The Roll-Up Playbook: From Zero to $100M Revenue | Felix Jander Interview

My guest today is Felix Jander, co-founder of Arsipa, a buy-and-build company focused on occupational health and safety.

Felix and Stefan began exploring the idea during COVID, studying roughly 60 niche industries before choosing a fragmented market with significant room for consolidation.

Arsipa went on to complete more than 40 acquisitions, grow to over 1,100 employees across 60+ locations, and surpass $100 million in annual revenue. In 2024, the company partnered with Warburg Pincus, with Felix remaining invested in the business.

We discuss how they chose their market, built proprietary deal flow, and used highly personalized outreach to generate reply rates as high as 80%. Felix explains why the first acquisition matters so much, how Arsipa financed its early deals, and the operational playbook behind recruiting, finance, pricing, integration and culture.

He also shares the story of splitting with his original co-founder, finding his next partner, and transitioning from operator to investor.

This is a practical conversation about acquisitions, capital allocation and building an institution from a collection of small businesses.

Please enjoy my conversation with Felix Jander.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 From zero to 40+ acquisitions and $100M+ in revenue
3:33 Why boring businesses beat venture-backed hypergrowth
5:08 How they chose one market from 60 niche industries
7:40 The 1% conversion math behind proprietary deal flow
11:08 Raising the first pool of acquisition capital
18:00 Buying businesses without brokers
20:41 The first acquisition changes everything
23:04 Equity first, debt later
24:58 Turning acquisitions into an operating company
28:13 Losing a co-founder in the middle of fundraising
32:27 Selling to Warburg Pincus and rolling equity
40:08 The roll-up integration and value-creation playbook
44:32 The economics of scaling a roll-up
48:06 What changes after a major private equity investment
51:24 Felix’s advice for aspiring buy-and-build founders
54:18 From operator to investor
56:12 Final lessons from building Arsipa

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.