#  @acquiringminds Acquiring Minds Acquiring Minds posts on YouTube about acquisition, business, how to, mergers and acquisitions the most. They currently have [------] followers and [---] posts still getting attention that total [-----] engagements in the last [--] hours. ### Engagements: [-----] [#](/creator/youtube::UCxZhukqVghThCjzZuvP7pfA/interactions)  - [--] Week [-----] -29% - [--] Month [------] -25% - [--] Months [------] +34% - [--] Year [-------] +62% ### Mentions: [--] [#](/creator/youtube::UCxZhukqVghThCjzZuvP7pfA/posts_active)  - [--] Week [--] -41% - [--] Month [--] +3.10% - [--] Months [--] +14% - [--] Year [---] +144% ### Followers: [------] [#](/creator/youtube::UCxZhukqVghThCjzZuvP7pfA/followers)  - [--] Week [------] +0.74% - [--] Month [------] +3% - [--] Months [------] +20% - [--] Year [------] +51% ### CreatorRank: [---------] [#](/creator/youtube::UCxZhukqVghThCjzZuvP7pfA/influencer_rank)  ### Social Influence **Social category influence** [finance](/list/finance) [countries](/list/countries) [technology brands](/list/technology-brands) [stocks](/list/stocks) [currencies](/list/currencies) **Social topic influence** [acquisition](/topic/acquisition), [business](/topic/business), [how to](/topic/how-to), [mergers and acquisitions](/topic/mergers-and-acquisitions) #328, [minds](/topic/minds), [in the](/topic/in-the), [the first](/topic/the-first), [$20m](/topic/$20m), [money](/topic/money), [ceo](/topic/ceo) **Top accounts mentioned or mentioned by** [@fundof1](/creator/undefined) ### Top Social Posts Top posts by engagements in the last [--] hours "Comfortable Concentration for a $800k SDE Business Phil Koller Interview Today's story is a study in not judging a book by its cover. Phil Koller bought Roman Enterprises an automotive paint distribution business. Now Roman had about [--] customers. It had essentially a single supplier. And it had one yes just one employee. Undeterred Phil looked closely at each of these features and more and decided that he could accept and/or mitigate the risk. And there was lots to love about Roman Enterprises. I already mentioned that single employee a feature that lives in both the pro and con columns." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=b9iToFEJMLI) 2025-12-16T10:45Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How to 4x a Small Manufacturer Tato Corcoran Update Today's is an update episode with a popular guest from [----] Tato Corcoran. We re-ran Tato's first episode during Christmas week which sparked interest in learning what has happened in the two years since that first interview. Tato bought a very small manufacturer of sinks for bathroom vanities with just $400k in revenue and [--] employees. As Tato put it in our first interview "Looking back on it the seller didn't have a business he had a job that paid him." If you haven't heard that first interview check it out to hear what the first year and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=13oUViHj5qc) 2026-02-02T21:19Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements "How to Buy a Business & Grow It to $25m James Bloom Interview James Bloom bought a small commercial HVAC business in [----]. It was generating less than $400k SDE and had only [--] employees. [--] years later James has 8x'd revenue to a projected $25m by the end of [----]. So this is a $25m business that James acquired for just $785k only a few years ago. Today's conversation is a deep dive into how he's done it. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 Chapters: 00:00. James background 08:56. Search parameters for a business 12:33. Doing his own due diligence 14:27. Acquiring" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=2Z-Wk3jLKjo) 2023-06-26T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "Growing Profits 30% in the First [---] Years Jonathan Taylor Interview As his 40th birthday approached today's guest started to feel the now-or-never pull of entrepreneurship. So Jonathan Taylor left a 15-year tech career to journey into business ownership. Jonathan closed on a distribution business a year and a half ago. Like many distribution businesses AEK Technology has concentration but not on the customer side. Many of the products it sells come from a single supplier. Jonathan and I unpack this risk and how he's mitigated it. Note how common this is in distribution businesses. The" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3LZsRvIt7jI) 2026-02-05T20:42Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements "How to Grow a Small Plumbing Business to $26m John Wilson Interview John Wilson bought his family's little plumbing business in [----]. He quickly decided that there was opportunity here and that he wanted to do something spectacular: Become the largest licensed home services business in Northeast Ohio. [--] years later and he's achieved it. The business was over [--] years old when he bought it; his grandfather had founded it. But it was doing just about a million bucks in annual revenue. Not a lot. The first full year of John's ownership [----] saw the business grow to $1.7m. Flash forward and the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=7hyb5L61E9M) 2024-03-14T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "Year [--] in a $300k SDE Services Business Scott Crosby Interview "The worst day I've had running the business has been better than the best day I had working for someone else" So Scott Crosby told me about his new life as the owner of an HVAC and refrigeration services business in St. Louis. Scott bought small; American Services had under $300k of SDE and four and a half employees. We talk about how he's managed through the vulnerability of such a small business including turning over essentially the whole team. Part of Scott's model here is not taking any money out of the business for himself" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9jotQUT9nCA) 2026-02-02T23:53Z 13.6K followers, [--] engagements "SBA Deal Structuring to Manage Risk in a Cyclical Industry Andrew Kurzrok Interview Frustrated by the poor performance of his email outreach today's guest finally decided to just pick up the phone. And to his surprise it worked. Andrew Kurzrok bought a ductwork fabricator a little over an hour from his home in Northern Virginia. After awkwardly calling the receptionist back a few times when she didn't put him through correctly he was finally able to leave a message on the voicemail of the owner. And he got a call back. (Thanks to the owner's wife we learn.) In addition to the story of how he" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AxG5fV19iVs) 2026-02-05T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "Buy Well Exit Better: A $67m Win in [--] Years Greg Geronemus Interview A few episodes ago we heard about a couple early in their journey as owners of a tour operator business. Katherine Butler-Dines and Rahul Desai bought a small niche tour operator as self-funded searchers. Well today we hear from an entrepreneur on the other end both in terms of journey (he's exited) and size of business. Back in [----] Greg Geronemus and his partner David Rosner acquired a larger tour operator one that did $5m of EBITDA. Four years later they'd paid back most of the $20m in debt on the business grown EBITDA" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BUOuFYV2Zig) 2025-10-16T17:36Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Exiting for Millions vs. Long-Term Hold Don Grigg Interview Twenty-five years ago today's guest bought [--] businesses within a few months of each other. Don Grigg was in his early 30s with [--] kids and a desire to buy a manufacturing business. In the end both businesses he bought were problem companies which was by design. He figured the only thing he'd be able to afford were small struggling businesses and that he'd have to turn them around. Which he did. We hear the story of both including one that he exited for millions of dollars a few years later. Which sounds like the searcher dream: Buy a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BwLrc163s8o) 2026-01-30T15:44Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements "How to Turn $500k into a $38m Holdco (No Investors) Garrison Snell Interview Today's guest owns [--] businesses. He has debt on them but no outside investors so his family are the sole owners of this portfolio that generated $9m in EBITDA in [----]. Also Garrison Snell is [--]. He has no formal background in finance; he actually planned to be a professional musician. So hopefully this interview will show you how an outsider someone completely naive to investing can make a decision to pursue a path and not only be successful but be successful in a relatively short amount of time. Garrison has built" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DHxFxpSJJSw) 2024-07-01T07:00Z 13.6K followers, 10.9K engagements "$20m Net Worth After [--] Years Buying Businesses Paul Lajoie Interview Most of the interviews on Acquiring Minds are with entrepreneurs recently into their acquisitions. But occasionally we'll have guests who've been doing this for much longer and we get to see how a career as an acquisition entrepreneur unfolds over decades. Today is one such example. At [--] years old Paul Lajoie today takes home $1m per year and tallies his net worth at almost $20m. And it all started about [--] years ago when he and his brother bought a flooring business doing $300k of SDE. We hear that story and how it set up" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=EMkgsVgBTzI) 2026-01-21T07:04Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How to Buy an MSP Business Nick Akers Interview Nick Akers had experienced toxic work environments and he had developed a vision of the polar opposite: A supportive employee-first environment one where people could flourish & self-actualize. And where employee flourishing would lead to the whole organization flourishing. Buying a business to lead was the perfect vehicle to realize this vision. In May [----] Nick bought a 30-year-old MSP (managed service provider). ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 Chapters: 00:00:00. Nick's background as an inventor 00:06:48. How" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FDAfx-z7nDc) 2023-08-14T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "Taking a Flower Shop from $600k to $9 Million Michael Jacobson Interview Today's story is how Michael Jacobson outsider to the flower industry saw his uncle's 45-year-old barely-profitable flower shop and decided to buy it. And since then has grown it from a paltry $600k in annual flower sales to $9.5m. This is a fascinating story and it might make you linger over those flower shop listings you probably ignored on BizBuySell. Michael is now aiming to parlay the tech that he built & playbook that he wrote for his uncle's shop into a national franchise brand. Enjoy this remarkable story of" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GhxDmK8YRF4) 2024-12-28T04:45Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "How to Buy a Generational Brand with $20m in Sales Philip Hussey Interview Brand is not a feature of businesses we typically see down here in the lower lower middle market. Sure there might be some local name recognition for that plumbing business. But a true consumer brand one that anchors its product or service in quality that means enough to command premium prices a business like this is unusual. Well one of the most respected small business acquirers in our world Chenmark recently bought just such a business. And Philip Hussey who sourced and now runs it is here to tell us all about Thos." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KzuVTCiou3Y) 2025-12-03T01:58Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Buying for $600k Selling for $35m Jake Bittner Interview Many strong entrepreneurs are less risk takers than strategic risk mitigators and Jake Bittner exemplifies this mindset. He spent the first decade of his career in enterprise software sales deliberately choosing selling as the most valuable skill for a future entrepreneur. Along the way he developed deep expertise in government-focused data analytics built a strong network and saved enough money to weather a period without salary. So when the chance came to acquire an unprofitable carve-out in his niche he was unusually well prepared:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NJgNUgEoZ_k) 2025-12-01T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Started Mid-Career Grew to $38m in [--] Years Shaun Stimpson Interview Shaun Stimpson was mid-career in wealth management when a client mentioned making money by buying companies. That conversation changed Shauns path. He spent five years studying acquisitions and in December [----] bought Mitten Fluidpower an industrial distribution business. Since then he has grown that company and acquired two others building a portfolio with $38 million in revenue. Shaun shares how he structures ownership with his partner and investors and why he focused on industrial distributiona category many peers" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NZeHMu1fdUY) 2025-10-07T17:47Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Reward for [--] Month Deal: $1.8m of EBITDA Robert Gayden Interview Seventeen months is how long it took the acquisition of today's guest to close. But so far it sure does seem worth it for Robert Gayden. For one thing sales grew considerably during that year and a half so Robert's confidence in the business grew in tandem. And because the headline terms of the LOI weren't renegotiated his effective purchase price steadily declined. Robert bought a home care business with $1.8m of adjusted EBITDA when he finally closed. Many searchers' impulse is to refine the operations of their newly-acquired" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qw6d8NxzBqU) 2025-12-15T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Complexity Hides Fragility: Losing a $20m Business Joe Odell Interview Today's interview is the story of a business acquisition that ended in collapse and how the protagonist is putting his professional life back together. Joe Odell bought a compounding pharmacy business with his partner Jess Paterson via the traditional search fund model. The fundamentals of the business seemed strong: Demographic tailwinds high-quality revenue and good sized with $20m of revenue and [---] employees. But despite these hopeful signs things went off the rails quickly once Joe and Jess took over. And for the next" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RNUNdIxcG_8) 2025-12-19T14:41Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Plumbing Acquisition Gone Wrong Josh Key Interview "Trust but verify." The words that today's guest will live by going forward. It was the eleventh hour in Josh Key's acquisition of a small plumbing company and his SBA lender springs on him that they want to see a master plumber on the cap table. He found a man through his church with a plumbing license to partner with. Flash forward: the business has been run into the ground and Josh has had to file for Chapter [--]. And much of this fiasco he attributes to his now ex partner. If you're partnering with someone you don't really know you need to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rv8GEQu5grU) 2024-12-19T08:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "When a $2.8m Acquisition Is More Like Zero to One Dave Gilbert Interview You may have heard me say recently that seller dishonesty or outright fraud is the leading reason that buying a business goes south. Well today's case is not that. It's a look at how an acquisition entrepreneur can find himself in crisis for other reasons. Dave Gilbert bought a fractional CFO business only to discover bad camouflaged customer concentration. Not only that the business model was fundamentally flawed. The third critical issue was just how much of a family business it was; there were family members" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=WUXclQCHmvc) 2025-11-26T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Stacking Small Acquisitions to $5m in Revenue Kyle Boyden and Jake Furfaro Interview Today's guests set out to acquire cleaning companies in the greater Seattle area. Most were tinyunder $1m revenuebut Kyle Boyden & Jake Furfaro embraced micro-acquisitions stacking to $2.5m before going bigger. Two more deals brought them to $5m. Only their seventh used an SBA loan; the first six relied on seller financing and low down payments. Theyve invested just $100k and now take home $650k owning 90%. Risk was low with no personal guarantees early on. The process built operating and integration skills" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=WckgVpLxWt8) 2025-08-25T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "$60m Roll-Up That Started With an SBA Acquisition Brian Boland and Onu Okebie Interview Onu Okebie and Brian Boland started smallwith an SBA loan to acquire a business doing just $500k in SDE. Today theyve grown HTL Freight to $60 million in revenue. Their story shows the power of bootstrapping: keeping 100% ownership early proving themselves before raising equity and then negotiating far better terms later. Brian estimates their cost of equity was just a tenth of what it would have been at the start. This episode is about how two entrepreneurs turned one SBA-backed deal into a major freight" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YsZAnvfQAqk) 2025-09-18T20:21Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Buying a Wide Moat in a Consolidating Industry Ania Aliev Interview Boy did today's guest uncover an interesting opportunity. Ania Aliev bought a business in AED sales and servicing. You'll learn what that looks like in our conversation. But suffice it say that this is recurring revenue in a fragmented industry and an industry that PE is starting to take notice of. Ania's timing seems fantastic. Not only that Ania's business Life Support Systems enjoys a strong moat one that enabled her to introduce a powerful new pricing model. We unpack it. Finally and not least the business serves a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jho1ISzXs) 2025-10-27T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "The Late 40s Pivot Into Business Buying Jarom Wren Interview Jarom Wren felt the entrepreneurial itch in his late 30s despite a successful corporate career. Seeking more freedom he explored options for years until discovering entrepreneurship through acquisition after a friend bought a business. Mesmerized Jarom dove in and eventually acquired Vanlife Outfitters an ecommerce brand serving the vanlife community. He navigated lender skepticism about ecommerce restated earnings and a deal that nearly fell apart. Jarom shares how persistence renegotiation and realistic expectations helped him" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZGGHuA6fXSI) 2026-01-29T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "The $60k Acquisition that Grew to a $77m Exit Kevin Ramsier Interview Kevin Ramsier didnt set out to buy a business he just answered opportunity when it kept calling. Literally. Todays episode tells the story of how Kevin and a friend bought a tiny radon mitigation business basically a retired engineer with a truck and a flip phone for $60000 at a Big Boy restaurant. Half of it was seller-financed. The calls from real estate agents never stopped and Kevin saw potential. That humble deal became SWAT Environmental a national radon mitigation franchise that ultimately sold to private equity for" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZVKDD24RxPg) 2025-05-22T11:48Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "The $295m Search Fund Exit Sandy Paige Interview This is the remarkable story of a guy who started a traditional search fund at age [--] and went on to deliver record-breaking IRR to his investors. Now even if you're not considering a traditional search fund and most of you are not there is a tremendous amount to learn from Sandy's experience. My favorite takeaway is simply that Sandy didn't fit the mold and that made raising money hard. But he persisted eventually got his search funded and then hit a grand slam. Please enjoy this conversation with Sandy Paige former CEO of Explora BioLabs. ❤" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aAPM_gyuzBE) 2023-09-25T07:00Z 13.5K followers, [----] engagements "The First Steps to a Family Holdco Linh and Leo Van Deibel Interview I first met today's guest at the Self-Funded Search Conference in Dallas in [----]. Linh Van Deibel had flown all the way from London a demonstration of how seriously she was taking this path of entrepreneurship through acquisition. As you'll hear her husband Leo later joined her and Linh and Leo both are today's guests. So buying a business as a couple is a key theme of the interview. As is buying outside the US; Linh and Leo live in London. We hear how they structured their deal in a market where loans for business" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eDhvBuwKb28) 2026-01-26T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How to Own 20% of Multiple SMBs Evan DiLeonardi Interview Todays interview has two parts. First Evan DiLeonardi shares the story of buying a commercial cleaning business in a small rural town with about $500k in SDE. While not a full turnaround the transition brought a scary J-curve. Evan spent a year and a half stabilizing a business plagued by weak leadership and complicated family dynamics all while managing it partly remotely as a nomad.In the second segment we explore Evans current role as an SBA buy-side advisor-investor. Through an ETA community he helps searchers source and close" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ew5qnNmC3Rc) 2026-02-10T21:37Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Lessons from [--] Acquisition Nightmares Jed Morris Interview Jed Morris initially excelled in acquiring a landscaping business first interning to mitigate risk. As owner he was inundated with acquisition offers envisioning rapid growth to $10 million. However his second acquisition failed within a year resulting in a $750000 loss and forcing him to sell his house. Despite this Jed maintained a resilient attitude. He then researched other failed acquisitions identifying common patterns. He's compiling this data into a book "Buyer Beware" aiming to provide crucial insights for aspiring business" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gjKyM8EpB-0) 2025-03-20T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "How a First-Timer Pulled Off a $52m Acquisition Nick Huber Interview One of the early voices in the boring businesses trend Nick exhorted his followers to stop equating entrepreneurship to tech and Mark Zuckerberg and instead recognize all the opportunities available in any town to anyone willing to work. Now that's old news to you listener but Nick was early with that message and it was influential to me personally. Well last year news broke that Nick had acquired Support Shepherd a recruiting agency for Filipino talent that was well known across Twitter and in small business and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mExJVs8HX5A) 2025-05-31T22:14Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "$250k SDE Acquisition: Limited Downside Big Upside Ville-Matias Viln Interview After paying the owners' salaries the business that today's guest bought generated about $150k of earnings. Which would not typically be large enough for a self-funded searcher jumping into entrepreneurship through acquisition. But Ville-Matias Viln of Hensinki saw that the business's flagship product enjoyed sustained demand despite being under-marketed. And the bones of the business high-quality manufacturing patented design a network of dealer relationships abroad were good. So while very small Ville saw a risk" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mzSRk31gHg4) 2026-02-01T12:09Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Adjusting to Life in a Nocturnal Business with $525k SDE Tom & Dawson Matter Interview Tom brought in his brother Dawson to help him run things a partnership that has been crucial to navigating a chaotic transition. The Matter brothers' business cleans vent hoods for restaurants. Pros were high margins thin competition a service mandated by law and how much there was to professionalize.Cons were how much there was to professionalize (that one is both pro & con) and the logistics of operating a nocturnal business. Here are Tom Matter and Dawson Matter owners of Pro Duct Cleaning. ❤ Enjoy this" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=pCnyCT4bWsc) 2024-12-16T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Buying a Big $7m Trade School Bob Boniface and Tyrel Sulzer Interview Tyrel Sulzer & Bob Boniface bought a CDL school a training business for aspiring truckers to get a commercial driver's license. We explore whether trade schools as a category could be interesting businesses to buy. We discuss trucking as an industry. We also discuss: why Tyrel & Bob decided to do a traditional search fund; why each of them was committed to buying a blue collar business; whether to partner when searching and what the partner dating process might look like; and what British Columbia-native Tyrel would tell" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qolWU1B6D_I) 2024-01-08T08:00Z 13.5K followers, [----] engagements "Buying a Business & Having a Blast @Fundof1 was searching for a business in a tight geography and found a great fit in a $760k appliance repair company" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=sqjiklB51mY) 2022-03-29T20:17Z 13.6K followers, [---] engagements "Taking a Single-City Acquisition Nationwide Edward McDonnell Interview Today's interview shows the full circle of a successful acquisition and later exit via the traditional search fund model. True to the stated requirement of traditional search that the entrepreneur be willing to move anywhere for a good business Edward McDonnell moved with his pregnant wife from Chapel Hill across the country to Seattle to take the reins of Botanical Designs. When he bought it the indoor plant business was [--] employees in Seattle only. When Edward exited to a private equity buyer four and a half years later" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=uaPoorHftn4) 2026-02-03T20:16Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements "SBA Acquisition to $9m Cash Exit in [--] Years Andy Rougeot Interview 👉 Special note: To see the screen share of Andy's spreadsheet from the segment at the end watch the companion video here: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Ga0iixcBVck Today's guest is a search investor a thoughtful observer of ETA and SMB acquisitions and himself a successful exited self-funded searcher. Andy Rougeot bought a blue collar business gate service and maintenance for self storage facilities. Andy's initial plan was to grow his business horizontally by offering similar services in adjacent markets. When he saw that" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vLdiepYpxXw) 2025-12-04T13:45Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "From [--] Million to Zero to [--] Million Ivona Butcher Interview Buying a business solved an issue in the future life of today's guest and her husband. They were both MBAs at Kellogg business school so career would be important to both of them. But it was going to be difficult to find great jobs for both Ivona Butcher and her husband in the same place at the same time. Not to mention Ivona is Czech and the couple expected to spend some years of their lives in the Czech Republic. The chances were low that they would both find work there to match their ambitions. Buying and building a business" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3AaXqSQOfbw) 2025-10-23T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "Timing is Everything Buying a $30m Tutoring Business Jared Lenner & Dave Serwitz Interview Todays episode gives us a rare look inside the mind of a seller. We hear from both sides of a business sale: buyer Jared Lenner who acquired Grade Potential and seller Dave Serwitz its founder.The conversation reveals what motivates a sellersomething often discussed but seldom heard directly. Unlike a previous guest Peter Wild (episode 181) who sold his company to retire Dave sold at age [--] for different reasonsa reminder that retirement isnt the only reason to exit a business.Grade Potential provides" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3DAKIfmI0Ys) 2025-10-06T19:14Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Why Choose Ownership Over Being a CEO Katherine Butler Dines and Rahul Desai Interview Ahh [--] percent. A magic number in the world of business. Today's guest discovered just how important it was to her after working as the CEO of a private equity-held business and seeing up close what it means to not be owner of the business you're running. This insight as much about herself as it was about private equity led Katherine Butler-Dines and her husband Rahul Desai to embark on a self-funded search. And what they ultimately acquired is a travel business that offers guided tours to women. At less" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AGLL30jONvo) 2025-11-10T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "The [--] Year Collapse of an SBA Acquisition Scott Duncan Interview Today's interview covers the painful seven-year journey from self-funded SBA business acquisition to going to zero and shutting down. Scott Duncan bought a tool and die business that seemed to offer good business-buyer fit for his mechanical engineering background. It also seemed to be a good searchy business: revenue was highly re-occurring and the service it provided was critical to its customers' manufacturing operations. Unhappily a number of factors conspired to undermine the business and Scott's efforts. Key person" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BYGP2JgLBAY) 2025-12-11T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "The Path from $2.5m to $60m in a Tree Business Brian Hartman Interview Brian Hartman todays guest found near-perfect alignment between his background and the business he acquired. Having built two tree service businesses in Atlanta he was well-equipped when the opportunity arose to purchase another in the same industry. Though he explored other sectors during his search returning to trees allowed him to quickly succeednearly doubling the business in his first year. While his deep industry experience gave him a strong head start Brians success wasnt solely due to insider knowledge. He" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=CQFajZZnj7w) 2025-06-23T07:00Z 12.3K followers, [----] engagements "Reviving a Covid-Crushed Business: $0 to $6M in [--] Years Adam Rao Interview Regular listeners of Acquiring Minds have heard interviews with searchers who layer their ETA journey with a philosophy or an approach. Well today's guest is bringing impact to ETA. Adam Rao comes from the world of B-corps and general benefit corporations (GBCs) and saw buying a business as a novel approach to building double-bottom-line enterprise value. We unpack his vision here. A vision which is coming to fruition. Adam and his partner acquired a business that had flatlined due to Covid. No revenue for [--] months" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=CTKaFbepyPM) 2025-07-07T07:00Z 12.2K followers, [----] engagements "Building Trust as New Owner of a $3m Business Ruchik Gandhi Interview Today's guest arrived in the US just seven and a half years ago from India by way of Australia. And now he is owner of a business with over $3m in revenue. Ruchik Gandhi was a trained accountant working on financial diligence for private equity companies that were actively buying up home service businesses. These roll-ups as well as his discovery of the concept of multiple arbitrage piqued his interest. Maybe he could do something similar if on a smaller scale. Well he has taken the first step in that journey with the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DiW7Ahp6HK8) 2025-09-27T04:13Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "So Much Fun: The Buyer of Choice in a Fragmented Industry Mark Anderegg Interview "Being a strategic buyer with enough time horizon in front of you it's just got to be the most fun way to spend a career." So said today's guest Mark Anderegg who acquired Little Sprouts a daycare business with [--] locations. Mark then grew the business much more by acquiring additional tiny childcare businesses throughout New England ultimately making it the largest private preschool company in the region. Six years into his tenure as CEO Mark had a successful exit. Beyond programmatic acquisition Mark and I hit" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FCzgSzzl52A) 2025-09-18T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Buying to $4m Across [--] Sites in [--] Years Gail Azodo Interview Funny to hear that today's guest didn't really think of herself as an entrepreneur earlier in her career. Because she seems like a natural. Gail Azodo built a thesis around audiology practices a space similar to other successful PE roll-ups but with far less attention. What drew her in wasnt just the financial upside: after watching an older man break down in tears when a hearing aid instantly changed his life she was hooked. In todays interview youll hear the model that lets her acquire practices without using her own capital and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fyr72vjFtYk) 2025-10-16T21:35Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Buying a Platform with an SBA Loan Jacob VosWinkel Interview The flooring industry. Businesses here are typically anchored by a retail location selling wood vinyl tile carpet to a mix of residential and commercial customers. Flooring is not a highly favored industry in the world of home services buyers which we discuss with today's guest Jacob VosWinkel. But despite the perceived weaknesses Jacob loves his adopted industry. He bought a sizable flooring store which he was able to get his hands on because he opened his search to tertiary markets he was willing to move to. His store is in" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=IAHqPQKOlxk) 2026-01-22T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Behind Every Great Searcher: A Wife's Journey Into Search Cliff and Christine Nelson Interview In today's episode we address head-on a feature of search that is so important and so neglected: What the journey to buy a business means for the searcher's romantic partner if they have one. First we hear from Cliff Nelson who bought a business with over $15m in revenue and about [---] people. The business provides mental health services to nursing homes & facilities. Cliff and I get into all the usual good detail about his search and the business he bought. But you'll also get a window into Cliff's" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ih4B28AB9Gs) 2025-02-17T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "From Searcher to Sponsor: How to Buy a $22m Business Yan Vinarskiy Interview Today's guest was looking for the standard target of a self-funded searcher $750k to $1.5m in SDE. When he first learned about the business he would go on to buy the seller characterized it as "north of $1m in EBITDA." Check It was a fit. Well after going onsite and falling in love with the business our hero Yan Vinarskiy learned that in fact the business was closer to $4m in EBITDA. At first Yan was deflated recognizing it as a far larger business than an SBA loan could approach even with pari passu debt. But then" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NaH6ouEcjmo) 2025-07-14T09:31Z 13.1K followers, [----] engagements "Buying a $1.6m Business for the Inventory Value Danyelle Nys Interview The world of small business was not unfamiliar to Danyelle Nys. She'd worked in small businesses for years including at an asphalt business she thought she'd one day run. When that didn't pan out she started looking for her next thing. And when she discovered she could buy an existing small business she said to herself and to her fianc and her mother I can do this. And do this she did. Not to say that it was easy. Danyelle had to push through self doubt and limiting beliefs the whole way including right up until today. She" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OJsVfVU1W7A) 2025-10-17T18:16Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "How to Build a $5m Media Business Into a $20m Flywheel Clayton Collins Interview Today's interview was a fun one for me. Clayton Collins bought a media business HousingWire a B2B publisher for professionals in the housing industry. Clayton has almost quintupled sales from $4m in revenue when he acquired it to approaching $20m today. He shares with us how he's done that. You will hear that strategic acquisitions are a big part of the story acquisitions that added events and data products to the HousingWire ecosystem. And you'll hear that Clayton began this journey with a big vision an" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OpO81xnARak) 2025-10-07T17:42Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "Buying a $200m Franchisor (Not Units the Whole System) Tyler & Zach Gordon Interview When today's guests set out to buy a business they first systematically developed a thesis. Both with private equity backgrounds brothers Tyler and Zach Gordon combed through lists of industries looking for ones with great fundamentals but not yet on Private Equity's radar. The process led them to a franchise system of thrift stores. But the subject of today's interview is how our heroes ended up buying not units in the system but the system itself. So this is a story our first of buying a franchisor a system" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PtmbPjBJvA8) 2025-07-31T07:00Z 12.2K followers, [----] engagements "Buying for Brand (Then Growing 4x) Matt Orley Interview Unlike most guests on Acquiring Minds today's did not come to his acquisition as a self-identified "searcher." Instead Matt Orley was an entrepreneurial guy who'd found an industry he really wanted to get into and buying a business there was his path to do so. The industry is short-term rentals. That is the property owners who rent their properties on the likes of Airbnb and the growing ecosystem of vendors that serve those owners. As you know this is a category that has exploded in recent years thanks first to the advent of Airbnb and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RJ55xnEaZWQ) 2026-01-12T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "Back from the Brink When Everybody Quits Day [--] Jack Carr Interview Jack Carr bought a small HVAC business; really too small by his own admission. And on the very first day of his ownership all the technicians quit leaving just him and the part-time dispatcher. What to do Become an HVAC technician himself of course. Which he did and it worked. We spend lots of time on how he pulled it off. Two and a half years later the business is [--] employees and did $3m in [----] revenue. Jack's targeting a run rate of $4 to $5m by the end of [----]. One more thing to call out: Jack's enthusiasm for ETA. Even" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RhipYb3EjwQ) 2025-02-24T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Scaling a Tiny Acquisition to a PE-Backed Exit Phil Miller Interview Phil Miller had a nose for value. He saw that the store had a ton of underutilized space that could be monetized with pet boarding pet grooming. He also understood that being zoned for pet boarding was precious and this business was so zoned. He jumped in and bought it. [--] years later in [----] Phil had grown to [--] locations [--] of them pet hospitals and Pawville was an established regional brand. Private equity came knocking and Pawville became the platform for PE-backed WagWay. Now [--] years is a long time yes. But note while" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=T0FWFM0XyUg) 2025-07-03T07:00Z 12.2K followers, [----] engagements "How I Grew My Holding Company to $75m Across [--] Businesses Justin Turner Interview Justin Turner & his partners are building a holdco at Traction Capital. Five years ago they hadn't made a single acquisition. Today with their [--] most recent acquisitions Traction stands at $75m in revenue across the portfolio of [--] businesses. And it's a really diverse mix: distribution for firefighters & first responders ecom brick & mortar retail paving asphalt milling and disaster restoration. For those with dreams of a holdco Traction is showing the way. