The Berkshire Hathaway Model, Rebuilt Around Bitcoin | Nico Lechuga #232

<p>Private equity buys a business, loads it with debt, and sells it within five years. Orange Juice wants to buy the business, keep the owner in place, and never sell it at all.</p><p>Nico Lechuga is a founding partner at Ego Death Capital, a Bitcoin venture fund with around $137 million under management. Alongside fellow Ego Death partners Lyn Alden, Jeff Booth and Andi Pitt, he co-founded Orange Juice, a permanent capital vehicle that acquires cash flow positive businesses and sweeps those cash flows into Bitcoin.</p><p>The team also includes partners Ruben Zweiban, a former JP Morgan analyst and US Navy SEAL, and Adrian Steckel, the former CEO of OneWeb, plus newly appointed CTO Elias Martinez Cohen, previously an AI infrastructure engineer at NVIDIA and Twitter.</p><p>Since announcing, more than 150 businesses have reached out.</p><p><br></p><p>🍊 Find out more about Orange Juice: https://orangejuice.com/</p><p><br></p><p>Topics covered:</p><p>Why Orange Juice was designed as a foil to traditional private equity, not a Bitcoin treasury company</p><p>How the Berkshire Hathaway model shaped the owner operator structure</p><p>Why they’re raising privately first and proving the thesis before going public</p><p>The gearbox model — how they decide between reinvesting, buying Bitcoin or acquiring more businesses</p><p>Which types of businesses they’re targeting and why generational companies keep showing up</p><p>Why they’re already open to businesses outside the US</p><p>Nico’s Bitcoin journey — from a Vice article on the Silk Road to Jeff Booth changing everything</p><p>How AI factors into acquisition due diligence without distracting owner operators</p><p>Why a good Bitcoin solution should work like a light switch — no evangelism required</p><p><br></p><p>Chapters:</p><p>00:00 Intro — There Is a Better Treasury Asset Than Fiat</p><p>01:00 What Is Orange Juice and Why Was It Built?</p><p>02:00 Ego Death Capital — The Fund Behind the Idea</p><p>05:00 The Gap Nobody Had Filled for Cash Flow Business Owners</p><p>07:00 How Orange Juice Acquires Businesses — The Berkshire Model</p><p>09:00 Owner Operators, Equity and the No Earn-Out Structure</p><p>11:00 Why There’s No Time Clock — The Permanent Capital Difference</p><p>12:00 The Gearbox — How They Decide Where the Cash Goes</p><p>15:00 Real World Example: A UK Hotel Group and the Bitcoin Question</p><p>18:00 Which Sectors and Business Types Are Being Targeted</p><p>20:00 Generational Businesses and the Bitcoin