🧐 What I Learned Last Week
Week ending Friday May 27, 2022
What I Learned Last Week curates the most interesting content relating to business acquisitions, operations, entrepreneurship, finance, and more. WILLW is a publication of The Business Inquirer.
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Hello Friends!
This issue of The Business Inquirer is brought to you by DueDilio.
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📰 Articles
I’ve been a fan of Richard Patey and his writing on alternative assets. His latest piece addresses something a bit more familiar - SMBs, cash-flowing businesses, and operations. Really recommend reading this one.
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They Got Acquired wrote a great article on qualified small business stock (QSBS).
QSBS stands for qualified small business stock, a share of a company that comes with federal tax benefits. Under the Internal Revenue Code — U.S. tax law — sales of shares in qualified businesses are exempt from capital gains taxes. Those can be significant, up to 20% in 2021.
Could QSBS save you big in taxes? How to decide whether it’s right for your business
🧵 Twitter
A few good ones in here…
These takeaways are applicable to any type of business…
An important concept to understand in SMBs and real estate…
A really great read on the early days of Baremetrics and lessons learned…
Eric is an M&A attorney and sharing some wisdom…
Good data on SBA lenders…
Great tips on operating a business…
Some great nuggets in this conversation…
Extracting value from a failing business…
🤔 Thoughts, Events, Other
New Axial Podcast
Axial launched a new podcast that’s focused on small business M&A.
“Masters in Small Business M&A” will dive into the origin stories, key transactions, and key career moments of both seasoned and emerging dealmakers, acquisitive operators and trusted advisors exclusively within the small business M&A ecosystem.
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Hold Co Conference
The 2022 Hold Co Conference is taking place in Cleveland, Ohio from July 24 to 26. Registrations are now open for a price of $3,495.
Imagine spending two and a half days with other HoldCo Entrepreneurs talking about Conglomerates, Roll-Ups, Acquisitions, Finance, Strategy, Ops, and People.
You will hear conversations like…
“I’m no Warren Buffett but we’re basically building a mini Berkshire…”
“We’ve maxed out SBA financing and now we’re talking about raising capital…”
“I need to hire an OpCo President and I don’t know where to start…”
“I am deciding between a vertical or horizontal roll up of the space…”
“Should I just diversify into an entirely new line of business?”
“I am struggling to recruit top talent - what are you doing for incentive comp?”
“What do you do for shared services between your businesses?”
“Do you have an executive coach? How has that experience been?”
...All of these discussions, and many more like them, are happening at the first annual HoldCoConf!
The Official "Un-Conference" of Micro-PE Where Holding Companies Meet, Learn, Scale, and Grow
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Stripe Marketplace
We see a lot of Shopify apps and WordPress plugins come up for sale. I call these platform businesses since they are built on top of something big (Shopify, Chrome, WordPress, Salesforce, Jira, etc). Stripe recently launched their own 3rd party app marketplace. Keep an eye on this space.
Stripe’s new apps marketplace brings third-party tools directly into Stripe
🛠 Tools & Resources
These are tools & resources that I personally use or have used. They may contain affiliate links so I’ll get a few pesos if you sign-up.
Cerebro Capital - Cerebro has a network of 1,500+ lenders who can provide debt financing for your acquisition, refi, etc. $500k minimum.
X5 Deals - Proprietary deal sourcing. They do the outreach and send you relevant, actionable deals directly into your inbox.
Curators - Proprietary deal sourcing. You need targets that fit your investment criteria, and Curators delivers week after week - we even update your personalized database on a daily basis with new information on best-fit targets.
BizNexus - Proprietary deal flow, deal aggregator, and exit prep.
PrivSource - Deal aggregator for lower and middle-market listings.
ProjectionHub - Access to 50+ CPA-developed financial projection templates. 25% discount using code “duedilio” at checkout.
Logology - Best automated logo & brand identity tool I’ve come across.
DeepBench - Access a cutting-edge expert network. $200 discount.
OpenPhone - The best business phone solution that I have found. $20 credit.
Eloquens - Knowledge marketplace. I’ve bought a few guides and templates here.
Deal Flow Scout - Peer-to-peer deal flow exchange. Free, open, transparent.
Deal Sourcing Guide - A directory I put together of online marketplaces, brokers, DFY deal flow, and more.
That’s all for this issue of What I Learned Last Week!
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Important Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided for informational & educational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. This newsletter may link to other websites and certain information contained herein has been obtained from third-party sources. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, it has not been independently verified. The Business Inquirer makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. References to any companies, securities, listings, investments, or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any business, tax, or investment decisions. Content in this newsletter speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.