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=UP3KmiNT_FA) 2023-03-16T07:00Z 12.4K followers, [----] engagements "From Stalled Search to $750k SDE: The Power of Speed Grania Michel Interview Today's guest had been searching for a year and a half without much success. Like many searchers Grania Michel started out looking for the perfect business. She sent out LOIs cautiously only when very serious about an opportunity. And she kept to herself the fact that she was searching not wanting to invite skepticism or discouragement from her network. Finally a confidant who did know that Grania was searching pressed her. We keep having the same conversation he tells her. What is it going to take for you to close" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=UXM7PUCC4HA) 2025-06-26T07:00Z 12.6K followers, [----] engagements "The Dream Outcome: From $300k to $5m EBITDA Linh Tran Interview I think it's fair to generalize that for those self-funded searchers who listen to Acquiring Minds today's guest has achieved the dream. Linh Tran started small too small. A commercial refrigeration business with $300k in SDE on paper it was actually more like $150k says Linh. So a tiny fragile business. A business where one technician leaving means revenue collapses. And from that humble acquisition Linh built the business into one generating $2 and $3m of EBITDA. At which point he stepped aside and hired a CEO and that business" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=VZXW_nCJE6w) 2025-11-11T09:58Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "A Searchers Second Act: Building a $25m Holdco Eric Calderon Interview Today's guest's journey into buying businesses began [--] years ago. Eric Calderon learned about the concept at Harvard Business School which he entered with the idea that he would return to a corporate path and become an executive. But he took Rick & Royce's class and decided that this is what he would do instead. And he did buying a business in his native Houston with Rick & Royce as investors. We hear the story of that search & exit as well as what Eric is doing today. Which is building TXE Partners his holdco that buys" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=X88c7ZEbjiM) 2025-08-02T11:35Z 12.6K followers, [----] engagements "Buying in a Small Market Building a Regional Powerhouse Jonathan Bournigal Interview Register for the live Q&A with Jonathan on March 19th: https://bit.ly/3XpDunX Jonathan Bournigal initially thought retiring baby boomers would drive his search for a business in the Dominican Republic but he found that wasn't the case. Instead he relied on networking which led him to acquire a small document storage company partly owned by a friend's father. Over time he transformed it into the leading document storage provider in the entire Caribbean region. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YklltpukwUY) 2025-02-28T18:26Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Passion & Profit in an American Pastime Mike Fagan Interview Could there be better business-buyer fit than a retired world champion bowler acquiring bowling centers Mike Fagan aka King of Swing aka Argyle Assassin enjoyed an illustrious career as a professional bowler and today is part of our community as an acquisition entrepreneur buying the businesses that first sparked a passion in him at [--] years old. You will learn about the business of bowling centers from the re-occurring revenue generated by bowling leagues to the sale-leaseback opportunities in the real estate. But a key theme of" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z700OS7aPOY) 2025-12-29T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "When to Buy a Large Consumer Business Taylor Mattingly Interview Todays interview features Taylor Mattingly co-CEO of Energy Ogre a Houston-based service that helps households navigate Texass complex unregulated electricity market. Taylor was originally a customer before pursuing a traditional search to acquire the business. Unlike most B2C companies Energy Ogre generates high-quality recurring revenue from hundreds of thousands of subscribers paying $10 per month. The discussion covers the deal structure which differs from a typical SBA-style acquisition including a relatively high 55%" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZIvlhI-7iTA) 2025-11-24T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "Why Treat an Acquisition Like a Startup Sean Daly Interview Register for the live Q&A with Sean on March 18th: https://bit.ly/3FgV6vK Sean Daly took an unconventional approach to change management after acquiring Ice-C-Cool Mechanical. While most acquisition entrepreneurs adopt a cautious gradual strategy to avoid overwhelming inherited teams and processes Sean embraced rapid forceful changes. His confidence stems from extensive leadership experience and a startup mindset favoring experimentation and iterationexpecting mistakes but adapting quickly. Unlike the common leveraged buyout (LBO)" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zz-HmBtWMgs) 2025-02-28T18:28Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "How to Buy a $2m Home Theater Business in [--] Months Pawel Kosicki A Twitter thread changed the course of Pawel Kosicki's life. The thread laid out the economics of buying small businesses. Thinking it too good to be true Pawel searched BizBuySell to see if businesses in his native Toronto were really for sale at the low valuations described in the thread. That started a journey that quickly took on a life of its own. Today Pawel is the owner of a smart home and home theater installation business that does over $2m in sales and high [--] figures in SDE. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_s_adxanZ-c) 2023-03-27T07:00Z 12.6K followers, [---] engagements "The Contrarian Bet on a Digital Agency George Stern Interview Today's guest made a contrarian bet with his acquisition. Contrarianism is something we don't often see in our world where risk is more acute owing to the high leverage we use to buy businesses. George Stern bought an SEO agency. As you might guess the perception is that traditional search engine optimization is very much in flux as ChatGPT changes consumer searching habits. For the first time in [--] years the dominance of Google's blue links is in question. George's bet is that SEO will stabilize around new practices and business" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bQmDBGKOcu8) 2026-01-19T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "5 Businesses Acquired with a Long Term Hold Model Ryan Sullivan Interview Ryan Sullivan launched a new career in his late 40s. The self-described risk averse entrepreneur is acquiring small legacy manufacturing businesses across the US and it's going well. His first acquisition was a 100-year-old electrical component manufacturer in Wichita Kansas doing about $700k in adjusted EBITDA. He bought it alongside a partner who took a little apartment in Wichita and flew back and forth during the transition. [--] years later they've bought [--] more businesses have another under LOI and have expanded to 5" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=fc-cKVnqc54) 2024-08-19T07:00Z 12.9K followers, [----] engagements "First Acquisition in March $200m by Year End Jordan Dubin Interview Most Acquiring Minds guests are looking for a single good business to buy typically using an SBA loan. By contrast Jordan and his partners have a very dialed-in thesis in a category (home services) where they had years of experience as private equity associates and they went out and raised $35m to pursue this vision. What Jordan & team are doing here is more in the vein of traditional private equity. Still. Many if not most of the themes we hit on can be applied to your self-funded search: How to think about an industry." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gA_oRpNu8Fk) 2024-12-09T08:00Z 12.1K followers, 13.7K engagements "Buying Small to Then Buy Larger $1m SDE Joe Soelberg Interview Today's story is about [--] acquisitions. The first business that Joe Soelberg bought was small a shop that provided graphical renderings for real estate and eventually home goods sellers like Wayfair. It did about $400k in SDE. A big part of Joe's decision to buy on the smaller size was simply it's what he could afford. He was in that business as its operator for [--] years and today he's got someone else operating it and the business generates about $200k a year for him for just a few hours per week of his attention. Not huge dollars" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gX-yAO_P1Ic) 2025-12-31T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "ETA Unicorn: $1 Billion in Revenue in [--] Years Steve Carroll Interview Today's guest thought he would buy a business with an SBA loan pay down the debt cashflow it and live happily ever after. Instead he has rolled up dozens of businesses in commercial HVAC and adjacent services to over a billion dollars in annual revenue. Traditionally for searchers who develops a vision to consolidate their industries $100 million in revenue is the big hairy audacious goal. Today's interview with Steve Carroll might reframe what's possible. One of the key points of this entire journey was Steve going from" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=hi-RjVJk2K8) 2025-12-04T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Owning a Dog Poop Scooping Business 💩💰 Would you own and operate a dog poop scooping business If it makes money James Temple says he sure would 🤑💩 #shorts" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mKP07CHRGfc) 2023-01-14T19:00Z 13K followers, 13.9K engagements "Founder Mode for ETA: $6m to $25m in [--] Years Aizik Zimerman Interview Today's guest is all about bringing "founder mode" to his acquisition. Aizik Zimerman acquired J. Blanton a plumbing business in Chicago. Aizik intends to spend years decades maybe building his life's work in this industry. I thought this vision was compelling so much so that I talked about it in a recent speech at the Southeastern ETA conference at UVA where I said essentially the following: This concept of founder mode is borrowed from tech land where Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham made it famous. The idea is" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=midaBBMxqqg) 2025-09-16T11:47Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How to Buy a $13m Business with No PG No Investors Carlo Santelli Interview Carlo bought a decades-old manufacturer of fasteners think screws nuts bolts. It has $13m in revenue and $3.5m in EBITDA. Carlo was able to structure a deal that: a) didn't require him putting in any cash b) didn't require a personal guarantee c) paid him a nice fee at closing and d) didn't require any outside equity which means he owns 100% of the business. In this interview you'll learn how this acquisition entrepreneur secured and structured such a life-changing outcome. Here he is: Carlo Santelli owner of Triem" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=myLMZwM-mUc) 2025-01-13T08:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "$14.5m Exit After [--] Years Adam Vandermyde Interview I joke with today's guest about how much went right on his journey of business acquisition. The business had over $1m of earnings. The entry multiple was good. The sellers wanted Adam Vandermyde so badly that they agreed to a purchase price and to hire him as CEO so he could de-risk the opportunity in his own mind before committing to close. Adam liked what he saw as CEO and did commit then proceeded to improve the company's revenue mix and professionalize operations over the next few years as owner himself. When PE took an interest in the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nv_wWm79S2g) 2026-01-08T08:00Z 13.2K followers, [----] engagements "How to Buy & Transform a 120-Year-Old Manufacturer Lucas Philips Interview Lucas Philips bought a manufacturer of interior upholstery parts for vintage automobiles. Think replacement carpeting for your [----] Plymouth Cougar. The business historically sold its product through dealers; Lucas stood up an ecommerce business selling direct to customers.Today's interview is a deep dive into how he's done it. It has been brutal: He suffered fetal position moments lost a relationship turned over the entire team he inherited and has hardly paid himself. It has also been fruitful: He's made incredible" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ogt627wKLBE) 2025-02-20T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "A $10m Acquisition for Freedom and Family Anica John Interview Lots of great details in today's interview. DiggyPOD a print-on-demand service for self publishers is a bigger business than is typical in self-funded search. Our hero Anica John paid almost $10m which means she needed $2.6m of pari passu debt on top of the SBA loan that maxes out at $5m. She also had seller financing. We'll hear how she structured that.Then there was another $1m that went to cover excess cash requirements the fee to Rejigg (the platform where she found the deal) and other items bringing the total project cost to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ph5fFDqzuJI) 2025-07-28T07:00Z 12.9K followers, [----] engagements "From Startup Founder to Buying a Small Business Tim Ericson Interview Tim Ericson bought a printer rental business a few months ago and he is bringing to bear his hard-won lessons from [--] years as founder of a VC-funded startup on his newly-acquired small business. My favorite point that he makes here is how being funded by VC gunning toward unicorn status trained him to think big. So Tim has big plans for his acquisition namely doubling it in [--] years. And he will do it remotely from his home in Puerto Rico. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 CONTENT 00:00:00." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qVex6oOGgvQ) 2023-08-24T07:00Z 13K followers, [----] engagements "Buying and Building a Xerox Dealer to $30m Jeff Horn Interview Entrepreneur Jeff Horn bought and grew a Xerox sales & service business called Benchmark Business Solutions. He was [--] and doing very well for himself at his job but wanted to lead his own business. Despite having a busy family life with [--] boys and a valuable amount of equity with his then-employer that he'd have to walk away from Jeff took the leap. When he bought Benchmark in [----] it was doing about $5m in revenue. When he sold it five years later it was doing over $30m in revenue and growing. The exit was of course life" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=tbvqnqY_C0g) 2025-08-09T17:18Z 13.2K followers, [---] engagements "Buying a Remote [--] Year Old Business with $900k of SDE Dan Angel and Jayme Moylan Interview Upon meeting the seller of Lodging Source a 20-year-old corporate travel business today's guest knew he wanted to buy it. This corporate travel agency has a great model and strong value proposition for its clients. It had generated $900k of SDE on $3m in top line revenue the year before Dan bought it. A key factor in Dan's success was the buy-in from the VP who'd been there for [--] years Jayme Moylan. Jayme's sense of ownership was strong as was her protectiveness of the team. She was blindsided by the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xMZgi3EMu3k) 2025-05-01T07:00Z 12.9K followers, [----] engagements "Building a $25m FedEx Route Empire from $100k Equity Avery Tomek Interview Today's guest bought a FedEx route at the peak of Covid. Which as you'll recall was also the peak of ecommerce and shipping which meant FedEx and its hundreds of contractors were making hay. You'll also recall the pullback in online shopping as the pandemic dissipated and life returned to normal.This come-down was extremely painful for our hero Avery Tomek who's recently acquired FedEx business quickly began to suffer. But he pulled through acting not just defensively to save his business but offensively to take" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ywSu7rCh4Rw) 2025-07-26T14:32Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements "How to Build a Roll-Up to $60m Revenue Robert Graham and Aaron Blick Interview Fifteen million dollars in EBITDA. It's a number few self-funded searchers ever reach. Today's guests Robert Graham and Aaron Blick have gotten there in [--] years and this interview will show you how. I want to call out a few topics to listen for: First buying businesses with operators. Second choosing your industry. Third the structure (the most eye-opening bit of the interview). Typically a roll-up does not use SBA loans at least not beyond the first acquisition or so. Instead the capital the roll-up uses to buy" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-5Cv6VoqNYk) 2024-04-25T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "When Buying a Retail Business Makes Sense Ken Eyjolfson Interview Retail businesses are often risky but Ken Eyjolfson found an exception in Mr. Liquidator. Initially skeptical he was drawn in by its strong financialsnearly $500K SDE on $2M revenuealong with [---] five-star Google reviews and [-----] Facebook followers. Unlike traditional mattress stores Mr. Liquidator operates as a warehouse where customers buy discounted plastic-wrapped mattresses on the spot eliminating delivery wait times. With minimal staff and a loyal local following the business runs efficiently and profitably. Kens story" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-YO1OjwAc4s) 2025-04-04T18:54Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "How [--] Entrepreneurs are Rolling Up a New Market Francisco Del Rio and Diego Silva Interview Francisco and Diego have rolled up [--] veterinary clinics in their home country of Chile and plan to hit [--] by next year. You'll notice that many patterns in their journey mirror those of their US counterparts but some are unique. The trust building takes longer in an environment where small businesses are rarely sold let alone to strangers. Accessing capital & financing is more difficult because Chilean investors are also not used to seeing roll-up ventures. On the positive side the market is untapped." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-bjCtfeb_JQ) 2024-11-18T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Trades Over Tech Buying an Appliance Repair Business Brian Seeling Interview Today's guest was mid-career and looking to return to entrepreneurship. He had co-founded an IT services firm an MSP in earlier years and wanted to get back to the life of growing his own business. And growing his people which was actually the thing that attracted Brian Seeling most to business ownership. He wanted a blue-collar business where he thought he'd be able to add the most value. And he wanted there to be a manager of some kind someone who could run operations from day one of Brian's ownership leaving Brian" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-sI1DoFFJXg) 2025-10-09T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Geography as Moat: Building a Hometown Holdco Sarah Chiles & Matthew Ferguson Interview Today's interview is really in two acts. The first is about the vision of friends Sarah Chiles & Matthew Ferguson natives of Aspen Colorado who wanted to partner on something entrepreneurial. When they saw the opportunity both financial and to preserve the fabric of their hometown they decided to buy a local Aspen business. And it probably wouldn't be a one-off. They could grow their impact in the rapidly-gentrifying town by acquiring other local institutions over time assembling something of a hometown" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=0GVVTd3kqJA) 2025-06-12T07:00Z 10.6K followers, [---] engagements "$700k EBITDA with No SBA No Money Down Andrew Stordeur Interview We tend to think that here in the States we got it good with the SBA and that our counterparts in other countries have it harder. But after today's interview I'm starting to wonder. Andrew Stordeur bought at 25-year-old outdoor furniture manufacturer. We spend a lot of time on the fact that Andrew a Canadian in Calgary not only had no problem accessing financing from banks in Canada to do this deal. He also got great terms. Andrew had to use very little of his own money to buy a business doing $700k in EBITDA. It's an" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1lIwRlSE4LE) 2024-03-28T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Business Collapse After Going All-In Justin Willess Interview Today's interview is one of those stories. An ambitious well-meaning entrepreneur buys a business and the whole enterprise unravels. Justin Willess spent every last dollar of his 401k to acquire the business then inject money into it to cover payroll. Nothing worked; we hear the painful details. Now I do want to sound a note of optimism in this otherwise shattering story: Justin sees himself doing this again at some point buying another business. What hasn't killed him has made him stronger. Please learn from this interview with" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3BZFan-72a8) 2024-10-14T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "From Tech Sales to Forklift Repair Shaugn Lindley Interview Shaugn Lindley was vacationing in Hawaii when he got the dreaded "quick call" from his officehis 10-year career at SAP had come to an abrupt end due to tech layoffs. After some soul-searching he chose to buy a business for his next chapter. Today he owns R&R Lift a forklift repair company with a decades-long history strong margins essential B2B services and more demand than he can handleplus a delightfully vintage 90s website. Shaugns journey had two key twists. First he initially lost the business to a competing buyer but when that" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3Gz3KEggzRY) 2025-03-17T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Building a $10m Platform from [--] Low-SDE Businesses Scott Walton Interview $150000 in SDE. Would you even look twice at such a business Scott Walton and his partner did and they bought it. And another at around the same time that was doing $250k in SDE. So the combined SDE of both acquisitions is below the threshold that many searchers would consider. And yet. Scott doubled the businesses in [----] and is gunning to double them again this year which would mean $10m in revenue and well over $1m of profit going into [----]. And much more of that profit will go directly to Scott as owner versus" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=48IKJwvTv7c) 2024-05-13T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "How to Buy a Multinational Adam Salmen Interview Adam Salmen found the perfect business fit for his industrial expertise by acquiring UMECC a company that sources machinery for steel manufacturers. Unlike typical small business acquisitions this deal was in the heavy industry sector requiring a large-scale approach. Anticipating an eight-figure transaction Adam partnered with Novastone to make it happen. Now he runs a multinational business with operations in North America the Middle East and Asia. His story highlights the vast opportunities available beyond commonly discussed business types" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4J8LebmkUuo) 2025-03-21T04:36Z [----] followers, [--] engagements "How to Use an SBA Loan to Roll Up from $6m to $140m Michael Davidov Interview Today's episode is a great example of that clich go slow to go fast. While the headline number to this story hopefully grabbed your attention the key lesson should be the value of taking your time building a foundation. We spend a good amount of time on that the year or so after Michael Davidov and his partner Jonathan acquired their first business. What changes they made to fortify it into a platform that could support a lot more growth both organic & inorganic over the next [--] years. This was a $6m home care agency" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4eMl3je8EJI) 2025-05-15T07:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements "Turning a $250k Investment into $7m+ Marvin Karlow Interview At [--] Marvin Karlow told his wife "If I do this for [--] more months I'm gonna be dead." He left his corporate job and partnered with his best friend to pursue something entrepreneurial. That something turned out to be a distressed $2M powder-coating business in Tampa which they bought in 2011for just $400. The company was losing over $50K a month on $5M in revenue. After years of hard workimproving operations implementing tech and growing salesthey sold the business to a public company for $21 million. This is a story about smart" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5b_JLnuKIjw) 2025-05-05T07:00Z 11.5K followers, [----] engagements "Buying a $4m Manufacturer with a Conventional Loan Ben Bryer Interview Ben Bryer worked for [--] months to buy a business he'd set his heart on. But it died and Ben was left a year and a half older $150k poorer and with a negative balance sheet. He questioned whether to go on searching but being freed of that dead-end deal allowed him to open his mind to other listings. Like Meyer Gage a decades-old super-niche manufacturing business the business that he ultimately acquired. Themes to listen for: the post-mortem on that first painful dead deal; using conventional debt rather than an SBA loan;" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5m5GlAt5Z28) 2023-11-16T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "4th Time's the Charm: [--] Broken Deals to Buy a Great Business Bryan Houck Interview These days when you hear "marketing agency" you probably think a dispersed remote team of graphic designers social media managers and Google ad buyers. But envision instead the traditional agency the Mad Men-style in-person office experience where creative types are ideating iterating challenging each other. The campaigns are less about conversion rates and ROAS and more about spreading ideas. That's the type of agency that today's guest bought. At age [--] Bryan Houck set out to buy a business for his next" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5u5lPozEEn4) 2025-08-21T07:00Z 11.5K followers, [---] engagements "The Appeal of Franchise Buying $1m EBITDA in [--] Years Corey Robinson Interview Today's story might make you want to buy a franchise business. Corey Robinson shifted his attention to buying businesses after a successful run as a real estate investor. He'd amassed [---] properties but even a portfolio of that size didn't cashflow enough to replace his W-2 income. He heard about buying businesses from his mastermind group and got busy. Corey bought a portfolio of [--] Batteries Plus locations in November [----]. Less than [--] years later he's grown from that base to [--] locations total and as of this" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5xI-STits08) 2024-09-23T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "First-Timer Turns $20k into $900k in [--] Months Nick Patrick Interview It didn't seem appealing initially. The wedding catering & venue business was mostly just a husband & wife team. There was customer concentration. One-off client engagements no recurring revenue. And it played in industries that he wanted to avoid: hospitality & food. But at the urging of the broker today's guest Nick Patrick took a second look at the business. And upon closer inspection he discovered a lot to like. High margins. Negative cash conversion cycle. Stellar reviews. [--] years of history. Nick bought this business" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6IiQtzJgANU) 2024-02-08T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "White Collar Sisters Buy a Blue Collar Business Julie and Janna Interview You know how intimidating the deal process can be as a first-time business buyer with no finance background. You know how intimidating it can be if you've only ever worked in an office then buy a business and find yourself managing crews in the trades. And that describes sisters Julie & Janna Hottinger. But there was more. Julie & Janna not only didn't have finance backgrounds they didn't really have much general business experience coming as they did coming from the worlds of public health & philanthropy. And finally" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=7K1DkrJfxwI) 2024-09-05T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Partnering with an Operator to Buy a Business Landon Mance Interview Regular watchers of Acquiring Minds know that hiring an operator for a business you bought is easier said than done. Operating itself is hard you hear that from my guests all the time. So finding someone capable to do it on your behalf who is aligned with you and as motivated as you is harder still. But today's guest Landon Mance is doing it with a $1.7m tree business he bought earlier this year. Landon's approach is a template for how you might find an operator bring them into your deal as a partner and work alongside them" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=7iejadQmRxo) 2023-10-23T07:06Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "How to Buy a $3m Business with No Books Chad Hildebrant Interiew This is the story of how Chad Hildebrant left a 17-year career in finance with a wife & [--] kids and bought a business with a lot of hair on it. The business had no books but Chad turned this red flag green by eventually getting his hands on the business's bank statements and reconstructuring the last [--] years of books into his own spreadsheet. This process took dozens of hours but by the end of it Chad knew how cash moved in and out of the business better than anyone even the seller. He experienced real pain both during and after" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=7xqU6fHzUj0) 2023-10-15T04:46Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Raise $800k to Buy an $8m Business Kevin Bibelhausen Interview Remarkable how quickly someone can transform their life when they buy a business. Kevin Bibelhausen suffered a Covid-related health scare that caused him to re-evaluate things. He'd flirted with buying a business before but after this scare he got serious about it. Today just [--] years later Kevin raised $800k from investors (that he did not already know) to buy a business valued at almost $8 million. He is now owner & president of a 20-year-old wholesale fabrics business that does almost $10 million a year in sales not to mention" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=85vAyJ6iBZc) 2023-06-05T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "The Path to Becoming a Better Operator & Strategist Tim Lahey Interview Tim Lahey acquired a home technology company almost [--] years ago. The business did about $230k of SDE when he bought it which definitely qualifies as buying small. In addition to unpacking the pros & cons of going that small Tim and I also discuss: buying a business that's "dusty not rusty" using a buy-side advisor to conduct the search for you how identifying an industry that turned him on cracked open his search working capital cash flow and that no matter how smart you are you're likely to get it wrong at first how Tim" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9Af4GbIfymQ) 2025-01-02T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The Flywheel of Buying Businesses in a Single Region Doug Lepisto Interview When Doug Lepisto first pitched his fund investors literally laughed. He and his partner aimed to build a place-based ETA (entrepreneurship through acquisition) ecosystem in Western Michigan where local searchers would buy and run businesses anchored by Western Michigan University where Doug teaches.The idea was long-term and regional blending elements of Warren Buffett Brent Beshore the search fund community and academia. Despite early rejection their firm**Sleeping Giant Capital** has since completed seven" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9NSUzjZYlRI) 2025-09-11T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How to Build $7.5m in Net Worth by Buying a B&B Christine Traylor Interview Christine Traylor passionate about hospitality purchased the Swann House a high-end bed & breakfast in Washington DCs Dupont Circle for over $6 million. Now living onsite with her husband and two children in a compact basement apartment Christine works long hours11 per day [--] days a weekpaying herself just $60k annually. However her effective income is higher due to running many family expenses through the business and having no rent or mortgage. The B&B currently earns around $100k in EBITDA but Christine sees it as" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9QgcY2PWXZM) 2025-06-05T07:00Z 10.6K followers, [---] engagements "How to Move the Needle in a $600k SDE Trades Business Kirk Olson Interview Former Acquiring Minds guest John Murphy got close to acquiring a fencing business but the deal fell through. His real estate partner Kirk Olson later bought the same business after it failed to sell to four other potential buyers. Kirk has owned Mike's Fencing for [--] months and has encountered challenges typical of project-based trades businesses including cash flow job costing putting in technology digital marketing improvement and the anxiety of watching sales drop without knowing why. Please enjoy this interview" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=A1RZi63Hp_Y) 2025-02-03T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "21 Months to Stability Buying a $1 2m SDE Business Jan Roll Interview You already know that construction businesses are tough particularly residential ones: Cyclical. Project based. High ticket. Discretionary. So one of the first things we discuss in today's interview is why Jan liked this business in spite of those characteristics. And Jan did experience that cyclicality in year [--] of his ownership when sales dropped 25% because it was an election year. He was hit with other major challenges too: A lawsuit between him and his partner in the acquisition; waiting months for the state of Georgia" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DEOY-QcDJok) 2025-04-28T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "How to Hire a GM and Buy Business #2 Shane Ehrsam & Brandon Adams Interviews [--] previous guests make return appearances. Happily for both guests things in the businesses they bought are going well. Shane Ehrsam acquired a trailer dealership business with over $1m in SDE. We discuss how this has been the most professionally rewarding year of his life. Brandon Adams bought an ice delivery business with a partner. They set out to build a small business holding company and that vision looks close to becoming reality. They've hired a general manager for their ice business which has enabled them to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DLzt3z9khmA) 2023-09-21T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Family Offices for Searchers: A Primer James Bohannon Interview When many entrepreneurs in our world think of exiting they think of private equity. PE is firmly established as the most active buyer of private businesses. Now there are also strategic buyers. You might even sell to another searcher. But for all intents and purposes PE is the default. But there's another category of buyer another capital base that we should be considering according to today's guest James Bohannon. And that is: family offices. You probably have a vague notion of what a family office is but I brought on James to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DNPN3W1FGx8) 2025-09-25T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "From Frustrated Searcher to $3 5m Owner to Holdco Builder Simon Plummer Interview in [----] Simon Plummer was struggling to find businesses for sale in Australia due to the lack of a central platform like BizBuySell. Business brokers were the gatekeepers and without their support Simon couldn't access listings. To solve this Simon along with his brother and a friend created a platform similar to BizBuySell for Australia. Brokers shared their listings on the site which gave Simon the access he needed. Simon eventually bought BT Engineering a manufacturer of products for bricklayers and masons." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DSOWc_npDh0) 2024-12-23T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "New Way to Pursue ETA: Searcher-in-Residence Matt Brunnig and Kevin Peer Interview Today's episode has two segments. The first is the story of Matt Brunnig building a holdco. Back in [----] Matt was eager for an offramp to his high-travel 90-hour-week life in the power plant industry. It was either find another job or find a business to buy. He kept an eye on BizBuySell and funny enough actually skipped over the business he eventually bought. In the second segment we bring on Kevin Peer whom Matt hired in October of last year. Kevin was a searcher raising for a traditional search fund. He" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Di14rXVgPUQ) 2025-06-30T07:00Z 10.8K followers, [---] engagements "Buy Grow Exit for a 24x Return in [---] Years Chris Edwards Interview A guest from one of the earliest Acquiring Minds episodes has completed the cycle. Starting as a corporate refugee at age [--] Chris Edwards bought a flooring business in a small Colorado mountain town. Chris endured the exuberant highs and stomach-churning lows of business ownership for three and a half years. Last year he decided to put the business back on the market having doubled EBITDA and grown revenue 50%. He found a buyer sold it and as of recording has completed his transition commitments as seller. The journey with" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=E40ZAzC87zw) 2025-02-10T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "How to Build a Holdco Foundation Patiently Barker Squire Interview Barker Squire having led CraneWorks for [--] years tripled it and identified a capable replacement is turning his attention to what's next. Which could be building CraneWorks further by starting to acquire other businesses or it could be buying a completely unrelated business that sees him back in the CEO seat.If you have holdco aspirations Barker's approach seems sound. For at least your first business learn it deeply learn how to be the CEO of a small business build a strong foundation. See what you think. Here's Barker Squire" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=E9n15v4Yn9g) 2025-02-27T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Networking His Way to $800k SDE Alex Holley Interview Alex Holley set out to buy a business in Louisville Kentucky and networking was how he made it happen. He tallied [---] meetings over about [--] months which is one meeting per day. His networking led him to his acquisition and in only a few months. The home services business he bought is actually [--] in 1; we unpack that. And it's good sized averaging $4.5m in revenue per year with margins around 20% so call it north of $800k of SDE. Here he is Alex Holley owner of B-Dry Systems of Louisville and Ram Jack Louisville. ❤ Enjoy this interview" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=EIbfWZ7Mtms) 2025-02-13T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Buying in a Huge but Overlooked Market Jonathon Tupper Interview Jonathon Tupper bought a 30-year-old asset-based lender that does about $1.5 in revenue every year with [--] employees.It operates in the factoring niche. So you're going to learn about asset-based lending and factoring and how they've got the same appealing features for business buyers that other more talked about industries do.Does a searcher need expertise to buy a business in one of these categories My impression: if you've got the self-confidence to go buy a trades business having never turned a wrench yourself you can tackle" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=EQmjZQFioLg) 2024-12-05T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "How to Grow Revenue 50% in Year [--] JD Hasley Interview Today's guest bought a business that does not fit the typical criteria cited by many searchers. JD ran the shop learned to frame and even fulfilled jobs himself. But that was temporary; his goal was not to buy himself a job. He has since hired a shop manager who's been transformative. JD has grown the business from around $600k in revenue to a run rate of $900k. How has he pushed revenue 50% in a single year Believe it or not simply responding to emails promptly has been a big driver. To be sure this is quite a small business. Revenue is" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ERk8r_21sG0) 2025-06-02T07:00Z 10.7K followers, [----] engagements "Saying No to CEO Roles Yes to Ownership Marci LaRouech Interview After serving as CEO of an HR firm that she grew and helped shepherd to a nice exit today's guest was looking for her next thing. Investors and bankers were now eager to work with Marci LaRouech wanting her to come run other HR platforms for them and do it all over again. But Marci now had money in the bank and more importantly a desire to do something at her own pace by her own rules. So she set out on a search to buy her own business in the HR space. Ultimately what she bought might surprise you: An HR consulting firm that was" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FBuftO8TBc4) 2025-07-14T07:00Z 11K followers, [---] engagements "Bullseye Buying a $1m SDE Business in a Hot Industry Peter Ciaverilla Interview Today's guest Pete Ciaverilla bought an HVAC business with over $1m in SDE. And he found it with proprietary search although he also used a buy-side advisor. And then we spend time on owning and operating a sizable HVAC business his revenue mix between residential and commercial and how he's invested in improving that mix. Less than [--] years after buying the business Pete has grown EBITDA from just over a million to over $1.6m and crucially he's improved the quality of those earnings. Based on his company's revenue" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=FIsZwB_b3co) 2025-01-09T08:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements "Buying $5m of Revenue with $50k of Equity Devin Fitzgerald Interview RML Service Group is comprised of [--] home healthcare businesses that Devin acquired one that was doing $1.1m in revenue the other that was doing $3.9m. Both of these businesses were in decline when Devin bought them and we discuss why he proceeded with buying turnarounds as his first acquisitions. You'll hear how his commitment and sense of mission enabled him to push through that challenge and many others. Walking through the halls of his home care agency is a dream come true for Devin. As for those numbers in the headline:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=HV82rQ2DHPQ) 2025-05-19T07:00Z 11.2K followers, [----] engagements "It Really Happened: 100% Financing for an $8m Business Renan Cortez Interview 100% seller financing The idea that you can buy a business with little to no money. The seller of the business finances the whole acquisition price for you. Too good to be true Usually yes. And even when 100% seller-financed deals do happen it's often one business buying another where the seller doesn't have other options. It's not going to be an individual off the street a searcher buying a sizable attractive business with 100% seller financing. But there are exceptions to the exceptions. Today's guest did what I" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ha5wDPzHb88) 2024-07-04T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "FedEx & Fencing: A Pivot into Ownership Matt O'Brien Interview Matt O'Brien is a seasoned entrepreneur with a strong track record in business acquisitions winning two out of three deals. His first success was scaling a small FedEx route into nine routes before selling them for a seven-figure profit during the Covid ecommerce boom. In [----] he acquired a commercial fencing contractor then generating $2.5 million in revenue and has since nearly doubled its size. In this interview he shares how he achieved that growth. However not all his ventures were wins. Matt also discusses his third" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=KjzauGUk6bo) 2025-04-03T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "From [--] Years in Corporate to a $1m SDE Acquisition Jesus Wong Interview Imagine you're an outdoorsy person and you invest in an expensive parka from one of the big outdoor brands. That parka may come with a lifetime warranty allowing you to send it in to the manufacturer for free repair if for example you tear it. Well repairing those parkas as opposed to making them is probably not the brand's core competency. So they may direct your coat to a third party to actually execute the repair. Yes there is a whole business whose service is repairing warrantied garments for high-end outdoor brands." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=LIg9buRj5C4) 2025-08-07T14:06Z 11.3K followers, [---] engagements "White Collar Roll-Up from $700k to $12m Jordan Evans Interview Blue collar trades businesses get so much attention in our world of buying businesses. But today's interview is with an entrepreneur who bought a white collar business. In [--] years he's taken a small 4-person $700k/yr business to $12m in annual revenue growing it both organically and inorganically with [--] bolt-on acquisitions. Jordan Evans bought a language services business from his parents another interesting angle of the story we spend time on. You may be intrigued as I was by the language industry. It's bigger than you think and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=L_hNuzS06KQ) 2024-07-29T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "From [--] Years in Corporate to a $1m SDE Acquisition Jesus Wong Interview Imagine you're an ourdoorsy person and you invest in an expensive parka from one of the big outdoor brands. That parka may come with a lifetime warranty allowing you to send it in to the manufacturer for free repair if for example you tear it. Well repairing those parkas as opposed to making them is probably not the brand's core competency. So they may direct your coat to a third party to actually execute the repair. Yes there is a whole business whose service is repairing warrantied garments for high-end outdoor brands." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=M7W3P727cdI) 2025-07-29T16:59Z 11.2K followers, [--] engagements "From Sales Freefall to $1.2m/Month Ryan Adams Interview Today's guest was seeing sales at the business he'd just bought decline fast. He was within months of the precipice. In our conversation Ryan Adams explains how he not only pulled back from that precipice but turned the business into a thriving machine. The business sells a premium paint brand Rhino Shield to home owners. They also then do the painting but as you'll here this is not a traditional painting company with tight margins delivering a commoditized service. The pricing positioning and sales process are all different. What also" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=MO2AiWMRCGU) 2025-07-10T07:00Z 11K followers, [---] engagements "From SBA Loan to High 8-Figure Exit Jerod Pierce Interview Today's story has an eye-watering outcome. And it shows the potential of buying a business. Jerod Pierce used the equity from a townhome that he'd house-hacked with some buddies to buy an HVAC business doing $3.5m in revenue half a million of SDE. He was able to buy the business himself without investors. Five years later he sold it for upper [--] figures. Jerod doesn't tell us the exact figure but he does say that he turned down $95 million so it had to be in range of that. Jerod is humble about this staggering success. He acknowledges" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ND41zEd6Wus) 2025-09-15T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How [--] Couple Bought [--] Businesses Lindsey Buckheit & Kevin Black Interview The original plan was not that both wife Lindsay and husband Kevin would buy businesses. At first the idea was that buying a business would be the path Linsday Buckheit took out of corporate. Recognizing that this goal would be a serious commitment Kevin Black decided to ride along with his wife as support. For a while not much happened. [--] months came and went they were both still working in W-2's and progress was elusive. That changed when they decided to work with a buy-side advisor group. Not only did the search" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OxVc9xjTmUc) 2025-05-12T07:00Z 10.1K followers, [---] engagements "Leaving Amazon to Buy a $3m Apparel Brand Eric Bauer Interview Today's guest spent [--] years at Amazon in a variety of roles from running a $100m e-commerce P&L to developing the Just Walk Out grocery concept. And even with all that experience at a notoriously hard-driving company there has still been quite the learning curve in his new role as business owner. Eric Bauer bought Turner Hat a brand whose hats are sold at hardware stores garden centers travel centers. You'll hear Eric say that he's able to apply his Amazon experience about 40% of the time in his business; the other 60% is new and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=P92801coG_o) 2024-10-17T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Buying a $1.6m Business for the Inventory Value Danyelle Nys Interview The world of small business was not unfamiliar to Danyelle Nys. She'd worked in small businesses for years including at an asphalt business she thought she'd one day run. When that didn't pan out she started looking for her next thing. And when she discovered she could buy an existing small business she said to herself and to her fianc and her mother I can do this. And do this she did. Not to say that it was easy. Danyelle had to push through self doubt and limiting beliefs the whole way including right up until today. She" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QFIn08Mzr6A) 2025-09-28T03:38Z 12.1K followers, [---] engagements "Rolling Up EBITDA and Rents with Auto Repair Shops Stephen and Paul Interview You've no doubt heard the phrase "creative dealmaking". The idea that those able to think beyond conventional terms might be rewarded with a favorable deal or at least a deal they might have otherwise lost. Less talked about but just as significant is creative structuring. Today's guests Stephen Quindlen and Paul Westhart are a great example. Stephen & Paul are buying auto repair shops. They've found a way to unlock lots of affordable debt uncapping the $5m SBA loan total that limits most searchers. They've also" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QK-BW9wf5Rk) 2024-06-03T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Micro-Acquiring to $300k SDE on [--] Hours Per Week Link Moser Interview Link Moser has been a web guy going back to the nineties when he landed his first small business clients for web design and hosting. But it wasn't until [----] that the current incarnation of his business really took shape. That year he bought [--] clients from a local solopreneur who was earning hosting & design fees to the tune of about $35000 per year. Small potatoes but Link got great terms on this deal and he felt like he was onto something. [--] years and [--] micro-acquisitions later Link has assembled a portfolio of web" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=R06vUXEAwHM) 2024-11-27T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Quitting Consulting to Buy a $1m SDE Agency Grant and Julia Hensel Interview Husband Grant Hensel already a successful entrepreneur searched for the business that wife Julia now operates. The couple met over their mutual love of entrepreneurship and today they both are living that dream. A few other details to listen for: Getting a 2x multiple on a $1m SDE business; Winning a deal due to values alignment; The joys of having a seller who not only allowed them to meet the entire team pre-close but had the clients sign new contracts with Grant and Julia. Talk about de-risking a transition;" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RFDJW3soyBw) 2025-05-26T07:00Z 10.3K followers, [---] engagements "Building a $350m Holdco of Farms Jack McCarthy Interview There's a big industry in America with all the characteristics you want as a business buyer. This industry has high fragmentation retirement-age owners opportunity to implement modern best practices and enduring demand. Today's guest Jack McCarthy is building a big business buying these littler businesses. And these little businesses are farms. There are countless mom & pop operations growing crops like pistachios and almonds. Since their first acquisition in [----] Jack & his team have acquired $350 million worth of (mostly) pistachio &" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SAVo-Hf5qhE) 2023-12-21T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Small SDE Big Upside: Buying a Business with [--] Employees Kristiana Laugen Interview Today's interview with Kristiana Laugen is another story of buying small. The pool cleaning business she acquired in southern California was just [--] people. $300k in SDE. There are a few angles to listen for today as we unpack Kristiana's comfort in buying a business well below the SDE threshold that the conventional wisdom would advise: age of the business; growing the business and how it should be faster to grow a low-SDE business than an already-high SDE business; and finally vision. We might see a tiny" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SYNH_yQGV0U) 2024-10-21T07:00Z 11.9K followers, [----] engagements "How to Become an Independent Sponsor Sam Rosati Interview The ubiquitous Sam Rosati is today's guest. We spend a good deal of time on Sam's background. Partly that was self-serving; Sam's an interesting guy and I wanted to get his whole story. But I also wanted to show you how someone who quit corporate in [----] grew from hearing about ETA on a podcast to self-funded searcher to self-funded search investor to independent sponsor. And as an independent sponsor built alongside his partners one of the largest commercial fencing contractors from Arizona to Florida. They did it in [--] years and just" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=SosQ7TshuHk) 2024-11-14T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Buy Fast: A Good Reason to Buy Small Rob Carpenter Interview You've heard the debate about buying big versus small many times on Acquiring Minds. What is discussed far less is buying fast versus buying slow. Today's guest was determined that his search to buy a business not consume countless months and years of his life. So Rob Carpenter bought an existing territory of a home cleaning franchise with $200k of SDE. Yes very small. But kicking off his search to getting in the seat as owner took [--] days end to end. As of this interview he's well on his way as a business owner. Now of course there" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=THU70At5xpg) 2024-08-05T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Rebuilding from 80% Collapse to Mid [--] Figures Revenue Scott Alexander Interview When Scott got into the business he quickly saw how dire the situation actually was. Clients were furious fleeing and refusing to pay invoices. Unhelpfully the seller cussed out the biggest client after Scott took ownership. So today's interview is a case study in how to recover from seller deceit and sabotage and the unhealthy culture they leave in their wake. It's also a case study in completely repurposing the business you buy. Scott spent his first year righting the ship and just as things were looking up" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=TP0lvdwDxdM) 2025-05-22T07:00Z 10.3K followers, [---] engagements "2 Years to Buy Double & Exit a Medical Billing Firm Nik Hulewsky Interview Today's guest was a whirlwind of activity during the Covid years. Nik Hulewsky bought a medical billing company in June of [----] anticipating (correctly) the impending demand for billing services. Two short years and a tripling of EBITDA later he sold that business for more than twice what he'd acquired it for a life-changing exit. And also during those two years he started a hospice business then acquired a home health bolt-on and grew that combined business to $11m in revenue and exited it in June [----]. Now these are" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=U5Rc8S5zQ_w) 2024-10-24T07:00Z 11.9K followers, [----] engagements "The Entrepreneur Awakens Pivoting from Tech to Ownership Kin Sio Interview Hailing from Macau Kin Sio was working in a well-paid tech job when for the first time he got the itch to do something for himself. He started dabbling in real estate then got more serious about it but ultimately saw that it was going to take a long time to approach the hefty 6-figure earnings of his tech job. In [----] when two local real estate investors hosted an in-person seminar about how they'd rolled up cleaning businesses Kin attended and brought along his wife. Something clicked. By the following January he'd" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=VI-uIL6OHXg) 2025-05-29T07:00Z 10.5K followers, [---] engagements "Fire Covid Exit: [--] Years in a $12m Events Business Will Wright Interview Will Wright turned crisis into opportunity. He bought a big event rental business in December [----] using a traditional search fund. The business had $12m in revenue. [---] employees. It was one of the biggest such operations in Texas. [--] months later Covid hits and Will's business collapsed 90%. But. three years later and Will and his team had not only survived but doubled revenue. He exited the business to a strategic that fall (just a few months ago). This is the story of how he grew an events rental business through" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=VLOwizi7GJQ) 2024-02-15T08:00Z 11.3K followers, [----] engagements "How and Why to Buy an Electrical Business Fred McGill Interview For [--] years Fred McGill built an online real estate brokerage from scratch. This immersion in real estate meant he'd worked with many tradespeople as his vendors. So when he set his sights on buying a business the trades were an easy choice. You'll hear how he zeroed in on electrical services developing a thesis on an industry often overshadowed by its cousins HVAC and plumbing. We also go deep on licensing and hiring and how Fred has tackled them both. Here is Fred McGill owner of Bray Electrical Services. ❤ Enjoy this interview" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=VTClruRSZM4) 2024-12-12T08:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements "How Helping Others Look at Deals Led to a Holdco Adam Markley Interview Adam Markley was a partner in an education venture that taught people how to buy a business. The venture had a big UK focus so it didn't revolve around SBA financing. This steeped Adam in an approach where heavy seller financing & more creative structures to buy a business were more common. It also gave Adam lots & lots of reps looking at deals as he would help evaluate the acquisitions of the members in this community. Flash forward and today Adam has been involved in many of his own acquisitions and his personal holding" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=W8WNOAFSV8c) 2024-07-18T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The Joy & Pain of Buying a Tech Business Felipe Corcuera Interview Most searchers buy traditional businesses but Felipe Corcuera is an exception. Through a search fund he acquired a consulting firm in robotic process automation just as ChatGPT launched. The AI boom forced a pivot and today Felipe leads an AI automation company selling AI agents. The transition hasnt fully shown in the numbers yet but the long-term trajectory looks strong. Still Felipe admits he sometimes envies the simplicity of owning a landscaping business. Technology offers huge upside but also relentless competition and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=XfUEpfnZoaQ) 2025-09-01T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How to Buy a $4m Accounting Practice Michael Young Interview Michael Young was searching for a business to buy. Months into his search he decided to spin up from scratch an accounting practice for SMBs. The knock-on effects of doing so were hugely beneficial including meeting the owner of the $4m accounting practice Michael would then go on to buy. Now admittedly this isn't a playbook that can be copy-pasted; Michael's situation was unique in a number of ways. But there are lessons here. Among them: If you can find any way to get experience & credibility in an industry where you might want to" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YKhIx1ncknk) 2024-02-01T08:00Z 11.9K followers, [----] engagements "How to Survive & Thrive After a Rocky Transition Chris Jones Interview Chris Jones' speech on Day [--] at his newly-acquired foundation repair business didn't go well an inauspicious start to a months-long harrowing slog. Unhelpful sellers. A quiet-quitting GM who eventually quit-quit to start a competing business. And scariest of all collapsing sales. But just over a year later and Chris has righted the ship. He's actually contemplating buying another business. This is the story of how he pushed through. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 Chapters: CONTENT" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YWRteIZdeWE) 2023-09-05T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "How to Build a $100m Holdco The Power of ESOPs Chris Fredericks Interview Today's guest Chris Fredericks has built an ESOP holdco. Empowered Ventures has [--] operating companies [---] employees and north of $120m in revenue. In addition to the great story of how he got here Chris provides an excellent primer on what ESOPs employee stock ownership plans actually are. And not only that but why they could be a model searchers explore. The owner of the business that Chris would go on to lead wanted to exit. But he didn't want to sell to a strategic or private equity and there just weren't other" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y_cYi-HNxAU) 2025-04-01T17:47Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "How to Survive Buying into a Terrible Industry Ayo Phillips Interview Ayo Phillips bought a resurfacing & refinishing business in [----]. Within weeks the wheels started coming off. Ayo's wife suffers a traumatic delivery in a Chicago hospital which keeps him there during the first crucial days of his transition to owner of the business which is based in Houston. The first payroll checks don't clear. Hurricane Harvey slams Houston. Sales slide fast. He loses people many of whom launch competing services in an already viciously competitive market. And to his horror he discovers that corruption" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZN2q6YVvfbI) 2025-01-23T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "High Margin & Big Upside in Lice Treatment Derek Croft Interview Derek Croft left the prestigious management consulting firm Bain to buy a small business.The one he fell in love with was. LiceDoctors. This lean high-margin business sells in-person lice treatment services to the tune of $3m nationally every year. And if that numbers surprises you consider that it comes out to only about [--] orders per day across the entire US. Do you see why he got excited about lice Here he is Derek Croft owner of Lice Doctors. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 00:00:00. Derek's" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZNh3mlZvfUg) 2024-11-25T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "$6m Business [--] Minutes From Childhood Home Iris Levine Interview Today's story comes wonderfully full circle. Iris Levine had something of a rough upbringing in Nashville Tennessee. When college application time came around a teacher encouraged her to look further afield than the state schools. She did and ended up at prestigious Tufts University in New England. She thought she'd probably never go back to Nashville. But about ten years later she did. And today not only does Iris live in her hometown she bought a business there. A substantial one. The Porch Company is a 30-year-old $6m/year" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zsg3SG20HwM) 2024-11-04T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Buying a Not Boring Business with $600k SDE Shell Zhang Interview Shell Zhang was raised in China and absorbed there the notion that risk is bad. That a conventional profession is the appropriate career path. She studied finance got a job in consulting later corporate. So she did not see herself as a risk taker. But eventually she had what she calls her "awakening": She had immigrated to another country and there is huge risk in that.That awakening led her to buy a provider of guided tours to Italy. Her daily life as owner of Nada's Italy is not unlike that of any business owner:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_5Z4O0-Tucg) 2025-01-30T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Reward for a Brutal Transition $760k EBITDA on [--] Hours/Week Dan Tagliatela Interview Dan Tagliatela leaned heavily on a single financial metric return on assets to assess which business he would buy. Which ended up being a 50-year-old asphalt sealing business. No recurring revenue. Consumer facing. Discretionary spend. And yet through the lens of return on assets Dan saw a valuable business. A one-in-a-hundred opportunity. One that today enjoys almost 40% margins on $1.8m in revenue and requires only [--] hours of his time a week. Not that it was easy. In the pre-call Dan described his" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=a-86IeBjg-Q) 2024-03-18T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Leaving Corporate to Buy a $4m Manufacturer Michael Dey Interview Today's guest had had a long career in corporate. An aerospace engineer at Boeing who eventually became a manager and after that a strategist Mike Dey ultimately decided it was time to step off that track. The decision came during Covid and as you'll hear there were a number of factors. But in some ways Mike's story fits a familiar pattern: He realized he didn't want the life that those ahead of him on the corporate ladder had and at the same time he just craved more freedom. Enter: entrepreneurship through acquisition. Today" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aAJwPUnley0) 2024-09-03T06:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "How to Build a $28m Holdco (in [--] Years) Colin King Interview Today's story is just the latest where a first and very humble acquisition has grown into something impressive. In [----] Colin King and his partner Joe bought a business doing just $250k in revenue. It was a route business that distributed parts to automotive service centers & dealers in the Indianapolis region. Every night their employees would drive from auto dealer to auto dealer delivering car parts. And yes you guessed it it wasn't too long before Colin and Joe were having to drive those routes themselves. Well you probably" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aK0HvI5j8nc) 2024-05-28T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "What Buying Small Is Like When Crises Happen Monte Marcum Interview Monte Marcum bought [--] established contiguous territories in the Filta franchise system. Together their SDE was smaller than he'd been searching for but he calculated that the opportunity compensated for the risk of being on the small side. And he may prove to be right. But within days of closing the fragility of his businesses became painfully apparent. This is the story about what's like when you buy small and crises hit. