$38M in Revenue/$10M EBITDA from 9+ Acquisitions Thomas Le Maguer CEO of Republix.com

Welcome to the top M&A entrepreneurs. Today, my guest is Thomas Lee Maier, uh, from, he's the co-founder and CEO of Republics, uh, sharply dressed guy, definitely overdressed than I usually am, but, uh, welcome to the show. Great, uh, great to be here, John. Thanks for having me. So let's go a little bit back. You and I started talking a year ago. We were talking about reggae because you're probably raising money for your company. Uh, you recall that conversation? I, I do. Recall that, yes. Yeah. So I wasn't, I was in it, but I'm not doing it anymore because we focused on OTC companies. Anyway, you also know a guy that I known for a couple years is Trevor Turnbull. He owned a agency called LinkedIn to Leeds Agency, uh, which acquired. Uh, irrational acquired LinkedIn to leads and then uh evolved into republics. Correct. And you've made about 10 acquisitions since then, which are arcane, Media Mechanics, Tag, SwordStrike, Noodle Wave, Banto. I, oh, and pedestal. Pretty amazing, which means you're doing almost 38 million in revenue and 10 million in Ibida correct on a pro forma trailing twelve-month basis. Nice, very nice. So let's talk about how this all started. Now, how did you get, where did the Inspiration to go, I'm just gonna do this company, and then, you know what, we can grow faster, we just acquire. How did that start? Oh man. So I started with irrational marketing. We're growing 50% to 100% a year organically, and the vision has always been to build the number one growth platform in the world that can connect a small business owner to the perfect combination of marketing services delivered automatically with accountability. So easy, predictable organic growth for business owners. That's been the vision. And my partner and I, um, Nico Alige, he's my co-founder, we're like, you know what, like, how can we grow faster? There's no way that we're achieving our dreams of being this number one platform, #1 and #2, um, uh, having enough customers to have critical mass within the SMB space cause there's 400 million small businesses worldwide. Plenty of room, plenty of space, plenty of room, right? And so we said, You know what, let's go ahead and acquire all the big wealth that was done in the past has been done through a lot of it. It's been done through acquisition. So I started digging more into that and then uh met my mentor, Dan, who became chairman Dan Pena. Oh, Dan Pena, OK, we know him. He's the all caps guy, all caps, all red, all the way, yeah, and salty salty uh talk too. Yes, there's that as well, and uh and that's where I always like distinguish things, you know, what is the message and what is the messenger. And I've, I've been very blessed to be able to separate the two, cause the man speaks the truth, and I didn't always want to hear it. Most of the time I don't want to hear it actually, but, uh, but, um, but he's taught me a lot. I'm very, very grateful. So there's a lot. I, I have to stop you and ask you about this, cause there's a lot of courses out there from Carl Allen to Roland Frasier, Dan Pena, uh. The number of them. What, what does Dan teach different? Then these guys. Why did he resonate with you versus all these other guys? I, um, I, well, I, I know Roland Frasier because of his connection to digital marketing, but I didn't know that he was teaching acquisitions. I haven't learned about these other folks either. Um, cause frankly, as soon as I, OK, so let me backtrack in terms of like, uh, uh, my philosophy in terms of learning. Um, so I'm a concert pianist. I, I also, um, became a gold level ballroom dancer while I was a kid. Um, then I got a black belt in martial arts. Then I learned all of these things and how to master them at a young age, cause like my parents trained me that way, and I was like, well, what was the difference? How did they train me? Number one, always get the best coach. How do you determine the best coach? Look at the results. Based on that, it's not because you have results that you know how to teach, so then it's also the transcript of that knowledge and then have it. Right? So I, I learned that from my past, and so every single time I wanted to take the next step in terms of my evolution, I always looked at who's done it. Who's done it with repeated success, cause that equals a process or a methodology. And I know that that's the foundation of, of success. And then what I need to bring to the table is work ethic and habit, right? And so I said, if, if there's a person who has the system, and it seemed that that was the case, and I was right in, in seeing that, then I'm, I'm very much one to say, I, I will follow blind. Cause I understand that to achieve something that I've never achieved before, I got to do something that I've never done. So it's kind of a weird blind faith kind of a thing, right? Yeah. So I embarked on that 2019, I became one of his uh fastest uh deals, um, from start to finish, I think. You mean you mean taking his training to first acquisition? Correct, yeah, OK. Like a board dream team, all these things, accountants, lawyers, professionals, everything done and then deal closed, and that