Founders ✓ Claim

Key Takeaways

“You’ve got to think extraordinarily big from day one. Nobody achieves massive success by thinking small and hoping to become big.” – Brad Jacobs
Negative and goal-based fuel sources can be depleted, you didn’t want to be poor, then you made X amount of money, and the tank is empty
A generative fuel source compounds instead: the drive creates more energy, more ideas, more momentum the more it’s used
- The act of creation becomes its own feedback loop instead of needing constant external validation from money, praise, or status
Brad and his teams have raised roughly $50 billion in total capital to fund M&A and organic growth, and in a matter of days or even hours he can raise hundreds of millions or even billions
Two of QXO’s current top 20 shareholders had never heard of Brad until he was profiled on Founders, and they have since put $750 million into the company
David’s favorite sentence in the entire book: “The most consequential decision you’ll make in business and in life is who you surround yourself with”
“If you’re not substantially improving the companies you buy, you’re just moving capital around”
He negotiates unrestricted access to the company from the moment the agreement is signed, not the day the deal closes, and that is not commonplace in M&A
Every position gets categorized three ways: must have, nice to have, or what the hell, and they take a broom to that third category
He started Transcendental Meditation at 16 and has meditated twice a day for decades without missing a single day
“When I stopped expecting flawlessness from myself and others, I could let go of frustration and put that energy to good use”

In 2024 Brad Jacobs wrote the book How to Make a Few Billion Dollars.

In the book Brad explains how he built 8 separate billion dollar companies and other lessons from his 40+ year career as an elite entrepreneur.

In the two years since Brad has made a few MORE billion dollars and so the sequel to his first book is: How to Make a Few MORE Billion Dollars.

In this episode I share some of Brad's ideas on raising tons of money (Brad has raised over $50 billion), mastering his integration playbook, ideas for organizational integration, org chart design, and how Brad keeps his mind centered and in a positive place to handle the inevitable ups and downs of building great companies.

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