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If your business disappeared for two weeks, would it keep running, or would everything grind to a halt because the “manual” is in your head? The Dead Pixels Society sits down with David Hori, principal at Topline Operators, to get practical about small business acquisition and what actually makes a company transferable, financeable, and worth buying. Hori brings a rare mix of experience: scaling VC-backed teams through acquisition exits, then shifting into buying and advising local businesses where succession planning is often missing. 

He unpacks the starting point for any exit plan: Understanding the owner’s role and spotting where the owner has become the bottleneck. From there, we talk process documentation that works in the real world, including the camcorder method for recording repeatable workflows and capturing not just what you do, but why you do it. For listeners in the photo imaging industry, camera stores, photo labs, and studios, the message is especially relevant: systems and trained people protect your customer experience and your valuation when equipment, seasonality, and production complexity are in play. 

Hori also breaks down deal dynamics buyers and sellers wrestle with, including earnouts, seller financing, and why many sellers want cash at closing even when it keeps deals from happening. We get into valuation and the numbers behind it, from EBITDA and seller discretionary earnings to how buyer types change price, whether it’s a cash flow buyer, a strategic trade buyer, or private equity. If you’re thinking about selling in the next one to three years, this is a roadmap for building leverage before you hit burnout. 

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Hosted and produced by Gary Pageau
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