in, operate, have experience set, skill set and something we can kind of build around. And so maybe for the listeners, right, Kevin, you want to just dive into each of those and how do you guys look at it? And I'm going to take notes too, right? Because this helped make us a better company probably as well. Yeah, I might add a fourth leg to make it a little sturdier stool. I think post acquisition, there is this role that we spend a lot of time with our management teams helping them think through growth. And how to tackle that and the pain that comes with that. So whether it's a therapist helping solve problems, helping open doors and on that work to pursue sales opportunities. That's a lot of what we do as well. And that we're really proud of post acquisition support, I think is probably another leg. But give me your first of those three legs again and I'll start. Equity deals and people. Equity deals and people. So on the equity side, we've been very fortunate. And I think my time at Investo being introduced to a lot of higher net worth or family office type investors.

9:31And always being curious, it started with setting in these people's offices and saying, someday I want to be like this, I'm never going to get there if I'm doing what I'm doing now. I'll be always happy and I'll be financially secure. But I'm really not going to have the freedom to do massive and huge achievements. That's really what I wanted to do. And asking them, look, how did you do this? If you were me, what would you do? Just being humble questions, that network began to trust me. And I got good advice. They're like, you got to go out and prove yourself as an operator. Be the CEO of so many companies, grow them, exit for large multiples, get noticed. And then you're going to attract dollars. And so we started doing that and we had a goal of, you know, making originally it was, let's make 100 multi millionaires out of our management team. So we'll give them equity. And we were able to do that. We were able to create this and some of our sellers would roll equity in with us. And their second bite after we sold was worth more than what we originally bought them.

10:36And so the equity started coming to us. I think success, breed success. And as we showed, we are ability to find really good businesses that were doing something special and maybe one geography or maybe one industry. And we could grow them significantly. That word started getting around through, you know, our investor friends had friends that were like, hey, you should take a look at these guys. So it really happened organically. And today we've got our last deal. We were way over subscribed. So we are in a really good spot there on both, I would say, the equity markets. I would say on the capital stack side, on the debt side, 10 years ago, that was our challenge, right? How do we find, how do we get bankable deals that people would really look at? And today we've, I'd say we've got a dozen to 15 really good banking relationships that will compete on our deals to put a little bit of debt, so our equity dollars will grow

11:39more. So that will be the equity side. Any questions on that leg of the stool? You know, I'll say that, you know, so we just got back from the world's conference, right? And last year when I went, it was like, I went there for three hours, it was just like, wow, I, there was so much to know, I didn't realize this because we were the guy that had acquired a business with SBA and then used, moved up to bank finance and on our second acquisition. And then started running about like all these different things. And so this year I was able to bring Ferris with me and another partner. To then go, wow, look at all of these tools in the toolbox we have at our disposal, right? And start looking at it as that kind of mindset. So it's one of those like really refreshing. So like with equity and I'm going to just confirm what you were saying, a lot of the guys that I've talked to were like, hey, look, you know, get a few of your deals, move the capital. Like, you know, everybody wants to buy and hold these things forever. But if you can buy and get a return for your investors and your, your early years of your independent sponsor, the equity is going to come and find you.

12:41You don't have to worry about that. You get those M.O.I.C.s, move the deal, get it down the road. And so we're going to take what a lot of the other guys were saying, like success, breed success. Absolutely. And if you bring up a good point, we do have a couple of businesses where we love. And I think the flexibility of our structure, not having a fund and not having to be holding it that we have bought them out four or five years into the investment because some of these businesses, I could see my future great, you know, my future grandchildren working in them in a toss. And, and we love the growth trajectory and the possibility, not only over the next year, but over the next decade plus. Yeah. So it sounds like you syndicate the equity from just kind of retail investors, right? And you're not doing it enough fund. It's not a blind fund to say, here's the business we're buying. Here's what it looks like. And people participate, right? I think that's the same model that we have today. And it's just, you know, I like to tell people that investors like to think that they're getting to choose, I'm investing in pleading or I'm investing in water,

13:44I'm investing in e-commerce, whatever it is that people are buying. But in reality, they're still betting on the jockey, right? But investors really struggle. I think with a blind fund of saying we're going to buy this kind of business because they want to have that level of, you know, at least that feeling like they got to choose the type of business that they're participating in. Yeah, I agree. And having a relationship with, I would call them institutional investors since I was, you know, in my early 20s and calling on them the race capital. I've seen an evolution there where there is an appetite for not wanting to be an L.P. and a fund that they have no say on what goes on. They like being able to look at a deal and say, hmm, we might be able to add some value here, or open some doors for you and having more say and sway on how the investment works. So I think that is becoming more prevalent. Okay, you guys have a, do you have a thesis? Do you have stuff that you guys do? And this is the type of businesses that you look for? Is that kind of have you flow or you guys have gotten into where you have a lot of different verticals that you travel down?

