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2 Commas: The $multi-million exit show with Josh Comrie: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Josh Comrie
Welcome to 2 Commas: The $multi-million exit showI've spent over two decades helping founders scale their businesses and achieve successful, multimillion-dollar exits. I've also achieved this myself on multiple occasions. With my experience as an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor, I’ve had the privilege of guiding companies through the highs and lows of business growth and exit strategies.Each episode will bring you the previously untold stories of entrepreneurs who have successfully scaled and exited their businesses for seven-figure (2 comma's) plus returns. You’ll hear more about the journeys, challenges, and pivotal moments that led to these transformative exits. My goal is to inform and inspire founders who are looking to scale their ventures to seven, eight or nine figures and beyond.Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joshcomrieDownload my e-book, "The Exit Factor" and sign up to receive the Business Growth Journal weekly: https://www.joshcomrie.com/the-exit-factor
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- 3 days ago1h 13m
50 Ferraris, 4 exits and a fight for his life | Grant Baker with Josh Comrie | 2 Commas
The Comma Club is now open for founding members — a private community for NZ founders building toward a multimillion-dollar exit: https://www.joshcomrie.com/clubGrant Baker was sitting in his office on credit watch with BNZ when his phone rang. Eric Watson was calling from Palm Springs to say he'd sold Blue Star for a hundred million dollars. The deal had been done on a golf course in the dark. Grant thought he was joking.He wasn't. Ninety million came in shares. Six months later, when the lockup expired, those shares had doubled. Blue Star had grown from $2M to $1B in sales through 56 acquisitions and almost no working capital. That was exit one. Then came Empower, an electricity retailer Grant built to 150,000 customers and 10% of all NZ electricity sales before selling to Contact Energy. Then 42 Below, which Jeff Ross was making 500 cases a year of in his garage when Grant got involved, sold to Bacardi for $165M USD on $20M revenue. Then Turners, bought for $70M when Grant's own company was worth $20M, now approaching a billion dollar market cap. Along the way: a bowel cancer diagnosis the morning of his first Bacardi meeting, 50 Ferraris, and a decade backing Liam Lawson from a $4,000 airfare to Formula One.We get into:What 56 acquisitions taught him about what kills a roll-up strategyWhy Bacardi paid a technology multiple for a spirits business and what that tells you about brandHow to build a business that a specific buyer will have to acquireThe cancer diagnosis, the 50/50 odds, and what his father's death three weeks later changedWhy he disagrees with "follow your passion" and what he'd tell any young NZ founderIf you're building something and wondering what four decades of exits, setbacks, and survival actually looks like from the inside, this one's worth your time.
- 1 weeks ago1h 7m
He’s invested $billions and not taken a single share of equity | Tim Wixon with Josh Comrie | 2 Commas
Tim Wixon built a lending model at BNZ that most traditional bankers said was impossible. Over 11 years he created a framework for funding pre-profit tech companies against their recurring revenue, on interest-only terms, with no personal guarantees and no equity dilution. BNZ has now funded over 1,700 NZ tech companies through that model. Then the board of the SaaS company he co-founded voted him off it.That second story is as candid as anything I've heard in a studio about what actually happens when a founding team breaks down. Tim doesn't dress it up. The relationship deteriorated, the trust broke, and his co-founders used the board process to remove him from the company he helped build. He talks through what he learned from it and what he'd do differently.We get into:How BNZ built a lending model for tech companies that traditional banking said couldn't workWhy debt used well during a growth phase protects your cap table better than another equity roundThe lead indicators Tim looks for that most founders don't trackWhat the SaaS apocalypse has done to NZ founder attitudes toward non-equity capitalThe co-founder breakdown that ended with a board vote and what came afterIf you're building a tech company in New Zealand and wondering what capital options actually exist beyond equity, this one's worth your time.