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 Chapters 00:00. Montes background" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aPTzOYJx1oU) 2023-06-22T07:00Z 10.2K followers, [----] engagements "Deciding to Exit After [--] Years of Ownership Jack Saville and Sam Rosati Interview The journey of today's guest took an unlikely turn. After about [--] years into ownership of his commercial fencing business Jack Saville decided to sell the business to a large regional platform. Now his contacts at that large platform were the investors in his original acquisition and one of the teachers at his buy-a-business bootcamp Sam Rosati. Sam is a name that may be familiar to you and he joins Jack and me for a three-way conversation about how all this came to pass. Some important themes will jump out at" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aueZAjsGnnA) 2025-09-06T19:48Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "What Searchers Can Learn from Big PE Alex Mears draws on years of experience at Carlyle & Blackstone to support and invest in searchers (70 & counting)" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bjbPTSW8-Ys) 2022-06-02T07:00Z 11.2K followers, [---] engagements "The [--] Professors Who Helped Start the ETA Movement Royce Yudkoff & Rick Ruback Interview "Rick & Royce" as they're known to students are professors at Harvard Business School. They teach ETA there to classes that are often standing-room-only. And for those of us who did not attend HBS we know Rick & Royce through The HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business. Today's interview is an introduction to this duo and the story of how they became such an influential force in our ecosystem. It's clear after [--] minutes just how much fun Rick and Royce are having together and with this material. See if you" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=c1OtHjDpymM) 2024-11-11T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "$2 Million of Fun: Big Margins in Play Centers Daniel Batista Interview The business that today's guest bought is not the typical searcher target. But when you hear the numbers you may wonder if it should be. Daniel Batista bought an indoor play center for kids. Imagine [-----] square feet a giant mazey play structure a ball pit an arcade and a cafe for the parents. This business boasts 50% net margins which was frankly hard for me to believe. And Daniel and I spend time on the characteristics that make this single-location business so profitable. It is an outlier Daniel believes. Most play" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=d1FEAVoKsWg) 2025-08-28T07:00Z 11.6K followers, [----] engagements "Finding a Great Business in Cow Country Cody Agee Interview Recession resistance is top-of-the-list of criteria that many business buyers would like to have in the business they buy. Today's guest Cody Agee was pondering this feature and what type of businesses had it. He thought Well people always need food and food always needs to be safe. I bet there's a category of food testing & safety businesses out there. Two weeks later he sees a listing for Sierra Dairy Laboratory. It's a dairy products testing business (and a remarkable coincidence). Needless to say Cody ran after it and today owns" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=dyfepQRcCtU) 2024-05-23T07:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements "How to Buy Franchise Businesses Then Sell to PE Alicia Miller Interview The first half of today's interview is Alicia's story of acquiring a portfolio of Sylvan locations Sylvan is in the education & tutoring category and how she improved grew and sold that portfolio a few years later.The second half is a distillation of what Alicia has learned since. Post-exit Alicia remained in the franchising space but with a focus on private equity. And she has recently published a book about the intersection of franchising and private equity and what you would-be owner need to know given this trend. So" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eK7xKKxZwz4) 2024-12-26T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "How a Couple Left Tech to Buy a Business Together Ray & Dana Chery were working in successful tech careers but feeling the time was right for a change. They were bound to pursue an entrepreneurial path eventually and buying a business was the answer. When the listing for Monsam Portable Sinks hit the market it was only [--] minutes away and Ray jumped at the opportunity to meet the seller the very next day. Both Ray and Dana also come from immigrant families so there was kinship with the Egyptian owner. Today Ray and Dana have quit their tech jobs and are working full-time in the business one" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=i4-fOgnG3Hc) 2025-01-27T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The Appeal and Risk of Buying a Consulting Firm Nick Munsee Interview Register for the live Q&A with Nick on March 25th: https://bit.ly/3DoZfgD Nick Munsee acquired a niche white-collar businessHales Engineering a traffic engineering and transportation consulting firm. Unlike typical blue-collar self-funded search acquisitions this business boasts strong 47% margins due to limited competition. However the previous owner was deeply involved handling both technical expertise and client relationships. To mitigate risk Nick ensured a replacement leader was in place before finalizing the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=i52GXEp0ah8) 2025-03-09T21:59Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Acquisition Unlock: 210m in [--] Years Nick Keegan Interview Today's story is not a pure-play ETA story because our guest didn't buy his business. Nick Keegan founded his software business based on an idea he was enamored with. Unfortunately the business limped along for years barely surviving. Eventually they pivoted the business model which helped a lot. But it still wasn't going to yield very interesting growth. It was an acquisition after that business model pivot that was the real inflection point. It had taken Mail Metrics [--] years to crack one million euros in annual revenue. It took them" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=iXomR1xh52o) 2025-09-26T13:44Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "How to Survive Going from Hedge Funds to SMB Owner Neil Finneran Interview Six months ago Neil Finneran bought a Mosquito Joe franchise resale. He bought small less than $700k in revenue which means some days he is out in the truck & spraying customer lawns. It's a big change from his days at a hedge fund or as a CFO. He's embraced it and he actually thinks his years of finance experience give him an edge running an SMB. But there is still a learning curve going from the comfort of corporate life to being the operator of a blue-colllar business. Neil is still figuring that out and with a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lKjMbnoVLrM) 2023-10-19T07:02Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Stars Align After [--] Broken Deals Keegan Dum Interview After [--] years and [--] deals under LOI none of which closed traditional searcher Keegan Dum wound down his search. But then things took an interesting turn. Keegan ended up working for and ultimately acquiring one of those [--] deals he'd had under LOI. The terms changed both with the seller and with his investors. We get into those details. And then after those [--] years of frustrated searching and dead deals for the next [--] years a number of things break in the right direction for Keegan and the journey in its entirety ends up a big success. Here" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lWMI8UhRlgM) 2025-04-10T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "From Tech Sales to Forklift Repair Shaugn Lindley Interview Shaugn Lindley was vacationing in Hawaii when he got the dreaded "quick call" from his officehis 10-year career at SAP had come to an abrupt end due to tech layoffs. After some soul-searching he chose to buy a business for his next chapter. Today he owns R&R Lift a forklift repair company with a decades-long history strong margins essential B2B services and more demand than he can handleplus a delightfully vintage 90s website. Shaugns journey had two key twists. First he initially lost the business to a competing buyer but when that" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lt3iGX67kj4) 2025-03-19T17:50Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "Building a Foundry Holdco to $30m Reg Zeller Interview Reg Zeller didn't know what "search" was in [----]. He just knew he wanted out of his corporate job and that buying a business seemed like a good way to finally strike out on his own. He bought a small foundry despite everyone telling him it would be a terrible move. [--] years later Reg's company CaneKast has emerged as one of the most dynamic in foundries. There have been [--] acquisitions in total aggregate revenue is on track for $30 million in [----] and Reg is confident that $100m is attainable in the not-too-distant future. This interview is" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=m74ykuf63G0) 2023-04-24T07:00Z 11.5K followers, [----] engagements "The $50m Lifestyle Holdco Abhi Ravishankar Interview Abhi Ravishankar and his [--] partners are building a holdco. We go into a lot of detail on its structure but in brief it's this: The [--] have pooled their resources to buy [--] different businesses sequentially. Each partner will search for and buy the business for which he will be the principal operator and have extra equity. But via the holdco layer each partner is also a significant owner in the other [--] businesses. In terms of revenue they aim for each of the businesses to surpass $10m and for the portfolio to reach $50m. There is also a "CEO" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mAGe68XqJYQ) 2025-01-20T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Hiring a CEO to Run Things (and Get Life Back) Jeremy Hunka Interview The success of today's guest is not measured in revenue. Not in EBITDA nor growth. The success is having emerged from a very difficult transition to a place where finally Jeremy Hunka can own the business he bought on his terms. For many months that was not the case and Jeremy's life was bleak his doubts crippling. But today he has a CEO. He has boundaries. And he's once again optimistic about the future. There is a long way to go financially for Jeremy and his business but he and I agreed that achieving this stabilization" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mJ7oscLLYR0) 2025-09-08T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How to 4x a Contracting Business in [--] Years Michael Heath Interview In today's episode you will learn how one entrepreneur took a small garage door contracting business and quadrupled it in just [--] years. Mike Heath along with [--] silent partners bought Stateline Products in the St. Louis area. It was doing just $250k of SDE split between the husband & wife owners. It did about $2m in revenue a year; its best year ever was $2.5m. In the very first year of ownership Mike & team got it to $7.5m. In [----] they pushed revenue to $9.5m with almost $1m of EBITDA. But it wasn't without pain. Some of the" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mLBp8ilMVg8) 2025-01-16T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "After [--] Years of Part Time Searching Success Will Gano Interview Will Gano first got the bug to buy a business in [----] while at business school. But he didn't race out after graduation and dive in head-first to his search. Instead he decided on the type of business he wanted to own manufacturing or distribution and went out to get work experience that would position him to run such a business successfully. He spent [--] years getting that experience. But the patience and the commitment to his vision of ultimately buying a business has paid off. Will bought a 125-year-old bakery ingredients" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mionV0NsqNY) 2024-08-08T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "How to Build a Niche Holdco with $2m in Earnings Matt Kopp Interview The first business Matt Kopp bought provides organic samples for science classrooms. Think vials of pond water or yes frogs for dissection. It generated about $350k in cash every year on $2.2m in revenue steadily. "A good solid little business" as Matt put it. That was [----] and we hear how Matt parlayed that into a portfolio of similar businesses which today generate about $2m in EBITDA and all have managers in place. After [--] years of Matt running hard today Matt's businesses run themselves. A few themes to listen for:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=nTefk3HIThY) 2025-04-16T16:40Z 10K followers, [----] engagements "How to Lead a Trades Business Without Knowing the Trade Trip Biesanz Interview Today's guest was a franchisee before he decided to buy a business. His search was hard long and basically fruitless after [--] months at which point he decided to engage a buy-side advisor. Listen for the key pivot point in Trip's story where he narrows his criteria from industry agnostic all the way down to just construction and how that narrowing made all the difference. If you're struggling in your search ask yourself: perhaps tightening your focus would help. (Which is counterintuitive to new searchers.) Trip" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=o_IF52M1aeQ) 2025-02-06T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Buying & Building a $60m Furniture Manufacturer Gat Caperton Interview Picture it: Chicago the early/mid-90s. Today's guest Gat Caperton is in his late 20s working for the famous entrepreneur Sam Zell by day taking business school classes by night. It occurs to Gat around this time that to really get to the next level he should buy a business. He was familiar with manufacturing. He was from West Virginia and wanted to get back. So when he learned about an "old guy building furniture" in Berkeley Springs West Virginia he tried giving said old guy a call. It worked and Gat became the owner of a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=okocfyNqot8) 2024-10-28T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements "Hiding in Plain Sight on BizBuySell $800k SDE for 2x Joseph Ziolkowski Interview Like many of you Joe was checking BizBuySell daily not seeing many interesting businesses come up for sale. He finally decided to relax his filters a little and look not just at the new stuff but the old stuff the listings that had been sitting for a while. And that is the origin of his ownership of Woodland Face Veneer. Woodland Face is a manufacturer with $11m in sales and $800k-ish in SDE. Sale price $1.5m. That's less than 2x for a mature sizable business with an SDE level that self-funded searchers all seek." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=py4mabdP6b8) 2025-04-21T07:00Z 11.2K followers, [----] engagements "Deciding to Start Not Buy a Small Business Kevin Moyer Interview Kevin Moyer built five territories in the Smash My Trash franchise generating over $1 million in revenue and $260K in SDEmostly running passively a rare feat in small business. After that he considered buying another business but ultimately chose to start one from scratch. Now in the early stages of his new venture Golden Home Access Kevins insights offer valuable lessons. A follow-up in a few years will reveal whether he stands by his choice. EDITOR'S NOTE: Sorry folks but we had to cancel the live Q&A. ❤ Enjoy this interview" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=q67rzpYpOlU) 2025-03-27T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Why Buy a Travel Agency (Because They Can Crush It) Jared Benoff Interview Despite predictions that the internet would kill travel agencies niche-focused businesses in the industry are thriving. Jared Benoff recently acquired Vacationeeze a successful destination wedding travel agency boasting strong margins and around $1M in sellers discretionary earnings (SDE). Notably he bought the business from his parents a dynamic explored in the discussion. Jareds story highlights how specialization and virtual operations keep travel agencies alive. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more:" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=r1mqXwJ1bIc) 2025-03-31T07:00Z 11.4K followers, [----] engagements "Buying [--] Rivals to Create a Dominant Leader Kyle Poll Interview When today's guest first learned about his target business it seemed like an alignment of the stars. The business GetOutPass sells passes that grant families access to dozens of local attractions for a flat annual fee. Well Kyle Poll had run and grown Gym Pass in the US a business whose model was pass-based access to multiple local gyms. Similar models and so coincidental. There really aren't that many such businesses in the world. And GetOutPass wasn't even listed for sale. The owner and Kyle happened to meet at an event and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=r6mK9IBdjZ8) 2025-10-13T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "How to Recover from a Fraudulent Seller Jason Jackson Interview Jason Jackson learned during transition from an offhand comment by one of the employees that the business he just bought was being audited for its Medicaid claims. As he pulled the thread he learned that the business was defrauding Medicaid and was actually losing money if you stripped out all the fraudulent revenue. Imagine that: You think you're acquiring a $1.5m SDE business; instead it's an organization in the red engaging in fraud. Today's interview is the 6-year journey to turn it all around. And there are gems aplenty." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=sDJ01TgPi88) 2025-05-08T07:00Z 10K followers, [---] engagements "How to Grow a Blue Collar Business from $900k to $2.4m in Earnings Adam Borcz Interview Adam Borcz bought a blue collar business with $900k in EBITDA as a self-funded searcher. [---] years later he has almost tripled its annual earnings. We hear that story and his key unlock that generated so much growth. More recently Adam has become a search investor with a preference for traditional search funds. So this is a guy who as a searcher prefers the self-funded model but as an investor prefers the traditional search fund model. We get into why and it gets math-y toward the back half of the episode." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=saXsO8MhjxI) 2024-02-12T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "A Few Hours Per Week a Few States Away Brett Maxam Interview It was not the first choice of today's guest to buy a business outside his home market. But after Brett Maxam searched for a while in the competitive Denver metro where he lives he decided he'd need to widen his target geography to actually find a business to buy. It worked. Brett found a concrete pouring business in Vancouver Washington with between $3.5 and $4 million of revenue and high six figures of SDE the sweet spot for a self-funded searcher. He bought it even though it was a 2.5-hour flight away. It was also project based" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vHLMB7t3DVw) 2025-09-04T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "One Year 3x Revenue and a Clear Path to $15M Enrique Rodriguez Interview Today's guest wants you to open your mind to project-based businesses. Even project-based businesses in construction. Our hero Enrique Rodriguez bought MAC General Power Solutions an electrical contractor that does work for commercial industrial and wastewater type projects. It was small: about $1.4m in revenue less than $250k in SDE. But in just [--] months since closing in September [----] Enrique has built it up to a projected $4m in revenue for [----] $750k in SDE. And he gives us the playbook and the how and the why a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vk7y-oOKOh0) 2025-07-05T15:25Z 11.6K followers, [----] engagements "How to Reinvent a $1m Candle Manufacturer Adam Goldberg Interview Adam Goldberg had started young worked hard and run [--] multimillion dollar businesses over his 30-year career. So after a significant liquidity event in his mid-50s he tried retiring. That didn't last long. And when he got back in the game it was with a struggling nearly-shuttered candle manufacturer in his native Montreal. The business had been doing $5m in sales at its height; when Adam looked at it it was down to $1m. This was going to be a turnaround. But even going in eyes-wide-open and even with decades of relevant" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vp_HFXcI4Ug) 2025-04-14T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements "The Birth of a Roll-Up Stephen and Collin Interview Description: Collin Trimble knew the alarm business the industry that installs & services a building's security & fire alarm system then monitors the building remotely. And Collin saw opportunity there: a fragmented market high margins recurring revenue large exits for blue collar founders. He got excited about buying a security & alarm business (even without knowing what entrepreneurship through acquisition was). He pitched Stephen who did know ETA and quickly got on board. In today's interview you're going to hear the story of the platform" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xFVqoy3GpnA) 2024-03-25T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "Evolving a Legacy Business to $3.2m EBITDA Evan Stewart Interview Orlando-based Direct One was doing $1.8m in SDE when Evan bought it in early 2023; it ended [----] with EBITDA around $3.2m. But it has not been easy. (Is it ever on Acquiring Minds). It strained his marriage for the first few months as he spent weekdays at the business away from his family up in Jacksonville. He eventually moved the family down to Orlando selling their house in Jacksonville only to find that their home equity could not go back into buying a home in Orlando and instead had to go directly to paying down the loan" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xbp0CTdgxbM) 2025-06-09T07:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements "Youve Been Served: Buying a $1.3m Process-Serving Company Raj Kankaria Interview Ever wonder about the business of process serving and what they pay those mysterious strangers who say your name hand you a manila envelope and then disappear Well today's guest did wonder and it was actually right as he himself was getting served. Our hero Raj Kankaria was out of work and going through a divorce (hence the papers) when he decided to become a process server himself. Flash forward to June 1st [----] and he acquired the process-serving business he'd gone to work for. Lone Star Attorney Services" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xscyI5UEkmQ) 2025-07-24T07:00Z 11.1K followers, [---] engagements "2 Years to $40m The Anatomy of a High Velocity Roll up Luis Reyes Interview Today's guest has traveled a long way to get where he is. Luis Reyes grew up in the Mexican countryside and didn't get his first pair of shoes until age [--]. Today he's leading one of the most active roll-ups I've seen: $8m of EBITDA in [--] years. Luis and his team are building Iberian Ventures or IBV a consolidation of fire safety businesses across Spain. They're blanketing the country dispatching young hungry former consultants to meet owners and find targets. It is high-volume and high-velocity; they've acquired 24" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zKk_4GQe6bI) 2025-08-08T20:21Z 11.4K followers, [---] engagements "How to Build a Mini Berkshire Hathaway Rafael Quinn Interview One of the ways that acquisition entrepreneurship differs from zero-to-one entrepreneurship is that you need to adopt the mindset of an investor. Today we're going to lean into that. Rafael Quinn is American born & raised but in his 20s sold all his belongings on Craigslist and moved to his mother's native Panama. He's been there ever since. Over the last [--] years he and his partner have built a holdco of [--] businesses in Panama and have more recently raised almost $30m to look for larger opportunities back here in the States. What" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zsx4Bl0McBY) 2024-04-15T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements "How to Own 20% of Multiple SMBs Evan DiLeonardi Interview Todays interview has two parts. First Evan DiLeonardi shares the story of buying a commercial cleaning business in a small rural town with about $500k in SDE. While not a full turnaround the transition brought a scary J-curve. Evan spent a year and a half stabilizing a business plagued by weak leadership and complicated family dynamics all while managing it partly remotely as a nomad.In the second segment we explore Evans current role as an SBA buy-side advisor-investor. Through an ETA community he helps searchers source and close" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ew5qnNmC3Rc) 2026-02-10T21:37Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "$20m Net Worth After [--] Years Buying Businesses Paul Lajoie Interview Most of the interviews on Acquiring Minds are with entrepreneurs recently into their acquisitions. But occasionally we'll have guests who've been doing this for much longer and we get to see how a career as an acquisition entrepreneur unfolds over decades. Today is one such example. At [--] years old Paul Lajoie today takes home $1m per year and tallies his net worth at almost $20m. And it all started about [--] years ago when he and his brother bought a flooring business doing $300k of SDE. We hear that story and how it set up" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=EMkgsVgBTzI) 2026-01-21T07:04Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Growing Profits 30% in the First [---] Years Jonathan Taylor Interview As his 40th birthday approached today's guest started to feel the now-or-never pull of entrepreneurship. So Jonathan Taylor left a 15-year tech career to journey into business ownership. Jonathan closed on a distribution business a year and a half ago. Like many distribution businesses AEK Technology has concentration but not on the customer side. Many of the products it sells come from a single supplier. Jonathan and I unpack this risk and how he's mitigated it. Note how common this is in distribution businesses. The" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3LZsRvIt7jI) 2026-02-05T20:42Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements "SBA Deal Structuring to Manage Risk in a Cyclical Industry Andrew Kurzrok Interview Frustrated by the poor performance of his email outreach today's guest finally decided to just pick up the phone. And to his surprise it worked. Andrew Kurzrok bought a ductwork fabricator a little over an hour from his home in Northern Virginia. After awkwardly calling the receptionist back a few times when she didn't put him through correctly he was finally able to leave a message on the voicemail of the owner. And he got a call back. (Thanks to the owner's wife we learn.) In addition to the story of how he" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AxG5fV19iVs) 2026-02-05T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "Taking a Single-City Acquisition Nationwide Edward McDonnell Interview Today's interview shows the full circle of a successful acquisition and later exit via the traditional search fund model. True to the stated requirement of traditional search that the entrepreneur be willing to move anywhere for a good business Edward McDonnell moved with his pregnant wife from Chapel Hill across the country to Seattle to take the reins of Botanical Designs. When he bought it the indoor plant business was [--] employees in Seattle only. When Edward exited to a private equity buyer four and a half years later" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=uaPoorHftn4) 2026-02-03T20:16Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements "Year [--] in a $300k SDE Services Business Scott Crosby Interview "The worst day I've had running the business has been better than the best day I had working for someone else" So Scott Crosby told me about his new life as the owner of an HVAC and refrigeration services business in St. Louis. Scott bought small; American Services had under $300k of SDE and four and a half employees. We talk about how he's managed through the vulnerability of such a small business including turning over essentially the whole team. Part of Scott's model here is not taking any money out of the business for himself" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9jotQUT9nCA) 2026-02-02T23:53Z 13.6K followers, [--] engagements "How to 4x a Small Manufacturer Tato Corcoran Update Today's is an update episode with a popular guest from [----] Tato Corcoran. We re-ran Tato's first episode during Christmas week which sparked interest in learning what has happened in the two years since that first interview. Tato bought a very small manufacturer of sinks for bathroom vanities with just $400k in revenue and [--] employees. As Tato put it in our first interview "Looking back on it the seller didn't have a business he had a job that paid him." If you haven't heard that first interview check it out to hear what the first year and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=13oUViHj5qc) 2026-02-02T21:19Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements "$250k SDE Acquisition: Limited Downside Big Upside Ville-Matias Viln Interview After paying the owners' salaries the business that today's guest bought generated about $150k of earnings. Which would not typically be large enough for a self-funded searcher jumping into entrepreneurship through acquisition. But Ville-Matias Viln of Hensinki saw that the business's flagship product enjoyed sustained demand despite being under-marketed. And the bones of the business high-quality manufacturing patented design a network of dealer relationships abroad were good. So while very small Ville saw a risk" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mzSRk31gHg4) 2026-02-01T12:09Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Exiting for Millions vs. Long-Term Hold Don Grigg Interview Twenty-five years ago today's guest bought [--] businesses within a few months of each other. Don Grigg was in his early 30s with [--] kids and a desire to buy a manufacturing business. In the end both businesses he bought were problem companies which was by design. He figured the only thing he'd be able to afford were small struggling businesses and that he'd have to turn them around. Which he did. We hear the story of both including one that he exited for millions of dollars a few years later. Which sounds like the searcher dream: Buy a" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BwLrc163s8o) 2026-01-30T15:44Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements "The Late 40s Pivot Into Business Buying Jarom Wren Interview Jarom Wren felt the entrepreneurial itch in his late 30s despite a successful corporate career. Seeking more freedom he explored options for years until discovering entrepreneurship through acquisition after a friend bought a business. Mesmerized Jarom dove in and eventually acquired Vanlife Outfitters an ecommerce brand serving the vanlife community. He navigated lender skepticism about ecommerce restated earnings and a deal that nearly fell apart. Jarom shares how persistence renegotiation and realistic expectations helped him" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZGGHuA6fXSI) 2026-01-29T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "The First Steps to a Family Holdco Linh and Leo Van Deibel Interview I first met today's guest at the Self-Funded Search Conference in Dallas in [----]. Linh Van Deibel had flown all the way from London a demonstration of how seriously she was taking this path of entrepreneurship through acquisition. As you'll hear her husband Leo later joined her and Linh and Leo both are today's guests. So buying a business as a couple is a key theme of the interview. As is buying outside the US; Linh and Leo live in London. We hear how they structured their deal in a market where loans for business" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eDhvBuwKb28) 2026-01-26T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Buying a Platform with an SBA Loan Jacob VosWinkel Interview The flooring industry. Businesses here are typically anchored by a retail location selling wood vinyl tile carpet to a mix of residential and commercial customers. Flooring is not a highly favored industry in the world of home services buyers which we discuss with today's guest Jacob VosWinkel. But despite the perceived weaknesses Jacob loves his adopted industry. He bought a sizable flooring store which he was able to get his hands on because he opened his search to tertiary markets he was willing to move to. His store is in" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=IAHqPQKOlxk) 2026-01-22T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "The Contrarian Bet on a Digital Agency George Stern Interview Today's guest made a contrarian bet with his acquisition. Contrarianism is something we don't often see in our world where risk is more acute owing to the high leverage we use to buy businesses. George Stern bought an SEO agency. As you might guess the perception is that traditional search engine optimization is very much in flux as ChatGPT changes consumer searching habits. For the first time in [--] years the dominance of Google's blue links is in question. George's bet is that SEO will stabilize around new practices and business" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=bQmDBGKOcu8) 2026-01-19T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "Comfortable Concentration for a $800k SDE Business Phil Koller Interview Today's story is a study in not judging a book by its cover. Phil Koller bought Roman Enterprises an automotive paint distribution business. Now Roman had about [--] customers. It had essentially a single supplier. And it had one yes just one employee. Undeterred Phil looked closely at each of these features and more and decided that he could accept and/or mitigate the risk. And there was lots to love about Roman Enterprises. I already mentioned that single employee a feature that lives in both the pro and con columns." [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=b9iToFEJMLI) 2025-12-16T10:45Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements "Buying for Brand (Then Growing 4x) Matt Orley Interview Unlike most guests on Acquiring Minds today's did not come to his acquisition as a self-identified "searcher." Instead Matt Orley was an entrepreneurial guy who'd found an industry he really wanted to get into and buying a business there was his path to do so. The industry is short-term rentals. That is the property owners who rent their properties on the likes of Airbnb and the growing ecosystem of vendors that serve those owners. As you know this is a category that has exploded in recent years thanks first to the advent of Airbnb and" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RJ55xnEaZWQ) 2026-01-12T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements "Complexity Hides Fragility: Losing a $20m Business Joe Odell Interview Today's interview is the story of a business acquisition that ended in collapse and how the protagonist is putting his professional life back together. Joe Odell bought a compounding pharmacy business with his partner Jess Paterson via the traditional search fund model. The fundamentals of the business seemed strong: Demographic tailwinds high-quality revenue and good sized with $20m of revenue and [---] employees. But despite these hopeful signs things went off the rails quickly once Joe and Jess took over. And for the next" [YouTube Link](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RNUNdIxcG_8) 2025-12-19T14:41Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements Limited data mode. Full metrics available with subscription: lunarcrush.com/pricing
@acquiringminds Acquiring Minds
Acquiring Minds posts on YouTube about acquisition, business, how to, mergers and acquisitions the most. They currently have [------] followers and [---] posts still getting attention that total [-----] engagements in the last [--] hours.
