Episode description

Wade Myers grew up in the Badlands of western North Dakota in a Mennonite home with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and no telephone. He was selling door to door at age nine. He went on to become an Army Ranger, served in the Gulf War, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and built a career as one of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors around.

In this episode of the Texas Titans podcast, Jason Wright and Wade talk about why he left corporate America, how a handshake deal with a mentor launched his career, what he looks for before writing a check, and how he ended up backing the faith-based hit I Can Only Imagine.

In this episode

• Growing up in the “land of extremes” and earning everything he wanted, including the store-bought clothes he paid for as a sixth-grade roofer’s assistant
• Why a Harvard study found entrepreneurs make less money than corporate executives but are far happier
• The investor lunch that tore apart Wade’s first pitch, and the mentor who backed him anyway on an 80/20 handshake deal
• Lessons from his first acquisitions: cash flow, losing the biggest customer in week two, and learning what HBS doesn’t teach
• Why Wade prefers to back serial entrepreneurs, and how the Dunning-Kruger “unconscious incompetence” stage trips up first-timers
• How founders respond to diligence, and why humility and teachability can make or break a deal
• The Ranger knife-fight lesson: go in knowing you will get cut
• Practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: cut fixed expenses, prepare your family, start on nights and weekends, and “go get one customer”
• Teaching kids gross margin with a whiteboard, a car-wash business, and a SaaS company
• Build vs. buy: seed-stage investing, bolt-on acquisitions, and public equities
• How backing the Erwin brothers led to Mom’s Night Out, Woodlawn, and I Can Only Imagine
• Wade’s daily routine: 4 a.m. prayer and planning, the gym at 5, and 10 to 15 Blinkist summaries a week

Notable quotes

• “Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 90 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week for somebody else.” (Phil Burks, as quoted by Jason)
• “Go get one customer. Do that for me. Tell me what you learn. Now go get 10.” (Wade Myers)
• “Wisdom comes from experience, and experience comes from making mistakes.” (Wade Myers)