Each case study covers the deal structure, first 100 days, operating moves that worked, and the patterns you can re-use on your own deal. Sourced from public podcast transcripts, SEC filings, and industry reports.
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A Fortune 500 GM trades 1,800-person operations for a 22-person custom HVAC fabricator 75 minutes from home.
Andrew Kurzrok left Amphenol and 200 travel days a year to buy Hopewell Sheet Metal, a 22-person commercial ductwork shop, with ~25% equity down and SBA debt sized for cyclical downside.
Ana Lia Barragan left Amazon, ran New Majority Capital's accelerator, and closed a 2.35x SDE indoor-plant business with SBA plus a creative 5% seller note.
Ana Lia Barragan bought Kelly Green, a 30-year Seattle indoor-plant service, for $436K (2.35x SDE) with 90% SBA. Nine months in: +6% revenue despite losing a 20% customer, a tuck-in adding $2,500 MRR, recurring lifted from 70% to 85%.
Dan Angel acquired Lodging Source for its durable model and its 15-year number-two. Keeping her on board became the deal.
Dan Angel bought Lodging Source, a 20-year-old remote corporate travel agency doing $3M revenue and $900K SDE (30% margin). The real story is retaining Jayme Moylan, the 15-year VP who found out the business was for sale when the buyer walked in.
After exiting his first search-fund acquisition, Calderon rolled up testing, inspection, and calibration shops into a sector-focused operating company.
Second-time searcher Eric Calderon built TXE Partners into a $25M-revenue Houston TIC platform by acquiring small oil & gas testing and calibration shops (~$1M SDE each) and running them as divisions, not a loose holdco.
Ex-McKinsey operator buys a Colorado digital agency precisely when peers are fleeing SEO, financed through a regional SBA lender in 46 days.
George Stern bought Growth Marketing Media, a home-services SEO agency doing mid-seven-figure revenue and low-seven-figure EBITDA, via SBA through a regional Colorado bank in 46 days from LOI to close.
A 47-year-old CPG brand manager swapped SC Johnson for a van-conversion e-com shop doing ~$800K-$1.05M SDE.
Jarom Wren left a mid-six-figure CPG brand job at 47, put $150K down for 70% of VanLife Outfitters (SDE ~$800K-$1.05M at 3-3.5x), and survived a 20% SDE restatement by repricing to QoE instead of walking.
Ex-Amazon PM stacks SBA, pari passu debt, and seller paper to buy a declining, capex-heavy print-on-demand business serving self-published authors.
Anica John left Amazon and bought DiggyPOD, a ~$10M print-on-demand shop in Michigan, using a $5M SBA loan, $2.6M pari passu debt, seller paper, and ~$1M for working capital and fees. Declining revenue and heavy capex, bought remote from California.
One employee, seven customers, one supplier, $800K SDE: why concentration was a feature, not a bug
Phil Kohler bought Roman Enterprises, a NJ auto paint wholesaler, for $2.5M at ~3x $800K SDE. One employee, seven jobber customers, one German supplier, 20% margins, 2x DSCR.
A retired Navy SEAL acquires a $1.6M commercial paving company with a conventional bank loan instead of SBA, then drives organic growth via crew restructuring and military-base subcontracting
A 20-year Navy SEAL veteran financed a $1.6M commercial paving acquisition with conventional bank debt instead of SBA (better rate, lower fees, 7-year amort), grew first-year revenue 40% from $4.1M to $5.97M through crew splitting, complementary-service subcontracting, and a military-base access advantage.
A 30-year corporate operator comes out of retirement to rebuild a Montreal candle manufacturer that fell from $5M to $1M.
Adam Goldberg, a seasoned operator with a prior liquidity event, bought Seracon, a Montreal candle manufacturer that had collapsed from $5M to $1M in revenue, and discovered that even 30 years of experience does not soften a turnaround.
A decade of reviewing acquisitions for a buyer community turned into PROX Capital Group, now spanning five bought businesses and one startup.
Adam Markley spent years evaluating acquisitions for a UK-focused buyer education community, then parlayed those reps into PROX Capital Group, a six-company holdco built on seller financing and operating partners rather than SBA debt and solo CEO seats.
A consultant swapped advisory work for a Charlotte hardscaping business with negative cash conversion and sub-based delivery.
Alan Lochridge left consulting to buy The Stone Man, a 20-year-old Charlotte hardscaper. He took it from $5.5M to $6.5M at 18% margins on $70K average jobs, running lean on subs with a negative cash conversion cycle.
How a Louisville searcher turned daily networking into a dual-brand basement and foundation repair business doing $4.5M.
Alex Holley ran one networking meeting per day for roughly three months in Louisville, hit about 100 conversations, and surfaced a dual-brand home services business: B-Dry Systems (basement waterproofing) and Ram Jack (foundation repair), doing ~$4.5M revenue at 20% margins and north of $800K SDE.
A Calgary operator stacked seller financing and Canadian bank debt to acquire a 25-year-old outdoor furniture manufacturer.
Andrew Stordeur acquired All Things Cedar, a 25-year-old Calgary outdoor furniture manufacturer doing $700K EBITDA, using ~35% seller financing plus Canadian bank debt and almost none of his own capital. No SBA required.
Derek Croft screened hundreds of targets before landing on LiceDoctors, a high-margin niche with a big untapped TAM.
Ex-Bain consultant Derek Croft acquired LiceDoctors, a national in-person lice treatment service doing ~$3M revenue and ~$1M SDE on roughly 17 orders per day, with a stated path to 50 daily orders and $9M.
Greg Bruns left commercial banking for Allied Hydromulch and spent his first quarter learning how weather and construction cycles set the P&L.
Former commercial banker Greg Bruns bought Allied Hydromulch, a ~$1M Houston erosion control business, then watched Hurricane Beryl erase his third month of revenue and teach him what project-based cash flow really means.
A capital-partnered independent sponsor uses M&A to expand the wedge of a niche software platform
An independent sponsor acquires a niche workflow platform serving 1,200 SMB customers in a specific trade category, then bolts on an integrated payments product to triple ARPU per customer.
Ex-PE CFO acquires a 30-year-old Portland-metro driveway pourer for sub-3x, keeps the foreman, and manages from Denver.
Brett Maxam bought Morcrete Construction in Feb 2024 for under $2M at sub-3x on ~$1M SDE, 30% down via ROBS, 70% seller note at 5% no PG, and now runs it remotely from Denver in ~10 hours a week.
A former bank VP leaves a $400K compensation package to acquire a 42-year-old construction supply business, loses the GM two weeks before close, and turns the crisis into the operating playbook
A 30-something former Fifth Third bank VP self-funded the acquisition of a 42-year-old construction supply business at 2.25x SDE, lost the general manager two weeks before close, and used the forced documentation effort to build the operating systems that drove 25% revenue growth and an expanded service line in the first 16 months.
Jared Lenner acquired Grade Potential from founder Dave Serwitz in an 8-month process that nearly broke during diligence.
Jared Lenner bought Grade Potential, a $30M in-person K-12 tutoring business growing 20-30% annually, in August 2024 via Search Fund Accelerator. The bookkeeper quit on day 33.
