Musings | Futaleufu Partners

Bullets Then Cannonballs

Picture yourself at sea, a hostile ship bearing down on you. You have a limited amount of gunpowder. You take all your gunpowder and use it to fire a big cannonball. The cannonball flies out over the ocean...and misses...

Graham and David’s Hiring Video

Your single most important job is to put in place a great team. But just because you know it’s important does not mean you know how to do it. That is why my friend and colleague Graham Weaver and I put together this series of videos on hiring...

Effective Delegation

We want to share with you a simple process that will improve your effectiveness at delegation. It requires no apps, no software, no software integration. It works with a pad of paper and a pen...

Selling Your Business

The CEO Advisory Partner (CAP) program is a search fund CEO’s coach and advisor during a sale process. The ROI is enormous, and after years of building value why would you want to leave any of that hard-earned value on the table...

Internet Security: A Sad Search Fund Story

A few years ago, we had an investment that was doing quite well. So much so they were in a sale process where we expected a 3.7x MOIC. Halfway into the sale process, they were hacked and ransomed and the perpetrators got sensitive customer information. The sale process fell apart...

How the Red Sox Made a Championship Team

In 2018, the Boston Red Sox won their fourth World Series under the ownership of John Henry and Tom Werner. They did not prevail solely through pure athletic ability and player trades. The difference between the Red Sox and the competition was chemistry...

The Foot in the Door

The foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique is a compliance tactic that assumes that agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a second, larger request. It has meaningful application to your search and running your company...

Valuing Those Who Tell You the Bitter Truth

We wanted to share a conversation between New York Times reporter Adam Bryant and Pamela Fields, CEO of Stetson. Bryant begins by asking Fields about her first management position. Fields responds by saying she made every mistake in the book...