What Happens When You Put Bitcoin Inside Private Equity?

What if you could build a better alternative to private equity: by acquiring profitable businesses and sweeping their cash flow into Bitcoin?

That’s the idea behind Orange Juice.

In this episode of the One Chair Podcast, Nico Lechuga, founding partner at Ego Death Capital and Orange Juice, unpacks one of the most interesting new models emerging at the intersection of Bitcoin, private equity and traditional business.

Orange Juice is building a permanent capital vehicle designed to acquire cash-flow-positive businesses, keep their owner-operators involved, and use the free cash flow they generate to accumulate Bitcoin.

But the ambition goes much further.

Nico says the ultimate measure of success would be for Orange Juice to eventually stand in the same conversation as Apollo, KKR and Blackstone, while making Bitcoin an integral part of the model without having to evangelize it.

We explore:

→ Why traditional private equity may not always align with business owners

→ How Orange Juice offers an alternative exit for entrepreneurs

→ Why Orange Juice plans to acquire and hold businesses for the long term

→ How business cash flows can be converted into Bitcoin

→ Whether Orange Juice could eventually become a public company

→ When Orange Juice equity could become more attractive than cash for acquisitions

→ Whether the company would ever sell its Bitcoin → How Orange Juice thinks about leverage without becoming a forced seller of BTC

→ The potential flywheel between businesses, cash flow, Bitcoin and future acquisitions

→ How AI could improve the companies Orange Juice acquires

→ Nico’s biggest takeaway from the Bitcoin Treasuries conference in New York

→ How Bitcoin changed Nico’s life far beyond investing

Nico also shares how meeting Jeff Booth helped shape his Bitcoin journey, how that eventually led to the creation of Ego Death Capital, and why years of working with successful entrepreneurs and family offices ultimately helped inspire Orange Juice.

Can Bitcoin become the missing ingredient in a new permanent-capital model capable of competing with traditional private equity?

This conversation explores what that could look like.

Follow our Guest:

- Nico Lechuga: https://x.com/nico_lechuga

- Ego Death Capital on X: https://x.com/egodeathcapital

- Ego Death Capital: https://egodeath.capital/

- Orange Juice on X: https://x.com/orangejuice_btc

- Orange Juice: https://orangejuice.com/

00:00 How Nico Lechuga Discovered Bitcoin Through Jeff Booth

03:54 Building Ego Death Capital: Investing in Bitcoin Startups

05:38 Why Nico Lechuga Created Orange Juice

11:44 Why Orange Juice Plans to Hold Businesses Forever

16:17 Could Orange Juice Exist Without Bitcoin?

18:22 Could Orange Juice Use Strategy’s Bitcoin Treasury Playbook?

20:06 What Happens When an Orange Juice Business Fails?

22:13 How Orange Juice Can Create a Business Acquisition Flywheel

25:24 When Orange Juice Equity Becomes Better Than Cash

26:53 Would Orange Juice Ever Sell Its Bitcoin?

28:41 How AI Could Transform Orange Juice’s Businesses

31:02 The Ultimate Goal: Competing With Blackstone, KKR & Apollo

32:48 Nico's Biggest Takeaway from the Bitcoin Treasuries Conference

35:32 How Bitcoin Helped Nico “Exit the Matrix”

36:54 Nico Lechuga’s Final Message to Bitcoin Entrepreneurs

Big thanks to Little Bubble for allowing us to use his song: "One Chair": https://open.spotify.com/track/0XW7JgR2Nlg7WXGOeVT64h?si=a344b82984f74f81

DISCLAIMER: This is not is financial advice. This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Thank you for listening!

Follow us on:

- X: https://x.com/OneChairPod

- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OneChairPod