It has taken me much longer than I thought it would to update this (not that anyone is reading it anyway : ). It has been a fast three months to say the least. Since my last update I have worked whole lot of hours and had two friends announce engagements. Every time a friend announces an engagement it invites the inevitable question "So when are you and Adrianne getting married?".
Well here is the answer, "When we are good and ready!". Age and I are enjoying our lives together in San Francisco and this has been a great stage in our relationship. We both want to wait until we are a bit older and can support a family financially. Plus Adrianne is kicking ass at her job. In her most recent review she was ranked as the top associate in her class!
If you are currently employed and you hate your job my advice is to stick it out. I know that you hear it in the news everyday but the economy really does suck right now. Alpine owns 16 companies in different industries and I can tell you that not a single one of them is immune from this downturn. It is affecting each of them in different ways. Our retail businesses are getting slammed as the affect of higher gas prices, higher food prices and the whole subprime mortgage blow up has really impacted the consumer (aka me & you) like never before. There are a record number of retail businesses and restaurant businesses going bankrupt right now. Yes, we will eventually work through all of this but it is going to take some time. If you have no idea about what has happened in the market then I suggest you start paying attention. A lot of people think that this is a great time to be looking to buy a house since prices are so deflated. Well I would advise some caution. In 2007 a massive number of mortgage rates reset (i.e. if you had an adjustable rate mortgage the rate went up) which caused people who were paying say $1500/ month as a mortgage to pay $2500/ month. Those that could not afford the adjustment simply walked away from their mortgages. What people do not realize is that there are still a massive number of mortgages that will reset in 2009 & 2010. In addition a large amount of corporate debt will come due in 2010 & 2011 which will cause a new issue all together. Anyway you do not want to hear me ramble on about the economy I am sure. But if you do want to know more about this shoot me an email and I'll tell you more and send you some resources.
My travel schedule thinned about for a bit however I am going to kick off another busy month of travel starting as soon as next week. I am hoping to avoid a trip to Louisiana this Thursday & Friday but I have a feeling I might not be able to. The following week I am going to LA and Missouri. In mid August I'll be in Vegas (again) and I have possible trips coming up to New York, Chicago and LA (again). I'll know more in a few days.
For those of you who do not know I ran a marathon in May. It was a great experience but I really backed off my running after that and started cranking down my workouts. Part of it was because I was burnt out on training but a major piece was that I had a really hard time recovering after the marathon. Before the marathon I could run 15 miles and feel great afterward. After the marathon I thought I was going to die running 3 miles. I have no idea why that is but the body is a weird thing and running is a weird science. For those of you who have never run a marathon (or any distance event) I high recommend it. You will learn a lot about yourself.
Over the last two years I have been working out like a nut job. I have learned that my body is very weird. Often my best workouts/ runs were on days when I felt the worse. My body also swings about 6lbs per day (i.e. I could way 180lbs when I wake up and 186lbs when I go to bed). I also figured out that I put on weight and take it off really quickly. I ran my marathon at around 183lbs within a week I was at 190 and then a month later I was 198. I am still in the 195-198 range but it is a much different 195-198 than I have ever weighed in my life (way more muscle!). I have decided to crank back up my training and I am going to try and run the Sacramento marathon in December. Look for lots of updates in my upcoming blogs.
I am also going to try and end every post w/ a few recommendations of books, movies, tv shows, and music that I am currently into.
Books
* Ship of Gold - about a guy from Columbus, OH who discovers an ancient shipwreck - its a true story
* Tweak - true story about a drug addict in San Francisco - very disturbing
* The Stand - Stephen King's classic - halfway through right now and it has yet to disappoint
Movies
* Dark Knight - saw it this afternoon - unbelievable definitely a must see
* Semi-Pro - rented it the other day and it was entertaining
Music
*Paramore, As I Lay Dying & Atreyu - check them all out
TV
* Big Brother 10 - just started up and it is my favorite TV show and it is on 3 days a week how can you beat that?
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Travel
Well I am gearing up for another week on the road. Last week I was in Boston for an event called ACG (Association for Corporate Growth). It is basically a gathering of investment bankers, private equity professionals and lenders. We all get together to talk shop about the latest deals that are in the market and the current state of the market (which if you haven't been paying attention for the last year is bad).
Most of my friends are jealous that I have a job which allows me to travel but I can tell you that it is not as sweet as you think. When you live on the west coast and travel east for business it can be brutal. For example - My flight form SFO on Tuesday got me into Boston at 11pm est at which point I was absolutely starving and there was nothing open to eat. After finally getting something to eat and laying down to sleep I couldn't fall asleep until about 2 am est (or 11 pm pacific) only to wake up at 7:30 am est (4:30 am pacific) for my first meeting of the day. We attended meetings from 8 am est until 4 pm est. Again, I couldn't fall asleep until about 2 am est and then woke up at 6:30 am est (3:30 am pacific) for our first meeting of the day. At about 4 pm est we had finally finished our meetings for the day and I headed to the airport to catch my 6pm flight home. I knew I was in trouble because I was flying American and every American flight that I have had for the last year has been either delayed or canceled. Sure enough by the time that I made it to the airport my flight had been delayed by an hour. My flight was suppose to be a six hour flight however we ended up circling SFO for about an extra hour to make my fight a grand total of seven hours. I got home at 12 am pacific and for some strange reason couldn't fall asleep until 2 am pacific. I was up four hours later and headed to the office for a 7 am start time.
