Brad Jacobs on His Big Bet on Building Insulation
He's done it again. On Sunday night, building supply company QXO announced that it would be acquiring TopBuild for $17 billion. TopBuild sells and installs insulation for both the residential and commercial markets. For Brad Jacobs, the CEO of QXO, this is just the latest in a lifetime of deals he's made. In fact, he's made over 500 deals in his life across numerous public companies that he's founded, most of which have XO somewhere in the ticker. Brad's companies all tend to be highly focused on the so-called "old economy" or real physical world, but of course, as we've seen with the datacenter boom, the old economy is still hot and crucial. So we talk about the logic behind this deal, how the insulation market works, and the general state of the building supply market right now.
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My Conversation with Brad Jacobs
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Brad Jacobs - Think Big and Move Fast - [Invest Like the Best, CLASSICS]
Welcome to this classic episode. Classics are my favorite episodes from the past 10 years, published once a month. These are N of 1 conversations with N of 1 people. Brad Jacob's simple principle of "think big, move fast" is one I think about often.
Brad’s resumé is remarkable. He has founded seven companies, all of which are billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar businesses. He has done 500 M&A transactions and raised $30 billion of debt and equity capital. Currently, he is the Executive Chairman of XPO, a commercial trucking company that he started in 2011 and has grown into one of the largest logistics businesses in the world. He is a true force of nature, and I hope you enjoy his episode.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Show Notes
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:02:11) Identifying key factors in a market before investing
(00:05:07) Gleaning insights from early acquisition experiences
(00:08:43) Delving into the seller's mindset during a business sale
(00:12:51) Weighing pre-built against organic growth strategies in acquisitions
(00:17:20) Defining the elements of an ideal business
(00:22:49) Engaging constructively with Wall Street
(00:24:36) Discussing the substantial buyback of XPO shares
(00:28:16) Ambition as a recurring theme in entrepreneurial success
(00:30:17) Emphasizing the need to facilitate team agility
(00:32:35) Highlighting the joys of post-acquisition integration
(00:36:09) Drawing lessons from Ludwig Jesselson's principles
(00:40:34) Comparing the risks and rewards of early versus late adoption
(00:44:09) Reflecting on errors made in trend analysis
(00:48:59) Strategies for implementing new technologies in enterprises
(00:51:59) The significance of thought experiments in strategic decision-making
(00:56:00) Recalling transformative events from his early years
(00: 57:22) Outlining what makes a meeting 'electric'
(01: 01:53) Sharing experiences with exemplary leadership
(01:05:02) Strategies for maximizing team potential
(01:07:37) Deciding the right time to step away from a business
(01:08:58) Unveiling unexpected challenges in entrepreneurship
(01:18:45) Philosophies for leading a fulfilling life
(01:21:04) Finishing How To Make A Few Billion Dollars
(01:22:53) The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Brad
Why Brad Jacobs Is Spending $11 Billion on a Roofing Supply Business
Brad Jacobs has made a fortune in his career buying and building big logistics companies, like United Rentals, Waste Management, XPO (trucking company), GXO (warehouses), and RXO (freight brokerage). His current venture is QXO, which raised billions of dollars in order to enter the building supply industry. After a long search and a couple months of battling with the executive team, QXO announced last week that it would be acquiring publicly traded roofing supply company Beacon Roofing for $11 billion. So why expand into roofing supply? And why Beacon specifically? We sat down with Brad to talk about the roofing industry, his vision for improving the company, what other opportunities are out there, and what he's seeing in the general economy right now.
Read more:
QXO Agrees to Acquire Beacon Roofing Supply in $11 Billion Deal
Affordable Housing Developers Stalled by Blocked Federal Funds
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Brad Jacobs - Think Big and Move Fast - [Invest Like the Best, REPLAY]
Today, we are replaying my conversation with Brad Jacobs. Brad’s resumé is remarkable. He has founded seven companies, all of which are billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar businesses. He has done 500 M&A transactions and raised $30 billion dollars of debt and equity capital. Currently, he is the Executive Chairman of XPO, a commercial trucking company that he started in 2011 and has grown into one of the largest logistics businesses in the world. He has also written a book that will be out in January, titled “How to Make a Few Billion Dollars”. Brad’s energy is infectious and our conversation unpacks his strategies for M&A, his propensity for speed, and methods for earning team buy-in. Please enjoy my great conversation with Brad Jacobs.
