Chris Edwards: 24x Return in 3.5 Years Flipping a Colorado Flooring Shop

The Setup Chris Edwards left corporate life at 30 as a self-described "corporate refugee." He picked a mountain town (Steamboat Springs, Colorado) and a decidedly unsexy target: a flooring retailer and installer called Affordable Flooring Warehouse. No tech, no roll-up thesis, no operating partner. One business, one town, one checkbook. The seller wanted out. Chris wanted in. The gap between those two desires is where self-funded searchers make their money. The Deal - Purchase price: $1.7M - Equity in: $200K of his own capital - Debt: SBA 7(a) loan covering the balance - Structure: Classic self-funded acquisition, no independent sponsor, no institutional LPs The $200K equity check is the number worth sitting with. At a 24x outcome, that is roughly $4.8M of gross proceeds to the operator over 3.5 years, before taxes and any rolled equity considerations. The leverage did most of the heavy lifting; the operating improvement turned a decent deal into a career-making one. Operating Moves Edwards grew revenue 50% and doubled EBITDA over the hold. That spread (revenue up 50%, earnings up 100%) is the tell. He did not just sell more flooring. He took margin structure apart and put it back together. In a flooring business, the levers are narrow and known: - Installer productivity and subcontractor mix - Attach rates on pad, trim, and labor - Pricing discipline on the showroom floor (stop discounting to close) - Supplier rebates and inventory turns - Project management so jobs don't bleed gross margin after the quote Doubling EBITDA in a resort-town retail business in 3.5 years means he pushed on most of those at once. Steamboat is also a tailwind market: second homes, remodels, and a construction cycle that ran hot through the hold period. Where They Are Now Edwards exited the business and completed his transition obligations to the buyer. He has been open that the last stretch was grinding; by his own account he was "perpetually grumpy" toward the end. That is the honest version of the searcher arc that most case studies sand off. The exit was not just a financial decision. It was an energy decision. Operating Lessons - Know your own expiration date. If you feel the grumpy phase setting in, start preparing a sale. A tired owner destroys value faster than a good operator can build it. - Small down payment, real debt, real risk. $200K in a $1.7M SBA deal means a personal guarantee and a decade of anxiety. Do not confuse the 24x headline with a low-risk path. - Pick a market with wind at your back. Steamboat's housing and remodel cycle did not make the deal, but it made the growth cheaper. - EBITDA growth beats revenue growth. A 50/100 split on revenue vs. EBITDA is where enterprise value actually compounds. Price the exit off earnings, not top line. - Treat the SBA loan amortization as forced equity. A chunk of the "return" on a deal like this is just principal paydown from operating cash flow. That is...