Entrepreneurial Man of Mystery

A conversation in Amsterdam

Photo by Ian Valerio on Unsplash

I meet ⬛⬛⬛ for coffee on a rainy Wednesday morning in Amsterdam. Bocca… apparently the best coffee in the city according to a travel blog. That’s why he chose it. We both biked there in the rain, naturally. ⬛⬛⬛ and I first connected on Twitter, that elite business networking tool. When we met the first time in person over the summer, we finished a tray of oysters, a bowl of bitterballen (a popular Dutch snack made with a mix of roux, beef stock, and meat rolled into a ball and fried) and, of course, several Heinekens.

This time we behave a bit more like gentlemen, which is fitting because ⬛⬛⬛ looks a lot like Colin Firth’s Agent Galahad from the Kingsman movies. The “proper” gentleman -- tall, debonair, cool eyeglasses, British, and gives you the curious feeling he’s up to something far more interesting than gallivanting around the Venice of the North. But instead of setting up coups or secret missions across the world... he’s setting up sports fields directly across the world. Huh?

⬛⬛⬛ is the co-owner of ⬛⬛⬛⬛, a company that installs youth sports and recreation fixtures for schools and municipalities in certain southern states in the US.

But yes, he lives in Amsterdam full-time with his wife and 3 kids.

So, how did you end up in Amsterdam?

Well, I grew up in the UK. My schooling was a bit unconventional… I went to ⬛⬛⬛ in the States for a year back in 2003 and then got a Masters in History from ⬛⬛⬛ in the UK. And then I got a law degree in London. I went to work for the law firm ⬛⬛⬛ for a couple of years, but then left law altogether to jump into business. I went to work in private equity in the oil & gas sector, believe it or not. Then I left and founded a company called ⬛⬛⬛… the goal was to create alternative sources of funding for the arts. We actually won an award from the UK government for our work. After that, I bounced between startups for a while both in the US and Europe. In the middle of all this…. I met my now wife in Amsterdam. She’s American. We ended up moving here because the company I was working for in the US asked me to help run a business over here in Europe. That didn’t work out and I ended up working at two other companies here in the cloud and data management space.

So you’ve worked in law, private equity, cloud and tech, founded a startup focused on the arts… how did you end up in the sports and rec business... in the US no less?

A few years ago, I was in a pretty dark place. I felt like I was earning probably half what I needed to support my family... and I was questioning what to do with myself. My wife and I have a small country house in ⬛⬛⬛ and we went out there one weekend. The roof had been needing repair that I kept putting off, but it really needed fixing at this point… and I was dreading the cost. Long story short, my wife basically told me to get my act together and figure something out. That was when it hit me… I needed to figure out how to buy a “big asset”.

So I started exploring small business and ETA (entrepreneurship through acquisition). I reconnected with an old friend from my time in private equity and we acquired this business together. I focus on strategy, HR, and other administrative functions — including sourcing our next acquisition — and my partner is on the ground closer to the operations and day-to-day.

How big is the business?

[This part of the conversation won’t be published here, but the business generates over $15MM in annual sales with an interstate footprint. Operations are complex and involve multiple types of construction materials and sports-related fixtures and equipment… and skilled labor to install and maintain. The business development and sales function is also critical — sourcing new educational, recreation, sports, and municipal customer opportunities across a large region.]

On living in Europe: There is a slower pace here versus back home – whether in the US or the UK. But you also don’t have your parents around who respond with "how will that make any money?!" whenever you talk about projects you’re thinking about or business ideas!

On corporate life: I think it’s important to exposure yourself to the madness of corporate existence when you’re in your 20s. But it’s mostly all very silly. “Here are 3 blue stickers for you, great job.” If you love what you're doing, then great... but a lot of people who claim they love what they’re doing are really just masking fears. Their disguise is faked passion for their job, their team, etc.... there is real underlying hurt. The reason is they don't have money in the bank. If someone has $2-3 million liquid, it's very hard for a company to motivate them if they have high degrees of individual agency and intellectual curiosity – they’re not tethered to expectations of others, fantastical ideas of climbing some figurative ladder, or self-idolatry through the lens of an external brand they don’t have any ownership of.

On work ethic and happiness: Maybe we were happier in prehistory. Few people now want to focus on one thing for 30 years and do it well. That’s become viewed as anti-progress... like “why did you spend two weeks crafting that axe when it can be made 100x better and faster in China?” Well, because it’s mine… I made it and I enjoyed making it. This is now viewed as antithetical to innovation and progress... to "step away" from the rat race to focus on something slow... is like betraying the pack. It’s like this sense that we're all hurdling through space together. Yes we're depressed and take meds, no we're not happy, yes we can barely save money… but if you jump off the rock, you've abandoned us and you’ll be judged. Like some Invisible Hand pushing us all towards endless mindless "work". Sure, 90% of that work is pointless, but 10% of it will spawn the next big idea.. the next technology that will maintain the momentum of human progress. We just don't know which is the 10% and which is the 90%, so we ignore all of that and just keep our heads down and keep working!

Back to the bikes. Still raining.

Goedemiddag.