Jeremy Hunka Bought a $1.68M Cabinet Refinisher and Hired a Fractional CEO to Save His Life

The Setup Jeremy Hunka was 27, working commercial real estate asset management in Denver, and wanted schedule control more than he wanted to be an entrepreneur. He had a chemistry degree, strong underwriting chops, and zero operating experience. His wife was finishing a therapy graduate program, so he was the sole earner. He searched part-time for about a year on BizBuySell, screening for $300K+ SDE, recurring-ish revenue, no retail, no restaurants. A broker surfaced Summit Cabinet Coatings in Fort Collins, 70 miles north of Denver. Cabinet refinishing sits in an attractive price band: 20-30% more than a standard painter, but a quarter to a third the cost of ripping out and replacing cabinets. Half the work happens in the shop, half on-site with the homeowner's kitchen draped in plastic. The business ran 13 full-time W-2s with benefits and a retirement plan, which is unusual for a contracting shop that size. The Deal - Purchase price: $1.68M, roughly 3x SDE - TTM revenue: $2.1M; SDE: ~$500K; margins 20-25% - Equity: $90K (5%) pulled from a HELOC - Seller note: $150K on a 2-year standby - SBA: $1.54M - Closed summer 2023, 45 days from serious negotiation to wire, one week before he quit his W-2 Two things cracked during diligence that Jeremy underweighted. The top salesperson gave notice to move out of state with a new spouse. The sellers agreed to hire and train a replacement before close, which sounds like a fix and is not. And the sellers floated that the office manager would step up into a GM role post-close, which Jeremy accepted without pressure-testing. First 100 Days Day one, in the all-hands, a senior tech asked Jeremy to his face what qualified him to run the place. Fair question. He was 27, unknown, and visibly nervous. The office manager, meeting with him one-on-one shortly after close, got overwhelmed and cried. The GM plan was dead. Jeremy was now the de facto GM of a trade he had never worked in, selling a service he did not know how to sell, commuting three hours a day round-trip. By winter he was sleeping on a cot in the office one or two nights a week to cut the drive. The inherited salesperson was liked by the team but could not close. Her ramp was masked through Q4 2023 by trailing commissions from the person who had left. The Crisis January 2024. Jeremy opened the schedule after the holiday party and saw empty days for the first time in company history. Thirteen W-2s expecting 40-hour weeks, and no backlog. He describes going on a silent prayer retreat the next day and breaking down. The problem was obvious (the salesperson had to go) and he could not do it. She was old-guard. The office liked her. He had no replacement. He had never managed a salesperson and could not coach his way out. He spent months hiring a sales coach, running interventions, anything other than the firing. He eventually made the cut,...