We Asked a $18.9B Investor How to Survive the AI Bubble: Graham Weaver | Edited Transcript

A professionally copyedited transcript of Sam Parr and Shaan Puri's conversation with Graham Weaver on My First Million.

This is a professionally copyedited transcript of Sam Parr and Shaan Puri's conversation with Graham Weaver. It has been edited for readability and lightly formatted while preserving the entire substance of the discussion.

Made with: The Transcript Desk Chrome Extension

Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUCavD-RxN8

In this My First Million conversation, Sam Parr and Shaan Puri talk with Alpine Investors founder Graham Weaver about how buy-and-build private equity actually works, why most AI app moats are thinner than they look, what makes service-business roll-ups defensible, and why talent and culture still matter more than software in commoditizing markets. The conversation also moves through Graham's path from mowing lawns in Ohio to building an $18.9B firm, his views on wealth and freedom, and the internal work required to stop chasing external wins as a substitute for self-worth.

Episode Guide

• 0:00 Intro

• 7:06 The buy and build strategy

• 10:43 Mowing lawns

• 14:48 What’s the overhype with AI

• 23:00 Where’s the opportunity

• 25:17 Ruthless PE

• 28:17 Hero deal: $8M to $500M

• 31:24 White hot will to win

• 34:17 The blank page

• 44:02 Graham’s first million

• 46:03 The biggest wealth mistake

• 53:39 Second-hand therapy from Graham

Transcript

00:00-00:12

Graham Weaver: Fifteen years ago, we set an objective to become the number one performing private equity firm. Since we set that goal, the four funds we invested in have all done 5x or better. How do you do 5x in six years? Well, you go get Navy SEALs to run plumbing companies.

00:12-00:19

Sean Puri: That makes perfect sense to me. It works pretty well.

00:19-00:37

Sam Parr: In your world, there are a bunch of AI roll-ups where people say, "We’re going to buy a company, throw AI in it, and it’s going to be awesome." Is that a good strategy? These venture-backed apps often have $2 million in revenue and a $500 million valuation, and they’re going to go to zero. How do you see the market? Where do you see opportunity, destruction, and overhype?

00:37-00:47

Graham Weaver: Okay, I'll start with overhype. How about that?

00:47-01:21

Sean Puri: All right. Well, listen, we have Graham Weaver here today. You’ve seen this guy all over YouTube and TikTok. Personally, I would have loved to attend Stanford Business School. Many listeners probably wonder what it’s like to learn from the best at one of the top schools. Well, we get to do that today. We have someone who is not only out in the field—running a private equity fund with almost $20 billion in assets under management—but who also teaches at Stanford. Today, we’re going to pick your brain and be students in your class.

01:21-01:57

Graham Weaver: I love it; I'm looking forward to it. You know, I’ve watched your talks for a long time, and they’re amazing. "How to Live an Asymmetric Life" was a really good one. While researching you, I didn't even realize you had a PE fund. It’s great that your ideas are actually what you’re known for more than your work. Beyond the talks, can you explain how successful your fund actually is?

01:57-02:16

Graham Weaver: About 15 years ago, we set an objective to become the number one performing private equity fund in the world as measured by net MOIC—the return on capital. Since we set that goal, the four funds we invested in have all done 5x or better, or the fourth one is on track to do so.

02:16-03:14

Graham Weaver: I like to think the content I bring to my talks and my students at Stanford is based on what actually works. There are many amazing people with great motivational content, but I like to test mine in the real world. The things I talk about are exactly what we do at Alpine. We’ve had a great run, and I’m proud of how we’ve done it—by treating people well. We built our entire business around the people at Alpine and the entrepreneurs in our portfolio. Our three goals are: be the top-performing fund, be a force for good, and be a place where the best people want to spend their careers.

03:14-03:30

Sean Puri: So, you set a goal to be the number one performing private equity fund in the world—no big deal. You mentioned a 5x MOIC (Multiple on Invested Capital). Is that over a 10-year period, or what is the timeframe?

03:30-03:41

Graham Weaver: That’s from the day the first dollar comes in to the day the last dollar goes out. The average investment period is probably about six years.

03:41-04:17

Sean Puri: That’s remarkable. Normally, following the "rule of 72," if you put money in the S&P 500, you should double your money in seven years. You’re trying to get a 5x in roughly the same timeframe. Can you explain in plain English what you actually do? I’ve spent the last two days in 40 private equity meetings, and half the time I’m just wondering what these "small" $1.5 billion funds actually do. Are you buying HVAC companies or software companies?

04:17-04:34

Graham Weaver: Private equity is a broad classification with many strategies. Specifically, we do "buy and build." There is a lot of talk around AI buy-and-builds, which we can dive into later, but our core is finding an amazing CEO—often someone who has worked with us before or came through our training program—and backing them.

04:34-05:12

Graham Weaver: We look for prosaic industries like plumbing and HVAC. We also do some software because roll-ups there can be attractive, but it’s a smaller part of our business. These "boring" industries are massive. The plumbing and HVAC industry is a $170 billion market. If you figure it out, you can grow almost forever because you don't run out of TAM (Total Addressable Market). We like buy-and-builds because once we get it right, we can stamp it out repeatedly.

05:12-06:01

Graham Weaver: This strategy plays to our core competence: talent. It’s a talent strategy. In many cases, we are putting high-attribute military veterans in to run a plumbing business, and they are incredible leaders. Our superpower is training these leaders and giving them opportunities they might not otherwise have.

06:01-06:19

Sean Puri: Sam, isn't that hilarious? "How do you do 5x in six years? Well, you go get Navy SEALs to run plumbing companies." That makes perfect sense. It’s a simple, effective expression.

06:19-06:26

Graham Weaver: It works pretty well. The deck is only one slide. Navy SEALs are actually a very common background for our leaders.

06:26-06:44

Sam Parr: How big are the companies you’re buying?

