hen you buy a business, the suddenness of going from searcher to owner-CEO with all its attendant responsibilities is thrilling — but also isolating.

The emotion of loneliness is an unhappy characteristic that we hear about over and over from Acquiring Minds guests.

But you also lose some of the practical value many business buyers took for granted in their previous W-2 lives.

Being on a team of people that you make decisions with, where multiple perspectives are available. Where your team can absorb your absence if you take 2 weeks off for vacation with your family.

Well today's guest shares a business-buying model that seems to solve for this.

Abhi Ravishankar and his 3 partners are building a holdco.

We go into a lot of detail on its structure, but in brief it's this:

The 4 have pooled their resources to buy 4 different businesses, sequentially.

Each partner will search for and buy the business for which he will be the principal operator and have extra equity. But via the holdco layer, each partner is also a significant owner in the other 3 businesses.

The way it shakes out is that Abhi will own 40% of the business he's CEO of, and 20% of each of the 3 other businesses.

In terms of revenue, they aim for each of the businesses to surpass $10m and for the portfolio to reach $50m.

Abhi Ravishankar & the Truss One Partners team
Abhi & the Truss One Partners

There is also a "CEO understudy" feature of their model, where each partner is familiar enough with one of the other businesses that he could run it for a while.

This feature is key, highlighting that Abhi's holdco is not just about equity numbers in a spreadsheet.

It's about sharing the burden of CEO responsibilities, backstopping each other, counseling each other. Providing flexibility to each other as owners.

And it was stress-tested earlier this year when Abhi took a 3-week trip to India. It passed the test and then some.

It's a fascinating and clever model; see if you agree.

And we also hear all about Abhi's acquisition: a pool company in the Bay Area. It was doing $3m when he bought it last July; a year and half and a series of bolt-ons later, he's almost tripled that number. That $10m/yr goal is all but certain, and he will have achieved it far faster than expected.

Abhi Ravishankar & his team at the pool supplies store
Abhi & team at the pool supplies store

If Abhi and his partners' holdco model intrigues you, make sure you also listen to my episode with Marc Nzojibwami of Calgary, who together with 2 partners is building a holdco with a similar model. Link in the show notes to that.

OK, please enjoy this conversation with Abhi Ravishankar, co-owner of Truss One Partners.