Private.Profitable.Permanent.
A letter for founders who raise once (or never), build companies that pay for themselves, and plan to keep what they built. Every Thursday.
Latest letters
Adjusted EBITDA is a negotiating position, not a number
Somewhere underneath it is the figure that actually services the debt and funds the distributions. Here is how to find it.
The First Hundred Days: a field guide to the handover nobody prepares you for
Five phases, one hundred days, and the questions that matter in each. The free guide for anyone taking a company on, or handing one over.
Leverage rarely kills a company on its own. Covenants and timing do.
How to read a credit agreement the way an operator has to, rather than the way a spreadsheet does.
Year one runs on goodwill. Year two is when you find out what you bought.
The first year has momentum and the benefit of the doubt. Neither renews automatically.
Every month, four letters
One from each pillar. Together they cover how the company is funded, how it pays, how it lasts, and how it is run.
Private
Fund and own your company on your terms. Raise once, or never.
Profitable
Make the business pay, and keep paying.
Permanent
Make it last: moats, people, succession — and what makes stepping away from a business succeed or fail.
The Quiet Way
Use AI to do more with what you already own.
The frameworks, ready to use
The Three Questions
Thirty minutes with every person, asking the same three questions, to surface what's load-bearing.
From the letter: The First Hundred Days →- What should I be careful not to change?
- What is broken that everyone already knows about?
- If you had my job, what would you do first?
The Covenant Check
Find the date your debt is really tested, and how much room you have on it.
From the letter: Leverage rarely kills a company on its own. Covenants and timing do. →Owner Earnings, Bottom Up
Build the cash figure that actually services debt and funds distributions, instead of arguing about adjusted EBITDA.
From the letter: Adjusted EBITDA is a negotiating position, not a number →One letter every Thursday. Free.
For founders building the quiet way: private, profitable, permanent. One real situation, one framework, and the moves you can make on Monday.