3i Member Spotlight

Andrew Sachs: Building the Anti-PE Firm

Episode Summary

Andrew Sachs built a private equity firm on a contrarian idea: the best businesses are meant to be owned, not sold. He is the founder and managing partner of Mauloa and one of the earliest members of 3i.

Episode Notes

Andrew Sachs built a private equity firm on a contrarian idea: the best businesses are meant to be owned, not sold. He is the founder and managing partner of Mauloa and one of the earliest members of 3i. Over a career spanning roughly 50 investments since the late 1990s, Sachs has built what he calls the “anti-PE firm,” designed to avoid the heavy leverage, forced exits, and dependence on multiple expansion that characterize much of the industry. The name Mauloa comes from the Hawaiian word for “endless.”

In conversation with 3i Members Co-Founder and Chairman Mark Gerson, Andrew traces his path from an eleven-month stint at Morgan Stanley Capital Partners to launching a fund with his cousin at twenty-three, and the hard-won lessons that shaped his approach.

Throughout the episode, Andrew shares:

• Why cash flow is king: how Charlie Munger’s maxim and his own read on maintenance capex led him to reject EBITDA-driven valuations in favor of durable operating cash flow
• How he underwrites people: the simple question about books and continuous learning he uses to judge whether a leader is truly trying to improve
• The discipline of never having a bad meeting: why showing up, taking notes, and staying present have compounded into opportunities over a decade
• Where private equity is heading: why he’s wary of a market built on multiple expansion, churn, and PE-to-PE selling, as well as what “endless” ownership looks like instead

Learn more about 3i Members at 3imembers.com and follow us on LinkedIn for updates.

Andrew Sachs at Mauloa