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Ok, so let's talk David Royce, today's guest:
He built the same pest control company four times — $13M, $30M, $135M, $1.5B — and says the first exit was the most life-changing.
David Royce sold four pest control companies — Moxie, Eco First, Altera, and Aptiv — each bigger than the last, culminating in a $1.5B sale of Aptiv when it was doing $508M in annual revenue. He kept 100% equity through the first three, gave 25% of the last one to his employees, and personally walked away with hundreds of millions across the run. He's now on an indefinite sabbatical, investing through Iconic (the firm that manages Zuckerberg's and Dorsey's money), with half his net worth in S&P 500 and the rest in private equity, direct deals, and alternatives — including multiple Anthropic investments.
This episode covers the exact mechanics of each asset-sale exit, why David kept restarting instead of holding, his full portfolio framework (including the 4-year cash buffer strategy), the "the answer is just a little more" moment that hit every entrepreneur in the room, and the story of flying his dying father on a private jet from a New Orleans hospital to Cedars-Sinai at 2am — made possible only by one call to a CEO WhatsApp chain.
Timestamps:
00:01:39 — David's full intro: four companies, four exits, what actually happened with the money
01:55 — First company (Moxie): nearly went bankrupt the first year, how a cash flow crisis taught him "cash was king"
03:14 — The asset-sale strategy: selling customers and technicians to Terminix while keeping the sales operation
04:57 — "Pretty close" — David confirms Forbes' reported $13M and $30M exit figures
05:37 — Why he gave 25% of Aptiv to employees and stepped back as chairman
06:23 — Aptiv was doing $508M in revenue; Daniel and David settle on $1.5B as the sale range
07:13 — What he actually took home: cap gains, California taxes, "hundreds of millions"
08:37 — Net worth today: "do the math backwards and figure it out"
09:09 — Portfolio breakdown: 4-year cash buffer in fixed income, S&P 500 with tax-loss harvesting, alternatives
11:31 — "I just invested in Anthropic — three different times in the last year and a half" via Iconic
14:35 — "The one that was life-changing was the first one" — $13M from nothing hits differently than $1.5B
17:46 — Why pest control? A starving college student, a friend who made $25K in a summer, and zero sales for five days straight
21:16 — His boss's question that changed everything: "What on earth would you go work for somebody else?"
27:31 — Fifth grade through eleventh grade: watching his family nearly lose the house, the fear that built everything
36:35 — Flying his dying father on a private jet from New Orleans to Cedars-Sinai at 2am
39:36 — What he wants to be remembered for: "The sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have, but how many leaders you create"
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