Devin Fitzgerald Acquired $5M in Home Health Revenue with Just $50K in Equity

The Setup Devin Fitzgerald spent a decade as an operations manager for a family-owned restaurant group, expanding it from 3 to 14 locations. He calls it his boots-on-the-ground MBA. No equity stake, no glamour. Just learning what it takes to open locations, manage people, and solve problems nobody else wants to touch. Two sentences heard on random YouTube videos changed his trajectory: "It's easier to buy revenue than create it" and a demographic observation about the wave of baby boomer business owners looking to sell. The math clicked. By his 35th birthday, he committed to buying a business. The industry choice was personal. His grandmother, Ruth Miriam Lang, was a lifelong nurse who served as a first lieutenant in the US Army in the South Pacific during World War II and co-founded the American Nurse Association chapter in Massachusetts. She was also the stabilizing force in Devin's chaotic childhood, marked by substance abuse and domestic violence in the household. Home health care let him honor her legacy while entering a fragmented, growing industry with clear acquisition opportunities. Devin started his search in 2021. No ETA community, no search fund structure. Just cold calls. He estimates he made over 2,000 calls to home health and home care agencies across Massachusetts, refining his pitch with each conversation. He also scanned BizBuySell and similar listing sites. The Deal His first serious deal died eight months in, the day a bank term sheet arrived, due to undisclosed personal issues on the seller's side. One hour later, Devin was back on BizBuySell. He found a skilled home care agency, CMS-certified, about an hour from his apartment. Revenue: $1.1 million. EBITDA margins around 23%. Asking price: $600,000, roughly 3x EBITDA. The business was what Devin calls an MVB (minimum viable business). Run conservatively as a lifestyle operation by three partners. Compliant but stagnant. Revenue had declined for three consecutive years. Devin brought zero personal savings to the table. One investor from his advisory board provided the $50,000 equity injection. Friends and family covered closing costs. SBA financed the rest. Devin retained a strong majority ownership stake. The closing nearly collapsed. Days before the planned June 2023 close, the bank flagged that one seller was in undisclosed divorce proceedings and another owed $140,000 in back taxes to the IRS. The SBA would not fund until the government was made whole. Devin project-managed the sellers through it. The divorce proceedings were paused to allow the transaction. The back taxes were paid. He even drove out to the office unannounced to give the lead seller a hug and reaffirm his commitment. The deal finally closed in September 2023, three months late. The second acquisition came fast. Devin entered a letter of intent in February 2024 on a larger agency doing $3.9 million in revenue, same service lines, same payers, different part of Massachusetts. This time he used the SBA's same-NAICS expansion product, introduced around 2023, which allows 100% financing when the acquirer already owns a business in the same...