YouSaid · the spoken record

Bernie Marcus

lines on the record: 96
first: 2018-11-05
most recent: 2018-11-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Conversation continues. I'm going to skip over towards the end. It says, Bernie Langone said, You have repeatedly told me how Handy Dan and this whole industry is vulnerable. Too many small chains, no national companies, and the prices are too high. Do you still believe that? Yes. Good. Then let you and I meet as soon as we can. I have no money, I protested. Well, how much would you need? I threw out a number twenty five million at that Langone let the subject drop without further comment and said goodbye. And now this is Bernie Marcus at age forty nine before. With very little cash on hand, my reputation at issue and at the age of forty nine my future prospects shaky at best that's how he's describing his situation.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I thought he was crazy. Kenny, I said, I was just fired. There's nothing golden about that. Are you kidding? he said. This is the greatest news I have ever heard. I thought he was a raving lunatic, which he is. What the hell is the matter with you? I said. I just got fired. Langone just breezed right over that. You guys have been really hamstrung and haven't been able to do a lot of things you wanted to do, and it's pretty clear to me as an investment banker and a financier that you have a lot more capacity than what you can do here. Don't view this as a negative. Bernie, he continued, you never know where life is going to take you. This is a great opportunity for you to do your own thing. Let's go into business together.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Kenny, a terrible thing has happened. You told me what would happen to me. You told me that it would get fired and it happened. And now he's trying to destroy my life. But Langone wasn't at all sympathetic, not one bit. And he wasn't interested in wasting time on, I told you so either. What he actually said was more upsetting. Oh man, that's great. That's unbelievable, Lingone said. What the hell are you smoking? I asked. This is the greatest news I have ever heard, Lingone continued. This is I'm so happy I cannot tell you. What is the matter with you, Kenny? Did you hear what I said? No, no, no, no. You don't understand, Langon insisted. You have just been kicked in the ass with a golden horseshoe. This is the greatest opportunity. Now we can open up that store you talked about when we were in Houston. Langone actually thought being fired was a blessing.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Patient needed. They wound up being the best thing that ever happened to him. But at the time, he didn't realize that. So Bernie's going to go through something very similar here. And we're going to go back into a conversation he's having with Ken because Ken is this crazy character. And he's actually really smart about what he's going to tell him here. So he says, it was late Saturday. Okay, so he's on the phone now with Ken after this. This all happened.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, again, I think the reason I bring that up is because I do think that's also inspiring. Because if you can, you know, some people at that point be like, oh, my life's over. I give up. What am I going to do? My reputation's tattered. I have this guy trying to sue me out of existence. And I just lost my entire career. And yet he got knocked down and gets back up and builds something even better. So I think it's encouraging for all of us. Okay, so before I get there, though, the known I left myself was getting fired was the best thing that ever happened or getting kicked in the ass with a golden horseshoe. And this part really reminds me of if you watch, I talked about other Steve Jobs podcasts I've done, but it's also, if you ever watch Steve Jobs commencement address, he talks about how getting fired from Apple and then going to start next was, I think he said compared to getting hit with a brick in the head or something like that, but he talked about it's like medicine that the...”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you're going to have to pay to use your own funds to fight this lawsuit. Meanwhile, I'm just going to use company funds. And I'm going to bury you. Eventually against his will and having to swallow a lot of his pride, he just stops fighting the lawsuits. So he winds up basically leaving. And I'm going to get there in one second, almost penniless, almost as broke as you can be. Think about it. He's going to be 49 years old before he starts Home Depot with... And no money”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At 1 p.m. Sharp, we walked into a room. Sigilov was there waiting, accompanied by an assortment of lawyers, accountants, and stenographers. It was an odd group for a planning meeting. Sigilov finally had us where he wanted us, and today was Ming's version of corporate show and tell to make a long story short, I was fired and in rapid succession so were Arthur and Ron Brill, both of which become co-founders of Home Depot. Okay, so he's fired. I'm going to skip over a part. Because remember how he said earlier that Sigiloff wouldn't let people just leave. He'd have to destroy him. He's accusing him of employment violations. They were fighting with a labor union and one of their stores in San Jose. And then he just ties them up personally in lawsuits. So Ming ties up Bernie and he's telling him, hey, you have no money. I know you don't have any money.