About

By & for
entrepreneurs

A long-term holding company dedicated to buying and building beautiful businesses and stewarding them with exceptional, values-driven leadership.

OUR STORY

Founded in 2019, by Xavier Helgesen and Sieva Kozinsky, Enduring Ventures is a team of seasoned entrepreneurs turned investors. Since has grown to own over 25 businesses across software, home services, hospitality, and more employing hundreds of people around the globe.

Our team has MBAs, but we didn’t learn business from a textbook. We learned it from sleeping under the shipping table, having invoices go unpaid and struggling to make payroll. We learned it from making great hires and terrible ones. We struck transformative deals for our companies and signed others that we would never do again. There’s no substitute for experience, and no faster way to gain it than by building something from nothing.

Our respect for our fellow entrepreneurs flows from this experience. We know just how much pain, hard work and risk went into building a company that customers love and keep coming back to.

Having invested in companies, sold companies and raised funding, we have seen the costs of the short-term mindset of private equity and venture capital up close. We wanted to do something fundamentally different.

We took our inspiration from some of our personal heroes: Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger. They have been very open and generous about their recipe for success, but surprisingly few people have tried to replicate it because of the patience and discipline it requires. In a short term world, Buffett & Munger have shown that a long term perspective can be the ultimate competitive advantage.

Following the inspiration of Berkshire Hathaway, we decided to build the company that we would want to buy our own company. One that would hold it forever instead of selling it to the highest bidder. One that would take care of our employees and create opportunities for them to grow wealth if the business grows. One that would mentor our next generation of leaders. One that would give our business the time it needs to grow (or simply stay the right size) at whatever pace is right for it. That company is Enduring Ventures.

How we think of acquisitions

As an entrepreneurial holding company, we are not structured like a private equity firm, meaning we’re under no mandate to sell your business in 3-5 years. Our business model allows us to hold companies over the long term, operating them sustainability and profitably.
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We are control cash-flow buyers typically acquiring 51%-100%. We are mostly agnostic about industries, and specialize in Consumer, Technology, Retail, Industrial, and Business Services.

We’ve been on the other side of the table with potential buyers, burning time and focus away from our businesses, not to mention burning tens of thousands in legal and financial costs. Therefore, we move fast to close – often in under 30 days.

Owners have different reasons for selling their businesses. We’re comfortable to take over a business that comes with or without the management team. We’re different from most VC and PE firms in that we operate the businesses we own for sustainability, and not growth at all-costs. This gives many owners peace of mind that their legacy, and the business that they built, will be around for many years and decades to come.

Finally, being entrepreneurs, we can get creative in structure to help owners get out from under a broken balance sheet or messy cap table. We can be helpful when other firms don’t even call you back.