Transcript
Introduction
Rick
Our teacher today is Oliver Thomas, Founder and Managing Partner of Expedition Growth Capital, a leading growth equity firm based in London and built to serve the next generation of capital-efficient, founder-led European software companies. Oli and I first met just over 20 years ago while we were both getting our MBA, and I quickly recognized I had stumbled on a human compounding machine of the highest quality and character.
Since then, I've sought to align myself both personally and professionally with him in as many ways as possible. This includes serving on Expedition's LP Advisory Committee, building companies together, including most recently Upliift Group and perhaps most importantly, having the great honor of being godfather to one of his wonderful daughters.
With that disclaimer, and my biases made crystal clear, I thought this class was just jam-packed with colorful stories, insightful career advice and lots of other helpful learnings, including a history on the bootstrap growth investing landscape that goes all the way back to the late '70s and originated by a woman named Jacqueline Morby while working at TA Associates, the archetype of bootstrap software companies and their elements of differentiation versus VC-backed peers, which tend to be better funded but more fragile due to capital dependency and finally, what it takes to win as an investor in this fascinating and attractive small corner of the market. With that, I hope you enjoy our class with the excellent European software investor and my good friend, Oliver Thomas.