A self-funded immigrant searcher uses SDVOSB status, Oracle NetSuite, and a five-day-a-week commute to reposition a specialty manufacturer for the aerospace and defense tailwind
A self-funded searcher with IT-consulting and Army-veteran background acquired a $4.5M specialty crane and aerial lift manufacturer with 10% equity, 15% seller note, and 75% SBA, then deployed Oracle NetSuite, daily standups, and SDVOSB positioning to push toward $8.5M revenue while commuting from Northern Virginia to Wisconsin five days a week.
A first-time searcher acquired a Seattle staging company running absentee, then pushed revenue from $1.6M toward $2M in year one.
Danyelle Nys bought Decorus Home Staging in November 2024 for $780K (plus $160K working capital) via SBA, inheriting $1.6M revenue and $400K SDE from an absentee owner, then pushed the business toward $2M revenue and $480K EBITDA within a year.
Dominick Blue acquired Air ASAP in San Diego, added Pure Air, and learned the hard way about hiring an operator from day one.
Dominick Blue bought Air ASAP, a San Diego air duct cleaning business, without leaving his W-2. He hired an operator to run it, hit the predictable problems with that model, and then bolted on Pure Air to pivot into HVAC.
A former PE associate stacked sale-leaseback and asset-based lending to close a $3.5M EBITDA deal and walk away with a fee at the table.
Carlo Santelli acquired Triem Industries (Stillwater Fasteners), a decades-old $13M revenue, $3.5M EBITDA manufacturer, using sale-leaseback plus asset-based lending. Zero cash in, no personal guarantee, no outside equity, and a fee at closing.
A 15-year international development PM traded a $150K salary for a Dupont Circle Victorian, $60K innkeeper pay, and a 10-year wealth build.
Christine Traylor stacked a $5M SBA 7(a), $779K conventional loan, ~$850K seller note, and ~$850K cash to buy the 10-room Swann House in Dupont Circle, targeting $1M revenue, $700K NOI, and ~$7.5M net worth over 10 years.
A traditional searcher bought a 125-person psychogeriatric services provider while his spouse carried the equal weight of the search.
Cliff Nelson acquired PsychoGeriatric Services, a Maryland behavioral-health provider doing $15M+ revenue with ~125 staff, closing within a week of his first child's birth and relocating mid-transition.
Dan Drake accepted a ~$140K SDE business because geography and lifestyle were the hard constraints, not deal size.
CPA Dan Drake relocated from Seattle to Bend and bought Industrial Applied Electric, a 3-employee electrical contractor doing roughly $140K in SDE, treating the acquisition as a lifestyle and community-integration vehicle rather than a pure returns play.
Christi Loucks bought a virtual Canadian outbound sales service with $550K SDE, then absorbed a 50% revenue collapse post-close.
American buyer picked up a Canadian virtual B2B outbound sales service at $550K SDE via Acquire.com, then watched revenue fall 50% right after close and had to rebuild the book while navigating cross-border financing.
A Kellogg MBA trades studio exec life for a 10,000 sq ft ball pit in Downey, California, and a multi-unit thesis.
Self-funded searcher Daniel Batista bought Candeeland Downey, a 10,000 sq ft indoor play center doing $1.9M revenue and $900K SDE, for $3.45M (3.7x SDE) using 80% SBA, 5% seller note, and $500K friends-and-family equity.
A specialty electrical contractor went from $1.4M revenue to a $4M run rate by fixing bidding discipline and crew scheduling.
Enrique Rodriguez bought MAC General Power Solutions in September 2024 at $1.4M revenue and sub-$250K SDE. Nine months later the business is tracking to $4M revenue and $750K SDE, on a stated path to $15M.
An ex-Amazon operator discovers that 60% of small-business work has no corporate analog, even when the logos on your resume are big.
Eric Bauer spent a decade at Amazon running a $100M e-commerce P&L and helping build Just Walk Out, then bought Turner Hat Company, a ~$3M hat brand sold through hardware stores, garden centers, and travel centers in Auburn, Alabama.
A 28-year-old searcher survives a post-close family-embezzlement crisis, then builds a passive equity-in-kind partnership model.
28-year-old self-funded searcher bought a $2M-revenue NW Ohio cleaning company for $1.6M at 3.2x SDE, fired an embezzling family GM, stabilized at $400K SDE, and pivoted to taking 20% stakes as a deal-maker for other searchers.
Abhi Ravishankar and three partners each run one business while owning 20% of the other three, aiming for a $50M lifestyle holdco.
Four operators pooled equity into Truss One Partners, each running one small business at 40% with 20% in the other three. The first, a Bay Area pool company, grew from $3M to $9M in roughly 18 months via bolt-ons.
Two non-vets bet a fragmented Latin American market is ready for consolidation, with 5 clinics down and 10 more targeted in 12 months.
Francisco Del Rio and Diego Silva launched LatamVet (INTEGRAVET) to copy the U.S. vet consolidation model in Chile, closing 5 clinics by late 2024 with a target of 15 by end of 2025.
A real estate brokerage founder picks the overlooked trade of electrical over HVAC and plumbing, and plans 25% year-one growth.
Fred McGill, a former online real estate brokerage founder, acquired Bray Electrical Services for $3.2M, deliberately choosing electrical over crowded HVAC and plumbing, and projects 25% growth in year one.
Associated Photo & Imaging, a $750K SDE business, closed four months after a mindset reset on deadlines.
After 18 months of stalled searching, Grania Michel reframed her process around a forced four-month deadline, signed an LOI within two weeks, and closed on Associated Photo & Imaging at $750K SDE.
A capital markets trader raised $1M in two weeks and levered into a $5M+ flooring retailer serving builders.
Jacob VosWinkel acquired Floors Galore in July 2024 for roughly $5-6M using 70% SBA, 15% seller note, 15% equity from 8 investors. Grew 15% year one, 22% year two, opened a second location.
A 2.5x SDE entry on a rough-edged trades business turned into a 3x revenue run inside 18 months.
JD Beck bought Mountain Valley Plumbing and HVAC at 2.5x SDE ($75K-$150K range), sat on his hands for six months to learn the business, then tripled revenue over the next twelve while earnings grew even faster.
A first-time buyer's turnaround of DOVO, a storied German blade manufacturer, and what it cost in time and resources.
Jens Grudno, a first-time acquirer, bought DOVO, a 117-year-old bankrupt straight razor manufacturer, cheap. He stabilized operations and is launching a new product line to rebuild revenue.
A Chicago operator used SBA leverage twice, pivoting from owner-operator to holdco CEO in five years.
Joe Soelberg bought SONNY+ASH for $1.5M in 2019 (70% SBA, 10% down), survived COVID by pivoting to home furnishings, then stacked Point B Communications in 2024 at $5.5M with 5% down and a maxed SBA loan.
Orlando exterior cleaning company scaled from $3.2M to $4M after a multifamily veteran won the deal on chemistry, not price.
60-year-old multifamily exec bought a 35-year-old Orlando exterior cleaning business for $1.475M with 90% SBA 7(a), grew it from $3.2M to $4M in year one, and recouped his $162K equity inside 12 months.