14:48Yeah, I would say we're agnostic, but there is some rhyme behind the madness here. It is, I think it starts with the people. Ideally, we have a management team or an individual that knows something or a lot about something that we don't, and either a management team that can't afford to buy the founder out and the founder would love to sell it to him, but there's a disconnect there financially that we can support. So it all starts with people for us. It always has. It is like, is this going to be a great partner? We're going to spend a lot of time with this person like a marriage. Are we able to be able to get through the tough times with this person and celebrate the big wins? So that's the first. The second would be the industry is obviously important to us. And we have a really simple philosophy. We do a lot of work here up. Do we believe whatever this business is producing or servicing? Do we think there's going to be more of this in 10 years than there is today? And can we go out, do we feel with the people we have in place that we can go earn a greater share of that? I think size has also has become more important for us.

15:51We have went up scale as we've gotten larger. And that just makes things easier to pay and attract and retain the people that you want to invest ahead of the curve and projects that you want. I also think it doesn't have to have this from day one, but we really push our management teams. What is our unfair advantage? I think every great business has an unfair advantage. It's not illegal on ethical or immoral, but there's something that makes it really hard for people to compete against you. And we really try to uncover that and pick and jab at that to make sure that that is really strong. We want cellar ethics. We want someone that is highly ethical that is selling to us so that we don't get caught and abide. And me personally, I think we have a really good internal disagreement. We have our own three-person committee that we'll go back and forth on and we all have to agree on it. And for us, it has to be if it's a no or if it's a maybe we're not going to do it, obviously, but it has to be a hell yes.

16:52And I personally like when a lot of people think this is a dumb idea. That makes me like it more. So I always push for those types of things, but hopefully that gives you a little flavor on something to do. You know, it kind of puts us in the same way. And there's some similar, right? You've been doing this for 25 years, right? You've been in the industry. You guys have been a partnership now for what? Ten years? Over, yeah, about a decade, 12, yeah. Yeah, so that's an equity launch pad. We're three years in, right? We've made two acquisitions. And now we're starting to open up the toolboxes. You know, we bought a bigger business right out the shoot. And I said, we're about 25 million a revenue. And we can see that those economies to be able to hire a good talent. We're going through the turn. And like you said, that first three years, you're just holding on, going like, oh my god, like we learn a lot of soft bigger problems and go through that, you know, and it's just a fun, fun journey. It's also there's a little bit of that scary feeling too. You know, as you're, you're roles in capital and the little world

17:53movies and doing all these things. But I just start looking at the playing field, you know, the great news is like Kevin can go and do it. Kevin does Casey and Ferris can do what we do. We don't compete because there's so many businesses. Like that's what bills move away, right? It's, you know, it's just, I hear and I meet people that are rolling up certain things and making acquisitions in areas I would have never thought of. And it's just the beautiful thing. If you live business, you love this industry. It's if those people, it's a good people. That's what you think. You guys look for an operating partner, somebody that has an industry knowledge that wants to go out and make an acquisition. You give them good solid equity stakes and you say, hey, we're going to go find this business and buy it with you. Is that kind of the mindset? Yeah, it is and I would say it doesn't necessarily, ideally, they have this great industry mindset and they know where the bodies are buried or where to navigate the industry. Although I'd say our best business right now is the person that our CEO that runs that was not in the industry.

18:57And so he had great leadership qualities and an experience outside of the industry and brought us this idea and said, this is meets all your criteria. I just need help doing this. And I know I don't have experience, but I'm going to go find the people that do it. I just saw a lot of me in him and believed in him. And today that's probably one of our most successful investments that we still are. Nice. And you mentioned you guys are starting to obscure me. What size of business are you guys looking for today? Versus maybe five years ago, what size of business would you been looking for? Yeah, I'd say five years ago. It's funny how your mind works. If you believe that you can do something bigger, you can. And not that we were scared, it was just like, you know what, let's build a track record of buying anywhere from a million and a half to four million of EBITDA, I'd say early on as what we were buying. And our goal was, let's get these things ready for a private equity firm. They're too small for 95, 96% of financial buyers.

