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The Navvai Shift – AI & Business Insights
Welcome to The Navvai Shift, the podcast where business leaders in finance share their journeys, challenges, and unfiltered thoughts on artificial intelligence. We dive deep into how AI is shaping industries, uncovering real-world insights from those driving innovation.
Subscribe for expert conversations on AI, automation, and the future of business.
Yes. Hello people. Welcome back to
another episode of the NBA shift. Today
I got my co-host Darnell and we've got a
fruitful guest. His name is called Jeff
Cree. He's the head of development and
capital development at Cashascade and
he's the CEO and managing partner at
Atlantic GFream Partners. Man that wears
many hats. But Jeff, how are you?
>> I'm doing great guys. How are y'all?
>> Yeah, all good. All blessed. Perfect.
>> You like that Texas y'all? Did you guys
hear that a lot? How are y'all?
>> You know what? It's new. It's new. We've
not had anyone from Texas uh so far, but
I mean get used to it cuz I plan to move
there next year. So, got to get used to
it.
>> Houston.
>> Yep.
>> Yeah. Okay. Right down the street from
here.
>> I'm going to have to come and check in.
>> Yeah. 100%.
>> Amazing. But Jeff, for people that are
not too familiar with yourself, could
you give us a brief introduction to
yourself, what it is you do?
Yeah, sure. I'd be happy to. I've been
in private equity for just about five
years now in the Austin area. Started
out having my own consulting firm and
then started as a VP after that at Noble
Capital um where we had 10 portfolio
companies and HVAC and we were doing
some acquisitions in plumbing and
electrical and wealth management. And so
that experience really opened my eyes to
managing portfolio companies and making
investments and acquisitions. And that's
what kind of sparked the the rest of my
journey to start my own private equity
firm. Without going into too much
details, a normal private equity rollup
takes about 10 years, 7 to 10 years. And
I figured there has to be a better way.
So I came up with this compressed rollup
thesis to where we take that process and
condense it down to two years. So we one
time close on five seven companies then
within you know two months we get it
aggregated the accounting consolidated
and get it back on the market and resell
it. That allows me to do two things.
That allows me to return investors money
back in a real estate like investment. A
real quick turnaround asset backed. And
then for the founders, of course, you
know, when you're sitting there, you
know, signing an LOI with a guy trying
to buy his business and you're telling
him he ain't gonna get the majority of
his money for 10 years, that doesn't go
over very well. So when you do it in two
years or less, it's around the time the
earnout expires. So it's just perfect
timing. So to me, it just made more
sense like that. So that's why I started
my company and that's where um you know,
we got into this discussion with
Cashascade. Um, you know, we were
working a deal at a uh an independent
sponsor group I was part of, 528
partners, and man, we had 17 million
EBIDA all lined up and we thought, man,
we we got it made, right? And we
contracted CLA to do the quality of
earnings and found that, oh man, yeah,
there's a lot of things that we missed,
you know. So, we had to go back to the
drawing board and get that ironed out.
And uh in that during that process, we
found out that the analysts on the deal
made a huge mistake to the tune of like
$20 million on the waterfall. So that
got me looking at waterfall providers
and ways to automate that and reduce
errors and get off Excel because, you
know, as executive management, you know,
we need to be able to identify the
assumptions in the model like really
quickly. And that's kind of hard to do
when you got a lot of like cooks in the
kitchen and spreadsheets are going back
and forth. There's really no way to
audit it. you know, it's not really
traceable. So, I I searched for a system
that could do it and sure enough, I
found Cashcade and I started talking to
Gregor and Oliver, the founders, and
ended up saying, I want to be a part of
this. So, they hired me to be, you know,
the head of business development for
them and raise a little capital. So, um
that's been a a great contract. I've
really enjoyed working with these guys
and continue to enjoy working with them.
They built something truly remarkable.
Um, you know, we have some major
clients. Uh, you know, Deote has 200
funds on it. They use it to audit
private equity and hedge funds, VCs. Um,
so it's a remarkable platform that's got
a lot of growth. We have some other tier
one clients as well,
but uh, yeah, it's just been it's been a
heck of a journey. You know, we're we're
on the tail end of a $5 million raise.