06:44-07:03

Graham Weaver: The add-on acquisitions, which are our primary focus, average about $30 million. The companies might have $15 million to $20 million in revenue. Once we get the platform going, we can usually finance acquisitions with cash flow and debt, so we don't have to put in more equity. That’s a big part of achieving a high MOIC.

07:03-07:34

Sean Puri: The differentiated part of your model is that you start with an operator or CEO in-house. Most PE firms buy a company and hope the management stays, or they search for an executive later. You start with the person and run a search with them. How is that different from a search fund?

07:34-08:31

Graham Weaver: You nailed it. It’s like a superpowered search fund. In a traditional search fund, you back a young person to buy and run a business. However, that model often falls down because that person has to build an entire PE firm just to buy one company. We handle the sourcing and buying ourselves because we do it repeatedly. We hire high-attribute people who are perhaps a bit more experienced than the typical search funder, but the DNA is the same: betting on a great person.

08:31-09:02

Sean Puri: [Sponsor Break: HubSpot Excellence Framework]

09:02-09:43

Sean Puri: So, the simplified version is: you find a "Navy SEAL"—a winner who is willing to work hard for six years to build wealth and own a business without needing a "startup" idea. You buy a solid plumbing company, put that person in to grow it organically, and then use the cash flow to buy more "tuck-in" businesses.

09:43-10:22

Graham Weaver: Exactly. And once you’ve bought ten plumbing companies, you know what the best in the world looks like. One company might be great at training, another at customer acquisition, and another at purchasing. You steal the superpowers of each. By the 11th deal, that company gets all ten superpowers. You can improve a business dramatically and quickly because you have the playbook and your own people to run it.

10:22-10:45

Graham Weaver: It took me ten years to figure this out. We used to back founders and suggest ideas, but they would just smile and never change anything. You can’t tell a guy who has run a plumbing company for 35 years how to do his job. It doesn't work.

10:45-11:27

Sean Puri: Sam, should we do Graham a favor and make him more likable? Right now, he’s too "hateable"—successful, happy, and printing money. But that’s just the endpoint. You started out mowing lawns in Ohio, listening to self-help tapes to figure out your life. You bootstrapped with credit cards and survived the financial crisis. Tell us the hard part of the story.

11:27-12:13

Graham Weaver: I appreciate that. I grew up in Perrysburg, a blue-collar town outside Toledo, Ohio. I was average at everything—athletics, school, you name it. I got cut from the basketball and wrestling teams. While mowing lawns, I started listening to tapes by Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and Earl Nightingale on my Sony Walkman.

12:13-13:04

Graham Weaver: As a 14-year-old, I was essentially brainwashing myself. The first big concept I learned was that you are either your own best friend or your own worst enemy. You have to figure yourself out first. I had all these excuses—I wasn't tall enough, or my parents didn't start me in sports early enough. The message was: "Nope, you don't get excuses. You have to accept total accountability for your life." That was brutal to hear.

13:04-13:41

Graham Weaver: The second concept was figuring out what you really want. Brian Tracy was the best at teaching goal setting. In high school, I wrote down my goals every single day, multiple times a day. The combination of getting out of your own way and being crystal clear about what you want is an undefeated formula.

13:41-14:46

Graham Weaver: The journey was definitely not linear. My first fund lost money and drained my savings. Then the Great Recession hit and drained my savings again. It’s been a story of persistence and clarity rather than a straight line to success.

14:46-15:29

Sean Puri: I want to switch gears to AI. Five years ago, I’d tell my nephew to study computer science. Now, those graduates are wondering if coding is even relevant. Where do you see opportunity, destruction, and overhype in the AI market?

15:29-16:42

Graham Weaver: I’ll start with overhype. I graduated from business school in '99 during the dot-com era. It felt exactly like this. Back then, we had companies like Pets.com and Webvan. Out of 400 companies that went public, only Amazon and maybe eBay survived. People were right that the internet would transform the world, but there were many false starts.

16:42-17:34

Graham Weaver: In AI, there are four layers: infrastructure (chips/data centers), LLMs (Large Language Models), the app layer, and the use-case layer (customers using AI). The hype is in the app layer. Venture firms are pouring money into apps that help law firms or call centers. We see these companies as vendors; they have $2 million in revenue and a $500 million valuation. Many of them are going to zero.

17:34-18:17

Sam Parr: Are they going to zero because the churn is too high?

18:17-19:03

Graham Weaver: It’s about the moat. You might be six months ahead of an LLM, but eventually, the LLMs will absorb those functions. Unless you have proprietary data or deep customer interfaces, you’re under constant pressure. It’s like the 90s businesses that let you get a marriage license online—they grew fast until Google absorbed those rents.

19:03-20:08

Sean Puri: What about "AI roll-ups" in your world? People buying service businesses and "smashing in some AI" to make them better. Is that a viable strategy?

20:08-21:18

Graham Weaver: People are doing that because they’d rather be the user of AI than the developer. But you have to be careful. We’ve been doing roll-ups for 15 years. While AI is important, the basics—talent, integration, and culture—are the core elements. In many industries, the technology will be commoditized.

21:18-22:04

Graham Weaver: Take property management. There are "AI-native" roll-ups, but will their tech really be better than everyone else's? Probably not. The moat in property management is still hiring, culture, and retention. Most people will eventually have access to the same tools. AI will be a tool, not the primary differentiator.

22:04-22:39

Sean Puri: The thesis for some is buying a company with $6 million in EBITDA and using AI to push it to $8.5 million. Even if it’s not a permanent moat, you’ve created $15 million in value just by being faster to adopt the tech than the average "mom and pop" owner.

22:39-23:02

Graham Weaver: That is the thesis. We’ll see how it plays out. It might not be as dramatic as people hope, and those gains might eventually be passed down to the consumer.

23:02-23:20

Sean Puri: If a smart, hungry student at Stanford asks you what they should do after graduation, what’s your advice?

23:20-24:04

Graham Weaver: I would tell them to do a services roll-up. AI is a tailwind there. I’d pick an industry where you can build real stickiness with customers—like wealth management. If you’re doing someone’s stocks, taxes, and estate planning, your deep relationship is your moat against AI.