A self-funded searcher took a four-person refrigeration business, turned over the roster, and plowed every dollar back in
Scott Crosby self-funded the $800K acquisition of American Services, a St. Louis HVAC/refrigeration shop doing ~$275K SDE with 4.5 employees, then spent year one replacing nearly the entire team and taking zero salary.
Two ex-banking friends raised $2.8M in friends and family to roll up a fragmented auto-repair franchise, structured deals creatively across cash, SBA, seller financing, and sale-leasebacks
Jack Foster (ex-KKR) and Jake McLaughlin (ex-Prospect Hill) raised $2.8M friends-and-family expecting 10 Meineke locations, executed 25 acquisitions in 2.5 years across NC, SC, WI, and MA using a mix of cash deals, 90% LTV SBA, sale-leasebacks, and seller financing, targeting $30M sales / $5M EBITDA platform.
How a fund-backed CEO scaled an urgent care chain from 6 to 22 locations in 36 months
A lower-middle-market PE fund backs a healthcare operating CEO to acquire a 6-clinic urgent care platform for $32M EV, then scales to 22 clinics through de novo openings and 3 strategic acquisitions over 36 months.
A second-time independent sponsor takes on the most complex transition in professional services
A two-deal independent sponsor acquires a 12-partner accounting firm at $4.5M EV, navigates partner retention and book-of-business risk, and grows EBITDA 30 percent through service mix shift and back-office consolidation.
A searcher finds hidden margin in a low-glamour distribution category
A traditional search fund acquires a $9M EV specialty industrial distribution business with $2.8M EBITDA, drives 25 percent EBITDA expansion through SKU rationalization, supplier renegotiation, and a private label introduction.
A self-funded searcher financed a $650K SDE HR software company through the SBA and operated it location-independent.
Andrew Swiler used an SBA loan to acquire Lanteria, an HR SaaS doing roughly $650K SDE, and ran it remotely from Barcelona, proving software deals can clear SBA underwriting when sized right.
A traditional search fund grad turned a low-penetration medical device niche into a recurring-revenue compounder outside Boston.
Ania Aliev closed a traditional-search acquisition of Life Support Systems in Nov 2023, flipped pricing to sell AEDs below cost against 2-year service contracts, hit 70%+ attach, doubled revenue in 18 months, then bolted on a competitor.
IT exec leaves MSPs for a $2.6M hot-side appliance repair business serving 4,000+ Tampa restaurants.
Brian Seeling bought PGM Service, a Tampa commercial kitchen repair shop, for $1.64M at 3.3x SDE ($500K+) with SBA plus Capital Pad equity, then layered PM contracts, warranty ASAs, and cold-side refrigeration on a $2.6M base.
Property-management operator buys a residential garage door and gate service business and runs into working capital and turnover walls.
Brittney Orellano left a $1M property management business she built over a decade to buy Radio Controlled Garage Door & Gate at ~$350K SDE. One year in, the hard parts are cash and people, not demand.
How an independent sponsor assembled a 6-practice DSO over 4 years
An independent sponsor acquires a 2-practice anchor for $4M EV, layers in 4 bolt-ons over 36 months, builds to $18M EBITDA, then refinances and partners with a family office for the platform play.
How a restaurant operator stacked two SBA-financed home care agencies into a $5M platform across 15 months.
Devin Fitzgerald bought a $1.1M Massachusetts home care agency for $600K with $50K of outside equity, then stacked a $3.9M bolt-on a year later using 100% SBA financing. Combined platform: ~$5M revenue, 17-23% EBITDA, ~100 employees, 300 patients.
Jan Roll bought a Georgia residential renovation business on SBA leverage, lost 25% of revenue in year one, then rebuilt the pipeline.
Jan Roll paid ~3.5x SDE ($4.2M EV) for a Georgia renovation GC doing $1.2M SDE, weathered a 25% revenue drop, a partner lawsuit, and licensing delays, and doubled pipeline from $1.5M to $3M over 21 months.
A finance veteran reconstructed three years of statements by hand to underwrite a messy but real cash-flowing business.
Chad Hildebrant left a 17-year finance career to buy a $3M New Jersey candle manufacturer whose seller tracked financials on a manila envelope. He rebuilt three years of books from bank statements by hand to underwrite the deal.
A self-funded searcher took down a 30-year-old commercial painting shop below typical SDE thresholds and learned the trade from the crew up.
Colin Gates acquired MasterCraft Coatings, a 30-year-old commercial painter doing roughly $2M revenue and $300-400K SDE, then spent pre-close weeks swinging a brush on crews to learn the work before taking the owner's seat.
JD Hasley bought an upscale 912-sq-ft frame shop for $645K with an SBA loan and cleared his equity in 12 months.
26-year-old ex-credit analyst bought a $600K-revenue Dallas frame shop for $645K (2.6x SDE), put $120K equity in, took revenue to a $900K run rate in 12 months, and returned 139% cash-on-cash in year one.
Navy supply chain officer turned self-funded searcher takes over a cash-heavy sign and awning manufacturer with 25 employees
Darryl Lindie, a Navy veteran with an MBA, closed on AA/Thrifty Sign & Awning in July 2023. The 77-year-old Rhode Island shop runs 25 employees on $650K SDE, with real estate bundled into the deal.
Two years of rebuilding Proven after add-backs, concentration, and a broken talent model surfaced post-close.
Gilbert paid $2.8M for a fractional CFO firm doing $2.1M revenue and a claimed $750K EBITDA. Post-close, real EBITDA was ~$375K, concentration was 30% not 10%, and 18 of 20 staff turned over in two years.
A military veteran runs a geography-locked search and takes over from an industry legend in plant health care.
Veteran searcher Don Gourley bought Boston Tree Preservation, a 45-year-old plant health care firm founded by industry pioneer Peter Wild, after a Boston-only search powered by a structured intern program.
A self-funded searcher turns a commercial printer into a cash machine in under two years, despite a brutal personal adjustment.
Evan Stewart closed on Direct One, an Orlando commercial printer, in early 2023 at $1.8M SDE. By end of 2024 the business was producing $3.2M EBITDA, nearly doubling in under 24 months.
A former P&G brand manager built a hearing aid MSO by letting manufacturers finance every acquisition.
Gail Hamilton Azodo rolled up 6 audiology practices across 7 sites to $4M+ revenue in 3 years, financed 100% by hearing aid manufacturers through supply agreements instead of SBA debt.
Partners bought ServiceMaster Clean Buffalo mid-decline, worked the overnight shift themselves, and grew revenue 60% in nine months.
Two partners acquired a ServiceMaster Clean franchise in Buffalo doing $1.1M (down from $1.5M) with ~$380K SDE, worked overnight shifts alongside crews, and grew to $1.8M in nine months.
A successful first buy attracted inbound deals. The second one collapsed in a year and cost him his house.
Jed Morris interned six months, bought a landscaping business, succeeded, then bought a second to chase $10M revenue. It collapsed inside a year, cost him $750K plus six figures of residual debt, and forced him to sell the family home.
A 27-year-old real estate analyst learned that acquisition success hinges on people decisions, not spreadsheets.
Jeremy Hunka, 27, bought Summit Cabinet Coatings for $1.68M (3x SDE) in summer 2023 on $90K down, $1.54M SBA, $150K seller note. Sales collapsed by January 2024. He stabilized by firing the underperforming salesperson and hiring a $75K fractional CEO three days a week.