deal was Trevor. Right? And so that's how it comes full circle, but that that's how I got connected with Dan, that's how um I judged his merit. And um, and again, I just looked at the message, and I was like, there's truth here. Let me take a leap of faith. So what is that message? I mean, I, I, I haven't taken Dan Pena, but I've taken a number of other the uh courses like uh Carl Allen, Jeremy Harbor, I just bought his book and then I went through Roland's, that you're unaware of. What is this message that, you know, I'll tell you this, there's another guy, Jason Paul Rogers, who's killing it down in Florida. He's a Dan Pena student. So the, the premise behind it, and this is just, you know, my interpretation of it, is that generational wealth is built through a series of transactions. 12, it's not hard. So it's an easy process. What's hard is the emotional aspect of it, and the fact that we're hardwired to be weak, or to succumb, or wanting to be liked. And that's kind of like a premise of like more the, the, the emotional and the um personal aspect. So if I really look at what his methodology is, it's really around how to be a high performance individual and how super wealthy successful people think. And it's just so different than conventional wisdom. So that's another aspect. And saying that the, the, the next one is, if you follow this system. It will work for you too. Cause here's an 80 IQ guy who did it. Here's a 180 IQ guy who did it. Here's somebody who like literally had Down syndrome, did it. 10s of millions. And so you, you see case after case after case after case, and you're like, Oh how dang it. If, if, if that person can do this, I can too. Right? So it's very methodology driven. And I, I really appreciated that. So there's a, um, there's a and so core premise is you can do it, become a high performance person, but it's not for everybody. And the sooner you can come to that determination, the better that you're high performance or not. The other one is this angle of the psyche and the psychology of being a high performer and beating out all the bad habits we have in us that prevent us from achieving super success. And then executing along this methodology that How he endearingly calls us his meatheads, how any meathead could go ahead and do this if they were to just follow the system, and that if you aren't getting success, it wasn't the system because the system is proven to work. It's you. So interesting. Yeah, so interesting. When you took this system and reached out to uh Trevor Turnbull, LinkedIn to Leeds, now were you offering him creative financing such as like a dealer finance uh seller financing or earn out or or were you just offering him money for his operation? How did that conversation go with Trevor? Yeah, no, well, you know, on, on that one there, I mean like the, the, the, um, the deal is, I mean it it's private, but it involves seller financing. Um, it involved delayed consideration, some sort of earner, and involved a little bit of cash that we found a way to do that creatively. Um, so, cause at the end of the day, like the, the thing that I can share is that I didn't have any money. And he wanted some money. And we made it happen. Yeah, so like that, that's that, that's another distinguishing factor with Dan is zero money required. And I'm the proof of that, because my 1st 3 transactions didn't involve any cash. And then my next one, still cash out of pocket was 0. And got the bank financing done on a on a 1.3 million Ibiduct company. And then we're on our way. Yeah, so how to start from nothing. Saying no excuses, nothing, you can be poor, and he came from a very poor background, just the ghettos, right? And just being like, you can go from nothing to something. Just following the script. What's uh, what was Trevor looking for? Was he looking to sell? Yes, yeah, I, the foundation of everything is a motivated seller. Yeah. Was it profitable, a company? Yes, we, we're not a turnaround model. We only buy things that make money. Yeah. Why did, why did he want to sell? I mean, did he said like some kind of life event that or just tired or exhausted? What was it? Well, that one there, I'll just let uh let Trevor comment on it, cause at the end of the day, you know, like I, I'm free to comment on my life and the things that I've done, but Yeah, yeah, I I was just trying to categorize it and like, what's the motivation because people when they buy businesses. You know, they're trying to uncover what the motivation is and then address that need. I want to get out of the business because of this. OK, let me help you solve that problem. Awesome. So then what I can do is take a cross section of the 13 deals I've done in the last 2 years and, and they kind of fall in a few categories. One of them, they're tired. They just straight up they're tired, and they want to just take some chips off the table. That's like category one. Category number 2, they have a life event of some sort, either health related or somebody close to them is having an issue or a personal event like a divorce or a relationship issue, something happens to a child, that whole category there creates a motivated seller. The, the, those are primarily the ones