Private equity buys a business, loads it with debt, and sells it within five years. Orange Juice wants to buy the business, keep the owner in place, and never sell it at all.
Nico Lechuga is a founding partner at Ego Death Capital, a Bitcoin venture fund with around $137 million under management. Alongside fellow Ego Death partners Lyn Alden, Jeff Booth and Andi Pitt, he co-founded Orange Juice, a permanent capital vehicle that acquires cash flow positive businesses and sweeps those cash flows into Bitcoin.
The team also includes partners Ruben Zweiban, a former JP Morgan analyst and US Navy SEAL, and Adrian Steckel, the former CEO of OneWeb, plus newly appointed CTO Elias Martinez Cohen, previously an AI infrastructure engineer at NVIDIA and Twitter.
Since announcing, more than 150 businesses have reached out.
🍊 Find out more about Orange Juice: https://orangejuice.com/
Topics covered:
Why Orange Juice was designed as a foil to traditional private equity, not a Bitcoin treasury company
How the Berkshire Hathaway model shaped the owner operator structure
Why they’re raising privately first and proving the thesis before going public
The gearbox model — how they decide between reinvesting, buying Bitcoin or acquiring more businesses
Which types of businesses they’re targeting and why generational companies keep showing up
Why they’re already open to businesses outside the US
Nico’s Bitcoin journey — from a Vice article on the Silk Road to Jeff Booth changing everything
How AI factors into acquisition due diligence without distracting owner operators
Why a good Bitcoin solution should work like a light switch — no evangelism required
Chapters:
00:00 Intro — There Is a Better Treasury Asset Than Fiat
01:00 What Is Orange Juice and Why Was It Built?
02:00 Ego Death Capital — The Fund Behind the Idea
05:00 The Gap Nobody Had Filled for Cash Flow Business Owners
07:00 How Orange Juice Acquires Businesses — The Berkshire Model
09:00 Owner Operators, Equity and the No Earn-Out Structure
11:00 Why There’s No Time Clock — The Permanent Capital Difference
12:00 The Gearbox — How They Decide Where the Cash Goes
15:00 Real World Example: A UK Hotel Group and the Bitcoin Question
18:00 Which Sectors and Business Types Are Being Targeted
20:00 Generational Businesses and the Bitcoin Connection
22:00 Why They Went Private First Before Planning a Listing
28:00 Will Orange Juice Expand Outside the US?
35:00 Will Sweeping Cash Into Bitcoin Become the Norm?
38:00 Nico’s Bitcoin Journey — Silk Road, Jeff Booth and the Click Moment
47:00 How AI Factors Into Acquisition Due Diligence
51:00 Keeping Owner Operators Focused on What They Do Best
🇬🇧 Join the UK Bitcoin Business Network here: https://www.joinbbn.com/
FIND Nico Lechuga:
X: https://x.com/nico_lechuga
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolailechuga/
CONTACT JORDAN:
X: https://x.com/JayW132
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-walker-293955106/
Email: hello@bitcoincollective.co
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All content provided by The Bitcoin Collective and guests in this episode is for informational and educational purposes only and is not financial, trading, or investment advice.
⸻
EDITED BY JAMES PEARCE
www.selectedfrequencies.com
Available now on YouTube and all major podcast platforms. This episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always do your own research.
They’re Buying Real Businesses, Sweeping the Cash Into Bitcoin — And 150 Companies Have Already Applied
The Permanent Capital Vehicle Designed to Outlast Private Equity