24:04-24:46

Graham Weaver: The customer doesn't care how you do the back-end work. I’d advise anyone to learn the "language" of AI so they can spot opportunities, but focus on building customer moats.

24:46-25:25

Sam Parr: Sean and I view ourselves as creative "artists" rather than financial modelers. I used to think PE was soulless—just buying companies and firing people. But you seem to be the antithesis of that. Your content is soulful, yet you’re in a "ruthless" industry. How do you balance the two?

25:25-26:21

Graham Weaver: Even if I weren't interested in being a "force for good," I’d run the business the same way to maximize returns. Building something durable is more profitable than ripping it apart. If a software firm buys a company, fires everyone, and doubles the price, they might make money in the short term. But they’ll lose in the long run because they destroyed the team needed to innovate.

26:21-27:53

Graham Weaver: Ripping things apart might get you a 2x return if you time it perfectly. But if you actually build something, time is your friend, and you can make 100x. It’s about the time horizon. I don't think you can be the best in the world at PE by just cutting costs.

27:53-27:58

Sean Puri: What’s the "hero deal" of your career?

27:58-28:35

Graham Weaver: The plumbing and HVAC example is one of our best. we hired two people right out of business school for our CEO-in-training program. We bought a small business with $8 million in earnings. Six years later, that business will do $500 million in earnings this year.

28:35-28:54

Sean Puri: Wait, $500 million in earnings? That’s roughly $3 billion in revenue. And you did that in six years?

28:54-29:18

Graham Weaver: Yes, and we did it without putting in any additional equity after the first year. We got fortunate with our third acquisition; we partnered with a veteran named Ira Pruitt who had the "playbook." We combined his industry expertise with our talent program.

29:18-30:09

Graham Weaver: We ended up with an amazing playbook and a pipeline of incredible leaders—many of them veterans. This allowed us to buy businesses that others couldn't, because we had the talent ready to step in and scale them.

30:03-30:16

Speaker 1: The list of businesses in the middle of Louisiana that require a management change is short. It's a very short line. How do you address this? You described one of the guys—I forget his name—as a "grizzled HVAC guy." In my head, I have a specific picture of what that looks like.

30:16-30:42

Speaker 1: So, I looked up the company you're talking about; I assume it's called Apex Service Partners. I looked up Will Matson. Sean, go ahead and look up Will Matson. Honestly, he looks like the opposite of "grizzled"—he’s a baby-faced guy. He looks very young, maybe 28 years old. He worked at JP Morgan, went to Wharton, and worked at McKinsey.

30:42-31:11

Graham Weaver: The grizzled guy is actually named Ira Puit. The combination of AJ, Will, and Ira is amazing. They are an "odd couple." In this particular instance, the combo works because AJ is incredibly focused on talent; he’s the one who rallies the Navy veterans, flies around, and gets them excited. Will handles the finance, M&A, and a lot of the holding company functions. Then Ira is the one who says, "Hey, this is how you actually run a plumbing business. Here’s the playbook we need to implement." That’s how the combination works.

31:11-32:07

Graham Weaver: To answer your question about what we look for in these leaders: number one is just a "white-hot will to win." We’ve found that to be more highly correlated with success than any other factor, including IQ, background, or experience. Each of these three has demonstrated a crazy will to win at some point in their lives. We learned this from a book called Who, which was the sequel to Topgrading. It’s basically a guide on how to hire.

32:07-33:02

Graham Weaver: We do a three-hour interview where you start with the person in high school and walk through their life up until yesterday. It’s a conversation, much like this one—not super formal—but you’re collecting data. In the cases of AJ, Will, or Ira, you’re going to see example after example of things going wrong and how they handled it. They got up, plowed through, put their boots back on, and kept marching forward. You’ll see that pattern again and again. We always say that quality will leap out of the interview; if it doesn’t, they probably don’t have it.

33:02-33:57

Speaker 1: Speaking of deciding what to do, in many of your talks, you discuss what I call "living a rich life," but you call it an "asymmetric life." You have this cool exercise called the "Genie Question." I forget exactly how you phrase it, but it’s basically: "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" It’s an exercise to get people to decide what they truly want. A lot of people listening—Sean and myself included—are ambitious, but sometimes we only listen to where the money is or how we can fit into a traditional sense of success. Fear often talks us out of things. We think, "I can't do that; I’m supposed to go to business school, then McKinsey, then this." What would you say is the most common reason people are bad at answering that question?

33:57-34:44

Graham Weaver: I’d say a few things. First, 90% of people simply don't ask the question. It sounds crazy, but they never ask themselves, "What do I really want?" They haven't given themselves permission to even think about it. I believe the highest form of self-love is trusting yourself enough to stay on a path that actually excites you. So, it starts with permission. For your audience: give yourself that permission. What you get excited about in this world matters.

34:44-35:12

Speaker 1: What are some example answers to that question? You’ve helped a lot of people through this process while teaching at Stanford.

35:12-35:44

Graham Weaver: I’ll give you a couple from my class over the last few years. Last year, I had a student who is building a theme park in Dallas, Texas. Literally a theme park. I think it’s called Texas Land, though they might not have finalized the name. She’s just going for it. This year, I have a student who is brilliant; he could go to any top consulting or finance firm. Instead, he’s going to India, where his family is from, to help build free hospitals. That is his thing. It’s a very clear answer to the question. I give him so much credit for having the courage to do that. It’s going to be hard, but that’s his answer.

35:44-36:01

Graham Weaver: Look at what you guys are doing. You’re building a podcast that really helps people, and it’s obvious you love it. You’re having a blast. You’re doing it right. You followed that energy and gave yourselves permission to be in this space.

36:01-36:23

Speaker 1: I almost hate saying it that way because I don’t want people to think there aren't doubts yelling at us all the time. In another talk, you mentioned that Alpine is now a $20 billion fund, but for the first 14 years, you weren't confident it was going to be a home run.

