Inspired Or Acquired

Mike Pedro and Danielle Pedro started MD Esthetics med spa in 2018. They've grown quickly to 13 locations and $2.5M EBITDA through acquisitions and brand new locations. They recently signed a Letter of Intent to join forces with a private equity group  - so we dive into how the deal happened, picking their PE partner, and their growth plans. This is a fascinating interview to hear from someone in the middle of an acquisition.

MD Esthetics: https://www.mdestheticsus.com/
Clint Fiore, Bison Business: https://bisonbusiness.com/
Patrick Dichter, Appletree: https://appletreebusiness.com/

Johannes Hock left private equity early in his career with the aim to build wealth faster through an exit after buying a business. In 2022 he bought DFW Turf and he's quickly grown the business from $5M to $20M revenue and +3 states through organic growth and additional acquisitions. He sees a path within a few years to $50M revenue and healthy EBITDA before an exit. We discuss whether he enjoys the investor or operator seat more, and what might tempt them to sell.

Johannes Hock on X: https://twitter.com/HockJohannes
Johannes Hock's blog: https://buysmallsellhigh.substack.com/
Clint Fiore, Bison Business: https://bisonbusiness.com/
Patrick Dichter, Appletree: https://appletreebusiness.com/

Mike Botkin is an incredible story of what's possible in the small to mid sized acquisitions space. He left a great job to buy a very small $780k revenue residential landscaping acquisition. Then he completed 6 more acquisitions and focused on commercial maintenance landscaping. They ended up becoming one of the top 100 biggest landscaping companies nationwide and exited - all within 2 years time. We dive into how stressful it was, how he made it happen, and his decision to sell. We also learn what he's up to now in his next venture.

Mike Botkin on X: https://twitter.com/MikeBotkin_
Canvas Outdoors: https://canvasoutdoors.com/
Clint Fiore on X: https://twitter.com/ClintFiore
Patrick Dichter on X: https://twitter.com/patrickdichter

Ryan Bakke has built Tax Strategy 365 very quickly and his profit margins are 20-30% better than most similar tax firms. This also makes it difficult to place a value on and tough to tempt him to want to sell. We dive deep into the marketing tactics and funnel he uses to grow quickly and where his firm is headed before he tries to sell. 

Ryan Bakke on X: https://twitter.com/LearnLikeaCPA
Tax Strategy 365 website: https://taxstrategy365.com/
Patrick Dichter on X: https://twitter.com/patrickdichter
Clint Fiore on X: https://twitter.com/ClintFiore

Jordan Evans bought his parents small language services business and has grown it very quickly to $12M revenue. He discusses how they've growth through organic growth and additional acquisitions. And he has his sites set on $50M revenue before a possible exit.

Jordan Evans on X: https://twitter.com/JordanPEvans
The Language Network: https://www.languagenetworkusa.com/

Baird Kleinsmith loves to say he bought a few 'crappy little self storage' businesses. The reality is within 3 short years he took massive action and calculated risk to build up a self storage portfolio worth over $28M. He's also started HireLATAM, an offshore staff business that's growing steadily. We discuss if he'd want to sell, what he wants to do next, and trying not to get bored at this stage. 

Baird Kleinsmith on X: https://twitter.com/SultanofStorage
Hire LATAM: https://hirelatam.com/
Bison Business: https://bisonbusiness.com/
Appletree: https://appletreebusiness.com/

Jeff Toren owns two franchise concepts in Philadelphia - 7 KitchenTuneUp locations and 2 iLoveKickBoxing locations. He's been the #1 franchisee for sales in KitchenTuneUp prior years and in the top performers for iLoveKickBoxing. But the last 2-3 years have been really hard going through massive growth, then not being profitable, and currently back to stable profits. Jeff admits he's debated selling with his wife and we discuss where he wants to be financially before he sells.

Jeff Toren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefftoren/
Kitchen Tune Up PA website: https://www.kitchentuneup.com/main-line-pa/

Alex Forbes has built Lane17 Custom Cabinetry to +$1.5M revenue. They have great sales momentum and are really hitting their stride in ops to be able to keep scaling, but the business today might not be worth enough to temp Alex to sell. We discuss what size he might want to grow to, how hard this industry is vs other businesses, and the possibility of different ventures in the next few years.

Lane17 Cabinet Co website: https://lane17.com/ 
Alex Forbes on X: https://twitter.com/alexforbes__
Bison Business: https://bisonbusiness.com/
Appletree: https://appletreebusiness.com/

Craig Hausz has grown a fantastic accounting firm and wealth management firm, CMH Advisors, with his wife Michelle. They've recently landed on the Inc5000 list for all their growth the last few years; they've also successfully completed six firm acquisitions. This Inspired Or Acquired episode is a fun discussion of the differences in valuation for accounting firms vs wealth management firms. Plus we estimate the value of CMH Advisors and ask Craig when they might sell the firm.

Craig Hausz on X: https://twitter.com/CPATaxTeam
CMH Advisors: https://www.cpataxteam.com/
Clint Fiore: https://twitter.com/ClintFiore
Patrick Dichter: https://twitter.com/patrickdichter

Austin Linney shares a wild, winding journey of buying an HVAC business that involves huge risk, shady characters, and quickly growing it by +300% within 2 years. 

Austin Linney on X: https://twitter.com/AustinLinney
Clint Fiore on X: https://twitter.com/ClintFiore
Patrick Dichter on X: https://twitter.com/patrickdichter