We're seeing some business acquisitions that just don't work with debt: the only way to get them done is 50%-70% equity + seller financing. We're working on one now where there are family members in the business, the retiring owner wants to potentially retain some equity, and to

Most first-time buyers follow the wrong deal sequence—and it kills their leverage (or wastes $$). They sign LOIs too early. Spend money too soon. Skip steps that are free. After advising on~200 deals, here’s the clean, cost-effective 10-step order that gets deals closed:

7 mistakes I've personally made when submitting Letters of Intent to buy businesses (all were painful, avoid my fate 🤦‍♂️): 1. Not explicitly explaining the rationale for the valuation. Don't just say "Purchase price of $3m", say "$3m, calculated as 3x the trailing twelve-month

Here are 5 websites where you can buy small businesses in the U.S. 🇺🇸

📊 We analyzed 119 Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition deals in Jul-Dec 2025 and passed on 114. When an investor passes, it's probably for one of these reasons: 1️⃣ Searcher Risk (~17% of deals fell into this bucket) - Searcher doesn't seem capable of leading the team post-close

One of the most underappreciated traits in a business buyer: Authenticity. Sellers can sense that from the get-go. Talk like you're talking to a friend, lose the formalities and corporate-speak, and do what you say you'll do. You'll stand out from the crowd even if you

If you want your deals to actually close, you need to identify and eliminate the top deal killers. After closing 150+ deals I'm convinced they still are: 1. Time 2. Lack of trust 3. Lack of early deal alignment 4. Clueless advisors (by either side)

Best ETA deal ever? In 1987, Howard Schultz acquired a small chain of coffee shops for $3.8m. It was called… Starbucks. Which is now worth ~$105,000,000,000. I was at the Seattle airport last week, visiting a business, and remembered (a while ago) seeing a chart of

Considering selling your business? We’ve built a network of 2,500 business buyers and raised $12.8 million to back them. (One caveat: these buyers are only looking for businesses doing $750k+ of annual profit) IF THIS IS YOU: Our team at Entrepreneurial Capital would love to

This is maybe the greatest business buying opportunity of our time. Don't miss it

We spoke with 413 searchers over the last year. Our Chief of Staff, Peter Vaselkiv, said ~15% of them stood head and shoulders above the rest, because they had: 1. A Clear Thesis - They knew what they wanted to buy and why, not just that they wanted to be entrepreneurs. 2.

Secret fears that keep sellers up at night (they won't tell you about): • Am I selling for the right price? • What if the buyer tanks my business? • What if the buyer defaults on the note? • What if I kept running my business instead? • What if the buyer is more successful

If you're searching to buy a business, your LinkedIn profile is probably costing you deals. Geof Cudd and I did a teardown of searchers' LinkedIn profiles (they volunteered for this!) and found some very common mistakes: ❌ Generic banners that waste prime real estate ❌ Using

Business buyers: share your buy box below ⬇️ Business owners looking for a successor? Peruse the buyers. Let's see if we can make some matches. And if buyers and sellers start talking and need external equity capital to get a deal done, we're happy to help. (This poster was

How does the capital actually come together to buy a small business (both debt and equity)? We're teaming up with Matthias and Valerie at Pioneer Capital Advisory with a special guest: a searcher we invested in and that PCA acted as the loan broker for, to talk through the

Almost exactly three years ago, I started recording daily "wins" each evening. That gratitude spreadsheet now has 3,984 rows, filling 1,000+ printed pages 🤯 Through the ups and downs of business ownership, searching to buy a business, raising a fund, and now investing a fund,

21 weird places to look to buy a business. Because in almost every investment we've made, the searcher has a weird story about how they found the company. To help you have your own weird story to tell... We collaborated with our friends at Deal Prospectors to compile this list

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition is mostly about NOT buying a bad business by mistake. In this free webinar (Wed 2/18, noon CT), we'll discuss: - Real stories of issues uncovered in due diligence that prevented buyers from accidentally buying a bottomless pit - Warning signs

We just wired $400k+ into a small business acquisition. This is the exact format of the Investment Memo we used to make that decision: Executive Summary (industry of the company, location, investment size, valuation, preferred return) Key Investment Highlights (factors

When we've acquired businesses, there's typically been a point when we understood some parts of the company BETTER than the owner. A quick story: The first time this happened, it was with a subscription business. Customers prepaid for a year, and then had decreasing annual