that that we work with. Let me take a look at the other ones. Yeah, the, the other ones, now the ones that we work with is that, cause we're we're not done when we acquire. We grow them. Yeah, the, the point is to grow them, you know, as another mentor says like double ebida or take the top to the bottom, whatever that goal looks like. I absolute, well in this case it's like double ebida or more. So from from that standpoint, a lot of the founders that sell to us, they stay with us. So, from that standpoint, they know they've hit a cap. And they want more, and they understand they're at that point of their business. They could be at 10 million in revenue and and whatever, 22 million and it be done, they know they want more. So then they come and join us. We give them some cash, we, we structure a deal, we roll over some equity so that they can be a part of republics and own another, um, own the bigger thing, a smaller piece of the bigger thing. be up here, some kind of holding company 100% and then be able to, to get another bite at the app. I so is Trevor or your companies that you acquired, not just Trevor, are they? Well, that's in United States. Are they W-2s or the employees now? It, it, it won't, yes. But they still own whatever is rolled over, like if you only bought 70% of the company, let's say, yeah. For example, like in, and now like we really aim for a 100% purchase, um, we found that minority shareholding is just Annoying I would go ahead and take care of that up front, you know. All right, man, thanks for being honest about that. I know it works well in private equity, but, you know, but somebody in the smaller the mid-market, you know, it's annoying. Yeah, no, it, it can be, and also, um, I found that the more we can move the pieces as one. Especially from a cash flow standpoint, the better. Yeah, right? And so when you have minority shareholders, it, it's, it's important to honor that. So then you can't, well, you can if you structure it properly. Uh, you know, participate in 100% of the cash flow. I just didn't know how to do it right. So, so, but listen, you, you live, you learn as you move along, and I know a lot of people can do it successfully with, uh, you know, just, uh, uh, a slight majority. I, I just haven't learned how, um, so, but yeah, so they, yes, they, they end up being W2 if not, it's just not compliant, right? Like once we have a like right now we have 147 full-time equivalents. Uh, that, that are working with us. Um, we're in Canada, US, UK in terms of, um, in terms of physical presence. We also have offices in Romania and Panama. So once we start dealing with this type of, um, cross-border type dealing, number one, from a tax structuring standpoint, it's, it gets a little bit more complicated, but there's a lot more opportunity from a sales standpoint, that's one. But then from a human capital standpoint, it gets way more complicated. And so what we're working now on is um unified performance management, unified um uh bonus and compensation structures in the way that aligns proper incentives, um, and, and it's just part of the growing pains of what we're going on right now. I, I had a conversation with my buddy who owns a CPA firm, and he goes, you know, 5 years ago, I get an admin for 30 to $35,000. Now it's $50 to $55,000. I, I, I, I, to get that person and to get those taxes done, I need to charge a lot more to my customers. Anyway, I know that profile. Let me, let me ask you about this part of the question, and you know, we, we, we recognize like Roland Fraser who can do deals all the time because he's got these pillars or columns like he's got Digital marker, which is a platform company that if he acquires a company, he can just take top to bottom or double Ebita. Um, and then he's got all these, uh, epic people, they're kind of like bird dogs that they bring deals, siphon up the deal flow up to him and then operations, he's got Ryan Dice and those guys, he could just go find somebody in. Now, those are the four pillars, uh, and in finding money investors, not a problem. Where were you at with those four columns? You got investors, deal flow, uh, you know, taking the marketing to the next level and then operations. I mean, did you have all those in place when you started? You're just like, oh my God, now I need those, and they're coming in one at a time. I, I guess like it, it really happened from necessity, cause I, so I was already CEO but of a smaller company, like a couple million bucks, right? So I had OK operating jobs, I had good marketing sales jobs, um, no investors. And um deal flow is tied to direct marketing. So indirectly deal sourcing and marketing are tied for me at least. Yeah. So then that was state zero. State one, and I was always very creative in terms of how to do financing with no money cause I didn't have any money, right? That's just been, uh, uh, a part of my life. So, um, so then the next step was then creating what we call our acquisition engine, which is a mix of direct marketing and uh DemandGen. And so I built a pipeline. We had 100 targets. My team did it like we would generate enterprise level sales. Uh, within 2 weeks, I had 30 some odd calls booked in my calendar of