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not because of poor performance, it's because of what Ken Long said. This guy does not want you to succeed. If you succeed, He cannot take credit. His ego is bigger than his ego is in control, not his logical part of his brain. So what does that mean? It says, by this point, Handy Dan was 66 stores and had almost 155 million in sales. So this is the business that Bernie's running. Remember, he's running it, but he doesn't have equity on it. During fiscal year 1976, Handy Dan earned $7.8 million. While Dalen as a whole, so all the other businesses Dalen owned, made $7 million. Okay, so that's what Ken was talking about. Like, you're the one running the business. His ego's not going to let you take credit for it. So he's going to find a reason to fire you.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It says April 14th, 1978 is a day that Arthur and I will never forget. That's Arthur Blank, the co-founder of Home Depot. We were scheduled to attend a Friday 1 p.m. corporate planning meeting. The plan was to spend a couple hours reviewing our budget and plans for the coming year. That was what was supposed to be. I still remember he had this lesson a few months earlier from Ken about human nature that he didn't understand yet. He understands it now. He says, I still believe that if you did something well, if you made a lot of money, that people, even if they didn't like you, would tolerate you, how wrong I was. And so before I get into this, it's very important to understand that he's about to get fired, as you have guessed by now.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“$25.50 a share. Why the odd number? Because, Langoin explained, it has to look like we had some real bargaining, real hard bargaining here. Kaufman said that he would call Langoan right back five minutes later the phone rang. Be in my office tomorrow morning to sign the, at 10 to sign the papers. The next morning I picked up Langone as we drove down the street. Lingone tried again to dissuade. But I could not be dissuaded. I honestly believe my position a handy Dan would be more secure once Langone was out of the picture. I think you can kind of see where we're going here. Remember at the very introduction that Home Depot started. On the day he gets fired Okay, so I'm going to skip ahead a little bit in the story, and this is... We're now in April of 1978. Okay.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't worry about me, I said. I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself. It's your funeral. So will you sell? Yeah, sure, Lingone said. I'll sell, but I'm not going to mess around on price. On the spot, I called Ed Kaufman, Dalen's lawyer at home. I told him that Lingoan was ready to make a deal, then I handed Lingoan the phone. I want to make you an offer, Lingone said. You don't want it? This is the end of it, and let's leave it alone. If you want it, that is the price. Well, what's the price, Kaufman asked?”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Bernie, look, the only thing of any value in the mess Sigilov has on his hands is Handy Dan. As long as you were there, he is never going to be able to take credit for its success or for the recovery of Dalin. Oh, you don't know what you're talking about, Bernie. I have never been more certain of my position than I am right now. I am telling you I can read this guy like a book. He can't stand to see you succeed. The more you succeed, the more pain he feels. I felt very cocky about myself. This is now Bernie talking, that I ran the company as well as I could be run and that Handy Dan made so much money that Single Off would be stupid to get rid of me.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Something about human nature that can clearly do. And so he's going to lay that out for him now. What he's asking is not what he actually wants. And it says, Bernie, trust me, you don't really want me to sell on the stock because if I do, I'm signing your death warrant. You're a dead man. You don't know what you're talking about, I responded. Sigilov doesn't know this business. I know this business. He needs me to run it.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All rebuffed by Langon. And the more Langone resisted, the more pressure Sigalov placed on me. Okay, so when he's talking about, we find at this point in the story, we find Bernie kind of between a rock and a hard place. He's got this good relationship with Ken. Ken owns almost at this time, Ken and all his investors own 19% of Handy Dan because Ken is not selling to Sigiloff. Sigiloff is really putting the screws into Bernie. So Bernie's finally had enough. He has dinner willing going and he says, hey, do me a favor, I said, get Sigiloff off my back, sell him the stock. Another miscalculation by Bernie we're going to see here. And we're going to see how astute that Ken is, not only a business, but about human nature, which I really think that's the crux of this entire podcast. Yeah, we're learning about companies, building companies, starting companies, but companies don't exist without people, not only the people inside of them, but the customers that you sell to. And so fundamentally understanding human nature, I think, is valuable for us all because at this time, Bernie didn't understand.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Singhalov wanted to change the handy Dan board so that he controlled it, but I wouldn't allow it. This is Bernie Murkus talking now. Singaloff didn't like me and the feeling was mutual. I rejected everything about Singaloff, the way he dealt with people, how he talked down to people, he just didn't like how he ran his business. He was extremely mean. The difference between us was that I didn't need Singalov. This is where Bernie is now making a monumental miscalculation. The difference between us was that I didn't need Singaloff. Single off needed me. He couldn't get rid of me even though he wanted it more than anything because every time he moved against me, he got a call from Ken Lingone. Lingone would call him and threaten him with a shareholder lawsuit, and in that way Lingone kept Singaloff in line. Once Singalov realized that Lingone was correct about the explosive nature of Handy Dan's stock arrangement, he wanted Langone out of his business. He made several more miserably attempts to buy back the publicly held stock.