Acquiring Minds

Eric Hayes was an accomplished executive in the DC area with 5 kids when he decided to buy a business in Laramie, WY. 

Topics in Eric’s interview:

• Walking away from a C-level career to buy a small business
• Difficulty raising equity
• How “smiling and dialing” investors paid off
• Willingness to take “key man risk”
• Negotiating a premium for his operations experience
• The business of restoring native ecosystems 
• Costs to serve customers across the Mountain West
• Learning to communicate with his foremen
• Uncertainty of project-based business
• Life in a small town vs. life in a big city

References and how to contact Eric:

• LinkedIn
• Rocky Mountain Reclamation

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Connect with Acquiring Minds: 

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel 
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn 
• Follow Will on Twitter

Peter Wild fielded offers to buy his business for years but sold only after being introduced to the searcher community. 

Topics in Peter & Carlos’ interview:

• The psychology of a seller
• Recognizing the business as “searcher friendly”
• Finding the right individual to buy the business
• History of the organic tree health industry
• Why this sale was a “reverse search fund”
• Upgrading to Salesforce from a 40-year-old custom database
• Upgrading to digital contracts from paper
• Why he wouldn’t sell to a strategic
• Overcoming skepticism about selling to a “searcher”
• The owner’s life as a proxy for whether to buy a business

Listen to Part 1 of this story:

• Buying a 45-Year-Old Industry Pioneer

References and how to contact Peter & Carlos:

• Peter Wild
• Carlos Laconi
• Boston Tree Preservation
• Don Gourley, the buyer of the business
• Searchfunder.com, where Carlos posted the business for sale

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

After a successful military career, Don Gourley saw buying a business as the best means to "lead a unit" as a civilian. 

Topics in Don’s interview:

• Having a “plan Z” as a searcher
• Importance of being crystal clear about what you want to buy
• His rigorous approach to a geographic search
• How to recruit & manage 10+ interns
• Cultivating brokers
• About Boston Tree Preservation
• Digital transformation — is it actually that valuable?
• How to take over from a founder-visionary
• Why buying a business is such a good fit for veterans
• Having the seller pay for the Q of E

References and how to contact Don:

• [email protected]
• LinkedIn
• Boston Tree Preservation
• Peter Wild, the seller of the business
• Carlos Laconi, the GM when the business sold

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab

Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

AJ Wasserstein, Peter Mistretta & Mike Horowitz distill the selection of a franchise brand into 10 essential criteria. 

Topics in today’s interview with A.J., Michael, and Peter:

• Why you should (and should not) buy into a franchise system
• Likelihood of becoming a billionaire, centi-millionaire, or deca-millionaire by acquiring franchise businesses
• The importance of defining what success looks like to you
• “Blind” evaluation of a franchise system
• How to evaluate a brand & system
• How to evaluate a franchisor
• Assessing demographics of existing franchisee base
• The importance of store-level economics
• Can you even break into the franchise system?
• “X factor” and unmasking a brand after your analysis

References and how to contact A.J., Michael, and Peter:

• A.J.: [email protected] and all his case notes at Yale
• Michael Horowitz
• Peter Mistretta
• Case note this episode is based on: Ten Essential Questions to Consider When Selecting a Franchise Brand for a Search Fund Journey
• Related case note: Exploring Franchisees as a Post-MBA Entrepreneurial Path
• Roark Capital
• Wisconsin FDD Search
• Gregg Flynn of Flynn Restaurant Group
• Barry Dubin of KPB Brands, operator of 1,000+ KFC, Taco Bell, and Arby's restaurants.

Acquiring Minds episodes referred to:

• How to Build a Portfolio of 20 Franchise Locations (Michael Horowitz)
• How a $40k Acquisition Led to a Franchise Empire (James Temple)
• How to Roll Up Legacy Franchises (to $36m/yr) (Brian Beers)
• Opening Up to Franchises to Buy a Great Business (Doug Johns)

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team

Connect with Acquiring Minds: 

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn
• Follow Will on Twitter

Collapsing sales, unhelpful sellers, and a GM who quit. But 1 year later, Chris Jones is contemplating acquisition #2. 

Topics in Chris’s interview:

• Buying a foundation repair business
• Finding discrepancies in QuickBooks 
• His chaotic transition to CEO
• The GM leaving to start a competing company
• A dispute over money the seller owed
• Burning through cash the first winter
• Restructuring roles in the business
• Improvements in sales numbers
• Possibly acquiring a second business
• Optimism about the future of the company

References and how to contact Chris:

• LinkedIn
• [email protected]
• Falcone Crawl Space & Structural Repair

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab

Connect with Acquiring Minds: 

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel 
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn 
• Follow Will on Twitter

Connor Pera shares how taking incremental steps led to buying his first business much sooner than expected. 