targets, um, and then out of those we closed 2. And where did you get that deal flow? I mean, LinkedIn the leads like place to start, right? Yeah, well, that one there was was network. I, I knew Trevor. We were doing work together previously and I was like, oh, your product line would really nicely match, um, irrational's product line, and create an extension. Let's, let's just be better together. That was the conversation there. So there's different types of deals. That one was more of a warm network kind of deal, versus arcane was called outreach, right? Tag was called outreach. Um, so, and then so I built this deal engine and it's one of the strongest aspects of my business, cause when we fire it up. If there's 100 targets, on those 100 targets, I'll get like 40 calls out of those 40 calls, I'll go ahead and close 5 or 6. Predictably within 6 months, I'll own those businesses. So, deals were fine from a, from an investor standpoint, let me ask you about the deal. So where are those deals coming from? Is it just reaching out directly, direct mail, Facebook ad, LinkedIn and? Like LinkedIn and then we enrich our data so we, we, we kind of have a, a LinkedIn email call sequence, but we've never made it to the call. It'll just get like LinkedIn email and then calendar slammed for 2 weeks. I do those calls LOIs within 30 to 40 days and then from there 60 days to close. Beautiful, yeah, yeah. So that's the deal side and then on the uh on the capital side. Um, our model is dead driven. So it was all around commercial finance. And so it wasn't until the end of last year really that we raised uh a small slug of equity. So we really built this off of debt. Well, OK, so let's go to the the debt. Now how are a lot of these companies I saw you have are kind of digital marketing, IP software. Was that off of uh cash flow? Yeah, yeah, OK. Yeah, cause that period when when we're looking at commercial debt at like really good rates, um, it is always based on cash flow. So then it was finding the right kind of lenders, and there's a process for that, and it took a lot of effort. I, I got a shit ton of notes. Like I, I've probably spoken to 250 lenders. Easily one on one, dragged along, nothing, uh, but then you find a few of them, they're just like, oh, I like your deal. I'm gonna back another one and another one, and then they'll do 23 of them with you per year, right? So we built up that way initially for the first couple years, until at the end of last year. Um, we, uh, we did a, a large financing, $70 million so you raised $70 million with, uh, what kind of raise was that reggae or, uh, this, this is debt, this is. So it, uh, it took out our, our, our current debt and just gave us a longer and like in Canada it's usually 5 year, uh, 5-year terms, 5 year a. Just hard. US you get 10 years, you get all this on 20 years, it's crazy down there. So like, uh, so it extended our, our really good interest rate. Recapitalized on how many companies like, um, at that point in time, we 6 + 3, maybe maybe like 10, 3 concurrent closes with that recap, and it also gave us a $30 million dry powder acquisition facility, um, uh, $5 million revolver, and, uh, a $5 million capex line that we could go ahead and deploy for technology development because we also have a, a tech component to, uh, to our business to be able to properly map and automate. The different growth services that we have, the better service our customers, right? So, so all that happened with one, with one provider, which again helps us simplify. That's where again, now we got to just professionalize and really grow up, um, just from a corporate standpoint, from a team standpoint, and that goes to the final step of operations. I was ill equipped, John. So then we're, we're at a stage now of professional managers. So what I've learned there and my board guided me through it, just. Forcefully yet gra graciously, I'm I'm grateful for it. I would you say, how, how would you say you're in that role? I mean, that you like, let somebody else do it. The reason I bring this up is you know who Andrew Wilkins is in is in Tiny Capital. I think he's yeah, I've heard of his name. I, I, but I've heard his name and I've heard of Tiny Cap. Yeah, so I, uh, I saw, I, I haven't interviewed him, but I'd love to, and I saw him on a podcast and he goes, my job is turned into hiring and firing CEOs. So it's, it's not far off. It's, it's not far off, cause one is getting the most out of your people. Um, and helping them. Jump to a higher standard, but not everyone everybody wants to do that one. 2 is the team that gets you to point A is not the team that necessarily gets you to point B. I also had to realize that and we had to cycle out man. Yeah you get to learn these things, but the only way you can learn it by doing it. All right, I gotta fire this one. I gotta fire this other person for cause. OK, now we're litigating. I, I mean, how else do you learn that? You just can't, right? So, so from that standpoint now, what, what, you know, my board showed me was saying, listen, you got 38 million in revenue. Now is the time to go ahead and set the right foundation financially, on the financial capital side, and on the human capital side of the