James Bohannon 📚

Family Office private equity Deals

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@PrivatEquityGuy Awesome time! Thanks Mikk

[PrivateEquityGuy (Mikk Markus) @PrivatEquityGuy]

My conversation with James Bohannon (@jamesboha), a Principal at Belzberg & Co., a New York City-based multifamily office and merchant bank.

We explore how family offices choose investment partners and where flexible capital creates an advantage.

James explains:
- What he looks for in independent sponsors
- How to build trust and lasting relationships with family offices
- Why sponsors and capital providers should conduct due diligence on one another

We also discuss what meaningful skin in the game looks like and how a first investment can grow into a partnership that compounds capital over decades.

Enjoy!

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 From Shoe Entrepreneur to Family Office Investor
2:22 The Story Behind Belzberg & Co.
5:39 Why Flexibility Is Family Capital’s Greatest Advantage
10:39 Direct Investing vs. Co-Investing
16:28 The Value of Flexible Capital
20:41 Circle of Competence
24:01 Experienced Private Equity Investors Going Independent
30:09 Building Relationships with Family Offices
36:52 Sponsors Must Do Due Diligence on Their Investors
42:20 Skin in the Game, Fees, and Incentive Alignment
47:28 Adding Value, Governance, and Choosing Your Investor Mix
51:08 Turning a First Deal into a Decades-Long Partnership

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@AlonMichael @patrick_oshag He is the best narrator ever he does all the Nelson Demille books
Scott brick

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@AriEmanuel So fired up for this

Life is not a dress rehearsal

The way to get what you want is to give Man what he wants

All of life’s problems come down to a man’s ability to sit quietly in a room

@FoundersPodcast

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@patrick_oshag Apollo book by Cohan
Ari Emanuel book

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

Life is not a dress rehearsal

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@AriEmanuel
To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted
@FoundersPodcast

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

Congrats at @FoundersPodcast will never forget the first time we had coffee and you gave me the biggest pump up speech of all time
Thank you for all lives You’ve helped.

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

Today is the 10 year anniversary of Founders.

It’s my life’s work.

Thank you for listening.

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@zachdgordon Amen. 🙏

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@zachdgordon Incredible

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@R_Mohr @davidsenra @travisk @a16z Epic

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

Fundless outperforms blind pools. We thought so. https://t.co/CY8P1FPXAg

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@patrick_oshag @InvestLikeBest This is such a good bit on JDs. Usually such a throwaway exercise

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@tobi I love this. Huge fan of @harleyf and love the pod.

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@davidsenra @grlemkau @FoundersPodcast you also have to learn about Byron (“BDT”) Crazy story and he’s under the radar for 90% of people.
Buffets banker!

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@davidsenra @grlemkau Love this. You guys need to do a pod together.

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

Great sophomore album. Loved the bit about “ individuals beating the market”. And the East Coast versus West Coast.

[Jeremy Giffon @jeremygiffon]

So fun to get back in the saddle to see if we could beat the sophomore slump, this time in video. Many fun ideas discussed, from why we're at Peak Guy, to the Billion Dollar PDF to what makes an institution truly modern. Plus a lot of timeline talk. Thank you Patrick!

[Zach Gordon @zachdgordon]

(1) Unit Economics: How much does a typical franchisee generate in annual cash flow, both in absolute terms and relative to their up-front investment?

(2) Growth Opps: Is it feasible for one owner to manage multiple units successfully? Are there opportunities to either acquire or open more units?

(3) Concept Differentiation: What makes the concept special versus competitors? Could a similar business easily open down the street and how big of a problem would that be?

(4) Industry: What are the size, growth trajectory, and competitive dynamics of the industry? How exposed is the industry to macro variables (e.g. recession, commodity costs)?

(5) Franchisor Support: How much support does the franchisor provide? Does the franchisor invest in long-term franchisee success?

(6) Franchisee Validation: Do current franchisees say they would do it again? Would they recommend the franchise to a friend?

(7) Personal Fit: Are we equipped to handle the combination of operations and sales that the concept requires? Would we enjoy running the business every day?

All of these criteria were critical for us, but #1 and #5 were qualifiers. If a concept didn’t meet our threshold on those two points, we automatically moved on.

Out of 3,371 active franchises, over 95% didn't meet our bar. Still, we identified a few dozen that we felt could be a good fit for what we were looking to build.

To summarize, there's a lot of noise in franchising, but there are some great systems out there for aspiring entrepreneurs.

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@patrick_oshag @FoundersPodcast @davidsenra Don’t forget all the Nelson DeMille books! Plum island. Agent Jack Corey

[James Bohannon 📚 @jamesboha]

@zgordon323 Let’s go Z!