20:00Maybe a strategic would buy them, but we were able to come in and buy those. And then focus on growing them from, call it, two million of EBITDA to eight. How do we, now we've got something that's institutional quality with an ERP system and the sister-in-law is not doing quick books anymore. There's a CFO and it's institutionalized and it's ready for private equity investment. So early on, and we still do some of that, but I would say most of our time is spent on finding the four to 20 million of EBITDA. That is really what we're looking for. So we're able to have a good market. You're kind of getting, you moved out of more of the lower middle market where, you know, you're now, you're starting to get up into that middle market acquisitions, which again, bank debt changes, structures changed. It changes, right? It does. And yeah, go ahead, sorry. Oh, no, I was gonna ask, and maybe this is where you're getting to is, can you give us an example, just maybe of a recent deal, right? What do the structure look like? How much leverage came in? How much equity come in?

21:00Are there seller roles in that, you know, that world or not, and it's kind of be helpful to maybe walk through it. I don't know. I won't say the name or industry, but we are closing one here now that it is a 10 million of EBITDA. We got it for an amazing price. So it's a little over a $30 million purchase price. So we got it at an unbelievable multiple because the guy believed he's rolling 30%. He wants to participate in the upside of that business, right? And he sees the opportunity there. And we have a track record of doing that. And he would roll that. We get debt on, you know, call it a turn to two terms of EBITDA and then we come in with the rest of equity. You got it. So roughly, our typical transaction, I would say, is a $7 million EBITDA business. We're probably buying it for, you know, call it,

22:02I don't know, $35 to $45 million somewhere in that range. We put two terms of debt on it. And the seller will roll typically some of it. And then we come in with the equity check. So we're building about 20% of the equity in that role. And that is about 20% if he said two terms of the debt. So the first one, right? So with $10 million EBITDA, let's say he did two terms that's 20 million of debt senior plus 30% rolled, right? So that 30% of 30 million is another of seven. So you're probably bringing a three to five million R check. That's typical. I mean, our average check size is anywhere from typically $5 to $10 million. That would be nice. And we'll account for a big percentage of that. And then today we've got a handful of investors that will come in with us as well. So Kevin, kind of question. So coming back from the Guarab, we talk to SBICs. We talk to different groups that do different things, right? The SBIC wants to put in 70% of the debt

23:04or they'll come in at 70% debt, 30% equity, right? They invest in, you know, you make the business successful, you're ag fees, you get your management fees and then you invest in those kind of things. And a madman in your business are the way you guys are structured. You're wanting to have more control, right? You're wanting to make sure that you guys are not just straight up like earning equity on, on M-O-I-C. You're really saying, hey, we'll take, this is our deal, right? We're the ones in control. So we're going to the bank financing. We'll bring more equity. We're going to give our terms to our equity providers. And that's how this game plays for y'all. Is that, is that how you look at it? Yeah, I would say early on we have used some SBIC funds and we're really friendly with a lot of those guys. In fact, one of our LPs is an SBIC fund that they don't they invest in us personally outside of the fund. But so early on we did use them. And today it's just the control part.

24:05Like we get more equity if we can kind of control that. That was more feedback on how I got it. I was wondering, it feels like, yes, you can get the deal done. Yes, you can put it together. But if there's another way to get it done, there might be a better avenue to maybe use private credit as your debt and and bring your own equity if you've got that ability to do that. So those are some of the things that I hope to, you know, for those lists, there's kind of two worlds that were observed, right? There's the world that, which is what we've done so far, which is we know we put the deal together, traditional, some sort of quasi-traditional financing. We're bringing the equity, maybe we're all the invest, the seller in for a little bit. But ultimately, in terms of equity ownership, we own the line share, right? You know, between us and our LPs. It's not given up to the LPs. And we as a JPs own, you know, the biggest charge of that. Versus the other model, it seems to be more transactional, right? Or you're trying to do maybe a little more volume, you're getting much smaller equity chunks. But at the same time, you're getting most of your debt and equity saw for you in terms of just the cast that's needed to come in. But you're, to cases point, you're earning that equity, right?

25:06You get 10%, then if you hit a two MIC, you're getting 15. And, you know, you're really having to solve for it. And so two different schools, but, you know, at least, and I'm curious what your take is on, which of those two do you like? It sounds like you've done both of those, right? And which of those is kind of your preferred model today? Because it's a competition case, you know, we'll have it on the flyback yesterday. It's just having tools to get disposal for the deals. And when I look at it, it's like, if I have a tool box, I might need a wrench, I might need this, you know? And it's like having most tools to get the deal done, and you find a good deal. Yeah, I think that is the point of having maximum flexibility to structure something the way we always start with, what's the ideal scenario for the seller? What's the next chapter of your life look like? What would be an ideal buyer, you know, evaluation? What do you wanna do post sale here? And help us define that for you. And so having that kind of flexibility, some deals, it's a great example. We own a company that builds and designs massive greenhouses.