business. Make sure they're both strong with very strong leaders. So then we um hired one of the top recruiting firms here in Canada. They were expensive and they saw some top, top, top notch candidates, and we interviewed the shit out of them. And so now we're, we're at a point now of bringing these two leaders of the two capital sides of our business. And we already have somebody very strong at the level of growth in sales. And so we're, we're building out these functions, right? And then once we have those leaders, those leaders hire their respective teams. So then on the finance side, we'll get FPNA function so that we have forward looking capabilities, and then we'll have the controller function, we already have the controller but it, um, uh, in-house controller function, uh, for all the historic capabilities, right? Then we'll have the right pillars to be able to, to move quickly, right? So, listen, man, like it's it's a lot of just getting your face kicked in, cause I wasn't, I, I, I've never been this big from a company standpoint. I've never grown this fast. Thomas said, I don't know if you know it, it looked in the mirror, but you're a super achiever. You were destined to be in this role, so thanks, it comes with the trashing, but it's uh it's, it's a good time, man, like. I, I just feel grateful that, uh, I got a super supportive wife. We've been married 16 years now, even though I look 10. I have 5 sons with her, um, and they bring just a tremendous amount of joy. There's a lot of darkness in entrepreneurship. There's some really dark places you go and, and it's sometimes super hard to get out of there. Yeah, I've been there many times and then I just look at you go to for uh light. Like what mentors, people do you seek, seek out, not necessarily directly, but their material. So I guess not, I, from a material standpoint, I mean, I, I pray and I meditate every day. Yeah, like Dan Sullivan or Tony Robbins or, you know, hey, I just got a phone call with, uh, you know, Richard Branson, he said do this, this and this, like, oh my God, that was so, you know, brilliant. Yeah, I guess like I ever since meeting Dan, one of the things that I do is that I is that I internalize a mentor. And then in some ways become that person and then find a new balance of who I am, plus the best traits of what I acquired from them, so to speak, right? Sure. So I had a mentor, um, while he was my guru, and this was maybe 14 years ago, and he taught me everything about spirituality, and I got initiated in all the different religions and I learn meditation and And um and all these different things to be able to connect to the source. That was very important for me, that's my spiritual side. And then it swung onto this business side and saying, OK, I'm a spiritual man in in a material world, how do I drive that? So, frankly, for the last two years, like 90% of what I listen to is is Dan. So his old recordings from the 90s, from now, from him yelling at me, from everything, I just reviewed tape cause I remember um my mom, she's the one that taught me Barne dancing. I hated it, but I became very good at it, and then uh and then I realized you will end up loving anything you're good at. I got Uh, a question about that cause I've interviewed 59 now people and the real super achievers like you have told me that I, you know, first I didn't do this, but I said, well, where are you getting your answered questions answered now? And I do that lately, and they're all of them are telling me, I get, I surround myself with people that are smarter than me. If I'm doing $10 million I wanna hang around people doing $100 million which is masterminds. And I'm, I'm not in any one of those yet, so I have my sights on it, but uh that's kind of something I've learned over there. Uh, it's, it's true. You, you are who you hang around with, right? It's a true max and you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So, you know, when, when I look at my board and, and the folks that I get to deal with there, like, And they're playing at another level, and, and they're holding me to account. That's the thing, like, as entrepreneurs, how often do we get to be held accountable? Right? And like, I felt that wrath, but it either breaks you or it makes you. And so I'm, I'm, I'm feeling that it's making me at this stage, like steel is made by being hammered in the forge. And so I, I would say that's, that's probably my, my greatest gift is my, my wife calls it the uh the gift of long suffering. Yeah, I got that. You know, which is, which is kind of screwed up, but, but, but it is what it is. The other one is like my professionals, like BTO does my accounting, PWC does my due diligence and audit, like Galley's my, my legal counsel, like, and they're all senior partners. So I, I speak with them consistently. They're game players, right? They're not fucking around. So these are the folks that I get to interact with on my day to day and I work a lot. And the rest of the time I'm with my family. So it's, it's helping me evolve this way while I'm working, you know, if that makes any sense. Yeah, I, I like, I'm, I'm looking back at your page about your advisors, Daniel Pena, Ron Forbes from corporate