The SMB Deal Hunter Podcast

Want help buying a business? https://smbdealhunter.link/pro-yt

In this episode, Paul breaks down how he left corporate to buy his first business when his wife got pregnant with their second baby, why he's bought 12 businesses in 25 years and refuses to sell the cash cows, and how he's setting up all five of his kids to run the exact same play.

◼️ What he sold (and downsized to) so his pregnant wife could stay home and he could buy his first business

◼️ Why he still works just 5-10 hours a week at the first bu...

In this episode, Chelsea breaks down how she bought a $1.7M raw pet food business after 12 years at Boeing and Amazon, the off-market deal that "broke up" and came back to life nearly a year later, and the performance-based seller's note that bridged a valuation gap when bird flu cratered 2025 sales.

◼️ The "Hail Mary" offer she sent the seller nine months after their first deal collapsed
◼️ The one moment that killed the first deal a few months in (and how the seller's son ended up on her team anyway)
◼️ The financing structure — 10% down, SBA loan through Climat...

Want help buying a business? https://smbdealhunter.link/pro-yt

In this episode, Robert breaks down how he bought a $7.3M home care business while living on his wife's salary, the financing structure that closed it without a single outside investor, and the year-one rebuild where he fired every employee he inherited.

◼️ The 24-month deal he made with his wife before launching the search

◼️ The one mistake that killed his only deal three months in, and the conversation that brought it back

◼️ The financing structure that closed a $7.3M business with zero outside inve...

Want help buying a business? https://smbdealhunter.link/pro-yt

In this episode, Jonathan breaks down how he bought a 50-year-old electrical contractor for $7M with just $500K down, the seller financing structure that made it work, and the 4-month chaos he survived to close it.

◼️ Why he stopped starting businesses after 20 years and bought one instead

◼️ The 10-year seller note that let him close a $7M deal with just $500K down

◼️ How he beat a Texas family office trying to roll the company into a 10-office portfolio

◼️ The eight-word legal dispute th...

Want help buying a business? https://smbdealhunter.link/pro-yt

In this episode, Steven Carroll breaks down how he turned his first HVAC acquisition into a $1B+ business in 5 years, the partnership model behind 32 more deals, and the $10 billion target he's chasing now.

◼️ Why three general managers in a row walked away from his very first attempt to buy a business

◼️ The $1.5 million hole on a $2 million profit business that nearly broke him in year one

◼️ The one seller who said yes after a year of pitches, and the model that unlocked 32 more deals<...

Want help buying a business? https://smbdealhunter.link/pro-yt

In this episode, John Manahan breaks down how he negotiated a yoga studio business down from $2.5M to $1.375M, the franchise bombshell that almost killed his deal three days before close, and how he's running 2 studios on a 1-hour weekly call with his district manager while still billing full hours at Deloitte.

◼️ How he got a business that had been sitting on the market over a year down to less than half its original asking price
◼️ Why the SBA life insurance requirement nearly stopped him in his t...

Want help buying a business? https://smbdealhunter.link/pro-yt

In this episode, Brian Hartman breaks down the year-one cash crunch that nearly killed his first acquisition (despite 96% revenue growth), why he turned down private equity offers ten times a day before saying yes to one that let him keep control, and the operator playbook he's now using to roll up tree care companies across three states.

◼️ How he grew his first tree care business from $2.6M to $5.1M in year one and almost went broke doing it

◼️ Why long-term contracts hurt operators (and how tran...

In this episode, Adam breaks down the unusual deal structure that pulled him off the fence, why running a $20M business was harder than running a $150M one, and the single biggest lever he pulled to double the profits.

◼️ The CEO-on-salary trial structure that let him run the business for 6 months before he committed to buying it 
◼️ The construction-to-service flip that doubled EBITDA on a 50% revenue lift 
◼️ Why running a $150M company was easier than running a $20M one 
◼️ The year-one near-disaster that nearly cost him his largest equipment distributor 
◼️ Why he managed to EBITDA, never to reve...

Ryan spent 30 years in corporate America running businesses for other people. Then he got fired twice — never for performance, always for politics. He decided to never build for someone else again.

He co-founded North Park Group with his partner Greg Topol and built a holding company designed around one rule: never exit. Since 2022, he's bought 6 businesses in manufacturing and industrial distribution. He plans to own them until he's 85.

❌ No 5-year flip
❌ No PE-style fund timeline
❌ No 7-year wait for investors to see a return

His investors got their first distribution checks in 2022...