26:10And, you know, a lot of, when we first bought it, I would say 15% of their business was, building cannabis facilities. A lot of SBIC funds, most of them wouldn't touch that, because we weren't growing the cannabis, but they just wouldn't allow us to build, you know, we're selling the picks in the shovels to the cannabis growers, basically, by building their greenhouse and building that out internally for them. But we had to go down another path, and that opened our eyes to the possibility, like, we can do this without giving up a lot of control, but there are situations, depending on how it needs to be structured, where we could go back into that tool about music. Yeah, that's a great answer. It's based on what you've got to do. It's like, and so like that said, like last year I walked in the Mariah Woods, and I was like, holy crap, there's a ton of tools. And then you kind of come back and you refresh yourself, going, oh my God, this is how that tool works. That's how this tool works. And I think of the journey, like of your time,

27:12you start to build all of these iterations of how to utilize these tools. And that's part of the craft that we're doing, right? Because back in the early days, I got into the cannons in the deal, trying to get the ladies accounting right and doing the basic things. And we're starting to control it, and as you start to, now you've got great management team that can go in there, and they do a lot of that stuff, and you're giving the guidance. And that's just that evolution of what you've built. And it's exciting because that's the journey that we're on. And so it's just really nice to share some of those stories. Yeah, in the early days as well, and my wife hated this, but I would buy, after we sold our first one, the next one I bought, I'd move there, and I'd be there for the first 12 to 18 months to kind of follow a dollar through the business and be the chief of a thousand questions and build out the management team as it was adopting the sales process that I wanted. When I felt comfortable with that, I'd go buy another one and go move to that place. After doing that a handful of times,

28:13and Adam, who joined me right after that, was like, you can't do this forever, man. And we got to somehow scale what you bring to the table. But it's nice because all three of us complement. I've kind of got the operator chops, Adam's got the deal-making, and the business acumen, and the Aaron is on the financial side. So I think we have a really good team. That's exciting. And so maybe to segue to that third point, right? And the third, maybe the leg of the stool, I'd be kind of talked about is, how are you guys sourcing deals today? I would say through the traditional channels, we source a lot of our proprietary deals through a network of a lot of CPA firms and financial advisors across the country that will get us in front of someone for the first time.

29:14And then we have some really deep relationships with management teams and leaders in industries that we are curious about, that we know that they want to go do. They're probably never going to be the CEO of where they're at right now, a big company in a space that we want to be in. And we can probably pay them what they're making now, give them some equity upside as well. If they can bring us a deal. So, and they're constantly calling on or know where these people are and making reductions to us in that regard. So it's a mix of, for our platform investments, it's we try to go as proprietors, we can. And then our add-ons, once we buy a company, we really pay off debt for the first year and a half to two years. We really try to get a tight organic growth strategy down. And then we will support M&A. And that is traditionally through the investment banks

30:16or the business brokers that will reach out to do add-on acquisitions in a job. And they're typically smaller deals. So we're going into a geography that we're not in. Now that we'd like to be in, instead of kind of going in Greenfield, we'll buy an existing brand that's in that market and add it onto our platform. And so it depends on what we're buying. But hopefully that answers the question. It's great answer. And then last question before we move on to the rockaround. Because you mentioned it earlier, what's been your favorite business that you bought? What's the one that you want your grandkids to have someday? Yeah, they're all, I have four kids and I think of each business like, I love them all. Like there's always something special about them, something that about them stand out that I wish the other one had and they have a fault that I wish that the other ones could help support them on. And so we have a pretty good ecosystem of all of our CEOs and management teams that talk to each other because I have found that even though they're in a different industry, 96% of problems in a business where I'm like,

31:19they kind of, someone might have had that problem in a completely different business and they can help our management team solve that. But if that's a hard answer, but I'll do my best. One of them is, one of them that I like a lot is that's in security technology. So anything related to physical security, so technology around that, whether it's gunshot detection, facial recognition, it's an integrator that installs cameras and you have some very large customers and utilities and governments that we manage all of this. We build out the command center for the hospital system, for the hospital network that the security guard set in. We manage all the cameras in the access control. And unfortunately in the world we live in, that business is getting more and more popular. And we do a lot of good there. A lot of things that can detect something bad happening