West Point grad Jack Saville bought Strategic Fence with a forgivable seller note, then exited to Perimeter Solutions Group and took a president role.
Jack Saville bought Strategic Fence in Jan 2023 with 80% equity plus a 20% forgivable seller note, ran it 13 months, then sold into Sam Rosati's PSG platform and became Western Market President.
After one month of searching, a would-be acquirer pivoted to multi-unit franchising and targeted $1M EBITDA through a 10-unit Scenthound agreement.
Jacob Lee and his partner ran a self-funded search for one month, concluded the small-business economics did not pencil for them, and signed a 10-unit Scenthound franchise agreement over four years targeting $1M EBITDA.
After a year of dry searching for larger deals, a New Jersey operator dropped his floor and closed on a franchised pest control territory.
Jesse Sunquist searched full-time for roughly a year with no close, then widened his criteria down to $300K SDE and landed a Mosquito Joe franchise resale in New Jersey, with plans to stack additional territories.
A B-corp operator bought a Covid-flatlined exhibit producer, structured the downside, and rebuilt revenue from scratch in three years.
Adam Rao acquired Triple20, an exhibit production shop that had posted $0 in revenue for 15 months post-Covid, and rebuilt it to $6M in three years while structuring the deal to cap his downside.
Low-leverage SBA buyout, offshore back office, and a marketing-first operating model reframed a legacy plumbing shop as a consumer brand.
Aizik Zimerman bought J. Blanton Plumbing for $5.5M at 5.5x EBITDA with 65% equity and 35% SBA debt, then drove revenue from $6M to roughly $25M and EBITDA from $1M to $3M in three years by running the shop as a consumer marketing business.
How a tech sales rep used rapport and seller financing to land Wallaroo at roughly 3.75x SDE.
Alex Michael acquired Wallaroo, a phone-wallet FBA brand doing $650K in sales and $180K SDE, for $675K with $50-60K of seller financing carrying the inventory.
Pairing two blue-collar businesses with inverse seasonality to keep trained crews employed year-round outside Pittsburgh.
Andrew Harbin bought Venango Awning outside Pittsburgh, then stacked a fencing franchise with inverse seasonality to keep crews working year-round, targeting $1M EBITDA in five years.
A former banker raised investor capital, recruited a CEO during diligence, and ran the transition from the financial seat rather than the truck.
Austin Smoak, ex-banker, bought a Florida roofing business doing roughly $3M EBITDA off BizBuySell, raised outside equity, and hired a full-time operator before close so he could run the deal from the capital side instead of the roof.
Two years into Atlanta Furniture Taxi, the owner-operator traded the truck seat for an ops manager and a second LOI.
Brett Kennedy bought Atlanta Furniture Taxi in March 2022 at $250K SDE, doubled revenue in two years through a brutal housing downturn, and signed an LOI on a larger bolt-on by year two.
How a self-funded searcher leveraged route economics and recurring revenue
A solo searcher buys a $3.8M EV pest control business with 4,200 residential recurring contracts, drives 22 percent EBITDA growth in 18 months through route optimization and a contract-tier upsell.
A veteran buys a science-heavy defense manufacturer via carve-out, then spends six months learning what that structure actually costs.
Veteran Caroline Chapdelaine carved Northstar Photonics out of a larger parent in October 2022 for roughly $2M, then weathered a six-month cash crunch she called more stressful than combat before stabilizing the defense manufacturer.
Three micro-acquisitions, zero outside capital, and a decade-long horizon to 5x each business from the ground up.
Chase Murdock and his partner Adam bootstrapped Decada Group with no outside investors, stacking three sub-$500K acquisitions (a custom hat maker, an artist workshop, an ADU builder) into a debt-light Salt Lake City holdco aiming to 5x each over the next decade.
The GM quiet-quit then opened a competitor, sales collapsed, the seller vanished. One year later he's looking at deal number two.
Chris Jones bought a $6M North Carolina foundation repair company in 2022. His GM quiet-quit and launched a competitor, sales collapsed, the seller checked out. He stabilized inside 12 months and is now hunting a second deal.
A would-be miner turned operator, acquiring the niche colocation business he needed to exist, then riding out crypto winter.
Chris Koerner tried to mine bitcoin as a hobby, discovered home electrical can't handle it, and instead bought a $750K mining hosting facility off BizBuySell. Now runs it with 11 employees through crypto winter, gaining share as competitors fold.
A real estate investor turned franchise roll-up operator hit $10M revenue and $1M+ EBITDA, then paid the tax in health and family time.
Corey Robinson bought 4 Batteries Plus stores in Nov 2022, programmatically rolled up to 12 units and $1M+ EBITDA on ~$10M revenue in under 2 years, and learned speed has a personal cost.
A return-on-assets screen surfaced a $1.8M seasonal service business with 40% margins; the brutal transition paid off 17x.
Dan Tagliatela acquired Stutz Driveway Sealing, a 50-year-old asphalt business with $1.8M revenue and ~40% margins, using return-on-assets screening. He now runs it 3 hours a week and has compounded a 17x return on his initial equity.
Why the Onfolio founder avoids affiliate sites and e-commerce, and how he picks digital acquisitions that actually compound.
Dom Wells built Onfolio as a holdco for digital businesses by rejecting affiliate sites (Amazon cut commissions 8% to 3% in 2020, crushing revenue), skipping cash-hungry e-commerce, and buying ad-and-sponsorship content sites plus digital products.
Ben Jasper traded 24/7 New York finance for a $1M SDE New Jersey manufacturer and a 4:30am start time.
Ben Jasper left a New York hedge fund at 40 to buy a 10-person New Jersey plastic bag manufacturer doing ~$1M SDE, choosing a hands-on 4:30am factory life over corporate finance hours.
A traditional search fund deal that turned into a forced AI pivot, with EBITDA sacrificed to rebuild the product.
Felipe Corcuera and partner Antonio Elosua closed an $8.5M buyout of Beecker (RPA consulting, $5.5M revenue, $1.4M EBITDA) on December 12, 2022, twelve days after ChatGPT shipped. They rebuilt the revenue model twice in under three years.
A self-funded searcher lands a $2M commercial cleaner in Niagara with SDE of $600K-$800K and an earnout that absorbs the risk.
Fraser Voll acquired Regional Janitorial Services, a 50-year-old Niagara commercial cleaner doing $2M revenue at roughly 35% margins ($600K-$800K SDE), using an earnout to neutralize COVID-era revenue inflation and customer concentration risk.
A composite case study on route-density blue-collar services as a search target
A self-funded searcher acquires a $5M EV HVAC business with $1.4M EBITDA, finances 75% with SBA, doubles EBITDA in 30 months through a pricing reset, dispatch software, and a second-location bolt-on.
He picked up the tools himself, kept the phone ringing, and grew a near-dead shop to $3M in 2.5 years.
Jack Carr bought a sub-scale Brentwood HVAC shop in late 2022. Every technician quit on day one. He trained as a tech himself, protected the inbound phone, and scaled to $3M revenue and 17 employees by 2024.
A self-funded operator picks an aging internet property over a traditional search, wagering that age equals moat in Google's eyes.