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And said no, that offer is now off the table. I don't understand, Sigilov said. It is this simple. You had a chance, you turned it down. I have reconsidered my position. I don't want to sell. Singalov hung up the phone matter than hell.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Barely two minutes later, Shannon followed him in. Okay, he said $12, and this is when I start chuckling. Jeff, you don't understand, Lingon, tell him, I told him. You offered to buy it for $10. I said no. I offered to sell to you for twelve, and you said no. Now you were back wanting to buy it at twelve. That offer is off the table. That's gone. We had an offer and a denial. No deal. What? I suggested a price of twelve dollars in my office, right? Channon nodded, acknowledging Lingon. And you declined. Well, that's it. I don't want to sell it now. You must have some price, Channon said. Okay, Lingon said. fourteen dollars. Channon left in such a blind rage that he almost banged his head on the door. About a week later Singalov called Lingon. Let's not mess around, he said. We will pay you fourteen dollars. Sandy, you guys don't get it, Lingon said. I offered it to you for fourteen dollars.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I want him standing by for this meeting we're going to have. So he says, okay, that's this guy Bob Prey. He's like, perfect. I'll call him when I need him. So he calls Prey. Prey arrived in minutes and it said, who's this guy, Chainan demanded? This is my lawyer, Lingoan said. Now, what do you want to talk about? Look, we really don't want any trouble, Channon said, backpedaling. The stock is selling for about $8. $8 a share. We know that you are boxed and you can't sell any stock, meaning there was very limited liquidity in these kind of markets when you only had 19% of stocks, the shares available. It says you have no liquidity. How about if we pay you $10 a share? No way, Lingone said. This is hilarious. This part made me laugh when I first read it. The price is $12. Shannon was shocked. Forget it. Wanting to leave Shannon swimming alone with his personal barracuda, which is that mean guy, Bob Prey. Langone left for the men's room.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, this guy, Jeff, comes over and says, So, on the appointed day, Jeff Channon arrived at Langone's office, took off his jacket, and sat down. He lost no time with idle pleasantries, saying that Singalov was taking Handy Dan private again, and that Langon and his investors must sell out. Jeff cut the crap, Langone said calmly. I control enough stock that you can't do anything such thing. If that's why you are here, to threaten me, you have the wrong guy. Excuse me. Just then Langone picked up the phone and called Bob Prey. Prey arrived in a few minutes, so Prey is this guy before the meeting Ken figured out something was something nefarious was afoot. So he calls one of the most notorious corporate takeover attorneys that's in New York at the time and says, hey, I need your meanest SOB.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A major control freak who had no intention of seeding a wit of influence to Langon, me, or anyone else Singalov was furious. I don't believe that. It's crazy. This is stupid, Singalov said. I never heard of anything so dumb in my whole life. Okay, Langon said, using his most conciliatory tone and keeping a straight as straight as face. That day came sooner rather than later. A month after their first partner's meeting, Langone received a call from Singalov. One of Singalov's lieutenants, this guy named Jeffrey Channon, was going to be in New York and wanted to say hello. Langone alerted me because he expected attorney's visit would be anything but innocence.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A few days later in California, the two men shook hands, and Singalov completely in the dark asked, What's up? Well, Sandy, Langon said, I just wanted to see how you and I are going to run this company going forward. The gauntlet was thrown down, the line drawn in the sand. Insert your own adversarial cliche any will do. What do you mean we? Sigiloff erupted. Langone filled Sigiloff in on what the attorney told him. This is why these other companies are all buying their shares back because there is a potential time bomb here. I don't want to have any trouble with you, this is Lingon speaking. I think what you and I ought to do is to stay in constant contact and communicate with one another the things we want to do with the company to the best interest of anybody.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would be to vote directly proportionate to the minority? Does this mean that the motion would carry, which means that the minority controls the company? That's the most important sentence. Yes, the lawyer said. It seems convoluted, but considering fiduciary duties, that is the only way the majority owner can say, hey, I didn't shout, I didn't force my will on anybody. Langone, who controlled virtually all the 19% of handy Dan public shares, wasted little time in calling Sigiloff and asking for a meeting.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The publicly held shares plummeted in value. Well, that and one other thing a lawyer said. And what is that? And this is the most important part to understand. This structure is a time bomb, the lawyer said. We believe theoretically at least that if somebody were to get control of the 19% minority, remember that's what Lingon has done in the handy-dan case, the only way the person who held the 81%, that's Ming single off, could really exercise their fiduciary responsibility to the minority would be to vote it in direct proportion to the way the minority votes on any issue. Langone was thunderstruck, not speechless, of course, just thunderstruck. And this is going to clarifying. He's like, wait a minute, you mean Langon asked that if 60% are 90% of that 19%, right? So a majority of the minority is the way to think about that, said they wanted to do something. The only way that the 81% owner could sanitize their vote.