252: How to Protect and Grow Wealth After Selling Your Business with Jay Jacobs

Building and selling a company is hard—but managing wealth afterward is a completely different challenge.

Jay Jacobs knows this firsthand. An OG member of The Lifestyle Investor Mastermind, and my very first Private Client, Jay founded RAPID Manufacturing in 2001 and grew it over 17 years into the world’s largest prototype sheet metal manufacturer and the second-largest prototype CNC machining business. RAPID’s success was fueled by leveraging modern technology—and after selling the company for 9-figures, Jay launched Paperless Parts to give other manufacturers access to the same kinds of tools. Today, Paperless Parts is the #1 quoting and estimating software in manufacturing, with $25M ARR.

But even with all that success, Jay faced a new reality after his exit: the skills that made him a world-class entrepreneur weren’t the same ones he needed to protect and grow his wealth.

As an entrepreneur, he was used to taking calculated risks, moving fast, and having full control over outcomes. As an investor, the rules were different—success meant slowing down, saying “no” more often than “yes,” and trusting others to be good stewards of his capital. The optimism and risk tolerance that served him in business could quickly become liabilities in investing.

In this conversation, he shares how he made that transition—building a passive income stream to replace his paycheck, creating guardrails to avoid costly mistakes, and designing a life filled with impact, travel, and passion projects. You’ll hear the mindset changes that guide his decisions, the relationships that open up high-quality deal flow, and the lessons that can help you avoid the costly mistakes that wipe out fortunes.

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

1.) Why the skills that build a company aren’t the same ones that grow and protect wealth—and how to make the shift from entrepreneur to investor.

2.) The strategy behind Jay’s leap from a 9-figure exit to building a $25M ARR industry leader in manufacturing software.

3.) The lifestyle design strategies Jay uses to turn passions into profitable ventures and create unforgettable life experiences.

Show Notes: LifestyleInvestor.com/252

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