finance, Citigroup, Bob Coffey, ex vice chairman of KPMG. Jason Swank, Eric Vardon, Mike Warren, Andrew Lamb, yeah, that's pretty impressive. Yeah, like the cause. The, the best lens that I can have, John, to be able to look forward is by having people that have been there, and that can be my eyes, cause where I am today, I don't know. I need them to know so that I can ask them, what the fuck do I do now? And they guide me, right? Yeah, so, so it's, it's, yeah. What's, so what do you want to go? I mean, 50, 100 million, and then sell or keep or what? Uh, the, the markets are pretty intense right now, right? So we're. We're, we're focused right now on just like squeezing everything out of our organization. I mean, we're already profitable, but it comes down to, well, we might as well be the best that we can be. Let's be in rarefied air. Cause if we're looking at private equity, public markets, strategic buyers, whoever they are, now it's a flight to quality. Private equity and strategics are sitting on records amount of cash, but they're only gonna deploy it on the best. So we want to have the highest margins, we want to have the highest recurring revenue, we want, we want to be growing organically at a solid double digit clip. Um, these things matter. I have a very professional team that can handle the acquisitions that, that I would be looking to do want to go for. But I mean like we're, we're, we're sitting on $30 million worth of dry powder. Like I can dry powder is that I wanna go back to that that capital. Is that dead or is that equity? Yeah, that aside, and aside from you owning 100% of the company doing that debt, I mean, I'm looking at the numbers 38 million top line, 10 million, even uh 26%, that's just software companies. Uh, are any of these companies kind of like uh recurring revenue, fast stuff where you get to hire multiples? Yeah, so I mean it's uh. Um, we've got 60, 60% monthly recurrence, and that was at December 31st, so we're probably at like 63, maybe 64% MRR or ARR. Then we've got a total of 81 to 83%. Again, it must have grown since then, we haven't run that analysis because we haven't gone to market, but that would be recurring, which is MRR ARR, and reoccurring revenue, which would then be contractual, but it's not as even. But you know how much you're gonna get that year, but it might be 50K 1 month, 10K another, nothing another 1, 600 another month, but you know you're gonna get 3000 on the year, right? That's reoccurring. And that historically we know we have that customer for the last 5 years, 6 years, you know it's coming, right? And then the rest is project-based. So because of that revenue profile. Um, we, we can do some, some, some pretty good damage, right? Um, so there's that, but with the 30 million in dry powder, I could probably do another 1312 to 13 million more. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I, I suspected like. Sorry, please go ahead, go ahead. I, I, your numbers are incredible, especially with the uh reoccurring revenue that uh somebody's gonna wanna say, hey man, please take our money equity, please take it. Um, and you don't want it, or are you OK with debt, or I love debt. I love that. OK, that being said, um, when we have our strong foundation laid like a really just And I feel that that's gonna be here in the coming 90 days. We just got to make sure our, our team is very strong, that our, our, our, our accountability and processes are very strong, um, and otherwise, then Then I think we'll be in a good position to have conversations, um, um, at the level of uh, uh, a partner of some sort when it comes to equity. Um, we just wanted to push off that equity conversation, a meaningful equity conversation down the line after we built a good amount of enterprise value, right? Because then it's what's best for all the shareholders. Um, so, yeah, I guess are you 10 million, are you probably in the multiples like a teens now, 10 to 15, I would say. Yeah, that's correct. That's correct. And um, so yeah, I mean, we're we're we're we're making some progress, but it still comes back to the fundamentals, John, like, is your business any good? Uh, you think customers need you? Yeah. Do they, do they get transformational changes out of your service or product, right? 100%, it's the foundation. Like, is the customer winning? Are we providing value to the market? Um, are, are we? Are we working as a strong team to deliver value for each other and for the market? Right? And so it's the combination of all those things. Like, I, I remember one of my advisors, he said, and he took his company public, it was 400 million, whatever it was, like, Thomas, just focus on building a great business. If you focus on building a great business, everything was, is gonna fall into place. Just build a great business. It's so simple, but simple is fucking hard, John. It just is. It's a, oh yeah, it's business 101. That's what they told me at my board meeting today. It's like well it's not that easy. Yeah, it's really I'm 3 steps, Thomas. That's all it is. That's 3 steps, you know. Oh my get you 4 pillars. You get the investors, you get yourself the operations, you go and you get yourself some deals, and, and now you're