🧐 What I Learned Last Week 7.7.23
Curating the best M&A, SMB, and EtA-related content since 2020.
Hello Friends!
First - an embarrassing editorial correction. In the last issue of the newsletter, I incorrectly stated that the SBA loan limits had been increased. This is not the case. Fake news. Apologies for any confusion.
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📰 Articles
Proprietary Search
Session #5 of the M&A Masterclass from the SMB Law Group is out and the topic is proprietary search.
Conducting a successful proprietary search might mean the opportunity to acquire a better business at a lower valuation.
It’s not, however, for the faint of heart and will take skill, time, perseverance and a little bit of luck.
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Axial’s 2023 Independent Sponsor Report: Summary & Analysis
Last month, Axial released its annual report with insights from the independent sponsor community.
Over the last three years, Independent Sponsors have been one of the top three highest growth segments on Axial. 421 Independent Sponsors are actively sourcing on Axial, up from 314 this time last year (+34%).
Given their rise in prominence, Axial surveyed the lower middle market Independent Sponsor community to dig deeper into the model.
The report below sheds light on our findings and is structured in 4 sections:
Market’s Perception & Drivers of Success
Investment Approach
Deal Origination
Challenges Associated With Getting Deals Done
🧵 Best of Twitter
Everything you wanted to know about the fireworks business and more…
A curated collection of helpful threads…
Opportunity to connect with an industry SME…
Educate yourself on acquiring a Subchapter 5 business…
Common business questions…
Going traditional vs. SBA for your acquisition…
Tax saving strategies…
🤔 Other
Free Templates & Checklists for Your Next Acquisition
At DueDilio, we provide a wealth of free resources in our Knowledge Center, featuring professionally developed templates and comprehensive due diligence checklists. Whether you're looking for an LOI, APA, deal tracker, or an SMB diligence checklist, you can download them for free on our website.
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Podcasts
A reader recently asked me to share the podcasts that I regularly listen to. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to listen to as many as I’d like but these three are my go-to…
🗓️ Events
CIM City - Brokers & Brokered Deal Breakdown (July 18) - Online
South Florida Searchfund Happy Hour (July 20) - Miami, FL
The Business Acquisition Virtual Summit (July 26-28) - Online
Southeast ETA Conference (Sept 8-9) - Durham, NC
HoldCo Conference (Sept 18-20) - Cleveland, Ohio
Austin SMB Meetup (Sept 28) - Austin, TX
The Self-Funded Search Conference (Sept 30 - Oct 1) - Dallas, TX
Capital Camp (May 21-24) - Columbia, MO
⚒️ 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.
DueDilio - #1 marketplace to hire highly vetted M&A due diligence service providers. Your source for finance, legal, tech, and other key areas of due diligence. Submit your project, review proposals, and hire.
PrivSource - PrivSource helps you source deals and connect with transaction partners without ever paying a success fee.
X5 Deals - Proprietary deal sourcing. 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 software businesses ($500k - $15m revenue) considering exits. All deals are sourced by the Rejigg team, ~5 added per week.
Scott Oldford - If you're interested in gaining insight into the process of building, scaling, acquiring, and selling online businesses, Scott Oldford can help.
BizNexus - Marketplace + off-market origination in one platform. The marketplace averages about 10k active listings & pre-CIM opportunities, and the off-market origination focuses on data & multi-channel.
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.
🚀 Interested in partnering or advertising with us? Get in touch here.
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