Jake spent 12 years selling data analytics software at SAP, MicroStrategy, and Informatica. Then SAP reassigned him from federal government sales to retail. He decided to take his career into his own hands.

He acquired a money-losing, 7-person government data analytics firm with 100% seller financing. Zero cash out of pocket.

❌ No playbook for buying a business
❌ No community or infrastructure around acquisitions
❌ Business was unprofitable on day one

10 years later, he sold it for $35 million at 11x EBITDA.

In this episode, Jake breaks down how he negotiated 100% seller financing on a deal...

Greg Geronemus went from Goldman Sachs to Harvard Business School, where he stumbled into the idea of buying a small business instead of starting one. He and his partner David Rosner raised $550K in search capital, built a database of 30,000 companies, and spent nearly two years searching for the right deal.
They signed one LOI. It was for a business that checked none of the boxes: an old-fashioned B2C tour operator sending baby boomers on group trips around the world. He bought it for $29 million at under 5x with a 50% seller note at 4%.
Four years later...

Mike Fagan is a former professional bowler who spent 13 seasons on the PBA tour before getting his MBA at UC Berkeley Haas and working in management consulting. In April 2025, he acquired Ten Pins and More, a bowling alley in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, for $2.05 million including real estate via SBA 7A financing. The bank classified the deal as a turnaround. Today, he owns two locations with a third on the way, operates remotely from Dallas 600 miles away, and is scaling toward $8-10 million in revenue across 3-5 locations.

He explains:
◼️ Why bowling alleys are undervalued, belo...

Sam Silverman raised $125 million in investor capital almost entirely through LinkedIn cold outreach solo, no team, no fund behind him. He deployed that capital into a paving company roll-up with four acquisitions in 18 months, an accounting firm he built from scratch, and a private credit fund. He started as an SDR making $37,000 a year.

❌ No finance degree
❌ No Wall Street background
❌ No inherited deal flow — 95% of his capital came from LinkedIn

In this episode, Sam breaks down exactly how he went from cold messaging strangers on LinkedIn to managing a portfolio of boring business...

Join me as I sit down with Fred McGill from Atlanta, Georgia–a former startup founder who made the leap into small business acquisition.

Exactly one year ago, Fred acquired Bray Electrical Services, an electrical contracting business. In just 12 months, he’s grown the top line by $650,000, while still running his real estate brokerage on the side.

If you’re thinking about buying a business in the trades or want a real look at what it takes to scale one, don’t miss this story.
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Join me as I interview Dominic Wells, the CEO of Onfolio, a publicly traded portfolio of around 20 internet businesses ($ONFO).
Dom went from making $1-$2K/month teaching English in Taiwan 10 years ago to acquiring about 40 online businesses over the past decade.
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🤝 Work With Me to Help You Find, Finance, and Acquire a Business in 6-12 Months: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz 

Join me as I interview successful acquisition entrepreneur Mitchell Sorkin.

Mitchell left the startup world after bootstrapping his business Stack Influence to $1M.

He then got into acquisition entrepreneurship by buying ATM routes. Mitchell first bought 3 ATMs in Oct. '21 and now owns 800+ ATMs.

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🤝 Work With Me to Help You Buy a Business: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz 

Here's a number that should make you uncomfortable.

98% of the time, when a CPA digs into a business's financials, the real EBITDA comes back different from what the seller claimed.

And we're not talking about rounding errors. The real EBITDA is a different number entirely.

Sometimes it's 5% off. Sometimes it's 50% off. And in about a third of cases, the deal dies right there.

That number comes from a CPA who's done over 200 quality of earnings reports, on both the buy side and the sell side.

<...

You'd think a CPA with six years at a Big Four firm and four years in investment banking would catch every red flag in a small business acquisition, right? 

Wrong. 

Rushi missed three big ones on his first deal. 

He overpaid on the franchise.

He didn’t realize 25% of the franchise’s global locations were packed into his backyard. 

And the business had to close for four months a year, which sounds great until your GM quits because they can’t afford to go all winter...

Join me as I interview successful acquisition entrepreneur Steve Keller.

We discuss how Steve went from being a cameraman with zero business background to buying and selling two crime scene cleanup businesses.

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🤝 Work With Me to Help You Buy a Business: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz 

Join me as I interview serial acquisition entrepreneur Ujwal Velagapudi.

Ujwal left his corporate career working in supply chain management to buy small businesses.