Engagements: [-----] #
- [--] Week [-----] -29%
- [--] Month [------] -25%
- [--] Months [------] +34%
- [--] Year [-------] +62%
Mentions: [--] #
- [--] Week [--] -41%
- [--] Month [--] +3.10%
- [--] Months [--] +14%
- [--] Year [---] +144%
Followers: [------] #
- [--] Week [------] +0.74%
- [--] Month [------] +3%
- [--] Months [------] +20%
- [--] Year [------] +51%
CreatorRank: [---------] #
Social Influence
Social category influence finance countries technology brands stocks currencies
Social topic influence acquisition, business, how to, mergers and acquisitions #328, minds, in the, the first, $20m, money, ceo
Top accounts mentioned or mentioned by @fundof1
Top Social Posts
Top posts by engagements in the last [--] hours
"Comfortable Concentration for a $800k SDE Business Phil Koller Interview Today's story is a study in not judging a book by its cover. Phil Koller bought Roman Enterprises an automotive paint distribution business. Now Roman had about [--] customers. It had essentially a single supplier. And it had one yes just one employee. Undeterred Phil looked closely at each of these features and more and decided that he could accept and/or mitigate the risk. And there was lots to love about Roman Enterprises. I already mentioned that single employee a feature that lives in both the pro and con columns."
YouTube Link 2025-12-16T10:45Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How to 4x a Small Manufacturer Tato Corcoran Update Today's is an update episode with a popular guest from [----] Tato Corcoran. We re-ran Tato's first episode during Christmas week which sparked interest in learning what has happened in the two years since that first interview. Tato bought a very small manufacturer of sinks for bathroom vanities with just $400k in revenue and [--] employees. As Tato put it in our first interview "Looking back on it the seller didn't have a business he had a job that paid him." If you haven't heard that first interview check it out to hear what the first year and"
YouTube Link 2026-02-02T21:19Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements
"How to Buy a Business & Grow It to $25m James Bloom Interview James Bloom bought a small commercial HVAC business in [----]. It was generating less than $400k SDE and had only [--] employees. [--] years later James has 8x'd revenue to a projected $25m by the end of [----]. So this is a $25m business that James acquired for just $785k only a few years ago. Today's conversation is a deep dive into how he's done it. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 Chapters: 00:00. James background 08:56. Search parameters for a business 12:33. Doing his own due diligence 14:27. Acquiring"
YouTube Link 2023-06-26T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"Growing Profits 30% in the First [---] Years Jonathan Taylor Interview As his 40th birthday approached today's guest started to feel the now-or-never pull of entrepreneurship. So Jonathan Taylor left a 15-year tech career to journey into business ownership. Jonathan closed on a distribution business a year and a half ago. Like many distribution businesses AEK Technology has concentration but not on the customer side. Many of the products it sells come from a single supplier. Jonathan and I unpack this risk and how he's mitigated it. Note how common this is in distribution businesses. The"
YouTube Link 2026-02-05T20:42Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements
"How to Grow a Small Plumbing Business to $26m John Wilson Interview John Wilson bought his family's little plumbing business in [----]. He quickly decided that there was opportunity here and that he wanted to do something spectacular: Become the largest licensed home services business in Northeast Ohio. [--] years later and he's achieved it. The business was over [--] years old when he bought it; his grandfather had founded it. But it was doing just about a million bucks in annual revenue. Not a lot. The first full year of John's ownership [----] saw the business grow to $1.7m. Flash forward and the"
YouTube Link 2024-03-14T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"Year [--] in a $300k SDE Services Business Scott Crosby Interview "The worst day I've had running the business has been better than the best day I had working for someone else" So Scott Crosby told me about his new life as the owner of an HVAC and refrigeration services business in St. Louis. Scott bought small; American Services had under $300k of SDE and four and a half employees. We talk about how he's managed through the vulnerability of such a small business including turning over essentially the whole team. Part of Scott's model here is not taking any money out of the business for himself"
YouTube Link 2026-02-02T23:53Z 13.6K followers, [--] engagements
"SBA Deal Structuring to Manage Risk in a Cyclical Industry Andrew Kurzrok Interview Frustrated by the poor performance of his email outreach today's guest finally decided to just pick up the phone. And to his surprise it worked. Andrew Kurzrok bought a ductwork fabricator a little over an hour from his home in Northern Virginia. After awkwardly calling the receptionist back a few times when she didn't put him through correctly he was finally able to leave a message on the voicemail of the owner. And he got a call back. (Thanks to the owner's wife we learn.) In addition to the story of how he"
YouTube Link 2026-02-05T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"Buy Well Exit Better: A $67m Win in [--] Years Greg Geronemus Interview A few episodes ago we heard about a couple early in their journey as owners of a tour operator business. Katherine Butler-Dines and Rahul Desai bought a small niche tour operator as self-funded searchers. Well today we hear from an entrepreneur on the other end both in terms of journey (he's exited) and size of business. Back in [----] Greg Geronemus and his partner David Rosner acquired a larger tour operator one that did $5m of EBITDA. Four years later they'd paid back most of the $20m in debt on the business grown EBITDA"
YouTube Link 2025-10-16T17:36Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Exiting for Millions vs. Long-Term Hold Don Grigg Interview Twenty-five years ago today's guest bought [--] businesses within a few months of each other. Don Grigg was in his early 30s with [--] kids and a desire to buy a manufacturing business. In the end both businesses he bought were problem companies which was by design. He figured the only thing he'd be able to afford were small struggling businesses and that he'd have to turn them around. Which he did. We hear the story of both including one that he exited for millions of dollars a few years later. Which sounds like the searcher dream: Buy a"
YouTube Link 2026-01-30T15:44Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements
"How to Turn $500k into a $38m Holdco (No Investors) Garrison Snell Interview Today's guest owns [--] businesses. He has debt on them but no outside investors so his family are the sole owners of this portfolio that generated $9m in EBITDA in [----]. Also Garrison Snell is [--]. He has no formal background in finance; he actually planned to be a professional musician. So hopefully this interview will show you how an outsider someone completely naive to investing can make a decision to pursue a path and not only be successful but be successful in a relatively short amount of time. Garrison has built"
YouTube Link 2024-07-01T07:00Z 13.6K followers, 10.9K engagements
"$20m Net Worth After [--] Years Buying Businesses Paul Lajoie Interview Most of the interviews on Acquiring Minds are with entrepreneurs recently into their acquisitions. But occasionally we'll have guests who've been doing this for much longer and we get to see how a career as an acquisition entrepreneur unfolds over decades. Today is one such example. At [--] years old Paul Lajoie today takes home $1m per year and tallies his net worth at almost $20m. And it all started about [--] years ago when he and his brother bought a flooring business doing $300k of SDE. We hear that story and how it set up"
YouTube Link 2026-01-21T07:04Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Buy an MSP Business Nick Akers Interview Nick Akers had experienced toxic work environments and he had developed a vision of the polar opposite: A supportive employee-first environment one where people could flourish & self-actualize. And where employee flourishing would lead to the whole organization flourishing. Buying a business to lead was the perfect vehicle to realize this vision. In May [----] Nick bought a 30-year-old MSP (managed service provider). ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 Chapters: 00:00:00. Nick's background as an inventor 00:06:48. How"
YouTube Link 2023-08-14T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"Taking a Flower Shop from $600k to $9 Million Michael Jacobson Interview Today's story is how Michael Jacobson outsider to the flower industry saw his uncle's 45-year-old barely-profitable flower shop and decided to buy it. And since then has grown it from a paltry $600k in annual flower sales to $9.5m. This is a fascinating story and it might make you linger over those flower shop listings you probably ignored on BizBuySell. Michael is now aiming to parlay the tech that he built & playbook that he wrote for his uncle's shop into a national franchise brand. Enjoy this remarkable story of"
YouTube Link 2024-12-28T04:45Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Buy a Generational Brand with $20m in Sales Philip Hussey Interview Brand is not a feature of businesses we typically see down here in the lower lower middle market. Sure there might be some local name recognition for that plumbing business. But a true consumer brand one that anchors its product or service in quality that means enough to command premium prices a business like this is unusual. Well one of the most respected small business acquirers in our world Chenmark recently bought just such a business. And Philip Hussey who sourced and now runs it is here to tell us all about Thos."
YouTube Link 2025-12-03T01:58Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying for $600k Selling for $35m Jake Bittner Interview Many strong entrepreneurs are less risk takers than strategic risk mitigators and Jake Bittner exemplifies this mindset. He spent the first decade of his career in enterprise software sales deliberately choosing selling as the most valuable skill for a future entrepreneur. Along the way he developed deep expertise in government-focused data analytics built a strong network and saved enough money to weather a period without salary. So when the chance came to acquire an unprofitable carve-out in his niche he was unusually well prepared:"
YouTube Link 2025-12-01T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Started Mid-Career Grew to $38m in [--] Years Shaun Stimpson Interview Shaun Stimpson was mid-career in wealth management when a client mentioned making money by buying companies. That conversation changed Shauns path. He spent five years studying acquisitions and in December [----] bought Mitten Fluidpower an industrial distribution business. Since then he has grown that company and acquired two others building a portfolio with $38 million in revenue. Shaun shares how he structures ownership with his partner and investors and why he focused on industrial distributiona category many peers"
YouTube Link 2025-10-07T17:47Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Reward for [--] Month Deal: $1.8m of EBITDA Robert Gayden Interview Seventeen months is how long it took the acquisition of today's guest to close. But so far it sure does seem worth it for Robert Gayden. For one thing sales grew considerably during that year and a half so Robert's confidence in the business grew in tandem. And because the headline terms of the LOI weren't renegotiated his effective purchase price steadily declined. Robert bought a home care business with $1.8m of adjusted EBITDA when he finally closed. Many searchers' impulse is to refine the operations of their newly-acquired"
YouTube Link 2025-12-15T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Complexity Hides Fragility: Losing a $20m Business Joe Odell Interview Today's interview is the story of a business acquisition that ended in collapse and how the protagonist is putting his professional life back together. Joe Odell bought a compounding pharmacy business with his partner Jess Paterson via the traditional search fund model. The fundamentals of the business seemed strong: Demographic tailwinds high-quality revenue and good sized with $20m of revenue and [---] employees. But despite these hopeful signs things went off the rails quickly once Joe and Jess took over. And for the next"
YouTube Link 2025-12-19T14:41Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Plumbing Acquisition Gone Wrong Josh Key Interview "Trust but verify." The words that today's guest will live by going forward. It was the eleventh hour in Josh Key's acquisition of a small plumbing company and his SBA lender springs on him that they want to see a master plumber on the cap table. He found a man through his church with a plumbing license to partner with. Flash forward: the business has been run into the ground and Josh has had to file for Chapter [--]. And much of this fiasco he attributes to his now ex partner. If you're partnering with someone you don't really know you need to"
YouTube Link 2024-12-19T08:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"When a $2.8m Acquisition Is More Like Zero to One Dave Gilbert Interview You may have heard me say recently that seller dishonesty or outright fraud is the leading reason that buying a business goes south. Well today's case is not that. It's a look at how an acquisition entrepreneur can find himself in crisis for other reasons. Dave Gilbert bought a fractional CFO business only to discover bad camouflaged customer concentration. Not only that the business model was fundamentally flawed. The third critical issue was just how much of a family business it was; there were family members"
YouTube Link 2025-11-26T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Stacking Small Acquisitions to $5m in Revenue Kyle Boyden and Jake Furfaro Interview Today's guests set out to acquire cleaning companies in the greater Seattle area. Most were tinyunder $1m revenuebut Kyle Boyden & Jake Furfaro embraced micro-acquisitions stacking to $2.5m before going bigger. Two more deals brought them to $5m. Only their seventh used an SBA loan; the first six relied on seller financing and low down payments. Theyve invested just $100k and now take home $650k owning 90%. Risk was low with no personal guarantees early on. The process built operating and integration skills"
YouTube Link 2025-08-25T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"$60m Roll-Up That Started With an SBA Acquisition Brian Boland and Onu Okebie Interview Onu Okebie and Brian Boland started smallwith an SBA loan to acquire a business doing just $500k in SDE. Today theyve grown HTL Freight to $60 million in revenue. Their story shows the power of bootstrapping: keeping 100% ownership early proving themselves before raising equity and then negotiating far better terms later. Brian estimates their cost of equity was just a tenth of what it would have been at the start. This episode is about how two entrepreneurs turned one SBA-backed deal into a major freight"
YouTube Link 2025-09-18T20:21Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying a Wide Moat in a Consolidating Industry Ania Aliev Interview Boy did today's guest uncover an interesting opportunity. Ania Aliev bought a business in AED sales and servicing. You'll learn what that looks like in our conversation. But suffice it say that this is recurring revenue in a fragmented industry and an industry that PE is starting to take notice of. Ania's timing seems fantastic. Not only that Ania's business Life Support Systems enjoys a strong moat one that enabled her to introduce a powerful new pricing model. We unpack it. Finally and not least the business serves a"
YouTube Link 2025-10-27T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"The Late 40s Pivot Into Business Buying Jarom Wren Interview Jarom Wren felt the entrepreneurial itch in his late 30s despite a successful corporate career. Seeking more freedom he explored options for years until discovering entrepreneurship through acquisition after a friend bought a business. Mesmerized Jarom dove in and eventually acquired Vanlife Outfitters an ecommerce brand serving the vanlife community. He navigated lender skepticism about ecommerce restated earnings and a deal that nearly fell apart. Jarom shares how persistence renegotiation and realistic expectations helped him"
YouTube Link 2026-01-29T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"The $60k Acquisition that Grew to a $77m Exit Kevin Ramsier Interview Kevin Ramsier didnt set out to buy a business he just answered opportunity when it kept calling. Literally. Todays episode tells the story of how Kevin and a friend bought a tiny radon mitigation business basically a retired engineer with a truck and a flip phone for $60000 at a Big Boy restaurant. Half of it was seller-financed. The calls from real estate agents never stopped and Kevin saw potential. That humble deal became SWAT Environmental a national radon mitigation franchise that ultimately sold to private equity for"
YouTube Link 2025-05-22T11:48Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"The $295m Search Fund Exit Sandy Paige Interview This is the remarkable story of a guy who started a traditional search fund at age [--] and went on to deliver record-breaking IRR to his investors. Now even if you're not considering a traditional search fund and most of you are not there is a tremendous amount to learn from Sandy's experience. My favorite takeaway is simply that Sandy didn't fit the mold and that made raising money hard. But he persisted eventually got his search funded and then hit a grand slam. Please enjoy this conversation with Sandy Paige former CEO of Explora BioLabs. ❤"
YouTube Link 2023-09-25T07:00Z 13.5K followers, [----] engagements
"The First Steps to a Family Holdco Linh and Leo Van Deibel Interview I first met today's guest at the Self-Funded Search Conference in Dallas in [----]. Linh Van Deibel had flown all the way from London a demonstration of how seriously she was taking this path of entrepreneurship through acquisition. As you'll hear her husband Leo later joined her and Linh and Leo both are today's guests. So buying a business as a couple is a key theme of the interview. As is buying outside the US; Linh and Leo live in London. We hear how they structured their deal in a market where loans for business"
YouTube Link 2026-01-26T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Own 20% of Multiple SMBs Evan DiLeonardi Interview Todays interview has two parts. First Evan DiLeonardi shares the story of buying a commercial cleaning business in a small rural town with about $500k in SDE. While not a full turnaround the transition brought a scary J-curve. Evan spent a year and a half stabilizing a business plagued by weak leadership and complicated family dynamics all while managing it partly remotely as a nomad.In the second segment we explore Evans current role as an SBA buy-side advisor-investor. Through an ETA community he helps searchers source and close"
YouTube Link 2026-02-10T21:37Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Lessons from [--] Acquisition Nightmares Jed Morris Interview Jed Morris initially excelled in acquiring a landscaping business first interning to mitigate risk. As owner he was inundated with acquisition offers envisioning rapid growth to $10 million. However his second acquisition failed within a year resulting in a $750000 loss and forcing him to sell his house. Despite this Jed maintained a resilient attitude. He then researched other failed acquisitions identifying common patterns. He's compiling this data into a book "Buyer Beware" aiming to provide crucial insights for aspiring business"
YouTube Link 2025-03-20T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"How a First-Timer Pulled Off a $52m Acquisition Nick Huber Interview One of the early voices in the boring businesses trend Nick exhorted his followers to stop equating entrepreneurship to tech and Mark Zuckerberg and instead recognize all the opportunities available in any town to anyone willing to work. Now that's old news to you listener but Nick was early with that message and it was influential to me personally. Well last year news broke that Nick had acquired Support Shepherd a recruiting agency for Filipino talent that was well known across Twitter and in small business and"
YouTube Link 2025-05-31T22:14Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"$250k SDE Acquisition: Limited Downside Big Upside Ville-Matias Viln Interview After paying the owners' salaries the business that today's guest bought generated about $150k of earnings. Which would not typically be large enough for a self-funded searcher jumping into entrepreneurship through acquisition. But Ville-Matias Viln of Hensinki saw that the business's flagship product enjoyed sustained demand despite being under-marketed. And the bones of the business high-quality manufacturing patented design a network of dealer relationships abroad were good. So while very small Ville saw a risk"
YouTube Link 2026-02-01T12:09Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Adjusting to Life in a Nocturnal Business with $525k SDE Tom & Dawson Matter Interview Tom brought in his brother Dawson to help him run things a partnership that has been crucial to navigating a chaotic transition. The Matter brothers' business cleans vent hoods for restaurants. Pros were high margins thin competition a service mandated by law and how much there was to professionalize.Cons were how much there was to professionalize (that one is both pro & con) and the logistics of operating a nocturnal business. Here are Tom Matter and Dawson Matter owners of Pro Duct Cleaning. ❤ Enjoy this"
YouTube Link 2024-12-16T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying a Big $7m Trade School Bob Boniface and Tyrel Sulzer Interview Tyrel Sulzer & Bob Boniface bought a CDL school a training business for aspiring truckers to get a commercial driver's license. We explore whether trade schools as a category could be interesting businesses to buy. We discuss trucking as an industry. We also discuss: why Tyrel & Bob decided to do a traditional search fund; why each of them was committed to buying a blue collar business; whether to partner when searching and what the partner dating process might look like; and what British Columbia-native Tyrel would tell"
YouTube Link 2024-01-08T08:00Z 13.5K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying a Business & Having a Blast @Fundof1 was searching for a business in a tight geography and found a great fit in a $760k appliance repair company"
YouTube Link 2022-03-29T20:17Z 13.6K followers, [---] engagements
"Taking a Single-City Acquisition Nationwide Edward McDonnell Interview Today's interview shows the full circle of a successful acquisition and later exit via the traditional search fund model. True to the stated requirement of traditional search that the entrepreneur be willing to move anywhere for a good business Edward McDonnell moved with his pregnant wife from Chapel Hill across the country to Seattle to take the reins of Botanical Designs. When he bought it the indoor plant business was [--] employees in Seattle only. When Edward exited to a private equity buyer four and a half years later"
YouTube Link 2026-02-03T20:16Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements
"SBA Acquisition to $9m Cash Exit in [--] Years Andy Rougeot Interview 👉 Special note: To see the screen share of Andy's spreadsheet from the segment at the end watch the companion video here: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Ga0iixcBVck Today's guest is a search investor a thoughtful observer of ETA and SMB acquisitions and himself a successful exited self-funded searcher. Andy Rougeot bought a blue collar business gate service and maintenance for self storage facilities. Andy's initial plan was to grow his business horizontally by offering similar services in adjacent markets. When he saw that"
YouTube Link 2025-12-04T13:45Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"From [--] Million to Zero to [--] Million Ivona Butcher Interview Buying a business solved an issue in the future life of today's guest and her husband. They were both MBAs at Kellogg business school so career would be important to both of them. But it was going to be difficult to find great jobs for both Ivona Butcher and her husband in the same place at the same time. Not to mention Ivona is Czech and the couple expected to spend some years of their lives in the Czech Republic. The chances were low that they would both find work there to match their ambitions. Buying and building a business"
YouTube Link 2025-10-23T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"Timing is Everything Buying a $30m Tutoring Business Jared Lenner & Dave Serwitz Interview Todays episode gives us a rare look inside the mind of a seller. We hear from both sides of a business sale: buyer Jared Lenner who acquired Grade Potential and seller Dave Serwitz its founder.The conversation reveals what motivates a sellersomething often discussed but seldom heard directly. Unlike a previous guest Peter Wild (episode 181) who sold his company to retire Dave sold at age [--] for different reasonsa reminder that retirement isnt the only reason to exit a business.Grade Potential provides"
YouTube Link 2025-10-06T19:14Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Why Choose Ownership Over Being a CEO Katherine Butler Dines and Rahul Desai Interview Ahh [--] percent. A magic number in the world of business. Today's guest discovered just how important it was to her after working as the CEO of a private equity-held business and seeing up close what it means to not be owner of the business you're running. This insight as much about herself as it was about private equity led Katherine Butler-Dines and her husband Rahul Desai to embark on a self-funded search. And what they ultimately acquired is a travel business that offers guided tours to women. At less"
YouTube Link 2025-11-10T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"The [--] Year Collapse of an SBA Acquisition Scott Duncan Interview Today's interview covers the painful seven-year journey from self-funded SBA business acquisition to going to zero and shutting down. Scott Duncan bought a tool and die business that seemed to offer good business-buyer fit for his mechanical engineering background. It also seemed to be a good searchy business: revenue was highly re-occurring and the service it provided was critical to its customers' manufacturing operations. Unhappily a number of factors conspired to undermine the business and Scott's efforts. Key person"
YouTube Link 2025-12-11T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"The Path from $2.5m to $60m in a Tree Business Brian Hartman Interview Brian Hartman todays guest found near-perfect alignment between his background and the business he acquired. Having built two tree service businesses in Atlanta he was well-equipped when the opportunity arose to purchase another in the same industry. Though he explored other sectors during his search returning to trees allowed him to quickly succeednearly doubling the business in his first year. While his deep industry experience gave him a strong head start Brians success wasnt solely due to insider knowledge. He"
YouTube Link 2025-06-23T07:00Z 12.3K followers, [----] engagements
"Reviving a Covid-Crushed Business: $0 to $6M in [--] Years Adam Rao Interview Regular listeners of Acquiring Minds have heard interviews with searchers who layer their ETA journey with a philosophy or an approach. Well today's guest is bringing impact to ETA. Adam Rao comes from the world of B-corps and general benefit corporations (GBCs) and saw buying a business as a novel approach to building double-bottom-line enterprise value. We unpack his vision here. A vision which is coming to fruition. Adam and his partner acquired a business that had flatlined due to Covid. No revenue for [--] months"
YouTube Link 2025-07-07T07:00Z 12.2K followers, [----] engagements
"Building Trust as New Owner of a $3m Business Ruchik Gandhi Interview Today's guest arrived in the US just seven and a half years ago from India by way of Australia. And now he is owner of a business with over $3m in revenue. Ruchik Gandhi was a trained accountant working on financial diligence for private equity companies that were actively buying up home service businesses. These roll-ups as well as his discovery of the concept of multiple arbitrage piqued his interest. Maybe he could do something similar if on a smaller scale. Well he has taken the first step in that journey with the"
YouTube Link 2025-09-27T04:13Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"So Much Fun: The Buyer of Choice in a Fragmented Industry Mark Anderegg Interview "Being a strategic buyer with enough time horizon in front of you it's just got to be the most fun way to spend a career." So said today's guest Mark Anderegg who acquired Little Sprouts a daycare business with [--] locations. Mark then grew the business much more by acquiring additional tiny childcare businesses throughout New England ultimately making it the largest private preschool company in the region. Six years into his tenure as CEO Mark had a successful exit. Beyond programmatic acquisition Mark and I hit"
YouTube Link 2025-09-18T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying to $4m Across [--] Sites in [--] Years Gail Azodo Interview Funny to hear that today's guest didn't really think of herself as an entrepreneur earlier in her career. Because she seems like a natural. Gail Azodo built a thesis around audiology practices a space similar to other successful PE roll-ups but with far less attention. What drew her in wasnt just the financial upside: after watching an older man break down in tears when a hearing aid instantly changed his life she was hooked. In todays interview youll hear the model that lets her acquire practices without using her own capital and"
YouTube Link 2025-10-16T21:35Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying a Platform with an SBA Loan Jacob VosWinkel Interview The flooring industry. Businesses here are typically anchored by a retail location selling wood vinyl tile carpet to a mix of residential and commercial customers. Flooring is not a highly favored industry in the world of home services buyers which we discuss with today's guest Jacob VosWinkel. But despite the perceived weaknesses Jacob loves his adopted industry. He bought a sizable flooring store which he was able to get his hands on because he opened his search to tertiary markets he was willing to move to. His store is in"
YouTube Link 2026-01-22T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Behind Every Great Searcher: A Wife's Journey Into Search Cliff and Christine Nelson Interview In today's episode we address head-on a feature of search that is so important and so neglected: What the journey to buy a business means for the searcher's romantic partner if they have one. First we hear from Cliff Nelson who bought a business with over $15m in revenue and about [---] people. The business provides mental health services to nursing homes & facilities. Cliff and I get into all the usual good detail about his search and the business he bought. But you'll also get a window into Cliff's"
YouTube Link 2025-02-17T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"From Searcher to Sponsor: How to Buy a $22m Business Yan Vinarskiy Interview Today's guest was looking for the standard target of a self-funded searcher $750k to $1.5m in SDE. When he first learned about the business he would go on to buy the seller characterized it as "north of $1m in EBITDA." Check It was a fit. Well after going onsite and falling in love with the business our hero Yan Vinarskiy learned that in fact the business was closer to $4m in EBITDA. At first Yan was deflated recognizing it as a far larger business than an SBA loan could approach even with pari passu debt. But then"
YouTube Link 2025-07-14T09:31Z 13.1K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying a $1.6m Business for the Inventory Value Danyelle Nys Interview The world of small business was not unfamiliar to Danyelle Nys. She'd worked in small businesses for years including at an asphalt business she thought she'd one day run. When that didn't pan out she started looking for her next thing. And when she discovered she could buy an existing small business she said to herself and to her fianc and her mother I can do this. And do this she did. Not to say that it was easy. Danyelle had to push through self doubt and limiting beliefs the whole way including right up until today. She"
YouTube Link 2025-10-17T18:16Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"How to Build a $5m Media Business Into a $20m Flywheel Clayton Collins Interview Today's interview was a fun one for me. Clayton Collins bought a media business HousingWire a B2B publisher for professionals in the housing industry. Clayton has almost quintupled sales from $4m in revenue when he acquired it to approaching $20m today. He shares with us how he's done that. You will hear that strategic acquisitions are a big part of the story acquisitions that added events and data products to the HousingWire ecosystem. And you'll hear that Clayton began this journey with a big vision an"
YouTube Link 2025-10-07T17:42Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"Buying a $200m Franchisor (Not Units the Whole System) Tyler & Zach Gordon Interview When today's guests set out to buy a business they first systematically developed a thesis. Both with private equity backgrounds brothers Tyler and Zach Gordon combed through lists of industries looking for ones with great fundamentals but not yet on Private Equity's radar. The process led them to a franchise system of thrift stores. But the subject of today's interview is how our heroes ended up buying not units in the system but the system itself. So this is a story our first of buying a franchisor a system"
YouTube Link 2025-07-31T07:00Z 12.2K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying for Brand (Then Growing 4x) Matt Orley Interview Unlike most guests on Acquiring Minds today's did not come to his acquisition as a self-identified "searcher." Instead Matt Orley was an entrepreneurial guy who'd found an industry he really wanted to get into and buying a business there was his path to do so. The industry is short-term rentals. That is the property owners who rent their properties on the likes of Airbnb and the growing ecosystem of vendors that serve those owners. As you know this is a category that has exploded in recent years thanks first to the advent of Airbnb and"
