Rich Jarvis is the founder of Epic Capital Funds — $830 million under management, $3.4 billion 

in the pipeline — and Jason Morris is his partner at Impact Equity Partners, a 14-year portfolio 

CEO turned business acquirer. Together they sat down with Stu to talk through how private equity 

actually works, what they look for when buying founder-built businesses, and what most 

entrepreneurs get wrong about building for an exit.

What they cover:

→ A Lake Tahoe hotel project that took nine years just to get through entitlement — the first hotel approved in Tahoe City in over 60 years

→ The "SUCCEED" model: Structure, Underwriting, Core teams, Capital stack, Exit strategy, Execution, Due diligence — how they vet every deal

→ What a portfolio CEO actually does: 14 years of managing companies inside PE portfolios, hitting metrics, getting to exit

→ Buying a hypoallergenic adhesive manufacturer in Oregon (biggest industry: gel nails) — and the bolt-on DTC brand merger that followed

→ Three non-emergency transportation companies under contract, plus an auto repair company to service their fleet

→ The dentist who closed his doors on 40 years of work without selling — and why Stu nearly cried

→ "Second bite of the apple": how Rich and Jason structure deals so founders can share in the upside again when they sell

→ Reviewing 3,000 companies in one year — and how discipline in the "buy box" gets you from chaos to traction

→ Why focusing on revenue instead of profit is the most common alignment failure in growing companies

→ Rich's weekly non-negotiable: "clarity breaks" — out of the office, asking two questions, revisiting the why

→ The EOS/Traction framework and why most of their portfolio companies attribute scalability directly to it

→ Why raising capital is about relationships first, transactions second — and how Rich built $830M AUM through RIA relationships, not direct investor pitches

→ How Stu raised money for Stu Kent: not through one big ask, but decades of being a trusted person

🔗 CONNECT WITH RICH JARVIS

Epic Capital Funds: epiccapitalfunds.com

🔗 CONNECT WITH JASON MORRIS

Impact Equity Partners: impactequitypartners.com

🔗 CONNECT WITH STU

Instagram: @stu

Website: https://startupswithstu.com

📌 CHAPTERS

00:00 – Intro: two guests, two companies, one whiteboard week in Boise

03:30 – Rich Jarvis: first rental in 1998, lost everything 2008-2011, restarted in 2019

07:00 – Epic Capital Funds: $830M AUM, $3.4B pipeline, what those numbers actually mean

10:30 – The Lake Tahoe hotel: 9 years to entitlement, first approval in 60 years

13:00 – Jason Morris: 14 years as a portfolio CEO — what that job actually is

17:00 – The whiteboard week in Boise that launched Impact Equity Partners

20:30 – What they buy: cash-flowing, 10+ year businesses with lifestyle-owner upside

24:00 – The dentist story: closed the doors after 40 years without selling a thing

27:30 – Second bite of the apple: how deal structure gives founders another payday

31:00 – First acquisition: Oregon hypoallergenic adhesive manufacturer (gel nails → DTC)

35:00 – HVAC company, three NEMT companies, and an auto repair bolt-on

38:30 – 3,000 companies reviewed, a disciplined buy box, and saying no to shiny objects

42:00 – Revenue vs. profit: the alignment failure that kills growing companies

45:00 – Rich's clarity breaks and why he considers them the most important hour of his week

48:30 – EOS/Traction, scorecards, rocks, and one source of truth

52:00 – RIA relationships: how $830M AUM came from fewer, deeper relationships — not a big list

55:30 – How to raise capital: relationships over transactions, value over asks

58:00 – Measuring life from the rocking chair: 5,000 lives impacted vs. Standing Room Only

⚠️ Note: Timestamps are estimated from transcript flow — swap to actual timecodes before publishing.

#entrepreneur #startups #founderstory #privateequity #realestate #businessacquisition #smallbusiness #exitstrategy #investing #epiccapitalfunds