A snapshot of an agency's production function 5 years ago and what's stayed the same.... I was looking through some old Barrel materials to help surface some project management training materials for our other Barrel Holdings agencies. I came across this sheet from 2020 that our

Announcing a new agency from Barrel Holdings (sort of)... From 2012 to 2022, designer & entrepreneur Dan Mall ran SuperFriendly, a unique agency that worked with the world’s best companies to help them leverage design systems and create innovative products. After a

Exploring growth potential for a struggling $3 million/year agency... In our Barrel Holdings agency acquisition search, we've come across numerous agencies with tight margins. We ask ourselves what the likely paths are to grow profits. In many cases, we don't see a clear path

Sunday backyard fun

What agencies are we excited about acquiring at Barrel Holdings? When we began our search in earnest last year, we started off broadly, taking calls with many types of agencies. Over time, we've narrowed down our criteria and have a better idea for the agencies we want in our

There’s a 600-acre park very close to me that I take my kids to every now and then. There’s never more than 5-10 people whenever we go there. Sometimes I swear we’re the only ones there. It used to be a private estate that was donated to the county. The owner combined a bunch

W-2 stability vs. agency ownership upside: which path would you choose? Before we dive in, an interesting framing of W-2 vs. agency ownership: Investor Howard Marks writes that there are only two ways to participate financially in an enterprise: - Lend capital (debt) → fixed

If you've had experience turning around an agency, taking over a negative cash flow situation & bringing back growth, I'd love to chat with you... At Barrel Holdings, we are talking to dozens of agency founders each month who are starting to think about selling or actively

Which of these agency businesses would you want to buy: - Agency A: 1 client paying $10 million/year - Agency B: 10 clients paying $1 million/year - Agency C: 100 clients paying $100k/year This is a trick question because when it comes to buying agencies, there's a lot more to

This is a drum I'll never cease to beat for agencies: the things you do today has big implications on how your business plays out 3-6 months later... One of our Barrel Holdings agencies built really incredible deal flow momentum coming into 2025 and got swamped with projects.

Vibe code and find out. Started getting a series of charges from OpenAI last night. Went to check on it. One of my vibe-coded apps (via Replit) probably had OpenAI API keys easily accessible/not protected. Saw that someone was using it to run all kinds of requests. Luckily

My co-founder Sei-Wook Kim and I have a podcast. We talk about agency business, agency M&A, and other agency-related things learned in 20 years of working together. Check it out here: agencyhabits.com/podcast New episode drops every Tuesday.

Re-introducing the types of deals we're looking to do at Barrel Holdings... We recently slimmed down our agency portfolio and clarified our focus. We are looking to do 2 types of deals: 1) A specialized* agency that can come into our portfolio and stand on its own next to

Agency project management 101: The importance of sticking to your process in delivering client work... Every now and then we come across clients who are certain that "the usual process" doesn't apply to them. They want to dictate how a project goes. For the well-positioned

My annual Personal Finance Snapshot post is up: peterkang.com/my-personal-fi… Reflections on a home renovation, getting $$ back on an investment, and understanding “the game”.

On super cold mornings, love the feeling of getting the car pre-warmed via app beforehand so it’s nice and cozy when I step in.

Wrote a book. Some stuff I picked up about holding companies while designing Barrel Holdings. It’s a quick read, includes overview of holdco types with examples and some exercises to help you design your own holdco. Enjoyed the process & learned a lot putting this together.

How to write a book... Write about a topic that you're not going to get tired of. One that you feel energized going deeper into. For me, it was about holdcos. Related: if what you're writing about helps you in your everyday, then it keeps you motivated to keep on writing. The

Look Ma, I cracked the top 100 for best sellers in entrepreneurship, alongside such classics as "Summary + Workbook Edition of $100M Offers" by Alex Hormozi. "You making any money on the 99-cent Kindle sales?" "Yeah, about 35 cents per. But it's not really about the money, it's

Was about to upgrade a SaaS product that was gonna cost $2k/year but my co-founder said wait up and found a 90% off discount code from his Founders Card membership. Pretty sick.