In this episode, Chris sits down with Bryan Perkins, Founder & CEO of Novaria Group, a Fort Worth-based aerospace manufacturer he started in 2011 and sold to Arcline last November for $2.2 billion.

Bryan didn't set out to be in aerospace. He needed a job. But once he was in, he saw a niche nobody else wanted - high-mix, low-volume, esoteric parts that go under the radar - and spent 15 years rolling up 27 companies into one of the biggest businesses most people have never heard of. His North Star from the start was TransDigm, a company he'd been studying since his 20s.

Chris and Bryan unpack the full operator's playbook behind that arc, how his thinking has evolved across a family office, KKR, and now Arcline, and where the entire aerospace ecosystem is headed by 2030.

They discuss:
- Why you can't outmanage a bad capital structure - and what most lower middle market PE gets wrong about underwriting
- How Bryan built a roll-up that produces 80-90% proprietary deal flow, and the patience it takes to do that
- Why commoditization is an immediate no, and how the "layer cake" of process IP, material science, and unit economics creates moats most people can't see
- What an arranged marriage with private equity actually looks like, across three different capital partners
- Why he thinks the world still won't have enough airplanes by 2030, and how the new space economy is reshaping demand
- The decadal-thinking, "win the day" mindset behind a 15-year compounding machine

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:22 "You Can't Outmanage a Bad Capital Structure"
05:00 Underwriting Deals
12:17 Novaria's Strategy in Plain English
15:04 IP Moats Over Commoditization
17:04 Why Making an Aerospace Washer Is Harder Than You Think
21:56 Business Model Business vs. Single-Product Business
27:07 Patience and Decadal Thinking as a Proprietary Deal Flow Strategy
30:49 How Unglamorous Early Jobs Build Real Credibility
38:01 Centralized Controls, Decentralized Operations
44:44 Leveling Up: Founders Who Start with the End in Mind
55:11 What Is an Institutional Compounder?
1:03:05 TransDigm as North Star - Carving a Differentiated Strategy
1:08:41 Why Aerospace and Automotive Factory Playbooks Don't Transfer
1:14:10 The Road to 2030: Demand Surge, Space Economy & New Aircraft Design

Presented by Airshare:
https://flyairshare.com/

Sponsored by Collateral Partners:
https://collateral.com/fort

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