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Invest Like The Best
Episode 425 Building Alpine
Invest Like The Best

Episode 425: Building Alpine

Invest Like The Best

Episode 425

Building Alpine

Hosted by Patrick O'Shaughnessy

05.27.2025

  • Business Building
  • Frameworks
  • Private Equity
  • Professional Investors

Graham Weaver is the founder and Managing Partner of Alpine Investors. We cover the three North Stars shaping Alpine's outperformance, how it became the most coveted destination for business school graduates, and why executives should seek the same level of coaching as professional athletes.

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Show Notes:

(00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like the Best

(00:05:13) The Journey to Private Equity

(00:06:59) Early Influences and Personal Growth

(00:09:54) The Power of Wrestling and Rowing

(00:11:45) Choosing Your Path and Making Decisions

(00:14:48) College Goals and Rowing Success

(00:18:05) Lessons from Early Business Ventures

(00:26:24) Founding Alpine and Early Challenges

(00:34:46) Core Beliefs and Talent Development

(00:39:07) Fun Board Meetings and Team Dynamics

(00:40:42) Platform Building 101

(00:44:08) Talent and Training Programs

(00:49:12) Employee and Customer Engagement

(00:52:27) Financial Outcomes and Asymmetric Returns

(00:55:52) Incentivizing Young CEOs

(01:00:26) The Role of Emotional Intelligence

(01:02:45) The Alpine CEO in Training Program

(01:03:40) Teaching at Stanford and Influential Mentors

(01:07:58) Helping Students Find Their Passion

(01:10:22) Visualizing Your Future Self

(01:11:19) Scalability of Coaching

(01:12:15) Personal Growth Through Teaching

(01:16:16) The Role of Executive Coaching

(01:24:45) Lessons from a Bad Deal

(01:31:50) Daily Routines and Success

(01:36:13) The Future of Private Equity

(01:35:24) Unleashing Heroes at Alpine

05.27.2025

Hosted by Patrick O'Shaughnessy

  • Business Building
  • Frameworks
  • Private Equity
  • Professional Investors
Building Alpine
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Introduction

Patrick
My guest today is Graham Weaver. Graham is the founder of Alpine Investors, a large private equity firm targeting an interesting market inefficiency. Alpine focuses on the thousands of $20 million or so revenue businesses whose baby boomer owners want to retire but lack succession plans. Alpine buys companies and installs 28-year-old military veterans and top MBA graduates as CEOs, leveraging 25 years of intellectual property on how young executives can successfully run established businesses.

Alpine's CEO and training program is now the most applied-to job at Harvard, Stanford and Kellogg Business Schools. In this conversation we discuss the past, present and future of their unique approach. Please enjoy my conversation with Graham Weaver.

Building the CEO Factory

Patrick
I think the place to begin would be to just understand what you are trying to build and why.

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