making money. OK, well, let's get into the how now and and and the the pain you go through, but we're having a lot of fun now. Yeah. You, so you got an engine, a nice acquisition engine for your deal flow, especially with Trevor Turnbull in that group. Are you, has your types of deals and your size of your deals changed because of what you're trying to do? I mean, you can't, it wouldn't make sense to go unless it was a tuck in or a roll in for a 1 to $2 million dollar company. Now is it 5 to 10? So The question is it depends. So part of our restructure that we did here in Q1 was structuring our companies around customer types. And so we clustered our agencies and technology companies accordingly. So we have B2C ecom midmarket, we've got B2BAS. We've got technology and software development. Three clusters. So what that allows us to do is from an integration standpoint, one, because now we've launched the clusters, we've rationalized those costs, the leaderships are unified, they're working together. It's, it's, it's actually really fucking cool. So, what this allows us to do, let's say in 90 days. And, and of course now we have to upgrade our financial systems to be able to consolidate on one financial platform because 10 separate QuickBook online is just, it, it's just hell, it's hell. Yeah, you can only have one company on the QuickBooks online. I think it's so small. Yeah. No, it's, it's, uh, so we have 10 QuickBooks. Yeah, right? And so consolidation, there is a real mess. Anyways, so. What this allows us to do is to integrate 3 companies at once. Because each cluster has its own leadership and can integrate a company of its type, and the integration is immediately a creative, not just financially, or it's like, oh, OK, like we bought you at 4 times and we're we're 1315 times, whatever it is, right? There's that, but the other one is, if we've got like an extra 50 customers that just came in into our business to consumer mid-market. And we already have a portfolio there of 300 customers, and you bring a new marketing capability. I mean, the lift. All right, let's put you in the customer matrix. Let's see what, how can we get more share of wallet? How can we better serve those customers? What processes can you benefit from that we've got, right? So, um, so there's that element there from a growth standpoint, um, which is, which is helpful. Now, back to the targeting question. That means that we can look at um companies that would fit each one of those clusters. A tucking is very easy, so it's not even like, that's a 30 day integration. It's like come in, let's just get her done, right? And sometimes those are really great cause you get them on a cheap. So it's super creative and you're just getting them for their book of clients and maybe a marketing capability and a few key people, right? With a focus on sales and product, right? And um the other ones, I, I think it makes more sense if you're one of the three dockin acquisitions, it has to have a marketing or technology capability we're missing. We're looking at 80% plus MRR, but typically now we're really targeting 100%. Uh, we want to see 35% plus margins. We wanna see year over year growth. Uh, we want to see a strong leadership that's gonna stay with us and is inspired to go ahead and be even more focused within our group. Typically, we want to see about a million in, um, in earnings, right? At a minimum, it's nice cause then there's a stability there and, and typically that would happen after um they've cracked sales and some degree of marketing. Um, kind of the profile and then yeah, mostly US now we really like the US market. I love the US market, favorite. When you started, uh, acquiring companies, were you kind of just going for targets? I know that Trevor Turnbull LinkedIn to Leeds was, uh, an opportunity that came to you through a warm network. Um, but then you started acquiring companies. Did you have a plan for a spoken hub type deal or it was just target, target of our opportunities? Yeah, no, no, it was, uh, it was hub and spoke. Uh, so again, Dan taught me that as I come and spoke within 3 hour drive wherever you're at, and thank God, cause when we acquired our king. Um, they were a 2 hour drive away and it was the day that our government, um, mandated the state of emergency for COVID. So then suddenly like we had a hub of like, 2.5, 3 million worth of Ibida within a driving distance. So that that served me super super well. And so now we've got a hub in London. We've got a hub around the Toronto area, which is where where I'm at. We have a West Coast hub in Canada, which is Vancouver. We got one in LA. Um, so now it's more OK, let's expand some of these areas, um, with the next batch of acquisitions, um, but, um, but yeah. Have and spoke, it's a, it's a tried and tested methodology. Another Dan Pena, yeah, yeah. Well, I, I gotta kind of getting close to the end, but uh how did it turn out for Trevor since the acquisition? I, I'm not gonna ask him like, hey, how's it working for Thomas? How's it going for you financially? I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna jump into that, uh. But I could tell by his message which just an hour ago, he was pleased with what's