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You started in I-banking and just left your PE fund to pursue search acquisition. You& #39;ve got a name. If not, try the following recipe: [Color] + [Name of a street you lived on] + Capital. I& #39;m Blue Malibu Capital. Good name, right?
You doctored a pre-built template from Squarespace, a $50 logo on 99 Designs, and a starter G Suite Account. The criteria are locked and loaded. You& #39;re looking for a privately-owned business with an owner seeking a successor.
It needs to have $1-3M in EBITDA with mostly recurring revenue and a nice recent growth history - maybe 3-8%/year. It needs strong middle management in place, a nice growth outlook, and a durable customers base - none >10% of sales. No franchises.
Oh, and capital light. It needs to be able to grow without more cash. Ok, you with me?
I& #39;m going to go ahead and do you a small favor... here are a few things most people you& #39;ve shared your business plan with either don& #39;t realize or are too nice to tell you:
I& #39;m going to go ahead and do you a small favor... here are a few things most people you& #39;ve shared your business plan with either don& #39;t realize or are too nice to tell you:
1/ This is not at all unique. There are a lot of people out there just like you with the same exact plan. Most are by all accounts exceptional business people. 30-40% don& #39;t ever execute, and it& #39;s getting harder every year.
2/ You are fairly unlikely to pull this off. Not that it can& #39;t happen... it can and does. But, many smarter and more talented people than you have failed trying. Rest assured, it all works out fine in the end, but hopefully you& #39;ve been warned.
3/ If you do find something, it will take 2-3 years to find, and you will end up buying something nowhere near as good as you set out for. You will have passed up numerous potentially better companies b/c they were outside your box.
4/ ... 3 years later ... Yay you made it! The value-add work gets to start now! But, you realize that just because you& #39;re CEO doesn& #39;t mean you& #39;re the boss. You actually work for your investors, but need your employees and customers way more. Weird situation, right?
5/ Speaking of weird situations... everyone around you is scratching their heads trying to figure out how you landed in charge having never built a business or even managed a team of managers before. Worse, guess what you& #39;re current best skill is? Searching for businesses!
This whole thing seems very inefficient and way harder than it needs to be. Props to the people who& #39;ve pulled it off, but seriously, this seems like either hubris or masochism.
