In this episode of the Buyers and Builders podcast, Evergreen co-founder and Managing Partner Ramsey Sahyoun sits down for a candid look at how he and Jeff Totten built one of the most disciplined permanent-capital holding companies in America. Founded in 2017 when the two were just 25 and 27, Evergreen has completed roughly 160 acquisitions, grown to around $1.5 billion in revenue with strong adjusted earnings, and sustained close to 10% organic growth, all while keeping its companies decentralized and their identities intact. Ramsey traces the full arc, from cold-calling business owners as a team of one to closing 47 acquisitions in a single year, and explains why sourcing rather than financial engineering remains the engine of the firm.
Ramsey breaks down the three groves the firm invests in, Lyra Technology Group in managed IT services, Pine Services Group in ERP consulting, and Cedar Solutions Group in government technology, and walks through the talent-first philosophy that shapes every deal. Rather than buying control and shifting the entire philosophy of the business, Evergreen recruits some leadership into the businesses it acquires, aligns founders through rollover equity into a single hold-level cap table, and ties operator incentives to doubling the earnings of their own company. Noting that incentives only work when the person tied to them can directly impact the outcome. He is equally frank about the lessons that shaped the thesis, including an early roll-up attempt that failed and permanently reinforced the firm’s commitment to decentralization.
Along the way Ramsey gets into the discipline behind the acquisition velocity, why seeing far more opportunities than anyone else is what lets the firm pass on the wrong ones, how Evergreen has shifted toward value creation after close as the market has grown more competitive, and what a decade of post-mortems on 160 acquisitions has taught him about customer concentration, profit margins, and the people who run the businesses. This episode is a detailed, unguarded look at how a permanent-hold strategy compounds over decades rather than exits in five years.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify below.
Listen to the episode on YouTube here.