2024 Pacific Lake Entrepreneur Conference: My Conversation with Greg Williams
I like to say that Greg Williams is the most successful entrepreneur you’ve likely never heard of. But his story and his success are built on values that every search fund entrepreneur can learn from. Yes, excellent execution has been fundamental to Acrisure’s success. But the real differentiator lies in the principles Greg has stuck to along the way: align incentives, empower people and build for the long-term. These are values we also hold in the search fund community, so I was excited for the opportunity to talk to Greg about his journey.
Greg Williams grew up in a small town near East Lansing, Michigan. He didn’t have many early entrepreneurial influences. He lost his father to a heart attack when he was just 14 years old, and his first job out of college was at a bank. Among the many things he learned there, the most important was that “corporate life wouldn’t provide the kind of fulfillment I was looking for”. So, at 29, Greg decided to leave. In his words, “I felt like I had learned what I needed. It was time to bet on myself.” I often hear those same words from search fund entrepreneurs.
A few years later, Greg was approached by an insurance broker who suggested they partner up to build an insurance brokerage. The appeal of recurring revenue, low capital expenditure, and healthy profit margins led Greg to dive deep into this 300+ year old industry. He spent six months learning the ropes and meeting businesses.
During our conversation, I was struck by how early on Greg saw the opportunity to do things differently in an industry older than America. He realized that growth was driven by mergers and acquisitions (M&A). But he also recognized that prevailing acquisition models - focused on efficiency and short-term growth - weren’t the way to go. Instead, he chose to focus from the outset on building strong, long-term relationships, aligning interests and partnering together.
His approach quickly gained traction. By 2013, Acrisure had grown to $38 million in revenue and $10 million in EBITDA. As Greg shared with me, this was a critical juncture: he realized he could either maintain the status quo, or push forward and accelerate growth. When I asked Greg about that moment, he said, "I always knew I was going to have that voice in the back of my mind saying 'what if?'" So, he decided to put his foot on the gas. Over the following decade, Greg has built Acrisure into the 6th largest broker in the world.
As Acrisure has grown, Greg’s leadership style has evolved. One of the key lessons Greg shared with me was the importance of pushing decisions down through the organization. Making decisions has become part of the fabric at Acrisure. Doing so has two key benefits. First: agility. “The pace at which we do things is going to be part of our currency”, he reflected. Second: space, “It enables me to think about what the organization needs to look like 3 years from now. If I don’t do that, no one else is going to”.
Part of that planning for the future is thinking about the team. One of the challenges I often see search fund CEOs grappling with is what to do with team members when the business outgrows their capabilities. Greg’s approach to this same challenge, unsurprisingly, is rooted in long-term relationships: treat people well, thank them for their contribution, and be generous. To this day, Greg still hears from almost every executive he’s hired at Acrisure.
As I reflect on our conversation, I’m inspired not only by Acrisure’s success, but also by how Greg has built the business: through entrepreneurial spirit, doing things differently and a desire to create value for other people. I see a lot of similarities between his approach and the principles at the heart of the search fund model. Greg’s story is a powerful reminder that success is not just about growth, but about the relationships and values that drive it.
