Announcing Airframe: Acquiring Industrial Services and Value-Add Distributors

Today’s a special episode and a special day. I’m really thrilled to announce the launch of Airframe Group, which is my venture to acquire and build a company in industrial services or value added distribution that is loyal to customers, moves fast, and pursues an ambitious vision for the longterm. This is a day I’ve been really excited about for, for many years, essentially since I started the podcast.

If you’re a listener from the past six years, since I started it in undergrad, You will have heard me talk to hundreds of different CEOs of all kinds of different companies and industries and sizes of businesses, learning how they grow great organizations and hire great people and build great sales organizations and product teams and.

And it’s been such a fun journey that has given me so many amazing friendships and relationships and has been just an amazing way to meet lots and lots of highly ambitious, talented people. And I’m thrilled today to be now on that path to being a CEO myself. And this is the start of that path. The ideal company for Airframe for my new venture is led by an owner today who is ready for the next chapter of their life and wants to transition the company into a new owner who will lead their employees, customers, and vendors towards a fantastic future where they can all succeed together.

Other characteristics include the company being over 10 million revenue, growing profitably, and providing a meaningful and important industrial service. I’m backed by a group of investors and CEOs that I’m thrilled to partner with. That’s led by Norwest and Pacific Lake, and then a handful of fantastic CEOs who I’ve gotten to know, many of whom through the podcast.

The podcast has been a phenomenal way to meet you. each of these CEOs in some unique way, each of these investors in some unique way, and build that relationship and trust over time, which I’ve been really excited about. Not only have I seen how amazing companies are grown through the podcast by talking with CEOs who are growing these companies, but also through a recent chief of staff role I was a part of.

I was the chief of staff at HW Media, which runs Housing Wire. It’s a news organization for the housing. real estate, construction markets, and in that role, we looked at different businesses and we acquired a data business and I ran sales for that for our data, our bulk data licensing product, got to get some hands on sales experience, which was a lot of fun, got to see how companies acquired and integrated, which was also a ton of fun.

And then of course, the podcast has been a phenomenal kind of through line through all of those experiences to continue studying how great businesses are, are built. Today, there are two ways you can help me. First, if you own and run a value added distribution business or industrial service business, and have considered transitioning ownership to a new owner, I’d love to talk.

I’d love to meet you. Please send me an email, Alex, a L E X at airframe group. com. Really excited to connect. Please reach out. Don’t be a stranger. Second way you can help me is if you know someone who runs an industrial service business, or you just enjoy studying the industry and you want to talk and compare notes and hear more about what I’m looking for, or you have a bunch of ideas you’d love to share, like I’d love to talk.

I’m always open to bounce ideas back and forth. That would be a ton of fun. Um, I definitely want to surround myself with industry experts and advisors who can help me out. Help me understand key trends in certain industries. So please use the same email, alex. airframegroup. com, uh, and reach out as well.

I’d love to also talk a little more about my background. I grew up in Oregon. Both my parents were leaders in different ways. My mom was a small town family practice physician. She owned a practice for over 20 years and sold it recently. And my, my dad was a K 3 principal actually twice. at two different schools.

One of them, he turned around a struggling small Catholic K 3 8 school in Portland. And so all of our dinner conversations for, for growing up were around hiring new nurses or teachers and making sure that right, the right people were on your team and system migrations and insurance companies and parents and sports and everything that has to go, has to go around running businesses like that.

It was a fun environment and fun family to be a part of seeing all of those all those different ventures happen all at the same time. I think the biggest lesson my parents taught me and passed on was that people love being a part of organizations that utilize and recognize their talents, whether that’s a clinic, school, team, company, what have you.

People want to Be in a place where they belong and feel they belong and can succeed. And it’s one of the most meaningful missions you can have in life is to build an organization where folks around you can succeed and have very meaningful and exciting careers and support their families that way. And so.

Very meaningful thing to go do in the world. And so to me, becoming a CEO represents an opportunity to live that meaningful career that improves the lives of employees, customers, vendors, and all of their family as well. And also, why did I call it airframe group? First of all, I’m just a huge aviation geek.

Friends of mine know that I love studying flight aware, and I always ask friends, like if they’re flying somewhere, like what airline are you taking? And the airframe of an aircraft has to last. the longest, like it has to be the most durable part. Engines, electronics, tires, small parts here and there, like those things all get replaced over time, but that airframe has to last through turbulence, rough landings, lightning strikes, hail, pilot error, trucks running into the wing or something, like it has to kind of bear all of that abuse over time and survive and be durable and strong and I want to build a company that can do that too, that can endure through good and hard times, uh, equally well with a highly talented team that’s excited to be around it.

And that’s my mission with Airframe is to go find and inquire and build a company that resembles a strong, strong Airframe. Thank you so much. Also, if you’ve been listening to Think Like an Owner for any period of time, whether it’s one episode or all of them, thank you for being a part of it. It’s been so much fun creating a show that folks enjoy and have, you know, been able to connect with me about and meet others in the industry as well.

so much. It’s been super fun. It’s not going anywhere. Also, the podcast is absolutely going to continue on the same weekly cadence we have so far. I think it’s going to be a phenomenal way, not just to meet other owners and industries that I’m looking at, but also I hope once we acquire a great business, that this think like an owner audience can be helpful in adding great people to the team that we have.

I want to be able to hire phenomenal executives and folks who just want to get into a small business and help it grow. I want to find hungry, ambitious people through the podcast. And so, but I’m excited to continue the podcast. It’s been a huge part of my career to this point, and I assure you it’s not going anywhere.

It’s going to continue to be a very large portion of my career and a large accelerant to everything that I do. And as a recap, before we go, if you’d love to connect over industrial services, value added distribution, infrastructure services, please send me an email at alex. airframegroup. com. That’s also our website is airframegroup.

com. There’s a little bit more information there, but please reach out to me if you want to chat about it. Thank you. any of these industries or just want to swap notes back and forth, or you’ve just enjoyed the podcast. I always love hearing from folks who’ve been able to get value from some of our episodes, so please don’t be a stranger.

Feel free to reach out. Thank you so much. Enjoy the podcast, and I am looking forward to this new, exciting chapter in my career. So thank you all for being a part of it.