I must just not have the details right (because they seem to be thoughtful people who are doing well), but I don't quite understand how Chenmark's (or any holding company with EtA sized investments) model works economically.

To have a holding company with numerous different investments, you need to hire someone to be the CEO of each individual company. And you have to pay that person. But An EtA deal might only have $1M of EBITDA, and after taxes, interest, debt principal repayments, and capex, there might only be a few hundred thousand left. So how is there enough money to pay that CEO and also provide decent cash to the holdco?

Also, it seems weird to have someone else be the CEO. If you're the entrepreneur, isn't that your job. It seems like if you do a holdco, you're just an investor and not really an operator?

Anyone have thoughts on this?