36:23-37:13

Graham Weaver: Exactly. We all have these limiting beliefs running through our minds, beating us up with "I shouldn't do this" or "I might fail." That fear is 100% normal. Everyone has it. The question is: what do you do with it? One exercise I do with my students is spending an entire class writing those fears down. We empty our minds of every limiting belief. "I might fail. I might run out of money. No one might watch the podcast. Alpine might not make it. AI might not work." Write it all down.

37:13-38:10

Graham Weaver: Once it’s on paper, you’ve removed it from your subconscious, where it does the most damage. If you’re walking around with a fear you haven't identified, it just looks like inaction, paralysis, and staying stuck. But once it's on paper, you can rephrase it. If your fear is "I want to start a company but don't know how to pay my loans," you can turn that into a problem to be solved: "How can I start this business in a way that allows me to service my loans and pay rent?" Now it’s a challenge rather than a source of paralysis. I love the act of going right at your fears.

38:10-39:25

Speaker 1: That’s a great exercise. I think 90% is a low estimate; probably 99% of people don’t take the time to examine what they really want. It’s much easier to scroll or worry about global markets than to look at yourself. For the person who says, "I’m ready for an answer, but I have no idea what it is," how do they find it? I’ve taught myself to be a "dabbler"—running lightweight experiments to see where the energy is. How do you advise people who don't yet know what lights them up?

39:25-40:05

Graham Weaver: I love that. One idea is: don't feel pressured to have just one thing. Make a list of nine things that might light you up. Maybe you want to go to India, start a podcast, or become a DJ. Write them down. Then, keep your day job and devote a set number of hours a week to testing those things. Take a class, hang out with people in that field, or try podcasting on nights and weekends to see if it’s actually fun.

40:05-41:02

Graham Weaver: The key is to avoid a "false negative" based on the outcome. If a student says, "I’ll try this for five hours a week, and if I get traction, I’ll keep going," I tell them they won't get traction in five hours. You’re not looking for results; you’re looking for energy. Were those five hours the highlight of your week, or did they feel like a chore? If you are lit up and you combine that with a long time frame, very few things won't eventually yield. That was my experience with Alpine. It took 14 years to know it would succeed, but I was fired up and willing to stick with it.

41:02-41:21

Speaker 1: In year 14, were you still unsure if it would work? What were the numbers like then? I’d assume you were financially successful by that point.

41:21-41:53

Graham Weaver: Actually, no. We lost money on our first fund, which started in 2001. You might wonder how we got a second fund after losing money on the first. We were very transparent with our investors about what went wrong, what we were fixing, and what we were learning. They saw we were on the right trajectory. At one point, that fund was marked at 40 cents on the dollar, but we ended up returning 95 cents. They appreciated the transparency and gave us another shot.

41:53-42:42

Graham Weaver: Fund one took over a decade to play out because in private equity, you buy, run, and then sell companies. It was about 10 years after Fund Two started that we finally saw real success. At year 14, we were managing maybe $300 or $400 million. That might sound like a lot, but we were running an entire team and a portfolio of companies.

42:42-43:14

Speaker 1: We call this podcast My First Million. We always ask guests: when and how did you make your first million? Often, it takes much longer than people expect. When you're 20, you think it'll happen by 21, but for me and Sam, it was around 30 or 31. How did it feel for you? Did anything change?

43:14-43:45

Graham Weaver: It was not what I expected. There’s a big difference between being a millionaire on paper and having a million dollars in the bank. One pays the rent; the other doesn't. I didn't actually have a million dollars in the bank until year 14 of the firm. I was in my 40s.

43:45-44:41

Graham Weaver: To put that in context, that’s actually quite slow for private equity. We had what’s called a "European waterfall," meaning we had to return all investor capital plus an 8% return before we took any profit. Fund one generated no "carry" (profit share) at all. In fund two, we had to sell almost every business before we got paid. So while I was a millionaire on paper earlier, the cash didn't hit the bank for 14 years.

44:41-45:40

Graham Weaver: However, I felt wealthy long before that because my "denominator" was small. Wealth has two parts: the numerator (what you make) and the denominator (what you spend). The biggest mistake people make is letting the denominator keep pace with the numerator. They say, "I’ll take this corporate job to save money, then start my business." But then they get a bigger house, a nicer car, and have kids in private school. Their expenses rise as fast as their income, so they never actually feel free. In fact, they have less freedom every year because they’re trapped by their lifestyle.

45:40-46:43

Graham Weaver: One of the most underrated factors in my success was my wife. When we married, she was an elementary school teacher making $18,000 a year. Our first apartment was $900 a month, and she thought it was the Taj Mahal. Because our expenses were so low, I felt wealthy because there was a huge cushion between what I earned and what we spent.

46:43-47:36

Speaker 1: There’s a story about Ruben "The Hurricane" Carter, the boxer who was wrongfully imprisoned. He supposedly took cold showers every day to remind himself that prison wasn't "home"—that he was just passing through and wouldn't get comfortable. Whether the story is true or not, it stuck with me. When I moved to San Francisco to start my career, even when I made money, I’d tell myself to "take cold showers." I didn't want to get used to a lifestyle I couldn't sustain yet. There was a lot of freedom in that.

47:36-48:21

Graham Weaver: I love that. The utility of money follows a steep curve at first. Level one is peace of mind—knowing that if my car breaks, I can fix it without stress. That was a huge shift for me. Level two is having enough money to do what you actually want with your life. That’s where the real magic is. After that, the utility curve flattens out significantly.

48:21-48:37

Speaker 1: When you advise your students, what is that "freedom" number? Is it 25 times annual spending, or just six months of savings?

48:37-49:46

Graham Weaver: Level one is three to six months of savings. That provides the peace of mind to sleep at night. Level two—what I call real freedom—is about 9 to 12 months of savings. I’m not talking about living off interest forever; I’m talking about the freedom to spend your day doing work you actually enjoy. That is within most people's grasp. People obsess over "F-you money" where they never have to work again, but then what? What are you going to do all day?

