What I Learned Last Week 2.16.2024
Curating the best M&A, SMB, and EtA-related content since 2020.
Hello Friends!
In this week’s issue of What I Learned Last Week:
📰 Articles
🧵 Best of X (Twitter)
🗓️ Events
⚒️ Tools & Resources
💡 How I Can Help
This issue of The Business Inquirer is sponsored by Snowball
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📰 Articles
Fail Less by Acquiring Instead of Building
Indie Hackers (mentioned last week) published a collection of quotes from those of us who are active in the EtA space.
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How to Make a Beautiful Business Partnership
The article discusses strategies for creating successful and harmonious business partnerships. It emphasizes the importance of shared values, clear communication, and well-defined roles and responsibilities. Key insights include the necessity of aligning on goals, the value of mutual respect and trust, and the importance of regular check-ins to ensure the partnership remains strong and productive. The included “Memorandum of Understanding” template can be useful for partnership discussions.
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Not All Exits Make You Rich - Organic Growth is the Silver Bullet
Key insights include:
Three main drivers increase business value: EBITDA Organic Growth, Multiple Expansion, and Roll-Up/Acquisitions, with a strong emphasis on organic growth as the most effective.
Organic growth is highlighted as structurally different, inherently increasing cash flow without relying on market perception changes.
The recommendation is to focus on organic EBITDA growth, aiming to double it in five years as a primary strategy for value creation.
🧵 Best of X (Twitter)
Clint lays it out all in this thread…
Deal fees can add up. Be prepared…
Interesting look at AI use in M&A. I think it’s more prevalent in the EtA space compared to larger M&A participants…
Don’t fall prey to analysis paralysis. Download an LOI template from DueDilio, edit it, and send it…
Good look into performing a Proof of Cash…
Probably nothing…
🗓️ Events
MIT ETA Conference (Feb 16) - Cambridge, MA
Southern Private Equity Conference (Feb 22-23) - Nashville, TN
Wharton ETA Club (Spring 2024) - Philadelphia, PA
ACG Texas Capital Connection (Apr 2-3) - Dallas, TX
West Coast Capital Summit (Apr 9-11) - Huntington Beach, CA
SMBash 2024 (Apr 18-20) - Salt Lake City, UT
M&A Launchpad Conference (May 11) - Houston, TX
IBBA 2024 Annual Conference (May 11-12) - Louisville, KY
Capital Camp (May 21-24) - Columbia, MO
Midwest Deal Summit (May 29-30) - Chicago, IL
Southeast EtA Conference (Sept 6-7) - Washington D.C.
Self-Funded Search Conference (Sept 30-Oct 1) - Dallas, TX
Main Street Summit (Oct 9-10) - Columbia, MO
Annual M&A Institute (Oct 10-11) - Dallas, TX
McGuireWoods Independent Sponsor (Oct 15-16) - Dallas, TX
Texas & The South M&A and Business Symposium (Oct 16-18) - Dallas, TX
National Summit for Middle Market Funds (Oct 27-29) - Palm Beach, FL
🎵 Listening: “Losing My Religion” by Ian Storm, John Laurant, Carl Clarks, Polina Vita
How did you like this issue of the newsletter?
⚒️Tools & Resources
I want to share some tools & resources that I have found helpful. Please note that some of these are paid sponsors of the newsletter.
PrivSource - PrivSource helps you source deals and connect with transaction partners without ever paying a success fee.
X5 Deals - Proprietary deal sourcing for a great price. They do the outreach and send you relevant, actionable deals directly into your inbox.
Rejigg - Platform that connects searchers/investors directly with owners of off-market small businesses ($1M - $10M of revenue) considering exits. All deals are sourced by the Rejigg team. Their team adds 7 to 10 new deals each week.
Interexo - Curated deal flow and data solutions. Since 2016 Interexo has been M&A industry’s trusted source for deal flow, with extensive coverage of industry data, from Private Equity to Lenders, Hedge Funds, Brokers, and more.
Smash.vc - Whether you're looking to sell minority stakes in your business to take some chips off the table, looking for a partner to acquire an asset, or needing capital to complete an SBA deal, we'd love to chat with you.
Search Fund Coalition - community for the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition ecosystem. Monthly events and meetups for acquisition entrepreneurs.
Deal Sourcing Guide - a comprehensive list of business marketplaces, brokers, deal origination firms, and more.
💡 How I Can Help
Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways for us to work together…
Schedule 1:1 consulting on deal sourcing, due diligence, M&A ecosystem, newsletters, entrepreneurship, or anything else you’d like to discuss
Promote your brand to business buyers, investors, SMB owners, and other M&A participants by sponsoring this newsletter
Assemble your M&A deal team with DueDilio
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