Director of Financial & Investment Analysis - Mollenhour Gross

We (Mollenhour Gross, LLC – “MG”) are actively recruiting a Director of Financial & Investment Analysis to help us better understand reality and optimize our decision-making.

We hope to achieve three things with this posting:

• To share context and information regarding our (MG’s) operations and culture;
• To share a description of the role; and
• To share instructions on what to do if you (or someone you know) are a good fit for this role.

The foundation of our relationship with our team is to treat each other how we would expect to be treated if the roles were reversed.  Currently, there is wide information asymmetry between us (we know a lot about the role and our expectations, and you know very little; conversely, you know a lot about yourself, and we know very little).  If we were in your shoes, this posting provides the basic information we would want to know.  We look forward to learning more about you through our evaluation process.

MG – Context and Culture

MG is a private holding company with permanent capital based in Knoxville, TN. We own and oversee a diverse portfolio of assets, including wholly-owned subsidiaries, minority investments, commercial real estate, specialty loans, public securities, and more.  Our decentralized and autonomous portfolio companies are engaged in a variety of industries, including e-commerce order fulfillment, commercial real estate, hospitality, aerospace parts, software, and more. For more information, visit https://www.mollenhourgross.com/.

The following are some basic facts about our organization that we believe are material to your consideration:

MG is owned by Jordan Mollenhour and Dustin Gross, who have been business partners since 2004.

• We have no outside investors, use debt conservatively, and have a long-term investment horizon.
• We love business and investing – it’s our vocation, hobby, and passion all wrapped into one.
• Our primary activities are to seek, evaluate, invest in, and govern our investments, and to identify, recruit, incentivize, and retain exceptional people to lead, manage, support, and operate them.
• We aren’t inclined towards financial engineering and prefer to solve problems and serve customers.
• We have a small staff with a wide variety of investments – this requires us to avoid managing subsidiaries, embrace decentralization, and empower autonomy.
• Life is short, and we only want to work with people we respect, like, and trust.

We believe that our structure and approach benefits our operating companies (and their leadership) in the following ways:

• Operational Autonomy – they have wide operational autonomy, great independence, and control over the day-to-day operations; we don’t have the desire or bandwidth to micro-manage or meddle.
• Permanent Capital – we don’t have investors to whom we’ve promised an “exit” or a “liquidity event,” so we’re insulated from turbulence or distractions due to prematurely or irrationally “flipping” an investment and “returning capital to limited partners”.
• Long-Term Orientation – they can expect us to think and behave with a long-term mindset; they won’t be beholden to irrational short-term concerns and will be relatively free to focus on long-term value creation.
• Reasonable Governance – they can expect us to be rational, reasonable, considerate, sensible, and decisive in the very limited areas in which we want to have input; we strive not to burden them with unreasonable bureaucracy, red tape, meetings, or unnecessary distractions.
• Reliability – they can expect us to honor and deliver on whatever commitments we make.

We expect the behavior of the MG team and our operating company leadership to comport with the following characteristics:

• Honesty – we expect them to always be frank and honest with us, especially where bad news is concerned; if we can't trust a person’s word and intentions, we'd rather not work with them.
• Honor - we expect them to behave in a respectable manner that enhances their reputation and our firm’s reputation; no short-term gain is worth risking one’s good reputation.
• Compliance – we expect them to comply with all applicable laws and regulations governing the business; and to only pursue opportunities and activities well inside those bounds.
• Frugality – we expect them to approach the firm’s resources as a conscientious steward; this means constantly holding down, avoiding, and cutting unnecessary costs.
• Prudence – we expect them to protect the value of the business under their care; and to avoid putting it in jeopardy as a result of imprudent risk-taking.
• Discipline – we expect them to avoid distractions and to be focused on creating value and improving efficiencies; sometimes this comes at the expense of ego-boosting growth and other "fun" projects.
• Preparation – we expect them to prepare for catastrophe, including their unexpected departure; this means having contingency plans in place and always training the next generation.
• Vision – we expect them to optimize the business for maximizing long-term value creation; we aren't concerned with short-term performance except to the extent it impacts long-term value.
• Improvement – we expect them to never stop learning, reading, and striving; the world of business is ever-changing and to stay on top one must never stop improving.
• Ownership Mindset – we expect them to treat their business as if they own 100% of it, as if it’s their family’s only asset, and as if they were going to own it for 100 years; this includes being shareholder-friendly and ROIC-mindful.
• Rational – we expect them to make clear-eyed, pragmatic, and objective decisions; this means being an independent thinker, avoiding bureaucracy, politics, and drama, and relying on an “internal scorecard”.