Uh, we've raised 3.5. We're just looking
for the final 1.5. So, if any of your
listeners or investors looking for a
nearexit growth equity SAS uh you know
play, we've got it at Cashascade. It
closes in about 3 weeks from now. So, we
don't have much time left. So, you know,
about the third week in August,
something like that, is when it the the
round closes. So, great opportunity to
get, you know, 46 MOIC, which basically
just means multiple uninvested capital
for people that don't know. So for, you
know, if you invest $250,000 at the low
end, you can expect, you know, to get
back a million in less than two years.
So it's pretty nice investment. You
know, it's not every day you come across
these, you know, growth equity near exit
opportunities, right? It's more like VC.
Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't. But
this is assetbacked with a matter of
fact, Cashate has a, you know, a $35
million EV from a from a buyer just a
few months ago that was turned down. The
owners really want to get to 50 million.
So, it's a great opportunity and yeah, I
mean I can I can keep going but uh you
know I think maybe we if if that's
enough information on that we could just
move to a different topic.
>> Yeah. No 100%. Um I know we spoke a
little bit off camera in relation to
this but by the time this actually comes
out um of course it would have you know
there'll be further information on it
but you got a big day tomorrow the press
release. uh if you are able to go into a
little bit more information because I
know it is linked to you know artificial
intelligence if you could tell us a
little bit about that that would be
>> 100% yeah so we see AI as being the
basically where everything is headed you
know like I think Mark Cuban said it
best it reminds me of like the 2000s
right where you wake up and there's
something new coming out well I'm proud
to be that new coming out part that he's
talking about because we're introducing
tomorrow the world's first AI based
quality of earnings report and we're
really excited about it. You know, had I
had access to a system like this last
year, you know, it probably would have,
you know, that those the deal probably
would have gone through to be quite
honest with you because we would have
been able to identify the businesses
that that weren't going to make the cut
in the long run, you know, the deep dive
due diligence within the next within the
first 48 hours and moved on somewhere
else. And it would have saved a
tremendous amount of time. Matter of
fact, guys, there's $1.7 trillion lost
annually in deals that don't close.
>> Yeah,
>> that's a huge
>> I mean
>> statistic crazy.
>> Yeah, I mean it's it's 50 $60,000
sometimes $100,000 to run a quality of
earnings report just on one company. And
um we built Trade Gauge AI, which is
what you're referring to as the big
press release tomorrow, to solve that
problem. Um it's basically we serve, you
know, two different areas. is we serve
SMV founders to give them, you know, CFO
level actionable insights. We basically
pull their data out of their accounting
platform. we API from QuickBooks and
bring it right into our AI BI dashboard
a lot sim similar to the things that you
guys do, but then we go a step further
and then we do a valuation um with a
multiple and then we also perform a
quality of earnings report in a matter
of hours um you know for $2,000 which is
uh you know substantially less expensive
and substantially quicker. you know,
Shore Capital, you know, Justin Ishbad
has got a video on on YouTube actually
saying that, you know, there's only two
business models that work long term, and
that's you're either lowost or
differentiated. And our platform is both
of those things. It's low cost, and it's
differentiated. So, we're really bullish
about where it can go. You know, we also
have some other partnerships that can uh
spin up term sheets in 48 hours.
Um, you know, ideally as we, you know,
build out our road map this year, um,
we're going to be providing a, uh, an
appraisal, a quality of earnings, and a
term sheet in one week time. So, that's
really flying. And if you know anything
about M&A, it really truly changes the
game and it weaponizes your strategic
buyers that don't have a, you know,
corporate development team. They can now
outsource a corporate development team
for much less expense than it would cost
to bring in somebody like a KPMG or, you
know, some big-time accounting firm that
cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to
do an acquisition. Now you can bring in,
you know, parties like if you have a
coach that uses trade gauge AI or
somebody like that, they're going to put
yourself in a in a much better position
to quickly identify the targets and and
then the ones that you shouldn't spend a
lot of time with. Cuz guys, let me tell
you something. You jump on planes, buy
dinners, and develop these relationships
only to find out that, you know, it
doesn't it's not actually in your buy
box. You know, that's that's not fun for
anyone involved. Not fun for the
founder. And um you know we're just I
can't tell you how excited we are about
it. I came up with it out of necessity
because we had to close on these we have
to close on five seven companies all at
once for my thesis to work. So I had to
have a platform that was extremely quick
in getting to the to the raw data that I
need to make a decision. And as it turns
out other people are looking for that
too. So um we're going to bring it to
market for him.
