Juan de Dios Aguilar returned to his native Guatemala after graduating from HBS to buy his first business at 26 years old. That door manufacturer has thrived over the almost decade we have owned it, Juan has bought a second business, and is creating a long term hold platform. Along the way he has become one of the most thoughtful, humble, and intelligent leaders I have ever met.
Here is a slightly edited transcript of the video conversation.
Tom: Cool — well, welcome, man. It’s going to be awesome. I’m really psyched.
Juan: Thank you, I’m excited. Thanks for having me.
Tom: So, we gotta clarify a few things first. Who is your favorite soccer team?
Juan: FC Barcelona by far. Big, big soccer fan.
Tom: And who is your favorite athlete? I assume it’s a soccer player?
Juan: Yeah, you know, I would say — I mean, definitely my favorite soccer player is Messi. But I’ve been thinking about the favorite athlete thing recently. I’m into tennis these days — I think I’ve told you that — and I’m just impressed by Djoko. I just can’t believe that guy. He’s a machine. As an athlete, persevering no matter what age and competing at the level he does… I think he’s 38 now. I’m just really impressed by him. So, it’s a tough call — somewhere between those two.
Tom: Yeah, and actually, Djokovic — I used to hate him, but he’s actually become kind of a nice guy.
Juan: He’s hard to hate. I’m with you — I used to hate him. I was always a Nadal fan, but recently I’ve come around. So yeah, I do admire his resilience.
How We Know Each Other
Tom: Alright — fact check — what’s your recollection of how we know each other?
Juan: So we know each other from back in, I think, 2015, in Boston. We met through the search fund community. I reached out to pitch you my fund that I was raising back in the day while doing my MBA in Boston. That was our first interaction.
Tom: Yeah — I think you told me I was your second investor and your only American one, or one of two? So I get that credit at least.
Juan: Yep. And we’ve kind of grown close over the years.
Unique Hot Steam Sauna Experience
Tom: Next question — what is this unique hot steam sauna experience you have in Guatemala? What’s that all about?
Juan: Yeah — that’s something I think every person in the world should experience. As students of Tom, I’d push for a field trip down to Guatemala. You won’t regret it.
Tom: So it’s this artisanal, very traditional sauna in the rural part of Guatemala — and it’s an amazing experience. If you’ve ever been in a sauna, you know it has a bunch of benefits. But this way of doing it — which we didn’t actually turn on when you came with Tom — the whole procedure involves lighting a fire behind a sort of steel barrel that sits inside a rock-built igloo, I’d describe it as. You spray cold water on it, with eucalyptus, and the steam heats up the small room. When you get really hot, you jump into a lake at night, under the stars. It’s a mystical experience.
Juan: I’d love to do it every day — unfortunately I can’t — but I try as often as possible.
Tom:Yeah — all I know is that after we did all that, we were sitting around a bonfire telling each other secrets I never thought I’d tell another human being.
Juan: That’s for sure. It leads to great conversations.
Mayan Nose Hike
Tom: Alright — one more joke question: what’s the Mayan Nose, and does it take 20 minutes to get up it?
It does not. We still don’t know exactly how long it takes to get up there — but we’ll figure it out someday. It’s not a 20-minute hike. It’s probably one of the most technical hikes I’ve done. I heard Tom say something similar.
Juan: You try to reach this strange peak with amazing views over the lake — you can probably Google “Mayan Nose Lake Atitlán” and see what we’re talking about. But we got kind of fooled — someone told us it was a 20–30 minute easy hike up to the nose. And we were hiking for over two hours, very steep, nowhere near the famous nose, and had to turn back. But the experience was amazing. I did at least get Tom to commit to coming back someday to conquer it.
Career Pride
Tom: Alright — let’s get serious with all that out of the way. Simple question: when you look back on your career so far, what are you most proud of?