49:46-50:29

Graham Weaver: To answer your earlier question: did wealth feel the way I thought it would? No. After all the sacrifices, the lawn mowing, the grades, and finally getting that big liquidity event, it was actually disappointing. I thought it would change everything, but it changed almost nothing. The internal feeling of "I’m not enough" was still there.

50:29-51:03

Speaker 1: If it wasn't a financial milestone, what career achievement actually moved the needle on your happiness? Was it building an institution or teaching at Stanford?

51:03-52:17

Graham Weaver: You can't solve an internal problem with an external outcome. If you feel you’ll finally be "enough" once you hit a certain goal, you’ll be disappointed. I had to do a lot of internal work—therapy, coaching, journaling, and meditation—to let go of that feeling. That created more happiness than any career achievement. If I had to pick a career-related moment, it would be something small: sitting in Napa with my three partners, working through a problem, and having the self-awareness to realize how special it was to be doing what I love with people I love. It wasn't a wire transfer; it was those little moments.

52:17-53:38

Speaker 1: Can we get some "second-hand therapy" from you? Many people don't make the time for that kind of introspection. We had poker player Daniel Negreanu on the pod, and he talked about a "radical accountability" exercise where you take the worst thing that ever happened to you and rewrite the story so that you are the cause of it. You own the whole thing and blame no one. He said it changed his life. Were there any breakthrough realizations or exercises that changed things for you?

53:38-55:06

Graham Weaver: Absolutely. First, almost all your battles are "you against you." Everything that happens externally goes through a filter—the story you tell yourself about it. It’s much easier to change that filter than to change the world. I used to be my own worst enemy. I’d look for what was wrong and beat myself up, telling myself that this self-criticism was the key to my success. That’s total BS. It’s like running through life with your foot on the brake.

55:06-56:14

Graham Weaver: The second thing is understanding why we meditate. Think of it like a gym for your mind. When you count your breath and your mind wanders to a mistake you made or a task for tomorrow, you notice it and bring it back. Every time you bring your focus back, you’re doing a "rep." You’re building two things: the ability to separate yourself from your thoughts (realizing you are the observer, not the thought) and the muscle of being present. If you are truly present, you are in a state of joy.

56:14-57:39

Speaker 1: That’s a great reframe. Usually, if your mind wanders during meditation, you feel like you’re failing. But you’re saying that the "struggle" is actually the workout. It’s like the last three reps of a heavy set at the gym—that’s where the growth happens.

57:39-57:56

Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, I want to ask about parenting. You have three kids and you’ve blogged about your eldest going to college. Do you use these exercises with them, or do they just roll their eyes because you’re "Dad"?

57:56-59:30

Graham Weaver: All of the above. At work, I’m a professor or a CEO, but at home, I have teenagers who are ruthless. They make fun of everything I do. I use these tools, but in a less obvious way. For example, my son had a tough freshman year and was debating whether to play lacrosse again. I had him play out two scenarios: one where he didn't play and one where he did, despite the difficulty. By the end, he realized he definitely wanted to play. I use the tools when they ask for help, but mostly, they learn through osmosis. Kids watch what you do more than they listen to what you say. They see me set goals and work hard, so they do the same.

59:30-59:53

Speaker 1: What about your employees? I listen to your content because I want to change my behavior, but most people don't actually change. You talked about hiring these operators...

1:00:01-1:00:15

Sam Parr: You hire these people who have wonderful backgrounds and a track record showing a white-hot will to win. Are you ever able to change any of their behaviors once they're hired, or are you strictly looking for someone who already has "it"?

1:00:15-1:00:40

Graham Weaver: I’m definitely not looking to teach someone how to be motivated, how to care, or how to run through walls. I can't teach that. However, we’ve bought 800 companies, and I’ve been in private equity for 31 years. We’ve built some incredible businesses, so we have frameworks, tools, and playbooks that are battle-tested.

1:00:40-1:01:18

Graham Weaver: One of the things we screen for is a growth mindset—are they open to learning? If you look at our portfolio companies, there is a nearly 100% correlation between how much of the playbook they run and how successful the business is. They come to Alpine saying, "Look, I'm 32 years old. I want to run through walls, but I don't know how to run a business. Can you help me?" That makes for a great partnership because we have so many tools now.

1:01:18-1:01:40

Graham Weaver: Eventually, they take our playbooks and make them their own. Five years down the road, they’ve added to them, changed them, and made them better for their specific needs. But we provide the foundation with tools like Kaizen projects, process mapping, and a one-page planning tool.

1:01:40-1:01:48

Sam Parr: Have you ever published these? Can I have them? Is this like Colonel Sanders' secret recipe, or can I see it?

1:01:48-1:02:06

Graham Weaver: I’d be happy to share them with you. Some of it has probably come through in my materials, but we’ve definitely codified a lot of this over the years. I'm happy to share.

1:02:06-1:02:28

Sam Parr: That’s awesome, man. You’re wonderful. I don’t want to compliment you too much and make you uncomfortable, but Shaan and I have this joke where we talk about the "Total Man." We’ve interviewed all these amazing people—deca-billionaires, 19-year-olds who just sold their companies, the whole spectrum.

1:02:28-1:02:41

Sam Parr: We’re always looking for that combination: a good parent, a good spouse, a great business person, someone interesting who seems to have fun and is kind to others. You check a lot of those boxes. It’s been cool talking to you because you’re a great inspiration for what a person should aspire to be.

1:02:41-1:03:06

Graham Weaver: Thanks, Sam. That really means a lot. I admire you guys and really enjoy your podcast. This felt exactly how you said it would—just hanging out and talking about fun stuff we’re all excited about. I’m grateful you had me on and I'm happy to come back anytime. It was really fun.

1:03:06-1:03:12

Shaan Puri: Awesome. Thank you so much for doing this. Where should people follow you? Is YouTube your main spot, or Instagram, or TikTok?

1:03:12-1:03:30

Graham Weaver: Probably Instagram. I’m on all the platforms, but I think my username is @GrahamCWeaver on all of them.

