Leading blue-collar companies in ETA

August 17, 2025

by an investor from Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management in Naples, FL, USA

For those interested in buying or leading a blue-collar business, please read the attached paper that AJ Wasserstein, Brian Wolfe, and I recently shared. Great blue-collar businesses aren’t built alone; they’re built by smart, hard-working crews. Hopefully, this paper will help ETA entrepreneurs become the leaders that their crews deserve. Thanks to Brian Wolfe, AJ Wasserstein, and Chris Hoffmann for their insights. You can download the article using this link: https://som.yale.edu/sites/default/files/###-###-#### /Some%20Thoughts%20on%20Managing%20Blue-Collar%20Team%20Members%20in%20a%20Search%20Fund-Acquired%20Business.pdf

Reply by a searcher
in Monroe, WA, USA

Thanks for sharing, Matt! This is a very good work on leadership in general. As a former IT manager I appreciate the introduction of 'pink-collar', i.e. halfway between blue- and white-collar, roles concept. Front-line IT staff are actually way closer to the blue-collar mindset than to software engineers, but are routinely considered like pure white-collar roles for the purpose of motivation and compensation, causing all the issues discussed in the paper. I also liked the article on the 'Nature of CEO communication in small business' that is referenced in this paper.

Reply by a searcher
from Northwestern University in Phoenix, AZ, USA

Thanks for sharing Matt, excited to learn

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