>> How long how how long did you build an
outlet platform for? uh just about six
months now. We got 50,000 lines of code
written. Um the MVP is done. It's the
the UI is is really good. I love you
guys' UIs, too. You guys you guys do
such a great job with that. Hopefully,
we can uh you know, have the same type
of uh you know, user experience that you
guys have been able to to pull together.
Um you know, start that journey. But,
you know, you guys are a little bit
ahead of us there. Um you know, we're
just starting our seed round. We're
going to we're going to come out with a
2 million seed round and a 12 million
cap. Uh that'll be introduced tomorrow.
And so, you know, we got 90 days to to
raise that money and uh and we're we're
off to the races and and and building
things and and moving on. you know, 73
Strings was a big influencer um in our
development of this product and uh they
just raised 50 53
50 million in a series B round and they
just do valuations. So, not only are we
doing valuations at the private equity
portfolio company level and at the SMB
level for the SMB founder who doesn't
have a clue what his company's worth and
he's got private equity companies
calling him and he's just like, "Well, I
don't know." Well, now that SMB founder
is going to know exactly what his
business is worth. He's going to be
prepared to answer really difficult
questions and he's going to have a
quality of earnings report ran. And if
they can't pass it on this SMB side, we
give them actionable insights into what
to do to to to get to a level to where
it's institutional grade. And uh and
you're going to pass those things
because guys, let me tell you something.
and you go and you go in to get bought
by a private equity company and you
don't have everything in line, your job
cost details, your P&L will they will
slash the amount of money that they're
going to pay you. It's guaranteed. If
you can't measure it, you can't manage
it. And if you can't measure it, you
can't put a value on it. So having your
um you know, having your work in order,
everything your data lined up and in
order is is key to a strong exit. So
that's one of the things that we're
working to do is, you know, put
companies in a position to get that
alpha returns and also look really good,
you know, whenever somebody comes in to
evaluate the business.
>> Yeah. Nice. No, trade gauge is
definitely going to be uh it's
definitely going to shake up the markets
and it's definitely going to be it's
definitely going to assist businesses.
And just going back on when you
highlighted that there's going to be a
oneweek t turnaround. It's like between
ourselves and and the company, we tend
to say, you know, time does kill deals.
And the fact that you are eliminating
that process
definitely is going to be a game changer
for you guys.
>> Oh, 100%. That's the way we see it too,
Joshua. And you're absolutely right. I
mean, it is going to save time. You
know, that that typical that that little
run of what I just said, getting a a
valuation, quality of earnings, and then
to a term sheet, hell, that could take
six months.
>> Yeah.
>> I mean, we're condensing it down to one
week. So, I mean it's just like it's
it's it's absolutely, you know,
tremendous
is really right now
in July of 2025 is just I mean like the
the amount of uh the amount of things
that AI is touching and improving is
unbelievable.
>> Yeah, for sure. I think AI is is
definitely exponential cuz I don't think
anyone actually realized how fast it
would go cuz obviously we started our
company I think it was December last
year and ever since then the
capabilities have just gone I think
beyond our imagination but then I did
want to ask ask Jeff so you've made Trey
GJ and that's kind of from what I
understand that's kind of like one of
your main pain points and now you solved
that what's what's the next step from
here on out obviously you got a press
release tomorrow so I'm just wondering
you seem like a and he likes to solve
problems very quickly. So, I'm just
intrigued to hear what's next.
>> Well, yeah. So, I can't really think too
much in the future because these guys,
my partners, Roger Robels, who's our
COO,
>> Ken Lawler, who's our CFO, who just
actually exited Inc. Payments. He got a
real nice exit package there. They grew
that business into, you know, a monster
business and that was VC backed by
several VCs. And so, honored to have
Ken, uh, you know, as our CRO. And then
we have uh Taylor Posel who's been in
private equity for the last five years
sourcing businesses raising capital.