Jaime Arias skipped the traditional search path and bought Patients4you, a 14-year-old network of dental lead gen sites, betting that domain age and SEO equity outlast any algorithm update.
A self-funded searcher applies Kanban, time-blocking, and weekly retros to land a $2M revenue, $600K SDE franchise in Austin.
Chirag Shah and his wife Tara ran their acquisition search like a product backlog: Kanban, daily time blocks, weekly process reviews. They closed on a Sit Means Sit franchise in Austin doing $2M revenue and $600K SDE.
A licensed HVAC technician acquired a $100K failing competitor, ran it under a new brand, and sold to private equity at 128x MOIC by treating Day 1 as the start of a build-to-sell cycle
A 20-year HVAC technician acquired a near-failing competitor for $100K (mostly seller financing) using a $15K SBA down payment, simultaneously launched his own brand, scaled to $2M revenue in 3 years, and sold to private equity for $3.25M in late 2025: roughly 128x return on his $25K total invested capital.
Ben Rizzo bought a 4th-generation Pittsburgh elevator shop operating in the red, doubled it, and sold inside 24 months.
First-time searcher Ben Rizzo bought 90-year-old Hadfield Elevator while it was losing money, doubled the business by unlocking its recurring service contracts, and exited inside two years with a life-changing outcome.
Gundwolf traded a high-margin online income stream for a blue-collar operating business, and the deal almost died over $300K of inventory.
At 24, an affiliate marketer used SBA financing to close a $4M HVAC acquisition after a 10-month process, nearly blown up by a $300K inventory revaluation at the finish line.
A finance pro's first six months running Georgia Scapes, and why the PE playbook got shelved fast.
Ex-PE associate used SBA 7(a) to buy Georgia Scapes, a $3-5M Atlanta commercial landscaper at 15-20% margins, then shelved his 100-day plan when he realized people management, not modeling, was the job.
What a due diligence operator learned running evaluations across e-commerce, SaaS, and content sites from $50K to nine figures.
Ahmed Raza built Rapid Diligence into a specialty DD firm serving online business buyers, handling deals from under $100K to $100M, with patterns showing most risk concentrates below $300K in SaaS and in undefensible e-commerce SKUs.
An American searcher relocates, runs a 50-operator learning tour, and closes on a government-contracted training provider in the UK.
Alex Glasner ran a transatlantic self-funded search, interviewed ~50 acquirers before starting, spent six weeks on infrastructure, and closed on Workpays, a UK workforce training provider with government contracts, in fall 2021.
How a co-operator used a bolt-on software acquisition to defend an online tutoring business and engineer a 2021 sale.
Andrew Finn joined ArborBridge at 25, moved tutoring online, bolted on CollegePlannerPro to take ~80% share of counselor software, spent 3-4 years grooming his successor, and sold both businesses together in June 2021.
Devin Wanzor used pricing psychology and inventory depth to lift margin 1.5% while working part-time.
Devin Wanzor, an ex-commercial banker and sign-company operator, bought a $3M-revenue Stillwater liquor store in January 2021, lifted gross margin 1.5% with .49/.99 price endings, and now runs it in 15 hours a week.
A partnership search closed on a Philadelphia logistics business, then discovered the owner's real job was the 24/7 delivery phone.
Brandon Adams and Don Ware bought 1975-founded Philadelphia Dry Ice on $850K normalized EBITDA with 80/10/10 SBA financing, then spent six months driving trucks after underestimating how much the seller personally absorbed.
A solo searcher acquires a critical-supply manufacturer with deep customer relationships
A traditional search fund acquires a $7.5M EV precision machining business with $2M EBITDA, navigates a difficult founder transition, and grows EBITDA 40 percent over 4 years through pricing discipline and one targeted capability investment.
A $1.2M SBA deal for an Ohio fence installer with eight employees, half of them the seller's family.
Cassi Niekamp bought Bowden Fence for $1.2M via SBA in June 2021. $750K-$850K revenue, 15% margins, no tracking systems, and half the crew was the seller's family. She doubled production in two months by switching to 4/10 schedules and running weekly meetings.
A Tampa searcher answered a tweet, took over Get Green NOI in 2021, and rode two full boom-bust cycles in under three years.
Chandler Reed responded to a January 2021 tweet from Sam Rosati, took over Get Green NOI in Tampa, and learned project-based construction and interest-rate exposure the hard way across two whiplash cycles.
An MIT grad trades tech startups for residential plumbing, chasing fragmented trades economics Amazon cannot disrupt.
Charles Barr, ex-tech operator with MIT and MBA pedigree, self-funded a ~$900K cash purchase of DiMartino Plumbing (roughly $1.5-$2M revenue, ~$300K SDE) at a 3x multiple in July 2021 to build a home services holdco.
$200K of personal equity into a $1.7M SBA deal, doubled EBITDA, then exited a tired operator before burnout won.
Corporate refugee bought Affordable Flooring Warehouse for $1.7M with $200K down and SBA debt, grew revenue 50% and doubled EBITDA over 3.5 years, then exited for a reported 24x on his initial equity.
A Stanford MBA and ex-PE associate bought System Six self-funded after a traditional search fund path didn't pan out.
Chris Williams left PE and Stanford GSB to buy System Six, a remote bookkeeping firm doing $3M revenue at 35-40% EBITDA margins, using an SBA loan after a traditional search didn't close a deal.
A four-year acquisition hunt ended with a B2B wholesale business throwing off $380K EBITDA in Salt Lake City.
Damon Chlarson spent four years studying acquisition before a COVID layoff forced his hand; he paid $1.1M for Pacific Insulation Supply ($2.2M revenue, $380K EBITDA) and projected $600K EBITDA in year one.
A traditional search fund acquires an asset-light snow and landscape brokerage, then scales headcount from 6 to 20+ without buying a single truck.
Eddy Zakes, former director of IESE's International Search Fund Center, acquired Earth Development, a landscaping and snow removal brokerage in Green Bay. He doubled revenue and grew headcount from ~6 to 20+ in 2.5 years by scaling an asset-light broker model.
400 prospects, 3 offers, one close at 2x EBITDA. Then he repositioned away from residential and nearly ran out of cash.
George Vallone applied B2B SaaS sales funnel mechanics to acquire Nuveldy's, a ~$1M Nashville apartment turnover cleaner, at 2x EBITDA in January 2021. He repositioned off residential and Airbnb work, then nearly died on a 4-6 week AR setup gap he hadn't modeled.
How a small Nashville cleaning business became a scalable, premium-priced operation through pay design and quality control.
George Vallone bought a sub-$1M Nashville apartment turnover cleaner in 2021 and tripled revenue by 2023 by redesigning contractor incentives to lock in quality and unlock premium pricing.
Corporate manufacturing systems leader acquires a legacy vertical-SaaS business with 80/10/10 SBA financing and a retiring champion inside.
Jason Budd left a decade in corporate manufacturing systems to buy Metasystems, a 45-year-old manufacturing ERP vendor, using 80% SBA / 10% seller / 10% buyer equity, and runs it at 20-30% net margins while modernizing the platform.
A traditional search fund acquired a complex healthcare compounder at 6.5x, then watched supplier concentration and reimbursement volatility unwind the thesis.
