Scott Harkey put $750,000 cash down on an agency tuck-in — and turned it into $10 million in enterprise value inside his group. That's EBITDA arbitrage. And according to Scott, most independent agency operators grinding away at 17–25% margins have never once thought about it. This episode covers the deal math, the culture traps, and the billboard rollup opportunity most investors are completely missing.

Scott Harkey is the founder of The Harkey Group, a multi-agency advertising platform with clients including Wynn Resorts, Disney, and Marriott, and Harkey Media, a $200 million out-of-home billboard fund acquiring and developing assets across the U.S. Over a 20-year career he has built, bought, and sold advertising agencies — including a recent exit to private equity — while operating across two distinct rollup verticals: professional services and real estate-adjacent media. Scott is a Forbes Agency Council member, 4A's Business Council member, and national speaker on marketing and brand strategy. His next book, Brand Uprising, is forthcoming from Fast Company Press.

In this episode, Scott unpacks why cultural misalignment is the most underestimated deal-killer in agency M&A, walks through real deal math on how tuck-ins create massive multiple arbitrage for operators without PE backing, and explains how a market dominated by three publicly traded giants — Clear Channel, Lamar, and Outfront — leaves 2,000+ independent billboard operators ripe for consolidation. He also shares the pitching framework from Oren Klaff's Pitch Anything that transformed how he wins clients and closes deals. A must-listen for M&A professionals, agency owners, PE sponsors, and entrepreneurs building toward an exit.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Why culture fit kills more deals than pricing — and how to evaluate alignment before you close
• The EBITDA arbitrage math: buying at 3x, selling inside a group at 10x–15x — with real numbers
• Building a boutique agency rollup without PE capital using bank debt and creative deal structures
• The $200M Harkey Media billboard fund and why fragmented out-of-home is a rollup goldmine
• His PE exit: what triggered the sale, what cultural misalignment really looks like, and what he'd do differently
• Why starting from zero is almost always the wrong move — and what he tells every entrepreneur instead
• Why the owner must be the deal person — and why hiring a salesperson is a "kiss of death" for agency new business
• Community as the new sales strategy: the psychology of why buyers join, not just buy
• Brand Uprising: the coming convergence of marketing, psychology, and sales
• Mining your losses for data: how 200 failed pitches became his most valuable competitive intelligence
• Bouncing back from a slump — why internal shifts matter more than external tactics

🤝 Connect with Scott Harkey: 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottharkey 📱 Instagram: @scottharkey

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

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