He's our CFO. So we have a remarkable
team. And of course Kyle Cobb who I
mentioned earlier who is the uh you know
number 10 in the world on uh you know AI
agent usage. So we're pretty proud of
him and proud of that. But those guys
have tapped me to be the CEO of Trade
Gauge AI. So you know I'll have my hands
full between that and Cash Cade. So, I
don't think, you know, I think for now
I'm I got enough on my plate.
>> Yeah, you're a busy man.
>> But certainly, you know, you know, if
you get me, you know, get me in a couple
beers in Darnell and I'm sure I'll have
a bunch of different things.
>> But I think right now it's best to focus
on what's in front of me. Just, you
know,
>> like they say, right? I mean, we got a I
got a big task in front of us to go
raise this money and to grow this
business. But we think by the end of the
year, we can get some major m we've
already getting pre-signups and a lot of
early traction. But again, it's going to
be a lot of hard work from here on out
to the rest of the year to not only work
with investors and, you know, kind of do
the rounds, but also engage with as many
uh potential clients as possible
>> and uh you know, start getting users on
the platform uh you know, and help our
sales team. Just basically put us in a
position to win.
>> Nice. Nice. Nice. in terms of getting
traction is that has that been from like
you know your network or has there been
any other avenues that you've looked at
to try to get more traction?
>> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, I'm
fortunate enough to have a really good
network here in Austin. A few of the
partners that I worked with at Noble
Capital have started their own firms and
they have these events that you know you
guys I would love for you guys to come
you know if you want to jump across the
pond but
>> let's go.
>> Yeah. So, I mean, I'll tell you guys, we
have these we have this, you know, these
guys have this relationship with these
high-end realators and they have these,
you know, 157 million dollar homes that
are listed for sale. So, what we'll do
is we'll get, you know, 15 20 investors
that are interested in investing and
then we'll have a private chef come in
with an open bar. Um, and then we'll
pitch the event and then, you know, have
the dinner and then it's just an
intimate night of networking at this,
you know, beautiful $15 million home and
the the homeowner and the realtor
benefit from the the people in the
audience that are, you know, they're all
millionaires. So, if they don't uh if
they're not in the market for a house
and and and you know, a transactional
buyer, they may know somebody who is.
So, it it gives them um you know, free
advertising, I guess, if you will, to
the to their target space. So, it's just
a good thing and and those happen here
twice a week. Um, you know, I go up and
I I I talk at at one of them, Romney
Navaro, Raglin Navaro Capital. They have
the thing called Dealmakers. That's
twice a month. I I I hit that and talk a
lot about Cascade, trying to raise that
the remaining 1.5 million on that round.
Um, and so that'll be interesting uh to
get you guys out there and show you
little pieces of it. Yeah. So, my
network in Austin is is really good. you
know, it's a it's managed to pick some
really good co-workers over the years
that have gone and done some wonderful
things and have a lot of engagement.
>> Yeah. Just just so Jeff actually, sorry.
Go on, Jeff. No,
>> I was just going to say just on that in
terms of like co-workers, how do you how
is it you try how do you tend to find
like the best talent like in terms of
like co-workers?
>> Yeah, you know, that's a good question.
At Noble, I I was I worked right with
the CEO to hire our sea level suite
board directors and partners. Brought on
Hugh Hefner's son, Cooper Hefner, to
come work for us. Set him up with Chris
Ragwin Capital, who's also helping him
get the remaining money needed to buy
Playboy. So, um I'm not sure if you guys
saw that or not, but um he he offered
100 million to buy back Playboy.
um he's just a few million short. So
Chris is helping him raise the remaining
amount of that money to go and you know
and buy that company back and put that
legacy back with the Hefner. But
Cooper's a great guy. I ended up
recruiting him and he came to work with
us at Noble Capital as a partner and
headed capital markets and um you know
he introduced me to a lot of people.
He's he grew up in the mansion so he's
got a huge rolodex you know so that
that's been great.