This week I will be in Chicago from Wednesday until Friday and will probably face more of the same issues of no sleep and early morning. The only reprieve I get is that Chicago is only a two hour difference rather than a three hour like Boston. For this trip I am going to visit a company that we might acquire (I am not aloud to give you any of the details) but we will meet with the management team for about three hours and then decide if we want to actually buy the company. Those trips are usually pretty exciting and a great chance to learn from an entrepreneur who has built their business from the ground up. Wish me luck! If you are in Chicago then shoot me an email and we can connect while I am in town.
Most of my friends are jealous that I have a job which allows me to travel but I can tell you that it is not as sweet as you think. When you live on the west coast and travel east for business it can be brutal. For example - My flight form SFO on Tuesday got me into Boston at 11pm est at which point I was absolutely starving and there was nothing open to eat. After finally getting something to eat and laying down to sleep I couldn't fall asleep until about 2 am est (or 11 pm pacific) only to wake up at 7:30 am est (4:30 am pacific) for my first meeting of the day. We attended meetings from 8 am est until 4 pm est. Again, I couldn't fall asleep until about 2 am est and then woke up at 6:30 am est (3:30 am pacific) for our first meeting of the day. At about 4 pm est we had finally finished our meetings for the day and I headed to the airport to catch my 6pm flight home. I knew I was in trouble because I was flying American and every American flight that I have had for the last year has been either delayed or canceled. Sure enough by the time that I made it to the airport my flight had been delayed by an hour. My flight was suppose to be a six hour flight however we ended up circling SFO for about an extra hour to make my fight a grand total of seven hours. I got home at 12 am pacific and for some strange reason couldn't fall asleep until 2 am pacific. I was up four hours later and headed to the office for a 7 am start time.
This week I will be in Chicago from Wednesday until Friday and will probably face more of the same issues of no sleep and early morning. The only reprieve I get is that Chicago is only a two hour difference rather than a three hour like Boston. For this trip I am going to visit a company that we might acquire (I am not aloud to give you any of the details) but we will meet with the management team for about three hours and then decide if we want to actually buy the company. Those trips are usually pretty exciting and a great chance to learn from an entrepreneur who has built their business from the ground up. Wish me luck! If you are in Chicago then shoot me an email and we can connect while I am in town.
Welcome!
I never thought of myself as a blogger and in fact I still don't (not yet anyways). I have a lot of really interesting friends who do some really interesting things. I'd like to think that my job is fascinating but I am not sure that everyone would agree.
I work at a Private Equity firm in San Francisco and my job is too find new companies for my firm to buy. We currently own 13 companies and manage a total of $250,000,000. I spend my days analyzing new deals, calling investment bankers and cold calling CEOs of companies.
When people ask me what I do I have a hard time explaining my job but really it is pretty simple. In the stock market companies are bought in sold every day and the private markets are no different. When you start your own business you will eventually want to stop running that business and to achieve liquidity you will have a number of options. One of those options would be to sell it to a private equity firm like mine.
I decided to start writing this blog for a number of reasons. The first and most important was to keep a journal for myself. The second is to have a place for me to rant and rave about the things that I think our important. The third and most important reason is to solicit help and ideas from people who read this about new companies that we should buy.
Usually I am the last to hear about some new company or technology and I am determined to change that. Since I have chosen to be an investor for the rest of my life my job will hinge around me knowing what the coolest new website is, what the latest sandal is that people are wearing and what cool new restaurants people are eating out at. Even when I am 60 years old I will need to be up on the latest industry trends.
So when you see a company that is pretty interesting please give me a shout or put it down on my blog. I love learning about all kinds of new businesses and industries and in fact it is my job!
I also love to hear about other peoples jobs. So use my post to write about your job - what is awesome about it and what sucks. Let me know everything and don't be surprised if I ask a bunch of questions. Thanks for visiting my blog and remember the famous words of Billy Joel, "slow down your doing fine, your so ambitious for a juvenile."
I work at a Private Equity firm in San Francisco and my job is too find new companies for my firm to buy. We currently own 13 companies and manage a total of $250,000,000. I spend my days analyzing new deals, calling investment bankers and cold calling CEOs of companies.
When people ask me what I do I have a hard time explaining my job but really it is pretty simple. In the stock market companies are bought in sold every day and the private markets are no different. When you start your own business you will eventually want to stop running that business and to achieve liquidity you will have a number of options. One of those options would be to sell it to a private equity firm like mine.
I decided to start writing this blog for a number of reasons. The first and most important was to keep a journal for myself. The second is to have a place for me to rant and rave about the things that I think our important. The third and most important reason is to solicit help and ideas from people who read this about new companies that we should buy.
Usually I am the last to hear about some new company or technology and I am determined to change that. Since I have chosen to be an investor for the rest of my life my job will hinge around me knowing what the coolest new website is, what the latest sandal is that people are wearing and what cool new restaurants people are eating out at. Even when I am 60 years old I will need to be up on the latest industry trends.
So when you see a company that is pretty interesting please give me a shout or put it down on my blog. I love learning about all kinds of new businesses and industries and in fact it is my job!
I also love to hear about other peoples jobs. So use my post to write about your job - what is awesome about it and what sucks. Let me know everything and don't be surprised if I ask a bunch of questions. Thanks for visiting my blog and remember the famous words of Billy Joel, "slow down your doing fine, your so ambitious for a juvenile."
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