Brad Jacobs' Five Billion-Dollar Companies

A story about Brad Jacobs, a serial entrepreneur who built multiple billion-dollar companies through acquisitions and systematic growth.

Starting at age 23, he built five companies that either went public or became worth over $1 billion. His first venture was Amerex Oil Associates, an oil brokerage firm. Within 4 years, by age 27, Amerex was doing $4.7 billion in gross oil bookings. He sold that business for $1 billion.

Months later, he started Hamilton Resource in England. He convinced a French bank to give him a $1 billion line of credit. He moved physical cargoes of oil between countries throughout the 1980s, building it to about $1 billion in revenues before selling it.

His third venture was United Waste Management, which became the 5th largest solid waste business in America. Their strategy was simple: buy landfills in small markets, acquire local trucking companies serving those markets, optimize routes, maximize pricing, and achieve scale. He took the company public just 8 months after starting it.

His approach to building these businesses follows a consistent pattern:

1. Look for huge, fragmented industries with small, profitable companies that lack capital to scale
2. Start by buying a small business (around $30M in revenue) and add 30-40 people to double revenue
3. Hire hungry salespeople with low base salaries but significant incentives
4. Implement powerful software systems to integrate acquisitions

As he puts it: "I try to find businesses that have executed this plan but don't have the capital to sustain it. I bring all the capital to do it."