You know, we had this uh you know, our
CEO over there, Jaden Newman, he used to
have he take this very seriously or he
still does take it very seriously. I
don't want to say used to, but he had
the you know, we create these huge like
Excel, you know, sheets and have all
these different metrices that we look
for. And if you're going to pin me down
to one, I would say grit was probably
one of the bigger things that uh that we
look for is, you know, can you handle a
tough situation?
um and keep calm and perform under
pressure because private equity is high
stakes, high pressure. Not only do you
have to go get the money from investors,
but you also have to execute the deal,
which is both very, uh, you know, p, you
know, that's it takes a special person
to do both of those things. So, um, you
know, it's it's a lot. And I'll tell you
this, you know, I'm not going to claim
to be no expert. I was watching a TED
talk about one, you know, one of the
Fortune 100 CEOs. I forget who it was,
but he said, "If I'm lucky, I only get
hiring wrong 70% of the time." What does
that tell you?
>> You can do that wrong quite a bit.
>> That's right. And this is a Fortune 100
CEO
saying this. And that got me thinking,
too. And McKenzie does a really good
job, you know, with these articles. I
think I mentioned this to you earlier,
but you know they they came out with an
article that was something to the you
know along the lines of newly minted
portfolio company CEOs after 18 months
are not meeting uh expectations and you
know that could lead to you know
attrition and turnover. Um, that was
something that I really thought about
and uh and had to basically constantly
keep on the lookout for top talent with
10 portfolio companies seeing as how the
odds are not in their favor to meet
expectations. You know, it's you got to
become really good at recruiting, you
know, if you're going to have a great
culture, a winning culture, because
those types of things are dynamic,
right? I mean not everybody is the right
person for the job at the right time but
at the right time that person might be
the right person but you always have to
look into that and like I said before
you know if you can't measure it you
can't manage it. So, I think the actions
of the individual to me is if you can
kind of see that before you hire them is
uh is something that's super important
because a lot of people can talk about
what went wrong, you know, or tell you,
hey, you know, you should have done this
differently, but I'd rather have the
person that's actually going to go and
do it. You know what I mean? So, I think
that's what it's about. Just grit and uh
and you know, roll up your sleeves kind
of mentality. For me, that's it.
>> Cuz I think we're in terms of us, I feel
like we're definitely at the expanding
stage. I think that's probably the major
reason why Joshua asked that question
and I think because the team it's like
we're very we have a very similar
mindset. So I feel like it's it's very
significant that that person also has
that mindset. So we're a little bit
paranoid at the same time. We need
someone to join us obviously but there
just a little bit there
>> needs to be synergies. There needs to be
synergies and I do
seem to scare me even more about most
likely you're going to hire the wrong
person anyway.
>> Well Darnell it's like you know culture
is cash flow right? So, you have to be
very delicate about who you bring in. I
mean, of course, you know, if you're
bringing on people at a high level, then
>> of course, you know, it's going to hurt
like hell, you know, having to dilute
yourself on the cap table. But if you're
not doing that and you're just hiring an
employee,
>> you know, that could be something um a
little bit different. However, you know,
it is, you know, I would say I would say
if you want I mean, if I don't know if
you're asking for my advice on this, but
if you are, I would say just look for
people that have a habit of finishing
things. Um, you know, even I hired one
person one time and they told me he came
from a a big, you know, um, PIMCO, you
know, a big huge financial platform. He
said, Jeff, you know, it really stuck
with me and I'll never forget this. He
said, you know, I I have to finish
things. He goes, "Even if I'm watching a
movie and it's absolutely terrible, I'll
have to finish it because it's like I I
can't just not finish things." And I
started thinking, I was like, "This is
exactly the kind of guy we need because
there's going to be a ton of challenges.
Nothing's going to work right, but you
still have to you have to just be no
matter what, I'm going to get this
done." And that's what it takes because
life is just full of distractions and
there's problems and things that aren't
going to go your way and things that
aren't fair. But you have to overlook
that and just stay focused on the
mission. I think that's, you know, if
you can identify those things as a
pattern of character, um, then that
that's a keeper without a doubt. And
Jeff, I slightly wanted to tweak the
question that just asked you as well. So
I was going to ask like how important do
you think it is to make partnership in
the like the realm of business and how
do you actually go about making
partnerships?
Yeah, I think it's absolutely probably
the most important thing in my mind is
partnerships and strategic alliances and
things like that. Like for instance with
you guys, right? So I mean I'm I'm super
excited to work with you guys, you know,
in London and bring our product global.
