Jonathan Taylor bought AEK Technology, a stocking distributor, and grew EBITDA 30% in 18 months

The Setup Jonathan Taylor spent roughly 15 years in tech, including a decade at Google working on product partnerships with franchise operators. Watching small business owners build real equity planted the seed. As 40 approached, the now-or-never feeling set in. Wife supportive, three daughters (ages 9, 7, 5), family resettled in Los Angeles, balance sheet built up. He wanted out of tech and into ownership. He did something most self-funded searchers are told not to do: he searched part-time. His friend and mentor Keith Burns pushed him on it. Why burn down cash reserves and a high-paying job if the geography (LA only) and flexibility of his role let him take early-morning and evening calls with owners? Jonathan credits the part-time approach with keeping his bar high. Every two weeks a paycheck landed, which meant he never felt pressure to rationalize a mediocre deal. His wife fact-checked him ruthlessly: more than once she asked whether a target really made sense given it paid less than his current comp. The Deal AEK Technology is a stocking distributor founded in 1993, serving aerospace, defense, and industrial markets from a Los Angeles warehouse with roughly 22,000 SKUs and 3,000+ parts on the shelf. The company specializes in shock and vibration mounts, and is an authorized distributor for Hutchinson, a French aerospace supplier that acquired Barry Controls (founded 1940s). Financials Jonathan was willing to share in ranges: gross margins held above 40% every year going back to 2003, straight through 9/11 and the global financial crisis. EBITDA margins in the mid-20s. Revenue grew roughly 3% annually across two decades. Over 80% of customers repeat year-over-year. The top five customers were the same for 20 years running, each in the mid-single-digits of revenue. Remarkably stable. The concentration was on the supplier side, not the customer side. Hutchinson represented about 90% of supply, but split across three divisions that don't talk to each other. Each division signed its own distribution agreement. Jonathan flew out to meet each division personally during diligence, and signed new multi-year agreements with two of them (the third is in process). He also tied the seller note to supplier retention for the first two years post-close. Binary, not proportional. Capital structure: senior SBA debt ~65%, seller note ~15%, equity ~15%, rest fees. He deliberately over-equitized by about $250K. He took a 60% stake instead of the 70% he could have structured, giving investors 40% instead of 30%. He also negotiated a CEO salary above the $150K self-funded default, given his life stage and the second-largest personal check into the deal. No pushback from investors. Structure was a stock deal (the supply agreements were with the operating entity, so an asset deal would have blown them up) with a C-corp holdco over the LLC to preserve QSBS eligibility. Operating Moves The seller was 50, not a traditional retiree. Jonathan got comfortable over a year of relationship-building. The prior owner had inherited the business from his father (who worked at Hutchinson), ran it well,...