What started with three Nubian goats on the shores of Hungry Bay has grown into an investment conglomerate taking more inspiration from the Oracle of Omaha than Old MacDonald.

In 1994, James Tucker, a grandson of the legendary Bermudian politician Sir Henry Tucker, founded Tucker’s Farm Goat Cheese, a small dairy that steadily expanded over the years.

His youngest son, Kyle, embarked on a finance career, but he did not follow the traditional path. Instead, he took a cue from the legendary investor Warren Buffett and decided to merge his financial expertise with his family’s legacy.

“I wanted to build something on my own,” he said. “But I was more inspired by what I call the ‘folksy Midwest compounders’ like Koch Industries or Berkshire Hathaway than the traditional Wall Street private equity firms.”

Following that philosophy, Tucker’s Farm, though it still makes cheese, is no longer just a dairy — it is a diversified holding company deploying roughly $60 million in equity annually. Its portfolio includes everything from fried chicken through Christmas decor to pool services.

One of its recent acquisitions, made through the firm’s new tech-enabled The Badlands Security Company, was a 70-year-old US locksmith and access-control business. Why a locksmith? According to Mr Tucker, the firm prioritises businesses with strong revenue retention and staying power.

“We care deeply about revenue quality. We have religion here — is it recurring revenue? What’s the gross retention, churn, etc? What’s the mission criticality or stickiness to the customer?” he said.

“For example, a typical small construction company would be a lower-revenue-quality business because it’s project-based with key-man risk tied to the founding individual. But, as a counter-example, think about a software product like Microsoft Excel. Super mission critical to the average professional on Front Street.

“A fish sandwich could run Microsoft and I bet you still wouldn’t cancel your subscription.

“This 70-year-old family-owned [locksmith] business we bought had exceptionally sticky revenue. Super mission critical and low-churn,” he said, “And the seller was just an awesome guy. We’re handshake folks so we really focus on seller quality.”

Tucker’s Farm follows a decentralised management structure, allowing individual business leaders to operate independently.

“For the new CEO that we put in place, we’re trying to find, to use a technical term, a killer,” he said. “If you go into any park, you’ll never find a statue of a committee. We want to find an honest, hardworking and intelligent CEO candidate and then make sure the incentives are right.”

This approach helps to ensure that the acquired businesses keep their unique identity while benefiting from Tucker’s Farm’s strategy and oversight. The company is careful about making changes, recognising that the existing culture and “magic” of a business are important to keep.

Mr Tucker is the first to admit he and his partners “don’t have all the answers”.

“My life has been one big exercise in touching the stove and repeatedly learning about what doesn’t work,” he explained. “So, when we’re buying a family business, we’re under no illusions that we created the value, the magic of the business.”

So what does Tucker’s Farm have its eye on next? Mr Tucker highlighted vertical market software, medspas and niche home services such as pools as areas of interest.

“We pursue specific industries in thematic sourcing campaigns, while also having a generalist, bottom-up, opportunistic, ‘boil the ocean’ sourcing approach,” he said.

Tucker’s Farm is poised to grow over the next decade, aiming to deploy $50 million to $100 million of long-duration equity capital every year. It has an expanding portfolio and a pipeline of new acquisitions in the works, not to mention a philosophy of being up for anything.

“We’re not New York folks sitting in an ivory tower and thinking big thoughts. We’re cowboys and wildcatters and deal folks on the frontier of private equity, building something unique. With a few goats along the way, of course,” Mr Tucker says.