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Tax purposes, the companies had to own more than 80. But a fascinating thing happened at least three of these companies. So I'm going to say a bunch of company names. They're not really important to the story. What's important is what happens to them. So Brunswick Corporation owned 81% of the Sherwood Medical and abruptly bought back the 19% of the outstanding public shares and took a private end. This happens over and over again. They released these 19% something goes wrong and they buy back and go private again. So Langone is noticing that this is happening. And so he meets with a lawyer that did this transaction for two of the three companies. And he's like, is there any common theme in why this is being done? Why is the stock being reacquired? And this is a lawyer now. It says the economics didn't work, the lawyer said. And the holding companies didn't realize as much value as they anticipated. In many cases, instead of asset values rising, the exact opposite occurred.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, we're going to get into this unique ownership structure that was taking place at the time. I don't know if it still exists today, but I've never come across it before. And how this had unintended negative externalities that lead to a big payday for Ken, a really bad day for Bernie, and the beginning, the birth of Home Depot. So I said, Handy Dan wasn't the only U.S. corporation in the 1970s that was held by an 81% private 19% public partnership. A number of holding companies like Dalin sold 19% of their wholly owned subsidies. I can't talk today. Sorry. Such as Handy Dan to the public. The holding companies kept 81% on the belief that the public would unlock value in the asset, creating a higher value so that the 81% would be worth much more than if we were completely private.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Single off viewed Langone with suspicion. Langone didn't care for Singaloff's attitude toward me. This is a really bad guy, Langone said after his first encounter with Singaloff. This is the guy that you can't trust and that would kill you in a second”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And Lingone didn't buy that. So it says now that he possessed so much handy dand stock, Lingone personally visited every one of the company's stores. We became fast friends. Our relationship growing far beyond a common desire to see Handy Dan grow. It's very, I think Bernie, he might even explicitly said this in the book, I don't remember, but there would be no Home Depot without Ken Lingo. He said, we generally enjoyed each other's company and socialize whenever possible. Now we're going to go back to the evil guy, Ming. Okay, so Sigiloff, of course, was more than a little curious about who was buying up all the handy dance stock. So I arranged a meeting. It was all handshakes and politeness on the surface, but that was as good as it ever got between Langon and Sigilov, neither like the other, and they never would.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The result of his enthusiasm. As soon as he returned to New York, he and his investors started buying every share of handy dance stock that came on the market. More than four hundred thousand shares in all, at prices ranging from three to twelve dollars a share. Now remember that four hundred thousand shares, three to twelve dollars a share. That's going to become important in the next few pages. So Ken made his move. He winds up acquiring every outstanding stock. Now remember. They only sold 19%, so 81% of Handy Dan is still owned by Dalen. And the only stock that he couldn't get his hands on was owned. There's like 50,000 shares owned by a church.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lang was the single brightest, most energetic person that I have ever met. I just want to pause here for a second. Bernie's writing this, I think today Bernie's in his 80s. And at the time he's writing this, he's in his 60s. He's had a lifetime of experience dealing with people and all kinds of businesses, had an amazing life experience. And that's a hell of a statement that out of everybody he met, he said Lingo was a single brightest, most energetic person that I've ever met. He is intuitive, smart, and a real street fighter. Over lunch, Lingoan described his background and how he represented a group of investors who had every intention of buying up handy dance stock. He asked pertinent questions. The more he learned about the business, the more he realized how undervalued our company was, in part due to the Dalen bankruptcy and his enthusiasm only grew.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would you mind if I came to see you sometime, Ling Gone asked? Sure, sure, I said. Anytime you want, come out. Anytime you want to come out, fine. Good, Lingoan said. I'll see you tomorrow for lunch. Langoan seemed very excited. He took the first flight out of New York the next morning and landed in Los Angeles by eleven thirty AM in time for lunch. Still overwhelmed by the speed with which Based on what I've read about Ken, this is a great one sentence description. Langone was like a fire hydrant let loose.