BeeGeePee

@Mike_kim714 I’ll take my 4.5yo son!

Southampton NY isn’t the easiest place to get to so I might as well get this started early! Ticket giveaway for the US open! Bonus points if you take a kid (12 and under are free)

My last business was a complete failure. I started a small woodworking company in a spare 1-car garage in August 2016 and by year end I did $5,000 in revenue. Mostly selling cutting boards to friends and family. My goal was to get to $1M by year 5 and $10M by year 10…. 🧵

@jasonfried @thesamparr I had to do it today. Total time was about 10 minutes including the off boarding info and such. I led with it and much easier. It wasn’t a debate.

Should be a very quick statement. Never part of another conversation. And no where near 10 minutes or even 4 or 5. Be fair but definitive. And you should be clear that it's not a conversation or a negotiation. Many managers don't close the door soon enough so people think that maybe they can talk their way back in.

Firing people. It’s the worst. I hate those conversations, even if I strongly dislike the person or they’re clearly doing a bad job and costing me millions of dollars. I almost always avoid the conversation for far too long. The best way I’ve learned is to start by saying “look this conversation is going to be uncomfortable, but I’m letting you go today.” Most people let the conversation meander and only get to the point 10-20 minutes in. In my experience it’s better to just rip the bandaid off. This is true for most any breakup!

@AlexForbesOps I know a guy that welds them up. Probably not the best for an office. We should just put it in your greenhouse.

@BGPaul I believe that’s what I designed haha I need one suitable for an office with carpet

I'm trying to build a jungle in my office. There are 4 large windows that let in a ton of natural light so I'm going all in on indoor plants. I have a bird of paradise, fiddle leaf, and snake plant so far. I'd like to get a monstera, money tree, and a few others. First step in building a jungle is to build a potting table. I modeled out this 21"x72" table in Fusion to get an idea of proportions. I went with a solid top vs. slats so soil can be contained and swept up easily since it's indoors. Raised back with shelf to hang various tools. For all your seasoned plant people, is there anything else I should add to this potting table that I'm not thinking of?

@agraybee Someone should write about it.

I didn't know Helen of Troy could generate so much conflict.

@DanReese21 I have Stihl for my outside tools and dewalt for otherwise. It’s seems to work ok.

Cleaning out my garage and came to the harsh realization I have 7 (!) battery ecosystems. Wasn't on my radar a decade ago. Compounded the mistake over many years. Now I’ve got a mess on my hands. Advice for new homeowners: pick a solid ecosystem and commit.

@vrexec Winner winner sloppy joe dinner!

Saturday 5pm. Americans living in Amsterdam. 1 million internet points if you guess what we’re making.

@BoringBiz_ “New parents are not nearly as price sensitive about ….diapers as they are about toys” Seriously? The one item you constantly buy and think about? Diapers were a weekly discussion for us.

