From $6.5M to $84M: The Journey of Building A 9-Fig Holding Company | Chris Rolls research

My research of Chris Rolls, the founder of PieLAB Capital, who went through the journey of building and selling his business, then starting a private equity fund, and then starting a permanent holding company. Their most successful portfolio company, Detector Inspector, have grown from $6.5 million in revenue to $84 million. Chris is a big fan of acquisition led compounders and serial acquirers. When comparing serial acquirers and private equity: “We got the end of the fund and we had to sell some really great companies. And being an operator, if you have a great company which is growing, and generating cash – you don’t want to sell such companies.” Fascinating lessons, I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed doing the research. Show Notes: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:10 - Growing Detector Inspector from $6.5 million to $84 million 00:02:40 - The early years of learning private equity 00:04:01 - 3 reasons why private market investing generates better returns? 00:11:55 - Not wanting to sell great companies 00:17:02 - Characteristics of PieLAB Capital’s portfolio 00:20:39 - Becoming a long-term buyer and holder of businesses Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠ Join HoldCo Builders weekly newsletter on finding deals, raising capital, and growing small profitable niche businesses: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://privatequityguy.beehiiv.com/⁠⁠ This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.