My guest on this episode is Robert Graham. Robert worked in management roles at Eaton prior to attending Harvard Business School, after which he worked in investment banking and private equity. Eventually, he decided to search for a business after seeing his HBS classmates do it, and today Robert is Managing Partner at Pillar Health Group, the holding company for four healthcare businesses he acquired together as a searcher.

He's also a partner at Search Investment Group, which advises searchers on finding and acquiring their dream business. Search Investment Group also invests in self-funded searchers and has launched a new funded search program that functions as a hybrid between self-funded and traditional funded search.

We discussed this program, its goals and feedback they've received from searchers in the episode. During our conversation, we also talk about what managing large manufacturing facilities with hundreds of employees is like, why Robert didn't want to acquire a manufacturing business as part of his search, running two businesses at once with Pillar Health and Search Investment Group, and time management as a CEO.

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Links:

Robert on LinkedIn

Harvard Business School

Search Investment Group

Pillar Health Group

Topics:

(4:07) - Robert’s journey into Search

(5:32) - Could you have launched a search fund directly after attending HBS?

(6:38) - How did your experience prior to Harvard Business School help prepare you for searching?

(7:40) - Robert’s experience running operations in manufacturing facilities

(13:37) - Did you ever come across any SMB’s that would’ve existed as suppliers within manufacturing plants that interested you?

(16:43) - Running Pillar Health Group

(18:51) - The explosive growth of the three branches of Pillar

(20:30) - How similar are the three businesses?

(22:46) - What does your current day-to-day look like?

(25:33) - What adjustments are you looking to make in your role for 2022?

(27:31) - Do you do any exercise that helps you decide what needs to be delegated?

(29:37) - Thoughts on grocery delivery

(30:57) - Search Investment Group

(32:17) - SIG’s program for funding self-funded searchers

(35:25) - Is there a step-up in any expenditure you make when helping the searcher

(36:45) - What’s the reception been like from searchers?

(37:53) - What personality tests have you found to be most effective when interviewing potential searchers?

(41:12) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything?

(41:44) - What’s a strongly held belief you’ve changed your mind on?

(43:32) - Have you found any correlation between a searcher’s experience in an industry to their success in that industry?

(45:55) - Warren Buffet’s annual shareholder meeting

(47:10) - What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?