20VC: The Memo: The $23BN Company You Have Not Heard Of: Tradeweb, The Story of 27 Years of Compounding Growth Leading to the Market Leader with $1.4BN in Revenue and 50% EBITDA Margins

Billy Hult is Chief Executive Officer of Tradeweb Markets (Nasdaq: TW), as Billy puts it, they are the “electronic interface that connects Citadel and Goldman”. They are also one of the most under the radar but incredible businesses of the last 20 years. Through no glitz acquisitions or specific moments, TradeWeb has compounded organic growth for the last 27 years to today, with a market cap of $22BN.

In Today’s Episode with Billy Hult:

1. From Betting Shop Worker to Public Company CEO:

• How would Billy’s teachers and parents have described the young Billy?

• Why does Billy think it is so important to have a hard first job when growing up?

• What does Billy know now that he wishes he had known when he started?

2. What it Takes to be a World-Leading CEO:

• How does Billy define the role of the CEO? What are the core tenets?

• What has been the single hardest element of CEOship to learn?

• Does Billy care about being liked? How does that impact his management style?

• Why does Billy think it is so important for CEOs to make “big bets”? What have been his biggest?

3. Hiring World-Class Teams in 2024:

• What have been some of Billy’s biggest hiring mistakes? What did he learn from them?

• How does Billy weigh IQ vs EQ and hustle? Which wins? Why?

• Does Billy think this generation of millennials is too soft?

• What are the single biggest lessons Billy has on when to delegate vs when to retain control?

4. Money, Power and Family:

• How does Billy approach his relationship to money today? How has it changed over time?

• Fame, power or money, rank them from 1-3. How does Billy rank them?

• How does Billy describe his own style of parenting? How has it changed over time?