Permanent Equity

At Permanent Equity, we’ve long said that we buy boring businesses, but the reality is that’s not the full story of what we value and what we do. When we invest, we steward companies that care what happens next. Read about the journey here: permanentequity.com/writings/what-…

We're adding something new to Main Street Summit 2026: Field Trips. Small group. Behind the scenes. Off the record. Our first Field Trip is a day with @PermanentEquity - a firm that invests 30-year committed funds and has spent 15+ years proving that patient capital actually works. You'll enjoy a tour of their offices, lunch with team members, rotating small group discussions on everything from deal origination to their Blueprint Operating System, and an intimate group dinner, designed for real conversation. It's the kind of access that only happens in person. As with all Main Street experiences, your time in Columbia is intentionally designed to build relationships, both with the Permanent Equity team and your fellow MSS pass holders. Field Trips are exclusive to All-In Pass holders at Main Street Summit 2026. March 3rd, 2026 · Columbia, MO Link to register in the thread.

A huge congrats to Joe, Matt, and the entire Ad Advance team. In the history of @PermanentEquity, this is our first sale. To be honest, it's an odd feeling and a little bitter-sweet. As I wrote in the annual letter, there are good reasons to sell and bad reasons to sell. This was a great reason -- it puts Ad Advance in a better position to flourish. We're grateful for our partnership and couldn't be more excited to see what they do next. Here's the annual letter section in full: At Permanent Equity, we’ve spent 15 years telling owners, “We buy with no intention of selling.” We mean it. We raise 30-year funds. We don’t have investors breathing down our necks for exits. We’re not trying to flip someone’s life’s work to the next buyer for a quick pop of IRR. Our model was built as a reaction to that treadmill. But just because we don’t have to sell doesn’t mean we won’t. Our default is not to sell. We like boring, durable, cash-flowing companies. We like relationships that deepen over decades, not transactions that roll off after a few short years. We like the slow, unsexy work of compounding: hiring better, training better, serving customers better, inch by inch. Big wins in investing usually come from not interrupting a good thing. So any conversation about selling starts with a presumption against it. But the thing is that long-term capital provides the ability, not the imperative. If we can no longer honestly say we’re the best owner for a business, then continuing to hold it isn’t faithfulness or loyalty. Rather, it’s selfishness and vanity dressed up as commitment. Because sometimes it’s true that someone can steward a company better than we can. It could be a strategic buyer with unique synergies. Maybe a larger industry player that can plug the business into a global distribution network, a proprietary technology platform, or a massive salesforce. In each case, the question isn’t, “Can we keep owning this?” We probably can. The question is, “Are we the right steward for what this business needs next?” If the honest answer is no, and there’s a clearly better home available, then the best capital allocation decision and kindest thing we could do is sell. podean.com/blog/podean-th…