32:22before it happens. And that's a great deal of pride for me. And I think that that's a business that I continue to wake up. And a lot of these businesses, I don't mean to go off on a tangent, but serendipity happens a lot where you're focused on one area and then all of a sudden because your focus there door opens up. And now we're in different businesses that are similar to what we're doing about protecting assets for large companies. And other avenues pop up that you never thought existed. And we have grown that on being focused on our core business and allowing for new ideas to come in, very serendipitously, that when now we're in a completely different area or we have a sister company that's doing something different. So I think that that can continue to evolve as technology evolves in that space. All right. I love it. Kevin, all right, let's jump in and I walk around for a little bit. We'll just ask our guests three questions. All right. First question, what do you like to do in your free time?

33:23In my free time, I am not very good at it, but I do like to golf. So I'm trying to find more time to do it, which is hard, but I like to be outdoors and golf, and my kids like to be outdoors. So we try to, we're going to main this weekend. So just to get out in the Chris Fall weather, go for a hike or something, it's fun to me. All right. I'm not going to go for either, but it is fun if you can get over the fact that you're ever good. Like I'm like, I'm not ever going to be really good. So I can just hit the ball. I go find my ball. I go through two slopes, but I still have a great time, right? I get a great advice about 10 years ago, I was golfing with a good mentor of mine, and he said, I was getting mad and he goes, Kevin, you can't get mad because you're not that good. If you were really good at something and you weren't playing well, then you could get mad, but you just got to enjoy the day with good company. That's the only way. I need to learn to golf. I'm not an investor. That's the one skill that I need to go spend some time

34:24on. I've done no golfing outside of going to top golf a few times in my life. And I got to level up. Yep. All right. Second question. What is your most vulnerable moment in your business journey? Probably the day that I decide to leave the Golden Hand Cuffs. I really, that first step into, I'm going to acquire something. I've saved up some money. I've got a runway now, and I cannot fail. I am going to do this no matter what. And that feeling of empowerment. Now, there were days after that where I'm like, what did I do? Why did I do this? Well, you get through those days you're going to succeed. So that's probably it. I'm standing. All right. And then the last question, favorite tool or resource? This is an unpaid plug, but I would give two quick simple ones. I'd love to sit here and talk about this high-tech AI that is important to me, which we are starting to use more of. But I would say two things.

35:25A simple CRM system, I'd probably be lost without it. I used to hate it when I was in corporate, but today it kind of drives my day. So I use a simple, I don't need Salesforce or something that can go really deep, but just something really simple that has tasks and follow up and automate some of your daily being, that is important. And then I'll say this, it's something I use every day is on my iPhone as the notes page. Just so many ideas come to me that I just can't get to or something else will pop up and I'll forget. And I bet you 20 times a day, I'm speaking into the notes page to say, hey, I've got all kinds of folders for different topics. But this is something in our next board meeting that we should talk about. Stuff like that, just to keep me on point. And then at the end of the week going through all of those and categorizing half of them on Mark Off, but that's a dumb idea. But the other half are pure gold that have really helped us.

36:26And I would have forgot them probably, because I would have been on to something else. That's great, fair enough. Awesome. Well, Kevin, I appreciate it. I mean, how can listeners get all to you? Probably the best way is email. Well, you can go to our website first at sirecapital.com and sire is s-i-e-r-capital.com. Or my email is k-ram-sire-r-a-m-s-i-e-r-at-sirecapital.com. Someone will put down the show notes for the listeners. Kevin, your podcast was great for many, personally. So I really enjoyed chatting with you and really appreciate it. And anytime you're ever in Houston, we would love to host you and have you out here. Absolutely, sir. I'm going to be careful. I'm going to take you up on that. Well, really, please do trust me. You know, you'll pass with just knowledge, all right? All right, thank you. Thank you very much, too. All right, bye. Thank you for listening to the M&A Launchpad Podcast. If you've enjoyed today's podcast and would like to support us, please leave us a rating and a review after you listen.

37:28If you're looking for guidance on your next business acquisition or sale, capital to support your next business transaction or to invest in a private equity opportunity, visit equitylaunchpad.com to learn more and to connect with our team. If you know of an individual, you would be a great guest for the show. Head over to equitylaunchpad.com, board slash nominate, where you'll have the chance to refer yourself or someone else to be a guest on our show. I'm Casey Menchu, and I look forward to talking with you next week.