Juan: That’s an easy one for me. I’d say I’m proud of the relationships I’ve been able to form. I’m proud of work colleagues who have become close friends. I’m proud of investors who’ve become friends and mentors — you being one of them. I’m proud of people I hired as part-time employees, working moms, who’ve upgraded their lifestyle tremendously by betting on me. And I’m proud of being able to work with two of my best friends from forever — and have our work be a reason we’re now even closer than we were as teenagers running around doing crazy stuff. I’m proud of the relationships I’ve built through my career.
Business Partnerships
Tom: Yeah — let’s jump to that because I think that’s something really unique about you. And something I’ve come to value too. For the class, there’s this group of guys — actually disciples of Thornike, who we’ll talk to on Monday — at Cedar Grove. They used to run the equity portfolio at Notre Dame, spun off, and have a unique approach. They call it an “investment firm based on love.” That’s right on their website. They invest permanently, never intend to sell, and only invest in people they’ve known for 10 years, trust implicitly, and would partner with forever.
I’ve come to that point of view too. That’s why you’ll see the only two people I continue to work with are Juan and P. Flick, who’ll also come on here. Because they fit those categories.
One thing that was so cool to see when I was down a couple of months ago is that, as you stepped out from the CEO role at our door company and built this larger platform, you were able to enlist your best friends from — it seems like grade school — and now the core group are people you’ve known your whole life. How did that happen, and why?
Juan: Yeah — I feel tremendously lucky and blessed, to be honest. It’s not something I designed or had a perfect plan for. It kind of happened naturally.
Two of my closest friends I work with now — Tom knows them — one is Ramito. He’s probably been my best friend since forever. We’d had conversations about doing business together for years. With him, we kind of cultivated the business relationship gradually, matured the idea, and always knew we’d do something together.
What was really important was that when the time came to make it official, we had the tough conversations upfront. That’s really important. The guiding principle for our business relationship is, similar to what you said — love first. Meaning friendship before anything else. We set guidelines to protect our friendship over our business partnership.
One key rule is to keep the air clear all the time. Anytime something even slightly bothersome comes up, or any story you’re making up in your head, we talk about it in the moment — very directly — and move forward. We’ve been official partners for almost four years now, and it’s worked. It’s actually strengthened our bond.
Then with Ian, another childhood friend — I was just lucky. We had a good connection, a good friendship, but when we started working together it wasn’t by design, it was more by circumstance. And unintentionally, we just put love first again. We gave each other the benefit of the doubt, and built the relationship from there.
I feel tremendously lucky to be able to work with both of those guys.
Who Not How
Tom: I love this thing you said about “not how, but who.” What do you mean by that?
Juan: I didn’t make that up — it comes from a book called Who Not How. The concept is: you face a lot of problems in your career and you’re always thinking about how to solve them. But the how has two limitations. One, it’s a driver of fear — it can inhibit you, limit your potential, and you can get stuck thinking about how instead of remembering the why and the goal you’re pursuing.
Second — from a tactical perspective, somewhere in the world there’s somebody who already knows exactly how to fix the problem you’re trying to solve. What I loved about the book was how it ties into relationships. I’m all about relationships — to me, the end goal in life is the bonds you form through your career and experiences.
So I loved the idea that if you find someone who knows how to do something better than you, not only will you be more efficient, but you’ll develop a new bond, a new relationship. And it’ll be more fun.
Now, when I face a problem, my first instinct isn’t “how can I fix this?” It’s “who knows how to do this better than me, and how can I get to them?” It’s a fun way to build relationships and solve problems.
Mentors
Tom: So — who have been the most important mentors to you?
Juan: Definitely my dad. I’m fortunate he’s still present, someone I admire, and can have deep conversations with. I can be open with him and learn from him. He’s been instrumental from the start.
I’d also say my investors — and not to throw flowers at you, Tom — but you’re one of them. I’ve been fortunate to build deep bonds with my investors. Through vulnerability and openness — not just from my side, but theirs too — we’ve developed relationships where it feels natural to have tough conversations. I don’t feel like I need to just report results or manage perceptions. With most of them, I can have real, honest conversations.
