What we talked about
Rich Thomson is the Founder and CEO of Dreamliner Luxury Coaches and Caprice Capital Partners. He spent 20 years in banking and lending at GE Capital, Citibank, and Brightwood Capital before making a pivotal decision: to stop financing other people’s companies and start building his own.
Show notes
Rich Thomson spent 20 years financing other people’s companies at GE Capital, Citibank, and Brightwood Capital before deciding to bet on himself and build his own. Today he runs two very different businesses at once: a luxury transportation company serving music tours and major leagues, and an alternative lending firm that has deployed over $700 million into founder-owned companies.
What we covered
- What it actually takes to run two very different businesses at the same time: Dreamliner, a luxury transportation company serving music tours, NFL, NBA, PGA, and NASCAR, and Caprice Capital, an alternative lending firm.
- The logistics of live event transportation, why professional drivers matter, and what sets Dreamliner apart from rental services.
- The art of custom bus building and the unique experience of bus travel for high-profile clients.
- Why founders often misunderstand what private equity is really selling, and what a better capital partnership looks like, having deployed over $700 million into founder-owned companies.
- The hardest lessons from year one of Dreamliner, how he hires people he can trust to run things without him, and learning from mistakes and bad hires.
- Why someone with his lending background still feels the pull to build rather than just invest, and his advice for aspiring founders: go all in.
About Rich
Rich Thomson is the Founder and CEO of Dreamliner Luxury Coaches and Caprice Capital Partners. He spent 20 years in banking and lending at GE Capital, Citibank, and Brightwood Capital before building his own companies.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richthomson
- Website: https://dreamlinercoaches.com
Episode 156 of the PreVetted Podcast.