One Man LBO

Former investment banker.
10Y at value hedge fund.
Set out to acquire, now building instead.
Sourcing M&A deals → sourcing top talent
Construction headhunting.

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

My deal juices are flowing and it’s exciting and a full circle moment for me, really

Went from a few years in the deal making business (investment banking)

-> to a decade plus in the analytical business (fundamental HF), ivory tower environment and deep thinking

-> back to the deal side, earnest shot at buying a small business last year with both brokered + off market approach, direct response outreach relationship building focused (enjoyed this)

-> greenfielding a niche recruiting business using a lot of the learnings from M&A deal sourcing and relationship building, with very deep analytical / domain expertise / system focus

I’m back baby. This is essentially human capital deal brokerage, but I’m trying to build something that is much higher touch and intentional than the Wild West of “cold calling based on vibes”, resume shotgunning generalist recruiters, who will face enormous pressure going forward

More like exec search for the middle market. Very strategic in GTM and match making. An inch wide and a mile deep.

Early days but some small wins and it’s exhilarating

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@SMB_Attorney Are you willing to put money on this prediction?

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@gkamstra Lol

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

Thought I was calling a plumbing candidate

Called the local police department

That’s a first

Doesn’t get more first than that

(I went back and checked, and yes indeed, the US Phonebook has his name under the number I dialed)

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@blueprintsmb22 LOL seriously

So random

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

And since it never rains in Boise, I completely forgot about rainbows as a concept

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

Oregon for the weekend

Gotta feed the Tahoe some miles

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@projectxlence To work on Micron and get paid $250K

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

Oh and the one that just got out of prison after 5 years and told me he’d previously worked for my client…

And the client had never heard of him. FUN TIMES

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@projectxlence Oooff

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

Since my weekly search updates for GC and plumbing clients now look like polished Goldman Sachs reports...

I can't over-emphasize how over it seems for investment banking junior analysts

And how sad that makes me

Attention to detail and work ethic are what I've valued immensely about my early career stint at an NYC bulge bracket

Now you just vibe-talk into the thing, and yeah the thing still takes a few turns to get it right...

But feedback gets implemented near-instantaneously

And it's CHEAP

And it doesn't moan about year end bonus

How the hell are junior finance people going to develop the keen eye and intuition that allows them to grow into the mid-level and senior rungs without at least some grind?

On the other hand, absolutely amazing what now can be whipped up in just 30 minutes of yelling into your preferred LLM

It used to take us 2 weeks or so to prepare for a major meeting.

IBD clients must be receiving a ton more senior banker meeting requests and pitch decks, right? They must be drowning in it...

The barrier to content production has absolutely been bulldozed over the last 12 months

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@MarkJarret19751 Huh?

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@pinpulleddrmf Insane. Perm?

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@stephenolmon

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

Pretty blown away by what can be done in trades recruiting with AI

Had assumed that finding potential candidates would be extremely hard given relative lack of LI presence

But you can:

- Pull a license holder list from the state

- Define a date cutoff to approximate years of experience

- Skip trace all these individuals using public records to focus on certain geo radius (unique names help)

- Pull cell phone numbers for them

And then you just smile and dial.

This is a volume game as you simply don’t know their title / role or experience (resi / commercial / MF), but the outreach channel is there and it turns out to be more scalable than I thought

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@hgr_la Cold calls will be the new signaling mechanism, and no machine will compete

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@hgr_la It does beg fundamental questions, and I agree some of it is like a hazing process. Mindless, dull, maddening.

That component may not teach much by itself, but it's a sorting mechanism that gets rid of "soft" people. So it has signaling value.

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@tom_sietsema Someone should really look at Series 79 volume over time... will be interesting

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@pbandjammy2 I’ll DM you

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@Sionehola Slop slop

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

@CoinCommoner It’s not X, it’s Y

[One Man LBO @OneManLBO]

This is such a good point

Human connection is the lifeblood of this business, and it’s what makes it very gratifying

Most people you reach out to aren’t going to be viable candidates, it’s like any funnel

But you talk to them for 3-5 minutes on the phone (sometimes 25) and most of them are really cool and appreciative you called

At the end of the day, I’m in this to get better at relationship building

This is a long game of making friends and influencing people, and if I’m lucky to live another 60 years, the relationship compounding should pay dividends for everyone involved (clients, candidates, myself)

[Christian Ruf @pinpulleddrmf]

Headhunters doing this number likely have a phenomenal life.

10 placements at less than 50k is more than what I need.

But I absolutely love this game- I wake up every morning excited.

I get to talk to phenomenal Americans allll day longggggg

Right now I have a lot of roles I’m working on, and it’s definitely work. But boy is it fun.