YouTube Link 2026-01-12T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"Back from the Brink When Everybody Quits Day [--] Jack Carr Interview Jack Carr bought a small HVAC business; really too small by his own admission. And on the very first day of his ownership all the technicians quit leaving just him and the part-time dispatcher. What to do Become an HVAC technician himself of course. Which he did and it worked. We spend lots of time on how he pulled it off. Two and a half years later the business is [--] employees and did $3m in [----] revenue. Jack's targeting a run rate of $4 to $5m by the end of [----]. One more thing to call out: Jack's enthusiasm for ETA. Even"
YouTube Link 2025-02-24T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Scaling a Tiny Acquisition to a PE-Backed Exit Phil Miller Interview Phil Miller had a nose for value. He saw that the store had a ton of underutilized space that could be monetized with pet boarding pet grooming. He also understood that being zoned for pet boarding was precious and this business was so zoned. He jumped in and bought it. [--] years later in [----] Phil had grown to [--] locations [--] of them pet hospitals and Pawville was an established regional brand. Private equity came knocking and Pawville became the platform for PE-backed WagWay. Now [--] years is a long time yes. But note while"
YouTube Link 2025-07-03T07:00Z 12.2K followers, [----] engagements
"How I Grew My Holding Company to $75m Across [--] Businesses Justin Turner Interview Justin Turner & his partners are building a holdco at Traction Capital. Five years ago they hadn't made a single acquisition. Today with their [--] most recent acquisitions Traction stands at $75m in revenue across the portfolio of [--] businesses. And it's a really diverse mix: distribution for firefighters & first responders ecom brick & mortar retail paving asphalt milling and disaster restoration. For those with dreams of a holdco Traction is showing the way. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more:"
YouTube Link 2023-03-16T07:00Z 12.4K followers, [----] engagements
"From Stalled Search to $750k SDE: The Power of Speed Grania Michel Interview Today's guest had been searching for a year and a half without much success. Like many searchers Grania Michel started out looking for the perfect business. She sent out LOIs cautiously only when very serious about an opportunity. And she kept to herself the fact that she was searching not wanting to invite skepticism or discouragement from her network. Finally a confidant who did know that Grania was searching pressed her. We keep having the same conversation he tells her. What is it going to take for you to close"
YouTube Link 2025-06-26T07:00Z 12.6K followers, [----] engagements
"The Dream Outcome: From $300k to $5m EBITDA Linh Tran Interview I think it's fair to generalize that for those self-funded searchers who listen to Acquiring Minds today's guest has achieved the dream. Linh Tran started small too small. A commercial refrigeration business with $300k in SDE on paper it was actually more like $150k says Linh. So a tiny fragile business. A business where one technician leaving means revenue collapses. And from that humble acquisition Linh built the business into one generating $2 and $3m of EBITDA. At which point he stepped aside and hired a CEO and that business"
YouTube Link 2025-11-11T09:58Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"A Searchers Second Act: Building a $25m Holdco Eric Calderon Interview Today's guest's journey into buying businesses began [--] years ago. Eric Calderon learned about the concept at Harvard Business School which he entered with the idea that he would return to a corporate path and become an executive. But he took Rick & Royce's class and decided that this is what he would do instead. And he did buying a business in his native Houston with Rick & Royce as investors. We hear the story of that search & exit as well as what Eric is doing today. Which is building TXE Partners his holdco that buys"
YouTube Link 2025-08-02T11:35Z 12.6K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying in a Small Market Building a Regional Powerhouse Jonathan Bournigal Interview Register for the live Q&A with Jonathan on March 19th: https://bit.ly/3XpDunX Jonathan Bournigal initially thought retiring baby boomers would drive his search for a business in the Dominican Republic but he found that wasn't the case. Instead he relied on networking which led him to acquire a small document storage company partly owned by a friend's father. Over time he transformed it into the leading document storage provider in the entire Caribbean region. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more:"
YouTube Link 2025-02-28T18:26Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Passion & Profit in an American Pastime Mike Fagan Interview Could there be better business-buyer fit than a retired world champion bowler acquiring bowling centers Mike Fagan aka King of Swing aka Argyle Assassin enjoyed an illustrious career as a professional bowler and today is part of our community as an acquisition entrepreneur buying the businesses that first sparked a passion in him at [--] years old. You will learn about the business of bowling centers from the re-occurring revenue generated by bowling leagues to the sale-leaseback opportunities in the real estate. But a key theme of"
YouTube Link 2025-12-29T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"When to Buy a Large Consumer Business Taylor Mattingly Interview Todays interview features Taylor Mattingly co-CEO of Energy Ogre a Houston-based service that helps households navigate Texass complex unregulated electricity market. Taylor was originally a customer before pursuing a traditional search to acquire the business. Unlike most B2C companies Energy Ogre generates high-quality recurring revenue from hundreds of thousands of subscribers paying $10 per month. The discussion covers the deal structure which differs from a typical SBA-style acquisition including a relatively high 55%"
YouTube Link 2025-11-24T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"Why Treat an Acquisition Like a Startup Sean Daly Interview Register for the live Q&A with Sean on March 18th: https://bit.ly/3FgV6vK Sean Daly took an unconventional approach to change management after acquiring Ice-C-Cool Mechanical. While most acquisition entrepreneurs adopt a cautious gradual strategy to avoid overwhelming inherited teams and processes Sean embraced rapid forceful changes. His confidence stems from extensive leadership experience and a startup mindset favoring experimentation and iterationexpecting mistakes but adapting quickly. Unlike the common leveraged buyout (LBO)"
YouTube Link 2025-02-28T18:28Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"How to Buy a $2m Home Theater Business in [--] Months Pawel Kosicki A Twitter thread changed the course of Pawel Kosicki's life. The thread laid out the economics of buying small businesses. Thinking it too good to be true Pawel searched BizBuySell to see if businesses in his native Toronto were really for sale at the low valuations described in the thread. That started a journey that quickly took on a life of its own. Today Pawel is the owner of a smart home and home theater installation business that does over $2m in sales and high [--] figures in SDE. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more:"
YouTube Link 2023-03-27T07:00Z 12.6K followers, [---] engagements
"The Contrarian Bet on a Digital Agency George Stern Interview Today's guest made a contrarian bet with his acquisition. Contrarianism is something we don't often see in our world where risk is more acute owing to the high leverage we use to buy businesses. George Stern bought an SEO agency. As you might guess the perception is that traditional search engine optimization is very much in flux as ChatGPT changes consumer searching habits. For the first time in [--] years the dominance of Google's blue links is in question. George's bet is that SEO will stabilize around new practices and business"
YouTube Link 2026-01-19T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"5 Businesses Acquired with a Long Term Hold Model Ryan Sullivan Interview Ryan Sullivan launched a new career in his late 40s. The self-described risk averse entrepreneur is acquiring small legacy manufacturing businesses across the US and it's going well. His first acquisition was a 100-year-old electrical component manufacturer in Wichita Kansas doing about $700k in adjusted EBITDA. He bought it alongside a partner who took a little apartment in Wichita and flew back and forth during the transition. [--] years later they've bought [--] more businesses have another under LOI and have expanded to 5"
YouTube Link 2024-08-19T07:00Z 12.9K followers, [----] engagements
"First Acquisition in March $200m by Year End Jordan Dubin Interview Most Acquiring Minds guests are looking for a single good business to buy typically using an SBA loan. By contrast Jordan and his partners have a very dialed-in thesis in a category (home services) where they had years of experience as private equity associates and they went out and raised $35m to pursue this vision. What Jordan & team are doing here is more in the vein of traditional private equity. Still. Many if not most of the themes we hit on can be applied to your self-funded search: How to think about an industry."
YouTube Link 2024-12-09T08:00Z 12.1K followers, 13.7K engagements
"Buying Small to Then Buy Larger $1m SDE Joe Soelberg Interview Today's story is about [--] acquisitions. The first business that Joe Soelberg bought was small a shop that provided graphical renderings for real estate and eventually home goods sellers like Wayfair. It did about $400k in SDE. A big part of Joe's decision to buy on the smaller size was simply it's what he could afford. He was in that business as its operator for [--] years and today he's got someone else operating it and the business generates about $200k a year for him for just a few hours per week of his attention. Not huge dollars"
YouTube Link 2025-12-31T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"ETA Unicorn: $1 Billion in Revenue in [--] Years Steve Carroll Interview Today's guest thought he would buy a business with an SBA loan pay down the debt cashflow it and live happily ever after. Instead he has rolled up dozens of businesses in commercial HVAC and adjacent services to over a billion dollars in annual revenue. Traditionally for searchers who develops a vision to consolidate their industries $100 million in revenue is the big hairy audacious goal. Today's interview with Steve Carroll might reframe what's possible. One of the key points of this entire journey was Steve going from"
YouTube Link 2025-12-04T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Owning a Dog Poop Scooping Business 💩💰 Would you own and operate a dog poop scooping business If it makes money James Temple says he sure would 🤑💩 #shorts"
YouTube Link 2023-01-14T19:00Z 13K followers, 13.9K engagements
"Founder Mode for ETA: $6m to $25m in [--] Years Aizik Zimerman Interview Today's guest is all about bringing "founder mode" to his acquisition. Aizik Zimerman acquired J. Blanton a plumbing business in Chicago. Aizik intends to spend years decades maybe building his life's work in this industry. I thought this vision was compelling so much so that I talked about it in a recent speech at the Southeastern ETA conference at UVA where I said essentially the following: This concept of founder mode is borrowed from tech land where Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham made it famous. The idea is"
YouTube Link 2025-09-16T11:47Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Buy a $13m Business with No PG No Investors Carlo Santelli Interview Carlo bought a decades-old manufacturer of fasteners think screws nuts bolts. It has $13m in revenue and $3.5m in EBITDA. Carlo was able to structure a deal that: a) didn't require him putting in any cash b) didn't require a personal guarantee c) paid him a nice fee at closing and d) didn't require any outside equity which means he owns 100% of the business. In this interview you'll learn how this acquisition entrepreneur secured and structured such a life-changing outcome. Here he is: Carlo Santelli owner of Triem"
YouTube Link 2025-01-13T08:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"$14.5m Exit After [--] Years Adam Vandermyde Interview I joke with today's guest about how much went right on his journey of business acquisition. The business had over $1m of earnings. The entry multiple was good. The sellers wanted Adam Vandermyde so badly that they agreed to a purchase price and to hire him as CEO so he could de-risk the opportunity in his own mind before committing to close. Adam liked what he saw as CEO and did commit then proceeded to improve the company's revenue mix and professionalize operations over the next few years as owner himself. When PE took an interest in the"
YouTube Link 2026-01-08T08:00Z 13.2K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Buy & Transform a 120-Year-Old Manufacturer Lucas Philips Interview Lucas Philips bought a manufacturer of interior upholstery parts for vintage automobiles. Think replacement carpeting for your [----] Plymouth Cougar. The business historically sold its product through dealers; Lucas stood up an ecommerce business selling direct to customers.Today's interview is a deep dive into how he's done it. It has been brutal: He suffered fetal position moments lost a relationship turned over the entire team he inherited and has hardly paid himself. It has also been fruitful: He's made incredible"
YouTube Link 2025-02-20T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"A $10m Acquisition for Freedom and Family Anica John Interview Lots of great details in today's interview. DiggyPOD a print-on-demand service for self publishers is a bigger business than is typical in self-funded search. Our hero Anica John paid almost $10m which means she needed $2.6m of pari passu debt on top of the SBA loan that maxes out at $5m. She also had seller financing. We'll hear how she structured that.Then there was another $1m that went to cover excess cash requirements the fee to Rejigg (the platform where she found the deal) and other items bringing the total project cost to"
YouTube Link 2025-07-28T07:00Z 12.9K followers, [----] engagements
"From Startup Founder to Buying a Small Business Tim Ericson Interview Tim Ericson bought a printer rental business a few months ago and he is bringing to bear his hard-won lessons from [--] years as founder of a VC-funded startup on his newly-acquired small business. My favorite point that he makes here is how being funded by VC gunning toward unicorn status trained him to think big. So Tim has big plans for his acquisition namely doubling it in [--] years. And he will do it remotely from his home in Puerto Rico. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 CONTENT 00:00:00."
YouTube Link 2023-08-24T07:00Z 13K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying and Building a Xerox Dealer to $30m Jeff Horn Interview Entrepreneur Jeff Horn bought and grew a Xerox sales & service business called Benchmark Business Solutions. He was [--] and doing very well for himself at his job but wanted to lead his own business. Despite having a busy family life with [--] boys and a valuable amount of equity with his then-employer that he'd have to walk away from Jeff took the leap. When he bought Benchmark in [----] it was doing about $5m in revenue. When he sold it five years later it was doing over $30m in revenue and growing. The exit was of course life"
YouTube Link 2025-08-09T17:18Z 13.2K followers, [---] engagements
"Buying a Remote [--] Year Old Business with $900k of SDE Dan Angel and Jayme Moylan Interview Upon meeting the seller of Lodging Source a 20-year-old corporate travel business today's guest knew he wanted to buy it. This corporate travel agency has a great model and strong value proposition for its clients. It had generated $900k of SDE on $3m in top line revenue the year before Dan bought it. A key factor in Dan's success was the buy-in from the VP who'd been there for [--] years Jayme Moylan. Jayme's sense of ownership was strong as was her protectiveness of the team. She was blindsided by the"
YouTube Link 2025-05-01T07:00Z 12.9K followers, [----] engagements
"Building a $25m FedEx Route Empire from $100k Equity Avery Tomek Interview Today's guest bought a FedEx route at the peak of Covid. Which as you'll recall was also the peak of ecommerce and shipping which meant FedEx and its hundreds of contractors were making hay. You'll also recall the pullback in online shopping as the pandemic dissipated and life returned to normal.This come-down was extremely painful for our hero Avery Tomek who's recently acquired FedEx business quickly began to suffer. But he pulled through acting not just defensively to save his business but offensively to take"
YouTube Link 2025-07-26T14:32Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Build a Roll-Up to $60m Revenue Robert Graham and Aaron Blick Interview Fifteen million dollars in EBITDA. It's a number few self-funded searchers ever reach. Today's guests Robert Graham and Aaron Blick have gotten there in [--] years and this interview will show you how. I want to call out a few topics to listen for: First buying businesses with operators. Second choosing your industry. Third the structure (the most eye-opening bit of the interview). Typically a roll-up does not use SBA loans at least not beyond the first acquisition or so. Instead the capital the roll-up uses to buy"
YouTube Link 2024-04-25T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"When Buying a Retail Business Makes Sense Ken Eyjolfson Interview Retail businesses are often risky but Ken Eyjolfson found an exception in Mr. Liquidator. Initially skeptical he was drawn in by its strong financialsnearly $500K SDE on $2M revenuealong with [---] five-star Google reviews and [-----] Facebook followers. Unlike traditional mattress stores Mr. Liquidator operates as a warehouse where customers buy discounted plastic-wrapped mattresses on the spot eliminating delivery wait times. With minimal staff and a loyal local following the business runs efficiently and profitably. Kens story"
YouTube Link 2025-04-04T18:54Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"How [--] Entrepreneurs are Rolling Up a New Market Francisco Del Rio and Diego Silva Interview Francisco and Diego have rolled up [--] veterinary clinics in their home country of Chile and plan to hit [--] by next year. You'll notice that many patterns in their journey mirror those of their US counterparts but some are unique. The trust building takes longer in an environment where small businesses are rarely sold let alone to strangers. Accessing capital & financing is more difficult because Chilean investors are also not used to seeing roll-up ventures. On the positive side the market is untapped."
YouTube Link 2024-11-18T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Trades Over Tech Buying an Appliance Repair Business Brian Seeling Interview Today's guest was mid-career and looking to return to entrepreneurship. He had co-founded an IT services firm an MSP in earlier years and wanted to get back to the life of growing his own business. And growing his people which was actually the thing that attracted Brian Seeling most to business ownership. He wanted a blue-collar business where he thought he'd be able to add the most value. And he wanted there to be a manager of some kind someone who could run operations from day one of Brian's ownership leaving Brian"
YouTube Link 2025-10-09T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Geography as Moat: Building a Hometown Holdco Sarah Chiles & Matthew Ferguson Interview Today's interview is really in two acts. The first is about the vision of friends Sarah Chiles & Matthew Ferguson natives of Aspen Colorado who wanted to partner on something entrepreneurial. When they saw the opportunity both financial and to preserve the fabric of their hometown they decided to buy a local Aspen business. And it probably wouldn't be a one-off. They could grow their impact in the rapidly-gentrifying town by acquiring other local institutions over time assembling something of a hometown"
YouTube Link 2025-06-12T07:00Z 10.6K followers, [---] engagements
"$700k EBITDA with No SBA No Money Down Andrew Stordeur Interview We tend to think that here in the States we got it good with the SBA and that our counterparts in other countries have it harder. But after today's interview I'm starting to wonder. Andrew Stordeur bought at 25-year-old outdoor furniture manufacturer. We spend a lot of time on the fact that Andrew a Canadian in Calgary not only had no problem accessing financing from banks in Canada to do this deal. He also got great terms. Andrew had to use very little of his own money to buy a business doing $700k in EBITDA. It's an"
YouTube Link 2024-03-28T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Business Collapse After Going All-In Justin Willess Interview Today's interview is one of those stories. An ambitious well-meaning entrepreneur buys a business and the whole enterprise unravels. Justin Willess spent every last dollar of his 401k to acquire the business then inject money into it to cover payroll. Nothing worked; we hear the painful details. Now I do want to sound a note of optimism in this otherwise shattering story: Justin sees himself doing this again at some point buying another business. What hasn't killed him has made him stronger. Please learn from this interview with"
YouTube Link 2024-10-14T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"From Tech Sales to Forklift Repair Shaugn Lindley Interview Shaugn Lindley was vacationing in Hawaii when he got the dreaded "quick call" from his officehis 10-year career at SAP had come to an abrupt end due to tech layoffs. After some soul-searching he chose to buy a business for his next chapter. Today he owns R&R Lift a forklift repair company with a decades-long history strong margins essential B2B services and more demand than he can handleplus a delightfully vintage 90s website. Shaugns journey had two key twists. First he initially lost the business to a competing buyer but when that"
YouTube Link 2025-03-17T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Building a $10m Platform from [--] Low-SDE Businesses Scott Walton Interview $150000 in SDE. Would you even look twice at such a business Scott Walton and his partner did and they bought it. And another at around the same time that was doing $250k in SDE. So the combined SDE of both acquisitions is below the threshold that many searchers would consider. And yet. Scott doubled the businesses in [----] and is gunning to double them again this year which would mean $10m in revenue and well over $1m of profit going into [----]. And much more of that profit will go directly to Scott as owner versus"
YouTube Link 2024-05-13T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"How to Buy a Multinational Adam Salmen Interview Adam Salmen found the perfect business fit for his industrial expertise by acquiring UMECC a company that sources machinery for steel manufacturers. Unlike typical small business acquisitions this deal was in the heavy industry sector requiring a large-scale approach. Anticipating an eight-figure transaction Adam partnered with Novastone to make it happen. Now he runs a multinational business with operations in North America the Middle East and Asia. His story highlights the vast opportunities available beyond commonly discussed business types"
YouTube Link 2025-03-21T04:36Z [----] followers, [--] engagements
"How to Use an SBA Loan to Roll Up from $6m to $140m Michael Davidov Interview Today's episode is a great example of that clich go slow to go fast. While the headline number to this story hopefully grabbed your attention the key lesson should be the value of taking your time building a foundation. We spend a good amount of time on that the year or so after Michael Davidov and his partner Jonathan acquired their first business. What changes they made to fortify it into a platform that could support a lot more growth both organic & inorganic over the next [--] years. This was a $6m home care agency"
YouTube Link 2025-05-15T07:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements
"Turning a $250k Investment into $7m+ Marvin Karlow Interview At [--] Marvin Karlow told his wife "If I do this for [--] more months I'm gonna be dead." He left his corporate job and partnered with his best friend to pursue something entrepreneurial. That something turned out to be a distressed $2M powder-coating business in Tampa which they bought in 2011for just $400. The company was losing over $50K a month on $5M in revenue. After years of hard workimproving operations implementing tech and growing salesthey sold the business to a public company for $21 million. This is a story about smart"
YouTube Link 2025-05-05T07:00Z 11.5K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying a $4m Manufacturer with a Conventional Loan Ben Bryer Interview Ben Bryer worked for [--] months to buy a business he'd set his heart on. But it died and Ben was left a year and a half older $150k poorer and with a negative balance sheet. He questioned whether to go on searching but being freed of that dead-end deal allowed him to open his mind to other listings. Like Meyer Gage a decades-old super-niche manufacturing business the business that he ultimately acquired. Themes to listen for: the post-mortem on that first painful dead deal; using conventional debt rather than an SBA loan;"
YouTube Link 2023-11-16T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"4th Time's the Charm: [--] Broken Deals to Buy a Great Business Bryan Houck Interview These days when you hear "marketing agency" you probably think a dispersed remote team of graphic designers social media managers and Google ad buyers. But envision instead the traditional agency the Mad Men-style in-person office experience where creative types are ideating iterating challenging each other. The campaigns are less about conversion rates and ROAS and more about spreading ideas. That's the type of agency that today's guest bought. At age [--] Bryan Houck set out to buy a business for his next"
YouTube Link 2025-08-21T07:00Z 11.5K followers, [---] engagements
"The Appeal of Franchise Buying $1m EBITDA in [--] Years Corey Robinson Interview Today's story might make you want to buy a franchise business. Corey Robinson shifted his attention to buying businesses after a successful run as a real estate investor. He'd amassed [---] properties but even a portfolio of that size didn't cashflow enough to replace his W-2 income. He heard about buying businesses from his mastermind group and got busy. Corey bought a portfolio of [--] Batteries Plus locations in November [----]. Less than [--] years later he's grown from that base to [--] locations total and as of this"
YouTube Link 2024-09-23T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"First-Timer Turns $20k into $900k in [--] Months Nick Patrick Interview It didn't seem appealing initially. The wedding catering & venue business was mostly just a husband & wife team. There was customer concentration. One-off client engagements no recurring revenue. And it played in industries that he wanted to avoid: hospitality & food. But at the urging of the broker today's guest Nick Patrick took a second look at the business. And upon closer inspection he discovered a lot to like. High margins. Negative cash conversion cycle. Stellar reviews. [--] years of history. Nick bought this business"
YouTube Link 2024-02-08T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"White Collar Sisters Buy a Blue Collar Business Julie and Janna Interview You know how intimidating the deal process can be as a first-time business buyer with no finance background. You know how intimidating it can be if you've only ever worked in an office then buy a business and find yourself managing crews in the trades. And that describes sisters Julie & Janna Hottinger. But there was more. Julie & Janna not only didn't have finance backgrounds they didn't really have much general business experience coming as they did coming from the worlds of public health & philanthropy. And finally"
YouTube Link 2024-09-05T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Partnering with an Operator to Buy a Business Landon Mance Interview Regular watchers of Acquiring Minds know that hiring an operator for a business you bought is easier said than done. Operating itself is hard you hear that from my guests all the time. So finding someone capable to do it on your behalf who is aligned with you and as motivated as you is harder still. But today's guest Landon Mance is doing it with a $1.7m tree business he bought earlier this year. Landon's approach is a template for how you might find an operator bring them into your deal as a partner and work alongside them"
YouTube Link 2023-10-23T07:06Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"How to Buy a $3m Business with No Books Chad Hildebrant Interiew This is the story of how Chad Hildebrant left a 17-year career in finance with a wife & [--] kids and bought a business with a lot of hair on it. The business had no books but Chad turned this red flag green by eventually getting his hands on the business's bank statements and reconstructuring the last [--] years of books into his own spreadsheet. This process took dozens of hours but by the end of it Chad knew how cash moved in and out of the business better than anyone even the seller. He experienced real pain both during and after"
YouTube Link 2023-10-15T04:46Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Raise $800k to Buy an $8m Business Kevin Bibelhausen Interview Remarkable how quickly someone can transform their life when they buy a business. Kevin Bibelhausen suffered a Covid-related health scare that caused him to re-evaluate things. He'd flirted with buying a business before but after this scare he got serious about it. Today just [--] years later Kevin raised $800k from investors (that he did not already know) to buy a business valued at almost $8 million. He is now owner & president of a 20-year-old wholesale fabrics business that does almost $10 million a year in sales not to mention"
YouTube Link 2023-06-05T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"The Path to Becoming a Better Operator & Strategist Tim Lahey Interview Tim Lahey acquired a home technology company almost [--] years ago. The business did about $230k of SDE when he bought it which definitely qualifies as buying small. In addition to unpacking the pros & cons of going that small Tim and I also discuss: buying a business that's "dusty not rusty" using a buy-side advisor to conduct the search for you how identifying an industry that turned him on cracked open his search working capital cash flow and that no matter how smart you are you're likely to get it wrong at first how Tim"
YouTube Link 2025-01-02T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The Flywheel of Buying Businesses in a Single Region Doug Lepisto Interview When Doug Lepisto first pitched his fund investors literally laughed. He and his partner aimed to build a place-based ETA (entrepreneurship through acquisition) ecosystem in Western Michigan where local searchers would buy and run businesses anchored by Western Michigan University where Doug teaches.The idea was long-term and regional blending elements of Warren Buffett Brent Beshore the search fund community and academia. Despite early rejection their firmSleeping Giant Capital has since completed seven"
YouTube Link 2025-09-11T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Build $7.5m in Net Worth by Buying a B&B Christine Traylor Interview Christine Traylor passionate about hospitality purchased the Swann House a high-end bed & breakfast in Washington DCs Dupont Circle for over $6 million. Now living onsite with her husband and two children in a compact basement apartment Christine works long hours11 per day [--] days a weekpaying herself just $60k annually. However her effective income is higher due to running many family expenses through the business and having no rent or mortgage. The B&B currently earns around $100k in EBITDA but Christine sees it as"
YouTube Link 2025-06-05T07:00Z 10.6K followers, [---] engagements
"How to Move the Needle in a $600k SDE Trades Business Kirk Olson Interview Former Acquiring Minds guest John Murphy got close to acquiring a fencing business but the deal fell through. His real estate partner Kirk Olson later bought the same business after it failed to sell to four other potential buyers. Kirk has owned Mike's Fencing for [--] months and has encountered challenges typical of project-based trades businesses including cash flow job costing putting in technology digital marketing improvement and the anxiety of watching sales drop without knowing why. Please enjoy this interview"
YouTube Link 2025-02-03T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"21 Months to Stability Buying a $1 2m SDE Business Jan Roll Interview You already know that construction businesses are tough particularly residential ones: Cyclical. Project based. High ticket. Discretionary. So one of the first things we discuss in today's interview is why Jan liked this business in spite of those characteristics. And Jan did experience that cyclicality in year [--] of his ownership when sales dropped 25% because it was an election year. He was hit with other major challenges too: A lawsuit between him and his partner in the acquisition; waiting months for the state of Georgia"
YouTube Link 2025-04-28T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"How to Hire a GM and Buy Business #2 Shane Ehrsam & Brandon Adams Interviews [--] previous guests make return appearances. Happily for both guests things in the businesses they bought are going well. Shane Ehrsam acquired a trailer dealership business with over $1m in SDE. We discuss how this has been the most professionally rewarding year of his life. Brandon Adams bought an ice delivery business with a partner. They set out to build a small business holding company and that vision looks close to becoming reality. They've hired a general manager for their ice business which has enabled them to"
YouTube Link 2023-09-21T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Family Offices for Searchers: A Primer James Bohannon Interview When many entrepreneurs in our world think of exiting they think of private equity. PE is firmly established as the most active buyer of private businesses. Now there are also strategic buyers. You might even sell to another searcher. But for all intents and purposes PE is the default. But there's another category of buyer another capital base that we should be considering according to today's guest James Bohannon. And that is: family offices. You probably have a vague notion of what a family office is but I brought on James to"
YouTube Link 2025-09-25T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"From Frustrated Searcher to $3 5m Owner to Holdco Builder Simon Plummer Interview in [----] Simon Plummer was struggling to find businesses for sale in Australia due to the lack of a central platform like BizBuySell. Business brokers were the gatekeepers and without their support Simon couldn't access listings. To solve this Simon along with his brother and a friend created a platform similar to BizBuySell for Australia. Brokers shared their listings on the site which gave Simon the access he needed. Simon eventually bought BT Engineering a manufacturer of products for bricklayers and masons."
