You overpay
Fixable, and mostly by walking away. Plenty of people can help you price a deal.
Worth getting right. Not the thing that decides the outcome.
For senior operators who have run other people's companies and want to own one. I work the deal with you, and the ninety days after, which is what decides whether it was a good one.
This is deliberately narrow
Two things decide whether a first acquisition survives: capital and operating experience. Miss either and no work on the deal fixes it, so I say it here, not on a call.
Built for you
All three have to be true. Two out of three is a conversation I will end early.
Senior operators and executives
You have run a function, a division, or a company for someone else. You know what a P and L does when something breaks.
Capital already in place
Yours, or committed by people who have already said yes. Not a plan to raise it after we start.
Buying to run it
You intend to own and operate, not to flip it inside two years.
Not for you
Said plainly so nobody spends three weeks finding out. None of it is a judgement.
First-time founders
No operating reps behind you. Build something first. There is no shortcut worth selling you.
No capital yet
Seller financing changes the shape of a deal. It does not remove the need to have money.
Passive investors
If you want returns without running anything, this is not a fit and I am the wrong person.
What I sell you is the operating half. Ten years of it.
Ten years making other people's businesses run without them. The first Monday after it closes decides the outcome.
Four stages, and a defined end
The scope is fixed so it stays real. The search runs on your clock, not mine.
The buy-box
What to look for, given your money and your experience. Most first acquisitions go wrong here, months before anyone signs anything.
Reading the business
Real companies, real numbers. What it is worth, what the seller is not saying, and what breaks the week after he leaves.
The deal
Structure, diligence, and the walk-away. Most of what I do here is talk people out of deals. The one you do not do is worth more than the one you talk yourself into.
The first ninety days
The operating layer goes in: calls, dispatch, follow-up, and the end of one-person dependence. The part I have done for ten years.
Set up for the second one too
Most people who buy one business buy another, so the arrangement is built to make the second easier than the first.
From the start
The four stages, worked through with me.
On a live target
Deal structuring and diligence, side by side.
On close
The operating layer installed, growth run by my team.
Each acquisition
The same on the next, and easier each time.
Where a first deal goes wrong
One of these is a pricing mistake. The other is the reason I am here.
The owner was the business
You win the deal, then spend three years finding out it only worked because the owner answered the phone. I will not do the deal work without fixing this.
Before you apply
Do I need a target already?
No. Most people arrive with a vague idea and leave the buy-box stage with a written one. Turning up with a specific company is fine too, and we go straight to reading it.
What if I never find the right business?
Then you do not buy one, and that is a real outcome, not a failure. The search runs on your clock. Most of what I do is talk people out of deals, and the one you walk away from is worth more than the one you talk yourself into.
Why must the operating layer go in?
Because that is the half that decides the outcome. Plenty of people can help you not overpay. Almost nobody works on the first ninety days, which is where a business that only ran because the old owner answered the phone quietly falls over.
What does it cost?
Set on the call, and never published. It depends on what you are buying and how it is structured, so a number on a page would be fiction.
Tell me what you have run
Two ways in. Send it and I read it myself, reply either way, or book a call and we talk it through. Both come straight to me, not a setter.
I read these myself and reply either way. If it is not a fit I will say so, and usually say why.
- What you have run, and for how long.
- What you are working with, roughly.
- What you think you want to buy, and where.
- Format
- A small group, working on real deals.
- Scope
- Fixed, and stated before you commit.
- Terms
- Set on the call, not on this page.
- Reply
- From me, either way.
Thirty minutes, direct with me. No deck, no pitch.
- What you have run, and what you want to buy.
- Whether your capital and experience fit a first deal.
- Whether this is a fit. If it is not, I say so on the call.
- Length
- 30 minutes, by video.
- With
- Me, not a setter.
- Cost
- Free. Bring what you have.
Pick a day
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Already own a business? Advisory. Thinking about selling one? Sell it to me.
Read how I think about a first deal
Not ready to apply yet. This is the same thinking, written out in full, and none of it is gated.