Jason Andrews Bought a $10M Healthcare GPO With a Buy-Side Advisor at 42

The Setup Jason Andrews was 42, married with kids and a mortgage, and working a full-time W-2 job when he decided he wanted to own a business rather than start one. He did not want to quit his job to search, and he did not want to spend years cold-calling owners himself. He hired The DVS Group in Kansas City as a buy-side advisor and paid roughly $2,000/month during sourcing, with a success fee that brought total advisory cost to $250,000-$300,000 on the closed deal. The search radius was tight: within 45 miles of Kansas City, because Jason was not willing to uproot his family or commute across a state. That geographic constraint is the kind of filter most searchers refuse to accept, and it is the kind most families need. The Deal - Target: GroupSource, a group purchasing organization serving hospitals, medical offices, and nursing homes. The business aggregates member demand and negotiates bulk pricing with suppliers, earning a cut of the spend it directs. - Enterprise value: high 7 figures, closer to $10M than $5M. - Sourcing phase: 10 months. The advisor generated roughly 30 warm leads before GroupSource surfaced. - Close timeline: 100-110 days from first contact with the seller to closing. - Capital stack: maxed-out SBA 7(a) loan, a large seller note, and nearly every non-retirement dollar Jason had. No family office, no investor group, no search fund capital. The shape of this deal matters. At ~$10M EV with an SBA loan capped at the program limit, the seller note had to do real work, meaning the seller stayed financially exposed to the business post-close. That is a feature, not a bug: it aligns the seller through the transition and keeps them motivated to make introductions, answer questions, and not blow up relationships on the way out. Operating Moves GPOs are a people and relationships business dressed up as a procurement business. The economics are excellent once it is running (contracts renew, rebates flow, headcount stays flat), but the risk concentration is in member relationships and supplier contracts, not in equipment or inventory. Jason kept the team lean and the owner footprint small. - Cash flow per employee at GroupSource exceeds what most small businesses produce in revenue per employee. That is the tell of a high-leverage contract business. - Annual growth ran in the mid-teens percent range post-close. - The SBA note was paid down ahead of schedule, which de-risked the personal guarantee faster than the amortization table required. - Target owner workload: 15 hours per week. Not because Jason is lazy, but because a GPO where the owner is the bottleneck cannot scale past one person's Rolodex. Operating Lessons - A buy-side advisor is not a luxury if you have a W-2 and a family. The $250-300K was the price of not losing two years of income while self-sourcing, and the price of seeing 30 warm leads instead of 3. - Stay employed through the search. Jason did not quit his job until close....