Joe Odell and partner Jess Patterson bought Pharmacy Specialists for ~$26M in Dec 2021 on $20M revenue and $4M EBITDA. An undisclosed sales rep departure, patient census duplication, and a 90% cardiology reimbursement cut in 2024 wiped out EBITDA. Shut down September 2024.
DFW Turf Solutions went from $5M to $15M under a searcher who closed six weeks after starting the hunt.
Johannes Hock went from blank-page search to LOI in six weeks, bought DFW Turf Solutions at roughly $5M revenue in 2021, and scaled it past $15M by 2023 by leaning into a project-based model most searchers screen out.
A trailer fab operator on why staying small and profitable beats scaling headcount, and what the $2M EBITDA threshold unlocks.
John Hubbard bought Express Custom Trailers in 2021 at $750K EBITDA and grew it to roughly $2M by 2023 while a competitor with 4x his revenue and 6x his headcount generated the same profit.
SBA loan, personal guarantee, $2M of reported earnings, and a business that didn't survive two years under new ownership.
John Ikalowych and a partner bought HailCo, an auto hail-repair business, for under 4x on ~$2M of reported earnings using an SBA loan with a personal guarantee. Two years later, the business was shuttered and John had written a six-figure personal check trying to save it.
John (@FundOf1) chose a right-sized 10-person business in South Carolina over chasing a bigger deal, and documented the reality publicly.
John acquired a South Carolina residential appliance repair business for $775K (15% equity, 5% seller note, 80% SBA) with $240K SDE and 75-80% contracted revenue from warranty companies and manufacturers.
John Hubbard fired half the customer book, kept the managers, and tilted a fabrication business toward commercial custom work.
John Hubbard, a 13-year Special Operations vet, closed Express Trailers in Feb 2021 with no cash down, cut 50% of unprofitable customers, kept the managers, and rebranded around higher-margin commercial custom work.
14 acquisitions, geographic expansion across 4 states, and a proprietary EHR software platform that made the rollup repeatable
Jenna Whigham and her brother used a traditional search fund (Housatonic Partners 51% majority) to acquire an $85-100M home care business serving the IDD population, then drove 14 acquisitions and geographic expansion to 4 states, growing revenue from $60M to $350M+ and EBITDA from $10M to $75M in 5.5 years.
A CEO-first trial run, a $1M project blowup, and a pivot from construction to service drove 3x to 7x multiple expansion.
Adam Vandermyde ran Petro West as CEO for 6 months before buying 80% at $4.5M (3x EBITDA, 50% seller note, 40% SBA). Five years later he sold to PE-backed Nwesco for $14.5M at 7x, netting ~$7.6M.
How four co-founders turned a $10M Arkansas HVAC business into a multi-brand home services rollup.
Four co-founders launched Snowball Industries in 2020, acquired a ~$10M Arkansas HVAC business, doubled it to ~$20M, and scaled the portfolio toward $45M within three years.
A sub-$1M Colorado home services buy became the training ground for a multi-acquisition platform in 2.5 years.
Andrew Hitchings, his wife Marcela, and partner Max Williams bought a Colorado HVAC shop doing ~$250K SDE on under $1M revenue, tripled it in 2.5 years by working the trucks themselves, and used it as the platform for a holdco.
Bought at the COVID peak, nearly broken by the drawdown, then rolled up distressed contractors across six states.
Avery Tomek bought one FedEx Ground route for roughly $1M with $100K of equity at the COVID shipping peak, survived the post-pandemic volume crash, then rolled up distressed contractors into a 240+ truck, ~$25M run-rate operation across six states.
A vagabond searcher turned a sweaty, blue-collar service business into a 7-figure exit by doing the routes himself before fixing them.
Ben Bortner couch-surfed and drove Uber during his search, bought a Key West pool route via BizBuySell, doubled revenue and 4x'd earnings in 3 years, and exited for 7 figures.
A decade in tree crews gave him the operating floor; digital marketing and an outside investor gave him the ceiling.
Brian Hartman bought a $2.5M Atlanta tree service after a decade building two others in the same market, nearly doubled revenue in year one, took outside capital from a fellow searcher, and scaled to roughly $60M including a second acquisition across the country.
A UVA Darden grad self-funded into a 25-person Richmond manufacturer and survived the pandemic his first month in the chair.
Bruce Vann self-funded into LuXout Stage Curtains at 2x EBITDA in February 2020, caught COVID a month later, still posted the company's best year, and hit six figures of owner income by 2022.
How a startup veteran used SBA leverage and a creative earnout to close a doubling business without overpaying.
Casey Allen acquired Barista Warrior for $970K in June 2020 with 20% down, an SBA loan, and a performance-tied seller note. Revenue grew from ~$1M to $1.7M and margins expanded from 17% to 35% in year one.
A nine-month search, a COVID-era close, and a fast lesson that smaller deals starve you of management depth.
Chris Munn closed on a ~$800K Tampa commercial cleaning business during COVID, ran it from LA on the back of an inherited GM, and within three months concluded he should have bought bigger to afford real management layers.
A commercial fragrance founder pivoted to healthcare revenue cycle, partnered with a CPA, and closed at a 3x multiple in late 2020.
Curt Neider and CPA partner Mike Hansen bought Illuminate Billing Advocates (~$1M revenue, substance abuse and mental health RCM) in December 2020 at ~3x using an 80/10/10 SBA structure with working capital parked in a separate SBA Express line.
A serial acquirer picks a non-Amazon online business off BizBuySell, then navigates a pandemic revenue drop with an intact team.
Serial acquirer Dave Bramlett bought a 20-year-old online resume writing business doing $150-170k/month off BizBuySell in March 2020, then watched COVID cut revenue to $90-120k/month while leaning on an intact management team.
An investor's offhand pivot ('make it a platform') reshaped a searcher's thesis and 4.5 years of deal cadence.
Elliott Edge set out to buy one MSP to run for decades. An equity investor told him to treat deal #1 as a platform. Four and a half years and seven acquisitions later, Velonex Technologies is a $16M managed IT services roll-up.
Starting with a $500K-revenue Denver music school, he proved operational fixes compound fast in a fragmented niche.
Jeff Homer bought Dana V. Music in Denver ($500K revenue, 250 weekly students, 15 part-time teachers), then rolled up 39 more music schools in four years before selling the platform to private equity.
Geoff Oliver passed on a real estate deal, bought the laundromat tenant instead, and ran the playbook on a sleepy asset-heavy business.
Former SBA banker Geoff Oliver bought two rural Texas laundromats for $300K (4-5x earnings) with 20% down, added automation and payment options, and grew revenue 50-60% with the gains falling straight to contribution margin.
A crane servicing operator proves the patience thesis: master one business deeply before stacking acquisitions on top.
Barker Squire bought CraneWorks in 2019, ran it as CEO for six years, tripled revenue through deliberate constrained growth, then groomed a successor before even considering the holdco he originally envisioned.
A small property management book, a bolt-on, and a dual-bidder exit turned a sleepy operation into a premium sale.
Brian Lee Shields and a partner bought a barely-profitable, paper-run San Francisco property manager in Dec 2019, digitized it, bolted on a second book, ran it remotely from LA, and exited 2.5 years later to a strategic at a premium.
