Page 48 - Forbes - USA (February 2018)

Entrepreneurs UNDER 30 ELEVATOR
PITCH
Town full-time. “I’d much rather be on the farm ly meetings, Saperstein and his team tweak pro-
in boots and working with people than in the of- duction forecasts, based on demand data from

fice,” he says. customers and the latest growth numbers from
When demand for trees fell following the the fi elds. The trees are grown in containers,

crash of 2008, David, who was funding Tree- and as they mature, they are moved to larger
Town himself, responded by letting some acre- containers to prevent them from getting root-

age go unplanted and postponing maintenance. bound. The company’s most popular tree, an
But by the summer of 2014, although the reces- Empire Live Oak, comes in containers ranging
LOTTE WORLD TOWER, SEOUL

sion was long past, David was still unwilling to from five gallons, which wholesales for $21, to FLOORS: 123
SECONDS: 48
spend, and some TreeTown executives worried 670 gallons, which goes for $5,100. Saperstein WORDS PER MINUTE: 130
that the company had pulled back too far. Unless must forecast demand a decade in advance to
it started planting soon, it wouldn’t have enough determine how many trees to sell at each stage.

product later to keep up with competitors. Th at’s He also has to figure out how to arrange those
when Jonathan made his move to take over the that remain so they can be maintained effi cient-
company. ly. “You take a Rubik’s cube and throw it in the
Once in control, he immediately started to ex- blender,” he says with a laugh. Saperstein is now
ecute his strategic plan, which called for $10 mil- rolling out handheld devices at all of TreeTown’s

lion in improvements partly financed by lines of farms to better analyze labor costs and complete
credit with Bank of America and Wells Fargo. work orders.
He also hired a new chief fi nancial offi cer and Meanwhile he continues to buy farms. In Sep-

human resources director and set up merit-based tember, after 18 months of negotiation, he ac-
quired Village Nurseries, a In the time it takes to
California grower with more reach the 117th-fl oor
HOW TO PLAY IT BY WILLIAM BALDWIN observatory of South
than 900 acres under culti- Korea’s tallest building,

You want growth in your portfolio? Get it from trees. vation. The $75 million deal,
Goldman Sachs alum
Timber barons get to treat their profits from harvest- paid for with a combination Brendan Alper, 30,

ing wood as low-taxed capital gains. That cushy deal of cash from operations and explains why you should
extends to shareholders in forest-product companies
debt, more than doubled Tree- love Hater, a Brooklyn-
organized as real estate investment trusts. Potlatch, for
Town’s revenue. It also fur- based dating app with a
example, paid out $1.53 a share last year, all of it classi- caustic new approach.

ther diversified the compa-

fied as long-term gain. When it completes a pending acquisition, this
REIT will have 1.9 million acres of timberland and ample opportunity ny. Village Nurseries’ specialty “Hater matches
to make that dividend greener. Rayonier, another tree REIT, owns, is shrubs, such as azaleas and people based on what
leases or manages 2.7 million acres. Its $1 dividend last year was 100% philodendrons, which grow they hate. Swipe on
capital gain. thousands of topics
more quickly and cheaply than ranging from ‘Kim Jong
William Baldwin is the Investment Strategies columnist for Forbes. trees. Its location in the coun- Un’ to ‘ketchup on hot
try’s largest nursery market dogs,’ and algorithms
gives TreeTown a new custom- recommend the most
bonuses for employees. Then he went shopping er base of West Coast landscapers and retailers. compatible matches.

for acquisitions. Soon after buying TreeTown, he Saperstein says a greater variety of products Although Hater started
as a comedy sketch,
learned about a troubled tree farm in Bunnell, will help him increase sales to existing custom- we’re no gimmick.
Florida, and bought it for $5 million in October ers—and should also help him withstand the
Studies have shown
2015. In February 2016 he bought a smaller Flor- next recession. “If the market slows down,” he that people bond
ida farm that produces palm trees. says, “you have more fl exibility.” more over mutual
He also set about improving the compa- Unlike his father, who was hoping for a quick dislikes than shared
ny’s tree-manufacturing process, gearing op- IPO and exit, Jonathan plans to be in the tree busi- interests. Thousands of
erations to data and effi ciency. Tree farming ness a long time. “We don’t have equity partners, people worldwide are ELEVATOR PITCH AS TOLD TO SUSAN ADAMS TOP: PETER HOEY FOR FORBES; LEFT: THOMAS KUHLENBECK FOR FORBES
is a highly complex form of manufacturing in so no one is telling us to grow at a certain rate meeting, having fun
and complaining about
which numerous variables, including the econ- per year,” he says. Even if prices were to drop by a tangled headphones
omy and the weather, must be managed care- third, he says, TreeTown would still have positive and chatty Uber drivers.
fully over long periods of time. The Texas and cash flow, allowing him to buy more farms. Hater scored a deal

Bunnell farms have customized automated pot- What worries him? “My biggest fear is that we with Mark Cuban on
ting lines that provide the precise amount of soil are going to get complacent,” he says, “and that’s Shark Tank, and we’re
and fertilizer each seedling requires. In month- what we won’t allow to happen.” backed by the creators
of Candy Crush.”
FINAL THOUGHT
“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” —RALPH WALDO EMERSON
46 | FORBES FEBRUARY 28, 2018