1:03:30-1:03:30

Shaan Puri: Badass, brother. We appreciate you coming on. That’s the pod.

00:00-00:12

Graham Weaver: Fifteen years ago, we set an objective to become the number one performing private equity firm. Since setting that goal, the four funds we’ve invested in have all done 5x or better. How do you do 5x in six years? You go get Navy SEALs to run plumbing companies.

00:12-00:19

Shaan Puri: That makes perfect sense to me. It works pretty well.

00:19-00:31

Shaan Puri: In your world, there are a bunch of "AI roll-ups" where people buy a company, throw AI at it, and expect it to be awesome. Is that a good strategy? These venture-backed apps might have $2 million in revenue and a $500 million valuation, but they’re going to zero.

00:31-00:47

Shaan Puri: How do you see the market? Where do you see opportunity, where do you see destruction, and where do you see overhype?

00:47-00:47

Graham Weaver: Okay, I’ll start with overhype. How about that?

00:47-01:21

Sam Parr: All right, listen. We have Graham Weaver here today. You’ve seen this guy all over YouTube and TikTok. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to go to Stanford Business School and learn from the best. Well, we get to do that today. We have someone who is not only out in the field running a private equity fund with almost $20 billion in assets under management, but who also teaches at Stanford. It’ll be fun to pick your brain and be students in your class.

01:21-01:27

Graham Weaver: I love it. I'm looking forward to it.

01:27-01:57

Sam Parr: It’s funny—I’ve watched your talks for a long time. "How to Live an Asymmetric Life" was amazing. I was doing research and didn't even realize you had a PE fund. I think it’s great that your ideas are what you’re known for even more than your work. Besides the talks, can you explain how successful you’ve been with your fund?

01:57-02:22

Graham Weaver: About 15 years ago, we set a goal to be the top-performing private equity fund in the world as measured by net return on capital. Since then, the four funds we’ve invested have all done 5x or better—or the fourth one is on track to do so.

02:22-02:51

Graham Weaver: The content I bring to my talks and my students is based on what actually works in the real world. There are many people with great motivational content, but I like to test mine in the field. What I talk about is exactly what we do at Alpine. We’ve had a great run, and I’m proud of how we’ve done it—by treating people well.

02:51-03:14

Graham Weaver: We built the business around the people at Alpine and the entrepreneurs in our portfolio. Our three goals are: be the top-performing fund, be a force for good, and be a place where the best people want to spend their careers.

03:14-03:30

Sam Parr: You set a goal to be the number one private equity fund in the world—no big deal. You mentioned a 5x multiple on invested capital. What is the timeframe for that?

03:30-03:41

Graham Weaver: From the first dollar in to the last dollar out, the average investment is probably about six years.

03:41-04:17

Sam Parr: That’s remarkable. Usually, with the "rule of 72," you’d expect to double your money in the S&P 500 over seven years. You’re trying to hit a 5x in roughly the same time. Shaan knows this, but I’ve spent the last two days in 40 different private equity meetings. Half the time I’m wondering, "What do you guys actually do?" Can you give me the simple version? Are you buying HVAC companies? Software companies?

04:17-04:34

Graham Weaver: Private equity is a broad classification with many strategies. Specifically, we do "buy and build."

04:34-05:00

Graham Weaver: We find an amazing CEO—often someone who has worked with us before or came through our training program—and we back them. We look for interesting industries, often "prosaic" ones like plumbing or HVAC. We do some software, but it’s a smaller part of our portfolio compared to services.

05:00-05:25

Graham Weaver: These industries are massive. Plumbing and HVAC is a $170 billion industry. If you get the model right, you can grow almost forever because you don't run out of total addressable market. We like "buy and build" because once we get it right, we can stamp it out repeatedly.

05:25-05:48

Graham Weaver: This plays to our core competence: talent. Our strategy is a talent strategy. In many cases, we’re putting high-attribute military veterans in to run a plumbing business. They are incredible leaders. Our superpower is training these leaders and giving them opportunities they might not have had otherwise.

05:48-06:13

Shaan Puri: Sam, isn't that hilarious? "How do you do 5x in six years?" "Oh, we just get Navy SEALs to run plumbing companies." It makes perfect sense.

06:13-06:19

Graham Weaver: It works pretty well. The pitch deck is only one slide.

06:19-06:26

Graham Weaver: Actually, a Navy SEAL background is very common among our leaders.

06:26-06:33

Shaan Puri: How big are the companies you’re buying?

06:33-06:44

Graham Weaver: For add-on acquisitions, the average deal is about $30 million. The company might have $15 million to $20 million in revenue.

06:44-06:51

Shaan Puri: That’s pretty small. Do you borrow money to buy them?

06:51-07:03

Graham Weaver: Yes. Once we get the platform going, we can usually finance acquisitions with cash flow and debt, so we don't have to put in more equity. That’s a big part of achieving a high MOIC (Multiple on Invested Capital).

07:03-07:34

Shaan Puri: The differentiated part of your model is that you start with an operator or CEO in-house. Most PE firms buy a company and hope the management stays, or they do an executive search later. You start with the person and run the search with them. How is that different from a search fund?

07:34-07:57

Graham Weaver: You nailed it. It’s like a search fund, but we’ve improved the model. In a traditional search fund, a young person has to build an entire firm just to buy one company. We handle the sourcing and buying ourselves because we do it repeatedly.

07:57-08:31

Graham Weaver: However, the core idea of having a high-attribute person bet their career on a business is a great formula. We hire similar people—perhaps slightly older and more experienced—but it is essentially a superpowered search fund model.

08:31-08:57

Shaan Puri: [Ad Break/Promo for HubSpot Operating System]

08:57-09:43

Sam Parr: So the simplified version is: you find a "Navy SEAL"—a high-attribute winner—who is willing to work hard for six years to create life-changing wealth. You buy a good business, like a plumbing company, and have them operate it better. Then you use the cash flow to buy more "tuck-in" businesses. Once you’ve bought ten companies, you know what the best-in-class version looks like because you can take the "superpowers" from each one.

