Alexander Taubman is the co-founder and CEO of Long Lake, a company that buys established service businesses and uses AI to improve how they operate. He explains Long Lake’s $6.3 billion deal for American Express Global Business Travel, why deploying AI in the real economy is difficult and why he sees productivity gains creating more jobs as businesses grow. Alex describes how Nexus, Long Lake’s AI platform, connects models to business data and workflows, why its engineers work alongside employees in the field and why he wants to own businesses rather than sell software. He shares how his grandfather’s idea of “threshold resistance” applies to AI adoption, what he learned at Goldman Sachs and Oaktree and how investing in founder-owned businesses through Taubman Capital prepared him to build Long Lake. Alex also discusses the influence of Danaher, Henry Singleton and John Malone, why he values partners who make him more ambitious and why Long Lake plans to hold its businesses for decades. Including Amex GBT, he expects more than $4 billion in combined revenue the following year and explains why he believes long-term compounding could eventually build a trillion-dollar company.
Show notes: https://www.davidsenra.com/episode/alexander-taubman
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Chapters
(00:00:00) The $6.3 billion Amex GBT deal
(00:01:21) Bringing AI to the real economy
(00:06:17) Why greater productivity can mean more jobs
(00:11:29) A prepared mind and a tight acquisition filter
(00:16:01) Nexus and the AI platform behind Long Lake
(00:17:32) Put the engineers where the work happens
(00:20:36) Why own the businesses instead of selling software?
(00:22:28) Build tools people want to use
(00:25:24) A high bar for talent, acquisitions and technology
(00:28:03) What his grandfather taught him about removing friction
(00:36:40) Learning capital allocation at Goldman Sachs and Oaktree
(00:41:01) Buying founder-owned businesses with permanent capital
(00:44:35) How the Long Lake team came together
(00:47:26) The best partners make you more ambitious
(00:49:28) More than $4 billion in projected revenue
(00:53:32) Why going public could expand Long Lake’s ambition
(00:54:23) Henry Singleton and staying flexible
(00:55:57) John Malone and the businesses that will endure
(00:57:57) Why Long Lake doesn’t plan to sell
(01:00:13) Could Long Lake become a trillion-dollar company?
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