Permanent Equity: Investing in Companies that Care What Happens Next

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Introducing “The Messy Marketplace” Podcast

Last winter, we published The Messy Marketplace to share lessons we’ve learned studying over 10,000 companies so that small to midsize business owners and their colleagues could better understand the messy process of selling a company.

In that same spirit, we’re excited to release an annotated audiobook version in podcast form, and to offer it completely free of charge. Across 41 episodes, the majority of the book is read by the author, Brent Beshore, in small digestible sections. Each reading is followed by a conversation between Brent and Emily Holdman, who contributed to and acted as publishing editor on the book, as they dive deep into the content and share experiences that influenced the writing.

This is bound to raise a few questions…

WHY A PODCAST FORMAT?

“‘Classic’ - a book which people praise and don’t read.”
- Mark Twain

We all have a to-read list longer than we’ll ever tackle. And let’s be honest, a reference book about the process of selling a small to midsize business will have a hard time getting to the top of that list. But we figured if we could deliver the same content in a format that makes it easy to tackle a chapter or two during your workout or commute, then maybe we had a shot at competing with your tenth time through the Harry Potter series (we’re not judging).

We learn a lot from each other through the conversations we have at Permanent Equity, and we’ve found that discussing ideas often surfaces important points that we might have missed through writing an email or a blog post. Our hope is to share some of that real-time discovery with you and enhance the book’s contents in a way that isn’t possible through writing.

HOW CAN I LISTEN?

The Messy Marketplace will be available through standard podcast platforms. All 41 episodes, topically titled, are available in the following:

Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and Stitcher are pending approval for release.

Please share the link with colleagues and friends. Also, don’t hesitate to leave a review or send us feedback. As with most of our content, this initiative is an experiment and in need of feedback loops.

WHY IS IT FREE?

If we’re still selling the book (you can pick up a copy here), then why release the same content for free? For starters, we don’t think of this as a replacement for the book, but more like a “Director’s Commentary” version of a film. Hearing the book’s contents will help you digest the core concepts, but the physical book includes helpful frameworks, exercises, a glossary, and our full due diligence question list, which we believe will continue to be worth the sticker price for those contemplating a private business transition.

But perhaps more importantly, we believe it’s important to share what we’ve learned with a broader reach. To quote our friend and podcasting mentor Patrick O’Shaughnessy:

“‘Share’ means connection. Sharing openly and transparently creates a feedback loop which accelerates learning and improves whatever it is you are building. It also creates a community of like-minded people with similar values and curiosities.”

So, to our curious friends, please enjoy the podcast! And please send us your feedback so we can continue to learn and grow together!

- the Permanent Equity team


Episodes of The Messy Marketplace are now part of Permanent Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to listen to back episodes and hear new interviews and insights.