An SBA lender acquired a tiny ecommerce side hustle, kept his day job, and compounded it 26x over five years.
Chad Fondriest, a career SBA lender, bought a couple's $150K/year decorative wreath ecommerce business in 2019 and grew it to $4M in revenue by 2024 while never leaving his lending job.
Sleeping Giant Capital blends a search fund, a holdco, and a university partnership to acquire boring regional businesses.
Sleeping Giant Capital raised a $34.5M fund, closed 7 searcher-led acquisitions, and now runs a portfolio doing $90-100M revenue across 300+ employees, all inside one Michigan region.
A Medicaid audit surfaced after close, the real P&L was negative, and the six-year rebuild made the investors whole anyway.
Jason Jackson closed on a dental practice marketed at $1.5M SDE, discovered during transition the seller was defrauding Medicaid, and spent six years rebuilding a business that was actually losing money once the fraudulent revenue was removed.
A self-funded searcher rides out a near-total demand collapse and learns what ownership actually tests.
Jesse Safir acquired ABG Print in Manhattan in 2019. Nine months later COVID cut sales 95% in two days. He survived the collapse and by 2023 revenue was approaching pre-pandemic levels.
Danny Fields and Steve Reis learned that headline revenue per employee hides how hard the next leg of growth can be.
Partners bought Holland Supply Company in 2019 doing 8-figure revenue with 9 employees, spent four years frustrated by slow organic growth, then bolted on a competitor's assets to push headcount from 20 toward 60 by mid-2024.
Christian Bateson traded distressed debt for a 3x cash flow SBA deal in Atlanta, then rode data centers to 4x revenue.
Ex-Bear Stearns analyst bought a $2.5M revenue, 20%-margin construction cleanup business in Atlanta for $1.5M (SBA, $411K equity) in 2019. Five years in, revenue is projected at $7.5M, driven by data center contracts and extreme delegation.
A union mason turned holdco operator built a $50M+ trades portfolio by preserving legacy brands and underwriting to cash flow, not growth.
Justin Escajeda bought his first roofing company for $846K (1.3x SDE) in 2018 and rolled it into an 11-company, 250-employee, $50M+ revenue trades holdco, all 100% personally owned.
Jérôme Bouillon on operating a people-heavy home care agency, the franchise tradeoffs, and why the growth curve was slower than it could have been.
Jérôme Bouillon bought a $500K-revenue Visiting Angels home care franchise in 2018, grew past $1M and opened a second location, but says he left growth on the table by under-investing in recruiting and sales earlier.
A 2 a.m. cold start in Indianapolis became a six-year sequential-acquisition story across four unrelated verticals.
Colin King and his partner bought a $250K automotive parts delivery route in 2018, ran routes themselves on night one when drivers no-showed, and compounded into a four-company holdco approaching $30M in aggregate revenue by 2024.
A self-funded Kellogg couple turned a €4M exhibition services business into a €12M+ operator through a COVID survival play.
Ivona and Corbin Butcher self-funded the purchase of two merged Czech exhibition services companies (€4M revenue, 30% EBITDA margins), survived a week where revenue went to zero in COVID, and emerged with tripled revenue and over €2M EBITDA.
A Hanover, New Hampshire main-street institution became a self-funded search target once the category filter came off.
Jarett Berke told his intermediary to exclude restaurants, then bought Lou's in Hanover, NH after spotting above-category margins, a durable brand, and valuable main-street real estate. Six years in, the business has cleared COVID and is compounding.
How a two-person MBA team ran 9,000 outbound touches to land Paragon Legal, then grew clients 148% in year one.
Jessica Markowitz and Trista Engel ran a 25-month partnered search (9,000 companies, 20 offers) before buying Paragon Legal in August 2018, then added 40 new clients in year one versus 27 cumulative before the deal.
Edward McDonnell bought an $11M Seattle plantscaping business, stayed in the niche, and rolled it up across five states.
Traditional searcher acquired an $11M/$2M EBITDA Seattle interior plant company in 2018, stayed 'two inches wide, two miles deep,' rolled up three geographies pre-exit, hit 35% IRR, then scaled to 8 branches and ~200 employees as PE-backed CEO.
SBA-funded search in Denver turned a one-state specialty service into a five-state, $9M cash exit.
Andy Rougeot bought RG Maintenance in 2017 for ~$2.4M (3.25x $725K EBITDA), expanded from Colorado into four more states using veteran GMs, and sold in July 2022 for $9M all-cash (5.3x $1.7M EBITDA).
Failed payroll, Hurricane Harvey, a newborn crisis, and employee defections in week one. He still exited profitably five years later.
Ayo Phillips bought a Houston resurfacing company in 2017, hit failed payroll, Hurricane Harvey, a family medical emergency, and employee defections in his first weeks, then rebuilt over five years and exited to a strategic buyer.
Two operators under 30 bought an Austin landscaping company and sold to BrightView in 3.5 years by rebuilding it around recurring revenue.
Bradley Roofner and Logan Brown bought WLE, an Austin landscaper, around 2017, converted it from project work to contract recurring revenue, scaled to $23.5M by 2019, and sold to BrightView roughly 3.5 years in at an estimated $28M EV.
How acquiring an 800-unit property management firm in 2017 became the operating engine behind a 20x real estate build.
Brandon Laughridge bought North Terrace Property Management in Kansas City in 2017 with 800 units under management, doubled the book to 1,600 units, and used the operating company to 20x his personal rental portfolio.
An ESOP-structured holding company with 5 operating businesses and 300 employees, funded by the cash flow of the first acquisition.
Chris Fredericks turned Paramount Plastics, an ESOP he joined as president, into Empowered Ventures: a 100% employee-owned holdco with 5 companies, 300 employees, and $120M+ in revenue.
27 acquisitions since 2017 across a 1,000-mile footprint, structured to hold for decades instead of flipping.
Jack McCarthy co-founded Gold Leaf Farming in 2017 and has rolled up 27 pistachio and almond farms totaling $350M, treating the platform as a multi-decade hold rather than a PE-style exit vehicle.
Self-funded SBA search, daily 7-to-7 presence, and a marketing budget that grew 37x from $38K to $1.4M.
Jerod Pierce bought a $3.5M revenue Seattle HVAC shop for $1.75M via SBA in 2017, grew it to $35M revenue and $6M+ EBITDA in 5 years, then exited in October 2022 for an upper-8-figure price after declining a $95M offer.
A self-funded searcher bought a Tyler, Texas sign manufacturer in 2017 and doubled revenue and SDE, at real personal cost.
Dan Verboski bought Leon's Signs, a 72-year-old Texas sign manufacturer, in 2017 at $2.3M revenue and $650K SDE. Seven years later both have doubled, SDE is north of $1M, and the ride cost him his mental health along the way.
A patient, unit-by-unit consolidation of legacy franchise locations most searchers wrote off as too small.
Brian Beers and his brother started buying one Midas shop at a time in 2016 and compounded the playbook into 30 locations doing $36M in annual revenue, largely financed by retiring owners willing to carry paper.
A traditional search fund acquisition of HousingWire that rebuilt sales four times and bolted on data, events, and SaaS.
