Graham Weaver - Building Alpine - [Invest Like the Best, EP.425]

My guest today is Graham Weaver. My guest today is Graham Weaver. Graham is the founder of Alpine Investors, a large private equity firm targeting an interesting market inefficiency. Alpine focuses on the thousands of $20 million revenue businesses whose baby boomer owners want to retire, but lack succession plans. Alpine buys companies and installs 28-year-old military veterans and top MBA graduates as CEOs, leveraging 25 years of intellectual property on how young executives can successfully run established businesses. Alpine's CEO-in-training program is now the most applied-to job at Harvard, Stanford, and Kellogg business schools. We discuss the past, present and future of their unique approach. Please enjoy my conversation with Graham Weaver.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page⁠⁠ here.⁠⁠

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠).

Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:05:13) The Journey to Private Equity

(00:06:59) Early Influences and Personal Growth

(00:09:54) The Power of Wrestling and Rowing

(00:11:45) Choosing Your Path and Making Decisions

(00:14:48) College Goals and Rowing Success

(00:18:05) Lessons from Early Business Ventures

(00:26:24) Founding Alpine and Early Challenges

(00:34:46) Core Beliefs and Talent Development

(00:39:07) Fun Board Meetings and Team Dynamics

(00:40:42) Platform Building 101

(00:44:08) Talent and Training Programs

(00:49:12) Employee and Customer Engagement

(00:52:27) Financial Outcomes and Asymmetric Returns

(00:55:52) Incentivizing Young CEOs

(01:00:26) The Role of Emotional Intelligence

(01:02:45) The Alpine CEO in Training Program

(01:03:40) Teaching at Stanford and Influential Mentors

(01:07:58) Helping Students Find Their Passion

(01:10:22) Visualizing Your Future Self

(01:11:19) Scalability of Coaching

(01:12:15) Personal Growth Through Teaching

(01:16:16) The Role of Executive Coaching

(01:24:45) Lessons from a Bad Deal

(01:31:50) Daily Routines and Success

(01:36:13) The Future of Private Equity

(01:35:24) Unleashing Heroes at Alpine

(01:38:09) The Journey of Building Alpine

(01:41:31) The Kindest Thing Anyone Has Ever Done For Graham