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For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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This episode is brought to you by Alphasense. AlphaSense has completely transformed the research process with cutting-edge AI technology and a vast collection of top-tier, reliable business content. Imagine completing your research five to ten times faster with search that delivers the most relevant results, helping you make high-conviction decisions with confidence. AlphaSense provides access to over 300 million premium documents, including company filings, earnings reports, press releases, and more from public and private companies. Invest Like the Best listeners can get a free trial now at Alpha-Sense.com/Invest and experience firsthand how AlphaSense and Tegas help you make smarter decisions faster.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best
(00:07:11) Identifying key factors in a market before investing
(00:10:07) Gleaning insights from early acquisition experiences
(00:13:43) Delving into the seller's mindset during a business sale
(00:17:51) Weighing pre-built against organic growth strategies in acquisitions
(00:27:49) Engaging constructively with Wall Street
(00:29:36) Discussing the substantial buyback of XPO shares
(00:33:16) Ambition as a recurring theme in entrepreneurial success
(00:35:17) Emphasizing the need to facilitate team agility
(00:37:35) Highlighting the joys of post-acquisition integration
(00:41:09) Drawing lessons from Ludwig Jesselson's principles
(00:45:34) Comparing the risks and rewards of early versus late adoption
(00:49:09) Reflecting on errors made in trend analysis
(00:53:59) Strategies for implementing new technologies in enterprises
(00:56:59) The significance of thought experiments in strategic decision-making
(01:01:00) Recalling transformative events from his early years
(01: 02:22) Outlining what makes a meeting 'electric'
(01: 06:53) Sharing experiences with exemplary leadership
(01:12:37) Deciding the right time to step away from a business
(01:23:45) Philosophies for leading a fulfilling life
(01:27:53) The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Brad
How Brad Jacobs Will Invest $4.5 Billion to Reshape Building Supplies
Brad Jacobs has made a career of starting, consolidating, and growing whole industries. He did a trucking company. He did a warehouse company. He has a freight brokerage. He created an equipment rental company. His new venture, dubbed QXO, aims to reshape the big and sprawling market for building supplies, which can encompass residential, infrastructure and commercial real estate. And he has $4.5 billion of his and his investors' money to go out and buy and build. In this special episode of the Odd Lots podcast, recorded live at the Bloomberg Invest conference in New York City, he talks about where he is in the new process, and what he plans to do once he's made his acquisitions.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Brad Jacobs Plans to Make Billions in the Building Supply Industry
Brad Jacobs has founded multiple multi-billion dollar companies in his career. He turned United Waste into part of a major trash collection conglomerate. United Rentals has been a massive winner in equipment rental for the construction industry. And XPO Logistics (which has spun out GXO and RXO) is a freight behemoth. Now, he's planning on doing it again. His new company, QXO, wants to be a billion-dollar player in the area of building products distribution. On this episode, we speak to Jacobs — who is the author of the new book, How To Make A Few Billion Dollars — about why he chose to go into this industry, his philosophy of building businesses, and how he plans to win in this space.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Brad Jacobs - Think Big and Move Fast - [Invest Like the Best, EP.352]
My guest today is Brad Jacobs. Brad’s resumé is remarkable. He has founded seven companies, all of which are billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar businesses. He has done 500 M&A transactions and raised $30 billion dollars of debt and equity capital. Currently, he is the Executive Chairman of XPO, a commercial trucking company that he started in 2011 and has grown into one of the largest logistics businesses in the world. He has also written a book that will be out in January, titled “How to Make a Few Billion Dollars”. Brad’s energy is infectious and our conversation unpacks his strategies for M&A, his propensity for speed, and methods for earning team buy-in. Please enjoy my conversation with Brad Jacobs.
Listen to Founders Podcast
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
(00:02:11) - (First question) - Identifying key factors in a market before investing
(00:05:07) - Gleaning insights from early acquisition experiences
(00:08:43) - Delving into the seller's mindset during a business sale
(00:12:51) - Weighing pre-built against organic growth strategies in acquisitions
(00:17:20) - Defining the elements of an ideal business
(00:22:49) - Engaging constructively with Wall Street
(00:24:36) - Discussing the substantial buyback of XPO shares
(00:28:16) - Ambition as a recurring theme in entrepreneurial success
(00:30:17) - Emphasizing the need to facilitate team agility
(00:32:35) - Highlighting the joys of post-acquisition integration
(00:36:09) - Drawing lessons from Ludwig Jesselson's principles
(00:40:34) - Comparing the risks and rewards of early versus late adoption
(00:44:09) - Reflecting on errors made in trend analysis
(00:48:59) - Strategies for implementing new technologies in enterprises
(00:51:59) - The significance of thought experiments in strategic decision-making
(00:56:00) - Recalling transformative events from his early years
(00: 57:22) - Outlining what makes a meeting 'electric'
(01: 01:53) - Sharing experiences with exemplary leadership
(01:05:02) - Strategies for maximizing team potential
(01:07:37) - Deciding the right time to step away from a business
(01:08:58) - Unveiling unexpected challenges in entrepreneurship
(01:18:45) - Philosophies for leading a fulfilling life
(01:21:04) - Finishing How To Make A Few Billion Dollars
(01:22:53) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Brad