happening. And He's the way he wrote this, that that it was a positive note. I mean because Trevor's awesome. So the, I'll, I'll just share it in this way, um. Whatever his deal was on day one. His equity in republics today is multiples of that. Yeah, one. Two is, um, he's now focusing in areas of his core genius that are producing value for republics and for him, and he's been able to focus on the things that he loves most. So that's another thing that's happened out of there. So, uh, at the end of the day, like I, you know, I, I think it's gone well for Trevor. Um, and at the same time, the only person that can truly say it is him, and it seems that the message he sent you is a good one. but yeah, like that, that's kind of how we, we try to look at it. I, I remember in irrational marketing, we almost went under 1 year and a whole bunch of people got equity. I gave them equity cause they went without pay for 6 to 8 weeks with no promise of equity. They just worked and they said, we, we're gonna get out of this together. Right, so I, I gave them all equity, 2%, 3%, whatever it was. We just had a shareholder call with them, um, just last week, just be like, hey, how's it going? Here's kind of the update of where we're at and like their positions are, are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Yeah, do they get distributions or is it just on exit? Just on exit, we don't do dividends. So, um, so yeah, like it, but that's awesome. Cause these were employees. Yeah, so in, in the same way when when we're looking at at republics, I mean we have an option plan for for all of our employees. Right? Like, that's important. Better together. Let's go, right? Cause um wealth is is built through equity. Well, I think at least from my limited perspective, but uh so if we can go ahead and share that with some folks that would never have that opportunity. That's cool, right? I, I think it's kind of cool. And again, I, I would have never thought of an option plan or anything like that, but Dan's like, hey, share the wealth. Why not? I was like, OK, fine. Yeah, what's uh, where does that loyalty, obviously you instill confidence and loyalty in your leadership. You're the captain of the boat. Where did that come from in your childhood or culture or mom or dad? What did they instill in you? Or is it brand new? No, like, uh, well, just deep in me, like when, when I was 21, my wife was 19, and our first son was on the way. I was still in school and doing those things, like we're hard up, we had no money, we had negative money and um and just one of the core things is that like I just won't abandon anybody, just won't. It's like hardwired me. So from from that standpoint, it's just like you, you just keep on going till you drop dead. That that's the end point. So I'm, I'm kind of wired that way. I also saw my mom and my dad just being ruthlessly loyal to each other through thick and through thin, and I respect that tremendously, right? So, uh, at the end of the day, I think I treat my people right, um, like I'm, I'm demanding, but I'm fair. Um, I try to be decisive but kind. Um, which is very different, like, you know, if my, if, if my board had their way, it'd be like decisive and be an asshole and just drive it because that's what all the tough people do, but I'd like to maybe try another way. I don't know if that's accepted anymore, yeah. Well, it works. It does work. It works. I, I see it all the time and I just, it's not aligned with what I want. And so I really wanna try something else. And again, it's integrating what works cause there's no doubt it works, and I want to be effective. And I think it's possible to be effective and kind, and it's, it's a fine balance. And um when I look at my five sons, John, I mean, how old are they? What's the range? 1513, 972, all boys. Yeah, he's almost got a full hockey team there. Yeah, are you 100%? 100%. So, I mean, you, you get what you tolerate. So there there's a limit where the child becomes spoiled. It's the same with the team, like, you bend too much without instilling the discipline and the rules, you'll end up with a spoiled child, and that's not good in a high performance team. If you're too hard and you break them, and you haven't built the trust, because you didn't have their back, you also break them. So it's, it's a, it's a fine balance of, no, we're pushing the limits here, and we can all be more. And then I think it's important also to lead from the front, you know, like, so that's kind of kind of how I roll with it right now and we'll see how long that lasts. Yeah, you're doing a great job, man, and I really appreciate the time you spent with me. I really do. I had a good time. It was nice catch Maguer. Thank you. Maguire, yes, yeah. What is that? It's French means what? It's it it it's, uh, so it's a Celtic name. My dad's Celtic, uh, from Brittany in France, and, um, and it means the caretaker, funny enough, like the nanny. Look at you, the caretaker. I'm I'm the, I'm the freaking nanny. So, uh, so yeah, that that's the root is is the caretaker, yeah. Yeah, well, good deal. Thank you so much for the time. I appreciate it. John, anything I can do, just let me know. All right, take care. You too. Bye.