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"Private equity rarely loses." George Baker says it as a director of the company he founded, watching his own shareholder value climb. Lane Carrick, who sells founder-owned businesses to private equity for a living, pushes back: you think it's about the math? "I know it's about the math."
George Baker Sr. is the founder of ParkHub, now JustPark, and the founder and managing partner of 2 the Moon Ventures in Dallas. He swept his father's commercial parking lots downtown at 12, founded ParkHub in 2010 to attack cash leakage in a $40 billion industry that had seen almost no technology, and built it into a B2B parking and mobility platform serving stadiums and airports. Jerry Jones was an early investor. LLR Partners put in $100 million of growth equity. More than 20 bolt-on acquisitions followed, then a merger with UK-based JustPark and an FTV Capital recap that moved Baker from chairman to director.
The mechanism was boring and enormous: digitize the cash. Parking operators saw revenue lifts of 30 to more than 50 percent. Inside the venue the transaction fell from over 20 seconds to under five, congestion dropped and food and beverage sales rose 19 percent. In 2014, reading the consumer window closing, he shut down his own reservation engine, called Ticketmaster, and rebuilt the entire company as B2B software. Growth ran 400 percent, then 300, then 200.
What he gave up was not the money. "We were a band of brothers. I don't think I will ever have that much fun." He has not seen much private equity put weight on culture or job creation, and he does not believe founder culture survives the invitation. He has made peace with that, and he is specific about the trade: four years of school runs and family dinners after a decade of not being around.
Also in this episode: why an operator turned investor now buys Texas consumer brands instead of software, why western wear is a $130 billion market, how he judges a founding team in a single conversation, and the advice he gives anyone entering a transaction, which is to write down what success looks like in one sentence, date it, and seal it in an envelope, because the deal will take two to three times longer than the LOI says.
Hosted by Ryan Harper and Lane Carrick.
Produced by Harper Belmont Media.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
1:40 Sponsors
3:35 Sweeping his father's parking lots at 12
6:02 The problem statement was cash leakage
18:29 Revenue lifts of 30 to more than 50 percent
20:07 Destroying his own business model
21:12 Shutting it down and calling Ticketmaster
21:39 Jerry Jones invests, then 400, 300, 200 percent growth
22:20 EOS, traction, and a band of brothers
23:26 A $40 billion market with zero technology
28:28 Twenty seconds to five, and what it did to the venue
30:06 More than 20 bolt-on acquisitions
31:17 The JustPark merger
31:52 The FTV recap, chairman to director
32:27 Founders backing founders at 2 the Moon
36:23 From parking software to boots and cookies39:12 Western wear is a $130 billion market
44:20 "You think it's about the math?"
44:49 "Private equity rarely loses"
44:55 Can founder culture survive private equity?
46:26 Contact tracing and reopening Live Nation
47:07 The capital he had to give back
47:41 Making peace with it not being his baby
48:19 The trade: four years of school runs and dinners
52:09 Write it down, date it, seal the envelope
1:02:10 It is not the company, it is the entrepreneur
1:03:40 Book recommendations
1:07:03 Close
SPONSORED BY
Capital Southwest | https://capitalsouthwest.com
Security National Bank | https://securitynational.bank
Blockchain.com | https://www.blockchain.com
2 the Moon Ventures: https://2themoon.ventures
The Deal Table:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-deal-table/
Ryan Harper:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryansharper/
Lane Carrick:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-lane-carrick-65a728/
Lane's book, The Optima Advantage: https://amzn.to/48nLElW
