Friends and partners -  

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I hope you have had a wonderful 2022. This is our second annual letter, and 12 months feels like both a lifetime and a second ago. We continue our journey up the mountain and have been fortunate to continue making steady progress in the right direction.

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We modified the wording, but not the spirit, of our mission from “build to last” to “build to outlast”. This is largely an acknowledgement that long-term, patient building is both an absolute game and a relative game. We also acknowledge that building is relative not only to other participants in the ecosystems we’re in, but also the evolving underlying ecosystems themselves. 

 

An ancillary benefit to this minor mission modification is that it also serves as a great name for a podcast and community we launched this year which is, not surprisingly and uncreatively, called Built to Outlast. BTO explores the journeys and companies of business builders, with a focus on traditional small to mid-sized business niches in America and the strategies which allow those businesses and builders to endure and flourish. We view this as a way for us to contribute to the ecosystem in which we participate. Our larger goal is to build content, tools and a community that supports and empowers what we believe is the backbone of America: business builders and doers, on their journeys. We’ve had some early success and amazing initial guests and episodes.   

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In 2022 we were also fortunate to acquire our fourth company, and with it add a group of wonderful individuals to the Enduring team. Across our companies we generated high cash yields to our equity dollars with no or minimal debt. We found some opportunities within our companies to deploy those cash flows into high return, reasonable confidence investments and maintained the discipline to accrue and distribute back the rest. In our existing businesses we were able to grow the companies (increased distributable cash flows), partnerships (expanded scope and depth of commitments), and people (promoted and supported) in ways that are aligned with our values. 

 

We are grateful that in a year of public market turbulence, we remained largely insulated and focused on building, a reminder for us that knowing and playing our game is the best way for us to build to outlast over the long term. We are optimistic that our approach will help us navigate not only this market successfully, but also future environments which may differ significantly.  

 

In line with our goal of respecting the resources of our friends and partners (particularly your time), I will keep it short, and end it here.

 

Thank you for your interest, support and partnership. Onward and upward!
 

 

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Jory Caulkins
CEO
Enduring Companies LLC

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