Description of the Role

The Director of Financial & Investment Analysis will be a core member of the MG team and will need to be based in Knoxville, TN. We expect the salary to fall between $175,000-$250,000, depending on experience, skills, and long-term fit.  We do not offer retirement plans or traditional health benefits, instead preferring to pay more salary and let you manage your personal affairs as you wish. We expect the Director of Financial & Investment Analysis to spend most of his or her working hours at the MG office in Knoxville, but the role will be very flexible with regard to working from home and travel policy.

The Director of Financial & Investment Analysis will report directly to the President of MG and will work regularly with the firm’s founders and leadership team.

The Director of Financial & Investment Analysis’s primary areas of responsibility and activity will be the following:

• Grow and strengthen our existing culture of compliance, ethical behavior, and good judgment.
• Develop a mastery of our operating companies’ unit economics, evangelize your wisdom to our business leaders, and influence decision-making for the better.
• Examine, scrutinize, and advise on our operating companies’ financial performance.
• Within the MG team, be personally accountable for understanding our operating companies’ working capital mechanics.
• Within the MG team, be personally accountable for understanding our operating companies’ capital expenditures and R&D expenditures (ROIC, forecasts, and maintenance vs. growth mix).
• Analyze and evaluate new investment opportunities across a range of platforms, including our existing portfolio, commercial real estate, new M&A, and public equities.
• Standardize, summarize, track, and evaluate past investment decisions across MG's portfolio
• Develop, collect, organize, prepare, consolidate, and circulate financial and other data from our operating companies to MG leadership.
• Evaluate and support our subsidiary financial leaders (CFOs, etc).
• Research, model, and help negotiate external financing arrangements.

The perfect candidate will have the following personality traits, preferences, and experiences:

• You have integrity and character beyond reproach.
• You are extremely numerate, organized, and detail-oriented.
• You are unusually passionate and curious about investing, financial analysis, capital allocation, returns on invested capital, competitive advantage, and strategy.
• In your non-working hours, you’re reading Graham, Buffett, Munger, Porter, Mauboussin, Dalio, Marks, and the like.
• We could wake you up from deep sleep at 2 AM, and you could recite a lucid thesis for your favorite long-term hold stock.
• You are eager to work alone with numbers, spreadsheets, and financial information for several hours every day, but are happy to collaborate with others on projects, large and small.
• You are deliberate and methodical, but you have a bias to action.
• You are comfortable and committed to poke, prod, challenge, and – when necessary – lead difficult conversations and resolve difficult problems.

A couple notes worth mentioning:

• First, this isn't a traditional corporate finance role, where you’ll be asked to manage a team of analysts, as you work your way toward a CFO seat.  In this seat, you will be the analyst.  When the model needs to be tweaked, you’ll do the tweaking.  We are looking for someone whose intrinsic nature predisposes them to an inherent love of financial analysis … and they can’t imagine doing anything else.
• Second, our process for evaluating candidates will include a couple up-front assessments.  In the past, some folks have been turned off by that, and that's ok.  We certainly don't want to ask candidates to invest any time that they're not willing to invest.  But historically, we've found that the right "fits" tend to enjoy our process.   

How To Apply

If you know someone who may be interested and qualified in this opportunity, please share this page with them.

If you are qualified and interested, please apply by filling out the blanks on the right side of this page, and clicking "Submit Application."  We look forward to hearing from you and will be in touch with the "next steps."

Powered by JazzHR