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That said, Langone was still suspicious of Handy Dan's numbers. This doesn't make sense, he told me. You're going to make $1.50 a share? Yeah, after taxes. In that case, Langone announced, I'm going to buy every share of stock I can in your company, and I would advise you to mortgage your house and buy the stock because this stock is going to go straight up. Langone, who later joined us as a co-founder of the Home Depot, was a man who formed instant irrevocable opinions about people, and I, he decided, was the kind of man with whom he could do business.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is one of the most aggressive people I have ever met. He is a tough businessman, and he can be overbearing, but I swear this is the most honest, ethical man that I have ever met in my entire life. And when he tells you something, you can believe it. I have more trust in Lingone than I do anybody in the entire world. So he says, intrigued, I said I'd certainly take Lingo's call. Half an hour later, the phone rang and I heard the following statement. I think you have the greatest company I've ever seen in my whole life. You run the greatest business I have ever seen.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So Langon's discovering this hidden jewel and it says Lango was further intrigued that it was selling for $3 a share and it appeared likely to earn $1.50 a share. Even in 1976 terms, that was awfully cheap. Earl of Baum, so this is a guy Ken's talking to, had mentioned that he and I were good friends, so Bernie and him were good friends. A relationship began when I had considered acquiring acquiring Panorama. And while ultimately passed up the deal, a close personal relationship blossomed between us. Langone asked Earlbaum to call me and make an introduction. So now we're going to see this character. And Ken's going to be present throughout this entire book. But since Bernie Erlom said, this guy Ken Langone wants to meet you. He is a very tough guy. Really tough.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Got his books that he uses their Moody Investor Service and Standard Poor manuals. So they're books packed with data on publicly held companies. Not only was Handy Dan not bankrupt, it was a solid company doing very well despite the woes of its parent company. Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers began in 1955 as a small hardware store. Two decades later, it was under R management and had become one of the nation's most respected and successful home improvement chains. So Bernie is running Handy Dan home improvement centers, which is just a subsidy of this giant conglomerate called Dalen and at the top of Dalen is Ming the Merciless Sandy Sigaloff.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The best is a company out of California called Handy Dan, Urbam said. That worried Lingon. Gee, Gary, he said, if my memory serves me right, those guys are in bankruptcy. If that was the fate of the best, little old panel Rama didn't have a prayer. I think that while the majority of Handy Dan is owned by a company named Dalen Corporation, nineteen percent of it is owned by the public, Urbam said. So we're going to get into this, which I had never heard of before. I guess in the 70s, a bunch of companies did this where they would sell up to 19% of the company and retain 81%. We're going to learn more about why they did this and why it was a disaster. So it says majority of Handy Dan is owned by a company named Dalen Corporation. 19% is owned by the company. And Urbom is telling Ken Lingon, he said, listen, Dalen went into bankruptcy, but Handy Dan didn't. Later that same day, Langon”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now we're going to meet Kiss, Ken Lancone. And, well, let me just go right into it. Gary Orobaum once ran a small chain of Philadelphia-based home improvement stores called Panel Rama in nineteen seventy six Earlbaum and his investment banker Ken Langone talked about the future of Earlbaum's industry. So this is the home improvement industry in the mid-70s, okay? Let's start with a benchmark of who is the best in the business, Lingoan said. Who do you think are the best operators?”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was a nice looking, they're talking about Sandy now. He was a nice looking sharp dressed man, very smooth, slick, and articulate, a chief executive who couldn't just fire an underling and get on with business. When people leave Sigiloff, he once told me in a coffee shop, it was very important that he affect them economically, emotionally, and physically, so that people think twice before they ever turn on him. I was shocked at such tactics. When you treat people like that, it comes back to haunt you, I said. People are fearful of you. But Sigilov wanted people to be fearful of him. He didn't want to let a person out with dignity. He wanted to see them destroyed. That was his style. He didn't call himself Ming the merciless for nothing. So Bernie hates this guy, but he has to work under him for several years.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Says this is Bernie now writing. He says he called himself Ming the Merciless. It wasn't a nickname used behind the boss's back. The sign on the CEO's office door at the Dalin Corporation impressed upon all who entered how proud Sanford C. Sandy Sigaloff was to be known as a Ming. Ming, of course, was the villain in the old flash Gordon movie serials of the nineteen thirties.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was genuinely worried about how many notes and highlights I had. It was that interesting because there's so, usually when what I like about when entrepreneurs write their autobiographies as opposed to books writing about them, even though those are helpful as well, is there's just no fluff. So these guys just shoot off story after story after story. And I don't actually have to sit there and like pick apart what they mean. They explicitly tell you. Out of all the characters and the crazy stories in this book, which there are numerous ones, nobody sticks out more than this guy named Ken Linko, who becomes eventually one of the co-founders of Home Depot. So let's talk about Sandy first and we're going to get into Ken and we're going to see how they all have led to the founding of Home Depot.