Oliver Thomas - Bootstrapped European Software Investing - [Art of Investing, EP.12]

Today’s teacher is Oliver Thomas, founder and managing partner of Expedition Growth Capital. Expedition is a leading growth equity firm based in London, built to serve the next generation of capital-efficient, founder-led European software companies. Oli shares what it takes to win as an investor in this fascinating and attractive small corner of the market. This class is jam-packed with colorful stories, insightful career advice and a history on the bootstrap growth investing landscape that goes all the way back to the late '70s. Oli describes the archetype of bootstrap software companies and their elements of differentiation versus VC-backed peers, which tend to be better funded but more fragile due to capital dependency. Please enjoy our class with Oliver Thomas. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Summus. Summus is a revolutionary health benefits solution, driving superior employee engagement while dramatically lowering your company's enterprise-level healthcare spend. They're completely transforming the world of health benefits by providing employers and their employees in any location, fast access to over 5,100 of the top medical specialists from America's very best medical centers for support across all health questions. If you're looking for a benefit that drives your employee engagement, truly takes care of your people in their most scary and vulnerable times, all while improving your healthcare ROI, visit GoSummus.info/AOI. This episode is brought to you by Hunt Club. Hunt Club unlocks relationships and helps companies grow. Whether it's recruiting your next hire, landing your next big partner, or financing your business, a trusted introduction always works more effectively. Hunt Club’s tech-enabled search model leverages the largest community of its kind to refer amazing talent on your behalf. Additionally, its software program, Atlas, helps organize the entire network of a company or fund and assists in streamlining the right introductions. If you're looking for the ideal solution for all of your talent needs, visit HuntClub.com/AOI. ----- Art of Investing is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Art of Investing, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @ArtofInvest | @Buhrman_Rick | @PaulBuser | @JoinColossus Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Show Notes (00:00:00) Welcome to Art of Investing (00:04:00) First question - Reflecting on an upbringing in Wales (00:12:33) The impact of sports during early years (00:18:33) Finding motivation and drive at a young age (00:24:09) Gaining insights into growth equity (00:23:44) Tracing the evolution of bootstrap investing (00:36:26) Key elements of successful bootstrap investing (00:47:37) Examining the 'likability factor' in equity capital (00:51:58) Introducing Expedition and its practices   (00:59:25) Offering guidance for establishing an investment firm (01:03:33) Highlighting favorite bootstrap companies collaborated with (01:12:21) Exploring AI's role in bootstrapped companies (01:16:11) Recommending inspirational resources