His experience spans a variety of industries, from buying a local sports bar and gym (among others) to now focusing on amusement vending machines.
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🤝 Work With Me to Help You Buy a Business: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz 

Join me as I interview Gretchen Roberts, an entrepreneur who acquired Red Bike Advisors, a remote-first accounting, tax, and advisory firm based in Wilmington, NC.

What makes Gretchen’s story unique? She’s not a CPA and doesn’t come from an accounting background.

Before buying the firm, she worked in marketing at a major public tech company. Now, she owns and operates a professional services business — without ever having prepared a tax return.
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This week, I sat down with Savannah Rush, Managing Partner at Funded Ventures.

Savannah went from McKinsey consultant to owner-operator of Midway Electric in Columbia, Missouri. 

She and her partner Brian Wolf (who I interviewed previously) have closed two home services deals and are laser focused on building a long-term holding company.

She's not aiming to flip or exit. Her goal is to build a compounding machine. 

Here are some of the highlights from the deep dive:

🔥 How she went from "ETA skeptic" to running an el...

Michael and his partner, Ashish, only buy businesses that are $5M+ in EBITDA (way above the SBA limit).

He aims to buy a new one every year. 

And the last two he bought, were completely off market. 

To that point, 90% of his sourcing is off-market.

No BizBuySell. No broker bidding wars. Just relationships built over time at conferences, through colleagues, and by doing a lot of outreach. 

But we’ll get to that. First, a little bit of background…

Michael is an Air Force veteran and former private...

You've probably done this…

You found a listing you liked. You sent the NDA. Maybe you even fired off a quick note about your background and the things you’d like to learn.

Then... nothing.

A week later, the deal’s under LOI. No call back, no response to your request. 

Here's what you didn't see:

That listing probably got 65 inquiries in the first few days. Of those, 10 of them came in prepared.

The rest never got a serious look. Not because they weren't qualified but because they di...

This week's episode starts with a horror story.

Joe and Colin from Circle City Capital Group bought their first business together in 2018. 

After meeting on Craigslist (yes, seriously)

They bought an overnight delivery route business specializing in auto parts. They started with 5 routes and put in less than $100k to acquire the business.

But on their first night as owners…two drivers didn't show up.

So Joe and Colin got in the trucks themselves. And for the next few months, that became the routine. Dri...

What would you pay for a failing street sweeping business that was:

Making $200k / Year in revenue (down from $1.1M) 

Barely breaking even on profit 

With trucks breaking down constantly

Underpaid drivers (constant turnover) 

Brandon Dixon paid $0 down.

100% seller financed with a 60-month term. 

He jumped head first into the turnaround with no experience and turned it into a $96K/month business in 14 months.

We dove into a few big questions throughout the interview...

❓️How did a professional baseball player buy a failin...

Join me as I interview Brian Wolfe, a lawyer, small business investor, and PE and search fund professor.

Brian founded Funded Ventures, which partners with builders to buy and build small businesses.

Their first platform which was formed to acquire SaaS companies in the martech space successfully exited to Alpine Investors after 3 completed acquisitions in 20 months.
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👉 Sign Up For Free to the SMB Deal Hunter Newsletter: https://join.smbdealhunter.xyz

🤝 Work With Me to Help You Find, Finance, and Acquire a Business in 6-12 Months: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz 

In this week’s episode, we're diving into the world of online business acquisitions with Jacky Chou. 

He's built a portfolio of 50+ online businesses over the last 10 years. And today, he runs ~20 revenue-generating assets doing around $200K/month.

And he shares all of it publicly online…

But here's what makes this episode fascinating: Jackie doesn't sugarcoat the risks and takes us through countless war stories.

He bought a towing directory for $10K, grew it, and flipped it for $195K in 6 months. 

Sounds amazing, right?

<...

This week’s episode with Bill Haig is one of the most impressive absentee owner stories we’ve featured.

Bill owns 4 gym locations in Northern Virginia…. 

But he’s never been inside any of them.

That’s a lot of first time business buyers’ dream. A ‘passive business’. But how did he get here? 

Bill was an Army officer who bought his first gym with zero fitness experience right after his MBA. 

And after spending the first few years in the business, he was able to work himsel...

Your first business acquisition wipes out your life savings.

Your brother has to sell his house to cover the debt. You sell a property just to get back to zero.

Most people would never touch a business deal again.

Nathan Lenahan bought 4 more and built a $13M/year HVAC business.

His story involves 5 acquisitions, 1 catastrophic failure, and 4 wins that took him from broke to $13M/year.

Here's what makes it worth watching...

🔥 He lost everything on his first $350K acquisition of a Diesel Repair business in 2018. (The sel...