And I wouldn’t say I have many other mentors outside that core group — my dad and my investors, who I also consider business partners and friends.
From Gut Feel to Compounding Value: A Search Fund Story in Guatemala
Juan: Like many of you, I tend to trust my gut. I don’t overthink things too much — and that’s exactly what happened in this case. Nobody had really done a search fund like this in Central America. The model hadn’t been proven outside of the U.S. and Mexico, but to me, it just made sense.
A huge part of that decision came from my wife — she was my fiancée at the time — and she was all in. She said, “If this makes sense to you, and you can get people to back you, it makes even more sense. So take the risk.” And I did.
There’s this concept from Jim Collins’ Good to Great, a book I’d highly recommend you all read. He talks about the idea of “bullets before cannonballs” — meaning you fire small bullets to test things before committing everything with a cannonball. That was my approach to the search fund. I started testing the idea with investors. If they backed me, I’d go all in. One of those early conversations was with Tom, and when he supported it, that felt like a hit. That gave me the confidence to fire the cannonball.
We also had a personal reason for going back to Guatemala. We could’ve stayed in Mexico, gone into consulting, private equity — but we love our country, and we wanted to raise our family there. That was hugely important to us.
Once I launched, it took about six months to find a company. We saw a clear macro trend in Central America — a construction boom driven by a big housing deficit. There was a real opportunity. Every house needs a door. That made this company — a major door manufacturer — very attractive.
Becoming a CEO at 26
At 26, I became CEO. The average employee was over 40. I knew nothing about doors, manufacturing, or sales. But what I did have was an attitude: I would play at the highest level possible, like in sports. And when you compete against strong teams, you raise your game. That’s how I approached it.
I also made a clear leadership decision early on: I would start with trust. I told everyone, “You have my trust. You can either keep it, or lose it.” I’ve seen other CEOs come into companies they acquire and immediately operate from fear and distrust, micromanaging everyone. It kills culture. Yes, I made mistakes. A couple of people broke that trust. But overall, it created a healthier, higher-performing culture.
Why We Didn’t Sell
In the search fund world, the typical playbook is to buy a company, fix it, and sell it within 3–5 years. But by year five, I finally felt like I was figuring things out. I understood how my actions drove results. And everything was just getting started.
Selling made no sense. Instead, we decided to play the long game — compounding value over time. The only reason we could do that is because of the trust I had built with my investors. No egos, no short-term thinking. Just alignment on building something bigger over decades. We brought in a new CEO and held the business.
A Second Business — And What We Learned
We later acquired a second company that makes metal boxes for circuit boards in homes. During due diligence, I was blown away to learn they had virtually zero defects — unheard of in manufacturing. It was because of the pride the employees took in their work. They loved being there. Open positions would fill instantly through word of mouth.
We realized that culture drives everything. These were businesses creating jobs for 700 people, which meant impacting thousands of family members. So we chose to go beyond what’s required — offering things like free healthcare for employees and their families, something not mandated in Guatemala. It makes a difference. And when you have high standards and people who care, it reflects in the product and the company’s long-term value.
The Future: Compounding Relationships
My vision is simple: compound relationships. Find talented, driven people. Build friendships, partnerships, and a community that shares values. Acquire businesses that let us impact thousands more families. Work with owners who trust us and want to join our mission.
And most importantly, have fun doing it.
Advice to Student Athletes
To all of you — especially as student athletes — you’re already onto something great. Sports teach lessons that apply directly to business: teamwork, resilience, preparation, and competitiveness.
Use that competitive spirit in whatever career you pursue. Pay attention. Be curious. Ask for help. Seek mentors. One of my favorite ideas is from Who Not How — focus on finding the right people, your “who’s,” not just the “how.”
And above all, only do business with people you trust and admire. That’s the one rule I wish someone had pounded into me when I started.