YouTube Link 2024-12-23T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"New Way to Pursue ETA: Searcher-in-Residence Matt Brunnig and Kevin Peer Interview Today's episode has two segments. The first is the story of Matt Brunnig building a holdco. Back in [----] Matt was eager for an offramp to his high-travel 90-hour-week life in the power plant industry. It was either find another job or find a business to buy. He kept an eye on BizBuySell and funny enough actually skipped over the business he eventually bought. In the second segment we bring on Kevin Peer whom Matt hired in October of last year. Kevin was a searcher raising for a traditional search fund. He"
YouTube Link 2025-06-30T07:00Z 10.8K followers, [---] engagements
"Buy Grow Exit for a 24x Return in [---] Years Chris Edwards Interview A guest from one of the earliest Acquiring Minds episodes has completed the cycle. Starting as a corporate refugee at age [--] Chris Edwards bought a flooring business in a small Colorado mountain town. Chris endured the exuberant highs and stomach-churning lows of business ownership for three and a half years. Last year he decided to put the business back on the market having doubled EBITDA and grown revenue 50%. He found a buyer sold it and as of recording has completed his transition commitments as seller. The journey with"
YouTube Link 2025-02-10T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"How to Build a Holdco Foundation Patiently Barker Squire Interview Barker Squire having led CraneWorks for [--] years tripled it and identified a capable replacement is turning his attention to what's next. Which could be building CraneWorks further by starting to acquire other businesses or it could be buying a completely unrelated business that sees him back in the CEO seat.If you have holdco aspirations Barker's approach seems sound. For at least your first business learn it deeply learn how to be the CEO of a small business build a strong foundation. See what you think. Here's Barker Squire"
YouTube Link 2025-02-27T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Networking His Way to $800k SDE Alex Holley Interview Alex Holley set out to buy a business in Louisville Kentucky and networking was how he made it happen. He tallied [---] meetings over about [--] months which is one meeting per day. His networking led him to his acquisition and in only a few months. The home services business he bought is actually [--] in 1; we unpack that. And it's good sized averaging $4.5m in revenue per year with margins around 20% so call it north of $800k of SDE. Here he is Alex Holley owner of B-Dry Systems of Louisville and Ram Jack Louisville. ❤ Enjoy this interview"
YouTube Link 2025-02-13T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Buying in a Huge but Overlooked Market Jonathon Tupper Interview Jonathon Tupper bought a 30-year-old asset-based lender that does about $1.5 in revenue every year with [--] employees.It operates in the factoring niche. So you're going to learn about asset-based lending and factoring and how they've got the same appealing features for business buyers that other more talked about industries do.Does a searcher need expertise to buy a business in one of these categories My impression: if you've got the self-confidence to go buy a trades business having never turned a wrench yourself you can tackle"
YouTube Link 2024-12-05T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"How to Grow Revenue 50% in Year [--] JD Hasley Interview Today's guest bought a business that does not fit the typical criteria cited by many searchers. JD ran the shop learned to frame and even fulfilled jobs himself. But that was temporary; his goal was not to buy himself a job. He has since hired a shop manager who's been transformative. JD has grown the business from around $600k in revenue to a run rate of $900k. How has he pushed revenue 50% in a single year Believe it or not simply responding to emails promptly has been a big driver. To be sure this is quite a small business. Revenue is"
YouTube Link 2025-06-02T07:00Z 10.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Saying No to CEO Roles Yes to Ownership Marci LaRouech Interview After serving as CEO of an HR firm that she grew and helped shepherd to a nice exit today's guest was looking for her next thing. Investors and bankers were now eager to work with Marci LaRouech wanting her to come run other HR platforms for them and do it all over again. But Marci now had money in the bank and more importantly a desire to do something at her own pace by her own rules. So she set out on a search to buy her own business in the HR space. Ultimately what she bought might surprise you: An HR consulting firm that was"
YouTube Link 2025-07-14T07:00Z 11K followers, [---] engagements
"Bullseye Buying a $1m SDE Business in a Hot Industry Peter Ciaverilla Interview Today's guest Pete Ciaverilla bought an HVAC business with over $1m in SDE. And he found it with proprietary search although he also used a buy-side advisor. And then we spend time on owning and operating a sizable HVAC business his revenue mix between residential and commercial and how he's invested in improving that mix. Less than [--] years after buying the business Pete has grown EBITDA from just over a million to over $1.6m and crucially he's improved the quality of those earnings. Based on his company's revenue"
YouTube Link 2025-01-09T08:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying $5m of Revenue with $50k of Equity Devin Fitzgerald Interview RML Service Group is comprised of [--] home healthcare businesses that Devin acquired one that was doing $1.1m in revenue the other that was doing $3.9m. Both of these businesses were in decline when Devin bought them and we discuss why he proceeded with buying turnarounds as his first acquisitions. You'll hear how his commitment and sense of mission enabled him to push through that challenge and many others. Walking through the halls of his home care agency is a dream come true for Devin. As for those numbers in the headline:"
YouTube Link 2025-05-19T07:00Z 11.2K followers, [----] engagements
"It Really Happened: 100% Financing for an $8m Business Renan Cortez Interview 100% seller financing The idea that you can buy a business with little to no money. The seller of the business finances the whole acquisition price for you. Too good to be true Usually yes. And even when 100% seller-financed deals do happen it's often one business buying another where the seller doesn't have other options. It's not going to be an individual off the street a searcher buying a sizable attractive business with 100% seller financing. But there are exceptions to the exceptions. Today's guest did what I"
YouTube Link 2024-07-04T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"FedEx & Fencing: A Pivot into Ownership Matt O'Brien Interview Matt O'Brien is a seasoned entrepreneur with a strong track record in business acquisitions winning two out of three deals. His first success was scaling a small FedEx route into nine routes before selling them for a seven-figure profit during the Covid ecommerce boom. In [----] he acquired a commercial fencing contractor then generating $2.5 million in revenue and has since nearly doubled its size. In this interview he shares how he achieved that growth. However not all his ventures were wins. Matt also discusses his third"
YouTube Link 2025-04-03T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"From [--] Years in Corporate to a $1m SDE Acquisition Jesus Wong Interview Imagine you're an outdoorsy person and you invest in an expensive parka from one of the big outdoor brands. That parka may come with a lifetime warranty allowing you to send it in to the manufacturer for free repair if for example you tear it. Well repairing those parkas as opposed to making them is probably not the brand's core competency. So they may direct your coat to a third party to actually execute the repair. Yes there is a whole business whose service is repairing warrantied garments for high-end outdoor brands."
YouTube Link 2025-08-07T14:06Z 11.3K followers, [---] engagements
"White Collar Roll-Up from $700k to $12m Jordan Evans Interview Blue collar trades businesses get so much attention in our world of buying businesses. But today's interview is with an entrepreneur who bought a white collar business. In [--] years he's taken a small 4-person $700k/yr business to $12m in annual revenue growing it both organically and inorganically with [--] bolt-on acquisitions. Jordan Evans bought a language services business from his parents another interesting angle of the story we spend time on. You may be intrigued as I was by the language industry. It's bigger than you think and"
YouTube Link 2024-07-29T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"From [--] Years in Corporate to a $1m SDE Acquisition Jesus Wong Interview Imagine you're an ourdoorsy person and you invest in an expensive parka from one of the big outdoor brands. That parka may come with a lifetime warranty allowing you to send it in to the manufacturer for free repair if for example you tear it. Well repairing those parkas as opposed to making them is probably not the brand's core competency. So they may direct your coat to a third party to actually execute the repair. Yes there is a whole business whose service is repairing warrantied garments for high-end outdoor brands."
YouTube Link 2025-07-29T16:59Z 11.2K followers, [--] engagements
"From Sales Freefall to $1.2m/Month Ryan Adams Interview Today's guest was seeing sales at the business he'd just bought decline fast. He was within months of the precipice. In our conversation Ryan Adams explains how he not only pulled back from that precipice but turned the business into a thriving machine. The business sells a premium paint brand Rhino Shield to home owners. They also then do the painting but as you'll here this is not a traditional painting company with tight margins delivering a commoditized service. The pricing positioning and sales process are all different. What also"
YouTube Link 2025-07-10T07:00Z 11K followers, [---] engagements
"From SBA Loan to High 8-Figure Exit Jerod Pierce Interview Today's story has an eye-watering outcome. And it shows the potential of buying a business. Jerod Pierce used the equity from a townhome that he'd house-hacked with some buddies to buy an HVAC business doing $3.5m in revenue half a million of SDE. He was able to buy the business himself without investors. Five years later he sold it for upper [--] figures. Jerod doesn't tell us the exact figure but he does say that he turned down $95 million so it had to be in range of that. Jerod is humble about this staggering success. He acknowledges"
YouTube Link 2025-09-15T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How [--] Couple Bought [--] Businesses Lindsey Buckheit & Kevin Black Interview The original plan was not that both wife Lindsay and husband Kevin would buy businesses. At first the idea was that buying a business would be the path Linsday Buckheit took out of corporate. Recognizing that this goal would be a serious commitment Kevin Black decided to ride along with his wife as support. For a while not much happened. [--] months came and went they were both still working in W-2's and progress was elusive. That changed when they decided to work with a buy-side advisor group. Not only did the search"
YouTube Link 2025-05-12T07:00Z 10.1K followers, [---] engagements
"Leaving Amazon to Buy a $3m Apparel Brand Eric Bauer Interview Today's guest spent [--] years at Amazon in a variety of roles from running a $100m e-commerce P&L to developing the Just Walk Out grocery concept. And even with all that experience at a notoriously hard-driving company there has still been quite the learning curve in his new role as business owner. Eric Bauer bought Turner Hat a brand whose hats are sold at hardware stores garden centers travel centers. You'll hear Eric say that he's able to apply his Amazon experience about 40% of the time in his business; the other 60% is new and"
YouTube Link 2024-10-17T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Buying a $1.6m Business for the Inventory Value Danyelle Nys Interview The world of small business was not unfamiliar to Danyelle Nys. She'd worked in small businesses for years including at an asphalt business she thought she'd one day run. When that didn't pan out she started looking for her next thing. And when she discovered she could buy an existing small business she said to herself and to her fianc and her mother I can do this. And do this she did. Not to say that it was easy. Danyelle had to push through self doubt and limiting beliefs the whole way including right up until today. She"
YouTube Link 2025-09-28T03:38Z 12.1K followers, [---] engagements
"Rolling Up EBITDA and Rents with Auto Repair Shops Stephen and Paul Interview You've no doubt heard the phrase "creative dealmaking". The idea that those able to think beyond conventional terms might be rewarded with a favorable deal or at least a deal they might have otherwise lost. Less talked about but just as significant is creative structuring. Today's guests Stephen Quindlen and Paul Westhart are a great example. Stephen & Paul are buying auto repair shops. They've found a way to unlock lots of affordable debt uncapping the $5m SBA loan total that limits most searchers. They've also"
YouTube Link 2024-06-03T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Micro-Acquiring to $300k SDE on [--] Hours Per Week Link Moser Interview Link Moser has been a web guy going back to the nineties when he landed his first small business clients for web design and hosting. But it wasn't until [----] that the current incarnation of his business really took shape. That year he bought [--] clients from a local solopreneur who was earning hosting & design fees to the tune of about $35000 per year. Small potatoes but Link got great terms on this deal and he felt like he was onto something. [--] years and [--] micro-acquisitions later Link has assembled a portfolio of web"
YouTube Link 2024-11-27T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Quitting Consulting to Buy a $1m SDE Agency Grant and Julia Hensel Interview Husband Grant Hensel already a successful entrepreneur searched for the business that wife Julia now operates. The couple met over their mutual love of entrepreneurship and today they both are living that dream. A few other details to listen for: Getting a 2x multiple on a $1m SDE business; Winning a deal due to values alignment; The joys of having a seller who not only allowed them to meet the entire team pre-close but had the clients sign new contracts with Grant and Julia. Talk about de-risking a transition;"
YouTube Link 2025-05-26T07:00Z 10.3K followers, [---] engagements
"Building a $350m Holdco of Farms Jack McCarthy Interview There's a big industry in America with all the characteristics you want as a business buyer. This industry has high fragmentation retirement-age owners opportunity to implement modern best practices and enduring demand. Today's guest Jack McCarthy is building a big business buying these littler businesses. And these little businesses are farms. There are countless mom & pop operations growing crops like pistachios and almonds. Since their first acquisition in [----] Jack & his team have acquired $350 million worth of (mostly) pistachio &"
YouTube Link 2023-12-21T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Small SDE Big Upside: Buying a Business with [--] Employees Kristiana Laugen Interview Today's interview with Kristiana Laugen is another story of buying small. The pool cleaning business she acquired in southern California was just [--] people. $300k in SDE. There are a few angles to listen for today as we unpack Kristiana's comfort in buying a business well below the SDE threshold that the conventional wisdom would advise: age of the business; growing the business and how it should be faster to grow a low-SDE business than an already-high SDE business; and finally vision. We might see a tiny"
YouTube Link 2024-10-21T07:00Z 11.9K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Become an Independent Sponsor Sam Rosati Interview The ubiquitous Sam Rosati is today's guest. We spend a good deal of time on Sam's background. Partly that was self-serving; Sam's an interesting guy and I wanted to get his whole story. But I also wanted to show you how someone who quit corporate in [----] grew from hearing about ETA on a podcast to self-funded searcher to self-funded search investor to independent sponsor. And as an independent sponsor built alongside his partners one of the largest commercial fencing contractors from Arizona to Florida. They did it in [--] years and just"
YouTube Link 2024-11-14T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Buy Fast: A Good Reason to Buy Small Rob Carpenter Interview You've heard the debate about buying big versus small many times on Acquiring Minds. What is discussed far less is buying fast versus buying slow. Today's guest was determined that his search to buy a business not consume countless months and years of his life. So Rob Carpenter bought an existing territory of a home cleaning franchise with $200k of SDE. Yes very small. But kicking off his search to getting in the seat as owner took [--] days end to end. As of this interview he's well on his way as a business owner. Now of course there"
YouTube Link 2024-08-05T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Rebuilding from 80% Collapse to Mid [--] Figures Revenue Scott Alexander Interview When Scott got into the business he quickly saw how dire the situation actually was. Clients were furious fleeing and refusing to pay invoices. Unhelpfully the seller cussed out the biggest client after Scott took ownership. So today's interview is a case study in how to recover from seller deceit and sabotage and the unhealthy culture they leave in their wake. It's also a case study in completely repurposing the business you buy. Scott spent his first year righting the ship and just as things were looking up"
YouTube Link 2025-05-22T07:00Z 10.3K followers, [---] engagements
"2 Years to Buy Double & Exit a Medical Billing Firm Nik Hulewsky Interview Today's guest was a whirlwind of activity during the Covid years. Nik Hulewsky bought a medical billing company in June of [----] anticipating (correctly) the impending demand for billing services. Two short years and a tripling of EBITDA later he sold that business for more than twice what he'd acquired it for a life-changing exit. And also during those two years he started a hospice business then acquired a home health bolt-on and grew that combined business to $11m in revenue and exited it in June [----]. Now these are"
YouTube Link 2024-10-24T07:00Z 11.9K followers, [----] engagements
"The Entrepreneur Awakens Pivoting from Tech to Ownership Kin Sio Interview Hailing from Macau Kin Sio was working in a well-paid tech job when for the first time he got the itch to do something for himself. He started dabbling in real estate then got more serious about it but ultimately saw that it was going to take a long time to approach the hefty 6-figure earnings of his tech job. In [----] when two local real estate investors hosted an in-person seminar about how they'd rolled up cleaning businesses Kin attended and brought along his wife. Something clicked. By the following January he'd"
YouTube Link 2025-05-29T07:00Z 10.5K followers, [---] engagements
"Fire Covid Exit: [--] Years in a $12m Events Business Will Wright Interview Will Wright turned crisis into opportunity. He bought a big event rental business in December [----] using a traditional search fund. The business had $12m in revenue. [---] employees. It was one of the biggest such operations in Texas. [--] months later Covid hits and Will's business collapsed 90%. But. three years later and Will and his team had not only survived but doubled revenue. He exited the business to a strategic that fall (just a few months ago). This is the story of how he grew an events rental business through"
YouTube Link 2024-02-15T08:00Z 11.3K followers, [----] engagements
"How and Why to Buy an Electrical Business Fred McGill Interview For [--] years Fred McGill built an online real estate brokerage from scratch. This immersion in real estate meant he'd worked with many tradespeople as his vendors. So when he set his sights on buying a business the trades were an easy choice. You'll hear how he zeroed in on electrical services developing a thesis on an industry often overshadowed by its cousins HVAC and plumbing. We also go deep on licensing and hiring and how Fred has tackled them both. Here is Fred McGill owner of Bray Electrical Services. ❤ Enjoy this interview"
YouTube Link 2024-12-12T08:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements
"How Helping Others Look at Deals Led to a Holdco Adam Markley Interview Adam Markley was a partner in an education venture that taught people how to buy a business. The venture had a big UK focus so it didn't revolve around SBA financing. This steeped Adam in an approach where heavy seller financing & more creative structures to buy a business were more common. It also gave Adam lots & lots of reps looking at deals as he would help evaluate the acquisitions of the members in this community. Flash forward and today Adam has been involved in many of his own acquisitions and his personal holding"
YouTube Link 2024-07-18T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The Joy & Pain of Buying a Tech Business Felipe Corcuera Interview Most searchers buy traditional businesses but Felipe Corcuera is an exception. Through a search fund he acquired a consulting firm in robotic process automation just as ChatGPT launched. The AI boom forced a pivot and today Felipe leads an AI automation company selling AI agents. The transition hasnt fully shown in the numbers yet but the long-term trajectory looks strong. Still Felipe admits he sometimes envies the simplicity of owning a landscaping business. Technology offers huge upside but also relentless competition and"
YouTube Link 2025-09-01T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Buy a $4m Accounting Practice Michael Young Interview Michael Young was searching for a business to buy. Months into his search he decided to spin up from scratch an accounting practice for SMBs. The knock-on effects of doing so were hugely beneficial including meeting the owner of the $4m accounting practice Michael would then go on to buy. Now admittedly this isn't a playbook that can be copy-pasted; Michael's situation was unique in a number of ways. But there are lessons here. Among them: If you can find any way to get experience & credibility in an industry where you might want to"
YouTube Link 2024-02-01T08:00Z 11.9K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Survive & Thrive After a Rocky Transition Chris Jones Interview Chris Jones' speech on Day [--] at his newly-acquired foundation repair business didn't go well an inauspicious start to a months-long harrowing slog. Unhelpful sellers. A quiet-quitting GM who eventually quit-quit to start a competing business. And scariest of all collapsing sales. But just over a year later and Chris has righted the ship. He's actually contemplating buying another business. This is the story of how he pushed through. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 Chapters: CONTENT"
YouTube Link 2023-09-05T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"How to Build a $100m Holdco The Power of ESOPs Chris Fredericks Interview Today's guest Chris Fredericks has built an ESOP holdco. Empowered Ventures has [--] operating companies [---] employees and north of $120m in revenue. In addition to the great story of how he got here Chris provides an excellent primer on what ESOPs employee stock ownership plans actually are. And not only that but why they could be a model searchers explore. The owner of the business that Chris would go on to lead wanted to exit. But he didn't want to sell to a strategic or private equity and there just weren't other"
YouTube Link 2025-04-01T17:47Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"How to Survive Buying into a Terrible Industry Ayo Phillips Interview Ayo Phillips bought a resurfacing & refinishing business in [----]. Within weeks the wheels started coming off. Ayo's wife suffers a traumatic delivery in a Chicago hospital which keeps him there during the first crucial days of his transition to owner of the business which is based in Houston. The first payroll checks don't clear. Hurricane Harvey slams Houston. Sales slide fast. He loses people many of whom launch competing services in an already viciously competitive market. And to his horror he discovers that corruption"
YouTube Link 2025-01-23T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"High Margin & Big Upside in Lice Treatment Derek Croft Interview Derek Croft left the prestigious management consulting firm Bain to buy a small business.The one he fell in love with was. LiceDoctors. This lean high-margin business sells in-person lice treatment services to the tune of $3m nationally every year. And if that numbers surprises you consider that it comes out to only about [--] orders per day across the entire US. Do you see why he got excited about lice Here he is Derek Croft owner of Lice Doctors. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 00:00:00. Derek's"
YouTube Link 2024-11-25T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"$6m Business [--] Minutes From Childhood Home Iris Levine Interview Today's story comes wonderfully full circle. Iris Levine had something of a rough upbringing in Nashville Tennessee. When college application time came around a teacher encouraged her to look further afield than the state schools. She did and ended up at prestigious Tufts University in New England. She thought she'd probably never go back to Nashville. But about ten years later she did. And today not only does Iris live in her hometown she bought a business there. A substantial one. The Porch Company is a 30-year-old $6m/year"
YouTube Link 2024-11-04T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Buying a Not Boring Business with $600k SDE Shell Zhang Interview Shell Zhang was raised in China and absorbed there the notion that risk is bad. That a conventional profession is the appropriate career path. She studied finance got a job in consulting later corporate. So she did not see herself as a risk taker. But eventually she had what she calls her "awakening": She had immigrated to another country and there is huge risk in that.That awakening led her to buy a provider of guided tours to Italy. Her daily life as owner of Nada's Italy is not unlike that of any business owner:"
YouTube Link 2025-01-30T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Reward for a Brutal Transition $760k EBITDA on [--] Hours/Week Dan Tagliatela Interview Dan Tagliatela leaned heavily on a single financial metric return on assets to assess which business he would buy. Which ended up being a 50-year-old asphalt sealing business. No recurring revenue. Consumer facing. Discretionary spend. And yet through the lens of return on assets Dan saw a valuable business. A one-in-a-hundred opportunity. One that today enjoys almost 40% margins on $1.8m in revenue and requires only [--] hours of his time a week. Not that it was easy. In the pre-call Dan described his"
YouTube Link 2024-03-18T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Leaving Corporate to Buy a $4m Manufacturer Michael Dey Interview Today's guest had had a long career in corporate. An aerospace engineer at Boeing who eventually became a manager and after that a strategist Mike Dey ultimately decided it was time to step off that track. The decision came during Covid and as you'll hear there were a number of factors. But in some ways Mike's story fits a familiar pattern: He realized he didn't want the life that those ahead of him on the corporate ladder had and at the same time he just craved more freedom. Enter: entrepreneurship through acquisition. Today"
YouTube Link 2024-09-03T06:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"How to Build a $28m Holdco (in [--] Years) Colin King Interview Today's story is just the latest where a first and very humble acquisition has grown into something impressive. In [----] Colin King and his partner Joe bought a business doing just $250k in revenue. It was a route business that distributed parts to automotive service centers & dealers in the Indianapolis region. Every night their employees would drive from auto dealer to auto dealer delivering car parts. And yes you guessed it it wasn't too long before Colin and Joe were having to drive those routes themselves. Well you probably"
YouTube Link 2024-05-28T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"What Buying Small Is Like When Crises Happen Monte Marcum Interview Monte Marcum bought [--] established contiguous territories in the Filta franchise system. Together their SDE was smaller than he'd been searching for but he calculated that the opportunity compensated for the risk of being on the small side. And he may prove to be right. But within days of closing the fragility of his businesses became painfully apparent. This is the story about what's like when you buy small and crises hit. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/42hLnN0 Chapters 00:00. Montes background"
YouTube Link 2023-06-22T07:00Z 10.2K followers, [----] engagements
"Deciding to Exit After [--] Years of Ownership Jack Saville and Sam Rosati Interview The journey of today's guest took an unlikely turn. After about [--] years into ownership of his commercial fencing business Jack Saville decided to sell the business to a large regional platform. Now his contacts at that large platform were the investors in his original acquisition and one of the teachers at his buy-a-business bootcamp Sam Rosati. Sam is a name that may be familiar to you and he joins Jack and me for a three-way conversation about how all this came to pass. Some important themes will jump out at"
YouTube Link 2025-09-06T19:48Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"What Searchers Can Learn from Big PE Alex Mears draws on years of experience at Carlyle & Blackstone to support and invest in searchers (70 & counting)"
YouTube Link 2022-06-02T07:00Z 11.2K followers, [---] engagements
"The [--] Professors Who Helped Start the ETA Movement Royce Yudkoff & Rick Ruback Interview "Rick & Royce" as they're known to students are professors at Harvard Business School. They teach ETA there to classes that are often standing-room-only. And for those of us who did not attend HBS we know Rick & Royce through The HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business. Today's interview is an introduction to this duo and the story of how they became such an influential force in our ecosystem. It's clear after [--] minutes just how much fun Rick and Royce are having together and with this material. See if you"