I think without that you're really
missing a lot and then vice versa,
right? I mean I think we can do things
to help grow your business, you know, in
the United States. So I think the
crossell synergies are so huge, you
can't sleep on those. I mean, that's
what acquisitions are normally. That's
that's the main thing. You know, if
you're not doing if you're doing a
vertical acquisition, I mean, you're
looking at cross-ell opportunities, you
know, horizontal, of course, that's
easy. You're doing the same thing. But,
you know, if you're looking at at ways
that you can, you know, share customer
lists and things like that and and just
basically if you can partner with
somebody that has an existing business
relationship with that's inside of your
TAM, that's always a good thing.
>> Okay, cool. Nice.
Nice. Okay, cool. Start reaching out to
new tools on LinkedIn and so forth.
>> Yeah, you know, I would say I've had
some success in this and I think it's
more about just genuinely having
interest in the other person and and
what they're doing. I think that's kind
of really what it boils down to is, you
know, I try to listen without
pre-programming something back to say
and just listen. And that's kind of
helped me, you know, a lot in
relationships and personal
relationships. And just I try not to
form an opinion or or think of something
to say in return. Just listen and digest
it and then and yeah, then and then
formulate my own opinion, not based on
what they said, but based on the data
that I was able to get from them.
>> That's true.
>> You know what I mean? Because a lot of
times if you're just sitting there, you
know, trying to think of something to
say back, you're missing you're not
you're not fully understanding the
person in front of you.
That's why they say you got two ears and
you got one mouth.
>> Okay, here you go.
>> There we go. It speaks for itself. But
Jeff, you're an author. Uh the book
>> 100 million playbook. Talk to me. What
was like
what was the goal behind, you know,
making this book?
>> Yeah.
>> And by the way, before you before you
answer, sorry. I was gonna say
>> it's on its way. It should be with me on
Monday.
>> Okay. Awesome.
>> Just putting it out. All right.
>> Awesome. All right, Joshua. Thanks, man.
I appreciate that. Yeah, I was on a call
uh yesterday with a guy that had just
read it too and he was like, "Yeah, this
is great." And I was like, "Uh, yeah."
So, the whole the whole goal, Joshua,
was for you to be able to, you know, you
go on like a two or three hour flight
for you to to read it during a two or
three hour flight. Just real easy
reading, big spacing, you know, I can't
see where the so the the letters
are real big.
>> Um, so, uh, yeah, I hope you enjoy it
and I'm I look forward to your feedback.
But yeah, so that book was written
because um what we do is is is sometimes
complicated to understand, especially
when you're talking to investors and
founders and a lot of what we do and
what differentiates ourselves at, you
know, the private equity company
Atlantic GFream is we're able to give
these founders a 7.5 multiple on even
like a, you know, a million IBIDA, you
know, or a million five IBIDA, which is
unheard of. It's like, you know, you're
never going to get that. you'd be lucky
to get, you know, five turns on 2
million EBIDA. And we're talking home
service businesses here, MEP
specifically, mechanical electric
plumbing. So, instead of having to
explain this every time I go and sit
down with the founder and their family,
I decided to write a book and give them
the book and say, uh, please read this.
This will give you a better
understanding of not not just the
process, but how the whole thing works
mechanically so you understand what's
going on here. Um and then same thing
for the investors, right? Um you know,
hey, here's the peak behind the curtain
of how we're able to return, you know,
four to six MOIC in, you know, 24 months
um or less. And so it was it was
basically written uh as an educational
tool for founders and investors. And
then I kind of pivoted a little bit to,
you know, just like the normal
entrepreneur and just kind of threw some
nuances in there uh for people that um
are just now getting into private equity
or have come across some money and you
know want to make some investments and
just teach them about multiple arbitrage
um and and how that works and you know
how there's a big you know a large
amount of money out there if you can
just consolidate some businesses and get
it resold. Um, I mean, you're talking,
you know, nine figure profits here. Um,
it's uh I mean it's it's like they say
it's the they say it's the sexiest tool
in the private equity pay playbook.
Multiple arbitrage
um
>> multiple
I've uh you know you you also need to do
organic growth and you know focus on
operational alpha and things like that.
But um you know when you buy at three
and sell at 10, good things happen.
