Michael Arrieta - Building the World's Best Holding Company - Ep.117

My guest on this episode is Michael Arrieta. Michael is the founder of Garden City and has raised $51 million in permanent capital to acquire family-owned businesses across the country. The raise was completed in March 2020, and already they have three wholly-owned companies and minority stakes in two. Michael came highly recommended by Brent Beshore, and I can see why from our conversations. It's clear that Michael is a student of business and has mental models of hundreds of companies floating around in his head. He also has a remarkable sense of empathy and mission at Garden City, a mission which we discussed throughout the episode extensively. During our conversation, we talk about raising without a private equity background, how to involve investors in your portfolio companies as mentors, how they recruit, the technology and systems they implement at their companies, and all things Chick-fil-A, a business Michael has studied extensively. Please enjoy my episode with Michael. Listen weekly and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Breaker, and TuneIn. Links: Michael on LinkedIn Garden City Companies Why it only costs $10k to own a Chick-Fil-A Franchise Topics: (4:42) - Michael’s background and career (7:27) - What was it about VC that caused you to hesitate to pursue your career in that world? (8:59) What memories stick out from your time as a chief of staff that have helped you in your current role? (12:00) - What’s the thesis behind Garden City? (13:39) - How did you go about fundraising? (17:12) - What started to become possible once you saw an increase in capital interest and were there any tradeoffs you had to make in order to secure more funding? (22:14) - Where are you seeing your deal flow come from? (24:55) - What are some of the companies that you own? (28:52) - How do you approach implementing technology in your acquisitions? (31:42) - How do you find great people to bring on to your companies? (34:11) - How much advice do you get from your investor base? (36:25) - What do you view as your role within Garden City? (39:21) - How do you build relationships with leaders in the companies you acquire? (41:26) - What companies inspire you? (47:46) - What college class would you teach if it could be about anything? (48:25) - What strongly held belief have you changed your mind on? (49:41) - What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?