Luca Ferrari

So the first one is a matter of sophistication.

And the second one is a matter of psychology, really, I think, discipline, patience.

And the third one is, how well do we negotiate?

How efficient are we at positioning the ultimate price on that curve?

The fastest but stupidest approach would be to immediately offer the very most you can pay.

The opposite of offering a ridiculously low price is probably equally stupid.

So you want to find the right balance.

Interestingly, actually, are much closer to the former.

We believe it's better to have a reputation for someone who offers a very fair price immediately, but who's not going to be very willing to negotiate much.

So the first one, how do you determine that return as a function of price curve?

You've got to be very sophisticated at knowing what you're doing, having first-party data for benchmarking, asking the right questions, having good models.

But the output of the model is only as good as the assumptions you put in it.

And we certainly have very sophisticated cohorted models and whatnot, but the main advantage is in being able to run this business a lot better.

We don't win because we're good at predictions.

We win because we can run them better so we can offer a good price.

But it's really marginally important to making good predictions.

And so you want 12 years of experience running many businesses from the trenches in the details.

Private equity, I think, teaches you a lot more.

So you understand why things went a certain way with certain business.

You're wiser when you set the assumptions for your next acquisition in a way that I think if you stay on the financial layer or kind of, oh, I talk to management every week.