YouTube Link 2024-11-11T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"$2 Million of Fun: Big Margins in Play Centers Daniel Batista Interview The business that today's guest bought is not the typical searcher target. But when you hear the numbers you may wonder if it should be. Daniel Batista bought an indoor play center for kids. Imagine [-----] square feet a giant mazey play structure a ball pit an arcade and a cafe for the parents. This business boasts 50% net margins which was frankly hard for me to believe. And Daniel and I spend time on the characteristics that make this single-location business so profitable. It is an outlier Daniel believes. Most play"
YouTube Link 2025-08-28T07:00Z 11.6K followers, [----] engagements
"Finding a Great Business in Cow Country Cody Agee Interview Recession resistance is top-of-the-list of criteria that many business buyers would like to have in the business they buy. Today's guest Cody Agee was pondering this feature and what type of businesses had it. He thought Well people always need food and food always needs to be safe. I bet there's a category of food testing & safety businesses out there. Two weeks later he sees a listing for Sierra Dairy Laboratory. It's a dairy products testing business (and a remarkable coincidence). Needless to say Cody ran after it and today owns"
YouTube Link 2024-05-23T07:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Buy Franchise Businesses Then Sell to PE Alicia Miller Interview The first half of today's interview is Alicia's story of acquiring a portfolio of Sylvan locations Sylvan is in the education & tutoring category and how she improved grew and sold that portfolio a few years later.The second half is a distillation of what Alicia has learned since. Post-exit Alicia remained in the franchising space but with a focus on private equity. And she has recently published a book about the intersection of franchising and private equity and what you would-be owner need to know given this trend. So"
YouTube Link 2024-12-26T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"How a Couple Left Tech to Buy a Business Together Ray & Dana Chery were working in successful tech careers but feeling the time was right for a change. They were bound to pursue an entrepreneurial path eventually and buying a business was the answer. When the listing for Monsam Portable Sinks hit the market it was only [--] minutes away and Ray jumped at the opportunity to meet the seller the very next day. Both Ray and Dana also come from immigrant families so there was kinship with the Egyptian owner. Today Ray and Dana have quit their tech jobs and are working full-time in the business one"
YouTube Link 2025-01-27T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The Appeal and Risk of Buying a Consulting Firm Nick Munsee Interview Register for the live Q&A with Nick on March 25th: https://bit.ly/3DoZfgD Nick Munsee acquired a niche white-collar businessHales Engineering a traffic engineering and transportation consulting firm. Unlike typical blue-collar self-funded search acquisitions this business boasts strong 47% margins due to limited competition. However the previous owner was deeply involved handling both technical expertise and client relationships. To mitigate risk Nick ensured a replacement leader was in place before finalizing the"
YouTube Link 2025-03-09T21:59Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Acquisition Unlock: 210m in [--] Years Nick Keegan Interview Today's story is not a pure-play ETA story because our guest didn't buy his business. Nick Keegan founded his software business based on an idea he was enamored with. Unfortunately the business limped along for years barely surviving. Eventually they pivoted the business model which helped a lot. But it still wasn't going to yield very interesting growth. It was an acquisition after that business model pivot that was the real inflection point. It had taken Mail Metrics [--] years to crack one million euros in annual revenue. It took them"
YouTube Link 2025-09-26T13:44Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"How to Survive Going from Hedge Funds to SMB Owner Neil Finneran Interview Six months ago Neil Finneran bought a Mosquito Joe franchise resale. He bought small less than $700k in revenue which means some days he is out in the truck & spraying customer lawns. It's a big change from his days at a hedge fund or as a CFO. He's embraced it and he actually thinks his years of finance experience give him an edge running an SMB. But there is still a learning curve going from the comfort of corporate life to being the operator of a blue-colllar business. Neil is still figuring that out and with a"
YouTube Link 2023-10-19T07:02Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Stars Align After [--] Broken Deals Keegan Dum Interview After [--] years and [--] deals under LOI none of which closed traditional searcher Keegan Dum wound down his search. But then things took an interesting turn. Keegan ended up working for and ultimately acquiring one of those [--] deals he'd had under LOI. The terms changed both with the seller and with his investors. We get into those details. And then after those [--] years of frustrated searching and dead deals for the next [--] years a number of things break in the right direction for Keegan and the journey in its entirety ends up a big success. Here"
YouTube Link 2025-04-10T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"From Tech Sales to Forklift Repair Shaugn Lindley Interview Shaugn Lindley was vacationing in Hawaii when he got the dreaded "quick call" from his officehis 10-year career at SAP had come to an abrupt end due to tech layoffs. After some soul-searching he chose to buy a business for his next chapter. Today he owns R&R Lift a forklift repair company with a decades-long history strong margins essential B2B services and more demand than he can handleplus a delightfully vintage 90s website. Shaugns journey had two key twists. First he initially lost the business to a competing buyer but when that"
YouTube Link 2025-03-19T17:50Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"Building a Foundry Holdco to $30m Reg Zeller Interview Reg Zeller didn't know what "search" was in [----]. He just knew he wanted out of his corporate job and that buying a business seemed like a good way to finally strike out on his own. He bought a small foundry despite everyone telling him it would be a terrible move. [--] years later Reg's company CaneKast has emerged as one of the most dynamic in foundries. There have been [--] acquisitions in total aggregate revenue is on track for $30 million in [----] and Reg is confident that $100m is attainable in the not-too-distant future. This interview is"
YouTube Link 2023-04-24T07:00Z 11.5K followers, [----] engagements
"The $50m Lifestyle Holdco Abhi Ravishankar Interview Abhi Ravishankar and his [--] partners are building a holdco. We go into a lot of detail on its structure but in brief it's this: The [--] have pooled their resources to buy [--] different businesses sequentially. Each partner will search for and buy the business for which he will be the principal operator and have extra equity. But via the holdco layer each partner is also a significant owner in the other [--] businesses. In terms of revenue they aim for each of the businesses to surpass $10m and for the portfolio to reach $50m. There is also a "CEO"
YouTube Link 2025-01-20T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Hiring a CEO to Run Things (and Get Life Back) Jeremy Hunka Interview The success of today's guest is not measured in revenue. Not in EBITDA nor growth. The success is having emerged from a very difficult transition to a place where finally Jeremy Hunka can own the business he bought on his terms. For many months that was not the case and Jeremy's life was bleak his doubts crippling. But today he has a CEO. He has boundaries. And he's once again optimistic about the future. There is a long way to go financially for Jeremy and his business but he and I agreed that achieving this stabilization"
YouTube Link 2025-09-08T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How to 4x a Contracting Business in [--] Years Michael Heath Interview In today's episode you will learn how one entrepreneur took a small garage door contracting business and quadrupled it in just [--] years. Mike Heath along with [--] silent partners bought Stateline Products in the St. Louis area. It was doing just $250k of SDE split between the husband & wife owners. It did about $2m in revenue a year; its best year ever was $2.5m. In the very first year of ownership Mike & team got it to $7.5m. In [----] they pushed revenue to $9.5m with almost $1m of EBITDA. But it wasn't without pain. Some of the"
YouTube Link 2025-01-16T08:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"After [--] Years of Part Time Searching Success Will Gano Interview Will Gano first got the bug to buy a business in [----] while at business school. But he didn't race out after graduation and dive in head-first to his search. Instead he decided on the type of business he wanted to own manufacturing or distribution and went out to get work experience that would position him to run such a business successfully. He spent [--] years getting that experience. But the patience and the commitment to his vision of ultimately buying a business has paid off. Will bought a 125-year-old bakery ingredients"
YouTube Link 2024-08-08T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"How to Build a Niche Holdco with $2m in Earnings Matt Kopp Interview The first business Matt Kopp bought provides organic samples for science classrooms. Think vials of pond water or yes frogs for dissection. It generated about $350k in cash every year on $2.2m in revenue steadily. "A good solid little business" as Matt put it. That was [----] and we hear how Matt parlayed that into a portfolio of similar businesses which today generate about $2m in EBITDA and all have managers in place. After [--] years of Matt running hard today Matt's businesses run themselves. A few themes to listen for:"
YouTube Link 2025-04-16T16:40Z 10K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Lead a Trades Business Without Knowing the Trade Trip Biesanz Interview Today's guest was a franchisee before he decided to buy a business. His search was hard long and basically fruitless after [--] months at which point he decided to engage a buy-side advisor. Listen for the key pivot point in Trip's story where he narrows his criteria from industry agnostic all the way down to just construction and how that narrowing made all the difference. If you're struggling in your search ask yourself: perhaps tightening your focus would help. (Which is counterintuitive to new searchers.) Trip"
YouTube Link 2025-02-06T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Buying & Building a $60m Furniture Manufacturer Gat Caperton Interview Picture it: Chicago the early/mid-90s. Today's guest Gat Caperton is in his late 20s working for the famous entrepreneur Sam Zell by day taking business school classes by night. It occurs to Gat around this time that to really get to the next level he should buy a business. He was familiar with manufacturing. He was from West Virginia and wanted to get back. So when he learned about an "old guy building furniture" in Berkeley Springs West Virginia he tried giving said old guy a call. It worked and Gat became the owner of a"
YouTube Link 2024-10-28T07:00Z 13.6K followers, [----] engagements
"Hiding in Plain Sight on BizBuySell $800k SDE for 2x Joseph Ziolkowski Interview Like many of you Joe was checking BizBuySell daily not seeing many interesting businesses come up for sale. He finally decided to relax his filters a little and look not just at the new stuff but the old stuff the listings that had been sitting for a while. And that is the origin of his ownership of Woodland Face Veneer. Woodland Face is a manufacturer with $11m in sales and $800k-ish in SDE. Sale price $1.5m. That's less than 2x for a mature sizable business with an SDE level that self-funded searchers all seek."
YouTube Link 2025-04-21T07:00Z 11.2K followers, [----] engagements
"Deciding to Start Not Buy a Small Business Kevin Moyer Interview Kevin Moyer built five territories in the Smash My Trash franchise generating over $1 million in revenue and $260K in SDEmostly running passively a rare feat in small business. After that he considered buying another business but ultimately chose to start one from scratch. Now in the early stages of his new venture Golden Home Access Kevins insights offer valuable lessons. A follow-up in a few years will reveal whether he stands by his choice. EDITOR'S NOTE: Sorry folks but we had to cancel the live Q&A. ❤ Enjoy this interview"
YouTube Link 2025-03-27T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Why Buy a Travel Agency (Because They Can Crush It) Jared Benoff Interview Despite predictions that the internet would kill travel agencies niche-focused businesses in the industry are thriving. Jared Benoff recently acquired Vacationeeze a successful destination wedding travel agency boasting strong margins and around $1M in sellers discretionary earnings (SDE). Notably he bought the business from his parents a dynamic explored in the discussion. Jareds story highlights how specialization and virtual operations keep travel agencies alive. ❤ Enjoy this interview SUBSCRIBE for more:"
YouTube Link 2025-03-31T07:00Z 11.4K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying [--] Rivals to Create a Dominant Leader Kyle Poll Interview When today's guest first learned about his target business it seemed like an alignment of the stars. The business GetOutPass sells passes that grant families access to dozens of local attractions for a flat annual fee. Well Kyle Poll had run and grown Gym Pass in the US a business whose model was pass-based access to multiple local gyms. Similar models and so coincidental. There really aren't that many such businesses in the world. And GetOutPass wasn't even listed for sale. The owner and Kyle happened to meet at an event and"
YouTube Link 2025-10-13T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Recover from a Fraudulent Seller Jason Jackson Interview Jason Jackson learned during transition from an offhand comment by one of the employees that the business he just bought was being audited for its Medicaid claims. As he pulled the thread he learned that the business was defrauding Medicaid and was actually losing money if you stripped out all the fraudulent revenue. Imagine that: You think you're acquiring a $1.5m SDE business; instead it's an organization in the red engaging in fraud. Today's interview is the 6-year journey to turn it all around. And there are gems aplenty."
YouTube Link 2025-05-08T07:00Z 10K followers, [---] engagements
"How to Grow a Blue Collar Business from $900k to $2.4m in Earnings Adam Borcz Interview Adam Borcz bought a blue collar business with $900k in EBITDA as a self-funded searcher. [---] years later he has almost tripled its annual earnings. We hear that story and his key unlock that generated so much growth. More recently Adam has become a search investor with a preference for traditional search funds. So this is a guy who as a searcher prefers the self-funded model but as an investor prefers the traditional search fund model. We get into why and it gets math-y toward the back half of the episode."
YouTube Link 2024-02-12T08:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"A Few Hours Per Week a Few States Away Brett Maxam Interview It was not the first choice of today's guest to buy a business outside his home market. But after Brett Maxam searched for a while in the competitive Denver metro where he lives he decided he'd need to widen his target geography to actually find a business to buy. It worked. Brett found a concrete pouring business in Vancouver Washington with between $3.5 and $4 million of revenue and high six figures of SDE the sweet spot for a self-funded searcher. He bought it even though it was a 2.5-hour flight away. It was also project based"
YouTube Link 2025-09-04T07:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"One Year 3x Revenue and a Clear Path to $15M Enrique Rodriguez Interview Today's guest wants you to open your mind to project-based businesses. Even project-based businesses in construction. Our hero Enrique Rodriguez bought MAC General Power Solutions an electrical contractor that does work for commercial industrial and wastewater type projects. It was small: about $1.4m in revenue less than $250k in SDE. But in just [--] months since closing in September [----] Enrique has built it up to a projected $4m in revenue for [----] $750k in SDE. And he gives us the playbook and the how and the why a"
YouTube Link 2025-07-05T15:25Z 11.6K followers, [----] engagements
"How to Reinvent a $1m Candle Manufacturer Adam Goldberg Interview Adam Goldberg had started young worked hard and run [--] multimillion dollar businesses over his 30-year career. So after a significant liquidity event in his mid-50s he tried retiring. That didn't last long. And when he got back in the game it was with a struggling nearly-shuttered candle manufacturer in his native Montreal. The business had been doing $5m in sales at its height; when Adam looked at it it was down to $1m. This was going to be a turnaround. But even going in eyes-wide-open and even with decades of relevant"
YouTube Link 2025-04-14T07:00Z [----] followers, [---] engagements
"The Birth of a Roll-Up Stephen and Collin Interview Description: Collin Trimble knew the alarm business the industry that installs & services a building's security & fire alarm system then monitors the building remotely. And Collin saw opportunity there: a fragmented market high margins recurring revenue large exits for blue collar founders. He got excited about buying a security & alarm business (even without knowing what entrepreneurship through acquisition was). He pitched Stephen who did know ETA and quickly got on board. In today's interview you're going to hear the story of the platform"
YouTube Link 2024-03-25T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"Evolving a Legacy Business to $3.2m EBITDA Evan Stewart Interview Orlando-based Direct One was doing $1.8m in SDE when Evan bought it in early 2023; it ended [----] with EBITDA around $3.2m. But it has not been easy. (Is it ever on Acquiring Minds). It strained his marriage for the first few months as he spent weekdays at the business away from his family up in Jacksonville. He eventually moved the family down to Orlando selling their house in Jacksonville only to find that their home equity could not go back into buying a home in Orlando and instead had to go directly to paying down the loan"
YouTube Link 2025-06-09T07:00Z 12.1K followers, [----] engagements
"Youve Been Served: Buying a $1.3m Process-Serving Company Raj Kankaria Interview Ever wonder about the business of process serving and what they pay those mysterious strangers who say your name hand you a manila envelope and then disappear Well today's guest did wonder and it was actually right as he himself was getting served. Our hero Raj Kankaria was out of work and going through a divorce (hence the papers) when he decided to become a process server himself. Flash forward to June 1st [----] and he acquired the process-serving business he'd gone to work for. Lone Star Attorney Services"
YouTube Link 2025-07-24T07:00Z 11.1K followers, [---] engagements
"2 Years to $40m The Anatomy of a High Velocity Roll up Luis Reyes Interview Today's guest has traveled a long way to get where he is. Luis Reyes grew up in the Mexican countryside and didn't get his first pair of shoes until age [--]. Today he's leading one of the most active roll-ups I've seen: $8m of EBITDA in [--] years. Luis and his team are building Iberian Ventures or IBV a consolidation of fire safety businesses across Spain. They're blanketing the country dispatching young hungry former consultants to meet owners and find targets. It is high-volume and high-velocity; they've acquired 24"
YouTube Link 2025-08-08T20:21Z 11.4K followers, [---] engagements
"How to Build a Mini Berkshire Hathaway Rafael Quinn Interview One of the ways that acquisition entrepreneurship differs from zero-to-one entrepreneurship is that you need to adopt the mindset of an investor. Today we're going to lean into that. Rafael Quinn is American born & raised but in his 20s sold all his belongings on Craigslist and moved to his mother's native Panama. He's been there ever since. Over the last [--] years he and his partner have built a holdco of [--] businesses in Panama and have more recently raised almost $30m to look for larger opportunities back here in the States. What"
YouTube Link 2024-04-15T07:00Z [----] followers, [----] engagements
"How to Own 20% of Multiple SMBs Evan DiLeonardi Interview Todays interview has two parts. First Evan DiLeonardi shares the story of buying a commercial cleaning business in a small rural town with about $500k in SDE. While not a full turnaround the transition brought a scary J-curve. Evan spent a year and a half stabilizing a business plagued by weak leadership and complicated family dynamics all while managing it partly remotely as a nomad.In the second segment we explore Evans current role as an SBA buy-side advisor-investor. Through an ETA community he helps searchers source and close"
YouTube Link 2026-02-10T21:37Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"$20m Net Worth After [--] Years Buying Businesses Paul Lajoie Interview Most of the interviews on Acquiring Minds are with entrepreneurs recently into their acquisitions. But occasionally we'll have guests who've been doing this for much longer and we get to see how a career as an acquisition entrepreneur unfolds over decades. Today is one such example. At [--] years old Paul Lajoie today takes home $1m per year and tallies his net worth at almost $20m. And it all started about [--] years ago when he and his brother bought a flooring business doing $300k of SDE. We hear that story and how it set up"
YouTube Link 2026-01-21T07:04Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Growing Profits 30% in the First [---] Years Jonathan Taylor Interview As his 40th birthday approached today's guest started to feel the now-or-never pull of entrepreneurship. So Jonathan Taylor left a 15-year tech career to journey into business ownership. Jonathan closed on a distribution business a year and a half ago. Like many distribution businesses AEK Technology has concentration but not on the customer side. Many of the products it sells come from a single supplier. Jonathan and I unpack this risk and how he's mitigated it. Note how common this is in distribution businesses. The"
YouTube Link 2026-02-05T20:42Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements
"SBA Deal Structuring to Manage Risk in a Cyclical Industry Andrew Kurzrok Interview Frustrated by the poor performance of his email outreach today's guest finally decided to just pick up the phone. And to his surprise it worked. Andrew Kurzrok bought a ductwork fabricator a little over an hour from his home in Northern Virginia. After awkwardly calling the receptionist back a few times when she didn't put him through correctly he was finally able to leave a message on the voicemail of the owner. And he got a call back. (Thanks to the owner's wife we learn.) In addition to the story of how he"
YouTube Link 2026-02-05T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"Taking a Single-City Acquisition Nationwide Edward McDonnell Interview Today's interview shows the full circle of a successful acquisition and later exit via the traditional search fund model. True to the stated requirement of traditional search that the entrepreneur be willing to move anywhere for a good business Edward McDonnell moved with his pregnant wife from Chapel Hill across the country to Seattle to take the reins of Botanical Designs. When he bought it the indoor plant business was [--] employees in Seattle only. When Edward exited to a private equity buyer four and a half years later"
YouTube Link 2026-02-03T20:16Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements
"Year [--] in a $300k SDE Services Business Scott Crosby Interview "The worst day I've had running the business has been better than the best day I had working for someone else" So Scott Crosby told me about his new life as the owner of an HVAC and refrigeration services business in St. Louis. Scott bought small; American Services had under $300k of SDE and four and a half employees. We talk about how he's managed through the vulnerability of such a small business including turning over essentially the whole team. Part of Scott's model here is not taking any money out of the business for himself"
YouTube Link 2026-02-02T23:53Z 13.6K followers, [--] engagements
"How to 4x a Small Manufacturer Tato Corcoran Update Today's is an update episode with a popular guest from [----] Tato Corcoran. We re-ran Tato's first episode during Christmas week which sparked interest in learning what has happened in the two years since that first interview. Tato bought a very small manufacturer of sinks for bathroom vanities with just $400k in revenue and [--] employees. As Tato put it in our first interview "Looking back on it the seller didn't have a business he had a job that paid him." If you haven't heard that first interview check it out to hear what the first year and"
YouTube Link 2026-02-02T21:19Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements
"$250k SDE Acquisition: Limited Downside Big Upside Ville-Matias Viln Interview After paying the owners' salaries the business that today's guest bought generated about $150k of earnings. Which would not typically be large enough for a self-funded searcher jumping into entrepreneurship through acquisition. But Ville-Matias Viln of Hensinki saw that the business's flagship product enjoyed sustained demand despite being under-marketed. And the bones of the business high-quality manufacturing patented design a network of dealer relationships abroad were good. So while very small Ville saw a risk"
YouTube Link 2026-02-01T12:09Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Exiting for Millions vs. Long-Term Hold Don Grigg Interview Twenty-five years ago today's guest bought [--] businesses within a few months of each other. Don Grigg was in his early 30s with [--] kids and a desire to buy a manufacturing business. In the end both businesses he bought were problem companies which was by design. He figured the only thing he'd be able to afford were small struggling businesses and that he'd have to turn them around. Which he did. We hear the story of both including one that he exited for millions of dollars a few years later. Which sounds like the searcher dream: Buy a"
YouTube Link 2026-01-30T15:44Z 13.7K followers, [--] engagements
"The Late 40s Pivot Into Business Buying Jarom Wren Interview Jarom Wren felt the entrepreneurial itch in his late 30s despite a successful corporate career. Seeking more freedom he explored options for years until discovering entrepreneurship through acquisition after a friend bought a business. Mesmerized Jarom dove in and eventually acquired Vanlife Outfitters an ecommerce brand serving the vanlife community. He navigated lender skepticism about ecommerce restated earnings and a deal that nearly fell apart. Jarom shares how persistence renegotiation and realistic expectations helped him"
YouTube Link 2026-01-29T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"The First Steps to a Family Holdco Linh and Leo Van Deibel Interview I first met today's guest at the Self-Funded Search Conference in Dallas in [----]. Linh Van Deibel had flown all the way from London a demonstration of how seriously she was taking this path of entrepreneurship through acquisition. As you'll hear her husband Leo later joined her and Linh and Leo both are today's guests. So buying a business as a couple is a key theme of the interview. As is buying outside the US; Linh and Leo live in London. We hear how they structured their deal in a market where loans for business"
YouTube Link 2026-01-26T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying a Platform with an SBA Loan Jacob VosWinkel Interview The flooring industry. Businesses here are typically anchored by a retail location selling wood vinyl tile carpet to a mix of residential and commercial customers. Flooring is not a highly favored industry in the world of home services buyers which we discuss with today's guest Jacob VosWinkel. But despite the perceived weaknesses Jacob loves his adopted industry. He bought a sizable flooring store which he was able to get his hands on because he opened his search to tertiary markets he was willing to move to. His store is in"
YouTube Link 2026-01-22T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"The Contrarian Bet on a Digital Agency George Stern Interview Today's guest made a contrarian bet with his acquisition. Contrarianism is something we don't often see in our world where risk is more acute owing to the high leverage we use to buy businesses. George Stern bought an SEO agency. As you might guess the perception is that traditional search engine optimization is very much in flux as ChatGPT changes consumer searching habits. For the first time in [--] years the dominance of Google's blue links is in question. George's bet is that SEO will stabilize around new practices and business"
YouTube Link 2026-01-19T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"Comfortable Concentration for a $800k SDE Business Phil Koller Interview Today's story is a study in not judging a book by its cover. Phil Koller bought Roman Enterprises an automotive paint distribution business. Now Roman had about [--] customers. It had essentially a single supplier. And it had one yes just one employee. Undeterred Phil looked closely at each of these features and more and decided that he could accept and/or mitigate the risk. And there was lots to love about Roman Enterprises. I already mentioned that single employee a feature that lives in both the pro and con columns."
YouTube Link 2025-12-16T10:45Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
"Buying for Brand (Then Growing 4x) Matt Orley Interview Unlike most guests on Acquiring Minds today's did not come to his acquisition as a self-identified "searcher." Instead Matt Orley was an entrepreneurial guy who'd found an industry he really wanted to get into and buying a business there was his path to do so. The industry is short-term rentals. That is the property owners who rent their properties on the likes of Airbnb and the growing ecosystem of vendors that serve those owners. As you know this is a category that has exploded in recent years thanks first to the advent of Airbnb and"
YouTube Link 2026-01-12T08:00Z 13.7K followers, [---] engagements
"Complexity Hides Fragility: Losing a $20m Business Joe Odell Interview Today's interview is the story of a business acquisition that ended in collapse and how the protagonist is putting his professional life back together. Joe Odell bought a compounding pharmacy business with his partner Jess Paterson via the traditional search fund model. The fundamentals of the business seemed strong: Demographic tailwinds high-quality revenue and good sized with $20m of revenue and [---] employees. But despite these hopeful signs things went off the rails quickly once Joe and Jess took over. And for the next"
YouTube Link 2025-12-19T14:41Z 13.7K followers, [----] engagements
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