Gary spent over 20 years operating nuclear reactors in the Navy. Now he owns a private equity firm and has bought four companies. He started with a Navy paycheck and one piece of advice.

Kate gets him to break down how he finds owners ready to sell, structures deals with almost none of his own cash, and turns separate companies into something worth far more together.

Inside the episode: the first deal that had 26 other buyers, the one question to ask before any acquisition, and the reverse merger that can double what a business is worth.

Gary

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/gmac00/⁠

Gary's Book: ⁠Set Your Own Goals or Someone Else Will⁠

Deal Diaries with Kate

YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@dealdiaries_katechichi⁠

Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/033DZHytD6ER7B0qZ93TiC⁠

Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/dealdiaries_katechichi/⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/katechichi/⁠

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:09 Origin story of Gary

5:47 Starting in private equity

8:18 Finding deals

10:56 Funding deals

16:42 The first deal

25:15 Integrating companies

32:32 Built to sell

42:37 What are reverse mergers and why should you care?

46:31 Goals and leadership

Most owners ask whether a goal is possible. Ajay Nwosu asks what would need to happen to make it a reality.

He bought a company, scaled and sold it. In this episode: why 90% of deals fail in diligence and how to get through it. Why he wouldn't stay on as an employee post-sale again. How to read culture before you buy a business. And how to get your valuation benchmarked.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:45 How he found an arbitrage business
2:07 Why culture is the oxygen — and how he measures it
4:47 How to know your multiple before you sell
6:08 Why velocity is the only moat
7:14 The question that changes what your team thinks is possible
9:25 How long a deal really takes (his took 9 months)
10:45 Why 90% of deals die in diligence
14:37 Half cash, half equity deal — and what is an earnout
16:30 Staying on after the sale: "if I could do it again, I wouldn't"
19:54 How he taught AI to be his thinking partner
23:27 Taking a sport to 156 countries and the Olympics
27:37 Nobody knows what they're sleeping on

Ajay Nwosu: linkedin.com/in/ajay-nwosu-99597992
Kate Chichi: linkedin.com/in/katechichi

How an ER pediatrician in New York bought a marketing agency in Florida that only takes 15 hours a week to run — and financed it with his 401(k). Justin Hoskins shares how he did it all: the retirement-fund structure nobody talks about, why use a loan broker, and how he uses AI to spot red flags in the acquisition docs.

0:00 Intro
0:49 From ER pediatrician to acquisition entrepreneur
3:17 Why he passed on med spas
7:00 The spreadsheet with 27,000 businesses for sale
10:05 Finding an absentee business
15:07 The seller note that closed the valuation gap
17:29 Using your 401k to fund an acquisition (ROBS explained)
23:58 The attorney who gave him 25% odds of closing
25:15 Why use a loan broker
31:42 Earning employee trust as the outsider
37:29 The MSO play in the legal space
42:41 Using AI to spot red flags in acquisitions

Connor Pera acquired a business in what most people would call a dying industry — and then doubled it from $2M to $4M with a second acquisition. In this episode, get his trick for getting sellers' attention and learn why passing on a "great" business like HVAC might be the best decision you ever make.

0:00 Intro

1:04 What separates searchers who actually close

2:37 The vending machine that changed his mindset

4:38 How to find a deal without quitting your job

12:14 Why he chose a "dying" industry over HVAC

19:45 Skipping SBA — and the earnout he's glad he got

24:35 The phone call that got him through closing week

27:46 Day one of running an acquired business

30:57 How he got sellers' attention (the unexpected channel)

37:09 Using AI to reverse-engineer a $100M blueprint

Joey Mure walked away from $300K a year at Wells Fargo after discovering that banks secretly store more capital in life insurance than in real estate — and built a $30M-valued insurance agency off the back of that insight.

In this episode, Joey breaks down the 4x-buy, 15x-sell arbitrage that convinced him to start acquiring, the earnout clause that cost him real money when a lawyer changed the final draft, and why he ultimately walked away from a $150M roll-up plan in favor of a simpler path to nearly the same payout. Joey is the co-founder of Wealth Without Wall Street and has nearly 700 podcast episodes under his belt.

Subscribe for more real acquisition stories every week.

0:00 Intro

0:36 Introduction — Joey Mure

1:04 Why he left a $300K job at Wells Fargo

3:42 What is Infinite Banking?

4:42 How Wells Fargo secretly invests $19B in life insurance

9:34 What an insurance agency actually does

10:48 How a podcast accidentally became a global lead-magnet

15:55 How an insurance agency makes money (commissions, renewals & why it's sellable)

20:56 Why Joey decided to start acquiring companies

23:48 What Joey looked for in an acquisition target

25:12 How Joey found the businesses he acquired

27:13 From LOI to close: the 9-month diligence slog

29:50 The post-close mistakes he'd never repeat

36:53 How the deal was structured

40:20 How his insurance carrier financed the deal

42:13 Organic growth vs. roll-up: why he changed his mind

46:42 Investor DNA: how to find the right investment for YOU

51:04 Raising 5 kids to think like entrepreneurs

55:31 How Joey uses AI across the business

1:00:22 Guest recommendations

Where owners share how they bought and sold businesses.

Launching June 30th!