Devin Fitzgerald acquired 2 declining home healthcare businesses in the Boston area over the last few years and successfully turned them around. 

He did it with some of the most creative financing we’ve seen on the show. And he’s already working on acquisition #3 (which is 4x bigger than all of his current businesses combined). 

At some points his story is nearly unbelievable. Here are just a few snippets from his interview...

🔥 He bought his first two healthcare businesses making ~$5M in Revenue with only $50k down (and says he shouldn't have put down anyt...

I’m very excited to share this week’s interview with Walker Yarbrough. 

He started off with long hours in Investment Banking until he looked up at his bosses and he realized he didn’t want their job (at all). 

"Even once they'd climbed the ladder, they still just didn't have a lot of control of their own time…They were doing great by a lot of standards, but in the office super late and working on weekends and traveling all the time. It was just a future I didn't see for myself."

So, Walk...

I’m very excited to share this week’s interview with Raj Kankaria.

It is an absolute roller coaster involving layoffs, divorce, rappers, a quarter life crisis, and Raj buying a $1.3M / year business with 100% seller financing.

Here’s a sneak peak:

Raj was a former army vet who had gotten a job at Citi Bank as an investment banker.

He had just been laid off.

He was in the middle of a messy divorce.

And one day, he opened the door to a process server who handed...

Join me as I interview Kofi Acheampong...

Kofi’s interview is unique because he actually went through our Pro program and bought a Home Restoration business cash-flowing $715k+ / year in a record 5 months.

But this interview goes a lot deeper into…

💡 How Kofi actually launched a software startup that got to #3 on Product Hunt - and how he walked away when his wife got pregnant and he had no health insurance.

💡 How he bought his $3.2M business with only 5% down and 8 months later, he’s already under LOI on a second deal with 67...

I’m very excited to share this week’s interview with Michael Loftus.

Michael really shows you how far you can go with a simple strategy. Here are just a few snippets from his interview…

🔥 He bought his first 3 companies with no banks involved…with upwards of 50% seller financing…

🔥 He’s acquired 7 landscaping businesses over the last five to six years (and talks about what makes them so recession resistant)

🔥 He was able to take a 3 week honeymoon last year without taking a single phone call.

And some of the juiciest lessons…...

Join me as I interview Andres Martínez...

At some points his story is nearly unbelievable. Here are just a few snippets from his interview…

🔥 He bought a $1.3M auto body shop making about $500k in EBITDA with 1% down. Yes, you read that right. $15,000 down for a $1.3M deal.

🔥 He came from Mexico in 2021, with no house for collateral, no real job, and bought his first business at 25.

🔥 He had dropped out of college and had failed at multiple businesses, mainly food trucks, leading up to his first big acquisition.

And after...

Join me as I interview JD Beck, an entrepreneur who is rolling up HVAC and plumbing companies in Colorado. He's made 3 acquisitions to-date, scaling the business from $1.1M to $4.6M in revenue.

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🤝 Work with me and my team 1-on-1 to find, finance, and close your acquisition in 6–12 months: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz

Join me as I sit down with Michael Kelker, a former corporate exec who spent 15 years in the aviation manufacturing industry before leaving to buy Timberline Pallet, a custom pallet and crating company in the Quad Cities.

With no prior experience in pallets, Michael stepped in as an owner-operator, doubled the business in five years, and grew the team from 15 to 27 employees.

Since then, he’s made two more acquisitions: an auto parts recycler and a manufacturing consultancy (which he exited).

We dive into what it’s really like to run a blue-collar busi...

Join me as I sit down with Nathan Gregory, a former talent agent in the entertainment industry who acquired Auto Body News, the leading trade publication in the collision repair industry.

Nathan’s journey into entrepreneurship began with flipping raw land and investing in commercial real estate. After building and selling an Amazon-based product business, he spent over a year searching for the right company to buy, ultimately landing on a 42-year-old B2B media company serving auto repair shops and vendors nationwide. He used SBA financing, creative seller notes, and deep industry experience to close the de...

Join me as I sit down with Kaustubh Deo, an entrepreneur rolling up tree care businesses in Seattle, Washington.

After a few years in private equity, Kaustubh made the leap into small business acquisitions—starting with his first deal in 2022 using a combination of SBA 7(a) financing, seller financing, and investor capital. Since then, he’s added two more companies to his platform.

If you’re curious about how to transition from Wall Street to Main Street, use debt to buy businesses, or scale through add-on acquisitions, this one’s for you.
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