The “long-term hold” strategy is one that has received an increasing amount of attention within the ETA ecosystem of late: Instead of selling a company within 5-7 years of acquiring it, why might you choose to hold it for a much longer period of time? Why not hold it indefinitely?

To unpack the long-term hold thesis, I could think of no guest more appropriate than Zac Carman: Zac acquired ConsumerAffairs.com in 2010, and has been its CEO for the past 14 years. In our discussion today, among many other things, we unpack Zac’s long-term-hold strategy and discuss the extent to which it was deliberate or emergent, how he has managed liquidity requirements for both himself and his investors, the commercial and personal reasons why a long-term hold strategy makes sense for him, and if he thinks it makes sense for an entrepreneur to target a long-term hold strategy before acquiring their first company.

Please enjoy!

Long Term Holds: With Zac Carman, CEO of ConsumerAffairs for 14+ Years