Clayton Collins bought HousingWire in 2016 at $4M revenue and ~40% EBITDA margins, then rebuilt the sales org three or four times and stacked five acquisitions (Real Trends, Altos Research) to reach ~$20M revenue across six streams by 2025.
The Harvard MBA who bought three companies, got burned on diligence, and built the firm he wished existed for sub-$2M deals.
Elliott Holland bought auto parts, tow truck, and clinical trials businesses, learned pre-LOI data is +/- 40 percent accurate, and built Guardian Due Diligence to fill the gap. Roughly 30 deals in 2021.
How a Scottsdale-area shuttle business grew into a $10M transit operator across paratransit, NEMT, and corporate routes.
George Goates bought a small shuttle company in 2016 and quadrupled it to roughly $10M by chasing municipal bus contracts, starting with Scottsdale, then layering paratransit, NEMT, and corporate shuttles on top.
How a buy-side advisor, a maxed SBA loan, and a large seller note got a full-time employee into a high-7-figure deal.
Jason Andrews bought GroupSource, a Kansas City healthcare GPO, for close to $10M at age 42 using a maxed SBA loan, a large seller note, and nearly every non-401(k) dollar he had. Buy-side advisor cost ~$250-300K and closed the deal in 100-110 days after a 10-month sourcing phase.
Self-funded acquisition of a $1M precision machine shop, surviving an over-acquired second site, and selling to the COO with 100% seller financing
A self-funded searcher acquired a $1M Vermont machine shop with $300K cash flow, grew sales 50% in the first three years, made a near-fatal mistake consolidating into a distressed second site at the start of COVID, recovered over five years, and exited via 100% seller financing to the COO at a 25% IRR / 2x MOIC over a decade.
A B2B sales veteran with €50K in savings used state-backed financing to buy 12 translation shops across Germany.
Cédric Sigoire put €50K down on a €1M translation agency in Düsseldorf using an 80% German state loan guarantee, then rolled up 11 more shops to hit €5M revenue by 2021.
Three Wall Street refugees spent seven years compounding 30 acquisitions into a 450-person multi-industry holding company.
James, Palmer, and Trish Higgins left Wall Street in 2015, bought a Maine snowplowing business, and compounded it into a 7-platform, 450-employee holdco with roughly 30 acquisitions over seven years.
A former HBS-trained PE associate spent four years searching, acquired a 12-employee Toronto gift basket maker, and built it into a $30M B-Corp explicitly rejecting search-fund exit timelines
Robin Kovitz spent four years searching after leaving Canadian PE, acquired a 12-employee gift basket business in 2014, executed five consolidation acquisitions, achieved $30M revenue and B-Corporation certification, and explicitly rejects the 5-7 year PE exit model in favor of generational ownership.
A $60K SaaS deal financed on zero-percent credit cards became the first rung of a 10-year, five-acquisition holdco climb.
Chandra Rao bought a small SaaS business from a friend for $60K on zero-interest credit cards, partnered with Colin, and over ten years and five acquisitions built Miller Companies to $12M revenue and $3M EBITDA, surviving two dishonest sellers and a payroll crisis that forced them to liquidate personal assets.
650 coffee meetings, a structural steel fab, and four businesses built by compounding rather than planning.
Adam Duggins ran 650 in-person meetings in Greensboro in 2013 to buy a ~$12M structural steel fabricator with under 30 employees, then compounded that into a four-company, $75M revenue, 220-employee accidental holdco.
How two brothers used cash from a declining print business to fund seven tuck-in acquisitions in promotional products.
Ben and David Grossman inherited a 110-year-old envelope printer in decline, redeployed print cash into seven promotional-product tuck-ins since 2013, and turned swag from 10-15% of sales into the overwhelming majority.
Alicia Miller assembled 12 Sylvan Learning centers, ran the playbook, and exited into the private equity wave reshaping franchising.
Alicia Miller left a travel-heavy corporate job in her early 40s, bought into Sylvan Learning as a multi-unit franchisee, built a 12-location portfolio, and exited a few years later into the PE-driven consolidation wave now reshaping franchising.
A family handoff of a 22,000-customer Philadelphia septic pumper, repriced and rerouted from $1M to $3M.
Dan Spracklin bought Gray Brothers Septic from his retiring father-in-law in 2013 with zero industry experience, then grew it from $1M to $3M revenue and 10-15% to 30%+ margins by repricing, rerouting, and running the same book with three trucks instead of five.
A 26-year-old HBS grad de-risked a founder-dependent NYC tour operator and rode working capital plus multiple expansion to a 9x exit.
Greg Geronemus acquired smarTours in 2013 for $29M (5x $5M EBITDA), grew EBITDA 50% to $7.5M while paying down $15.5M of debt, and sold to Summit Park in 2017 for $67.5M at 9x, a 4-turn multiple expansion.
Peace Vans went from a hole-in-the-wall Seattle repair shop to a beloved national Volkswagen van business over 12 years.
Harley Sitner bought a failing Seattle VW van repair shop for $100K in 2013 and built it into an 8-figure specialty brand over 12 years by treating the niche as a platform, not a garage.
A seven-year Minuteman Press ride through savings depletion, a sold house, 94 cents in the ashtray, and a COVID-era exit.
JD Klein bought a Minuteman Press franchise for $100K (one-third down, two-year seller note), grew revenue from $175K to $800K+, but low printing margins nearly broke the family before a COVID-era pivot delivered a clean 2021 exit.
A 35-year-old operator walked away from vested equity to buy a regional copier business, then 6x'd revenue before exiting.
Jeff Horn left a vested equity role at 35 to buy Benchmark Business Solutions, a $5M Xerox dealer in Lubbock, and grew it past $30M in five years before a life-changing exit.
How a government data analytics carve-out went from 20% staffing margins to 60% program margins and an 11x EBITDA exit.
Jake Bittner and Adam Roy bought an unprofitable Accenture carve-out for ~$600K on 100% seller financing in 2011, pivoted from staff-aug to multi-year analytics programs, and sold in 2021 for $35M (11x EBITDA) on $20M+ revenue.
A hands-on acquisition in Silicon Valley's private-vineyard niche, grown by doing the work before directing it.
David Page acquired Post & Trellis, a tiny vineyard-management shop serving Silicon Valley's private estate owners, and grew revenue 5x over roughly 12 years by running crews himself before scaling them.
A 2009 recession-era single-unit buy with his mother compounded into one of the country's top multi-unit Mathnasium operators.
James Temple and his mother bought a single Mathnasium franchise for $40K in 2009. Thirteen years later the platform runs 19 locations across VA and MD doing roughly $7M in revenue.
How a North Carolina operator turned two unprofitable plastics businesses into a $22M kayak and custom molding platform.
Don Grigg bought two money-losing plastics shops in 2002 with a few hundred thousand of his own capital. He scaled one to $10M and sold to ITW. He still owns the other, now a $22M, 110-employee kayak and custom molding platform.
A Sam Zell alum bought a small wood furniture maker in 1996 and is now pushing it from $25M to a $60M target.
Gat Caperton cold-called an aging owner in 1996, bought a West Virginia wood furniture plant at 29, and 28 years later is investing to scale from $25M to a $60M run rate with Room & Board as an anchor customer.
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