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Episode Summary
Most owners I talk to are looking for an integrator and have no idea what to actually pay them, how to tie comp to value creation, or how to structure the partnership so both sides win at the exit. JT lived the other side of that chair. He came in as the integrator at a $2M background screening company his owner, Steve, had bought as an investor. Five and a half years later, they sold it for 11x earnings in an auction with nine offers. Steve walked away. JT got his check. They still talk every week. We got into the stuff owners almost never hear from the second seat: how JT and Steve built a comp plan that paid 75% on profit and 25% on revenue (not vanity top-line), how Steve drew the line at “we’re not here to play store, we’re here to make money,” what it actually feels like as the integrator when the owner says “I’m thinking about taking chips off the table,” and the year of due diligence soldiering it takes to turn a clean P&L into a sellable data room. If you’ve been hunting for the right number two, or you’re the number two wondering what a real partnership looks like, this one is for you.
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## Top 10 Takeaways- Your integrator’s comp should be weighted to profit, not revenue, or you’ll grow top-line and starve the bottom.
- “We’re not here to play store. We’re here to make money.” Set that tone from day one or your team will chase vanity revenue.
- Find out your direct report’s one thing. Do that first. Everything else trails down.
- Expenses always creep up and revenues creep down. Push both directions every week or you’ll lose ground without noticing.
- Your sales execution is fiction until you build the onboarding and account management team behind it.
- A national outside rep at $90K base takes forever to pay back. Two inside reps at $45K closing higher-margin business pays the marketing budget too.
- Letters of intent are really indications of interest. The deal isn’t real until quality of earnings supports the price.
- Start preparing for the sale a full year before you think you need to. The data room work will drown you otherwise.
- Your integrator needs to know exactly how they get paid at the exit. Vague phantom equity creates resentment on both sides.
- The shared vision is the whole game. If you can’t go to battle in the alley with this person, the package doesn’t matter.
Sound Bites
“You dream it, then you demand it, then you execute on it.” (@TBD) — Jonathan Thielen
“We’re not here to play store. We’re here to make money.” (@TBD) — Jonathan Thielen (quoting Steve Gustoson)
“Expenses always creep up and revenues creep down. So you got to be diligent on pushing revenues up and pushing expenses down.” (@TBD) — Jonathan Thielen
“Letters of intent are nice, but they’re really indications of interest. A letter of intent becomes real when you start the due diligence process.” (@TBD) — Jonathan Thielen
“You’re either going to overpay me and you’re going to resent me, you’re going to underpay me and I’m going to resent you, or we could figure out what we think is fair.” (@TBD) — Ryan Tansom
About This Episode
Jonathan “JT” Thielen is a revenue-driving executive who spent his career growing and exiting companies from the integrator and CRO seats. His background includes opening offices for CitySearch, running San Diego.com, and serving as a publisher director at AOL’s Patch initiative managing 60 cities and 85+ direct and indirect reports. He joined a Minneapolis-based background screening company as president and integrator, scaled it from $4M to roughly $10M in revenue with $2M of EBITDA, and helped lead the auction sale at 11x earnings in early 2020. This conversation is one of the rare iBD episodes told from the number-two seat, with hard specifics on comp structure, sale prep, and the integrator-visionary relationship that actually held up through the transaction.
Resources Mentioned
- EOS / Traction by Gino Wickman — The operating system Steve had installed before JT joined.
- Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman & Mark C. Winters — Framework for the visionary-integrator pairing.
- The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy — JT’s reference for KPI discipline and daily execution.
- Jack Welch / Jack Stack — Referenced for reading the financials as a story.
- Marristim Wealth Management — Mentioned in the context of executive comp and exit structures.
- Jonathan Thielen — JT’s cell: 612-720-2594.
Connections
Phase + Module:
- Module 5 — Predictable Revenue — Building the sales team, CX, and account management that produced the run rate
- Module 7 — Leadership Team — The integrator seat and the visionary-integrator pairing
- Module 8 — Executive Compensation — JT’s quarterly comp tied to profit and revenue
- Module 9 — Operator Transition — The exit, the auction, and the post-sale handoff
Milestones:
- Milestone 13 — Strategic Plan — Backing into the number from the vision
- Milestone 17 — Operational KPIs — The week-over-week green/yellow/red discipline JT ran
- Milestone 19 — Functional Leaders — Recruiting bigger-company talent into a small-company seat
- Milestone 22 — Company Bonus Pool — How the profit-weighted bonus actually got built
- Milestone 24 — Long-Term Value Plan — The exit conversation between owner and integrator
Concepts referenced:
- Visionary-Integrator Framework — The Steve and JT pairing in practice
- The One Thing — JT’s rule: find your direct report’s one thing
- Normalized EBITDA — Quality of earnings as the gate between LOI and close
- The Owner-Operator Trap™ — Why Steve hired out of it before JT arrived
- Owner’s Scorecard™ — Owner’s cash flow and valuation goals as the constraint set