The story of how Toys R Us went bankrupt through private equity financial engineering In 2005, Toys R Us was a public retailer and the largest toy store chain in the US. It was already losing market share to Walmart and Target, and the stock price was cratering along The new threat was Amazon, the company that Toys R Us had just signed a 10-year exclusive toy partnership with in 2000 Amazon was already starting to breach its contract and enter into the toy e-commerce market, taking away even more share from the business The Business Toys R Us operated three core segments around this time 1/ The domestic retail business, which had ~600 big-box toy stores across the US. This was a very seasonal segment with almost 45% of annual sales coming in November and December alone, because of holiday timing Seasonality on a fixed-cost rent business creates a lot of cash management and working capital issues, which is an important precursor to the story The margins on this segment were sub-5%, meaning for every $100 in revenue they were getting less than $5 in profit. Extremely small room for error 2/ Babies R Us, the baby specialty business with ~220 stores This was the golden goose of the company. New parents are not nearly as price sensitive about car seats, cribs and diapers as they are about toys The SKU base was less seasonal than Toys R Us and far less commoditized than toys. Margins were closer to 10% and was a registry destination for parents 3/ Toys R Us International, which owned and franchised 601 stores across 30 countries Most of the segment footprint here was based in UK, Japan, Spain and France This segment faced far less competition than the US counterpart because of the subscale international operations of Walmart and Target at the time The LBO transaction In March 2005, a consortium of KKR, Bain Capital and REIT owner Vornado Realty Trust announced the acquisition of Toys R Us at a $6.6 billion TEV, the largest retail LBO at its time The thesis was simple. Even though the retail business itself was mediocre, the company was sitting under a gold mine of prime real estate that could be monetized through sale-leasebacks The LBO was structured with $1.3 billion of sponsor equity and roughly $5 billion of new debt, plus assumed existing debt of the business Net leverage was roughly 7x on a TEV multiple paid of ~9x on EBITDA The closing capital structure basically ensured that the business had no headroom to reinvest profits into the business since majority of it would be sucked away by interest burden What Went Wrong By 2010, Walmart and Target continued to take market share in the category. Amazon became the price reference point for parents shopping toys The debt burden made it so that Toys R Us was not able to invest properly in building out the e-commerce channel, even after coming off the exclusivity relationship in 2006 Around this time, the private equity consortium filed for an IPO of the business to exit the company. The IPO kept getting delayed due to deteriorating metrics and financials and never ended up happening. The S1 was initially filed in 2010 and then eventually withdrawn by 2013 In 2014, the private equity sponsors did a series of debt refinancings to push out existing debt maturities in the form of an A&E. By 2017, the business had not yet turned around, forcing a Chapter 11 filing with roughly $5 billion of debt The bankruptcy announcement was made right before the holiday season and adversely affected sales as news headlines all grabbed the Chapter 11 noise. Customer foot traffic and sales fell off a cliff. In March 2018, the company liquidated the entire US business, and 33,000+ employees were terminated in the process The international business got sold off in small pieces, with the brand, IP, and handful of stores acquired by WHP global and various other retail stores The equity got mostly wiped out at close but the Sponsors had already collected $470M in management and transaction advisory fees over the 13-year holding period, which softened the blow for GPs

@paulswaney3 Very cool resource. Send please.

Big drop - entire published directory of ops and deal tools - 1 PDF - 500 Slides Follow, comment, like for a DM. Curtly, If you DM me first, you will break the automation & I won't respond. I always get one of these and not answering anymore. Sorry not sorry

@TheSalonDon B. After a convo with c

Assistant manager just quit Now I have to promote one of three: A) 5 months experience, makes mistakes, timid personality, 24 years old B) 1 month experience, goes above and beyond, asks too many clarification questions, 22 years old C) 2 weeks experience, one of the best interviews ever, no mistakes yet, might quit to become a school teacher, 27 years old

@thecruice My brother misspelled our sisters name. He blamed voice to text. I’m not sure if I believe him.

@ClintFiore @sethmosk Double?

@sethmosk haha not that

uh oh one side's lawyer just threw the "tHis iS inDuStrY sTandArd" grenade, brb while I dive on it

@TautnP @ZeldaZealot We don’t defend them. Certain people do and we allow it. For now.

@ZeldaZealot His sentiment is mine but globally. Humans, in general, suck. We defend rapists. Collectively, as people, because they use our own laws. We squeal about the climate slowly killing us while doing literally nothing about them. Don’t even get me started on energy. Or disease.

Oh my self hatred… Mass libtard suicide is approaching.

@itsmarkmoran Driving while filming? Good call.

Have never been more popular than driving through a Home Depot parking lot with a Webber grill sticking out of the car

@Eric_Erins @HighyieldHarry $800k house with $35k in yearly property taxes…what a blast.

@HighyieldHarry A big old Tudor House in Shaker Heights might fix me

You know where you don’t hear any talk about wealth taxes? Cleveland, Ohio. That’s a city that’s pro America 🇺🇸

@HighyieldHarry Millionaire Row was Euclid Avenue. The city raised taxes and chased Rockefeller out.

@Michaelfiore I’ve had class a drivers put cams in their rigs in the past. It saved one of their jobs. I’m looking at the same solution for my small fleet of 3 now.

I’ve got about 7 vehicles on the road now plus 5 concrete trailers. Who are y’all using for GPS fleet tracking? Also is it worth the extra cost to do dash cams in addition to the tracking?

@markbdelaney Sure! If it’s open

@BGPaul You want in?

Yesterday I texted a bunch of buddies asking if they wanted a 1x/month mailed (like in the snail mail) newsletter about fatherhood. >90% immediately said "yes". Most said some version of "hell yes" Fun seeing them on a map (I need more friends in the Midwest)