- 3 weeks ago1h 34m
Simplicity: The $11B charity, that's worth nothing, and can never be sold! | Sam Stubbs with Josh Comrie | 2 Commas Podcast
KiwiSaver fees in New Zealand will hit a billion dollars this year. Sam Stubbs has been the loudest voice in the country saying that's a scandal and building something to prove it doesn't have to be that way.Sam is the founder and CEO of Simplicity, an $11 billion KiwiSaver fund owned by a charity. It makes almost no profit. It is worth essentially nothing. It can never be sold. That's the point. When you ask people to trust you with their retirement savings, being unbuyable turns out to be an extraordinarily powerful thing. Before Simplicity, Sam was at Goldman Sachs listing Chinese companies on the New York Stock Exchange, flying on the Rolling Stones jet, and having lunch at the Ritz in the same room where Princess Diana dined the week she died. He made all the money he needed by 50, felt nothing from it, planted trees on an island for three years, then came back to take on the finance industry from the inside.Simplicity now gets between $5 and $16 million in member contributions every single day. It gives $10,000 to charity daily, builds 1.3 houses a day, saves its members $100,000 a day in fees, and gets 10% of new signups directly from AI engines with zero advertising spend.We get into:Why the finance industry is a priesthood and how they've kept it that way for decadesThe deliberate bank lobbying that set NZ open banking back 10 yearsWhy KiwiSaver heading toward $1 trillion by 2070 is the most significant economic event in NZ history that founders aren't paying attention toHow KiwiSaver funds could become the exit buyer of choice for NZ baby boomer business ownersWhat Sam would say to any exited founder wondering what to do nextIf you're building something and wondering what it looks like to take on a billion dollar industry with almost no marketing budget and a model nobody thought would work, this one's worth your time.
- Jun 24, 20261h 23m
Why I left millions on the table | Carl Thompson with Josh Comrie
Carl Thompson flew to Singapore with $3,000, shared a pullout bed with his co-founder in a room so small he could touch the wall sitting up, and cold-called New York at 2am because that's when the market was awake. That was the start of TradeGecko.He left the company two and a half years in, halfway through his vesting schedule, because he needed to come home for his relationships and his health. He split his role into five people on the way out. A few years later, Cam checked his spam folder and found an email from Intuit saying they wanted to buy the business. The acquisition closed at $100 million US.Carl has ADHD, has been cycling in and out of burnout for 20 years, and now runs SortMe, a money management platform built around the uncomfortable fact that 60% of NZ households can't cover a $1,500 bill without borrowing. His clients aren't struggling. They earn $150K to $500K a year and spend every dollar of it.We get into:Why he walked away from millions in unvested equity and whether he regrets itThe dopamine science behind ADHD and why he thinks it's a competitive advantage for foundersHow a spam folder email became a $100M acquisitionWhat lifestyle creep actually looks like at high income levelsWhat he did with the exit money the day it landedIf you're building something and wondering what it looks like to choose the life over the money and keep building anyway, this one's worth your time.
- Jun 17, 20261h 38m
Why I closed a business that fed 2,500 kids a day | Lisa King with Josh Comrie
Lisa King had a goal from the very first day of Eat My Lunch: the business would be a success the day it became unnecessary.She built it in 2015 to solve a problem she couldn't stop thinking about, kids going hungry at school in a country of abundance. By week 12 she was making 2,000 lunches a day out of her own kitchen. At peak, nearly 5,000, with police officers, politicians, and grannies in their sixties all buttering bread before sunrise. Then the government launched its own school lunch program, and Lisa did something most founders never do. She closed the business on purpose.Before that happened, a media story accused her of personally profiting off hungry kids, at a time when she was being paid less than she'd ever earned. She had to show a reporter her payslip to prove it. We talk through what that period actually felt like, what New Zealand's tall poppy syndrome did to her willingness to talk to press afterward, and the identity crisis of letting go of a business that had defined her for five years.We get into:How Eat My Lunch scaled from 50 to nearly 5,000 lunches a dayThe media smear and what it actually cost her personallyWhy she built the business to make itself redundant from day oneWhat closing your first business does to your sense of who you areIf you're building something with real purpose behind it, or wondering what it takes to walk away from your own success on your own terms, this one's worth your time.