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“By the time he leaves the company, he's about 60 plus stores of these handy Dan home improvement centers, which are basically like smaller versions of what a Home Depot or Loses today. And there's two important, I'm going to introduce two important characters in the lore of Home Depot. And the first is... And the second person I'm going to introduce you to is this guy named Ken Langone. And let me start here before I get into Ken Langone. Because when the book, I wrote this book, came in the mail. I looked at it and I made the mistake of judging a book by its cover. I'm like, oh, man, this might be corny. Like, I don't know. Am I going to waste my time? And by the time I got to page, I would say 54.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The status of his life before he starts Home Depot. And it says, I never had any real money to speak of in those days, despite holding lofty titles in some of America's best retail companies, and he's going to get to why this was and the importance of equity in a little bit. And by 1972, so this is roughly six years before he gets fired and about seven years before he starts home depot. And by 1972, I had an ex-wife, two kids in college, and a new wife, another child, and another child. No matter what I was paid, it wasn't enough. Real money is inequity and that I didn't have. And I have another story coming up about that too. But when I was handed the reins to another Dalin chain, remember, Dalen's a conglomerate, Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers, it forever changed the course of my life. So he's going to be running this, I think there's a...”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so he leaves two guys and he starts working for a company called Odell. And then eventually leaves Odell for another huge conglomerate called Dalen Corporation. And Dalen Corporation is going to be the last job he has before he starts Home Depot. And so we're going to spend some time understanding a little bit what he was doing at Dalen, because it's really important to the story. But I want to just read this paragraph so you have an understanding. There's a lot of, I see like myths and entrepreneurship propagated all the time that like, oh, if you don't start a company when you're really young, it's going to be too late. Well, one, if you do know where you want to do from a very young age, then yeah, you have an advantage, but it's definitely not too late. And so this is... Bernie Marcus's life.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Home Depot. And the important part is the note I left myself is that when you're building a business, you should have blinders on like horses doing a race and your blinders should just be on what's best for the customer. And yet a lot of the examples that we talk about in the podcast is like everybody focusing on competitors, which is not a good idea. So it says as a conglomerate, two guys was a disaster. People in the company focused on their own careers, not the customers. As a result, the customers disappeared and careers sank. The history of retailing is filled with once great companies that disappeared off of the face of the earth. Two guys included. I carried the lesson I learned about the importance of customers throughout the rest of my career.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're going to start out. Most of the book, I would say, is written by Bernie Marcus, which is he was the CEO in addition to being one of, I think there's five co-founders, he was the CEO for a long time, and he kind of is the main character in the book. So we're going to start out when he is already in his 40s, and he's an executive in a lot of retail companies. And this is the experience that he's gathering before we get to the founding of Home Depot. But it's important to understand so you understand how Home Depot came about. So at the time he's working for this retail company called Two Guys, a lot of the companies they work for, both him and Arthur, Arthur, are conglomerates. So I'm just going to start here because it informs how he winds up getting to.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Building the Home Depot was a tough, uphill battle from the day we started in a Los Angeles coffee shop shortly after we were fired. No one believed we could do it. We want to tell the story of the Home Depot because it's a great entrepreneurial tale. Our larger goal is to convey what we learned along the way about customers, associates, competitors, growing a business, building a brand, and many other topics everyone in business needs to know. This book is the story of that virtually unparalleled growth and the values and culture that nourished it.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The creation of the Home Depot began with two words in the spring of nineteen seventy eight You're fired twenty years ago we were two out of work executives. Our situation was not a lot different than millions of others who were shown the door. We had little in the way of capital and faced some daunting personal and legal challenges as we tried to get our careers back on track. In our early years we lived on the edge with no balance sheet and a lack of financing. It took great romancing to establish the vendor base necessary to open and maintain the broad product selection for which we quickly became known. We were always pushing boundaries beyond where our industry's conventional wisdom suggested we could go.”
2018-11-05 · Founders · #45 Built From Scratch: How A Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source