Rob Parker

And over time, as we brought people in, and we had talented people in roles that they were well-suited to do, That's when our business really grew. And that's a small example. I think in a business like A1 or a lot of the clients that Eric and I deal with, having experts in a seat, in a role that they're well-suited to perform, and in many cases are way better to do that work than the CEO is.

The CEO's job is to inspire, motivate, be the visionary, grow the business, make the hard final decisions. The CEO shouldn't be involved in getting the numbers organized. You should be interpreting those numbers and doing those kinds of things, but someone has to do it.

The CEO's job is to inspire, motivate, be the visionary, grow the business, make the hard final decisions. The CEO shouldn't be involved in getting the numbers organized. You should be interpreting those numbers and doing those kinds of things, but someone has to do it.

And so the more you've got talent in place in these critical roles, HR, finance, IT, if you're a platform, you have someone who runs mergers and acquisitions. You have someone who runs integration. You have some of those key roles filled. The CEO can go do what they need to do and really grow a business and create something scaled and valuable.

And so the more you've got talent in place in these critical roles, HR, finance, IT, if you're a platform, you have someone who runs mergers and acquisitions. You have someone who runs integration. You have some of those key roles filled. The CEO can go do what they need to do and really grow a business and create something scaled and valuable.

Good data that's easy to interpret and organized well leads to the best decisions. There's no doubt about it.

Good data that's easy to interpret and organized well leads to the best decisions. There's no doubt about it.

gross profit gross margin yes let's talk about that yeah i mean in a lot of ways it's a proxy for how valuable your customer perceives your service because really it's at the end of the day it's it's the margin you get on the product you sell without a lot of the without the sgna without the sales cost without the administrative costs of the company all those kinds of things it's kind of your product margin in many ways so it's a great way it's one of the first things that a lot of people will look at

gross profit gross margin yes let's talk about that yeah i mean in a lot of ways it's a proxy for how valuable your customer perceives your service because really it's at the end of the day it's it's the margin you get on the product you sell without a lot of the without the sgna without the sales cost without the administrative costs of the company all those kinds of things it's kind of your product margin in many ways so it's a great way it's one of the first things that a lot of people will look at

is so how valuable do your customers view your product or service and gross margin is an indication of that.

is so how valuable do your customers view your product or service and gross margin is an indication of that.

Yeah, sure. I mean, it's, so if you think about a private equity firm, They take in money from investors, and those investors are institutions. They're endowments, insurance companies, ultra high net worth families, all these sorts of large institutional pools of capital, and they invest that money on their behalf.

Yeah, sure. I mean, it's, so if you think about a private equity firm, They take in money from investors, and those investors are institutions. They're endowments, insurance companies, ultra high net worth families, all these sorts of large institutional pools of capital, and they invest that money on their behalf.

So they have a fiduciary duty to those investors that they're going to really do a very thorough due diligence process. And part of that process is in a business, and A1 is maybe a little unique. Literally your picture is on every single vehicle out there on the road.

So they have a fiduciary duty to those investors that they're going to really do a very thorough due diligence process. And part of that process is in a business, and A1 is maybe a little unique. Literally your picture is on every single vehicle out there on the road.

You know, it's important to understand to do a background check on you and to call people that maybe you've worked with in the past to get an unfiltered view. If you called somebody that works with you today, they would be more inclined to say favorable things because you're their boss.

You know, it's important to understand to do a background check on you and to call people that maybe you've worked with in the past to get an unfiltered view. If you called somebody that works with you today, they would be more inclined to say favorable things because you're their boss.

If you call somebody that doesn't work for you anymore, but used to, that might be a good way to get an unvarnished view of what you're like in the workplace. Are you a motivator? Do you inspire people? Or are you negative and are you, you dress people down in a public way and do you detract from the business and by the way you operate? It's important for them to understand as much as they can.

If you call somebody that doesn't work for you anymore, but used to, that might be a good way to get an unvarnished view of what you're like in the workplace. Are you a motivator? Do you inspire people? Or are you negative and are you, you dress people down in a public way and do you detract from the business and by the way you operate? It's important for them to understand as much as they can.

You know, I'll tell you that the single most important factor I've observed in doing this for nearly 25 years in a successful investment is the leader, the leader and that leader's team. You can have a great idea, great concept, great industry, bad industry.