And it made me wonder, maybe I had to start from zero and develop something on my own to kind of develop that, that, that strong feeling, you know, just like, like a baby, right. You is born, you raise that baby right. But whenever you inherit something that's not yours, I don't think it's the same passion as entrepreneurs.
Acquiring Minds
Acquiring Isn't Always a One-Way Door
Episode
Excerpts · 387 segments · ~1:36:00 long
Short excerpts only — hear the full conversation on the publisher's site.
05:25 Guest background and path to ETA13:27 The solo search process21:42 Katy Tile and Marble profile33:31 Subcontractor model and working capital39:53 Deal terms and structure43:42 Diligence mistakes and hidden bad year51:27 Operational improvements and automation1:08:02 Divorce, burnout, decision to sell1:19:09 Selling the business and reflections
I have seen where they start their own companies rather than buying a company because you, you don't earn it, right? You, you bought it. Yes. You earned the, the capital. They know how to operate it and run it, but you didn't earn the business that's, that's in front of you as someone that started from scratch. So, I mean, yeah, yeah, that's an
interesting observation, although in some ways obvious, but it's not one that we talk about much at all on the podcast. Maybe it's because. Maybe it's because there is some discomfort with that fact, what you just described in the ETA community, that, you know, that there is a, that there's. Because we're buying a business, we're one step removed from the, the passion or the sense of ownership.
The, the true psychological sense of ownership. So really good to hear you talk about that. And we'll probably hit upon it again.
Okay, so you decide to search, you go down the rabbit hole. Cody Sanchez, Acquiring Minds Get. Give us just a quick snapshot of the search, your search itself, and let me preface it by saying Reed Pennebaker of ETA Circle who you got plugged into you in Houston.
ETA Circle is a big ETA meetup, for lack of a better word, in Houston. Knew you introduced us and said you were one of the most energetic searchers that he'd ever seen. So tell us about what that search look like.
I briefly mentioned. So, you know, I, when I was very young, I was diagnosed with just adhd. So I was in swimming because of that reason.
So I always had these very, very high levels of energy and I carry that through my, through my roles in corporate America. So I met Reed halfway through my search, just through LinkedIn. I sent him an email.
I said, wow, you know, a group of entrepreneurs. I want that to buy businesses in Houston. That's, that's super helpful.
So I reached out to him. He interviewed me probably like six months before I bought my business, probably like mid 2023 or so. He became a mentor of mine.
I went through a few of his events and that gave me more, even more confidence and ammunition to an execute. Because, you know, when you're doing this solo, I mean, yeah, you listen to podcasts, you see a lot of content, but it's not the same as seeing people actually doing it right. So that really gave me the ammunition I needed to go in and execute.
Besides that, it was a solo search. I was working still full time. I was probably investing 10 hours a week or so to see businesses within the Texas region in the trades.
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