Why Patina exists
Things get better with age when someone takes care of them. That includes companies, and the people who run them.
A patina can’t be rushed.
It forms on copper, bronze, leather and wood after years of use and care. You can’t buy it or fake it. It shows that something has been used well and kept, and it makes that thing worth more.
I think companies work the same way. So do the people who run them.
Every seat around a company
I started my first company out of high school. We raised a few million dollars and grew past 50 people. Then, in a hard stretch, my board replaced me as CEO. They were right. It took me years to understand why.
I spent the next few years chasing moonshots: raise, go big, build to sell. I came to call it the arrival fallacy, trading today for an exit someday. I wanted a slower, more permanent way to build.
In 2016, my friend Adam and I started a small business with $750. It has been profitable every year since. We shaped it slowly and on purpose, and it got better each year. It paid for the next company. Then we acquired a third, and a fourth. That became Decada Group.
Since then I’ve sat on every side of the table. I’ve run companies, raised venture capital and personally guaranteed debt. Across the 20+ companies I’ve started, acquired or backed, I’ve hired the CEOs who run them, backed them, and sometimes replaced them.
And the lesson keeps coming back to the person in the seat. The companies that get better with age almost always have a CEO who can see themselves clearly and think in decades, and someone in their corner helping them do it. At 23, I didn’t have that. Patina exists to be that for others.
What I believe
The CEO is usually the ceiling.
Rarely for lack of skill. Usually for lack of a clear view of themselves.
Long-term thinking cuts through most problems.
Decisions get simpler when you plan to be around for the outcome.
Owner-operators are my people.
They want it badly and carry it personally. For them, the gap between good and great is enormous: in money, in satisfaction, in what it does for the people around them.
There is no arrival.
No exit or milestone finishes the work. What lasts comes from care over time.
Owning, backing and sitting beside are one craft.
Same bench, different grip.
What we learn should be written down.
Every company teaches something. Patina Essays are where it goes.
What you can count on
- My own capital, in every deal. I invest alongside every partner and build for the long run.
- The work stays with the CEO, even when an investor or board brings Patina in.
- A straight answer when you ask for one.
- Small by design. The number of CEOs stays small, so the attention doesn’t thin out.
Still at the bench
Three questions keep me here.
What makes a business worth backing?
Once you’re in it, how do you make it remarkable?
What makes a great CEO?
Patina is where I work on them, beside the people answering them in real time.
Chase Murdock, Founder