Bruce Vann Bought a Stage Curtain Maker at 2x EBITDA After Getting Fired Repeatedly

The Setup Bruce Vann is a Black operator with a UVA Darden MBA who kept getting fired. Not for performance. The jobs just evaporated. After cycling through corporate roles that ended in layoffs or forced exits, a contact in his network floated the idea of buying a business instead of chasing another W-2. He took the pitch seriously. He set one filter: the business had to be something he could scale and wrap his head around. He explicitly did not care about industry or geography. He wanted something he called 'MBA-proof,' meaning a real operating business that rewards showing up, not one that lives or dies on clever strategy decks. The Deal LuXout Stage Curtains is a Richmond, Virginia manufacturer that builds curtains for theaters, churches, and schools. 25 employees. Niche, unsexy, and almost entirely ignored by other searchers. Bruce ran a volume-heavy self-funded search. He reviewed thousands of listings, contacted brokers daily, and watched multiple deals die before LuXout surfaced. His framing: 'Doing this is just like taking a full-court shot. It's just a numbers game. You put up as many shots as you can.' The pricing break came from diligence, not negotiation. The broker had listed the cash flow as net income (after the owner's salary) rather than true EBITDA. Bruce caught it. With the real earnings number, he closed at roughly 2x EBITDA, a multiple that would be unheard of in trades or HVAC but is typical for a small specialty manufacturer with concentration risk and a founder in the seat. He closed in February 2020. First 100 Days The pandemic hit weeks after closing. Theaters went dark. Schools closed. Churches stopped gathering. His three customer segments all shut down simultaneously. Labor got tight. Bruce had to pull on a shop apron and work the floor alongside the team to keep orders moving. Staff were anxious about a new owner, a new virus, and a collapsing order book all at once. He held one line through all of it: at least one day a week out of the shop, alone, thinking. Not doing. Thinking. He described needing 'this time to just sit by myself in quietness.' That discipline is the part most first-time owners skip and later regret. Operating Moves - Kept the existing 25-person team intact. No purge, no imported playbook. - Worked operationally when labor gaps demanded it, but refused to become a permanent line worker. - Protected one strategic day per week from day one, even during the pandemic scramble. - Leaned on the niche's structural moat: very few manufacturers make stage curtains, switching costs are real, and buyers (facilities managers, church boards, school districts) are not price-shopping on Amazon. Where They Are Now 2020 was LuXout's best year on record despite the pandemic, because deferred orders and renovation dollars flowed toward venues preparing to reopen. 2021 continued the recovery. By 2022 Bruce was pulling six figures in owner earnings and the business was positioned for a growth year as venues returned to full...