09:43-10:22

Graham Weaver: Exactly. After ten deals, your eleventh deal benefits from ten different superpowers. You can improve a business dramatically and quickly because you have the playbook and your own people to implement it. It took me ten years to figure this out, but backing founders and giving them "great ideas" doesn't work. You can't tell a guy who has run a plumbing company for 35 years how to do his job. He’ll just smile, nod, and change nothing.

10:22-10:45

Shaan Puri: Sam, should we do Graham a favor and make him likable? Right now, he’s too "hateable"—he’s happy, good-looking, and successful with a model that prints money.

10:45-11:21

Shaan Puri: But that’s the endpoint. The start of the story is you mowing lawns in Ohio, listening to self-help tapes, trying to figure out your life. You bootstrapped with credit cards and went through the financial crisis. Tell us the hard part that makes us root for you.

11:21-11:41

Graham Weaver: I grew up in a small blue-collar town outside Toledo, Ohio. I was average at everything—athletics, school—this isn't false humility. I got cut from the basketball and wrestling teams.

11:41-12:13

Graham Weaver: When the Sony Walkman came out, I started listening to tapes by Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and Earl Nightingale while mowing lawns. As a 14-year-old, I was essentially brainwashing myself. The first big concept was: you are either your own best friend or your own worst enemy. You have to accept total accountability.

12:13-12:46

Graham Weaver: That was a hard message because I had all these excuses lined up—I wasn't tall enough, I didn't start early enough. They told me, "Nope, you don't get to have those." The second concept was figuring out what you really want. Brian Tracy was the best at teaching goal setting. I wrote my goals down every single day in high school.

12:46-13:15

Graham Weaver: The formula of getting out of your own way and being clear about what you want is undefeated. But the journey wasn't linear. Everything went wrong. I was 125 pounds at six feet tall from cutting weight for wrestling. At Alpine, our first fund lost money and drained my savings. Then the Great Recession hit and drained my savings again. It’s been a story of persistence.

13:15-13:46

Shaan Puri: I want to switch gears to AI. Five years ago, I’d tell my cousin to study computer science because the technology curve was only going up. Now, those graduates are uncertain. Where do you see opportunity, destruction, and overhype in AI?

13:46-14:17

Graham Weaver: I’ll start with overhype. I graduated business school in '99 during the dot-com era. It felt exactly like this. People were right that the internet would transform the world, but there were 400 IPOs and almost all of them—except Amazon and eBay—went to zero. The ideas weren't always bad, but the execution and burn rates were.

14:17-14:42

Graham Weaver: AI will transform the world more than we can imagine, but there are a lot of false starts. I see four layers in AI: the infrastructure layer (chips, data centers), the LLM layer (OpenAI, etc.), the app layer, and the use-case layer (the customers using it).

14:42-15:10

Graham Weaver: The hype is in the app layer. We see these venture-backed apps pitching our companies all the time. They have $2 million in revenue and a $500 million valuation. Many of them are going to zero.

15:10-15:34

Shaan Puri: Even the ones with high revenue?

15:34-16:04

Graham Weaver: What is the moat? They are being attacked from below by companies building their own tools and from above by LLMs introducing new features that absorb their functionality. You might be six months ahead of an LLM and make a lot of money briefly, but eventually, the "rents" get absorbed by the platform.

16:04-16:20

Shaan Puri: What about "AI roll-ups"—buying service businesses and "smashing in" some AI? Is that a good strategy?

16:20-16:47

Graham Weaver: People are doing that because they’d rather be the user of AI than the developer. But we’ve been doing roll-ups for 15 years. AI is important, but the basics—talent, integration, culture, recruiting—are the core elements.

16:47-17:18

Graham Weaver: Here’s a hot take: technology in many industries will be commoditized. In property management, for example, will an "AI-native" roll-up have better tech than everyone else? Probably not. The moat is still hiring, culture, and retention. Most people will eventually have access to the same tools. To win in an AI roll-up, you still have to win at the "old-fashioned" stuff.

17:18-17:40

Shaan Puri: The thesis for some is buying a company at a 5x multiple, using AI to make it more efficient—say, increasing EBITDA from $6 million to $8.5 million—and creating instant value. Even if the tech is commoditized, being the first to adopt it creates a massive advantage.

17:40-18:02

Graham Weaver: That is the thesis. We’ll see how it plays out. It probably won't be as dramatic as people hope, and eventually, those gains might just get passed down to the consumer.

18:02-18:20

Shaan Puri: If a smart, hungry student at Stanford asks you what they should do after graduation, what’s your advice?

18:20-18:46

Graham Weaver: I’d tell them to do a services roll-up in an industry where you can build real moats and stickiness with customers. Take wealth management: if you’re just buying stocks, you have no moat. But if you handle their taxes, trusts, and estate planning, you have a deep relationship. That is your moat against AI. AI becomes a tailwind for you, not a threat.

18:46-19:17

Sam Parr: Shaan and I view ourselves as "artisty" and creative. I used to think private equity was "soulless"—just buying companies and firing people for profit. But you put out content that is quite soulful. You seem to balance ruthless business analysis with a genuine desire to be a force for good. How do you reconcile those?

19:17-19:44

Graham Weaver: Even if I weren't interested in being a force for good and only cared about returns, I’d run the business the same way. Building something durable is more profitable than ripping it apart. If you buy a software company, fire everyone, and double the price, you might make a quick 2x. But if you build an incredible team that stays ahead of the curve, you can make 100x. Time is your friend when you build.

19:44-19:53

Shaan Puri: What’s the "hero deal" for you guys? The best one you’ve ever done?

19:53-20:29

Graham Weaver: The plumbing and HVAC example is one of our best. We hired two guys, AJ Brown and Will Matson, right out of business school for our CEO-in-training program. We bought a small business with $8 million in earnings. This year, that business will do $500 million in earnings on $3 billion in revenue. We did that in six years without putting in any additional equity after the first year.

