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Terry Graunke is the Chairman and Founder of Erie Street and had an extensive management and investment career. He has led over 40 businesses: founding, growing, selling and listing them, all within disruptive industries.
The podcast explores Terry’s emphasis on human capital where the primarily philosophy is around surrounding yourself with the right people – the right business, right people and a little bit of luck can create significant momentum. Terry has always gravitated to services businesses as his view is that “it’s easier manage assets that you can reason with rather than assets that can rust”.
Terry was one of the earliest disruptors in direct marketing – more clearly and efficiently targeting customers as opposed to general advertising – doing e-commerce without the “e” back then! After selling his first agency to Omnicom and realising a corporate role wasn’t in his plans, he jumped into operator and investor roles within the Hawthorne Group which led him into starting up numerous businesses including Eagle River Interactive, one of the earliest web development businesses to publicly list. Many of the disruptive elements around that time echo to the disruption that AI potentially brings today.
The podcast also explores his involvement with forensic accounting firm Huron Consulting Group, which was also born in a time of significant disruption in consulting services following the collapse of Arthur Andersen after Enron. The internet winter following the dotcom boom which Terry had famously called before it arrived created conditions ripe for new business opportunities.
In more recent years, Terry founded Erie Street Growth Partners, which has found a niche in the private equity business services middle market sector. Erie Street has no specific time horizon on its investments leading to a patient investor base focusing on sustainable growth rather than short-term sales.
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