Listen to This Blog Post Over the past few months, I’ve been presented with five separate opportunities that contemplated the acquisition of a company with $7M or more of EBITDA (this compares to the Search Fund average of $2.2M for the 2022-2023 cohort of Searchers). While I acknowledge that five data points don’t constitute aContinue reading “Are Search Funds Moving Up Market?”
Tag Archives: M&A
“Don’t F*ck It Up”: Les Trachtman on Avoiding Post-Close Founder Succession Mistakes
My Guest Les Trachtman is a seasoned entrepreneur, educator, and author with over four decades of experience in strategy, consulting, and start-ups. Les is also an adjunct instructor at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School, where he shares his years of experience and insights with the next generation of business leaders. He is aContinue reading ““Don’t F*ck It Up”: Les Trachtman on Avoiding Post-Close Founder Succession Mistakes”
Hard to Kill: A Four-Part Framework for Evaluating Small Business Acquisitions
Listen to This Blog Post I would make the world’s worst Venture Capitalist. If you don’t believe me, keep reading. As I’ve transitioned from operator to investor over the past 5 years or so, I’ve attempted to develop (and have attempted to articulate below) a general philosophy to guide my decision making, given that almostContinue reading “Hard to Kill: A Four-Part Framework for Evaluating Small Business Acquisitions”
Facing the Worst-Case Scenario: How Jed Morris Lost His Business and Rebuilt His Life
My Guest Jed Morris is the Founder and Managing Partner of Sunset Coast Capital, where he leads investments in U.S.-based aerospace and defence businesses. He specializes in helping acquisition entrepreneurs and independent sponsors navigate the complexities of small business ownership, diligence, and operator readiness. Jed’s career began in the U.S. Air Force, where he heldContinue reading “Facing the Worst-Case Scenario: How Jed Morris Lost His Business and Rebuilt His Life”
Rethinking Asset Intensity in Search Fund Acquisitions
Listen to this Blog Post The vast majority of Search Funds seek to acquire businesses that are both “asset-light” and “capital-light”. That is, companies that don’t have a large base of tangible assets that need to be added to, refurbished, or replaced to either maintain operations or pursue growth. All else being equal, this makesContinue reading “Rethinking Asset Intensity in Search Fund Acquisitions”
Should Search Funds Buy Healthcare Practices? A Deep Dive with Scott Becker
My Guest Scott Becker is a Partner in the healthcare group at McGuireWoods, a full-service U.S. law firm known for its expertise in corporate, healthcare, litigation, and regulatory matters, serving clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. He previously served on the Board of Partners of the firm and chaired the Healthcare group forContinue reading “Should Search Funds Buy Healthcare Practices? A Deep Dive with Scott Becker”
Is Home Services Still a Good Bet? A Veteran Operator’s Take on a Saturated Market
My Guest Collin Hathaway is the Founder of Skylight Capital, a micro-cap private equity firm investing in companies with less than $5M EBITDA. Prior to founding Skylight, Collin led the deal origination team at Alpine Investors, where he managed a team focused on locating and evaluating new investment opportunities. In addition to currently serving asContinue reading “Is Home Services Still a Good Bet? A Veteran Operator’s Take on a Saturated Market”
How to Price, Structure, and Diligence Around Customer Concentration
Listen to this Blog Post When evaluating a small business to acquire, to suggest that some form of concentration is common is likely an understatement. Indeed, in most cases, concentration of some variety is a borderline inevitability. Though this often takes the form of customer concentration (the focus of this blog post), it can takeContinue reading “How to Price, Structure, and Diligence Around Customer Concentration”
A Playbook for Growing People-Intensive Service Companies
My Guest John Ratliff started Appletree Answers, a telephone answering service, from his apartment in 1995. After growing the company to 24 US-based locations and more than 600 employees, he sold the company to a strategic buyer in 2012. Since selling his company, John has served as CEO of Scaling Up Coaches (2018-25), worked asContinue reading “A Playbook for Growing People-Intensive Service Companies”
Is the Search Fund Acquisition Rate Falling? With Jim Edmunds, Badge Stone & Kent Weaver
My Guests This week, I’m joined by three of the most experienced and respected investors within the search fund ecosystem to discuss a topic that is understandably of interest to the entire ETA community: That subject is why the acquisition rate among search funds has fallen over the past 10 years, and whether the rateContinue reading “Is the Search Fund Acquisition Rate Falling? With Jim Edmunds, Badge Stone & Kent Weaver”