20:29-20:47

Sam Parr: You have to break that down. How do you go from $8 million to $500 million in profit? Was it just an acquisition spree, or were they missing something basic like sales and a website?

20:47-21:11

Graham Weaver: We got fortunate with our third deal. We partnered with a "grizzled" HVAC veteran named Ira Puit. He had seven of his kids in the business and he gave us the operational playbook. We combined that with AJ and Will’s talent for M&A and leadership.

21:11-21:46

Graham Weaver: We started attracting incredible leaders—many of them veterans. This allowed us to buy businesses that others couldn't, like a $12 million revenue company in rural Louisiana that needed a management change. Most people won't touch that.

21:46-22:11

Sam Parr: What makes that team work? You have a "grizzled" guy and two young guys from Wharton and McKinsey. What attributes are needed to grow that fast?

22:11-22:46

Graham Weaver: They are an "odd couple." AJ focuses on talent and rallying the leaders. Will handles finance and M&A. Ira knows how to actually run a plumbing shop. What they share is a "white-hot will to win." We found that is more correlated with success than IQ or background. We use a hiring method called "Topgrading" where we do a three-hour interview covering their entire life. You look for patterns of someone who gets knocked down and puts their boots back on every single time.

22:46-23:19

Sam Parr: You have an exercise called the "Genie Question": What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? It helps people decide what they truly want. Why are people so bad at answering that?

23:19-23:57

Graham Weaver: First, 90% of people never even ask the question. They haven't given themselves permission to think about what excites them. Trusting yourself enough to follow a path that lights you up is the highest form of self-love.

23:57-24:16

Sam Parr: What are some real-world answers you’ve heard?

24:16-24:46

Graham Weaver: One student is building a theme park in Dallas. Another is going to India to build free hospitals. Shaan and Sam, you guys are doing it too—you followed the energy and built a podcast you love.

24:46-25:26

Graham Weaver: But don't think successful people don't have doubts. I thought Alpine might fail for the first 14 years. We all have limiting beliefs. I have my students write them all down to get them out of their subconscious. Once a fear is on paper, it becomes a problem to be solved rather than a source of paralysis.

25:26-26:05

Shaan Puri: What if someone doesn't know what lights them up? How do they find the answer?

26:05-26:46

Graham Weaver: Don't feel pressured to have just one thing. Make a list of nine things. Keep your day job and devote a few hours a week to testing them. You aren't looking for immediate traction; you're looking for energy. Was that the part of the week you looked forward to most? If you find something that lights you up and you have a long timeframe, almost anything will yield to that formula.

26:46-27:15

Sam Parr: You said it took 14 years to know Alpine would succeed. What were the numbers then?

27:15-27:42

Graham Weaver: We lost money on our first fund. It was marked at 40 cents on the dollar at one point. Our investors gave us another shot because we were transparent. By year 14, we were managing maybe $300 million or $400 million.

27:42-28:14

Sam Parr: When and how did you make your first million? Not on paper, but in the bank?

28:14-28:41

Graham Weaver: It was year 14. I was in my 40s. In PE, we have a "European waterfall," meaning we have to return all investor capital plus an 8% return before we take any profit. I was a millionaire on paper long before, but it took 14 years to have it in the bank.

28:41-29:17

Graham Weaver: But I felt wealthy long before that because my "denominator"—my spending—was small. The biggest mistake people make is letting their lifestyle keep pace with their income. They take a high-paying job to "save up" to start a business, but then they buy a house and a car, and suddenly they have no freedom. My wife and I lived very simply for a long time, which gave me the freedom to keep going.

29:17-29:44

Sam Parr: I used to take cold showers just to remind myself I wasn't "home" yet—that I hadn't made it and shouldn't get comfortable.

29:44-30:21

Graham Weaver: I love that. The utility of money is a curve. Level one is peace of mind—having 3 to 6 months of savings so an unexpected car repair doesn't ruin your week. Level two is having enough to do what you want with your life. After that, the happiness curve flattens out.

30:21-30:51

Graham Weaver: When I finally had the big liquidity event, it was actually disappointing. I thought it would solve my internal problems, but it didn't. You can't solve an internal "I'm not enough" problem with an external outcome.

30:51-31:17

Shaan Puri: What career milestone actually made you happy?

31:17-31:44

Graham Weaver: It wasn't a wire transfer. It was moments like being in Napa with my three partners, looking around and realizing we built something special with people we love.

31:44-32:38

Shaan Puri: You’ve done a lot of internal work—therapy, coaching, meditation. Are there any breakthrough realizations or exercises that we can benefit from?

32:38-33:06

Graham Weaver: Almost all your battles are "you against you." Everything that happens is filtered through the story you tell yourself. It’s much easier to change that filter than to change the world. I used to be my own worst enemy, thinking that beating myself up was the key to my success. It wasn't; it just made me miserable.

33:06-33:38

Graham Weaver: Meditation is how you train that muscle. When your mind wanders and you bring it back to your breath, you are building the muscle of self-awareness. You are separating yourself from your thoughts and learning to be present. If you can be present, you can find joy regardless of the circumstances.

33:38-34:02

Sam Parr: That’s a great reframe. Failing at meditation is actually the "rep" that builds the muscle.

34:02-34:15

Sam Parr: One last thing: parenting. You have three kids. Do you use these exercises with them, or do they just roll their eyes because you're "Dad"?

34:15-34:53

Graham Weaver: Both. My teenagers are ruthless. But I use the tools subtly. When my son was struggling with freshman year lacrosse, I had him visualize his life over the next three years both with and without the sport. By the end, he knew for a fact he wanted to play. Mostly, though, they learn through osmosis. They see me writing my goals and working hard, and they follow suit.

34:53-35:12

Shaan Puri: Graham, this has been awesome. Where can people follow you?

35:12-35:30

Graham Weaver: Instagram is best, @GrahamCWeaver. I'm the same on all platforms.

35:30-35:30

Shaan Puri: Badass. We appreciate you. That’s the pod.

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