- Jun 10, 20261h 25m
Would you sell 80% of your business to 5X its value? | Murray Schnuriger and Toby King with Josh Comrie
Most founders won't give up 80% of their business. The ones who did walked away with more than if they'd kept 100%.Murray Schnuriger made the jump from 20 years advising founders on exits to actually owning the risk at 5V Capital, a mid-market PE fund across Australia and New Zealand. Toby King has spent his career at Cameron Partners, one of NZ's most established M&A firms, allied with Rothschild and Company. Together they've sat on both sides of more NZ business exits than almost anyone alive.The Education Perfect story is the one that sticks. Two brothers built an edtech platform into 50% of NZ secondary schools, hit their ceiling, and sold 80% to 5V. One went backpacking for a year. 5V brought in a new CEO, put sales teams on the ground in Australia, and tripled the business in three years. Exit to KKR. The 20% the brothers held at the end was worth more than their original 100%. That's the structure most NZ founders never think to ask about.Murray and Toby pull no punches on what founders consistently get wrong, pricing on EBITDA when buyers price on free cash flow, waiting one more year for growth when the multiple compression wipes out the gain, and showing up to a sale process without a narrative that holds up under serious due diligence.We get into:Why selling 80% can leave you wealthier than holding everythingThe EBITDA trap that costs NZ founders millions at the tableWhy "one more year of growth" is often the most expensive decision you'll makeHow PE investors actually think about your exit before they've even finished investing in youWhat your business narrative needs to nail to earn a premium valuationThe succession wave hitting NZ baby boomer founders and why PE is filling the gapIf you're building something and wondering what it actually looks like to sell part of your business, back yourself for one more run, and walk away with more than you started with, this one's worth your time.
- Jun 3, 20261h 25m
I gave away half of my business on a handshake. Here's why. | Mark Zeman | 2 Commas
What if the most successful version of your company is the smallest one?This week I sit down with Mark Zeman, co-founder of SpeedCurve, who quietly built one of the most unusual software businesses I've come across. No VC. No sales team. No marketing function. A team that never grew beyond seven people, paid two to three times market salary, and shared the monthly profit with everyone.SpeedCurve had customers like Airbnb, the New York Times and the Guardian. They found him, not the other way around. And after 13 years, he exited to Embrace, not at the peak.We get into:- Why Mark turned down customers, capital and "grow at all costs"- How a UX designer in New Zealand ended up shaping global web performance standards- The handshake co-founder deal with Steve Souders and why it worked- Monthly profit share instead of equity and a someday-maybe exit- The moment the market shifted and SpeedCurve became the wrong shape- Selling a declining SaaS business and why Embrace still wanted it- What working inside a VC-backed company has confirmed and challengedIf you've ever wondered whether there's another way to build a SaaS business and exit on your own terms, there is. Mark just lived it.
- May 27, 202646 min
67% of founding teams fail. Hete's why | Logan Yonavjak | 2 Commas
What if the biggest risk in your company isn't your product, it's whether your people are actually ready to lead?This week, I sit down with Logan Yonavjak, founder of the Readiness Engine, to explore how AI can now measure leadership capacity at scale. We get into coachability, the grit myth, the early warning signs a founding team is in trouble, and my own method for testing resilience and values in the room.Essential listening for founders, investors and operators.
About 2 Commas: The $multi-million exit show with Josh Comrie
Welcome to 2 Commas: The $multi-million exit showI've spent over two decades helping founders scale their businesses and achieve successful, multimillion-dollar exits. I've also achieved this myself on multiple occasions. With my experience as an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor, I’ve had the privilege of guiding companies through the highs and lows of business growth and exit strategies.Each episode will bring you the previously untold stories of entrepreneurs who have successfully scaled and exited their businesses for seven-figure (2 comma's) plus returns. You’ll hear more about the journeys, challenges, and pivotal moments that led to these transformative exits. My goal is to inform and inspire founders who are looking to scale their ventures to seven, eight or nine figures and beyond.Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joshcomrieDownload my e-book, "The Exit Factor" and sign up to receive the Business Growth Journal weekly: https://www.joshcomrie.com/the-exit-factor
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