Building a Berkshire for the Middle Market – Tracy Britt Cool (EP.521)

With Ted Seides, Tracy Britt Cool · Sunday, October 25, 2026

Tracy Britt Cool, co-founder of Kanbrick and former key deputy to Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, shares the lessons she learned transitioning from investing to operating portfolio companies like Pampered Chef. She explains how Kanbrick applies a 15-plus year holding horizon, an active business system, and an executive community of 4,000 leaders to acquire and compound mid-market family and founder-owned businesses outside the traditional private equity model.

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Key takeaways

Mid-market companies typically depend on just 15 to 20 mission-critical roles to generate their returns, making mis-hires far more dangerous than in large conglomerates. Read more →
Kanbrick sourced four of its seven platform investments directly through an internal network of 4,000 mid-market business leaders. Read more →
Tracy Britt Cool and Brian Humphrey built Kanbrick with a 15-plus year horizon to target mid-market businesses producing $5 million to $50 million in earnings, stepping into a segment Berkshire Hathaway outgrew. Read more →
Kanbrick splits family-owned acquisition targets into two groups: roughly half seek a successor within three to five years, while the other half are builders looking for scale resources. Read more →
Tracy Britt Cool argues the classic buyout model of buying assets at 7x EBITDA and selling at 12x is gone, forcing investors to create value through genuine operating gains. Read more →

5 articles from this episode

Tracy Britt Cool Fixes Mid-Market Hiring Rates

Tracy Britt Cool explains how Kanbrick cuts executive hiring failures in half and ties operational metrics to bonuses at portfolio companies like JM Test.

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