George Wright III hosts Anthony Perera on The Daily Mastermind to discuss Perera's operator-first approach to building and investing in companies through his family office, Exuma Capital Partners. Perera shares his background scaling Air Pros USA from one HVAC truck to a $200M+ nationwide business and explains Exuma's thesis of acquiring founder-led companies typically earning $2–10M EBITDA, installing infrastructure (KPIs, CRM/ERP, leadership teams), driving organic growth and M&A, and positioning them for private equity acquisition. He emphasizes real-time visibility into leading indicators over month-end lagging reports, looks for fragmented, AI-resistant service industries, and describes operational upgrades like implementing CRMs and modern marketing. Perera highlights AI's ability to automate or augment nearly every business process and recounts pivoting inspected.com multiple times before scaling and exiting.

Timestamps:

02:03 — From Operator To Investor

03:21 — Exuma Private Equity Starter Kit

04:49 — Visibility And KPI Tracking

06:17 — Fragmented Industries Thesis

09:31 — Why Operators Win

11:33 — Grooming COOs Into CEOs

12:57 — Fast Operational Wins

15:15 — AI For Service Businesses

18:19 — Inspected Pivot Story

21:27 — EOS And Portfolio Support

22:23 — Exuma Priorities And Wrap Up

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George Wright III

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Guest Bio:

Anthony Perera is the Managing Partner of Exuma Capital Partners, a serial entrepreneur turned private equity investor. He has scaled multiple companies before launching Exuma Capital Partners, a family office focused on the lower middle market. Anthony brings the rare perspective of someone who has built, operated, and now acquires companies. His insights are especially relevant to operational private equity, AI disruption, and consolidation strategies. He emphasizes founder-led investing, operational scaling, and the opportunities in fragmented industries for value creation and roll-up strategies. He also discusses how AI will reshape middle-market businesses and why operator-led private equity is increasingly successful.

Links:

Website: https://www.exumacapital.com/

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/anthonyperera

Additional links: https://www.exumacapital.com/ | https://linkedin.com/in/anthonyperera