oakpool is not a family business.
But in a lot of ways, we have always acted like one.
When Alex and I started oakpool, we were both coming out of the tech/startup world. There was a lot we liked about that world: speed, ambition, a willingness to try things, a general lack of reverence for the way things had always been done. There was also a lot we didn’t want to replicate.
Very early on, Alex and I agreed that we were going to treat oakpool like it was our family business. We didn’t really mean that in a literal sense, we’re not related.
We meant that we wanted to build something we cared about, something we expected to own for a long time, and something where our names and reputations were attached to the quality of the work.
We wanted to respect people as individuals, while acting as a team. We wanted to play long-term games with long-term people. And we wanted to care about what we were doing.
People give a s**t
The best family-led businesses share a quality that is hard to manufacture: the people running them care. When your surname is on the label, every shipment and every customer email reflects on your family. No compensation plan reproduces that, and no engagement survey measures it.
It shows in where the attention goes. Owners of these companies read the copy themselves, often draft it themselves, and notice when a photograph gets the history slightly wrong. They answer the phone on weekends. They remember which distributor has carried them since the beginning.
Investors who buy companies to hold them indefinitely tend to see the same thing. An owner who expects to be around in twenty years hires, buys and recommends differently from one who expects to sell in five.
The clock
Every business keeps time by something. A public company answers to the quarter, a venture-backed company to its next round, a private equity portfolio company to its exit. I spent the better part of a decade in venture capital, and I watched good companies make poor decisions because a fundraise was six months out. A family business can keep time by generations.
The longer clock changes the questions an owner asks. What will make this company stronger in ten years? Which relationships are worth protecting even when it costs money this year? What will people say about the company in twenty? Those are the questions we try to ask about oakpool.
Relationships compound
Some of our client relationships are nearly as old as oakpool, and the work on those accounts is the best we do. The people doing it have learned the business, its customers and its history over years, and no onboarding document conveys that.
The same principle holds when we build programs for clients. A handful of partners who stay for years will outperform a rotating cast every time, because the audience can tell the difference between someone who belongs to a brand and someone renting space in its feed.
We run an analytics business and we like numbers. Trust does not show up in them until it is gone.
The team
Families tolerate a wider range of temperaments than most companies, provided everyone understands that the group comes first. We want people with strong opinions and real autonomy, and we expect them to act as a team.
Loyalty runs both ways here. When someone who has been with us for years falls short, the first conversation is about how we fix it, and the second is about the path we see for them. We have far less patience for people who treat oakpool as a way station.
Stewardship
Someone built the business before you, and someone will run it after you. The best family owners treat the years in between as a loan. Alex and I have no second generation waiting in the wings, and we hold ourselves to the same terms: oakpool should be materially better in ten years, the people who spend years here should leave better off, and our reputation should be worth more each year we keep it.
Why we seek them out
The person across the table at a family company is rarely thinking only about a marketing budget. They are thinking about the parent who built the company, the children who may inherit it, the employees who have been there longer than they have, and a brand that predates Google. The brief that follows is almost always a version of the same request: help us grow without losing what made us worth growing. That is harder work than chasing whatever converts on Meta this month, and we prefer it.
Family businesses also fail in familiar ways. They turn insular. They confuse loyalty with competence and put the wrong relative in the wrong seat. They let a disagreement at
Thanksgiving settle a hiring question. Some get so busy protecting what exists that they stop building what comes next. None of that cancels the advantages. It means the good ones earned them.
oakpool isn’t a family business. But, from the first year, Alex and I agreed to run it as though it were one, and that’s probably why we work so well together with them.
FAQ
What is a family-led business?
A family-led business is a company whose ownership and leadership remain with a founding family, often across several generations, with family members setting its direction and carrying its reputation.
Why do family-led businesses take a longer view?
Owners who expect to hold a company for generations judge decisions by their effect over decades. Public companies answer to quarterly results and private equity owners to an exit, typically about five years out.
Is oakpool a family business?
No. Alex Ford and James Hamilton founded oakpool and are not related. They agreed from the start to run it with the habits of a good family business: a long time horizon, loyalty in both directions and a steward’s view of ownership.
What kinds of companies does oakpool work with?
oakpool works with founder & family-led brands in hospitality, CPG, wine and spirits, outdoor recreation, financial services, and entertainment.