Topics in Connor’s interview:

• Trade-offs of a part-time search
• Importance of taking action
• Competition in the web-to-print industry
• Pros and cons of an SBA loan
• The appeal of managing people
• His mistake of not accounting for working capital adjustments
• Feeling anxious before closing
• Transitioning to ownership and fatherhood at the same time
• The importance of knowing oneself
• The value of his business school education

References and how to contact Connor:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• [email protected]
• The Print Authority
• Connor’s Twitter thread about his acquisition

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR

Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team
  
  

Connect with Acquiring Minds: 

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel 
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn 
• Follow Will on Twitter

Josh Medow brought a mindset to his search that he would reshape whatever business he bought into a high-growth company. 

Topics in Josh’s interview:

• Calling over 1,000 business owners during search
• Buying a business with no money down
• How EOS transformed his business
• His 10-20 year outlook
• Comparing his military experience with business leadership
• Laser focusing on one target market
• Building their own SaaS tool for their customers
• His most transformational leadership hire
• What matters to him more than money
• His plan to IPO

References and how to contact Josh:

• LinkedIn
• Mercury
• Persist IQ
• Traction by Gino Wickman

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Connect with Acquiring Minds: 

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel 
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn 
• Follow Will on Twitter

Tim Ericson brings lessons from 13 years as a startup founder to the $4m printer rental company he recently bought.

Topics in Tim’s interview:

• His experience in a VC-backed startup
• Searching for a remote-friendly business
• Using his sales skills to find a business
• Buying Short-Term Copier 
• The types of customers they serve
• Comfort running a remotely-managed, multi-city business
• His vision to double the business 
• Installing an operations manager
• Boring is the new sexy
• Investing in other searchers’ deals

References and how to contact Tim:

• Setting up Hubspot CRM for an Acquisition Search for Free!
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Short Term Copier
  
  

Get a complementary pre-acquisition HR & PEO review for your target business:

• Contact [email protected] or visit Aspen HR
  
  

 Get complimentary due diligence on your acquisition's insurance & benefits program:

• Oberle Risk Strategies - Search Fund Team
  
  

Connect with Acquiring Minds: 

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel 
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn 
• Follow Will on Twitter

August Felker did a search fund, then later a self-funded search so he could own & build his business for years to come.

Topics in August’s interview:

• Buying a business without an MBA
• How cold calling led to his first deal
• Buying an “elevator asset business”
• Early lessons in leadership
• What he loved about traditional search
• The resiliency of the insurance industry
• The normalcy of 3-year earnouts 
• Self-funding his second deal
• His vision for building a brand
• The niche of working with searchers

References and how to contact August:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Oberle Risk Strategies
  
  

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab
  
  

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing
  
  

Connect with Acquiring Minds: 

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel 
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn 
• Follow Will on Twitter
  
  

HoldCoConf co-founder Kelcey Lehrich shares key findings from a survey of 100+ holdco operators about their businesses. 

Topics in Kelcey’s interview:

• How HoldCoConf started
• Why holdcos are so popular
• Arguments against holdcos
• The “everything tastes like chicken” layer of business
• Surprising survey results
• What becomes possible at $50M in revenue
• Hiring leadership in holdcos
• Debating centralized vs decentralized models
• Use of global hiring
• Concerns about a recession

References and how to contact Kelcey:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• 365 Holdings
• HoldCoConf
• Holdco Survey

12 previous Acquiring Minds interviews with holdco entrepreneurs:

1. From Determined Searcher to $75m Accidental Holdco
2. One Year Later: Holdco Grows to $75m in Total Revenue
3. Building an HVAC Holdco to £60m in Revenue
4. Fetal Position to Foundry Holdco ($30m & Counting)
5. Snowball Effect: Getting to $45m in 3 Years
6. Birth of a Holdco (with 15 Acquisitions to Date)
7. How to Build a Holdco (4 Acquisitions So Far)
8. 7 Years Later: Leaving Wall Street to Buy Small Businesses
9. 5x in 5 Years: Buying Small to Grow Quickly
10. How One Tiny Acquisition Grew Into a Holdco
11. Growing a Small 1st Acquisition into a Holdco Platform
12. How to Build a Holdco Around Company Culture

Learn more about Walker Deibel's done-with-you buy-side advisory:

• The Acquisition Lab

Connect with A-players who can run your business remotely:

• More Staffing

Connect with Acquiring Minds: 

• See past + future interviews on the YouTube channel 
• Connect with host Will Smith on LinkedIn 
• Follow Will on Twitter