>> Yeah. cuz I I've even heard that I've
even heard that expression before cuz uh
we had um I think we had a podcast a
little while ago actually where I think
the so he used to work at a bank and I
think it was only him and one of person
I think that was the arbitrage desk
alone was like an $100 million desk and
it was only two people so I think uh I
think I might have to order that book as
well is what I want to say.
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, it's great. Uh yeah, I
would love to work with you guys, you
know, more on that and h happy to help.
Yeah, that was that that was where the
book came from. Um,
>> you know, I also talk a little bit about
the deal and some things that happened.
You know, one of the guys we had uh
great guy and I had a, you know,
$850,000
diesel truck racing habit annually, you
know, and it was like, okay, we got to
figure this. I'm going through the P&L
going, "What the hell was that?" uh you
know during the during the deal he did
he went out to the salt flats in uh Utah
I believe it is
>> and attempted a a land speed record in
this thing. I was like oh no dude we're
trying to buy your business.
>> I mean did he and he was like Jeff don't
worry the the business is in my
daughter's name. And I was like
>> that doesn't make me feel any better
buddy.
>> Yeah. But yeah, he did. I I you know, I
think uh yeah, he got really close to
breaking it. Didn't break it, but he
gave it a really good run. I mean, these
things run like 300 miles an hour in the
quarter.
>> Crazy. It's impressive.
>> Well, um what I was going to say, Jeff,
is Yeah, we're going to leave a link uh
for your book in the description as
well. So, it gives a gives people the
opportunity to purchase it as well. Is
there audio book as well? Is that
interest?
>> There is. Yeah, there is on Amazon.
There sure is, Joshua. There's an audio
book as well.
>> Nice. I'd also like to provide some
information around how they can invest
in Cashcade or you know participate in
the seed round for trade gauge AI but
you know Cashcade is you know right
there in I wouldn't say your backyard
but I mean it's closer to you than me
Zurich I I think for the risk level the
return is is way oversized right I mean
this is seven-year-old business it's a
growth equity the company will exit in
24 months or less um it's just a it's a
really solid you know, growth equity
investment. I mean, in SAS, I mean,
you're talking 15 17 multiple here on on
IBIDA or, you know, whatever you want
to, you know, do it for revenue as well.
But the company's in great shape and
it's a it's a wonderful time to to get
in to make some four times your money in
two years or less.
>> Is there a minimum? I'm just I'm I'm
intrigued.
>> Yeah. So, I try and lower that minimum
as quickly, you know, as much as much as
possible with uh with my our founder.
But yeah, he's got the minimum at at 250
US.
>> Okay. Intriguing. Might have to have
some conversation with Joshua. See what
>> Yeah. So, but yeah, I mean it's uh it'd
be a heck of an opportunity and you know
something that uh you know certainly
happy to do an introduction to any of
your audience with our CEO and and get
you more information about that. And
then of course u you know you can look
for the press release about trade gauge
AI and then you know you can contact us
you know through our website or our
LinkedIn page and all that stuff will be
on the press release that comes out
tomorrow.
>> Good stuff. Well yeah we'll definitely
be linking everything in uh in the
YouTube description so people can get
access to it. Um and also yeah it will
be on our LinkedIn as well. So yeah guys
I mean check that out if you're looking
for funding I guess. But Jeeoff, I I did
want to ask as well, right? So, of
course, look, you've been in the you've
built and scaled businesses multiple
times over and over again. What's been
like the biggest lesson that you've
learned?
>> Wow, that's a that's a that's a great
question. I would say that the biggest
lesson you can learn is revenue. Don't
ever lose sight of revenue and in new
business. Um the most the most important
deal in your pipeline is the one you
don't have. So, I would say never let
off the gas ever because you're going to
run into problems. You can't make
everyone happy. What? And you know,
churn is extremely important to a
business's health. And so, it's okay to
make mistakes early on, but you have to
be able to correct those mistakes, you
know, with added revenue to where, you
know, you can keep that churn at least
level at first. So, you know, that's
probably one of my my biggest things is
just never losing sight that revenue is
the key to this thing and keep your I
guess the sales culture in your
organization is the best way to say it.
>> I feel like uh we're going to be taking
those on personal personally as well.
>> Yeah. Was it so um we're halfway through
the year a month after halfway through
the year? But what's what's one of the
biggest opportunities, you know, what's
one of the biggest opportunities for
founders and investors, you know, in
2025 and beyond?
