Andrew Wilkinson recently took a company public in Canada through a reverse takeover <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=CVE:+WE" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=CVE:+WE</a><p>Very early in the life of the company they have undertaken some pretty dishonest accounting of their revenues, net retention and other key metrics. The CFO resigned after the first reporting quarter.<p>I have a strong feeling there is more to this character than just the recycling of virtue filled business models.<p>Buyer (seller) beware.
I figure that any acquirer who wants to go this route needs to basically be ready to pay in cash? Tying to finance a deal through debt (LBO or otherwise) would mean that you need to be prepared to do precisely the sort of DD bemoaned here?<p>Just trying to think through, “if it is so obvious, why isn’t everybody doing it?”
If the genius business model relies on trusting people because "we have tons of mutual friends" then its just friends of friends investing in each other. That is not even slightly comparable to Berkshire Hathway and shows a stunning level of naivety.<p>The typical process requires due diligence because there is no trust - there are a huge amount of dodgy businesses, sketchy owners and smooth talkers trying to extract cash from investors.<p>This model might work for a few years but inevitably requires moving further out of the trust network where deeper and further due diligence is required. Or, its not done and every deal will get worse quality and expose them to more risk.
For those interested, Barry Diller's IAC or Mark Leonard's Constellation Software might be better examples of a Berkshire of the Internet or Software, respectively.
I thought this framing by Andrew Wilkinson, of the "Berkshire Hathaway's way" for making (acquisition) decisions, is relevant in many things we do at work: can we make painful processes today easier for people, so they'll do it more? One area I can think of is suggesting new ideas for the product or technology stack. So while becoming a buyer of businesses is less relevant for most of us, there is plenty to learn in this post and the mindset Andrew is using to build Tiny. Can you think of any? What is painfully slow for you and your teammates now?
There is more to BH than how they acquire companies. They also have a track recored of out performing S&P for decades. I doubt if BH alpha is because of their streamlined acquisition process.<p>Does Tiny have a similar record?
(2017) and it seems running since 2007, going strong.<p><a href="https://www.tinycapital.com/companies" rel="nofollow">https://www.tinycapital.com/companies</a>
Since this is from 2017, I assume this is the same Tiny I heard ads for on podcasts a few years ago? It sounded like a neat idea. How is it going for Tiny?
It's not because he makes it easy. He buys them when they're strapped for cash<p>Fruit of the Loom: 1999 Bankruptcy, 2002 acquisition by BH<p>He even bought into Berkshire Hathaway itself, on the cheap
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