>> Yeah. Um, I would say, you know,
selfishly, I'm going to say
consolidation. Um, you know, there's
there's more, you know, baby boomers
exiting right now, people in their
mid60s that are selling businesses. I
think there's an amazing opportunity to
jump in and consolidate those businesses
like like we're doing at you know trade
gauge AI and then our partnership with
trade set capital. So in my mind I think
that's really the benefit. I mean, look,
you go and find two or three, even two
or three smaller businesses. Um, you
know, and and you can just do it at a
smaller scale, right? And say you pick
them up at two turns and you know, you
got three of them and you get yourself
up to 5 million eBay. Well, then you can
sell that at seven turns. So, you know,
that's that's five that's five points
you just made on the stack. So, if you
had a $5 million stack, you just made 12
$25 million.
So, in my opinion, I think that's where
it's at is trade gauge AI will allow
somebody that's not a private equity vet
and that doesn't have a, you know, PhD
in uh, you know, accounting or something
to be able to confidently source in
diligence deals and put together a term
sheet essentially using AI and
automation. after that there's some real
work that has to happen but the actual
act of finding evaluating and getting
financing the platform can handle so I
think that uh you know I would encourage
folks to read the book to look into
consolidation and then you know get on
trade gauge AI and start your free trial
and and use it to put together a uh
consolidation and make yourself some
cash. Just before we do close up, uh
Jeff, I just wanted to ask, of course,
in this journey of entrepreneurship,
there's sometimes stories or there's
sometimes scenarios within this space
where it's like, you know, this is why I
do it. This is this is my why. This is
what's driving me. But has there been is
there a story that you can share of
where you know where you were trying
super hard, it was no luck, and then
bam, you know, you hit the jackpot or
things just the domino perfect started,
you know, you hit that first domino and
things just started to propel.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of it
had to do with, you know, breaking into
the YouTube private equity role. I think
that's kind of when it it it started for
me. That kind of opened up the door for
other opportunities. And, you know, I
spent, you know, three years there, give
or take, something really close to that.
And that allowed me to develop quite the
network in Austin, meet with investors,
learn how to run a portfolio company,
learned a lot from our CEO over there
and know the other guys. John Bula Basis
is one of the guys I still have as an
adviser. He was one of the founders of
Comfort Systems USA, which is now 10
billion dollar market cap or whatever
they are now, which is an HVAC company,
which is kind of what I do. I would say
that started it. the really kind of um
you know moments where you start looking
at a real nine figure check you know was
a few years ago when I met a few guys
that are just master sorcers that pulled
together five seven companies on a P&L
you know and I think it was like one
week I was blown away I was like you got
to be kidding me this is I can't believe
this so the guy walks in with seven
companies ready to go and it was like oh
god here we go so yeah we put it
together and you
went raised.
Yeah, it's I think you know that's uh
you know when you get when you get
together with people that are the best
at what they do um and you know you have
each person that you have on the team is
is you know world class at what what
they do then you know it's it's amazing
to see you know what can happen and how
it happens so fast
but you know it's just kind of like the
right people in the right positions but
yeah I mean I think that's what really
did it for me is being able to have some
success like pulling together a deal
like that, you know, sitting at Texas
Capital Bank with the president of of
the bank in Dallas and the rest of their
executive team, you know, pitching this
thing. I think, you know, having those
opportunities and and getting the right
deal together with the right team, you
know, that that is like, okay, this is
this is this, you know, from that point
on, it's just been part of my life.
>> Amazing. Amazing. Jeff, thank you so
much for joining us today. We really
appreciate your perspectives. Donna will
probably agree with me. You've dropped a
lot of gems, a lot of value, a lot of
golden nuggets. We're certainly going to
use the information that you shared with
us personally and definitely implement
it within our business and, you know,
our strategies moving forward um in
relations to Cascade and Atlantic
Atlantic GFream. We're definitely going
to, you know, put your links in in the
bio also for your book as well. But
yeah, guys, that's been another episode
of the the bio shift. I've been with
Jeff Pri, our guest, and Dell, my
co-host. We appreciate you for watching.
>> Thank you guys. Appreciate it.
>> Amazing. Cool.